Some great photos and impressions Quality Chimp!
I'm always disheartened by the Arcade's fall from popularity, as a kid growing up the late 80's, the arcade was seen as a impossible leap in technology. Seeing Virtua Racing running in the Arcade was a magical experience, and one which will never be replicated or encountered again. Part of it is down to how narrow videogame information was circulated as it felt like any game could be appearing in the arcade. The other part was the huge divide between consoles and PC's of the time, a kid playing Master System Sonic the Hedgehog would be fairly stunned by seeing Ridge Racer. I can't imagine if this was still the case, with a kid playing on a Xbox 360 or PS3 walking down to the arcade and seeing something that is incomparable to what they're playing.
I never had the luxury of having a Arcade close by, with the nearest being a hour's drive away in Portsmouth, but that made going even more special. From seeing Virtua Racing when I was on a family holiday in Swanage, watching Games Master have a Tekken 2 Tournament, playing 4 player link up Daytona USA, playing endless rounds of Sega Rally with my younger brother, learning how to operate the Time Crisis duck pedal, discovering the holy grail with F355 Challenge and coming across the last cabinet that made me want to go to the Arcade, Outrun 2SP. I have some very fond memories of hanging out in arcades and playing some fantastic games.
My favourite period of games was the PSone - Dreamcast era. Not only was it the jump into 3D, but it was where I was still excited by the idea of Coin-Op Conversions. The PS1 thrived on handling Namco's best Arcade games and it was astonishing to think that these lumbering beats were being put onto a CD-ROM for only £40 a pop. The Dreamcast signalled the end of the Arcades dominance as it was handling Arcade perfect versions of Naomi boards and thereafter, console and Arcade games lived side by side.
The Arcade has long since been outgunned, but I do still miss having a SEGA / AM2 / Namco cabinet that was so out of reach of the current generation, that you thought it was impossible to convert to a £200 console.
I'm always disheartened by the Arcade's fall from popularity, as a kid growing up the late 80's, the arcade was seen as a impossible leap in technology. Seeing Virtua Racing running in the Arcade was a magical experience, and one which will never be replicated or encountered again. Part of it is down to how narrow videogame information was circulated as it felt like any game could be appearing in the arcade. The other part was the huge divide between consoles and PC's of the time, a kid playing Master System Sonic the Hedgehog would be fairly stunned by seeing Ridge Racer. I can't imagine if this was still the case, with a kid playing on a Xbox 360 or PS3 walking down to the arcade and seeing something that is incomparable to what they're playing.
I never had the luxury of having a Arcade close by, with the nearest being a hour's drive away in Portsmouth, but that made going even more special. From seeing Virtua Racing when I was on a family holiday in Swanage, watching Games Master have a Tekken 2 Tournament, playing 4 player link up Daytona USA, playing endless rounds of Sega Rally with my younger brother, learning how to operate the Time Crisis duck pedal, discovering the holy grail with F355 Challenge and coming across the last cabinet that made me want to go to the Arcade, Outrun 2SP. I have some very fond memories of hanging out in arcades and playing some fantastic games.
My favourite period of games was the PSone - Dreamcast era. Not only was it the jump into 3D, but it was where I was still excited by the idea of Coin-Op Conversions. The PS1 thrived on handling Namco's best Arcade games and it was astonishing to think that these lumbering beats were being put onto a CD-ROM for only £40 a pop. The Dreamcast signalled the end of the Arcades dominance as it was handling Arcade perfect versions of Naomi boards and thereafter, console and Arcade games lived side by side.
The Arcade has long since been outgunned, but I do still miss having a SEGA / AM2 / Namco cabinet that was so out of reach of the current generation, that you thought it was impossible to convert to a £200 console.
. Want to play the 3 screen version again sooo bad. I looked all over Tokyo and Yokohama for one but never found it 
. Have to console myself with memories and my PS2 version.
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