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What ruined the "arcade generation"?
tetsujin:
I think arcade games started as a huge fad, and when the initial novelty wore off the industry spent some time trying to find its new direction while the novelty was at least still in people's memories. Now the novelty is completely gone (at best there's nostalgia value, along with games with special controls like DDR or gun games), and arcade games need a better justification for their experience - I think the time when arcade machines were ubiquitous is likely gone forever. Not so much because of home consoles, but because of things like cell phones, which are ubiquitous, and which support a high enough level of gaming that most people won't be tempted to part with their pocket change.
Also gone (for the most part) are the simple types of games that were really well-suited to arcades. Simple, one-screen games, games people could pick up and play the first time with no learning curve, games people could play for five minutes and then forget about, or restart without feeling they'd missed anything. Games have developed to require a deeper commitment from the player (for the most part) and that really works against the "impulse buy" mentality that arcade machines need to work in the present. There are exceptions, of course, but most of that sort of game development is happening on embedded platforms - again, the cell phones, etc.
Zero_Hour:
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was largely "the games" that ruined the arcade generation. Sure a lot of other things have influenced the decline of the arcade machine, most have been mentioned here already.
The true classics that most of us are obsessed with fell into several categories -
1. Established the Genre (Pac-Man as opposed to say Lock n Chase)
2. Expanded an established genre (Galaxian built on Space Invaders, Galaga built on Galaga) in a way that dramatically improved / Changed already established gameplay types.
3. Stand alone as "unique" gametypes that defy easy classification - Q*bert, Toobin, and the like.
Which is to say that a lot of the games from the "classic" era were crap, it's just there was a much more competitve enviornment at the time with more vendors vying for exposure., We largely forget the duds, except when we are scrolling through the expansive lists of supported games in various emulators.
The single thing that really pushed me away from Arcades was the CONTINUE feature. Games that had linear play, an ENDING. What do you do after you beat one of those games? Maybe try to beat it with fewer continues, but you know how it ends. I've always preferred games that simply got more difficult until I could no longer hold my own against the machine. Also, the growth of Fighters surely frustrated more than a few players - That could be an expensive learning curve if you can't play a game without some smart ass buying in and trashing you every time you step up to the machine.
I could point to the Big networked racing games and other cabinets that are major installations - the expense of those certainly would push out the small operators.
Ultimately there were a bunch of forces internal and external to the arcade indutry that have put it well below the radar of most people, but the good thing is as long as there are places like BYOAC and the like, the classics will live on.
tetsujin:
--- Quote from: Zero_Hour on February 28, 2005, 12:56:43 pm ---Also, the growth of Fighters surely frustrated more than a few players - That could be an expensive learning curve if you can't play a game without some smart ass buying in and trashing you every time you step up to the machine.
--- End quote ---
That's a really good point. I love fighting games - SF2 and MK2 and their relatives are among my all-time favorites. But for a long time I hardly ever played them in the arcades, just because I didn't want to be clobbered by someone who'd learned all the 8-hit combos or whatever in MvC. And early on I felt like knowing the special moves was this big thing - I studied the strategy guides in the magazines but I never felt like I really got it, back then.
Kremmit:
--- Quote from: pcolson on February 28, 2005, 04:44:36 am ---I am in Reno, and most casinos have arcades, so I should be able to find a few mixed in with all the crappy redemption games.
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There was a pretty sweet arcade in the basement of the MGM Grand (what do they call the big square hotel way off away from the strip these days- is it Bally's?) the last time I was there. Some classics, and some pretty fun modern titles, too.
APFelon:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 28, 2005, 06:46:11 am ---
To be honest... I think a combination of Street Fighter II and 3d hardware did the most damages.
SFII did so well.. that everybody scrapped many projects.. and nothing could top it in earnings. After that ... it inda got the "me too" thing happening. No more originality... : (
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I find this to be categorically untrue. Fighting games brought in influx of new players in to the arcades. We called it the "arcade renaissance" in my company. It sure was better than those cookie-cutter side scrolling beat-em-ups that were coming out at the time. The arcades were pretty moribund before Street Fighter II. If anything, the fighting game fad prolonged the life of your favorite arcades, not contribute to their downfall.
3D was pretty cool when it came out, too. I remember seeing Ridge Racer for the first time and my jaw hit the floor. It was an incredible time for the business, and an even better time to be working in it.
I remember coin boxes so full that I could barely lift them (and I am not a small guy). I remember mobs of people around Street Fighter II and its various sequels. I remember beating 90+ people in a row at Mortal Kombat at the Mall of America. And I especially remember how "communal" fighting games were.
Some people mentioned that they didn't like when some "smart ass" put in quarters of the fighting game they were playing and beat them. Well, that was kind of the point of making the fighting games two players to begin with, and that is the basis of why I say fighting games were communal. I met a lot of people while playing fighters, and we would exchange tips, hints, fatalities and the like. Or sometimes we would just trashtalk. It was a lot of fun, and that's one of the reason fighters became so popular.
Fighting games had nothing to do with the death of creativity in the business. It was already on life support. For every Toobin' or S.T.U.N. Runner, you'd have limitless JAMMA junk kits, horrid sports games or yet another side-scroller. I can easily parallel the "fighting age" of videogames to the "golden age" of videogames, and do it in all seriousness.
APf