A Fistful of Quarters: On Missing Arcade Culture

Arcade culture, I miss you dearly.

Home console gaming dissolved arcade culture at a far more alarming rate than video did the radio star. While many fun parks helped keep arcades going in the late 90's, even these establishments let out a death gurgle shortly after the turn of the 21st century.

Time was the arcade was the premiere place to play the cutting edge in gaming. Keep in mind, at the time (early-to-mid-1990's) the cutting edge was dedicated primarily to gaming's biggest cash cow, the fighting game. Now there were plenty other of genres getting love, particularly the side-scrolling brawler (eg X-Men, The Avengers, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). RPGs in the States, with the exception of perhaps Cadash in '89 were a console-only thriving cult genre and didn't really come into prevalence as far as being in the eyes of the mainstream until the release of Final Fantasy VII on the Sony Playstation.

Before someone jumps down my throat with Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI (III US), yes, there were both quality and successful RPGs that did penetrate larger audiences, but those were exceptions. The genre itself did not explode in popularity until FFVII and retro gaming became part of gamer culture. All of a sudden people started "remembering" these classic games from their childhood that they more than likely initially ignored. But don't get me wrong, I love the genre. One of my favorite games and stories of all time is an RPG (Final Fantasy VIII. And I'm aware I'm in the minority on that one).

With the explosive success of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, fighting games became the flavor of choice and we saw and outflow of countless 2D, and soon, 3D, fighting games based off of or improving upon either MK or SFII: Samurai Showdown, King of Fighters, Darkstalkers, Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden, Soul Edge (leading to the Soul Calibur franchise), Art of Fighting, Killer Instict, Fatal Fury, Virtua fighter and the list goes on and on.

It was these games that drank my quarters away as a kid. And it was at these arcade locations that gaming culture thrived. Before the boom of users on the internet, the arcade held the role of hub for gamers, who were constantly swapping rumors, information, and news on the latest games. Like comic books, video games weren't the staple in American pop culture they are now. People more familiar with/primarily raised in the 21st century aren't cognizant to the fact that comics and gaming used to be associated with something outsiders, geeks, and nerds participated in. It wasn't until about the late 90's that gaming became more accepted into the social consciousness as something people (particularly so-called "cool" people) did. So having a place such as an arcade was an important thing for gaming culture to thrive. Many kids didn't know anyone in their class who played games, so the only people they could associate with were the people they met at arcades.

It was like physically being inside a message board.

Unfortunately, for many of us, once the internet took off, gamers had more of an outlet to discuss games, one of the redeeming factors outside the games themselves left the arcade. The latter factor soon followed.

Beginning with the Playstation, consoles were starting to catch up with arcades graphically. Again, a lot of people take for granted the fact that arcades used to be ahead of the curve when it came to graphics, which helped it stay alive and well along side console gaming. Games were engineered for a specific game, not a console, so developers could push the envelope of what was available at the time. But arcade life post-16 bit systems began looking bleak and arcade culture all but vanished once Playstation 2 and Xbox took over the scene. Sure, some fighters and shooters still survived, but those games could easily be ported to home consoles and look just as good with an easier control pad. Why would someone drive to a location to pay per game when they had the game in the comfort of their own home?

Of course, Japan didn't quite suffer the arcade collapse that we did. It's only now that arcade culture's starting to falter a little. Mostly what remains popular now are interactive games, though various shooting and fighter games from tried and true companies and franchises are still released. It's from this still existing scene that we got games such as Dance Dance Revolution, which helped kick start a near revival in the States.

Arcade gaming has become a cult culture now. The fun parks that do survive and thrive still keep arcade culture alive, but these places are few and far between and many of them do not get newer games such as Street Fighter IV, which will finally come to home consoles in February 2009. A number of arcades have begun popping up across the country, mostly in urban areas as they can survive and deliver the current games.

For places like Spartanburg, we get establishments like Tilt. Tilt, despite it's obviously lower budget, is a valiant effort to bring arcade gaming back to the local Spartanburg area. Now it's overall selection may not be perfect, but they have one of my favorite fighting games Marvel vs Capcom. Really any game from that pitted the Marvel characters against Capcom franchises won my heart (X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom, Marvel vs Capcom 2: Clash of Heroes). And it is this game that I have been frequenting over the past few weeks.

In a sense, arcade gaming serves as a religious experience of sorts for me.

Unlike when I'm gaming at home and the lives of my roommate and I coincide with one another and my escapist concentration is temporarily broken, I enter an urban setting when I'm in the arcade within the bowels of WestGate Mall. The muzak, the symphony of teenagers and their cell phones and the sizzling of the nearby Japanese fast food restaurant crash with the rings, buzzing and caffeinated soundtracks of the arcade's games. Upon entering this chapel of activity, I have a filter on when I reach the lone Marvel vs Capcom machine nestled in the slightly darkened corner of the arcade. The moment I press the button after inserting my quarter, the world around me melts away.

As I bask in the blue-lit glow of the screen, I am absolved.

All the problems plaguing me fade away. My frenetic financial status, my dissatisfaction with my job(s), the fact that one of my most important friends is more than likely having to move half a country away after Christmas, my disintegrating social life, and my everlasting creative rut...all of that ceases to exist for the brief moments I'm playing.

Brief as this reprieve may be, it is priceless.

Simultaneously, it serves as a nostalgic reminder of the bustling culture that thrived inside the confines of the arcade as opposed to outside of it. I really have no idea what kind of business Tilt does as I've never really gone on a weekend. I usually tend to go before what's generally dinner time for everyone else on school days when the lowest amount of people are likely to be at the mall. This way I'm pretty much guaranteed a space in front of the Marvel vs Capcom machine, which is the only game I've managed to get around to playing unless my friend Bryant comes with me and challenges me to SVC (SNK vs Capcom): Chaos.

All I can do is be thankful Tilt exists while it does. The gesture to revitalize a lost gamer culture should be applauded for its efforts.

Insert Coin.