Anyone else have trouble believing arcades were a real thing

Well Japan still has arcades and some of the arcade machines even have cards and whatnot for you to save your game progress.

File: 321312.png (83KB, 591x65px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 591x65px

>>381706109

Arcades used to have games with the BEST graphics and the BEST sound and unique games that wouldn't work on a home console at the time.

Being a standalone machine allowed them to have a fuck ton more power than your average gaming console well into 90s.

Plus they had pizza and prizes and if you wanted competitive PvP gaming the arcade was the ONLY place you could get that.

Hell if you just wanted some fun CO-OP the arcade was basically the only place to get that for a LONG time.

Consoles got better around the Xbox era and online game took off. The rest is history.

File: 1338561039237.png (92KB, 577x534px) Image search: [Google]

92KB, 577x534px

>>381706109
Are you that young, or am I this old?

>>381706109

They were also good for kids on a budget. If you had $5 you could go kill 20 minutes at the arcade instead of saving up $200 for a nintendo + $60 for one game and going outside was more common because the internet was shit and yea

Lots of contributing factors to why arcades ruled quite a few decades of gaming.

>>381706397
>pizza and prizes
That's sound really cool, I wish games nowadays came with prizes.
>and if you wanted competitive PvP
I can see where that would be fun, I've never really been a fan of too many PvP games, other than stuff like Civ and a few shooter games, mostly because I don't really play multiplayer games often enough to know what the fun ones really are. I played pretty much exclusively single player games until like 2006 or so.

>>381706568
I'm 19, born in December of 1997, so I don't know, are you old?

>>381706109
I'm too old to be posting here.
Old enough to have friends who I met and knew only at the arcades. Even before arcades got their bad rep.
You know how people talk about the "golden age of MMOs" and how "you would log in and find friends"?

That's how arcades were.

>>381707814
>you would log in and find friends
Is there even anything like that these days?

Back when I first started playing PC games it was TF2 mostly, but I don't think anything similar really exists anymore after tf2 went to shit

>>381706397
/thread

>>381707532
29, born early 88. Grew up going to arcades, internet connections were shit for a good while and the only real online play was on computers.

>>381708109
that's why I used the comparison.
"Young" people today feel nostalgic for the golden age of MMO... I long for the days when I would hear the machines from far away, boys and girls surrounding a game, everybody cheering that one guy who was incredible at battlezone...

>>381708778
>boys and girls surrounding a game, everybody cheering that one guy who was incredible at battlezone
See, this is the kind of shit that makes stories about arcades sound absolutely unbelievable.

>>381709051
It may sound hard to believe, but people were able to build temporary social togetherness out of their love of video games.

>>381706109
the problem is that you aren't a real person and don't understand being with other people

you are a cell phone/internet generation millennial/generation z, so you were born during a time when the normal thing to do was ignore the real people surrounding you, and interact with an electronic device instead

arcades were a social thing. did you know people used to go and make friends, out of random people, not just people attached to their preexisting social circle?

File: probant.png (10KB, 517x418px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 517x418px

>>381709051

LOL

People used to stand in a line 10 deep to challenge the dude who was beating everyone at Streetfighter II Turbo Edition. More people would be gathered around the cabinet trying to catch a sideways glimpse of the action. The whole place was as dark as a dungeon and stank like sweaty kids and coinage.

>>381709407
RESPECT THE QUARTER LINE

File: 14980713694260.jpg (70KB, 599x428px) Image search: [Google]

70KB, 599x428px

>>381706109
only few countries had arcade centers

>>381706109
Underage faggot.

>>381709051
Remember: there was nothing else as impressive as that. Back then, video games were like something out of a star trek episode. SPECIALLY when they pop out like battlezone or dragon's lair.(even though dragon's lair never had "enthusiasm" around it).
Back then, you would play ball, hide and seek, draw, read... or just sit at the front yard and talk.

Suddenly, BOOM, colors and lights and sounds! Video games!

It was special.

>>381706568
I'm only 25 and I used to play a lot at arcades in my early teens, so no. OP is just underage b&

>>381706397
You would think that would stay around because of the atmosphere there. I think arcardes ultimately died because they were too Jewish with money.

File: crusnusa21.png (975KB, 1000x868px) Image search: [Google]

975KB, 1000x868px

Arcades were a place you could go after school to meet up with your friends and hangout while playing vidya you couldn't afford or weren't allowed to play at home.

Games like pic related were huge back then

>>381709775
>You would think that would stay around because of the atmosphere there

if you dont have any understanding of businesses or margins you might think that. there's no reason for arcades to exist anymore with home consoles and internet

>>381709407
How the fuck would you even get good at street fighter if the only people to play it with already knew how to play the game and you had to pay to play it?

I got Skullgirls as a gift and I struggle to find the motivation to actually get better at it. Fighting games just have a playstyle so foreign to any other type of video game.

>>381706109
I always had a home console but did most of my gaming at arcades. At the time it was cheaper to spend a few bucks in quarters to play a game than buying a game. Buying copies of a game for personal use used to be much more expensive than it is now.

>>381709861
Sure but I am talking culture wouldn't people stay for the culture? Maybe not.

>>381709901
you got gud

File: sad.png (450KB, 997x748px) Image search: [Google]

450KB, 997x748px

>tfw you realize that the arcade attendants that gave you tokens for cash were defrauding the arcade owner

File: TACO.png (1MB, 1287x875px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1287x875px

>>381709775

Arcades died because eventually you could get a better experience AND it was offered in-home.

Arcades have gigantic overhead and operational costs and most of them weren't open 24/7

You could point to a ton of factors that killed the Arcade and sure they got jewish at the end, when they knew they were going to die but the big contributing factor is that the consumer had more and better options as videogaming got more popular.

One of my most nostalgic moments from arcades was the time a random stranger and I beat Jurassic Park 2 throughout the afternoon and eventually had people watch towards the end.

>>381710362
That makes sense I suppose. Aren't arcades still big in Japan though?

>>381709861
lightgun games and experiences.

I cant afford a wheel but If I get to play a racing game with force feedback for 50 cents ill dump 5$ into it every now and then.

I dont have the money to have light guns, or at least good ones, or even ones with screens inside the scopes, but at an arcade I am willing to dump 5-10$ into a lightgun game till I beat it

same with many of the weird controller games

and when it comes to fighting games, there is nothing like going to an arcade and having people come up to you and play you.

Then you also have pinball, which I fucking love.

The issue with arcades is several fold.

1) they decided 2$ a game was a good starting price for games that were non experiance, as in joystick and buttons only
2) they offered very little you couldn't also get at home
3) home tv's and screens got really good, people don't tend to remember but arcades typically had screens that could display the colors perfectly back when most home tv's shit themselves profusely on the color red.
4) the only viable place for arcades to exist are in cities but thats also where they would have the hardest time being used by anyone not afraid of being robbed.

Would I have actually had friends growing up if arcades were still a thing instead of only interacting with other people my age only while I was at school, then going back home to the middle of nowhere to play my videogames and be isolated from society?

File: Gaming Mouse 4000.jpg (472KB, 1148x1280px) Image search: [Google]

472KB, 1148x1280px

>>381709901

You either got your ass kicked, lost $0.50 and moved on like 99% of people

OR

You fed 100s of dollars into the machine, learned the combos, read the magazines, practiced during non-peak hours so you could die over and over to the computer and development the hand coordination.

>>381710489
1$ a go for any game regardless of average length between lives.

File: Stronghold_Metadata_Image.jpg (188KB, 1200x630px) Image search: [Google]

188KB, 1200x630px

>>381710489

Yea but that is a completely different culture that I know nothing about and the business model works well for them.

>>381707496
Could you play Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger in an arcade?

>>381710489
Japan's arcade scene is still around because of tradition. Usually people want to get rid of change in Japan, and a good way of doing so is by having arcades in shopping malls and various streets. As long as you have a good selection of games and are close to a super market, your arcade would do just fine in Japan.

>>381710747

No but people didn't go to the arcade for that. If you had that stuff and the time to actually play those games you were raised in a kick ass household.

The arcade was for literally every other type of game besides RPG.

>>381711076
>If you had that stuff and the time to actually play those games you were raised in a kick ass household.

that's funny i seem to remember my father's constant screaming and hitting me being pretty bad

wouldve given anything to be allowed to go outside like other kids

>>381710747
No but there were some RPGs for arcades (cadash, dungeon magic, etc)

File: marinedi.jpg (140KB, 600x448px) Image search: [Google]

140KB, 600x448px

>>381711196

>father's constant screaming and hitting me being pretty bad

Yea me too that is why I could never just sit around and play vidya. I HAD to go outside or it was yelling and beating time lol.

>>381710747
Imagine if you were able to though

>Have some sort of early memory card that you could save progress to
>$1 for 10 minutes
>Higher resolution screen, CD quality sound, voice acting, etc
>ability to skip cutscenes if you wish to
>headphone jack

Where did you get your money for arcades /v/? And don't pretend like you actually earned it.

>>381711362
Neogeo had a memory card

It also had headphone jacks believe it or not

>>381711410

Doing chores for a weekly allowance. Going door to door asking to cut people's grass / rake leaves / shovel snow.

Sometimes the parents would give me $5 for free but most of the time I had a small savings to spend on things kids enjoy.

I wish I had rich easy going parents that just gave me money lol.

>>381711357
I wasnt allowed to go outside, I might get kidnapped.

When I became 14 they relaxed this rule and never saw me since pretty much.

>>381709991
Barcades are a thing, but you'll have to really look for them and they're probably only in major cities and hipster zones.

>>381711410
I got an allowance, but more importantly my friend that I went with at the time got a lot of money from his parents and liked to share.

>>381711410
I worked at a video store of coure i earned it

>>381711410
I was buddies with a dude who's parents were loaded so he'd always sponsor our trips. On days he was busy I would usually just scour the floor and look under machines and in coin slots to see if I could get lucky.

>it's 1993 i think?
>playing mortal kombat 2 in the arcade
>my friend who is like 12, double perfects this guy with shang tsung
>it was an adult black guy whos girlfriend was watching him play
>after my friend won he said some shit like "seeya!" off the cuff, he was just really excited he played so well
>black dude straight punched his 12 year old ass in the face and walked off

only time i ever saw someone get physically injured except for when a korean guy beat me so bad in killer instinct that it killed several thousand of my brain cells

>>381711685
>never saw me since pretty much
Where the fuck did you go?

My parents let me leave the house whenever I wanted pretty much.

I never did because there was nowhere to go other than empty fields and some thin forests.

>>381706109
>Anyone else have trouble believing arcades were a real thing that were actually big at the time, and there were people who grew up doing most of their gaming at arcades, rather than at home?
No I lived it.

>>381706109
Arcades were basically the equivalent of online when it came to fighting games.

>>381712169
go out and walk around the town for hours until they're ready to go to sleep etc

File: ..jpg (234KB, 662x670px) Image search: [Google]

234KB, 662x670px

>>381706397
>you will never destory ddr in front of nubile 16yo girls again and not be laughed at, rather revered.
why live f.am

>>381706109
>but it's just such a weird concept to try and envision nowadays.
No, it isn't. I used to go to arcades when I was a kid. I don't go to arcades in Japan because I think 100 or 200 yens is too much.

In Tamoa, over in Ybor City, there used to be an amazing Gameworks a decade ago that was one of my favorite places to go. Go there, pay for an hour card, and get to play any game you wanted there for a full hour. Tons of racing and light gun games, and there was even a 6-person racing game along the wall that was live-commentated by the staff there. There was also a really good DDR machine there were ALWAYS people lined up for it.

Moved back to florida this past year and went back.... a while new company owns it now. Most of the games are shitty ticket dumps, and the hour cards are gone. No light gun games except for that one most recent Terminator game, and the guns were so bad that there was no point in bothering. And right front and center, greeting you when you walk in, are a bunch of those horrible arcade cabinet versions of mobile games like Crossy Road and Temple Run and shit.

Almost worse than the time the Pac Man Cafe in Orlando shut down in 2005

>>381712423
>DDR
I always found so odd that DDR caught on in USA, but Pump it Up didn't. PIU was always superior.

>>381711515
That's cool. Wish Sqaure had thought of it.

The last time I was at an arcade was in 1994 when my cousin got stabbed & robbed at an arcade on western in hollywood. The arcade owner made a "oh well" face about the incident too.

>>381706109
during summer, EVERY SINGLE DAY, this was the routine:
>get up
>breakfast
>meet my friend, and bike to the store to buy bread/newspaper/whatever
>pit stop at the arcade
>play Street Fighter II using the spare change
>about 5-7 matches, and go home

years later, SNES launched. i bought the pack
we played easily 8 hours straight, repeating again and again
>we can play for free
>we can play for free dude
>this is amazing

>>381707532
You're a fucking baby. Kill yourself.

>>381713797
i forgot
the other game that we played a lot, years later, was The House of the Dead. The first one
>reload!

>>381713797
>that time when consoles finally became capable of copying arcade games perfectly

It truly was a magical time.

>>381714820
i am a grown ass man
and I still remember playing Street Fighter II in my pajamas as one of the happiest days of my life
that fucking morning
amazing memories

I never liked arcades because I dont like seeing my coins gone
And I was bad at fighting games
But I loved racing games or stuff like Metal Slug
or shooters
Arcades fortunately still exist here

>31
>local mall had a comic book shop and an arcade.
>after school, mom would take me to eat at the mall food court, and allow me to buy some comics and spend a hour or two in the arcade.
>would go home, do homework, and then watch tv or play games until i went to bed.

Best times/fondest memories of my life desu. Virtua-On, Tekken, Street Fighter, Sniper Scope, Soul Calibur, House of The Dead, Time Crisis, etc. I remember winning multiple Tekken tournies and pissing off the older kids because they couldn't dial-a-combo.

The main issue is that arcades didn't upgrade their machines as time went on. Old games were good, but as consoles and PCs got stronger, they could play those old games without much trouble. The main draw of an arcade was to see the latest and greatest games, played on it's own hardware with it's own control scheme. Lightgun games are a pretty good example of this, same with racing games.

But, arcades never went past their old machines. You never saw the newer games, only the old ones. Like, how many arcades have you seen with Time Crisis 3 or 4, compared to the amount of arcades with Time Crisis 1 and 2? It doesn't help that the former games were ported to PS2 and PS3 respectively, but playing on an arcade would be a better experience due to the pedal and light-gun anyway. It also didn't help that the owners would regularly let their games fall to ruin because they didn't care enough to take care of their machines, or didn't have the money, meaning that less people came. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: owners don't get new machines, and let the old ones fall to ruin due to a lack of profit, which means less people come in, which means that the owners won't buy new games due to a lack of profit, which means less people come in etc.

It's a shame, because most of the modern arcade games actually seem pretty cool. Most of them have different control schemes, or experiences you can't get outside of an arcade because they're a dedicated machine to that one game.

>>381706109
The last arcade in my city finally closed a couple years ago. I miss it.

File: Dialed In.jpg (143KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

143KB, 1280x720px

Pinball is probably my favorite genre, and it's nearly impossible to replicate in videogame form. Luckily we have companies actually trying to cater to that niche, but it'll be a long time before pin sims actually get good. At least we have cool original ideas like Zen and Pro Pinball.

>>381716881
Sometimes I wonder if some of the more "standard-controlling" games would have benefited from a proliferation of candy cabs brought westward rather than only being available as brand-spanking-new custom cabinets every time a new game came out. At least then the operators would only need to buy a new PCB.

>>381717254
we have one thats inside a dead mall and the hours are only 8-5 while the mall closes at 9

>>381706109
you clearly were too young, not that it's entirely a bad thing
arcades were where it was at, they were the pc gaming of their day. Remember console games didn't save progress either at the time so it's not like there was anything you were losing there either.
The graphics were better, controls better, audio better, you could meet people and instantly become friends, sharing tips and tricks.

For many kids it wasn't financially viable to play consoles (god forbid pc) at the time. Kids today complain about paying $60 for an 8h+ game with online multiplayer but back then you were often paying $60 for a short, albeit hard game, with quality greatly varying. Most had to rely on magazines and friends for opinions on games if you didn't have a tech savvy enough family who used BBS.
A few quarters to play a game or a huge investment that might just be a turd? For many it wasn't a hard choice.

>>381711410
I always got more ticket buses from my parents than I needed, so I traded the extra ones for money to play at the arcades or for food.

Dads used to exist and used to be alpha males. If you were lounging around the house without a book on your hand or a cast in your hand you would need to help around the house even if you finished your chores. That was enough to get kids to take extracurricular activities or run to the arcade or park after school

>>381718346
That'd probably be best, but the easy distribution of games came a bit too late, and the costs of shipping a new PCB and then installing might be too much for the owners to really bother. These are the same people who would let their arcade machines fall to ruin, and not bother to replace faulty parts, remember. Something like NESiCAxLive would have been a godsend when arcades started to have to compete with consoles for the same games, but the internet wasn't exactly big back then.

I know that there are a few places in the States that are importing machines from Japan, and I'm hoping that it gains popularity for producers in Japan to actually give a shit about expanding their market. But hey, that'll probably not happen anytime soon because it's such a niche market right now.

>>381707496
Only 20 minutes? Git gud.

>>381706109
>someone born during the turn of the millennium is too much of a faggot to comprehend arcades

>>381706109

It seems weird to you because you're underage and were brainwashed. Pretty simple.

>>381706109
It's sad that arcades are mostly dead nowadays in the States.

File: 1497851698705.jpg (223KB, 555x555px) Image search: [Google]

223KB, 555x555px

>>381707814
>arcade down the street
>always going after school
>sometimes not using my lunch money, bumming snacks off of friends just so I could play whatever cabs they had

Shit you not I actually buried the hatchet with a bully by teaching him how to play SF2T. I remember us getting pizza to celebrate when he got a win streak going one day.

>>381711410
Begging parents for some change.

>>381706109
Too many loud blacks.

File: 1497494330661.png (648KB, 445x584px) Image search: [Google]

648KB, 445x584px

>>381706109

They were very real and a lot of fun. I met and befriended people from playing in arcades.

OP reminds me of my niece and nephew, or just younger kids in general. They can't imagine a world with no social media, instant internet or slow (dial-up) internet. They're quietly glued to their phones when, at that age, I was riding my bike around the city, socializing and hitting up arcades. God fucking help me if I was trying to download anything when my sister was home. Bitch was always tying up the landline.

>Be 6 or 7, can't remember
>Go to an arcade, don't have any money on me though
>See some college guy playing a lightgun game, think it was Time Crisis
>He's dual wielding the guns like a faggot
>Sees me curious about the game, gives me one of the guns and tells me to shoot the bad guys
>Spots me a few quarters for tries
>Have fun until I have to leave

Still one of my most memorable experiences from the arcades.

>>381721149
He'd probably get arrested for pedophilia these days.

>>381720818
>riding my bike around the city
That sounds like a good way to have your bike stolen, or get kidnapped.

>>381706109
One of my favorite arcade games right now is arcade only.

>>381721292
Probably. Most of my days spent in the 90s was my parents letting me go anywhere, just so long as I told them where I was.

>>381721396
Depends on the city I guess. Mine I could practically go from border to border and be fine.

>>381720818
>a world with no social media
I don't even use social media, I just shitpost all day, because I don't know anything else.

I pretty much only leave my house to do classes, shopping or work. I'm like a hikikomori but I still have a job. The only time I leave my house for anything other than those three reasons is if one of my acquaintances remember I exist long enough to invite me to do something.

>>381721772
I've never lived in a city until I started going to college, it's a nice small town that my college is in, easy to walk from one end to another, and it's not a place I'm too afraid to stumble around drunk back to my house after a night with my friend across town. Saint Louis on the otherhand is an intimidating town just to drive through. Living in a city is a fucking weird experience.

Cities are really weird in that you can still feel completely alone despite being actually surrounded by people.

>19 year old fag blogs for 3 hours
Christ.

File: 83620284.jpg (501KB, 1473x1011px) Image search: [Google]

501KB, 1473x1011px

>>381706109
look at this picture, you STUPID FAGGOT
you will NEVER get to experience this level of fun, EVER, with fucking online PC or Console games. those in this thread that were old enough, we will remember the fun and weep that OP never will understand

/thread

I was born in '93, so I didn't really get to experience arcades at their height, though I did get to have a few good experiences before they keeled over and died completely.

What really pisses me off is the death of LAN centers. Yeah, thanks to advances in internet you can play an online game with almost the same level of quality as if you were doing it through LAN, but you're still losing out on part of the experience. There was only ever one LAN center near me, and it closed before I entered high school.

I swear, if I ever win the lottery, I'm building my own. That'll be my fucking life.

>>381722047
>Cities are really weird in that you can still feel completely alone despite being actually surrounded by people.
Because most of the time people are lucky to give you the time of day. Smaller towns are full of people willing to help out so I guess it feels less lonely.

>>381722163
What else am I going to do? It's a saturday night.

File: 1424926117606.jpg (305KB, 1600x2000px) Image search: [Google]

305KB, 1600x2000px

The worst thing to happen during my childhood was the arcade at the local mall closing. That place was fucking sick. I saved up my tickets from games for years and then went in one day and cashed them all in at once, and got a rad toy airplane that broke a week later

>>381721396

I guess I lived in a good city then. My friends and I would ride everywhere and only needed to tell our parents where we were as well as be back home in time for dinner. I think the worst that ever happened was a few scraps with older kids and maybe flat bike tires.

>>381722215
dude, lan centers would have died off by 2010 anyway with a lot of games not even having lan included

anything else people played was like CS 1.6, WoW, DotA, etc etc old shit and unless we are in Korea, it wouldn't last long

>>381706109
i remember when Mortal Kombat came out, there were 20 people lined up to play it

they hooked a TV to the machine and hung it from the roof so people in line could watch the game

>>381722447
>Shitty toys from arcades
Why do I miss these?

>>381722561
>a lot of games not even having lan included
I mean how is lan different from online multiplayer anyway?

Sometimes my friends and I just bring our computers to someones house so we can just sit together and play games in person instead of being locked in our rooms.

>>381722561
You can setup a lan for any game using Tungle and such programs.

>>381720094
>a bully
Shit, we don't even have those in schools anymore. Everyone just keeps to themselves and ignores anyone they don't like.

>>381722963
Thanks no tolerance.

>>381722757
you and your friends, sure

but, depending on the area, no one wants to PAY to use a computer in this day and age to play multiplayer shit.

i used to lan with my friends all the time in HS and in college we had enough people for a 64 player BF2 every few weeks.

all the shit WITH lan is older games anyway, i haven't seen too many new shit like OVERWATCH that doesn't even have lan probably because blizzard. same shit with SC2

>>381722963
heh, this

i always thought bullies existed too and i never saw one during my HS years. probably due to the huge amount of teachers and shit that would swoop in to stop it.

only had like 2 fights that i can remember and those were between girls

>>381723040
I probably would have grown up to be less of a faggot if I was bullied in school instead of freely allowed to be a dweeb.

Or I might killed myself.

>>381723159
Wait you have to pay to go to lan centers? I thought you just like brought your own computer and shit.
And we've played Overwatch the same way. Which I guess wasn't actually lan? We just set up in the basement together with like 6 computers and played online games as a team.

File: 1497738130917.gif (455KB, 210x210px) Image search: [Google]

455KB, 210x210px

>>381722447
>sister knew a girl that worked at the local arcade
>go to cash out small amount of tickets
>get one glow in the dark alien dude, one of those you leave in water and it grows
>sister's friend comes by and tells me to hand her my bag
>gives me like six more

I had a jar of water filled with fat fucking aliens that summer. Those crummy toys were great.

>>381723292
>>381723310
I was a weak little faggot that got bullied a lot and I started fighting back. Definitely a better person because of it.

>>381723429
>tfw the most entertaining thing you've done today is read about how some random stranger had a bunch of aliens as a kid

I should really get around to buying some modeling paint and putting my 40k models together or something. I need something to do other than shitposting,

>>381706568
I'm 30 and I fondly remember how badass arcades were

>>381706109
>Anyone else have trouble believing arcades were a real thing that were actually big at the time, and there were people who grew up doing most of their gaming at arcades, rather than at home?

Well it was true and it happened you young piece of shit. Just because you were born too young to experience it doesn't mean it happened. Today is a different time, different set of social rules and how technology has advanced.

>>381723491

Same. I got shit but eventually stood up for myself and knocked the piss out of one fat kid that kept messing with me. The same year I became furious when I saw older students bullying a younger kid. I got one good hit in to the main bully's jaw, sending him down and immediately some big football players broke us up.

It was like a switch flipped. Everyone suddenly thought I was an okay guy and started talking to me. It was strange.

File: ......png (150KB, 318x350px) Image search: [Google]

150KB, 318x350px

>>381706109
Some things to consider:
>Arcade graphics were better than anything home consoles could produce until the Xbox360/PS3 era, and sometimes even then I wonder
>a lot of arcades had little restaurants beside or inside them, making them just a fun place to hang out all day with friends since every need was met
>some even had playgrounds for kids too young to play on the machines, so the parents could drop them off there while they played Mortal Kombat

It was pretty and encouraging to see all those games all around you; hearing the noises, seeing the flashing colors, just made you want to play vidya. Compare that to today where people just see a pile of games and sigh like it's a chore. Everyone's steam library is basically like their rom collection: an untouched, dusty thing that somehow seems overwhelming and nonexistent at the same time. It's not the same as actually seeing all the games at once, on and ready all around you. You'd be surprised how encouraging that is, it's like not thinking you're hungry until you walk into a good pizzeria and smell it everywhere.

I'm sorry you'll never get to experience this, anon.

>>381713046


What's funny is in my town, the arcade in the mall had a DDR MAX 2 machine, and eventually got an In The Groove machine, which was amazing, and we had a couple autists who really destroyed the ITG songs using the bar and all that, but here's the thing: We had a Chuck E. Cheese that had Pump it Up for a fucking QUARTER. literally ONE TOKEN.

My girlfriend and I went there all the time.

I don't know if it was that it arcades were more of an American and Asian phenomenon or if I missed the curve by a few years, but console gaming with local multiplayer was always a bigger thing in the '80s and '90s from my experience. Usually you would only have people stumble into arcades found randomly at malls or airports for a few minutes, play one game and leave. Never had huge crowds or anything close to regular players. The few dedicated arcades I knew of were usually just full of loitering teens who weren't particularly interested in gaming and only went there because they had nowhere else to go.

>>381720495


usually this.

>>381720818

my dad actually got a second landline for my sister because he was tired of her disconnecting him when he was trying to play rise of the triad on modem

>>381723310

Danny? Is that you?

It's Eric bro, I miss your basement, hit me up, (440)27(three)9348

>>381706568

26 here, OP is underage.

>>381725446
Nah, I'm Eric. You've stolen my life.

>>381706109
Modern people are too retarded to socalize anyways, so you don't get it.

>>381710549


>not having a sega dreamcast with house of the dead 2 and a CRT

>>381724553
that really does sound amazing.

>>381709737
>>381724152
>>381725527
>a bunch of old people acting like being 6 to 11 years older than OP means a 19 year old is underage

Arcades were so awesome. So damn comfy and this was way before girls participated in "boy" activities so they were also like this bro dens.

>dem sounds
>dat pizza
>dat clinking of quarters
>dem racing setups
>dat cheering coming from the fighting game cabs
good times

>>381725637
How are old people so good at socializing? Do they not teach it in schools anymore?

>>381725937
Social media and secularism killed how to socialize.

Plus the rise of omega level autism.

>>381726193
>social media
Yeah but I don't use that and I'm still clueless about how to socialize

>secularism
What?

>>381706109
So youre a child? Gotcha.

>>381711760
>they're probably only in major cities and hipster zones.
Our city has two, and they're both in different Hipster parts of the city.
They are okay, but it doesn't have that same atmosphere as arcades used to have, because of hipsters.
The booze is fun, but it distracts from the games sometimes IMO.
If you city has one, it might be worth checking out at least once. Hell, yours might not be infested with hipsters.

I hate hipsters so goddamn much.

>>381706109
I'm in my 30s and I can tell you arcades were pretty huge. I remember more than once teaming up with dudes to play TMNT and X-Men, which was an experience you couldn't get anywhere else at the time. Same thing with pinball games.

They gradually started dying out during the 90s, when the gap between arcade graphics and what you could get at home kept narrowing (the home versions of SFII were shockingly close to arcade quality at the time, for example), and then you had the Internet to take care of co-op play.

It didn't help that prices kept going up from just a quarter to 50 cents to a buck by the time the 2000s came around. It was less and less worth going there.

>>381709386
youre not wrong

File: PhotoGrid_1498355349407.jpg (1MB, 1847x1080px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1847x1080px

I'm really glad we have a local arcade where I live, owned by Japanese.

It has a little restaurant, a bunch of games, photo booths, karaoke rooms, pool tables, a bowling alley, and a bar.

Very busy all days of the week. They rigged a few of the older machines to take the membership card, so you pay for so many minutes playtime and just swipe the card instead of inserting quarters.

Pretty affordable too.

File: 1498350819157.jpg (141KB, 576x768px) Image search: [Google]

141KB, 576x768px

>>381726492
tfw beat gauntlet legends with 3 other people once at the arcade

>>381726676
Round 1?

File: 80scade.jpg (46KB, 600x406px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 600x406px

>tfw no blonde arcade cutie

File: stonecold_nxm2nc.gif (1MB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 320x240px

>>381726389

I just see social media and smart phones as a distraction and crutch. It's like nicking away at a beer label during a social event instead of talking. You're there but not really present. I see lots of people in groups glued to phones.

On the topic of socializing I was a spaghetti master until I got my first job at a big retail store. I had to get over my shyness quick and learned how to approach and casually chat with people. Being a good listener is the biggest thing. People love to talk about their interests and most will chat your ear off. Hell, it's hard to get me to shut up these days as well.

Born in 1980
I grey up in country towns,
There was no dedicated Arcade, but one of the towns had a bowling Alley and that Alley had a bunch of games.
We'd ride our bikes there after school or on weekends and dump whatever quarters we could find into the machines.

The 90s really were the fucking golden years for Powerful Arcade games,
I mean the 80s had the Arcade Scene which i was just too young for but the 90s had some great fucking games.
My parents were very Anti-Gun so any lightgun game i could get my hands on i would play the fuck out of.

We eventually moved to a more built up town that had an arcade, Within a few weeks i had the highscore on all the light gun games.
Thinking back i made some good friends through arcades.
It was easier to do than at school, because school was a social minefield, but at the arcade we at least had the "Oh hey have you played this game"
or "Can i be player 2" and you'd chat while playing the game.

I'd say you missed out?
But i mean, im envious i missed out on the free love and drugs of the 70s so what're you gonna do?

>>381727108
>It's like nicking away at a beer label during a social event instead of talking
Oh shit, I do that.
Should I stop? The only people I ever talk to are the people that brought me there most of the time, or anyone they're talking to, unless I get really drunk then I'll talk to anyone.

>>381726481
It's weird because barcades are how arcade gaming started out, yet the hipsters somehow ruined it.

File: PinballPA.jpg (71KB, 800x307px) Image search: [Google]

71KB, 800x307px

I never really got to experience many in their hay day , but a pinball/arcade place opened up near me a few years ago. It's $20 for 2 hours or $40 for all day and it's lined wall to wall with tables/games. I've only went once but I definitely want to go again with an all day pass.

https://pinballpa.com/game-list/museum-tour
Check out some of the pics and their full list of stuff

>>381713916
Did you pop out of your moms fetid cunt a fully grown asshole? he's a baby sure but youre acting like one

Arcades in America are a pretty simple concept.

>Videogames start out as a novelty so you get arcade machines in bars/bowling alleys/etc
>Hey, these make a lot of fucking money
>Arcades exist and flourish in areas where people can easily transit to and fro (a huge reason japan's scene was successful, along with country of origin for the games and less stigma)
>Arcades still better, but prices going up and home consoles become a thing
>NES and SNES/Genesis fucking dominate the market
>Videogames go from novelty to children's passtime in America
>Arcades start to wobble. Lots have aged machines by this time. Prices go up again
>Arcade ports become 1:1 around the Dreamcast time
>Arcades total novelty and seen as for children
America is too spread out and is only very recently relaxing about who can play games and not be considered a weirdo.

I was born in 94, but my parents were both big on arcades, they grew up playin pinball and skeeball and whatnot, so whenever they'd my sis and I would come too. They give us a pack of quarters to play some games while they broke skeeball high scores or some shit. I have good memories of playing Beastorizer, Power Stone, MvC, Tekken Tag, Time crisis, HotD, Daytona, that weird boxing game where you wear those heavy gloves, GAUNTLET, jesus that was the shit with 3 other people..Just a bunch of good stuff, especially when family and friends tag along. I'm glad there is a round 1 opening about half an hour away from me, hopefully they'll have some good games.

>>381727850
Dammit these threads always die after I post this

Someone just check this out this place is kickass