Arcade machines -- original or homebrew. Keep emulation topics in the emulation category
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Nemoide
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Round 1

by Nemoide Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:14 pm

Last year a new arcade called Round 1 opened up by me. I was blown away by the selection of games: plenty of Japanese imports, rhythm games, UFO catchers, and candy cabs running arcade classics, along with more typical prize-redemption and lightgun games. They also have bowling, ping-pong, billiards, and karaoke. PLUS there's a bar! They support Japanese arcade-systems that keep track of your scores/progress on cards (ie e-Amusement, Nesica, Aime and Bana Passport), something that has long been unavailable to American gamers. I'm starting to get involved with the DDR scene, which has a more active group of regular players than I experienced even when DDR was at its peak. I've also been getting serious about Beatmania IIDX, which is the game I play the most.

Round 1 is a Japanese chain, which gives them access to all kinds of Japanese goodies that American arcades can't. It's really a phenominal place and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to see what a modern arcade can be like. You can look through their locations page and see if there's one within driving distance. They have 21 locations in the US at the moment (California has the most) but the company is planning on expanding at a rate of 10 locations a year until 2025; they're aiming to have as many locations in the US as they do in Japan (100, I believe). So even if there's none in your area now, there's a good chance of one popping up at some point.

I'm totally in love with this place and feel like it deserves its own thread! Has anyone else been to one?
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pierrot
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Re: Round 1

by pierrot Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:44 pm

Kind of a tough proposition for me, since I'm so close to Funspot. Round 1 has a much cleaner, more modern amusement center thing going for it, but the former has more of a history bent. (Plus bunches of Daytona USA cabs.) Interesting that they're opening something up in Holyoke, and not a location closer to Boston--.

I went to Round 1 a number of times, in Japan. I'm kind of surprised that they're expanding so much in the US. I don't know that any of the California locations even existed back then. With all the arcade centers pretty much everywhere still, in Japan, Round 1s there are more about their other attractions. I usually went there for the bowling, driving (golf) simulators, batting cages, etc, but the arcade games were a nice bonus, of course. If I remember correctly, at least at the Odaiba location, there was a section where you would pay sort of a flat fee, and just do whatever you wanted in those areas, including a subset of free-play arcade machines--separate from a regular coin-op arcade section. Do they do that at the US locations?
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Nemoide
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Re: Round 1

by Nemoide Sat Mar 24, 2018 3:01 pm

I've noticed that they've been mostly going with less-obvious, out-of-the-way locations rather than major cities. I assume this helps them with lower rent and less competition for folks' attention.

They do something kind of like that in the American locations, a fair number of the machines are "time play" and you can pay an fee to play them as much as you want for a stretch of time. I've yet to do it because the music games I want to play most don't qualify, but I ought to try it sometime soon for some of the older games or the more expensive lightgun titles.
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pierrot
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Re: Round 1

by pierrot Sat Mar 24, 2018 5:35 pm

Nemoide wrote:I've noticed that they've been mostly going with less-obvious, out-of-the-way locations rather than major cities. I assume this helps them with lower rent and less competition for folks' attention.

That makes sense. Maybe I'm not close enough to their market, but I kind of wonder if they're advertising enough that people actually know where they're at.


Nemoide wrote:They do something kind of like that in the American locations, a fair number of the machines are "time play" and you can pay an fee to play them as much as you want for a stretch of time. I've yet to do it because the music games I want to play most don't qualify, but I ought to try it sometime soon for some of the older games or the more expensive lightgun titles.

What's the typical per-play cost on their token machines? When I used to play DDR, I was always looking out for the places set up for $0.50 credits.
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Nemoide
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Re: Round 1

by Nemoide Sat Mar 24, 2018 10:07 pm

THAT'S where they get you - it's 6 credits ($1.50) per game for DDR or IIDX. If you buy credits in $100 chunks, you get enough bonus credits for it to be ABOUT $1 per game, but it's still pretty high. They have a "club card" that gives $1 off $10-or-more credit purchases but has a $5/year charge, so it only makes sense if you're a regular. No matter what, the place is a money-sink.

That said, DDR A, the latest version which they and Dave & Busters have an exclusive distribution for in the US, is really an excellent version of the game. Tremendous song selection, a wider array of speed mods than previous versions, and a big wide screen. Before it the most recent version I played in an arcade was Supernova 2 and it's kind of tough going back to that after DDR A. It's expensive to play, but I feel like I'm getting my money's worth.
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