Do you have a decent arcade near you?

[Neil]

The arcade scene in Northern Ireland is dead, and has been for years.  There's no arcade left in Belfast, but it was never a hot-bed for them anyway.  You would have to go down to Bangor, but these days, they seem to only have a bunch of closed-down arcades, and the ones that are left open are just full of fucking gambling machines.  I've found an arcade machine in a hobby shop down there, with two boards that it swaps over by request.

Is it the same where you are?  What actually killed off arcades - presumably it was the rise of more powerful home gaming systems, which in a way killed off the need to go to an arcade and play a variety of games.  The arcades, for many years, also had many more advanced games than home puters/consoles could handle, but that gap seems long closed.  Now I have a flat screen telly, and a Madcatz stick, so I guess I don't need the arcade anymore, but I still miss them.  My friends and I would always fantasise about getting our own arcade cabinet, too, and looked at building a MAME one a few years back. 

Do you miss the arcade scene?  They still seem to thrive in Japan.  Remember the fuss when Street Fighter II came out? 

[Consignia]

There's only one near me, a shitty Namco station with few arcades left in it. The most modern game being a single Tekken.

It's something I really like in Tokyo, apart from the fact they smoke-filled hell holes, there are arcades everywhere with floors of machines running the gamut from new games to extremely old ones. Loads of different variaties as well, including a rythmn based gun game, to Akihabara having tons of rare doujin games.

[The Boston Crab]

I played a lot of SF4/SSF4 in the arcades in China. It was really exciting, lots of pressure as the only white man! They had two cabinets b-2-b on a little stage, with big screens above advertising the action to the whole place (and the arcade was big). It was pretty much 'winner stays on' but was also kind of common sense. People got a few chances if the fights were close (as they often were). I was incredibly proud to stay up there for 3 fights in a row a couple of times, took down some better players with very laboured footsies and consistent, simple punishers (couldn't do many serious combos with the arcade stick!). Defeat was never fun in front of 50/100 people (on Saturday afternoons) stood round watching. I remember when some guy came on and picked Ken (for the mirror match) and absolutely raped me with some combos I'd never even seen on YouTube: FA > F.DP > FADC > Air Ex Tatsu > Ultra.

Skip to 1:56.

Ora ora! Unique ken ultra setups and combos

No shame in losing to that. After I'd picked my jaw up off the floor, I watched the next match and found he didn't even main Ken! I quite miss the excitement and tension of playing some of those guys who literally stayed in the arcade all day every day. To get a single win was brilliant and most of them/the crowd were cool about losing to a foreigner and didn't really gloat either when they won. It was quite intimidating but a good vibe.

Then my bro came over to visit and won about 30 matches in a row on Tekken 6 and eventually just got up and left because we had to go for lunch. They didn't like that at all, though, maybe it's disrespectful to quit while you're ahead but we were well hungry. GET FUCKED SLANTY.

[AlterEgg]

I've seen a few pubs down Brixton way have FIFA 11 or Pro Evo nights, never seen them in action but they do sound like fun, adding a bit of tension and purpose to something you usually do at home by yourself.

[mcbpete]

The only decent arcade I've seen in years (and in turn it's been about 5 years since I last visited so may well have changed) was one in Herne Bay in Kent. Loads of 80s and early 90s arcades including a full sit in version of StarBlade, brilliant place but every time I went there I felt a little sad knowing that the place wouldn't last in its existing state much longer ...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The arcades in Hornsea and Cleethorpes on the east coast are still going, I believe. They perfectly straddled the culture of people in the 90s going in for the newest most impressive graphics to the '10's retro desire to play old games by using the tactic of spending precisely zero pounds zero pence on anything.

[Big Jack McBastard]

The only place I can think of is chiefly gambling machines, actually that place has been there for as long as I can remember, must be more slot jockeys round these parts than I realised.

I think when I first saw arcade machines charging £1.50 a go I knew they were on the way out.

Online gaming takes a bite too what with having something akin to world-wide scoreboards, folks nerds scarcely get a better chance to show how obsessive they are.