Ok, there's still some, but this is just in general.
When I was a wee lad, there were 4 fairly large video arcades in my town (~15 years ago). Games cost a quarter, except AFTER BURNER which was an astounding 50 cents, and the arcade was a fun place to bike over too and drop a couple bucks.
I remember playing Discus Tron, After Burner, WWF Superstars, Superman, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and my personal all time favorite arcade game, GOLDEN AXE!
Nowadays, with the ultra powerful home consoles and PC's, the graphical edge that arcades had is almost gone. There are no games that are a quarter anymore, most of them are a dollar or more!
In their rush to change the experience and give gamers something unique that they can't get at home, arcades are building huge racing machines, and elaborate games that cost an arm and a leg.
It isn't working however, because arcades, which were are massive part of 80's culture, are now just a faded memory. My town with 4 arcades (one of which caused a real life brawl between about 15 people over combo move that an asian kid did in Street Fighter 2) now has none. The last arcade closed down last week.
So, what are your thoughts on this, was it just the final completion of an evolutionary shift from video arcades to home consoles that did the arcades in, or was it management and marketing mistakes on the arcade industry's part, or was it something else.
The modern home consoles are great, and the next gen will be even better, but they can NOT reproduce the social experience of the arcade.
When I was a wee lad, there were 4 fairly large video arcades in my town (~15 years ago). Games cost a quarter, except AFTER BURNER which was an astounding 50 cents, and the arcade was a fun place to bike over too and drop a couple bucks.
I remember playing Discus Tron, After Burner, WWF Superstars, Superman, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and my personal all time favorite arcade game, GOLDEN AXE!
Nowadays, with the ultra powerful home consoles and PC's, the graphical edge that arcades had is almost gone. There are no games that are a quarter anymore, most of them are a dollar or more!
In their rush to change the experience and give gamers something unique that they can't get at home, arcades are building huge racing machines, and elaborate games that cost an arm and a leg.
It isn't working however, because arcades, which were are massive part of 80's culture, are now just a faded memory. My town with 4 arcades (one of which caused a real life brawl between about 15 people over combo move that an asian kid did in Street Fighter 2) now has none. The last arcade closed down last week.
So, what are your thoughts on this, was it just the final completion of an evolutionary shift from video arcades to home consoles that did the arcades in, or was it management and marketing mistakes on the arcade industry's part, or was it something else.
The modern home consoles are great, and the next gen will be even better, but they can NOT reproduce the social experience of the arcade.