Original message (2572 Views )
| Maou 1406th Post
 
Red Carpet Executive Member
    
    
    
    
|  "NYC arcades" , posted Sun 27 Apr 04:54:
Hey everyone, any experience with the arcade scene (if it exists) in New York City? My understanding of US arcade culture is that it's pretty intense on the West Coast (and I have the great Versus/SRK guides to prove it) and possibly Texas (??) but that it's essentially nonexistent elsewhere.
Can anyone (pleeease) prove me wrong? I know that where arcade machines exist in America, often in pizza stores or bars or random places, they tend to be dumpy old classic ones that random people who might've owned an 8-bit machine when they were 6 might remember and thus enjoy. But are there any arcades in New York City in particular, for instance, that have people who actually love games and where I might be more like to see, say, 3S rather than Virtua Fighter 1?
edit: maybe the Chinatown arcade? It doesn't exactly sound like a gorgeous game center, but...
double-edit: if no one happens to have any recommendations, we could always spin this off into a sociological discussion of why so many American arcades are apparently seedy and dismal compared with their Japanese counterparts. Not that I know much beyond what I've read given my difficulty in finding said arcades in the US...
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Sun 27 Apr 05:49] |
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| justicekyo 691th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(1):NYC arcades" , posted Sun 27 Apr 15:10
quote:
Hey everyone, any experience with the arcade scene (if it exists) in New York City? My understanding of US arcade culture is that it's pretty intense on the West Coast (and I have the great Versus/SRK guides to prove it) and possibly Texas (??) but that it's essentially nonexistent elsewhere.
Can anyone (pleeease) prove me wrong? I know that where arcade machines exist in America, often in pizza stores or bars or random places, they tend to be dumpy old classic ones that random people who might've owned an 8-bit machine when they were 6 might remember and thus enjoy. But are there any arcades in New York City in particular, for instance, that have people who actually love games and where I might be more like to see, say, 3S rather than Virtua Fighter 1?
edit: maybe the Chinatown arcade? It doesn't exactly sound like a gorgeous game center, but...
double-edit: if no one happens to have any recommendations, we could always spin this off into a sociological discussion of why so many American arcades are apparently seedy and dismal compared with their Japanese counterparts. Not that I know much beyond what I've read given my difficulty in finding said arcades in the US...
well, CTF is the only real place left here for that...
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| RSJ 780th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(4):NYC arcades" , posted Wed 30 Apr 10:03
quote:
Wow if NYC has barely any arcades left that is a bad sign of the industry. I always thought being in the midwest it was tough to find games but things might be better on the coasts but I guess I am wrong.
Considering the land price & rent in the city, it's hard to run businesses on Quarters. China Town Fair's been about the only real arcade in NY for over the last decade (not counting the long-gone, tourist-bent XS). Back in the early 90's, things were more lively. There was a good arcade in Penn Station and another three in Times Square.
Chinatown Fair has good competition and lots of regulars (why not? after all, it's the only arcade in the city). But it's pretty dark and stingy, not a place you'd want to take your date to after a nice lunch in the area.
To this day I have yet to ever even FIND CTF.
Though, I should probably mention that I kinda stopped looking after the chicken died.
The very last real Arcade in NYC I remember was on Fordham Road in the Bronx back in 2000. It was a little hole in the wall called Neo Crash that had actually been around for a couple of years prior. It had wall-to-wall anime posters and a row of practically all fighting games at the time, the latest one being Guilty Gear X. Sadly I think the owner got into some trouble with the law or something... and it was soon turned into a furniture store about a year after I found it.
After that, other than CTF I think Dance Dance Revolution tourist traps like XS and Dave and Buster's has been the only game in town since.
Well, that and also XBox/Sony consoles made everybody too lazy to come out and play. XD
Ah well.
SUP PROFESSOR.
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| Maou 1417th Post
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(8):NYC arcades" , posted Fri 2 May 13:42
quote:
I've never even seen a Dave & Busters, what is their target market exactly? I never saw going out and eating a nice dinner and then playing skeeball at the restaurant as something middle-aged people do regularly as depicted in the commercials.
I've been in a D&B a few times - there were people there who were much older than I have anticipated. And there's a woman I work with who goes there - she's like 60 something and likes polka dancing. Freakin bizarre
How is CTF fixed for KoF machines these days? Last time I was there they have five - all the even years (94, 96, 98, 00, 02). I thought it really rather odd
Not much KOF experience, but I definitely noticed 02 and probably 96/98, along with another that was possibly in one of the SNK multi-game machines. 3S, SNKvsCapcom2, Marvel, MarvelvsCapcom 1 and 2, Zero 3, Samurai Spirits 5, Soul Calibur II, Super SF2 X, Rumble Fish 2 (incomprehensible), and Arcana Heart are what I can remember of the fighters. There was another SF III machine with a discolored screen, may have been Second Impact. Also, another copy of 3S inside a Vampire Savior machine...a shame given all the talk of Vampire lately here, which made me want to give it a spin.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| EddyT 701th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(7):NYC arcades" , posted Fri 2 May 21:18
quote:
I've never even seen a Dave & Busters, what is their target market exactly? I never saw going out and eating a nice dinner and then playing skeeball at the restaurant as something middle-aged people do regularly as depicted in the commercials.
I went to one in Los Angeles when I visited more than 2 weeks ago, and it seemed to be like your usual TGIFridays, but with video games. And some of the video games are really old school, like anniversary coin-ops featuring original versions of Galaga, Ms. Pac Man and Space Invaders. Then you have games like 2 Fast 2 Furious Stunt Bikes (I'm not even kidding), gun games similar to Area 51, some interesting, yet flash-in-the-pan games that take up a lot of space, etc.
Barely any kids around... I'd say it's geared towards 30-something people and above. However, the arcade section, although better than most arcades or amusement sections in restaurants nowadays in America, really pale in comparison to most arcades in Japan. Games mostly originated from America in recent times seem pretty lackluster and uninspired, really.
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| Tai-Pan
232th Post
Frequent Customer
| "Re(8):NYC arcades" , posted Fri 2 May 22:26
quote:
I've never even seen a Dave & Busters, what is their target market exactly? I never saw going out and eating a nice dinner and then playing skeeball at the restaurant as something middle-aged people do regularly as depicted in the commercials.
I went to one in Los Angeles when I visited more than 2 weeks ago, and it seemed to be like your usual TGIFridays, but with video games. And some of the video games are really old school, like anniversary coin-ops featuring original versions of Galaga, Ms. Pac Man and Space Invaders. Then you have games like 2 Fast 2 Furious Stunt Bikes (I'm not even kidding), gun games similar to Area 51, some interesting, yet flash-in-the-pan games that take up a lot of space, etc.
Barely any kids around... I'd say it's geared towards 30-something people and above. However, the arcade section, although better than most arcades or amusement sections in restaurants nowadays in America, really pale in comparison to most arcades in Japan. Games mostly originated from America in recent times seem pretty lackluster and uninspired, really.
Yeah..I usually go with friends. The place is pretty decent with a lot of machines. They even have the latest HOTD and Time Crisis cabinets, which is nice.
"Those who follow the path of a warrior must be ready to die in order to stand for one's convictions live for one's convictions die for one's convictions"
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