Topic: Want a good laugh? Visit your local arcade :).

[Ymeegod]

It's literally been years since I went strolling through the local mall but I had nothing to do and needed somewhere's the beat the heat (my AC needed recharging) so there I was standing in my local arcade and you know what--nothing changed :0.
 
Stratch that--instead of what was new games back then like SC4 there was replacements--OLD replacements like the orginal Soul Edge.  Took a glance around and alot of games were nearly 10+ years old now, hell some of them dated back to early 90's. 
 
Man, consoles really did kill them, I was there under an hour but there was at least 3 of us there.  One was an employee, the other was a kid that tried selling me grass--twice ;0.
 
 

[Mop it up]

There are no arcades around here.

Why would someone try to sell you grass? Do you live in an apartment and therefore have no lawn?

[Guitar Smasher]

The local arcade closed like 15 years ago.  I totally forgot it ever existed.

[UncleBob]

Some of us don't find this funny at all.

Perhaps I'm just showing my age.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Man, consoles really did kill them, I was there under an hour but there was at least 3 of us there.  One was an employee, the other was a kid that tried selling me grass--twice ;0.

Grass!? Why would he try to sell you grass? Are you trying to redo your lawn?

[ThePerm]

my friend used to work at the arcade, so i spent a shitload of time there during its downfall. The last couple of days iv been writing the arcade portion of my script, i could post an except

[broodwars]

*shrugs*

Meh, while I have some good memories in arcades and it is somewhat sad to see them gone now, I can't say that I miss them too much (at least, not when I know that I can get a better experience at home on my 360 or PS3, let alone the Wii).  As far back as I can remember, the ones I visited were always horribly outdated, overpriced, and poorly-maintained.

[S-U-P-E-R]

If consoles killed arcades, how come there are still successful arcades in Japan?
 
HUR HOW DO I RUN BUSINESS

[SixthAngel]

I always liked arcades but could never spend much time at them because they were too expensive.
I would spend 10 bucks playing Shadow over Mystaria, Die Hard, or a double dragon type game when they cost a quarter or sometimes two.

Once things like Silent Scope and the like came in I would spend about 2-3 bucks but usually nothing their because one play cost me a buck 50 and only lasted about 2 minutes.  The prices never seemed to go down either.

I haven't been to one in the US in years.  But when I did the biggest laugh was that these old ass games are still like a buck or more a piece.

[ThePerm]

super is right, Arcades are mainly mom and pop not corporate. Arcade have always relied on other companies for their product. I think for an arcade to be successful it has to have its own games exclusive to the arcade. There are still things you could only do in an arcade. Arcades dont realise that they need to be either high end or super low end to survive.

[Spak-Spang]

In Korea arcades are still the rage...but mostly filled with music games, Tekken, and a strange assortment of old school games (like Tetris.)

[Dirk Temporo]

Why would someone try to sell you grass? Do you live in an apartment and therefore have no lawn?

Grass!? Why would he try to sell you grass? Are you trying to redo your lawn?

I hate you guys...

Anyway, arcade quality depends 100% on where in the country you are, as well as what specific arcades you visit. Within an hour drive of my house, there are probably a good 6-10 arcades, not including places like Chuck E. Cheese. There are at least three on the beach(es), all of which are pretty much terrible. One of them is significantly better than the other two, but that's not saying much, since the other two are pretty much DDR and air hockey.

BUT, if you go further inland, you can hit up FunWorld. http://www.funworldnh.com/ Place looks like a castle, and it's HUGE. Three floors of stuff to do. They have games of all ages and types, and the pricing is fair, unlike a lot of places that will charge you a buck to play Area 51 or something. It's a really nice place, they have a cafe in there that is actually surprisingly reasonable in terms of price, serves things like pizza and chicken fingers.

If you go a little further afield (or you live in Boston or Rhode Island or something), then Dave and Buster's is the place to be. http://www.daveandbusters.com/

Food and games and booze, all in one place! Very affordable, half price games every Wednesday, plus they have a "meal deal" where you pay $15.99, get a meal, and a $10 game card which will last you a decent amount of time. Not a bad deal at all. Reminds me that I need to go sometime. One of my friends has a $100 game card that they gave him a few years ago when he slipped and hurt himself there.

So yeah, like I said, it really depends on where you are and what kinds of places you have in the area. Arcades aren't dead by any means, but they are endangered. However, I honestly think that arcades are coming to be back in style. Dave and Buster's is enjoying relatively recent success despite having been around since the 80s. I think that at this point, arcades need to be a "big deal" in order to drive business. It can't just be a little hole in the wall place that you go hang out at on Saturday mornings anymore. Though I do think that strategic positioning of smaller arcades could lead to a successful business venture. The problem is that there are very few arcades that are either accessible or affordable for younger kids, who were previously the main source of income for them.

[TJ Spyke]

The only arcade near me (other than the one at the amusement park) was the one in a mall and it closed several years ago. I would have gone to it more often if it had the games I wanted to play (F-Zero AX and Mario Kart Arcade GP).

Arcades are, at best, on life support (Dave and Busters is not an arcade, Chuck E. Cheese is not an arcade. That would be like saying a movie theatre is a arcade because they have a couple of machines). For the majority of the country there is maybe 1 arcade within driving distance. A big part of the reason is that almost no arcade games offer something you can't get at home. Most of the remaining arcades consist of a DDR machine (or a clone like "Dance Extreme"), air hockey machine, skee ball machines, and old arcade games like Time Crisis 3 and NFL Blitz.

[Ian Sane]

For me arcades are a part of my youth that cannot be recreated in the present.  Yeah, they have new games in Japan but they're all gimmick games with lightguns, instruments, etc.  In my youth arcades were full of very conventional games that just used a joystick and buttons.  You didn't go there to just play novelty games, you went there to play videogames period.

I think a big loss of the appeal was that prices went way up and finding a game for even 50 cents now can be hard.  Back in the day your parents could give you a buck and you could play four games.  I know about inflation but a quarter is a better impulse buy.  And the price increase has been much more significant than it was for other things.  These days if I find an arcade the price of one game is comparible to that of a chocolate bar.  There was no way when I was a kid I could buy a chocolate for a quarter.  I'm looking at two things that competed for my money when I was a kid and they have not increased in price at a comparable ratio.

The other big draw was that a lot of games were arcade exclusive or the home versions were so inferior they might as hell have been.  Eventually we started getting arcade perfect ports or home versions with more features than the arcade.  And now with Guitar Hero even the novelty controller games are not exclusive to the arcades.

Plus we have portables now so we can play on the go.  As a kid I liked to play arcade games on the ferry to Vancouver Island or to kill time while my Mom shopped.  These days you bust out the DS.

So now I am to go to the arcade to pay like a buck A PLAY for games I can probably find used for $20 and play as much as I would like?  What is the draw?  To play with friends?  Yeah, I can do that at home.  There is no point to it any more.

I suspect the continued success of arcades in a Japan is a cultural thing.  We hear that living space is a luxury there and that's why portables are more popular than consoles and that would suggest why an arcade would be a popular way to play games with your friends since it would have lots of space.

Though for me I think part of it is being an adult.  Kids have low attention spans and an arcade was a good way to entertain yourself when you're waiting around for your parents as they do "grown-up stuff".  Now I'm either doing "grown-up stuff" or I just honestly am not so easily bored.  I also liked how arcades were an escape from my parents.  My friends and I used to ride our bikes to a videostore with some arcade games during the summer.  Again that isn't really applicable as an adult.   And I figure that this current generation of kids just has something different to take the place of what arcades were in my life.  Maybe it's DS's or cellphones or whatever.  But it's a different world with different kids.

[BranDonk Kong]

The only arcades around here are in amusement parks.

[Stratos]

Though for me I think part of it is being an adult.  Kids have low attention spans and an arcade was a good way to entertain yourself when you're waiting around for your parents as they do "grown-up stuff".  Now I'm either doing "grown-up stuff" or I just honestly am not so easily bored.  I also liked how arcades were an escape from my parents.  My friends and I used to ride our bikes to a videostore with some arcade games during the summer.  Again that isn't really applicable as an adult.   And I figure that this current generation of kids just has something different to take the place of what arcades were in my life.  Maybe it's DS's or cellphones or whatever.  But it's a different world with different kids.

This is probably the biggest thing. But it's kinda funny that as an adult I finally have cash to spend on arcades that I didn't have as a kid and don't want to spend it there often now. I'll dump it on a DDR machine if I happen to see a hole-in-the-wall arcade at the bowling alley but I never go out with the intent of playing in an arcade.

[ThePerm]

i went into Gameworks in phoenix, and it was a shell of its former self. I remember going to gameworks and thinking "this place if fucking awesome, best arcade ever!!!!", now i walk in and its empty and there just a bunch of claw machines.

Arcades now are over priced, thieir games also do not illustrate that they are demonstratively more powerful than their home cousins. Games at arcades need to kick you in the face. They should have the power of 9 PS3s, you should be able to walk in and yell "holy ****!", and then wonder if your actually dead and that this is heaven. I joke about a lot of game ideas with friends, but they are a long ways off from ever being possible on consoles, these are the types of games that should be in arcades.

Also, they need to lower their fucking prices, the keys to addiction is to have your product be easily accessible, one the price is too high its much easier to quit.
If i can get 9 addict paying a quarter every couple minutes rather than one rich bastard paying a dollar every couple of minutes then iv done my job.

[ThePerm]

oh also
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=7322.msg551081#msg551081

and ah jeez..it sucks reading my repetative posts

[S-U-P-E-R]

Well, here's what I think - it's not really an issue of arcades "competing" with consoles so much as gross industry-wide mismanagement. There are plenty of other hugely successful businesses that offer goods/services that you can enjoy in your own home for much, much less (movies, coffee, restaurants, whatever). Why should arcades be any different? What I'm saying here is that game centers ought be run like a Starbucks or Regal Cinema instead of a greasy pit from the 80s.

The existing business models for arcades are literally insane - it would cost something like 15 grand for a new Tekken 6 machine (when it came out) at a motherfucking NAMCO arcade, and all too often the management of said arcade would just let the conditions of machines go to **** due to a lack of manpower, money, or just plain negligence (usually the negligence). Does a normal business run like this? Awwwww hellllllll nawwwww.

Now, check this out - look at the actual cost of assembling an arcade game (non-development costs). Maybe like $500 in innards, $1k tops for a nice screen, and I dunno about the wood/metal cabinet itself but I'm guessing not more than several hundred. Then a few more hundred to crate and ship it. We're looking at like $2500 max unless you have some crazy motion sensing vr **** going on.

My point I'm getting to is that good arcade games move console game sales - I've seen people literally play DDR, Soul Calibur, Initial D, etc, just once and walk down to GameStop or its Japanese equivalent and buy it immediately. This is where the revenue is - game companies can make big money here by pushing console version sales instead of point-of-purchase money from arcades/arcade distributors. What better advert than an awesome arcade game? Do you think DDR would have sold BAZILLIONS if there weren't arcade machines around? And all those great fighting games? A business model like this, maybe where games are licensed to arcades rather than sold and are subject to quality inspections (like movie theater screens!) could make a big bucks for game companies (from console version sales), a bigger margin for arcades (less risk in machine investments), and more enticing for gamers (lower prices, higher quality - **** broken sticks all the time).

AVAILABLE FOR YOUR HOME IN 1995, ONLY ON NINTENDO ULTRA 64

[ThePerm]

i miss Sega , thats one of the biggest reasons the arcade industry died. Sega is also a shell of its former self. They were the mother fucking aracde masters!

[Ymeegod]

I always wondered why arcades just didn't adopt the consoles?  Alot of bars have consoles hooked up, not sure if it's legal but I would think publishers would want exposure to a wider market.   Instead of charging per play, charge a flat hourly rate, also give out lunch passes (meaning 20-30 minutes passes especially at a mall where there's plenty of workers).  It would be like an internet caff but with games. 

Used to met fellow gamers at the good ole acrades, along with a few ex's too , but in my area (hell within 2 hrs drive) it's non-existing.  I do plan on heading to the coast where there's arcades along the boardwalk but alot of them just had those "tickets" types of games and maybe a little DDR. 

Also, the arcades in Japan are declining as well.  Buddy of mine went over and stated that alot of them are going more into those gambling type of games (something with marbles or metal balls that's extremely popular over there).

[that Baby guy]

There was something like that here in Gainesville, with both consoles and PCs.  People would do some heavy LAN gaming and they'd host tournaments every once in a while, but ultimately, they failed and moved along.  I think they were pretty expensive, but the one time I went for a Melee tournament, all the PC stations looked to be just about booked, so it's hard to say.

They actually sold some of JonK's artwork, of Starmen.net fame, too.  That was probably the coolest part, along with meeting JonK in person.

[ThePerm]

Arcades should have their own version of consoles. A souped up console, all they have to do is buy games for it that include whatever input device.
Monitors should all be interchangeable. Instead of having painted cabinets, the banner to the unit should be changeable too. That way if a new game comes out they can switch it out. Also, if i owned an arcade I would put like 5 redboxes in there with different genres of movies. Arcade = passive money making business.

I've thought about starting my own arcade before, but it wouldn't be just an arcade, it would be an arcade/video store/mini theater/coin star

Also, i heard red-boxes will soon include video game rentals..so thats pretty tight

I might not even use redbox though, id probably want to use my own version so they don't get a cut.

[broodwars]

Also, i heard red-boxes will soon include video game rentals..so thats pretty tight

I might not even use redbox though, id probably want to use my own version so they don't get a cut.

Actually, some states (like Florida, where I live) already have them in a few locations, including one right across the street from my workplace for fairly obvious reasons.  It's $2 a night for what's quite honestly an extremely limited selection of games I really don't care about.  It could be a cool idea, but it needs to be wider spread and have a better selection.  I'm not all that thrilled in the "$2 a night" aspect, either, considering it takes far longer to go through a game than it does a movie.

[ThePerm]

yeah, cheap is the key. Thats why id want to use my own version of redbox, i could make my movies 88 cents a night. Im thinking the in between of redbox and blockbuster, where theres a box, but you need a membership, but you dont have to deal with people, and when your movies get turned in you don't get late fees because some silly employee didn't scan your movie. Lots of stuff you can automate, but its better to have employees working in case the machine doesn't dispense your movie. The biggest problem with places like blockbuster is shelf space. There is way more variety in netflix/video stores than a redbox. This can be solved by having like 5 redboxes. Normally a redbox has several genres, but this limits the variety inside of a redbox, Focus on one genre and you can do two things: Create variety, create convenience of smaller lines. You would definitely make money from there if your arcade isn't.

[Stratos]

I always wondered why arcades just didn't adopt the consoles?  Alot of bars have consoles hooked up, not sure if it's legal but I would think publishers would want exposure to a wider market.   Instead of charging per play, charge a flat hourly rate, also give out lunch passes (meaning 20-30 minutes passes especially at a mall where there's plenty of workers).  It would be like an internet caff but with games. 

I've seen several gaming/internet/lan cafes where they have several 360s set up with big screens. They do exactly what you describe. There is one in Bonney Lake I've discovered called GameBreakerz. They also sell games, service computers and have a DDR machine and several pool tables. I've tried to buy some games from them but they are pretty slim on the Wii side of things.

[S-U-P-E-R]

Did you guys see that Taito is bringing a game-on-demand system to arcades in Japan?

I'm the world's leading game industry clairvoyant/megamind

[Halbred]

We used to have an incredible arcade/pool hall here in Anchorage until somebody got shot and the place closed down. The building is still abandoned. This arcade had dozens of machines, old, new, you name it. Bubble Bobble, Tetris, Bust-a-Move, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, Aliens, Turtles in Time, and tons of others. It had things like Ski-Ball, too.
 
It was called the Space Station, and it is deeply missed.

[Stratos]

How did someone getting shot close the place down? Or was it the owner who got shot and there was no one who could take over?

[Halbred]

I don't know the whole story. I suspect it wasn't the first bad thing to happen there, as the Space Station was in a (at the time) seedy area of town.

[Chozo Ghost]

I think the really shocking thing here is that the arcade was still open at all. The one at my local mall went out of business many years ago... I believe I may still have some tokens laying around somewhere.

You say there was only three people there. How can the arcade stay afloat with so few customers?

[Sundoulos]

I still see them every once in a while.   We have one at one of our local malls that has managed to stay afloat.  It consists entirely of old fighting games, light gun games, a few racers, and a DDR-type game that takes up a lot of floorspace.   

The only time I've really gone in there was to try the Mario Kart GP arcade unit; I wasn't impressed.