Side note: It would be nice if some of this publicity rubbed Joey and the Cannons the right way, so that they would allow those crazy motherfuckers who bring arcade machines to Evo every year, could be allowed to bring more.
People like to talk about the continuing life of the Japanese arcade scene for simplicity, but arcades are slowly disappearing there too. There are less big arcades now, more floors are taken up by casual games, and there are far fewer active big name manufacturers than there were in the good old days.
I think part of the problem with dying arcades is that you can get a similar experience these days in a home console that you don't need to trek out to drop a couple hundred yen or a couple of bucks in a slot to play the latest and greatest. It's becoming apparent that arcades are having a hard time creating an environment where unique experiences occur or where people want to hang out with friends (despite the growing acceptance of video games as a community culture rather than a nerd's pastime).
Even though casual games are taking over, it's almost like an evolution in what an arcade experience is like nowadays as it sounds like they are able to draw in the people that would not visit a traditional arcade game. It's probably unfortunate for the people who grew up with these more traditional-style arcades as they are seeing their pasts being washed away by games that don't compare to the experiences they would get if the change wasn't happening, but I think that they're still all the richer for having had that past to look back on at least.
At Disneyland they've got a full-on '80s arcade called Flynn's Arcade as part of their Electronica event at California Adventure.
It's awesome, it's stocked with strictly vintage arcade games. They all cost only a quarter to play.
What does this have to do with the topic at hand? It's popular, lots of people are always in there, and it's coming to an end April 15 (when Electronica gets replaced with "The Mad T Party" oyyyy).
If you have a chance, check it out before it's gone.
I've yet to read the article, but here's what my friend Adam who runs his own arcade as well as the Arcade Heroes blog had to say about the article. I'm going to read both of them as well and post what I think too.
It is sad to see a lot go, but I'm happy places have figured out how to keep it going. I like the way Galloping Ghost near Chicago does it. Rather then charging coin drop, all of the games are on free play. You pay a membership fee to enter. You can buy passes from a day, week even a year and all you gotta do is show em' your card and you're good to go. Places like FunSpot that have been in business for over 50 years are still hanging on, even though their pushing all of the arcade games on the third floor and rapidly changing the other two levels into almost nothing but ticket games. But sadly, that's the nature of the beast. People just dump money into Stacker and Skee-Ball and try to win cheap prizes. If that makes em' money then all of the other games pretty much get shoved out.
Funny thing is, I love Skee-Ball as an arcade game just like any arcade video game. To me, Skee-Ball was never about the tickets. It was always about the score. In fact, I don't think I ever cashed in a single ticket. Back when I was growing up in the 90s, Skee-Ball never felt out of place next to the video games.
Funny thing is, I love Skee-Ball as an arcade game just like any arcade video game. To me, Skee-Ball was never about the tickets. It was always about the score. In fact, I don't think I ever cashed in a single ticket. Back when I was growing up in the 90s, Skee-Ball never felt out of place next to the video games.
I love me some Skee-Ball as well. I also played it for fun, but places like Hersey Park I did keep the tickets to turn in for a prize. I like how some bars have caught onto putting Skee-Ball lanes in for a dollar a pop. They even do Brewskee-Ball leagues where people have teams and go out and play and drink like a bowling night. Some guys used to do it over at the Ace Bar in New York City and they opened up their own bar called The Full Circle and they serve expensive drinks but also have Skee-Ball lanes in the back where they do their own league nights now.
The thing is, I would fucking LOVE to see the return of the arcade, but the modern-day X-box Live weenies can take their cocky videogaming elitism and shove it where there's no direct dialing.
Because people over the age of 35 or so tend to have families and don't have the spare time to go to an arcade to play? XD
The funny thing about 360 or PS3 gaming is that it seems to be based more around the "achievements" rather than about gameplay of individual games...you buy one game, collect whatever achievements you can unlock from it, then move on to the next one. That's why even bad games sell.
I could go on and on about how great the arcade scene was back in the 70's and 80's since I lived the dream during this golden age. I played in them, won contests, worked in them and was manager in a couple of them. Those not in on the ground floor of the arcade experience during that time can never appreciate how great it truly was, especially where i grew up since we (Mesa, AZ) had at one point over 40 arcades open at one point (since there was no licensing fee for games, everyone who could afford cabinets could open up an arcade without any problems).
As of today, I still work in a game room (Peter Piper Pizza location), as mentioned, it's all about redemption games. We have two sets of driving games (F&F Drift and Need For Speed Underground), Time Crisis 3, Maximum Force and Ms. PacMan/Galaga but those games account for 15% of total game room revenue. I miss the old days indeed.
Like Arcademan, I grew up during the 80's and 90's during the great golden age of arcades, and did quite a bit of that gaming in a very special unique place and time: the Las Vegas Strip during it's "Family Friendly" era.
The thing is, for my above post about "X-box Live weenies" an their unbounded (and unfounded) cockiness, that's something that is new, and I associate with gaming in the 00's and 10's. I did not see that kind of attitude and behavior in arcades growing up. It may be due to unique circumstances of where I did most of my gaming growing-up, but if my experience is unique, mine was the better because of it.
Seriously, hearing LWK talking (in the gaming sexual harassment thread) about how acting like a complete asshat at the arcade was not just normal... it was practically required. How lame. If that were the case, I would have found something better to do with my time, and in doing so, i would have missed out in gaming finest era.
Like Arcademan, I grew up during the 80's and 90's during the great golden age of arcades, and did quite a bit of that gaming in a very special unique place and time: the Las Vegas Strip during it's "Family Friendly" era.
The thing is, for my above post about "X-box Live weenies" an their unbounded (and unfounded) cockiness, that's something that is new, and I associate with gaming in the 00's and 10's. I did not see that kind of attitude and behavior in arcades growing up. It may be due to unique circumstances of where I did most of my gaming growing-up, but if my experience is unique, mine was the better because of it.
Seriously, hearing LWK talking (in the gaming sexual harassment thread) about how acting like a complete asshat at the arcade was not just normal... it was practically required. How lame. If that were the case, I would have found something better to do with my time, and in doing so, i would have missed out in gaming finest era.
I agree with all of this. I grew up during the early days of the arcades and it was awesome. There were primarily 3 places that were available in my small town of 40,000, and all 3 were awesome. It's funny.. I look back now and I can't believe how many machines these places had.. just insane. The environment was great and there was no negative behavior to speak of. It was so far superior to anything the current online scene has to offer that it's not even comparable.
There isn't anything nearby that I know of, aside from Dave and Busters. I'll have to settle for my humble setup (Ms. Pac/Galaga, 1 hori, and 1 vert).
Even though I never went as much as I would have liked when it was open before, if CTF does indeed reopen I know it would make a lot of people very happy.
I wrote up some stuff on my site, you can click the link in my sig as always.
One of the things I mentioned is how a couple of places like The Next Level and Galloping Ghost are charging membership fees rather then going through the old coin drop. At both places the games are on free play and you pay to enter like a theme park. They also offer console games which is good for places that want to cater to fighting game fans when companies like Capcom won't make anymore arcade editions.
I've heard of a couple of places that have jimmyrigged timers onto games like Nintendo Playchoice systems, but isn't that kinda...not legal?
Also, I've said it before. If people acted like they do on Xbox Live/PSN in person at an arcade then they'd get the shit beat out of them. If people went into a place like Chinatown Fair and started dropping the N-Word and gay slurs they'd come out with a knife in their belly.
Even though I never went as much as I would have liked when it was open before, if CTF does indeed reopen I know it would make a lot of people very happy.
Even though I never went as much as I would have liked when it was open before, if CTF does indeed reopen I know it would make a lot of people very happy.
The year was 1985, in North Las Vegas, on Lake Meade blvd west of Civic Center, the first Chucky Cheese in town (in the old location, where the last remaining Lucky's in the Valley resides, for now...), it was a friend's birthday party...
Wow. I can still remember the taste of the pizza crust and being pissed that the ball-pit was closed because another kid had pissed in it.
I've seen the video before and while I hadn't been there in '83, I was there a few years later after it was changed over to a Pistol Pete's Pizza. A friend and co-worker of mine at another pizza place who passed away recently worked there as did his brother, who I now work with at Peter Piper. The thing I remember distinctly about the place was at the time I went there, the game room floor was terribly warped as the Centipede game was leaning against another one. I thought it odd until I saw the floor.
There's still a Chuck E. Cheese in Mesa (started as a CEC, then changed into a Showbiz Pizza, then changed back to CEC). Alas, Peter Piper bought out all the Pistol Pete's locations, changed them over and then a few months later, closed most of the former locations. The last Pistol Pete's in Metro Phoenix stayed afloat as Pepi's Pizza (my old workplace with lots of classic games including TWO Neo Geo cabinets) until we closed up 3 years ago. I miss the place.
Being an arcade junky from the 80s and 90s is a life experience that I wouldn’t want any gamer to have missed out on; I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.
I've seen the video before and while I hadn't been there in '83, I was there a few years later after it was changed over to a Pistol Pete's Pizza. A friend and co-worker of mine at another pizza place who passed away recently worked there as did his brother, who I now work with at Peter Piper. The thing I remember distinctly about the place was at the time I went there, the game room floor was terribly warped as the Centipede game was leaning against another one. I thought it odd until I saw the floor.
There's still a Chuck E. Cheese in Mesa (started as a CEC, then changed into a Showbiz Pizza, then changed back to CEC). Alas, Peter Piper bought out all the Pistol Pete's locations, changed them over and then a few months later, closed most of the former locations. The last Pistol Pete's in Metro Phoenix stayed afloat as Pepi's Pizza (my old workplace with lots of classic games including TWO Neo Geo cabinets) until we closed up 3 years ago. I miss the place.
I have always been a big fan of peter piper, i love their pizza...
growing up there was one at the end of my street actually, i never went there often to play. I think i did so about twice cause i was really bored and had some spare change.
Weird thing about it is that they had killer instcint and MK3 on the big screen but for some reason they only had it there briefly, unlike many other games.
Xmen vs Street fighter i think was there from when i was in middle school (96-99), til 08, it might have been there til 2010 i dont remember much but it was one of the last few old school fighters that remained there.
The arcade scene was def different from the early 90s late 80s for me than it is now. i was lucky enough to have made it to CTF. however on my last visit there in Winter of 2010, it felt pretty dead actually, compared to my visits in 07, by 2010 not that many players were going there, but it was still decently packed. surprisingly one of the most played games when i went there was kof 02...
Being an arcade junky from the 80s and 90s is a life experience that I wouldn’t want any gamer to have missed out on; I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.
Indeed. Nothing like going in whenever a new game came in and getting in a line to try to master it. Then during the fighting game boom going from dusk to dawn playing against everybody then finding "The Guy". That one person that knew all of the special hidden moves and would never share info with anybody. Back then it was special. You had to find out things yourself or wait till a magazine broke the news. Now anybody can get a walkthrough on GameFAQ's.
It's hard to tell younger people why it was so great going to a place to play against strangers. Now all you gotta do is have a decent internet connection to stay home and sit on your ass and pwn newbs. It sucked because I did like the few FPS arcade game attempts that came out in the late 90's. Midway's The Grid was fucking awesome, WAR from Atari was really good and if you had an arcade that was nutty enough to have a cockpit Mech Warrior display then you were awesome.
CTF was lacking because there simply wasn't enough games coming out to please that crowd. The video I took back in 07 you could see even though they haven't had a major release fighting game since Tekken 5 it was still pretty packed. I made sure to get a video because that was the week the awful Play Value "Death of The Arcades" video came out. After I watched that I told my two friends I was going to CTF that weekend and if they wanted to join me.
If you didn't get to witness the majesty of "Death of the Arcades" then be forewarned. Once you watch it, you can't un-watch it!!
Favorite gems from the video.
"How do you play a sports game in an arcade.. it's like, IMPOSSIBLE!"
Pong was based off of Ping-Pong. Played in the Olympics. Hence a sports game.
"Arcades died so we could get other games like World of Warcraft"
Umm..yeah. Fuck you.
This video was shit on so much they rushed out a "Rebirth of The Arcades" video a few months later. They only kept the people on that kinda knew what they were talking about and all of the hipster assholes were nowhere to be found.
Being an arcade junky from the 80s and 90s is a life experience that I wouldn’t want any gamer to have missed out on; I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.
QFT. Back then there were arcade machines in every bodega, comic book store and pizzeria here in Brooklyn. You could find someone to play with anytime without even leaving the neighborhood. Though I think there were shootings related to MVC2...
