Attack of the Arcade!

[Akas]

Heh, I'm lucky to have lived in the three states with probably the biggest arcade scenes (California, Texas, and New York). I've worked for an arcade, spent the night there, made great friends and memories. Up until now I could understand why consoles/PCs were taking over the arcades, but now that the states are in a recession, I feel like perhaps arcades might make a resurgence (considering how relatively cheap they are for the entertainment they bring). Anyways, a list of the "major arcades" in those states:

California: Family fun arcade. It's the West Coast favorite, the arcade that Japanese gamers LOVE (and they know a little something about arcades ). I think there might be 2 locations, I'm not sure

Texas: Planet Zero in Houston (an eclectic, Chuck E. Cheese type except for manga-fied teenagers, hardcore gamers, and stuff

Arcade UFO in Austin (my friend owns this arcade, it's GREAT, and the crowd is wonderful). I spent my college years at Einstein's (it's predecessor), and the ENTIRE crowd has moved here.

New York: Chinatown Fair in NYC. Need I say more?

Well I can see where there is a bigger population of people, the bigger the arcades, but in smaller cities like Indianapolis the biggest "arcade" we got is basically the arcade games outside of the movie theater.

To me, it just seems like the mass populous has moved from wasting change at the arcade to playing with the box at home, removing the social aspect of gaming. The way we game now without arcades seems pretty... I dunno isolated and anti-social, don't you think?

Well, I'm not going to argue that point. For home video game systems, even if you have on-line access, you don't get the same sort of camraderie as you would in arcades. But here's the flip side: having worked at an arcade (and been friends with the boss of two of them), there's one thing that made it hard to compete with home consoles. New video games on consoles come out on a monthly basis, but unless you're a HUGE arcade, you're lucky to have new video games every year or two. Unless you really have the cream of the crop (i.e. games that everyone loves playing over and over), you're going to have to work for a crowd.

The best solution for arcades, ironically, was thought up by Konami (who passed the idea on). The thing that arcades need most, probably? Rhythm games. DDR, depending on the city's crowd, usually is a solid performer (top five/ten if well maintained). In The Groove, a harder knockoff, was the main reason that a lot of people came to the arcade (mainly because you could hack it to put in custom songs). I think Activision was thinking about putting out a "GH:WT" arcade machine (which would be GREAT and draw in a fair amount of people), and other companies are putting in effort to bring rhythm games to the arcade (Pentavision, PM studios, Konami (again), and for a while the guys that did EZ2DJ).

Fighters are cult classics, but they're wildly reliant on what's popular and not newbie friendly.
Rail shooters always make a ton of cash, but they appeal to one-time players (i.e. people who play once or twice, not that much)
Racers are fun, but quality control/maintainence is hard and people ALWAYS screw up with the coin slots.
Puzzle games are also necessary, but don't garner much cash/require much attention.
Rhythm games are great, because if you have a vending machine it'll give sales a spike (usually).

 

[xitel]

I know exactly what you mean. The only arcade I know of is a combo arcade and restaurant, and the "arcade" is pretty much just skeball. I remember hearing about someone that actually took their arcade and just started calling it a museum, and started charging admission to make up for what the games couldn't cover. Yes, it was still an operational arcade, just with an admission fee. And welcome!

Thats harsh. But I still love arcade games, right now me and my dad and saving up to buy an original Donkey Kong game to stick in the living room, and bug the crap out of everyone with.

Just don't buy a pinball machine. I hate those things.

 

[Eternal_Rapture]

You guys need to look up a little restaurant type chain called Dave and Busters. I don't know how many there are, but there's a few here on the East Cost. It's essentially Big Restaurant + Big Sports Bar + Big Fucking Arcade + some other cool stuff depending on your location. I love going there and playing Time Crisis or the various other shooters. It's pretty much a birthday tradition in my family. Good times.

O I think there is one around where I live, partly because of all the commercials on TV. But Ive have yet to go cause in my mind, a place that has arcade fun and goodness, doesn't have good food.

Wrong! D&B has great food. The place isn't just an arcade. Arcades don't have wetbars. Atleast not the ones that I remember.

Hmm now I'm intrigued, I'll have to check that out then.

 

[Eternal_Rapture]

I know exactly what you mean. The only arcade I know of is a combo arcade and restaurant, and the "arcade" is pretty much just skeball. I remember hearing about someone that actually took their arcade and just started calling it a museum, and started charging admission to make up for what the games couldn't cover. Yes, it was still an operational arcade, just with an admission fee. And welcome!

Thats harsh. But I still love arcade games, right now me and my dad and saving up to buy an original Donkey Kong game to stick in the living room, and bug the crap out of everyone with.

Just don't buy a pinball machine. I hate those things.

And I wont. I really don't like them either, I don't truly see how there fun. And if I'm really ever in the mood to play pin ball, there is one on my computer.

 

[DirkGently]

You guys need to look up a little restaurant type chain called Dave and Busters. I don't know how many there are, but there's a few here on the East Cost. It's essentially Big Restaurant + Big Sports Bar + Big Fucking Arcade + some other cool stuff depending on your location. I love going there and playing Time Crisis or the various other shooters. It's pretty much a birthday tradition in my family. Good times.

O I think there is one around where I live, partly because of all the commercials on TV. But Ive have yet to go cause in my mind, a place that has arcade fun and goodness, doesn't have good food.

Wrong! D&B has great food. The place isn't just an arcade. Arcades don't have wetbars. Atleast not the ones that I remember.

Hmm now I'm intrigued, I'll have to check that out then.

Don't forget your wallet. Place ain't cheap, but it sure is awesome. Also, you have to use their fake card system thing, so I'd recommend going to the restaurant first as you can pay a bit extra and get a dinner + card with points ($10 or $15). If you like the place, hold on to the card. Not only do they charge you to get one (like two bucks), but after it's had so many credits used on it you get a discount on all the games. (albeit, it's a few hundred bucks worth of playing, but if you happen to have a nearby one, it's all good).

 

[strizzuth]

Philly's best arcade was Gameworks. It had two DDR machines which always drew in a regular following. They also managed to keep up to date with fighting games. I remember they had SVC Chaos when it was still new, and I enjoyed being the only one of my friends who knew anything about how to play as the SNK characters. Unfortunately they closed down a few years ago and the only arcade near me (aside from Dave & Buster's) is a tiny one in a mall. It woulda been fairly decent considering its size in the '90s, but now it just seems kind of sad. There's only about 3 games that seem like they'd have any draw and I've never seen it get crowded. Considering the popularity of Guitar Hero it seems strange that there isn't an arcade version. If anything could actually revive arcades it would be a hot property with large peripherals like that. DDR gave arcades something of a last hurrah since it was huge, easily enjoyable by new players, and hard to fairly replicate at home. Plus, with the really good players, it was actually fun to watch them try to break the record. Eventually I guess people got tired of that and saw it as more of a gimmick than anything and the crowds just dried up.

In Japan arcades are still alive and well thanks to the realization that these gimmicks would actually draw in crowds. Apparently there's some sort of hybrid arcade game/CCG that's big over there but I have yet to get in touch with my friend who was there to see it for further info. Sega's Initial D series is also very big there since it's both based on a popular anime series and provides the player with a way to save data to a card. You'd think more manufacturers would be doing that since it's nothing new (Neo-Geo anyone?) but it's apparently quite the novelty. Apparently Europe is toying with the idea of integrating video games into movie theaters [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/26/technology/26games.html?_r=1] but I couldn't tell you if this will be a lasting thing.

Personally speaking, I've felt the decline of arcades since sometime around 1997. That's when you could tell, at least here, that it just wasn't the same. Popular fighting games like Street Fighter 3 could be sitting around completely empty whereas before you would see huge crowds huddled around them. Owners weren't keeping up with the newest games as well as they used to, so relics like T2: The Arcade Game would be taking up lots of floor space. This had its charm to anyone who liked retro games, but no arcade game can stay active for that long and be in usable condition. The screen burn on the Ms. Pac-Man machine at my local Jolly Time was so bad it was nearly unplayable, and the player 1 A button on the Neo-Geo there was completely unresponsive. Sure, there was X-Men vs. Street Fighter, but as soon as you started playing you could be sure some veteran would run up and start using his 99-hit combo just as you were still figuring out how to play the game. It's this environment that, in my mind, made people really stop wanting to come. Sure, you had the most hardcore of the hardcore, but there weren't enough of them to keep the place in business, and the casual goers wouldn't spend enough time or money there. There was a middle demographic that was just not showing up. The late '90s/early '00s rhythm game boom didn't last long enough either.

It's possible that they could make a comeback, but one thing that's gonna have to change is the price. When the first 50 cent arcade games came out, the only reason people were willing to pay the premium was because the games were wildly popular. Street Fighter II drew people in. However, it then became common to price every game that way. That's not too bad, but then came the games with the dollar slots attached. Mad Dog McCree was the first one I remember seeing like that. When you price a game that high, you damn well better make sure it's something people will want to play. With the economy in that shape it's in, people aren't going to be willing to pay $2 just to play 3 songs on Guitar Hero when they've already got the game at home. Bringing the price down will bring back the less hardcore crowd and make the more casual crowd stay longer and be more likely to return. However, I don't think that's likely considering the justification for the pricing is that the hardware is so expensive.