Its my belief that the Arcades Died because of Unoriginality, and that
the games were way too easy.
People porting the games to consoles too quickly is also a problem...
however, that was something that any company could control.
The only reason for doing that, would have been that they were
not getting enough sales... because Ops were not buying.. cause
people were not interested in playing those games for very long.
No challenge = no reason to play for long.
No originality = not interested. Been there, done that.
Pinball died (I dont count stern - they suck, and have no competition.
Their New machines cant even hold value while old williams pins values
are going Up) because of the fact that they were designed with
high failure parts... and required way too much maintenance. Ops
dont have time to rip PBs all apart all the time... and anyone who
plays pinball Hates when something does not work on a machine.
To keep games alive in the arcades, more use of cost effective
kits would have done wonders for extending interests. For
example - a game like Race Drivin having 7 more tracks
added to it. While there were kits made... some were released
too long after the main release.. or did not contain enough
content or differences to gain interests.
Having a universal reusable motion simulator cabinet would have
reduced the cost considerably for new games... as only lower
costing kits could have been used, making it easier and more
cost effective to ops. As well as making it a much greater
draw to people to come to the arcades. (as most individuals cant
afford an actual motion cockpit)
Additional technologies could have also been used...
such as stereoscopic 3d glasses helmets, or use of polorized
3d displays. Use of 3d high def sound would have also
added to this. Using 3d mic recordings, high quality speakers,
and multichannel of 4 or more speakers would have helped too.
A rule of no arcade ports for 3 to 5 yrs is more realistic for
ops to regain their investments back.
To be honest, Im more surprised that these Designers / Programmers
dont just go on and develop new games for sale online on their
own (for pc). There are tons of people out there making lackluster
games for PC, and making decent money. Guys like Eugene have much
more experience, genius, and skills to make quality games. (as well as
cult following and high recognizability) Could become millionaires overnight
with the next Classic game for pc.