The Arcade Experience by Adam Pratt was published in 2013. While it is a decade old, Adam brings up several excellent points about the arcade industry and the media coverage of arcade games. It is an interesting book that made me want to look up more information on arcades.
A Little History of Arcades
Adam briefly covers the history of arcades. It mostly covers the video game version of arcades, which makes sense. This glosses over the historical amusement games, but this is understandable as the book focuses on video games.
This first chapter covers a wide range of topics. Nothing is covered in depth, but some interesting things are brought up. This is one of the first books I’ve read about the North American Video Game Crash regarding arcades.
Most of the histories I’ve read cover it from the home console market and ignore Arcades and Computers. Documenting this period can be difficult because of all the misinformation about it. The internet hasn’t helped with this.
Arcades sit in a strange place when it comes to the North American Video Game Crash. They had been under attack by local governments since the early 1980s. The crash hit them, but that impact wasn’t as severe as the home console market.
Companies like Atari, Sega, Namco, and Nintendo continued releasing arcade games. Adam mentions how the US economy had an impact, which makes sense to me. He also mentions how Arcades adapted to survive through the 1990s and 2000s.
The different genres of arcade games are brought up. When we get to the 1990s, fighting games are talked about, which makes a lot of sense as they helped to breathe life into the arcade scene. It is fun to track the ups and downs of the arcade business.
Adam does an excellent job of describing all of this. While brief, I like it as I agree with or understand what he is talking about. This is probably a good time to talk about Adam.
He is an arcade owner, blogger, and journalist. Few people cover Arcade games, and this part of the video game industry gets much less press unless it is a nostalgia-grabbing company or a clickbait article declaring the death of arcades.
Adam points out that the arcade industry does a terrible job marketing their games. He gets into this more in the conclusion, but I agree that they still seem to market games like it is in the 1970s. This was when companies were worried about copycat games, and new releases were kept under wraps.
There are publications that cover arcade games, but they target a smaller market or are focused on the distributors. This creates a strange situation where players won’t know about a new arcade game unless they go out of their way to learn about it. I like books like this one. They shed some light on a topic I don’t know much about.
The Arcade Experience
This covers the majority of the book. Adam discusses arcade games’ social, location, and technology and how they have changed over time. For the most part, I like how Adam discusses all of these topics. Some of them were more interesting than others.
Reading this gave me a lot of nostalgia, especially when he brought up the Family Entertainment Centers. These places had an arcade and something else like a restaurant, roller rink, or mini golf. These were the only places where I played arcade games growing up.
The names of the locations I played in will mostly mean nothing to people outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They usually sold pizza, had a roller skating rink, or offered other activities like go-karts and mini golf. There was also a movie theater.
I’ve heard of some of the locations he mentions in the book. The one in Chicago has always fascinated me because I can’t remember whether I’ve been there. Part of this was due to my friends and I going to an arcade in Chicago after a Chemical Brothers concert. I don’t remember much besides the concert, the arcade, and the drive home.
Store numbers are mentioned for the different locations he mentions. I will ignore them because they’re from the early 2010s when Adam did his research. The most recent numbers I have are from 2022.
The number of arcades has remained relatively unchanged since 2011. Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 is responsible for a number of locations’ closures. In 2022, there were 6,700 locations in the US.
Adam goes over the companies that were still making arcade games. This doesn’t cover the companies releasing retro arcade games like Arcade 1up. Some are very familiar, like Sega and Konami, while others are companies I hadn’t heard of. It is great to hear about newer companies releasing arcade games.
Cabinet design, controls, and gameplay are briefly brought up. I like this, and I wish there was more of a focus on these things in the book. I find it very interesting, especially when talking about games from the 1980s.
Arcade companies have always tried new things. There are a ton of games with unique control schemes and looks. It was about attracting players to try a video game and keep them pumping quarters into it.
I like the book, but I wish some things had been expanded. It would’ve been nice to hear more about running an arcade, the advertising from arcade companies, and publications covering the arcade industry. Despite the few things I have problems with, it is a great book.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, Adam explains more about the media coverage of arcades. He isn’t wrong when he criticizes the industry and the media. I do think many publications look at the metrics and conclude that more people care about PC and console games.
While this is most likely true, I find it hard to believe that a few articles would hurt the gaming press. From what I know of search engine optimization, they could include a few press releases or stories about arcade games. It shouldn’t be up to bloggers to fill in the games in news coverage.
I could go on, but I would simply be repeating myself. This is a fun book to read, and it made me research the arcade industry. It would be nice to get a follow-up. Until then, you should check out Adam’s blog, which is listed below.
For more more books on Arcade games, check out my post on Arcade Perfect by David Craddock and Creating Q*Bert.
If you would like to check out Adam’s blog or Arcade, you can find them here:
You can follow me on social media on X @PixelsandMagic and YouTube at Paul Werkema.