State of the US Arcade Industry in 2004

[racketboy]

1Up has a nice article about the arcade industry. Might want to give it a look.

My two cents: the key in the arcade business now is to make a machine that gives an experience that you can't have at home. Example: large driving cabinets and other unique controllers. The article mentions this, but I just wanted to highlight this fact.

 

[ExCyber]

I've been saying that for years now, and it's tremendously annoying because I walk into some arcades nowadays and find that 90%+ of the games fall into one or more of:

1) Games with a steering wheel / vehicle

2) Games with a gun

3) Mechanical games or simulations of mechanical games that give tickets/prizes

4) DDR

I suppose eventually Konami, Sammy/Sega, and Namco will team up to make Ferrari Dance Dance Pachinko Crisis, and what scares me is that it would probably be the highest grossing game in arcade history.

 

[racketboy]

I've been to some arcades that are actually dominated by fighters.

Last time I was there, the rec center at UC Davis has almost every major Capcom fighter and some other 3D ones.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

Sounds like my kind of arcade Racket 🙂.

 

[racketboy]

me too 🙂

unfortunately there's a bunch of Asian kids that hang out there and know all the cheap shots. And of course they always nail me on the games I don't know that well. And then if I try playing a game I decent on, nobody plays me.

 

[it290]

Yeah most college arcades seem to have a decent selection. The one at Auraria campus here in Denver has a fairly decent mix of older and newer games; nothing spectacular, but they had some fighters, shmups, and Gauntlet the last time I was there (as well as some other stuff). I just can't rationalize putting $1.00 or more into a racing game these days, and I don't play DDR, so I pretty much stick to the fighting/shooter and old school games. I also play gun games occasionally but I haven't seen the latest Virtua Cop anywhere so I'm kind of SOL on that one.

 

[Kidderz]

Arcades have been dead here for years. I live in a very large town, and theres nothing. The only arcade we had shut down about 10 years ago. Bowling and Laser Quest have a few machines, but nothing special...

If I want to go somewhere good, I have to travel. 🙁

 

[reX dart: eskimo spy]

Originally posted by ExCyber@Feb 24, 2004 @ 01:02 PM

I suppose eventually Konami, Sammy/Sega, and Namco will team up to make Ferrari Dance Dance Pachinko Crisis, and what scares me is that it would probably be the highest grossing game in arcade history.

That sounds freaking awesome! :thumbs-up:

Seriously, though, I have a feeling we're going to witness a resurgence of arcade popularity within the next ten years. There has been a lot of innovation going on in Japan, and eventually it's going to get over here. One of those innovations has got to take.

 

[it290]

As long as it's not an innovation in dancing games, I'm game (don't get me wrong -- I have nothing against dancing. 😉 I just prefer doing it to real music in a more entertaining environment, heh).

 

[Mr. Moustache]

Big cabinets are exactly what killed the arcade industry, all the big arcade machine makers thought they were actually competing with the home market, so they had to be bigger and better, and it completley backfired. Now arcade cabinets can cost upwards of $20,000 so it's virtually impossible for a small arcade to actually buy anything new, and then to offset all of these extremely high costs all the arcades that do manage to get these games charge insane prices($1-$1.50)... And I don't care how "unique" it is, I'm not paying a freagin' dollar to play a video game for 5minutes(longer if I don't suck, but it is still outrageous).

The key to bringing back the U.S. arcade industry to anything resembling what it used to be is to quit comparing everything to the home market, start building cheaper cabinets, and actually do something innovative.

 

[CrazyGoon]

racketboy + Excyber: My thoughts exactly. The arcades are very much like that over here in OZ aswell. Even the $1.50 per game 🙁

Mr. Moustache: Yeah, but I wouldn't say the arcade industry is dead... only the good ol arcades which had the four slot NeoGeo cabinets and the Street Fighters 🙁

Oh well. Next time someone goes to New Zealand, check out the arcades 🙂 When I went (3 years ago), the arcades were more like it was back in the day of small cabinets. And the prices were 40 cents per game 🙂 Oh yeah! :cheers

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

Ya, most of these big cabnet games suck anyways. I like how racing games let you sit down and they have the rumble in the seat and stuff, that rocks. But games like that jurassic park one w/ the HUGE screen and it's all enclosed and stuff, what a waste. I think most the cabnets need to be re-designed, a lot of em are horrable and take up WAY too much room (sega bass fishing.....)

 

[racketboy]

yeah Jurassic Park is a bad example.

Racing ones with surround sound are cool.

I remember Virtua Racing had sound being you as well as in front.

 

[M3d10n]

1 buck per game is absolutely outrageous, and is the sole reason behind the fact I never play in the big arcade facilities around the town (that happen to be from the same franchise and use magnetic cards - which you have to buy too, if you don't have any).

My random arcade sessions come from cheappo coin-based machines (or even key-based ones: "yo, pops! One extra round, 'kay?", and then the old man remotely grants you an extra credit) scattered in not-so-wealthy neighborhoods, usually in bars. Often old fighters (SFZ3, KOF99, and in some places you can even find a SamSho4 or a Real Bout 2), but good stuff.

Let's see how things will turn out if Sammy ever gets their arses over here.