Arcades to be popular again in North America.

[TEXAN]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7061

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-03-2005/0004207608&EDATE=

[Hardknock]

God I hope this is successful. I really miss the old days of battling out strangers on Tekken and Street Fighter. The bar and grill idea sounds really interesting and hopefully can help shed the idea that arcades are only for kids. Now all we need are some decent arcade exclusive games.

[mckmas8808]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7061

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-03-2005/0004207608&EDATE=

I prefer internet gaming on my couch with no kids in the way thank you.

[MoeStooge]

I used to love playing arcade games back when they were fun to play and only cost a quarter. Now everytime I'm in an arcade (ESPN Fun Zone or Dave & Busters for instance) I see games that suck and cost me a dollar to play. That dollar might get me 5 minutes of playing if I am lucky too.

Hmmm......suck?.....dollar?.....5 minutes?.......Am I talking about a video game or a blowjob from a cheap hooker?

[Guden Oden]

Not THAT cheap I'd hope, or it'd be a hooker who doesn't even have any teeth left.

...Though a toothless hooker might be able to charge MORE than a buck a job, hahaha... (Now I'm beginning to get disgusting, eeww. Better stop!)

Anyway, arcades popular again? Naah, I dunno. Somehow I can't envision it. For starters, the price/fun ratio is terrible these days, and the hardware frankly isn't up to snuff compared to peoples' monster home systems.

I'd love to see a resurgence of retrocades tho, probably using PC emulators to run the games, and cheap, cheap prices. A $500 PC could easily run almost any game from the 80s and early 90s. Get some nice cabinets for 'em, stuff 30 or 40 machines running different games (that could easily change from day/week to day/week to provide variety) in a big hall with mirrors on the walls and cool neon lights and off you go! :D

...Or maybe it's just me being excessively nostalgic, I dunno. I've no idea if something like that could be economically feasible. I just recall my youth, that was filled with Out Run and Alien Syndrome and Operation Wolf and Psychic 5 and Rygar and Nemesis and R-Type and tons of other cool titles. Or so we thought THEN anyway...! :D

[Alpha_Spartan]

Flop! Arcades have to give us something that can't be done at home. We have thousand dollar HD televisions with theatre quality surround sound and consoles that put arcade machines to shame. Arcades need to evolve. Give us something like massively multiplayer virtual reality FPS, racing, fighting and air combat games. How about something like laser tag except you're in a virtual reality world with CG-quality graphics (not that ugly polygonal shit).

Seriously, arcades used to be popular because they gave us an experience that was better and not feasible at home. Today it seems to be the opposite. I can stare at a screen at home. Give me something I can't replicate in the comfort of my own home. No one is going to drop change into something that they can do better for free.

[cleardayout]

I'd love to see a resurgence of retrocades tho, probably using PC emulators to run the games, and cheap, cheap prices. A $500 PC could easily run almost any game from the 80s and early 90s. Get some nice cabinets for 'em, stuff 30 or 40 machines running different games (that could easily change from day/week to day/week to provide variety) in a big hall with mirrors on the walls and cool neon lights and off you go! :D

...Or maybe it's just me being excessively nostalgic, I dunno. I've no idea if something like that could be economically feasible. I just recall my youth, that was filled with Out Run and Alien Syndrome and Operation Wolf and Psychic 5 and Rygar and Nemesis and R-Type and tons of other cool titles. Or so we thought THEN anyway...! :D

and an 80's jukebox blaring in the background.

[Bill]

I would think high end PC hardware could give Arcades the tech advantage back.

And it should be much cheaper than the old dedicated boards!

Even now, for example, we have a 580 mhz 7800 GTX coming out! Pair that with 2 gigs of RAM or something..

And in two years, you'll blow away the consoles.

Or SLI..

[TEXAN]

I would think high end PC hardware could give Arcades the tech advantage back.

And it should be much cheaper than the old dedicated boards!

Even now, for example, we have a 580 mhz 7800 GTX coming out! Pair that with 2 gigs of RAM or something..

And in two years, you'll blow away the consoles.

Or SLI..

We already have that in LINDBERGH -

1GB of RAM
580MHz 7800GTX?
1.73/1.8/1.9GHz GDDR3?

[digitalwanderer]

Last time I went to the arcades I was just totally negatively blown-away by the monitors....they were using TVs in the games and the pixels were just huuuge to me!

Until arcades offer an advantage over home gaming again they won't make their comeback.

[TEXAN]

Last time I went to the arcades I was just totally negatively blown-away by the monitors....they were using TVs in the games and the pixels were just huuuge to me!

Until arcades offer an advantage over home gaming again they won't make their comeback.

Don't worry all LINDBERGH games shall release on 62" 1080p widescreen monitors.

[Mefisutoferesu]

Does this mean Vf5 was running at 1080p or is this wishful thinking on your part, Texan?

[digitalwanderer]

Don't worry all LINDBERGH games shall release on 62" 1080p widescreen monitors.
I haven't kept up with widescreen terms since I don't have an HDTV yet, (waiting for the X360 release ;) ), but is it safe to assume that the monitor you're talking about is much more like a PC's resolution than a TV's? :-|

[Powderkeg]

Don't worry all LINDBERGH games shall release on 62" 1080p widescreen monitors.


And will cost $10 per game to play, and will fail horribly because nobody wants to spend more than a quarter playing a game that only lasts 3 minutes.

[TEXAN]

And will cost $10 per game to play, and will fail horribly because nobody wants to spend more than a quarter playing a game that only lasts 3 minutes.

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/632/632303/house-of-the-dead-20050708091521553.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/631/631053/house-of-the-dead-20050703033629135.jpg

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/631/631053/house-of-the-dead-20050703033634135.jpg

"The game's adoption of a 62-inch widescreen monitor"
http://www.gamespot.com/arcade/action/houseofthedead4/news.html?sid=6128917

"The game was set up with a large, wide-screen, high-definition monitor"
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/631/631053p1.html


Where did you get the $10 per play figure from?

[Metal]

Arcades are dead in America forever. The only market you can be succesful with is the 12 and under crowd here. Nobody wants to go to the arcade and play videogames on a date anymore.

[Powderkeg]

Economics.

People have to buy the machine, Sega doesn't give it to them for free.

Sega has to charge enough for the system to earn a profit. They can't afford to take losses on the hardware with an arcade machine.

So, Sega charges the cost of the arcade machine (Hardware, labor and shipping) plus an additional amount for profit. The monitor alone costs well over $2,000. Figure an additional $2,000 for the additional hardware as a minimum. (Gaming hardware as well as the cabinet, shipping, etc...)

So, it's a $4,000 + arcade machine.


Now, to make it worth it, an arcade will have to charge enough per-play to ensure that they make that $4,000+ back, plus help pay for the electricity, staff, lease and other business expenses and still turn a profit.

Now, because of it's size, it will take up the space of 2 normal arcade machines using normal sized screens, so the arcade will also have to charge enough extra to make up for the loss of income from that 2nd machine that they no longer have room for.

The $10 figure was thrown out to make a point, not as an accurate figure, but the point is it would cost 2-3 times as much as other arcade machines easy on a per-play basis. They would probably have to increase the cost beyond that to make up for the lack of people playing such an exptensive machine.

Now, last time I went into an arcade, most of the larger machines were $1-$5 per play already, so double that doesn't seem unrealistic. It may not be $10 per play, but I would expect a cost of about $1 per minute to play it.

And how many people do you know that want to pay $1 per minute to play a video game?

[digitalwanderer]

Point to PowderKeg, even the last shitty arcade I took my kids too charged 4 tokens for 1 play on the good machines....these high-end ones the sky will be the limit. :???:

[Lazy8s]

Video games don't have to be just video games at an arcade; they can be a full-on video game rides with their fully immersive force feedback and deluxe set cabinets. If Sega can also offer cafes and parlors in more North American arcades to round out an evening's entertainment for patrons, their centers can become the premier destination for location-based amusement. This is in perfect allignment with Sammy's plan to delpoy more gaming-type gambling product ranges in the market.

Sega's arcade business is already very profitable, enough to pay off the losses that their consumer division keeps amounting.

[randycat99]

All of this has already long been "done" with such venues such as Blockbuster and Dave & Busters. There is no comeback, because all of this is already happening with merely capped success. Arcades will continue to limp by on a wing and a prayer.

There is nothing more frustrating jumping into a full sitdown simulator arcade machine for a buck just to find the stick shift is thrashed and the force feedback steering wheel is utterly dead. It's like trying to find the "good" machine in a laundromat- totally not worth it if you have far better equipment of known good working order at home.

[Alpha_Spartan]

http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/631/631053/house-of-the-dead-20050703033629135.jpg

Sorry to get off topic, but this guy looks like a gay Super Mario.

[Sonic]

The problems with arcades is that they haven't adapted to new technology as quick as consoles have. There needs to be a fairly cheap arcade board that can pack some pixel pushing power that consoles simply can't touch. They also need a cabinet that while still being highly customizable, is also entirely changeable for the next iteration of games that come out. We need a cheap arcade cabinet that is not custom made for just one game. If there is to be a racing game in the arcade then the cabinet needs to be future proof for other racing games.

Things need to be cheap and future proof, until then the arcade will remain a part of history.

[mckmas8808]

The problems with arcades is that they haven't adapted to new technology as quick as consoles have. There needs to be a fairly cheap arcade board that can pack some pixel pushing power that consoles simply can't touch. They also need a cabinet that while still being highly customizable, is also entirely changeable for the next iteration of games that come out. We need a cheap arcade cabinet that is not custom made for just one game. If there is to be a racing game in the arcade then the cabinet needs to be future proof for other racing games.

Things need to be cheap and future proof, until then the arcade will remain a part of history.

Yeah back in the day I loved arcade games because they made my SNES look like crap. I was always amazed by the super visuals that Daytona USA had. That one arcade game is what impressed me to by a Sega Saturn.