The legendary Arcade...

There was a time that kids (not unlike myself at the time) would spend their hard earned quarters on slurpees and arcade cabinets. There was a time when you could find these cabinets together, clustered in something called an "arcade". It was generally dark, or attached to a convenience store/put putt golf coarse, and always had a floor sticky enough to steal your sandals if you ran around too swiftly. Here there were the school yard legends, the kid that was unbeaten in Street Fighter, the kid that had the high score on Police Trainer, that smelly kid that played DDR all day every day after school and never seemed to shower.



It doesn't really need stated that there was a time before this even in the legendary days of the arcade. A time filled with Galga, Pac Man, and Donkey Kong, days that were before my time even but that I miss desperately regardless. Now you're lucky to find a cabinet tucked away at your local dry cleaner, or sitting outside some truck stop, there exposed to the elements and slowly rotting away.

Kids these days probably don't share these memories. The kind of memories I share with my older brother and sister and even our parents, you say Arcade to a kid these days and they can only assume that you mean Xbox. It's a sad fact but with the raise of console gaming even the mystic land of Japan, that seemed to hold onto it's arcades and the arcade culture for impossibly long...is starting to see a serious decline. Why would you bother to spend the extra cash to play a game in some dingy building when you could sit at home and play it on your giant flatscreen?

For me it wasn't about the creature comforts, it was about the atmosphere and the games. Those rivalrys with kids from that school on the other side of town, that you never really saw except at the arcade. Hang around the arcade long enough and you're sure to find a Ken to your Ryu, the arcade forged friendships and childhood memories. It got us to get off the couch and get out there with other like minded people, playing the games we loved. It could break down age and gender barriers, who cared what the other person looked like when you were sure you could top their high score?

It's these kind of memories I wish I could give to my kids one day and to the youth of today. With Capcom closing two of their arcades and stating they will open none this coming year...the future of the arcade surely does seem bleak.