We all know about the console crash of 1982, but when did coin-op "die" ?

[racerx]

For me, it died between rolling into 1984. After that it was all side scrollers I could play on the NES and after that is was fighting games I had no interest in.

The blue line says it all...

[Crimefighter]

If you think coin-op is dead then you just lack the imagination to think of something new that will sell. The Battle Pod may not be the greatest game in the world, but it has everything the arcade games of yesteryear had in the "attract attention" category and it adds the SW license in a way that works to pull in the cash. There are tons of ideas with expanding technology that simply cannot be done in the home and they will be in the arcade first.

 

I think what has really changed is the type of game that appears in the arcade, and I don't mean ticket redemption. The discussion on games in the arcade has been rich in this thread. The idea of a "skill" game vs a "dumb" game is interesting. I hardly ever feel that when I play a modern arcade game that I can improve at it. They are almost all "dumb" - just trying to take my money to see more of the flashy lights and sounds. I wish there were more "skill" games out there.

 

Also Pac-Man Battle Royale is great. I wish there were more people playing it when I'm near one.

 

I don't think coin-op is dead, but you have to have arcade operators put the new stuff on the floor - and like I said previously, a bunch of titles NEVER GOT an American release. Why? Namco, Taito, whoever else thought there wasn't an audience...so they dumped a bunch more redemption games in their place. Ugh. Stacker, Keymaster, Flaming Finger...less skill and more luck.

[Keatah]

Kids love redemption games and parents like watching their precious pumpkins run around in germ farms like Chuck E. Cheeses.

[enoofu]

Kids love redemption games and parents like watching their precious pumpkins run around in germ farms like Chuck E. Cheeses.

Believe Konami thinks its the other way

 

Pachinko industry in Japan is around 250 Billion US Dollars per year, which outstrips the normal Videogame industry worldwide by around 200 Billion dollars

Edited March 19, 2016 by enoofu

[Derek]

Coin op has not died, though there are not a lot of arcades. Funspot in New Hampshire is one place that I'd just blow a gasket to get to go to.

 

Locally there is an arcade: leveluplasertag.ca just ten minutes from my house. It has been renovated, yet they haven't updated the pictures, as now the classic games are all at the back and set on free play, and you go back there for $5 tax included an hour. There were 18 games the other day. The stuff out front is still on quarter play, the stuff from the 90's, pinball. Out back was Mortal Kombat II, NBA Jams, a couple games using a light gun that I had never seen before, The Simpsons, Super Sprint, Frogger, Pac-Man, Toobin, Galaxian, Space Invaders, a couple of others that I was unfamiliar with, and IMHO, an absolute necessity in an 80's arcade, Ms. Pac-Man. #1 video game ever as voted by me Also, there are pinball games, prize games, air hockey, that red and white domed two player hockey game that was everywhere around 1984. That's all I can remember besides the coleco tabletop games and consoles and cartridges on display on the wall. There was also 80's tunes on, so they really have it all covered.

 

I have no affiliation with this place, no idea who started it, but it has been in the mall for two years so obviously arcades are not dead as this is not a big city.

 

 

[Nebulon]

For me, it died between rolling into 1984. After that it was all side scrollers I could play on the NES and after that is was fighting games I had no interest in.

 

The blue line says it all...

 

 

What a cool graph.

 

First thing I thought of was the TRON quote:

 

"The kids are putting 8 million quarters a week into Paranoid machines. I don't see a dime except what I squeeze outta here." - Kevin Flynn.

 

With the film in production in 1981 for a 1982 release, I can certainly see how they decided to write a line like that into the script.

[enoofu]

Heard somewhere that pinball is becoming very popular in Latin America and Asia

[wiseguyusa]

I'm guessing the Arcades crashed around 97-98

 

Part of the reason is a lot of the arcade afterwards are basically modified game consoles or low end computers, so they ended up losing that special experience

 

Sega Naomi- is basically a memory up'ed Dreamcast

Triforce -is basically a memory up'ed Gamecube

Sega Chihiro-is basically a memory up'ed Xbox

 

Also the SNES and Genesis and Saturn also ended up producing very similar game experiences

I seem to remember SNES or Gamecubes in McDonalds playgrounds(?)

[akator]

The Dreamcast appears to be the last home console to have a significant percentage of its library based on arcade titles. Along with many other factors, I perceive that (timeline ~2000-2001) to be the end of coin-op relevance in the US.

[wiseguyusa]

I have to tell you, I never liked the term "arcade" which is why I prefer to use "coin-op" for the machines, and it's not that I am a grammar Nazi, it's just that the idea of a building full of nothing but coin operated amusements aka vending machines is part of the mentality that killed the medium.

 

What happened to "coin operated amusements" in pizza places or laundromats?

 

the idea used to be: stick a machine anywhere someone might be stuck and bored with some change in their pockets and amuse them for a few minutes for a quarter.

 

If my auto mechanic had Klax or Tetris or a pinball machine in his waiting room.....

 

the literal definition of "Arcade" is "a row of arches supported by columns"

 

Does that sound like the description of the "Quarter Horse Arcade" to you? Or anyplace that you went to play games back in the day?

 

I'm not sure when coin op games got segregated from bowling alley's and pool halls and put into "arcades" but it seems like the more that happened the less relevant the medium became. It also seemed that made the games less "mainstream" when going to a destination to play videogames became the norm instead of just playing a game at the 7-11 while waiting for your bus. they had become less integrated in the places we went everyday and wanted distraction from. I wasn't in the "industry" except for a brief stint at a corporate "arcade" called "Jollytime" (I think) in 1989 so the decline was less apparent to me outside of the bubble.

 

But from the outside looking in, it sure seems that the "arcade" was the beginning of the end of "coin operated amusements"

Edited March 25, 2016 by wiseguyusa

[wiseguyusa]

What a cool graph.

 

I just wanted to agree with that, and ask if there is a source with more context like a news story or blog post that the chart came from?

[akator]

the literal definition of "Arcade" is "a row of arches supported by columns"

 

Does that sound like the description of the "Quarter Horse Arcade" to you? Or anyplace that you went to play games back in the day?

 

 

Video games popularized late 20th century usage of "arcade" to describe a coin operated amusement center, but that usage can easily be traced back to the 19th century. There are plenty of valid, vetted sources that explain the history of the "arcade" and usage of the term.

A "midway" was "an area at a fair, carnival, or amusement park for food stands, games, and rides." The midway was often designed with an arcade facade, "a covered passageway with arches along one or both sides."

Along boardwalks and amusement centers, the "midway arcade" was a place for amusement and games, often coin operated. For example, in the early 20th century that's where people spent their pennies to watch kinetoscopes. The "midway arcade" also had fortune tellers, pinball, and lots of coin operated stuff.

Long before the video arcade machine was invented, language evolved and the term "midway arcade" was shortened to "arcade" to describe a coin operated amusement center no longer located at a fair, boardwalk, or carnival.

[akator]

 

 

 

The figures for consumer revenue in 1977 and 1985 on this graph don't seem possible. There were market adjustments from Pong over-saturation in the 70s and the US video game "crash" in the early 80s, but revenues for consumer video games were still well above 0 for both of those years.

[racerx]

Very little was left after the Atari/Intellivision/Colecovision implosion until the introduction of the NES in 1985. The meteoric rise of Nintendo and to a lesser extent Sega is reflected in the spike in '87.

 

Revenues had peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983,[2] then fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent).

That's pretty damned close to zero.

Edited March 25, 2016 by racerx

[akator]

I seriously want to live the life where $100M ($214M in 2012 dollars) is "damned close to $0"

 

Edited March 25, 2016 by akator

[racerx]

I seriously want to live the life where $100M ($214M in 2012 dollars) is "damned close to $0"

 

 

Well, the preceding year was 3.2 billion, so you're looking at 1/320th of that. That's a change in One. Single. Year.

 

A single movie release can gross more than that, even in adjusted dollars, so spread across an entire industry, yeah...100 million is basically nothing.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

It should be noted that the estimates for arcade revenues are to a big degree guesstimates. As one example, no one that tracks that data asks me for my numbers, I highly doubt that most mom-and-pop retrocades or bar/arcades are getting their revenues reported to the stat trackers. It would mostly be big chains like Dave & Busters and Chuck E Cheeses, otherwise getting exact numbers in this industry is notoriously difficult since many venues like to protect their earnings like it is a national security secret. I have no qualms in sharing that my Jurassic Park Arcade makes about $500-$700 a week depending on how busy it is. I think I mentioned that most classics don't make anything excepting Donkey Kong/Ms. Pac-man which make about $30-40/wk pretty consistently.

 

Just a reminder that home gaming is not exactly "free" - its like a 'free lunch' where you don't always see the costs but they are there. You have the costs of all your hardware (TV, console, controllers, accessories) then software (whether digital or physical). If you want to just beat the game, you can do that on modern arcade games for much less than the $60+DLC for most modern titles that only last a few hours then have little to no replay value since they are trying to be movies more than games (any CoD, The Order 1886 come to mind). Now that costs for VR are starting to come along, people are acting surprised when they shouldn't be. All you had to do when watching the Paperboy VR video was realize that you have to buy all this extra hardware to make that one game work right (an exercise bike, iPhone, Kinect, VR HMD, solid PC that can run it, etc.) Then the next big VR game will require a bunch of other stuff to work right, so that's why I don't think that VR will be taking off quite like the VR preachers make it out to be.

 

With mobile/tablet gaming it has changed the dynamics from the traditional console setup we tend to think of but if that was destroying what is left of the arcade industry, I'm not really seeing it. We have release after release of mobile-to-arcade ports (many of which can be set to non-ticket mode, if the location wants to do that) where a physical controller and big screen make it a better experience than on your phone and it's still the quick play that you tend to get with the redemption games. Also adding competitive elements to some phone games, like Crossy Road Arcade which offers 2 player play; or Snaky Tickets which is just Nibbler/Snake reinvented.

 

I think I mentioned in one of my posts that the industry should be focusing more on social gaming but they are doing a terrible job at fulfilling that market need. Just Pac-Man Battle Royale and Killer Queen Arcade (which is too expensive for most venues) to compliment "bar games" like Golden Tee and Big Buck. If anyone wants to join me in developing new games for the social gaming arcade market, LMK

[BassGuitari]

I would say the early 2000s, when everything became crane games and ticket games. There tons of great arcade games right up to the end of the '90s.

[SoulBlazer]

Every time I go to my local Dave and Busters, which is about once every 3-4 months, there's always at least a couple and perhaps as many as three or four new arcade games, and I don't mean redemption games either (although some games that pay out in tickets I consider to be 'real' games like Sea Wolf and Deal or No Deal). So there's still new games being made by some companies, most of them pretty good. I would consider the arcade industry in decline but not dead yet.

 

Same goes for Pinball. I wish some places around me bought the new tables, but they don't. Now THAT'S something that seems almost dead to me. If I want to play a new table I have to drive a hour and half to Pinball Wizard in NH. At least the Providence airport still has a couple of older pinball tables in their game area.

[ledzep]

I'm in the boat some others are, I just think what I can have at home these days is just better than what most arcades can reasonably offer. Granted, I have more "mancave" stuff than most, unless there is a good social vibe in the place, it's kind of soulless to me. Yes, seeing 50 arcade cabs is cool, but they're not a woman, you can get all you need from looking at some pictures.

 

When you can sit at home with your consoles/emulation stuff you're going to own anyways, throw a pizza in the oven and have a 12 pack in the fridge for the price of an hour at an arcade playing the same games, or maybe even ones you like less, it's no surprise arcades are desolate. Like the drive-ins, diners and even video stores of the past, the larger, communal social aspect is unfortunately lost, but it's necessary to keep moving ahead. To make matters worse, you have to know someone who is into the arcade as much as you are to even make the trip to one much fun at all, and even then you likely can't have alcohol there, which you probably want as a person of legal age. The barcade is the best option to me because at least you can get a buzz on there. I think it's also a more appropriate avenue for the age audience they're targeted at and it doesn't mean you live and die by the cabinets financially.

 

When the arcade was popular, people were kids or young adults, mostly. Nowadays, would you guys even really want to go to an arcade filled with screaming kids and teenagers? For me, that's just another reason to throw that pizza in the oven, case of beer in the fridge and turn on the NES or MAME cab.

 

I think that technically arcade games are still around, but not really. Not like before. I remember not giving a shit about arcade games (and the arcades themselves) once the games sort of became either racing pod games (usually hooked together in pairs or up to like 8 in a row racing the same track), first-person shooter games or side-scrollers. The last games I considered worth playing were Cyber Sled, Cyberball and Silent Scope. Now, nothing really looks worth playing, they all seem like giant versions of Xbox or Playstation games.

 

And that is the problem. As others have noted, why bother with arcades when the games are pretty much all available for home? Nice comfy couch, snacks, no crowds of kids, play anytime, why bother. I think that having arcade games with unique controllers, ones that the home version doesn't include, might help a little in that regard. But most games are just joystick and buttons, big deal. Back in the day our 8-bit computers couldn't match the uniqueness of the arcade games, the look and speed. Now, most gamer rigs would eat those arcade games alive. I miss the days where arcade games were a giant board of custom chips. I loathe the JAMMA "solution".

 

I think another problem with modern arcade games is that they're just too goddamn big. I agree, back in the day I used to run into cool games all over the place, not just arcades. Shakey's pizza had like 5 of them, the Dale's market near my house had Astro Blaster (loved that game), a convenience store near my friend's house had Wizard Of Wor, a restaurant inside Sears at the Northridge Fashion Center had Canyon Bomber and a couple others. But now? Many of those cabs are massive, too big for a small, packed convenience store to deal with. I do remember seeing one of those miserable video golf games at the Santa Monica Hooters for a bit, but they got rid of it eventually. I do like the barcade idea, I went to one in Koreatown, it had about a dozen pretty cool classic games. I suppose that's the "future" though it is built on the past. I'll take it any way I can get it, I suppose.

[Schizophretard]

Coin-op arcade games remind me of movie theaters. One of the big reasons to go to a movie theater is to see a movie before you can at home. Consoles bringing home the arcade games is kind of the same thing. You used to have to play a game in an arcade and wait for it to get ported to consoles. I think that is a big reason arcades aren't popular today.

[Keatah]

The creature comforts and amenities of gaming at home are far superior to anything an arcade can offer.

 

No screaming kids. The ability stop and save your game. Not having to leave the house when there's a blizzard. Superior selection and variety. No waiting in lines. Ability to switch games instantly. Even making your own content. Not to mention choice of snacks and schedule, a home the kitchen and arcade are open 24/7/365. Your choice of music, too!

Edited March 29, 2016 by Keatah