The death of arcades, and your role

Like drive-ins, tamagotchis, and those wristbands that were straight until you slapped them on, the arcade seems to have vanished almost completely. The development of console technology that put it on par with the arcade machines was the main reason they died, but there's details in that statement which were never really explained.

The main reason why I abandoned the arcade for the console was the accessibility and privacy. I didn't have to wait to play the game I wanted while some kid stuffed endless quarters into the machine, get into fights when the jackass behind me knocked my dude into bullets, or feel horribly shamed when Mario got his ass kicked by a goomba. Despite all that, I'm kinda sad they're gone, or relegated to movie theatre lobbies. As good as the consoles were, they just really didn't capture the atmosphere of the arcade.

So 4chan, what's your role in supporting or killing the arcade?

Here's an idea- console kiosks, like the old NES vs series or the displays you see at retail stores that are timed to turn off.  You pay for extra time, and every machine saves data to an internet database, so you can continue where you left off in any "console arcade."  Just get the rights to do this officially, and find someone with a few million to invest. 

SE Asian countries already do this, they mass a lot of TV's and consoles in a room and people would come to play there, for hourly charge (basically renting). Not legal? maybe. Arcade-ish feeling? yes.

I still go to arcades to play DDR or Neo-Geo games.  It seems like the main attractions for arcade games these days are unique machines that you can't get on a regular console without paying extra for peripherals.

Tamagotchis are back you know.

Too bad Sega Arcade went kaput.  They made tons of expensive machines with skiing or skating/surfing peripherals. 

>>6
Aye, I just go to arcades to play on driving, simulation and lightgun games.

Even if the console is good, nothing equals Silent Scope's LCD-as-scope rifle (the rifle for playing on the Xbox is teh suck) nor Off Road Challenge's wheel wich get's harder to turn acording to the terrain/action (i.e. jump and the wheel can turn softly, take on a curve at full speed and it will get harder to turn... and it runs un 64's hardware, go figure).

On the other hand I really never cared about the whole beatmania thingy.

Beatmania is teh win. 

>>3
there are actually a couple places which do this in NYC.

anyway i'm an arcade regular because there's still a scene to support around here. it's only a matter of time before shit just ceases to be, though. the community only wants to play two or three different games, and sooner or later they're going to get bored of them.

Hello, maybe in the stix in your backwards country. In real countries we have arcades... big multi storey ones =D

ARKADES?
I VILL KILL EVERYONE! HEIL!

>>10
what country are you from? because it sure isn't the western world.

There are no arcades within an hour's driving distance of me.  *tear*
I love arcades though, mainly for games that either cant be done on consoles or just arent the same when ported over.

>>12 Tokyo, Japan...

in 1996 i was like "lol why play arcades when I have guardian heroes at home"

i like DDR. as long as they have that, Pump IT UP, or IGN, im down for heading to the arcade weekly.

its not the same as at home :)

IGN? Don't you mean ITG?

XD

Dude, if you guys ever went to Japan... You would almost think the only video games people played WERE arcades. The Japanese created a component that really works: You save your progress and play across the world. Ugh the money I've spent raising my dragon... T_T

I argue that the death of video arcades, or at least the cause of death in my local area, is the direct result of the car racing video games.  Either video game companies are blatantly ignoring the realities of their target audience, or they are trying to rewrite their target audience into their own view.  I watched as every time I walked into the local video arcades that the games I enjoyed playing were replaced one by one with some generic racing game.  This went on for weeks, months, years...finally all the games were nothing but racing games.  This is no joke here, I'm dead serious, every damn game.  My contribution for death was I quit going into video arcades since they clearly don't know the mentality of people who play video games!

However, perhaps I am a statistic anomaly.  After all, when I go into a video arcade, I expect to see an entire wall end to end covered with pinball machines.  I'm that old school here.  To me the highlight of the arcade market was the 80's.  I could spend hours playing nothing but Smash TV.  By today's standards, Smash TV is considered a crappy game, but whenever I grab the grenade launcher in that game, I still start screaming "Get some!  Get some!"  This is the point that many parents place thier hands over thier child's ears and lead them away...

So those are my two points.  Either the arcades are killing themselves by not knowing who their customers are, or perhaps my kind is simply the ones dying out and that is why arcades are failing.

>>19

Why the fuck do I think of ideas that are already a success in Japan?  I hate US progress.  It's like playing Civilization on the side that does nothing.

>>20
A little of both, I think.  The market changed, and arcades and arcade game manufacturers didn't figure out in time how to keep pace with that change.  >>19 hints at what the American arcade market should've done.

>>22

20 here again.  Yeah, I do recall the last two big obessions I had in the late days of the arcades.  First was Gaultlet Legends the second was Soul Calibur 2.

I liked Gauntlet Legends first because of the old school thrill I got out of it.  However I really REALLY appreciated being able to save a character and keep on playing.

I liked Soul Calibur 2 in the arcade because of the conquest mode where you could make your own character, battle other characters in other kingdoms and upgrade your character's stats for defense.

The thing that is common to both of these is the saving of progress for replayability.  Also, just to be a dick, it wasn't a damn racing game!

So I would have to say, if the arcade wants to come back, they should try playing up the multiplayer experience of the games...and put in some pinball machines.

My local arcade - one of Namco's top-ten grossing arcades in the world - was thrown out by the local mall because they were going upscale.  Well, actually, they just jacked the rent up much higher than they were willing to pay.  Now there's an Afterthoughts Botique there, yay.  I used to drop $5 or so a week there myself...

Only arcade in my area that I know of isn't all that great - all arcade games there are fighters and driving games, and I'm not interested.

North American arcades certainly didn't help themselves by allowing their establishments to almost uniformly adopt a filthy, poorly lit environment, with a dank pit of an atmosphere out of a Dickensian slum tavern.

There's a mini arcade in a central train station near my home, with a variety of stuff including racing, shooting(both gun and vertical scrollers), sports, a rotating lineup of 5 pinball machines, a music/rhythm game, even a few classics like Spy Hunter, Pac-man, and two multi game NeoGeo machines. I try to stop there every time I pass through(even more now that they have Virtual On) but looking in from the front windows the place is anything but inviting. You almost never see anyone but a few 20-30 something males in there.

>>25
decor is a big deal for getting people in the door; i was at a large tourney in a certain too-small nyc spot this weekend and a clerk had to come by every hour with a bottle of febreeze just to make the horrible man-smell less intense. nobody but the pre-existing audience (which is small) is ever gonna set foot in that place.

not this weekend, last week.

I rekon that we should keep 'em. I mean the atmosphere they make is ace. Plus you cant play Mario and other great arcade games like that on a PS2. ( Not unless you have AR MAX 2 :p )

Go to an arcade in Japan.

>>29

give me a grand and i'll totally do so.

I heard US arcades in the 80's were excessive and flashy.  Like in the movie Tron.  Of course cheering someone on for playing Galaga couldn't be all that great.

Go to a scat restauraunt in Japan

The arcades in Japan are brightly lit, have sit down machines that are white, UFO catchers for the girls, ecchi mahjong games for businessmen, DDR/Beatmania and all sorts of knockoffs, insane tetris/puzzle games and rhythm games that would cause a stroke in any American.  And fighting games. 

And you can smoke in them too!

>>34 WHAT!??!?!?!?!?!? That has got to be the last place on earth where smoking is allowed...

What's the difference between arcade and amusement park?

amusement park = haven for pedophiles
western arcade = bankrupt
jap arcade = homosexual orgy of fun, hot lesbians welcome

I worked in an arcade for a day, what a shit hole that place was.

Arcades still exist, but more on a sub-level. You're never going to find an entire shop dedicated to arcades, instead they're in the back of Movie Theaters, Laser Tag arenas (there's one locally with a large arcade), bars (maybe a few machines), and Theme Parks.

These usually consist of a mix of both redemption machines and regular game machines.

Ever been to a bar lately?  They have video game clones, almost like flash games, that plagiarise ever game you've seen, and have horrible controls so that it eats up quarters.  Men and women just dump their money into these things as they have nothing better to do.

Arcades deserve to die.  Why would I want to spend $1.50 to play a game I could buy for $30?

>>41


That's just it.  If they costed less, were networked to a server with online save transfers, and were upt o date, then you could go to an arcade and finish whatever action game you want without having to spend fifty bucks, or you could get hooked to an online RPG, or a single player RPG.  Just like renting, only you go there to play.  And it would have to be cheap, really cheap.  But nobody wants to be Korean.

>>41

Only faggots pay more than a dollar to play an arcade gay.

>>40

You must live in a hicktown, or the US.

>>43

****game

lol