The Rise & Fall of Arcade Gaming 

Fun fact about gaming in Brazil: Despite consoles supposed to be an affordable alternative to arcades, consoles here were (and still is) super expensive. Because of that we had Game Houses that worked very much like an Arcade, but with consoles instead, with you paying per hour of gameplay, and were the only way most kids could play video-games. And this survived for many years until probably early-mid 2010's, when Smartphones started becoming affordable.

My favorite little story about the beginning of arcade games is that they had a hard time convincing businesses to set up Pong arcade machines and when one bar owner finally took the "risk" he reported the machine broken after like 2 days or so. When they came to check what was wrong with it they found out that the coin compartment simply was full to the brim and that's why no one could play anymore. Don't know how much the developers exaggerated that story, but it came up in a documentary about the history of video gaming in general I saw a few years ago.

Nice comment on Billy Mitchel. He can`t sue you on that.

The difficulty in finding local multiplayer in modern video games led me to board games and I'm really glad it did.

To give context to the New York Mayor banning pinball at the beginning (around the 1:30 mark), the reason it was so controversial was because old pinball machines had no flippers. It was just a game of Plinko. Which is a lot more reasonable to consider that gambling. If he clarifies this later, oops, my dumbass would forget by the end so I'm leaving this comment now.

23:05 There was this place called Maximum Gamer my friends and I went to in the mid 00s that was exactly like those cafes. Even had $30 lock-ins/ LAN tournaments on weekends where you could play from sun down to sun up. $1.50 for a slice of pizza and a Bawls energy drink. Played so much Counter Strike 1.6 and Halo CE over LAN with all the other people there. Insanely cool place.

If you live anywhere near Brookfield, Illinois, there’s a huge arcade called Galloping Ghost Arcade. Gainesville, Florida also has a huge arcade called Bragging Rights. You pay one price, and you can play all the games as long as you want, all day long. It is worth experiencing an arcade at least once.

Modern arcade would be: virtual reality goggles + omni-directional treadmill.

At the very end of May this year, SEGA officially brought their rhythm arcade series Maimai DX over to Round1 Puente Hills Mall in Los Angeles to see if there was an audience. Multiple communities online were cheering about this and talking about driving over, maybe even flying over to play the game. I personally went twice to play it and met people coming over a thousand miles down from Canada just to -attend a pump it up tournament and also- play maimai. I got to meet and talk to people, learn about the game and how everything works, and better connect with a new community. It was beautiful. I'm so happy I could experience it and I hope that arcades never disappear so others can too.

I just love how well researched and caring your essays feel. There's countless other essayists on here, but not many make it this pleasant, like it just feels comfy you know.

Wake up babe, New Lextorias video just dropped

There are still a lot of arcades out there if you look hard enough. Even most of the gimmicky ones which are dominated by claw games and watered down mobile games usually have some classic games, and barcades are becoming more and more popular these days. It's definitely a really fun experience to actually go somewhere and play an arcade game on a CRT with the original sights and sounds and with high scores being displayed on each cabinet.

Shoutouts to rhythm games being one of the genres necessitating arcade's existance. Let's move those feet baby!

I loved playing two player games of "House of the Dead" with me as both players. It felt awsome.

Thanks for the well-researched video. I'm lucky to live in a city where we have a couple of local barcades where I us uncool old folk can grab a beer, some mixed drinks and play classic arcade machines. It's usually my birthday go-to with friends. I recommend if any gamers have the opportunity to go to a local barcade (Not chain places like Dave and Busters it's not the same vibe) check it out.

For people who are of drinking age and in major metros, you can usually find "barcades" or "gamer pubs" in your area which can provide some of that sensation to this day. If you want a blessed reminder of the heyday, look into whatever your area might have for arcade/pin ball expositions. For example, the Bay Area of California has a major one in late July called California Extreme where collectors bring in their arcade and pinball machines and put them all on free play. They include classics, rarities, and some prototypes that never made it to the floors. Go in on the Friday or Saturday night and it feels like a trip back into that heyday, jam packed with folks playing, competing, watching, and cheering each other on. I likley won't be making this year for my own reasons, but I highly recommend it to somebody who wants to either relive those times or get a taste of the beautiful third space that was the video arcade.

The small yet important era of gaming history, the Penny Arcade, then later the Arcade

In Florida, there's a growing chain of arcades called Arcade Monsters, which was about an hour from where I went to college. It basically merges bar/night life with arcades. You pay a flat entry fee, all arcade machines are free (no quarters) and there's a bar that serves drinks. One recently opened up in Orlando on International Drive and it has a pretty nice setup. I definitely recommend checking it out one day for anyone local or taking a vacation to Florida.

as someone who's only gotten really into fighting games and rhythm games in the last decade, i didn't even realize how big a deal the social aspect is when it comes to the arcades. not only did i miss a good chunk of cool rhythm games when i was younger (was too shy to play on a "stage" essentially), but also all the potential friendships and moments i could've had :')

Return of the king!!!

Despite your having never been to an arcade, I think you did a great job covering the subject! As a child of the '90s, I very much miss that in-person, community aspect of video gaming. It really was this fun place where your parents could dump you for an hour or two, and you and your buddies could just go wild on as many games as your allowance would take you. This was also where my adoration of fighting games came into full bloom: I'm one of the people that has multiple arcade sticks not only because it's a nice dopamine hit when I use it, but also because it's how I learned to play fighting games. Thirty years of muscle memory isn't easy to unlearn, let me tell you. As for the "future" of arcades, I've seen a number of throwback arcades ("barcades" if they serve food/alcohol) that charge you a flat fee (let's say $10 for the day), and all the machines are on free play. I've taken my kids on more than one occasion, and it's a great experience: you should definitely give 'em a shot if you have one in your area. Lastly, as a guy who lived in Seoul in the late '90s, I loved hearing that PC bungs (that's how we always pronounced it, but my buddies and I could've just been plebs) are still going strong. I had a ton of fun playing Rainbow Six, Half-Life, Diablo and the like there back in the day.

It was the early '70s when I discovered pinball arcades. It was at an pop-up pinball arcade tent at the Ohio State Fair where I played the first video game, Computer Space (we called it Rockets & Saucers) and we were upset that it cost TWO quarters a game rather than the single quarter per game we were used to with the pinball machines. But we payed our quarters and played the game because this was certainly something completely new. I still saw Whack-a-Mole and other such physical games in some video game arcades into the '80s.

Random fun fact: We have a small little gaming cafe in our small village These things are huge here since people still care a lot about their community and I find that it does reflect, especially when you compare it to how america is...

Great video. I was really hoping to hear you mention Latin America's obsession with NEO GEO arcade cabinets.

I run a space in the Burlington VT area where we host weekly fighting game locals, but I also run an afterschool program where I teach kids life skills and self-improvement through learning how to play fighting games in a collaborative “third place” sort of environment. This video was wonderful to see.

You've never truly experienced video gaming at it's best until you've experienced having your head slammed into the edge of a double dragon machine from the other player because you hid from Abobo! 🤕

By me (okay like an hours drive) is a mix of a high class bar and an the Korean thing. They do trivia nights, had speed running on the TVs, PC's and board games you could rent, and some really fun themed food. Like I had some non alcoholic drinks in like potion bottles and all the food had nerd puns. I've only managed to make it out once, but it was a great time and I keep trying to go again. The downside is, as a half bar half restaurant, it is much more adult orientated vs teen or family orientated. But it was popular enough that reservations were STRONGLY encouraged. That may be another way where things could settle. I'd hope not exclusively - it was a bit too pricey to go regularly - but it was a lot of fun

Fun fact: if you live in a city with bigger libraries, there's a decent chance the library accommodates gaming PCs and has tons of games you can borrow for free

We have one of those PC places here in Iceland

I miss going to my local arcade, Nickle city. it always had alot of fun and weird games and always was cheep. they even had a section of old games from the 80's set to free play in the back.

Great video, in person speedrunning events are essential for my sanity lmao. Hope they continue to stick around

This is a fantastic essay. The disappearance of 3rd places is honestly something that needs to be talked about more, and I love that you tied it into the history of arcades

The free play arcades, where you pay for so much time at the door, are still there, and they are a collection of many of these games. There's a certain charm in playing the old games because they're just different from what we see now.

I went to the galloping ghosts arcade in Chicago,. definitely a living museum. These experiences will eventually be lost in time but you can still get them.

There's a great arcade in Brighton, Michigan that my friends and I often visit when we meet up. It charges $25 at the door and has a wide variety of games that are all on free play. They have my favorite game, Chunithm.

I love arcades with my whole heart, excited for the vid!

Yooo new lextorias video we ballin boys

I never had the chance to go to arcades regularly during their waning years. there were some that were kindof around at malls when I was little, but my parents were a little too task-oriented to just leave us somewhere like that too many times. What I DO remember was the hit Christian thriller novel This Present Darkness, which had a scene where someone's grandson had to be drug out of an arcade that literally had demons teeeeeeeming in rafters. Boy had six demons in him that had to be prayed out. SIX. The antipathy to arcades during their height was deep and wide.

Strange, I didn't get recommended this video. Big fan of your content. Had to hunt it out myself.

We have something like "PC bangs" here in Halifax. There's one called "Hpper Level Gaming" on Hollis St. on the peninsula, and many of the libraries in the Halifax Public Library system have gaming consoles.

I remember researching the history of Pac-Man and other Namco games. The trip through arcade history was very pleasant. I remember seeing those motorcycle games in a Wal-Mart arcade when I was a kid in the early 2000s. Never got to play them. Modern arcades that you load a card and swipe doesn't feel the same as when me and my cousins crowded an Asteroids-like cabinet at a wedding hall, plunking quarters in until the night was over.

I love how Lextorias is actually interested in his videos' topics. And if not directly interested in them, then interested in the reason why people care so much about said topic.

Gotta love the Yakuza Backdrops you use. They look so naturally real

Thank god for places like Galloping Ghost! Place is awesome, highly recommend.

There was a place I went to a few times when I lived in Wisconsin called The Fraggin' Dragon that worked a bit like a PC Cafe but with consoles. Pay some for a certain amount of time, pick a console and game and go. The consoles that supported it were LAN-ed together too. They even had food and stuff you could buy. I dunno if they're still around (if I remember right it was somewhere in either Madison or Monona) but they picked up a lotta business from a nearby pizza "arcade" that only had ticket games. It was pretty [insert whatever the current slang word for "great" is here].

I swear it’s been at 18k views since day one. How has this not gotten more views? Loved the video

I miss arcades for an affordable price, but the good thing about arcade cabinets is you can buy them. Also, since they are in often family owned pizza restaurants or bowling alleys, I like to use that to my advantage and play them.

I worked parttime in an arcade in high school during the early 80s. (I was class of '84.) Our small town had a dozen of them. Half of the point of the arcade was the games. The other half was friends.

Good job, man. I know you said you hadn't been to an arcade before, but you really captured what I feel about it.

I was around back when arcades were still popular over here. So many memories of them. I remember seeing one guy do the MvC2 cable tiger knee air hyper viper beam, wondering how he did that, and simply tapping on his shoulder and asking him how after the match ended, and he just showed me how on the spot. Another was someone using wolfgang krauser in real bout fatal fury 2 and asking him how he did the deadly rave super that ended in a cyclone. It wasn't just fighting games, a lot of co-op side scrolling beat em ups (final fight clones essentially) were hugely popular. Arcades over here gradually got replaced by PCs as counter strike and rts (later mobas) got more and more popular - not to mention setting up a string of PCs was cheaper than arcade cabinets for the arcade ownders - and they essentially became PC cafes over time, but even those eventually died out as home PCs and internet got cheaper. Also..... speaking of evo moment 37, justin got parried by daigo - again - ending with the same super n SF6 a few months ago in an online match.

saddest thing as a fighting game player is going to my local round 1 which had a dedicated area of dozens of fighting game arcades and then not going for a month and having 90% of them removed

A large part still keeping arcades alive today is the small rhythm game community. The same way that DDR did in 1998, new rhythm games that cannot be replicated easily at home have continued to be released, mainly by Konami, and often with many later editions similar to how Street Fighter II did (DDR itself still receives updates). If you're lucky to have a Round1 nearby, you'll find a section for a bunch of rhythm games that most people have never heard of. beatmania IIDX, pop'n music, GITADORA, jubeat, SOUND VOLTEX, REFLEC BEAT, MÚSECA, CHUNITHM, Mai-Mai, Wacca, Chrono Circle, DDR, DANCERUSH, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Groove Coaster are some that I have seen at mine. Many of these games have no way to be played at home without buying a huge arcade cabinet, and the ones where it is possible still often require a lot of money, such as with SOUND VOLTEX where players will buy/make $200-$300 controllers in order to play on unofficial PC clones of the game.

Every year, week of Labor Day, a nearby town hosts a large county fair. When I was a kid, they had a big arcade set up. I remember watching older kids play the latest Mortal Kombat and all the fatalities. Some of my favorite fair memories.

Accepting the fall of arcades took me a long time to accept but I sm happy to have been a late Gen-X kid to have lived through out that whole era in 80s and 90s

Very much appreciate shining light on the FGC keeping arcade culture and in person gaming meetups alive 🙏 as someone who has grown very jaded about the gaming industry at large, the FGC to me is a small refuge that reminds me of why I love games in general.

Awesome video! Gotta say, you definitely have a flair for combining presentation and actual information/history that I haven't seen all that often. I saw your comment on a YT vid for a series retrospective for Mr. Robot. I think you and I can agree they it was a truly one-of-a-kind show that has no real equivalent to this day. Care to do a video essay on that?

Thanks for covering arcades ~ kind of my favorite thing ever 😂

we still have arcades here in the philippines, mostly in the malls. At least in my city, we got one in pretty much every mall, some malls have 2 lmao, though the people that go there are usually families or just looking to have some quick fun, so it's less of a community than those 90s arcades. There are still a few regulars that come by and become friends, they usually hang out by the DDR

Your channel is Awesoma! Best discovery in this year for me!

That part where you mentioned the PC gaming cafes kinda hit home for me. I think Korea is one of the first to really make them popular and a viable business model, which eventually made it's way to India where I was a college student from 2017 to 2021. There was a high quality PC gaming cafe(we called them parlours at the time) in the town where the campus was and another one in the local mall in my hometown. I remember all my friends/cousins wanting to spend all their spare time there and heck, some of them practically LIVED there. PC gaming wasn't easily accessible for most of them, so they always found it cheaper than buying and owning a PC plus the games they wanted to play, so they let the parlours do it for them.

I remember when I was a child get robbed by gang members in the arcade, but that were funny and dark places where if You get good in games, you were king.

I've never really played with a friend in person outside of one time. I still think about how much I've missed every day and it makes me sad :(

The importance of the arcade for the FGC cannot be overstated: Aside from trying to keep the spirit alive in Discord servers, various forums, and even the devs putting digital arcades in the newer games, there was even a huge push towards offline tournaments to come back after people felt the fully online COVID era to be rather empty and this is despite the travel costs being a constant pain in the ass for everyone.

Lebanon too also had PC cafes from what I saw during my travels, but I didn't know that they weren't part of a trend in the US. On the other hand, they also operated as internet cafes.

Was living in an era when home-consoles introduced me to gaming but arcade was still around. It's exciting to go into malls knowing there's a space where my favorite past-time is actually the main attractions. But I was so anxious about playing games in public spaces to the point where I don't play them but let my dad did it. Good times.

Where I live arcades were a big thing during the early to mid 90's when I was little but then shrunk a lot to the point that they were a rare sight by the early 00's with cyber cafés very quickly taking their place as the place where everyone went to play video games, but those barely lasted a bit over a decade becoming themselves a rare thing just a couple of years into the 2010's, quite ironically a few arcades still survive to this day while cyber cafés are basically extint. I both miss those 90's arcades filled with games that simply couldn't be replicated by home consoles at the time, and some that still can't be replicated unless you buy a lot of specialized hardware, and those cyber cafés of the 00's with 30+ PC's where LAN parties were a daily event, I can still remember Need for Speed races where every car was controlled by another player somewhere in that room. But the truth is that those days are never coming back, the economics that allowed those types of businesses are no longer there, scale was the only thing that kept them viable and that's gone forever in almost every country.

I think you missed one huge angle on the continuation of arcade culture - specifically the experience of sharing games with people. Streaming. When Twitch started getting big I couldn't wrap my head around why people would want to stream games, or watch people stream games. But then I remembered going to arcades when I was a wee lad, slapping a quarter down to get the next turn on a game, and watching other people play until it was my turn. Then later on when home consoles got big and I'd go to a friend's house to not only play the latest games, but watch my friends play as well. Streaming can be that interaction, just to a much wider audience. It is why I got into streaming. Not to try to make money, I've got a job for that for crying out loud. No, it was to get back to those early roots of what video games meant to me. As something to share with anyone who wanted to pop in for a quick chat about the game I was playing at the time. It is also why I watch other people play games when they stream. I drop in, chat with them about their day, make comments about their play in the game, and head out when I need to do something else.

So in New Jersey we have a place called "Yestercades." Their first location opened over a decade ago, and the 4th a few months ago this year. You pay an hourly rate to just hang out in an arcade for a few hours. They even have a sit down couch area to play old console games. I brought my daughter once and it was $20 for the 2 of us for an hour.

I'm glad you mentioned Internet cafes at the end. I helped operate a local one between 2010-2015 and we had a great community of regulars. $3/hr got you access to a huge library of games on decent hardware connected to fast reliable internet. We didn't have hot food but we did sell frozen stuff and had a public microwave (and a McDonald's across the parking lot in the same strip mall). We also used to have "lock-ins" anyone could pay to be "locked in" overnight and we'd order a bunch of pizza and play games until the sun came up. Basically being a $20 babysitter for 20-30 kids for a whole night. It was fun because everyone would naturally band together and play a 5v5 League game in-house or get the whole room on a single CS:S server. Those days are long gone though because it's far easier to just buy a console and stay home or pay games that don't demand top-tier hardware.

Me at 22:30 "he's doing the outro - can't believe he didn't talk about Korean video game cafes! They launched Starcraft to such significance that competitions got televised!" Me at 23:00 "oh. Well, at least they got a shoutout lol"

LETSGO MY NICHE WAS MENTIONED IN A LEXTORIAS VIDEO RAAHHHH!!!! VIVA FIGHTING GAMES!!!!!

Here in Toronto there are several arcade bars and a handful of gaming lounges where you can rent PC or console time. I kinda figured that was commonplace in most big cities at this point?

Great video king keep it up!

Great video as always. I will say, anyone who's heard a lot about the "third place" should watch Radical Planning's "Third Place vs. Right to the City." The idea of a third place is easy to digest and communicate, and it is a useful concept, but the author behind it developed the theory with a very... outdated view of the world.

Internet cafes or w/e they're called, were a thing back when I was a teenager, You would pay by the hour, the PCs would have a timer sofware, and the consoles I think they just had a dude "time" your session. We used to hang out and play LAN PC games (Counter Strike, Age of Empires, Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc), split-screen PS2 and other consoles, some of the fancy ones even had a few arcade games. Wasn't that a thing in the US?

im always excited to see a new video from you, keep up the great work

i’m lucky that i still have some retro arcades near me. this week was particularly special because i went to an arcade 3 days in a row, and in the process introduced my cousin to some oddities like baby pac-man (a bizarre half baked video-pinball hybrid that was the reason namco cut ties with midway), and beat the tmnt arcade game with said cousin, my other cousin, and my grandfather. heck, even at home i still got plenty of ways to recreate the arcade experience, i have an oculus quest 2 vr headset (one of the last to have the oculus logo, even!) and a really cool game called arcade legend, which is 3 quarters dave and busters simulator, 1 quarter dave and busters builder. they recently added a bunch of knickknacks and novelties to win from the prize counter, and it was partially from a request i left in my review! honestly if you have a quest headset you should probably pick it up, it’s great.

he's back.

Still a fan of dance machines, and still playing them from time to time

I worked at Playdium in BC Canada when they changed the insurance law from the whole setup to individual machines. That killed playdium in 2008? Somewhere near there. Now they have a few machines at a few movie theaters

Our local retro game store here in BG OH has an arcade room put together by the owner. he spent months learning how to repair the machines and now has over twenty original machines including one 90s Mario Pinball in a dedicated room. Just in case, Rockem Sockem Retro is the name and it's awesome.

The Penny Arcade reference... aged me right in the feels. Now I feel so nostalgic, haha! I grew up at the tail end of the mall arcade era with DDR being the last big thing that kept us coming back. Even though I've always been shy, socially anxious and awkward, I ended up making a lot of friends that looked forward to attending the weekend/holiday/summer DDR events the arcade would host as much as I did!! It was the first place I ever felt like I didn't have to put up a barrier or pretend to not like video games, anime and other dweeby things I was into because most of the people that showed up were also into those things. Playing Dino Crises, Marvel vs. Capcom, Tekken and especially the racing games in between rounds of DDR and dancing competitions made me feel confident; I was so into playing the the games and watching my friends play, I didn't have to think about being awkward or shy! The thrill of having random people spectating and cheering for the underdog, the confidence of stepping up to challenge the winner, the demand for a rematch to reclaim the high score; those are things younger generations of gamers will probably never get a chance to experience.

Over the past few years there's been a "Japanese Arcade" near me that moved locations multiple times due to trying to expand or the mall they were in shutting down or the landlord they rented from selling the property. It was full of imported rhythm cabinets as well as classic game cabinets, and their most recent location had a small room for the like 5 pinball machines they had. Unfortunately, this most recent closure has seemingly become the last, as there's been no mention from them of a new location (if anyone involved in Gatcha Gachapon, Akiba Arcade, or Bunker Arcade reads this please let me know if you guys are trying to open something again, I would love to come throw money at you in exchange for pressing the funny flashing buttons again!) Honestly, I'm kind of tempted to save up some money with a friend and try to open an arcade like this ourselves, it's just such a different vibe than playing a game online with a friend or meeting new people online. Lol, and if I'm the owner I can play the cabinets as much as I want!

19:24 YES,FINALLY!

I've lived in 2 different towns that have barcades. Both of which you pay something like $10 at the door and play for free. It definitely thrives on the mastalgia of people my age but with alcohol.

As a dude in my early 40s, yea arcades hold a dear place for me. Even more so in the later years now that I have money. I don't see much of a reason to play something I have at home in the arcade, but rhythm games in Japan arcades are something else. Maimai, Chunithm, and other relatively large control schemes are not something to replicate at home. P.S. I have a Hitbox arcade like yours, but recently bought a Haute42 S16. It's under $45 and fully configurable. We're eating good :) Thanks for the video!

I have an 8bitdo and mayflash arcade stick. They are really good at just any arcade/mame game. I was using them for arcade racing games and i was drifting with the best of them in initial d

Im in japan right now, and having arcades everywhere is epic!!

I'm sad that arcades went away, because you're right on the money with the "je ne sais quois" they have. All you ever get nowadays are those bootleg-o-matics with 700 ROMs installed, or the gambling-style machines you mentioned (either ticket or claw). I can hardly blame the venues, especially on the former; cabinets are expensive to maintain, especially in an age where parts for 20+ year old machines are scarce, but they just don't have any magic about them. I thought VR would be the big reviver of in-person gaming because of the high cost of entry, but there's not really been any "killer games" for that besides Beat Saber, and that has a triple factor: a) everyone who wanted to try it has probably tried it by now, b) they got wise and you need a specific licence to run it in a commercial context, and c) the "high score" doesn't really have that much cultural weight nowadays, or at least it seems that way to me. Add that to VR having a trend of making people kind of sick the first time they try it and I think that idea is dead in the water. Mostly, though, I'm just grumpy because I love pinball and there's (generally) nowhere to play it! Let me enjoy my outdated entertainment from the 90s, dangit!

My local craft brewery/bar recently started filling up their back space with arcade cabinets and pinball. Mostly pinball really, but hey they've got Street Fighter 2, Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, and some racers, what more do you need?

If you're in the area, Houston Texas has a great place called the Cidercade. It is an arcade with a bar that you can get drunk and play arcade games with other people. It's awesome!

You still have some cabinets and gamerooms in the usual places; pizza parlors, bowling alleys, movie theaters, some bars. But most of your separate arcades are somebody's nostalgia fix for OG gaming. Most can't keep the lights on for too long which is disappointing. Love modern tech and gaming in close proximity to the fridge and a bathroom, but arcades were cool.

Wow! Technology Connections returns but hip, with a reversed baseball cap and all! I joke. I remember 'cades in my town the 90's, we had two in the same street, Final Fight, Turbo Outrun, TMNT(Duh, who turned the lights out?). Now, one is now just a bingo hall and one is a room with only a few fruit-machine slots, which only the compulsive gamblers frequent. I'm not quite old enough to hang around in one(yet) and not desperate enough to hang around in the other(yet). Good stuff! :)

Obligatory comment to boost engagement and algorithmically recommend this to other folks because WOW a lot of effort must go into the research and presentation of these elaborate video essays. Long time fan of the channel but wow I should consider just joining the patreon already

First interaction with arcade type was store next to my school that had tekken 3, soul edge, terminator shooter game few more.Also Same time we had locations where you could pay some money to play on pc ( end of 90ies) i played homm3 with a mate on it. Majority of times you saw those arcades in carnival areas or ships that had normal games next to poker machines

Canada had some net cafes for a while. They've all since disappeared, probably because most people have PCs at home and maintaining computers is expensive.

"Barcades" seem to basically be the only arcades that are even around where I live aside from the rat casino for children or an actual casino. There are some game shops these days that have some older consoles or even some game tournaments, but any time I've gone to these types of shops was for TTRPGs and they are most popular for that, War Games, or card games. The game shop I go to for a Shadowdark TTRPG campaign in part of does have even modern consoles, like thr PS5 available for people to use, and even an Esports game lounge with like 6 PCs. It might be that our game days are on Sundays but I've rarely seen anyone using the esports lounge. Video gaming seems to really be going the way of online rather than in-person. I do enjoy having my friends over for a LAN these days though. Even though we are all on our own PCs, we are all in the same room talking and playing together.

The theater near my friends old house used to have two initial d machines and you could pay to register a card to continue your progress and I want one SO BAD

6:41 I still have fond memories of going to the arcade in my local mall and blowing my allowance on Galaga.

Arcades were a third place, but they were rarely their own distinct third place. Instead they were a weird subculture of random places like laundermats, smoke stained convenience stores, bowling alleys and to a lesser degree malls. At least in my experience. But the third place-ness of them was no less prevalent because of this. They functionally gave those random locations their own life and flavor. Like, meet me at the Laundromat, new sf2 just dropped. It was a different time.