Arstechnica has a fantastic write up detailing the extinction of the American arcades. I grew up with just a small arcade in our local mall but as a kid I thought that was the greatest place on Earth. All of these great games played in all of their visual splendor for just a couple of quarters. It was the life and it's just a shame that today's youth won't ever know what it was like.
That is unless of course you live in Japan where arcades are thriving and continue to grow, some establishments even spanning multiple floors of arcade units! Brad Crawford details his experience with Japanese arcades and provides a meaningful look at why arcades in America are a thing of the past.
Crawford has created an independent documentary showing off the Japanese arcade scene called 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience. A brief teaser can be seen below for the upcoming 75 minute long documentary.
I have just two regrets: 1. That I wasn't born at least 10 years earlier to have more time with the American arcade boom. 2. That I am not presently living in Japan.
That is unless of course you live in Japan where arcades are thriving and continue to grow, some establishments even spanning multiple floors of arcade units! Brad Crawford details his experience with Japanese arcades and provides a meaningful look at why arcades in America are a thing of the past.
It wasn't until Crawford returned home to his native Winnipeg, Canada that he realized just how much he missed the arcade scene. He had been missing it his whole life. "Physical gaming with your friends has become something that's pretty few and far between now," he lamented. The closest he's come to recreating it on this side of the ocean is by attending massive fighting game tournaments, like the Evolution event in Las Vegas. Last year, Evolution attracted thousands of people (and over 2 million online spectators) to watch and participate in battles on games like Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. "You want that experience again, so any time you have that opportunity to experience even a little bit of it, you're like 'yes, give me that.'"
Events like these show there's a whole generation of Western game players, now centered around those in their mid to late 30s, looking to capture something that's missing from much of modern gaming. "Everyone wants that sense of competition, to feed their competitive nature, to beat your opponent," he said. "Now it's just so anonymous. You have little kids swearing at you and berating you [in online games]. At the arcade, you could steal their money if you beat them." Not to mention, if you curse someone out at an arcade, you'd better be big enough to defend yourself.
Events like these show there's a whole generation of Western game players, now centered around those in their mid to late 30s, looking to capture something that's missing from much of modern gaming. "Everyone wants that sense of competition, to feed their competitive nature, to beat your opponent," he said. "Now it's just so anonymous. You have little kids swearing at you and berating you [in online games]. At the arcade, you could steal their money if you beat them." Not to mention, if you curse someone out at an arcade, you'd better be big enough to defend yourself.
Crawford has created an independent documentary showing off the Japanese arcade scene called 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience. A brief teaser can be seen below for the upcoming 75 minute long documentary.
I have just two regrets: 1. That I wasn't born at least 10 years earlier to have more time with the American arcade boom. 2. That I am not presently living in Japan.
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