Bad feel of never experiencing real arcades

[qmish]

I'm in mid-20s currently, and i guess i saw arcades IRL for the first time only last year (at least at a conscious age - maybe i witnessed some as a kid), and those were some freeplay machines in Paris airport with some old classics, so i guess they were MAME-based or something; anyway i didnt have time to really use them anyway.

As you may guess by my user profile, i got interested in shmups around 4 years ago, and also during that time i grew interest for arcade games overall, genres, history, whatever (need to note that while i was playing videogames since 2000 or smth, huge part of that was me dedicated to story-heavy/atmospheric games, so it was only recently something shifted a bit in my openness for different approach).

So, where i live, i know there were some arcade centres.. in late 90s or early 00s, anyway, years and years before i got feel of what "arcadey" games are and what shmups are (if we ignore that one my first game ever was fighting - that was UMK3 on Megadrive), but in late 00s and now all this place supposedly have - there should be old cabs here and there in some cinemas (maybe) and cabs in kid zones in shopping centres (first, it would be stuff like Dance Dance Revolution or racing arcades there, not shmups or even fightings, second, its uncomfortable as hell going to those kid zones when you're in 20s/30s).

There were some guys with attempt on "anti-cafe" with arcades, but that time club ended up being some geek love community mainly about bemani rhythm games (again) though they had Guilty Gear cab or smth and even promised adding ikaruga etc., - in the end, they closed before i even visited them, lol.

eeeew why do i tell all of this

guess i look forward hearing your experiences too, perhaps you are in similar place and time

[rancor]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=42980&

[qmish]

Yeah, i'm seriously thinking now on visiting Japan

edit:
Thanks for that thread, and so sad to see many place also r.i.p.

[YoniArousement]

Back in 2005, a skating rink near me had games like TMNT 1989, Smash TV, Tekken Tag Tournament, Gauntlet Legends and Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter. I played MSHvSF, and one of the operators said that Player 1's controls didn't work properly, so I had to be Player 2. MSHvSF was later replaced with just Marvel Super Heroes. At the time, I had zero interest in shmups and playing Demonstar didn't help matters. I don't remember any shmups at the few arcades I visited.

On a few field trips at a bowling alley, there was a Neo Geo MVS cab that had Puzzle Bobble (yes, that's the title it went by in USA apparently) and some Metal Slug game from what I remember. Puzzle Bobble was literally the only Neo Geo game I ever played until 2014. In 2011, they had The Simpsons which I played up to around Stage 7, when I ran out of time before I had to leave a field trip.

I remember the one time I went to Dave & Buster's, I saw a few arcade games like Tekken 5 and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2. I wanted to choose Pac-Man in MKAGP2, but the game ended up making me pick Ms. Pac-Man instead. Sometime in 2011, I can't remember the place I went to during a field trip, but there was an arcade cabinet of Nicktoons Racing. Stimpy appeared to be removed from the roster. One of our local malls and movie theaters clearly used to have arcades. I remember seeing Ultimate(?) Mortal Kombat 3, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 apparently tucked inside a Killer Instinct cabinet, or using its marquee or something. My nearest movie theater used to have what I think is Soul Edge.

So there's some of my experience with arcades. Arcades (and Doraemon) are one of the reasons I wish I lived in Japan. But going out of country would cost a fortune. Nowadays, you'd have to visit specific places dedicated to housing Arcade cabinets. Please tell me I'm making that up. Hopefully sometime this year, I get to travel Dave & Buster's or some place in Baltimore that has an arcade. I swear I'd have a far easier time winning the lottery than stumbling upon an arcade. I've been recently stocking up on quarters in case this absurd blue moon ever happens. If I ever find Aero Fighters 2, Batrider or Space Bomber, I would be in awe.

[dan76]

I wouldn't swap growing up in the 80's for anything. I guess it makes me an old fucker now, and I have less life in front of me, but those times were great. Arcades were a big part of it, living in a seaside town there were countless arcades with different games in them. Plus, it was where your friends hung out and kids from different schools would mix.

There were also girls there... The sort of girls who hung out in arcades were good to know.

[GaijinPunch]

Yeah, i'm seriously thinking now on visiting Japan
.

Unfortunately these are a mere shadow of their former glory as well... but it's at least something.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There was a time when the American arcades used tokens (and even quarters) as the "gold standard" to credit 'em up. Sega's Gameworks comes to mind that use their own debit card scheme to credit up such games back in the late 1990s (they'd have a special promotional deal that if you spend $20, they'd give you another $5 in additional credit to spend at the arcade -- I took advantage of that cool offer, of course).

Sadly, all the local FEC (Family Entertainment Center) locations in the Modesto, CA area have switched to their own debit card schemes to credit up such arcade games & prize redemption machines in the form of giving out "e-tickets" that you can redeem for the usual swag and whatnot at the prize redemption center (this harkens back to the early days of Chuckie E. Cheese's with their in-house Jasper's General Country Store prize redemption centers where you could redeem your CEC redemption tickets and/or good ol' fashioned hard-earned cash for some cool merch/swag back in the early '80s). So thus all those worthless arcade tokens are just sitting around on folk's top dressers, loose coin jars and whatnot gathering dust -- a relic from another time/era.

Every once in a while, there'll be a lone old-school arcade token sitting on the local Coinstar kiosk countertop waiting for someone to pick it and add to his or her arcade game token collection -- a nice little memento nowadays from a bygone era. So be it.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BryanM]

Yeah, after the SNES and Genesis came out they took a pretty heavy dive. Why go out and pay $5 for an hour or two of entertainment, that you could get nearly the same quality (better quality, if you'd like to be able to sit down) for the same price at home.

The last time they were relevant to my life was when I was in tech school in Keesler Airforce Base. There weren't too many machines set up there, but Time Crisis and this one sci fi racing game with a cow yoke helped kill a few hours.

The last time I've seen a cabinet was at the local Wal-Mart arcade. Some kind of deer murdering simulator. That was displaying a stock error message on screen informing me that Windows XP has crashed.

Did a google maps search for arcades in the region just now. Some of those photos are scary, like you'll be going on a Dan Bell-esque haunted archeology excursion if you go there.

I wouldn't feel too bad about missing the scene. Sure, scarcity and no internet made things feel like a magical treasure hunt, but it also meant you got much less for spending much more. Most of the time it was just a way to kill a few minutes while waiting for something to happen.

[Skykid]

I feel bad for you man, but you're certainly not alone. You just missed the boat cos Sony's success fucked the arcade industry prematurely.

Arcades were a defining aspect of my childhood, and one of my headiest nostalgic memories. They definitely account for a lot about my interests today.

[Xyga]

I wouldn't swap growing up in the 80's for anything.

Being born in 79 I know I've missed quite a lot of good years just for being too small of course. A decade earlier would have been better for almost everything.

Yeah I wish I was jut a decade older, and not just for video games, for everything. :p

I definitely didn't miss everything though, my first steps in the arcades were with my punk big bro, I feel kind of privileged to have discovered that world with a mohawked knight guide (or why I swayed the SEGA side a few years later)
Only regrets would be all the cigarette smoke, and the absolutely unreasonable amount of pocket money spent.

[Zen]

The sort of girls who hung out in arcades were good to know.

Arcades were a defining aspect of my childhood, and one of my headiest nostalgic memories. They definitely account for a lot about my interests today.

These are the type perspectives I can relate to most in this thread, so far.

I would imagine, geographically speaking, the arcade experience/culture varies worldwide?
For me, I'm reading "arcade centres", "Family Entertainment Centre" and I'm thinking; " those are not arcades. They are leisure centres"!
My impression is that the arcade experience of our American members, differs from a more British and Irish perspective?
Perhaps it also depends on your age, the specific years etc.

I started going to arcades at around 12/13 years of age. In my small city there were at least six hardcore arcades. My favourites were the dark, loud, smoke filled, neon mosh pits.
Filled with bikers, musicians, kids and crazy people. It was all very "Lord of the Flies" but even better. A whole new type of education.
Week nights, when I was probably supposed to be over at some friends house, a very young zen would be shooting pool with some teen "Joan Jett".
Shit changed my perspective on life, let me tell ya.

You could get lost in the cacophony of sounds. It was the sounds and music of the early shooters that caught my ear the most; Phoenix, Vanguard, Galaga.
I remember being very taken with Tempest at one point, to the extent that on school days I often skipped lunch and head into the city for a few credits.
Hell, there was even a Pleiads cab in the shop round the corner from my school but you would have to queue for it.
(decades later, after forgetting the name of that game, I found it again on mame. God bless mame!)

To this day I almost exclusively favour arcade games/style of play.
When I play something like Skyrim, I make it "arcade", (how fast can I clear this castle. How many one-hit kill head-shots with the bow etc.)
Also, I cant abide "loading". Battlezone never had to load!

My advise to qmish, is to forget about it. It was a point in time. Gone.
To experience it, you would have to recreate all of the myriad other essential conditions.
Even if you could, it would be a Simulacrum. A ghost.
Do your own thing and make your own experiences. There are plenty to choose from.

[Zen]

Yeah I wish I was jut a decade older, and not just for video games, for everything. :p

If you were born a decade earlier, Xyga, I'd love you even more (If that was even possible )

[qmish]

My advise to qmish, is to forget about it. It was a point in time. Gone.
To experience it, you would have to recreate all of the myriad other essential conditions.
Even if you could, it would be a Simulacrum. A ghost.
Do your own thing and make your own experiences. There are plenty to choose from.

If we speak "teh true" arcade era - yeah...

...but there is also about "omg you guys in Japan/France/USA still have some arcades even now, dammit"

[Xyga]

*shit*

Could you get off my hair and quit polluting threads with those annoying dickface memes? I ignore you I'd recommend you ignore me the same or it'll get messy for sure.

[Zen]

*shit*

Could you get off my hair and quit polluting threads with those annoying dickface memes? I ignore you I'd recommend you ignore me the same or it'll get messy for sure.

[Xyga]

asswipe

[Zen]

asswipe

First, apologies to qmish and other members for the "scene".

Xyga, what the hell is wrong with you?
If you wanted no contact with me, you should have said. I would have respected that, no problem at all.
I must have missed the memo though, because was it not you who continually harangued, mocked and insulted my posts?
I took all that with good humour.

But now that I know your position, I will of course respect it.

Again, sorry to everyone else for this distasteful derailment.

[Squire Grooktook]

Several years ago, I played through Ghouls and Ghosts at Dave and Busters, and then played some Street Fighter 2 vs one of the employees.

I'm sure it's nothing near as grand as an "actual" arcade, but damn if I wasn't having the time of my life. Playing games in public like that, it really changes the whole atmosphere and level of excitement present. Even easy or lukewarm stuff (not that GNG counts, but I played other stuff too!) can suddenly become joyous.

Not an experience to be underestimated.

[Koa Zo]

...but there is also about "omg you guys in Japan/France/USA still have some arcades even now, dammit"

Just north of Pittsburgh PA, near the international airport actually, this place is the real deal: Pinball PA
The only thing missing is cigarette smoke and patrons dressed in short cut-off jean shorts and muscle shirts, besides that, you're right back in the 80's.
Their array of electro-mechanical games was a highlight for me.
And of course all the original pinball machines just takes you to another era. It was like a time machine after being in there for a couple hours and then stepping back outside.

Here's an overview video from someone else, those sounds give you a taste of what arcades give you that no other gaming experience can provide and of course all those various unique control interfaces, just such a fantastic experience! I hope this arcade museum survives it doesn't seem like they get a ton of business. Some of yinz international folk should book a weekend getaway here, I'll come out and challenge your high scores!

Several years ago, I played through Ghouls and Ghosts at Dave and Busters, and then played some Street Fighter 2 vs one of the employees.

I'm sure it's nothing near as grand as an "actual" arcade, but damn if I wasn't having the time of my life. Playing games in public like that, it really changes the whole atmosphere and level of excitement present. Even easy or lukewarm stuff (not that GNG counts, but I played other stuff too!) can suddenly become joyous.

Not an experience to be underestimated.

That's a great story, and so true - the random interaction with other people, or even just people and gameplay watching in arcades is such a unique shared experience. Some of my fondest early arcade memories are of watching other "master" players, Asteroids, Space Invaders,... but particularly Defender, that shit blew my mind - Defender was probably life altering for me.

At the Pinball PA museum when I was there, there was also a kids birthday party group. It was neat watching what games caught or held the kids attention. I saw a lot of the time they'd try a game and quickly walk away from it. I'd seen the kids trying Atari's Assault but didn't quite get it, but clearly the game intrigued them. Later I was playing it and I noticed one of the young kids was watching behind me. I told him about how the controls work - roll/strafe left right, pull the sticks apart fire push them back together quick to get your treads back on the ground, etc. It was pretty rad seeing him excited to play a game that is probably 20 years older than he was.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

At the 2017 California Extreme show, a guy had brought in his own personal Sega Ferrari 355 arcade cab that had a three screen setup that was set on "Free Play". I got in line to play it and when it was finally my turn, I proceeded to get the seating position set up to my liking. Selected the basic tri-oval track with a full complementary group of AI racers to contend with, selecting Automatic transmission and all aids selected (TCS, ABS, etc). The race starts with eight laps to go. By slowly overtaking each AI opponent using the drafting method (as it is in real life), it was quite a rush to do so. Upon finally overtaking the 3rd place and, eventually, the 2nd place AI cars, it was quite close to the end of the final lap onwards to the finish line. There's no better feeling than winning the race coming in 1st place. If you win a race, the staff ending credits will scroll and if you place high enough within the listed top rankings, it's possible to enter your player initials for all to see along with your best track & lap times. The guy that's standing next to me says, "Congrats! That was a good race." I say "Thanks, yeah, it was a good race." I then make my exit and he makes his way into the racing cockpit to begin his race.

Of course, I do have the DC GD-Rom of Sega's Ferrari 355 Challenge + DC steering wheel with paddle-based shifters and gas & brake pedals setup (for that full-on racing experience that a lowly DC D-pad + rumble pack can't fully replicate anyways) and it's quite a remarkable racing game in it's own right (the actual Sega Ferrari 355 arcade racing cabinet with three screens is really the one to play/experience, indeed, by Sega racing maestro, Yu Suzuki, himself along with Sega's famed AM2 arcade division responsible for creating it from the ground up).

If one decides to play Sega Ferrari 355 arcade cab in full racing sim mode, it becomes an entirely different racing beast/experience not to be missed (complete with spin outs, trying to drive the "racing line" perfectly and the whole works of driving a full race-spec Ferrari) -- most folks that try full sim mode manage to complete a lap or two at best (considering that it takes some considerable skill to race against a full set of AI cars {that seem to drive better than the player does} thrown into the mix). Add the cool arcade-spec force-feedback steering wheel and 6-speed manual shifter knob along with the obligatory hefty gas and brake pedals to compliment the full-on racing experience. It doesn't get any better than that folks (short of getting into an actual Ferrari 355 race car and racing it on a rented out race track).

Back in late March of 2000 at a Segaworks game center in Akihabara district of Japan, I played a twin-linked up version of Sega's Ferrari 355 arcade racing game with my cousin and that was quite something to behold. Both cabs sported a three monitor setup as well. A single racing session was a mere 300 yen = priceless.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[neorichieb1971]

If hydraulic cabinets could be made cheaper I don't see any reason arcades can't exist today. There has to be things a dedicated arcade could do that you couldn't do at home. It amazes me what passes for an arcade machine today, sub ps4 graphics with shitty controls.

If you remade Space Harrier or Powerdrift today and put them in loud big ass cabinets I'm sure the crowds of yesteryear would get interested again.

[Xyga]

yeah but as you say parts are too expensive today. we can't have nice things.

[Udderdude]

It amazes me what passes for an arcade machine today, sub ps4 graphics with shitty controls.

Maybe with the crazy prices on GPUs these days, they can put some arcade systems out there with 1080 ti's and 4k displays, and blow everyone away .. Taito Type X(large number here) :p

[Jeneki]

For me, the social aspect is the biggest part of the arcade experience. Watching others play, and everyone learning how to do cool things once one person figures it out.

You can get a similar feel to this by attending / organizing a shmup meet. Get a group of people all playing the same games and sharing knowledge, and everyone will learn fast.

[jugemscloud]

there isn't anything quite like the experience of going to mikado or !hey if you haven't experienced a proper arcade, and watching salarymen breeze through toaplan and raizing games with ease on their lunchbreak is something you won't see outside of japan.

but thats a hell of a long journey, i think when i was going to make me original post you still had a your country in your profile OP so the next section was in relation to that:

whilst experiencing japanese arcades first hand is amazing it was for me a rather hollow experience, i value the brief meeting i had with dan76, chi and someone else around 5 years ago in the last year of Casino far more than playing super rare and obscure games in try tower (which similarly is now closed) and mikado etc. this may be due to my collection meeting most of my desires and tastes as it has accumulated over the years thus reducing the need to go elsewhere to experience a true arcade experience but i think that community plays a greater psychological part in all of this than is potentially appreciated or acknowledged. and there are avenues to experience this locally no matter where you reside in the world and at far less expense than a trip to japan.

[qmish]

you still had a your country in your profile OP

huh? i never added or removed that to my profile.

It's Moscow, Russia.

Yes, the same place where people mostly only had Dendy (Famicom clone), Megadrive, PS1 and PC as main gaming devices (snes? n64? pce? saturn? nah, never heard - that was the situation) until ps2 era (during which xbox and gamecube were still not sold legally afaik) and more recent retro nostalgia revitalization. So as i said, we had some arcade centres around 15-20 years ago, but now it's mostly some Dance Dance Revolution or Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders cabs placed in some children-focused amusement zones in malls.

Never heard of attempts on "shmupmeets" here anyway, but perhaps it could have been happening on retrogaming events like GBX SP. Never attended that, but wild guess (looks more like exhibition for random people though)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6-aXxuepnc

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Oh, and thanks everyone for sharing thoughts and experience.

[Bananamatic]

Get a group of people all playing the same games and sharing knowledge, and everyone will learn fast.

you can also do this online...

[qmish]

you can also do this online...

that's what people do now in discords dedicated to multiplayer/co-op gaming yeah

[jugemscloud]

you still had a your country in your profile OP

huh? i never added or removed that to my profile.

Never heard of attempts on "shmupmeets" here anyway, but perhaps it could have been happe

__________________________________________________

Oh, and thanks everyone for sharing thoughts and experience.

Sorry, my bad, i thought you were based in france, my memory gets patchy when i log in here

I was basing what i said on the presumption that you were based in continental/central Europe, as there is a fair few options. I am going to one in Germany next month so will do a little report on it once I've been. I can only imagine how limited russia/USSR would have been in terms of exposure to arcade and pinball. there are a few people based in eastern Europe that i have vague idea that they may have nice collections or professional operations but i couldnt cite specifics as to how to contact them.

There are also large expos/exhibitions that happen, for example stunfest in France and replay in the uk it might be worth planning a holiday around one of these if the community experience aspect interests you.

[qmish]

Though in USSR there were ussr-made arcades but they were like 1960s sega electromechanical machines
http://www.15kop.ru/en/

Yeah i was just on trip to France and this time didnt have enough time in Paris itself or Toulouse (though i heard it closed shmup place it had) as i was visiting friends in some very small city.

Solid idea in planning voyages in advance with community events.