Once upon a time, you could head down to the local video arcade game room and need nothing but a couple of pockets full of quarters for a good time. I remember that Friday and Saturday nights were not ever in question during the arcade days. You knew that you would be there, and you knew your friends would be as well. Now, the arcades are a dying breed, and the youth of today are really missing out.
With the advent of the Playstation, video arcades began to falter. No longer would you see entire buildings and businesses dedicated to rows and rows of quarter munching video excitement. What was it about those video arcades that made them different from our experience now?
The first difference was the social aspect. One of the best ways to get a date back then was to find a girl struggling through the first round of Centipede and sliding in to help her out. Many games were interactive, and allowed you to play a game together while getting to know one another. It was also a gathering place for you and all your buddies to go rather than be out getting into trouble.
The other difference was the controls. No little teenie tiny buttons on those games, buddy. They had huge buttons that you could pound to death without any harm for a while. Eventually they would come unseated, but the button would then just make an even cooler noise as you pounded on it.
The biggest difference was the fact that you got to have a place outside of your home to call home. The local video arcade belonged to the locals, and we were proud of that fact. We would even go out and help clean up after every Friday night. The fun and games were steady and reliable. We knew that we had a place to go, regardless of whether we had a date or not.
While the convenience and fun of today’s games are wonderful in their way, the old video arcades had their wonderful aspects as well. It seems a shame that they are going away. Every once in a while, I will go into a Pizza Hut or old convenience store and see a lonely Pac Man game sitting back in the corner. I can not help but to stick a quarter in and relive those wonderful days.
I wonder if the old video arcade will ever make a comeback? Could it actually still bring in the kids? I doubt it. Today’s generation have all the comforts of home with video games that are strikingly better than the games of old. The thing is, they do not realize it is only about the games on the surface. The fun and excitement of Friday and Saturday night at the arcade was about much more than that. It was about friendship, family, and chasing girls. It was about learning responsibility. It was about life.
I miss those old arcade games, and I guess I always will. Now, where is my Wii controller?
