Arcades are a dying breed. To find one of these elusive arcades in America, there needs to be prior expertise in its locations. Huddled away in the corner of a plaza of tea shops, Chinese restaurants and karaoke bars, exists one of the most iconic buildings in the history of arcades, Arcade Infinity. Even on a slow Monday night, the noise of the arcade can still be heard from the parking lot of Diamond Plaza in Rowland Heights. The vibrations of the cabinets and machines inside can be felt, shaking the ground, from the bottom of the flight of stairs leading up to the entrance. A pillar of cigarette smoke puffed from two chatting people surround the entrance of the twin glass doors of Arcade Infinity greeting each and every returning customer. Inside, the climate is warm with occasional gusts of wind, created by an unwanted combination of machines and people. This day, the arcade machines outnumber the amount of customers. It?s too common nowadays. Ken Tao, the owner of the arcade works in an office at the end of the building. Between his office and the entrance are two featured machines, the games that get the most attention, and then two rows of Japanese-style cabinets, smaller and cramped two-joystick set ups, that line the rest of building. There are as many empty chairs as machines turned on, blazing their introduction music for no one to listen. The herd of arcade-goers is mostly huddled over two illuminating screens blazing the newest fighting game craze, Super Street Fighter Four. The scene consisted of two pairs of players sitting closely together with the majority of the arcade standing and shouting behind them. Girls with make-up and shiny silver dresses stood uninterested as their companions played their games. Their rolled eyes told the story of arcades in America. No one outside the community that plays in arcades is caring. The soundtrack of the arcade consisted of the noise of encouragement from the players blended in with to the sounds of car noises and pop music. In front of Tao?s office, two players? wave at the air in a Japanese rhythm game as their motions guided the arrows on the screen. The music games are introduced after the two featured cabinets near the entrance. With its heart-pounding Japanese pop music, blasting away from the powerful speakers, Tao works with this constant noise outside his doors.
Inside his office, Ken Tao?s eyebrows are furrowed, his lips pursed and his eyes narrow as he stares off into space. He stopped and pushed pause to his television show, displayed on his flat screen 40? monitor, allowing for the frozen scene to create the lighting for the room. The arcade is broke. ?No one wants to come to the arcades. I?ve lost 40 percent of my customers and revenue.? Tao pointed at his computer which displayed the numbers just said. Due to the home console release of the newest game, Super Street Fighter Four, there is nothing fueling any arcade?s economy. Even with the two new set ups of Super Street Fighter Four in the building, there is still a drop in revenue. The last month only saw a 25 percent increase from the previous month. American arcades are no longer profitable where the Japanese counterparts have been faring much better. Japan is still the number one environment for arcades to thrive because of how they are viewed there. As a social setting, arcades are seen as businesses of recreation and generally as a hip place to socialize. ?It?s different over there. In Japan, arcades are still popular and have other people still going there,? Tao said. ?They play different games. They have RPG (role playing games), racing, soccer and Mah Jong as well.? Despite this, the same issues and problems still plague Japan?s large arcade scene. Even with its present existence, arcades are rumored to be doomed in the future. ?There will be no more arcades in Japan after 10 years,? Tao said. ?In America, also. Every month, in Japan, 20 arcades close down. Right now, Japan doesn?t have any good games to release. Japan still has a lot games to develop and we can still try other games, we want to keep running the arcade to see it happen.? There is hopefully a solution. Ken stops talking and resumes looking at the numbers on the computer.
The banks refuse to fund the failing business of arcades. With no real clear plan for making profit, there is a refusal to finance something with the uncertainty of shutting down or with the potential of bankruptcy. Relationships between arcades in different cities are also non-existent. In the bad financial year, there is no real evidence of bonding between neighboring businesses like Denjin Arcade in Simi Valley, CA. Only the previous relationship of Super Arcade allows for an existence of real communication between AI and its similar establishments. Amidst the worst year of the decade-long run of AI, Tao only gives himself 3 months before deciding on a new business to pursue. ?Right now, with income, I can only stay here for 3 months. If the summer is also bad, I don?t think I can stay until the release (of Super Street Fighter Four)?, Tao said. He?s losing nearly $200 a day with the decreased attendance to the arcade. On a slow Monday, he makes around $250 with a cost of maintenance at $450. On a good day, usually the beginning of the weekend, the profit stands at around $600-$700. It?s enough to scrap by week after week. With Tao?s new set ups of Super Street Fighter Four, there is no arcade set up. There is no requirement to pay a token or any way to really monitor if the cash paid is really the Arcade Infinity token. The makeshift arcade machine, consisting of a PlayStation 3 inside a cabinet, only pulls down around $10-$20 a day. There have already been signs of cheating this ?honor system? with multiple different tokens or small pennies used as disguise. ?In the daytime, when I?m outside, some people do not pay. They use other tokens from other arcades,? Tao said. ?I?m not really making money from that machine.? Tao stops and opens up his drawer. A player needs change for his $20.
Arcades are dead. The culture is dead and the business is dead. The life of arcades in America and Japan are reaching its dramatic end. The lifeblood of arcades in America reached its peak a long time ago. The passion for them and the community that plays in them is not. Despite the end nearing for arcades in America, there are still players that exist to play the games inside these specified buildings. These same players have branched out for casual sessions of the arcade games that have been released on consoles. The newest breed of economy for the arcade comes from the fighting game community. Without the release of Super Street Fighter Four for the arcade, the majority of the community has instead relied on the console version to get their fix. The other members of this group play their respective games that are also popular within the genre. Games such as Tekken 6, BlazBlue Continuum Shift, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Street Fighter: Third Strike and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 are other headlining titles that are within the player?s interests. The most popular casual sessions exist within the Orange County area. With each session occupying a day of the week, the most popular days to play exist in the middle of week. ?Wednesday Night Fights at Dave and Buster?s? is the newest incarnation of the arcade experience through console sessions that is getting popularity. As a long-running series of Wednesday night casuals, this newest version is at its flashiest and most mainstream by inhabiting a public business instead of a person?s house. A place to play during Thursday night in Orange County would be ?FedEx Fight Nights? which happens at a FedEx located in Goldenwest, CA. During these casuals, streaming crews allow for the capturing and video of games to be broadcasted via the online web.
?Dave and Buster?s are proud to welcome ?Level Up?.? The sign reads and introduces gamers to the new location of Wednesday Night Fights. Behind the doors of the party room sits nearly 40 people sitting or standing around 10 television monitors blasting the fighting game, Super Street Fighter Four. Alex ?CaliPower? Valle sits behind the microphone with his associate, AJ ?PotatoHead? Papa. Their commentary narrates the action being projected on the wall. Walking toward the corner of the room, Keno ?Keno? Caesar is greeted by the other players watching the action on the projector. ?Isn?t this a great match, Keno?? exclaims a spectator as Caesar shakes his head and smiles before ending up in the corner. Standing next to the sinks and trash cans at the corner of the room Caesar looks up at the action on the screen displayed on the wall with arms crossed. Two characters, Guile, a yellowed hair, green sleeveless undershirt and army pants wearing man, are in the fight. It?s a projectile match, with each character mimicking the other?s moves in the same pattern. Finally the lighter green Guile jumped in and landed a straight legged kick. With momentum changed confidence crept on one player?s face as he continued to move his controller toward the retreating Guile. With victory in sight, he slams on his buttons as the finality of the match is heard from the speakers in the room. Caesar is a top player in Southern California who plays the character Balrog, a black boxer. His arcade roots run from Video 94 to Super Arcade and then finally, Arcade Infinity. He?s well-known reputation of being a clutch player has spread from videos of tournaments in AI. It?s now 10:30 p.m. but playing late isn?t new to Caesar?s regimen. ?I used to work 5-6 times a week and got off at 10 p.m. where I would drive to Video 94 at 10:30 p.m. and played until 6 a.m. Usually 8 hours a day? Caesar said. ?AI, I played 5-6 days a week from 1 p.m. to 3 a.m. Give or take 13 hours.? Caesar is a lot like the newest top players that wanted to be good at a new game. ?Usually by the time I was getting good at a game, it was already six years in. This was the game I had a chance to get good,? Caesar said. ?Once I switched to Balrog, it was magic. I started off well and it got off from there. Since it was at the arcade, everyone that played there set the trend because there wasn?t any console versions.? Looking up from the ground, he believes AI will be fine because of the new tournaments for Super Street Fighter Four having the openness of having every character. Being a top player now gives him more time to reach out to the community and finally focus on the more ignored aspects of social life like his relationships. Pausing to watch the newest match, Caesar smiles at a good combo put together on the screen being projected.
The next match had Chun Li, a female character wearing a metallic blue tethered dress with yellow accents and spiked bracelets, throw a blue projectile at Guile. Two players sit side by side with one holding a Chun Li pad controller and the other holding an arcade-like stick controller. With every push of the button, the character on the wall reacts to each action. The pad player, Shane ?Shizza? Cummings needs a comeback. He moves his character with a directional pad on his controller back and forth, extending an arm or fireball with the hope of closing the gap in life. Dustin ?Warahk? Delmer reacts as his character, Guile, responds to each motion of the stick. His mouth opened, Delmer slowly walks forward to his crouching opponent and hits one more button. The arm of Guile stretches in the downward motion, hitting the crouching Li as Delmer lets go of his stick, his face relaxed and relieved of the pressure of the match. The announcer yells KO (knock out) as Chun Li?s defeating words fill the room?s speakers. The shout from the crowd indicates the victor in the game. Cummings looks as his pad before reaching over for his wireless connector. His face contorts with a frown but doesn?t prevent his manners from escaping him as he shakes Delmer?s hand in a ?good game? gesture. Delmer stands up slowly, smiling, and walks back to his seat where three people wait and ask for his reaction. The sounds of the room are full of a blending of shouts of excitement as well as groans of discouragement mixed with the game sounds being played from every monitor?s speakers. A new battle occurred every minute with a new player behind each arcade-like controller. Valle stands up from his seat and starts to move toward the bulk of the players huddled around the 10 monitors. He watches a few second of every match, patting the winner on the back before moving to another monitor. Smiles and handshake follow each time Valle moves behind the players of each station. A few players follow Valle at his last walkthrough of the stations, yelling with excitement with each victory. Finally, Valle picks up his microphone and announces, ?Last game?. Buttons and sticks move at a faster pace after the statement and each station?s personal announcer within the game shouts out its last ?KO? before a frantic shuffling from every player indicates the end of the evening.
Valle stands outside the venue, in front of the closed doors of the empty Dave and Buster?s. Several Asian males carry silver cases and television monitors toward 3 cars starting up in the empty parking lot. Their grunts and exhausted exclamations prompt Valle to help carry some of the equipment. He returns back and stares blankly at the darkening parking lot before him. His group of Level Up staff stands idly by their cars, talking in exciting chatter. It?s been another successful Wednesday night. Valle?s been around the arcade scene since the 1980s with his first arcade being in 1984 with Family Fun Arcade in Orange County. His most dominant competitive arcade was Beach and Warner in Huntington Beach. He?s well known for playing in the arcade scene in the 90s with the now out of business, Southern Hills Golfland in Stanton, CA. ?Going into the 90s, the Golden Era of the arcade was slowing down but an ?Arcade Rat? days started. You had a lot of pride back then compared to today. You go to arcades that are left and you?re reminded of mere memories or just a new arcade that is trying to come up but cannot because arcades are not very profitable these days,? Valle said. ?It?s not about pride anymore; it?s more about social networking.? Valle is one of the few original gamers in the USA who still has revered respect from peers and newcomers despite the change to console versions. His social networking made Level Up happen.
It?s Friday night at AI. The busiest day of the week for the arcade and it?s close to a full house. Smiling and screaming people sit side by side at the two rows of Japanese cabinets that were once empty on a Monday night. The two featured cabinets of Super Street Fighter both have their two chairs occupied by a new player. One bystander throws a bronze shiny token on the flat surface where the stick and the buttons are located. Two more players turn to each other with agonized looks as one player raises their hand in a last-second victory. It?s just another night at the arcade. Ken looks on at the budding scene before his office and shakes his head. His face blank as he exclaims that this was nowhere near the packed house he used to have back in 2003. AI?s decade long run in Diamond Plaza has had its ups and downs. Its peak was in the early 2000s with the explosion of music games like Bemani X and Dance Dance Revolution. It was the only place to get the most up to date rhythm games available. With such exclusive titles, AI was the one place that carried most players? interest. ?The arcade used to get its business from its games, people would come there to play certain titles at the arcade only,? James Chen, a veteran arcade player and respected member in the fighting game community, said. ?They simply can?t compete with console games anymore, the arcade experience I had no longer exists. It just has to be a cool place to hang out for potential of arcades to grow again.? Ken?s lack of an idea in the 3 months is not the end of Arcade Infinity as Chen notes. The arcade can exist with the same format as the casuals like Wednesday Night Fights are currently implementing; making the arcade a casual and hip place to hang out. As long as the community exists, arcades will still be relevant. ?The people are why I stay playing. The amount of friends I?ve made in this community, you find some really interesting people. Back in the SHGL days, I did make a lot of friends there. A lot of them are still friends,? Chen said. ?Nowadays, with the Street Fighter scene being as big as it is now, I feel like I have a lot more friends. The competitive drive is there as well and keeps me coming back to play, but honestly, it?s really the people. If fighting games go purely online, the scene will not go anywhere because it?s really about being together and having a great time with people.?