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The Dave and Buster's Experience
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Jan 19, '06 09:46 PM
from the there-are-still-arcades-out-there dept.
from the there-are-still-arcades-out-there dept.
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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Whine
(Score:5, Insightful)(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday August 29, @06:44PM)
WTF
(Score:1, Redundant)(Last Journal: Friday October 24, @10:59AM)
I like the place personally. Beats the shit out of ESPN Zone imho.
Ummm wrong
(Score:3, Informative)(Last Journal: Friday October 24, @12:44PM)
Dave & Buster's as an arcade
(Score:4, Insightful)Greatest Arcase ever!
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Friday July 22, @05:16PM)
My god...
(Score:1, Insightful)Chuck E Cheese's
(Score:2)Something to consider
(Score:2)i have to assume
(Score:1)the D&B here in DC has at least 2 DDR machines, one of which was taken over by this 35~ year old asian guy who was playing only to impress audiences last time I was there. he was finishing songs with his back to the screen, showing off, etc. i got a kick out of it.
and just to get my bitch in, i hate D&B here because all they have for fighting is a 35+ mame cabinet that has SF2 (not WW/CE/etc). jesus, shell out for a 3s machine to appease people. it'd probably make more money than the 3 broken pinball tables you have. (and i love pinball!)
Why would the have DDR
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Friday November 10, @02:16PM)
And I wouldn't put my drink down where I couldn't see it in a D&B.
DDR
(Score:1)ski-ball and b-ball and pachinko
(Score:3, Insightful)GW
(Score:2)(http://adamweeden.blogspot.com/)
D&B = free booze..
(Score:1, Offtopic)It was the D&B at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, NY. I went to go get a beer for a buddy and me and when I went to pay the Asian MALE bartender gave me a sort of wink and said "This one is on me". He smiled and pushed the beers towards me. I got freaked out and ran off.
"THE BARTENDER IS HITTING ON ME!" I said to my friends.
And then I thought about it a little more..
"Oh man! The bartender is hitting on me! This is going to be great"
I went back up to the bar, sat down next to my bartender friend and said "You know, I trust you. I want you to choose my drinks for the rest of the night. You pick what I drink tonight." And with that I spent the rest of the night making small talk and drinking for free. Eventually the friend I was with came over, I introduced the two and the bartender made us both free drinks. They were good drinks too. I'd say at least $6 or $7 a piece, premium mixed drink double shot things. At the end of the night he said it was all free of charge. I walked away to tease him and then came back a minute later.
"Hey, I really like you, what's your schedule?"
He wrote it on a napkin, I got his phone number, I gave him my friend's number, and we were on our way. Drunk as hell and still with full wallets.
The REAL problem with D&B.
(Score:3, Insightful)(http://twoflower.livejournal.com/)
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 went to D&B's for my birthday.
(Score:2)(http://komblok.com/)
Agreed, but this isn't news...
(Score:1)pinball machines and fighting games
(Score:1)They do too have DDR!
(Score:1)(http://www.acm.vt.edu/~clint | Last Journal: Tuesday May 09, @07:45PM)
They had DDR and I played it.
(Man, diagonal arrows are hard if you're used to orthogonal ones!)