Besides nostalga..What do you like better about arcade cabs?

endrien

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Besides nostalga..What do you like better about arcade cabs?

Besides the nostalgia and the general "it was awesome when I was a kid" why do you like arcade games better then todays consoles?

For me its just plain fun. I missed all these due to not being born and going back and playing them today is as fun as ever. I also love trying to get that high score and just the sound that quarter makes going in. Another reason is especially neo geo games for me. I have a very large love for them. The 2d colors and sprites are so vibrant and look great to me those graphics beat anything thrown at me today.
 
For the same reason I like the classic consoles, because they are actual games, and they are much more enjoyable and easier to understand than the crap I see on PS3 and 360. At least the Wii is old school friendly.
 
For the same reason I like the classic consoles, because they are actual games, and they are much more enjoyable and easier to understand than the crap I see on PS3 and 360. At least the Wii is old school friendly.

Thats why my sega genesis, nes, super nintendo etc get played more than my 360(Usually break it out once a month or so to play rockband, I have 30 or so games for it though haha)
 
I love the little bits of history when you crack one open. Most of them are built to take a rpg hit compared to hardware today. Let's see some of this new stuff be working 30 years from now. I doubt it could be repaired.
 
I love the art on the cabs. I love the unique controls on some games and the distinct feel of certain controls on others. I like the challenging aspect of most games unlike newer console games that all have an end and anyone willing to spend the time can reach it. Replay value is also something that comes to mind. games that end don't tend to be worth playing through more than once for the most part. There is something just very cool and attractive to me about a large dedicated machine with lights and sounds and unique art. I still see kids these days drawn to these machines for these reasons and for me even to this day there is a little bit of magic about it. Not even necessarily nostalgia. Even a new game can have this appeal to me if it has all the right elements. Kind of the same reason some people still like amusement parks and carnivals. It's just grander and on a much bigger scale than any console.
 
im addicted to the 25 inch monitor. love that picture. all i want to do for the rest of my life is gaze at a 25 inch monitor.

any cab that can hold one is a keeper in my book. artwork ornot.
that would be a BINGO if it has good artwork.

install a cap kit and i can gaze at it forever...or until the electric bill comes in.

the road to heaven has strawberries and working 25 inch monitors on it.
 
im addicted to the 25 inch monitor. love that picture. all i want to do for the rest of my life is gaze at a 25 inch monitor.

any cab that can hold one is a keeper in my book. artwork ornot.
that would be a BINGO if it has good artwork.

install a cap kit and i can gaze at it forever...or until the electric bill comes in.

the road to heaven has strawberries and working 25 inch monitors on it.

Sadly crt's will eventually be dead and all of us will be stuck with lcds :O....Though by that time there will probably be virtual reality....
 
Sadly crt's will eventually be dead and all of us will be stuck with lcds :O....Though by that time there will probably be virtual reality....

Don't be so sure. The SED TV's that should be coming soon are basically thin CRT's. The big question is will they catch on and become the standard so they will be produced in 19 or even 25in? The fact that they don't burn themselves out like plasma TV's do and they have a much better pic than LCD's do should help but that doesn't ensure anything. They could still fail to become popular or a new advancement could render them obsolete quickly. Who knows? At least there is some possible hope.
 
It was all about the artwork. I always felt each cab was a work of pop art. I loved the lit up marquees in a darkened arcade or Chuck E. Cheese even. But most of all it was the sounds. All the games' sounds going all at once was too cool.
 
Arcade machines bring a physical interaction into the gameplay for me. Think about...sure you can play Street Fighter 2 on SNES or whateva, but when you're there in front of one, its totally different.

-Standing in front of it creates the stamina, as you have to hang tough and get weak legs from an hour of solid play.
-Performing the moves like a fireball almost forces you to move more of your body into the roll of the joystick rather than the thumbpad.
-And of course, as earlier mentioned, the big tube and speakers right there in your face helps keep your focus right there in your main view, causing sensory overload.

This interaction goes with nearly all arcade games. There's more of that 'only-me-and-this-machine' feel to to whatever game your playing.
 
I agree 100% with Gozer. It is the sensory overload and the simplistic controls. Joystick & buttons. Simple.

Play any game on the PS3 or Xbox and it's push this button while moving the thumbstick and then press the lef.... oh Sh*t I'm dead again!

I don't want to have to play a game 23 hours a day for a month to be able to learn the F*ing controls!!!!! One joystick, one fire button and I'm good to go.

Plus those little puny things the gamepads call a joystick are a joke. How do you get some body english into them, slam right! slam up! slam down! jam the fire button!!! Smack the side of the cabinet because the machine just boned you!

You can't do any of that with the modern consoles. Slap your xbox after it bones you and it flies across the room in a million pieces.

What's the fun in that?

ken
 
The fact that you have to stand at that particular game to play it, not your home tv with a bunch of cords stretched all over the place is one reason. Also, I like a 2 or 5 or 10 minute game, playing it like you're a bat out of hell just to stay alive is another reason. I used to have a playstation and fell asleep once playing Resident Evil 2. That about sums that up.
 
Don't be so sure. The SED TV's that should be coming soon are basically thin CRT's. The big question is will they catch on and become the standard so they will be produced in 19 or even 25in? The fact that they don't burn themselves out like plasma TV's do and they have a much better pic than LCD's do should help but that doesn't ensure anything. They could still fail to become popular or a new advancement could render them obsolete quickly. Who knows? At least there is some possible hope.

SEDs are essentially vaporware at this point. Plus, they would be no better than a modern PC CRT monitor for the classic arcade games; in fact, they would be worse, because SEDs are digital displays, and would most likely have a native resolution of 1920 x 1080. At least with a PC CRT monitor you can go down to 640 x 480 and most of them are 4:3.

In other words, SED would look like a high-resolution CRT display in terms of picture quality, but it would have the fixed resolution limitation that LCD and plasma displays have. Great for HD movies, not so great for classic arcade games.

There is no substitute for a genuine standard resolution CRT arcade monitor for the classic games, and it is highly unlikely that there ever will be. No one is going to be making large low resolution analog displays with a spherical screen and a course shadow mask ever again; unless it is a well-funded hobbyist.
 
I love the art on the cabs. I love the unique controls on some games and the distinct feel of certain controls on others. I like the challenging aspect of most games unlike newer console games that all have an end and anyone willing to spend the time can reach it. Replay value is also something that comes to mind. games that end don't tend to be worth playing through more than once for the most part. There is something just very cool and attractive to me about a large dedicated machine with lights and sounds and unique art. I still see kids these days drawn to these machines for these reasons and for me even to this day there is a little bit of magic about it. Not even necessarily nostalgia. Even a new game can have this appeal to me if it has all the right elements. Kind of the same reason some people still like amusement parks and carnivals. It's just grander and on a much bigger scale than any console.
That's my way of thinking too, thanks for your well written text.
 
For me its just plain fun. I missed all these due to not being born and going back and playing them today is as fun as ever.

I've always had an odd desire in the back of my mind to travel back in time before I was born, and play an old EM or two in a roadside honky tonk on Route 66 and put a nickel in the jukebox to play some Buddy Holly - and smoke an unfiltered brown cig while drinking a Pabst.

Seriously - just to experience what life was like back when every bad habit was OK - and pool and pinball were considered the downfall of the young man.

My mom (who is still alive; I'm 42) still thinks putting a quarter in any machine and not getting anything tangible back out is a blasphemy. I tell her from time to time her attitude (not letting me play Pac Man in the grocery store because it was a waste of good money) is why I have games in my house today. That's why (to answer your original question) I collect games. To stick it to the man (or mom, in this case).:cool:
 
just to become part of the game as you play it, really become involved with it. cant do that with the newer games, who the hell can figure out what button you need to push to do what? You need to push this button and this one while holding this one down. What? too late, Im dead. hell with that, give me a joystick (or trackball) and a couple buttons and just remember to feed and water me once in a while;)
 
SEDs are essentially vaporware at this point. Plus, they would be no better than a modern PC CRT monitor for the classic arcade games; in fact, they would be worse, because SEDs are digital displays, and would most likely have a native resolution of 1920 x 1080. At least with a PC CRT monitor you can go down to 640 x 480 and most of them are 4:3.

I'm actually impressed with some of the newer Trisync Flat CRTs and how they look from old to newer games. I have an older SamSung SyncMaster 4:3 LCD that goes down to 640x480 and seriously hope they still make them. Granted it's used for trying games in MAME and older Dos/windows games, but the graphics are pretty damn clean for a LCD.

As far as the Ops question.
- Dedicated and far superior controls
- Unique Artwork
- Technology Vs Home systems at the time. Alot of ports just lacked.
- The Experience, feeling, and enjoyment on a cab is just overall better imo.
 
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For the same reason I like the classic consoles, because they are actual games, and they are much more enjoyable and easier to understand than the crap I see on PS3 and 360. At least the Wii is old school friendly.

This pretty much sums up my view on arcade games as well. I'd also have to add the fact that many cabs have awesome artwork that is just plain cool to look at. It's also neat to have a hobby that not too many others have, and I always like the reactions of people when they walk into my room and see a pair of full sized arcade games there!
 
I love the simplicity of the games. Being able to just walk up and start playing and figure out the basics.

I also love the artwork from a lot of classic games. Now, artwork looks different (photoshop) and is printed and produced differently. I love a classic Atari cabinet like a Centipede, Gravitar, Space Duel... The cabinets are just works of art!

Wade
 
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