The More Things Change
- Thread starter The Wooster
- Start date
Huh, I don't know in the glorious empire of America, but in my area we have this arcade that gets completely full on Friday afternoons, specially the Guitar Hero game. Obviously, the most popular games are very different from the past, but the method is still the same: put coins in, play game for, at most, thirty minutes (unless you are a very good player).tehroc said:
Yeah, that sounds about right.
My brothers were big indoor soccer players when they were kids so I'd always be getting dragged around to their games. Luckily most of the places had mini-arcades with 4 or 5 games. I remember I'd be given a couple dollars and burn through it in about 20 minutes.
But then one day...*GASP!!!* I received a 5 dollar bill! Oh most glorious of days! With 20 quarters in my pocket, I was assured I could finally beat The Simpsons arcade game!!!!
Turns out it just barely wasn't enough.
My brothers were big indoor soccer players when they were kids so I'd always be getting dragged around to their games. Luckily most of the places had mini-arcades with 4 or 5 games. I remember I'd be given a couple dollars and burn through it in about 20 minutes.
But then one day...*GASP!!!* I received a 5 dollar bill! Oh most glorious of days! With 20 quarters in my pocket, I was assured I could finally beat The Simpsons arcade game!!!!
Turns out it just barely wasn't enough.
I still prefer getting bilked for coins by an arcade cabinet to surrendering credit card data to F2P games.
There's something "purer" about arcade machines. Maybe it's because it's only a quarter (or even a nickel if you're really lucky) for a game, and you go for as long as you stay alive.
There's something "purer" about arcade machines. Maybe it's because it's only a quarter (or even a nickel if you're really lucky) for a game, and you go for as long as you stay alive.
The key difference in yesterday's model to today's model is that today you need to pay more money to keep playing no matter how good you are at the game. In yesterday's model, you only needed to pay to keep playing if you were bad at the game. Or in other words, the more money you sunk into a game back in the day, the less money you would have to pay to keep playing because you would get good enough to not die as often; where today you almost have to pay MORE money as you get better at the game because you progress through the content faster and thus need to pay more money to get more "energy" (or whatever the game chooses to call it) in order to keep playing.
Such a simple comment, and yet I think you're right. When I get tired of my current past-gen games, I think I'll give that a try. Nintendo's the only company right now that seems to have the foresight not to bankrupt itself with overly-costly products. It'll still be awhile until then. I've got lots of old games that I haven't played yet.InvisibleMan said:
I never did the quarter thing - I went to this arcade where you loaded your card with money and then swiped away through the game's scanner every time you got killed. Favorite games with me were Time Crisis and Metal Slug - at least until I got a PS. I go about once a year to the arcade these days.
Punisher & Nick Fury was my lunchtime crack. But was pretty good at beatemups so I rarely spent more than $2 a day. By the end of the summer I was good enough to get to Kingpin on one quarter.
Also I am so going to make Wallet Quest!
Also I am so going to make Wallet Quest!
My local arcade growing up charged £20 pound at the entrace and all the games were free to play. Y'see, in Scotland, arcade games aren't 20p, which is aprox. 25 cents. Instead, they were 1£. That was a douche move on the part of the developers.
Like, you could play them all day. And nobody's stop you. From 7 am to 11 pm. Little 8 year old me didn't need friends; I had Light Gun Games.
Like, you could play them all day. And nobody's stop you. From 7 am to 11 pm. Little 8 year old me didn't need friends; I had Light Gun Games.
We all know that the best arcade game is Ninja Baseball Batman.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nbbbm/nbbbm-18.png
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/nbbbm/nbbbm-18.png
Remember as a kid finding £20 and first thing i did was went straight down the arcade and spent it all. Though i did regret it after wards as £20 is alot when your 10, i didnt buy any sweets or anything. :-(
Oh, all the dollars I spent getting my ass kicked in every arcade Mortal Kombat. I've only seen 1, ONE!, person beat one of those games. Who else can say that nowadays?
although, the only arcade game I beat was that one from SEGA, with the machine guns in the helicopter. And I think I beat one of the House of the Dead's.
captcha: tall story
Yeah, it is when you hear someone play a whole game start to finish ON THE MONEY THAY STARTED WITH.
although, the only arcade game I beat was that one from SEGA, with the machine guns in the helicopter. And I think I beat one of the House of the Dead's.
captcha: tall story
Yeah, it is when you hear someone play a whole game start to finish ON THE MONEY THAY STARTED WITH.
I'm left wondering how long it'll be before we have a generation that doesn't know what a quarter is.tehroc said:
I still have all my fond arcade-rat memories. For now, anyway.