Can we blame Nintendo? Sega? Who did it?

ArcadeDad79

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Arcades. What happened. Where did they go and why?
Im 32, and NEVER stopped to smell the arcade roses..didnt realize they were pretty much obsolete until i moved to Vegas.
When did it happen.
Why did it happen?
Is there a video game console responsible for the crash?
I know there are still arcades tucked away in some of your lucky ass back yards, but for me in my town, they are gone.
When you see a bowling alley room, it is ticket dispensers and dancers, or cockpits.
I know we get them now so cheap because of the crash, and im thankful for that (if there is something to take from the ordeal),. but i want my Arcades back. Am i alone? Whats the story there?
Toke on!
 
I would blame Sega and Nintendo more than most that and Fighting and driving games that destroyed the arcades. Nintendo and Sega where the big wigs back in the late 80's that really pushed the market of home gaming into the future. Not that it was a bad thing either there are a lot of games on either console that I wouldn't want to give up. I think more than anything the lack of optionality going into producing arcade games went as soon as the consoles started to get really popular, which was really the final nail in the coffin.
 
ok

optionality. i like that. me dig.
So what are you saying,.there were too many games to bring them all into arcades because of how bug they are?
Its about size?
 
If you ask me PS1 Killed arcades . Seems they where still around intell around the times of PS1 . Doing quite well might i add!
 
Home Console's killed the arcade, simple. A unit you can play in your house with thousands of swappable games, controllers, and can be played on virtually any TV, versus a 200lb cabinet the size of a fridge that plays one game. (sans MVS)
 
I know we get them now so cheap because of the crash, and im thankful for that

"We?!" Pssh....more like "some of us". I sure as hell have never been able to get an arcade game cheap.Would love to be able to say that I have....

Consoles killed the arcades,plain and simple.The better technology got,the more obsolete they made them.And I would say the mid to late 90's are when they really started becoming scarce.I remember seeing Tekken in the arcade once and thinking to myself that my PS1 version looked and played exactly like it and knew the writing was on the wall.Sure you'd still see something like MK4 coming out in arcades,but you could just wait for the home version to come out,and it would be a damn near spot on port of the arcade version.

Made me think about how far consoles have come when I read that SF IV was going to be released as an arcade game....after the console version had been released....something that would have been unheard of 10,15,20 years ago.
 
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To me, it seemed like it was a combination of the Atari 2600 and that damma JAMMA.

I don't think the 2600 played a part in killing arcade games, it was practically driven by them... Space Invaders, Missile Command, Frogger, Pac Man, Defender, Zaxxon and Donkey Kong. There are probably 200 arcade titles ported to the 2600, but most were so bad I don't think they took away from the desire to play the actual games.
The arcade scene was strong and healthy through the 2600's popularity, and JAMMA came after it was gone.

The NES was the first console that could reasonably recreate the arcade experience, but fighting games were resurgent after the NES era... Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II were Sega Genesis/SNES era. Both were huge releases, indicating how popular games still were.

I remember Super Street Fighter II was like 20 bucks more than other cartridges for the SNES when it came out, supposedly using extra memory or something.
 
I just remember how many quarters I saved when Pac-Man and Donkey Kong came out. I was a shut-in during the 2600 hay day.
 
The big places like Game Works are eve closing locations. I know of two arcades in Michigan now that are still hanging on. Even a theme park in Mich has started to sell off all their arcade games.

I just thinik kids and teens are not into arcade machines like years ago. Too many electronic devices occupy their time these days and the game systems they have at home, allow you to continue right where you left off when you die. Not like the games we grew up with and it was you aganist the score and that was it! Teens do not get lawn cutting jobs, or whatever anymore to earn money to go to arcades and play. Mom and dad just go by them a $50 new game to sit in the house and play with.
 
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Ticket pushers killed the arcade scene, consoles just drove it home. ops could make more money and arcade owners could rake in more as well just selling pizza and drinks and running ticket pushers and using bullshit prizes. You can find a ticket pusher in just about any arcade now and they probably have 10 friends around too.
 
Obviously, there was a bubble in the late 70s to early 80s. When something becomes a fad it gets artificially inflated and when the fad goes away you're left with a core. That's what I think happened in the early 80s. I think you can compare that to the Nintendo Wii craze. The first big hit to the Arcades might have had something to do with the Atari 2600/Coleco/Intellevision but I think people might be underestimating the effect of the steam going out of the fad.

So then from 82/83 to the late 80s you still had arcades but they weren't packed. They did make money though. There were still lots of places with games in the late 80s. Enter the NES. Most people are going to say "why play vs. super mario bros. at the arcade when I can play super mario bros. at home." That was what killed the core. The people who were playing because they authentically loved video games started playing the consoles more.

Being in that core, the major thing that kept me going to arcades was that the consoles never quite got it right. The games looked pretty much the same but they were always dumbed down or a level was removed or a cut screen was removed. I mean, has anyone here played DK Jr on the NES? It's so freaking easy. It's just not fun. I was never able to really get my fix in the arcades because I was young and didn't have $5 on hand at any given time. When I got play DK Jr. or Afterburner, Jungle King, etc. in the arcade it was a treat because I had to (1) FIND THE GAME and (2) have the money. I think a lot of people my age (mid 30's) are into classic games because we were always chasing ghosts (ba-dum-bump). I know Peter Hershburg talked about that. One reason he liked arcade games so much now is because he felt like he never got to play them in back in days because he was a broke kid.

One thing people are starting to figure out now that arcades are pretty much gone is that a good game is easy to learn but hard to master. Whether were talking about Chess or Ms. Pacman, that holds true. Consoles don't really provide that experience. Most games now use so many buttons and combos that you have to be a gamer to easily pick them up. And you can't play a modern game for 5 minutes. You have to sit down for 30 minutes to several hours to really play a lot of games. I don't think your average person wants that. The Wii started to hit on that (and profit from it) but what I'm seeing now is iPod apps. Lots of simple games like Tubez that are very much like older arcade games. I really like modern games too but I think they alienate your average person.

The other thing that deserves mentioning is that, if home consoles killed arcade games, then what the hell happened with pinball? Pinball is pretty much deaded now too but you can't reproduce pinball in the home (unless you buy a real machine.) Was pinball piggybacking on arcade popularity or is something else going on there?
 
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The huge arcades and packed arcades on every corner was just a fad. And coin arcades nearly disappearing is simply invevitable. The teenage culture in the US and elsewhere has changed dramatically in the past 30 years, and pay-to-play videogames just don't fit into that. Kids can surf the net, text, play videogames, talk on the phone, all on their cell phone that their parents pay for in one monthly bill. There's no incentive to drop money into coin games! In 1980 though, it was cutting edge technology that people were willing to pay for.

I wish there was enough retro interest and adult interest to keep more of these Gameworks/D&B types of places alive that have games, food, and alcohol... but evidently even those guys are struggling.

Wade
 
It's come full circle now. Because of the popularity of flash based games and facebook crap, a lot of casual games mimic the simple nature of the early arcades appeal. And now that is beginning to threaten the console industry. Games are actually fun to play on an iphone or other handhelds, making the case for owning a DS or PSP harder now. Why have a hand console when you can play games on a phone with all of its apps?

But have faith. Microsoft's virtual arcade will bring 'em in. And then in a few years they'll replace all of the virtual games with virtual redemption machines =P
 
If you ask me PS1 Killed arcades . Seems they where still around intell around the times of PS1 . Doing quite well might i add!


I was breaking sales records until the PS1 took off.

TEKKEN, for instance, was not only just as good at
home, it was better! It had a story mode, more options
and various endings. Plus the release window was
less than six months, hardly enough time to get a
good return-on-investment.
 
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