21–30 of 74 posts
They were already less cool as of late. Gone were a lot of the “one game per machine” things and instead they just had a bunch of crane games and these “multi-title” machines with standardized controls. So, you could sit anywhere and play the same thing unless it had unique controls/displays or could still justify its own cabinet.
did they stop making those elaborate cockpit setups for the Gundam games?
Having lived in Japan for the past decade I can say that game centers (arcades to those outside Japan) have changed. I remember playing rhythm based games (pop-n-music, taiko drum master, etc.) and some fighting/shooting games for a few years. But, within the last two years or so, the NFC card requirement for almost all games has come to fruition. Wanna play that racing game? Gonna need to "grind" a vehicle and save…
An interesting thing is that you don't have to buy their NFC card either, most of the Konami cabs (e-amusement) can accept a Suica/any IC transit card (a side effect of their card systems both using FeliCa).
I live in Detroit and within the past few years 3 arcade bars have opened within walking distance of my apartment and another is about to open. These are the places I tend to frequent (actually about to go to one to after writing this and went to another last night). The thing that separates them from console or PC games for me is pinball. I cannot justify buying a machine, but I’m loving the resurgence.
We have lots of arcade bars in Chicago, too. I'm glad they exist, but sometimes you just want to play a game without having to interact with or smell drunk people.
What does this mean for Round 1? It seems to be making inroads in the US.
Having lived in Japan for the past decade I can say that game centers (arcades to those outside Japan) have changed. I remember playing rhythm based games (pop-n-music, taiko drum master, etc.) and some fighting/shooting games for a few years. But, within the last two years or so, the NFC card requirement for almost all games has come to fruition. Wanna play that racing game? Gonna need to "grind" a vehicle and save…
I'm surprised you have that takeaway for NFC since you have played some rhythm games at least. For the most part I'd say on most rhythm games I've played (IIDX, SDVX, Groove Coaster) it's pretty much storing your song scores so you can see what you've played before and you can go to another arcade and have the same data there too. I feel it's less of a grinding thing and more of a player convenience there. An interes…
However there are tons of arcade bars in the US. Hopefully this will become a thing in Japan
They are already mostly gone except in a few places in tokyo and the obvious geek dens like Akihabara. And they are all smoking which means you get cigarette smell amd feel dirty after no time. No thanks.
You're thinking about pachinko with the smoking. None of the video game arcades allow smoking.
I live in Detroit and within the past few years 3 arcade bars have opened within walking distance of my apartment and another is about to open. These are the places I tend to frequent (actually about to go to one to after writing this and went to another last night). The thing that separates them from console or PC games for me is pinball. I cannot justify buying a machine, but I’m loving the resurgence.
We have lots of arcade bars in Chicago, too. I'm glad they exist, but sometimes you just want to play a game without having to interact with or smell drunk people.
Replay is the biggest offender of this, they spend thousands of dollars every few weeks to theme the bar but pretty much every game came out before 99 with tons being from the 80s. And they barely maintain them. Also the theme drinks are pretty much all the same and overpriced, just with a different name.
What really threw me was the absolutely impenetrable MOBA style games that seemed to fill entire levels on their own. They looked like they were designed for lots of long term play and grinding, and needed some kind of way to store progress. Even though I must have seen 50 of these machines filling entire floors at the few arcades I went to, I never actually saw anybody playing them.
There was however a dedicated "scene" in the basement of one of the arcades where they were playing some kind of competitive mech game. The cabinet was unusual in that it had arcade style controls, but also looked like it had a playstation-like controller as well (maybe as an option?)
I have no idea what the arcade culture or scene is like in Japan, but going in I thought I'd spend more time there and have more fun trying out weird stuff that hadn't made it to the U.S. In the end I think I found a Tekken 5 cabinet and played a few rounds against a few players and then left.
Having lived in Japan for the past decade I can say that game centers (arcades to those outside Japan) have changed. I remember playing rhythm based games (pop-n-music, taiko drum master, etc.) and some fighting/shooting games for a few years. But, within the last two years or so, the NFC card requirement for almost all games has come to fruition. Wanna play that racing game? Gonna need to "grind" a vehicle and save…
Reasons those arcade games requiring (or giving benefit) for NFC (like Paseli by Konami): * Game company want to collect money more from arcade shop. * Managing many coins aren't easy task. * Consumption tax is raised from 5% to 10% in past decade, but coin (100 JPY) game can't apply the raised tax precisely. * Flexible play options thanks to ability of flexible pricing * Anyway most player want to save game progress…