rainforest cafe, planet hollywood (1/?)
featured an insane central rotunda with stage, mezzanie, video wall, a full tech box, and absolutely gigantic signage for what was essentially the world's coolest micro center. did not last long... at all. rip to Fry's
the most nonstandard mcdonald's of all time was contained therein
can i presume that Torpedo Joe's offered submarine sandwiches a la Steven Spielgerg's Dive!?
why yes!
"The 61-seat restaurant, Torpedo Joe's, is tucked in the back, housed in a Quonset hut and featuring tables covered with South Sea island maps. The most expensive item is Joe's Torpedo sandwich for $3.95. Parents take note: The kids' lunch, including milk and a grilled cheese sandwich, is $2."
Huh. I could have sworn there was another restaurant that called sub sandwiches “torpedoes” but I really don’t think it had anything to do with Old Navy. Maybe it was a local thing.
torpedo is a name used for subs/hoagies/grinders/heros/what have you in the northeast us
Yeah I’m much more from the grinders/heros side of the country lol, that makes sense
I'm from the part of the northeast part of the country where they are grinders
fair and I mean I suppose I'm really from closer to po'boy territory, but honestly it never quite reached to where I was, guess we were too busy copying New England lol
I ate at Mickey's Kitchen! One of my rarest Disney-related credits aside from riding Rocket Rods
did you see michael eisner? did he, perhaps, greet you with a certain catchphrase?
Unfortunately no, all I remember from Mickey's Kitchen was that the burger tasted weird and that you had to go up a few stairs to get there.
Regal Funscapes bring me back. Those things existed at the height of DDR popularity. The one in West Town Mall, in Knoxville, TN. Had DDR in its own room with a set of bleachers in it so people could wait for your turn. Spend days in there.
Big same. They had a fucking huge foam ball thing whatever I forget what it was called, right across from where the arcade was (part of it was behind/inside the camera looking thing in the photo above), but it got shut down around 2000 or so. I wish there were pictures of that thing because it felt 3 stories high when one was young. You'd do a bunch of stuff to get balls into these huge buckets and every now and then they'd all dump out to the floor.
I think the funscape area still exists in west town, I haven't heard of it being remodeled.
I moved from Knoxville about 6 years ago but I do think the arcade still exist, just a shell of its former self though. ;-;
East town doesn't exist anymore and that makes me sad. Despite it being east town. Of course it's a fuckin' amazon now lol.
Also congrats on getting outta that place.
Wasn't a chain but I was just sent back to when I was probably 6-7 years old and ate here and it was mindblowing as a child. https://www.bonappetit.com/story/mars-2112-eulogy
humbly requesting some Incredible Universe documentation in this thread
I lived in Dallas in the 90s I was at the Incredible Universe on opening day. It was ... a very large Best Buy
posting in this again 6 months later but: The DDR was inside that window on the left side of the picture with the camera looking building. It looks EXACTLY like the one that was in knoxville and I'm so curious if that's where that picture was taken.
On Instagram I keep seeing ominous Backrooms fandom Blender renders inspired by these places, by artists who are far too young to actually remember them. I know the actual reason is likely more mundane (perhaps the artists are fans of your viral Twitter threads), but I like to think the decor left so vivid a cultural impression that nightmares about these spaces crossed over transgenerationally through the womb.
They're definitely evocative in a way similar to what those guys at Bioshock were doing
(yes I like calling Irrational Games "those guys at Bioshock")
I have a very faint memory of a Mall of America store from the 90s but I could never remember the name. is there a big moa archive somewhere?
dang. I will someday have to spend a dedicated amount of time researching it. the facade had a rotating ufo in it
that would be Starbase Omega!
https://twitter.com/mallofamerica/status/1545092547839754250
it's so beautiful... the Philips CDi ad really puts the finishing touch on it hahaha
I can't tell if the text-only nature meant they were incredibly confident that just speaking the words CD-Interactive would make them fly off the shelves, or too embarrassed to show any image associated with it. heck maybe they shopped both and the text did better in focus groups rofl
I got to try VR for the first time at Incredible Universe! And I definitely didn't keep walking into the ring around the platform!
oh, wow
we love how it imitates the structure and aesthetic of an oldschool diner or soda fountain or whatever, but as a stall inside a larger store and with a Memphis Design twist (that is, an 80s look)
it seems to have assumed a level of public enthusiasm for buying computers that never existed, but it's pretty cool in hindsight
