A sign of the times...

[godslabrat]

 

I took this photo over the weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Mall. I'm told that in the not-too-distant past, this was a fantastic Namco arcade. Now, it's apparently eaten its last quarter.

Edited July 7, 2008 by godslabrat

[Atari5200]

I'm waiting for the arcade at the pittsburgh mills mall to close. I can't for the life of me figure out how it makes money, it's games are terrible, and there's only like 3 people in there at any given time and usually those 3 are just the goth kids playing the knock off DDR game.

[Red 5]

We had a Time-Out in the Danbury Fair Mall when I was in High School.

 

I worked at the hot dog place "Eat at Joe's".

 

After the mall closed, we would bring hot dogs to the manager of Time Out and he would give us tons of tokens.

We would play for hours after the mall closed.

 

Super Sprint, Gauntlet and Funhouse Pinball were the big ones at the time.

One night he got in a new game 'Afterburner' and we were amazed at how good it looked.

(Sit down cab.)

We were the first ones to play it and we stayed well after midnight playing that one.

 

Ah, to be 16 again, using stolen hot dogs as bartering chips for other stolen merchandise by other stupid 16 year old mall employees.

You'd be amazed at what a couple hot dogs and a milk shake could get you in 1987.

 

[kroogur]

The is an urban exploration site called Lost but not forgotten and it's pretty extensive and has a listing of places complete with pics by state, anyways i'll have to dig through to find it but one place was an abandoned amusement park and there was a pic of a number of cabinets thrown into a pile out on the ground with weeds growing up through them. It was kinda depressing to look at.

 

They changed the name now it's: http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/

Edited July 7, 2008 by kroogur

[mos6507]

If you thought arcades had it bad, this economic downturn will be the last straw. People who horde coinops in their garages and basements are going to wind up saving what's left of these artefacts. I also think the rise in gas prices will really take a toll on classic coinop trading. Nobody's going to be able to justify shipping them anymore. Machines that can't find a local buyer on Craig's list will get trashed.

[Atari5200]

I don't think that will be the case. I don't see how the economy will have any effect on an industry that has been going downhill and dieing out for quite some time now. I would be more than happy to spend money at a GOOD arcade, but there's none around, and that's not because of the economy, there has been NONE around for years.

 

As for trading and selling of cabs, I believe even EBAY most auctions are pick up only, very rarely is a cab going to ship, this is normal, has nothing to do with gas prices and etc, regular people just don't want to deal with it. if you want a cab shipped, you can go to places like quarterarcade.com and get them. The big cab seller in Pittsburgh will actually deliver them to your house for free, I've bought my Devestators cab from him. I went to Ohio to get my MVS, and my World Series the Season was lucky enough and it was just up the road. If I were to sell any of mine, no way would I ship, #1 I don't trust it to arrive in good shape, I deal with shipping companies everyday, #2, it would be more hastle than it's worth.

[mos6507]

I don't see how the economy will have any effect on an industry that has been going downhill and dieing out for quite some time now.

 

It's not going to help.

 

As for trading and selling of cabs, I believe even EBAY most auctions are pick up only

 

Maybe now they are. That's not how I got my machine. The seller crated it and I had to pay a Forward Air type service to ship it. That seems pretty standard. My point being that the pool of people willing to pay more and more to have things shipped is going to shrink. And limiting yourself to local sources, well, it depends on where you live I guess. These things don't grow on trees.

[Atari5200]

since I've been actively collecting cabs, very few times have I seen someone willing to ship, and those have been the few Ebay auctions. I've never seen anyone on Craigslist willing to ship.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I agree the economy is not helping, but I don't think that even a booming economy would help arcades. I've thought about it for years now opening my own, there's the perfect location for it, but it's just not worth it, unfortunately.

[horseboy]

 

I took this photo over the weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Mall. I'm told that in the not-too-distant past, this was a fantastic Namco arcade. Now, it's apparently eaten its last quarter.

 

 

That makes me want to barf. That is my hometown arcade. It is the only real arcade I ever remember in the area. I just went to the mall and saw this on Thursday. It used to be a sweet arcade back in the day. I went in there about 2 years ago and it only had one game with a joystick and that was Tekken 3. There are only so many gun games, dance games, and driving games that I can take. Tis sad to see it close completely though.

[Gregory DG]

Arcades in malls used to be a given. Now they're all but gone...

Edited July 9, 2008 by Gregory DG

[Red 5]

Everyone has a modern home video game system in their house now.

The 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, and DS can all run our favorite arcade games just as good as the old arcade cabs could.

 

I believe that was the downfall of the arcade.

Atari, INTV, CV only helped arcades back then.

You may have had Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man at home on your 2600, and if you were like me, you played the

crap out of those games.

However, you couldn't wait to get to the arcade to play the "real thing".

 

That's why every surviving arcade has nothing but gun games, dance games, sit down driving games.

They are the only arcade games left that still don't transfer well onto home systems.

 

Everything else you can get in 50 zillion different iterations on your home system. There must be 50,000 compilations with

Pac-Man and Galaga by now. For $20.00, you can play every classic on your home system.

 

Unfortunately, the people like us who really care about the originals and want to play Pac-man on a big yellow cab with other machines blaring their

attract mode sounds all around us are a small demographic.

 

I don't see us 30 and 40 somethings going to the mall everyday to pump quarters into Contra like we did when we were 16.

Plus, many of us who REALLY care have discovered MAME. Those who are completely nuts (like me) built a cab.

 

Hey, at least there's the Fun Spot. We should pull together and try to make is a historical site so it will never go out of business.

Once that goes, it's all over.

[yuppicide]

My friends Girlfriend worked at a deli and stole things.. she got us lots of cigarettes. We would trade a pack for a large pizza from our friend who worked in a pizza place.

 

We had a Time-Out in the Danbury Fair Mall when I was in High School.

 

I worked at the hot dog place "Eat at Joe's".

 

After the mall closed, we would bring hot dogs to the manager of Time Out and he would give us tons of tokens.

We would play for hours after the mall closed.

 

Super Sprint, Gauntlet and Funhouse Pinball were the big ones at the time.

One night he got in a new game 'Afterburner' and we were amazed at how good it looked.

(Sit down cab.)

We were the first ones to play it and we stayed well after midnight playing that one.

 

Ah, to be 16 again, using stolen hot dogs as bartering chips for other stolen merchandise by other stupid 16 year old mall employees.

You'd be amazed at what a couple hot dogs and a milk shake could get you in 1987.

 

[+pboland]

Everyone has a modern home video game system in their house now.

The 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, and DS can all run our favorite arcade games just as good as the old arcade cabs could.

 

I believe that was the downfall of the arcade.

Atari, INTV, CV only helped arcades back then.

You may have had Asteroids, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man at home on your 2600, and if you were like me, you played the

crap out of those games.

However, you couldn't wait to get to the arcade to play the "real thing".

 

That's why every surviving arcade has nothing but gun games, dance games, sit down driving games.

They are the only arcade games left that still don't transfer well onto home systems.

 

Everything else you can get in 50 zillion different iterations on your home system. There must be 50,000 compilations with

Pac-Man and Galaga by now. For $20.00, you can play every classic on your home system.

 

Unfortunately, the people like us who really care about the originals and want to play Pac-man on a big yellow cab with other machines blaring their

attract mode sounds all around us are a small demographic.

 

I don't see us 30 and 40 somethings going to the mall everyday to pump quarters into Contra like we did when we were 16.

Plus, many of us who REALLY care have discovered MAME. Those who are completely nuts (like me) built a cab.

 

Hey, at least there's the Fun Spot. We should pull together and try to make is a historical site so it will never go out of business.

Once that goes, it's all over.

I agree. They only way arcades could be as popular as they were back in the day, is for arcades to be more like the movie theater / video sale setup. This would never, I repeat never, happen but, you would need some kind of agreement with the big video game makers to show case their games before they would be released to the public. Just like a movie. First the game would be released in the arcades on some cabineted console systems that take money. Then after some time they would then sell the game to the public. This is exactly the way the movie industry works. First you see it in the movie theater and some months later you buy it on DVD. (But, it will never happen!)

[Crimefighter]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7...86446&hl=en

 

This arcade is still around though...

[Hornpipe2]

 

I took this photo over the weekend at the Northwest Arkansas Mall. I'm told that in the not-too-distant past, this was a fantastic Namco arcade. Now, it's apparently eaten its last quarter.

 

 

That makes me want to barf. That is my hometown arcade. It is the only real arcade I ever remember in the area.

Mine too! I used to tear it up on the DDR here, but the machine was expensive IIRC.

 

Lokomotion is still in operation just down the street, though, if you're okay with 1995-2005 games and go-karts. They had a DDRMax 2 last time I checked.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Arcades in malls used to be a given. Now they're all but gone...

 

At the mall where I just opened up my arcade there are a total of three there - mine is the larger of the three. So there's at least one mall where arcades are still strong.