There are NO more video arcades!

[AaronP]

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.

 

[Urinal Mint]

*sniff*

I miss the Aladdin's Castle back home... I miss spending hours in there playing Mappy, Crystal Castles, Galaga, Speed Ms. Pac-man, etc.

I agree, arcades have gone the way of the dodo bird. There's an Old Navy where the Aladdin's Castle used to be at the mall back home. Hopefully they'll make a comeback in another form someday, maybe when people get burned out on consoles and such. I think as a society we're becoming more introverted, what with the ability to "hide" the internet and gaming consoles affords us in the privacy of our homes. It's all cyclical, I hope. I sure do miss those days in the arcades.

 

[Rent]

The arcades that exist now are merely a shadow of what was available 7 or 8 years ago. The remaining ones around here are all selling their machines to get out while the can.

Its really a shift of developers. They don't want to develop a arcade box because as you said, PC and Console gaming is now at a point where they're on par if not better than any arcade box ever produced.

 

[Looney]

That's because we're older and we don't pay as close attention to one when we see one, so we're not as likely to remember. If anything, they've gotten bigger. Little arcades that use to have 50 machines or so, now consists of arcades with 500+ machines, virtual reality rides, and instead of sticking quarters in, you buy a pass.

They're still around, we just don't get as excited seeing them nowadays so we're not as likely to remember them.

 

[Homer_Simpson]

Here at UT austin, there're 2 arcades that have all the latest games and they only cost 1 quarter each. It's awesome.

Homer

 

[Killbat]

I think even if big arcade businesses go, we'll still have businesses with arcades on the side for a long time to come. You can find a handful of new machines at movie theaters, for example, and the bowling alley near my house has some classics, including a Neo Geo machine. Metal Slug, anyone?

 

[Urinal Mint]

Ah, Austin

Too bad there aren't enough Nicklerama arcades here in Dallas... closest one is a half hour away. $3 cover charge, and ALL the machines play on *nickles*!! Brand new games too, not trash like Super Defender Man 4.

 

[AaronP]

well moral, it's not just that I'm getting older, sure there may still be some big mega arcades around in certain places, but MANY arcades have went out of business, and today's kids are NOT really going to the ones that are left.

Before the last arcade closed down, I would stop in there once in awhile, and almost all of the people in there were over 20 like me.

 

[tkim]

plenty in los angeles....some are in the hood though....kinda scary at night..

 

[Demon-Xanth]

SF2 style games have actually brought back some arcades. Check out www.shoryuken.com

 

[Rent]

Man the nearest Nickelrama place to me is Garland and I hate driving all the way out there when the games are like 3 or 4 nickesl a piece and a 5 dollar cover. Otherwise almost all arcades in Plano are gone and the only REAL big one here in DFW is Gameworks at Grapvine Mills which is a nasty drive also.

 

[Banana]

Hey Homer S. (of UT Austin):

Are Le Fun and Einstein's Arcade still open? How about the Student Union's "Available Fun?" I have fond (I guess) memories of wasting so much time at Le Fun. Smelly little place!

Are there arcades that are NOT smelly?

I think I spent more time watching than playing--too broke to waste my money in addition to my time!

Did you know that the government of Singapore BANNED video arcades due to their evil influence on kids? LOL

1YP

 

[goshdarnindie]

It's funny, I just noticed that the other day. Our local Diversion's is gone. I didn't frequent that often, but its weird to see it gone.

One thing that hasn't been brought up is changing demographics. Most neighborhoods age. The place where you grew up no longer holds the same number of kids. Their all your parents age. Once you put your folks and their neighbors in a retirement home, the house can be sold for cheap since you will just want to get it off your hands, and go to some young new family with four kids. Then the cycle begins again.

The only place I play arcade games now is Dave & Busters, maybe GameWorks and ChuckyCheese! About two months ago I rented a dozen machines for an event. Now that was awesome! We easily would have spent $5000 on quarters that day if we had actually paid for the games instead of renting them for $3000.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

What you say !!

There's a HUGE arcade in Seattle and a good on over here at Seaside beach.

 

[Johnlee]

Haha! Cool topic!

I usta love the arcades of the 80s. Star Castle, Lunar Lander, Punch-Out, Spy-Hunter, Galaga, 720. There was a killer one in Westwood right near the UCLA campus (don't know if it's still there or not.) We usta get chitfaced and walk around westwood, munch out cookies at the BB Reese or whateverthehell that 25 cent cookie place was and then play games for hours.

There is still a cool arcade with some oldskewl games in Pasadena on Colorado. It was called Pac-Man but they are remodeling so they may be changing their name.

There is one of those mega arcades, with a raceway outside in La Puente and get this...IT HAS A FREAKIN BAR IN THE MIDDLE OF IT! I'm talking full bar, with hard liqour and all. My friends and I go there once in awhile. Big fun.

There usta be another pretty cool arcade in LA across the street from the city college.

My all-time favorite was when I was a munchkin, it was in Monterey Park and it was called "Pirate's Cove" Man, that place was so schweeet. It was designed to look like a huge cave with all these caverns and around each turn there was another game.

There is a super-weak, crappy@ss arcade just a few blocks from my place, but I've only forced myself to go once. It totally sucked.

 

[vryce]

1YellowPeril

Einstein's and LeFun are the ones that he's talking about (I assume). I haven't been into LeFun in years, just because I thought the quality was going down FAST, and that it smelled too bad. Plus all the drag worms hang out in/around LeFun. Einstein's is still excellent, and the one in Dobie is actually pretty good too. They had enough money to change locations to an upstairs room rather than their old first floor spot- and they still have a few of the latest games. I don't remember what the Dobie arcade is called now- I think they changed management recently. Oh yeah- the Union still has their arcade, but the machines are always broken, and cost 50 cents to play. So.. I guess that would make 4 arcades, maybe 3.5 .

I really do miss playing Spy Hunter and old-school Street Fighter II though... I was one of those guys that people would get into fights over for combo moves in SF2.

 

[Emos]

Heh...I remember a LOT of my allowance and summer job money going down the throat of those quarter munchers! My "gateway" games were Galaxian, GORF and the venerable Space Invaders. Later I moved on to SpyHunter, Xevious and Gauntlet. Then there was an small arcade in the student lobby of my university...it was hard trying to decide between beer or SF2!

 

[Qman71]

There was an arcade in every mall that I weant to as a kid, now I wouldn't even know where to find one.

 

[JohnnyKnoxville]

Speaking of arcades,do kids still play pinball machines???
That's what we used to play all the time just because their weren't too many video games in the late 70's early 80's

 

[Double Trouble]

Meeeeeeemories..... meeeemories

Gorf.... if you played that one, no matter how many years ago, the robotic voice saying "you have been promoted to spaaaaaace captain" will be engrained in your head.

Ah yes, Austin, my old stompin' grounds. I used to live in Dobie... It was a pretty nice place back then, but from what I hear it's pretty trashy now. The arcade was always fun, not to mention playing volleyball on the second floor terrace -- the ball always goes over the railing, and the bus drivers try to kill it

 

[AkumaX]

arcades... still go to them!

so many different type of 'video games' to play now. no longer the simple shoot'em up or the 1 on 1 fighting ( i like playing Tekken Tag )

now its all about DDR PPP DMX KBM IIDX CM2 GF DM <~~~ if you understood all of these... SCARY.

im talking about interactive video games, like Dance Dance Revolution ( Dance Simulation ) and Beatmania ( DJ Simulation )

probably just a fad

 

[vryce]

Mmm... Dobie. I was there from 96-98. Nice place, especially the girls.

Now it is pretty trashy. Totally different type of folk now- even only after a few years.

DDR- now that's a cool game. Too bad I haven't found a DDR machine in Austin yet.

 

[brtspears2]

I dont like video arcades. All my local arcades get scary at nite for some reason.


Plus, I dont know where these kids get money for smokes and arcade games. Sheesh! They seem to be there all day.

 

[purplecow]

Arcades rule.

 

[kamiam]

yup unfortunately the arcade games are going the way of the pinball...sure you can still find them, but they certainly not as prolific as they were in the 70's and 80's like I remember.just as video games just about killed the pinball games, the consoles and PC's aredoing it to video games and arcade places, I used to spend hours at the arcades in the 70's and 80's and I was teenager back then!!but those of you who have said they still exist are right...just not in the #'s from my past. Here in Ca. we have &quot;Scandia fun parks&quot; big arcades w/ mini golf...I truely hope they stick around. if the pinball games can stick it out(they still manufacture them, just not nearly as much) then these big &quot;parks&quot; can hopefully survive also. I see it as sorta like drive-ins not very many left but you can still find them I have a drive in 25 mi from my house and I still sometimes go there. Thanks for letting me reminesce