Arcades Rise From the Dead
 

Who here remembers that article I wrote waaaaaay back in early 2006? It was about bring back Arcades in the virtual domain. I love the Virtual Console and XBLA, and I buy just about everything available (that's worth owning), but there's one thing missing. That feeling of walking into an arcade and seeing all the glowing boxes around you with their crazy motor driven chairs and over-produced control mechanisms. Well, looks like somebody's gone and done it.

http://3darcade.mameworld.net/

Now, I don't support piracy in the slightest bit, but I'm of the state of mind where if I bought the game, I can do whatever the hell I want with it. Seeing as I'm already buying my whole library twice (physically and digitally), I'll do whatever I wish. Take a look around that site and tell me what you think. You can have the machines play AVI's or show screens to simulate the attract mode, you can watch videos on the wall monitors, play music on a real jukebox, and of course, play any arcade game emulatable, with any emulator available assigned to the cabinet of your choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfmN8PJkLTc&NR=1

Pretty awesome huh? Good. Now back to Halo

so this is all illegal to download?

it's kinda cool but there's no people around the 3d world.. too bad the screens dont' move.

No, but you can replace the screens with looping videos if your PC is beastly enough. And the program is completely legal. It's what you run on it that isn't.

Does it also simulate the smell of pizza?

Nope. That's your problem. ;)

My brother and I were at a mall a few weeks ago... And walking out, I happened to look at the directory, and on there it said 'Arcade'. So we both stopped, looked at each other wide-eyed... And confirmed with someone that it was, indeed, a real arcade.

Unfortunatly, the mall was closing, but next time we get to venture up there, we will go in it, I swear!

I'll let y'all know what's in there, too, heh.

Ah-ha! Consider yourself lucky. :) The last mall in my region with an arcade closed it last year for a Gift Wrapping center that is closed 11 months a year. :(

That baby had a 4-player Netlink Daytona USA.

Man, that program looks awesome, but it's so confusing!!!! I'm having a hard time trying to customize it!

I've actually recently discovered several arcades near me. A couple are even steeped in Japanese import games. One has an entire section of the sit-down VF5 cabinets.

I miss going to arcades. It was so awesome. The virtual arcade looks totally sweet. Thanks for the info and the youtube video.:)

It seems that arcades still live on in the form of XBox Live Arcade.:) I just wish tickets came out of my TV and there were prizes to purchase with them.:D Wait.... what if they had virtual tickets and you could buy stuff with them by mail?!:D

cool links! I still find arcades in beach areas like MB in S.C. on the boulevard.
Has anyone every been to Dave and Busters? Its not a true arcade but a fun flashy reasonable fac similie

I remember playing MANY video games in the arcade that the local Pizza Hut had when I was growing up.

The shopping center that had the dollar theatres in the second city where I lived also had a stand-alone arcade. And of course, my undergrad school had one where I played WAY too much pinball during my first semester.

There are local game places that have arcade games- but I only go to one of those about once a year.

To me, arcades will always have a 1980s nostalgia feeling to them, even if all the games are rather new releases.

When did LogicDonny get banned?

Interesting program. Thanks for the link! And although there used to be more, there are thankfully still a few arcades not too far from me, so I am still able to go to one every now and then.

He was banned on May 29 after it was proven that he was an alternate account of Turtledude2k3.

my town doesnt have any arcades left. Now I must go cry

I have got to come to Canada some time so we can go to an arcade and get hammered.

So it was finally conclusive? No big surprise there...

And yea, the vitual arcde is pretty cool...such fond memories of feeding tons of quarters into those bad boys...but XBL is doing a pretty great job IMO of filling the void...

wait, you mean you liked the virtual boy??
it could be a great start to look back to make better virtual reality, but it ran on 8-16 batteries, lol

i loved those arcades though, i remember my friend had a galaga arcade in his room, i want a Turtles in Time one and that simpsons one where you have to save maggie.

There are 2 things I hate about arcades.

1) I can't stand all these new games, especially DDR, but mostly the louder bigger X-Box like ones.

2) Why do I hate said games? They cost a bloody fortune to play! I miss the old PacMan/Donkey Kong/TMNT/Simpsons games that took one quarter per play. I miss the ones that give out a butt load of tickets for no reason at all. And Pinball machines... I love Pinball machines, but they seem to have less and less of them (of course, I'm not great at Pinball).

This year i saw a billboard/advertisement like thing in my city. Telling about a game center. Actually there used to be a big arcade place in past years just at the same location. But then the not-so-hard-to-guess thing had happened and it was closed.
This new center was just being opened at the same place.
I was really excited, went there, stayed for about 5 min and then left there. I was a place where ppl playing mini-bowling or air-hockey, such stuff...
Its not that i hate bowling or air-hockey but when the entered the new place all good old memories of there came haunting me, lol...

I have a Wii but Virtual Console is not giving the arcade pleasure of course.
Just for X-Box Live arcade ( mostly redrawn remix Street Fighter HD game ), i am planning to buy a 360 in the future - tho i am sure that it will never give same taste either...

the cool thing about living in LA is...there's an arcade about every 10 miles or so.

sometimes multiple arcades. one of'm here located in a heavily azn-populated plaza actually gets frequent imports from japan and such. i think it was one of the first arcades in the US to have initial D.

There is a certain something about the atmosphere of an arcade that can't be traded for anything. However, one big thing that's always kinda stifled the experience for me is that I can not use an arcade stick for fighting games at all. I need a d-pad or I'm totally useless.

Actually, the opposite is usually true for me. Some motions used in fighting games, particularly quick left->right (or vice versa) motions, are easier for me to execute on arcade controls than with a d-pad.

I find the PlayStation controller pretty well suited to the fighter genre. Granted, I only ever play Street Fighter II Anniversary Collection, so I'm hardly an expert on the subject. And I agree, Dr. Doom, I really miss that oh-so familiar arcade atmosphere.

Along those lines, here's a blog post -- basically a retread of a question I originally posted here at the Technodrome -- that has gotten a lot of traffic lately. Enjoy.

LINK.

We have a crappy mall arcade and one downtown that's open all night. 5$ admission and unlimited credits, that place rocks.

The best arcade I've been to in a while was a Dave and Buster's, and even then, half the floor was reserved for all those money-grubbing ticket games. Still, they had Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga and Mario Bros./Donkey Kong "retro-style" cabinets, so all was forgiven.

I still havent seen a Dave and Busters. You lucky bastard.

Haha, they're sweet. Great atmosphere. I visited the only Canadian outlet, in Vaughn, Ontario.