[12/11/2015] The Charm of Arcade Games

          I love arcade games. Every time I enter a restaurant of sorts and there are arcade games in there, especially the classic ones, I'm always looking forward to playing them. I'm not entirely sure what draws me to them, maybe it's the overall nostalgic mood surrounding them, or maybe just the fact that old video games always strike my fancy. I like to do some research on these games in my spare time, and it's almost always an interesting read. My face always brightens up a little when I walk into a room filled with arcade cabinets.

          The primarily simple and easy to pick up design of the vast majority of these games is just a great stress reliever for me. Even if I lose the game in question, I still have a good time during the session. I consider myself moderately-good at these types of games, and it seems to show when an audience sometimes forms behind me as I play. This sort of thing wouldn't happen with the latest home consoles or a computer game, only arcade games can really bring about this boost of self-esteem. Arcade games always seem to bring out the little, energetic child inside me.

         If I did have one nitpick about arcades, it's the way they accept currency. $0.25 at the minimum for one try does seem a little off-putting, seeing as though I really don't like spending my money, but strangely enough that is also kind of the draw to them. In this day and age, everything is very accessible. If I wanted to play Galaga for free, then I could play it on my PAC-MAN Plug n' Play console, on my Namco Museum for the Nintendo 64 or Nintendo DS, or I could literally just Google search "Galaga" and it wouldn't take me long to find the game emulated online. These versions of the game, however, only hold my interest for a short amount of time before I grow bored. I think that they lose their sense of challenge when one takes away the arcade buttons and the money incentive. When you pay to play, you only have one shot to give it your all, and that is what makes arcade cabinets so wonderful.

          If you were to ask me, I would say that arcade game will never fully phase out of restaurants and just places in general. No matter how far advanced our technology becomes, nothing can accurately replicate standing at a cabinet, hunched over at the commands, looking straight at that curved screen, and putting your reflexes to the test.