I miss the old arcade days, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that back then you could play cutting-edge games that weren't possible on home consoles for like 25 cents, 50 cents a pop.
Now you have games that look worse than home consoles, and cost like 2-5 dollars for a 3 minute play session, just because it's in a fancy moving cabinet. The novelty of having the cabinet respond to your movements, say in a jet, is great for the first time, but it's not exactly something that would keep me coming back.
I've never been into the arcade rhythm games either, mostly because most electronic music isn't something that appeals to me. Rock Band fits more into my interests for that.
The one major area in which arcades may still hold relevance is with fighting games. God, I remember the days of being "king of the hill" on the SFII cabinet, just sending kids home crying. Unfortunately, the few times I've been to Dave and Busters or the like, these machines have no traffic.
e: Skeeball is, and always will be, the best. Real men bank it off the sides.
D&B doesn't draw the fighting game crowd, it draws casuals. The only reason I go there is for the NXA cabinet.
Time Crisis 1 is still my favorite light gun shooter.
You kill the big bad in the second level.
Yeah, D&B's feels more like a bar/lounge than a traditional arcade. And the games are all pretty lame.
They have this one machine with like 20 Capcom games in 1 cabinet. Street FIghter 2, Slam Masters, Captain Commando, and a few others, but it's just not the same as playing them on their individual cabinets.
The Grey GOAT on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." -HST
It would have to be a side room of some place that already draws a crowd of likely gamers.
There's a bar that opened up near me, converted movie theater, they play sports on the movie screen, put a bar surrounded by tables where the main seating used to be, the balcony has tables for the restaurant, and thh theater lobby is an arcade. They have a lot of stuff, from the jet-ski game and a four-player racing bank to Ghost Squad and DDR to skee ball and a few regular games like NFL Blitz and one of the fighting games. I thought it was going to be great...
However, the arcade is mostly where people's pre-teen kids hang out while they linger over dinner or watch the sports. They've gradually let the place get overrun with ticket games and the kids just run wild in there. I'm sure they are making money but there's not much room for a 25-35 year old guy to go in and rule the SFIV machine.
They do keep it well maintained and clean though, that's a good thing. And there's a mini-bar in the arcade area with four or five brews on tab and a basic selection of liquor which the staff if there's any amount of adults playing games.
I would go if they had that gundam game for a reasonable price. All the arcades near me are in pretty terrible shape, though. The only advantage they have over consoles is the ability to be near actual people, but they have a lot of drawbacks, like price and typically poor maintenance. I doubt they're viable anymore. At least in the US.
PolloDiablo on
0
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
So uh, this is a thing.
Konami's reviving Pop'n Music in a whole new way. That might actually work.
Too bad their SFII machine is all effed up, though.
Hmm only a few miles past lovers. Might have to go check that place out tommarow after lunch. Play the sweet ass vector graphics starwars game with a mug of shinner. What all is on tap there?
Edit: Sweet shinner on tap. Truly nectar of the gods for only may we rent it.
We actually have a small arcade down the road called Nickelworld, and they have a bunch of old arcade cabinets, all of which you can play for cheap.
I've only been there once, because it smelled like feet.
Theres a Place like that in Dallas called nickle mania. Remember when I was a kid it had some awsome games like after burner and house of the dead. Went back there recently hoping to find a Sinistar machine. Not only were my hopes of hearing "Run Coward" screamed at me for hours but most the games there we're not good and in poor repair. Truly the arcade is a dieing part of my childhood.
I miss the days of the arcade. Social interaction like that in the world of gaming is sorely missed and only really experienced these days (for me at least) at places like comic con or PAX, though I don't go to PAX.
I always did wonder why arcade machines had to be so fucking huge though.
Urian on
0
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
When it comes to fighting games, once you reach a level where mindgames become a big factor, playing people in person in an environment where multiple people can watch and comment is much, much more fun than just lugging a console over to your friends place and only ever playing the same people.
Plus, each time I go over to the arcade, I don't know for sure who is going to be there and as I go at different times each week I meet different groups of people at regular times and get to know them. So it's kind of like "who do I get to play today" and it's like "Oh you! Lets go!" or "Oh god not you" (note the second is said with a big fat cheesy grin and only to people who can take a joke).
There's one guy I love playing just because we are so similar in everything that every time we play we just end up cacking ourselves laughing at what has just happened.
So it's variety, it's social interaction, people can drop in and out, and people sit and watch the games. It's great to do something speccy and have a group of people you know go "ooooohh!"
That's why I go play at the gaming shop nearby which happens to have turned into the main gaming place for tekken 6 in sydney.
Everynow and again I'll find someone brand new as well, sometimes people from korea come and play there when they are visiting because they heard it was the place to play from their friends. So it's great to meet new people from different cultures. Even his play style was completely different from anything I expected here. Peoples play styles can tell you a lot about the person.
Everybody in the community I play with has a great attitude, nobody is a real snobby prick or anything, because they all know each other because they always play together. To me, going to that arcade is the same as nicking down to the pub, only I spend some time trying to out think my friends and making jokes about it all instead of drinking.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Slightly on-topic perhaps, but does anyone here know a good (large) arcade in London, or have any tips on how to locate one (google has failed me so far)?
There's a Namco Funland in Trocadero, and another one near the London Eye, but they are so small it's sad to go anywhere near them (especially after having been to the original venues in Japan).
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
pretty much mixing videogames with real socialisation, which is extremely important. its not half assed socialisation like going to a forum or playing warcraft online.
Slightly on-topic perhaps, but does anyone here know a good (large) arcade in London, or have any tips on how to locate one (google has failed me so far)?
There's a Namco Funland in Trocadero, and another one near the London Eye, but they are so small it's sad to go anywhere near them (especially after having been to the original venues in Japan).
Along with Casino TCR (assuming that's still in business) that's pretty much it to my knowledge. I haven't been in there for a couple of years but Troc had some Astro Cities with Third Strike.
It's sad. Arcade operators treat their machines like garbage and so do the punters and everything falls into disrepair. This is a country where customers will take Samba de Amigo maracas and just smash them against the machine until they shatter (true story) and arcade ops can never be bothered to fix off centre light guns. I was in Brighton recently with a friend and we couldn't find anything other than light gun games, driving games and ancient DDR machines. There was an Afterburner Climax cabinet but the fire button was knackered and the plastic at the bottom of the stick was all torn exposing the wires. On the beach there was an arcade cabinet running SF2 but the monitor was busted, the sticks those horrible American style types and the cabinet was generally minging. There was a Scud Race too but the cabinet was so poorly looked after I didn't bother to waste my money.
Not to romanticise Japan but over there they respect other people's property and they understand the importance of a competitive scene to get repeat customers. The arcade scene in this country is dead and likely never will revive. The closest we got was in the 90s and that time has long gone.
Slightly on-topic perhaps, but does anyone here know a good (large) arcade in London, or have any tips on how to locate one (google has failed me so far)?
There's a Namco Funland in Trocadero, and another one near the London Eye, but they are so small it's sad to go anywhere near them (especially after having been to the original venues in Japan).
Along with Casino TCR (assuming that's still in business) that's pretty much it to my knowledge. I haven't been in there for a couple of years but Troc had some Astro Cities with Third Strike.
It's sad. Arcade operators treat their machines like garbage and so do the punters and everything falls into disrepair. This is a country where customers will take Samba de Amigo maracas and just smash them against the machine until they shatter (true story) and arcade ops can never be bothered to fix off centre light guns. I was in Brighton recently with a friend and we couldn't find anything other than light gun games, driving games and ancient DDR machines. There was an Afterburner Climax cabinet but the fire button was knackered and the plastic at the bottom of the stick was all torn exposing the wires. On the beach there was an arcade cabinet running SF2 but the monitor was busted, the sticks those horrible American style types and the cabinet was generally minging. There was a Scud Race too but the cabinet was so poorly looked after I didn't bother to waste my money.
Not to romanticise Japan but over there they respect other people's property and they understand the importance of a competitive scene to get repeat customers. The arcade scene in this country is dead and likely never will revive. The closest we got was in the 90s and that time has long gone.
Sad to hear. I'm from Sweden and the closest we got there was in the 80s when every little pizza place or burger joint had one cabinet.
Can't wait until I can get back to Japan. There's a place called Tokyo Leisure Land which is just staggering.
Forgive the crappy photograph, but it was the only one I managed to take which even begun to capture the scale of the place:
There's also another place... I think it was close by... also extremely large, and they even had small, silly electric vehicles for children to get around in. That's the scale we're talking about. Namco Lands and Taito Stations and even Sega's Joypolis are dwarfed by these two.
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
0
Idx86Long days and pleasant nights.Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
Joypolis is awesome.
Idx86 on
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
Speaking of jacking up prices, arcades are businesses, and many owners would do what they felt was best for their bottom line, especially in the late 90s when there were still a fair bit of them around and they were the primary location for fighting game players to get together.
We called it downtown damage. Certain places would jack up the damage or lower the life on their machines, figuring that more damage meant faster games which meant more games which meant more money. On the opposite side, there were brief periods where they would get a little more creative to entice people into playing games that were becoming overlooked. The last big downtown arcade in Toronto used to do this regularly with their X-men vs Street Fighter machine. They'd leave the damage, but put the life bars to max value, making the rounds WAY longer and really screwing with the balance of some characters. For instance, there was a guy who caught on quick and used to run with Juggernaut and Zangief. He'd just abuse Juggernaut punch all day, being perfectly willing to trade that with anything, and won most of his games on time.
At one point, when their rivals across the street shut down, they bought up the only copy of Dungeons and Dragons 2 in the area and put it on a massive widescreen station, which was really neat. It was a rear projection unit that actually had 4 stools set into the frame so that everyone could sit down and had ample elbow space. They eventually replaced it with Metal Slug X, which was also fun but didn't really need the space.
On the other hand, they squeezed Soul Calibur 3: Arcade Edition onto a leftover cabinet and had to jury-rig the buttons, which was horrible. They cut the buttons out themselves, but whoever did it was a massive dolt and left almost 3cms between each button, making it very taxing to play, not even counting the huge adjustment you had to make just going from a pad or regular stick to that monster.
I go to those sorts of places for competitions and hanging out with people instead of some silly goose from south dakota talking street over XBL about how much I suck because he's anonymous.
There's definitely something about shaking hands with someone you just faced off against in a fighting game, or sipping on a coke slurpee while you watch the DDR zombies do their thing. It's an atmosphere.
Kazaka on
0
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2010
People are just so much more polite in arcades. I'll never understand.
I guess because you know people will actually kick your ass if you're being a jerk.
When I went to college in Rochester, NY there was a LAN center opened up by a graduate; I'm pretty sure they're still doing well. About 30 computers networked together, with a bunch of games and you can play LAN or online.
They hosted a lot of tournaments, parties, and various events which made it a really great social place. Launch parties and lock-ins were also great. For the lock-ins (basically just overnight parties on the weekends) you'd pay a small fee and get unlimited play, and they'd have a bunch of silly tournaments for getting free hours and drinks and snacks.
It helped greatly that our college had really good networking, programming, and security programs; so the place virtually never had technical problems.
People are more polite? Where did you play and how do you get to that magical land?
My favourite were the guys who would never let up elbow space. It was even better in the winter when they'd put on huge jackets. Nothing like playing while standing a foot away from the controls.
Posts
Now you have games that look worse than home consoles, and cost like 2-5 dollars for a 3 minute play session, just because it's in a fancy moving cabinet. The novelty of having the cabinet respond to your movements, say in a jet, is great for the first time, but it's not exactly something that would keep me coming back.
I've never been into the arcade rhythm games either, mostly because most electronic music isn't something that appeals to me. Rock Band fits more into my interests for that.
The one major area in which arcades may still hold relevance is with fighting games. God, I remember the days of being "king of the hill" on the SFII cabinet, just sending kids home crying. Unfortunately, the few times I've been to Dave and Busters or the like, these machines have no traffic.
e: Skeeball is, and always will be, the best. Real men bank it off the sides.
Time Crisis 1 is still my favorite light gun shooter.
You kill the big bad in the second level.
Yeah, D&B's feels more like a bar/lounge than a traditional arcade. And the games are all pretty lame.
They have this one machine with like 20 Capcom games in 1 cabinet. Street FIghter 2, Slam Masters, Captain Commando, and a few others, but it's just not the same as playing them on their individual cabinets.
"Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." -HST
There's a bar that opened up near me, converted movie theater, they play sports on the movie screen, put a bar surrounded by tables where the main seating used to be, the balcony has tables for the restaurant, and thh theater lobby is an arcade. They have a lot of stuff, from the jet-ski game and a four-player racing bank to Ghost Squad and DDR to skee ball and a few regular games like NFL Blitz and one of the fighting games. I thought it was going to be great...
However, the arcade is mostly where people's pre-teen kids hang out while they linger over dinner or watch the sports. They've gradually let the place get overrun with ticket games and the kids just run wild in there. I'm sure they are making money but there's not much room for a 25-35 year old guy to go in and rule the SFIV machine.
They do keep it well maintained and clean though, that's a good thing. And there's a mini-bar in the arcade area with four or five brews on tab and a basic selection of liquor which the staff if there's any amount of adults playing games.
http://barcadiadallas.com/barcadia-games.htm
Too bad their SFII machine is all effed up, though.
I've only been there once, because it smelled like feet.
Konami's reviving Pop'n Music in a whole new way. That might actually work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho98JVoAGb0&feature=player_embedded
Hmm only a few miles past lovers. Might have to go check that place out tommarow after lunch. Play the sweet ass vector graphics starwars game with a mug of shinner. What all is on tap there?
Edit: Sweet shinner on tap. Truly nectar of the gods for only may we rent it.
Theres a Place like that in Dallas called nickle mania. Remember when I was a kid it had some awsome games like after burner and house of the dead. Went back there recently hoping to find a Sinistar machine. Not only were my hopes of hearing "Run Coward" screamed at me for hours but most the games there we're not good and in poor repair. Truly the arcade is a dieing part of my childhood.
It too smelled like something not of this world.
I always did wonder why arcade machines had to be so fucking huge though.
Plus, each time I go over to the arcade, I don't know for sure who is going to be there and as I go at different times each week I meet different groups of people at regular times and get to know them. So it's kind of like "who do I get to play today" and it's like "Oh you! Lets go!" or "Oh god not you" (note the second is said with a big fat cheesy grin and only to people who can take a joke).
There's one guy I love playing just because we are so similar in everything that every time we play we just end up cacking ourselves laughing at what has just happened.
So it's variety, it's social interaction, people can drop in and out, and people sit and watch the games. It's great to do something speccy and have a group of people you know go "ooooohh!"
That's why I go play at the gaming shop nearby which happens to have turned into the main gaming place for tekken 6 in sydney.
Everynow and again I'll find someone brand new as well, sometimes people from korea come and play there when they are visiting because they heard it was the place to play from their friends. So it's great to meet new people from different cultures. Even his play style was completely different from anything I expected here. Peoples play styles can tell you a lot about the person.
Everybody in the community I play with has a great attitude, nobody is a real snobby prick or anything, because they all know each other because they always play together. To me, going to that arcade is the same as nicking down to the pub, only I spend some time trying to out think my friends and making jokes about it all instead of drinking.
There's a Namco Funland in Trocadero, and another one near the London Eye, but they are so small it's sad to go anywhere near them (especially after having been to the original venues in Japan).
Along with Casino TCR (assuming that's still in business) that's pretty much it to my knowledge. I haven't been in there for a couple of years but Troc had some Astro Cities with Third Strike.
It's sad. Arcade operators treat their machines like garbage and so do the punters and everything falls into disrepair. This is a country where customers will take Samba de Amigo maracas and just smash them against the machine until they shatter (true story) and arcade ops can never be bothered to fix off centre light guns. I was in Brighton recently with a friend and we couldn't find anything other than light gun games, driving games and ancient DDR machines. There was an Afterburner Climax cabinet but the fire button was knackered and the plastic at the bottom of the stick was all torn exposing the wires. On the beach there was an arcade cabinet running SF2 but the monitor was busted, the sticks those horrible American style types and the cabinet was generally minging. There was a Scud Race too but the cabinet was so poorly looked after I didn't bother to waste my money.
Not to romanticise Japan but over there they respect other people's property and they understand the importance of a competitive scene to get repeat customers. The arcade scene in this country is dead and likely never will revive. The closest we got was in the 90s and that time has long gone.
Sad to hear. I'm from Sweden and the closest we got there was in the 80s when every little pizza place or burger joint had one cabinet.
Can't wait until I can get back to Japan. There's a place called Tokyo Leisure Land which is just staggering.
Forgive the crappy photograph, but it was the only one I managed to take which even begun to capture the scale of the place:
There's also another place... I think it was close by... also extremely large, and they even had small, silly electric vehicles for children to get around in. That's the scale we're talking about. Namco Lands and Taito Stations and even Sega's Joypolis are dwarfed by these two.
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
We called it downtown damage. Certain places would jack up the damage or lower the life on their machines, figuring that more damage meant faster games which meant more games which meant more money. On the opposite side, there were brief periods where they would get a little more creative to entice people into playing games that were becoming overlooked. The last big downtown arcade in Toronto used to do this regularly with their X-men vs Street Fighter machine. They'd leave the damage, but put the life bars to max value, making the rounds WAY longer and really screwing with the balance of some characters. For instance, there was a guy who caught on quick and used to run with Juggernaut and Zangief. He'd just abuse Juggernaut punch all day, being perfectly willing to trade that with anything, and won most of his games on time.
At one point, when their rivals across the street shut down, they bought up the only copy of Dungeons and Dragons 2 in the area and put it on a massive widescreen station, which was really neat. It was a rear projection unit that actually had 4 stools set into the frame so that everyone could sit down and had ample elbow space. They eventually replaced it with Metal Slug X, which was also fun but didn't really need the space.
On the other hand, they squeezed Soul Calibur 3: Arcade Edition onto a leftover cabinet and had to jury-rig the buttons, which was horrible. They cut the buttons out themselves, but whoever did it was a massive dolt and left almost 3cms between each button, making it very taxing to play, not even counting the huge adjustment you had to make just going from a pad or regular stick to that monster.
All good times.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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There's definitely something about shaking hands with someone you just faced off against in a fighting game, or sipping on a coke slurpee while you watch the DDR zombies do their thing. It's an atmosphere.
I guess because you know people will actually kick your ass if you're being a jerk.
They hosted a lot of tournaments, parties, and various events which made it a really great social place. Launch parties and lock-ins were also great. For the lock-ins (basically just overnight parties on the weekends) you'd pay a small fee and get unlimited play, and they'd have a bunch of silly tournaments for getting free hours and drinks and snacks.
It helped greatly that our college had really good networking, programming, and security programs; so the place virtually never had technical problems.
My favourite were the guys who would never let up elbow space. It was even better in the winter when they'd put on huge jackets. Nothing like playing while standing a foot away from the controls.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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