In Back Alleys and Basements, Video Arcades Quietly Survive

[shmuppyLove]

Cool Wired article:

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/02/s ... me-center/

Here in this dingy alleyway is the leading edge of what Seth Killian, director of online and community strategy at Street Fighter maker Capcom, calls the “second wave” of video arcades — run not by businessmen looking to make a buck, but by those with a passion for communal gaming.

“The second wave was the people that grew up in the arcades and dreamed of starting places of their own, maybe a bit like Flynn from Tron or something, or just because they — like me — had so many intensely happy memories of that kind of place,” Killian said.

[xbl0x180]

I totally miss the Nickle Nickle arcades here in Orange County that sprouted in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were the last gasp for real arcades. I can't deal with Castle Park and other junk tied to miniature golf or go-carts. I just want rows and rows of arcade and pinball machines, with the occasional air hockey and foosball tables

[shmuppyLove]

A few weeks ago I was at Pacific Mall by chance, and I was SO disappointed at what the arcade has turned into.

There was one Tekken 6 setup, and one SFIV setup, and the rest were all driving / mechanical / lightgun / prize / redemption garbage stuff. NO shmups, and no other real video games.

The two fighting games actually had a few people crowded around them, I'm shocked they wouldn't want to expand them and have a few more like KOF XIII or BlazBlue.

Seems like it's run by Playdium now, I haven't been to the one in Mississauga in a long long time, is it worth a trip or is it just more of the same?

[Vexorg]

There are a few of these places around here, but they all seem to be mostly hipster hangouts. The "real" arcades are mostly rubbish. Fortunately, Seattle does have an annual pinball and game room show where all the collectors bring out the good stuff.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

And there's the cool California Extreme show coming up later this summer in the Bay Area of California (Santa Clara). The actual dates haven't been announced yet.

Factoid time: Santa Carla was used as the fictional city in that the vampire flick cult classic, The Lost Boys, in lieu of Santa Clara, CA.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[caldwert]

July 28th and 29th are the dates Mr. PC ENGINE FAN X! as they were just announced a few days ago. I'm pretty sure I will be attending this year.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I'll definitely be there for the 2012 CAX show for both days indeed. Thanks for the 411 on that relevant scoop, caldwert.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[angelblade7]

first post, hi. ^__^ fav. game is deathsmiles, but that's beside the point...

as a person interested in the emergence of video game centers, I'm interested to find out from this community
if anyone else (other than myself) thinks that video game centers are the wave of the future, or not? I would very much like to open one of my own (even wrote a business plan an' all), and was thinking that it'd be a cool way to show off shmups to Western audiences using PCs & consoles. (One idea I had was to hold score attacks for little known shmups like Crimzon Clover and pool part of the admission fees generated as a sort of cash prize incentive, for starters. )

If you would like, I would be more than willing to share my take on it from a business perspective here or elsewhere. (Also, I've been thinking of posting the important parts of the plan on the Internet as a sort of open-source project... maybe. Not sure exactly how I would do so... here or otherwise.)

... an' that's it for now. hello shmup world!