I have an arcade around the corner that still has the classic games. It has been there since the early 80s.
The last time I was in an old arcade like that was when I was looking into the possible purchase of a classic dark ride (another interest of mine). The place was in Staten Island and was called Funland. Attached to the dark ride was a classic arcade.
Now you are probably wondering why an arcade would have a dark ride attached to it. Well the story is long, but there is a simple explanation. As it turned out, the arcade/dark ride was situated across the street of what was once an amusement park. The park had long closed but the owner of the dark ride/arcade continued to run both sometime afterwards. At one point in time, the owner decided that the ridership of the dark ride was too small to keep it running and thus decided to close it, sell it and rent out the space. That is how I came into the picture.
Needless to say, they wanted too much money for the dark ride and I backed out. While I visited, I did get a good look at the arcade which did have its fair share of 80's games and pinballs. A good majority of the arcade did have modern machines and also redemption machines.
The place was kind of run down and it looked like they were on hard times back then (it was about 2000 or so when I visited the place). I am not sure if they are still around today. I seriously doubt it.
That was the last time I was in a dedicated 'arcade'.
Sad to think that the kids have so much with consoles and that Mame has practically killed off any attempts for a grand classic arcade comeback. CAX is as close as you can get.
Well, I wouldn't pin it all on MAME. It is also the next generation of kids that are growing up now, but haven't been exposed to the games from the 80's. Or those that are simply not interested as they want to play something with 'good' graphics. But yeah, I do admit too, with MAME there really isn't a need to go to an arcade anymore.
On the other hand Mame allows me to coin up on rainy days and on my phone at work. So it is not all bad I guess.
Arcade hording? Sounds like a good idea if you have the money.
Better a cabinet in someones basement than in a land fill.
Well, I am not one for the heavy hording as mentioned here where the guy says he has 100's of machines. I mean c'mon save some for the rest of us! While I still believe this for pinball machines and jukeboxes, I have lightened up quite a bit on those that horde video games. This is actually due to the 'good' side of MAME. MAME actually has spawned on many that create their own cabinets, thus cutting down the need to hack original cabinets which could be restored by these 'hording' collectors. So yes, that does help keep those cabinets out of the landfill from botched MAME jobs.
Taking it another step further MAME has also spawned on the idea of the reproduction cabinet. Considering that an original Defender or Asteroids cabinet will probably cost more to buy than re-create, it does encourage those that want to save some money to build their own reproduction cabinet.
So in this case I don't mind the hording so much.
Geo
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Topic: Game Over: Death Of The Arcade (Read 5654 times)
