Qt3 Games Podcast: the most dangerous arcade in Singapore

Posted by on June 20, 2012 in Game Podcasts

This week we welcome Marvel vs Capcom 3 game diarist Charles Wheeler to the podcast to tell us about the most dangerous arcade in Singapore, followed by a tentative, brief, and polite discussion about whether there’s any place in videogames for rape. We do not once use the phrase “white knight” and no chairs are thrown, so it’s a pretty poor excuse for how to get the most out of a controversial topic. Which leaves us to talk about Quantum Conundrum, Unity of Command, Valley Without Wind, Saints Row 3 DLC, and Age of Empires III. Yes, Age of Empires III. The Qt3 Games Podcast is nothing if not untopical.

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  • Mygaffer Nunya

    If rape can be the subject of a book “Lucky” and “The Lovely Bones”, if it can be the basis of a movie like “The Accused”, then it should be fair game for a video game. It needs to be handled right and I don’t really trust any AAA publisher to green light a project that would handle it properly, but I guarantee you in our lifetime there will a video game that handles rape in a poignant and appropriate way.

  • Sapper Gopher

    What about the video game adaptation of Deliverance?

  • http://twitter.com/clwheeljack Charles Wheeler

    Although I’d done a little preparation, I didn’t feel qualified to completely summarize the entirety of the “woman problems” in gaming, and I’m not sure I even could. I felt sure somebody else would take the lead on it once the subject started. In any case, hopefully I did cover all the major points, even if I did malign poor innocent Ubisoft.

    Also, something which I inexplicably failed to mention on the podcast is that my arcade was called Genie Funland. The name of the billiards hall next door? McMasters.

  • http://twitter.com/SLeigher88 Sam Leighton

    Didn’t Witcher 2 involve rape? I’m pretty sure you save the elven women from being raped at the end of the 1st act.

  • http://nogamenotalk.com GFoppy

    Hey I live in Singapore! Which arcade was he talking about exactly? The only “basement-level” arcade I can think of is the one currently at Bugis Junction: It’s called “Virtualand”, and it happens to be the biggest arcade in Singapore where all of the strongest local fighting game players hang out.

  • http://twitter.com/clwheeljack Charles Wheeler

    As noted in my other comment, Genie Funland underneath (IIRC) Lucky Plaza. You entered via the stairwell next to Sidewalk Cafe and Bar. It closed a couple of years ago, it’s now a spa or something (yes, you still enter via the parking lot).

    Singapore still has a healthy arcade culture, but it’s nowhere near what it was in the late 90′s. There used to be a ton of arcades on Orchard Rd that are gone now. Genie, WyWy Wonderspace, E-zone, a nice one in Tanglin Mall, a shitty one below what used to be Hard Rock Cafe. The list goes on. Every shopping center used to have its own. If I could go back in time, I’d bring a camera and document them all. I have a small collection of arcade tokens from many of them.

    The Bugis arcade, like you say, is probably the biggest one left, and fortunately it is a great one. I go every time I go back to Singapore. There’s something about the air, the flashing lights, that just gives me goosebumps. It’s very much a “coming home” experience.

  • http://nogamenotalk.com GFoppy

    There was an arcade at Lucky Plaza? Damn, I must have missed out a lot during my childhood. I only got interested in arcade gaming during the last 2-3 years.

    Some of my older friends in their late 20s and 30s tell me that back then during the 1990s, the Singapore arcades were all about King of Fighters and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was also pretty hot when it came out.

  • http://twitter.com/clwheeljack Charles Wheeler

    Sorry, my bad, it was underneath Far East Shopping Center, not Lucky Plaza (and also not Far East Plaza.)

    Also, now I feel old.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-McMaster/607680289 Jason McMaster

    Sounds like a cool place