The death of the Arcade:

[Scarpozzi]

Dave and Busters and GamePlay type places should stay in business. I mean, you can't beat going to a place that has beer AND cool games in it.

 

[Shadowknight]

Originally posted by: jread

Originally posted by: Shadowknight"Kancho"

Would this be a "work-safe" google search or no?
It's work safe, on seanbaby at least. I'll PM you the link in a sec.

 

[NissanGurl]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
Dave and Busters and GamePlay type places should stay in business. I mean, you can't beat going to a place that has beer AND cool games in it.

I certainly hope D&B they stay in business long enough for me to make it down to the one near Atlanta. Never been and always REALLY wanted to go.

 

[UTmtnbiker]

The only time I go to an arcade nowadays is hmmmmmmmmm, never. There's a nickelcade (all games a nickel, you pay a $3 admission charge) close to my house and about once every 5 years I stop by and play when a cousin comes in to town. Always nice to see the 30-somethings in an arcade.

Between my PC and the Xbox, there's no strong desire to go, especially with online play.

 

[Night Blade]

Man, I grew up in arcades, really hate to see them go. Here in Toronto there's one large one left on Yonge & Dundas (Funland), other than that I don't see them anywhere other than in the theater's.

Used to hit Funland on a daily basis while working around the area from '90-'95, SF2/SF3/KOF series & Slam Masters were my fav for years, knew all the good players & made some really good friends there, seems like a really long time ago now.

Last time I went to one was a couple years back with the wife for some fun & memories, place was half empty but I got a few games in before I left, not the same that's for sure.

 

[RadioHead84]

I still goto the arcade..but only for DDR and ill play the occasional racing game along with Time Crisis.

The arcade at the mall here is packed all the time...a lot of people play there...a lot of DDR too.

Goto Japan..Arcades are still huge over there. I remember when I was in like 4th grade there and my dad took me to an arcade ran by sony i believe...it was called Joyopolous..oh man..it was like three stories near the water and it was awesome.

 

[Fritzo]

My memories of the arcade are hot sweaty places that sold $5 slices of pizza and had drug dealers hitting at you while playing Asteroids, then worrying about your bike getting stolen while you were inside.

 

[jread]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
My memories of the arcade are hot sweaty places that sold $5 slices of pizza and had drug dealers hitting at you while playing Asteroids, then worrying about your bike getting stolen while you were inside.

Sounds more like a community-wide problem than just the arcade.

 

[rivan]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Personally, though, I don't think any video game will ever compete with a really good pinball machine.

QFT.

I spent countless hours as a kid (I'm 32) playing pinball. I lived in a little town that still had an old time soda fountain in a drugstore, and they had a few very old pinball machines. One was all mechanical, played baseball - very fun.

To this day, my favorite's the Addams Family pinball. Sadly, they all seem to be in pretty pathetic shape... most of the time there's at least one ramp that doesn't work.

 

[meltdown75]

holy sh1t, pinball games rocked.

the Dr. Who pinball game... wow. all your quarters are belong to us.

 

[Matthias99]

You know, they should do what NeoGeo did and create an MVS system for current systems where people can play each other at a cabinet in that social setting... but for only like a quarter.

I've actually thought about ways to make something like this work as a business model, but I doubt you could get adequate licensing from Nintendo/Sony/MS (or they'd want a fortune for it). Basically, something like an internet cafe (well, more like those places where you can rent time on a LAN kitted out with high-end PCs), but with all the latest consoles and big-screen HDTVs/projectors. A big problem would be that most of your target market already *has* a game console at home, so I'm not sure what the draw would be.

I used to go to a video arcade all the time when I was a kid in my town, and sometimes my dad would take me to Golfland in Sunnyvale (which is still there, but I'm not sure what state the arcade is in -- they had a HUGE one back in the 80s, one of the first places to have SF2 tournaments). Mostly now they make me depressed -- anything but the latest fighting game is usually poorly maintained (broken pinball machines in particular just make me want to cry).

The ones at Hampton Beach are particularly depressing -- they have a ton of old machines (one arcade has an original vector graphics Asteroids!), but they're all slowly dying because they barely keep them functional. Makes me want to start a "classic coin-op arcade cabinet rescue" organization or something.

 

[Kev]

have you ever been to dave and buster's?

they have all the huge experience arcade games, which is the only way to go now.

 

[meltdown75]

Maybe some of you guys live in / near Ohio...

The arcade @ Cedar Point is amazing. Last time I went, they still had a lot of vintage arcade games from the 70s & 80s & 90s.

This was a few years ago. I'm actually curious if they still have that stuff.

 

[ktehmok]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
Maybe some of you guys live in / near Ohio...

The arcade @ Cedar Point is amazing. Last time I went, they still had a lot of vintage arcade games from the 70s & 80s & 90s.

This was a few years ago. I'm actually curious if they still have that stuff.

Cedar Point FTW!

My dad used to yell at me "Damnit, we didn't come all this way to play video games! You could have done this at home!"

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: ktehmok

Originally posted by: meltdown75
Maybe some of you guys live in / near Ohio...

The arcade @ Cedar Point is amazing. Last time I went, they still had a lot of vintage arcade games from the 70s & 80s & 90s.

This was a few years ago. I'm actually curious if they still have that stuff.

Cedar Point FTW!

My dad used to yell at me "Damnit, we didn't come all this way to play video games! You could have done this at home!"

LMAO sounds like my SO when we were there. beautiful sunny day, 80F or so... and i'm inside mashing buttons. <video game noises> "pew! pew pew!!"

 

[RagingBITCH]

Arcades started to die off years ago. I remember when the local mall shut down the arcade and I was shocked, b/c I had spent countless quarters kicking people's asses in MK2/MK3 and SF2.

 

[PastaPete]

after they went from mostly a quarter & fifty cents to $.75+ i stopped going. Must have been about a year after SFII came out. There was a great place outside of Ft. Lauderdale, FL called Grand Prix, was pretty sweet, few floors of arcade games, go karts, minigolf... wonder if its still around. When i went there I think I'd spend more time at the carnival games which captured my interest more than some of the lame games like Revolution (the aerosmith game) ... i was always one to play the XMEN and Simpsons arcade game.... and once in a while beating a lot of kids at SF or MK... eye rocked at those.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: jread

Originally posted by: Fritzo
My memories of the arcade are hot sweaty places that sold $5 slices of pizza and had drug dealers hitting at you while playing Asteroids, then worrying about your bike getting stolen while you were inside.

Sounds more like a community-wide problem than just the arcade.

No, not really. Arcades just drew these kinds of people. We had one right next to a Sears dept store, and they had to close because the punks that hung out there kept breaking in.