Fixed for actuality. Enjoy.
*See Tampa Lanes in Florida. Used to have the latest shit when it dropped. The last new game it got when it dropped was Svc. Nobody goes there any more, the cabs are no longer maintained.
Now that I think about it, one of the reasons my parents finally caved in and bought me a Sega Genesis when I was a kid was because they were sick of me constantly begging to play on arcades and eat up their money every time I went to a restaurant that had them, or a place like Chuck E Cheeses or Putt Putt.
Edit: sorry for seemingly shameless engrish, I’m new to this ipad
Consoles are the number one reason why Arcades are dead in North America.
Being an avid arcade enthusiast for many years the convenience of consoles has driven people away from the arcade scene. That and pure arcade owner neglect, location, expensive overhead, dwindling competition and a harder than normal learning curve. All these are huge factors of why arcades do not exist. Nothing bums out a 13 year old kid more than getting bodied and having to wait an half an hour for your next turn. It becomes difficult to learn a game. I would say that without the aid of consoles I personally would have major difficulty learning a game and maintaining a competitive edge in the arcade, but that is what it takes to break in. Tournaments are proof competition still exists and people are still looking to play however it’s just different now.
As an anti-social guy, I’d much rather game from home. So that whole “face to face is awesome” thing doesn’t cut it for me.
I don’t think that the actual reason arcades died was because of consoles. The distribution of people in the US is another one of the reasons why the arcades died here more than in many other places. But the US, and to some extent Europe, just had a very bizarre arcade evolution which left it weak to any kind of competition (example: consoles).
Lets look at the history of arcades in the US. There was a strong arcade market in the US during the 1970s. There were tons of machines that were all in huge arcades. These arcades used to have multiple copies of each games and were very cheap to play each game. What was different about them then most arcades in later generations and areas? Entry prices. You had to pay money to enter the arcades. The entry price made it so people would expect the arcades to be in good condition. Back then, the machines had maintenance done on a normal basis and were almost always fully functional. There were usually food for sale inside because people would usually stay for awhile. Arcades weren’t just a place for a quick game. They were hang out spots.
How does this have to do with the death of arcades? Well, in the end of the 1970s the market crashed. The major arcades went out of business. So what happened to the machines? They were mostly sold to small mom-and-pop shops that weren’t focused on video games. They would just have one little machine in the corner for entertainment when people were there for something else. Why was this a problem? No maintenance. For a long time nobody expect machines to be working because they were rarely ever fixed. The owner’s simply didn’t care because it wasn’t the main source of their income.
The arcades eventually recovered to an extent in the 90s but was still nowhere close to what they were in the 70s. People got used to the poor conditions of the 80s and the companies simply didn’t care enough to make sure all the machines were working all the time. It got better and better as the 90s went on but the arcades were still usually pretty small in size. The small arcade model is a big problem. They don’t usually have enough income to risk getting a new game and therefore they start to become stagnant. When the arcades just had the same games forever less people would come to play. When less people came to play the companies wouldn’t have the money to keep up constant maintenance or simply lack the motivation to keep the machines working. When the maintenance became rarer and the machines started to almost always had problems the amount of customers went down. It just keeps getting worse and worse because of that cycle. The problem was that most arcades weren’t willing to take risks and just didn’t care enough about the environment of their establishment. Consoles pulled people away but its not the whole story. Arcades were not varied enough in types of games. Arcade owners didn’t try to branch out and grab new customers enough. They tended to be a lazy businesses with some exceptions but since so many sucked people started to expect any arcade to suck.
I don’t think the only thing that made arcades fun was the “face to face” excitement. That was only a very small part of what made arcades great. They were a place to meet up with people and send your whole day off. They were places were a wide variety of people could go and have fun and meet new people. Heck, in the mid 70s people used to go to arcades for dates! The death of arcades as a whole is directly related to the video game crash at the end of the 70s and its effects on expectation of both customers and businesses.
… oh, also SVC Chaos. Not a match. Struggle!!
i’m surprised this is still around considering the argument is pretty futile. seriously, why drag it out for longer than it should? OP has been banned already. oh, and arcades are dead because of consoles…
peace out.
8P
I’m just puzzled why arcades these days even bother. All they ever have are some lame Sega racers and stupid light-gun hunting games that you have to put money into every 2 minutes…and nobody plays them. Shit is empty every time you pass by and look in. They’d actually make money getting rid of that cutting edge casual gamer shit and putting in the now-cheap arcade fighters from the 90’s.
Best argument I seen here. The ‘death’ of arcade is not black and white it’s not because of consoles they were a factor but it’s more than that.
im not going anywhere… and fuck preppy fucking bitch.
in the 90s… play mk 123 sf2 in the arcade then turn around and play the same game at home. then go back to arcade and do everything that u practice. the point im making is we still spent the money in the arcades even tho we had the same game at home. console didnt kill it
It’s fun to blame a thing. But it’s truly horrifying to some people to see other people like things different from them. They think it’s wrong.
it’s a tribute to the death of this place that this thread wasn’t locked after the first post. Does SRK actually have any non-GD mods that were born before SF4 any more?
Nostalgia is dangerous. That shit starts wars. Repeatedly.
Oh god somebody thinks something different from me, they are wrong.
So, guys… how long is this one going to last?
how ever long i want too… the fuck
djmeet why so many accounts?
caz i keep gettin banned for bullshit… i jus be coolin on the forums tryna make it to evo and bring home SF4 title back to the states
Try reading:
At this point, you will be insta-banned. I realize you have trouble reading and writing full and/or coherent sentences, but: you are currently unwelcome on SRK, hence the ban. If you come back like a stalking psycho because you have nothing better to do with your life than try to forcibly hang out with people who don’t like you, you will continue to be banned.
Man up. You were crazy and got a time-out. Any further posts from you just show that you’re a pretty pathetic loser who has nothing else of value in his life. Call your mom, find a hobby, go meet people in the real world: I realize being normal can be a challenge without medication but hey: go give it the ol’ college try. I strongly suspect that actually spending time with other real humans might improve your ability to communicate and make you more welcome on SRK if and when you are able to return.