Interesting Q&A session w/ Brian Ashcraft+shmup content

[PC Engine Fan X!]

After reading a bit more about what Brian Ashcraft has to say about his Arcade Mania book, he reveals a bit more about his interview with Cave's one and only Ikeda-san.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/01/11/lo ... -in-japan/

Will the return of America's arcades become a reality? The era of the early 1980's USA arcades has come and gone...never again to be repeated. Sad to say but that is the honest truth. I've personally seen many of my local arcades shut their doors for good in the mid 1980's and into the 1990's. Why did they shut down? There are many reasons why they shut down...not enough revenue coming in from "paying" customers to losing the business rental lease.

The key thing about attracting new and regular customers into your own arcade is to have the "latest and greatest" arcade game cabinets, deluxe sit-down versions, and lastly, some of the latest & newest pinballs from Stern. Gotta have some cool pinball games in an independently owned arcade joint. Capital is the key thing to keeping an arcade well-stocked nowdays. Those corporate owned arcades like Gameworks, Boomers, John's Incredible Pizza, Funworks, Chuckie Cheese's, etc., will never cater to the die-hard arcade gamer because their arcade/pinball offerings are shitty anyways.

Take for instance, compare the 1980's version of "Chuckie E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater" to what now exists...back in the early days, they had a better selection of arcade and pinballs games to play on. Nowdays, they are just a shadow of their former selves. Plus add the cool hi-tech animatronics acts of Chuckie and Co. along with some pizza and drinks -- regarded as a combination that was something new and novel back in the day. Nolan Bushnell once said that he wanted his Chuckie E. Cheese creation to become more famous than Disney's Mickey Mouse. Of course, that never happened. ^_~

I recall one local arcade that had a token machine that would randomly give anywhere from 50 to some odd figured 60+ tokens for a mere five bucks. Play the right games and you could stretch that same five bucks into a good three hours or more of solid arcade gaming entertainment. This was better than going to see a bargin matinee movie back in the early 1990's. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~