Yes, I said it! Games that you play on your own are dead. You are witnessing a switch in the gaming world to everything becoming multi-player. Muti-player games add such a new experience to gaming that soon nobody will want to play games by themselves anymore.

When games like Pac-Man first came out, they were mainly 1 player. You could play 2 players and switch off when you lose a man, but hardly anybody did this. Then later games like Double Dragon and Rampage came out where you could play with multiple players simultaneously. Arcades later made a comeback based on the competition of mutliplayer games in the mid 1990’s such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2.

With the Internet, you can play with thousands of other players. The dynamic that Halo 3 and World of Warcraft bring to your PC is unmatched by any single player game. The Wii is popular because it is mainly a party system that involves multiple players in your living room. This is the future. Soon games like Metal Gear will need to have some type of multi-player capability added to future releases or franchises like this will simply die.

While the arcade itself may be dead, arcade games seem to be making a comeback lately. Classic games like Pac-Man and Galaga are available on the XBox 360 and Wii. People of all ages are loving these games, and it seems to be feeding the need these days for a game that you don’t have to sit in front of for hours on end to enjoy. Long 20 hour epics such as Zelda sprung up long ago when it was realized that video gaming in the home was different from that in the arcades. People desired a deeper story with their games, and it was exciting to play into the night trying to find that magic sword or hidden room.

As gamers are growing older, they have less time to devote to gaming. I myself don’t have the time to devote to games like World of Warcraft or Zelda. I spend a lot of my time on a train, bus or plane. This feeds my need for the 5 minute burst of entertainment that I get with an arcade type of game. I think many others share the need for these games so they can play for 5 minutes and just put it down and be done. Many cell phones have arcade type games available on them so that a player can play for a bit, put it down and be done while they are on the go.

I think in the coming years, we are going to find many more arcade “shoot-em-up” style cames making their way to consoles. We will be taken back to the years when games like Contra and 1943 was big in the arcade. Long live the arcade game!

I’ve still been pondering how arcades can evolve back to where they used to be as far as popularity. It blows my mind that arcades in Japan are even going under now. What do confused teens do on Friday night now besides the movies? It hit me as I passed a local Internet arcade. The place was packed with teens playing games like Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, and Quake 4. This is definitely not the same type of crowd you’d get at your typical classic arcade though. No, these kids are more computer savvy. I also didn’t find but a couple of females in the bunch.

These Internet arcades still don’t appeal to those that aren’t as computer savvy, or just plain prefer a joystick instead. The return of the classic arcade is bound for a return. I’ve put together my own plan for how true arcades can evolve and make a comeback.

Make cheaper coin-ops - Use LCD screens and build the cabinets smaller. Do anything it takes to make the machines more affordable to arcade owners so they can actually make a profit on them.

Make each machine play multiple games - Remember the old Neo-Geo machines where you could play up to 8 games on one machine? All arcade machines should be like this. I think it would be beneficial for a customer to be able to walk into an arcade and sit down at his own personal arcade machine for a night of gaming and be able to play what he wants.

All games should be linkable to other players in the arcade - You should have the option when you start a game of accepting challengers from other players in the arcade, or even in other arcades via the Internet. Another player from his personal machine can find you and challenge you to a game.

Internet ranking system - Like they figured out in Japan and with Golden Tee, people like to be ranked. All players should be ranked on every game.

General Admission - Arcades should follow the model of Internet arcades and have general admission. I can imagine a gym club type of membership working out where you pay a monthly fee for access to the arcade.

Prizes - Give out prizes for top performers. Hold tournaments. Make the arcade a social place for competition.

There you have it. My business plan for the classic arcade comeback. Joysticks, social interaction and no chance of somebody taking over your game with cheats or a bot. If you have the money to accomplish all of this, feel free to steal it. I am sure kids everywhere would flock to your establishment. I would too.

I’ve been nostalgic lately about arcades. It just kills me that they are disappearing left and right. All of my childhood hangouts are gone. After searching for stories on the subject, I located this video that is pretty cool called Arcade ‘84. The CinemArcade Web site describes it below:

Arcade ‘84 is my attempt at recreating the atmosphere of the classic arcades. It’s a 3-minute+ trip through an imaginary arcade circa

1984 entirely rendered in 3D computer graphics. The arcade is filled with more than 30 unique games presented in their original cabinets and decorated with their original artwork and animated game graphics. Video games, laser disc games, pinball games, crane games and even change machines are all included. A video wall in the rear of the room displays actual clips of music videos from Van Halen, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Devo and more. Actual game sound effects can be heard from all corners of the room while Journey’s “Stone in Love” is playing on the radio over the arcade’s audio system. Across the hall from the arcade is a record store displaying popular album covers in the window and a movie theater is showing “The Empire Strikes Back” and the first popular movie to feature computer graphics, “Tron.”

I enjoyed this video very much as it was very accurate to the average arcade you’d find in a mall in the ’80s. You can check out the video here.

Pac-man, Galaga, Street Figther II. These video games represent everything that was great about the traditional video arcade. I wanted to experience a traditional arcade once again upon my recent visit to Chicago only to find that the arcade I loved as a teen is now gone. It was the last one left of the four I frequented.

After these places survived for years on quarters from players yearning for a new challenger to find them, video arcades have been fading from the urban landscape. I thought about reasons why and struggled to find solid reasons. Was it home video gaming systems? Everybody owns a home system now. Gamers can play at home or play against somebody online if they would like an opponent. But arcades were very popular in the ’90s and back then everybody had a NES or SNES. So this reason alone couldn’t be what killed the video arcade.

Then it hit me. The reason? It was the coin-ops! Coin-ops never evolved like other electronic gadgets do. Smaller, faster, cheaper, better is the evolution every successful electronic item follows. Coin operated games did not follow this evolution. Compare the Galaga machine to the Street Fighter II Machine. Both games were created about 15 years apart, yet they pretty much are the same. A huge cabinet, a huge screen, controller and buttons. These machines became way too expensive to make any money on. I remember being told that an arcade had to rent a coin-op for about $500 a month or more if the game was any good. If the arcade owner were to buy the game, instead it would cost $3,500+. It takes a while for arcade owners to make their money back when you consider the overhead.

Why didn’t game makers start making the games smaller and cheaper? Why not do away with the huge cabinet to cut costs? Make it just a screen with a controller and a box for the tokens, or even better, a card scanner. That’s all you need! This would’ve resulted in huge savings for the arcade owner and the chance to make better profits. Instead, coin operated games stayed bulky and expensive. Arcade owners stopped buying them. With fewer orders, game makers eventually stopped making new coin-ops altogether.

Now when you are lucky to find an arcade that still operates, you’ll find that the owner has cut costs wherever he can. Machines are regularly out of order. Other machines often have problems with the screen or joystick. Games that should be 25 cents to play are still 50 cents to a dollar. All of which could have been prevented had the coin-op evolved.

These days, when you want to face a challenge from a stranger, the only option we have are Internet arcades. In a way the Internet arcade is an evolution of traditional arcades. Not many people are into the games that I always liked in these places though, so I never go. I guess I’ll just play my PS3 instead.