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Went to an arcade to see what's new, interesting thoughts...

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releasedtruth:
I haven't been in an arcade since I designed my new cabinet, just hanging out on the web absorbing all the knowledge I can handle, trying to help out where I can. So I'm in the arcade looking at the newer games, the dollar a play types, and thinking how overbloated things have become. This arcade has a Galaga, Space Invaders, Centipede in the back so I screw with those a little while. I was on a mission to get photos and measurements of different machines to compare to my CP layout, which is very small at only 24" wide. I wound up playing an Ultracade for a good long while, had to beat Street Fighter 2 and it's a closest to my size CP at 26.5" The fierce buttons were jammed so it was hard to play, really not kept up well. I was disappointed, but still beat it down after 40 min or so. The other cab I focused on was a Metal Slug 6 Nintendo cab, 28.5" wide. Definitely a little more comfortable. I needed to learn some things about marqee retaining and I think I've learned what I need to know to get the job done. Tomorrow starts the build, 3 days straight of cutting and assembling. I'm so excited it hurts. I'll post the project in the announce thread when I get back in town with the completed shell. All in all I came to the conclusion that while there are some decent designs in cabinets, most are poor rebuilds of old cabs and the ones with style are enormous, unusable in a home of my size. My footprint will be 36"x27" but it'll weigh a freakin ton. Should survive an earthquake... If that ever happens in Arizona.

ahofle:
I don't understand how today's 'arcades' stay in business anymore.  They are usually empty and most of the games are, as you said, giant monstrosities that must cost at least 10 grand each.  I throw up in my mouth a little when walking around and seeing all the horrid, unoriginal games like "Tekken 8" and "Capcom vs Marvel vs SNK vs Namco 9 Championship Edition" that kids have to choose from these days.   :'(

shardian:
The worst I have seen is a new Pacman I saw in the mall that cost $1 to play. Yeah...they'll make their money back for sure charging $1 for Pacman.

horseboy:
We've had the same arcade in our mall for as long as I can remember (probably close to 20 years), and I cringe everytime I walk by it now. There are probably 30 games in there, and only 1 (yes 1) of the games has joysticks. Friggin ridiculous if you ask me. The joystick game is Tekken 3. They also have 1 DDR game, about 15 driving games, and about 15 gun games. As of 3 years ago, they still had a Galaga and at least 6 or 7 other oldies, but no longer.  :angry: I die a little inside everytime I think about it.

On a side note, though, I did find a couple of laundromats with about 5 games each. I had to pop in one the other day for some Ms. Pac-Man, T2, and Die Hard Arcade. Hey, and those places are 24 hours.  :applaud:

Level42:

--- Quote from: shardian on August 17, 2006, 01:03:12 pm ---The worst I have seen is a new Pacman I saw in the mall that cost $1 to play. Yeah...they'll make their money back for sure charging $1 for Pacman.

--- End quote ---
Hey then it's a (little) bit better here, 2 credits for 1 Euro on a Galaga/Ms.Pac Man reunion.

I was at one of the latst "real" arcades here in Holland recently and I have to say I was pleased that they HAD that cab at all. It was actualy quite busy, but then it was at a beach resort, and it was summer of course....Especialy the 2 DDR's drew a lot of attention (or was it the girls dancing on them ?) Shame they didn't have a Samba de Amigo !! Also three Naomi's, one was assimilated by Ultracade, the other some fighter and Virtua Soccer. The Ultracade got no play at all during the time I was there. I checked out the gamelist and there were just not appealing enough games on it. Only Bomb Jack looked tempting to me, but I resisted :D

Played the fairly new Harley Davidson pinball and it rocks !!!
They had HOTD 2, 3 and 4 (!!!) nicely lined up next to eachother. Because I have HOTD 2 on my cab with the LCD lightgun, I thought I could easily play a few levels on the real machine....well forget it, the gun was SO much out of line....didn't even complete the first level !

Come to think of it there was some Happ joystick in the Galaga/Ms.Pac Man, not the "real" Ms.Pac man reunion....the first play of Ms.Pac Man went pretty well, heading for a good score, then my wife goes all crazy because she'd lost track of our 4 year old son. Big panic, and I got scared of myself because I hasitated a moment to choose between my score (where's the pause button ??? Oh it's not MAME ;) ) and my son  ::) .......

but this was more because our little guy is not the run-away kind. And I was right in the end.....he was having fun, sitting next to a boy who was "driving" a King of Route 66 cab (the full-size version amazingly !!!)  :) :D

Whatever you think of the new games (some are actualy fun), it's amazing there are still arcades and let's pray they will last as long as possible. So, yes,  I think it's OK to teach my son to play a couple of games there, if only it is to keep this business rolling.

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