Plus XP

When I was younger, I used to love each opportunity I got to go down to the local bowling ally. Was it because I loved Bowling that much? Maybe. But what really got my juices going was the classic arcade machines. I adored them, even though I didn’t have that much money as a kid (and I don’t actually have that much money now) I would love to pump 50p pieces into games such as House Of The Dead, Time Crisis and Daytona Rally.

These past couple of weeks I have been going too and from London like a yo yo, I am slowly becoming accustomed to the Capital, and feel less like a country boy in a huge city who can’t stop staring at shiny lights. The past couple of times I have been down to London I have hit the Trocadero. This is the mother of all Arcades. Well It’s the largest one I have been to and to be honest I haven’t been too many. That aside the Trocadero is massive. Just a couple of weeks ago Leon and myself went there and played some Street Fighter and Mario Kart it was great and gave us a great oppotunity to game and chat with out the head sets.

Last weekend I was there again for a Ready-up.net Forum meet. We had an awesome time there hitting the arcade machines. But there was this one shining moment that day where a group of around 20 of us hit the Rambo arcade machine. Now I don’t know if any of you guys are familiar with this sheers brilliant game, but Rambo is a shooter, where you just have to kill anything that moves. You are armed with an AK 47 and it’s just kill kill kill. The group of us set ourselves a challenge. We had to beat the game between all of us. If someone lost all their lives they would then hand the gun to the next guy who would put the credits in and continue. It was an awesome experience if I am honest and yes we did complete that Rambo game.

So where am I going with all of this? Well with my trips to the Trocadero in mind it got me thinking, Arcade gaming is defiantly not what it used to be. I was catching up with MarkBOSS and GuitarGirl after the Rambo rally and they each said that the Troc used to be packed back in the Mid to late 90’s. It was the place for any gaming geek to be. But now it has died down so much and things aren’t as shiny as they used to be. Even the machines get less maintenance than they used to. The Trocadero has been dieing since the dawn of the new millenium.

The Trocadero At Its Peak In The 90's

So why have ammusements arcades been left to die? A perfect example here would be when the PlayStation One took center stage in the late 90’s. That was when arcades started to go down hill. Why? Well games were coming into their own, they all were getting better graphics and better game play. But the pinnacle moment for me was when we had a PSone and when my family got their hands on the Die Hard trilogy, complete with Light gun. Meaning there was no real reason to go out and play Time Crisis anymore because we had an arcade style shooter right in our living room. Then I saw dance mats being advertised, true there weren’t as robust as a huge dancing stage arcade machines, but it gave people the excuse to stay in and play and not waste money.

But arcade machines had one saving grace still up their sleeve, in the late 90’s arcade machines back the then were the equivalent to what we have on our home consoles now graphically, meaning that gamers still had an incentive to go to the arcade and try out the latest Time Crisis, because consoles like the PSone didn’t have the graphical power. Not only that but they were a great place to hang out and socialize, this was way before online gaming so Arcades still had the capability of brining gamers together. Ok so they may  have squeezed every last living breath out of our wallets, but to be honest arcades were a great excuse for any cave dwelling gamer to actually breath some fresh air and talk to human beings.

But now we have things like the Wii, which bring casual gaming into peoples homes. Therefore us cave dwelling gamers out there don’t actually need to come out of our gaming dives. Instead we may invite our other gaming friends into our humble abodes to play some House Of The dead on the Wii or whatever. We also now have online gaming which brings gamers together across the world. Then there is the graphical power of the consoles these days, they do look stunning and rival Arcade machines. Just the other week my mum bought Time Crisis 4 for the PS3 and I just knew that was the icing on the cake.

Arcade gaming has sadly been laid to rest these days. But you will still get some shining moments such as the Rambo rally that will give you a glimpse of what Arcade gaming used to be like. Will there be a revival? Or was it just a mid 90’s fad that has been killed by todays gaming market? For me I am hoping it is the former.

Garv