Like many fellow gamers, as a child I once had a dream. My occasional exploits in various mall and theater arcades ballooned my tweeny-bopper imagination into what I could,
would do as an adult flush with money, time, and ambition. I had visions as to what an arcade should be, how it would look, what it would contain, and how it should be run. By golly, once I got a real job, made some decent money, and convinced a bank that I was going to make a fortune off of this, I would build the
ultimate arcade, have my dream job, unlimited play time, and live like I always wanted. It was so simple. So elegant. I would succeed where others failed because I would take my sense of what kids want and bring it into the adult world where no-one understood what kids
really want, and therefore what would be profitable.
I would also keep a refrigerator stocked with those little plastic barrel 'Hugs' drinks because I only got one or two at a time and I was always thirstier than that.
Like many of you, I grew older and the reality of that grand arcade dream just faded away. Maybe we got wind of the actual costs of running a business. Maybe we did the math and realized what little profit is seen from such an industry. More than likely, consoles overtook our attention once the graphics on home systems deflated the wonder out of the darkened, noisy, expensive dreamlands. More than likely, we just forgot and let the dream die a slow, silent whimper.
But a few never let that stop them.
[img width=338 height=600]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/Metreon2.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/MetreonSide.jpg[/img]
Enter the Metreon, a 350,000 square foot 'urban entertainment destination' built in 1999 by Sony. Located in downtown San Francisco, the 85 million dollar project was to enforce Sony's hip image by offering gaming, food, exhibitions, shopping, music, and movies, as well as to showcase new technology. It was to be Sony's public hub for everything from Playstation to Anime.
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/MetreonInterior3.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/MetreonInterior1.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/MetreonInterior2.jpg[/img]
One floor was an arcade full of original games called Airtight Garage, based on the graphic novel by French comic artist and graphic designer Jean "Moebius" Giraud.
It failed.
Here's how wikipedia puts it:
"The Airtight Garage's games proved unpopular, with the exception of HyperBowl, a 3D obstacle course bowling game featuring air-supported bowling balls used as trackballs, and they eventually were gradually replaced by other, better-known games, until the arcade was finally closed, then reopened as "Portal One," which preserved the decor, full bar, and Hyperbowl but was otherwise a more typical arcade. Sunday May 13, 2007 was Portal One arcade's last day of operation. The arcade was relaunched again as a Tilt."
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metreon)
The fall of the Metreon itself, a shining example of the results of Sony's corporate mentality at the turn of the century, is better understood from this article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...006/02/24/BUGSVHDITS1.DTLEnter...me. I've been visiting here in San Fran for a week, towing along a 360 hidden in the laundry luggage and hoping to finally burn through FFXIII without toddler distractions. Throw in an ancient TV in our hotel that only takes RF and with a screen so fuzzy text is all but illegible, and I'm out looking for something,
anything video game related. An extensive search proved nothing but Gamestops as far as the taxi can see. Then I learn of the Metreon due to my smart, talented, and still incredibly appealing wife. I was unprepared for what awaited me.
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltFrontRight.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltFrontLeft.jpg[/img]
It...was MY arcade. The design, the aesthetics, the games,
everything was as I envisioned in my youth. The mock-up props of techno-industrial equipment, the pop sci-fi neon and oversized circuitry designs, the fake cables and wiring, all of the stuff I lovingly surrounded myself with as a kid.
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltProps1.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltPropBar.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltChronoProp2.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltPropChrono1.jpg[/img]
(Yes, if you looked closely, they misspelled 'Crhono.' ?!?)
Snack machines, energy drink machines, even a bar!
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltPropBar2.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltPropBar.jpg[/img]
Virtual bowling against the wall, half a dozen Dance Dance machines and their variants, air hockey, a dozen different light gun games including
House of the Dead 4 and
Time Crisis: Razing Storm, all of the fighting greats including
Marvel Vs Capcom 2, various
Tekkens, various
King of Fighters, even
Super Street Fighter IV. A four player setup for
Daytona USA as well as a few other racers, Skee-ball, and a three screen Sega Strike Fighter DX. The list just went on and on...
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltInside4.jpg[/img]
[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltInside3.jpg[/img]
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[img width=600 height=338]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/TiltInside1.jpg[/img]
(Not shown, for reasons explained below, was the gigantic Terminator Hunter Killer-like statue in front of the arcade that also housed ticket counter machines. Yeah, for real.)
I quickly realized two things: One, if given the space and funds,
this is the arcade I truly would have built. There was honestly not much I would have changed. And two:
It would have failed miserably, as this one did.
The place was dead. During a Friday evening, only a few people entered and left in the two hours I was there. Out of those I only saw a few games played, including an arcade machine of
Deal or No Deal. I'm doing my best not to judge here people, but for crying out loud, that just seems to me the most worthless game to make into an arcade cab. At least most game shows have trivia or something. Compared to the lottery that is
Deal or No Deal, there's more skill involved in a game of
Peggle.Hmmm...
Peggle Arcade...there's an idea...
But I digress.
My goal was to show in dozens of pictures the wondrous, lost glory of this place, this
fallen dream of mine and doubtless others who visit this site. Unfortunately, as soon as I started near the entrance, the lady behind the counter gave me frantic hand gestures and told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures. She said it was in their training manual, and she seemed to genuinely try to be nice about it. Tempting as it is to call her out as a Nazi dictator, I know she was only doing her job. Still, as
Metal Gear Solid music thumped out of my mind's ear, I did my best to sneak a few shots with my digital camera of
Metal Gear Rex the dimly lit arcade before
flooding the tanker to cover my tracks thanking the nice lady and leaving. Hence the poor quality of the pics, and not at all because of the fact that I'm not very good with a camera.
And as I wandered the giant catacomb of cabinets, this enterprise that was no longer alive with energy and people, with giant speakers on the ceiling oddly silent and the various motorized colored lights staring vacantly, I knew I was touring the living dead of retail arcades. Here was the experience in all its beauty, its gaudy, obnoxious, glorious beauty; and nobody cared. It was dead, and just didn't know it. Doubtlessly loosing money, or at best just scraping by, only a matter of time. I felt a childhood dream wither in defeat.
While traditional arcades have been on the decline for decades, and their waning mostly attributed to the rise of technologically superior home consoles and lack of public interest, two additional factors were present and obvious.
Here's one:
[img width=600 height=450]http://i797.photobucket.com/albums/yy259/slackur/Metreon/4Tokens.jpg[/img]
Yep, I know inflation accounts for this, and I've already written a post on gaming value. But it cost $1.50 for me and my beloved to try out
House of the Dead 4, and we lasted for less than half a minute. Granted, there were older games with a little bit cheaper prices, but overall the experience felt expensive for a guy used to adding games to his collection for a buck apiece.
The other I couldn't capture well with my guerrilla-style camera work; several screens and monitors were damaged. Usually bad or distorted color or separate ghosted outlines, lots of image burn-in, and dark screens. The techie/gamer in me screamed "c'mon, guys! This could easily be replaced!" But reality hit me as quickly once I saw the price stickers on each cabinet. It just wasn't fiscally worth spending another hundred dollars or more on a machine you were already trying to sell for a few hundred. Or less. It doesn't take much wrong with a screen to turn someone away from wanting to play. And it doesn't take much damage to a cab only a few years old to make it unlikely to get the money back after repair.
My heart sank upon realizing that there were some awesome cabs here for easily affordable prices, but they might as well have the same ticket as a Ferrari for as much as it would cost to ship them over 2500 miles back to my home.
As a collector who owns more games than I'll ever be able to play, it may seem a silly thing to lament. Yet like everything in life, the
presentation is a large part of the experience. Picking up the Wii ports of
Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack is a solid reminder that some games just aren't, and never will be, the same at home. Sure, arcade cabs will likely survive in some form, but my kids will probably never see an arcade like this when they get to be teenagers. And given the fate of this one perhaps its just as well. Although some things, once lost, can't be replaced. And some dreams, from a fiscal perspective, are best never realized.
I never did stock my refrigerator full of 'Hugs'.
