What an "arcade" consists of for kids today...

modessitt

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What an "arcade" consists of for kids today...

Well, Thursday my wife took her nephew to one of those big all-in-one places like Dave & Buster's. This place is called Main Event, and consists of a bowling alley, putt-putt, lazer-tag, arcade, and an area with a small cafe, bar, and about 15 pool tables. She enjoyed playing lazer-tag for the first time and drug me back there last night to play again. As I'd never been there, i wanted to take some pics of some of the games they had, but forgot the camera and ended up using her phone (so that's why the pictures suck). I deleted some that were so blurry they were worthless.

The "arcade" consisted of about half video games and half redemption games. Almost all the video games were $0.50 or $1.50 to play (maybe more), and they took neither quarters or tokens, but rather you got a credit card issued from a dispenser (that took only cash or credit - no coins) for a minimum of $10 or a max of $100. Kids today will grow up thinking the only games were either home consoles or giant stuff that cost too much to play.

There will be multiple posts, but here are the games that were in there (inlcuding a few I'd never heard of or known about):

The obligatory DDR (and they had another of a different name):

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I'm not sure what this was called, but you sat in the blue ball and held two sticks, and there were three games to choose from:

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My wife's phone could not take pics of the marquees very well. I think this was a 4-linked Rally Bike or something:

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The much loved Ferrari F355 Challenge:

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And it's brother, the Sega Strike Fighter (I've had to move one of these up and down a small elevator 5 different times - fun):

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This was called Final Furlong. Obviously made for small kids. You got on a horse and rocked back and forth as you tried to win a horse race:

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Golden Tee has gotten to the point where it's the lonely bastard in a place like this:

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Guitar Hero, with no takers. Why spend money on a game you can play at home for free?

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Harley Davidson & LA Riders

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Initial D

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LA Machine Guns

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Lethal Enforcers 3 - I didn't even know they made a 3rd one.

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Mocap Boxing - the only game that didn't work.

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Outrun 2SP

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Police Trainer 2

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Sea Wolf - I think this was a redemption game, but you shot torpedoes at ships and sea mines

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Sega Rally

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Shootout Sam

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Star Trek Voyager

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Star Wars Racer

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Star Wars Trilogy

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Terminator Salvation - this one had a few dads on it the entire time I was there

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The Ocean Hunter - apparently a big hit with the nephew

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Time Crisis 3

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Tokyo Wars

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There were a few others that the pics didn't come out - Target Terror, Jurassic Park, some other DDR-type game, a couple drivers.

But this is the one and only game that my wife and I played - H2Overdrive. This is the game that is the sequel to Hydro Thunder, my wife's favorite game. These were linked, and we both enjoyed them a lot. I discovered that after you finish a course, you can hold down the View button while on the course select screen and play the exact same course BACKWARDS. I tried some combinations to see if there were any hidden ships like in Hydro Thunder, but didn't find any in the time I had. Unfortunately, the settings had it so that winning the race did NOT let you have another free race - which sucked. Especially since it was $1.50 per game ($3 for my wife and I to play linked). I wouldn't mind getting this game in the shop where I can do free play and try to figure out all the secrets....

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But anyway, that's what they're calling an "arcade" these days. No classics at all....
 
yeah the good old days are gone man. Ita all good though. Im one of those folks who can appreciuate this newer stuff too ( i have a trilogy, i used to have a ocen hunter, etc)

SO i mean reallyu while i prefer the 80s classics, i dig this newer stuff too. I wonder what arcades will be like in another 20 years, if anybody even knows what an arcade is by that point.
 
You know, I have recently been wanting to play of of those new Sea Wolf machines. I think they look pretty cool.

But yeah, I think arcades kinda suck now. While the games may be awesome, paying $1.00 or more for a single play is not.
 
You know, I have recently been wanting to play of of those new Sea Wolf machines. I think they look pretty cool.

But yeah, I think arcades kinda suck now. While the games may be awesome, paying $1.00 or more for a single play is not.

the sea wolf is really a lot of fun. not quite the same as the original, but still cool in its own right.
 
The only arcade left here is in the mall and I don't consider it a real arcade as compared to the ones of the past.

It has one anniversary game with Pac/Ms. Pac/Galaga on it for .25 a play. There are a couple of gun games, a basketball hoop game, football throwing game, a wall of redemption games (five of them I think), and two skee-ball machines. All of the games except a few of the redemption games are $1.00 each.

The whole back of the room that used to contain games has been cleared to make space for an air-up slide for kid's parties. I've only seen it deflated and packed into the corner since there are never any parties in there when I'm there.

Even though we have all of the games on the anniversary machine we still stop and drop a few quarters into it each time we are in the mall. It's difficult to play since it has a 25" flat-screen in it.

Anyhow, I don't see how the place stays open. We've been in there in the middle of the day during the week and on Saturdays and we are usually the only people in there other than the attendant, and they do not look excited to be there.
 
That didn't seem too bad. I could have fun with the kid for an hour or two there. I'd actually love to sit and play 355 Challenge for a while. Much better selection of games than our Chuck E Cheese, but the games there are all just 1 token.
 
I see why it take $1.50 per game. They've got $500,000 (retail) in games in there. Unfortunately you have to go over the top like that to make a buck in the arcade business now. You need to pay for every game like its a mortgage....
 
And that my friends is what killed the small arcades and will eventually kill all of the arcades except those run by Universal, 6Flags or the Mouse. The games are too expensive to be self supporting so you need a complementary revenue stream, as in D&B where you go for the food and stay for the games or you go for the games and grab some food & beers too.

Arcades may survive as bit players in birthday destinations, movie theaters and theme parks until the manufacturers recognize that there is a better way to provide a social experience that doesn't require $60,000 worth of hardware. And arcade operators can drop their prices back to $0.25 a play so it is a no brainer to drop $20 and feel like you got your money's worth.

ken
 
That looks like our Main Event (Plano) used to look. They have gone to more redemption stuff lately and cut the number of arcade games back more. Not to mention they got rid of the pinball machine. They would change the title, but they always had one near the pool tables. Oh well... I guess that is why I have an arcade at home.
 
Wasn't Sea Wolf originally, originally an Electromechanical Game?

This is the Sea Wolf I remember. I worked on one for a guy a while back. It's a videogame.

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But it WAS based on an EM game called Sea Devil...

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You know, I have recently been wanting to play of of those new Sea Wolf machines. I think they look pretty cool.

But yeah, I think arcades kinda suck now. While the games may be awesome, paying $1.00 or more for a single play is not.

They have this Sea Wolf at the local CEC and yeah, it's actually pretty fun. Especially when you shoot the bridge and make the train crash. I like the Shootout Saloon....that would be fun to have!
 
And that my friends is what killed the small arcades and will eventually kill all of the arcades except those run by Universal, 6Flags or the Mouse. The games are too expensive to be self supporting so you need a complementary revenue stream, as in D&B where you go for the food and stay for the games or you go for the games and grab some food & beers too.

Arcades may survive as bit players in birthday destinations, movie theaters and theme parks until the manufacturers recognize that there is a better way to provide a social experience that doesn't require $60,000 worth of hardware. And arcade operators can drop their prices back to $0.25 a play so it is a no brainer to drop $20 and feel like you got your money's worth.

ken

Very true, I just had a road trip to go check out a pizza joint/pub/arcade in order to go play a few vids and pins. It's kind of sad that you have to compile everything together in order to draw, but I am thankful for the few that still strive. One of the only places I've been to in the past 10 years where I took in $20, played for 5 hours on games like a Star Wars pin, the new Shrek pin, the new Ironman pin, Revenge From Mars pin, a Tron in dang good condition, and a few others, and walked away satisfied.
 
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