Remember these logos?If you've been a gamer and or a frequent cyber cafe go-er, you would've known about Ezone(MidValley OR LowYat) by now.
Below are links of what their main website used to be
http://web.archive.org/web/20051119154559/http://www.ampmezone.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20030329150405/http://www.ampmezone.com/
Ahhh yes, it was the year 2002. That's when it first opened its doors just right outside of MidValley megamall. My pals (Kelvin/Martin/Hadi/Justin/Patrick/Adrian) and myself would almost without fail to pay a whooping RM6 an hour (which is rather expensive considering we'd usually pay RM2 for an hour elsewhere). Though the hefty price, the computers were the best (at that time).
If I recall, they were using :
-Pentium 4 2.0ghz
-GeForce4 graphic cards
-SUPER COOL LCD screens (17" I think)
-Headsets
-Medium range keyboard and mouse
Still, we felt that these aren't worth the price of RM6 per hour.... til we saw a sign that says,
"FREE UNLIMITED DRINKS!!!"
Eyes lit up in some of us (Cough*cough)
Taking this opportunity get our money's worth, some of us after a 5 hour counter-strike marathon (which obviously was as famous Dota back then) could've been diagnosed with diabetes from the amount of drinks we drank (coke/lemon tea/etc).
Gotta add that they serve food as well. But they cost 50% more than the price you could get them for elsewhere.
Still, another reason for this high class cyber cafe (at that time) was the interior design. Upon entering you'll notice the layout of the PCs and decorations are from the mind of a very generously paid designer. Blue lights illuminate the steps of the stairs heading upstairs, a stone garden with fountain, Japanese seating PCs, automatic doors and such. Yea obviously these are common in cyber cafes now (Except for the fountain), but you have to give credit to them for being the first to introduce such designs to Malaysia.
About 1 year later..... things doesn't look so good.
Equipment that SHOULD be replaced such as:
-Broken PCs
-Outdated games
-Broken Headsets
-Faulty keyboard and mouse (Missing keys in keyboards)
-Drink machine
-TOILETS (god damn if I had a camera phone then, I would post it here and show you guys how horrid the toilets are. It looks pretty on the outside, foul on the inside)
Well, me and my friends still visit the branch at MidValley but kept it to a minimum as we found another place; AM/PM Ezone LowYat. Right in the heart of KL's Golden Triangle, lies probably the only cyber cafe there. Of the things to do there, (arcade/shopping/manga/games/anime/girls) heading over to the cyber cafe was a must to pass time.
Hyped as the biggest/largest cyber cafe in Malaysia at that time.... there isn't ANYONE in there. Though the price has been reduced to about RM4.50 an hour. Business still isn't improving. (Duhh.... you give us FAULTY equipments and a toilet which kills your customers upon entering I don't see how business could improve).
So here we are, 2003, the year where Ezone took a downfall.
Online forums were flaming about how Ezone is the WORST cyber cafe in Malaysia.
$$$$ for crappy equipment.
Both branches are about exactly the same condition. Unbearable. Yet I still enter occasionally (because there isnt anywhere else to go to pass the time).
In the year 2006 (or late 2005) Ezone closed down.
I've found a new place though, "ExtremeGamers" (If i'm not mistaken) at SS2. Everything was great much like the first time Ezone appeared, though.... a year later it had taken the same path as Ezone; no maintenance and crappy toilets.
If only these people could learn from T-bun
