Gaming Arcades are almost gone....

[Qman1]

[I][COLOR=Purple][FONT=Trebuchet MS]Remember when arcades were EVERYTHING a kid (or adult) could ask for? I remember going to the mall, JUST for the arcade. Everyone knows that arcades were a gold mine. How much money did you usually spend at one? $100? $200?

Well, its 2005 and arcades dont have that touch anymore. With home consoles in your living room, arcades are almost gone. Every once in a while, you'll see at least 10 or 20 people at one...but that'll be all. What happened? As Ive stated before, consoles have dominated since the early 80s and EXPLODED with the 90s....and now on the horizon, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendos Revolution, will literally change the way we play games.

So, without furthur ado, we shall say "farewell" to arcades in the next few years. :( [/FONT][/COLOR][/I]

[Art Master]

I don't see why we have to get ride of them. I still like them and if I see one I'll go in.So what if we have new things like PSP's or X-box 360.I say save the arcades and keep the new things coming.Lets have both. :D

Art Master

[Brasil]

The thread starter obviously has never been to the Jersey Shore.

'nuff said.

[FataL 1]

I don't know if arcades have fallen off cuz I haven't been to one in years. I only go there for the air hockey and watch all these kids play DDR for hours.

[Qman1]

[QUOTE=Art Master]I don't see why we have to get ride of them. I still like them and if I see one I'll go in.So what if we have new things like PSP's or X-box 360.I say save the arcades and keep the new things coming.Lets have both. :D

Art Master[/QUOTE]


They'll be gone sooner or later (cuz technology keeps getting better and better)

[Art Master]

I know we will advance in our technology but I love the cran game at the arcades and all the other games.So sad to say good bye. :(

Art Master

[HellsAngel14]

I've noticed that. I use to go to arcade every day after school when I was little. I would spend about 200 dollers in quarters every month.^^ Its kind of sad to see arcades fade away as we progress into new games and concels. It kind of makes ya wanna cry. :animecry:

[Morpheus]

I don't go to many arcades, but I am one kickass crane game player. I won a Homer, a bear, and a frog on $2(4 tries) yesterday at Wal-Mart. I won 9 things on about $20 at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in May.

[BasouKazuma]

I would be more interested in Arcade games if they made a more advanced Virtual On type game where you basically have an entire cockpit to go along with the game and more complex controls. Sorta like Steel Battalion except with more of a feel for the environment and an upgraded control system.

Just talking about this makes me want to go out and actually try Steel Battalion out, if only it weren't so dammed expensive.

[Sage Kaley]

I still like arcades, great memories of when I was little. Sitting there, playing air hockey with my dad, cheating on some games by crawling up onto them and getting away with it cause I was just a kid...

Ah but yeah they are fading away. It is a bit sad, I had a lot of fun with my senior class at the arcade on our class trip. I really just like the arcade feel...I even like those stupid prizes you can get. I think I'm one of few though who enjoys wasting her money on them still...(at least around here)

But I won't deny how much I spend on (and plan on spending) console games.

[Guest DemonWoman]

The last real arcade I remember around where I am, was at the local mall....and I'm pretty sure it's a clothing store now. About the only arcades I can think of, are part of something bigger more as a side attraction like at indoor batting cages, or children's restaurants. I don't know what's in arcades now, but I remember playing Crusin' USA at an arcade, then later buying it for the N64. I'm guessing it's something like that which is killing them now. Why go to an arcade, when you can buy your favourite game for your console, and play whenever you want?

[Mitch]

DDR is [i]the[/i] arcade game for me. It's true to say that while arcades aren't as active as they once were here at the states, they still exist and aren't as gone as the thread starter seems to think. With games like DDR, arcades have more life in them than you might think.

[Tatsubei Yagyu]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=Navy]The only reason I haven't been to arcades is cuz the one I always went to was closed in place of a flower shop... A FREAKIN' FLOWER SHOP!!! So you mean to tell me that a flower shop is more profitable and appleasing to the crowd than and arcade? What kind of world do we live in... :huh:

I really miss arcades... I remember playing Gauntlet, and I was having trouble with a giant dragon boss. But out of no where, without me noticing, a wizard appear and smited the bastard with his magic. I looked at the guy who saved me, realized we were in the same class at school, and we were best friends ever since. You can't do that online, can you... :shifty:

Didn't think so. :animesigh

I miss arcades... I'm going to see if my friends want to go to one soon.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[DeadSeraphim]

[COLOR=Indigo][SIZE=1][FONT=Arial]When home consoles have anything remotely comparable to a stand alone light gun booth, then I will stop visiting arcades*. Till then I'll keep going.

*Yes I know there's console lightgun games, but they're hardly as fun as their arcade counterparts[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Korey]

[QUOTE=Qman1][I][COLOR=Purple][FONT=Trebuchet MS]Remember when arcades were EVERYTHING a kid (or adult) could ask for? I remember going to the mall, JUST for the arcade. Everyone knows that arcades were a gold mine. How much money did you usually spend at one? $100? $200?

Well, its 2005 and arcades dont have that touch anymore. With home consoles in your living room, arcades are almost gone. Every once in a while, you'll see at least 10 or 20 people at one...but that'll be all. What happened? As Ive stated before, consoles have dominated since the early 80s and EXPLODED with the 90s....and now on the horizon, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendos Revolution, will literally change the way we play games.

So, without furthur ado, we shall say "farewell" to arcades in the next few years. :( [/FONT][/COLOR][/I][/QUOTE]

i[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]m sorry Qman, i must respectfully disagree with you. while the amount of people in the arcades has diminished, the spirit of going to the arcade is still there. for example, to me it is much more fun to play DDR in an arcade than at my house with my lousy soft pad. plus if you are good at the game that you are at, the amount of respect that you get is quite pleasing. so even though you might be in an arcade with a slightly less amount of people, the feeling is still there.

on a different note, i like the direction the gaming world is going. with online games, you can play with people around the world, and you are not limited to the local people in the arcade and the occasional tournament. if you look at some of the top players in the arcade business (espcially with fighting games) you would see that some of the country's best players are duking it out in the online arena. such great players have noticed that the trends are starting to change, and they are adapting to it. anyways arcades still do make a ton of money. my local arcade generates over 8000 bucks a month, so they still are going on strong. if you look at today's generation of gamers, you would see that more people are leaning towards the console type of gaming. look at it this way, can you play games like god of war or doom3 at an arcade?

yours truly
Korey[/COLOR]

[OtakuSennen]

The arcade in my mall is quite active, now that I think about it. It has a great variety of games (DDR, Soul Calibur II, Silent Scope, a dozen oldschool 2D fighters and beat-em-ups, Time Crisis, etc), and it is considered to be the best place in the mall by many.

There's a good sense of community around the place, too. Most of it centers around the Dance Dance Revolution machine- If you go there Friday night you'll see over twenty people huddled around the machine, and though they're not all playing competitively or even watching the people playing, they all met through DDR, and I've met some pretty cool people through that process. I suppose the other big one is Soul Calibur II, but that's only the reclusive metalheads who seem to virtually [i]live in the mall.[/i]

Another good arcade I've been to (for games themselves, not community from what I've seen) is Gameworks in Las Vegas. It's this huge, multi-story arcade with almost any game you could possibly imagine.. I went to town last time I was there. It's a part of a chain, apparently, so there's more of them all across the country.

So, at least in my experience, arcades are far from dead. They may not be in their "glory years" anymore, but they're still out there. You just need to know where to look, I guess.

[Goodbye, Face]

(Siren's right about basically anywhere on the east coast's boardwalks.)

However, I agree that arcades are diminishing. Actually, they have been for years. Every arcade in my general area has been closed. New ones try to come in, but they don't get enough profit to buy any real machines, in fact, an arcade/laser tag place just opened across the street from my neighborhood. Their newest game is frickin' Tekken 3.

I've met a lot of cool people at arcades, two of them have become two of my closest friends. I met one playing DDR and one playing Soul Calibur II, actually, they're the ones that got me into competitions.

I've found that the best, most reliable arcades in my area are the Putt-Putt chain. I used to go there for SCII and Tekken 5 tournaments, but moved to DDR with a group of friends. We actually go there about every two weeks.

[BlueYoshi]

[color=darkred]There aren't any decent arcades around where I live, just one or two bowling alleys that have a DDR platform each. They're usually empty, but that's only because the competitive gaming scene where I live is completely dry, however, that doesn't go to say that arcades are dying.

In Europe, arcades are still extremely active. But, they aren't filled with people who go there to play Crisis Zone or House of the Dead, they go there mostly and specifically for the fighting games, i.e: Tekken 5, Tekken Tag, SCII, Virtua Fighter, and the massive variety of Street Fighter games. Rather than play these games at home on console, they'd rather create a community gathering in which an unlimited number of players can attend. Consoles are used in private parties, where just a few players would be invited to one's home so as they, and only they, can play together, because after all arcades are public places.

It's not just down to the players who regularly attend arcades to keep them alive, though. The arcade managers are also in charge of promoting the venues, by organising tournaments and putting up special offers in order to keep them coming back, though it's usually the quality of the platforms (sticks, buttons, screens, etc.) that decides this.

But, as I said, arcades are more like community gatherings; it depends on what game you want to play and whether there's a community for it in which you can compete with, or simply enough just play with.[/color]

[Dr. Mario]

Where I'm from (Miami, FL) we don't have many arcades. We only have Flippers and Gameworks. Arcades I suppose are dying from lack of people coming in. But I dont really think that.

[Syk3]

It's really hard for me to say how arcades are doing on a usual basis because, unfortunately for me, there aren't any arcades anywhere near where I live. You might say that this is a product of deminishing popularity, but really, my town sucks *** about choosing good stores/shops/etc. to set up. Just recently we got a GameStop about 10 minutes away, and that's likely the first video game shop to pop up within [i]45 minutes[/i] of where I live.

Having said that, on the rare occasion that I do go to an arcade, I get all giddy and excited over one simple game: DDR. If the arcade doesn't have a DDR machine, a tend to just brush off the arcade and leave, but that's coming from a DDR freak, haha. The thing about a lot of games in the arcade is that they are available on home consoles with no quarter slots or limited lives, and if you don't go to arcades often anyway, you don't have to worry about losing your money because you might suck at a game and are just warming up to it. What the machines have to do, therefore, is present a very unique and rewarding experience that you simply can't get at home, and DDR does that better than any other game I know, mainly because it's first and foremost an arcade game. Of course, it helps to own the home version as well, because otherwise you're spending all that money to improve your skill when you could do it at home and have something to give back to the crowd if you end up getting one. :p

Anyway.. to get back to the initial question, I'm probably not the best person to ask. I never got really into arcades when I was younger, don't go to arcades that often, and even now go mainly for DDR. But I will say that a unique experience is what they will have to keep in mind when competing with a game you can play infinitely without quarters and unlimited lives, and some just don't seem to cut it.

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='OtakuSennen']Another good arcade I've been to (for games themselves, not community from what I've seen) is Gameworks in Las Vegas. It's this huge, multi-story arcade with almost any game you could possibly imagine.. I went to town last time I was there. It's a part of a chain, apparently, so there's more of them all across the country.[/quote]

I've been there, it's pretty nice. And, yes, Gameworks is a chain. There's a Gameworks in the mall near my home, which, sadly, is one of the very few arcades even remotely near me. There's not much in most arcades that appeals to me anymore, though. At least not from what seems to be most popular. I'm not that big into fighters, I don't play DDR or racers very often at all, and I don't usually stick with light gun games for very long. I personally prefer the older arcade games (Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, etc.), sports games (Virtua Tennis, Virtua Soccer, NBA Jam), and the action-games/shooters (Metal Slug, Smash TV, and the tons of great scrolling shooters that have come out in arcades).

The shooters I especially love; there is [i]nothing[/i] I have more fun with in an arcade than a really good, action-packed shooter. Luckily the arcade at my school is good for all of the genres I enjoy. I wish there was a place nearer to my home that was a better arcade, but I guess you can't be too picky when it comes to these things. :)

[Qman1]

[quote name='Mitch]DDR is [i]the[/i'] arcade game for me. It's true to say that while arcades aren't as active as they once were here at the states, they still exist and aren't as gone as the thread starter seems to think. With games like DDR, arcades have more life in them than you might think.[/quote]


I wasnt neglecting the fact that arcades are still alve elsewhere, I just meant that here in the U.S, they are almost gone.

I know over in Japan, arcades are ALWAYS open. (and DDR is one of the MAIN arcade games that they play over there in the land of the rising sun)

[Final Remix]

[COLOR=Blue][FONT=Comic Sans MS][QUOTE=Siren]The thread starter obviously has never been to the Jersey Shore.

'nuff said.[/QUOTE]

**holds up Dave&Buster card worth more than 500$ in tickets/credits and the like**

That's the ultimate place to go. They have the good old [U]House of the Dead1[/U], and [U]Tokyo Xtreme Racer[/U]. The bowling alley near me (jersey..so it's 20 minutes drive) has DDR in a back room. Now, granted you may say "back room, wtf?" but the thing you gotta think about is that they have the speakers turned all the way up. It's a beautiful thing. They even have the Simpson's Arcade Game, and Ms. Pac Man. There's supposedly one at a not-so-local mall (hour-and-20 drive) that is the same, but has no high scores set as of yet on the DDR machine(the mall's dead, but the machine's pristine). Arcades are definitely dwindling, but if you look, you can find a few that're in perfect working order. So how's that for a slice of fried gold? :animesmil

[B]@ Syk3 :[/B] My town sucks about what gets picked, too. There's one good thing about that, though. Rapid-succession clearance/liquidation sales of things. Also, near where I work at a semi-local mall, there's a Gamestop [i]in[/i] the mall, one across the street in a strip-mall, and another [i]one block[/i] away. The reason for this is that technically, they're in three separate towns, right on the borders. It's fun in this area. According to the township, the road I've lived on all my life has never existed. :animeswea [/FONT][/COLOR]

[ChemAngel]

actually, I'm lucky enough to be in a big city. Apparently, we still have alot of arcades. The thing is that they are being converted into arcade/bar/pool area.

We have two main ones. one is called "daves and buster" and this arcade is more for adults (you can't enter unless you are 21 or accompanied by someone over 25 years old).

The other one is "gameworks" and it is a true arcade. They have playing cards so you can play all the games you one in an hour if you want also. Just this thursday they had a deal off all you can play from 7pm to 11pm for $10 per person. But it was so crowded that nobody could play anyways. :animesigh