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Rebirth of the U.S. Arcade?
Gamasutra has an article up looking at Sega's plan to reinvigorate the arcade market through its recently purchased GameWorks chain. From the article: "I think what GameWorks has done has recognized where our opportunities are, and through our relationship with Sega — hopefully we're starting to see innovations back on the arcade side that bring a new and different environment and experience that people can't get at home. If you're familiar with House of the Dead 4 and the graphics that are a part of that, it's now starting to be back to having an appeal, starting to see some of that impact back on the arcade-side where you can't play in front of a 52-inch screen and have all of the very vibrant color and animation that's part of it — you can't just do that at home."
Can I smoke some weed there like I do at home before playing? =)
The arcade games at the local movie theater is at least ten years old. Would be nice to have some new arcade games or even (gasp!) pinball machines. I just wish the damn five-years-old stop beating at every game I try.
They get these, I'll be there!
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They should have Penny, Nickel, Dime, and Quarter Arcade games ... just like they have Slots.
Hardware is the key. I honestly do not believe that an arcade is going to come up with software that is going to take all of my quarters away from my new Apple prodcut piggy bank. Arcades need to concentrate on games that simply aren't nearly as fun or can't be played on a mouse, keyboard, or regular controller. They also need to cost quarters to play, not dollars *O.o.
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Ok, I grew up in arcades when I was a wee tot, so I know my way around them pretty well. I went from Space Invaders, to Pac Man, to Pengo, to Dragon's Lair, to Karate Champ, to Street Fighter craze, to Killer Instinct, to
Video games were designed to play against other people. Even in the early days. Don't believe me? Think about it. Even though in those very early games you didn't specifically play against other people, you actually were indirectly. We were all playing to get the Hi-Scores. You were playing against the person who got the previous Hi-score, right? Remember how badass it was to get the top Hi-Score? That meant that your initials (and score) displayed top center all the time!
Video Game designed evolved to match players against other players more efficiently. They got pretty good at it too. Street Fighter II was not the most popular game because of it's single-player mode, afterall. Every modern arcade had a vs. mode, or at the very least a co-op mode.
So, what's my point?
People think that modern graphics advanced to the point that going to the arcade was essentially wasting money. A modern PC/console had better graphics (not to mention higher ress) than the crap at the arcade, so what was the point of leaving your house? But that's really not the entire story. People neglect to mention that multiplayer games had made major strides in PC gaming. Games like Quake brought multi-player to a whole new level. MMOGs like Ultima/Everquest made games like Cadash seem dated and boring.
There was one thing that was missing though, and this was in multi-player fighting games. PCs, or even consoles, could never _quite_ do it properly. Also, nothing beats the arcade controls/buttons when it comes to multi-player fighting games. I'm sorry, but I just never quite got the hang of fighting games using a console controller, nevermind a bloody keyboard/flight stick.
Now, here is what I think arcades should have done to get the one-up on PCs/Consoles. Since graphics will be at least par across both PCs/consoles/arcades, then they should take the multiplayer aspect to the next level.
Think about all the acades, like Tilt for instance (which is an arcade I see everywhere in Texas) all linked up via a nice WAN/LAN. If you walk in, and see an empty Soul Edge machine, you can jack in the queue, and play some other bloke standing at a Soul Edge machine at another location! All players, across all locations are now linked together.
Now, think about a giant electronic board that shows all the Hi-Scores across the _entire_ chain of Tilt stores (it could even be available to look at via the www while sitting at home). You can see who has the most wins in a row in Street Fighter 4. The fastest lap in . The highest score in Michael Jackson's Moonwalker... err... you get the idea.
I mean, Doesn't Golden Tee do something like this?
Anyway, I could go on and on. Arcades rooms really should start linking up their stores, and the arcade machines themselves, and drop all Hi-Scores across the organization into one DB accessable via a badass screen.
Arcades should go back to their roots. Then I would love to go back to the arcades and do a little Hi-Score Hunting!
++Om
Now (almost) everyone hase a handheld that can play games of very good quality how are they thinking to compete that? They better plaice them in locations where you don't come with your handheld like some sort of events and concerts.
However, if they do 'rebirth' the arcade market in the US, I hope to hell that they bring it to the East Coast, as I've only ever seen GameWorks on the West Coast....
Well this can't possibly fail ...
Sure lots of folks like to say that consoles killed the arcade, but I just don't believe it. Arcades have always offered "You can't get this experience at home."
What I think really killed the arcade industry was operators that had Mr Crabs or Scrooge Mc Duck as operators.
I can't remember how many times I went into an arcade, plopped a token/quarter in the slot only to find that a button was broken, or a joystick and or steering wheel was loose. When i'd go to the operator asking for a refund, it was always met with some fat guy smelling like he hadn't showered in a week pointing at a sign that said, "Play at your own risk, no refunds!"
$0.25 is all it would have taken to keep me happy and coming back to my local arcade. Instead of cultivating customers for the long term though, most arcade operators just don't care. Attendance started dropping off, and as a result people started turning to PC's and console systems for their fix.
The only plan to revitalize the arcade would be to reduce what it costs to play a game. The only way to do that is to make arcade games substantially more durable, because they are expensive to maintain. It would also help to make them cheaper. Unfortunately, making them more reliable would make them more expensive. So, obviously I don't have THE ANSWER(tm).
Regardless, it costs maybe $200 to get a decent used console with a couple peripherals, and $20 per used game, so let's say $300 to play give games as much as you want. Since new release games cost one dollar and up per play that's maybe 300 games, which will take between 30 seconds and what, five minutes? Ten if you're a super-pimp? By the time you've learned the combos on a new fighting game, you could have bought the last version and taken it home.
Speaking for myself, it would require that all games were fifty cents or less per play before I would go back to spending a lot of time in arcades.
There are a handful of arcades that run on nickels, if it's normally a dollar game it's a twenty cent game. They tend to have prize systems and snack bars, though, as well as other merchandise. They also tend to be COMPLETELY PACKED.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Arcades would be great to introduce new games to gamers. Let them sample and socialize a little in person.
I rarely play any games so don't listen to me.
The day I can play a game for 25 cents. Seriously - I'd end up spending a dollar anyway - it's absurd that companies expect you to shell out $1.00 for 2 minutes of gameplay.
Nowadays, mostly every computer and videogame on the market can have a game at the an arcade level. Flashy graphics, cool sound, cockpits and other stuff don't cut it anymore, all consoles from the last 3~4 years have that (except for the cockpits, but that's already dull anyway). They have to innovate on the Interface. I say, let go of the joysticks, buttons, wheels, etc. They need to make the player immerse more on the action using interfaces similar to Nintendo's Wii controler, but more refined for the especific game. Actually, I think a big killer and the next big thing for Arcades would be VR games. I understand the technology isn't quite there yet, but then again, the industry had plenty of time to mature the technology, by means of investments - the Arcardes market was really sleeping at the wheel. I actually saw a VR game years ago, but it didn't took off. The glasses weighted a bit too much, and the interface felt awkward mostly because of that, it didn't feel natural.
In summary, what the Arcade market needs to delivery is something that people can't get on their living room.
Perhaps making an arcade cabinet not cost $10 000 would be a start. The main reason the arcade is dead is because the things cost so much to buy, which would be passed on to the consumer, and paying $2 to play a machine for five minutes is not my idea of a good time.
I guess that's probably better than arcade afterbirth.
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All I keep hearing about with next gen is bigger TV's, "you need a 52inch HDTV to experiance it to the full extent!" "you need this big ass tv to exerpiance it properly!"
Sure before each system said they would support High Def this might of been timely and made sence but right now, it seems like the "Hardcore" videophile/gamer will have a 52 inch TV (or even bigger) with vibrant color and will be playing HOTD4 on their 360 right in their living room.
So the only thing they can do is make arcades with outragius controllers (Steel Battalion would of made a great arcade game) and more immersive controlls (like if it's a motorcycle game you need to be on one, if it's a car racing game you need to be on a car). There really isn't a whole lot they can do to impress people and make them want to go to the arcade anymore, When you look at the price to play a game (upto $2 a pop last I saw and this was like 6 or 7 years ago) you really have to offer something people can't get at home, naturally this isn't going to happen since they want to make as much money possible off the game so they release it for the home consoles and thus negating the arcade experiance (since you don't have to worry about the little shit that wipped his ass on the controlls or if a button will work or not).
Online, more impressive controllers & fun gameplay are the only things that can bring the arcade industry back but when someone looks at an arcade game then a home console game and sees the HCG is better on graphics, length and is cheaper in the long run it's rather hard to convince people to go to an arcade, deal with someone who just doesn't give a shit about you, the arcades or even their own hygene just so you can get a couple minutes of fun from a broken down machine.
Other than the games I've seen in the local bowling alley, about the only arcades one sees is Dave and Busters. The problem with D&Bs is IMHO, that it's 'credit based'. So you pay X to to charge up a card and a game costs Y credits. The thing is the more you play the more credits your dollar buys. Kinda like a volume discount. If you don't go very often, then you're always getting the fewest # of credits per dollar.
The kicker tho is, it's very hard to tell a) how many credits you have on your card and b) how many credits a game takes. What kills me is that half the games they have cost $5 and are "timed", meaning that as you play you are running out of time. The classic example of this is Gauntlet, where even if you aren't hit, you are running outta health.
Surprisingly, the profitability problem with arcades isn't the games. It's the food service. See this consultant's report: "Food Service and Location-Based Leisure Projects". "The only location-based entertainment (LBE) venues that will be profitable in the future are those that draw guests because of, not in spite of, the chow." Consider Chuck E Cheese, Nolan Bushnell's original pizza/arcade operation from 1977, which has 500 locations. They've stayed in business through three decades and all the generations of consoles. And they're profitable.
As the consultants put it, A well-designed and managed food & beverage operation can generate a 40+% profit after deducting cost-of-goods-sold and labor. Ban the words "snack bar" and "concession" from your vocabulary. Think café and restaurant instead.
They're probably right. That's something an arcade can deliver that you can't get at home.
Arcade games were a step ahead of what you could get at home. Once home games equalled arcade games, arcades died. Its simple economics. Arcades could come back, but it'd require a game experience you can't get in home. Some mentioned VR, but even racing games are what are in arcades now, but they suck. It would require something revolutionary to bring back arcades, and the rise of the home gaming systems is so revolutionary, I can't see arcades beating it any time soon.
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I don't know how widespread these places were, but in Toronto Sega opened several huge arcade centres called "Playdium". They had all the latest arcade cabinets in their hugest and coolest forms, plus tried n' true titles and retro areas. Plus they featured batting cages, rock climbing, go karts, motion simulators, Skee-ball and other ticket games, and I don't even know what else because I could never make it all the way around those places.
For some reason most of these places flopped. I believe they had 3 locations including an all-hours store in the entertainment district downtown. Strangely, that was the location to close first. Now the only one left is the first store in Mississauga which is a good 40KM from downtown.
They sound great in theory but in the end they're annoying. You have to stand in huge lines to play anything good and there's no "code of honour" to keep people from continuing their games indefinitely. Games are all priced differently and you pay via arbitrary "credits" on paycards that invariably leave you with 4.7 unusable and non-refundable doodads. Many card sliders are broken and either prevent you from playing, steal your credits, or require multiple swipes which take longer than a continue countdown timer.
These places are great for tourists but, aside from the odd $20 allnighter, are too expensive and too much of a drive for residents to call a regular hangout.
I, for one, would much sooner play PC on my 19" monitor or PS2 on my 31" TV than get jostled around by tittering tweens 45 minutes from my house.
It seems that many of the comments about arcades have already been addressed by GameWroks. Many of you may not be farmiliar with the chain or looked at the prices and walked right back out. The GameWorks in Grapevine Mills Mall is just outside of Dallas and I have been there several times. At ten P.M. they kick out everyone under the age of 18. You pay around $20 for two hours of access to every game. They serve food and alcohol. I have a beer, a game and no screeming brats. It works. the place is packed at night. The place is a horrible rip off unless you pay for time. Paying to play individual games would burn up $20 in fifteen minutes. Also about broken machines. They have on site staff to fix the games.
was mentioned in the article, and it's 7 bloody years old. I mean, really, what's needed are cabinets with interchangable hardware so it's not so expensive to add new games. Jamma was a good idea, but as soon as 3D hit big, it was thrown by the wayside in favor of custom hardware. And Clint's assertion that people don't have 52" screens with vibrant color and animation is just silly. The last couple House of the Dead games ran on x86/Nvidia hardware, and I know plenty of people with 52" tvs. Bolting a sports bar on isn't going to help much either. OTOH, tournaments are good. Might give people a reason to go to the arcade again.
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i'd like to join in the chorus of voices saying basically this:
if you want my interest back in the arcade gaming arena, you need to become more competitive price-wise with other gaming markets, like the consoles and PCs I already own and play for free
This is old news.
People like me, who build arcade machines (though I own a MAME-based machine, most of the machines I build use a game I've written called Jewel Crash which is very similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo), can't set the prices. That's left up to the people who end up operating the machines. I work at an arcade where most of the video games are $0.50 and the ticket games are $0.25; there's a ton of pass-through, but it's also located at a resort so there's a lot of built-in clientele among the kids.
The machines aren't new. The most played game is Area 51, with Skee-Ball being a close second. But they get a metric fuckton of use. Part of it's the cheap play; part of it's just that the games are addictive.
Someone up above suggested having varying price structures ($0.25 on a Tuesday morning and $2.00 on a Friday afternoon). This is a great idea. I've been tried to work on the same thing on a newer-type cabinet--I have the advantage of being the one who wrote the game, so I can build the machine and edit the code as well. The problem is that it vastly increases the price of building the cabinet. It also means that every old-style game is suddenly incompatible with new machines.
The standard coin doors that you see in arcades can't support that. Coin mechanisms are based on an electronic switch. When you drop in a coin that validates (there's a different mech for quarters, brass tokens, nickels, or whatever), it completes a circuit. It's no different to the program running it than a button press (indeed, MAME cabinets usually have a button that simulates a coin drop). Every arcade coin mech I've ever seen operates like this and doesn't accept more than one type of coin/token.
There are mechanisms that accept multiple types of coins. They're pricey as hell and I've never seen one that interfaces with an arcade system (like the I-PAC, which most people use in combination with PC hardware to simulate behavior with MAME or PC-written "arcade" games).
Basically--the current method of arcade systems is not conducive to modern entertainment centers. And unless they can find USB-based or even serial-connecting coin devices that are as cheap as the current coin mechs--I don't see anything like this working out.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
So ... you're going to do ... something. Am I supposed to get even a little excited by this? (Insert "???/Profit" joke here.)
When I hear someone talk about trying make an arcade "appeal to the whole family" I know it's already doomed. The notion that arcades were sinister places was always completely incorrect. No one actually bought or sold drugs in arcades. So a lot of resources will be going into making the establishment "family friendly," which will appear to have no effect because there was never anything to fix, instead of concentrating on making good games that cost less than a dollar per play.
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Huh huh, you said deliver. What else can CEC offer that a video game store plus a pizza parlor can't?
in order for the arcade to come back. Arcade games are not known for immersion they are mostly twitch games....which are fine but for a $1 a game (and if your like me back in the day it was nothing to drop $40 at an arcade) you can get a better quality gaming experience by taking that same amount of money to buy a game for a home console. I say bring back pinball...cause that was the most fun and drop games back down to at least 50 cents if not a quarter.....but at a dollar? Why pump money into house of the dead 4 when you can go buy it for around the same amount. Another problem with arcade games is they no longer give you the time reward.....meaning the better you are the longer you can stretch a quarter.....games now a days often have time limits or a situation will occur in game play that garuntees you lose life. This often happens in shooting games where multiple creatures will pop up in front of you and hit you at the same time....garunteeing a loss of life. If arcades really wanted to succeed they'd go after the competition asspect where the loser walks and the winner gets to keep playing. This is one aspect that made fighting games so much fun.
Hmmm, I havent really seen much happening in the arcade since DDR. But I have noticed a lot of activity at so called 'internet cafes' which specialize in online gaming. Often with a 100 or more PCs, packed with students getting a little death match.
I think there are two key elements in the rise of the game cafe
a) quite compeling online game experiences
b) flat rate costs
Having a flat rate means that a nood doesnt feel like they are getting ripped a new one compared to spending 50c for 30 seconds of gameplay.
Additionally, countries where broadband, or even computers, are too expensive for individuals have seen huge success of cafes.
Just like movies, the arcade has to go beyond hardcore gaming, and offer more. Food seems obvious ( real food ), as does flat rate pricing.
Hate to admit it but pinball is still better than video games.
Like DDR. Dance Dance Revolution almost saved the arcades in my hometown. It was about the only game anyone played (well, that, and Soul Calibur II) and there were ALWAYS people on the machines. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough in the end.
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As the article says, and as everyone has commented, games are expensive these days. The days when arcade cabinets were relatively inexpensive and a half a generation ahead of the home systems are long gone, so that economic model can't work. You simply cannot have an arcade on every corner and have them all stay in business.
The key factor is a large, immediately accessible population. It's why the world's megalopolises like Tokyo and Hong Kong have booming arcade businesses while the rest of the world just doesn't. Even in Japan, it's only places like Tokyo and Osaka that actually have good, successful arcades that aren't attached to a bowling alley or other big draw. I live in Sakai, which was until recently a suburb of Osaka. It has roughly the population density of Seattle, and it has about a half dozen arcades that I can think of. Most of those arcades are filled primarily with slot machines and mahjongg games, with a few music games off in the corner.
Downtown Osaka, a mere thirty minutes away by train, is a wonderland of good arcades. In the entertainment districts, there's practically one on every corner. The difference is throughput. When you can expect a million people to pass in front of a location every weekend, it makes sense to put an arcade there and stock it full of a million dollars worth of arcade equipment. You can afford to hire people to make sure they work right, and you can afford to share that business with five other arcades within a one-mile radius. If you don't have that kind of population, then you can't have an arcade in this day and age. In Seattle, I can't think of a place that's nearly that crowded on a regular basis, where teenagers are likely to hang out.
And one more thing, to everyone complaining about run-down arcades full of broken machines. It's because the money is gone. There isn't enough money to keep the games upgraded, there isn't enough money to hire a tech to fix the broken buttons, or if you want to do the tech yourself, there isn't enough money to hire a cashier to man the store while you're electrocuting yourself. In the Seattle area, there's an arcade called Illusionz, which used to be a mecha for fans of music games in the Northwest. The guy who ran it was really friendly, and kept the place sparkling clean. The machines were always kept in perfect condition, and I would take pleasure at riding a bus for an hour and a half each way to get there. But the money ran out, and last I checked, the games haven't been upgraded in years, there's tons of stuff broken, and the place looks dingy. This isn't because the owner's greedy. It's because he's broke.
I can get a puppet show at home: Netflix + Team America: World Police.
Me and a friend pumped £20 (quid damn u ascii) into house of the dead 4 recently and had a great time - Girlfriends ending their shopping trip early being the only thing stopping us doubling that amount - no jokes please :). It was a great arcade experience - but 20 years ago home video gaming had a lot to catch up to technologically - now it doesn't. I'm looking forwards to my first 42 inch HD screen in the next 6 months and I know at least for now (no fanboy here) that my Xbox 360 would be able to deliver those capabilies through HDMI NOW. So Sega has a long way to go to go to get far ahead of what is pretty much avaiable now. (To clarify old school Sega fanboy - out).
Yes, I think the revival of the arcade experience gaming would be great, but in reality I think if it does come in it won't be around for long. Mainly because the gaming experience we see now from consoles is the modern evolution of the original arcade gaming experience itself, it's been replaced. Now, I know that the size of the screen etc and graphics in a home environment are maybe not up to par to what they can produce in a modern gaming arcade, BUT if they're not there at the moment they will be soon, what with the speed of progression of technology these days. So if they do stage a comeback I don't think they will stand the test of time in the light of the console era.
The last time I went into an arcade, it was full of all kinds of custom input games--games where you sat on a jet-ski that moved, or stood on skies, rode on a horse, etc, not to mention of course DDR and all the lightgun-based games. (Obviously the last two have console equivalents, but not as many people are likely to have dance pads or lightguns). I know in Japan they have a game where you stick a finger-shaped thing into a fake butt. These types of things probably add a lot to the price of the machine, because they have to withstand all kinds of abuse and still work, plus because they require more custom hardware. VR that doesn't suck would be cool, but I suspect that there won't be much of a window between the point where it is feasible to have good arcade VR setups that don't cost $20 per minute to when they are mass produced for home use. Pinball, something that doesn't really feel right on a console, is dying, and is down to only one manufacturer (Stern).
I don't know if the traditional arcade is really ever going to succeed again--I would bet that game machines will linger on in places like bars and nightclubs where you have a captive audience who are unlikely to be carrying handhelds, but that market is probably satisfied with Golden Tee and various low-tech casual games.
I have an irrational desire for this product right now. I'd be PERFECTLY happy if all it did was send "nickel pulses" and let the code handle it...
Where can I get 'em these days? (Obviously I've Googled, but maybe you know somewhere cheap?
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
And the entire experience is stupid anyway. They would be better off building MAME cabinets, so that everyone could play every game. It sucks going to the arcade, and all the good games are taken up by the kids with too much money, while the rest of us are stuck playing Q-Bert. Oh, and they could charge by time played, not per game. This is the thing that bothers me the most. If you suck, you pay your $1, and then you get to play for 5 minutes. WTF is that? Even games that you are good at get extremely hard at some point to make sure you keep popping in quarters. Just charge for the time played, and stop trying to annoy the new customers.
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The reason arcades are successful in japan and not the USA have alot to do with population density and culture. In Tokyo or other large Japanese urban area's a large percentage of people use public transportation. What this means is they all take a short walks to and from the local train station. what this creates is spare time and an easy opportunity to enjoy a quick game and move on. Everyone from business men,otaku, and young women just stop in to check out the newest fad. Arcades realize this and place their business along these routes.
In America the arcade requires a special trip. Whether its the mall or the local nickel arcade you have to plan a trip and take time specifically for games. Most people here just won't do it anymore due to transportation issues and the advancement of console games.
There have been arcade games like R-360, star wars, etc, where the game you play is not just a console but something you sit down *in* and it becomes a much bigger experience than you can ever achieve at home - even if you have the 3-screen, surround sound gig going (but how much is that costing you vs what you can get for the same $ in an arcade?)
If I ever see R-360 (afterburner) in an arcade, I'll stop and play it. By modern standards, the graphics are bad, but how many other fighter plane games are there where you sit down into a gyroscope and get turned upside down, etc? It might be pre-programmed and the outcome not very exciting, but I'd pay a few dollars to be able to play that once a month or so.
It is a similar experience with all the arcade racing games, where there is feedback to the driver (player) at various levels. These games haven't advanced or changed much over the years, but they're still popular enough to survive. Why? Multi-person, you sit down (like you do in a real car) and it "feels more real" than any PSP or Nintendo or PC game ever does.
Some old arcade games had very good gameplay and one could enjoy playing them for hours and spending much money of them; examples: Ms PacMan, Arkanoid, Pitfall, Solomon's Key, Donkey Kong Jr, Bubble Bobble etc.
Not only these games had good gameplay, but their audio and visuals matched perfectly. Tunes were memorable and the graphics, while primitive most of the time, they had a warmth that can not be found in later games. The overall experience was joyfull and kept you coming back.
The newer games were all about flashy graphics with minimal gameplay. The graphics were cool, but not warm, the same with the music, but you could easily forget it after you walked out of the arcade, and the price was above the sky. The overall experience was mediocre.
Nowadays one can find the flashiest graphics at home with consoles and PCs that have ridiculously powerful graphics and sound that no existing arcade machine could ever replicate...so what would be the motive to go down the arcade and play?
Well, the motivation is called 'gameplay'. Bring back the old joy of games. Make nice game characters. Make memorable tunes that are not the dance tracks that the music industry produces every week. Make games colorful and joyful. Reward the player. Make many different levels. Make many different events. Give a character to games.
What I would personally like to see as an arcade game?
I would like to see a sports game that does not suck...for example, a basketball game that provides a realistic way to handle the on screen player: I want to be able to dunk, pass, dribble, shoot and make all the moves, without computer assistance. I do not want my athletic game to be Dragons Lair (i.e. press the button at the right moment). I want freedom in gameplay.
I would like to see a platform game that has many different actions: I should be able to jump, climb, swing, dive, move objects, hide, and many more actions.
I would like to see a 3d space opera game ala Star Wars where I drive the spaceship to different planets (i.e. not computer-driven travel), engage in battles, choose upgrades for my ship, choose tactics and strategies.
I would like to see a sideways shoot-em-up which is really slow: the bullets move slowly, the enemies move slowly, the levels scroll slowly in a dizzy manner...but at the same time, I want new enemy wave patterns, new booby traps, new bosses, new and imaginative ways to combine different upgrades in order to fight in different ways...
The reason we don't have all the above is that ideas cost a lot more than content in terms of effort. It is easy to make a standard arcade game: just slap a few enemies, a classic upgrade pattern, a few standard bosses, and there you go. But in the end, all games are the same and there is nothing to differentiate them...and that's one of the reasons arcades died.
Granted, I'm less interested in a video-only arcade than most people, in favor of a ticket-giving, redemption-counter sort of deal, but swipe-card machines suck for a number of reasons.
- A lot of ticket-spewing games use the coin/token to hit a target. You've just ruled out those games.
- Tokens and coins appeal to kids. Same deal with tickets. Kids like collecting tickets and (apparently) bouncing around with the coins in hand. The invention of those Ticket Eater machines that count tickets, shred them, and print out a receipt are GENIUS for people who have to work ticket counters.
- I don't have to worry about card readers and all of that crap with mechanical coin mechs. If a card reader breaks, I can't fix it. If a mechanical coin mech breaks, I can fix it, and generally pretty easily.
Dave and Buster's generally sucks, in my experience. I would never go there. The staff at the ones I've been to has been uniformly uninformed and clueless. A game hung, and they taped the thing over--instead of power cycling it...
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
I've been to Gameworks in Minneapolis more than once, and I think it's pretty cool. Yes, they have video games, but they also serve beer! Decent beer! And decent food! And they have bowling, billiards, and two bars (one upstairs and one downstairs). It can be a place to take kids, but it becomes an adult-only bar after (I think) 10pm. I would like to see more sexy waitresses, but you can't have everything.
I've seen a lot of bitching about price here, and no one has mentioned the "time limited play" option that they have. At certain (slow) times, you can pay something like $10/hr to play as much as you want. Can't do it during peak times, but it is an option.
I see it as a more grown-up version of Chuck E. Cheese. Without the salad bar.
There is (was?) also this thing out at the Mall of AmeriKa called Gillians. Simiar to gameworks, but always seemed to be very empty when I went in. Not sure why.
There used to be this fantastic arcade in Lansing, Michigan. Biggest one I've ever seen. I hope it's still around...
I'd like to see arcades come back, and it would be great if they were affordable. Someone should put together an arcade with all the classic games (Pac Man, Galaga, Dragons Lair, etc) at cheap prices. Then, perhaps at some point add a new game or two and grow from there.
The only thing that tha arcade has going for it is immersion. Custom hardware devices like DDR, drum sets, 360-degree pan-and-tilt systems, holograms, etc. Arcades are a place to go and see new technology, and for companies to try and make a profit on experimental game play systems. But if I want to play video games on a 52" screen, I'll go visit a friend who splurged on such a system. Everybody knows somebody with a setup like that. And frankly, I don't really enjoy it that much more. It's impressive for about 5 minutes, then it just doesn't matter anymore.
I think people are misconstruing the way Gameworks works. The one i went to in ybor city, fl was basically like an arcade + bar. $20 buys you unlimited plays on all but the ticket spitting machines. Our party spent several hours there and we were all playing the whole time. Between the rounds and the games, I must've dropped like $80 there. And i had fun doing it. I just wish there were one here in the northeast.
It would also be nice if arcades were visited by the cleaning crews more than once every two years. Pretty much every arcade I've been in had a stinky slimy carpet, nasty film on the games themselves, and in general stunk.
I think you could keep more people in if the facilities were sparkling clean and kept that way.
Also many arcades need to pay more mind to proper lighting. An arcade is not a dungeon.
With small houses costing $4 million in that country and rent prices racing ahead, more of those guys should be looking to arcades for more space.
Prop Cycle Deathmatch
It's not something that can be done at home, due to the fact that even if you do provide the extra hardware needed, there's the issue of cheating, as one could easily make their machine register higher RPMs per pedal than someone else's.
Unfortunately arcades are in a bit of a dilemma: To make games that can compete with home console gaming they need expensive hardware, not necessarily for the purpose of better graphics, but for unique control scenarios. (Think Prop Cycle hardware - an entire bike per system complete with sensing electronics and possibly force feedback.) Expensive hardware means having to charge more to make back your investment - but people are far less reluctant to play games with a higher price!
Oh, another thing I would love to see is a next-generation laser tag system - forget the lasers, use angle/location sensors and create an augmented reality environment. Imaging a real-life Quake deathmatch that was (relatively) safe!
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
It's called "legality". Ever heard of it?
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Man I spent countless rolls of quarters getting good at this game. So many in fact that at the arcade in Chas where they had it I got so good that I could usually beat the top score with just a dollar worth of quarters. And we had so much fun too ;)
WHen I was young and went to chucky chees(1980) the arcade area was like a dungeon. Low ceiling, cramped spaces, limited lighting.
Today, when I go to chucky cheese with my son and daughte, it is open, well lit, and they check to see that the child leaves with the parent they came with.
Now, that damn rat still annoies the hell out of me, but it is atleast a place I am comfortable in letting me children play at.
FOr the record, drugs were sold in arcades. Of courser they are also sold in parks, the beach libraries, schools, and anyplace people are.
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I should have spent less time at Chucky Cheese and more time in english class.
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trus.
Disneyland used to(may still) had a game where the cockpit would rotate 360 degree in a sphere.
It's was a kick flying a jet in a place, and when the plane did a barrel roll, so would I.
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