My rant on arcades.
Arcade games used to be a significant source of my video game leisure. Now I have found that I have not even played a arcade in a couple of years. The state of affairs arcades are in really is sad. I predict the eventual extinction of not only arcade games but also the arcades themselves in the near future. I used to walk to the grocery store or gas station when I was around ten just to play games. Every time I recieved money I went to the store and blew it on Street Fighter 2 or those Wonderful SNK multi game arcades. At the mall I used to make it a point to drop by the arcade to check out any new games. Whenever I went to the movies I would sacrafice snacks to play a game. This was the golden age of arcade gaming. Then something very evil and bad happened in the industry that shocked many peopl. The price rose from a simple petty quarter to a mind numbing fifty cents. Remeber when you stuck in a quarter to play a game and it said insert 2nd coin. I felt mad and jipped at the same time. That move right there was what will be the eventual downfall of arcades. Not only did it alienate many gamers, but it also opened all of the floodgates for the industry to charge whatever it wanted. Now the few arcades out cost at least fifty cents and is very common to be at one dollar.I was quickly realizing that many new arcades cost 2 credits to play. While some only cost a quarter to continue, some even had the nerve to use 2 credits to continue. It seemed all of the big huge machines used 2 quarters so I stayed away looking for SNK arcades which were staying the same by only charging a quarter to play their magnificent games. For a while that was all I played until those started to disappear. Then I found RPG's on my SNES and found that spending money everytime I wanted to play a game was stupid and if I just brought the game then I could play whenever. When SF2 came out for the SNES and it was a hit,I completly stopped except for SNK. My arcade days were coming to an end.
I recently peeked in a arcade to find a almost deserted room with no customers. There was only a couple of seventy five cent games which I passed hoping to see a great game for a quarter.I never found one. With all of the power home consoles have now it is almost stupid to play arcades. Moast everything done in arcades is quickly ported over to the console and is sold pretty cheap. Arcades are now almost rendred useless. The only ones I feel sorry are SNK who made killer arcades with variety and only charged a quarter. I can care less for Sega's fifty cent Virtua Fighter games that were on the Saturn before I got out of the Arcade. If arcades do ever come back to a quarter, which I seriously doubt, or a company starts to make quarter arcades, ditto, I will be first in line to play them .If, however I am subject to endless shooting clones or racing games that require 3 credits to play then forget about it. I can just buy a new console or game and get more out of that than any arcade over a quarter.
