I have a lot of found memories of Sega World in Picadilly Circus. Later as I lived in Japan, I really loved the Sega arcades. Truly the end of an Era.
Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.
Sega World was always one of my highlights of going to London. Would always stop in there.
I remember one time I'd just sold 800 Beanie Babies for $250,000 in cash (dude flew in from Chicago with it) and was feeling flush. Went in Sega World and they had a new Jurassic Park hydraulic deluxe game. IIRC it was three quid PER CREDIT, and it was a two-player game. So it was six quid just to start. There was an employee stationed outside who would put your money in for you.
So, me and my buddy go and get literally hundreds of quid coins and go back to the game and pour these coins into the guy's shirt and tell him KEEP FEEDING THE BEAST. DO NOT STOP. So we played that fucker all the way through to the end. I think we only spent about 90 quid in total to finish it. The employee was over the moon. He said he'd been working there for weeks but no-one ever wanted to play after the first credit and he'd really wanted to see the end sequence.
GameWorks, the American-based joint venture started by Sega and Dreamworks, closed all of its remaining locations last month. RIP the downtown Seattle arcade.
On the upside, Round 1 is steadily expanding throughout the US.
For those who don't know, Round 1 is a Japanese arcade company that also has US locations, and they import many only-intended-for-Japan arcade cabinets to said locations, including some that are only in Japanese. Their rhythm game sections in particular are basically unsurpassed by American standards, it's like stepping into a slice of Tokyo.
Wow, I was about to ask if anyone knew what this meant for GameWorks.
Even if I was too young for the golden age of American arcades, I’m glad I got to experience their twilight. The vertically-integrated, destination-class concept was clearly the end-state for the industry, but it was still a blast to go.
We still have barcades, which are fun, though they tend to be exclusively retro-gaming, appealing first and foremost to Gen X nostalgia. Looks like I'll need to go to Tokyo to get behind the wheel of an Initial D arcade machine again.
What’s crazy is that the closure came as a surprise to many - I and most of my friends didn’t see any notice of it at all. I would’ve gone to the Seattle location one last time to get in some Third Strike.
I've been to the Japanese arcades many times, and I'd noticed changes cross the era of machine. A lot of the newer machines are either trying to be some kind of new arcade moba or card-based experience (half or more of which seemed to flop, with entire empty floors). More single player oriented experiences feature a game loop where a small, core element consisting of about 5 minutes costs a 100 yen coin regardless of outcome. For example, the Initial D game where every single race costs 100 yen or the Pokemon game where you pay 100 yen to get into a battle and another coin if you want to actually catch the wild pokemon you beat. It's a move away from the classic model where you would usually pay on losing all your lives which could cost more but was more dependent on player skill. It was a more interactive, more participatory, model. A meritocratic one where being able to beat an entire 30 minute game session of a scrolling shooter on as few coins as possible would be an impressive source of bragging rights. The change absolutely feels like the mobile micro-transaction model extended to coin-op. To me, it narrows the gap between an arcade and a pachinko parlor, so I simply don't feel as compelled to go to arcades.
The perennial fighting games and giant robot battles still pull crowds from their appreciators, as something of the core of the arcade business. That, and the two floors of UFO crane games still seem to hold fairly strong sway from what I've seen. The pandemic situation made things worse for arcades, but like many things that you've heard of many times before it only accelerated an inevitable decline. I think the move here would be first to downsize, then maybe specialize.
The first episode of Netflix's High Score covers the 1970s and early 1980s video games, including arcades. The guy who made Ms. Pac Man started by making arcade mods that increased the difficulty of games. It was a killer business model because arcades were getting lower revenue over time because the playerbase would get good at a game within months. It isn't correct to say micro-transactions moved into arcades. It's more accurate to say arcade MTX have moved into the home.
Arcade value prop is at an all-time low. It's too bad, because rhythm games are a lot of fun and impractical for homes.
Spent three weeks in Tokyo for my honeymoon a few years ago. I know of no experience that for me can rival the type of joy of spending late nights in an arcade (not saying it’s the pinnacle, just a unique experience). Even my wife who is a non-gamer found it a thrill. Perhaps with the shut downs it will consolidate to a few profitable centers that can remain. Individuals can’t afford Dancerush Stardum or those gundam games.
I don’t know if consolidation is going to be a good thing. Game developers need a player base to be profitable, and that usually means games available to the public.
It is very sad. I've moved to Japan recently and a lot of the arcades either have shut down or now have way more 'commercial' games that are essentially gambling and those gundam like games. I'm sure they are fun but they aren't "real" arcade games to me :(
I grew up, and spent most of money, at the arcades. Luckily, a friend introduced me to MAME 22 years ago. I still play Golden Axe, Alien Storm, Altered Beast almost every day after work.
I actually prefer MAME to the real thing. Wireless controllers, pause, auto fire settings and whatnot.
Victim of COVID for sure, but I wonder if they were also a victim of the indoor smoking ban enacted in 2020. Japanese arcades were full of smokers when I was there. The smoking ban might well end up being the most significant legacy of the cursed Olympics.
The fact that there's no (legal) way to get some of those games out of Japan and into the hands of people who want to play them is a good indicator of a lack of wanting to do the work on the seller side. There's an article from Wired [1] a bit ago about the harrowing efforts of getting dancing game cabinets and the like out, and the DRM that goes into keeping them region-locked such that it's hard for gamers in the US to get to them.
I went to GameWorks in Seattle at one point for a party and roughly 1/3 of the cabinets were cobranded with companies like King or PopCap, played like slot machines, and were more at home in a Vegas casino than a kids arcade. The others were a mixture of Japan imports from Sega and such that had been semi-localized (or, for a few, not even localized at all, just laid there for the Ultra Weeb gaijin and homesick Japanese exchange students) and "classics" like super hang-on and mortal kombat.
Fact of the matter is that most modern arcade cabinets are just glorified consoles running a single game with a shitload of DRM on them, or windows/sometimes-linux machines running a single executable, stripped down to the bare minimum, then let sit in an arcade. If Konami can put the work into selling a game on a console, unless there's a really compelling reason to make the gameplay loop fit an arcade feel and not sell it as an "Arcade Console" game, they're not gonna put in the overhead of putting it into an arcade cabinet. Unless you've got some serious gimmick like a funny ridable controller [2] or a DJ style button set [3] then you're basically just selling a console game.
Arcades hold a large portion of my childhood memories. It was the place where I made friends from outside my social circle of school and neighborhood. I suppose in some ways it was an afternoon night club for kids.
I have no idea where if anywhere kids today can find the same connections outside of parent subsidized sports and art programs. (Which really do not have the autonomy and real world social interactions arcades provided me.)
I could hardly wait for my paper route money to come in so that I could meet up with my friends spend it at the arcade!
Possible shopping centers have provide a similar experience but I feel the writing is on the wall and it does not bode well for these either.
I worry that pseudo friendships such as those found online or soon in the Metaverse being the only option for our youth, will have long lasting negative consequences on our society which appears to be in decline already.
I remember the fun of going to a couple Sega arcades in Tokyo in ‘98 when there on business. At one of them they had people out front handing out mini packs of Sega branded tissues! They gave me several, it was a cool souvenir I shared with a few friends.
Space Harrier was a good game. Afterburner at least _looked_ good.
In retrospect, Out Run is a much weaker game, sillier than I remembered -- especially when you consider Konami's outstanding (if madly difficult) WEC Le Mans came out the same year. Good soundtrack though.
I wonder if they could sell it to consumers instead of focusing on malls and places. There are certain type of Arcade that offer better experience beyond console and computer gaming.
But I guess that is too courages move for a Japanese company.
Arcade1up is slowly filling this gap. They've already done an Outrun cabinet for example. It seems Arcade1up's quality gradually increases with each release so there is hope they might do some Sega games justice in the future.
One of my best friends LOVES Sega and in 2017 we got the opportunity to not only visit Japan but the Sega arcade as well. Such great memories, it will be missed.
Arcades used to have the next level graphics games with the best controls vs consoles. Now the gap is almost completely closed. Which is why you see a lot of arcade games with crazy controls that you cannot have at home.
I think of Mortal Kombat at the arcade before there was any version to play at home.
Nothing can ever compete with that. The finishing moves were like this occult knowledge that you would see certain kids have and think of them as some kind of martial arts masters. No internet to tell you how to do them. Would just have to try to watch the master and figure out what they were doing when they did the finishing move.
Scarcity of game play the coin created along with having to be social at the arcade. Just an awesome experience as a kid.
I had this explained to me as Sega selling their remaining shares in Genda Inc/their joint venture. Genda was already the majority owner/maintainer of the arcades.
Now no longer having an affiliation with Sega, Genda's rebranding under the GiGo brand, but there's no real administrative change.
Although there are tons of ways to build an arcade machine by oneself (usually by emulation on a Pi), I wonder if there is enough customer base for Sega to sell them to individual customers.
oh there’s a pretty sophisticated network for buying arcade cabinets in the US, Sega cabs included. Wired did a writeup on this a couple weeks ago [1]. they really aren’t cheap though. there are a few reasons for the big players to not want these sold on the open market though, like licensing/copyright headaches, which will probably be amplified as people reverse-engineer the game and mod/add their own content.
[+] [-] DerekL|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksec|4 years ago|reply
If that is the case I am fine. I was rather worry about the end of Arcade. Especially with Racing Games.
[+] [-] SllX|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] friedturkey|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sersi|4 years ago|reply
Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.
[+] [-] kingcharles|4 years ago|reply
I remember one time I'd just sold 800 Beanie Babies for $250,000 in cash (dude flew in from Chicago with it) and was feeling flush. Went in Sega World and they had a new Jurassic Park hydraulic deluxe game. IIRC it was three quid PER CREDIT, and it was a two-player game. So it was six quid just to start. There was an employee stationed outside who would put your money in for you.
So, me and my buddy go and get literally hundreds of quid coins and go back to the game and pour these coins into the guy's shirt and tell him KEEP FEEDING THE BEAST. DO NOT STOP. So we played that fucker all the way through to the end. I think we only spent about 90 quid in total to finish it. The employee was over the moon. He said he'd been working there for weeks but no-one ever wanted to play after the first credit and he'd really wanted to see the end sequence.
I love you Sega. You'll always be my first crush.
[+] [-] daniel-cussen|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ronnier|4 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega
Founders * Martin Bromley * Richard Stewart
[+] [-] seanmcdirmid|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TulliusCicero|4 years ago|reply
For those who don't know, Round 1 is a Japanese arcade company that also has US locations, and they import many only-intended-for-Japan arcade cabinets to said locations, including some that are only in Japanese. Their rhythm game sections in particular are basically unsurpassed by American standards, it's like stepping into a slice of Tokyo.
[+] [-] mortenjorck|4 years ago|reply
Even if I was too young for the golden age of American arcades, I’m glad I got to experience their twilight. The vertically-integrated, destination-class concept was clearly the end-state for the industry, but it was still a blast to go.
We still have barcades, which are fun, though they tend to be exclusively retro-gaming, appealing first and foremost to Gen X nostalgia. Looks like I'll need to go to Tokyo to get behind the wheel of an Initial D arcade machine again.
[+] [-] Klonoar|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JetAlone|4 years ago|reply
The perennial fighting games and giant robot battles still pull crowds from their appreciators, as something of the core of the arcade business. That, and the two floors of UFO crane games still seem to hold fairly strong sway from what I've seen. The pandemic situation made things worse for arcades, but like many things that you've heard of many times before it only accelerated an inevitable decline. I think the move here would be first to downsize, then maybe specialize.
[+] [-] willis936|4 years ago|reply
Arcade value prop is at an all-time low. It's too bad, because rhythm games are a lot of fun and impractical for homes.
[+] [-] tasogare|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] lefstathiou|4 years ago|reply
Spent three weeks in Tokyo for my honeymoon a few years ago. I know of no experience that for me can rival the type of joy of spending late nights in an arcade (not saying it’s the pinnacle, just a unique experience). Even my wife who is a non-gamer found it a thrill. Perhaps with the shut downs it will consolidate to a few profitable centers that can remain. Individuals can’t afford Dancerush Stardum or those gundam games.
[+] [-] Nbox9|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] creakingstairs|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beebeepka|4 years ago|reply
I actually prefer MAME to the real thing. Wireless controllers, pause, auto fire settings and whatnot.
I wish Gens was as alive as MAME.
[+] [-] nyanpasu64|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LightG|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toyg|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] indrora|4 years ago|reply
The fact that there's no (legal) way to get some of those games out of Japan and into the hands of people who want to play them is a good indicator of a lack of wanting to do the work on the seller side. There's an article from Wired [1] a bit ago about the harrowing efforts of getting dancing game cabinets and the like out, and the DRM that goes into keeping them region-locked such that it's hard for gamers in the US to get to them.
I went to GameWorks in Seattle at one point for a party and roughly 1/3 of the cabinets were cobranded with companies like King or PopCap, played like slot machines, and were more at home in a Vegas casino than a kids arcade. The others were a mixture of Japan imports from Sega and such that had been semi-localized (or, for a few, not even localized at all, just laid there for the Ultra Weeb gaijin and homesick Japanese exchange students) and "classics" like super hang-on and mortal kombat.
Fact of the matter is that most modern arcade cabinets are just glorified consoles running a single game with a shitload of DRM on them, or windows/sometimes-linux machines running a single executable, stripped down to the bare minimum, then let sit in an arcade. If Konami can put the work into selling a game on a console, unless there's a really compelling reason to make the gameplay loop fit an arcade feel and not sell it as an "Arcade Console" game, they're not gonna put in the overhead of putting it into an arcade cabinet. Unless you've got some serious gimmick like a funny ridable controller [2] or a DJ style button set [3] then you're basically just selling a console game.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring...
[2] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc...
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs
[+] [-] chrischen|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sigmaprimus|4 years ago|reply
I have no idea where if anywhere kids today can find the same connections outside of parent subsidized sports and art programs. (Which really do not have the autonomy and real world social interactions arcades provided me.)
I could hardly wait for my paper route money to come in so that I could meet up with my friends spend it at the arcade!
Possible shopping centers have provide a similar experience but I feel the writing is on the wall and it does not bode well for these either.
I worry that pseudo friendships such as those found online or soon in the Metaverse being the only option for our youth, will have long lasting negative consequences on our society which appears to be in decline already.
[+] [-] peapicker|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] astrange|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ArtWomb|4 years ago|reply
https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel
[+] [-] unfocussed_mike|4 years ago|reply
In retrospect, Out Run is a much weaker game, sillier than I remembered -- especially when you consider Konami's outstanding (if madly difficult) WEC Le Mans came out the same year. Good soundtrack though.
[+] [-] ksec|4 years ago|reply
But I guess that is too courages move for a Japanese company.
[+] [-] city41|4 years ago|reply
https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machin...
[+] [-] raitom|4 years ago|reply
If you are interested, here is a link to the guy I bought my machine from: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/k-c-game-sale.10993/...
[+] [-] vondur|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] NetOpWibby|4 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293
[+] [-] m3kw9|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] telxosser|4 years ago|reply
Nothing can ever compete with that. The finishing moves were like this occult knowledge that you would see certain kids have and think of them as some kind of martial arts masters. No internet to tell you how to do them. Would just have to try to watch the master and figure out what they were doing when they did the finishing move.
Scarcity of game play the coin created along with having to be social at the arcade. Just an awesome experience as a kid.
[+] [-] speedcoder|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Asmod4n|4 years ago|reply
What is allowed are gambling game casinos. Wish it would be the other way around.
[+] [-] tpmx|4 years ago|reply
E.g. important institutions like the world's best physical electronic component store Akizuki Denshi?
[+] [-] Cpoll|4 years ago|reply
Now no longer having an affiliation with Sega, Genda's rebranding under the GiGo brand, but there's no real administrative change.
[+] [-] hnthrowaway0315|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wallacoloo|4 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring...
[+] [-] evolve2k|4 years ago|reply
I’d be interested to know the names of the last or even last few titles produced, just to help bookmark the end of the era.
[+] [-] stellcorn|4 years ago|reply