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Toys Entertainment Games

Arcade Show Report Shows Coin-Op Endurance 26

Posted by simoniker from the still-hanging-in-there dept.
Thanks to GamesRadar for its report from the recent London-based ATEI arcade game show. The article, following quickly on the heels of a recent Slashdot Games post about new arcade games, points out: "When you can play an online version of Project Gotham Racing 2 from the comfort of your very own living room, the concept of heading to a grungy arcade emporium to play the latest coin-ops seems, to say the least, quaint", but still finds arcade-only highlights, including Out Run 2 ("...retains its predecessor's sheer speed-fuelled thrills while adding a decidedly 21st century feel") Ollie King ("a rarity among skateboard games in that it's a checkpoint-based racer"), and even the bizarre Flamin' Finger ("...an odd little LED maze game in which you have to trace a route out with the tip of your finger within the harshest of time limits.")
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Arcade Show Report Shows Coin-Op Endurance More

Arcade Show Report Shows Coin-Op Endurance

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  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @12:51AM (#8166573)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • not to mention Skeeball nothing like racking up all those tickets playing skeeball.
  • A huge f-zero machine that will drive any company that buys it into debt!
  • Skip the article. The leadin text is misleading, as this is merely a mention of a few games that were released at a recent trade show. Further, the author wastes a bunch of time on OutRun2. Perhaps it's just me, but I was never a big fan of the original.

    Running through the list of games, I see a dearth of ingenuity. I'm not surprised.

    To give an indication of the quality of writing, he referred to Qix as "Tron-style puzzle game". Umm... Yeah. He also complains about including that game with Space Invaders.
  • is gone. It was just there last week and I was watching two people play Soul Calibur II. I was amazed at how big the screen was and how much fun they were having.

    Now its gone.

    Hey buddy can you spare a token?

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @03:36AM (#8167144)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Instead what you see now, are huge cabinets sporting some really interesting input devices.

      Or combo rides. For the past 6 years, the must-play game in town is a crazy 4 story shooter where you're strapped in a seat, and each time you pass a level, the seat zooms up to the next story. When you die, you fall all the way to the bottom. So there's incentive to get to the very top, just so you have a fun ride down when you die.

      Can't get that in your home system! (Course it is $3 a play)

  • Flaming Finger (Score:5, Interesting)

    by limekiller4 ( 451497 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2004 @04:14AM (#8167279) Homepage
    I work for a rather large midway and we just got in "Flaming Finger" this week.

    It's cute -- you have to trace your finger over a maze whose walls are deliniated by leds (yes, real leds) before time runs out. Unfortunately, as the sticker on the machine indicates, the time you have decreases more rapidly as you approach the finish. I've tried it 4x myself, can't beat it. Not even one level. I've never seen anyone else beat it. I only know of one person who says they've seen one person beat it.

    Personally, I think it's an interesting idea but the skewed time countdown puts a nail in it.

    On the other hand, we got a standup console of Space Invaders. Which completely blew my mind because I'm 31 and I remember when those were new, large and in-charge. Now it's downright embarrasingly dated and grows old after a few screens but man did it kick ass then...
  • I used to love arcades when I was a kid - I played the original Space Invaders and Asteroids (and lets not forget the classic Defender) and remember things like the original StarWars vector game. Then came Outrun, Space Harrier etc and what was that game called out at the same time as Outrun (and the TopGun movie) where you were flying something like an F-14 Tomcat?

    I can remember thinking logically that "someday" all of that stuff could be done at home and then wondering how good arcade machines would be
    • Then came Outrun, Space Harrier etc and what was that game called out at the same time as Outrun (and the TopGun movie) where you were flying something like an F-14 Tomcat?

      Afterburner. That would be a fun machine to own, especially if you could track down one with the motion cockpit.
    • The answer is, having them at home is very good. I have Space Duel, Asteroids, a Star Wars excluding the original cabinet. All work except the Space Duel monitor vsync is slowly dying (and sadly, nobody makes vector monitors any more).

      My XBOX and many PC's are just fine, but many of those games are just as much fun as they were in the arcades. I'd kill for a real Joust machine. (Yes, I know I can run MAME in a cabinet, but screw that.)

  • I'm not going to wax lyrical about innovation etc, yes they did innovate in years past but
    thats being down now in console games. No , my issue is that years ago if you wanted to see what the cutting edge in graphics was
    (outside the military etc) you just went down the arcade and if you thought a game looked cool you put in some small change and had a go.
    These days if you want to see top quality graphics you have to fork out $$$$ for a hi-end PC and then more $$$$ for a game.
    But I'm not a dyed in the wool
  • I live in an area that used to have lots of arcades. THe local town I lived in had one. Each shopping mall in my area had at least 2 of them. Then there was the Chuck E CHeese places that had games. Then at the NJ SHore on the boardwalk there was a dozen big arcades in each town.

    They are mostly gone now. Most have closed down. THe ones that are still open are full of redemption games (skee ball, squirt guns, basketball) where you get tickets to redeem for crap. This is definitely because of consoles.
    • Here in south-eastern VA there don't seem to be any arcades by themselves, but there are still plenty of arcades in movie theaters and malls (most of the malls also having movie theaters, but those being the theaters that don't usually have arcades). Most of them seem to be moving towards having a handful of the bigger cabinets rather than having more of the smaller cabinets, and it seems that every one of them has at least one 2-player DDR cabinet (at $1 per play).

      The only place I really see the standard-
  • Has anyone played MOCAP boxing? There is one arcade game I would definately pay money to play (and have). At DisneyQuest (the DisneyWorld Arcade in FL) you pay a fee to get in and can play all the latest arcade games all day. Coin op is not dead, it's just moved to a pay once play all day format. This is much better than the old days where you had to have armed gaurds carry a sack of quarters around with you so you could get in time on the 75cent new games.
  • It's not possible for consoles to kill arcades completely, because there's no social factor. Even online video games don't offer the chance to play stuff like Tekken against somebody standing next to you. Smack-talk is nearly impossible, as well. The arcade tournament is another benefit. You can't just stand next to your console waiting for challengers, unless you live in the middle of a mall or something. As long as gamers need to feel like they have friends, arcades will be around;)

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