Arcade fire

There's pictures available for this post on my splashblog (http://www.splashblog.com/buckoa51/)

Nothing like a visit to the seaside to remind you what a sad state the arcade industry is in. I remember back when I was a kid how excited I'd get over a trip to the seaside, which meant for me at least, playing the latest arcade games until the ten pence coins in my short pockets were totally exhausted (and then scrounging more money off my parents) With visuals and sounds that blew away even the most expensive home computers, going to the arcades in those days was truly a magical experience for gamers.

I also remember the sheer number of coin operated games in those days. Arcades that are now full of fruit machines were once wall to wall with video games. Games of all kinds, not just games in fancy cabinets. You could browse in and out of arcades and find new games and every year there were dozens more.

Today its a sorry site to walk into the arcades at Skegness and see machines I remember from back then in disrepair, with faulty monitors and broken controllers they beg "insert coin" but frankly nobodies going to play them in that condition. Things are definitely getting worse too, with the only new game I noticed being "Mario Kart" and even that nobody was playing, probably because it demands you deposit an extra coin regardless of weather or not you won the race.

The industry doesn't help itself either. Machines are poorly maintained and in the case of the Outrun Coast to Coast I played (which incidentally was the only machine I had to queue for) sited badly. The machine was right opposite the entrance to the arcade meaning that the screen was obscured by light from outside reflecting on it.

It's hard to convince people to play coin-op versions of games they have at home already anyway. That is the big difference today, of course. Visually coin-ops are not that much different from what people get on their Gamecubes, Playstations or X-Boxes. For a long time now the coin-ops have relied on offering cabinets and peripherals that enhance the game experience beyond what would normally be possible in your home, but when the experience doesn't even live up to what you get at home, as it so often doesn't, I doubt anyone is going to be inserting any coins.

The industry needs some fresh ideas and fresh thinking to save itself, if indeed it is even possible. Perhaps merging arcades and game retail stores into one might be the way forward? Stores could operate machines via cards and lose the gambling machines altogether, making them more family friendly venues. Cards would not only store loyalty points but allow for the store to award free credits for the arcade machines after the customer purchased a new game. Couple that with high score saving and bring back the old idea of some sort of memory card or account accessible from both home and arcades and their might be life left in the coin operated concept yet... maybe..