Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

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pacman000
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Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby pacman000 » July 3rd, 2018, 1:30 pm

I'm sure there's already an "arcade" topic, but the search engine considers "arcade" "too common," so here's another.

Saw a video today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F92T33BlVE Caption said the arcade's closing next year. Too bad; it looks fun.

Any arcade-related memories? Any still-extant arcades near you? Even movie theater & mini golf arcades would suffice. How about arcade machines by themselves, in grocery stores or laundromats?

jon
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby jon » July 4th, 2018, 10:25 pm

I loved arcades. One of my favorite memories was playing Mortal Kombat 2 on vacation in 1993. I wasn't around for the golden age of arcades. But 1993-1995 was pretty freaking good.

Herschie
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby Herschie » August 28th, 2018, 11:02 pm

I had a rather melancholy experience a few years ago. My wife wanted to go into Victoria's Secret at this mall, so I mosied on over to the arcade. The mall is in sad shape, and the arcade was no different. Half the games didn't work, and the other half were on their last legs. The images were glitched and distorted. The screens had funny lines across them. Many of the screens were out of focus. The owner seemed to have given up long ago. The sound was all weird and muffled. And there was a funny smell.

They were winding down and becoming faint, sort of like how our memories fade over time. The good times we had many years ago were no more.

And yet my Atari 2600 still works flawlessly!

matmico399
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby matmico399 » August 30th, 2018, 1:57 pm

That's depressing. Oh to go back in time.....

Tron
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby Tron » August 30th, 2018, 11:29 pm

Herschie wrote:I had a rather melancholy experience a few years ago. My wife wanted to go into Victoria's Secret at this mall, so I mosied on over to the arcade. The mall is in sad shape, and the arcade was no different. Half the games didn't work, and the other half were on their last legs. The images were glitched and distorted. The screens had funny lines across them. Many of the screens were out of focus. The owner seemed to have given up long ago. The sound was all weird and muffled. And there was a funny smell.

They were winding down and becoming faint, sort of like how our memories fade over time. The good times we had many years ago were no more.


As crappy as that is I’d rather find that then those gimmicky ticket games of luck credit card swiping pieces of junk.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 31st, 2018, 9:06 pm

I have to think the decline of arcades have also contributed to the decline of malls in general.

In the 90's whenever I stopped by the mall, I would also take a stroll through the arcade. I wanted to see what the latest games were. It was always a pretty happening place. Sometimes I'd stop and watch some people play. I'd often run into friends there. I'll never forgot how mesmerized I was by the huge 4P X-Men machine. It was part of the culture and it was a lot of fun.

I haven't seen an arcade at a local mall in more than a decade. The only place where I see arcades now is at hotels and movie theaters.

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SpaceGuitarist
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Re: Arcades, Game Rooms, & the Like.

Postby SpaceGuitarist » September 3rd, 2018, 5:58 am

Over here every snack bar had at least one arcade machine - often they would have an entire room dedicated to arcade games. That's because snack bars originally came from "osterie" (or what you would call "bodegas" I guess), places that sold wine but almost always had an extra room with tables so you could sit and eat or play cards - in a way, they weren't different from old american saloons. Then in the 80s most of these extra rooms with card tables became arcade rooms, because having coin operated machines for kids was much more profitable than having free card tables for the elderlies.

Nowadays because of recession, very few snack bars have the luxury of having an extra room - most of them had to sell the extra space and resize. Those that still do, have replaced coin-ops with slot machines or video poker machines because again, it is more profitable.

Now I gotta be honest, I miss arcade games a lot, but there's something I miss more: juke boxes. There was something magical about going into a place, browsing through the songs and picking just the right song for that specific moment. Man, if I only could walk into a bar and put on Louie Louie once more, I'd die a happy man...


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