Giant-sized arcade game draws thousands

A giant-sized arcade game console with a Christchurch-themed game, Attack of the Cones, is capturing the imagination of visitors to the city centre.

Gap Filler's giant-sized arcade game is proving popular.

Thousands of people have played Gap Filler’s Super Street Arcade game since it was installed on the corner of Tuam and High streets just before Christmas.

In its first seven weeks of operation, the game, created by local game developers Cerebral fix, has been played nearly 33,000 times, with an average game time of 41 seconds.

Through Google Analytics Gap Filler has been able to track total usage, days and times of usage, average game time, and even how many times each button has been pressed.

There have been 880,000 button presses and joystick movements, and a total of 5.6 million points scored so far.

The current high score of 4548, attributed to DON, has been in place since the day the project opened in mid-December.

People from all backgrounds have been observed playing the game from passers-by to families to the homeless. So far the maximum number of games played in one day is 1149 games.

“We’re thrilled to see the project getting so much use,” says Damian Doyle, Gap Filler Project Developer. “It’s especially satisfying to see strangers interact on the street and end up playing together.”

Gap Filler will be creating more games for the Super Street Arcade and there will be an opportunity for young people to be involved designing a game in the coming months.

Anyone interested in supporting the development of a new game should get in touch with Gap Filler.

• There will be an Attack of the Cones tournament in March supported by Men at Work, where the winner’s trophy is a specially created golden road cone. For more details, see the Super Street Arcade Facebook page