The arcade is back! You might not have noticed, but it returned to the gaming scene. After the advent of home gaming systems, many assumed the end of arcade gaming as we know it was upon us. They were wrong.
My town actually has 2 stand alone arcades. Its pretty sweet they have the newest and best systems as well as the old school games like Donkey Kong and Pong. The catch is they don't call themselves arcades. One is a "Teen Community Center" designed to give kids someplace safe to go after school.
And the other is a "Fun Zone" that also features a full blown Lazer Tag course. Yes thats right. I said Lazer tag. Oh and a 3D Heavy Black Lighted indoor miniature golf course. It's crazy and fun and crazy fun.
One of the best of the new "arcade systems" (which is really more like a ride) is called 'Rock Climb' or something and basically its a giant tilting upright treadmill with protruding "rocks" like the "The Wall" on the old American Gladiators Tv Show (which was sponsored by Nintendo Power Magazine btw) and it creates a never ending cliff on which you and a friend can race to the top (until one of you falls off)
Its a little more physical than the traditional arcade and the only score is watching your friend fall flat on their back into a bunch of foam but its a lot of fun.
When you said that the "short-form" kind of gaming is back, do you think it'll cycle? Like,
Arcades had short form gaming, then developers wanted to explore, and now people are tired of the "40-60-80 hour games". Do you think it will eventually cycle back to developers exploring again?
I've always thought of arcades as the cinema/movie theatres of the video game industry, you played a game in the arcade, loved it, then waited 18 months hoping for a half decent conversion for your computer/console.
And they're like that now, they let you do what you can't (or can't afford to do) at home, noone owns a 5000 inch screen after all ^_^
Oh, BTW have you ever thought on doing a feature on "Whatever happened to Virtual Reality?" another concept being hailed as the future of gaming (ans er... medical science) but crawled into a corner and died quietly. That's be an awesome addition what with all the FPS's being big lately.
I'd argue that VR never really went away, it just morphed forms. Sure you don't have the funky 90's era head sets, but what is the Nintendo Wii but the first steps in to a VR console? And when the motion plus attachment comes out, there will be even more interactivity. In fact I'd go as far to say that the WII is the first real VR home system.
Yeah, the increased technology of the arcades kinda created this home/arcade arms race, wherein the home would define itself by how well it reproduced the original arcade vision. But my point is that the real split between the home and the arcade isn't technological, it's creative. It's primarily about two distinct genres: long form and short form, I think. Just like there are movies you "must see" in the theater to get the full experience, there are games you "must play" in the home to get the full, long form experience.
Score - Everybody is worrying about those pixelated numbers, even me.
The style of gaming? The company that made runescape has made an awesome site called funorb to cash in on this style of gaming, they have an mmorpg, now they have a small ammount of arcade style games - Only one of them has character development.
Good call. Yeah, I wanted to put in some stuff about downloading online short form games for $5, $10, or $20 a pop. Also, the return of short form has allowed a lot of smaller developers, who otherwise couldn't compete with the major companies, get into the gaming arena by offering their games as online downloads for cheaper. Long form games are made for millions of dollars by as many people as it takes to put together a movie, but a small team (like an indie film or short film) can put together a great short form game and get themselves out there. Pretty sweet.
Great Job on re-dressing the previous feature on the 'death of arcade' - I know how hard it can be to be constructive after so much criticism, thank you for looking at the comments made and coming back with a informative and a great piece that gets close to the rebirth of arcade.
All the best, and lets hope ON Network thinks its worth covering the subject in more depth.
Kevin Williams
KWP Limited
(Owners of 'The Stinger Report' - leading amusement trade e-newsletter)
The episode was less of a "re-dress" and more of a "this is the stuff we wanted to do but didn't have time to go into in the other episode, so we split it off and made it its own". Don't know if we'll do a third in the series. Maybe- it's kinda fun to think about, and there's still plenty that we ran out of time (again) to go over!
I've been watching this series this the first episode. It's been great so far. I could especially relate to this episode since, as the father of five children, I don't have much time to play video games on a daily basis. When I do, it is usually about 15-20 minutes at a time. Lately, I have definitely gravitated back toward the more casual/arcade style of game via the Nintendo DS. I still enjoy longer games (e.g. Zelda), but maturity and responsibility have led me to games that don't expect a huge time investment.
Yeah, I know. There a ton of games that make me think "Arghh, why couldn't this have come out ten years ago when I had time to play it?" Short form gaming has made a comeback in my life, too.
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Is there anyway to get the transcript to this episode?
My town actually has 2 stand alone arcades. Its pretty sweet they have the newest and best systems as well as the old school games like Donkey Kong and Pong. The catch is they don't call themselves arcades. One is a "Teen Community Center" designed to give kids someplace safe to go after school.
And the other is a "Fun Zone" that also features a full blown Lazer Tag course. Yes thats right. I said Lazer tag. Oh and a 3D Heavy Black Lighted indoor miniature golf course. It's crazy and fun and crazy fun.
One of the best of the new "arcade systems" (which is really more like a ride) is called 'Rock Climb' or something and basically its a giant tilting upright treadmill with protruding "rocks" like the "The Wall" on the old American Gladiators Tv Show (which was sponsored by Nintendo Power Magazine btw) and it creates a never ending cliff on which you and a friend can race to the top (until one of you falls off)
Its a little more physical than the traditional arcade and the only score is watching your friend fall flat on their back into a bunch of foam but its a lot of fun.
When you said that the "short-form" kind of gaming is back, do you think it'll cycle? Like,
Arcades had short form gaming, then developers wanted to explore, and now people are tired of the "40-60-80 hour games". Do you think it will eventually cycle back to developers exploring again?
HOT DAMN! I love this show. You guys have been pumping out the episodes lately. As soon as I blink, there's a new one. Keep up the great work! :D
gwapo ako palag ka ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've always thought of arcades as the cinema/movie theatres of the video game industry, you played a game in the arcade, loved it, then waited 18 months hoping for a half decent conversion for your computer/console.
And they're like that now, they let you do what you can't (or can't afford to do) at home, noone owns a 5000 inch screen after all ^_^
Oh, BTW have you ever thought on doing a feature on "Whatever happened to Virtual Reality?" another concept being hailed as the future of gaming (ans er... medical science) but crawled into a corner and died quietly. That's be an awesome addition what with all the FPS's being big lately.
I'd argue that VR never really went away, it just morphed forms. Sure you don't have the funky 90's era head sets, but what is the Nintendo Wii but the first steps in to a VR console? And when the motion plus attachment comes out, there will be even more interactivity. In fact I'd go as far to say that the WII is the first real VR home system.
Yeah, the increased technology of the arcades kinda created this home/arcade arms race, wherein the home would define itself by how well it reproduced the original arcade vision. But my point is that the real split between the home and the arcade isn't technological, it's creative. It's primarily about two distinct genres: long form and short form, I think. Just like there are movies you "must see" in the theater to get the full experience, there are games you "must play" in the home to get the full, long form experience.
Score - Everybody is worrying about those pixelated numbers, even me.
The style of gaming? The company that made runescape has made an awesome site called funorb to cash in on this style of gaming, they have an mmorpg, now they have a small ammount of arcade style games - Only one of them has character development.
Good call. Yeah, I wanted to put in some stuff about downloading online short form games for $5, $10, or $20 a pop. Also, the return of short form has allowed a lot of smaller developers, who otherwise couldn't compete with the major companies, get into the gaming arena by offering their games as online downloads for cheaper. Long form games are made for millions of dollars by as many people as it takes to put together a movie, but a small team (like an indie film or short film) can put together a great short form game and get themselves out there. Pretty sweet.
Dear Play-Value Team,
Great Job on re-dressing the previous feature on the 'death of arcade' - I know how hard it can be to be constructive after so much criticism, thank you for looking at the comments made and coming back with a informative and a great piece that gets close to the rebirth of arcade.
All the best, and lets hope ON Network thinks its worth covering the subject in more depth.
Kevin Williams
KWP Limited
(Owners of 'The Stinger Report' - leading amusement trade e-newsletter)
The episode was less of a "re-dress" and more of a "this is the stuff we wanted to do but didn't have time to go into in the other episode, so we split it off and made it its own". Don't know if we'll do a third in the series. Maybe- it's kinda fun to think about, and there's still plenty that we ran out of time (again) to go over!
I've been watching this series this the first episode. It's been great so far. I could especially relate to this episode since, as the father of five children, I don't have much time to play video games on a daily basis. When I do, it is usually about 15-20 minutes at a time. Lately, I have definitely gravitated back toward the more casual/arcade style of game via the Nintendo DS. I still enjoy longer games (e.g. Zelda), but maturity and responsibility have led me to games that don't expect a huge time investment.
Yeah, I know. There a ton of games that make me think "Arghh, why couldn't this have come out ten years ago when I had time to play it?" Short form gaming has made a comeback in my life, too.