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What ruined the "arcade generation"?
Thenasty:
the Arcade close by me just closed its doors. It finally died after months of deciding its come to let it go and now the day had come :'(
The only place left around here are in the mall and Sportworld.
shawnzilla:
I also believe that the death of many indoor malls across the country have contributed to the fall of arcades. Here in Kansas City, there used to be several thriving malls, each with an arcade (one of them had two!). But, as each mall started sliding downhill, the arcades seemed to be one of the first tenants to go. What's strange is that there is one mall in my area that has survived and is thriving, but their arcade that had been open since I was very young (A Fun Factory), closed their doors a couple of months ago...it pissed me off the other day when I walked by and noticed that in its place will be a Pacific Sunwear store.
Oh well, there is a local Taco Via that still has the same galaga that I threw my money into twenty+ years ago. :-)
danny_galaga:
--- Quote from: paigeoliver on February 28, 2005, 03:25:19 am ---
--- Quote from: danny_galaga on February 28, 2005, 03:18:46 am ---
oh, and my local fish and chip shop has raiden and metal slug, but theyve just changed the raiden board to raiden fighters. i might have to enquire after the vendor and see if they want to get rid of that raiden PCB...
--- End quote ---
They likely just swapped the board to another location (probably wherever the Raiden Fighters board came from).
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actually i suspect its probably dead because this vendor wasnt very active. that same raiden machine has been there for at least five years. ill ask the chip shop guys next time...
paigeoliver:
Last I checked the Tilt was still open in our local mall. It is the biggest store in the mall aside from the anchors. When I was a kid the place was packed with row after row of 19" cabinets (probably 150 of them), and they had a Sega R360 by the front stairs.
Today they have like 30 pieces of equipment, half redemption, and last time I was there 22 of them had problems. (I started getting mad that EVERYTHING had something wrong with it so I checked them all). Of the 8 that worked completely right only 2 of them were vids, and they were both the same game.
Yep, only 30 piece of equipment in a place that once ran 200 games, and most of them were broken and they had doubles of half the stuff.
armax:
It's a shame. You couldn't walk into a mall or strip mall without running into an arcade. Heck, as a kid, it was my only reason for going to a mall. Here in austin, we have 1 mall with an arcade (most interactive games), a Dave and Busters (lots of interactive games) and a handfull of bowling alleys with arcades (though I suspect those will be gone because of the element it tends to draw late at night).
If I had to take a guess, consoles are to blame. Heck, consoles are the reason why the PC gaming industry has taken such a large hit. Most programmers have gone to the console side (much better pay) and the scam that most stores run when it involves shelf renting is ridiculous...only consoles can afford it.
When was the last time anyone has seen a pinball machine?