Cafe Owners Introduce Arcades to a New Generation

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monkeymagick

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Turns out arcades are still alive and kicking. Some folks over in the UK are attempting to bring them back for entirely new patrons. Arcades devoted to nothing but videogames have been dying for well over the last decade. Most malls barely have anything that resembles one or close to what they were years ago. Recently, there has been a resurgence in the past couple of years with ones built inside larger recreation centers attached to bowling alleys and pool halls while also serving beers even inside the selections tend to be terrible.


But despite the potential difficulties, the new generation of arcade game cafes are gaining loyal fans and helping to revive a lost industry. Lowe from Game Over attributes this to the games themselves: classics which have remained popular for the best part of half a century.
 
A year or so ago I went to a bar that had a small arcade in it. It had about 2 dozen machines. First time I have been to an arcade in ~20 years.
 
yeah, all those old games that use to be a quarter are now "club card" fixed,where it costs you anywhere from 50 cents to a buck.
 
I go here every year.
Here in Bellingham, there a a few places that added on arcade rooms. It is definitely coming around, which, tbh, i'm surprised how long it took. With "retro" being a thing for quite some time now, it's good to finally see it come to life in the real world, not just online.
 
There are a couple of Arcade/Bars in Columbus. Pretty cool.
 
Master_shake_ said:
my kids love my arcade.

finally beat the simpsons.
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Me and my nephew were playing Simpsons, and I went to put in another "quarter" and accidentally pressed the "exit" button. We were both pissed. :/ So, we're going to finish it this weekend. I've beat a ton of games that I played when I was younger. I do remember them being the most groundbreaking visuals and the best damn games ever. :) Moonwalker, Altered Beast, ESwat, Golden Axe (1, 2, 3), MERCS, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Robocop... Just going through and beating those old games. It's fun. :)

There's a big barcade in Portland that I want to go to. There's a nice arcade in Lincoln City and Seaside, OR, so whenever I visit the beach, there's always an arcade close by.

A friend of mine came over and saw it, and we played Street Fighter 2... Holy shit that was fun. I won one, he won one, he won the last one by ONE sliver (100 pts.). So damn close, but it was so fun.

Arcades are still kick ass fun. I love them. My kids love them.
 
We have a great one in Richardson "Free Play".
Not free, you pay $10 cover + whatever beer you drink.
No cigarette burns, and every cab has drink holders.

The machines are in excellent state of art preservation.
Everything works, monitors all look brand new. Someone
who knows what the hell he's doing has been obsessing
to get these right.

In the back were a half dozen pinballs, and two of those
were malfunctioning, so can't give 100% on mechanical
maintenence but they looked good.

My own Black Knight (Williams 1980) gets stuck every
once in while, so maybe I shouldn't be one to judge...
 
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KD5ZXG said:
We have a great one in Richardson "Free Play".
Not free, you pay $10 cover + whatever beer you drink.
No cigarette burns, and every cab has drink holders.

The machines are in excellent state of art preservation.
Everything works, monitors all look brand new. Someone
who knows what the hell he's doing has obsessing to
get these right.

In the back were a half dozen pinballs, and two of those
were malfunctioning, so can't give 100% on mechanical
maintenence but they looked good.
Click to expand...
You and I commented nearly the same time on the same topic of Free Play Arcades. lol
 
Regarding link:
I remember touching up that Bosconian marqee for the hires artpack, back in the day.
They have compressed it into pure garbage, or maybe ripped from somewhere else...
 
X-men was my jam. Then MKIII when that came out. Moonwalker, TMNT, SpyHunter, Lethal Enforcer, Area 51. Too much fun back in the day.
 
We had an "arcade bar" here in downtown Las Vegas recently, called "Insert Coin," but it failed as expected and it was quickly shuttered ok, it lasted all of 12-14 months but that's quick for businesses in downtown Las Vegas and par for the course for many that don't realize when the non-summer tourism levels tank that means your business dies. The new owners of the property have tried the same thing by having a bar atmosphere joint with loud music and expensive drinks and some arcade machines of various kinds - I fully expect them to shutter by New Year's since it's just a bad idea but nobody ever seems to grasp it in for some reason. Had a place called Jillian's long ago, that failed, they tried a Dave and Buster's in the same location after Jillian's shuttered, Dave and Buster's closed, had a movie theater here in downtown Vegas, that closed, had a Panda Express, that closed, the sheer number of businesses that open and then fail here in this area is mind boggling to be honest.

Of course, if those types of businesses could be allowed to have slot machines or table games inside they'd survive but that's not how it goes. :D

In the decade plus I've been living here there's practically nothing - except the casino hotels and a pawn shop or two - that has remained in place the entire time, pretty much every single establishment that was open when I moved back to this town in early 2006 has closed and been replaced at least once. There's new restaurants that opened less than 2 years ago that have disappeared and been replaced and then the replacements tank and they disappear, it's crazy in ways that crazy can't adequately even describe the situation.

Alas, as someone that grew up in the 1970s with Pong, then Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and into the 80s and even the mid-90's with thousands of various video game machines and many many hours as well as many many rolls of quarters - man if I had all that money now I'd be independently wealthy I swear. I kinda miss those days, meet-ups at 7-11 with friends after school let out, many hours of awesome pinball games when they were actually fun and required some actual skill, and of course arcade games themselves that were fun to play and imaginative in terms of design that weren't vacuums aka the kind of games that required you to keep dropping quarters to keep playing and not ones that allowed you to play as long as your skill kept you alive.

The good old days, guess I should be happy I was a participant in the arcade generation 'cause those days are long since done. :D

And yes, we do have the Pinball Hall of Fame here in Las Vegas and I do visit it several times a year to get my flippin' and spinnin' on: http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ - the website isn't much to look at really but the place is actually damned fun to visit and get my game on.
 
scojer said:
I go here every year.
Here in Bellingham, there a a few places that added on arcade rooms. It is definitely coming around, which, tbh, i'm surprised how long it took. With "retro" being a thing for quite some time now, it's good to finally see it come to life in the real world, not just online.
Click to expand...

I work out of Bellingham a lot these days...nice to see another local.
 
If you are ever in the Seattle area check out Dorky's Arcade. I met the guy and he is a true classic arcade nerd. He has more games in storage than he has room for in his arcade, his arcade buddies swap machines now and then, and he closes on Monday to repair machines that have problems. The old school games like Ms. PacMan are still 25 cents. I did a walkthrough (sorry about the shaky cam and crappy stabilization) you can find below.

 
I take my son to Chuck e Cheese and surprisingly they have a lot of the same games you find at modern arcades.

Except they cost 30c to play and not 1$-2$.
 
Maybe mostly dead in the US, but alive and kicking in other places. The Japanese arcades are awesome, except that even the cheapest game costs 100 yen (almost $1). They just so happened to build the gaming industry with arcades in mind. Release the game in arcades first, then release onto console a year later.
 
A business called Barcadia just opened where I live, it has an awesome collection of cabinets, and gets new ones / retires unused ones all the time, and every game is only 25c.

http://www.barcadia.ca/
 
Kids today see these Dave and Busters places and think "WOW, DAD, WAS THAT WHAT IT WAS LIKE GROWING UP!?" and I look at them with disgust (cuz, kids) and go "My Arcades were dimly-lit and filled with cigarette-smoke and a lot of unemployed dudes in Iron Maiden jean jackets.....". Then I tear up and have to turn away from them for a few minutes......
 
Just about every bowling alley, movie house, and family center has a good arcade attached to it.

You have to wonder what brings them in since they have better games at home with better screens. Well the hook is you get bundled. Cards get you prizes. Then there's decent food, and/or side entertainment attached.

I'm also noticing a trend with semi-upscale restaurants. They serve good food to the adults, and have a play side full of arcade games & prizes on the other end.

This place is quite popular on the golf course:

https://bogeymacaws.com/

Of course there is Dave & Busters as well.

So arcades didn't die in the USA, they evolved. NOW, if you want to see a true social hub of activity, visit Japan's giant arcades! Those are a sight.
 
If they were still a quarter or at most 50 cents I would play some of the older titles. I love arcades so much more even if I can play them on my PC.
 
I really miss arcades, when I was growing up my friends and I used to go to Tornado Terry's in Keller, TX , we'd pay 10 dollars for admission and play arcades all day. They also had a place in Watauga called Nicklemania where all the machines were a nickle. They had tons of arcade machines there. Man....great times.
 
I miss good arcade entertainment stores. The Tilt (YouTube video - ignore the crappy music) in Bayshore Mall closed earlier this year. I had fun times in that place. They rarely made money from me when I played the crane games. I'd walk out with a garbage bag or two of stuffed animals and give them to random people in the mall and friends/family. :D
 
Rahh said:
If they were still a quarter or at most 50 cents I would play some of the older titles. I love arcades so much more even if I can play them on my PC.
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Where are you located? With a coupon, $20 in tokens works out to about 15 cents per game at The American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire. We have over 450 games in our inventory with about 260-280 on the floor at a time.

http://www.classicarcademuseum.org

museum1.jpg
 
DigitalGriffin said:
You have to wonder what brings them in since they have better games at home with better screens. Well the hook is you get bundled. Cards get you prizes. Then there's decent food, and/or side entertainment attached.
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While consoles certainly provide more horsepower than any arcade game you see these days, I did take my g/f go-karting recently and the arcade in there had a bunch of sit down games with surround sound enclosures and huge screens up close. The graphics were still pretty meh, but you got to hold this humongous gun the the length of your arm and had lots of nice vibration feedback and loud noise while you sat in a private booth with tinted glass. So there's still a few things arcades can do better.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
You have to wonder what brings them in since they have better games at home with better screens. Well the hook is you get bundled. Cards get you prizes. Then there's decent food, and/or side entertainment attached.
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly disagree. There is something about the EXPERIENCE of being in an arcade that is completely missing on PC or console gaming. Plus, Good gameplay IS good gameplay. It is something of a lost art today with so much flashy audio/video distracting the underlying gameplay experience.

I mentioned ACAM (the American Classic Arcade Museum) in my post above. We operate an Education Program where we routinely host groups of college students (from 20-200 at a time) who are studying game programming careers. It never fails that we cannot tear these kids away from these games. Their instructors will threaten leaving in their motor coaches without them at the end of the day, and the kids still will not willingly leave. Just because a game is old and played on a fuzzy CRT doesn't mean what they have at home is automatically better.

For the first five years of PAX-East in Boston, we provided the arcade exhibit. We took a 40x40 room, packed it with as many games as we could fit in two box trucks, set up booming 80's music/lighting and provided a feeling of a Saturday night in a late 70's/early 80's arcade. We had Sinistar, Galaga, Dragon's Lair, Gauntlet, Ms. Pac-Man, and a bunch of other classics. We had the creators of Midway's Ms. Pac-Man & Jr. Pac-Man and Atari's Food Fight & Quantum to talk to the attendees about making games back in the day. Care to guess what the most played game was over those days with the late teen/twentysomething crowd that dominates PAX-East? Pong. Yup, freakin' Pong. Couldn't keep the kids away from that woodgrain and yellow cabinet. The next year, to make sure we did not just bring back the same stuff, we changed up the games and brought a bunch of other popular titles from the era. What was the biggest complaint we had? Everyone wanted to know why we did not bring Pong back.
 
mps said:
I wholeheartedly disagree. There is something about the EXPERIENCE of being in an arcade that is completely missing on PC or console gaming. Plus, Good gameplay IS good gameplay. It is something of a lost art today with so much flashy audio/video distracting the underlying gameplay experience.
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I'm not so sure about the bolded. I remember constantly being distracted with every arcade competing for your attention. I remember visiting Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas as a child. I'd compare it to this no less . But I most kids are missing the social aspects of interacting face-to-face when videogaming. The term "put up or shut up" comes to mind when in a public place compared to an anonymous server. I agree with sentiment of good gameplay is good gameplay.
 
I even saw a version of Silent Scope not too long ago which is still fun as hell to play. Being able to actually hold a life sized rifle with the butt against your shoulder, squinting with one eye down the barrel of a scope with its own simulated magnification, then opening both eyes and glancing at the big screen to get a view of the world to find your next target, nothing can come close to that except for VR maybe.
 
mps said:
Where are you located? With a coupon, $20 in tokens works out to about 15 cents per game at The American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire. We have over 450 games in our inventory with about 260-280 on the floor at a time.
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It really depends upon the cost of the building the arcade is in, if you look at an arcade game that can take up 5-6 square feet of space, then double that for the person playing the game and/or some tiny amount of walk way between games, then you're looking 10-12 square feet, then how much does retail space cost where you live? Here in San Francisco? fuggedaboutit $40+/sqft/year is not uncommon, so that game needs to make $400-500 in quarters every year just to break even for the rental cost, then on top of that electricity. It's not a surprise that arcades are all but dead here, or if they do live it's because owns the space and got it when it was affordable back in the day.
 
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