Bitmob Re-Post Three (I Miss Arcades)

Editor's Note: James isn't the only one who misses arcades. In fact, I have many fond memories of visitng arcades as a wee youth. Get this: I had my big sis's friend's brother take me to a local arcade to teach me how to play Street Fighter II (no joke!). How silly does that sound now? Actually, I can't believe I just admitted that. Ahem, anyway -- arcades are awesome. -Michael

---

I do. After spending the last week in Japan (and a good deal of that time in arcades in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara), I know two things, one: those crane games totally cheat, and two: I miss good, old-fashioned arcades where people played amazing games that were miles better than anything you could play at home.

All the Sega arcades and Taito game stations were a nice reminder of my youth when I could go to pizza parlors and play Street Fighter II, or go to the 7-11 to sip on a Slurpee while dismembering limbs in Mortal Kombat 3. Or even the local Wonderland, where I could pay the admission, get the tokens, and spend an hour playing 5 cent games on a kid's birthday.

Today, no one wants to do that. No one wants to go to an arcade when they have 50-inch TVs and Xbox 360s in their living rooms. Maybe it's a sign that I'm old, but I miss the almost ironic social atmosphere of nerd-filled arcades, where you quartered-up and lost in one go to a guy who mastered Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting instead of calculus.

I get why no one wants to go arcades nowadays. The home stuff caught up. It's nice to sit on your couch and it's infinitely cheaper to pay for the game once (albeit more expensive, obviously) rather than pumping in change every time you lose. But there's something great about being in an arcade, surrounded by gamers. It's not so lonely. Sure, you've got Xbox Live and voice chat, but it's not the same. There used to be a time before broadband when we had to go places to see people and play games together. As much as I lament over this lost time, there are those who cry over lost split-screen multiplayer for much the same reason.

Arcades in Japan aren't even what they once were, but they still exist. Maybe it's partly because of the culture there: small spaces, large population, and no one has home theater rooms like they do in America. Plus, people still get out to play games.

Hell, I saw light-gun shooters there I'd never heard of, including a Half-Life 2 arcade machine. Amazing. But I love firing a fake plastic gun at some aliens. And I love shredding to some GuitarFreaks while an audience watches. But that's the thing. In America, you can make your living room into the arcade with social games like Rock Band; you can experience a little bit of this every night.

Still, it's not the same. While in Tokyo, I played my share of Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6 and it brought back memories, but it still wasn't the same. The price was much higher and the selection wasn't as good. Not like the days where you could find a decade's worth of titles in one room. No, Japan's arcades still exist, but they're not as diverse as they once were.

I'm old. I know it. And arcades are mostly a thing of the past and that's sad. It's an important part of gaming culture and history and it needs to be remembered, if for nothing more than to remember greasy pizza hands, joysticks, and quarters.



Bitmob Re-Post Two (Farewell Old Friend: The Death of My 360)

I can go home right now, open a plastic tub, pull out a 20 year old NES, hook it up, blow some dust out of a cartridge and slip in Super Mario Brothers 3 and it will still work. What I can't do, is turn on my 1.5 year old Xbox 360 and play a game. No, because a brand new state-of-the-art gaming machine is a bigger piece of shit than a two decade old box that's been lovingly abused.

My 360 has red-ringed. Isn't it funny that there's even a term for this specific phenomenon? Never in my personal history of gaming have I had a console break from doing nothing. Hell, I think I dropped my Game Boy multiple times over the years and that thing still works. Maybe it's Nintendo and their "seal" of quality. Maybe it's the complexity of modern day circuit boards. Maybe it's cutting corners. Maybe the 360 just sucks tech-wise. And that's a shame, because it's a great system with a great front end and great games and a great service that I am now denied use of because three fucking lights flash at me when I want to play a game. It's HAL 9000 telling me to "fuck off and exercise or something."

So now, I've been without the system for a few weeks. Not entirely gameless, but forced to move to the PS3 and its less evolved online world. And when I get my 360 back from Microsoft I'm not even getting a system guaranteed to work. Maybe I'm getting mine with repairs. Maybe I'm getting a 2005 refurb. Maybe I'm getting an empty box. Whatever it is, it's not my 360. And as a collector, someone who keeps every single game and console, it kind of hurts to know that the one I bought is gone. Maybe I should buy a brand new one and retire this as a symbol. Maybe I should give up until the Xbox 720. Maybe I should just shut up and wait for my replacement, but the chances are that it's gonna die again. And that sucks.



Bitmob Re-Post One (Expat Gaming One-Gaming in Korea)

Note: This is my first post here on Ye Olde BitMob. I usually post random comments on my personal space, but thought I'd try putting my game centric stuff here for the future. Note 2: The Sequel: This is the first in a series (maybe) of posts relating to gaming as an expat. Being an American gamer living in Korea is not always simple. Outside of the US and Japan, console gaming is much more of a niche thing. And Korea is the land of PC rooms and StarCraft, online MMOs and micro transactions. Historically, they have no love for the Japanese and maybe that's one of the reasons Nintendo and Sony machines never really took off here. People here didn't grow up with the Genesis and do what Nintendon't. They played on PCs and Samsung branded Saturns. When I first came here, years ago (2000, I'm old), I found it hard to even find a modern console in the stores. I had left my Dreamcast behind and had absolutely nothing to play, not even a Game Boy. I was going cold turkey. And when I looked around finally, bored of being bored, all I saw were plenty of Korean made 8 bit knock off systems that looked vaguely like SNESs or 64s, wrapped in neon colors and made of cheap plastic, None of the major department stores had a PlayStation or a 64 and even these "consoles" were relegated to an aisle next to the cheap Power Ranger wannabe toys. And on that rare occasion when I did stumble upon a store that did have a Nintendo 64, the prices were ridiculously high on five year old games. This sucked. I was used to GameStops and WalMarts and people who grew up on Sega and Nintendo. All Korea had then was StarCraft. Hell, that's pretty much what it has now. Korea's not like America or Japan, where you can find games everywhere. There's no electric town. There's no huge mall of game stores. Console games are small. They're growing now, but still not huge. It's just not a console country. And here I was going through my game withdrawals and finding nothing to play. I finally settled into online matches of cribbage and poker before moving onto nightly sessions of Diablo 2. So, I guess I was turning Korean in a way. Interestingly enough, as I learned later, the lack of Japanese products and "culture" was a trade thing. Korea still hurt from Japan's atrocities and was taking it out in this way: on the millions of kids who deserve Mario and Sonic in their lives. Those restrictions finally did ease up, but there's a whole generation of people my age who never had an NES. Shame, really. At least they were spared Virtual Boys and 3DOs. I was pretty damn ecstatic when I did find out where the console games were in Korea. This was right around the launch of the PS2 actually and it was being launched here just as it was everywhere else. Suddenly, consoles were available and the one place I knew of was Korea's version of Japan's Akihabara district: Yongsan, with its one building of games. Yeah, pretty much one long aisle of vendors selling games. That was it. Barter and haggle and get your system modded. I later discovered the Techno Mart and a few smaller dealers, but if you want games in Korea, there aren't many places to go. And while Korea is more of a PC place, it's still not a place of game buyers. Korean gamers like free games. They like pirated games. A place like Gamestop just wouldn't survive. And once I knew where to buy games, it was time to deal with the reality. Korean games played on Korean systems and Korean games were in Korean.

Hello, Internet!

Forgot about this site. Maintaining a blog is hard. It's like a full time job. And I have one of those. And it kicks my ass and at the end of the day I don't especially feel like writing more. I just end up staring at more glowing boxes.

New Year's Resolution #1

Write more.

Yeah, I know. I know. But I will. I was good up until December and then I reverted back to my usual, lazy self. But I have projects demanding my attention and I will get back to them.

Exercize more.

Always more, more, more. But I'll do this one. I need to do this one.

Finish my backlog.

Or at least try to. Games, books, movies. I've got plenty to consume and consume I will.

And maybe I'll try to update this on a regular basis. I am paying for it afterall. So I should do something with it. If I'm not too lazy.