Posted by gajaman on 10, 2001 at 11:59 AM:
I went to a couple of arcades that I go to a few times a year this weekend and was dissapointed to see that all of the remaining older video games had gone. Two of the arcades were now just fruit machines. The only videos that the biggest arcade had were either big driving or shooting games. All the generic and jamma cabs had gone, there wasn't one "traditional" cab in the place.
The reason I an writing this is that it dawned on me on the drive home that perhaps this is the future of arcades. With home consoles being more and more powerful, videos in arcades are destined to be limited to the very top end more "interactive" ride on machines that cost a fortune to buy and play. To be honest I left thinking that the arcade as I know (and love) it is dead. Very sad.
On the flip side I visited a very small independant arcade on a tiny sea front in the middle of nowhere and found a 1979 asteroids at the back of the arcade. It was in perfect condition (including original side art). Only problem was a grubby control panel.
The arcade was half shut but tucked away with a load of fruit machines in a back room I could just see an original space invaders that looked in good nick.
They also had a Ms Pacman and a hard version of galaxians in generic cabs. - My kind of arcade.