Friday From the Archives: Editorial: Declination of the Arcades

Every Friday (or Wednesday when we're busy, like today) we celebrate the heritage of Code Redd Net by posting a retro-review from our considerable back catalogue of embarrassingly naive, but nonetheless entertaining and heartfelt, movie and game reviews. Please pardon the prose; most of these articles were written in our immediately post-pubescent years. Hopefully you find them as enjoyable as we do.

I find the title of this piece just as funny as you do, I'm sure. But I was reminded of this article, from our short-lived Editorial section, when I found myself playing Mrs. Pac-Man at an airport arcade. Arcades (true arcades) are difficult to find these days, and when you do find one they invariably disappoint. And if it was bad when I penned this editorial, it's only gotten much worse since then. My logic in this article is somewhat suspect, but the spirit is there, I can say that much. And just what the hell is "parallax scrolling"? Also, I want to play Metal Slug again.

"How many great games can you name that originated from arcades? Many, my friends, many. As a gamer who grew up playing Street Fighter II and Metal Slug in places like this, it's depressing to see such a tremendous decline. Why? Well, for one, I believe the power of the home console market is rapidly catching up technologically. In the old days (sound kinda old, don't I?) the arcades had awesome power and home consoles had parallax scrolling, and we liked it! Joking aside, consoles like the Genesis and SNES never could approach the power of the arcade. Now, though, it seems like the industry has caught up. People have realized that they no longer have to head to arcades to see something special. For instance, look at Time Crisis II. The game was a technical milestone when it came out, then about a year ago, it was released for PS2 with far superior graphics and a gund peripheral that matches the arcade unit perfectly. Arcade experiences are being brought home, and whether or not that's good or bad remains to be seen. As long as I still get arcade-style games like my Metal Slug X for PS1, I'll pipe down. Furthermore, what's with the price? Arcade cabinets cost a lot for the coin-op to buy and rent, but still, some of these prices are a little high. I can still play Metal Slug 2 (here I go again with Metal Slug, but it's a fine example) and beat it in under 4 dollars, which takes about 50-60 minutes to complete, while with some games I'll be lucky to get a good minute or so figuring out the controls at a rate of $1.50 a try. Sometimes, when I really get to thinking about it, I get the though of "maybe it's meant to be." Maybe arcades are as far along as they could possibly get, and all that's left for them to do is decline. And while I make this sound drastic, arcades will not disappear overnight. I just expect a slow decline in areas where the price is to high, and when home consoles inevitably pass by them, technologically speaking. Arcades have left their mark on the industry and it's sad to see them fall. Do the industry a favor; get off the couch, and go stand up and play some games for once. Darn tootin' kids!"