Overanalyzing Joystick Jrâs for no particular reason.
Joystick Jrâs is mentioned to be Bailleyâs oldest and largest Arcade, having operated for about 15 years.
(Iâd like to throw that fact into my pile of âGlitch Techs Takes Place In Late 90sâ propaganda since itâs weird that the oldest arcade in the town that video games originate from is only 15 years old, but if you go off of my year of 1998 that would mean that Joystick Jrâs opened in 1983. Much more reasonable.)
Itâs a large, mostly wooden building that mostly consists of the big central area where all the arcade games are (the area is actually multi-leveled, with a few balconies with even more arcade games on them), and a large number of side rooms for specific purposes, like the playstructure room with the ball pit, the kitchen area that we never get to see for ourselves but do know exists due to the entrance to it having the words âkitchenâ above it in neon lights, the prize counter, a few bathrooms and despite us never getting a proper look at it, we get a few establishing shots of a dining area where people can sit down to eat. There also might be a few âparty roomsâ or âplay roomsâ for specific birthday parties, but that role might also be exclusively filled by the stage area now that itâs open again.
And before anyone mentions it, that dining area must be different from the show room where Ralphie Bear is kept (also called the Bearthday Room) because when we see that room, it clearly hasnât been open to anyone for a long time. The tables still have cloth covering them and no oneâs cleaned out the spiderwebs. So Joysticks has definitely been using some separate side room instead.
We can also just kind of safely assume that Joysticks has some other arcade and restaurant-related rooms we simply never get to see. Food storage, maybe a walk in freezer, an equipment station with some tools and basic equipment to clean and maintain the massive amount of arcade machines kept in the building, probably a lost and found or some kind of security office somewhere (avoiding the obvious Fnaf Joke, an massive arcade like Joysticks would likely be a tempting target for any vandals and/or thieves, and we already know they have a bunch of security cameras set up around the building, so they probably do have a night guard or some kind of security guy), the works.
And then we have the (formerly) abandoned parts of the building. Aka the hallway at the back of the stage, the connected storage room and the arcade basement.
Storage room first, itâs clearly in much better state than the show room and connected hallway, but I hesitate to say that itâs been used frequently.
I want to say that this storage room is probably a parts and service room. Somewhere where old mechanical parts, retired animatronics like that unnamed duck animatronic I have nicknamed Doofy Duck, paint cans and other bits and bobs meant to keep the show stage and the arcadeâs animatronics running. Jimmy or some other employees have definitely been here recently, probably cleaning it up and getting it ready to be used again once Ralphie Boar and any other animatronics are set up, hence why itâs in way better shape than the other rooms. Hell, it might have also be used to store other bits and bobs used in the rest of the arcade long after Ralphie Bear was retired.
The hallway on the other hand, has probably at most had Jimmy enter it once to install the cameras and the electronic door locks, and beyond that itâs mostly been left to rot. Given that it runs from that likely-parts-and-service-room to the back of the stage, itâs definitely there so animatronics and other parts can be transported from one room to the other, preferably without wheeling a damaged Ralphie bear off stage in full view of the children.
And then you have the basement.
This is the area where Jimmy tosses all of the junk he canât properly get rid of, or stuff that he otherwise canât find a good place for. Arcade Machines that no longer function, old boxes of obsolete parts, a few toolboxes that were probably lost down here to be honest, building materials from previous repairs or upgrades to the building, stuff like that.
Basically no one comes down here. Itâs covered in dust and spiderwebs and itâs a hoarderâs paradise with how much random junk is just kind of shoved everywhere into haphazard piles. At least thereâs no risk of a glitch showing up down here because all of the arcade machines are broken down to the point where most wonât even turn on, and even if they were powered on, a glitch wouldnât be able to find any functioning code to take.
For the actual guest experience at Joystick Jrâs, we can make some guesses.
Joystickâs is the largest and oldest Arcade in Bailey, and given that Bailey is the place where video games were first invented, itâs probably one of the oldest arcades in the area or at least one of the oldest that are still in business considering that the first ever arcades opened around the late 70s, and my own math has Joystick JRâs opening in 1983.
We know that a large chunk of the arcade machines use these little Joystick JRs playcards, like the Xscape cards used by a handful of movie theatres places in my own country of Canada (and probably America and other places? Maybe? I have no idea if Xscape is a Canada exclusive business like No Name Brand or Canadian Tire)
Point is, reusable little card that can be filled with points at the front desk and used to pay for games. Iâm pretty sure most big arcades and other similar places use them even if my only point of reference is a single weird arcade that seems to naturally attach itself to movie theatres like some kind of symbiotic organism or perhaps a parasite. Not even sure if itâs a separate company from the movie theatres it connects to. The card seems like a thing other companies definitely do. Definitely. Iâm definitely overexplaining it.
Joysticks also uses physical tickets in some of its games. We see a skee-ball machine in Settling the Score and other machines probably also dispense tickets that can be redeemed at the prize counter. But, Phil also mentioned that he was very good at skee-ball back in the day and thatâs how he acquired so many tickets in Ralphie Bear is Back, so thereâs also a chance that only the older machines still dispense tickets and the newer ones add your point balance directly onto your play card like how a modern arcade does it. I choose to believe that most of the games that you can earn points in probably dispense physical tickets since we see a bunch of characters using physical tickets, but thatâs just a hunch.
Speaking of prizes, the Prize Counter (technically called the âPrizes Counterâ based on the neon sign but i chose to say Prize Counter because Prizes Counter sounds strange when I say it), is exactly what youâd expect from an arcade prize counter. A whole bunch of cheap dollar store quality knickknacks and candies any child can get for a few games-worth of tickets, some larger plushes, action figures and better candies for significantly more tickets and probably like a console or something locked in a case with a price tag of one million tickets or something absurd that any child would want to grind for, but never actually be able to reach.
Also, you can see a handful of Ralphie Bear, Cakey Von Smasher and Ralphie Boar toys (I headcanon that the Ralphie Bear and Cakey toys are plushies, while the Ralphie Boar toy is a much more stiff action figure.), a Ralphie Bear Pez Dispenser and a few toys of the big alien statue that stands outside the building.
Besides the conveniently obscured Prize Counter employee, Nix is the best look we get at what the employees at Joysticks wear, and itâs actually a reference to a bit of video game history!
Nixâs striped uniform is a reference to real life guy Walter Day, founder of the Twin Galaxies arcade! Also of note, Twin Galaxies served as a record keeper for a lot of old video game world records and tournaments back before the wide adoption of things like the internet (and continues to keep records to this day. Apparently theyâre actually the people who supply organizations like Guinness World Records with information about video games and any associated records for example) and Walter Day was the pseudo-referee and main record documenter for a lot of these back in the day. You could almost say he was⊠âŠa scorekeeper⊠âŠof sorts.
I imagine the food at Joystick Jrâs is also pretty much what youâd expect for a place like that. Take the food and drinks youâd be able to find at a Freddy Fazbearâs Pizzeria and fill any remaining empty spaces in the menu with the food youâd be able to buy at a bowling alley.
We know from things like the commercial in Ralphie Bear is Back that Joystick JRs serves pizza (big surprise, the pizzeria serves pizza) and birthday cakes (likely decorated specifically for the birthday kid. Their name in icing and anything else that a parent requests. That kind of thing), and we know they serve sodas because we see Nix carrying one. They probably also serve cupcakes given that they sell regular full cakes.
Beyond that and the cheap candies sold at the prize counter, Everything else on the menu is pure headcanon. My own headcanons stick to that thing I mentioned before about mixing together a Freddy Fazbearâs pizzeria and a bowling alley. Various types of Pizza, probably fried chicken drumsticks, maybe the option of fries or salad on the side, Cakes and Cupcakes for Birthday Parties and a wide variety of chips, sodas, popcorn and candy bars for people to eat while wandering the massive arcade area.
Probably no ice cream if only because mixing young children, quickly-melting ice cream and a bunch of valuable electronic equipment sounds like a very bad idea. Also, a good chunk of arcades Iâve seen have a strict âno drinks in the arcade areaâ rule and although joystick Jrâs does seem more lax with that rule (Nix is perfectly fine with a drink in Settling the Score, but heâs also an employee and not a typical customer), theyâre definitely smart enough to tell when something is a bad idea (unless that bad idea involves animatronic design).
No idea if Joystick Jrâs serves alcohol, but they might? Places like Chuck E Cheese have served alcohol at its locations for years as one example, but when I really put thought into it, probably not. Joystick Jrâs probably isnât a Barcade, but it does make me wonder if there are any smaller arcades in Bailley that do serve the stuff.
And then the most interesting stuff. The animatronics.
Joystick Jrâs has actually had no animatronics for twice as long as theyâve had them. Joystick Jrâs has been open for 15 years, but Ralphie Bear and his show have been closed down for 10 of those years. Despite this, Ralphie has definitely had a presence throughout the arcade even after the show stage was closed, with those aforementioned toys at the prize counter being proof of that.
Ralphie himself was part of a special show put on for the birthday kid, as explained in detail by Five in Ralphie Bear is back. I also have a small headcanon that before the current âRalphie Bear saves the birthday from Cakey Von Smasherâ show, Ralphie might have had a slightly different story to go through that might have involved that duck animatronic, maybe they were part of an animatronic band for a short time, but for whatever reason it got replaced by the current one.
The story, overall experience and most likely the characters were handmade by (or at least initially designed by) the arcadeâs founder, Jimmy Alcorn, while Ralphie Bearâs internal systems and robotics were built by Hinobi, who also supply the majority of the arcade machines and advanced tech in the building (arcades that primarily use Hinobiâs games (and why wouldnât they, Hinobi is the worldâs leading video game company for a reason) probably get a significant discount on Hinobiâs other bits of tech like the security cameras, although the animatronics were probably a specially designed custom order)
Ignoring the results of Cakey glitching and fully leaving her stage, we see in Mikoâs flashback that sheâs supposed to be bolted to a track on the stage, probably with one foot attached to the track and one free so she can stomp when she first enters and pull off at least a slightly convincing walk animation. Likewise, Ralphie Bear is attached to a series of pistons, gears and pulleys that let him pop out of a hatch in the stageâs floor, which employees can lock if they need to mess around on stage without the risk of activating something or getting themselves or other objects stuck in Ralphieâs hatch, which is shown to have a whole lot of moving parts that you definitely donât want a foreign object (or worse, your hand) getting stuck in.
The system is 15 years old and itâs age is showing, but it was probably pretty advanced for itâs time. A childâs name is inserted so the characters can say the Birthday Kidâs name (in a text to speech computerized voice that gets ad-libbed in)l and the birthday kid is instructed to either sit in a specially marked chair (the one Five sits in in Ralphie Bear is Back) if theyâre watching the show from a distance or otherwise stand in a certain spot on stage if theyâre seeing it close up, thatâs how the characters figure out who the birthday kid is. Itâs whoever is sitting or standing in those specific spots when the show starts.
As for why they need to be able to do that, itâs mostly for some basic recognition and tracking software that lets the robots look at and point at the correct person, along with controlling stuff like the spotlights to make sure theyâre shining on the correct person.
However, Ralphie had plenty of issues. Mainly, he scared the shit out of a lot of kids, Miko being one of them. And after a lot of complaints from parents, scared children and occasional damage to the bear, Joystick Jrâs eventually decided to retire him.
Miko wasnât the only reason, as mentioned by Jimmy a LOT of kids were freaked out by Ralphie Bear, but I headcanon that her incident was the last straw. Whether it was due to the staff at joysticks getting tired of calming down screaming kids, Mikoâs incident being particularly bad or possibly Miko decapitating Ralphie being the most damage heâs ever taken from a kid and/or being expensive to fix, that was the last time Joystick Jrâs would use him. At most they detached him from his pulley system, wheeled him to that parts and service room, reattached his head and then placed him back into his hatch before locking it down.
As mentioned before, Ralphie and Cakey cannot leave the stage (without being glitched), but the advertisement we see in Ralphie Bear is Back shows Ralphie interacting with guests. Best guess, that costume Miko found in the basement is a mascot suit meant to be worn by a staff member for this exact purpose. We do see that the animatronics at Joystick Jrâs have specially designed endoskeletons. The duck has its beak and eyes as a part of its endo instead of the costume for example. This means that Ralphie and Cakey probably werenât designed with âremoving the costumeâ in mind unless youâre removing an entire section to fix and replace it, and arenât modular with the ability to slap any costume on any endoskeleton like the animatronics in Fnaf can. Therefore, that Ralphie Costume is definitely not meant to be worn by Ralphie himself. Plus it fits a human to begin with so thereâs that.
And then Jimmy revamped Ralphie Bear into this abomination, ready to give nightmares to a whole new generation of children for years to come. The end.
