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[Richard Kain]

I think that someone should come up with a way for arcade operators to have greater agency over the games they are making available. Part of the problem with the arcade business model is that it has become financially untenable for arcade operators. But there are a lot of things that could be done to help change this.

1. Smaller cabinets. This is something that has been confusing me for some time. With modern computer components, there is no need to have enormous cabinets for each game. Why not shrink the cabinets down to make them easier to maintain. With smaller cabinets, you can also pack more of them into a smaller space. I specifically thought of a wall-mounted design for an arcade cabinet.

2. Cheaper licencing. Having to pay enormous amounts for games, or having to "rent" games from the manufacturer is no longer a viable option for arcade operators. That level of overhead kills profits. Modern indie development might actually be able to help with this. If arcade operators could pay a smaller one-time fee, they could afford to purchase more games for use in their establishments. Once the licence is purchased, they could run the game on any of their cabinets.

3. Networked control. With modern networking technology, there's no reason why each cabinet shouldn't be networked to an arcade-specific server, and why the arcade operator couldn't control all the machines from one station. There are any number of advantages that this could lend them. Turning an arcade into an impromptu LAN party would be fantastic.

[Player 3]

3. Networked control. With modern networking technology, there's no reason why each cabinet shouldn't be networked to an arcade-specific server, and why the arcade operator couldn't control all the machines from one station. There are any number of advantages that this could lend them. Turning an arcade into an impromptu LAN party would be fantastic.

This sort of reminds me of that Quake-like Atari made back at some Q-Zar place. Four buttons worked like WASD did and a joystick to aim. It was one of those linked up to a few others for deathmatches, much in the same manner fighter games were. That was a new type of scheme for arcade games if I've ever seen one.

[s0]

you mean war: final assault (lolgenericname)?

[XRA]

technology needs to get better so that it is easier to just browse games in-progress on an app store, without having to download a trial or wait or anything.  Ability to drop in to other people's games for challenges, have leader boards and challenges clustered to near your location/city.  Make it as easy as possible to drop the equivalent of a quarter to play a game for a bit if that is all you want...  It'll happen that way eventually and the things that made arcades good will return. 

[AshfordPride]

My personal experience is that going to an arcade was a great way to kill a day.  I live about forty minutes away from New York City by way of train, and my friends are even closer.  We spent dozens of days heading into the city, walking from Penn Station to Chinatown Fair, and then spending an hour or two there before doing something else.  It was fun, it got us out of the typical setting of either house A, B, or C and for a kid that can't drink yet this was a place that I could go to in New York City.  It's a cheap attraction that you could spend time with your friends at, and you could spend a long time there for a little cash.  In the broadest sense, that's what an arcade meant to me.  It's also a great way to have fun with new people.  I never made any friends at the arcade, but everyone always seemed like a bro.  Nobody ever seemed to get mad when they lost, it was just a nice time. 

Chinatown Fair really impressed me because they seemed dedicated to getting us new games as quickly as they could while still dedicating plenty of space for older games that people want to play.  This place was always packed, I mean wall to wall with sweaty fucking nerds.  Still, I never had to wait very long to play any game.  A line was never longer than one or two people, barring certain exceptions like MvC3 when it first came out of course.  That was nice, I'm down for watching a bit but you never want to be stuck behind a huuuuuuge line of people.  There were a few broken machines, but typically the only cabinets that fell into serious disrepair were older variants of games where perfectly working newer variants were supplied.  So that was another thing, this was a place where I could play, nearly exclusively, some of my favorite video games.



I don't really know what you guys would like to know specifically, but for someone who has spent about four years going to a fantastic arcade I'd be happy to answer any more targeted questions you guys might have about it.

[baconman]

^ Favorite BEMANI game ever. And name 3 songs you'd play right now if you could.

[s0]

It's a cheap attraction that you could spend time with your friends at, and you could spend a long time there for a little cash.

I think that's why arcades never caught on here in Europe. The prices are ridiculous. A credit is 1 Euro (that's 1.3 'Murican Dollars!) in every arcade I've been to. So what few good arcade memories I have come from trips to the US and from an Italian holiday resort which had a great arcade with (at the time) brand new games like Tekken Tag Tournament and Time Crisis 2 and reasonably priced credits.

[dustin]

Yeah my experience with arcades is similar to Samtagonist in that it was a cheap place to hang out.  I still do go to the one I went to as a kid often.  It's an awesome arcade.

[AshfordPride]

^ Favorite BEMANI game ever. And name 3 songs you'd play right now if you could.

The only rhythm game I've ever played in an arcade was Rhythm Tengoku.  There was one giant button you have to slap, it was pretty great.  At Chinatown fair, those DDR games were the only ones that were constantly packed.  A constant rotation of shirtless homosexuals were always on those things at Chinatown Fair.  One of them broke the stick on Guilty Gear by sitting on the cabinet waiting for their turn.  Apparently Chinatown Fair was a big gay hangout, I never noticed myself.  

I think that's why arcades never caught on here in Europe. The prices are ridiculous. A credit is 1 Euro (that's 1.3 'Murican Dollars!) in every arcade I've been to. So what few good arcade memories I have come from trips to the US and from an Italian holiday resort which had a great arcade with (at the time) brand new games like Tekken Tag Tournament and Time Crisis 2 and reasonably priced credits.

Chinatown was nice.  New games were a dollar, everything else was a quarter.  

Some games that didn't have an arcade version had an interesting rig where you would pay twenty five cents for three minutes of play.  This is how games like SF4 and Arcana Heart 3 worked, and it was great.  You could get three and a half full games in if you hurried.

Also, spoilers, they closed down because they couldn't make enough money.

[dustin]

There was one giant button you have to slap, it was pretty great.

That would be pop 'n music.  Also my favorite BEMANI game

[AshfordPride]

There was one giant button you have to slap, it was pretty great.

That would be pop 'n music.  Also my favorite BEMANI game

No man, there's a Rhythm Tengoku arcade version.  I'm sure of it.

[dustin]

ahh whoops I misread your post, I thought you were asking what the game was with giant buttons, I didn't see that it was one giant button and that you weren't asking.  pop 'n music has many giant buttons

Also I had no idea there was an arcade rhythm tengoku I want to play that so bad now  

[s0]

but the arcade version of rhythm tengoku doesn't have just one giant button either. it has what amounts to an oversized gameboy setup with a d-pad and two buttons.

[shig]

Ten years ago or something, there were a few arcades close enough to my house that I could go to them walking. I was 8 to 10 years old I think, and I would play fighting games and beat 20+ year old dudes routinely at MVC and KoF98. Often a small crowd would gather behind me if I kept playing for an hour or so.

I used to think I was hot shit and the best player ever. Nowadays I reckon I wasn't that good and most people I played against were just completely retarded.

Over the years they slowly disappeared, tho, and that's pretty sad.

[Player 3]

This thread is now on my arcade questions. Now for a bit of business.

With the traditional model of "renting" arcade cabinets being expunged, how exactly would distribution be useful? I have heard of restaurants and bars using some sort of internal thing, like mentioned elsewhere, that trivia for example did using mobile telephones.

How exactly would one go about a system similar to that without being forced to devise custom hardware? Does anything like the Google TV devices support Android applications of sorts?