14 ms·

Sega quits arcade business after 50 years

255 points by atombender 5y ago

peapicker 5y ago
I remember the fun of going to a couple Sega arcades in Tokyo in ‘98 when there on business. At one of them they had people out front handing out mini packs of Sega branded tissues! They gave me several, it was a cool souvenir I shared with a few friends.
- astrange 5y ago
  They hand those out because public bathrooms don't have any way to dry your hands.
Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
Can anyone explain the appeal of arcades to me? It is expensive and games do not look really interesting.
- stemlord 5y ago
  It's the original pay to play/win gaming model, back when arcades actually had people in them. Anyway arcade is a unique genre of games often characterized by more fast paced chaotic gameplay, "infinite" levels, extra focus on leaderboards, more eye-candy style of visual design akin to casinos, etc. It can be a pretty fun space
- philistine 5y ago
  Yeah, you should be able to see the appeal of bespoke machines inappropriate for the home easily. Not everyone has a golf simulator in their home to hone their swing, yet people go to a place where they have one. Same thing with arcades; not everyone has a DDR machine at home, yet people love them and want to play them.
- jbay808 5y ago
  Just like the difference between movie theatres vs home theatres, arcades can be a very different and more (or less) social experience than playing games at home, but the appeal might depend more on what your home is like than what the arcade is like. You might live in a small space where you can't keep a functioning Dance Dance Revolution setup without noise complaints from downstairs, but you can dance at the arcade, maybe with an awestruck audience if you're really good at it. You can take your SO to the arcade on a date and giggle as you race down a mountain together with a steering wheel and pedal setup, even if he/she isn't into that kind of thing most of the time and wouldn't have fun playing Gran Turismo with you at home. You can hang out with your friends each week and play with them even if your home environment is too strict, chaotic, or unpredictable for that. But if you have everything you need at home and can couch-co-op Halo with your buddies on a big screen TV, you might not see any appeal in the arcade.
- dan_quixote 5y ago
  Nostalgia I guess. If you're old enough to remember the world before ubiquitous internet, you likely have some fond memories of arcades. We didn't always have everything available at arms length instantly. Many of us saved up money for the one-per-week (or month) trip to the arcade. The delayed gratification and shared experience made it a phenomenon that has few parallels any more.
- 0xcde4c3db 5y ago
  I think it's like why people go to the gym to exercise even though most of them would theoretically be better off buying a set of resistance bands and making a YouTube playlist to follow at home. There seems to be something inherently compelling about a physical space that society has designated as being dedicated to a specific activity.
- dghughes 5y ago
  As others have alluded to it's not just to play a game it's also a social thing. I can't think of any other social activity I was involved in outside my home as a teenager. I was shy, quiet, no friends etc. but at an arcade there was a common interest. Watching someone else play or 2 player game with someone you didn't know. The smell too arcades had a certain smell the plywood cabinets, sweet smells of food, and for a certain period in time cigarettes.
- mch82 5y ago
  In general, arcades are just fun. They’re a place to go outside the house. But, arcades also get to experiment with unique hardware & interfaces that a home console or PC can’t match. Sega Joyopolis in Tokyo was a next level experience. It had arcade cabinets that spin 360 degrees on X & Y axes, which makes flying games fantastic. It had racing cabinets with full sized Mazda Miatas & similar cars on full motion platforms. There was a snowboarding half pipe, where the rider is strapped into a full sized snowboard on a pendulum arm with a VR headset. Another ride was an enclosed pod with VR displays that ran along a rollercoaster track. And, the most unusual thing I remember, there was a holographic virtual pop star performance.
  - astrange 5y ago
    Luckily their virtual singer business is still going strong. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hatsune-miku-colorful-stage/id1580044138 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hatsune-miku-colorful-stage/id... Although I don't think as many people use Vocaloid to write songs anymore - the appeal is basically that you don't have to hire any singers, but that's not a problem once you get enough fame you can afford them. So now the games are a nostalgia play.
- dasKrokodil 5y ago
  While it hasn't been the case recently, way back in the day arcade machines had much better graphics than anything you could play on home consoles or computers.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  Have you been to a Round 1? As far arcades go they're very impressive imo, especially the rhythm game sections. I love me some Groove Coaster and Drummania!
- syntheweave 5y ago
  The video game arcade grew out of earlier electromechanical amusements, primarily pinball(which has had a small renaissance in the US). The joy of pinball is a combination of "bright lights and chimes" - attractive theming giving it a monumental feel, the physics of the game being complex and chaotic, and a "beat the operator" element of skill where good players can play for longer and are even rewarded with more credits. Every time you come in to play a pinball, it's slightly different because the parts were readjusted or the ball had grown worn. When video arcades started to grow popular at the end of the 1970's, they retained most of these elements: An arcade game was a "destination" for game enthusiasts and had the best technology available at the time. They didn't have real physics like pinball, but they were very reliable, giving the skill element a new wrinkle - the operator mostly wasn't a factor, so you played against the game design as the developer intended. While free credits for high scores were eliminated, time extension was still a common part of the gameplay. Playing for high scores or going longer on one credit are the underlying factor to being "into" arcade games - they are fundamentally short "instant fun" experiences and you have to fight them to get more out of your credit. There's a strong element of "performing" an arcade game - not just consuming it but making the most of every nuance. Not all arcades are designed fairly, but the best ones allow you to clear the game on one credit if you are very good. It can be very satisfying to spend time practicing an arcade and then be able to perform it again on demand. While consoles got better and closed the gap on technology, the arcade got a second wind in the 90's as fighting games and larger format games like Daytona USA became central, preserving the monumentality of it and opening up more multiplayer experiences, which helped the arcade retain a social feeling. Since video games are so prevalent now, and allow for cheaper, longer-format and less intense experiences, arcades have become a niche, but their style of gameplay remains popular.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- racl101 5y ago
  There's a social aspect. For example, take girls who aren't gamers, there's no way to get them to play console games. They see that as the domain of dudes. So there's no chance to take them out on a date where you sit in a room playing games from a console. But these very same girls love the arcade experience. They are partial to the arcade experience because they get to be out in the open, in their best outfit, consume alcohol and/or food, smoke, socialize and even though they might not enjoy the games themselves, they like the social aspect. It's like going to a club where the crowd is a bit nerdier and not quite the meat market that are dance clubs. Same with billiards. Not that fun in dad's den. But fun as hell in a pool hall. More social. More vibing. You don't go to arcades cause it's cheaper. You go cause you want it to be a communal experience. Even if you're not there to mingle with guys or girls. Maybe you want to show off and beat some game. It's much funner when you got a bunch of people rooting behind you than if you owned the cabinet and just played in dad's den.
Asmod4n 5y ago
Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for myself and am close to 40 years old. What is allowed are gambling game casinos. Wish it would be the other way around.
- tannhaeuser 5y ago
  > Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal Huh?
  - TulliusCicero 5y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/s7z10o/why_are_there_no_arcades_here/ https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/s7z10o/why_are_the...
- 6581 5y ago
  > Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for myself and am close to 40 years old. They're not illegal, they just never became popular. There are a few around.
  - Asmod4n 5y ago
    You only find some 20+ year old aracade machines in cinemas and in adult enternainment venues and the like. Due to youth protection laws there is no difference between gambling machines and arcade machines, which turn those places into 18+ entertainment stuff.
    - chrischen 5y ago
      Actually in Japan I believe the arcades also have curfews for kids under 18.
      - aaron695 5y ago
- 5y ago
toyg 5y ago
Victim of COVID for sure, but I wonder if they were also a victim of the indoor smoking ban enacted in 2020. Japanese arcades were full of smokers when I was there. The smoking ban might well end up being the most significant legacy of the cursed Olympics.
- chrischen 5y ago
  The complete foreigner ban also probably didn’t help. The arcades were pretty popular with tourists.
- indrora 5y ago
  There's a lot of compounding factors. The fact that there's no (legal) way to get some of those games out of Japan and into the hands of people who want to play them is a good indicator of a lack of wanting to do the work on the seller side. There's an article from Wired [1] a bit ago about the harrowing efforts of getting dancing game cabinets and the like out, and the DRM that goes into keeping them region-locked such that it's hard for gamers in the US to get to them. I went to GameWorks in Seattle at one point for a party and roughly 1/3 of the cabinets were cobranded with companies like King or PopCap, played like slot machines, and were more at home in a Vegas casino than a kids arcade. The others were a mixture of Japan imports from Sega and such that had been semi-localized (or, for a few, not even localized at all, just laid there for the Ultra Weeb gaijin and homesick Japanese exchange students) and "classics" like super hang-on and mortal kombat. Fact of the matter is that most modern arcade cabinets are just glorified consoles running a single game with a shitload of DRM on them, or windows/sometimes-linux machines running a single executable, stripped down to the bare minimum, then let sit in an arcade. If Konami can put the work into selling a game on a console, unless there's a really compelling reason to make the gameplay loop fit an arcade feel and not sell it as an "Arcade Console" game, they're not gonna put in the overhead of putting it into an arcade cabinet. Unless you've got some serious gimmick like a funny ridable controller [2] or a DJ style button set [3] then you're basically just selling a console game. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bringing-japan-arcades-to-us/ https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring... [2] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc934ae7367347.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs
evolve2k 5y ago
Curious as to where the tech got to just before the end. I’d be interested to know the names of the last or even last few titles produced, just to help bookmark the end of the era.
aliswe 5y ago
To me the news is that they did it up until this date?
- toyg 5y ago
  There are still quite a few arcades in Japan, some independent and some owned by chains of manufacturers like Sega.
sersi 5y ago
I have a lot of found memories of Sega World in Picadilly Circus. Later as I lived in Japan, I really loved the Sega arcades. Truly the end of an Era. Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.
- daniel-cussen 5y ago
  Game consoles are a tough racket. Tough business to be in.
- ronnier 5y ago
  Weird thing that many don't know... did you know Sega was created by Americans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega Founders * Martin Bromley * Richard Stewart
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    I've been a rabid Sega fan for 35 years, and I did not know this. I knew Sega stood for Service Games, but always assumed it was just the fairly standard practice of Japanese companies using Western names.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  Sega World was always one of my highlights of going to London. Would always stop in there. I remember one time I'd just sold 800 Beanie Babies for $250,000 in cash (dude flew in from Chicago with it) and was feeling flush. Went in Sega World and they had a new Jurassic Park hydraulic deluxe game. IIRC it was three quid PER CREDIT, and it was a two-player game. So it was six quid just to start. There was an employee stationed outside who would put your money in for you. So, me and my buddy go and get literally hundreds of quid coins and go back to the game and pour these coins into the guy's shirt and tell him KEEP FEEDING THE BEAST. DO NOT STOP. So we played that fucker all the way through to the end. I think we only spent about 90 quid in total to finish it. The employee was over the moon. He said he'd been working there for weeks but no-one ever wanted to play after the first credit and he'd really wanted to see the end sequence. I love you Sega. You'll always be my first crush.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
GameWorks, the American-based joint venture started by Sega and Dreamworks, closed all of its remaining locations last month. RIP the downtown Seattle arcade.
- mortenjorck 5y ago
  Wow, I was about to ask if anyone knew what this meant for GameWorks. Even if I was too young for the golden age of American arcades, I’m glad I got to experience their twilight. The vertically-integrated, destination-class concept was clearly the end-state for the industry, but it was still a blast to go. We still have barcades, which are fun, though they tend to be exclusively retro-gaming, appealing first and foremost to Gen X nostalgia. Looks like I'll need to go to Tokyo to get behind the wheel of an Initial D arcade machine again.
  - seanmcdirmid 5y ago
    GameWorks opened in downtown Seattle around the same time that wizards of the coast opened up an arcade/card playing space on the ave (near the big university in the city). It was a weird resurgence in the late 90s, but neither stood the test of time.
- Klonoar 5y ago
  What’s crazy is that the closure came as a surprise to many - I and most of my friends didn’t see any notice of it at all. I would’ve gone to the Seattle location one last time to get in some Third Strike.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  On the upside, Round 1 is steadily expanding throughout the US. For those who don't know, Round 1 is a Japanese arcade company that also has US locations, and they import many only-intended-for-Japan arcade cabinets to said locations, including some that are only in Japanese. Their rhythm game sections in particular are basically unsurpassed by American standards, it's like stepping into a slice of Tokyo.
  - 5y ago
Datagenerator 5y ago
Is there a archive.org for arcades? MAME of any kind?
- kbrosnan 5y ago
  Sega is selling the consumer arcade stores. Yes, there are communities that work to preserve arcade machine ROMs and other media.
- errcorrectcode 5y ago
  Regardless of where one stands on warez, it's often the de-facto only source for obscure titles. There are/were fairly-complete warez torrents of MAME sets. The ones up to the early 2000's were of reasonable size, but after that, the sizes balloon. Best to get a stand-up MAME arcade which were the rage some years ago.
- mrighele 5y ago
  Yes, archive.org :-D. You can find plenty of arcade games, all running in a browser version of MAME. You can also find games for other platforms, such as home computers or pc, them too running on a browser version of some kind of emulator (MESS, Vice etc.) Since we are talking about Sega, have some Sonic the Hedgehog. https://archive.org/details/sg_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Rev_1_1991_Sega_JP-KR_en https://archive.org/details/sg_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Rev_1_1991...
- raitom 5y ago
  Not sure if it’s allowed here but yes, people have been dumping even the most recent arcade games: http://www.emuline.org/forum/28-arcade-pc-dump-loader/ http://www.emuline.org/forum/28-arcade-pc-dump-loader/
lefstathiou 5y ago
:’( Spent three weeks in Tokyo for my honeymoon a few years ago. I know of no experience that for me can rival the type of joy of spending late nights in an arcade (not saying it’s the pinnacle, just a unique experience). Even my wife who is a non-gamer found it a thrill. Perhaps with the shut downs it will consolidate to a few profitable centers that can remain. Individuals can’t afford Dancerush Stardum or those gundam games.
- Nbox9 5y ago
  I don’t know if consolidation is going to be a good thing. Game developers need a player base to be profitable, and that usually means games available to the public.
- creakingstairs 5y ago
  It is very sad. I've moved to Japan recently and a lot of the arcades either have shut down or now have way more 'commercial' games that are essentially gambling and those gundam like games. I'm sure they are fun but they aren't "real" arcade games to me :(
sigmaprimus 5y ago
Arcades hold a large portion of my childhood memories. It was the place where I made friends from outside my social circle of school and neighborhood. I suppose in some ways it was an afternoon night club for kids. I have no idea where if anywhere kids today can find the same connections outside of parent subsidized sports and art programs. (Which really do not have the autonomy and real world social interactions arcades provided me.) I could hardly wait for my paper route money to come in so that I could meet up with my friends spend it at the arcade! Possible shopping centers have provide a similar experience but I feel the writing is on the wall and it does not bode well for these either. I worry that pseudo friendships such as those found online or soon in the Metaverse being the only option for our youth, will have long lasting negative consequences on our society which appears to be in decline already.
speedcoder 5y ago
Held my kid's birthday party at a used-arcade-machine dealer: https://tntamusements.com https://tntamusements.com . It was a blast.
hnthrowaway0315 5y ago
Just a couple of dozen lines of texts with such rich advertisement contents. I'm impressed.
hnthrowaway0315 5y ago
Although there are tons of ways to build an arcade machine by oneself (usually by emulation on a Pi), I wonder if there is enough customer base for Sega to sell them to individual customers.
- wallacoloo 5y ago
  oh there’s a pretty sophisticated network for buying arcade cabinets in the US, Sega cabs included. Wired did a writeup on this a couple weeks ago [1]. they really aren’t cheap though. there are a few reasons for the big players to not want these sold on the open market though, like licensing/copyright headaches, which will probably be amplified as people reverse-engineer the game and mod/add their own content. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bringing-japan-arcades-to-us/ https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring...
Cpoll 5y ago
I had this explained to me as Sega selling their remaining shares in Genda Inc/their joint venture. Genda was already the majority owner/maintainer of the arcades. Now no longer having an affiliation with Sega, Genda's rebranding under the GiGo brand, but there's no real administrative change.
ArtWomb 5y ago
End of an Era, indeed. The "arcade gallery" of retro 1980s hits: out run, after burner, space harrier, hang on. Immensely playable forever ;) https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  Space Harrier was a good game. Afterburner at least _looked_ good. In retrospect, Out Run is a much weaker game, sillier than I remembered -- especially when you consider Konami's outstanding (if madly difficult) WEC Le Mans came out the same year. Good soundtrack though.
tpmx 5y ago
How are the other businesses in Akihabara doing? E.g. important institutions like the world's best physical electronic component store Akizuki Denshi?
beebeepka 5y ago
I grew up, and spent most of money, at the arcades. Luckily, a friend introduced me to MAME 22 years ago. I still play Golden Axe, Alien Storm, Altered Beast almost every day after work. I actually prefer MAME to the real thing. Wireless controllers, pause, auto fire settings and whatnot. I wish Gens was as alive as MAME.
- LightG 5y ago
  And, whoosh, you just took me back 30 years I'll check out MAME, had no idea. Thanks
- nyanpasu64 5y ago
  There are substantially more up-to-date and accurate Genesis emulators than Gens nowadays, though I'm not sure what's the best choice for users.
devmunchies 5y ago
How does Sega make money these days?
JetAlone 5y ago
I've been to the Japanese arcades many times, and I'd noticed changes cross the era of machine. A lot of the newer machines are either trying to be some kind of new arcade moba or card-based experience (half or more of which seemed to flop, with entire empty floors). More single player oriented experiences feature a game loop where a small, core element consisting of about 5 minutes costs a 100 yen coin regardless of outcome. For example, the Initial D game where every single race costs 100 yen or the Pokemon game where you pay 100 yen to get into a battle and another coin if you want to actually catch the wild pokemon you beat. It's a move away from the classic model where you would usually pay on losing all your lives which could cost more but was more dependent on player skill. It was a more interactive, more participatory, model. A meritocratic one where being able to beat an entire 30 minute game session of a scrolling shooter on as few coins as possible would be an impressive source of bragging rights. The change absolutely feels like the mobile micro-transaction model extended to coin-op. To me, it narrows the gap between an arcade and a pachinko parlor, so I simply don't feel as compelled to go to arcades. The perennial fighting games and giant robot battles still pull crowds from their appreciators, as something of the core of the arcade business. That, and the two floors of UFO crane games still seem to hold fairly strong sway from what I've seen. The pandemic situation made things worse for arcades, but like many things that you've heard of many times before it only accelerated an inevitable decline. I think the move here would be first to downsize, then maybe specialize.
- willis936 5y ago
  The first episode of Netflix's High Score covers the 1970s and early 1980s video games, including arcades. The guy who made Ms. Pac Man started by making arcade mods that increased the difficulty of games. It was a killer business model because arcades were getting lower revenue over time because the playerbase would get good at a game within months. It isn't correct to say micro-transactions moved into arcades. It's more accurate to say arcade MTX have moved into the home. Arcade value prop is at an all-time low. It's too bad, because rhythm games are a lot of fun and impractical for homes.
  - JohnBooty 5y ago
    It's more accurate to say arcade MTX have moved into the home. I don't follow your thinking. "Making the game more difficult" and "microtransactions" are both ways to squeeze more money from players but man, they are very different.
m3kw9 5y ago
Arcades used to have the next level graphics games with the best controls vs consoles. Now the gap is almost completely closed. Which is why you see a lot of arcade games with crazy controls that you cannot have at home.
- telxosser 5y ago
  I think of Mortal Kombat at the arcade before there was any version to play at home. Nothing can ever compete with that. The finishing moves were like this occult knowledge that you would see certain kids have and think of them as some kind of martial arts masters. No internet to tell you how to do them. Would just have to try to watch the master and figure out what they were doing when they did the finishing move. Scarcity of game play the coin created along with having to be social at the arcade. Just an awesome experience as a kid.
  - m3kw9 5y ago
    The thrill of challenging someone on Street Fighter 2 and the crowd watching was amazing
Venkatesh10 5y ago
Tokyo Lens channel in YouTube have covered this in a video. 3 months back they closed they famous store and that's in the video.
stellcorn 5y ago
I thought that it's the end of the an era. End of the arcade games in the game centres but I guess that's not the case here.
jsiaajdsdaa 5y ago
End of an era.
ddingus 5y ago
Bummer! As many will say, end of an era. SEGA!
ksec 5y ago
I wonder if they could sell it to consumers instead of focusing on malls and places. There are certain type of Arcade that offer better experience beyond console and computer gaming. But I guess that is too courages move for a Japanese company.
- vondur 5y ago
  At least in Japan, the arcades are being transferred to another company and will remain open.
- city41 5y ago
  Arcade1up is slowly filling this gap. They've already done an Outrun cabinet for example. It seems Arcade1up's quality gradually increases with each release so there is hope they might do some Sega games justice in the future. https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machine https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machin...
  - toast0 5y ago
    Wow, they've released a lot more titles lately. The one issue is size, these fit in the home a lot easier, because they're much smaller. The bottleneck seems to be LCDs; commercially reasonable 4:3 LCDs top out at 17", which is on the small end. Arcade machines commonly had (CRT) screens from 19-25". Of course, older games often look better on CRT than LCD, but CRTs obviously aren't going to happen, unfortunately.
    - city41 5y ago
      The new Killer Instinct Pro that is coming out is full scale instead of 3/4, and has a 19" monitor. https://arcade1up.com/products/ki-pro https://arcade1up.com/products/ki-pro Yeah CRTs aren't realistic these days but I do think it's possible to emulate the look pretty decently with shaders at least.
  - TulliusCicero 5y ago
    I like how they even the model they got in the picture has 'arcade-style' (read: late 80's/early 90's) hair and outfit.
DerekL 5y ago
Note Sega is divesting from arcades (the places of business), but they still make machines that go into arcades.
- ksec 5y ago
  So they are not operating Sega World or Arcade Centre, but still making arcade the machine? If that is the case I am fine. I was rather worry about the end of Arcade. Especially with Racing Games.
  - philistine 5y ago
    You should be exceedingly worried. If Sega has no ownership of arcade locations, they lose a very big reason to make machines for the arcade. For Sega, the money was in owning the complete operation.
    - nsxwolf 5y ago
      Does Sega own any arcades in the US? I've always seen a lot of new Sega machines - is that not an important business for them?
      - musicale 5y ago
        Gameworks was co-founded by Sega and also owned for a time by Sega Sammy; at one point it had dozens of locations, but it seems to have struggled financially for much of its life and is closing its last two locations due to pandemic-related difficulties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameWorks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameWorks
    - amelius 5y ago
      Why? Microsoft (Xbox) doesn't own arcade locations.
      - als0 5y ago
        Arcades in America and Europe have essentially been dead for a long time, which has to be a reason why Microsoft doesn't own any. But in Japan arcades were still thriving until recently. Unfortunately, times are tough.
NetOpWibby 5y ago
One of my best friends LOVES Sega and in 2017 we got the opportunity to not only visit Japan but the Sega arcade as well. Such great memories, it will be missed. https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293 https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293

255 points by atombender 5y ago

I remember the fun of going to a couple Sega arcades in Tokyo in ‘98 when there on business. At one of them they had people out front handing out mini packs of Sega branded tissues! They gave me several, it was a cool souvenir I shared with a few friends.

astrange 5y ago
They hand those out because public bathrooms don't have any way to dry your hands.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago

Can anyone explain the appeal of arcades to me? It is expensive and games do not look really interesting.

stemlord 5y ago
It's the original pay to play/win gaming model, back when arcades actually had people in them. Anyway arcade is a unique genre of games often characterized by more fast paced chaotic gameplay, "infinite" levels, extra focus on leaderboards, more eye-candy style of visual design akin to casinos, etc. It can be a pretty fun space
philistine 5y ago
Yeah, you should be able to see the appeal of bespoke machines inappropriate for the home easily. Not everyone has a golf simulator in their home to hone their swing, yet people go to a place where they have one. Same thing with arcades; not everyone has a DDR machine at home, yet people love them and want to play them.
jbay808 5y ago
Just like the difference between movie theatres vs home theatres, arcades can be a very different and more (or less) social experience than playing games at home, but the appeal might depend more on what your home is like than what the arcade is like. You might live in a small space where you can't keep a functioning Dance Dance Revolution setup without noise complaints from downstairs, but you can dance at the arcade, maybe with an awestruck audience if you're really good at it. You can take your SO to the arcade on a date and giggle as you race down a mountain together with a steering wheel and pedal setup, even if he/she isn't into that kind of thing most of the time and wouldn't have fun playing Gran Turismo with you at home. You can hang out with your friends each week and play with them even if your home environment is too strict, chaotic, or unpredictable for that. But if you have everything you need at home and can couch-co-op Halo with your buddies on a big screen TV, you might not see any appeal in the arcade.
dan_quixote 5y ago
Nostalgia I guess. If you're old enough to remember the world before ubiquitous internet, you likely have some fond memories of arcades. We didn't always have everything available at arms length instantly. Many of us saved up money for the one-per-week (or month) trip to the arcade. The delayed gratification and shared experience made it a phenomenon that has few parallels any more.
0xcde4c3db 5y ago
I think it's like why people go to the gym to exercise even though most of them would theoretically be better off buying a set of resistance bands and making a YouTube playlist to follow at home. There seems to be something inherently compelling about a physical space that society has designated as being dedicated to a specific activity.
dghughes 5y ago
As others have alluded to it's not just to play a game it's also a social thing. I can't think of any other social activity I was involved in outside my home as a teenager. I was shy, quiet, no friends etc. but at an arcade there was a common interest. Watching someone else play or 2 player game with someone you didn't know. The smell too arcades had a certain smell the plywood cabinets, sweet smells of food, and for a certain period in time cigarettes.
mch82 5y ago
In general, arcades are just fun. They’re a place to go outside the house. But, arcades also get to experiment with unique hardware & interfaces that a home console or PC can’t match. Sega Joyopolis in Tokyo was a next level experience. It had arcade cabinets that spin 360 degrees on X & Y axes, which makes flying games fantastic. It had racing cabinets with full sized Mazda Miatas & similar cars on full motion platforms. There was a snowboarding half pipe, where the rider is strapped into a full sized snowboard on a pendulum arm with a VR headset. Another ride was an enclosed pod with VR displays that ran along a rollercoaster track. And, the most unusual thing I remember, there was a holographic virtual pop star performance.
- astrange 5y ago
  Luckily their virtual singer business is still going strong. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hatsune-miku-colorful-stage/id1580044138 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hatsune-miku-colorful-stage/id... Although I don't think as many people use Vocaloid to write songs anymore - the appeal is basically that you don't have to hire any singers, but that's not a problem once you get enough fame you can afford them. So now the games are a nostalgia play.
dasKrokodil 5y ago
While it hasn't been the case recently, way back in the day arcade machines had much better graphics than anything you could play on home consoles or computers.
TulliusCicero 5y ago
Have you been to a Round 1? As far arcades go they're very impressive imo, especially the rhythm game sections. I love me some Groove Coaster and Drummania!
syntheweave 5y ago
The video game arcade grew out of earlier electromechanical amusements, primarily pinball(which has had a small renaissance in the US). The joy of pinball is a combination of "bright lights and chimes" - attractive theming giving it a monumental feel, the physics of the game being complex and chaotic, and a "beat the operator" element of skill where good players can play for longer and are even rewarded with more credits. Every time you come in to play a pinball, it's slightly different because the parts were readjusted or the ball had grown worn. When video arcades started to grow popular at the end of the 1970's, they retained most of these elements: An arcade game was a "destination" for game enthusiasts and had the best technology available at the time. They didn't have real physics like pinball, but they were very reliable, giving the skill element a new wrinkle - the operator mostly wasn't a factor, so you played against the game design as the developer intended. While free credits for high scores were eliminated, time extension was still a common part of the gameplay. Playing for high scores or going longer on one credit are the underlying factor to being "into" arcade games - they are fundamentally short "instant fun" experiences and you have to fight them to get more out of your credit. There's a strong element of "performing" an arcade game - not just consuming it but making the most of every nuance. Not all arcades are designed fairly, but the best ones allow you to clear the game on one credit if you are very good. It can be very satisfying to spend time practicing an arcade and then be able to perform it again on demand. While consoles got better and closed the gap on technology, the arcade got a second wind in the 90's as fighting games and larger format games like Daytona USA became central, preserving the monumentality of it and opening up more multiplayer experiences, which helped the arcade retain a social feeling. Since video games are so prevalent now, and allow for cheaper, longer-format and less intense experiences, arcades have become a niche, but their style of gameplay remains popular.
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racl101 5y ago
There's a social aspect. For example, take girls who aren't gamers, there's no way to get them to play console games. They see that as the domain of dudes. So there's no chance to take them out on a date where you sit in a room playing games from a console. But these very same girls love the arcade experience. They are partial to the arcade experience because they get to be out in the open, in their best outfit, consume alcohol and/or food, smoke, socialize and even though they might not enjoy the games themselves, they like the social aspect. It's like going to a club where the crowd is a bit nerdier and not quite the meat market that are dance clubs. Same with billiards. Not that fun in dad's den. But fun as hell in a pool hall. More social. More vibing. You don't go to arcades cause it's cheaper. You go cause you want it to be a communal experience. Even if you're not there to mingle with guys or girls. Maybe you want to show off and beat some game. It's much funner when you got a bunch of people rooting behind you than if you owned the cabinet and just played in dad's den.

Asmod4n 5y ago

Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for myself and am close to 40 years old. What is allowed are gambling game casinos. Wish it would be the other way around.

tannhaeuser 5y ago
> Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal Huh?
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/s7z10o/why_are_there_no_arcades_here/ https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/s7z10o/why_are_the...
6581 5y ago
> Sadly in Germany arcades are illegal, never seen one for myself and am close to 40 years old. They're not illegal, they just never became popular. There are a few around.
- Asmod4n 5y ago
  You only find some 20+ year old aracade machines in cinemas and in adult enternainment venues and the like. Due to youth protection laws there is no difference between gambling machines and arcade machines, which turn those places into 18+ entertainment stuff.
  - chrischen 5y ago
    Actually in Japan I believe the arcades also have curfews for kids under 18.
    - aaron695 5y ago
5y ago

toyg 5y ago

Victim of COVID for sure, but I wonder if they were also a victim of the indoor smoking ban enacted in 2020. Japanese arcades were full of smokers when I was there. The smoking ban might well end up being the most significant legacy of the cursed Olympics.

chrischen 5y ago
The complete foreigner ban also probably didn’t help. The arcades were pretty popular with tourists.
indrora 5y ago
There's a lot of compounding factors. The fact that there's no (legal) way to get some of those games out of Japan and into the hands of people who want to play them is a good indicator of a lack of wanting to do the work on the seller side. There's an article from Wired [1] a bit ago about the harrowing efforts of getting dancing game cabinets and the like out, and the DRM that goes into keeping them region-locked such that it's hard for gamers in the US to get to them. I went to GameWorks in Seattle at one point for a party and roughly 1/3 of the cabinets were cobranded with companies like King or PopCap, played like slot machines, and were more at home in a Vegas casino than a kids arcade. The others were a mixture of Japan imports from Sega and such that had been semi-localized (or, for a few, not even localized at all, just laid there for the Ultra Weeb gaijin and homesick Japanese exchange students) and "classics" like super hang-on and mortal kombat. Fact of the matter is that most modern arcade cabinets are just glorified consoles running a single game with a shitload of DRM on them, or windows/sometimes-linux machines running a single executable, stripped down to the bare minimum, then let sit in an arcade. If Konami can put the work into selling a game on a console, unless there's a really compelling reason to make the gameplay loop fit an arcade feel and not sell it as an "Arcade Console" game, they're not gonna put in the overhead of putting it into an arcade cabinet. Unless you've got some serious gimmick like a funny ridable controller [2] or a DJ style button set [3] then you're basically just selling a console game. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bringing-japan-arcades-to-us/ https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring... [2] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc934ae7367347.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/c0/91/0cc0912f1b8248be89fc... [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvyHzzLZXs

evolve2k 5y ago

Curious as to where the tech got to just before the end. I’d be interested to know the names of the last or even last few titles produced, just to help bookmark the end of the era.

aliswe 5y ago

To me the news is that they did it up until this date?

toyg 5y ago
There are still quite a few arcades in Japan, some independent and some owned by chains of manufacturers like Sega.

sersi 5y ago

I have a lot of found memories of Sega World in Picadilly Circus. Later as I lived in Japan, I really loved the Sega arcades. Truly the end of an Era. Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.

daniel-cussen 5y ago
Game consoles are a tough racket. Tough business to be in.
ronnier 5y ago
Weird thing that many don't know... did you know Sega was created by Americans? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega Founders * Martin Bromley * Richard Stewart
- kingcharles 5y ago
  I've been a rabid Sega fan for 35 years, and I did not know this. I knew Sega stood for Service Games, but always assumed it was just the fairly standard practice of Japanese companies using Western names.
kingcharles 5y ago
Sega World was always one of my highlights of going to London. Would always stop in there. I remember one time I'd just sold 800 Beanie Babies for $250,000 in cash (dude flew in from Chicago with it) and was feeling flush. Went in Sega World and they had a new Jurassic Park hydraulic deluxe game. IIRC it was three quid PER CREDIT, and it was a two-player game. So it was six quid just to start. There was an employee stationed outside who would put your money in for you. So, me and my buddy go and get literally hundreds of quid coins and go back to the game and pour these coins into the guy's shirt and tell him KEEP FEEDING THE BEAST. DO NOT STOP. So we played that fucker all the way through to the end. I think we only spent about 90 quid in total to finish it. The employee was over the moon. He said he'd been working there for weeks but no-one ever wanted to play after the first credit and he'd really wanted to see the end sequence. I love you Sega. You'll always be my first crush.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

GameWorks, the American-based joint venture started by Sega and Dreamworks, closed all of its remaining locations last month. RIP the downtown Seattle arcade.

mortenjorck 5y ago
Wow, I was about to ask if anyone knew what this meant for GameWorks. Even if I was too young for the golden age of American arcades, I’m glad I got to experience their twilight. The vertically-integrated, destination-class concept was clearly the end-state for the industry, but it was still a blast to go. We still have barcades, which are fun, though they tend to be exclusively retro-gaming, appealing first and foremost to Gen X nostalgia. Looks like I'll need to go to Tokyo to get behind the wheel of an Initial D arcade machine again.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  GameWorks opened in downtown Seattle around the same time that wizards of the coast opened up an arcade/card playing space on the ave (near the big university in the city). It was a weird resurgence in the late 90s, but neither stood the test of time.
Klonoar 5y ago
What’s crazy is that the closure came as a surprise to many - I and most of my friends didn’t see any notice of it at all. I would’ve gone to the Seattle location one last time to get in some Third Strike.
TulliusCicero 5y ago
On the upside, Round 1 is steadily expanding throughout the US. For those who don't know, Round 1 is a Japanese arcade company that also has US locations, and they import many only-intended-for-Japan arcade cabinets to said locations, including some that are only in Japanese. Their rhythm game sections in particular are basically unsurpassed by American standards, it's like stepping into a slice of Tokyo.
- 5y ago

Datagenerator 5y ago

Is there a archive.org for arcades? MAME of any kind?

kbrosnan 5y ago
Sega is selling the consumer arcade stores. Yes, there are communities that work to preserve arcade machine ROMs and other media.
errcorrectcode 5y ago
Regardless of where one stands on warez, it's often the de-facto only source for obscure titles. There are/were fairly-complete warez torrents of MAME sets. The ones up to the early 2000's were of reasonable size, but after that, the sizes balloon. Best to get a stand-up MAME arcade which were the rage some years ago.
mrighele 5y ago
Yes, archive.org :-D. You can find plenty of arcade games, all running in a browser version of MAME. You can also find games for other platforms, such as home computers or pc, them too running on a browser version of some kind of emulator (MESS, Vice etc.) Since we are talking about Sega, have some Sonic the Hedgehog. https://archive.org/details/sg_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Rev_1_1991_Sega_JP-KR_en https://archive.org/details/sg_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_Rev_1_1991...
raitom 5y ago
Not sure if it’s allowed here but yes, people have been dumping even the most recent arcade games: http://www.emuline.org/forum/28-arcade-pc-dump-loader/ http://www.emuline.org/forum/28-arcade-pc-dump-loader/

lefstathiou 5y ago

:’( Spent three weeks in Tokyo for my honeymoon a few years ago. I know of no experience that for me can rival the type of joy of spending late nights in an arcade (not saying it’s the pinnacle, just a unique experience). Even my wife who is a non-gamer found it a thrill. Perhaps with the shut downs it will consolidate to a few profitable centers that can remain. Individuals can’t afford Dancerush Stardum or those gundam games.

Nbox9 5y ago
I don’t know if consolidation is going to be a good thing. Game developers need a player base to be profitable, and that usually means games available to the public.
creakingstairs 5y ago
It is very sad. I've moved to Japan recently and a lot of the arcades either have shut down or now have way more 'commercial' games that are essentially gambling and those gundam like games. I'm sure they are fun but they aren't "real" arcade games to me :(

sigmaprimus 5y ago

Arcades hold a large portion of my childhood memories. It was the place where I made friends from outside my social circle of school and neighborhood. I suppose in some ways it was an afternoon night club for kids. I have no idea where if anywhere kids today can find the same connections outside of parent subsidized sports and art programs. (Which really do not have the autonomy and real world social interactions arcades provided me.) I could hardly wait for my paper route money to come in so that I could meet up with my friends spend it at the arcade! Possible shopping centers have provide a similar experience but I feel the writing is on the wall and it does not bode well for these either. I worry that pseudo friendships such as those found online or soon in the Metaverse being the only option for our youth, will have long lasting negative consequences on our society which appears to be in decline already.

speedcoder 5y ago

Held my kid's birthday party at a used-arcade-machine dealer: https://tntamusements.com https://tntamusements.com . It was a blast.

hnthrowaway0315 5y ago

Just a couple of dozen lines of texts with such rich advertisement contents. I'm impressed.

hnthrowaway0315 5y ago

Although there are tons of ways to build an arcade machine by oneself (usually by emulation on a Pi), I wonder if there is enough customer base for Sega to sell them to individual customers.

wallacoloo 5y ago
oh there’s a pretty sophisticated network for buying arcade cabinets in the US, Sega cabs included. Wired did a writeup on this a couple weeks ago [1]. they really aren’t cheap though. there are a few reasons for the big players to not want these sold on the open market though, like licensing/copyright headaches, which will probably be amplified as people reverse-engineer the game and mod/add their own content. [1] https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bringing-japan-arcades-to-us/ https://www.wired.com/story/gritty-underground-network-bring...

Cpoll 5y ago

I had this explained to me as Sega selling their remaining shares in Genda Inc/their joint venture. Genda was already the majority owner/maintainer of the arcades. Now no longer having an affiliation with Sega, Genda's rebranding under the GiGo brand, but there's no real administrative change.

ArtWomb 5y ago

End of an Era, indeed. The "arcade gallery" of retro 1980s hits: out run, after burner, space harrier, hang on. Immensely playable forever ;) https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel https://archive.org/details/arcade_gaxeduel

unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Space Harrier was a good game. Afterburner at least _looked_ good. In retrospect, Out Run is a much weaker game, sillier than I remembered -- especially when you consider Konami's outstanding (if madly difficult) WEC Le Mans came out the same year. Good soundtrack though.

tpmx 5y ago

How are the other businesses in Akihabara doing? E.g. important institutions like the world's best physical electronic component store Akizuki Denshi?

beebeepka 5y ago

I grew up, and spent most of money, at the arcades. Luckily, a friend introduced me to MAME 22 years ago. I still play Golden Axe, Alien Storm, Altered Beast almost every day after work. I actually prefer MAME to the real thing. Wireless controllers, pause, auto fire settings and whatnot. I wish Gens was as alive as MAME.

LightG 5y ago
And, whoosh, you just took me back 30 years I'll check out MAME, had no idea. Thanks
nyanpasu64 5y ago
There are substantially more up-to-date and accurate Genesis emulators than Gens nowadays, though I'm not sure what's the best choice for users.

devmunchies 5y ago

How does Sega make money these days?

JetAlone 5y ago

I've been to the Japanese arcades many times, and I'd noticed changes cross the era of machine. A lot of the newer machines are either trying to be some kind of new arcade moba or card-based experience (half or more of which seemed to flop, with entire empty floors). More single player oriented experiences feature a game loop where a small, core element consisting of about 5 minutes costs a 100 yen coin regardless of outcome. For example, the Initial D game where every single race costs 100 yen or the Pokemon game where you pay 100 yen to get into a battle and another coin if you want to actually catch the wild pokemon you beat. It's a move away from the classic model where you would usually pay on losing all your lives which could cost more but was more dependent on player skill. It was a more interactive, more participatory, model. A meritocratic one where being able to beat an entire 30 minute game session of a scrolling shooter on as few coins as possible would be an impressive source of bragging rights. The change absolutely feels like the mobile micro-transaction model extended to coin-op. To me, it narrows the gap between an arcade and a pachinko parlor, so I simply don't feel as compelled to go to arcades. The perennial fighting games and giant robot battles still pull crowds from their appreciators, as something of the core of the arcade business. That, and the two floors of UFO crane games still seem to hold fairly strong sway from what I've seen. The pandemic situation made things worse for arcades, but like many things that you've heard of many times before it only accelerated an inevitable decline. I think the move here would be first to downsize, then maybe specialize.

willis936 5y ago
The first episode of Netflix's High Score covers the 1970s and early 1980s video games, including arcades. The guy who made Ms. Pac Man started by making arcade mods that increased the difficulty of games. It was a killer business model because arcades were getting lower revenue over time because the playerbase would get good at a game within months. It isn't correct to say micro-transactions moved into arcades. It's more accurate to say arcade MTX have moved into the home. Arcade value prop is at an all-time low. It's too bad, because rhythm games are a lot of fun and impractical for homes.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  It's more accurate to say arcade MTX have moved into the home. I don't follow your thinking. "Making the game more difficult" and "microtransactions" are both ways to squeeze more money from players but man, they are very different.

m3kw9 5y ago

Arcades used to have the next level graphics games with the best controls vs consoles. Now the gap is almost completely closed. Which is why you see a lot of arcade games with crazy controls that you cannot have at home.

telxosser 5y ago
I think of Mortal Kombat at the arcade before there was any version to play at home. Nothing can ever compete with that. The finishing moves were like this occult knowledge that you would see certain kids have and think of them as some kind of martial arts masters. No internet to tell you how to do them. Would just have to try to watch the master and figure out what they were doing when they did the finishing move. Scarcity of game play the coin created along with having to be social at the arcade. Just an awesome experience as a kid.
- m3kw9 5y ago
  The thrill of challenging someone on Street Fighter 2 and the crowd watching was amazing

Venkatesh10 5y ago

Tokyo Lens channel in YouTube have covered this in a video. 3 months back they closed they famous store and that's in the video.

stellcorn 5y ago

I thought that it's the end of the an era. End of the arcade games in the game centres but I guess that's not the case here.

jsiaajdsdaa 5y ago

End of an era.

ddingus 5y ago

Bummer! As many will say, end of an era. SEGA!

ksec 5y ago

I wonder if they could sell it to consumers instead of focusing on malls and places. There are certain type of Arcade that offer better experience beyond console and computer gaming. But I guess that is too courages move for a Japanese company.

vondur 5y ago
At least in Japan, the arcades are being transferred to another company and will remain open.
city41 5y ago
Arcade1up is slowly filling this gap. They've already done an Outrun cabinet for example. It seems Arcade1up's quality gradually increases with each release so there is hope they might do some Sega games justice in the future. https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machine https://arcade1up.com/products/outrun-stand-up-arcade-machin...
- toast0 5y ago
  Wow, they've released a lot more titles lately. The one issue is size, these fit in the home a lot easier, because they're much smaller. The bottleneck seems to be LCDs; commercially reasonable 4:3 LCDs top out at 17", which is on the small end. Arcade machines commonly had (CRT) screens from 19-25". Of course, older games often look better on CRT than LCD, but CRTs obviously aren't going to happen, unfortunately.
  - city41 5y ago
    The new Killer Instinct Pro that is coming out is full scale instead of 3/4, and has a 19" monitor. https://arcade1up.com/products/ki-pro https://arcade1up.com/products/ki-pro Yeah CRTs aren't realistic these days but I do think it's possible to emulate the look pretty decently with shaders at least.
- TulliusCicero 5y ago
  I like how they even the model they got in the picture has 'arcade-style' (read: late 80's/early 90's) hair and outfit.

DerekL 5y ago

Note Sega is divesting from arcades (the places of business), but they still make machines that go into arcades.

ksec 5y ago
So they are not operating Sega World or Arcade Centre, but still making arcade the machine? If that is the case I am fine. I was rather worry about the end of Arcade. Especially with Racing Games.
- philistine 5y ago
  You should be exceedingly worried. If Sega has no ownership of arcade locations, they lose a very big reason to make machines for the arcade. For Sega, the money was in owning the complete operation.
  - nsxwolf 5y ago
    Does Sega own any arcades in the US? I've always seen a lot of new Sega machines - is that not an important business for them?
    - musicale 5y ago
      Gameworks was co-founded by Sega and also owned for a time by Sega Sammy; at one point it had dozens of locations, but it seems to have struggled financially for much of its life and is closing its last two locations due to pandemic-related difficulties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameWorks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameWorks
  - amelius 5y ago
    Why? Microsoft (Xbox) doesn't own arcade locations.
    - als0 5y ago
      Arcades in America and Europe have essentially been dead for a long time, which has to be a reason why Microsoft doesn't own any. But in Japan arcades were still thriving until recently. Unfortunately, times are tough.

NetOpWibby 5y ago

One of my best friends LOVES Sega and in 2017 we got the opportunity to not only visit Japan but the Sega arcade as well. Such great memories, it will be missed. https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293 https://twitter.com/NetOpWibby/status/1487180498891788293