Vice Weekly - What’s your vice?

Quarter Dollar Gaming

The arcades were the end all and be all of gaming back in the late 80s to mid 90s. Many major franchises made their debuts in the arcades, such as Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Bionic Commando and others. Arcade gaming was the equivalent of the Monday Night Football game with your buddies, the only difference was that the arcade was open everyday. Even when the first home consoles came out they featured games that were watered down versions of arcade games. Arcade titles were top of the line in sound, speed, and graphics, it was also a very competitive place to be. People battled for top scores around the clock, day in and day out. When it came to fighting games people plunked down quarters to not only learn the game but also to prove their mettle as a gamer.

Do you remember the days when gaming consisted of a joystick and only the buttons you needed? When to get the best possible graphics you had to get out of your house? When you could make friends or meet a half decent woman while playing games? When you could cut school to play games and not get in trouble? If you don’t, we here at Gaming Vice do, and if you’ve been living under a rock for longer than I’ve been alive I’m talking about the arcades.

These games were a lot more personal too, when you lost, you didn’t just lose a game, you lost that quarter. These games were for pride as well, there weren’t internet thugs calling you a “noob” from fifteen states away, these were real people calling you a scrub to your face, and what could you say, everyone saw you lose. On the flipside if you were the best at your local arcade people saw you as a king among gamers. You could play as long as you wanted on that same quarter. It was a fun and exciting time. Something happened that rocked the boat though, home consoles started to rival the arcades, but that was no big deal at the time it just meant you could play games at the arcade and at home and have a good time all the time. Then it got bad, consoles became better than the arcades in the mid 90s, arcades across the United States began closing in rapid fashion.

The consoles had taken over, why would you drive or walk to the arcade when you could have a better experience at home? The answer is that as good as consoles became they still never defeated the idea of the arcade. Sure you had amazing graphics, beautiful musical scores, and faster gameplay speeds, but you don’t share that experience outside of a few friends. At the arcade you were in another world, sharing your gaming experiences with its inhabitants both familiar and unfamiliar.

Unfortunately this isn’t the universal sentiment, the arcade scene is dead as a result. Most people however tried to recreate the experience with things like Xbox Live, Playstation online, online PC gaming, and Nintendo Wifi. They’re not enough, online games just cannot compare to the personal feeling you got from playing against other people right next to them. The arcade was the perfect medium. Sure you couldn’t play people worldwide but the local competition would be enough to last you a lifetime and you could travel to other arcades if you felt that strongly about it. You didn’t have to worry about lag issues, only broken arcade sticks and buttons that could be fixed by asking the maintenance crew.

The arcade scene could grow to huge numbers again only if there was a demand for it, unfortunately it seems that in the United States we’re content with the online play and the lag and simply complaining about it. Honestly, I’d love to see the new Time Crisis or even Street Fighter 4 in its original arcade format. To get arcades up and running, first we need people who are willing to become entrepeneurs and start putting them in the right areas. Second we’d need players who’re willing to leave their homes to taste the arcade experience. Their are alot of good games that still come out for arcades if you look at the arcades in Asia new games for arcades come out just like new games for consoles. In the US the arcade scene can be revived if gamers who share my opinion, with the means to do so start building them. The arcades are something that gamers know yet don’t realize they need.