Orlando vacation/Arcade gaming
It's a strange thing, I've been living in Orlando for the past few years, however I never really connect it with the place I used to go on family vacations when I was a kid. When Fenix was here a few months ago, I noted that there seem to be two Orlandos. The normal Orlando and tourist Orlando. I didn't know much about tourist Orlando.
Today, on a whim I decded to go for a Sunday drive around International Drive (which for some reason stops and starts across several streets) and just look through a bunch of places. I was looking at the cheap tourist traps, and souvenir stores.
One ulterior reason was that I did this, was because I was looking for a good arcade. From almost every family vacation I took back in the day, I always seemed to encounter an arcade. Also when I first moved here, I went on a search for them. They seemed to dissapear. I recently read two webpages which got me on this track of thinking.
This link is a listing of arcade locations around the country. Although a bit outdated, it is none the less an interesting read. Apparently there is a lot of drama around Rocky's arcade (which IMO has a good selection of games, but a horrible atmosphere with too much damn smoke in the building)
This link on the "Shoryuken" message boards for Street Fighter is an interesting discussion on whether the release of Street Fighter 4 can revive arcades. The majority opinion seems to say that it won't.
I've found it strange that for all the remakes of old games and the retrogaming becoming a trendy thing (I've seen many shirts for old Nintendo games and bought a Pacman shirt), that the original thing is almost nowhere to be seen.
However it is understandable. Arcade games used to always have two advantages from home games. They had better graphics and you could easily play against other people. Nowadays those two points are seemingly moot. The first one I understand, but I don't like the second one. There was always a social aspect of going to an arcade, getting out of the house. Nowadays, it seems that online gaming on the next generation consoles is replacing that, but there are probably a lot of people who may not want to make a $400-$500 investment on a video game. At least with arcades all you needed was 1 or 2 quarters.
Back in the mid 90's the fighting game craze based on people against each other was great for the arcade scene. However it seems to have faded away, although there are still diehard fans out there (although some say the diehards are the reason that new people can't get into fighting games anymore).
No real point to this post, I'm just nostalgic for arcades. :)
Today, on a whim I decded to go for a Sunday drive around International Drive (which for some reason stops and starts across several streets) and just look through a bunch of places. I was looking at the cheap tourist traps, and souvenir stores.
One ulterior reason was that I did this, was because I was looking for a good arcade. From almost every family vacation I took back in the day, I always seemed to encounter an arcade. Also when I first moved here, I went on a search for them. They seemed to dissapear. I recently read two webpages which got me on this track of thinking.
This link is a listing of arcade locations around the country. Although a bit outdated, it is none the less an interesting read. Apparently there is a lot of drama around Rocky's arcade (which IMO has a good selection of games, but a horrible atmosphere with too much damn smoke in the building)
This link on the "Shoryuken" message boards for Street Fighter is an interesting discussion on whether the release of Street Fighter 4 can revive arcades. The majority opinion seems to say that it won't.
I've found it strange that for all the remakes of old games and the retrogaming becoming a trendy thing (I've seen many shirts for old Nintendo games and bought a Pacman shirt), that the original thing is almost nowhere to be seen.
However it is understandable. Arcade games used to always have two advantages from home games. They had better graphics and you could easily play against other people. Nowadays those two points are seemingly moot. The first one I understand, but I don't like the second one. There was always a social aspect of going to an arcade, getting out of the house. Nowadays, it seems that online gaming on the next generation consoles is replacing that, but there are probably a lot of people who may not want to make a $400-$500 investment on a video game. At least with arcades all you needed was 1 or 2 quarters.
Back in the mid 90's the fighting game craze based on people against each other was great for the arcade scene. However it seems to have faded away, although there are still diehard fans out there (although some say the diehards are the reason that new people can't get into fighting games anymore).
No real point to this post, I'm just nostalgic for arcades. :)