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The Dave and Buster's Experience

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:46 PM
from the there-are-still-arcades-out-there dept.
Entertainment Games
The Game Chair has a piece looking at the lackluster experience offered by one of the few remaining American arcade chains, Dave and Buster's. From the article: "Dave & Buster's is perennially in my bad books because they don't have Dance Dance Revolution. Each time, I enter with the hope that they might have seen the error of their ways, and each time I am crushed. Honestly. What kind of arcade does not have DDR? Although Dave & Buster's merely possesses pretensions, rather than aspirations to be an arcade, the lack of dance games except for one lonely Pump it Up: Exceed 2 machine is nigh unforgivable. I know DDR isn't so popular in Japan anymore, but unless I am totally mistaken Dave & Buster's is not Japan."
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The Dave and Buster's Experience 25 Comments More /

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  • Whine (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nimey (114278) on Thursday January 19 2006, @11:04PM (#14515684) Homepage Journal
    Why is someone's blog entry whining about a random arcade worthy of /.?
    • That's the most incisive question Slashdot has ever seen.
    • Makes sense to me, since Slashdot is nothing more than CmdrTaco's personal blog.
    • I don't know, but we've really been getting a lot of that lately.

      • You may not be so quick to judge the games so harshly once you watch some women bouncing around on those dance pads. Heh. Lovely plumage. Very bouncy, lovely plumage.

        And actually, now that I'm on the subject of DDR anyway, it is not what's killing arcades. The insane prices and lack of good games is what's killing arcades. Where's a good Mortal Kombat-style fighter these days? A sci-fi racer like Stun Runner? How about some good pinball tables? There don't seem to be any good adventure games anymore in th

      • An arcade operator might not see things from your point of view. DDR is one of the few things keeping them in business right now. If you don't like it, then you and anyone else who goes to the arcade need to put your money where your mouth is and pump enough quarters into other machines that the profits made from DDR are marginalized.

  • Ummm wrong (Score:3, Informative)

    by falcon5768 (629591) <Falcon5768NO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Thursday January 19 2006, @11:16PM (#14515752) Journal
    First place I ever played DDR was a D&B, maybe your local one doesnt have it but mine does. But then again I live in jersey where the arcade has yet to die. Infact every summer I make it a mission to go to the "Flashback" arcade, a little mini arcade inside of a huge one which is packed with 80's and 90's games.
    • That was my first reaction. This looks like a comment not on the American Arcade scene or on Dave and Busters as a national chain. This is a guy complaining about the corner D&B. It is a LOCAL story.

      If he is interested in finding an arcade DDR machine, he should check this site out [ddrfreak.com].

      Or the way some people play, they might want to invest in a RedOctane metal pad which I can personally vouch for.

      • That was my impression too. That and most arcades that have a dancing game only have one. I think every D&B I've been to (It would take both hands to count them) has Pump it Up. Which I'm fine with because I prefer it to DDR. But they don't take care of the machines and most of them sound like they have a blown speaker.

        That aside, I don't go to D&B anymore, but it's not really their fault. I used to go for the Virtual World [virtualworld.com] games, until Virtual World "upgraded" their mech simulator by making it
    • I've been to 3 D&B (Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City), and each had a DDR. None of them where smack dab in the middle where they are the focus of the arcade, but off to the side (not in the "ghetto" of the arcade). Fun to watch the occasional swarm of drunks wander over and give it a shot.

      Really, I have no idea what the reviewer was going on about for the most part. This isn't the type of arcade that used to be present in every mall in America, it's a bar that happens to have a restaurant and a

  • Dave & Buster's as an arcade (Score:4, Insightful)

    by muel (132794) on Thursday January 19 2006, @11:17PM (#14515761)
    Odd placement on /. aside, this article is also odd because it doesn't pay any mind to the target D&B audience. This place is specifically targeted as an entertainment destination for adults--kids can't even get in without a guardian. Gambling-style games, poker tables, shuffleboard, etc. populate much of the restaurant's real estate. These are not the kinds of patrons who hop around on dance pads or whip up 40-hit combos in hardcore fighting games; they want to shoot stuff, race in cars and play games that require as little learning curve as possible.
    • It is a big first date place, though, and DDR seems like it would fit in well in that niche. I agree about fighting games, though, and also agree that this is the most bizarrely pointless thing ever posted here by an editor other than Hemos.
  • It's called Fun and Games - in Wayne New Jersey in the WIllobrook mall. It's open 365 days a year, and has pinbal machines, DDR, multi player racing games, air hockey and practically anything else you could want. It probably has 150-200 machines. It's been there for at least 30 years.
  • Submitter, maybe Chuck E. Cheese's has DDR. Go there!
  • Maybe the D+B arcade machine purchasers are, in fact, well aware that a DDR game would make money, but in the long run money would be lost by the type of clientele the game might attract? ie: people who spend money on the food, bar drinks, pool *simultaneously* being attractive customers versus someone who just pumps money in the DDR machine and sweats?
  • Personally, I can't imagine trying to keep my pint from spilling while hopping and jumping.

    And I wouldn't put my drink down where I couldn't see it in a D&B.
    • There's almost always a small gap between the pad and the rest of the machine. This is the ideal place to put small items because it's easily visible and anyone who tries to take stuff from there is very close to your feet, where they could be "accidentally" kicked.

  • ski-ball and b-ball and pachinko (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Goldsmith (561202) on Friday January 20 2006, @02:17AM (#14516830)
    Every D&B I've been to has DDR, but very rarely is it used. Most often, D&B is used as a place for drunken ski-ball, arcade style basketball free throws and overly elaborate pachinko style gambling. Any other game is something to do while waiting for something else. Video games are now HOME entertainment.
  • GameWorks > D&B

  • The REAL problem with D&B. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 2Flower (216318) on Friday January 20 2006, @10:43AM (#14518658) Homepage
    The article's pretty content free, so lemme crosspost a comment I left on this guy's blog.

    The problem with D&B is not DDR. It's the entire attitude that they will house NOTHING but 'casual games'. They're not appealing to arcade fans, they want people who come there to drink and eat, and MAYBE play some games... so, the games have to be playable with no instructions whatsoever. Anybody can drive a car or shoot a gun, so, those are the dominant forms.

    Fighting games are more esoteric, since you need combinations of joystick moves and button presses to succeed; unless you read FAQs or are a fan from the console versions you won't do well in them. There is no longer a real fighting game subculture in this country, at least not one that goes to arcades.

    Another category they utterly dump is classic games, things from the 80's and 90's. You'd think they'd at least throw in a Donkey Kong or such for nostalgia value, but the problem is that these games don't pay well, don't have a ton of 'continue?' style profit chances, and are costly to upkeep (unless you buy a re-released game like the Space Invaders Anniversary, or Ms.Pac-Man/Galaga combo).

    The bottom line is money. They don't make enough money off anything that you can't play for 20 seconds with no prior training and then dump more credits into for another 20 seconds. It's a global problem on the arcade scene, and D&B, which is an arcade secondarily, will never be the answer.
  • I mean where else can you drink alcohol and play arcade games.

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