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[Richard Kain]

I was watching the latest Game Overthinker. The most recent episode describes the decline of the arcade industry. This is a story often lamented and related by those old enough to remember arcades. But midway through the episode, Bob Chipman brought up a rather intriguing development-related idea for a different approach to arcade games.

What if you tied a mobile app into the arcade experience? What if you integrated smartphones into interacting with, or possibly even playing arcade games that are tied to a physical location?

[Player 3]

You mean an app that only works when you're in a certain area? Or an app that provides different data based on your location.

E: Oh. Somewhat like the Nintendo DS-to-store's-Wii method, except...how exactly will the data be preserved? A whole individual application for IDs and stuff from each company that makes an arcade game with this power?

[s0]

You mean a "social gaming network" for smartphones, like Game Center or Openfeint, but for arcade machines? Like, you could register at any machine that supports it using the app on your phone and then have your highscores uploaded to your account on the network or sth?

Sounds like a good idea. Probably not enough to revive arcade culture though. The idea of actually playing arcade games on your phone seems kind of pointless to me though, seeing as custom hardware is the main advantage of arcade machines over home and portable gaming systems.

[dustin]

I think it'd be cool to have local based highscores.  This would bring back some arcade feel to me.  Global high scores are to hard to get on and highscores only on my phone are just all mine.  Letting me compete with others in my general area would be cool or even in specific areas like the airport or the train.

[Richard Kain]

The idea of actually playing arcade games on your phone seems kind of pointless to me though, seeing as custom hardware is the main advantage of arcade machines over home and portable gaming systems.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is no single way to go about this, and that the number of possibilities is staggering.

For starters, custom hardware used to be the main advantage of arcade machines. Guitar Hero changed that, and brought custom hardware into the home.

Now the real "advantage" of an arcade cabinet is simply it's fixed physical location. With modern mobiles being able to track and store locations, tying an arcade game into them would be easier than ever.

If you were able to tie the arcade cabinet's physical location into either gameplay, or into the persistence of the player's personal profile, it would make the physical arcade cabinet significant to the experience.

[Player 3]

Reading in a Wikipedia article on some subject of similar interest, some modern cabinets allow the player to plug in their flash drive in a USB port to save data, identification, and the like. May not exactly be the mobile you're hoping for, but at least the player can use their stuff on an adventure game on, say for example, a Gauntlet-like game. One way to avoid entering a code on a numpad such as the Need for Speed machines.

[Destral]

It could be interesting to have the cabinets function as a sort of server or other data transmitter that the cellphone up picks up on. You could then use it for promotions or something.

Similar to what Nintendo did with the DS's wifi content download for Pokemon and DQ, but for a cellphone app.

Or a foursquare that 'checks you in' automatically when you approach the cabinet, and sends you data that the app cares about (like a new map for your top-down action RPG, or a new tileset for your roguelike).

The possibilities are pretty staggering, but the cost/benefit ratio might be out of whack, especially since the whole point of cellphone games is the fact that you aren't tied to a single location.

It would really be a matter of figuring out why you would want your app to care about physical location.

[moi]

The arcade model was sweet, it's true.
But I don't think there is any way to revive something similar or any  point trying to.

[Richard Kain]

But I don't think there is any way to revive something similar or any  point trying to.

I'm not thinking similar necessarily, but a different approach. And I can't help but feel there is a lot of room for something like this.

For one thing, you could re-purpose a smart phone app as a virtual coin-door. Instead of shoveling dollars and cents into a physical cabinet, you just let the app connect to the machine for feeding in virtual credits. Buy additional credits digitally over the internet. (again, directly from the app)

There's also the idea of storing a player's progress in the game on their smartphone and taking it with them. They use the app to log into the physical location, and their smartphone tells the cabinet how far the player has gone and what they've done.

For certain types of games, you could have specific items that can only be acquired from specific cabinet locations. When you aren't playing the game directly, you could "trade" items with other people who have downloaded the app. Someone from a different part of the city might have items from a different physical cabinet.

And of course, there is the possibility of using the smartphone for actual gameplay. Ancillary functions could be handled by the smartphone alone, but the core gameplay would only take place on the cabinet's screen. In this sort of equation, you would have the Wii-U approach to multiplayer, where each player would have their own micro-screen for play.

Now imagine that you could mix-and-match any of these approaches for experimenting with a "new" arcade cabinet.

[Player 3]

Ah, but one question lies remaining: How exactly will the cabinet (presumably it's just PC hardware in a wooden box) connect with the said smartphone application? What about those who still lack those telephones?

[Richard Kain]

Ah, but one question lies remaining: How exactly will the cabinet (presumably it's just PC hardware in a wooden box) connect with the said smartphone application? What about those who still lack those telephones?

For connecting to the smartphone application you could just install a basic wireless router in the cabinet.

As to those who don't yet have those phones... who cares? If you are going for a more bare-bones approach, you could just have a basic coin door and let them play the basic game without any persistence. (in much the same way as classic arcade games) If you want to go for the full smart-phone integration, than anyone who doesn't have one is out of luck. (although wireless capable devices like the iPod touch would still work)

[moi]

But I don't think there is any way to revive something similar or any  point trying to.

I'm not thinking similar necessarily, but a different approach. And I can't help but feel there is a lot of room for something like this.

For one thing, you could re-purpose a smart phone app as a virtual coin-door. Instead of shoveling dollars and cents into a physical cabinet, you just let the app connect to the machine for feeding in virtual credits. Buy additional credits digitally over the internet. (again, directly from the app)

This is basically paying via smartphone/bluetooth, it already exists and this maybe will become a major payment model in the future .
The question I'm asking is why you want absolutely to see people play games while being tied to one(or several) geographical spot(s) (which seems to be what the content of your post suggest that you're looking for).
In this day and age of "mobile" everything this idea appears a bit obsolete.

[Richard Kain]

The question I'm asking is why you want absolutely to see people play games while being tied to one(or several) geographical spot(s) (which seems to be what the content of your post suggest that you're looking for).
In this day and age of "mobile" everything this idea appears a bit obsolete.

For the same reason that people want to be the mayor of foursquare locations. For the same reasons that people used to enjoy playing against other people in old arcades. And perhaps for no other reason than to expand the gaming experience outside of the home.

The expansion of home gaming and on-line play took gaming away from specific physical locations. I think it would be interesting to experiment with tying it back in. There are potential interactions that are prevented by on-line play.

[Bree]

I know people mentioned local high scores as a desired feature, but I believe there are ways that they're being used currently. I know that my friends in the theatre program had a private scoreboard on Robot Unicorn Attack for their group, which allowed them to try and beat each other's scores. Facebook may end up being a good tool to utilize.

What'd be interesting is something where you get to export data from a normal mobile game to a cabinet and get the benefit of competing with other gamers on a larger screen? Something like that could be very enticing. Even as graphics improve dramatically for handhelds, that larger screen is one definite advantage of an arcade cabinet.

As an example, imagine an arcade version of Pokemon Stadium- just like the home version, you can rent monsters if you don't have one of the games, or you can import your own party from a handheld to compete against others. You could even add the sweet wireless controls that the Wii version implemented, where you select all of your commands on the handheld where your opponent can't see them. Otherwise, the cabinet could have a divider so that the players couldn't look over each other's shoulders.

[s0]

@Richard Kain: The point is I still wouldn't want to go to an arcade just to play a phone game and I can't imagine many other people wanting to. If you're already tying games to a physical location, why not put gaming dedicated machines there for people to use?

 I disagree with your previous about hardware. It's one thing to buy a plastic guitar to play Guitar Hero (and before that there were already lightguns and those DDR pad thingies) but it's a completely different thing to design an entire machine just for one game. Arcades are the only distribution platform (aside from maybe Tiger handhelds) where this is realistically possible, so why not take advantage of it Smartphones are mobile devices and arbitrarily limiting them to local use is putting square wheels on a car.

[baconman]

Internet Cafes are the future arcades. They're basically a sober, nerd-friendly "alternative sports bar" that revolves around community videogaming instead of drinking and betting on sports. People don't HAVE to be there to play their games, but they still choose to GO there to be around other likeminded people.

Can't say much though. My town still has a semi-active arcade scene for just that reason. Bookstores are like that here, too.

[Richard Kain]

Perhaps I should have said "cabinet" instead of "arcade." For the kind of experiment I'm proposing, I don't think a full-on arcade is the best way to start out. I was thinking of taking it back to the very beginning, when most arcade cabinets were mounted in pizza parlors and convenience stores. I was thinking of trying this out with two or three isolated machines spread out across a single city, possibly set up in video game specialty stores. I was also thinking of using a "revised" cabinet model that would take up much less space than the traditional stand-up arcade cabinet.

I don't think the traditional "arcade" is going to be back any time soon. (a dedicated space where a large number of video games are tied to a physical location) But I think there is ample room for playing around with the idea of dedicated locations for games.

[baconman]

Traditional arcades like that are dying a slow, painful death. The expenses involved make it an unaffordable alternative in some senses, although arcade classics, racing game cabinets, pinball machines, and musical games will always have a place there. Oh! And ticket games. They are very arcade-unique experiences that you just can't replicate at home, even virtually. Fighters and social-competitive games are far different when you're playing with actual people PRESENT, too.

A lot of similar industries are dying slowly too, like video/music shops and rental outlets thereof. But I think to some extent, a modern-alternative along the lines of the video arcade is ESSENTIAL, because however fleeting, virtual interaction is always simply virtual. And healthy people need actual, REAL interaction as well, and you can't just stay in college until you're fifty either (however much they're telling you "you should"). Healthy people also don't just blindly bring somebody home that they've played 3 days of online Marvel vs. Capcom with, either.

As far as "dedicated location" games go, that's what people have playgrounds/parks and sports for. Things like that aren't ever going away either. Just because you don't participate doesn't mean they don't still happen.

[dustin]

I love my local arcade.  It would suck not to have one.  I have one in my hometown (Mountain View) and also one in the only other place I've lived for a long time (Santa Cruz) so yeah...

[retrogamer4ever]

There is already kinda an arcade cabinet made for the iPad, it's called icade http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/ Is that kinda what you mean? Also I think we maybe seeing the arcade scene maybe make a return in some form or another... I mean there is the Winnitron, arcade made by some indie game devs and not to mention the awesome stuff that Baby Castle is doing in New York with kind of creating a new age arcade for indie games http://www.facebook.com/babycastles?sk=app_2392950137 I doubt it will be anything to amazing... But perhaps in the next decade or so we may see a revival of arcades but with a nice indie game flavor :-)