Photo from a 1993 State Journal Article. ‘Two regulars at Tilt video arcade play Mortal Kombat, where the loser can get decapitated.’
Source Wisconsin Retrocade FB: Physical scan from admins personal collection.
“Tilt, also known as Tilt Family Entertainment Center or Tilt Arcade, is a chain of video arcades once found inside various shopping malls across the United States.
Founded by Craig B. Singer, the first Tilt! game room was in Six Flags Mall in Arlington Texas in 1972. At its peak, the chain had roughly 200 locations from Hawaii to New York, and two in New South Wales, Australia. As of February, 2021, only 5 Tilt locations remain.”
Source: https://arcadepreservation.fandom.com/wiki/Tilt
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I remember the arcade chain, "Tilt" because there used to be two of them in ABQ, NM.. a small one tucked under some stairs at the Coronado Mall and a big one that occupied the real estate that maybe three or four regular stores would in the newer Winrock Mall..
It was especially a treat to go to the Winrock Mall because of the huge Tilt arcade but also because they had the first software store I used to go to.. Software ETC.
The bigger one closed first and the smaller one stayed until the 2000's but closed and they now have a big bowling alley and arcade in a former department store last time I checked.
The last game I remember playing regularly in the smaller Tilt was SVC Chaos SNK vs Capcom in a standalone JAMMA cabinet.. that was in the mid to late 2000's..
I wanted to play their MK4 cab but it was always out of order someone vandalized it so it was stuck on the operator menus screen, typically the audio volume screen.. which was really annoying and made it unplayable..
I still remember being embarrassed by it when I accidentally turned it up loud!!
A picture of my Mortal Kombat cabinet taken at a similar angle to the Tilt pic from 1993
