The General Purpose Arcade Thread.

[Fe 26]

Is there a list of arcades in the US? Maybe something I can filter by state or machine?

[gameoverDude]

I wish the CPS III had a larger library more than just vs. fighters. Instead of a legit Final Fight sequel we have that Revenge 3D kusoge fighter. on ST-V & Saturn. Sure would've been nice to see one of Capcom's STG franchises get an installment on this system.

Taito F3 was better off than CPS III. It did have a better spectrum of genres (fighting, platformer, shmup, sports, puzzle, and block-breaker) across three dozen titles. Admittedly, one knock is that the cartridges for the Package System mother board are about the size of a PS1 console.

[Yoshi]

Darius Gaiden is better than the CPSIII by itself, but the F3 is pretty weak too overall. All of the multicart boards had a gem or two, but really the MVS, CPS2, and Naomi are the only ones with relatively large and diverse lineups.

Completely changing topics, I found the new Mario Kart in 4-player form in the wild yesterday. I wish Nintendo would let Namco port those instead of the blue shell bullshit we get instead. I guess I'll just have to buy a cabinet after I move and can fit it.

[Melf]

I'm finishing up a new book on the history of Sega's arcade business! It's in the same format as my other one, but this one covers 62 arcade games in depth, including some stories that have never been told before. I got to speak to some great people, including the former CEO of Sega Enterprises USA and the daughter of one of Sega's founders! I found researching this book to be a lot of fun, since I got to go through years of old RePlay, Play Meter, Cash Box and other magazines. It was interesting to read about games when they were new. I also got a lot of info from previously Japanese-only sources that I had translated.

Writing it, and reading a recent article about how the death of CRT monitors will affect arcade restorations, makes me kind of sad at the state of arcades today. While on vacation, I went to a place in San Antonio called America's Incredible Pizza Company, which was pretty cool but lacked that classic arcade atmosphere entirely. My kids don't understand what it was like, no matter how I try to explain it. I guess it was something you just had to "be there" for.

[Fe 26]

Eh that is everything. You have to read a lot and have a good sense of empathy to understand anything in the past.

Like 100 years ago, wives would buy certain brands of soap to get free decorations for their house. Little gold tin angels and kids playing ball on cards and shit.

That would be pretty hard to explain to a kid, but I think you all have enough empathy and life experience to imagine it.

Anyway, how do kids understand any tech from our childhoods? The entire system has become omnipresent. How would a kid get that it used to be segmented? Like you had to go to an arcade for games. Then you had to spend lawldollars for pong and later home systems. That it was all about long stretches of no new games? Long stretches of no new game info? Having to deal with having no one to talk to about games?

This shit is literally in the damn air now. Sonic is always out there. And for 99 cents he can be yours. Always. Every second of every day.

It's like if jesus came and having to explain jesus to children afterword. "Well we had to go church. And read the bible. Like he was here but you couldn't see him."

[gameoverDude]

Darius Gaiden is better than the CPSIII by itself, but the F3 is pretty weak too overall. All of the multicart boards had a gem or two, but really the MVS, CPS2, and Naomi are the only ones with relatively large and diverse lineups.

Completely changing topics, I found the new Mario Kart in 4-player form in the wild yesterday. I wish Nintendo would let Namco port those instead of the blue shell bullshit we get instead. I guess I'll just have to buy a cabinet after I move and can fit it.

I wish Nintendo would follow Sega's example and be a 3rd party software maker. Mostly so they would have the more powerful XOX & PS4 Pro to play with, rather than being hampered once again by a lower end hardware configuration. Switch may be decent as a portable, but it's a gen behind current consoles. Mario Kart Arcade GP DX runs on System ES3 (like Tekken 7 & Time Crisis 5). I think Switch might not be able to handle a 1:1 version of MKAGPDX.

[Fe 26]

Who even cares. How pumped does a system have to be to run smash brothers and mario party doki doki panic extreme?

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Nintendo going third party would be their death. Is that what you want?

[kedawa]

They would sell more games and no systems.
Not sure how that math plays out.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

They'd sell more games with higher development costs and a lower percentage of the sale price going back to them.
By maintaining their own hardware, they are the biggest fish in their little pond. They go third party and they are a small fish in a very large pond.
Remember when everyone was clamoring for them to put Mario on cell phone? All the billions they'd make? How'd that turn out for them.