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Midway Quits Coin-Operated Business
Robot writes "Midway Games on friday, reported it is exiting the coin-operated video-game market in order to focus its business exclusively on games for the rapidly growing home video-game market. The Chicago-based company said it made its decision based on the "ongoing declining demand in the coin-operated arcade video game market". Midway said its game development efforts will now be focused on games for next generation platforms including the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube. More information can be found at FunXbox."
Another nail in the coffin of the arcade.
Eh? $10,000? I admit it has been almost ten years since I worked for a CoinOp company, but $10,000?
In 1992 most CoinOps were about $1000, a tad bit under. MP Games (where I worked) was doing pretty poorly because we made the early 3D games (well, the early solid 3D games, others did vector ones, I doubt anyone did one before Atari's Red Baron). Our system cost about $1000 to build, and we had to sell it for more like $3000. That was a pretty tough fight.
I expect prices to have gone up a bit, but $10,000?
And what makes you think the machine is really dedicated? MP did 3 released games on the same platform (different controllers, and cabinet art). Plus 5 or so internal ones that didn't get completed. Sega has done maybe half a dozen or more games on an arcade platform that is almost identical to the Dreamcast - about twice the RAM, a ton more ROM, and no CD ROM...
Even in the "old days" most machines had at least one conversion kit to turn it into another game, that normally includes new decals for the machine, and new ROMs. Normally the same controllers though. Tempest had Major Havoc. I forget what the other Street Fighter game was, but it sucked, SF was the conversion, and it was far far more popular then the original. Good deal for people too, because the conversion kits were about $200, and the old game was around $500, so for $700 you could get a box that did $400 to $1200 a week depending on the traffic in the area...
That's for sure. Game console controls all seem to be cheep, sized for kids, and flimsy. The dreamcast's arcade controller was at least kind of nice (metal joystick!), but the contacts do wear out.
Even the PC controllers aren't as nice as they could be (driving rigs still tend to be small for example), but at least there the force feedback is good. Maybe as the arcades close up good controllers will at long last come home.
Also I think the Xbox has real USB connectors so you can buy good controllers, at least if they make them (and the PC controllers seem nicer then consoles, even if they are nowhere near as nice as CoinOp controllers).
Nah -- they need to preserve their intellectual property so they can make pointless remakes for the PS2 that have no saving graces except their name. Expect "Pac Man 2002", etc.
Exactly my point. You just can't do a slap-save with a joystick or keyboard.
I've also never seen a really good physics simulator in a video-pin. It still takes too much CPU power to do full 3D collision detection and response, especially with curved (non-polygonal) objects. In a real pin you get weird bounces off a bumper or from a drop-target resetting underneath the ball; things that'd make you think there's a bug in the simulator if you didn't know you were batting a real steel ball around. That's the kind of thing that makes the game feel right.
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Not every game. I defy you to find any PC or console system capable of an accurate rendition of a pinball machine.
Of course, pinball had its own problems in the arcades. The machines were expensive, not prone to upgrading, and had hellish maintenance requirements. It was finally killed by video games which only required the operator to wipe the screen and empty the cashbox. And of course, since pinball is entirely skill-based someone who's good can play forever on a quarter or so. Timed video games work. Timed pinball games went over like a lead balloon. (Although Capcom's "Kingpin" had a lot of promise. Pity it never got released.)
Hopefully Stern can make inroads by marketing pinball as a novelty machine. But, having played Striker Xtreme just yesterday, I'm afraid I don't have much hope for them being able to reverse the trend that drove Alvin G., Gottlieb, Sega, Capcom, and even Bally/Williams out of the arena.
But I'll give up my Black Knight and Big Bang Bar machines when they pry the flippers out of my cold, dead hands!
Chelloveck
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Let's hope that some arcade collectors manage to get some documents and other items from Williams as they close shop. There will be a lot of information that is very valuable to the collecting community. At worst, maybe Williams can be convinced to eBay it.
It would be a shame to have it all thrown away. Or sold to a dealer who'll resale for an outrageous forum. BTW, a lot of Atari documents were recovered by an alert arcade game collector in Ireland who had the opportunity to help clear out a warehouse that Atari onced used for its coin-op divison. Let's hope the same happens here.
Sorry you had that experience, and I want to thank you for your efforts. I have set up this page on your behalf.
the last decent game I played by Midway on PC was Mortal Kombat 3 for DOS. It went downhill from there...
Right - which really goes to show why Midway should move into consoles and not PC games. I'm not a huge arcade buff, but Mortal Kombat is the most recent hugely successful arcade game that comes to mind - it even spawned a Hollywood movie. That fighting genre isn't really a good fit for PCs as there isn't really a ubiquitous, intuitive interface (i.e. 6-button joystick) in consumers' hands on the PC, whereas consoles are well adapted for this style of game (c.f. Tekken 1,2,3... etc).
Windows 95 MK3 won't play fullscreen without screen distortion, MK Trilogy won't work at all on video cards less than three years old without a modified video driver, and MK 4 didn't see my Voodoo 3 3000 card as being Glide-compatible
Again demonstrating they're better off sticking to well-defined hardware platforms than the fickle and unpredictable world of PC multimedia hardware.
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Current releases of MAME have led me to believe that being good at Mah Jong is a good way to get kinky sex in Japan. I was also under the impression that Japanese arcades would be similarly homongenous as American arcades. I thought that Strip Mah Jong would perhaps replace the gun games.
A $10,000 machine dedicated to a single game knocks the socks off a PS2/XBox any day.
While this may be true, you have to take into consideration, that the company would have to sell an enormous amount of them to make a profit, as opposed to focusing on creating home market games, which many have turned to and is guaranteed to make money.
Heck yea I remember the days of playing Joust, Missle Command, Dig Dug, and others, but nowadays the games are expensive, they make too many to find a favorite, and way too many arcades no longer exist even in New York City. It's a losing venture for them.
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Out here in New York City, the good od mayor has saw fit to ban many of the old arcades that once owned the Times Square area, since they claimed, the arcades posed a dangerous hazard to the citizens. The stated too many kids cut classes to end up their, pedo's went their to pick up kids, etc, etc.
Anyways, I haven't seen a decent arcade in ages, and the ones I do see are all like Starbucks type places with bars, neon lights, etc. Well it may be nice to some, but no longer do most of those games take money but ATM like refillable cards, and they're not 25 cents like they used to be. Why should I spend 2.00 on a game when I could stay home playing PS2?
Aside from that, hardly any pinball machines make money in todays world. Think about where the majority of p'ball machines end up, honky tonk pubs, and shit. Definitely not a money maker.
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Even those here who steadfastly continue to trivialize the potential for videogames to permanently damage the psyche of impressionable children (yeah, YOU Katz) must be forced to reckon with the spectre of one of the most inarguably traumatic experiences of all our childhoods.
Many games amused and inspired me, some even frightened and frazzled me.
But Midway / Williams was responsible, nay, dare I say irresponsible for bringing to life one game that had the power to terrify through barbaric taunts and satanic jeers.
How many thousands of children were permanently scarred by the memory of this quarter-eating tormentor?
How many millions of nightmares were spawned in response to this evil whose name we dare not speak?
How many more nights will I awake to my own pitiable screams, as I hear that demonic bellow again and again?
He could not be placated... Only postponed....
He could not be killed... Only delayed...
His power was greater than all foes combined...
The only way to win was not to play.
No, this was not the nail in the coffin of the arcade. The nail in the coffin was all the games that took $1 or more to play, and were designed to keep sucking quarters out of your pocket, no matter how good you were. Check out today's User Friendly for a very good take on this.
Back in the day, you could play any arcade game for hours on one quarter if you were good enough. Now, no matter how good you are, you will play for 5 minutes, tops. Now, why would I go to an arcade again?
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This is one of the most frustrating aspects of an economic downturn -- the fact that companies abandon all but the most lucritive markets in an effort to please the shareholders. Sure, making games for the consoles is a MASSIVE market, but I still believe in the merits of the coin-op arcade games and would find it sad to see other companies exit the business.
Why the love? A few reasons:
Long live the coin-op arcade game!!
nlh
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
There are really cool games out there, but some people don't have them. Look for either of the Silent Scope games (especially Silent Scope 2). The Skateboarding game is great too (I can't remember what it's called).
I haven't seen these here. Not that I go into the arcades all that much anymore. The last time I went was probably 6 months ago now. The only place that seems to have games locally is Dave and Busters and I don't know how often they upgrade.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The problem with the coin-op gaming industry is that it's currently showing no creativity in coming up with fresh ideas. A lot of games in the historical past are still more entertaining than today's offerings, despite the fancier graphics that we get with the latter.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The problem with taking a game like Half-Life and turning it into an arcade game is that if you get more than 5 minutes of play per token, the arcade owner is not maximizing his profit on the machine. So, rather than have you spend lots of time going off on some time-wasting exploration, the arcade game just pushes you along the path to give you the most action and the most chance to get killed faster. Arcade games can't compete with games like Half-Life and Metal Gear Solid, nor should they try.
There's nothing quite like grabbing a joystick that's slick with kid-sweat, or walking across a sticky theater floor.... ;-)
Sorry to hear of Midway's decision; the golden age of the coin-op arcade is indeed over.
Now that we all acknowledge that, wouldn't it be refreshing if Midway took a clear stance on OK'ing the use of its ROM images for MAME and other emulators? It would be nice to see the "abandonware" concept explored a bit more courageously than it has been so far. It would be great for Midway to take the lead on this now that it's decided to leave the business.
TomatoMan
-- http://frobnosticate.com
Fighting and driving games both offer muliplayer potential and the ability to show of your skills in public.
Translation: DSL multiplayer gaming killed them.
Shooters have hardware that's generally not in living rooms. They give the player something unavailable at home.
Simply get a light gun that emulates a mouse, hook it up to Quake 3 with an arcade-style joystick bound to ESDF, and you nearly have the arcade experience. (Too bad the VGA dropped the EGA's light pen interface, or we'd have more light guns.)
Will I retire or break 10K?
As video game systems and computers became more advanced they could run every game that was in arcades and more.
What was wrong with arcade first-person shooters (from Duck Hunt to Virtua Cop and Area 51) was that you never (or very seldom) got to choose the direction you moved. Being able to step off the mine cart, hide behind obstacles, and surprise your foes would have added a ton of depth.
But wait, I just described Doom, Goldeneye, and Hlf-Life.
See the point? Players realized that computer and console gameplay was much deeper than anything available in the arcades, as the emphasis is on immersion and not pressure in the game (such as cheap hits) to move the cattle through the queue.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I found programming to be more enjoyable than playing games anyway
Programming is the ultimate text-based adventure.
You are in a twisty little maze of compiler warnings, all alike.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Right on! I can't believe I had to read this far down to see it.
Some of my best memories of playing as a 10-18 year old in the late 70s /early 80s were of either meeting with (or confronting) people at the arcades. They were *the* hangout spots. I once rode my bike miles to get to the mall because they had such a good arcade.
Anybody else out there who remembers the Spaceway Raceway in Springfield Mall (Virginia) knows what I'm talking about. They didn't just have games either--they had air hockey and bumper cars towards the back. My dad always used to take me there on Saturdays. We'd play air hockey and bumper cars while my sister and my mother shopped.
Usually I would just go to the 7-11, County rec-center or some other place nearby. I must have known every machine within a reasonable bike ride.
For me, the end of the arcade came a long time ago. First, the games started getting "cartoony" and getting much harder to play. That wasn't so bad, but what really killed it was they turned the lights on in the arcade. The dark, noisy atmosphere was part of the whole appeal. I imagine some people might have gotten pick-pocketed, but they should have just gotten more security. Instead, they ruined the atmosphere.
Finally, I went to college and that was the straw that broke the camels back. I guess I was burned out on games by then, and if I really wanted my fix I could play them on my C-64. Defender on the C-64 was almost as good as the arcade, and when I think about all the quarters I pumped in that game, the cart must have payed for itself in two weeks.
As for the social scene, I had a college dorm. 'nuff said. Then, by the time you graduate you can drink. You've got bars. 'nuff said.
This makes me wonder though, where do the suburban brats that used to visit the machines hang out these days? Of course they can play games at their houses, but is there anyplace where kids are *forced* to contend with eachother in a social setting, whether they like eachother or not? I think you learn a lot that way.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
When people used to go to arcades they got to play the newest and most advanced games. There was no way that any home system could compete with them. As video game systems and computers became more advanced they could run every game that was in arcades and more. Combine this with the price of arcades constantly going up, and no one wants to play anymore.
I don't really care about the loss of arcade developers because there will always be video games, just in a different form. If you really like the arcade feel, you can build your own and play your games on that. Search the net for plans and with about $400 you'll never be without an arcade again.
A lot of arcades have been shutting down where I live, and when I visited Vegas this year, the huge arcades were turned into restaurants, and the arcades relocated to little corners of the buildings.
Arcades have been stereotyped, as well: a place for male losers to hang out and burn through money.
But let's face it, the market has shifted -- or is shifting, anyway. Before, you had your SNES at home, and you'd go to the arcade to play the latest and greatest. Sort of like, you have your PC/Mac at home, but you could check out some SGI workstation at a university.
Today, "arcade power" fits quite nicely in a black rectangle that also plays DVDs for you (PS2...).
Certainly, arcades could always out-do home systems, but if the difference isn't great enough, people don't care to make a trip. I love realism (sometimes), but I don't need PERFECT realism.
Meanwhile, am I willing to play more than $0.75 or $1 per game? No, sorry. Even as the games got more costly to produce, arcade income didn't rise accordingly, I don't think.
So Midway's decision makes sense.
Another problem, I suppose, is that there's no Mortal Kombat on the scenes right now. There's no incredible game only for arcades (meaning, when MK came out, you had to go to the arcades to play it).
I think this trend could continue.
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Yeah, that's why the kids are lining up to play Ms. Pac Man, while Dance Dance Revolution stands idle in the corner, and everyone ignores Silent Scope 2 because they can play Battlezone instead.
-Dead Lesbian Witches! Think about it!
I used to go to arcades, but then all the fun games were replaced by SF2 clones and driving games that last for 90 seconds.
In the UK it is RIDICULOUSLY expensive - 1ukp for a quick blast on the latest daytona rubbish? How about being thrashed by a Tekken machine set on top difficulty to maximise the amount of money pumped in? Sorry, I really don't think so - give me a knackered old Robocop machine set at 10p a go anytime.
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The fact that games here are, and AFAIK have always been, all 100 yen (~= US$0.83) could also be a factor in the health of arcades...
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I hate to make light of this sad sad day.... but I'm sorry.... I can't resist....
HOORAY FOR NO MORE ARCADE MORTAL KOMBAT GAMES!
.... Ok, now that I've gotten that out of my system.... let us now mourn the swarm of Midway games that shall soon hit the console world....
Seriously though, Midway made some really great games in "the day," and while I dislike their clinging to certain franchises, it's their fight to keep innovative pinball games in production that kept the "genre" alive until the very end. For all their continued life in console gaming, no console game will ever compare to the true arcade experience, and there'll never be an emulator that can simulate the joy of real pinball.
Oh, and apologies to anyone who may have been offended by my making light of the situation. I just REALLY hate Mortal Kombat.
I was taking a vacation in Reno a couple of months ago, and I learned the value of dropping 50 cents for 5 minutes (maybe 10 if your good) of challenging game play versus 5 seconds of a slot machine where I got nothing back except the desire to drop another 50 cents to try to recoup my losses (repeat vicious cycle).
Back in the mid 1980s Nintendo entered the arcade game insustry by packaging their (original) console product with a library of games and installing it inside the base of a standard looking arcade game. It seemed to me that was a pretty good idea. A method to bridge the Console Gaming and Arcade Gaming indistries. I never saw a second generation of that technology. Did they pursue this any further?
What comes to mind is, it might have angered game manufacturers who were developing for the Nintendo Console as a second platform, in addition to releasing their games in arcade chasis, with their own hardware, although I presume there are standard arcade video game platforms at this point, produced by third parties, thus allowing the gaming companies to concentrate their efforts of the software content of the game. Can anyone comment on how this aspect of the arcade video game industry works?
--CTH
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Sitting at home in front of a TV, cradling some 2 oz. cheap plastic controller in your lap is not the same.
Arcades are a way to go out and enjoy something in the real world while home console games are a way to hide away from the world.
The arcade was never about deep, in depth gaming or a "feel" to the controls...it was about quick turn arounds of quarters from people who sucked at the games and long playtimes for people who were skilled at them. "Easy to learn, hard to master"...the watchwords of Chess and Centipede alike. If the arcade has one major feature, it's that the games were actually challenging -- try and get past level five of Space Invaders if you've never played before. The little tricks of pixels and timing loops are what made the arcade so much fun...somebody with the skill to notice EXACTLY where Tiger Heli can move without becoming imploded would have a clean run, and it was your job as a patzer to feed that machine with 2-bit pieces until you could approach his level of skill. Challenge in those games meant you *COULD* win it all for 25 cents, but you would have to try very very hard to do so...and maybe have a little luck on your side.
But of course, today, challenge and simplicity are no longer the hallmarks of great gaming. Games are sold for their graphics and style like comic books, control is a word used to define whether or not the objects on the screen even do what you tell them to do, and challenge is nowhere to be seen. There are, of course, exceptions -- but none of them in the Arcade. Many arcade games are One Play, No Matter What...games ending after five or ten minutes whether you do well or not. Daytona 2, for all its graphical insanity, misses the fun of an all-day Pole Position run, or getting through Radmobile on one play.
And most guilty of all of this is Midway. With Gauntlet Legends, they took a great game and turned into a graphical mess, with ugly coloured lights and washed out textures everywhere. The old block based movement of Gauntlet (resulting in perfect positioning being the key to vanquishing an enemy swarm) was replaced by a multi tiered mess, where some traps were just unavoidable. And of course, let's not forget the mess of Mortal Kombats that blackened the step of many an Aladdin's Castle in recent years...bloody messes with gameplay that included "Uppercut, punch punch punch, Freeze the guy, sweep him, then kill him in some horrible fashion," and very little else. Oh the wasted time and wasted change trying to make those games seem like they were actually fun, the whole time praying that the gaudy motion captured characters would turn into the ninjas from Samurai Shodown.
Midway lost the arcade feel...they don't understand what made people stuff a machine with quarters -- the arcade madness, they lost. Their pinball machines will be missed...but the rest will be sold cheap for their Jamma connectors and monitors.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I know there are already at least two other posts in this discussion that mention Japan, so I'll try to not be redundant. BTW, I'm living in Japan for the summer, so that's why I refer to it at "here".
Go to a coin-op arcade, if you can find one. It's a lot harder these days. What do you see? Half a dozen fighting games all of which look like Tekken or Street Fighter, a few racing games and a few FPS games where you've got a gun.
The reason that arcades (or "game centers" as they're more logically referred to here) do better business is twofold.
The first point is un-debatable I think. In an arcade in the US, there are basically 4 type of games: Standard (Gauntlet, Tekken, etc.), Driving, Shooting, and Pinball (though it's becoming rarer). I'll ignore games like skee-ball and other redemption-ticket games since those are rarely played by anyone over 8. In a Japanese game center, there are all sorts of different games, with a wide array of user interfaces. Dancing games like DDR are just making it to the States, but there are a lot of other music-based games which are very popular here (Guitar Freaks to name one). On a recent trip, I saw a boxing game, where you actually threw punches with your fists. You just can't get that kind of experience from a console, so there's actually a reason to go to the arcade. Some of these games are so popular that you actually can buy these bizarre input devices for the home versions (DDR has a PS floor pad controller), but I think the success of things like that has more to do with the gadget-obsession of the Japanese. All that aside, I'm sure even Americans would go to an arcade if the gaming experience was significantly different from what one could do at home
The second point is probably just as important if not more so. At game centers there are plenty of straight-up video games, but there's also a lot more. I know arcades in the US often have a little booth where you can take a picture of yourself. Usually it's a PC hooked up to a camera and a printer in a plywood box. At the game centers here there are invariably dozens of these machines, all with their own special features. Many of them allow you several trys to get the best picture, and then after you select, you have the option to decorate it with little clip art, and write messages on it before it gets printed out. I'll admit, this caters to the teenage girl set, but how many teenage girls go to arcades in the US? Another thing most game centers have are betting games. They're called genkin geemu in Japanese, if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, they are a lot of different kinds, some based on detailed simulations of horse racing and whatnot. It's not the kind of thing that interests me, but it does interest a lot of adults. The point is, the game centers' offerings cater to many different kinds of people, where as most US arcades cater to the 12-18 year old male.
This issue has just as much to do with the shortsighted management of arcades as it does with the dreary offerings of coin-op companies. If the arcade industry is to survive in the US, I think they both need to take a cue from their Japanese counterparts.
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