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Another Arcade Standby Calls It Quits
wokness writes with this bit of depressing news. "The arcade business is getting thougher and tougher -- from shoryuken.com: 'The Nikkei Telecom 21, the largest online news & information database in Japan, has reported that Capcom will discontinue sales and development of arcade games.' More info here. This sucks!" Seems like Capcom wasn't making enough money to justify themselves selling large boxes to arcades. Now, they'll go all the way (instead of just using emulation to make cross-platform games) and make games for home consoles instead.
I grew up to Double Dragon, Pole Position and Super Sprint. If I wasn't so damned young, I would have spent even more money on those games. As it stood, I would go very far out of my way to play those arcade games. In the time when the NES regined, they had SNES quality graphics. The games seemed to be about the most exciting around.
Fast forward to any time in the last five years. Arcade games can be broken down into three categories, in my experiences: Racing, Shooting (gun to monitor) and fighting. It's my experience that when the gaming industry finds a hit, it takes years to recover, and it's a damned shame. I believe the gaming industry (as well as other industries) calls this phenomenon "genres".
After Street Fighter 2, for instance, most arcades became a waste of wood and paint with all the cloned games out there. I remember games like NeoGeo's Fatal Fury adding a few new features to the gametype and calling it a day. Some say Mortal Kombat came close, but let's face it. The game lost out big because there was no real decent aerial action compared to Street Fighter with the likes of Vega and Ryu/Ken's Shoryuken attacks.
I'd like to see a truly original game for arcade systems. As for the newer arcade games out there today, well, goodbye. We never really loved you.
LANs at home/school/parties are the problem. Playing a game over the Internet might be fun, but what was the best feature of an arcade was racing against your friends - sitting next to you.
This is possible using a LAN. You can play against each other while being in the same room. You can yell at each other, laugh together, share a beer minutes after the game.
I doubt many people went to arcades just for the games, it was also a social event for most. I bet a lot of people on /. have multiple computers and could have a friend over to play Quake in the same room against each other. Heck, my boss even bought us a PS2 for the cantine at work (SSX definitely kick ass by the way). Why go to an arcade?
Arcades have been going away for a while, but I think it's really starting to die seriously. There have been very few new games to hit the arcades in a long time.
I, for one, will be very sad to see them go. They were a part of my growing up. I actually learned the value of money there, because it was valuable for me to play those games.
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
Your avid arcade game collector knows that the arcade industry has been on the decline since 1984. A number of reasons have been given. The main reason seems to have been a glut of copy-cat games and an end of originality in the arcades. (This was briefly broken by the Street Fighter genre. Briefly, mind you.)
Modern arcade games seem to be a kind of advertisement for the home game. I obtained a Killer Instinct PCB a year ago, only to be bombarded with a intro screen announcing it would be available for the "Nintendo ULTRA 64". Probably one of the most blatent examples.
Then, there's the glorified amusement park rides. Either your racing games, or your motorized/pnumatic/hydrolic controlled simulator type of environment. That's about the only way an arcade game can differentiate itself from the home game.
At the start of the arcade business, that was not true. The "home version" was pale in comparison to the arcade original. The arcade showcased the latest in technology, which was years away from what was available in the home.
Today, the situation is quite difference. In fact, the X-Box seems to put the final nail in the coffin. Arcade game manufacturers may very well stop creating arcade games on custom hardware. Instead, they'll compile for an X-Box style platform. Why? For the ease of conversion to the home game. That's where the money is. The arcade game is just the 'advertisement' to create the buzz.
Sega once made an unsuccessful attempt at something similar. Remeber the Sega Saturn? Well, it has its arcade counterpart, the Sega Titan hardware, which a number of games were based off of (example: Die Hard Arcade, Batman, Winter Heat). But it failed to catch firew, and a small number of games were targeted to the Titan platform (which had an easy route to make the games work on the Saturn).
It is very likely, however, that Microsoft is going to win where Sega failed. The X-Box is a 'sure thing' platform. Create your arcade games for the X-Box platform, and you'll have an easy route to make a home version.
What arcade collectors may not realize at this point, is that if Microsoft pull things off right, the existing arcade standard, JAMMA, could go the way of the vector game, into arcade history. X-Box could very well become the next arcade standard -- and home platform standard.
I'm not looking forward to it, myself. But I'm willing to believe that home and arcade game manufacturers are. Of course, Microsoft seems to have a habit of getting version 1.0 of everything wrong. But with no real competition, I think it puts a nail in the coffin of the arcade industry as we know it today.
The Xbox is pretty much doomed for failure in japan - by the time it comes out, the PS2 will have been in the japanese market for almost 2 year, and the Gamecube will have just come out. Japanese gamers are wary of an american console, thinking it will be the next 3DO, a console which bombed horribly in both countries. Japanese console developers haven't signed up en masse, and big names like Square haven't definitely announced any product.
As the only console games I play are RPG's, and the occasional game of Dance Dance Revolution (all very japanese games), I doubt I'm going to buy an Xbox any time soon - which is probably the case for most of the hardcore gamer market. As for the rest of the american market, I think the Xbox will do ok. It'll all depend on the games.
Anyway, the Naomi (dreamcast equivalent) and System 246 (PS2 equivalent) boards are already in use in arcade systems - and the Naomi 2 (4x power of dreamcast) is coming out pretty soon as well. Microsoft has no standard arcade Xbox based system, and hasn't made any overtures of creating one, IIRC. Because of this, arcade ports are much more likely to be made to the PS2 and Dreamcast.
BBK
I have to say, I mourn the death of quality arcade game manufacturers. Fortunately, Capcom was not one of them. Sigh... my first job was running the game room in a ShowBiz Pizza (think Chuck E. Cheese with a bear instead of a mouse) the summer after I graduated from high school. By the end of that summer, I could rack up high scores on Spyhunter and Robotron 2084 without fail. I still remember some of the advanced levels of Bump N' Jump like the back of my hand. If only we'd had a Star Wars machine, I might never have left.
:-) Sigh... I want my Robotron back.
I spent half my youth either in or begging to go into arcades. I remember the first time I saw PacMan, the week it was released in the US. I remember the first time I saw a Missile Command. There used to be a Lunar Lander in the Aladdin's Castle in the mall near where I lived. I got in trouble I don't know how many times for sneaking a mile and a half up the street past the junior college to blow my quarters on the Centipede at the Shop-a-Snak mini mart, or the Galaxian at the Majik Market across the street. And when I was in college, I was lucky enough that the one "leftover" arcade game the vendors installed in our cafeteria was Bubble Bobble. Now THAT was a game - maybe the best game ever released.
I'm not going to lose sleep over Capcom not making money off of Super Ultra Street Fighter 2 Turbo Alpha Zany X-Men Spice Girls Crossover Mega. Gimme a break. I haven't seen an original arcade game in years. Though Dance Dance Revolution comes close, even if it is just memorization. At least it's different.
FIRST OFF...
The arcades across America are being hit hard for what I believe are three major reasons.
The first reason being the increasing popularity of the computer as a top of the line gameing machine. It used to be that you went to an arcade for top of the line games. Now you go to anywhere from Software Etc. to Kmart and pick up wonderfull games such as Half-Life, Sacrifice, and of course Unreal Tournament. The graphics on a computer moniter far surpas those of the arcade monitors.
2.No new arcades are being built. As Older arcade owners retire.. The tricky business of when to buy and sell cabinets is going to be lost to but a few individuals who learned the trade. This directly affects capcom because without arcades to purchase games, you have no one to make them for.
3. Public Intrest. In many cities arcades are banned, or HEAVILY regulated. This is partly because there is supposedly a minor increase in crime around arcades. What this does is cause potential proprieters to abandon the idea to to all of the strict ordinances against the arcade market.
SECONDLY...
CAPCOM was never King. The King and Queen (lol) were BALLEY/Midway, who kept up the arcade with a constant influx of awesome games from shooters, Pins, and Racers that attracted the general public and Hard-Core gamers alike.
Medieval Madness
HydroThunder
Cruisin line of arcade racers
Let's not forget Namco for makeing the # 1 running game for the past three years.
TIME CRISIS II
Write your city council to have all of the ordinances banning arcades removed!
DW
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
The problem is, the gap has come down dramatically with technological advances, making it so items like the Metal Gear Solid 2 trailer for the PS2, which is all rendered in realtime, blow away a lot of arcade material, or at the very least equals it.
With the cost of playing, coupled with the fact that the PS2 and other consoles now generate comparable graphics and sound that equal if not exceed their arcade brethren, the home console is becoming a more attractive proposition for a games player. Shell out a buck or two a go, or shell out 50 or so for a game you can play infinite times. Home technology has finally caught up.
It could be worse though I guess. At least Capcom are still going to makes games.
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With the widespread availability of affordable gaming systems (both PC and console), it's understandable that the arcade business might suffer a few losses. The price of valuable floor space (especially in malls) is becoming extremely expensive, as is the cost of these arcade systems. Accordingly, the game prices are going up a great deal - a $0.25 is a rarity, and it's not uncommon to spend $1.00 playing a 10 minute game.
/. about turning a cheap PC into a dedicated emulator in a custom built box.
Simply put, this is just too much money for too little entertainment. I live somewhat near a theater and arcade combo (with bumper cars and mini-golf). Going to see a 2-3 hour movie is much cheaper than spending about an hour in the arcade!
If one is a serious gamer, the time spent playing games every week is mind-boggling. Purchasing a cheaper console (Dreamcast, PS 1, etc) is FAR more economical than playing one's favorite arcade game every night. In addition, emulators are everywhere for those with PCs, playing the old classic arcade games. For those true geeks who like the boxed stand-up arcade set, there have been posts to
The ONLY real advantage in a real arcade system is unusual hardware - especially racing games and VR games. However, even that gaming hardware is becoming increasingly affordable.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
I wonder if those cool XBOX screenshots of the snowboarder with those sun dogs streaming off his glasses were the final straw?
SDMI: Finally! Music that won't rip or burn! Brought to you by the fine folks at RIAA.
For me, the main ones are the increase in cost, as well as the greater availability of pc systems.
For a quarter, I might place a few games that I suck at, and wind up blowing 5 or ten bucks, because each games is only a quarter. But if it is a dollar up front, then I'm going to be far more careful with that money, and maybe only play it once or twice.
Let's face it, what makes a pizza place or a bar more money: a pinball machine priced at a buck that no one touches, or a machine with people around it at a quater a pop.
Now because of inflation, a quarter does not go as far as it used to. But sorry guys, things do NOT cost four times as much as they did in the 80s. So the guys got greedy, and people kept jacking the prices, and now we have things priced out of the market.
For the cost, the games got to be harder, etc so that you can maintain your cash flow per hour. A five minute game for a quarter is pulling in 3 big bucks an hour for revenue maximum. This is probably not very economic. With games costing thousands, or whatever, the numbers get interesting.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Someone please explain to me how game manufacturers benefit from charging a dollar to play a game. There was a Sega Star Wars Arcade game here at a local place that cost $1 per play. It sat empty 99.9% of the time. After it got a bit older and there were problems with the monitor, the price was cut to a quarter a play and now you have to wait in line to play...despite the fact that there is a nasty mark on the screen.
When I was very young (6 or 7 years old), I would get $1 to play each time I went to the arcade. I had to stand on one of the little boosters to even reach the controls. I could enjoy myself for quite a bit of time despite my limited game playing skills, however, now that dollar would last 5 minutes as it would be fed into a game that is DESIGNED to kill me/beat me/take my money after a certain period of time.
Well, you got places like Pladium which of course costs a fortune and has contracts with specific vendors. And then you got a bunch of dinky arcade hangouts in the heart of downtown. That's it.
When I grew up there was the local pizza place with some arcade boxes and the local convenience store etc. Now there is none of that. Why would kids drop in coins when they can play way better games on way better TVs at home. It is also depressing when the average game is now $1 or more. It used to be 25c!
And if the kiddies wanna spend loads of cash just go to Sega City or Pladium which are way more than an arcade anyways.
Sad but true, the arcade days are numbered.
--- tracer.ca