There needs to be more new games, pinball also for me to get me to spend time in one anymore. Maybe more 3D type. Something I can't do at home.

Those old games are legendary! We need
to preserve them.

Considering the good private education Mr. Quinto recieved in high school, I would have thought he may have spend his time getting kids to read or promoting learning or even outdoor activities... rather than getting more kids to just stare at blinking monitors for hours on end (which is what most kids do now all day anyway). Granted I guess they are walking to the arcade, but is that really exercise?

The *only* reason arcades are failing is because every play in North America is very expensive. Twenty dollars is gone in no time. You can rent a game for a month from Blockbuster for the equivalent of 2 plays at an arcade.

Go to Asia, and you see PACKED arcades. Why? It costs about 25 cents every play there.

What? Arcades arent dead?

I see the future of arcades as virtual immersion reality type games.

And pinball tables (digital physics just arent the same).

I've been to a few arcades here and there and the tech is out dated by my home system.

Why would I go somewhere to play over priced less quality games compared to what I have at home?

I'm amazed that the industry here in the states hasnt figured this out yet.

YoYo-Pete
ditto

I'd love to see a resurgence in popularity for North American Arcades. It would be fantastic if they could actually make enough money to upgrade a section of their establishments with some of the new Virtual Reality games that have come out over the last decade.

There are no arcades left in my home town (except for about 12 machines in a local theater). Very sad. I have great memories from my juvenile delinquency days that happen to have taken place in arcades...

The problem is that most Arcade owners don't want to update with the times. They are all about the nostalgia, but don't realize that people these days don't give a crap about nostalgia.

Give an example, in my town that I live in, Ann Arbor Michigan, there is an arcade called Pinball Pete's. Back in the day there were 4 Pinball Pete's total in Ann Arbor. Now there is only 1.

I'm 36 years old, and I remember going to all 4 when I was in my early 20's. I also know the owner, who is in his 50's, and I have asked him constantly why he does not update the place with better games. His answer......

It's all about the nostalgia of being in a real arcade.

Arcade owners are living in this pipe dream that sooner or later people will come back to the nostalgia and come back to the arcades the way they are.

But they don't realize that like Virogen and YoYo-Pete are dead on. The game play is way to expensive and the games are of poor quality. It's because of this that the last Pinball Pete's in Ann Arbor is in danger of going under.

arcade games in the states were a quarter back in the early 80's then the owners saw the profit potential and they upped it to 50 cents a game and by the early 90's, it was a dollar or more to play each game. now, it's 2 bucks or more per game. it does cost a lot. so do movies.

the games themselves were the main attraction but like pool halls, skating rinks, and bowling alleys of yesteryear, the place itself is also a reason to go. there are real people inside the building. or used to be.

it meant getting out of the house. going somewhere, even down the street. to see OTHER PEOPLE.

game consoles may have better games but they only include real live people when your buddies show up or if you have internet access which isn't the same thing. most kids today seem to want to sit on their behinds and eat snacks.

I have anxiety problems. getting out wasn't that fun for me when I was younger but I liked to mingle too. arcades were a place I could just hang out and feel normal for awhile.

*c'mon, fix the captcha*

How come I don't go to arcades anymore??? In addition to being expensive--it's all shooting gallery games and martial arts fighting games.

Quinto's my hero (at least today.) I was a fixture in arcades until my early 20s when Street Fighter II and its ilk took over, but kept going back once in a while until the closest arcade to me finally got rid of anything resembling a game I'd play and had only ticket games, a deer hunting simulation, and a couple of multiplayer racing games. Even so, I downloaded MAME and bought every "retro game" collection I could on all the consoles I've owned. I play a lot more modern games now because waiting 90 seconds for a game to load that takes a couple minutes to play, and then playing it with a tiny little D-pad or thumb stick, really takes something away from it.

Which is why I support Quinto and Stride's campaign, and also why my big vacation this year will be to the world's largest arcade and "American Classic Arcade Museum" at FunSpot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. People still play Go and chess and Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, so why shouldn't people still play Pac-Man?

By PhantomsPhan at 8:24 AM ON 08/21/09

Considering the good private education Mr. Quinto recieved in high school, I would have thought he may have spend his time getting kids to read or promoting learning or even outdoor activities... rather than getting more kids to just stare at blinking monitors for hours on end (which is what most kids do now all day anyway). Granted I guess they are walking to the arcade, but is that really exercise?
but see hes trying to save the face to face and social aspect of the arcade instead of sitting at home with no one. its the experience of getting out instead of staying home OMZ I miss going to Goldmine and having my adrenaline fix with galaga

There's a key difference about arcades in the US and in Japan. Most American arcades are a place you have to get up and go out to, that's why they've grown into the FUN CENTER type places aimed at stupid kids who walk up to a machine and start beating on it in demo mode.
In Japan where public transportation is much more ubiquitous you get out of whatever, then you know you have fifteen-twenty minutes to kill until the next train. Thus the arcades have a big leg up there.

Also the 100 yen coin was the standard (until recently) instead of the US 25 cent piece. So an owner gets (ballpark conversion) a dollar a play as far back as Space Invaders.

That's why there's places like Dave and Busters, that try to give you a reason to go there (oh and by the way there's games).

Is that machine turned on?

Save em ALL!!! Those games were present before computers or computer games were advanced that far even though the games were scripted on a computer they did not have the technology like those arcade games had! It was the sh** back in the early 80's.I am a owner of some of these games 8 pins and 4 arcades.When i was young i spent a lot of my young life at arcades and it was unbelievable i could not wait to see what they came out with next.I would RACE to the mall on my bike everyday.I loved the excitement that i would see in peoples eyes and looking back they were as old as i am now. I Pray They Stay...I am 38 now

It was about hanging with your friends and getting the high score.Video games in the home are not as fun to me as being in the arcade zone it just don't feel the same as it used to.The rush man it was the rush

I went to the goldmine in fla that was my favorite you walk up and there it was it was set up like a mine shaft it was dark inside just enough lighting to see the controls and the artwork of the machines.Tron,
Firepower,haunted house,the black knight,Satan's hollow,I remember when they added dragon's lair.Mostly nowadays the pins are the ones that are left i tried the digi pin once it just does not have the feel or flow and the gamerooms are to lit up!

These arcades are what got so many of us interested in computers and science in the first place. If they disappear what will be the inspiration of the next generation of "geeks" and I use that word with admiration not degradation. I agree also with the sentiment that arcades of the future must push the envelope of "virtual reality" and offer things that home gaming systems can not. Its not just about graphics anymore. Its about total gaming immersion. In addition to this bring back the pinball machines! Those were fantastic! There's nothing like hearing the loud "CLACK" of the ball against the underside of the glass to make you feel like you're accomplishing something!