so is the arcade officially dead?

[gbpxl]

The last time I saw one was at a mall in either Texas or Georgia, and it had everything from skee ball to The Fast and the Furious. Don't remember seeing any Pac-Mans or Galaga though.

When I was very young, there was an arcade at my local mall and it was nothing but stand-up video games. it was very dark in there and pretty intimidating for me at the time. it went out of business a few years later though.

that scene did not last very long. I think there was a bit of a resurgence once DDR came out but that fad died off pretty quickly.

I went to MAG Fest a couple years ago and they had all the stand ups you could ever think of- and they were all set for free play.

If you go to my local mall's arcade now, I believe there is one light gun game (Terminator Salvation?) and the rest of the place is filled up with those crane games. it's pretty pathetic

[Beardcore84]

All I know is the Barcade is alive and well. Anytime I've been to my local arcade that sells beer, its been packed and people are playing all sorts of old school games and having a great time. They have to make bank.

[techwizard]

agreed arcades are pretty dead, at least from a commercial standpoint. they're still a ton of fun if you can find one, but all my town has to offer are a couple movie theatres with limited selection (better than your mall though from the sounds of it) and a game store with a handful of machines.

[gbpxl]

all I've seen in bars was Golden Tee, although I think I saw a sit-down cabinet at one not long ago. cant remember the game

and yeah movie theaters are probably the best place to find arcade cabinets.

I remember seeing an Outrun 2 cabinet at a bowling alley in Florida. that's my favorite arcade game.

[MaterialHandlerMike]

We had a great place in my city in the early 90's. It was in a part of my city called Spruceland, and was called: The Spruceland Family Fun Center. Place was pretty cool. Had a huge floorspace filled with Arcade machines (Including a nice row of Pinball), Skeeball, and the entire basement was a Mini Golf course which I played once. They must have closed in 94 or 95. That was the last of any kind of Arcade I would see, until I moved to Edmonton in 2000-01. The West Edmonton Mall had a Playdium arcade, that closed in 2004.

 

[Zagnorch]

I live about a fifteen minute walk from a Nickel City arcade, which opened about twenty years ago, and has managed to stick around to this very day. I haven't ventured inside for a few years, but the last time I was there it had a decent array of electronic distractions. Its free-play area is dark and a bit "divey," which in my opinion is the perfect atmosphere for that particular section.

http://www.nickelcitysanjoseca.com/about-us.html

[PunchCherry]

There used to be some pretty decent arcades here in my state around the golden age of that type of stuff. I'm pretty sure since the mid 90's though there was a huge decline of them and I only know two that are around today. One in a theater and one in the mall with a p' cool Namco collection machine. That's about it. The theater has a Street Fighter 2 machine but I'm sure that's biting the dust at this point.

[TheSaintOfPain]

Much like gbpxl's situation, the last real arcade here in Cape Girardeau, called The Tilt, is still technically around, but it's now almost all crane games, with I believe 3 actual games, which are a Cabela's hunting game, an Area 51, and some Cruisin' USA rip-off I forget the name of.  It's a similar situation with our local Wehrenberg Theater, the Cape West 14 Cine, with has a small game section that's mostly games of chance, "chicken egg" machines, and another Area 51 machine.  Only one local Walmart now has what could be considered games, but it's pretty much like the theater but also with a sit-down Plants Vs. Zombies game.  There's only a select few places that have anything that's an actual arcade machine or pinball, with most of those places being bars having maybe a couple of crappy and usually rundown pinball machines, and one Mexican restaurant called Burrito-ville having a Twilight Zone pinball and a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga combo cocktail cabinet.

[bombatomba]

There are still a bunch around in Michigan, but pretty much none in South East Michigan.  Pinball Pete's in Ann Arbor is still here (or was six months ago), but that place it too depressing to visit.  It's like the owners are trying to make a statement about the "Arcade Age" by letting the machines goes to crap.  The last continents of hope in my area (Mainstreet Arcade, LaserTron, Red Baron's, Insert Coin) are dead and buried.  Only small islands remain.  For anyone out and about in Canton, there is a functioning Tron in Destiny Games, as well as scattered multi-cabs in pizza joints (Mancino's and Slice of the 80's) and some racing games here and there.  Nothing high maintenance, so forget about seeing a Tempest or Frenzy machine.  It's kind of sad, but to think that in the late 80's there were arcade machines in nearly every convenience store, grocery store, and pizzeria in the area.  I distinctly remember lines of kids waiting to get into the nearest 7-11 on Friday and Saturday evening to play the newest arcade cabs.  A single rumor that a game could be cheated (using a penny 100 times to produce a credit, for example), would drive the 10-12 year-old kids in the area to a frenzy.

However, if you find yourself in Flint (during the warmer season) you can hang at Playland Park, which still has (or had) a decent collection of classics.  A better place is in Gobles, MI, which is in the extreme south-west corner of the state.  Here you can pay the $5 cover fee and be pretty much guaranteed to be aurally assaulted by classics stuck at a high volume (specifically, Defender). I've never been there, but I read there is an awesome place in Brighton called The Arcade which is supposed to be pretty rad.  When I hear they get a Victory Road I'll be up there the next day.

There is such a overdose of "crane game" arcades around here and in hotels that I truly believe that this view of an arcade continually threatens the memory of the old.  I mean, in twenty years when a lot of the kids who played crane and redemption games at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, OH think about the old days that will likely be their only experience in an arcade.

Anyway, if anyone wants to have a look in their area, I suggest Aurcade, which has a great arcade search engine.  It relies heavily on the contributions of its members for information, but for the most part many of them are fairly accurate.

[Fokakis79]

We got a few up in the Seattle area. We got a Gameworks which is corporate barcade, that is a multilevel arcade. Another Castle a local game store has an arcade with a bunch of old arcade and pinball machines. Seattle also has a pinball museum where you can play the machines. There are a few others here and there throughout the area. It's not like the 80s where there was one in almost every town but they are still around due to local business owners who are passionate about the business.

[Beardcore84]

What I'm talking about is something I've seen pop up in metro areas, Omaha has one and I know Des Moines Iowa.

http://www.thebeercade.com/


It's basically your normal bar. But then there is a huge row of pinbll machines, and then in the back there are tons of great arcade games. Mine currently has a playchoice 10, Simpsons, Tengen Tetris, SFII Championship edition and a bunch more. It's totally awesome.

(I was not a paid endorser, I just like the place.)

[gbpxl]

What I'm talking about is something I've seen pop up in metro areas, Omaha has one and I know Des Moines Iowa.

http://www.thebeercade.com/


It's basically your normal bar. But then there is a huge row of pinbll machines, and then in the back there are tons of great arcade games. Mine currently has a playchoice 10, Simpsons, Tengen Tetris, SFII Championship edition and a bunch more. It's totally awesome.

(I was not a paid endorser, I just like the place.)

Here's my take on that and you can tell me how far off or how dead on I am: The reason the stand alone arcade is dead is due to inflation. The arcade you're talking about is being subsidized with the sale of alcohol and they are likely losing money on the games themselves (I didn't see if they were free play or not but even if they charge 50 cents, they're still losing money)

Most of the cabinets that are from the 80s and early 90s would only charge 25 or 50 cents I would assume. Well 50 cents in 1991 is equal to 87 cents in 2014. the machines are still set up to only accept 2 quarters but the electricity costs to have that machine run, the maintenance costs, the costs to have someone empty the machine, the rent for the store that houses the cabinet have all gone up as well, the heating or A/C for that store has gone up, while the cabinet is still only generating 50 cents a play.

if they were to modify these cabinets to accept something that will actually make profit- 1 dollar or more, people are not likely to want to pay it because they'll think they shouldn't have to pay more for a game that 20 years ago, they only paid 25 cents for.

[Zagnorch]

Here's my take on that and you can tell me how far off or how dead on I am: The reason the stand alone arcade is dead is due to inflation. The arcade you're talking about is being subsidized with the sale of alcohol and they are likely losing money on the games themselves (I didn't see if they were free play or not but even if they charge 50 cents, they're still losing money)

Your statement about "subsidizing" reminded me: the Nickel City arcade charges $2.00 admission. Weird thing is, the admission fee's been the same since the place opened a couple decades ago.

[Cobra]

Well... arcades are still more alive than video stores... even if only barely.
I can still find a couple down here in South Australia... as for video stores... yeah.

[Vectorguy]

I wouldn't say the arcade is "officially" dead, but they have been on life support since the late 80s.  Hopefully they'll never truly go away, but you never know...

Most of the cabinets that are from the 80s and early 90s would only charge 25 or 50 cents I would assume. Well 50 cents in 1991 is equal to 87 cents in 2014. the machines are still set up to only accept 2 quarters but the electricity costs to have that machine run, the maintenance costs, the costs to have someone empty the machine, the rent for the store that houses the cabinet have all gone up as well, the heating or A/C for that store has gone up, while the cabinet is still only generating 50 cents a play.

if they were to modify these cabinets to accept something that will actually make profit- 1 dollar or more, people are not likely to want to pay it because they'll think they shouldn't have to pay more for a game that 20 years ago, they only paid 25 cents for.

Good point, unfortunately.  Most places, if they're serious about trying to make a buck, would just give you a flat fee to pay up front and then most machines would be on free play as it is.

Anyway, if anyone's looking to preserve the memory of long-gone (or even current) arcades, do look here: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=14834.0

Currently several dozen arcades have been preserved in three states here in the U. S., along with Canada and England, and it looks like Australia is soon to be next