You're Old and So Am I: Who else remembers that brief moment in history when McDonald's had trackpad Phillip CD-i cabinets in their indoors Play Place

[The Adder]

This could feasibly have gone into gaming, but I figured it's better suited here. Does anyone else recall this? I remember there being a McDonald's near one of the people who watched me when my mom was on Duty on base that had a huge (to five year old me) indoors Play Place. In addition to the indoors playground equipment, they also had these edutainment cabinets. I didn't know at the time, but they were running on Phillips CD-i. I know that because that was the first and only time I played Hotel Mario.

Anyone remember one of these in your area?

 

[bigosc]

Our McDonalds couldn't have nice things since it was in a rough neighborhood, but the Stanford shopping mall had a play place but no Phillips cdi

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

I am, apparently, not that old.

 

[mopinks]

the McDonalds down the street had a Gamecube running Mario Kart in the playplace when I moved here 15 years ago. I never touched the controllers because they were covered with child germs. that's the extent of my mcdonalds playplace gaming experience

 

[rpm]

Interesting. I knew of/have seen the N64/GameCube kiosks, but I've never heard of a CD-i one. Google is turning up nothing for it either. It'd be cool to see it.

 

[Mariolee]

the McDonalds down the street had a Gamecube running Mario Kart in the playplace when I moved here 15 years ago. I never touched the controllers because they were covered with child germs. that's the extent of my mcdonalds playplace gaming experience

Click to shrink...

Dude I remembered the McDonalds were Gamecubes were the shit. It was weird that I loved it so much considering I had a GC at home but I think the fact that it was a Gamecube I could play with strangers outside at a McD's blew my mind. Pretty sure when I was younger they did this w/ N64's for awhile too.

 

[Has Bean]

Yep I remember these at the McDs near me. Not sure if it was CD-i but I loved the mini golf game on it. I would try to eat fast to get as much time gaming on it as possible lol

 

[Zan]

This could feasibly have gone into gaming, but I figured it's better suited here. Does anyone else recall this? I remember there being a McDonald's near one of the people who watched me when my mom was on Duty on base that had a huge (to five year old me) indoors Play Place. In addition to the indoors playground equipment, they also had these edutainment cabinets. I didn't know at the time, but they were running on Phillips CD-i. I know that because that was the first and only time I played Hotel Mario.

Anyone remember one of these in your area?

Click to shrink...

Fuck yes, this wasn't just an illusion I dreamt. I played a shit ton of Crayon Factory and the Flintstones Jetsons crossover game. We never were lucky to have Hotel Mario or Zelda. Was this just a Canadian thing?

 

[UraMallas]

I'm old enough to remember the Gamecubes. I'm definitely not old enough to remember the CD-i's. Fucking ancient tbh

 

[Deleted member 10001]

I remember seeing them a few times, yes. They also had a kiosk unit at our (now-demolished) local IMAX theatre, around 1993 I believe (with Zelda and other titles).

 

[The Adder]

Fuck yes, this wasn't just an illusion I dreamt. I played a shit ton of Crayon Factory and the Flintstones Jetsons crossover game. We never were lucky to have Hotel Mario or Zelda. Was this just a Canadian thing?

Click to shrink...

Nope! I was in Alabama at the time.

Interesting. I knew of/have seen the N64/GameCube kiosks, but I've never heard of a CD-i one. Google is turning up nothing for it either. It'd be cool to see it.

Click to shrink...

Managed to find this article, but it's paywalled, so I can't say whether it's about the CD-i or not. But given it's from 1994...

PLAYING WITH THEIR FOOD CD-BASED GAMES KEEP KIDS COMING TO MCDONALD'S RESTAURANTS

McDonald's is betting that kids want to interact with more than burgers and fries in its stores. More than 100 McDonald's Corp. restaurants-as well as a handful of Burger King, Hardee's and Arby's units-feature Compact Disc-Interactive game players allowing children to color in pictures or answer…

adage.com

 

[GamerJM]

Never saw these, probably too young. I remember the Gamecubes but my local McDonalds didn't have them; I only ever saw them at one we would hit on trips to far northern California.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

I do, I remember one having an N64 with Wave Race on it.

 

[Dr. Mario]

I'm old enough to have played Hotel Mario on a kiosk version of CD-i, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't in a McDonalds.

 

[The Adder]

This was also a McDonalds that seeved pizza and butterscotch ice cream. Pretty sure it was a concept test site in general.

 

[DarthWoo]

Despite working at one with an entirely detached Play Place building in the late 90s, I almost never went into it, so can't say I remember if ours had them. Basically the only thing I remember is that the building itself was only really used for birthday parties, and only the pretty teenage girls got assigned to host the parties (not that I'd have had any desire to try to entertain a bunch of screaming, sugared up children) but they apparently usually got huge tips afterward. Also back then McDonald's had big birthday sheet cakes and employees got one in their birthday. Is this turning into an Abe Simpson rant yet?

 

[Kasai]

There were like 4 tvs in the playscape near me. One had a GameCube with Monkey Ball and I loved that so much.

They didn't last though. The tvs got burn in and eventually they just left it empty.

 

[mbpm]

what is a trackpad CD-i

 

[Akira86]

where are these classy assed McDonalds with self respect?

spread across the country like pearls, and Canada, apparently.

 

[Lkr]

i'm not THAT old, sheesh
in my day it was gamecubes in the mcdonald's

 

[Deleted member 2802]

Despite working at one with an entirely detached Play Place building in the late 90s, I almost never went into it, so can't say I remember if ours had them. Basically the only thing I remember is that the building itself was only really used for birthday parties, and only the pretty teenage girls got assigned to host the parties (not that I'd have had any desire to try to entertain a bunch of screaming, sugared up children) but they apparently usually got huge tips afterward. Also back then McDonald's had big birthday sheet cakes and employees got one in their birthday. Is this turning into an Abe Simpson rant yet?

Click to shrink...

Detatched building used maybe every other weekend - with like washrooms and full facilities?

We had these repurposed trains for some reason

 

[DarthWoo]

Detatched building used maybe every other weekend - with like washrooms and full facilities?

We had these repurposed trains for some reason

Click to shrink...

Full facilities, yes, but it was just a permanent building, at least until it was demolished in the early aughts. There was the typical outdoor playground thing that was open for everyone too, but with another big door to it from inside the Play Place.

 

[Mandos]

My McDonald play area mainly has ps2's, remember playing scooby doo cyber chase and some water sports game

 

[Imaginary_Number]

My local McDonalds while growing up had an N64 setup with Banjo Kazooie, which is weird, because there was a small row of arcade cabinets on the opposite wall.

 

[theme park joe]

I don't remember the CD-is but I remember the N64s.

 

[Deleted member 41651]

I must've always been to crusty McDonald's locations cuz all I ever saw were ball pits that smelled like urine and creaky tunnel slides that look like they exit onto a busy NJ highway.

Edit: old as fuck individual

 

[The Adder]

where are these classy assed McDonalds with self respect?

spread across the country like pearls, and Canada, apparently.

Click to shrink...

Apparently. We had a few with indoor play places, but that was the only one I ever saw like that.

 

[onyx]

I remember some having gamecubes before the areas became to rough. I never touched them because kids never washed their hands after eating so the units always looked gross.

 

[Freewheelin]

Not McDonalds but I remember playing Pokemon Stadium on a N64 kiosk in Burger King lol

 

[Rhomega]

Our McDonald's in Omaha didn't have a Playplace.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I'm too old to remember this.

 

[The Awesomest]

I remember N64s with Mario Party and Donkey Kong 64 multiplayer, which had some weapons I never saw in the version of the game that I had.

 

[RedVejigante]

Modern newfangled television video gaming? At my local McDonalds? No thank you!

I'm so old that I still have night terrors over older kids blocking the way so I couldnt escape the gaping maw of Officer Big Mac on the old McDonalds playgrounds.

 

[The Adder]

Modern newfangled television video gaming? At my local McDonalds? No thank you!

I'm so old that I still have night terrors over older kids blocking the way so I couldnt escape the gaping maw of Officer Big Mac on the old McDonalds playgrounds.

Click to shrink...

Been in one of those before. I don't understand why I ever found that fun

 

[Dhx]

Modern newfangled television video gaming? At my local McDonalds? No thank you!

I'm so old that I still have night terrors over older kids blocking the way so I couldnt escape the gaping maw of Officer Big Mac on the old McDonalds playgrounds.

Click to shrink...

This was my favorite.

Had this guy, too.

 

[DarthWoo]

Did anyone work at a McDonald's during the era prior to total indoor smoking bans when the employee break rooms were subject to other employees smoking? I remember a fun incident when one of my managers was attempting to quit smoking, so he had apparently thrown a nearly full pack of cigarettes in the trash in the break room. I saw it and thought, "oh heck, might as well see what all the fuss is about" and asked somebody else who was on break for a light. I don't think I even quite made one full inhalation of the cigarette before I immediately sputtered and cursed the chain of decisions that had led me to that moment before said manager happened to come downstairs and grabbed the still-lit cig out of my hand and I guess abandoned his previous plans. I kind of feel bad that maybe he might have still quit if I'd just let the pack settle below some other trash.

 

[Bessy67]

I remember trackball Pong at Pizza Hut...

 

[Tom Nook]

I remember my local Burger King had the playground and a N64 kiosk.

Good times.

 

[Anth0ny]

my mcdonalds had a majora's mask setup

but it reset every 10 minutes

I don't think a tool assisted speedrunner could make it to the first owl statue in 10 minutes, so you always just had to watch the intro cutscene over and over, try to get to clock town, then it would reset during the cutscene when you get turned into a deku

somehow, I'd keep trying to get there, expecting a different result every time.

i miss being a kid

 

[Davilmar]

I remember my local Burger King had the playground and a N64 kiosk.

Good times.

Click to shrink...

I was around 5 when Mario 64 came out, and you brought a lot of memories of NYC and Long Island.

 

[Gila Moo]

Yeah, they would have them in front of those multi-colored tube mazes that some of them would have. Btw, anyone else still remember those? I think they had to get rid of them due to kids actually getting lost in them sometimes.

 

[lunarworks]

I just remember being able to climb into that burger police officer's head at the Playland near here.

 

[Tom Nook]

Yeah, they would have them in front of those multi-colored tube mazes that some of them would have. Btw, anyone else still remember those? I think they had to get rid of them due to kids actually getting lost in them sometimes.

Click to shrink...

They made it look like you're entering Disneyland. LOL

 

[El Bombastico]

A local McDonald's that opened in like 2000/2001 had a bunch of N64 kiosks in the play place. I wasted so much time there playing Episode I racer and Kirby. They lasted a while to. I remember them still being there until like 2005 or so when I was in high school.

 

[Bing147]

One of the McDonald's near me had a couple of Genesis consoles. Running the McDonald's game of course

 

[Tanaka]

Mine growing up had an N64 with Mario Kart on it. My main memory of it was when I fucking dominated everyone from my kindergarten class who would play with me during a classmates birthday party. I made more than a couple enemies that day lol

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Yeah, they would have them in front of those multi-colored tube mazes that some of them would have. Btw, anyone else still remember those? I think they had to get rid of them due to kids actually getting lost in them sometimes.

Click to shrink...

People stopped playing there
+
they got rid of ball pits for a few reasons
+
little kids pissing and shitting in the tubes.
Think about an employee having to crawl
through that and clean it out.
Wasn't worth it much longer for them

Like this was the final iteration of my childhood McDonald's for 10ish years before they demolished it

Literally had a bridge you had to enter over water and had a waterfall/fountain at the end I sent many a toy boats over

Shit was massive

Sad

 

[IneptEMP]

One of my McDonald's had a Monkey Ball cabnet. Not Super Monkey Ball. The Monkey Ball arcade cabinet before the series came to GC. First and last time I ever saw that cabinet.

 

[noquarter]

I never saw Phillip's CD-i cabinets, but did see N64 ones. Played one one time, sucked, the joystick was shot so whatever game was in it couldn't really be played. Was a nice idea, but little kids can't treat games right.