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Namco Blames Wii for Arcade Closures
milsoRgen noted a story about Namco Bandai is shuttering between 50 and 60 arcades in Japan and blaming the success of the Wii for the closures. "A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home," said company spokesman Yuji Machida. To be fair they also blame the high cost of gasoline as well.
I was unaware the Japanese incorporated high cost of gasoline into decisions to go to an arcade, given that their subway/train system doesn't suck there.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
They blamed me personally for not upselling birthday parties when they closed the one I worked at here in the US.
They all closed here years ago. I think Playstation was blamed at the time, though many probably closed earlier and blamed the Genesis.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Same thing happened in the US when the NES came out. What comes around goes around. Or something.
+0 Meh
"What are wii going to do?" said the Japanese arcade executive to his robot pet dog.
http://www.busyweather.com/
Dance-pads, guitars, and guns have shown that people are willing to buy alternative input devices of many stripes, which had been a niche for arcades.
Arcades want to survive? Easy, bring back pinball. A real, physical pinball game, not the emulator kind made by GlobalVR.
Are they now?
I've gotta agree with Namco though, the fact that arcades had been on a downwards trend for at least ten years before the Wii was released just goes to show how incredibly successful Nintendo's console has been.
So they are just now noticing this in Japan. Something that has been happening in the US since, what, the 90s? Late 80s? Consoles beat Arcade, kinda like rock beats paper and nuclear weapons beat rock.
Japan is just now feeling this? I thought they were supposed to be ahead of the times technology wise than us.
AccountKiller
To be honest, I doubt its the gasoline prices. Allot of arcades over in Japan are usually within walking distance of schools and residental areas. They are just freakishly expensive.
Take the Gundum Pod Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNSodeMJ2u0
If they made the games cheaper, I think arcades can last longer there. But I doubt it as most of these "pod" like machines are pricey as it is.
...and sue anyone who doesn't come to their arcades. In fact, they should lobby Congress, the Japanese Parliament, the UN, and the United Federation of Planets to make using the Wii illegal. Isn't the lawsuit/regulatory route the default choice for industry segments whose business models have failed to change with the times?
And they were wrong too.
I was just thinking lastnight how much I missed the old days of arcades. People gathering around "World Heroes" or "SoulEdge" or better yet "Virtua Fighter" to test our skills. I still haven't beaten "S.T.U.N. runner" (I was so close.) And yes I do blame game consoles. Online game play makes things better.... but it still doesn't compare to walking into an arcade and feeling the tension of arcade battles. =)
As in most religions, it's the followers that turn people off to the religion. And Mac users are the worst.
I wish I could come up with a real number of arcades open in Japan, but my google-fu is weak today. However, given my experiences there, 50-60 does not sound like a big number of closings...
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
According to Play Meter magazine (the magazine for the arcade/amusement industry), the arcade industry took an even bigger dive in 2007 (from its long decline starting in 1984).
Family Entertainment Centers (FEC) locations were down 60% year-over-year. OUCH!
You do realize you're on the internet right? I know it requires a couple extra clicks, but its not really that hard to find information on how gaming in North America is vastly different from that in places like Korea and Japan. In both countries youth are very much social gamers (and at least in Korea people are just way more social anyway).
Koreans have the PC Rooms, which shouldn't be in danger of being wiped out as computers have been available in the home for a long time now and if they were going to be replaced by that it would have likely happened. Japanese have long been in love with the arcade. The difference between the Wii and the playstation is that the Wii is more of a social platform than the rest. I'm sure the arcade will still have an appeal for larger groups, but if you're regularly spending time as a group with just 3 or 4 people the Wii is a good replacement here.
Computer technology.... just like everyone else is doing....
From the RIAA to my hemorrhoids from sitting down all day.
technology in the computer industry is supposed to make things easier, cheaper and overall better.
So complain about it!
And while you are at it, complain how there is no more horse manure in the streets for the manure sweeps to earn a living by, because of cars.
"Namco Bandai, perhaps best known for its virtual pet toy Tamagotchi..."
WTF? Pac-Man, people!
Wii for the WIIn!!!
got it ? WIIn !
i'll go back to my cave now.
What ? Me, worry ?
The obvious solution is to bribe^H^H^H^^H contribute to the campaign of enough politicians to get the Wii outlawed. Call it an "income circumvention device". Man, have Namco learned nothing? Are they that dense? Whenever your industry is threatened by new "consumer" technology, just abuse the law to protect your position in the market. Damn, this should be Business 101 in America; doesn't Japan want to be competitive in the global market?
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
and so do their parents. Arcades work well when the kids can't possibly hope to play video games any other way, so they hand over their money bit-by-bit, every week. But now a games console is not out of the financial reach of the average kid \ parent, and if you can afford to buy a console and play an unlimited amount for no further spending, why wouldn't you? It's the same as the death of hiring televisions, or why more people are paying a mortgage rather than rent. Repeatedly paying to use something but get nothing out at the end is a ridiculous arrangement to get yourself into, it only ever really suckers the people who can't afford to buy whatever it is outright from the start, and there's less of those people about. I also suspect that many parents would be happy to fork out the cost of a games console for the peace of mind that Little Jimmy is playing his video games in the living room than paying slightly less overall for him to go out on to an arcade on his own. (defined as 'without parental supervision')
FGD 135
They aren't printing calendars that say 1988 anymore.
but it won't stop the customer base from shrinking.
I don't know any dedicated arcades anymore. In this area. they started closing down mid-90s, and the last one I remember, from the 6-7 that used to be around, closed 2 years back. I think Chuck E. Cheese has been down because of similiar woes, but since I haven't been there since many, many years -- don't take that as an informed opinion.
So that leaves what? The bowling alley, billiard places, theatres, and most other recreational centers usually have some games or maybe many -- but most of them old and shitty with your console two generations back being more powerful. The random bar may have something like Golden Tee of various years.
If you think about it, the biggest, most active "arcades" these days are casinos. And those slot machines draw people for the obvious reasons not remotely related to anything video gamish.
All the reasons disappeared: better graphics? Nope (even if yes, arcade owners have to pay through the nose to keep up, passing cost to customers). Home controls being clumsy for that game? New nope -- most of the time enough to be compelling. And social recreation with peers/friends? Dead too, with the internet joining players -- usually the neighborhood arcade is the more isolating experience now (since they're dead) than sitting at home playing a game.
In recreation, it's like all those (recreational) amusement parks that used to be around but started declining after WW2 and by the 1970s just completely crapped out. With all the modes of transportation and the new interstate highway system being built in the 1950s, people could easily travel to the best amusement parks in the region -- leaving all the local ones feeling quaint and not very worthwhile. The owners of the local joint just couldn't afford (or have the space) for the big rides and eventually all but the biggest parks just died. Today it's the big ones that survived or those travelling ones that need to pack it up after a week.
I know Japan is a different culture and different games like Pachinko Parlors... but I can't help but think this was a long time coming anywhere in the first world.
...in the Wii vs arcade fight, is that the Wii is so flexible. Ever since home computers became affordable, the arcade has lived off the fact that a bunch of large arcade machines just aren't practical to have at home. Well, the Wiimote is your one-stop tennis racket, baseball and bat, bowling ball, golf club, boxing glove, steering wheel, gun, fishing pole, joystick (e.g. rolling ball in SMG) and whatever else I don't remember at the moment. Sure it's nothing like a proper steering wheels with force feedback and pedals, but it's damn much better than mashing buttons. Jack of all trades, master of none but close enough.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Surprised they didn't mention on-line gaming really, maybe it's my age but I remember people queing up to play Street Fighter II. People still enjoy the challenge of another person, its just that they are doing it at home.
A thistle is a fat salad for an ass's mouth...
A lot of the types of games that people played at an arcade can now be done at home
So basically, you have yet anothing industry built upon an obsolete business model (scarcity of high-quality video games), and choose to blame the concept that made your product worthless, rather than adapting to provide a better service (cheaper would help - When an hour in the arcade costs me as much as buying a new game, why would I ever pick the former?).
Don't worry, the buggy-whip manufacturers and the RIAA feel for you. The rest of look forward to you porting your greatest hits to the Wii.
I can play centipede at home??
Arcades can evolve too. The market is there for people who want to rent out movie-theatre sized screens to play multiplayer games. How about an arcade that contains actual consoles where you just bring your memory cards or wiimotes (w/character data on) and just pay a cover charge and for drinks, or for a private room with friends (like billiards) all so you can play with a crowd on a giant screen? I'm sure parents would appreciate the break, and kids can be as loud as they want or game with their friends all night.
There is a giant rift between arcade games and their console counterparts because we cannot exchange character data between them or game on a console vs an arcade cabinet. If we allow this, then the popularity of the living room will also be interchangable with that of the public gaming outlets, and both can coexist and benefit from each other. Perhaps if you visit the arcades you can get the newest demos first, or the arcades can download them for you and burn them on disc and charge a token fee. Wii demos for full games could be distributed exclusively at arcades. There are many opportunities to increase the popularity of both at the same time.
Twinstiq, game news
lolwut?
I've been to a number of video arcades in Japan and they're more like gambling joints. They're more focused on pachinko, slots, artificial horse races, robot arm games, games that require extensive expertise and lot of money. They're focused on a different market than the Wii.
VHS destroys Hollywood. Horseless carriage destroys buggywhip biz. Craigslist kills newspaper classifieds. Rise of city-states and domesticated livestock reduces esteem of hunters. And many more...
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I believe if you have cable, which channels you are watching are tracked through that. It might not factor into neilson ratings, but I'm sure the numbers are looked at. I did a quick google for more info on this, but i wasn't able to find anything conclusive.
High gas prices... I guess that's one more thing to blame President Bush for.
"... Namco Bandai is shuttering between 50 and 60 arcades in Japan and blaming the success of the Wii for the closures... To be fair they also blame the high cost of gasoline as well."
Boo-fucking-hoo. I say we ban AL change, for the good of all existing businesses! Just because I don't have a guarantee that I'll live to see tomorrow or be able to feed myself if I do, does not mean that arcade operators, music and movie companies, highly-paid sports figures, and business executives shouldn't be guaranteed a lifetime of support for their business model.
Won't somebody think of the businesses?!?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Get better games into the arcades.
If they can play the exact same game at home, then you need to update your arcades to make it more attractive to potential customers. Don't blame the Wii. Blame yourself.
Love sees no species.
Namco's a dedicated 3rd party, so what's preventing them from doing that?
Arcades were better when the games were all a quarter. Slowly, they started making games that took two quarters, and now we're at a point where some games can cost $2, and there's a damned timer in it. Perhaps the arcades and the game makers have simply become too greedy and want too much profit. Maybe they should bring the cost per minute of game play down some.
Why don't they add Wii's to the arcades? :D
You can't play Tekken 6, VF5, and whatever game's hot these days on Wii.
Most games that show up in Japanese arcades are large, obtrusive machines of electronic entertainment. The Wii, as fun and intuative as it is, is a different form of entertainment.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
http://www.zizzle.com/
I have the PotC:DMC Pinball game. Much fun indeed.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It's auto-generated by slashdot as a method of keeping down the trolls when the real trolls see the autogenerated crap they'll be less likely to troll in the story because they'll think it's already been trolled do you understand?
If the Japan arcade devolved anything like the arcades here in the states - it would be a blessing to put them out of their misery.
In the 80's and early 90's arcades were a place you could go drop some quarters into the latest cabinet games or pinball machines. The places were usually lit with neon and dim lights, had very little room to move around, and were packed with games.
Now...
we have brightly lit toddler magnets half full of broken down arcade games from the late 90's, and a slew of ticket spewing kiddy games a la Chucky Cheese.
Our local arcade is so dilapidated that they no longer even have a person working there... if a machine eats your coin, you're out of luck. Even the mall management won't take responsibility for the place. Yep, it's run by Namco..
A quarter a game - a game with three or four LIVES? Sweet deal.
A dollar or two to start playing, another dollar to KEEP playing, another dollar if you miss that goddamned checkpoint by a fortieth of a second? I don't care of Cruisin' USA has a nice huge sit-down cabinet. I'll play it on the N64 with a hell of a lot less of a monetary burn.
The cost-per-minute to play modern arcade games has put me off completely. I'll drop a few quarters on Q*Bert at the bar, but beyond that.... I really enjoy my Nintendo DS.
Or are we hearing from the RIAA? Similar stories, both irrational.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
as a student, I dont have 200 dollers I can spend on games, I have a fixed budget, Ill spend that budget on whats going to give me the most fun.
Back when games were 25c each in the US (or 5 cents at wounderland) 20 bucks would pay for a huge amount of play time, im talking all day long if I was good at some game.
Now with games showing up on ultra hard mode out of the box, and over 75cents to play each. you have priced me out of the market.
I think some of the arcade owners need to take a few econ classes, and pay for a support staff to keep the games in perfect working order. or at least train the money collecter guy to replace buttons that go bad.
They would fix any game on the spot for you and I want quite a lot as well I toped going when they got rid of the pinball games. Now there is newer place that has broken down games and the people working there don't give a dam. Also there are trying to sell the pinball games at high prices for the condition that they are in.
There where also 2-3 other good arcades near me as well and the games that where on site where keep working and swapped form time to time They one give 10 free games on TZ and FH that was being swapped at a bowling alley. I did not time to fully play them out but I put $2-$4 a weak in to the games after that for a few yeas after that they they even had UMK3 wavenet at the same site and at the arcades in the same area. They also put good pinball games in to http://www.photoshotdogs.com/ in Mt. Prospect. Now days they don't take care of the games. The fast food place dose not own the games and people that do used to be alot better but now days they seem to be big on there Golden Tee Golf games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Mortal_Kombat_3#Ultimate_Mortal_Kombat_3_Wave_Net
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
That data is flawed too. The box might be tuned to a specific channel at a specific time, but they don't know if the TV set itself is turned on.
No, stop laughing, I'm serious! --well at least stop rolling on the floor. :(
It could get about three more people playing in the arcades, if Namco really wants that and not just more IP tightening. For one, the Cutie has tits and a weapon, which seems to be the baseline for girl inclusion in a Soul game. (I mean, her nude transformations would fit quite nicely with such wholesome liberally-covered characters as Ivy and Sophitia "I'm sorry!" Alexandra.) Secondly, Namco can spin it to attract the female crowd by calling the 70s anime character who can turn into pretty much anyone an example of the feminist ideal.
Lastly, if they're really feeling cash-strapped with the whole arcade thing, they can get Michiko Neya to do both Sophie and Honey. (She's already done both, so it's not entirely crazy...)
It's not like Namco--or, at least, Namco Bandai--hasn't heard of her. Bandai distributed the 2004 movie in the States.
I'm not (necessarily) saying this as a fan of Honey, I'm saying this as something that would make some sense--at least as much sense as Link...or Yoda...or Vader. While they'd certainly have to hobble her abilities to put her against the main fighters, and I'm not sure about any associated Honey royalties, how exclusive Aruze's rights to use Honey are, or even if she's popular enough to make a difference for Namco's wallet, it would still be fun to see her bouncing around in an arcade fighting game for once. It'd certainly make more sense than any anti-console whining.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Japanese arcades are very different from the US. They always keep up with the latest, usually have multiple people working there at any time, and have clean machines and floors. If a button doesn't respond right you can raise your hand and they'll replace it and give you credit.
The main boost in arcade popularity came with Street Fighter 2. Everyone was playing it, and all the school kids would stop by after school. It also provided an extremely high return rate compared to traditional arcade games where players would play as long as 20 to 30 minutes per game. Two players would go at it and one will surely lose and would only play for about 2 minutes.
The fighting games carried the arcades for a good 5 years. But after that, nothing really matched the popularity and profitability of fighting games. Although extremely popular, the main problem with gambling games at arcades is that it is illegal to gamble. So they are all just playing with tokens that cannot get turned back to cash. Of course, there is real horse racing where gambling is legal, and there are pachinco and slot machine parlors where gambling is also legal. So a lot of private arcades closed fairly quickly once they stopped making much money and turned into pachinco joints.
Namco is actually quite late in closing a lot of their stores. They make a lot of the large arcade games and are a big arcade game manufacturer, so it is understandable that they were a little late to fold, but regardless, arcades closing in Japan is extremely old news. They are also probably just using Wii as a modern excuse, since most arcade games have been ported successfully to non-Wii consoles. The dancing games are a prime example. In fact no arcade to Wii ports really come to mind...
In Japan the pachinco industry is far larger than the video game industry. In 2003, Sammy which sells Pachinco and Slot machines bought out all of Sega's stock.
Just FYI.
I mis-linked Neya, should be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiko_Neya . (You would've figured it out anyway.) --gk
but they don't know if the TV set itself is turned on.
My cable box pulls this little trick after midnight or so, and says it'll turn itself off if I don't press any buttons on its universal remote (even if it's to adjust my receiver's volume). In essence, it correlates remote use to determine whether or not you're actually in front of the TV. While I adjust the volume rather frequently late at night, I do it with a separate remote, which makes the annoying "Going into Standby" message come up more often when I'm watching as opposed to the more common cable user with my type of box.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
But I'm too lazy to go to an arcade!
We run our arcade machines on electricity here in the states and that seems to work out just fine.
In the US I know it was online gaming and internet cafes that led to a lot of Namco, Capcom, and Sony arcades being closed. When arcades were still fun, no one was really playing those 5 quarter games but only kids. Everyone who was serious were playing Xmen vs Streetfighter for a quarter. But when starcraft and counter strike started getting really big, no one came to the arcade anymore. They were either at their homes, at the college computer labs, or at a cafe playing those games. Nuff said.
Huh, arcades are failing. Could it be because modern arcades totally SUCK?
There are now only two types of arcade games, at least where I am. You get your choice
of shooty shit or drivey shit. Sometimes, if they're being really clever, you get to
shoot _and_ drive at the same time.
Back in the stone age when I was a kid, there were actually different genres of games,
in addition to shooty an drivey.
I got back into arcades in a big way in college. There was one across the street from the campus laundromat, and I blew a fair chunk of my paycheck each week playing Tekken while I waited for my laundry to finish. Graduated college, got a job, moved off, and started hitting "real" arcades at the mall. The machines are all poorly maintained and almost never function correctly. Why in the hell would I drop quarters in them? I can't play them.
I've played on a single arcade game in my life. Credits are simply too expensive.
NO QUESTION. TOO EXPENSIVE.
You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.
Seems like a no brainer to me. If you go to the arcade 3 times a week, you could purchase 12 console games a month. In no time you have more games than the arcade.
Solution: Gaming Clubs. Full of consoles and specialized arcade games. Monthly fees instead of Yen munching slots. Hybrid LanCade and Arcade + consoles. MAchines are cheaper, wider selection.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Japanese arcades are WAY different from those in the U.S. Have you ever been to one? Most are divided into two sections, pay-per-play games, and token games.I have yet to see a Japanese Namco arcade made in the last 15 years that wasn't a token-style one.
So anyways, the pay-per-play ones aren't too much different from those here, but of course, you'll never find one under 100 yen. In fact, most of the games are over "standard size"(The size most people think of an arcade game being-these include DDR, Time Crisis, and the like) and require something along the lines of "200 yen to start, 100 per life after that". A bunch include a sort of "memory card" feature, where one buys a credit-card-style piece of plastic(Usually 600 yen or so) that acts as a memory card for one particular game-a feature which I personally used most in playing Ghost Squad-It would keep track of all the weapons you gained, costumes, levels cleared, stats, etc.
I've seen some crazy arcade games over there, including numerous card games where you place your units on some type of special table that reads the cards information, and you move the cards as units of an army to defeat the other player. Popular among the kids is a sort of janken beetle game(Which didn't really catch on here) where you buy cards that contain stats and you slide the card on a machine, you pick rock paper or scissors, and depending on your stats and what you picked, your beetle would proceed to smash his opponent with his horn.
Also dominant there are the pay-per-play(to win) games. Up to half of the entire arcade may be dedicated to the winning of random assortments of stuffed animals-or chips, video games, or just random toys-in games that are almost impossible to win. The Japanese take the crane game to a whole new level.
Then there are the token games. More often then not Namco, there is NO way to win. Seriuosly. Have you seen those frikken things? Basically, you buy tokens(100 yen for 12 or 500 yen for 70, say). And you use them to play games.
To win more tokens.
It is literally an endless cycle of using your tokens in some of the most odd games imaginable to win(or lose and then buy) more tokens to play the games to get more of those god damn tokens. Some of these games are sorta like miniature arcade games where the more tokens you used, the easier it was to "win". Other games include dropping a token into a slot at a certain time to bounce of of certain pins(a la pachinko) onto a continuously sliding back and forth rack of more tokens that, if you are lucky, would be knocked down in part by your certain token. The really "skillful" ones can sit there for hours on end playing and earning tokens, only to lose them in more games trying to get more tokens.
I must admit, I haven't been to an arcade in the U.S. in a while, but I'm sure most of the differences listed here are still true.
I mean, come on, I seriously doubt that ANY U.S. arcade EVER went and got "Typing of the Dead"(Admittedly, it was pretty fun because it still used the standard U.S. keyboard and letters but with Japanese words).
But anyways, this kinda surprised me because usually those places are frikken packed.
Interesting. Does it do it during prime time? Do you say midnight because that's the only time you tend to watch TV? While it's possible the box may be reporting that information back, if it's only after midnight it might be that the cable box makers are trying to be a little "green" and send the device into standby mode based on the time. After all, the vast majority isn't watching TV between the hours of 12am and 6am.
The success of the Wii in Japan isn't necessarily the cause of arcade closures, but an effect of the costs involved in going to an arcade over owning a similarly abled console. The Wii is not alone in this aspect, the Playstation 2/3 and the XBox 360 are also gaining from their lower overall costs vs arcades with products like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Singstar.
Unfortunately, this does not bode well for arcades in any light. As it is, asking people to pay 50 cents to over a dollar per game on a regular basis just isn't practical for the long term with teens and young adults who will soon face additional expenses in life as their gain more responsibilities later on. Getting a console with games that pay for themselves after 50-100 sessions is just common sense.
In the meanwhile, this means arcades either need to raise prices further to stay afloat or sell gaming sessions to a lot more people than they do now.
Of course, there are steps arcades could take to make costs more reasonable to those who aren't comfortable with per-sesson pricing. One option would be to do away with per session pricing and start issuing unlimited usage cards for a monthly fee. This means even if the user isn't actively at the arcade some of the time, the arcade still gets some cash for it just from the dues.
In addition, the arcades could add value-added features such as modifying some of the games to output to really large displays, or to offer special discounts to star players of certain games that generate crowds of spectators. Game consoles don't generally have the visual stage appeal of arcade machines of similar power, outside of costly modifications.
Japan is a very social country and the teens are going to be around *somewhere*, it's just a matter of making your place seem like a more enjoyable hang-out than the other nearby places catering to them.
8==8 Bones 8==8
as somebody said, there's a lot of home consoles and the market... and... well in case we forgot, PC's.
Strange though, that a Japanese company falling on tough times would be forced to blame a Japanese companies creation for their loss.
I'm sure now that they've said, "Arcades are useless because of NINTENDO Wii!" they're going to devestate nintendo's sales.
Or more likely, cash a big check from Nintendo for the stupid, obvious publicity stunt.
Thanks for posting Nintendo spam.
Ace
They need to focus on the big drawers. DDR, Beatmania, GuitarFreaks, Drummania, ITG, MvC2. Any place I've been to that had those machines, there's always a line unless you go in the middle of the day on a school day. There's always a line and it's usually 10-15 minutes long. Well, except MvC2, but there's always someone to play. Keep them maintained, make them seen.
There's a big market in Online Games/Clans which didn't exist previously (though these pre-date Wii's) and there's also a market in LAN parties like these guys http://www.multiplay.co.uk/.
But, the whinging arcade owners may have a good observation here which is Nintendo's strategy to target the non-gamer audience with easier controls and cheaper price points may be taking away the passing trade from Arcade gamers (I'm guessing if you're a hard core gamer, you'll spend your yen on a console).
29 mpg. YMMV.
Stop complaining and put Point Blank Trilogy on the Wii. Thanks!
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
In fact, forget about the tentacles and blackjack.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
I've seen tables with electromagnets in them, and it was *really* obvious when they were switched on - the ball moved in big curves towards the center of the table.
I've seen somebody get a high score on a table then the table became unplayable for half an hour afterwards until the magnets switched off ("Riverboat Gambler" IIRC).
No sig today...
I'm talking about VR theaters where you stand, or are suspended, in a room with eyephones and earphones and a controller that mimics a gun, or whatever. Or instead of wearing eyephones you could be cocooned in a 3D display-- sensors to tell if you try to turn, jump, etc.
BOY do "arcades", if that's what we'll still call them, have a future.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
I am not taking about 3d graphics on a flat screen, but live 3d graphics made out of 3d displays.
From 30 years to 15 years ago, the arcades was the place to experience the best graphics. Now arcade games are inferior to home stuff.
Arcades could bring in true 3d technologies, of the kind that it's not possible to have at home yet. Since these technologies are very expensive, the initial generation would be scaled down...like the first arcade machines could only display a few sprites with a few colors while the military played with multi-million dollar 3d graphics, the first 3d arcade machines would display primitive 3d while the military enjoys multi-million dollar 3d. But in a few years, true 3d could be affordable in arcade rooms.
What I don't understand is, why not blame the kids for not continuously pumping tokens into the arcade machines.
Or blame parents for teaching their children fiscal sense. I remember when arcade machines here stopped being a quarter as the norm. Pumping a dollar into a machine for an average of 5 minutes of play time gets really expensive really fast when you're as hopeless an addict as I am. THe 300$ for an NES/SNES/Genesis console made way more sense since I only had to pay once for the console and once for a game. Sure, there were still benefits to going to an arcade but not nearly as many (pinball, the technically superior racing titles with the driver seat feeling). I think the Sega Dreamcast was probably the easiest and most sensible console to blame since that's when arcade perfect conversions started being the norm instead of the rare gem, which also indicates why Sega/Sammy are so quiet in the blame game.
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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
Howe due yoo keap uh gramur natsee bizzy four ours?
Just out of curiosity...how did the topic of the Grammys end up in a thread about arcades closing?
Howe due yoo keap uh gramur natsee bizzy four ours?
Pardon me while an "old man" of 38 waxes nostalgic...
I'm right there with you. I vaguely remember playing Pong at a diner near our house, and Gun Fight at a proto-arcade that was really more of a pinball/air hockey parlor. The vestibule of our local Ames store had an already-old electro-mechanical game called S.A.M.I. that blew me away (I was probably 6 or 7) until Space Invaders came out a year or so afterward.
Later, when the first honest-to-goodness arcade (an Aladdin's Castle) opened in our area, with games like Space War, Star Fire, M-79 Ambush, Jungle Hunt, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Omega Race, Red Baron, Star Hawk, etc. my life was forever changed. I can still remember where some of those games were positioned! I'd beg my mom for some money (usually I wouldn't get more than a dollar so I had to make it last!) and spend the afternoon there. It was Nirvana. I'd burn through my tiny allowance pretty quickly, and then watch other people play. Just being there surrounded by the machines made me happy, and the ambient noises were like music to me.
As part of a project for a music class, a friend and I once took a tape recorder into the arcade and walked around recording the ambient sounds for a while. I wish I still had that tape somewhere!
Okay, off to go spend some quality time with MAME...
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
I don't recall whether or not it actually does this during prime time, but if it does, it's on a much longer timer (probably like 3 or more hours instead of 45 minutes). I know it's an assumption to say that the box's behavior is due to the companies being "green" as it were, but you're probably right.
I do tend to watch TV later than the average person, because I work second shift, but again, my original point is that if the cable box knows what times you're in front of the TV based on remote use, and they *do* collect watching habits based on what channel you're tuned in to, why wouldn't they collect this information as well?
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
The thing is, people are less and less willing to go out and be social with others in the US anymore.
After all, most of the early 20-somethings and younger were raised in a generation of constant restrictions, impending danger lurking around every corner and that every person you meet will potentially try to rape/kill you.
No wonder people are so socially inept these days. So it's not a shock people arent doing the arcade thing anymore and are more content staying at home and playing online games.
I dont blame the internet or home systems, after all, people would still go to arcades even when systems like the playstation came out. it's when that last generation that would really play arcades grew up and had to put on their big boy/girl pants the generation behind them was the one who was raised with "danger lurks around every corner. skateboarding and bike riding WILL KILL YOU! *shelter shelter shelter*
Also, on top of most kids never being raised to know what's wrong or right because their parents raised them in fear of their kids being taken away if they even punished them, and the whole "it's all about me" mentality that spawned in the 80's and to mae your kid feel more special than everyone else; we live in a really fucked up generation.
Generation ME. a paranoid, antisocial generation. People rather talk to each other via text messages on cell phones, something that over a decade ago was seen as a nerdy thing, because talking face to face was the thing.
Something very wrong with society.
The one true and originally purpose of an arcade was to show off. Socializing is a second reason, but it is mostly a side effect. Now that consoles have gone online, this hurts arcades even more. When games started being correctly ported to consoles, it allowed most of us the ability to practice, so we don't waste money in the arcades. It also allowed us to put up with the increased cost. To see this in action, check out the movies "King of Kong" and "Joysticks". Two movies that truly capture the arcade spirit!
Hey, I live in Amish country ...
and, yes, the city pays someone to go around town and shovel up manure. Seriously. That job still exists!
Probably the reason they have so many shooting games is because no-one makes a PC or console light gun. The gun interface is so much closer to the real thing than a mouse when I find a good one I enjoy playing it. Anything else I can use keyboard/mouse for. Another reason for the arcades slide is that the multiplayer/community itch is scratched by good cooperative play on PC games on the internet & XBox live. And yeah, that whole dollar for 2 minutes of playtime bit is ridiculous.
They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
I write sci-fi for metalheads