When do you think the Retro era will end?

[Gray_Area]

I was just wondering about this today in considering control types and uses and such. There are the collectors, who are constrained by repro parts and arcade CRTscarcity....but I'm thinking more of the emulator crowd. The parts can more easily be made than for original classic machines....but how long will the interest remain. When will the demand for IPACS and WIZes and.....stuff.....die out?

[paigeoliver]

This forum probably had 5 times the traffic back when I joined in 2003, maybe ten times as much.

However the klov forums have exploded in traffic in that same time frame.

I think the focus has moved a lot towards games running real hardware.

I was just wondering about this today in considering control types and uses and such. There are the collectors, who are constrained by repro parts and arcade CRTscarcity....but I'm thinking more of the emulator crowd. The parts can more easily be made than for original classic machines....but how long will the interest remain. When will the demand for IPACS and WIZes and.....stuff.....die out?

[ed12]

hi

i need not quote
as long as to factor's are alive

1=them whom rember the oringal
2=them whom want to emulate

from there it's hand's down forever

ed

[Eldritch1969]

Quote from paigeoliver :

I think the focus has moved a lot towards games running real hardware.

You're right, sir. Unfortunately, this trend towards collecting and making profit selling old consoles and hardware is exploding here in France as well.

I have nothing against collectors, because some of them do it out of love for the games and the original hardware they want to pteserve, show to their children or whatever.

But, there is a new bunch of what we call "rakers" who go to all the yard sales and old ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- sellers and buy at low price any piece of junk, that they resell 5 or 10 times more to the unsuspecting person who just want to relive part of his/her youth playing the odd nintendo games

And forums which deal with the stuff see hundreds of thousands of hits a months...
However, this Retro era as the OP calls it, won't last for long, because it is just a fad, and people will move on.

In the meantime, it is just crazy to pay hundreds or thousands for old hardware and games . Despite what these people think it may not be "better" to play the original games on "original" hardware, because the gamepads at the time were... well, ---smurfy--- for most of them.

[BobA]

It depends on your frame of reference as to what is retro.   If you go into the future when ipads and ipods are retro then the focus on arcade games as retro may be lost.  However the emulation of arcade games may just switch to newer platforms such as newer smart phones.  I think the focus switching to real arcade games from emulation may swing back because there will probably be fewer and fewer real arcade games available. 

[xefned]

The retro trend will die out completely when the gen-x'ers have all died.

Thankfully that's still a long way away.   

[Jack Burton]

I think a lot of the "magic" of a MAME machine has worn off in the gaming community.  In fact, it's very trendy right now to hate on emulation in general. 

Real hardware is the hip thing.  Funny how that coincided with prices for cabs and pcb's hitting rock bottom. 

[Gray_Area]

I think a lot of the "magic" of a MAME machine has worn off in the gaming community.  In fact, it's very trendy right now to hate on emulation in general. 

Real hardware is the hip thing.  Funny how that coincided with prices for cabs and pcb's hitting rock bottom. 

I don't keep up with any of those things and places. Curious, in general. I'd guess a lot of people are still buying from GGG and Ultimarc, though.

I feel very fun-oriented lately, and hence have been 'into' playing arcade games more than in a while. My brother's in town, and last night was his first visit to my new house (and 'game room'). He's played on my main rig, but my tawdry Plumcade was a real hit with him, Paperboy in particular.

[CheffoJeffo]

It depends on your frame of reference as to what is retro.   If you go into the future when ipads and ipods are retro then the focus on arcade games as retro may be lost.  However the emulation of arcade games may just switch to newer platforms such as newer smart phones.  I think the focus switching to real arcade games from emulation may swing back because there will probably be fewer and fewer real arcade games available.

Agree entirely ... my kids love the games and I am teaching them to work on "real" hardware, but I have no illusions that my "big box of antiquated electronics" vision of arcade gaming will extend beyond my kids. But, at the same time, they also love to play the same games on a more convenient platform.

Folks like saint have driven a large number of folks into the so-called (I say this because I am old enough to know that everything old is always new again at some point) retro gaming, of which emulation is the gateway to the hard stuff. But, at some point, it will be just too hard to find parts and expertise to justify.

I see the meatspace aspect of gaming (actual cabinets, dedicated controls) as a cyclical fad, but the core aspects of the arcade era keep coming back. This past week I watched my younger son give a clinic to his grandparents in playing the various incarnations of Angry Birds, which is a game that I have yet to play, but strikes me as a "retro" game in terms of the nature, calibre and "funness" of game play.

[saint]

This forum probably had 5 times the traffic back when I joined in 2003, maybe ten times as much.

Actually here are the stats for the forum for the last 10 years (disregard 2002, the data is not complete) http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=stats

Compared to 2003 when you joined, the forum is:
68% as active by new topics
95% as active by new posts

Compared to the biggest year of 2005, the forum is:
40% as active by new topics
40% as active by new posts

Compared to the average of last 10 years, the forum is:
60% as active by new topics (average 11,558 new topics/year)
65% as active by new posts (average 129,622 new posts/year)

Whether that represents an ongoing decline, or a levelling out of interest (such as the model train hobby for instance) remains to be seen.

[PL1]

The other question that the stats bring up is how many lurkers are using the search function to find the excellent answers that are already archived here instead of posting?

How do the page view numbers compare year-to-year? (Stats page only has them for the current server)

I was a guest/lurker here for ~1.5 years and read many thousands of threads before creating an account and posting anything.


Scott

[Unstupid]

The other question that the stats bring up is how many lurkers are using the search function to find the excellent answers that are already archived here instead of posting?

If I were a noob I'd be afraid of posting.....  Especially if I was planning on building something with a tron joystick AND a trackball!   

[ed12]

if i have read the thread right  551 time is the view

my thought will never change

every come's in cycle's

what is retro today was new back in the DAY
point is the DAY

case in point pool table's
4x8
3/1/2x7
3/1/5x9

pin's
mech/em/digital

video
stand-up/sit-down/dual/tripple/quad

video game's
neo/weii

it's called pick

ed

[Unstupid]

if i have read the thread right  551 time is the view

my thought will never change

every come's in cycle's

what is retro today was new back in the DAY
point is the DAY

case in point pool table's
4x8
3/1/2x7
3/1/5x9

pin's
mech/em/digital

video
stand-up/sit-down/dual/tripple/quad

video game's
neo/weii

it's called pick

ed

What? 

[CoryBee]

What? 

 

My thoughts exactly 

[vanrose72]

if i have read the thread right  551 time is the view

my thought will never change

every come's in cycle's

what is retro today was new back in the DAY
point is the DAY

case in point pool table's
4x8
3/1/2x7
3/1/5x9

pin's
mech/em/digital

video
stand-up/sit-down/dual/tripple/quad

video game's
neo/weii

it's called pick

ed

Rough Translation:

If I have read this thread correctly, it has been viewed 551 times.

My thoughts will never change. Everything is cyclical.

Even the newest innovations of today will be considered "retro" at some time in the future.

Cases in point:

Pool Tables
1. The standard dimensions were once 4 x 8 ft.
2. Then, companies started manufacturing tables at 3-1/2 x 7 ft.
3. Later, they were manufactured at 3-1/5 x 9 ft.

Pinball Tables
1. They were once only mechanical.
2. With advances in pinball design, companies started producing electro-mechanical machines.
3. Today, pinball machines can even be completely digital.

Arcade Video Games
1. When the arcade boom hit, stand-up machines were the most popular.
2. Then, when the home market exploded, sit-down home video game systems took over in popularity.
3. Today, many people play games on PCs with processors getting faster and more powerful all the time - dual core, triple core, and even quad core.

Home Video Game Systems
1. SNK's Neo Geo console was popular years ago because you could play perfectly translated arcade games.
2. These days, you can play emulated classic arcade games on the Nintendo Wii.

It's called pick!

[ed12]

in the hind site of it

WHAT come's to my mind 2

and thk-u vanrose72
as that was exactley where i was going




ed

[PL1]

Vanrose72 -
Where'd you learn how to translate Ed12 speak?   
A program like Rosetta Stone?   

Ed12 -
Love the knowledge and experience you contribute to the forums -- I just wish that it was a little bit easier to follow sometimes.     


Scott

[ed12]

ya me 2 >pl1<



ed

[vanrose72]

and thk-u vanrose72
as that was exactley where i was going

ed

Thank YOU for your insights, ed!

I was hoping Google Translate would pull through for me! 

[Gatt]

I don't think we're in any danger of that happening.  Honestly,  if MAME emulates Silent Scope or Crazy Taxi you'll see traffic here explode.  Same with any number of Japan only titles.  Those games are a different generations Pac-Man and Donkey Kong,  and they'll generate the same type of response.

The first pre-fab guy that releases a pre-fab modular control panel is going to make a mint.

Additionally,  those numbers also have an interesting correlation...

The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005, in the United States and Canada; December 2, 2005, in Europe and December 10, 2005

PC use as a gaming machine is currently in a cyclical decline*.  So it's reasonable to assume that the drop in activity here is equivalent to the drop in PC Gaming activity.  In the next few years,  as the consoles falter and the Steambox/PC take over again as a gaming platform,  you'll see interest explode again.

*Gaming is showing a cyclical patter.  Atari -> C64 -> Nes/SNES/Genesis -> PC -> X-box/Psx.  Consoles tend to be control/display limited,  meaning the diversity of titles is inherently lower than the PC (Referencing the C64 as a PC),  so it's easier to fatigue a generation of gamers on a Console because you have a much smaller amount of potential game types.  Additionally,  Consoles are very heavily managed and done so in a profit oriented fashion,  resulting in rapid saturation of  few genres speeding gamer fatigue.  An event we're seeing today with consoles.

**The next generation of consoles are doomed to unavoidable failure.  Publishers refuse to contain costs by eliminating their bloat,  making the number of units needed to sell unrealistic on anything but a mature platform.  EA states that for a IP to be worth pursuing,  it has to sell at least 5 million units or roughly 3.5% of the console owners (140 million 360's/PS3's have been sold).  3.5% of the early adopters is only a few hundred thousand at best.  Publishers won't be able to sustain themselves on the much smaller installed base of the next generation,  and we're going to end up with a death spiral where Publishers are folding because they've become unsustainable,  and consoles will fold because games sell consoles,  but there won't be games.  Steambox will help shift gaming back to the PC platform and we'll see a resurgence of emulation interest.

[ark_ader]

The retro scene ended years ago.

All that is left is the deniers, the uninitiated and the gawkers. 

[Gray_Area]

**The next generation of consoles are doomed to unavoidable failure...Steambox will help shift gaming back to the PC platform and we'll see a resurgence of emulation interest.

I think it will go further than that - given the miniaturation of devices, embedded systems, wireless - where it'll be like what we saw in sci-fi cartoons in the 70s and 80s. There won't be a platform, except insofar as there being an electronic medium to access/interact with and through.


But, to re-state, I'm meaning specifically when the time companies like GGG and Ultimarc will have to shut down or move on to other things - as I consider the hobby to be 'retro' only when conventional (and some special - but limited to pre-'00) arcade controls are used.

[ed12]

a saying ring's in my mind
build it they will come
guess what ?

ed