Inside a Japanese Arcade

[hashiriya1]

Big city arcades are cramped, smokey, and very vertical.
Here is a look at what arcades in the more rural areas look like.
Large, sprawled out...and empty (but then again, it was around 10PM on a Monday night).

The is one of the BE-COME arcades in near the Miyagi/Yamagata Prefecture border.






The requisite pachinko/slot games.







UFO Catchers



















Multi-game cab. Akai Katana is in there!







Huge DARIUS BURST cab






Battle Pods!









Pretty sweet Elevator Action cab...with working elevator doors!







Otomedius!




Card game






Soccer card game








Keiba (horse racing) simulator








Kids games






Air hockey and Purikura





The "SMORKING" area. Engrish is alive and well here.

[Xeogred]

Definitely pretty empty, lol. Pretty cool though. Arcades still thrive a bit more over there than here perhaps?

[Menegrothx]

Elevator Action cab...with working elevator doors!

Do elaborate A game about riding elevators?

[Nemoide]

Man, sometimes I really wish I could get to Japan easily. So many great games that you can't find in the states! I can't believe this is in a comparatively rural area.

Of course, if I had to pay actual money every time I die in shmup would get real expensive real fast.

I really want to try Japanese-style claw/crane catchers. I'm pretty good at American ones, but there are never any worthwhile prizes.

[Erik_Twice]

Elevator Action cab...with working elevator doors!

Do elaborate A game about riding elevators?

It's a rail shooter made by Taito where the screen is covered with elevator doors so I guess some of the leveld esign is centered about that.

I don't know how related it is to the orignal Elevator Action or the completely awesome Elevator Action returns, which were on foot shooters, so as to speak.

[noiseredux]

legit shmups, idol posters and a smorking area? I am jealousy.

[Zing]

How did that extra "r" even get in there? I would think that the person making the sign would consult a dictionary before committing it to a permanent fixture. Maybe it's similar to how people in certain areas of the USA say "warsh" instead of "wash". "George Warshington"

[brunoafh]

There aren't enough words to describe my jealousy. Really awesome pictures though, thanks for sharing them.

[ZenErik]

Screw these Japanese arcades and their actual good selection of games. Over here every arcade has Cruisin' USA. And maybe 1 or 2 other 15 year old cabs.

[ninjainspandex]

Screw these Japanese arcades and their actual good selection of games. Over here every arcade has Cruisin' USA. And maybe 1 or 2 other 15 year old cabs.

but i love Crusin' USA