Arcades: The Decline

[Josh]

Originally posted by seen
Supercade is still there ... One of the best arcades in Philly.

Nice.

I used to go to the art institute, which was practically next door. Can you guess where I spent all my class breaks?

[Shou]

IF you're in the STL area, we have these up for quarter play at a local import shop:

Alien vs. Predator
Crazy Cross 2
Galaga 88
Gradius IV
The Last Blade 2
Metal Slug 2 (rotating between all of them except for 4 :P)
Pop'n Bounce
Puzzled
Salamander 2
Sengoku 3
Strikers 1945 Plus
Twinkle Star Sprites

[Lordmrw]

Originally posted by kabuki

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

Haven't been in there in a while, but they had a pretty decent selection of arcade games.Last time I was there, they had Ferrari F-355, Confidential mission, Brave Firefighters, Samurai Showdown 4, 8-linked Daytona cabinets, 4-linked Hydro Thunder cabinets, and others. My cousin works the door, so I honestly don't know what's stopping me. Out of curiousity, how old are you?

[bloodyarts]

Well, this post is for the New Yorkers..

There were three main arcades in NYC circa early/mid-80's through 1993; the huge arcade on 42nd & Broadway (the Broadway Arcade), the arcade in 34th Street Penn Station, and another (very small) arcade on, oops, forgot the street, but I know it was also in a subway. It's the one where I first played Cliffhanger.

Anyway, when I was younger and frequenting these arcades, they were the highlights of my days. I remember having to plan and save up for these special trips to Manhattan to play games. It was truly an experience. I couldn't be happier when I got my first job in Manhattan. All day until lunch I dreamed of going to the arcade, and after lunch through 5:00pm, my mind was always on gaming.

I'll never forget how Sega captured my fancy with Golden Axe and Alien Storm. I remember being floored by Eight-Man and the G.I. Joe videogame. I remember laughing out loud as I watched Konami's Simpson's game, and alternately being pissed at Konami's X-Men game ("Laser Claws?! Juggernaut carrying a GUN?!). And I remember spending several dollars on Forgotten Worlds, Toobin', and Robotron 2084. I remember nearly breaking the damn machine on Track & Field, setting the hi-score in Moon Patrol and Gyruss, fearing for my life in Sinistron and even getting into a real fight over Pit-Fighter (true story). Finally, I remember as I stared, mouth agape, at the most incredible videogame I had ever seen before that time, Virtual On. And repeating that same loss of feeling and hold on reality as I witnessed for the first time Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram in an arcade in College Point, Queens, which still remains but it somewhat... sucky.

Ah yes, I remember that distinctive smell and presence these arcades had (especially the Penn Station arcade. Nothing beats the smell of subway rot, marijuana, tobacco and Musk during the after-work hours). They were always the hotspot of the block. As famous as Times Square was, the Arcade was the biggest, brightest and most crowded place in the area, consistently for years until it disappeared in 1993. It was the last of the arcades to disappear from Manhattan (there was a sign on the door that read "Come see us at our new location, [blank, blank] New Jersey!). Yeah, I'm gonna travel all the way to Jersey now. Don't hold your breath.

Nowadays, there are a few options in which to satiate my arcade hunger, but I just don't have the urge I used to have. It used to be such that any arcade I went to would have the newest games, as well as the best of the old. But now, it's like switch and bait. If any new game comes in, another one has to go. Arc-Darwinism is what I call it. It's easier to make the decision NOT to go to the arcades, and that saddens me somewhat. And to the casual gamer, the decision is even easier; there's no need to spend money in arcades when every game will be on PS2 soon anyway (as my brother so eloquently put it).

How I long for the days of yore, when going to the arcade was an experience of wonderment, and not an ego-battling chore or an exercise in criticism.

[MechDeus]

MajinRyu: I also get nervous when fighting people in games I've never fought before. My hands get kind of shaky, and if it's something like 3S, I usually can't parry at first. Something I definately need to get over...

However, it's kind of interesting reading all of this (what you feel are the pros and cons of arcades), and it rather pertains to me. Currently, me and a friend are looking into area locations and what our finances will be for opening a small videogame store/arcade. The current arcade games lineup we're looking at are Jamma shooters (specifically those I've been after for a while, ESP RaDe and DoDon, plus some yet-to-be-determined ones), and are looking at what fighting games we want to start with (I'd really like a Project Justice unit, though Rival Schools would dirt cheap). We've been looking at older games due to cost, but once we figure out our finances, we'll probably start looking at newer games for starting off.

Exciting!

[gameoverDude]

Ugh... MvC2. That game is an utter abomination. If I came into ownership of the GameWorks near me, that board would be coming out of there. In would go a Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.

What else would I add? A couple of Ultracade units (1 credit per game) and...
ESPRaDe (1 credit)
Guwange (1 credit)
Raiden Fighters 2 & Jet (1 credit each)
Ikaruga, G-Stream, and DoDonPachi Dai-ou-jou (2 credits each)

There'd also be a Neo-Geo machine set for 2 credits with Metal Slug 3, Garou, KOF2001, and MS4. Another Neo machine would have Blazing Star for 1 cred.

Last but not least, there'd be Knights of Valor: Nine Dragons for a shot of much needed side-scrolling fighting action (1 credit).

Shou-Sama... Good selection. I sure wish I was a little closer to it.

Originally posted by 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.

[Rick]

Something is telling me that the arrival of the Triforce will rekindle the flame of arcades. Just a gut instinct that the combined powers of Nintendo, Sega, and Capcom will give enough fuel to make arcades booming again.

I think every person on this board really needs ot meet all up together at some arcade somwhere. I just realized how funny and cool that would be to have hundreds of hardcore gamer geeks browsing through an arcade criticizing this and waiting in line to play that all at the same time. I would find it amusing, thats for sure.

[Luke]

Originally posted by Rick
Something is telling me that the arrival of the Triforce will rekindle the flame of arcades. Just a gut instinct that the combined powers of Nintendo, Sega, and Capcom will give enough fuel to make arcades booming again.

I think every person on this board really needs ot meet all up together at some arcade somwhere. I just realized how funny and cool that would be to have hundreds of hardcore gamer geeks browsing through an arcade criticizing this and waiting in line to play that all at the same time. I would find it amusing, thats for sure.

There should be a yearly tnl vacation week get-together.

[LittleEric]

I think a huge part of the decline was the invention of the fighting game.

couldnt dissagree more.

infact, i think the fighting game is one of the things keeping arcades alive here, and throughout the world. its the only thing keeping me and my friends going to arcades anyway. everything else you can get at home, but if you want to get good competition, arcades are it. thats how i think of the console/arcade relationship now :
console's are for practicing, arcades are for showing your shit and winning tournaments.

i also think that arcades have a big impact on a game's success .. for example DOA games never really hit off here big time, and coincidentally you cant find them in arcades. now its just a hunch, but i'd say that if you could find DOA2/3 in arcades as much as a tekken, or street fighter, then the series would be way bigger. people would actually have a reason to practice and perfect their technique, to play strangers and locals and crush them. its what we fighting game fans live for.

its also why a lot of people that are really into fighting games only play the mainstream ones, IE: MVC2, MVS2, T4, VF4, and SC. why play any other fighters ? those are the games people are playing, so those are the games to practice. im not saying the others arent good, but no one wants to master a game thats not going to offer any challengers when you stop by the arcade. whats the point ?

about arcades around the world, in a lot of the match videos ive downloaded of Tekken and soul calibur from the Korean players, ive seen their arcades are set up with rows of two back to back twin linked monitors and for every one monitor is one joystick and one set of buttons. strange set up, would probably be more costly to have two monitors for every 1 game, but if you see the people in the background of those arcades, they seem to be thriving.

friends and i've been toying with the idea of starting up an arcade for quite some time, as there is absolutely no decent one in DE (besides some shit in Dover and at a movie theatre). the only one we did have got turned into a, of all things, hot topic.

if we did we'd run it like this :
-your standard classics but also the new popular games (DDR, etc)
-interactive games, for family and kids (skeeball, basketball, things like that)
-all the major fighting games
-shooting and racing games filling it out

-we'd have an on the spot technician (and i use that term losely, it doesnt take a genious to change a button or stick when it breaks) who would immediately fix any cabinet that was giving someone trouble. ive been to arcades run like this and they get a very good reputation with fans of the games, because they know the machines will always be top notch.

-we'd have tournaments weekly. this is the real secret to making money at an arcade. advertise your ass off, get it to be a known thing, post on all the major forums and message boards telling people when a tourney is coming up. rotate the games so that each game will have a tournament every month and a half or so as to not oversaturate, but different games all the time so atleast once every week or two there's atleast one tournament. you can seriusly rake in the dough with this, and when your arcade starts to get a reputation for its tournaments, and more quality players start frequenting, thats just going to draw more players to challenge them and so on and so on.

-oh, and keep it clean. i know people (myself included) remember the dank, hole in the wall, smoke filled musty arcades of our youth, but if i was going to start a serious business here, i'd want lots of people coming, and no one's going to want to come to a trashy looking dump of an establishment.

[Johnny Undaunted]

I think there are several factors that led to the demise of the Arcade scene in both, America and Japan. Back during the 1980s and early 90s, the hardware used in most Arcade games were way more advanced than the technology featured in home consoles like the NES or the even the Genesis. In most cases, for better or worse, Arcade games were completely altered when they were ported to home systems. The Arcades was still the place to go if you wanted to play the original Double Dragon or Shadow Dancer the way they were meant to be. Even the Super NES had problems handling Arcade ports, as evident by it's version of Final Fight that the omissions of one of the main character, the 2-Player Co-Op feature and a whole level. And the PlayStation had problems handling all of Capcom's 2D fighting games, but that was mainly attributed to lack of RAM than anything else. Nowadays, technology has reached to the point where a 1,000$+ Arcade machine can be emulated by a mere 300$ game console.

Secondly, the over-exploitation of the fighting genre is also to blame. Before Street Fighter, there were several genres and sub-genres that dominated the Arcade. From Rambo-esque shooting games like Contra and Commando to beat-em-ups like Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to platform games like Strider and Wonderboy, shoot-em-ups like Gradius and R-Type and even puzzle games like Bubble Bobble. After Stree Fighter II became a runaway success, everyone wanted a piece of the action, including Capcom themselves. Fatal Fury would had been SNK's first and last fighting game for the Neo-Geo hasn't been for Street Fighter's success and Yu Suzuki probably wouldn't have even bothered making Virtua Fighter. Afterwards, every game in the Arcades was a fighting game and if it wasn't that, then it would be either, a light gun game or a racing game and suddenly variety was gone from the Arcades. The Beatmania fad didn't really help either.