titus Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 *If this is in the wrong spot, sorry. Seeing it's the Arcade Coin-ops section I thought it should go here.* How did the arcade in North America 'die':?: Around here, we used to have three acrades. The first one closed around 1998, the second one closed down not much longer after that. The last one closed up in either late 2000 or early 2001. The closest arcade is 20 miles away, unless you want to count Chuck E. Cheese or Peter Piper Pizza acrades, but I wouldn't. My dad always talks about the "golden age" of arcades. How a few bucks could last a few hours to half a day (he said one time most games were $0.10, $0.25 for the newer games). Everything wasn't fighting or shooting games. So, what did 'kill' the arcade:?: Did home consoles just take over the market? Was it the price to play them (here: $0.50 to $1.50 ) What:?: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 You might be interested in watching the Icons episode: "Arcade" which gives an overview of the rise and fall of the american arcade. Pretty good watching. If you don't have G4tv, the episode sometimes gets posted on alt.binaries.emulators.misc. If you can't find it there, I have it and can probably serve it via FTP.. it's about 130 megs. Just let me know Icons brings you an in-depth look inside a place we all grew up with. Get the story behind the arcade's glorious past, its downfall, and where it's headed in the future. With interviews from some of the pioneers of the video game industry, join us as we take a look back at the history of the arcade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titus Posted March 8, 2004 Author Share Posted March 8, 2004 No, I don't get G4tv, DirecTV doesn't carry it, and neither does either of the two cable companies around here. If you could serve it, that would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellow Atari Man Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 The reasons arcades are dying is because home consoles are just as, if not more powerful than arcade games are. Plus a lot of arcade games are expensive to make, due to some of them having huge monitors and/or cabs. Even though consoles also cost a bit of money--it takes a lot of money and research to develop a new console--they're usually not as "high end" in price as arcade games are. It's a bit sad, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 No, I don't get G4tv, DirecTV doesn't carry it, and neither does either of the two cable companies around here. If you could serve it, that would be great. See your msg's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 How did the arcade in North America 'die' Like this: Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh......... Actually arcades died because home systems became more powerful than arcade systems. The only way arcades can compete is to carry huge monsterous machines that home systems can reproduce. Unfortunately those machines are really expensive and are prone to braking down. Basically, if it wasn't for Pinball and the nostalgia factor arcades would be totally dead. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindog Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Don't forget ticket games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Not that...they'd died even before due to objections from "the public" that saw arcades as being detramental to the precious youth, twisting their morals and turning them into JD's overnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubersaurus Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 http://www.atariage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44333 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 I think the arcades saw some new lifeblood in the late 90's. Games like Cruisin and Crazy Taxi were different enough, and the graphics were great. Dance Dance Revolution was a big hit worldwide, and I have an idea it will be around for a while. Fighters are still king in this area; most arcades have tons of them. Theres one place nearby me that has a Final Lap Twin cockpit converted to a CPS2 pcb and its playing Capcom fighter on both screens. Weak. Eighteen Wheeler, Hydrothunder, that Slolem board game, Silent Scope (albeit the worst game release timing of ALL TIME and a 1K cost to repair the rifle LCD), DDR's (all 1 million variations) will be around for some time. Star Wars Racer still does well from what I have seen. Expensive pieces, but the coin buckets fill on them... Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 Before the 83 crash, many arcades were dark scary places where drugs were sold in the corners and most women and children dared not go. Now THAT'S a good environment for gaming! There was something new and even radical about being an arcade gamer. The church groups of the time were freaked out over the whole thing which made it more fun. It's rarely talked about, but the arcades crashed at the same time consoles did. So I don't think that "better consoles" are the whole answer. What happened is that hanging out in arcades was losing its cultural appeal. The freaks found weirder places to go which killed the disreputable places. Soon we were left with nothing but boring family-freindly arcades like Aladdin's Castle. The serious game fans remained, but the mainstream had moved on. Then in the early 90s we had the arcade renaissance. This was caused by the fighting games, which spawned a new culture and a new reason to drag oneself down to an arcade. Now there was face-to-face competition and ego battles for all. The edge had returned. But this too had to eventually die out. the arcades were losing customers even before the Playstation made a dent in the market. The serious game fans remained, but the mainstream was moving on. Today the arcades are going the family route because that's a safe crowd that pays the overhead. But they won't thrive again unless something else is created which makes the arcades seem cool again. DDR made an impact, but many of us would never be caught dead dancing at an arcade so the audience is still limited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedijeff Posted March 8, 2004 Share Posted March 8, 2004 I think part of it was lack of inovation. Most everything started to become mortal kombat crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpmxxipt Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Just a general question, why hasn't there been more action with networked Arcade systems? I noticed a Golden Tee '05 at the Bowling Alley the other day that had an LED runner advertising nationwide cash tournaments. I don't know how it links (satellite?) but I thought "Now THAT's a good idea". I don't know if it's Bally (or whoever the titleholder is now of Williams Electronics) who's been doing exclusively casino video games, but some of them I've seen are pretty entertaining as well. The one thing home systems can't do is hand you cash. Hell, give me the chance to win even a hundred bucks on a well-designed pinball game and I'd be there daily, and I'm an old fart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpmxxipt Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Before the 83 crash, many arcades were dark scary places where drugs were sold in the corners and most women and children dared not go. Now THAT'S a good environment for gaming! Very well put! That sounds a lot like the best pool hall in Milwaukee until it got corporate and moved out of the core back in the '90s. I think the hustler/risk factor sharpened the experience. I'm going to revise my business plan for a retro Arcade to locate it in the worst part of Milwaukee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 It kind of sucks that arcades have died out for the most part. It's like watching a movie at home. Although there is a lot of fun in that, nothing can imitate the movie or arcade experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 You know the shady side is a factor I've long forgotten. I recall as kids in the mid 80s that we were intimidated to go into an arcade by ourselves. Only with friends did we go into the big joints which were filled with older teenagers and twentysomthings. I think in our minds we made it out worse than it really was but there was definatly something sinister about hanging out at the arcade Which made it more appealing! Especially the pool hall combos. I think if you can't get a location by a movie theatre then a place in area with a lot of clubs, bars and concert venues might succeed. But back to topic, arcade culture is shrinking. Arcade games are more of a short term rush. And gamers these days are more into long term experiences that the consoles excel at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 By the way, if anyone else wants to download the Icons episode above just msg me and I'll send you my temporary ftp info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFairy321 Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Personally, for me, i think the arcades died out in the 90's when NEO-GEO relesed their crappy fighting games which were nothing but money suckers. Before that i would be able to go to arcades and play for nearly 1/2 day for a measly $10 aussie bucks. in the 90's when games went up to $2 bucks a pop, i thought this was a completely disgusting and never played arcades again. And yes, i loved the early 80's sleazy arcade scene. A few weeks ago i made a trip to the local arcade and it was crap crap crap.. I watched my friend waste $2 on tekken3 and he lasted about 20sec. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Well, I'm not even sure if there is an actual arcade around here . . . Technically, the mall about 50 miles away has one . . . But it's just 2 DDR machines, 2 NASCAR machines, the Namco 20th Anniversary combo, and way, way too many quarter-sucking ticket games . . . Outside from that, all the arcade machines around here seem to be 1) Those awful (and insanely easy) Sammy hunting games. 2) Various driving games (usually either Cruisin' or NASCAR) 3) Namco classics (there are more than a few original Galagas around here, and Ms. and Super Pac, too) 4) Neo-Geo. Does every Pizza Hut in the lower 48 have a NG in it? They all do here. And that's it. What happened to all the old Atari and Williams games, or the more recent gun games, or even SFII, MK, and Tekken, which are nowhere to be found? And there used to be a lot of generic bootlegs around here, mostly of Universal and Sega games, and the Mysterious Thrift Store Cabinet is the only boot I've seen . . . Is there an arcade-machine rarity guide? I'm just guessing, from 20 years of experience, that Galaga is the most common machine in North America. Nothing wrong with that, it's a great game that benefits from never really having a good common home conversion, but where did all the other well-known old games disappear to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeepnut24 Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 They have died because today's consoles are just as powerful as arcades. Not to mention I can do this on a much larger HDTV monitor with full Dolby digital suround sound. Not to mention broadband support. That is the wave of the future if you ask me. Rooms setup with personal DD, HDTV and broadband for multiple players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpmxxipt Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Yeah, I forgot about my disgust about the games that timed you out, regardless of skill or ability.. that and the buy-in "high score" that belonged to whoever wanted to keep throwing quarters into the slot. Is there any one game out there that combined both of these two characteristics FIRST? For some reason, I'm thinking that Mach 3 would only let you get so far, and then it was Sorry Charlie.. ante up. Bad Dudes was the last game I was ever able to play through on two quarters.. I'd neeed to spend the 2nd one to kill the last boss.. never could beat that SOB straight-up. rpm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ussexplorer Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 If I win the lotto I'm opening one up. Their was one in what I considered a bad location with overpriced games. My store would be in a better location and offer cheap games with a few exceptions. Their is a place called pojo's in boise about 20 miles from me that has old classic games for .5 cents, .25 cent games, and ofcourse the newer .50cent and up games. They do really good business. They also host birthday parties and stuff. I don't know about the b-day party stuff. But I could picture an old building with an arcade in it. Everybody I talked to at work thought it was an okay idea. Especially when I told them about old games being a nickle. Yes, they worried about the 1.00 games. I'm on the same boat with them. Later, ussexplorer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyranthraxus Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 If I ran an arcade I wouldn't bother with nickle games. You'd have to spend a fair bit converting all your machines and then assuming it was played non stop with average players you'd probably only make $1 an hour off it. Assuming 20 games at 3 minutes a play and thats very optimistic. 25 cents is cheap enough, especially since 25 cents is not worth a quarter of what it was 20 years ago (pun not intended). You also have to consider the precious floor space the low money making nickle games would use up. Why have a nickle game when you could have quarter game which makes 5 times as much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chadtower Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 They're right about the shadiness. When I was growing up an arcade was the place to go if you were looking for pot or bags of pills. Even kids who had no idea where to get drugs would just go "oh yeah I can get some at the arcade". Where else are you going to find a bunch of 13 year olds who are sure to have a few bucks on them? I don't remember ONCE going into an arcade from the ages of about 9-13 without someone trying to sell me a dime back, some speed, or something else like that. One guy had a coat full of bottlerockets and ninja stars. Yes, I said ninja stars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Ninja stars? You're not from Alabama, are you? We had one of those guys, too . . . Until some thug in our school decided to throw his new implement of destruction at a teacher . . . Thankfully, he missed by a mile and threw worse than most girls. And, needless to say, the arcade got torn down and replaced with a car lot . . . Like Cullman, Alabama needed anymore car lots. And no, I never bought weed there . . . That was the skating rink, which only had like two video games (the obligatory Galaga and Frogger). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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