Do you still go to Arcades

[ZZoMBiE13]

I'm an 80s kid. Technically a 70s kid, but we'll stick to the part that is relevant to the topic.

Anyway, I grew up as video arcades were first popping up. They were a huge part of my childhood. Playing PAC-MAN and Donkey Kong at Chuck E. Cheese was... is... among my favorite childhood memories.

That said though, there simply are no more arcades here where I live. There's a few of those big mega places like Dave And Busters in Dallas, but that's a long drive from here. Way too far to go visit regularly and way too expensive to make a habit of. And last time I was there it was mostly just Crane machines and DDR at this point anyway.

I miss the arcade fighting game days. Early 90s were the most fun arcades ever were for me. I was pretty good at Street Fighter 2 and loved challenging new players, learning new strategies, etc. Pre-internet it was a different kind of world and finding like minded people who shared your passion for gaming wasn't as easy as opening a browser window, so it also doubled as a social function.

Ahh... memories.

 

[SuperScrub]

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.

I'm sorry, but your post drove me to tears and made me happy to be a gamer. And you reminded me why I like going to Arcades.

 

[FPLOON]

I would be lying if I said I didn't... (Huh... Déjà vu...)

Well, actually it's more of a love/confused relationship... If it has DDR, Time Crisis, Arctic Thunder, Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, and/or anything Namco-related... I'm in full content... Although, the arcade version of Guitar Hero still puzzles me somehow...

I think the thing that confuses me more is that even though I still love going to arcades, I would not have the feeling of missing them when they're all gone... Then again, if parents are still taking their kids to these arcades... then, they're not going away anytime soon...

(I still miss this one arcade that was near my favorite movie theater... It was replaced with another clothing store... *sniffs*)

 

[Jason Farquhar]

well yeah but they aren't the kind of games that i want, penny pushers, teddy grabbers and ticket machines (wife loves 'em so get dragged along just to moan about it). Out of 4 arcades there is only bubble bobble and a couple of bad driving games, so i built my own and play mame and other emulators through it and the random new 2d/2.5d games that come on steam. great fun playing smash bros with my mates

 

[scorptatious]

Not really.

I mean technically, at the place I work, I go through an arcade, but I don't play there. (for obvious reasons)

Either way, I don't really play at them anymore as I can just play games at home.

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.

Sorta on topic: My brother bought the Dragon's Lair Trilogy for the Wii, and I can definitely the games' arcade like designs. Especially with Dragon's Lair 2, where there's so much happening on screen, it's easy to lose yourself and keep dying over and over. If it weren't for the on-screen prompts that came with the collection, I'm not sure how people could play the games without having to pump a whole lot of quarters back when you could only play them at arcades.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yes. Funny you should ask, I went to an arcade just yesterday. I go every time I return to my hometown, just spend a couple of bucks on Time Crisis over an hour and call it a day. It's always a fun trip. And I keep collecting these bloody coupons I have no use for. Maybe some day I'll exchange them for something.

 

[Zen Bard]

Shiiiiii...

ARE there any arcades still left?

Back in The Day, every mall had an arcade (and if you're in Dallas, that's a lot of malls!). Now, they're all gone.

I suppose there are still the "Dave & Buster's" type places. But I just don't find the cost of the game there worth the experience.

So this former Arcade Rat must sadly admit that I haven't been to an arcade in about a decade.

 

[Zeren]

I like to head to a Dave and Busters, down a few drinks, and play some air hockey and time crisis.

 

[Sealpower]

I don't think any arcades in my area survived the mid 90's... So no, I guess.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

The arcades I see are nothing like the old school hangouts I used to frequent. The atmosphere is different, the games are subpar (except if they still have a Time Crisis or Silent Scope), people don't frequent them for the games so much as they used to thinning the competitive crowd out significantly.... Also the arcades around me have pay to play types of flash games or tablet games(seriously, fucking FRUIT NINJA?) that just seem like quarter sinks... I mean yeah some older games may have been overtuned to eat quarters (sneaky Arcade owners) but for the most part they were fun. I probably paid a good $300-500 on Galaga, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong but they were fun as hell and weren't available for a couple bucks on a handheld-type system. Also as much as I like fighting games, nothing beats mastering the arcade versions where you can't change the difficulty settings and you may not know the assjack who pops in a quarter the moment you finally got to M. Bison and had him down to 1/4 health on the last bout... But you still trounced his ass because he decided to pick a character you knew inside and out having spent last month's allowance beating to a pulp over and over again.
Those days are gone. bumbum bumbum... ALL BY MYYYYY-SEEEELF...

 

[carnex]

I would just for the heck of it, but there are none here. Outside my friends 2 cabinets with PCs and MAME roms. I still prefer standup cabinet with stick and buttons over any other form of gaming.

 

[w9496]

I wish there was an arcade around me, but the Sega gameworks or whatever in Minneapolis closed over a year ago and I never got to go.

I'd enjoy arcades more if they weren't such money pits, but I guess that's kinda the point. Still, songs at the arcade Guitar Hero stalls shouldn't cost 3 dollars to play just once.

 

[stroopwafel]

I miss the arcade fighting game days. Early 90s were the most fun arcades ever were for me. I was pretty good at Street Fighter 2 and loved challenging new players, learning new strategies, etc. Pre-internet it was a different kind of world and finding like minded people who shared your passion for gaming wasn't as easy as opening a browser window, so it also doubled as a social function.

Ahh... memories.

Well said! As a kid without the infinite knowledge of the internet Arcades were a place of pure magic. One of my fondest childhood memories was discovering that Arcade cabinet of this little known game called 'Street Fighter 2'. Which ties into another one of my fondest childhood memories which was incessantly begging my parents to buy me a snes with SF2 and finally getting it for my birthday. Happiest day of my life!

 

[crazygameguy4ever]

i might if there were any in my city or county still.. there is one, but i haven't gone to check it out.. it's mostly a videogame store but it does have an arcade in it... i like home gaming more tough.. i don't' have to keep paying to play, i pay once when i buy the game and then play as much as i want.. it's better that way..