Do you still go to Arcades

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SuperScrub

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May 3, 2012
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Hi there Escapist community, recently I've been going through an Arcade phase and I've been spending a lot of time in Arcades reliving my childhood playing Light Gun Games and getting ripped off at Stacker and I got say, It was fun. But with consoles and PCs dominating the gaming market and Arcades going out of business left and right it's becoming harder to indulge in my new hobby as frequently as I would like. So here is my question to you. Do you still go to Arcades, if so what are your favorite cabinets and do you think Arcades have a modern place in Gaming, and if so how can Arcades still stay modern?
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Jun 21, 2009
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No, mostly because the kind of games arcades offer either don't interest me or I can get them somewhere else with the added benefit of not having to put in more money each time I want to play.

And even if I wanted to play at an arcade, I pretty much can't anymore. They're non-existent around here.
 

Rooster893

Mwee bwee bwee.
Feb 4, 2009
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Only if I have money to play the games I want to. Usually I only have about 50 cents, and the games I would like to play are usually a dollar or more. That, and the closest arcade I have is in a movie theater about 30 miles from my house that I only ever rarely go to.
 

Username Redacted

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Dec 29, 2010
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piinyouri said:
I probably would if there were any arcades even remotely near here.
This. Where there any non-Dave and Busters arcades near me I'd be there in a heartbeat. Sadly I'm not driving from Maryland to New Jersey just to scratch that particular itch. The last arcade near me got replaced by a nail salon ~15 years ago. It was a dark day.
 

SuperScrub

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May 3, 2012
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ThingWhatSqueaks said:
piinyouri said:
I probably would if there were any arcades even remotely near here.
This. Where there any non-Dave and Busters arcades near me I'd be there in a heartbeat. Sadly I'm not driving from Maryland to New Jersey just to scratch that particular itch. The last arcade near me got replaced by a nail salon ~15 years ago. It was a dark day.
Ouch, the only arcade near you in your state is replaced by a nail salon that's just cold and unfortunate.
 

Foolery

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Jun 5, 2013
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Yep. But only when I go to the movies. There's a small theatre in the next town over. About a 45 minute to an hour drive. It has 25 cent machines. I prefer the older theatres, just for that, and no 3D.
 

sextus the crazy

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Oct 15, 2011
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Nope. Nothing I really wanna play and none nearby. Hell, playing on consoles for me is akin to going to the arcade.
 

rofltehcat

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Jul 24, 2009
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They were never that popular over here and I don't really have the urge to visit one. There is probably one around 20 km away... probably combined with a gambling/sports bar but most of those places are pretty shady..
 

Nokturos

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Nov 17, 2009
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I've never been to one, since I've lived out in the country most of my life, and I'm not going to start now.
 

AnthrSolidSnake

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Jun 2, 2011
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Everytime I see one, which is unfortunately quite rare. We still have a small one in our mall, which used to be an Aladdin's Castle, but got replaced by the...Family..Fun Zone. Stupid ass name, but it uses all the exact same machines that came with the place. I guess it was to appeal to families more? I don't know. It's rarely used. I see people all the time say "I can get a better experience at home", but that's stupid. You may get a more relaxed experience at home, but it's nowhere near the same thing. A good arcade is filled with people who have the same passion as you do, video games. There's the opportunity of high scores, and there's no amount of home motion sensors that can match the accuracy of a good light gun game.

Unless you spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, you won't get the same experience of driving games that have the bass and rumble, force feedback, and sometimes multiple screens.

As cheap as the stuff is, earning those tickets and trading in for that cheap prize is a memory of hopefully having a good time, knowing you earned it.

Unfortunately, no one cares anymore. They're all lazy or just don't make time (sometimes they just can't). It upsets me greatly to see even good arcades just go. Consoles were at one point the greatest competition, and their goal to surpass arcades has succeeded. Everyone says they're too expensive, that it takes dollars just to get anywhere. Well sure, if you're bad at it. The point is to see how far you can make your dollar go. If you get better, you won't need to pay for extra lives or plays. I've gotten through over half of Time Crisis 3 on two plays.
 

gorfias

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May 13, 2009
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There's a Funspot in Laconia NH USA that I'll likely visit soon. 100 coins for $20, and each game, like pong, is one coin a piece. But it is only for the nostalgia rush. Playing Alice, Madness Returns on PC is from 2011 and more gorgeous than we could have thought when Space Invaders came out.
 

Brutal Peanut

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Oct 15, 2010
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The only arcade that we had around here was at the mall, right by the entrance. It's closed now. It was a FOX racing brand store and the last time I checked that was turned into a Anime/Video Game Toy Store with plushies, posters, etc. I haven't been there for a while to see what it is now. You might manage to find a cabinet or two in the bowling alley, but we don't have anymore arcades.
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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Not anymore, think i stopped going to arcades right around the release of the first Playstation. It just became unnecessary when I can play games that look just about as good at home while allowing me to actually own the game.

Thankfully, consoles made arcades rather pointless.
 

hazabaza1

Want Skyrim. Want. Do want.
Nov 26, 2008
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Psssh, fuck no. Most of the games there are shitty money grabbers, and I have a massive amount of choice in actually good games I can play right at my house.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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No and I lived in coastal town where they have a four of them (maybe five if I include the cinema aswell)!

The only time I do go them is when my cousins are in town as they do like playing the games with the tickets as reward.

Even then the majority of those arcade are those gambling sort of game and the actually games they have are lame (Guitar Heroes, few racing games and Rambo and Terminator Salvation FPS).
 

The Rogue Wolf

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A Dave & Buster's finally opened near me last month, and you can bet that I was there not long after. I was kind of disappointed, though; the selection of games wasn't as good as I'd hoped (I love playing light-gun games in arcades, but lately they're just crap, especially the "Aliens" and "Terminator: Salvation" ones). Still, it was great to indulge my inner arcade rat once more.

AnthrSolidSnake said:
I've gotten through over half of Time Crisis 3 on two plays.
I got through one and a half levels of House of the Dead 4 going guns akimbo. Now that was fun.