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"ARCADE REVIVAL!"

Console gaming. I'm pretty fed up with console gaming - it's so restrictive! If you ask me the the present and the future of truly sublime video gaming is down at your local arcade. But wait, what's all this about Sega, Namco and Capcom - supposedly pulling out of the coin 'op expedition? I sincerely hope that people wake up from their single player role playing games, from their resident evil nightmare sessions and get yourself and a few mates down to that polygon parlour and experience the best games - first hand.

I can't even imagine what it would be like without these great machines, the 5minute break between a round of bowling when there's nothing better to do than make your way promptly to the Scud Race, Daytona or Sega Rally 2 departments! Where would we go? Surely those money grabbing 10p game things can't be the future? No of course not.

Competitions should be held at the arcade, the arcades should have a new name, something exciting to reflect the fun that you can honestly have there! Consoles are great yes, but the increase in popularity of the home console, of the PlayStation or PS2 or whatever you have, is only helping to deter the masses from the neon lights, from the 'Game Over, yeaaahhhhh' voice from Sega Rally, and it's causing gaming to shy away into people's homes - and it's becoming, dare I say 'geeky'!? In Japan they've got the idea. Every weekend people gather to the latest gaming exhibition, to try out the new games - that come out at the arcades first, but later appear on the games consoles - as that's where the money is made.

I just think there should be a national uplift, a revamp, no - a major overhaul! Bring in the Sega Marine Fishing games, get some new rallying games in and let us be playing Crazy Taxi 2 before it's on Dreamcast! Ok so SR2 is great fun, but who really wants to be playing House of the Dead still (yeah it's fun, but come on - surely HOTD2 should be there!), and Tekken 1 is well and truly out of date now!

So let's quit the fighting, go to your arcade machines - go now before they're gone forever. Feel every bump and turn on the rally sims - don't pretend you can with a 'rumble featuring' racing wheel for your home console. It's not the same.

I want to be able to forsee the future of the arcades having online competitions, with large crowds of excited people gathering round to cheer on the local games master as he or she takes on 'Vladmir' from Russia at Virtua Tennis - perhaps even with Real/Virtual racquets? I want to be able to imagine Daytona USA online - actually online, with people queing up to experience time lag free next generation classic racing against people from the USA! There should even be a little commemorative ChuChu Rocket online machine, where kids who never really 'got' gaming could play against people on the moon perhaps! After all ChuChu Rocket was the first 'console' online game!

Anyway, that may never happen.

Just take it from me: - nothing beats a good old half an hour session down at the Sega Raly arcade! It may cost you anywhere up to £30 depending on your skill level, or lack of it, but for me, if you can't partake in actual 'real' rallying, then you should experience the next best thing! I prefer arcades to home games consoles despite the cost - the thrill of beating 'up to 4 players' of which only to machines are connected, combined with the jolting racing seat, that tries to simulate the real thing (and does a fair job at it to!).

Cheers,

Dan2K1

Console gaming. I'm pretty fed up with console gaming - it's so restrictive! If you ask me the the present and the future of truly sublime video gaming is down at your local arcade. But wait, what's all this about Sega, Namco and Capcom - supposedly pulling out of the coin 'op expedition? I sincerely hope that people wake up from their single player role playing games, from their resident evil nightmare sessions and get yourself and a few mates down to that polygon parlour and experience the best games - first hand.

I can't even imagine what it would be like without these great machines, the 5minute break between a round of bowling when there's nothing better to do than make your way promptly to the Scud Race, Daytona or Sega Rally 2 departments! Where would we go? Surely those money grabbing 10p game things can't be the future? No of course not.

Competitions should be held at the arcade, the arcades should have a new name, something exciting to reflect the fun that you can honestly have there! Consoles are great yes, but the increase in popularity of the home console, of the PlayStation or PS2 or whatever you have, is only helping to deter the masses from the neon lights, from the 'Game Over, yeaaahhhhh' voice from Sega Rally, and it's causing gaming to shy away into people's homes - and it's becoming, dare I say 'geeky'!? In Japan they've got the idea. Every weekend people gather to the latest gaming exhibition, to try out the new games - that come out at the arcades first, but later appear on the games consoles - as that's where the money is made.

I just think there should be a national uplift, a revamp, no - a major overhaul! Bring in the Sega Marine Fishing games, get some new rallying games in and let us be playing Crazy Taxi 2 before it's on Dreamcast! Ok so SR2 is great fun, but who really wants to be playing House of the Dead still (yeah it's fun, but come on - surely HOTD2 should be there!), and Tekken 1 is well and truly out of date now!

So let's quit the fighting, go to your arcade machines - go now before they're gone forever. Feel every bump and turn on the rally sims - don't pretend you can with a 'rumble featuring' racing wheel for your home console. It's not the same.

I want to be able to forsee the future of the arcades having online competitions, with large crowds of excited people gathering round to cheer on the local games master as he or she takes on 'Vladmir' from Russia at Virtua Tennis - perhaps even with Real/Virtual racquets? I want to be able to imagine Daytona USA online - actually online, with people queing up to experience time lag free next generation classic racing against people from the USA! There should even be a little commemorative ChuChu Rocket online machine, where kids who never really 'got' gaming could play against people on the moon perhaps! After all ChuChu Rocket was the first 'console' online game!

Anyway, that may never happen.

Just take it from me: - nothing beats a good old half an hour session down at the Sega Raly arcade! It may cost you anywhere up to £30 depending on your skill level, or lack of it, but for me, if you can't partake in actual 'real' rallying, then you should experience the next best thing! I prefer arcades to home games consoles despite the cost - the thrill of beating 'up to 4 players' of which only to machines are connected, combined with the jolting racing seat, that tries to simulate the real thing (and does a fair job at it to!).

Cheers,

Dan2K1

Sorry about the spelling errors! (Vladimir, queuing, too many 'the's', Rally, etc).

Does anyone have any views on this?

Dan

Wow, someone is still up...

Agree though, kind of getting at this with my LAN party post, more social - but you can't get all the different arcade equipment on the pc. I love going around arcades, but I'm in a small village in rural essex, and the nearest one is half an hour away from here, so I hardly ever get to have a proper session in one.
Support the arcades!

Yesah! Someone who agrees! Well, no-one has disagreed yet, but I'm kinda banking on someone doing so...

Yes, it's shame - I try and go as often as I can (honestly!), but the best arcade place I've been to has to be the late, great but unfortunate Sega World! (Oh the poetry).

That really did offer a taster of what the Japanese must be revelling in. Sonic is the man! Notice how Sega dominate the arcade? Makes perfect sense - seeing that it's a non profitable industry, in the UK at least - Sega are great at not making money!

Dan

lol..I remember going to Segaworld in the Trocadero a few years ago, very impressed at the time. Come to think of it, there is one huge Sega arcade in Harlow or somewhere, only been once though.
The closest I can get to Japanese titles right now is getting my dad to bring back imports from the far east for the Dreamcast, or visiting a little import shop hidden away in Cambridge.
Shame that titles which stray from the tried-and-tested formulas don't even get a chance over here. I've now gone off on a search across the 'net to find a decent nearby arcade - one good thing though, my girlfriend loves them just as much as me, so I don't get dragged away when I eventually do find one =)

Excellent! Good luck with finding a good arcade! The best I can think of at the moment is probably in... I can't think sorry!

None on Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes should be better than it is, and London is probably the best bet!

OK

Dan

I always associate arcades with coastal towns such as Great Yarmouth and Blackpool.

I remember walking down the seafront past all of the arcades with their big neon signs. Out ront they would have those games in which you try to grab a tebby bear with the little gripper that never quite closed enough to grab anything. And they had those games where you had the little hammer, and you had to hit the moles, or crocodiles as they came out.

These are still there, but as I move inside I find fewer and fewer arcade cabinets, and more and more fruit machines.

I definitely feel that arcades should become more of a haven for multiplayer gaming experiences, linked to other arcades all around the world.

You could play a football sim in which every player on the pitch was controlled by a different person (just hope that whoever plays as your goalie doesn't walk off before the end!)

It would work well for racers too. Rather than having 4 players linked together, why not 30? They can have this many computer controlled, so why not human?

Yep - let's hope the memories, become reality.

Thanks for adding to the discussion!

meka_dragon wrote:
> I always associate arcades with coastal towns such as Great Yarmouth
> and Blackpool.

I remember walking down the seafront past all of
> the arcades with their big neon signs. Out ront they would have
> those games in which you try to grab a tebby bear with the little
> gripper that never quite closed enough to grab anything. And they
> had those games where you had the little hammer, and you had to hit
> the moles, or crocodiles as they came out.

These are still there,
> but as I move inside I find fewer and fewer arcade cabinets, and
> more and more fruit machines.

I definitely feel that arcades
> should become more of a haven for multiplayer gaming experiences,
> linked to other arcades all around the world.

You could play a
> football sim in which every player on the pitch was controlled by a
> different person (just hope that whoever plays as your goalie
> doesn't walk off before the end!)

It would work well for racers
> too. Rather than having 4 players linked together, why not 30? They
> can have this many computer controlled, so why not human?


Ah the days of playing the 10p machine thingy, we never really have proper arcades in UK, USA have proper ones!

Yeah, arcades are cool. Shame there arent none local to me.

I reckon it would be great if they had retro arcades, or maybe an arcades throught the ages exibition somewhere.

Imagine that, you pay the entrance fee, then all games are free, one go on each until you get up to modern times.

Start with the real oldies, like Space Invanders. Move on a little, play some PacMan. You could play some of those classic Nintendo games like Donkey Kong, or Sega classics like Space Harrier, and Out Run.

There would be separate sections for innovation in arcade games through the ages, like that sit in Star Wars game, the first racer in which you used pedals, the first Motorbike game in which you actually sat on a bike. And other special things like those little handlebars you used to play Paperboy.

There could be a section for those great games that had multiple players, like Gauntlet, Turtles, and The Simpsons.

Than you could move on to beat 'em ups through time. Start with something really old, move on to Yei Ar Kung Fu, the the original Street Fighter, it's sequels, the Mortal Kombat games, all the way up to todays fighters.

In each section there could also be displays and stuff, like the history of Pacman, how the first games were created, interesting stuff like that.

A retro arcade exibition would be so cool!!