We've been prepping the first floor of the office to be a communal space for NG meetups and there are little modern details that I'm proud of. For example, built-in HDMI inputs. Ultimately I want to have animations playing IN the windows with clear OLED displays.

Many of the shops in our town aren't especially useful to the current generation and it makes me wonder what would make life more interesting and noteworthy around here. I like to start with what would be an awesome town for ME personally to live in and see where things go from there. Some ideas I've considered:

A Treasure Museum where you can go and play every game ever made by Treasure (Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Guardian Heroes, Silhouette Mirage, etc.) as well as written history and photos from this quiet studio in Japan.

An SNK Art Gallery with loads of concept art by SNK artists (google "metal slug concept art" for an example). Same could be done with Udon (Capcom artists).

A store that stocks the neat stuff people make on-line that you wish you could see in-person.

A store with all the NG merchandise, of course! And maybe merch from other cool websites like Penny-Arcade. Like a web-merch alliance.

A yoga studio with an adjacent smoothie or tea shop. I like following up exercise with what at least feels like a healthy treat and while I imagine this sort of combo exists in plenty of hip neighborhoods, I don't seem to come across it.

When I was in college I would go to 611 Records and listen to vinyl on the turntable listening stations. When I stopped collecting vinyl I did the same thing at CD shops. Now everyone downloads their music so there isn't much draw to a CD store. Is there some sort of potential social space for music fans that is less extreme than a concert but more public than browsing on-line?

I was at a museum once that had a stop motion camera with a set of blocks. You could move the blocks around, press a button to snap a picture, then watch the finished sequence when you were done. There was also room to fit your face or hands in front of the camera, which extended the fun. Despite this being just a few years ago, after more than a decade of animating on computers, I totally loved it. Maybe we need a place where you can take your kid, pay for an hour and just play with blocks, clay, action figures and a one-click stop motion camera.

What if you could go to a place where you sit in a sound booth and dub pre-made cartoons, as a way to try voice acting without knowing how to plug a microphone into a computer. I know a guy who wants to voice act in our games soooo bad, but he has never tried voice acting for web content. He COULD hook a microphone up to his computer, find an animator on Newgrounds and put something together, but that really is a daunting task for a lot of people. Why not let him spend $5 to sit in a booth for 15 minutes and talk over cartoons, then press a button to upload his goofy dubbed video to some website and email himself a link. You could bring your girlfriend or kid into the booth and do it together, then laugh about it together. Who knows, I think people would really enjoy it. Those photo booths are still popular in Japan even though everyone has cell phone cameras.

So those are some of my ideas. What would be the store, museum, service, etc. that would make your town awesome?

nice updates tom

a boner shop for all sorts of boners. man or woman you could just stroll in and purchase a boner for your own gains. like you dont even need to be young or old enough. true boner equality. i would run the boner shop.

Holy shit brother. That's some visionary shit right there...
Do you see young people in the neighborhood wasting their money on shitty leisure?

I know that I remember frequenting a handful of spots that had the best games/lounge areas while in junior high and high school.

dammit man... *HIGHFIVE*

Im afraid nothing can save my town. It's the asshole of the universe.

when is the NG chat coming Tom its been freaking years man.

yoga fire!

At 4/14/10 11:51 PM, EyeLovePoozy wrote: Holy shit brother. That's some visionary shit right there...
Do you see young people in the neighborhood wasting their money on shitty leisure?

I'm very optimistic / contrarian when it comes to our town, in that it can look like a hopeless mess but I also know I'm gonna be around for decades and I have the potential to impact it in some form. As for young people... There is a college nearby that would LIKE for our commercial district to be a place where the students can go hang out, rather than a stretch of thrift shops anchored by an exterminator and a wheelchair store. I think people would come out of the woodwork if there was something there for them.

Hell, at this rate, anything would do in my town, we've got next to nothing.
But I'd try throwing in an indie movie theatre, or an arcade, I don't know, anything.

Even though arcades are dead, they're still awesome where you can find them.

At 4/14/10 11:55 PM, Dante-Son-Of-Sparda wrote: when is the NG chat coming Tom its been freaking years man.

We're gonna premier the chat with the launch of Pico 2 so everyone can chat about how awesome it is.

At 4/14/10 11:56 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/14/10 11:55 PM, Dante-Son-Of-Sparda wrote: when is the NG chat coming Tom its been freaking years man.

We're gonna premier the chat with the launch of Pico 2 so everyone can chat about how awesome it is.

fucking awesome man so it will be soon.

I remember when I was much younger my dad would come up with crazy ideas similar to these, but none of them got off the ground due to lack of funding. One idea I remember was an ice cream store called Bubbles where you would drive up, park, and then girls on Roller Skates would come up and serve you ice cream. It would've tried to have a 50s style to it.

The other I clearly remember was the idea to build a military themed Arcade. Like the idea was that when you went there, you became a member of some fictional nation, and playing the games was to help you train to fight in the upcoming revolution for freedom. So naturally there would've been a lot of shooting games, which were popular at the time (this was in like, 1995) There also would've been a big laser tag arena so people could do combat against each other as well. I think a place like this would be amazing, but it would also probably cost a million dollars to get off the ground, so it's not surprising it doesn't exist.

Hey Tom can I voice act in your games?

I'll let you sing in my heart.

A little bit of nostalgia there, Tom?

Anywho, I'd like to see an actual video arcade around my town.

We had one when I was like 6, but then it went out of business. All we have now are those Gaming Cafe places where all the unsocial 18-26 year olds hang out and play Starcraft all day.

Also I would love to see a movie theater that played classic movies from before 1990.

I always wanted to have a laser tag place where you could choose your gun, or even toggle your gun settings in-game. For example:

1) Shotgun - wide beam, less range, fast shot
2) Laser - Strong focused beam, sustained shot
3) Spread shot - multiple angled beams, fast shot
4) Machine Gun - Bust of four quick shots followed by delay

Stuff like that...

A internet cafe that would be good and a little coffee shop

Personally, beyond reality in fact, I'd really really like a time machine (charge a hefty $ once serious security has assessed all potential travellers). Also, a possible teleport machine. But back to reality, your mention of child-to-college-to-now life recalled a few memories of my own. Similar to yours (arcade, stores, artist fairs, exhibitions, school projects for sale, village fairs, bake sales, etc.) I think anything that can both entertain and teach is good. Even how to cook? Outside gaming, lessons on how to game design (same with art/animation). But definitely a town that supports and recognises its artists (mine, like so many others, doesn't). And anything that defeats adult stresses and allows for immature fun. Not clear I know, but a town full of nice, playful, ambitioned folk with a generous tilt. Sound cool? Anyhow, thanks for sharing Tom.

At 4/15/10 12:00 AM, Jonas wrote: Hey Tom can I voice act in your games?

I'll let you sing in my heart.

I normally don't delete pics but that one was just especially horrible. And as proof that I never delete pics, I accidentally deleted your sig pic first because I clicked the wrong thing.

Internet cafe with coffee
Laser tag
a A MAID CAFE very stylish and makes shit ton of money and pretty stylish I have been to one

I think that perhaps a town wouldnt be the best place for a themed store...that may just be because im in a gold-rush town that tries too hard for tourists, but with the current financial situation of America, who could take such a risk as a game/console-based museum where most money would likely be from the sale of antique games? Or a store based around online-download music? (most would probably buy their music at home and simply hang out with friends at the actual store)

At 4/15/10 12:08 AM, Dante-Son-Of-Sparda wrote: Internet cafe with coffee
Laser tag
a A MAID CAFE very stylish and makes shit ton of money and pretty stylish I have been to one

We saw those girls walking around Akihabara when we were in Tokyo but didn't actually try it. Feels kinda creepy to me though. There was a ninja restaurant where everyone dressed as ninjas and did ninja magic to make food appear and that sounded fun.

At 4/14/10 11:56 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/14/10 11:55 PM, Dante-Son-Of-Sparda wrote: when is the NG chat coming Tom its been freaking years man.

We're gonna premier the chat with the launch of Pico 2 so everyone can chat about how awesome it is.

Is that also on the same day you'll announce that Ebaums has bought you off and that you've managed to breed a genetically mutated flying pig?

my pompus is tingly with excitement

Free movie theatres? That doesn't really work at all, since it would close right away, but those things are friggin spendy, and i don't have an extra 10 dollars just for the ticket everytime I want to go to a movie.

Interesting.

At 4/14/10 11:56 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/14/10 11:55 PM, Dante-Son-Of-Sparda wrote: when is the NG chat coming Tom its been freaking years man.

We're gonna premier the chat with the launch of Pico 2 so everyone can chat about how awesome it is.

Right around the same time Lilium 2 comes out too

Tom, you do yoga? I never would have guessed.

I wouldn't say it was adjecant or anything, but in Columbus' Short North, there's a yoga studio called Yoga on High (as in High Street) and all you have to do is walk up or down the street for coffee, smoothies, what have you. Of course, I usually ended up undoing my workout by heading to Jeni's Ice Cream.

At 4/14/10 11:41 PM, TomFulp wrote: An SNK Art Gallery with loads of concept art by SNK artists (google "metal slug concept art" for an example). Same could be done with Udon (Capcom artists).

This, along with Metal Slug arcade machines would be awesome. I don't know of any arcades near the Philly area other than Dave & Busters, which sucks since you either need to be with an adult or be over 21 to get in.

There was a Metal Slug arcade machine at my local 7/11 when I was younger, and I used to waste a ton of quarters on that thing until they got rid of it :( I was so close to beating it, too! After that I could only really go to a real arcade when going down the shore, except they don't have any metal slug machines.

Also, this probably isn't in the scope of what you're looking for, but there also aren't too many good places to play ping pong in the Philly area either. That's one of my favorite sports to play -- and ping pong makes a good recreational game, so I think it would be fun to have as well.

So yeah, ping pong, arcades -- the kind of things I wish had been nearby :)

what about a Comic book/cardshop that sells NG merchindise off directly you could even show clips of popular flash movies on the tv's. you wouldn't believe all the people who play Magic the Gathering and Yugioh especially the ones who play competitivly to go to regionals for nation wide tournaments and) and board games.
the people who read comics plus on the weekends you could have Gears of War or Halo or Super Smash Bro Tournaments and have prizes for people like gift cards for the NG store for the winners trust me the local comic and card shop we have here does that and its is uber popular its a hotspot for internet junkies and college students and people who love the internet culture we talk about NG all the time.

plus the people who go to regional and national card tournaments usually advertise there local card shops just think what you could do if NG got that kind of Publicity.

Same question Jonas asked, minus the picture.

Anyway, I'd LOVE a laser tag like that. When I was back in middle/ highschool, we'd go to Laser Quest and go to an event they'd have once every 3 months or so. It was from 12am to 7am and you played as many games as you wanted. I think I went to about 3 of them... God I miss those days.

I used to always get 2nd place, and another friend would always beat me by just a few points... I remember beating him ONCE out of the many regular times we'd go.

Thanks Tom; Now I want to go play laser tag.