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What ruined the "arcade generation"?
paigeoliver:
I can do Star Wars Trilogy on one credit and have 100 percent life heading into the final stage pretty much every time. I have even had games end at 100 percent life remaining, but I never managed a perfect game (you get 20 percent life back after the end of each stage, except the final one of course, I have gotten to the final stage without getting hit many times and I have done the final stage without getting hit several times, but I have never combined the two).
Of course the last stage of Trilogy is rediculously easy once you get good at the game, there are only like 2 dangerous moments for a good player, and a good player will be rolling into the stage with maximum life and can just let those ships peg him and still beat the game without dying.
Daniel270:
For me, the arcade experience wasn't a major one... in the small town where I grew up, it had 2 arcades.. neither successful. First one was in a small shopping center (I vaguely remember Pac-Man and Space Invaders). Second was in the skating rink (Pretty much strictly Galaxian and Crazy Climber).
After the movie theater was built, there was a small gameroom off to the side, but after 6 months, 3 games migrated into the lobby and the room was emptied out and locked...
Last time I went back to that town, the movie theater still had a couple, but the skating rink was torn down and the shopping center's all but dried up... maybe 3 stores left out of many....
Grasshopper:
Another thing that isn't often mentioned is that arcade game manufacturers didn't handle the move to true 3d very well.
Most games in arcades are now of course 3d (e.g. most fighters, sports sims, driving) but they are mostly based on tried and tested genres that were developed in the pseudo 3d sprite era.
Take fighters for instance. The game designers have essentially bolted on fancy 3d graphics to a sprite era game. The gameplay is still essentially 2d.
The decline of acades started round about the time that Doom first appeared and I don't think this is a co-incidence. Doom is the first genuine 3d game IMHO (Wolfenstein was too primitive). I think you can essentially divide game technology into pre amd post doom eras. The arcades have never really had an answer to FPS and other types of post-Doom games.
Having said that there is no reason why FPS type games couldn't work in an arcade. It's just that they haven't been developed around arcade controls, and are now firmly associated with PCs and consoles.
If Doom had first appeared in an arcade it might have been a different story.
armax:
I don't know. I first saw doom and wolfenstein and didn't care much for them. They seemed gimmicky at the time. Not much substance. I didn't get into FPS until Doom II. Actually, the whole 3d thing kinda didn't appeal to me in general....hence my eventual losing interest in arcades.
DYNAGOD:
i think the major killer was just time and inflation.
the simple fact of the matter is that real estate costs 250% more than it did during the arcade heyday, hardware costs have increased 250%+, but the income of the general individual hasnt kept pace and is actually almost the same as it was 25 years ago..
it simply isnt financially feasible to sell a product at such a low cost per unit with such enourmously disproportionate overhead to cover.
its just bad business.
you have to sell too much product to turn a profit.