Very interesting take on arcade gaming

[Atarifever1]

I don't know if anyone posted this yet, but some guy on Atariage pointed it out and it's awesome.  I don't agree with his belief in lack of a 1CC rule in North America, but other than that this is the best videogame article I ever read.  The description of a large arcade almost choked me up. 

http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/

It's a long read, but I think it's really good stuff.

[Steerforth]

He raises some good points. Especially about how you vote with a quarter, so there is more reason to make a good game to keep people playing, rather than you buy the game once, wether you enjoy it or not they have your money and that is the end of that.

Too hardcore for me, I tend to fall in this undesirable category,

 :  the casual, party gamers with their Wiis and ever-growing collections of gimmicky mini-games;
I 'll qualify that by saying I don't like minigames, and don't count Wii Sports as a minigame, its a concept game.
 
unquestioningly loyal -- like dogs -- to a single hardware platform, genre or developer;

and this one too, Nintendo just gives me the most bang for my buck and for the time I spend, I really have no interest in broadening my videogame horizons. I'll but 2 or 3 games from here to Christmas, and get the rest later when they are cheaper and it isn't  Christmas anymore so where are all the big games?

Knock him on his arse, Wiiware!

[JasonhasRSI1]

Great article, I loved it. Thanks for the link.

[KanYozakura]

EXCELLENT article.  Thumbs up.

He brought up a lot of points that I had always known, but not realized.  I was fortunate enough to have a great arcade experience growing up, even as the arcade scene in the US was dying.  I rarely got to go to an actual arcade, but I always slummed around the machines at hotels, malls, and especially hockey rinks (big thing in northern MN).  Basically, all of the local hockey rinks would buy up arcade machines and place them in the lobby; most places had at least 2 or 3 machines, while the more elaborate setups had an entire separate room dedicated to arcade machines.  I got to play all of the Mortal Kombats, Final Fight, Marvel vs Capcom, Afterburner II, MVS games, pinball games, etc....even the vintage Baseball coin op games where you "swing" the bat at a pinball (I got so good at it I would play for hours on a single quarter!).  To this day I make regular trips to a dedicated arcade in a nearby town.

Anyways, the one credit rule was something I had always unknowingly followed because of the exact reason he states: maximum enjoyment.  If I got frustrated with a game, I moved on.  There was no sense in pumping quarters into Metal Slug 2 only to game over 30 seconds later when that same quarter could get me 5 fights in Samurai Shodown IV.

Just some of my thoughts.

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=KanYozakura]

Anyways, the one credit rule was something I had always unknowingly followed because of the exact reason he states: maximum enjoyment.  If I got frustrated with a game, I moved on.  There was no sense in pumping quarters into Metal Slug 2 only to game over 30 seconds later when that same quarter could get me 5 fights in Samurai Shodown IV.

[/QUOTE]

Same here.  Me and a friend played House of the Dead a lot and always tried to see how far we'd get on one credit.  However, we started to cheat in the end, and finished the game by "buying" the last part of the game and the boss.  I regreted it immediately, as it took away a lot from the experience (just dumping a ton of money into the machine and to have all the skill we developed be for nothing).  Other than that I've always been into the one credit thing, especially in fighting games where I realized 3 stages in I still couldn't adaquately pull off three quarters of my moves, so continuing was stupid. 

[gleebergloben1]

that was a very interesting article. i go to tokyo quite often for business, and i've been going to arcades in tokyo for years.  it's a pretty cool experience.  i started playing virtual fighter when it came out, and have a blast playing VF5.  you can find a good arcade at pretty much any major train station in tokyo, but the best are in shinjuku, shibuya, and ikebukuro.  the arcades are always buzzing, clean, and just have a great atmosphere.  it's too bad arcades in the U.S. never recovered from the 80's crash.

[Adamant1]

While I never had an arcade around as a kid, I certainly remember when I, after weeks of failed attempts, managed to ace NES Gradius on a single life (then again, I never understood the point of lives in the Gradius games anyway. Due to the powerup system, if you die once, you end up so weak that you'll just keep dying and dying, never getting back the the kind of power you had when you first died). Dozens of tries, learning enemy locations, strategies for the various sequenzes (I was stuck at the quadshot ship armada at the end of level 3 for ages until I picked up a strategy of increasing my speed to dangerously high levels, then forcing them backwards, forwards, then darting behind them and circling them to avoid the next ship in line), learning which weapons to use on which stages, and the importance of destroying one's own shield in order to build a new, fully powered one to protect against bullet barrages.

Remembering my heart almost popping out of my chestas I navigated the final stretch of the last level, having lost my shield and attempting to collect enough powerups to get a new one, zipping between bullets, spewing out 9 bullets at a time thanks to my double-double options, quickly moving back and forth gunning down ships as soon as they entered the screen, and finally, finally reaching the door to the final chamber. That 5 second long, totally unexciting ending is one of my most cherished sights. I had beaten Gradius. (then round 2 started, and the more dangerous enemies took me by surprise, the deletetion of all my powerups certainly not helping matters, and I quickly died, then, in true Gradius fashion, proceeded to lose all 7/8/whatever remaining lives without beating even the first stage.

But I had beaten the game.

[Alienblue]

I cannot read the article; nothing comes up on my iMac. But I remember arcades. The games were magical, SO much more powerful than "simple" home systems. Even the better systems usually left SOMEthing out and it seemed they could never be coin=op state of the art. But it was a good place to TRY games for a quarter to know what home versions to hope for (though some, like Pac Man and Amidar, were awful)...it was also a place to show your skills. Only a few machines let you continue in the early 80's, so you had just 25 cents to get that score! I held highest score on Kickman, but only 'cause no one else seemed interested. But I played POPEYE one day (one of the most graphicaly amazing game at the time) and a crowd gathered as I made it through all 3 boards- then 4 & 5 with the bouncing skulls...someone said "Wicked! I love this kid!"... it was nice to be recognized!

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=Alienblue]I cannot read the article; nothing comes up on my iMac. [/QUOTE]

If I emailed it to you as a text file (from, say, MS notepad) could you read it? 

[feilong801]

It's a nice read, and there are some grains of truth. But man, is this guy full of himself.

Console gaming isn't nearly as bad as he thinks it is. I spent lots of time in standard arcades playing one on one fighters, studying movesets, doing all that competitive stuff. But that doesn't preclude me from enjoying the console experience as well.

-Rob