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Is there still an arcade gaming scene?
I don't have a pulse on this like I used to, but are there still big new arcade games being developed and made?
If I went to an arcade, could I play new stuff from the past few years, or is it going to be primarily old cabinets that have been maintained?
How many arcades are still out there anyway? Have they been able to survive against the widespread proliferation of consoles, phone gaming, home VR, etc.?
I'm curious as to whether arcade gaming is still alive or if it's a dead or dying art.
Yes, in Japan there's still a scene and there's a major arcade/bowling chain called Round 1 which regularly imports those games to the US with a pretty dedicated arcade gamer audience. It falls under a few categories that I can think of:
Big cabinet adaptations of popular mobile games are popular. Subway Surfers, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, etc.
Rhythm game titles get frequent updates. Bemani games (DDR, IIDX, SDVX, etc), Miku Project Diva, Groove Coaster, Theatrhythm, etc.
A few other niche titles in specific genres get periodic refreshes. Racing games like Initial D and Maximum Tune get updates. Major fighting games like Street Fighter or Tekken will often get an arcade release.
New Pinball cabinets come out all the time.
Occasionally some old arcade IP like Pac-Man or Time Crisis gets excavated and gets either a remake, some modernized twist, or a sequel if they're really feeling spicy.
Ports of old games get consolidated into multi-game MAME cabinets.
A lot of the crunchier games like rhythm or racing games are internet-connected to track progress. They also update on the same hardware, so if a new DDR version comes out they basically just apply an update and replace the cardboard sign on top.
We have a Round 1 in Maine, and my wife and I go a few times a year. They do pretty regularly get new games in, particularly new fighting games from Japan. They have a decent selection of pinball machines (my preferred arcade game), dance / rhythm games, and some more traditional arcade fare that's been modernized (think Space Invaders / Pac-Man but on a big video screen instead of the old arcade cabinets). They also have a distressingly large number of claw machines which I do not enjoy at all but my wife does. The games give you digital tickets that you can use to spend on prizes at the end of your day, but these are so ticket-price inflated that we generally don't get any.
Round 1 also has bowling and some food and beers if you're so inclined.
We do also have a few independent arcades left but they're much smaller and open for more nighttime hours where Round 1 is open all day in the mall which seems more family friendly.
I'm not sure how lucrative the chain is altogether, but being in an area with dozens of malls and hundreds of strip malls with scores of dead flagship spots in the face of internet killing physical retail, it seems like such a prime environment for arcades to come back. I can think of like three spots within a 15 minute drive where a R1 would make a killing.
I feel like indoor malls and arcades are something towns need to pick up and operate instead of private companies. I’d love to see these spaces feature more indoor interest like aquariums, greenhouses and fountains. The other piece is being able to support local small business instead of endless chain clothing stores.
We have one in my area as well. The claw machines have become a main selling point for my kid, they have insanely large stuffed animals.
Arcades are kind of two things and it depends on your market.
Barcades will likely mostly be old cabinets of various levels of 'maintaining' taking place.
Whereas the big arcades are things like Dave & Busters or the big bowling alley chains, they're going to have 'new' games and a lot more spectacle. Twenty foot screens, VR setups, and the like... And a bunch of skee ball.
There's also 'Arcades' which have a mix of cabinets and game consoles which you normally pay a fee upfront and play for free.
Again, all dependant on your market. If I search 'Arcade' there's ~8 in a ten mile radius. I've lived places where the closest thing to an Arcade was the three machines in the bowling alley.
There is an arcade near me that primarily has pinball machines from all eras (including modern ones) and arcade machines as well (with some modern ones). It is a newer facility but they are able to survive because the machines are "free play" (and just work without you putting money in them) and you are charged a fee at the door to enter the facility ($20 for the whole day). As such, people can play anything and everything and have a pretty full day experience for a notably cheaper cost than going to an amusement park (and they don't need to drive to the farther away amusement park either).
At least for that facility, having an expansive amount of machines makes the $20 entry fee feel appropriately priced.
In addition, this approach (pay for entry and not at the machine) allows you to play on a pinball table or an arcade for a decent amount of time even if have a talent for losing the games quickly. You don't have much hesitation for trying a new game because the try "didn't cost anything" and your not financially penalized or rewarded based on your game skill. As such, what is there is more like a "PC game" in that you are deciding how much time you want to put towards a game as opposed to "your quarters and skills" deciding that for you.
There's place near us that restores vintage arcade games, and they run it as free to play.
I am terrible at video gas in general (slow reaction time, bad at multitasking). With unlimited continues, I was finally able to beat TMNT which was deeply satisfying to my inner teenager.
There's a Museum of Play in Rochester NY that takes you from the Goose Game (first commercial board game) to modern video games, roughly in time order. They had a whole room of 80s/90s video games that were a deep nostalgia hit. Could have played Sunset Riders all day.
On the subject of pinball, it has become that the thing to go to Las Vegas for is the Pinball Hall of Fame museum. Most games there cost a quarter, and they have a lot of interesting historical electromechanical games as well as a handful of modern pinball machines. I've got to say that I really enjoy the 50s and 60 pinball, though. The mechanical whirring is addictive. The only bad thing I can say about it is that they don't have Black Knight 2000. Or do they?. I've never seen it there.
The arcade near me is Past Times Arcade which features about 400 pinball machines. Notably, they did a video about their Black Knight pinball table (on Youtube here).
The interesting thing is how large that arcade is (and that it is in Northeast Ohio). When I hear of other arcades, they don't seem to be "larger" than what we have. For instance, the Pinball Hall of Fame seems to only have about the same amount of machines (368 according to this page). I figured that arcades in larger towns would inherently be larger...
NO WAY
(GIVE ME YOUR MONEY)
(HA HA HA HA)
They even had this like Disney wax figure machine that was being restored when I went there like six years ago.
I saw it when I was there last but it was not working at the time.
They still exist but they have been consistently dying. It is more accurate to say they are kept afloat by a dwindling enthusiast base, than it is to say that they are alive. The current corner stones of the industry are rhythm games, fighting games, shoot em ups, and pinball games. Of these, I'd only say that rhythm and pinball are truly still in the arcades. Most fighting games are built for the console/home PC market. If they have an arcade version, it releases after console launch, which is an inverse of how it was 15 or so years ago. Fighting games themselves are probably the biggest they've been since the 90's, they are just played at home now, or if they are played in person the tournament standard is on consoles.
As others have stated, a lot of them are barcades now, and it is really because the arcade business model can't survive in the modern market. To have an arcade, one must construct a business other people would want to attend, and then put the arcade machines into that business as a sort of side thing to do. I don't want to be too harsh on them, as they are almost always owned and operated by people who loved the traditional arcades, but imo "true" arcade culture is dead and everything left is circling the drain.
This is basically the premise of the game Arcade Paradise which I played on Nintendo Switch a while back.
We have a pretty decent arcade scene in Denver area though it's primarily barcades.
Akihabara Bar is my favorite. Most of the cabinets are untranslated directly purchased out of Japanese arcades. They have modern rhythm games that you would find in a Round 1 like Tatsu no Tatsuji and modern fighting games like Melty Blood. They also have a deep stack of retro cabinets with Monkey Ball and Street Fighter. As well as some quicky stuff like this table flipping game where the controller is literally half of a table that you flip at the right time in various situations like a business meeting, family dinner, school, etc.
What really hits is the vibe, the TVs are playing anything from Dark Souls gameplay to anime and they import craft Japanese beers as well as keeping standards like Soporro and Asahi and mix sake cocktails.
There's other barcades that are more westernized. They have a lot of retro western cabinets as well as some of the "phones games in a cabinet" type stuff.
Then we have pinball arcades which we enjoy but are kinda different.
Definitely visiting that place if I ever end up in Denver! Is it particularly loud?
I wouldn't call it quiet but if you get there around opening it's much less busy. On the weekends it definitely gets crowded and busy later in the evening. They also have a stage set up for fighting game tournaments, I imagine it can get busy if they're hosting a competition but I haven't been there for one of those.
Last time I was at an arcade they seriously had phone games in the cabinets. Like flappy bird and doodled jump. Stuff you could play for free any time, going for 50 cents per round on a big machine.
Absolutely surreal.
To me, the surreal thing is that you found an arcade game that is only asking you to pay fifty cents.
There are a bunch in the Twin Cities, mostly "barcade" style. My favorites are probably Can Can Wonderland in St. Paul and Up Down in Minneapolis, but I haven't visited them all.
Can Can Wonderland, to add some detail, has a wonderful collection of both new and old arcade games. A lot of the appeal is getting to play arcade games with pneumatic or kinetic mechanics, and they rotate out through a wider selection of games (usually fixing ones that arent out on the floor).
The entire place is a huge donut that circles a minigolf course made up of curated artists from the Twin Cities creating the absurd and wacky holes to play on.
The building CCW is in also holds my favorite Minnesota escape room Puzzleworks, which managed to survive the pandemic. There's also Blackstack brewing for just sitting and chilling with a pint. That entire building has a sort of 90's event space charm that few places have been able to maintain. If you ever visit Minnesota, it's a good tourist trap that gives you something to do!
Thanks for chiming in with the details, I didn't want to go too hard on selling it even though I love it (I was there this week even).
My friend is opening a barcade and has run all the games in the bars and restaurants where he lives for over a decade. The last time I visited him we went to a bar that had some of his games in it, and I was surprised that so many people were not only playing them but were ‘talking shop’ about arcade subculture. There were even some strangers who came up and introduced themselves to him like he was a celebrity! I’m sure that doesn’t happen all the time, but it made e realize there is a booming retro/arcade gaming subculture even in our little hometown.
When I lived in the Bay Area there was an arcade scene for Super Street Fighter 4! Some of the worlds top lived in Sunnyvale - of all places - and we'd go down to Golfland to play them and just generally get our asses handed to us.
I think there is also a small revival of sorts. Within the last 4 years 2 "retro" arcades have popped up within 5 miles of me. One is primarily a bar with arcade games, while the other is an arcade that sells tall cans. Both are pretty fun and have a nice selection of games. I'd say a selection of our friend group goes once every other month.
Japan has some but they're dying.
Chicago has Galloping Ghost.
UK has a chain of Arcade Club venues.
My home towns have aways had one or more, of varying quality. I prefer classic games but they don't perform well in terms of generating revenue per square foot.
Where I live, arcades are still going strong. They're not as big as they once were, but there's lots of Rhythm game machines, claw machines, vr stuff. The traditional shooter and fighting games are still there. There's always a racing game too.
I can really only speak to my local area, the Portland, Oregon metro, but arcades are still alive and well here. What likely helps is that pinball is really popular locally, with Portland being a frontrunner for the title of "Pinball Capital of the World". Just yesterday, my girlfriend and I took a day trip to the Next Level Pinball Museum in Hillsboro, which offers over 600 pinball tables and video games on free-play.
In Portland proper, there is QuarterWorld and my old favorite spot, Ground Kontrol. Up a little ways in Vancouver is a Round1 location, and there's various smaller locations throughout the city and suburbs, such as the local chain Wunderland.
There's a small arcade in my home city with a rotation of early 80s to mid 90s cabinets and pinball machines. They're no longer coin op; instead you pay a flat entrance fee and use a button to "insert a coin". Otherwise they're authentic hardware. The owner collects as a hobby and I think it's mostly to fund that for now. He used to run a lunch restaurant combined with an arcade which didn't pan out financially I think.
I saw some arcades in Bangkok, but those were mostly dance machines and claw games I think. If there are no Metal Slugs, After Burners, Cave shooters, gun machines or movie tie-in pinball machines I'm not interested :)