Arcade games and you, a perspective on arcades through time.
Arcades have been a staple of american culture since the early 1900's. Albiet they changed from pinball halls and billiards to the modern day video games, they both served the same purpose. They fill the void of which a pastime would do, whilst in a public setting to compete with others to be number one.
The main turning point of the world of arcades was in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Games like Pac-Man, Space invaders, and Galaga were filling up arcades all across the United States. This was considered to be the golden age of arcade games, where kids could go after school, throw some nickels into the machines and have at it until dinner time. Arcades became a way of socializing in this time period.
Arcades have since evolved, now most of the arcades in the United states are glorified casinos for young adults. Most arcade games now are not games of skill, but more luck based. They are ran by incentives to make you spend $20 dollars on something that you can get easily online for a few dollars. Although you might have fun in that time period, it truly is not worth the time or effort put into it.
There are new arcades starting up in the United states which are based off of Japanese machines. Games such as Sound Voltex, IIDX, DDR, Initial D, and Gunslinger Stratos 3 are making an emergence in American conventions and arcades. These games revive the spirit of competition that the golden age of arcades created, the race for the top of the scoreboards. Some of the new games even have online multiplayer and online scoreboards. It's crazy to see how the opposite side of the world runs their arcades compared to the United States. All I know is I am going to throw a few more bucks into the Sound voltex machine next time I hit the arcade up.
I think the arcade culture didn't go away until the mid 90s. I can recall the graphics just weren't good enough yet and the best way to get the coolest looking games was to go to the nearest arcade. Also, some games were just so cool and came out on arcade first such as house of the dead series or killer instinct.
Definitely, the issue was though home console took over the market. Who wanted to pay all this money on someone else's time, when you could hook it up to your own TV and play yourself. That's why the console market became huge in the 90's and we had the good ol' console war.
The game console also kept kids from ditching school as much...lol. I can't tell you how many times I would be at the laundromat not far from the school playing Tekken or one of the other games that is until like you said the consoles got better.
I can only imagine how much money I spent on those things.
I enjoyed to play PacMan, liked the simple sound effects and music in those Arcade games.
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