The Fall of the Amusement Arcades

 

Leisureland amusement arcade, Great Yarmouth, England.

Imagine: the majestic sight of the UK’s sandy strips up and down its  coasts where millions of holiday makers flock to the shores to bathe in  the sun and delight in the amusement of the arcades across the roads.  This is the 1990s – or it could be the mid naughties, the same applies  throughout. Simpler times in comparison to our digital age. The  holidayers-of-old had mobile phones but were a long shot from being as  “smart” as they are now. Maybe they sent a text message or two back home  from time to time to check that the family cat and dog are all okay  with the neighbours, otherwise, the family would spend each joyful  moment with one another for the whole week. 

Until the parents wanted some “alone time” and the kids wanted to  play the games. So with the spark of energy, the kids dashed away. Their  hands would be full of 1p, 2p, 10p and 50p coins while Mum and Dad  stayed behind to enjoy the more finer elements of holidaying – alone. 

The kids, together, hurriedly made their way to the arcades. The  buildings up and down the beaches, their lights and logos dancing wildly  in the night air. The Majestic Flamingo, however, was the one that took  their interest more than most others. But not because of the coin  machines where the children could try their luck at winning even more  money; they wanted to play what we would now consider ancient games. 

The wealth of games the Majestic Flamingo boasted were in no part due  vain. Bandai Namco’s 1995 smash hit, Ridge Racer, complete with custom  made car seat, driving wheel, gear sticks and pads controller set sat in one corner. Adjacent to which our young  holiday maker could find Capcom’s 1991 favourite, Street Fighter; over  yonder, some carnation of Time Crisis and The House of the Dead from  2005. 

This was the time when arcade games were enjoyed by the billions all  over the world. The hardware incorporated into these media devices were  ahead of what was readily available at home so a holiday was the perfect  time to have a catch up and play your old favourites in ways other than  the standard console controller.   

But then the industry took an immense downfall. What was once a  buzzing, thriving industry that had found a niche market that it  thoroughly exploited, suddenly, nobody paid attention to these outlets  of amusement. Their worth just wasn’t up to scratch. The PS2 came out.  Then the PC caught up, then Microsoft came up with their own console,  the Xbox, shortly after. So the hardware was being rapidly succeeded.  And that’s the problem we are seeing now, all over the world.   

When we look at any of the UK’s proud coasts, we see hundreds of  these amusement arcades almost empty. The town may be going through some  sort of modernisation; new roads with new looks in the hope of bringing  new business to the areas yet nothing ever works and the local councils  sit around their desks mulling over what could have been, not where it  went wrong. Not a single one of these men and women, I suspect, have  quite thought through exactly why their multi-million-pound modernisation worked.   

The amusement arcades have always been the meat in the sandwich; not  the beaches themselves. We forget that because we’re British. We think,  “It’ll do,” because we’re old fashioned like that. And mostly, we tend  not to care unless it’s something dire. Now, however, it seems that the  industry is facing something somewhat dire. 

We cannot now go to the seaside and eat a sugary doughnut now without  seeing the faint, yet hidden, look of displeasure on our partners’  faces. We know that ten-to-twenty years ago the area would have been  plastered in a thick odour of sun cream and so much white skin our eyes  burned. But that’s no longer the case because the technology is frankly  so old. 

For instance, Ridge Racer is now twenty-two years old. The House of  the Dead is eleven. There have been at least two new generations of  gaming consoles since their incision and they are still being used.  There’s no longer immersion because the kids of the holidays are used to  better back at home. 

And that, I need not remind you, reader, is where most of the money for these coin-operated machines came from: the kids. 

So the sun-stricken beaches of our coasts will remain emptied until  such a time that we begin to value the need for technology in more areas  than our own homes. It’s time we took to adapting what we know and  apply these ideas to the amusement arcade industry. Because, before  long, places like the Majestic Flamingo will all but close down, and its  pink lights will never brighten the night sky again. 

Originally written for my website: V1O.