WEBVTT - The Rise and Fall of the Video Arcade 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.840 text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.200 welcome to text stuff. My name is Chris Poelette and 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.040 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.160 Sitting across from me, as usual, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:29.760 The page came from your dad's office at the Arcade. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.760 That number has been disconnected for twenty years. Wow. Recent quote. Yeah, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.400 that's a quote from a movie that hasn't even come 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.960 out yet. That's awesome. I'm tron legacy, but it actually 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.760 pertains to what we're going to be talking about. Absolutely. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.320 For once, I actually told said what the name of 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.400 the movie was. Usually, I don't do that. Do you 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.240 all know that he's every time he does that, he's 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.200 actually quoting from a movie or song or song. Yeah, 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:54.640 sometimes it's a song, that's true, sorry, so yeah, but 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:57.120 usually a movie. I'm waiting to get to the point 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.640 where the listeners start to write in and tell me 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.320 what I'm quoting from. What we did? Give that challenge once? Yeah, 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.440 so I think he just did it. For the subsequent 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.200 episodes is right, Yeah, you need to go back and 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.360 listen to I don't know when I started doing that, 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.319 but yeah, make a list after you were doing the 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.960 greetings from the world, the world different. Hello. But moving 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:21.039 on to our actual topic, which is arcades. That again 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:23.679 pertains to the quote I chose. Um, the we wanted 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:25.640 to talk about kind of the rise and fall of 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:30.040 the video game arcade. Yes, indeed, I spent many many 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.280 quarters growing up in video arcades. I started off spending 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.080 many many quarters, and then I shifted to spending many 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:43.120 dollars to get tokens. Yes, because that happened. Well, it 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.240 was a great money making scheme. Well, I guess we 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.440 can talk about that too, although that's kind of tertiary 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.800 to the full discussion. So to to really discuss the 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.480 history of video game arcades, I need to cut off 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.840 Chris just before he's about to say something. What were 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.720 you gonna say, Chris? Well, I was going to launch 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.600 into a whole thing, But go ahead, please launch. Okay. So, 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.639 of course many of you know that I am older 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.200 than many of our listeners. Um, but I grew up 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:11.560 in a skating ring. My brother was really in the 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.760 roller skate when I was a kid. No, but I 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:15.959 mean you spent a lot of time and as a kid, 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.520 and I remember, going back to the research, I remember 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.400 a lot of the things that I've seen as seminal 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:29.080 moments in video gaming. I remember the tabletop space uh 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.120 Space Invaders games and things like Gunfight and all these things, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.520 and just watching them go from you know, the he 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.480 had the rack of video games are pinball machines. You 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:43.320 have four or five of those and maybe a couple 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.880 of video games. And then gradually they started squeezing out 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.400 the pinball games and suddenly there were arcades in the 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.960 neighborhood where you could play all kinds of stuff like 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.440 Joust and Robotron and Defender Spy Hunter. I mean, you know, 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.280 the kids growing up in the late seven these in 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.640 early eighties, like like me, you know, that was a 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.600 big thing we did. We'd go down the arcade at all. 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.120 As a matter of fact, I had a friend whose 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.920 parents owned an arcade and a score yeah yeah, well, 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.320 I mean they every once in a while they'd give 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.160 me an extra dollars worth of of tokens. But but yeah, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.320 but that was the thing. It was like, uh, you know, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.600 we'd we'd spend quarters on them. And then of course 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.960 the token thing was sort of a way to get 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.120 more people involved, but I mean it was for a 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.280 very long time. That was a great way to spend 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.400 a summer afternoon when you're a kid. Yeah. Um, so 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.720 I have a quick question for you. Okay, So when 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.080 you were growing up in the skating rink, yes, uh, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.119 with the pterodactyls flying around outside and all that, had 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.200 they actually invented the wheel or were you just kind 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.960 of skidding along on shoes. I don't like you very much, so, 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.440 uh my point here is Chris as Old. Um. Yeah, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.520 the Yeah, the arcade was kind of a growth out 0:03:55.600 --> 0:04:01.600 of the whole video game uh popularity boom, because arcades 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.640 didn't just pop up as soon as the arcade games 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:06.480 popped up. It took a while. You know. They were 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.640 in places like skating rinks and bars and restaurants. You'd 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:11.960 see one or two games here and there, but there 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.200 wasn't any arcade to put them in. A back when 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.360 we talked about pinball machines before, but there weren't any 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.400 you know, pinball machine arcades, at least not very many 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.240 of them, right, I think there were there were kinds 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.440 of well, the same kind of places now where you 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.000 have you know, for example, ski ball and other kinds 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:28.599 of things, but those are kinds of things you'd find 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.560 and you know, amusement parks and things like that. They 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.400 weren't really free standing like the video game arcade at 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.360 the eighties was right, right, So the previous arcades would 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.800 be things like a Coney Island. Go to Coney Island 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.359 and you could they might have an arcade section as in, 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.200 it's an area where there are games of skill or 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:51.480 sometimes not skill um that you could play. And uh so, 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.960 so as a combination of that old mode of business, 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.640 this this idea of an area of entertainment and then 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.440 the fact the video games that were popping up in 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.000 places like bars and skating rinks and things like that, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.640 we're getting really popular. So it wasn't a huge lee 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.039 for people to say, hey, what if I were to 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:15.200 create a space, uh like you know, a storefront space 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.800 and just fill it with these arcade games and then 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.240 my business will just be having people come in to 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.320 play the games. Yes, and the arcade was born, the 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.599 video game arcade. We should say, I mean, I keep 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.760 on having to specify because arcade, the word arcade has 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.040 been around for much longer. Yeah, it's actually kind of funny. Um, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.160 any of you who have had the moment when you 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.599 realize that a song that you really like is a 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.839 cover of a song that is very old or you know, 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.000 decades old and in fact um and you sort of 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.160 had that feeling of regret and let down, you know, Man, 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.800 I didn't realize that somebody else actually did this song. 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:53.680 I had the same moment when I, you know, went 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:55.360 to get my haircut in an arcade and I couldn't 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:57.800 figure out why they the games were. I had that 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.560 come on, I and where are the games? It's an arcade. 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.279 It's like, no, actually that's not literally video game in 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.880 arcade are not necessarily it's anonymous, right exactly. Yes, I 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.359 had the same experience because I also grew up in 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.840 the eighties. Um uh, both the Wheel and the Fire 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.920 had been around for a while when I was a kid. U. 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.120 So yeah, they started popping up in the seventies and 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.360 the earliest days of arcade games. So we're talking about 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.240 things like Pong and Space Invaders Galaxy and that kind 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:31.040 of thing. Um, And they got more popular as more 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.800 video games started coming out, and for a while there 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.800 was a little worry among arcade owners that the video 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.640 game home market could could make an impact on arcades. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:48.240 But the early video game home market was really limited. Uh. 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:52.400 You normally, your graphics and your sound and everything that 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.279 you got out of a home video game console, and 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.240 we're talking about the late seventies early eighties here, just 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.640 could not compare to what you could get in an arcade. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.160 Like a video game arcade, the games would be more 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.040 sophisticated in the arcade than they were in the home market. Also, Uh, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.800 the style of games was totally different, and it it 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:16.320 You have to think of this from a business standpoint 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:21.600 for it to really make sense. Video game arcade video games. 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:23.280 So the ones that you would actually find in these 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.920 places were designed to be really intense and fun, but 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:32.280 last for a relatively short time span, like any individual 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:36.440 play session. You have hit on the crux of the problem. Yeah, 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.680 yes you have. So if I go into an arcade 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:42.720 and I want to play a video game, that game 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.040 has been built, has been designed with the experience in 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.760 mind that it should be fun and challenging, but it 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.600 should also not last very long because otherwise you can't 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:56.080 make money, right, Because I mean, it's a per play. 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.600 A pay per play model, so that means that every 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.240 time you you play the game, you're paying some money. 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.720 It's not like it's a time based model. Like if 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.800 our kids were more of a you pay a certain 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.840 amount of money and then you get unlimited plays for 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.760 an hour, it would be a totally different story right now. 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.040 But because it was a pay per play system and 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.040 meant that you had to keep the plays at a 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.360 short uh time span, or else you lost money because 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.040 you had a kid plunk one quarter into a game 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.960 and then stand there all day playing. That's right, Yes, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.640 that was the ideal video game customer because I came 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.240 in and dropped, you know, six dollars with the quarters 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.400 in there, and about ten minutes. Yeah, it doesn't take 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.440 long if you are not particularly adept, or if the 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.920 game is designed to be really really hard, or in 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.880 some cases the game's just playing unfair. Oh yeah, and 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.560 it's there's you can And there were some that would 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.480 allow you to allow the the game owner to set 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.560 the complexity of the game. Yeah, you could make it 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.840 where the you could set the difficulty level for some games. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.920 And of course the once game started to include the 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.040 continue feature, that was a real boon as well, because 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.120 it meant that you could uh coax the player into 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.880 spending more money to keep the experience going without losing 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.439 all the progress that he or she had made. Yeah, 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.280 it's uh, it's kind of funny though, but yeah, that's 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.640 exactly the point. I mean, if you've got an arcade 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:29.080 full of video games, um, and you've got a steady 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.120 stream of people coming in to plump quarters down or 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.200 uh you know, even more for some games, depending on 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:42.200 the situation, then you basically have a semi captive audience. 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.960 And anything uh you know, you have the the video 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.880 game level set maddeningly difficult, um you know, where people 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.000 will just go, I'm gonna try it again and drop 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.360 another quarter in there. Or the continue game feature, well 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.840 then uh you certainly do that. And and the multiplayer 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.160 games where you had you know, two, three, four people 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.480 getting involved in a game. Yeah, that's where you get 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.160 the social aspect, which was something else that home video 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.439 game systems were not terribly good at. I mean, you 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.360 had a lot of the early home video game systems 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.559 were designed for two players, but that was as much 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:22.360 as you could get. And and it's difficult to have 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.920 a group of people over to play games where only 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:26.760 two people can play at the same time, because people 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.439 are always waiting for the next turn. And in arcade 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.240 you had variety, so people could go and play other games, 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.559 while if if their favorite game was occupied, they could 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.640 either wait or they could play something else. Home video 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:40.560 games not so much. Um. In fact, early home video games, 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.560 and we'll probably talk about this in another podcast, UM, 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.720 some of the early consoles were limited to four games 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.640 hard coded on the console itself. This was before the 0:10:53.679 --> 0:11:00.080 cartridge four, before the yeah four games, Yeah I have one. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.480 They only had three, right, right, Some of the earlier 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.560 ones had even fewer, but at any rate, so the 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.000 arcade had the advantage over there in the social aspect 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.839 for a really long time, right, And it had the 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.920 advantage of graphics and sound for a really long time. 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.800 But eventually the home market started to catch up, and 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:22.800 on top of that, players began to divide up into 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.679 two camps. You had the people who really like the 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.040 arcade experience in the sense of the kind of games 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:32.320 that have that really intense but short time frame. The 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.280 video game market at home, you could create games that 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.240 lasted a really long time, had a really extended experience, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.240 and because you've already paid for the game, right, I 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.840 mean you you went out and you plug down fifty 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.959 dollars for a video game. Uh, whether you play it 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.560 once or whether you play it forever, that you've already 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:53.720 poured all the money you're going to into that game, 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.120 at least until we get to downloadable content, which was 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.400 much further down the road. So at that stage, you 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.520 could go ahead and design a game for players that 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.760 would be very you know, an extended experience. It's something 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.680 that you can't get in our arcade without sacrificing profit. Yes, uh. 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.080 And then as players began to value that experience, they 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.760 stopped going to arcades as much, um, and so the 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.800 arcade attendance began to suffer. And that's when you say 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.640 it's also really expensive actually to maintain in arcade. Well, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.440 talk about talk about the costs, the relative costs a 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:32.240 enemy you uh you have. Let's say I'm making up 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:36.040 a generic console home console game. You you spend say 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.760 three dollars for the console and about fifty dollars sixty 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.360 dollars for a game, and that's expensive. I mean to 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.720 get started when you're first getting buying a new console. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:47.680 I mean if it's something like you know, a brand 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:52.040 new Xbox or or PlayStation. Um, you know, when it 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.400 first comes out, it could be six seven hundred dollars 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.560 from the machine. Still one uh one stand up coin 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.160 operated arcade game much more expensive than that, especially if 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.600 it's new, yes, or paradoxically some of the older ones 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.800 as well, because they become collectors items. Indeed. So I mean, 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.880 and that's just one game. If you're trying to you know, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.960 pay rent on an arcade space every month, pay employees, 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.280 which is going to be one of your largest items 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.720 on the budget anyway, I mean staffing, uh, and then 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.959 you have to pay for the electricity to run all 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.439 these electronics in your your establishment. You have to get 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.640 people in and they're they're dropping in a quarter at 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.720 a time. I mean, that's why, you know, the the 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.720 economics of it are just so are just so bad 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.840 unless you have people thronging through the doors. And that's 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.439 why I think, Um, that's a big thing that had 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.760 a lot to do with the rise and cost of 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.040 the video games. I remember going back into an arcade 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.679 and in the nineties, you know, after dropping quarter after 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.880 quarter in the games before and then finding that a 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.360 lot of them were at least fifty cents to play, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.200 if not a dollar, and you're going, you know, I 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.320 can't afford to, you know, play more than four or 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.760 five games of time. Yeah, and and so it's expensive. 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.880 And you can see that reflected in the way arcades 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.200 started to change strategies and how to charge customers. When 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.040 we talked about the tokens thing, Really, the tokens come 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.200 down to you spending more money than you normally would 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.679 because if you put a dollar in a change machine, 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:20.800 you get four quarters out. There's no guarantee that you're 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.600 gonna spend those four quarters at the arcade. You may 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.480 just be using that change machine. You might play one 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.240 game and then you walk away with seventy five cents. 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:29.920 If you get tokens, you can only use it in 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.360 the arcade. And a lot of times they would use 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.880 a little techniques like you know, if you buy, you 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.360 put in a dollar, you get four tokens, but if 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.920 you put in five dollars, you know, maybe they'll throw 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.240 in an extra dollar's worth of tokens, so you get tokens, 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.040 you know, So it entices you to spend even more 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.400 cash at the arcade itself. Yeah, because they're just selling 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.200 time on machines. They're not. There's no loss for them 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.040 to throw in some free tokens. And then then you 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.640 have establishments like David Busters that uses a hard based 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.120 system where you're buying credit and the credit is put 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:04.920 on a card and then you slide the card in 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.520 the games. This is brilliant because now you've reached the 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:13.600 point where you've you've removed the value from the game itself. Like, 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.960 unless you're really good at doing math in your head, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.200 it's really hard to establish how much money each per 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.160 play is costing you, because you know, you put in 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.160 twenty bucks, you get twenty bucks worth of credit on 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.320 your on your card, and it's it's transferred into points, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.400 and then each game is worth a certain amount of points. 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.000 Unless you're like doing that conversion in your head, you're 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:36.720 not thinking, hey, this has cost to be a buck 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.960 twenty five per play or something like that. Um, and 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.200 I just pulled that number of thin air, so sure, yeah, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:48.560 that was just an example. Um yeah, as I always do. 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.600 We have to do that sometimes to set up an example. 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.600 So right, So, so those were some some ways of 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.720 arcades trying to extend their their lifespan and some of 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.400 them are still around, like Damon Busters. Of course you 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.480 can find those locations around the United States. Excuse me, 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.120 had a little hiccup there. Um. And of course those 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.200 cards are reloadable, so you could bring it back next 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:10.760 time you come. Yeah, you can actually use them in 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.800 different locations to see. That's another enticement there, because back 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.280 as as opposed to the tokens, which might only work 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.040 in one arcade, if you if you go to a franchise, 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.560 you might be able to transfer those those credits towards 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.520 another game system, although that's not necessarily seamless. I had. 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.920 I experienced a problem when I visited Philadelphia and went 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:32.760 to a David Busters and tried to use my Atlanta 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.720 David Buster's card, and the person behind the counter, because 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:38.280 I was actually going up to the counter at that point, 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.480 the automated systems were full, uh look and said, something's 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.520 weird here. It's telling me that you're from Atlanta. That's 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.320 not weird. That is where I'm from. Are you calling 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.200 Atlanta weird? I mean, I'm not gonna be mad. I'm 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.440 just wondering what you're basing that on. And we got 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.080 into this big philosophical discussion, and I didn't get to 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:02.240 play my ski ball, but that's a story for another 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.200 podcast ski Ball. That's actually a good point, oh about 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.880 how arcades would try and differentiate themselves from the home market. Yes. 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.880 One of the things that I read that uh, that 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.879 may also have played a smaller role in the decline 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.679 of the popularity of video games, or at least the 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:23.440 video game arcade, is that a lot of the organizations 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.560 now that still maintain a lot of video games and 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.040 other kinds of amusements like that they switched to a 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.600 ticket reward system, so and a lot of video games 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.280 didn't offer that, and you didn't see you know, frog 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.320 pumping out tickets. It's hard to it's hard to compete 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.359 with the home video game market today because home video 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:44.000 games are so sophisticated. Yes, right, So if you go 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.320 and get the PlayStation three and Xbox three sixty we 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.399 or a really you know, a decent gaming computer, you 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:55.280 can run games that that are phenomenal, that are really deep, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:59.560 rich experiences, that have amazing graphics, you know, and and 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:04.720 can have hours and hours of gameplay to them, whereas, uh, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.480 you know, our kids just can't compete with that experience. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.280 So One of the ways that they get around that 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.200 is by offering these amusements, these these games of skill 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.760 or chance or whatever that that rewards you for playing 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:19.840 with tickets. And then of course eventually you can trade 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.560 the tickets in to get something. For example, a friend 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:27.200 of mine who I will not name, uh, played these 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:32.719 enough at a Dave and Busters to get an Xbox. Yeah. 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.320 If you've ever yeah, if you've ever looked at the 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.840 points needed to get some of these big ticket items, 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.040 they're astronomical. So you sit there and you start doing 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:46.439 the bath, like, all right, how many plays of various 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.280 ticket winning games did he have to did he have 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.720 to go through in order to buy essentially, you know, 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.879 to trade the tickets in to get an Xbox? And 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.800 I wonder how many actual consoles he could have purchased 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.040 with the money that he's spent, you know, buying it 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.800 so that he could play those games. We know people 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.800 were uh to do that. I wasn't going to say 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:11.040 that he's stupid, he doesn't listen to this show. I'm alright, alright, yeah, um, 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.920 but uh but yeah, I mean that they were trying 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:15.520 all kinds of things at one point. I mean, hey, 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.000 there was this game that you could dance on and 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.080 there were different colored pads on the floor and you 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.560 could you know, match this stuff on the thing, and 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.720 you couldn't do that at home except when they brought 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:30.440 it home. Yeah, so you know, and see, that's those 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:31.879 are the kind of games you're going to see at 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.120 arcades now. They are the games that tend to be bigger, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.480 immersive experiences than things that you typically will see at 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.240 home until the next big innovation, like until Connect comes 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.280 out or or the next generation of consoles come out 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:50.160 where you can kind of simulate the arcade experience even 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.400 further in your own home. The way that arcides differentiate 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.399 themselves is through these games like the dance dance games 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.800 and the racing games where it's actual it yeah, and 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.919 you're usually racing against other players. Or there are a 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.640 lot of light gun games, lots and lots of those, 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:12.040 because these are experiences that are not as easily replicable 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.760 at home. So clearly that helps differentiate them from the 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:17.679 home video game market and gives you a reason to 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.080 go in there and play these games. Uh. But as 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.159 the market gets the home market gets more sophisticated, that 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:27.959 spells more trouble for these arcade systems. That also is 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.440 what makes old fogies like me and Chris cry when 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:35.880 we walk into an actual arcade establishment that still exists, 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.359 because while most of them died out, not all of 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.520 them did. Some of them are still around. But when 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.119 you walk into one and you're an old timer, you 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.400 kind of get upset because you look around and you're like, well, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:48.680 all the games here are the same. They're all either 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:53.640 racing games, dance games, or gun games. Where where's the rampage, 0:20:53.720 --> 0:21:00.640 where's the elevator action? Where's the pack land? Yeah? Uh, yeah, 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.600 I want to play that new pac Man game that 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.440 you saw at CES. Oh, the four the Four Persons 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.919 simultaneous pac Man game, which is only available in an 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.840 arcade version. Right. Yeah. But if you are an old 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.840 fogy like us, uh and you're interested in catching up 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.159 on something, you might check out this one place I 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.359 read about in an article on the Christian Science Monitor 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:25.159 by Ethan Gilsdorf. Um Up in New Hampshire there is 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.240 the American Classic Arcade Museum, and there's nothing and there 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.600