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'Old School' Arcade Still Popular In NYC

Posted by timothy on from the keeping-it-authentic dept.

pickens writes "In 2005, there were 44 licensed video game arcades in New York, according to the Department of Consumer Affairs; today, 23 survive. With the expansion of interactive online gaming, video game action has largely shifted to the home. 'Arcades are an anachronism now,' says Danny Frank, a spokesman for the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York. 'They exist only in shopping malls.' But Chinatown Fair has become a center for all the outcasts in the city to bond over their shared love for a good 20-punch combo and 'old school' games that more popular arcades don't stock anymore — the classic Street Fighter II from 1991 and King of Fighters 1996, for example, as well as Ms Pac-Man and Time Crisis. 'Now, you can play a million people from all around the world,' says one player. 'For me, it's not the same as playing face-to-face. The young'uns may not care, but I do.'"

5 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Popular! by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Twenty in a city of twenty million, and half as many as five years ago. How is this "still popular"?

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    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  2. Even some PC games are better face to face. by OnePumpChump · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can't stand playing Counterstrike on the Internet, but on a LAN it's a different story.

  3. Re:Bar Arcades by Moryath · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you can ever find a D&B with a properly working machine that's not a fakie-gambling device, my hat's off to you.

    There's a reason nobody goes there any more. None of the shit is EVER repaired. The local one by me had a wall of 16 of the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade units and not a single one had anywhere close to a working joystick. They left the guns on their House of the Dead machine broken for more than a year - not "broken" as in "sights a bit off" mind you, broken as in not a single shot registered onscreen ever.

  4. Old School? by dangitman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But Chinatown Fair has become a center for all the outcasts in the city to bond over their shared love for a good 20-punch combo and "old school" games that more popular arcades don't stock anymore — the classic Street Fighter II from 1991 and King of Fighters 1996,

    Games from 1991-1996 are considered "old school" now? A person born in those years would be described as very young.

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    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  5. Re:We more places with pinball games and working o by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Admittedly one of them was a dank dark hole of a joint and I wasn't sad to see that one go

    Those are the best arcades.

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