Life After Arcades

[MagikMilk]

I wish to see this day happen again, but Arcades are ancient lost cities like Atlantis, the Egyptian Temples, and the Roman Parthenon. I remember spending $5 to $10 to $20 on something called "Tokens" for those of you younger people if there has been any that has join because i have a feel i'm no longer the youngest person in Retromags anymore. Now token money can buy you a video game at gamestop that cost $5 sometimes $10 or $20 because of

1. its popularity

2. its a trade

3. poor video in bad condition

$5 worth of tokens could not get you that far but it was fun, really truly fun to experience the smell of popcorn, sticky gum, and candy filled in the air at the arcades. $10 worth of tokens could probably get you 1 ride, 3 rounds of the Simpsons 4player game, 1 Terminator FPS and maybe also 1 game of Aliens vs. Predator. $15 could get you 5 tries in Street Fighter II Turbo, my favorite hit the crocodile game and the fireman game, and that ball you throw that has 5 different rings around it that has like points ranging from 5 - 100.

after you played a couple of games you get tickets and trade them for prizes. now that shit, that shit folks was rewarding. see how times have change. i'm talking in a philosophical and political way of video games.

now after you've just beaten Halo Reach you just realize you spent $200 on the special Xbox 360 edition, you think the ending sucks, and now you can play online with your friends. the video games today doesn't reward you with something tangible or something that you can physically touch like a prize in exchange for tickets. no matter how lame those prizes were, it was something to keep for years, and use to keep them but then i lost those prizes. i remember in the 1990s a rice cooker was one of the expensive prizes you needed at least 200 worth of tickets which is like $20 bucks of your money. a gameboy was also there on the shelves, which i thought was unique because why spend $60 on buying the original gameboy when you can collect as many tickets in exchange for it buy only spending $20 worth of tokens. this was in the 90s.

but now what does Master Chief or Nobel Soldier give you in return, 48 hours of gameplay which leads to eye strains and headache, which you now have to call in from work because of your symptoms, yet you go back to playing some more online action, an ending you can always play over and over again, lame achievements you can't even put in your resume, and really i've seen some people put their PS3 and Xbox achievements on their resume. World of Warcraft, WoW players, but what are you looking for? the close you get to finishing the expansion, already a new one has been released. so now that makes it 3 expansions you have to play through Burning Crusade > Wrath of the Lich King > Cataclysm. and you know what more eye strains, 72 hours of online gameplay, lose real life friends and family members because they don't want to deal with your bullshit addiction, but then you get virtual friends by joining something called a "guild", you now have 10 more levels to reach, buy more epic armor, and farm for more gold, you just got laid off from your job because you haven't been coming to work, you forgot to eat and now after you're done reading my blog your in the hospital reading this blog from your iphone, blackberry messenger, or from your "smart phone" which is actually smarter than you.

Folks i may sound like a professor from harvard law school [yeah right psh] but i just want to point out the details that some people have a hard time recognizing or bringing into attention.

Memorable times, good times rolls, oldest ride, longest run, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, limousine riding, son of a gun. To the arcades, where its now deserted but somehow they're still up. well from where i live they haven't shut them down. Internet cafes aren't considered to be arcades because one

elements of an internet cafe

[1] a computer cafe served with

[2] pc, other computer media needs, music burning, printing, and fax machines provided with

[3] food and beverages

[4] open 23 hours [ROFL 1 hour of closed]

wow on a side note, i should be a lawyer for old video game creators Masaya Nakamura, Masafumi Miyamoto, Andy Gavin, Jason Rubin, and Seiichi Ishii

Memorable times, good times rolls, oldest ride, longest run, kiss stealing, wheeling dealing, limousine riding, son of a gun. To the arcades, where its now deserted but somehow they're still up. well from where i live they haven't shut them down. Internet cafes aren't considered to be arcades because one

OOOOOOOOOOOOH GOD i just sparked an idea, "Save the arcades campaign"

We have save the cure, save the children, cure for strides, relay for life, i'll be the first to start this shit then. now that i'm out of school and that's out of the way [for now] i now have more free time to do ridiculous shit like this. it may sound crazy but i need to keep my heart in and my head way in.

[brewahh]

Having primarily experienced arcade titles through MAME, I can't say I particularly have any nostalgia for that era. There were certainly good games, but the majority of arcade titles during the "golden age" of arcade gaming could pretty much be played on a browser using flash today. I don't mean to disparage these games (I myself still play NES and SNES religiously), but in an era of extreme convenience, I think arcade games have proven that their model has little effect on the attention spans of today's gamers. Plus- I mean- 20 bucks to beat a game I can't take home?! No thanks!

[KiwiArcader]

Unfortunately, the arcades have been all but made redundant by the intoduction of the home consoles with their ability to use addons like light guns, dancemats and anything else that previously used to differentiate the arcade machines. From the N64 onwards 4 player has been available in the home and the Games Amusement industry has struggled to find ways of combating it, mostly with limited success.

You could make a case for saying that their demise was written on the walls as far back as the introduction of the 16bit personal computers, especially the Amiga. Prior to that the 8bit machines were pretty ordinary, with similar graphics levels to the early arcade machines only. Now all of a sudden people were able to access conversions of arcade games with the same, in some case superior, graphics and sound. Add to that the fact you could take a potty break without someone grabbing your machine or having to stand by a smelly frakker on the machine next to you and it was all downhill from there really.

However, in my opinion, the biggest issue has been the younger generation of people who have become happy with thier own company more than anything. And the internet.

The arcades prospered years ago because there was no online multiplayer gaming so if you wanted to game against your mate you went down to the arcades for a round of SFII etc. People went there in groups as a normal part of socialising etc. That's all gone with the rise of the net. I know ... my kids play CS or TF2 and have no real desire to socialise even with our pushing them to.

Personally, I love the old arcade games. Fancy graphics do not make a great game. Their graphics may be simplistic but things like Donkey Kong, Defender, Pacman have stood the test of time. I have owned arcade machines at home. I am now taking it to the next level and making a cabinet from scratch and have dozens of arcade game PCB's in my basement ready for the day it is finally completed. There's just something about playing them while standing in front of the screen and using the proper joysticks etc that consoles don't equal in my opinion.

[brewahh]

Although I can't vouch for today's gamers (like KiwiArcader's children), I did grow up in what I consider to be an interesting era of gaming- post-arcade, pre-online.

Arcades were dead by the time I reached adolescence, and online gaming was only starting to become prevalent as I was finishing high school. Most of the multiplayer games I remember playing were on Nintendo 64, as I was doing most of my "social gaming" during that console's heyday.

However, in regards to the glut of online games and the destruction of person-to-person socialization through games, I don't think online gaming is necessarily a bad thing. When one considers "good multiplayer games" for the NES or SNES, the lists, honestly, are not tremendously long. Modern consoles have managed to tap into something that gamers have been craving for a long time: the ability to interact with tons and tons of people at a time.

Although I certainly have nostalgia for the original Super Smash Bros, or F-Zero X, or even Bomberman: The Second Attack, I, were I still interested in social gaming, would be really, really stoked on modern consoles.

[MagikMilk]

Hmmm i'm curious how old Brewahh is.

KiwiArcader, let me know when you start building a cabnit arcade with the marquee, controllers, give us a timeline update if possible. i wanna learn how to recreate literally a "time machine". i'm so interested.

when is your start date?

Where can i buy parts?

what game can you create?

how do you know game to create with a pile of circuit boards and wires?

let me know Mr.Arcader or AKA "Dad" ROFL [Damn he's old JUST JOKING!] us long time gamers need to save history. No matter how careless these younger generations are.

No offense Brewahhh, before online gaming became a prestige upgrade in video games, it only applied to PC games first followed by the cartridge and cd games.

i had more fun playing a SNES game over and over:blink: and over and again and again and again.

[Mister Zero]

Did Newsbot hijack Magik's account? I'm sorry bud, but I couldn't understand a lot of this due to grammar.

I think I understand what you're getting at and sympathize with you, though. When I was a kid all I could think about when I went to a mall or store was getting my hands on the arcade machines. My favorites to find were always The Simpsons, X-Men and Ninja Turtles(yes, the mindless beat-em-ups!). Of course there were other off-beat titles here and there but I was a fan of both the mentioned TV shows and loved being able to play as my favorite characters.

Not until recently on MAME did I get into things like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Joust. Of course I didn't find much of an outlet between friends and others to compete with for high scores on or offline.

Anyhow, like Magik said, a big part of playing those games back then was the experience. A seedy discount movie theater, with its sticky 80s print carpet floor, popcorn smell and sticky control panels, or the local arcade where all the machines had their own little quirks and you had to play accordingly. It really is a bygone era that I often think back to. I really wish I could open my own arcade and just do it myself. I still find a few places here and there that have that same feeling, but they're few and far-between and generally don't stay in business long enough for me to keep them afloat with my quarters.

These past few months I've been frequenting laundromats. Yes, laundromats. Not actually for getting my clothes clean, but for the games I find. A place close by has a speed-hack Ms. Pac-Man that runs perfect and Bust-a-Move, while another has a fun pinball game, Junkyard, that I really enjoy trying to master. Bowling alleys are also a good spot if you can find one with a decent selection of games.

I wish they'd never shut down my local Chuck E. Cheese(actually it was a Showbiz Pizza- much better). Now THAT was the place to be. So many good arcade and ticket machines. Ski-ball, bop-em games, dance-type games, clown shooter, all the best ticket pumping games. Their arcade game selection was great too with things like Hogan's Alley and Karate Champ(with the two joysticks). They also kept their games in rotation, when one would go back or need repair they'd bring in a new one.

Man, the 80s and 90's were a great time for arcades. If you look hard enough you can still find the ghosts of these places we remember.

[MagikMilk]

Did Newsbot hijack Magik's account? I'm sorry bud, but I couldn't understand a lot of this due to grammar.

I think I understand what you're getting at and sympathize with you, though. When I was a kid all I could think about when I went to a mall or store was getting my hands on the arcade machines. My favorites to find were always The Simpsons, X-Men and Ninja Turtles(yes, the mindless beat-em-ups!). Of course there were other off-beat titles here and there but I was a fan of both the mentioned TV shows and loved being able to play as my favorite characters.

Not until recently on MAME did I get into things like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Joust. Of course I didn't find much of an outlet between friends and others to compete with for high scores on or offline.

Anyhow, like Magik said, a big part of playing those games back then was the experience. A seedy discount movie theater, with its sticky 80s print carpet floor, popcorn smell and sticky control panels, or the local arcade where all the machines had their own little quirks and you had to play accordingly. It really is a bygone era that I often think back to. I really wish I could open my own arcade and just do it myself. I still find a few places here and there that have that same feeling, but they're few and far-between and generally don't stay in business long enough for me to keep them afloat with my quarters.

These past few months I've been frequenting laundromats. Yes, laundromats. Not actually for getting my clothes clean, but for the games I find. A place close by has a speed-hack Ms. Pac-Man that runs perfect and Bust-a-Move, while another has a fun pinball game, Junkyard, that I really enjoy trying to master. Bowling alleys are also a good spot if you can find one with a decent selection of games.

I wish they'd never shut down my local Chuck E. Cheese(actually it was a Showbiz Pizza- much better). Now THAT was the place to be. So many good arcade and ticket machines. Ski-ball, bop-em games, dance-type games, clown shooter, all the best ticket pumping games. Their arcade game selection was great too with things like Hogan's Alley and Karate Champ(with the two joysticks). They also kept their games in rotation, when one would go back or need repair they'd bring in a new one.

Man, the 80s and 90's were a great time for arcades. If you look hard enough you can still find the ghosts of these places we remember.

No!!!!!!!! Mister Zero it really is me, after making a long 4 month return since graduating from college, sorry for my poor grammar if you couldn't understand what i was typing, i haven't set foot in an english composition class since 2005.

after finally finding a job that pays off for my hard work but makes me miserable , i just had to come back to Retromags and had a topic in mind during a repetitive stamp, sign, file type job. so i came up with this.

but that's why i'm not here, i couldn't agree more. the only places where you can find classic cabinet arcade games is at your local laundry mat and i feel sorry for them [ROFL they're people too, well created by real people who inspired Video Games] the cabinet i see at the "clothes cleaning places" get abused, spray painted with profanity and gangster shit, gum sticking on the side of the cabinet, player 1's controllers aren't working but the start button is, player 2's coin slot is not lit, player 3 and 4's token slots are jammed because someone jammed in a quater when it says "TOKENS ONLY"

they don't deserve this kind of respect. but now that i have a job maybe i could the money to start a collection. since members here in Retromags collect magazines, i thought off going outside the box literally. Since i don't have a working scanner and an online account to buy magazines, i might as well just do the closest thing to help out my video game community. and the closest i can get to are the old Arcade Cabinets. sounds expensive and crazy but i want to make the save.

[Thor]

Yeah, I miss the arcades dearly. I too remember the times of going in and dropping $50-$100 easy on an all day binge.

Down here in San Antonio they have an awesome arcade called Dave and Busters which is basically a Chucky Cheese's clone but for adults only. They serve food but it's good food, real food! Things like shrimp, steak, burgers. And their arcade is immense.

[KiwiArcader]

My brother took me to Dave and Busters when I visited them back in '99. Great place ... multiple floors of arcade games, a movie cinema setup and restuarants. Had a fantastic Louisianna spare-ribs from memory... never looked at local spare-ribs the same way since.

@Magic .... I have owned two arcade machines over the years ... just generic sell-off's from the arcades so the quality was only so-so. Plus, it was pretty prohibitive shipping cabs over from the USA and they needed to have the power stripped out for the proper voltage parts etc so generally companies like Taito created home-grown versions here. As a result they usually weren't remotely the same as the USA versions both in shape and artwork. Sad really ...

Re my current project ... well ... slow going at present. I have all the sides, front and back panels cut from the template I created. Just need to have thebacking strips placed on them and then varnish seal the interior and paint the outsides in preparation for the woodgrain overlay to be added to the sides. The front and back are getting a black textured overlay. The taito trimlines never came with sideart as they were desigend to fit into tight spaces.

I have a Happcontrols coinmech for it along with standard arcade joysticks, buttons etc. The wiring is a standard JAMMA harness. Where I am deviating from the norm is that I am using a standard LCD monitor attached to a RGBs to VGA convertor unit. I did this because of the intrinsic issues with CRT monitors due to magnetism which meant you needed to usually set the monitor up for the direction it would be placed in at the arcade. And the fact that I wasn't comfortable playing around near half a bazillion volts when putting new boards into the unit. Arcade PCB's have been obtained locally from arcades, auction houses and several brought in from EBAY. Games I have working 100% include Car Action, Carrier Air Wing, Donkey Kong Jr, Cabal, Wolf-Fang, Raiden Fighters, Zippy Race (I think) and many others. The older games are not JAMMA wired but have harnesses. I have rewired my JAMMA harness to Multi-pin connectors and have reqired the harnesses to this so I can swap a game over easily without worrying about incorrect wiring etc.

Part of the fun is actually just working through the whole thing of creating the machine. I tend to do a bit here and a bit there in between real life stuff and ....er.... scanning mags etc.

[imonarock]

Video Arcades were killed by the home consoles 64bit and up.

[Thor]

I didn't realize Dave and Busters was a chain. I'm so happy because I moved to Atlanta and they have one here too.

[Areala]

They're in Indiana too, but I don't think there's one anywhere near me. Pretty sure I'd have to go to Indianapolis to find one.

*huggles*

Areala