Topic: I miss the arcade feeling. Does anyone else feel the same way?

[Neobelmont]

 I never really had the chance to fully have the arcade experience at it's height I would say that I was a maybe a bit too young, but what do I remember from my experience are somethings like how when you get challenged in a fighting game it's either do or die (in a sense of loosing your quarters). Meeting new people and that there were times when I would go to an arcade and meet some of my friends out of no where and we would just have fun playing fighting games, and there was something there for everyone. And while we may have online gaming that sense of meeting new people or even meeting your friends out of no where made it really fun like "sup let's play". Around where I live I have to take a bus to go to the arcade and well it's just not that lively especially compared to the ones in japan no bang.


Yeah I want to have THE arcade experience but that seem like nonsense 


just look at this

Akihabara - Japan - Arcades!



does anyone else feel the same way?

And what about the experiences that any of you had I just want to hear how arcades were back in it's prime or if anyone went to japan and played at an arcade there and felt a difference(it really does look different from the ones in the USA very bright).

[Claimh Solais]

I miss when arcades had good games. None of them in my city have anything but the typical stuff (like pinball and skiball), flight simulators, or shoddy on-rails shooters.

I remember I'd go to the local arcade by my house every day just to play Dynamite Cop...

But yeah, I miss that much. I wasn't a big arcade gamer ever, though. DC was the exception, since I couldn't find the Dreamcast port anywhere.

[Neobelmont]

I miss when arcades had good games. None of them in my city have anything but the typical stuff (like pinball and skiball), flight simulators, or shoddy on-rails shooters.

I remember I'd go to the local arcade by my house every day just to play Dynamite Cop...

But yeah, I miss that much. I wasn't a big arcade gamer ever, though. DC was the exception, since I couldn't find the Dreamcast port anywhere.

When I went to an arcade I had alot of fun I recall my father and I having a blast playing what was it called house of the dead or something I believe a zombie game and a hard game too. Again I never really had the "Arcade experience", but I had fun when I did ( It's just that I went when it was starting to become lackluster). Just so many games to choose from.

[Claimh Solais]

House of the Dead is the only zombie arcade shooter I can think of.

Yeah, I didn't get into arcade gaming til the industry starting dying out a little.

[Munchy]

I live right down the street from the Family Fun arcade, but I get my ass kicked so hard in the few games I know how to play. Can't deny that it's cool seeing those glorious HD cabinets though.

[JR]

I'd love to see arcades gain some real popularity again, but it looks like Dave and Buster's is the biggest it'll get around my way. I can only play so many shooting and driving games until I get bored there, and there are only a few classic machines (Pac-Man, Centipede, etc.), and absolutely nothing from the mid to late 80s and early 90s.

The only place I really go anymore is to a pizza place downtown. I guess they're in business with a guy who has about 15 or so games from his own collection, and it's $5 all-you-can-play...some games get rotated out occasionally. It's nice, and I like to patronize stuff like this, but I miss the full-blown arcade experience. I guess the guy had originally put about 40 machines in another place nearby during the city's summer festival thing last year, but was forced to take them out due to not securing proper licensing or something. I wished I would've been there for that.

I missed the golden age of arcades, but I was around to experience the beat-em-up and fighting game crazes during the 80s and 90s. I miss the whole arcade experience for sure.

Also, for anyone who hasn't seen this:
Luna City Arcade (Higher Res)

...and another vid with a brief walkthrough (which actually looked really similar to the first one but is actually a different place I guess):

Private Video Arcade 3, Gilbert , AZ, classic 80's video games

If I was rich, I'd love to try doing the same thing.

[Abnormal Freak]

House of the Dead is the only zombie arcade shooter I can think of.

There's also Konami's Evil Night (1998, released in some territories as Hell Night, supposedly), which IMO is a much better shooter than any of the HOTD games. Shame there's no console port.

And yeah, I miss the arcades—more specifically I miss Circus Pizza (some locations called Circus Circus), which was a Minnesota chain that bought old Rock-afire Explosion bands originally used in ShowBiz Pizza Place and ran during the '90s. Awesome pizza and arcade games and loads of memories with extended family. Suddenly the locations all disappeared when I was around 11 or 12 save for this one really dumpy location which lacked the animatronic band (though it had bumper cars), but eventually that faded, too.

Apparently some of the places were converted into Chuck E. Cheese's. Fucking hate that place, always have. Shitty arcade games and an environment that caters more to toddlers than anything else. They're still the same way or at least were ten years ago when I visited one. The only adult-oriented arcades like Dave & Buster's and Gameworks don't offer much beyond ticket-winning games and Big Butt Fuck Hunter. Both places have (had?) HOTD4, though, which was awesome, and I spent lots of money at both places on that game alone. Not a single classic joystick-and-button arcade game, though; no beat 'em ups, no nothin'. Occasionally a fighting game in some dumpy mall arcade (those are probably all gone by now), but not much.

[Bloodreign]

I miss the days when you could walk into a laundromat and find a Yie Ar Kung Fu, a Bubbles (Williams games), or a Sega Tubro machine.

I miss the days when you could go to a pool hall aimed at teens and find a Xevious, an Arkanoid, a Quartet, a Millipede, a Time Pilot, or a few other machines I can no longer remember (time's cruel like that).

I miss the days of Mortal Kombat versus Street Fighter II, the Lethal Enforcer 1 and 2 cabs (separate), Namco's good 80's and early 90's titles like Pac Man, Dig Dug, Mappy, Rolling Thunder, Pac-Mania, Pac-Land, Marvel Land, all the while at Aladdin's Castle TV's were on with 80's music videos blasting loudly (did take away from the game experience as you couldn't hear the machines). Running into crap titles like Time Killers, playing as the Ninja Turtles (I finally found a cab recently locally a shop has of Turtles in Time), being wowed by Pit Fighter the first time you saw it only to realize it isn't that great. Playing a Sunset Riders cab out in Austin, Texas awhile back got me remember this cab sitting next to both Lethal Enforcers machines, great times had. Going to the mall when UMK3's crowds had died down so I could spend a few hours lost in the game.

Or even going to a small store a few miles from my home and playing Joust or Asteroids when I was a teen, yeah I love the arcade scene. I bought all the Midway, Capcom, Taito, and both Konami arcade comps, along with the SNK stuff (still need more of those) so that the arcade could somehow live with me in spirit, it is also a reason I collect console games too, I am making up for a childhood I didn't quite get to live when I was a child (new games were expensive, and we weren't rich), I just wish I could've find a Gradius title in arcades, or even more stuff from Konami as their arcade titles in those days never failed to produce quality.

[Aridale]

I miss em too. One of the best parts of my life was when I worked at an arcade. Me and 2 of my friends worked at the arcade in our local mall in its hayday. It was always busy and the mall did really well that meant there was always ppl in the arcade. It was great. We hung out at an arcade literally open to close and usually one of us was gettin paid to do it lol. Workin there I could put stuff on freeplay on play whatever I wanted. Thats how I got so good at Tekken Tag and Street Fighter 3 Third Strike.

I really miss those simpler times. It really was one of the best times in my life

[X]

I don't believe I've ever had the full-blown arcade experience. We use to have several in town but I don't think they're there anymore. And the last time I went to an arcade was almost ten years ago. But yeah it sounds like the arcade scene here in the west is dying out while they continue to be popular in places like Japan. Oh well...everything has it's golden age for a time then disappears. It must be a 'times' thing. Everything changes with the times.

[Neobelmont]

I live right down the street from the Family Fun arcade, but I get my ass kicked so hard in the few games I know how to play. Can't deny that it's cool seeing those glorious HD cabinets though.

No way the family fun arcade in california next to that sushi place and car wash and Ihop in Granada hills ?  very competitive place I'll tell you what. Had fun with blazblus CS and KoF 

Also glad I am not the only one who feels this way  what a year or two can do man...

[Nail_Bombed]

Growing up in the 80's I can remember my first experience with arcade games like Green Beret, Bubble Bobble, Outrun, Ghost N Goblins... and even Haunted Castle which I only ever saw maybe twice in the arcades. The 90's were also great with the influx of Capcom and Neo Geo games, and I remember piling in plenty of 20ps for TMNT and The Punisher arcade games, as well as Aliens Vs Predator.

Too bad those days will never come again..... oh wait, I forgot - that's what MAME is for! 
But seriously, yeah, it was awesome going into a video game parlour and finding all these great games. The new console generation doesn't click with me as much as the arcade experience did - you were actually relatively active in arcades, whereas you're mostly on the couch with your PS3/XBOX360/etc...

[TheouAegis]

There's supposedly a digicade bar/restaurant/whatever in or near Tacoma,WA. I might go check it out some day. Bunch of pinball museums that let you play pinball games for free or for a small donation.

But screw the arcade. I miss the times when 7-11 had cabinets. Used to hang out at the 7-11 after school in 9th grade playing World Heroes 2 or Cabal. Man those were the good old days.

[Ratty]

There's supposedly a digicade bar/restaurant/whatever in or near Tacoma,WA. I might go check it out some day. Bunch of pinball museums that let you play pinball games for free or for a small donation.

But screw the arcade. I miss the times when 7-11 had cabinets. Used to hang out at the 7-11 after school in 9th grade playing World Heroes 2 or Cabal. Man those were the good old days.

I've seen some video of places like that and I'd gladly pay $10 to be able to run around for 4 or 5 hours and free play decades of classic pinball machines. With the internet the video game experience gets more and more social like it used to be in the arcade, and great arcade style games are being created and recreated all the time.
But let's face it, unless you're ungodly super rich there's only so many pinball machines you could ever fit in your home, and even a cheap one will likely run you around $1000. And there's just no duplicating the feel of a physical cabinet no matter how good game physics get.

[Neobelmont]

There's supposedly a digicade bar/restaurant/whatever in or near Tacoma,WA. I might go check it out some day. Bunch of pinball museums that let you play pinball games for free or for a small donation.

But screw the arcade. I miss the times when 7-11 had cabinets. Used to hang out at the 7-11 after school in 9th grade playing World Heroes 2 or Cabal. Man those were the good old days.

Not so much the 7-11 but the laundrymats capcom vs street fighter and tekken tag. Wonder if the place is still even there

Also the mini store things I remember after school some of my friends and I would just put in quarters playing marvel vs capcom 2. Now adays the machines just rot there wonder if I could buy them for cheap  .  the other machine was either a Capcom vs snk or a neo-geo thing maybe they switched them I cannot remember. It is right next to the gamestop I go to but, years do pass by I think I was in middle school when we played there I think I was only 14 or 15.