New Yorks Legendary Chinatown Fair Arcade Closing This Week

It's bullshit. The cabs aren't pretty oh no! Fuck you, they still worked impeccably. Whenever they broke down, Cen would be there within minutes to fix it. I don't know what Shou is complaining about. No one here expects that shit to be the Russian Tea Room.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shou

CTF is/was so ghetto. The cabs were in shitty condition and the place just looked like a homeless shelter. I get that it was the only place NYC really had but compare it to something like Arcade Infinity and it's like drinking wine from Target and wine from a sommelier.

Like what others have said, arcade operators doomed the US scene over a decade ago when they didn't embrace any of the operational efficiencies that the Japanese did and didn't understand the business nor how to grow it. Nowadays, not only are less games being made but even if there were new games, I'm doubting anyone is willing to consistently pay a $1 per play when you have a wealth of gaming platforms (consoles, portables, smartphones, laptops, PCs) that are comparable in experience if not better. If you think of the day to day operational costs (employees, utilities and rent) and game costs vs how much you're charging 50 cents to $1 per play and that each play is averaging 2-5 minutes, you're probably not even breaking even in a place like Manhattan.

Even in Japan where people think that the situation is different, there are very few mom and pop arcades left. The remaining ones have some kind speciality like retro games where they promote the fuck out of it (via Twitter, mixi, blogs, etc) to get patrons. Otherwise, it's the Taitos and Segas who are relying on income from print clubs, UFO catchers and trading card based games to keep income even year on year.

Neither model is viable right now. To criticize CTF and laud Japanese arcades is to completely ignore that they share the same crisis. CTF did maintain their cabs well, at least as far as function was concerned, and the American arcades have always had a kind of dank, smoke-filled sort of vibe to them, which I think is actually what the older audience that frequents arcades for fighting games wants.

CTF was never a regular arcade, they WERE more of a specialty sort of joint that catered to a crowd of hardcore fighting game fans who wanted a place to go where there were good competitors to play against. I don't think a Dave & Busters sort of joint was really their competition. But Manhattan is not really a place where it's easy to survive on that kind of a niche.

But the Japanese arcades don't have the answer. $30,000 sit-down units that cost like $2 to play aren't really the answer, especially when they can't even put $1000 of hardware into them to give them better graphics than consoles.

Guys, you weren't getting the message. I said that the Japanese arcades are screwed too but they have branched out into other means of revenue to keep afloat. Independently owned arcades are rare out here but the ones that are still around have been promoting themselves as niche better than CTF or AI have ever done. Developers go to some of these places and hold events.

PS: American cabs suck ass and are fire hazards waiting to happen.

So it looks like Chinatown Fair's return is still underway, but another arcade will emerge during its absence:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/con...n-Fair-is-Back!

(URL title still references "CF" because at first, several people which include myself actually thought Henry was trolling us and this new location was going to be CF, but it's not. Additional details of its grand opening to be revealed at a later date)

Too far.