I miss 20 years ago when every mall had an arcade place

Being old and growing up starting out with Space Invaders I believe I have a pretty good idea of what killed it.

I don't think it was the shift to better home consoles. It may have helped seal their fate but I don't believe it was the catalyst. No I think It was the shift from 25 cents to a $1. I spent hundreds, thousands of dollars at arcades through the years. When the cost for a couple minutes of game play went from 25 cents to a $1 I said no way. I am not spending a dollar.

It was easy for people to drop a few quarters for a couple games. Dropping a dollar was a how different ball game.

I'd also like to say I miss the hell out of Babbages to.
 
As far as the "weird" SF2 chips that came out, there were a couple of 'em for the original World Warrior cabinets, but there were a flat-out ton for Champion Edition. Everything from swapping characters mid-match to mid-air moves to wavey fireballs.
Supposedly those chips are what managed to get Hyper Fighting created. Capcom was upset with all of the operators getting these bootlegged chips so they made their own.
 
Dallows said:
I miss Babbages too, fucking gamestop.
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I miss the small mom and pop shop that was down the street. I loved that place. The owner was soooo cool. He and his wife ran it. A Pre-order there was putting your name down no money given till the product was in your hands. He used to print out cheat sheets for fighting games..... Man I made myself sad now :(

Sadly Gamestop opened up a mile down the road. A year later he closed the doors.

I think with arcades the big thing was socializing. Meeting new folks around the SF2 machine trading tips and moves. There's one arcade left in my town and it's usually pretty dead these days.
 
There was this one orthodonist where I grew up that had a room with arcade and pinball machines next to the waiting room. all free too. they weren't the latest games, but it was still pretty dang cool. so whenever my sister had to go for her braces to be adjusted or whatever, I was like, yeah awesome, lets go!
 
Many nostalgic moments from arcades, we still have a nicklecade here where i live. its awesome
 
Yeah I loved going to the arcades, tons of money spent. My first experience was at a bowling alley in College Park MD. I dump 10 bucks into the X-Men 6 player game.
 
I grew up playing in arcades as well. I remember going to Golfland in Cali because they always had the latest games and always kept their machines in tip top condition. Nothing like dropping a quarter into a machine and finding out the joystick is loose or buttons don't work.

We later ditched golfland because of new ownership that didn't keep up with the latest games and went a new place called Keystone. Keystone charged $5 at the door and all games were a nickel. They had some great games there and always had at least 3-4 machines of the "hottest" games so the wait line to get your ass kicked was little to none.

2 weeks ago I was washing blankets at a laundrymat and saw SF2 and had to play to see if I still got it. Some kids skateboarding outside finally came in talking shit to his friends out that he was going to kick my ass. After 4 tries his buddy puts up a quarter on the glass telling him this is how it's done. I took him out just as easy as the last one. After 20 minutes and at least 5 different tries from 4 different guys they stopped and watch as I finish the game with the quarter that I started with. These kids are maybe 14-16yrs old at the most. Grabbed my blankets out of the dryer and left. I love shit talkers.
 
samduhman said:
Being old and growing up starting out with Space Invaders I believe I have a pretty good idea of what killed it.

I don't think it was the shift to better home consoles. It may have helped seal their fate but I don't believe it was the catalyst. No I think It was the shift from 25 cents to a $1. I spent hundreds, thousands of dollars at arcades through the years. When the cost for a couple minutes of game play went from 25 cents to a $1 I said no way. I am not spending a dollar.

It was easy for people to drop a few quarters for a couple games. Dropping a dollar was a how different ball game.

I'd also like to say I miss the hell out of Babbages to.
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That was in many ways a totally psychological thing. Arcades had no choice. They had to keep up with inflation. Think of it this way, playing Xmen v. Streetfighter in like 1998 cost $0.50 a play. That $0.50 with inflation calculated is pretty much exactly $0.25 in 1982.

By natural inflation, games that cost a quarter in the early 80s were only making half as much by the mid 90s. But seeing that change from a quarter to two quarters and then 4 quarters had a huge psychological impact on people playing the games because quarters are physical objects you can enumerate and not just a floating dollar value.
 
Spare-Flair said:
By natural inflation, games that cost a quarter in the early 80s were only making half as much by the mid 90s. But seeing that change from a quarter to two quarters and then 4 quarters had a huge psychological impact on people playing the games because quarters are physical objects you can enumerate and not just a floating dollar value.
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I think it has to do with the fact that raising the price by anything *less* than the current value to play would have been a hassle, but raising it to double its current value all at once makes people question the motives behind the price increase.

Going to the store one day and finding out the stuff you want to buy costs twice as much as it did yesterday will do that.
 
RumpRoast said:
I grew up playing in arcades as well. I remember going to Golfland in Cali because they always had the latest games and always kept their machines in tip top condition. Nothing like dropping a quarter into a machine and finding out the joystick is loose or buttons don't work.

We later ditched golfland because of new ownership that didn't keep up with the latest games and went a new place called Keystone. Keystone charged $5 at the door and all games were a nickel. They had some great games there and always had at least 3-4 machines of the "hottest" games so the wait line to get your ass kicked was little to none.

2 weeks ago I was washing blankets at a laundrymat and saw SF2 and had to play to see if I still got it. Some kids skateboarding outside finally came in talking shit to his friends out that he was going to kick my ass. After 4 tries his buddy puts up a quarter on the glass telling him this is how it's done. I took him out just as easy as the last one. After 20 minutes and at least 5 different tries from 4 different guys they stopped and watch as I finish the game with the quarter that I started with. These kids are maybe 14-16yrs old at the most. Grabbed my blankets out of the dryer and left. I love shit talkers.
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I remember golfland, i went to the one in milpitas, i never played one round of golf there, but their arcade was HUGE, spanning 2 huge maze like rooms of arcade games. that was my favorite arcade. when SF2 was the rage, they must have had at least 20 SF2 machines there.
 
In Portland there is an arcade with classics like Bezerker.

For me arcades went from cool, to creepy looking guys hanging out but still fun, to too expensive (yes I read the inflation remarks above), and finally back to cool when I hit up the arcade in Portland.

The death of them are related to inflation (as discussed above) and better quality home consoles. During this time of arcade decline, parents often let TV/video games babysit kids. Where before the kids got dragged along and the arcade was the only escape.
 
I must admit, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a godsend when it comes to classic style arcades. They still have and maintain dozens and dozens of older arcade stand ups, table tops, and pinball machines.
 
zoobaby said:
In Portland there is an arcade with classics like Bezerker.

For me arcades went from cool, to creepy looking guys hanging out but still fun, to too expensive (yes I read the inflation remarks above), and finally back to cool when I hit up the arcade in Portland.

The death of them are related to inflation (as discussed above) and better quality home consoles. During this time of arcade decline, parents often let TV/video games babysit kids. Where before the kids got dragged along and the arcade was the only escape.
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Isn't really even inflation. I don't know what happened but they increased the prices 100%-400% depending on the game and the arcade (coke machines did it too). Then wonder why we don't come in? There are games at my local arcade that cost $1-$2 per play... wtf!?!?!
 
I'd like to have one table top classic game though, for a little nook in our apt.. that would rock. maybe ms pac man or galaga..
 
Ya, back in the late 70s, early 80s, spent alot of quarters in the mall arcades around Indianapolis; definitely was a factor in my divorce ! LOL
 
zoobaby said:
In Portland there is an arcade with classics like Bezerker.

[snip]
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every time I see that word now I think of Clerks. "did he say 'making fuck'??!" classic. ;)

sorry that was so way OT... that was a cool game.. that and Wizard of Wor. old school.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
Isn't really even inflation. I don't know what happened but they increased the prices 100%-400% depending on the game and the arcade (coke machines did it too). Then wonder why we don't come in? There are games at my local arcade that cost $1-$2 per play... wtf!?!?!
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The corporate monster munched it's way through the gaming industry as it had just hit full stride in the US. Seeing only dollar signs it ate and ate until there was none....

That's one of the differences between then and now.
 
Grew up on Pacman and galaga and joust, etc.
Where I lived all the cool games were in the bowling alleys.

But yeah, going from 25cent to 50cents or a dollar was what killed it for me.
 
well, I think rent went up, electricity went up, and demand for arcade games went down as home game units and PCs started to get a lot better at offering the same or better experiences.. but just being at the old arcade was so fun, with all the sights and sounds, almost like being in vegas in the slots area, but darker, less booze, and no smoke. ;)
 
Monkey God said:
But yeah, going from 25cent to 50cents or a dollar was what killed it for me.
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I keep reading that the price for ppl is what killed arcades, and that some have said the social atmosphere is what brought them in.

I guess I'm a bit backwards on this one.

Management of these places is what absolutely killed it for me.

When I was a pre-teen, some friends thought it was cool that the local arcade gave out free tokens to the younger kids if you let the manager molest, err, ummm, tickle you first... Long story short, I voiced my objection to this, and obviously never got any free tokens. I also somehow lost social respect from patrons there, and from my friends. I can't help but wonder what kids do today if my generation allowed grown weird men to grope them for a few tokens...

My pre-teen experience aside, what's absolutely killed it for me in my later teens and adulthood is the needing to buy tokens with the no refunds policy attached. I got tired of showing up to play maybe a game or two, and finding out both are at least half-broken after I paid for the tokens... No money refund, sure maybe some give you your token(s) back, but I didn't come here to play any of the others games. Money down the drain.

The fact that when you brought to their attention something was broken and they took no action over it, they're just looking to screw the next customer as well.

Next problem was troublemakers. If I'm playing a game, I encourage you to watch me play if you wish. But please don't touch me. Don't grab the stick out of my hand. Don't press any buttons for me.

And certainly do NOT unplug the machine when I object to you doing any of the above to me.

Management's refusal to take me up on my offer of "either they go or I go" when I am a paying customer and the kid's just here to bother people, well, I'm sure they have the right to throw kids out of their arcade if they wish.

I know parents use arcades to babysit their kids. Perfectly fine if the kid's using his own tokens, or being polite and just watching everyone else.


But, yes, $1/play to find it's broken, or some brat's around, inflation arguements aside, certainly makes it 4x worse IMO...


Slight tangent, but studios complain about piracy and downloading movies. How about taking into account that theaters don't police jackasses in their seats? Sure, even if maybe the theater (again) refunds my ticket, it's still wasted time...
 
One word: Fun Spot

Other than that I agree with the sentiments of the OP. Which is exactly why my friend and I plan to open our own arcade in the future.
 
It's atmosphere too. People don't like to be in a place that's dead and empty.

When arcades packed people in, people would go in. Now that they are empty and creepy, you won't get people in and it's a vicious cycle.

My university arcade was always pretty busy because it was on campus under the foodcourt and had a nice dark alleyway feel to it as you got deeper like a tunnel and there were always people there killing time so it stayed popular.

Then they renovated into a more wide-open look and suddenly the place lost all atmosphere and became dead as hell.
 
Tolyngee said:
I keep reading that the price for ppl is what killed arcades, and that some have said the social atmosphere is what brought them in.

I guess I'm a bit backwards on this one.

Management of these places is what absolutely killed it for me.

When I was a pre-teen, some friends thought it was cool that the local arcade gave out free tokens to the younger kids if you let the manager molest, err, ummm, tickle you first... Long story short, I voiced my objection to this, and obviously never got any free tokens. I also somehow lost social respect from patrons there, and from my friends. I can't help but wonder what kids do today if my generation allowed grown weird men to grope them for a few tokens...

My pre-teen experience aside, what's absolutely killed it for me in my later teens and adulthood is the needing to buy tokens with the no refunds policy attached. I got tired of showing up to play maybe a game or two, and finding out both are at least half-broken after I paid for the tokens... No money refund, sure maybe some give you your token(s) back, but I didn't come here to play any of the others games. Money down the drain.

The fact that when you brought to their attention something was broken and they took no action over it, they're just looking to screw the next customer as well.

Next problem was troublemakers. If I'm playing a game, I encourage you to watch me play if you wish. But please don't touch me. Don't grab the stick out of my hand. Don't press any buttons for me.

And certainly do NOT unplug the machine when I object to you doing any of the above to me.

Management's refusal to take me up on my offer of "either they go or I go" when I am a paying customer and the kid's just here to bother people, well, I'm sure they have the right to throw kids out of their arcade if they wish.

I know parents use arcades to babysit their kids. Perfectly fine if the kid's using his own tokens, or being polite and just watching everyone else.


But, yes, $1/play to find it's broken, or some brat's around, inflation arguements aside, certainly makes it 4x worse IMO...


Slight tangent, but studios complain about piracy and downloading movies. How about taking into account that theaters don't police jackasses in their seats? Sure, even if maybe the theater (again) refunds my ticket, it's still wasted time...
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Good grief, what kind of fucked up arcade did you frequent!?
 
I was raised in Toronto and the strip had like 4 major arcades back in the mid 80's and early 90's. They were huge one had 2 main floors. I remember taking the subway 45 mins to go spend all my paper money and be totally broke a few hours later. Back then you couldn’t play the type of games they had in the arcade. I also remember when they increased the price to 50 cents a credit and some games believe it or not was 3 and 4 credits to even play!

A huge problem I remember back then was the arcades were a heaven for drug dealers. Guys were always coming up to me asking if I wanted to buy some dope like weed or hash.
 
We have one in a mall here, but theres only 9 year olds in there.

Killer Instinct was my arcade game of choice back in the day.
 
I miss them. I grew up in the 1984-1994 era. Golden Age. That is gone forever.

MAME lives on though.
 
when I was 12 and lived in Cincy,OH , I used to love going to the arcade downtown to play Elevator Action and Spy hunter. Those were some good times. But I like Pc gaming much better. I used to throw a lot of cash away at gaming then to walk away with nothing . Now at least I own them and hold them. Between that place and the one in the Dayton Mall they got all the cash a poor kid could give them.

Ah that was so many years ago....lol
 
PiratePowWow said:
Malls around me do have arcades, but they typically suck. When I was little my favorite thing about arcades was getting tickets :mad:.

What I really miss is the OLD Babbages in the mall. 1998 Babbages had so many PC games. Entire right wall was nothing but PC games all the way to the back of the store. Once you got to the back, you were surrounded by a semicircle of PC games. In the middle of the semicircle was a couple shelves with video cards/accelerators on it.

PC section was about 3/4 of the store. I think when PS2/Xbox/Cube came out is when the PC section mysteriously vanished. It's currently reduced to one 4ft wide mobile cart.
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You hit the nail right on the head. I miss when these type stores had HUGE pc game selections. It is sad to go into what is left and see a tiny cart or gondola with only 2 shelves for pc games. I started pc gaming back in 1998 full time. Software Etc also had a similar setup .
 
I had only three offical stops in the mall:

1)Arcade - make a $20 bill last from opening until lunch.
2)Babbages - look up new games and pickup new EGM or GamePro.
3)Food Court - Gyro wrap or Chinese FTW!

...go back to arcade and wish I had more tokens. :p
 
Spare-Flair said:
It's atmosphere too. People don't like to be in a place that's dead and empty.

When arcades packed people in, people would go in. Now that they are empty and creepy, you won't get people in and it's a vicious cycle.

My university arcade was always pretty busy because it was on campus under the foodcourt and had a nice dark alleyway feel to it as you got deeper like a tunnel and there were always people there killing time so it stayed popular.

Then they renovated into a more wide-open look and suddenly the place lost all atmosphere and became dead as hell.
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when I was a kid, it was my dream to have no one there, that meant i could have access to any game! :p

It sucked being really short and being the very edge of a 6 player xmen game barely able to see the screen :)
 
Master Blaster said:
I had only three offical stops in the mall:

1)Arcade - make a $20 bill last from opening until lunch.
2)Babbages - look up new games and pickup new EGM or GamePro.
3)Food Court - Gyro wrap or Chinese FTW!

...go back to arcade and wish I had more tokens. :p
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You ate ? Lol.. I was a idiot and would spend all my cash but the bus fare in the arcade to make it back home then.. :(
 
For me, it was 25 years ago. For some reason, the Arcades used to always be by a cafeteria like Piccadillis or Lubys. I would always save my lunch money and go to the arcade in the mall by my house, it was cool cause the mall was within walking distance. Those were the days that all the stores in the mall were closed on Sundays, EXCEPT for the Arcade and theater. My hand/eye coordination were honed in those days as were my billiards skills. Arcades always had "that" smell to them too. I could never figure out what that smell was, but you could tell without looking you were in one.

Ahhh, Galaga, Moon Patrol, Journey Escape, Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Fun Fun Fun!!!! Skipped many a day of school to go to the Arcade. They were a blessing to us kids back then, an escape from the parents' rules and at the same time, was the parents worse enemy.

I think the turning point of Arcades came when newer technology walked into the game room in the form of Dragons Lair. It was one of the first games that would cost you 50 cents to play....then shortly after came Space Ace. These games soon caught the attention of young adults who had jobs and more money to spend. It was an unwritten rule that if you had quarters lined up on the games front panel, you were there till your money was gone. It was difficult for us younger lads to get a chance to play those games without being bullied out of the way by dickheads....When this became the norm, youths stopped going to the arcade and IMHO, was the beginning of the end of the Arcade.

These days, I have 2 kids myself and when I take them to Chucky Cheese, I look upon their Arcades and think all the games they have just suck (if they even work). I feel kinda bad for my kids....there is no way for them to enjoy the fun we once had at their age.

Mann, times seemed so much easier back then than today...maybe its cause I was a kid and my mother always took care of the problems so I didnt have too, I dunno. Just seemed easier back then....

Ahhh, what memories....
 
^You live in Texas don't you...? Luby's or Piccadillis; mmmm :)

I agree with you last few statements. I do believe being a child/kid is one of the best things in life to enjoy. Also, I can totally understand your sediments about "life being easier". We didn't really have to worry about be abducted from a mall, or killed in an insane fashion while Trick-or-Treating. Prices on things didn’t seem over inflated as that are now. I probably went over the top, but you know what I’m saying. We’ve got too much to worry about now, because the social constructs here in the States pressure use to do so. All we can do is appreciate the moments we had and enjoy the moments we'll have.
 
We still have an arcade where I am at. It is run by guys my age. Instead of coin op you pay
to play by the hour, or buy a month pass. Basically it is filled with Consoles from NES to
PS3, you pick the system and game, they set it up for you, and you play for however long
you want. They sell snacks, have monthly tournaments, and have MTG in the back. It is a
cool idea, plus they buy new games usually when they release. Same arcade atmosphere,
huge selection....plus...they have a DDR machine. Nerds wet dream.
 
Mame cabinet guys. Not fully the same...but get a few friends, pay some strange guy to come take the coins out a once a week, and lets not forget the smell of stale air mixed with heated circuitry, adding in various sounds from the machines. Though I do miss being able to shop and play games in one spot.
 
i worked at an arcade for years in my teens.. what killed ours was the trend to put in these huge overrated racing games that could seat like 12 drivers... and the huge shooting games with fake shotguns and what not.. Im sure the price's paid for these games were huge and the token count could reach 6 tokens/$1.50 (1996) so you know by default they would raise games like neo geo to 2 tokens from 1 and ssf2 to 3 or 4 fron 2 and sooo on... forget it, it became more money and less sence to go to the arcade then to buy a console and just deal with the shitty versions of the same game
 
Old school gamer myself, I recall playing Donkey Kong, Centipede, Dig Dug, Sinistar, Asteroids, Zaxxon, Pole Position, Tempest(one of the greatest games ever made IMO) the list goes on and on. I always liked good ol' pinball also, in fact I even have a copy of Microsoft Pinball Arcade on my system, old game but I still fire it up and play a few rounds. I also have the Atari Anniversary edition which features:

* Asteroids (Volume 1)
* Asteroids Deluxe (Volume 2)
* Battlezone (Volume 2)
* Black Widow (PS1 only)
* Centipede (Volume 1)
* Crystal Castles (PC and DC only, Volume 2)
* Gravitar (Volume 2)
* Millipede (PC and DC only, Volume 2)
* Missile Command (Volume 1)
* Pong (Volume 1)
* Space Duel (PS1 only)
* Super Breakout (Volume 1)
* Tempest (Volume 1)
* Warlords (Volume 2)


You noticed Tempest on there. ;) Bought the Atari Anniversary Edition for the PC almost 8 years ago and I still enjoy it. If you're a old school gamer you'll love it.

Also of course Mame, which brings the old stuff right back and is a blast as long as the game you're playing was ported well.
 
i do miss the days of the arcades.

i remember every school lunch break, i would head to the arcade down the block and play while eating my lunch at the same time. good childhood memories

i happen to stumble across a few still in existence, at a hot dog shop a beach and a few bowling alleys.
 
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