After 1987, for me at least, the video game arcade was on a downward spiral towards oblivion. So where did it all go wrong?
Thank you so much for joining me on my journey way back to 1979 and through the best years of arcade gaming and my childhood, up to 1987. The video game arcade era had been a massive part of my life, and I’m so glad I was involved in the very best of it.
Although I had my distractions (listed below), the video game arcade was always there, in the background, like a trusty aging old friend, I never thought for one moment it would die. How could it? All those ideas, all that technology, all that money, all that fun!
I suppose, whichever way you look at it. Those new ideas and experiences reached a peak, a maximum velocity, then it got exhausted, things got samey, like a rock band after their second album. We were enticed away from the arcades with the new promised land of arcade-quality gaming in the comfort of our own home. And the rest, as they say, is history.
My love for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987)
At the time, I was happy to enjoy the best of both worlds. The quintessentially eccentric English ‘Speccy’ gaming scene of the late ’80s was an absolute joy. Graphics were never a priority, these classic gaming moments were all about pure gameplay. and offered up something a lot deeper than the 10p wham-bam-thank you-mam arcade hit.
The speccy had variety, humour, and character. I loved Ultimate’s output, Sabre Wulf, Knighlore, which spawned Ocean’s Head Over Heels. Match Day, Jet Set Willy, The Great Escape, The Way of the Exploding fist, Elite, Match Point. There are far too many classics to mention, and they came thick and fast, at a far higher rate than the arcades.
But it was more than that, it was the whole culture, and I was an avid reader of Crash!, Your Spectrum and Sinclair User at the time. It was the hot topic at school also, with games being traded, and later compilations copied onto blank cassettes.
Those were the days!
RIP Sir Clive.
Beer and girls (1988 ?)
And before I knew it, I was hanging around drinking cans of Harp lager and listening to Pink Floyd. The arcade had been relegated to the odd visit after social outings to the local swimming pool, beach, or wherever. I actually had a social life now. How times had changed.
The Guitar (1990)
And then of course I picked up the guitar and got a ‘proper’ hobby.
Street Fighter II (1991)
Getting back to the roots of the death of the arcades came this: A game that transcended the video game arcade and became a worldwide phenomenon. And also a game I hated. Why?
For one, it wasn’t a huge leap from its awful predecessor or even a moderate leap for arcade gaming in general. What I really loved about the video game arcades was the surprises, the jaw-dropping technological advances, the innovation, and the ideas.
Street Fighter II was none of that, but people went crazy for it to the point where multiples of the game were starting to appear in the same arcade, and later arcades would feature solely Street Fighter II and its derivatives. I saw this in person on a trip to London’s Trocadero centre and will never forget that nightmare.
With Street Fighter II, innovation stopped, and soon the arcades would die.
The Sony Playstation (1995)
One of the moments when I knew, deep down, it was over for the arcades.
When the Playstation achieved the world’s first-ever arcade-perfect conversion: Namco’s Ridge Racer, I had a lump in my throat. I knew the arcades would never see the light of day again.
But the Playstation had more joy and pain. Unlike the speccy that served up games like Monty on the Run, developed in someone’s bedroom, left-field, and homely, the Playstation went toe-to-toe with the very latest in video game arcade tech and won.
Tomb Raider, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, GTA, and my favorite game of all time. Final Fantasy VII.
The video game arcade had finally been matched and beaten.
The Internet (1996)
But there was still the social aspect of the arcades right? There was still something worth holding onto? Something special you can’t get at home, like going to the movies.
The problem was, unlike the cinema, the arcades were no longer the ultimate experience, and as the home consoles grew more and more powerful, along came online gaming, which pushed the arcade further behind still.
Socially, the world was moving away from meeting places and watching someone play Punch Out! over their shoulder. There was no more smoke and ashtrays, there was no more Track and Field joystick waggling. It all got a bit less tactile and more cerebral.
The end of the Spanish City (1999)
Even taking all the above into account, I still clung on. I still wished the arcade would conjure up some sort of wildly audacious and unexpected renaissance like it had always done. I had faith.
But then they pulled my beloved Spanish City down, pierced its heart with a road running right through the center, and later on, the immoveable and callously irreversible coup de grace of a new school on my holy land.
That really hurt. The final death knell, for the town also.
Fast Forward to 2022
Today, I’m still engulfed by nostalgia every time a video game arcade is even mentioned. The Spanish City has been rebuilt, but it’s not the same, now it’s posh restaurants and a fun fair across the road. Once it was teeming with life, now just a few curious tourists paying over the odds.
As for the remaining arcades? Well, the closest you’ll get to a real game now are multi-player driving games and the odd lightgun shooter. Mostly it’s ticket-spewing kids’ fairground fodder. The lines of cabinets are gone, along with the ambition. Depressing really.
I gave up gaming with the XBox 360. Not even Final Fantasy can compare with climbing into that Star Wars cabinet for the first time, and nothing ever will.
Indeed, this love for the video game arcades has been turned into a business, I’ve tried the retro arcade gaming scene (check out Retro Bay Cafe), but it’s not the same, and I don’t think they get it. One ‘Retro’ arcade I’ve been to even had a bank of gaming PCs. Why not just stay at home?
The video game arcade was the antithesis of retro. It was the bleeding edge. I don’t want nostalgia, I want something futuristic and new. I don’t want to pay £7.50 at the door to see things I’ve already seen over and over. I would much rather drop 10p (probably £1 in today’s money) in the slot to be truly surprised and inspired by something I never imagined could be possible.
That, to me, is what gaming is all about and I’d like very much for the gaming industry to strive toward that vision again.
I’ve now come to the end of my roller-coaster ride through the 80’s heyday of the Video Game arcade. I’ve loved every minute of it and hope you enjoyed it too.
Thanks for reading and let me know your story in the comments below.