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I thought emulation would bring back the arcade, but that failed to catch on. A dying arcade I visited several years ago had a simple cabinet and a marquee that

I thought emulation would bring back the arcade, but that failed to catch on. A dying arcade I visited several years ago had a simple cabinet and a marquee that said something to the effect of "500 Games in One!" After trying it, it was pretty clear that it was running some kind of legal version of MAME. I wouldn't be surprised if the innards themselves were just a PC tower with a MAME-GUI loaded onto it. The point being, however, it probably cost them less than $200 to put the thing together assuming they had an empty cabinet, and you paid a quarter to be able to pick from 500 games on which you could have a "vintage" experience. It was cheap, it was space effective, and to be honest it was alot more enjoyable than most of the other games they had there. I kinda figured that would be the sort of thing that would survive in this day and age. I came back six months later and it had been replaced by a "Deal or No Deal" cabinet...

sayangel 11y ago
I think the experiences at an arcade have to be ones you can't get at home for it to be compelling enough to come back. You said it yourself: it probably was just a PC with MAME running. You can do that at home. What I can't do at home is sit on a stool with a bunch of flashing lights and Howie Mandel asking me to pick a suitcase. And perhaps have people cheer me on. I think the same will go for VR arcades. It's gotta be more than a bunch of PCs running software. It's more about the experience.
jsprogrammer 11y ago
800 plays just to break even. It would have to average over 4 plays per day for 6 months to to cover the (likely a low estimate) $200 cost. Why would I play a MAME cabinet for $0.25 when I could do it at home for nothing? How many people actually even play a MAME game any where on any given day? They probably barely collected enough quarters to pay for the electricity to power the machine.
joezydeco 11y ago
But a) 80% of those 500 games are garbage and b) even the 20% that are enjoyable and/or "classic" are dated. You can grab the older retro-loving crowd for a little while, you won't grab the kids at all. If you were 12 which would you prefer to play for more than 10 minutes? Mario Bros (Arcade, 1983) or New Super Mario Bros (WiiU, 2012)?
- damon_c 11y ago
  Mario Bros (Arcade, 1983) had concurrent multiplayer and was more like today's Super Smash Bros. So maybe if I had two people...
  - TulliusCicero 11y ago
    Mario Bros really isn't that great of a game.
gertef 11y ago
> some kind of legal version of MAME > I came back six months later and it had been replaced are you sure it was legal? Seems unlikely.

sayangel 11y ago

I think the experiences at an arcade have to be ones you can't get at home for it to be compelling enough to come back. You said it yourself: it probably was just a PC with MAME running. You can do that at home. What I can't do at home is sit on a stool with a bunch of flashing lights and Howie Mandel asking me to pick a suitcase. And perhaps have people cheer me on. I think the same will go for VR arcades. It's gotta be more than a bunch of PCs running software. It's more about the experience.

jsprogrammer 11y ago

800 plays just to break even. It would have to average over 4 plays per day for 6 months to to cover the (likely a low estimate) $200 cost. Why would I play a MAME cabinet for $0.25 when I could do it at home for nothing? How many people actually even play a MAME game any where on any given day? They probably barely collected enough quarters to pay for the electricity to power the machine.

joezydeco 11y ago

But a) 80% of those 500 games are garbage and b) even the 20% that are enjoyable and/or "classic" are dated. You can grab the older retro-loving crowd for a little while, you won't grab the kids at all. If you were 12 which would you prefer to play for more than 10 minutes? Mario Bros (Arcade, 1983) or New Super Mario Bros (WiiU, 2012)?

damon_c 11y ago
Mario Bros (Arcade, 1983) had concurrent multiplayer and was more like today's Super Smash Bros. So maybe if I had two people...
- TulliusCicero 11y ago
  Mario Bros really isn't that great of a game.

gertef 11y ago

> some kind of legal version of MAME > I came back six months later and it had been replaced are you sure it was legal? Seems unlikely.