Slashdot Mirror

who wants to be the creepy, single, older guy hanging out in a Chuck E. Cheese's paying the last worn-out videogames?

Why would a single guy want to go to Chuck E. Cheese? There are adult versions around like Dave and Busters. Last time I was in Chicago, several years ago, I believe the ESPN restaurant had a pretty big arcade as well. Granted, it was sports themed, but it had some cool stuff. But I recall a Sega restaurant or bar or something in the Schaumburg area or something. Ah, here it is. GameWorks.

The only problem I'd see if you didn't have one close to you.

And there's another in Philly. Well, there was when I was there 7 years ago. Here's their map

You must live in a small town. Here in Phoenix (and in other large cities), there's a Gameworks, which is a very large arcade.

Why would you go to an arcade? Because there's games there that you simply can't play at home, like the popular DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), and various other games requiring specialized equipment. My favorite game there is Sky Pirates, where you sit in a chair facing three large projection screens stacked vertically, about 2 stories tall. You control a balloon, and try to pop the other players' balloons. As your balloon moves up and down the composited screen, your chair moves up and down as well.

There's also some simulation games where you sit in a "car" that moves around as you play.

Games like this simply don't compare to something you play at home on your TV, and never will, no matter how powerful they make the hardware in consoles.

already been done before?

Gameworks has the same thing. There are about 10 or so moving (side to side tilting) Nascars linked together with force feedback in the steeering wheel. Pretty cool.
They have many locations.

Gameworks has the same thing. There are about 10 or so moving (side to side tilting) Nascars linked together with force feedback in the steeering wheel. Pretty cool.
They have many locations.

I've figured out what's needed to save the ailing arcade industry now that the novelty of DDR is waning. Bars.

In StL, Dave and Busters is strikingly similar to these fine establishments.

The small, shitty mom and pop arcade in the mall might be shutting it's doors, but the niche is being filled by upscale (albeit expensive) "Entertainment Venues"

Do any online services ever give any indication of where the other players are, or could you spend hours playing the guy down the street from you and never know it?

I don't know about all -- some might. When I play on public servers a lot of people come and go and you often don't know where they are. But when you play regularly the in-game chat functions and voice-chat allow you to learn these things with the people you regularly see. It also seems that players that play in clans have a tight relationship with others generally.

And LAN parties often fill the social aspects for others using PC/console games. I don't deny that there are opportunities to set up parlors and make a go at it. I just don't agree with the article's promotion of this as a coming popular thing in this format in the US. I think to make something commercially viable you have to do more than plop down some Dell computers running Counter Strike. The places I've been to that seem to have more potential would be Dave & Busters and Gameworks. Others have mentioned similar concepts at Mall of America in Blommington MN (auto racing similators), and others.

Gameworks has a version of Tekken (I think) here in Florida that works on this system. There's no helmet, and the responsiveness really sucks. I'ts really not worth it until we get more precise motion detection technology.You can click here and find absolutely no useful information about the company.

"Another nail in the coffin of the arcade."

Arcades are far from being dead. Maybe in small town malls they are fading away, but just look at places like GameWorks. Here in Dallas the one we have is always packed. For those of you who have never seen one, just imagine an old-two-story-warehouse-looking-building with tons of games and VR rides. Way cool, and far from dead.

Anyway, it is really sad to see another company who helped to define a market now abandon it.

What is this a sign of? First Sega drops out of the console market. Then the S word is spoken 162 times on television. Now Midway is droping out of the coin op business. What is this world comming to ;-)

bad humor is still humor.