Video Games Are Dead!

[RayB]

July 25, 2005 - Ray B. Proclaims Video Arcades Dead

"Kids no longer want to play video games outside the home" is the controversial statement recently made by self-proclaimed game guru Ray B. Others were heard to say "yeah" and "mmm hmmm".

In a recent visit to Niagara Falls, Ontario's Clifton Hill entertainment strip, Ray B. and family visited The Great Canadian Midway. Formerly a small old video arcade, GCM has been revamped into a large multi-format entertainment complex. Upon entering, to your right is a ghost-house ride where you get to also shoot at targets in the dark. In the main area you are greeted by a large colorful room full of coin-operated machines with blinking lights and exciting sounds. But these are not your father's coin-ops! No, in fact, these might be your grand-dad's coin-ops. The place is filled with "coin pushers"; machines where you take your chances, drop in a coin and hope that it causes more coins to fall out than you put in. Sounds like gambling to me. Oh, but they also dispense tickets, so I guess that makes it OK.

Searching in vain for games using CRT displays, I at last found a familiar face. Pac Man. But what's this? Oh Pac Man! How low you have fallen! Pac Man is now a pusher!

Digging deeper I eventually found some video games tucked away in the back room, surrounded by air hockey tables, skee ball and other skill games. They were mostly gun shooters from the early 90's and a few pinball machines. An old Funhouse with a broken flipper. Lethal Enforcers. Terminator. Revolution X...

So I sat myself down on a firetruck kiddie ride. Dropped in 3 tokens, and tried not to cry while I went up and down and the siren went "whoop! whoop! whoop!" and I thought "Video arcades are dead".*

[Havok]

Thank god that's only in Canada. We're doing fine in the US and UK...

 

[Minwah]

Thank god that's only in Canada. We're doing fine in the US and UK...

Are you sure?  They're certainly not what they used to be in the UK

[mcdo15]

Heck, i cant even locate a decent arcade anymore that has the most recent games.  US is going downhill imo.  with all these new systems, ppl playing games on mobile phones now...why go to an arcade?

[USSEnterprise]

The only places I see video arcade games anymore are bowling alleys and movie theatres. The rest are all gambling and skill games

[pointdablame]

Thank god that's only in Canada. We're doing fine in the US and UK...

 

We are??!?!


Here in NJ the arcades are NOTHING like they used to be.

[Jollyrob]

I went to a Gameworks in the detroit area not too long ago, it was doing fine, had a complete section for classics even, but it was really sort of pointless.

I didn't enjoy myself like i thought I would, as it really just turned out to be a glorified bar, place is huge with loads of walking room, games on 2 floors....

But what does everyone in there do, they sit around the tables in front of the bar drinking hypnotics with glow sticks in them, and talk, and talk, and talk, the only people who i actually saw playing games in there were a couple of hot chicks shooting basketball at the basketball thing, classics were empty, driving games were empty, hell, even the shooting games were empty

The horse racing betting game was full though.

I mean honestly....why go to an arcade, drinks were pricey there as it was, go to a real bar, and turn the damned music down, i happened to like hearing the games when i play them

[Havok]

Thank god that's only in Canada. We're doing fine in the US and UK...

 

Hehe - I knew that would get the comments rolling! Actually, I have seen a decline here too (Albany, NY) However there are still a couple of good holdouts if you know where to look. It is a bit depressing in a way, but with the advent of MAME, it softens the blow...

[USSEnterprise]

Unless you go to some of the arcades around Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights, you will rarely see true arcade games.

[pointdablame]

Unless you go to some of the arcades around Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights, you will rarely see true arcade games.

Even then there is not much left.  Redemption games take more floor space each year, and massive gimmicky VR machines or the like push their way in as well.  It's not dead, but it's definiteily on its last leg down the shore too.

It's a good thing I like DDR and Bemani stuff, or I'd have next to nothing to play when I go down the shore.

[markb]

I live in the North East of England about 3 miles from the coast. In my youth (early 80's) there was a small town called Whitley Bay that had about a dozen arcades as it was a typical English seaside resort, within 20 miles up the coast line there were another 5 or 6 places exactly the same.
Fast forward 20 years and Whitley Bay seafront is starting to look like a ghost town, all bar 3-4 of the arcades are boarded up and of the remaining ones they are nearly all slots & pushers with a few of the big newer games like DDR, Time Crisis etc.

It's a similar story at nearly all the other places as well at best most of them have a few Jamma cabs playing Bubble Bobble.

[USSEnterprise]

I know I went to an arcade in Seaside Heights recently and they had some of the older and newer games, along with some late 70's to 80's pinballs.

[RayB]

This place I went to didn't even have rows of racing games or other big "sim" games like you'd expect. There was absolutely nothing there that interested me. They didn't even have Tekken 5.

[hooded_paladin]

Yeah, oh man I went to Dave & Busters and was so disappointed.  It was all racing, shooting, and redemption games.  Blah.  Played Mechwarrior but it wasn't really worth the $4 or so off my card that it represented.  There was a smattering of Ultracades and a Tekken but mostly I played three games of Pump It Up (which I've decided isn't as good as DDR, because the music is so blah.).

Then take the nickel arcade that I've been going to too many times.  The thing is half redemption games and, as a result, there are far too many idiotic kids there.  The rest are free-play oldies (either the same-old, same-old huge-ies like Pac Man and Tetris, or really really obscure and horrible ones), driving games, assorted modern beat-em-ups which I don't go for, and music games.  Last time I went I don't think I played anything except for Para Para Paradise, Dancemaniax, and one $1 game of doubles DDR which I had to venture into the land of mean-spirited-Junior-Highers-that-think-they're-cool to play.  Meh.  (Those are all music games, mind you.  Nothing else there is worth putting 3-6 nickels into.)

Gaming is just ahead of movie watching in the journey from outside to the home.  Entertainment media is targeting the big market spenders more and more, meaning that it targets average and weird people less and less.

[USSEnterprise]

I've never played DDR. When I hear it referred to that way, I think 'double density RAM" before 'Dance Dance Revolution'

[dema]

July 25, 2005 - Ray B. Proclaims Video Arcades Dead

"Kids no longer want to play video games outside the home"

I'd much rather play indoors, where you're not bombarded by mother nature, and where it's easier to find an electrical outlet.

[Tahnok]

I've never played DDR. When I hear it referred to that way, I think 'double density RAM" before 'Dance Dance Revolution'

I hadn't actually played it until not too long ago. It's actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be, despite the fact of loosing horribly. I suggest finding a machine in some dead area (where no one will be around to watch) and trying some of the slow songs.

[rackoon]

Yea, your right the out door arcade is dying due to consoles.

Yet the classics will live one in the form of the home hobbyist.

   I wondered myself if the arcade scene was dead because my kids grew up on Playstations and Nintendo, yet, when we get near a small arcade in a theater, or where ever, they go nuts over Mrs. PAC Man.

   If arcade game makers were more inventive, arcades would pop up every where. ARCADE CAB MAKERS NEED TO BE ONE STEP IN FRONT OF THE CONSOLES , OR OFFER SOMETHING THAT CONSOLES CANT (example: in-closed pod with multi screens)

[AlanS17]

[toolaa]

While in general I agree that arcades in the US are no longer destinations for teens and younger adults, I still find pockets of games in familiar places.

Mini-Golf Course and Batting Cages near by had about 3000sf with 1/2 redemption and 1/2 pinball and video games including some classics. 

Local ice rink has about 25 classic machines.  My kids have PS2 but they are always begging to play Blastroids, Cowboys of Moo Mesa or TMNT.

I find an arcades in some of the hotel's I stay at and while they are not bustling full with people, kids are there having fun on games that are ten years older than they are. 


I think the real problem is that the return on investment for arcade games is very poor.  The cost to design, manufacture and distribute and maintain machines is a looser of a business proposition.  If arcade games could cost around $500, took up 1/2 the floor space, required no maintenance, accommodate quick ROM and CP changes the ROI would be about 1/2 a year.  I think you would see more mini-arcades.

[Nefesis]

[JB]

I've never played DDR. When I hear it referred to that way, I think 'double density RAM" before 'Dance Dance Revolution'

That's funny, because DDR in RAM stands for "dual data rate"...

[Havok]

I've never played DDR. When I hear it referred to that way, I think 'double density RAM" before 'Dance Dance Revolution'

That's funny, because DDR in RAM stands for "dual data rate"...

Oops - he's right, but I also think of DDR RAM first. I've got to add the metal dance pads to my home machine, I look like a spaz when I play that game - fun, but embarrassing...

[USSEnterprise]

damn. I was thinking floppy disks.

[pointdablame]

I've never played DDR. When I hear it referred to that way, I think 'double density RAM" before 'Dance Dance Revolution'

That's funny, because DDR in RAM stands for "dual data rate"...

Actually, it stands for DOUBLE data rate.   There is also DUAL channel ram, but that is not what DDR stands for

[USSEnterprise]

Well then I might have gotten one of the words right. I feel stupid