The death of the video game arcade?
Last week for my birthday my team at work took me over to Krispie Kreme which is quite a novelty and new here in Brisbane. We actually had to wait in line for doughnuts!
So it essentially blew my blood sugars into the ceiling, beyond the ceiling. Which it should be noted that I had complete and utter fore warning about. They were kind enough to ask if it was OK before we went and I was just happy for the thought that I decided that I can take a hit for a day (never again I might add but it was a nice farewell to sugary doughnut land).
Well it was one of the guy’s birthdays today and rather than give me an instant sugary heart attack I suggested we go to the video game arcade in town and blow some shiny coins.
Instantly we were assaulted with dance machines, drum machines and guitar machines. We ventured deeper into the arcade cave and saw the token counter. We’ll put in ten bucks each and get a bunch of tokens, hand the nice man the two ten dollar notes and he hands us back a twenty..? Ummm that’s nice and certainly not as much fun as we thought it may be.
Oh.
A token machine?
Why bother with the token counter?
Fine pop the twenty in the machine and…
Oh great there are fifty-four tokens spilling out onto the ground. Three grown men go scrambling for shiny tokens whilst arcade regulars regard us with scorn.
Um apart from the drum and dance machines are there any new games? Capcom vs Marvel, well that’s been out since I was a young man. Iron Man has his 90s armour on?
First game we go to is a shooter with four rifles so we can all play.
It’s kind of like Call of Duty, kind of, except that the enemy appears to be skeletons, there is a red button that does nothing on the side of my rifle and I can hide behind a metal thing when reloading. We pumped quite a few tokens through that before I realise that I have no idea what’s going on and I don’t really have a grudge against these skeleton fellows so I holster my gun and look around for the next machine.
Oh there’s Time Crisis… One? It has a cracked screen and the guns look like faded versions of themselves. Daytona looks good.
Ahhhh Daytona the standard of the arcade, we can all race against each other! In go our tokens and…
Hang on why has your race already started? Oh good mine has and the third race has yet to begin. So now we’re all running in different races. I can’t reach the peddles, my legs are short.
There is tape covering all the wheel.
Ohhhh hang on, maybe these buttons all needed to be on the one setting? We’ll try again but I’m getting in a different car. Oh great now I’ve started in my own individual race I notice there is no sound and the screen is a bit rubbish. Whatever.
So is the humble arcade of our childhoods a thing of the past? I didn’t see any new games in there and the existing ones all seem to be old and in disrepair.
Still had an awesome lunch hour though and hopefully it was a nice nostalgic birthday treat!!
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Yeah, I’m pretty sure the PCs, Wiis, PS3s and 360s have made the humble arcade obsolete. I used to love spending all my cash at Timezone, now I just feel sad every time I walk past the empty arcade near my local cinema and wonder what miricle is keeping it open.
Yes, I know I could help keep the dream alive by walking there and spending my cash, but Lee’s right: there’s nothing new in there to grab my interest enough to spend the $4 per game.
In addition to all the PCs and console gaming going on in people’s houses, you’ve also got the Gaming storefronts where you can go for the social experience that used to be part of the arcade trips. There you can play those same games with other people in the same room - and maybe play some you don’t already own.
It is a shame, though. I used to enjoy a quick trip to the arcade on a lunch hour every now and then. Blow up a Death Star or two. Shoot me some grimey, state-of-the-art pixelated aliens. Take on a buddy in a one-on-one Virtua Fighter match. Now it’s all dance machines and broken, old versions of everything else. Or rehashes of the same old thing, maybe with better graphics. All the real inventiveness is going into PC and console games now.
I remember when Space Ace came out - man, that was cool. A controllable cartoon! (hmm… actually I’m old enough that I remember when Space Invaders came out… Defender, Galaga, Asteroids, Missile Command… good times… good times…)
Jeffs last blog post..Review: Iron Man
Actually, I think Dragon’s Lair was before Space Ace, but I liked Space Ace better…
Jeffs last blog post..Review: Iron Man
I think I only played at an arcade game once or twice (if ever..). Being from 1984 ..pc’s took over for me before I ever got into any arcade hall. Next to that it already started to wane in the 90’s overhere. The closest to playing an arcade game might be playing Wolf (arcade shooter). Maybe arcade gaming halls are just a mafia front ^^
There are some network-gaming halls in my town though..might have to take a look there..but on the other hand..why not just take my own pc to some friends…or game online.
Arjans last blog post..Not an OST not a review
Well, this is the way the story goes… Who was thinking about home cinema 20 years ago? Now home cinema is a reality… Same for the video games…
Oliviers last blog post..Kylie Minogue X Tour