Should there still be arcades?

[leochingu]

Howdy everyone, this question has been bugging me for awhile and thought I post it up here.

Back in the early 90's games were in top notch form and the arcade world was booming like crazy, however until now. with the new systems most people are buying the games online or ROM-emulations. thus the arcades are no longer being watched or taken care of thusly someone would come across a run down arcade booth or it has been sold. Now Don't get me wrong I love having a game for keeps but, I really enjoy my time at arcades as well. what do you think will the arcades continue to dwindle?

[SnowOwl96]

Oh, I don't know. I like arcades, haven't played one since I was a kid. But when I go to some of the resturants and see arcade games and kids actually playing them, I feel somewhat happy. I feel kinda nostalgic actually, I wish I didn't feel so old. I do have a funny feeling that they will go away. When? I don't know. =[ Hopefully not anytime soon.

[fullmetalkira]

Yes,It would be cool if Arcades were still in malls or if gamestop had a arcade section.

[suenmk3]

The sad fact is that the death of the arcades is inevitable. Nowadays people aren't intersted in going out and paying to play games they coudl easily play at home for free. Especially in the current economical climate people are being more and more wary about how they spend their cash.

Its a real shame that the arcades are doomed, I remember when my big brothers used to take me out after school or something to go to the arcades, where they used to be bustling with people crowded around single machines watching a skilled individual get the high score or a particularly intense duel between two guys on a fighting game.

If they tried to bring back the arcades, I doubt many people would want to go out to play them. And even if they could build more arcades, it's highly unlilkley for the companies to produce expensive arcade boxes if they were to be wasted.

[e1337ninja]

Really sad, the whole atmosphere of arcades was so fun. You just can't play ddr on a plastic dance pad. And you can't really play light gun games at home.

[Xeronic]

I think in certain locations, they should still exist, like amusement parks, or places in major cities. I'm also sad about the state of arcades. So many memories going to my local card shop as a kid and playing Mortal Kombat, Battletoads, and other shit. Growing up though, arcades were still always iffy to goto because of the amount of money they charged to play around here. $1 for a play on Hydro Thunder, some places it was $2. $1 for air hockey? Shit adds up eventually.

I loved the machines that cost only a quarter (Marvel vs capcom 2, crazi taxi) and you got so much enjoyment out of them. I wish all arcades were a quarter only, but the maintenance is probably a lot, thus the higher prices to play. People... -_-


my favorite arcade to date though is still the old x-men arcade.

[leochingu]

Jun 22, 2009 21:46:30 GMT -5 Xeronic said:

I think in certain locations, they should still exist, like amusement parks, or places in major cities. I'm also sad about the state of arcades. So many memories going to my local card shop as a kid and playing Mortal Kombat, Battletoads, and other shit. Growing up though, arcades were still always iffy to goto because of the amount of money they charged to play around here. $1 for a play on Hydro Thunder, some places it was $2. $1 for air hockey? Shit adds up eventually.

I loved the machines that cost only a quarter (Marvel vs capcom 2, crazi taxi) and you got so much enjoyment out of them. I wish all arcades were a quarter only, but the maintenance is probably a lot, thus the higher prices to play. People... -_-


my favorite arcade to date though is still the old x-men arcade.

Cannot agree more however there is an acrade at a mall I go to frequently and they, haven't been over charging in other arcades I've been to (they charge .50 cents for air hockey) but besides that I miss that feeling as well, watching and intense battle (or race from what I've seen) or just meeting people and teaching you tricks and tips (learned how to do Hadouken right that way)

man I also miss the fourplayer games, X-men being one of them the simpsons, and one where I have forgot the name but it was a side scoller shooter where four people could play as a cowboy.

[WeWantFun]

i USED to have an arcade near me, it was at my mall. Oh man, it was awesome, it had DDR (with the up down left right, none of that diagonal crap) House of the Dead, Area 51, Time Cop, Air hockey tables with 2 pucks (shit was madness!!!) The Simpsons Arcade, Arctic Thunder (i loved the wind in my hair) Carnevil (that was one of my favorites), the list just goes on and on, i remember i did that one game where you hit the button and try to get the light on the winner thing, it was spinning around, hard to explain, anyway i won it and i got a stuffed animal, and a nerf gun. Best day of my life

Nowadays i dont have anything near me, the arcade got closed to be replaced by food there was another arcade that moved to the other side of the mall, but nowone went to it, because it was near JC Penny. Then about 5 weeks ago it was replaced by Ecko, ugh

now the only reason i go to the mall is to eat during my class breaks, i miss my carnevil

[Mesna]

Yes, but it's all about location. Often an arcade is too far away from where it really matters.

[jackpotdante]

Yeah they should, but the bad thing is that i can't find any new arcade games and the only arcade games i find are not that great

[suenmk3]

I find that a major factor to the downfall of the arcades is the fact that the prices of them are going up. I remember that it used to cost us Brits about 10p a plop for a game, that being about a quarter? I dunno, I'm bad with currency conversion. It steadily got more and more costly to play these as the years went on, it rose from 10p/25c to 25p/55c then it got stupid and nowadays the remaining husks of arcades have their games at around £1/$2.50 or more for ONE game.
This topic is making me sad D:

[octanehugo]

I love arcades, and they'll never die out. A lot of people will still find playing a game with a joystick and 2 buttons enjoyable. And, of course, there's things like pinball and air hockey that nobody has at their own house.

[exocel]

havent got a picture on hand but last time i was at the coast i found one of the silent hill arcade machines and me and a few friends had a blast on that game, think we all spent a good 5 quid each on it as we died but we finished the bugger. The experience was a blast but the sheer idea of paying for lives just seems unfair when you have games on a disc that you can play forever, whenever yknow?

I read a while back some arcades in japan stayed afloat by implementing a system where you pay for a memory card and everytime you come an entry fee and you have free riegn on the machines and use the card to save your data. and they had some funky stuff, like a card game online one where you actually win packs of cards to use in the game to customise a deck to play against other people in other arcades, im not a card game fan but that looked like a blast.

[chocothunda]

I've been playing at my arcade over at my college for a good while; it's been fairly active for a good while, which I believe is pretty good.

Yeah, there are certain games that cost at least a dollar or so to play (DDR or Initial D), but they're still pretty fun. The atmosphere of the arcade scene is something that is very difficult to mimic, and it's a lot of fun to partake in.

I also realized something interesting; prior to me playing at arcades at an accelerated rate in college, I used to be able to rock playing on a controller for fighting games. Now, I prefer an arcade stick...which is weird as hell (this is mainly for the 2d fighters; the 3d fighters I can shift between either of the two fairly easily).

[suenmk3]

On the topic of sticks, did anyone fork out their cash to get the SF4 arcade stick?