I went to the local Arcade today

[Cobolisdead]

So on my lunchbreak, I went to the indoor mall here in town, because I knew they still had an arcade there. The last time I saw it, it was full of redemption games and some newer rhythm games. Imagine my surprise when I get there and see that 2/3's of the place has been turned into a giant slot car race track! 

Fortunately, they actually had some arcade machines along the walls. Here is what I remember Neo Geo 2 slot, NBA Jam 4 player, Hydro Thunder, Crusin Exotica, off road hotrods, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Star Wars Trilogy, and some western shooter. The weird and notable thing about this arcade was that the Neo Geo 2 slot cabinet had a 60 in 1 card in it and the NBA Jam had a 19 in 1 in it!  I must admit that this was the first time that I had seen this hardware in person before so I played a game on each of them to see how it compared to the originals. Overall, not bad, but the button layouts really didn't work well for it. I ended up pumping in some quarters to the Star Wars Trilogy game though, as I used to love playing that game.  I also played MVC2, but the sound wasn't working and the multi-card machines on either side had some loud menu music making it hard to focus on playing it. Are they all like that?

[Cobolisdead]

Rather than start a new topic, I thought that I would just bump this one.

This past weekend I went up to Birmingham, AL for a convention. turns out that they had an arcade room, but no one told me about it until afterwards.

The good news is that after we left the convention, we went to their local mall, the Galleria, which is a massive mall that is alive and well, reminding me of what malls used to look like when I was a kid. Anyways, while we were there, we went to their Arcade, Bumpers(or was it Bumpernets?). It was a large arcade stretching to 4 stores 2 on each side of the walkway, and it was full of new and older arcade games and pinball machines! I was with a group, so I didn't have time to properly enjoy the arcade, but I did get to play the new Batman racing/shooting game, Terminator: Salvation, Galaga, and some great Pinball machines like Ironman and the Simpsons.  It was a fairly nice place, and if you are in the area, you should definitely check it out.

[Neogojira]

Well it's nice that your mall still has one. Most malls dropped them for more stores. Around my area they are all gone. I have to take my son to the movies to play 1 of 3 small arcades or take him to arcade expos for him to play. This year he played his first pinball game and now lives them

[Slippyblade]

The local mall arcade finally went out of business here.  Tilt at Paradise Valley Mall.  Not real surprised though - the idiot owner had been trying to surf the redemption game wave to make more money, which would have been fine if he bothered to have an employee.  He literally only had an employee to work the redemption counter on Friday and Sunday, part of the day at that.  The rest of the time the place was completely self-service, nobody in the place.

[Sarver Systems]

We just opened an arcade inside a large golf center.

30+ arcades (80's to newer), and 20+ pins (all DMD and newer, including the new KISS).

So far we havent had a huge turn out, but then again we havent officially opened yet.

No advertising, no tournaments, etc...

I'm hoping it does well, considering, as you said, there arent many arcades around any more.

[yotsuya]

We just opened an arcade inside a large golf center.

30+ arcades (80's to newer), and 20+ pins (all DMD and newer, including the new KISS).

So far we havent had a huge turn out, but then again we havent officially opened yet.

No advertising, no tournaments, etc...

I'm hoping it does well, considering, as you said, there arent many arcades around any more.

You gotta advertise the hell out of that thing...

Two buddies of mine opened a traditional arcade about a year ago, and every time I go, I am impressed how many times I see NEW people there. It's not just all their friends showing up to play. It's couples, kids, you name it.

But they advertise the hell out of the arcade... Facebook pages and contests, Craigslist ads... they've invited local businesses in and done "name-dropping" partnerships. It's paid off well for them.

[Sarver Systems]

Yup, Already have the facebook page setup "Broadway Bar and Arcade" if you're interested.

We'll be advertising it, we just havent gotten to that stage yet.

The grasnd opening is July 18th.

[Cobolisdead]

We had a new arcade open up near my house, but driving past it, it doesn't seem to be much more than a Redemption arcade with a small roller skating rink. I might go check it out one day next week.

[Cobolisdead]

Well, I went to PCB this last week for a vacation. And they had a few arcades still there, but nothing that inspiring. I did go to their Dave and Busters, which was the first time that I went to one. It had some new games there like the new Star Wars starfighter game, and I had fun, but the place is geared towards redemption games. We spent $42 in there, played for about 3 hours, and left with a nice stuffed monkey for the nursery. I had a lot of fun playing some of the games with my wife. We played through aliens extermination, transformers, and did a lot of skeeball. We also played the Mario kart game, which was awesome, as I hadn't ever seen one of those in person before.  They had Daytona USA, a multicade, and a pump it up game, but that was about the only thing that I would consider "classic" arcade games, which was sad. I was hoping to see at least a class of 1981 machine( I did later at another place though). My wife kicked butt at the Angry birds catapult game they had. She even got the 500 coupon/ticket bonus!

[megamoze]

Went into the local mall arcade here recently.  Kept my expectations low and was still disappointed.  They did have one Ms Pacman/Galaga combo game near the front, but the only other classic uprights were literally stuck in a side hallway near the back exit.  The rest were redemption games and a few shooters.

[obcd]

I am technician in an arcade, so I go there pretty much every day.
The reason the switch is made to redemption is simply because classic arcade games don't deliver any income anymore.
Normally, a machine should rewin it's cost price within the first year. Every extra years of exploitation are a bonus.
Guess what, if you buy a dual sitdown racer, you need at least 2 or 3 years before it's payed off.
This means it's hardly worth the trouble.
For instance, take the sega outrun II.
The arcade cabinet came out, and a few months later, the game was available for pretty much every game console on the market at that time.
As a result, the machine doesn't make profit anymore. The misery even goes further. Due to the low income of the machine, the owner doesn't want to spent much money on repairs.
As a result, the machine becomes less fun to play, caused by issues like force feedback no longer working  or screen faults.
Redemption isn't something you can play at home.
Unless they will interface the PS4 or XBOX ONE to the newest model 3d printer so that it can print it's own stuffed annimals, it's something that replaces the classic videogames, not because they make "more income", just because they still produce "an income".
So, if the idiot owner doesn't has personel in it's gameroom, it's simply because he couldn't affort to pay one's salary anymore. You have any idea how much vandalism is happening in an arcade, even when there is a supervisor on duty? A lot of parents just let their kids mess with the machines without coins in their pockets, and they have to do something with their fustration.
I remember repairing and restoring a Killer Instinkt some years ago after it was stored for several years due to a broken harddisk. We placed it back thinking peple would like to see such an oldie again. Totally wrong move. The coin box remained empty, so it didn't even pay the electricity it consumed. So, even keeping older arcades in mint condition isn't usefull, and that's why you don't find them anymore in the arcades. There are some exceptions, like the sega daytona, which we still have in exploitation. 

[Cobolisdead]

Well the local arcade didn't last long. It seems to be closed down now. It doesn't surprise me at all since the place was hardly ever open. It seemed that they just wanted you to book private parties there.

[Cobolisdead]

I am technician in an arcade, so I go there pretty much every day.
The reason the switch is made to redemption is simply because classic arcade games don't deliver any income anymore.
Normally, a machine should rewin it's cost price within the first year. Every extra years of exploitation are a bonus.
Guess what, if you buy a dual sitdown racer, you need at least 2 or 3 years before it's payed off.
This means it's hardly worth the trouble.
For instance, take the sega outrun II.
The arcade cabinet came out, and a few months later, the game was available for pretty much every game console on the market at that time.
As a result, the machine doesn't make profit anymore. The misery even goes further. Due to the low income of the machine, the owner doesn't want to spent much money on repairs.
As a result, the machine becomes less fun to play, caused by issues like force feedback no longer working  or screen faults.
Redemption isn't something you can play at home.
Unless they will interface the PS4 or XBOX ONE to the newest model 3d printer so that it can print it's own stuffed annimals, it's something that replaces the classic videogames, not because they make "more income", just because they still produce "an income".
So, if the idiot owner doesn't has personel in it's gameroom, it's simply because he couldn't affort to pay one's salary anymore. You have any idea how much vandalism is happening in an arcade, even when there is a supervisor on duty? A lot of parents just let their kids mess with the machines without coins in their pockets, and they have to do something with their fustration.
I remember repairing and restoring a Killer Instinkt some years ago after it was stored for several years due to a broken harddisk. We placed it back thinking peple would like to see such an oldie again. Totally wrong move. The coin box remained empty, so it didn't even pay the electricity it consumed. So, even keeping older arcades in mint condition isn't usefull, and that's why you don't find them anymore in the arcades. There are some exceptions, like the sega daytona, which we still have in exploitation.

Yeah, killer Instinct, while fun, isn't a big of a draw as Mortal Kombat 1 or 2 would be. Not as much nostalgia for it.

Redemption machines producing an income, but if that is all there is there, no one will go there.

[Cobolisdead]

So last Monday I had the day off and went back to the local mall, and to my surprise, they actually got in some more games! They still had everything else, but they also added Rush the Rock, Cruisin the World, an Actual Neo Geo 1 slot with Metal Slug, a ton of coin pushers, and a bunch of crane games. There might have been a few more games, but that is all I can remember off the top of my head.