A nod to Fascination?

I hated the new Funway arcade.. although they still have the poor quality mirror maze, this year the arcade mainly consists of a Japanese style redemption claw game room similar to the play/trade up of Fascination, and in the same building!!

Japanese style games like claw rooms or Pachinko use skill vs luck and consist of trading up smaller prizes for larger, just like Fascination!

Obviously it's not exactly the same game, but it's cool to see the style of redemption game still in the same location.

Since these claw games are not luck but rather skill, they use a double tap method where you control the claw closing as well as the placement.

HUGE BONUS!! For anyone who requires a stuffed something for the kids, these games are the absolute best value to win a stuffed animal if you aren't into trading up for a big one as the small/medium are EXTREMELY easy to win.

I played CP’s Fascination game for decades and I don’t remember a trade-up option for prizes. Each win earned you a coupon and you’d stack those up (“Good from day to day, month to month, season to season”) until you earned enough for that lamp or beach towel or coffee pot. A single ticket got you a pencil or a pack of cigs (really) and there was no trading up that I remember.

Yeah same thing sort of.. You choose which game to play (small to large) and each prize is worth a certain number of points. You can either keep the prize or take it to the counter and exchange the prize for a coupon and stack them up for as long as you like until you want to redeem, just like Fascination.

Cigs?? Really!! LOL

Now I am having visions of Mr. RCMAC back in the day winning a pack of Kool 100 super longs and heading back to Cedar's where he would proceed to sell individual cigs to others for $1.00 each.

Yes, really. And we’re talking 70’s and 80’s here.
I don’t think there was a place to buy cigarettes in the park (maybe in the Breakers’ store) but you sure could win them. In addition to Fascination, you could get a pack if you won the Birthday Game, which I wish they’d bring back. (I still see it at fairs) It was a square game stand with painted boards around each edge. Players could lay quarters on one or more spots that were labeled with the various months of the year and if I recall correctly some additional holidays like Christmas and July 4th. There was a large multi-faceted die that a chosen player would toss into the center ring and when it came to rest the month on the top of the die was the winner. Anyone who bet on that month they could choose from one of several prizes. It was a simple and profitable game from back when chances weren’t 5 dollars a piece. And when smoking was a popular pastime.

jimmyburke:

Now I am having visions of Mr. RCMAC…

They were Salem Lights, kings. And singles weren’t more than a dime- an entire pack was only 50 cents. I still made money.

RCMAC:

(I still see it at fairs)

We spent more money playing the birthday game back in the day than we did to get in to the park sometimes. My mom had a thing where she had to win on her month (May) or Mother's Day. Sometimes it happened quickly. Other times, well... let's just say the kid running the game was kept quite busy making change!

I also seem to remember a rather odd and unsanitary variant of the birthday game (I think this was at Geauga Lake, my old brain struggles with details anymore) where you still laid down your quarters on the month or color you wanted, then they would spin a large wheel with holes representing each month/color. The attendant would then dump a live mouse onto the spinning wheel and whichever hole he ran into would be the winner. Don't think I've seen that one in a while!

All this talk of Fascination has me wanting to play. I think the one in Geneva On The Lake, OH is still there. May have to check that out. Roll 'em!

Back 15-20 years ago, our local fair had the spinning wheel game. But it was a rat not a mouse.

My daughter was obsessed with Clifford the Big Red Dog at the time and a stuffed one was one of the prizes. She tried several times and didn't win. Was very distraught at that point. I later went back and told the guy I wanted to place a bet on each square (twice because you had to win twice to get Clifford). He asked if I really wanted to do that or just pay the money and take the Clifford. I handed him the money and he handed me a stuffed Clifford. Think it was $15. That Clifford is still in my daughter's closet (along with the rest of the Clifford collection she assembled over the years--she could walk into any store that was filled with everything not Clifford and one piece of Clifford memorabilia and spot it instantly from a mile away). She is in grad school. One more year until she gets to move the collection into a place she is paying for. LOL

Fascination is still at Geneva on the Lake. Can't believe it's still cheap to play. From their website:

Fascination is a family arcade of sit down ski ball bingo! These machines from the 50s brings the nostalgia with lots of fun prizes to win for all ages. The cheapest fun on the strip, only 1 dollar gets a player 3 games! It's easy to lose yourself in the fun of this family friendly competition for hours at a time! Join our Facebook page to keep up to date on all of our events and hours.

Can't even get 3 games of pinball for $1 anymore. Unless you are playing older machines or are good enough to get replays.