Arcades: The Decline

[Josh]

I haven't been to a good arcade since I lived in Philly.
At the time the arcade at 16th and chestnut was the shit.
Anyone who has been knows why.

[Lordmrw]

The local DGs arcade in my area closed down years ago because of gang violence. that was the best arcade I've ever been to. Every weekend it used to be so packed there were people waiting outside to get in. now its a frickin restaurant. All the mom and pop stores in my area that used to have the newest arcade games don't even carry them anymore. Seems like the only place I play anything is Dave and Busters or the Warwick Mall. All those memories I have of going down the street to play Ninja Turtles, Street Fighter 2, or Captain America and the Avengers gone. Sad.

[supermario]

I was recently in Chile, a country in South America. And boy do they have great arcades. Every town, no matter how small or poor has one. The better off towns have multiple arcades in the center of the town. Kind of like the main meeting point of all the townsfolk. The games are all old school Capcom and SNK. I walked into one arcade that had 65% SNK cabinets. I'm talking Metal Slug 1,X,3, KOF 98,99,2000, SamSho, Art of Fighting, and numerous old school Capcom games, you know the ones with those weird helper characters from Marvel vs. Capcom 1. Pure joy.

The main reason why arcades are so big there and not here is because most of the townsfolk are poor, they cannot pay money for a home system, so they scrape up a couple of pesos and they play some arcade games. Its a hangout too for the poor kids.

Thats not the case in US.

[Shou]

I believe this topic has come up before and this is the list I made up back then:

1) Operators themselves have no idea what gamers want to play nor how to run their business. Buying $5k dedicated cabinets with crappy American monitors isn't very smart.

2) Media coverage of arcade games over the last decade has been piss poor over here.

3) The arcade culture in the States is almost non-existant. Few people will practice games at home and look for competition in the arcade. This is pretty much a consequence of point 2.

4) American cabinets are awkward and not made to swap out games easily unlike their Japanese counterparts. Not every game needs a deluxe showcase cabinet.

[kabuki]

Originally posted by Lordmrw
The local DGs arcade in my area closed down years ago because of gang violence. that was the best arcade I've ever been to. Every weekend it used to be so packed there were people waiting outside to get in. now its a frickin restaurant. All the mom and pop stores in my area that used to have the newest arcade games don't even carry them anymore. Seems like the only place I play anything is Dave and Busters or the Warwick Mall. All those memories I have of going down the street to play Ninja Turtles, Street Fighter 2, or Captain America and the Avengers gone. Sad.

The Rhode Island Mall has a small arcade upstairs, too. I never go to Tilt anymore. They don't have anything good.

One place to try is the big arcade in Newport. That's where I played DDR 4th Mix, Brave Firefighters, Metal Slug 3, and some other cool games ^_^

Does the Prov. Mall D&B have anything good ??

- Kabuki

[kabuki]

Originally posted by Sqoon

Some pinpoint price as one of the contributing factors of the death of arcade, but that's never been a real deterrent for me since all my arcades never cost more than .15 to play.

Shit, if the local arcades cost $0.15 a play I'd be there all the time. Here it's like $0.75 for a round of DDR, and like $1.00 for everything else. I can't remember how much Metal Slug 3 was... man I wanna get back and play that.
- Kabuki

[Mode7]

Well, if an arcade near me would start putting in some solid shooters it would become the Church of Mode, and both services and donations would become almost prohibitively frequent.

But there isn't much worshipping to be done at a MvC2 machine and one of those ridiculous fucking 'skateboard' cabs.

[seen]

Originally posted by 88mph
I haven't been to a good arcade since I lived in Philly.
At the time the arcade at 16th and chestnut was the shit.
Anyone who has been knows why.

Supercade is still there. It has since moved to 15th and Chestnut. It still kicks ass with games like LA Machineguns, Viper Phase One, and many Neo Geo games. One of the best arcades in Philly. The other one was Champions in the North East but they bit the dust over six years ago. Another victim of consoles and the internet.


seen

[nabeshin]

I don't think its as bad here in California. Sure the number of arcades has shrunk since I was a kid (I used to play at the Aladdin's Castle at the Huntington Beach Mall all the time, now the whole mall is dead) but the bigger arcades seem to be surviving. DDR and Capcom fighting games seem to be far and away the most popular here. I went to Southern Hills Golfland the other day and it was actually better than when I last went there 6-7 years ago. CvS2 and MvC2 machines have taken the place of SF2 variants and Mortal Kombat (never could get into it), but the prices are the same or less. KOF2k1 for .25/play? I'm there.

[PKBMax]

If you like the classics, Funspot in Wiers Beach New Hamsphire is the place to go.

Here's a list of their classic games from theirwebpage. Keep in mind they also have a lot of newer games including a bunch of fighting games, Police 911 etc....

1942
1943
720 Degrees
A.P.B.
After Burner (Moving cockpit & upright)
Alien Syndrome
Alpine Ski
Arkanoid
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Astro Fighter
Atari Basketball
Atari Football
Ataxx
Bagman
Batman
Battlezone
Bosconian
Breakout
Burgertime
Buster Bros.
Capcom Bowling
Carnival
Centipede
Champion Baseball
Championship Sprint
Cheyenne
Choplifter
Circus Charlie
Commando
Congo Bongo
Contra
Crazy Climber
Crossbow
Crowns Golf
Dark Adventure
Defender
Depthcharge
Dig Dug
Donkey Kong (cocktail & Upright)
Donkey Kong Junior (cocktail & UR)
Double Dragon
Double Dribble
Dr. Mario
Dragon Spirit
Duck Hunt
Eagle
Enduro Racer
Fax
Final Lap
Fire Truck
Food Fight
Frogger
Front Line
Galaga
Galaxian
Gauntlet
Gauntlet II
Gladiator
Gorg
Growns Golf Hawaii
Guerrilla War
Gun Smoke
Gyruss
Hang-On
Hard Drivin'
Heavy Barrel
Hogan's Alley
Ikari Warriors
Indy 4
Joust (cocktail)
Joust 2
Jungle Hunt
Kangaroo
Kick Man
Klax
Land Sea Air
LeMans
Liberator
Mania Challenge
Mappy
Marble Madness
Mario Bros.
Millipede
Missile Command
Monaco GP
Moon Patrol
Mouse Trap
Ms. Pac-Man
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf
Out Run
Pac-Man
Pac-Man Plus
Paperboy
Pengo
Playchoice 10
Pleiades
Pole Position (cockpit & upright)
Popeye (cocktail)
Punch-Out!!
Q*Bert (cocktail & upright)
Qix
Quarterback
Quartet
Race Drivin'
Rally-X
Rampage
Ring King
Road Runner
Robotron: 2084
Rolling Thunder
S.T.U.N. Runner
Satan's Hollow
Scramble
Sea Wolf
Shooting Master
Shootout
Sky Shark
Space Duel
Space Harrier
Space Invaders
Spectar
Speed Buggy
Sprint 2
Spy Hunter (cockpit & upright)
Star Wars (cockpit & upright)
Starship I
Stratovox
Super Cobra
Super Mario Bros.
Super Pac-Man (cocktail)
Super Sprint
Superman
Tag Team Wrestling
Tank II
Tapper
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tempest
Tetris
The Main Event
The Real Ghostbusters
The Simpsons
Thief
Thunderblade
Time Pilot
Track & Field
Tron
Turbo (cockpit)
Turbo
Out Run
Turkey Shoot
Tutankham
Twin Cobra
Vanguard
Vs. Golf
Vs. Tennis
Warlords
Wheels
Wheels II
Wizard of Wor
Wonder Boy
World Series Baseball
WWF Superstars
Xenophobe
Xybots
Zaxxon
Zoo Keeper