Arcade Culture is Weird

Ticket androids, mobile games, and neon lights are all typical sights at modern arcades. But why is no one talking about how weird it is?
My Patreon: / dreamjelly
My Twitter: / dreamyjellies
0:00 Intro
1:16 The History of Arcades
6:23 Modern Arcades
7:45 Mobile Games in Arcades
9:21 Carnival Arcade Games
10:12 Game Show Arcade Games
11:27 Jackpot Arcade Games
15:16 The Cost of Modern Arcades
18:49 Ticket Redemption Prize Counters
21:41 Outro

[@monhi64]

Wait, I’m not trying to rip you apart or anything but how are these games not child gambling? A ton of them work virtually identically to slot machines or various machines you’d find in an actual casino. I mean hell like there are endless variations thrown at kids either on app stores or their favorite video game. The question of at what point gambling becomes to bad for kids is closer to the truth imo and i don’t have an answer myself but I definitely know they are gambling

[@dreamyjellies]

I think I worded my script too vaguely, I think they totally do count as child gambling, but when I said they didn’t it was a sort of tongue in cheek poke at how the law skirts around that and claims they aren’t. I’ll try to be clearer in the future!

[@monhi64]

Oh yeah you’re all good I didn’t mean that as a criticism of you or your content whatsoever. I guess I’ve just noticed a lot more very gambling-esque elements thrown at kids recently, and I’m not even against gambling just the combo of it and kids needs care

[@NecromancyForKids]

It depends on the machine and the laws of the country. If you win something which has no real monetary value (like a plastic spider for instance) or can frame it as some kind of game of skill to acquire it (claw machine) you can possibly get away with not calling it gambling. This is not legal advice just musings of a person who has read a lot of stuff about this. Ask your lawyer before enacting anything related to this information.

[@NecromancyForKids]

And on this point, some places in Japan as an example, operate as arcades but have a pawn shop across the road which conveniently buys your spider rings and stuffed bears for lots of cash. And interestingly, the Canadian lottery requires its winners to answer an easy math problem before getting their money, so they can claim it was won by skill.

[@calebmon]

If the games were games of pure skill with no luck at all you could argue that it wasn't gambling but it absolutely is just gambling lol

[@retroreflex7769]

i remember when i was 7 i was playing deal or no deal and i got to a pretty high number of tickets and there was an entire audience behind me screaming "take the deal!" or "no dont take the deal!" needless to say it was one of my most traumatizing events

[@wallystogner90]

I missed the part where you said that you were seven and I imagined a 15 year old and I was like “that sounds so fun and exciting” But then I reread and saw that you were seven.

[@ghost-husband]

@@wallystogner90 same lmao

[@retroreflex7769]

Oh wow I've never had a comment get this big before. God bless you all I don't have anxiety like that anymore I'm just a shut in most of the time

[@MartianCandies]

@@retroreflex7769 did you win the tickets or not lmao? I'm a shut in too, I get how you feel, except I have awful GAD&PAD (':

[@retroreflex7769]

@@MartianCandies i took the deal and won the tickets!

[@HermitMongoose]

Fun fact: Pinball machines were actually outlawed for a hot minute since they were considered a form of gambling. They had to bring an absolute wizard in to prove that you could get a high score with enough skill, and thus prove it's not gambling.

[@boojersey13]

If I remember correctly it's because it's a riff off a game called Bagatelle, which (this is the iirc part) it was completely chance, like modern pachinko parlors in Japan Edit: lol she mentions bagatelle but still I think yhey were complete chance and as such much more like gambling

[@tailnowag8753]

@BK Beatty At first they didn't have bumpers and were used by the mafia to get money from kids, later they did turn into actual games. If you ever go to Ashville, North Carolina; go to a pinball museum!

[@electricsunnshine]

and that guy sure played a mean pinball

[@milkjamjuice]

I see what you did there

[@gusty7153]

@Vic honestly I hate the phrase "ripping off" when it comes to videogames as every game that currently exists is technically ripping off some other game

[@theosw6961]

I work at an arcade, and for a few hours of my day I’m that employee who has to sit and wait for little Johnny to pick out what he wants to spend his tickets on, and honestly it’s not that bad. You only have as many tickets as the attendant says you have, and for a lot of kids they get really excited hearing me round up their tickets to the nearest hundred. It’s fun to give bigger prizes the kids can’t afford, their faces light up (and also I steal candy from the prize counter daily but don’t tell anybody that)

[@memorylayneee]

I wish I was there when I was younger 😭 lol

[@Sarahthevampyrslayer]

I worked at a local small arcade in the early 2000’s and I ate a lot of tootsie rolls and jolly ranchers lol

[@lloydpendragon8029]

Chaotic good

[@gooneybird808]

Awe that’s awesome good for you

[@Craigerry]

I asked a guy behind the prize counter if one of the games near the counter drove him crazy (it was some piano game) and he said "i still hear it when i leave work, i hear it before i go to bed, and i swear i hear it before my alarm clock goes off"

[@hellacia8151]

I work at a bowling alley/laser tag center. Our top prize for a few months was an Xbox One S for 30,000. However I noticed one oversight the arcade staff made - getting enough points in crossy road will automatically win you around 500 tickets. The price to play was 1.25. If you constantly kept getting this, you could get a brand new Xbox One S for less than $75 in theory, which is a steal. Someone eventually did win it!

[@metalinvalidmatt]

I'm currently doing the same for a OLED switch - heaps of tickets but my jackpot hit rate on several games is high enough that it's worth doing it that way vs buying one directly from a store haha

[@ShadeATV]

When i went to an arcade some guy won a ps5

[@TheGamingComputerBomb]

To be fair you'd have to get enough points 60 times but that's still very doable

[@hellacia8151]

@@TheGamingComputerBomb Oh yeah, it'd still be under $100

[@Gammera2000]

That's clever. It took my entire game design class pooling our tickets together to win a drone at Funspot.

[@IncorrectHB]

I definitely miss having a cup of tokens and carrying around a cup of tickets, even if I get the same amount of tickets digitally. Used to walk around Chuck E. Cheese looking for any tickets some typically younger kid than I left behind

[@gottahavefaithtv1514]

Same!!! My Nana would always take me to Chuck E. Cheese and every time we would always look for any tickets that were left behind from a kid or any extra tokens left behind 😂

[@electricrage272]

Omg same! I would always be dragging a very long strand of tickets because I was too good at the games xD My grandma was always surprised when she found out

[@gottahavefaithtv1514]

@@electricrage272 😂

[@ItsLaurenE]

I was champion on the finding lost and dropped coins as a kid at malls near every register area. That and pay phones, and vending machines. The amount of dropped money people didn't pick up my happy butt would leave with pockets of change. Ahhh memories, which is why i am commenting, i not only helped my kids lool for displaced tickets, but would crawl around looking for tokens under the games and rides shocked how much still is easily findable.

[@jossanosae]

I have the top 2 scores in one of the shoot-emups themed Terminator Machines at my Chucky Cheese's, and I will always thank the spirit of the young 4 year old kid who had to go early and left his tickets, aka. free revives, beside me. Thank you little guy ✊

[@jenkinsjrjenkins]

Theres a place in my city called Cidercade where you pay like $12 and you can play all the old arcade machines UNLIMITED, including Skeeball, basketball, and SO many pinball machines. Its honestly my favorite place to go with friends or for a date night, it gives the old arcade vibes without the pressure/knowledge of feeling the importance of every quarter you spend.

[@shelliupshaw3405]

I loved that place too. Ur in Houston TX.

[@SurfWraith]

Cidercade has a great selection of games anybody would enjoy. I do frequent Free Play more because of better drink selection.

[@katieusbrownius]

Ohhh there are a few places like this in Liverpool, UK where I live. There’s one called Arcains which is like £12 entry with three floors of unlimited arcade machines, air hockey, pinball etc

[@luigifan4585]

I pretty much only go there to play StepmaniaX, really

[@MADmidway]

I was there yesterday! We spent my son's sixth birthday there. It was so much fun and we there for seven hours! It's in Austin Texas y'all.

[@agkawaii9267]

Rhythm games are where it’s at. I went to Round 1 today to play DDR and any other cool looking Japanese rhythm games I saw. The games were insanely fun and almost all of them let you do three songs for one play. So I would get a good at least 10 minutes after every card swipe. I wish they gave out tickets so that I could get something for playing but I would still go back to play more anyways.

[@KatzeKei]

THIS. Rhythm games are amazing and I love Round1.

[@byakuyatogami2905]

I went to the Osaka one and they had a rhythm tengoku machine! It was so cool

[@ShadeATV]

I found a piano game at an arcade that was really easy money

[@gearccino]

yeah absolutely this, nice to just go into the arcades here with like $20 and still get a good couple hours of maimai and groove coaster in also don't forget the cards you can get to actually save unlocks and stuff

[@dionabutshemakesplaylists]

I only found one similar to DDR which is a lot harder to master than rhythm games using your hands, haha

[@Setoyami]

The biggest reason why arcades are in a wired spot in NA in my mind: 1: No new games: Japan has a big arcade scene still with new games coming out all the time. Shooting, Fighting games where you can play against the person next/across to you, rhythm games, and puzzle games. Sadly these aren't imported to NA because the cost is a CRAP ton. It's why conversion kits were sold in the 80s-90s. It was (still is) way cheaper to ship/buy the boards buttons and such and just use a old cabinet that had a game no one was playing anymore. In Japan arcade machines are just PCs that just get updated via internet now. So a Street Fighter machine gets all the updates for free, instead of buying a new board/game cart. -Just to note that Street Fighter and Tekken normally see a arcade version before it's ported to the Playstation/X-BONE/PC The arcade owner(s) at times also doesn't have to pay for new games at times, and instead pays a percentage of the money a game makes (20 to 30%). So if the game doesn't get played they don't pay for it and can just put a new game on the machine. Getting just the hardware is on the expensive side and if it does have any games on it, they're cracked so they don't call home to check the DRM. Sadly there isn't a company in NA that I know of that does this. So we killed our own market, because we didn't keep up. 2: Ticket Redemption/Prize winning machines: Little jr.Casinos. Play games with little to no chance a good amount of tickets, so you can trade them in for prizes that would have been cheaper for you just to buy. Sadly these games make a ton of money. On average a person will spend $40-$50 for something that cost the arcade $5. (You covered this pretty good) The prize games like Stacker are also rigged so it will only "let" someone win once every 200-300 plays. At which the person on the "winning" play can still lose. There was a lawsuit against the maker, at which they lost. So they had to update the game so it was a game of actual chance. The update was offered to owners, but it was upto them to update the game. Part of the court order from the lawsuit also forced the maker to have new machines sold with the actual update. Hench why new ones aren't seen that much. 3: PC/Console Gaming: They caught up in graphics and sound/music and have online play when it comes to fighting games for the most part. 4: Mobile/Cellphones: The Vita, DS, Switch are little power houses and can play most games with little to no issue. And games are easily switched out.

[@TheBigExclusive]

Let me just add that another reason is Japanese companies have gotten very greedy. I was talking to an arcade owner in the USA. He told me that he wanted to buy a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet for his arcade business several years ago. But Capcom wanted to charge him $20,000 thousand dollars just for a single "basic cabinet". He said that was absolute absurd and refused. For reference, normal arcade cabinets cost anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 dollars. Street Fighter arcade cabinets never cost that much even when when Street Fighter was wildly popular in arcades. He said the cabinets would only be around $2500 to $3000. But to suddenly demand $20,000 for a basic cabinet? That's almost 700% increase in price. He said Capcom was insane if they thought anyone would buy it for that price. It doesn't matter if it's a brand name Street Fighter cabinet. It's an absurd price.

[@Setoyami]

@@TheBigExclusive I do agree to a point. But the $20,000 probably is to cover the cost of shipping it too. It was different when the cabs were made in the US/Mexico, and the PCBs were only being shipped. But that ended a long time ago.

[@TheBigExclusive]

@@Setoyami - I just checked the cost to ship from Japan to the USA. It's only around $1,000 to $2,000 for shipping. So if a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet costs $4,000, then at most it should only cost around $6,000 dollars if we include shipping. The extra $14,000 dollars Capcom wanted is insane. Pure greed.

[@arianabell9351]

The best arcade that I’ve found is a round1 arcade. They’re a Japanese based company, and the prizes are usually really good, often having Japanese companie based products as well, like Sanrio plushies, Vocoloid and anime figures, and Nintendo products.

[@crypticcorvid]

@@arianabell9351 Round 1 was the only arcade I've gone to that I would like to visit again. That was also the only arcade I've gone to were all the machines weren't broken. Unfortunately there's none close to me anymore, but I feel like the prizes and games were super good. From my experience, the claw machines weren't highly rigged in a mechanic sense either. The machines have a good grip, unlike many other arcades were you can tell it's paralyzed from the get-go. It was also common to see people walking around with giant (well-made!) plushies or even a lucky few with anime figures that they won. I never see anyone with actual machine-won prizes in American-based arcades, but even then the prizes are obviously cheap.

[@salt7532]

surprised that rhythm games and fighting games are glossed over in this vid, since they are the most popular arcade games in all the arcades i frequently go to

[@luigifan4585]

They most likely have never been to a Round1 and doesn't know about their better selection of modern games

[@sullivanw8265]

yeah, it made me a bit disappointed, but i cant say i am surprised. that kind of stuff is considered niche to most folks

[@PyraMZD]

to be fair, fighting games and rhythm games are "popular" to the specific niche group that they cater to. otherwise, there's not much to discuss when it comes to the modern american arcade scene, because most often, they make the least amount of revenue than compared to redemption and merchandise types. round1 is supported by its crane machines tons more than the rhythm and fighting games they may have.

[@nagotown]

probably because people play those to have fun and not for the tickets, considering how they don't reward any tickets. the only ones i play other than rhythm on occasion are mariokart and luigi's mansion arcade

[@squidee]

It saddens me that even places like dave and busters are phasing out these genres bc they're not marketable enough (low cost, most casual players won't see a need to play it again if it doesn't reap a reward). An arcade just down the street from me is holding on to a tekken 5 cabinet that's on it's last leg. We've only kept it around bc of how much people love it.

[@cyclopswrangler9830]

There's a game I picked up a while back called The Coin Game. It's an arcade simulator type of game where you can play various arcade games and machines and get silly little prizes like lava lamps or plush rasta bananas. It's a crunchy looking early access game that with an aesthetic that screams 2010's Unity asset flip but it's a genuine labor of love by a single guy who just loves his arcades. This video reminded me of it :) another great vid! Keep it up!

[@katdoodlebug7114]

The coin game is so great! I love seeing what he adds with each update. The vibes are immaculate and you can really feel the passion behind it

[@cyclopswrangler9830]

@@katdoodlebug7114 It is!! While my girlfriend and I were long distance, I’d stream the game for her - she’s been to many arcades while I’ve never been to one. It’s so much fun! I’m moving in with her this week and one of the things we plan to do after the move (besides getting the standard cross-country move-in affairs settled) is go to a local arcade she loves. I like to think Dunko has prepared me for it lol. So can’t wait for that mall update!

[@katdoodlebug7114]

@@cyclopswrangler9830 oh congratulations to you and your girlfriend! That sounds wonderful! Have fun with that 😊

[@KATEtheDeath1]

I love that game! PBG introduced me to that game in one of his videos a couple years back and been addictive to it ever since!

[@katzea.a7880]

jerma985 gang was here

[@Ash-rn9bh]

I remember going to Chuck E Cheese as a kid and the entire experience was perfect. This was in the mid to late 2000s and i’ll always have the memories.

[@electricrage272]

Me too! I grew up with CEC and I always had so much fun going there every Friday night with my grandma

[@matthew_natividad]

A fun balance between arcade games n amusements as kid now it’s just straight up arcade games as an adult

[@doritoarts9878]

I think my favorite "seat shooter" arcade game has to be the luigi's mansion arcade game, easy. Though i've seen the jurassic park one around a lot. Rail shooters are fun, even if they don't give you tickets.

[@matthew_natividad]

It’s mainly the experience you get playing with other people is the fun part especially around the bosses

[@edwardlara4271]

There used to be an underground arcade (actually located beneath an indoor swapmeet) near my house I'd go to often growing up ('00s-early 2010s) , you just had to pay the $3 entrance and all the games inside were free to play. The owner/man at the entrance would stamp your hand to be able to come back in if you left, and they had mostly 80s/90s game cabinets like Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat, Galaga, House of the Dead, Initial D etc. plus billiards tables, ping pong, and air hockey. Sadly, it closed down in early 2019 due to the owner retiring. Not gonna lie the arcade was ghetto, musty, and tagged up but for sure an experience I'll never forget and something you can't replicate nowadays especially the free to play cabinets and no bullshit prizes just having fun all day for $3.

[@arianabell9351]

I still love arcades, and my favorites are ones that just let you play the classics after a fee, one near me that still has physical tickets, and Round1 Arcades (they’re really cool are a Japanese based company, and have Japanese games and prizes. Only place I can play vocoloid arcade games)

[@Puffle573]

beatmania IIDX time?

[@phantom4167]

Round1 is the bomb, can confirm.

[@TheKing-cb3kl]

I hope round one decides to expand out of America one day

[@phantom4167]

@@TheKing-cb3kl Im sure they have a Japanese Arcadde somewhere near you, it might just not be a Round1.

[@TheKing-cb3kl]

@@phantom4167 I'm almost confident I don't, I live in Australia

[@BinglesP]

I remember when my family were playing the SpongeBob SquarePants coin-drop machine at Dave & Buster's, and my dad found that dropping the coins at the time the spinning bridges pass a certain letter on the display text(I believe it was the glyph of one of the E's) gave you a perfect drop every time. We won 2 whole sets of the special character cards(which were like that game's "jackpot" equivalents). I admit, we smuggled 1 of the sets home while submitting the other, so we could use that set the next time we came to ensure we had more money to spend each time.

[@luigifan4585]

You don't even need to smuggle em off the arcade, the owners are well aware that people playing those card-based coin pushers will want to keep their cards until they make a full set anyways

[@stormerbuzz352]

I'll never forget the one afternoon that my mom and I stopped by the arcade in the mall while on a shopping trip. We played some of the ticket games and managed to win me a Charmander plush. This was when Pokemon was at its height of popularity here and I'll never forget that. I still have it :)

[@flickeringjuniper]

i used to go to the local arcade with my dad every friday as a kid. we would spend hours playing skee-ball in the back of this un-air conditioned, gaudily carpeted, and entirely windowless beachfront shack. somewhere around the age of eight i became so good at skee-ball that i was regularly scoring in the (possibly several if my memory serves) thousand-range. my dad had been going to this arcade since the eighties and had saved up tickets from his childhood, teenage years, twenties, dates he went on with my mom, and fatherhood, and, since i swore to myself that one day i’d spend all of them, i too saved mine. i remember watching the arcade slowly modernize, bright digital tablet-esque podiums replacing the cold war-era arcade megaliths i had so loved. in my early teens, my relationship with my father started to deteriorate as we stopped biking down to that arcade, instead engaging in endless yelling matches in the kitchen. they phased out paper tickets last year. i never did get that big prize i saved up for.

[@pinkbrando]

This is genuinely thd most heartbreaking comment I've ever read

[@SemiContext]

If I gotta be honest, the rhythm games is the best part of the arcades. I always love playing WACCA, maimai, Groove coaster and more. They are really the only thing in arcades that are really worth going to.

[@matthew_natividad]

What about racing games?

[@otakubullfrog1665]

I still love arcades, particularly retro ones that still focus on video games. There's something about going to a place that's all about fun that playing alone in your living room will never quite replicate.

[@zshall48]

A local Dave and Buster's arcade near me had games that were set up to be actually fair games of skill when it first opened. That meant if you were skilled enough you could hit the jackpot every time, rather than being set to a mode where the jackpot was way harder to hit until a set amount of money had been collected. I used to cheese a "stop the wheel on the jackpot" game for thousands of tickets a night and was able to redeem iPads, a Nintendo Switch and an Echo speaker among other things for a bit under cost (I was spending hundreds there every month). It was some of the most fun I've had in an arcade. At some point they got wise to people like me (or tired of us) and set the games to their usual unfair settings. I rarely spend any time there anymore; playing their video games are more fun than the ticket redemption games but I'd rather just play games with friends at home. There's a new "retro" pinball arcade that opened in my town and it's way more fun; $20 to get in and no fees to play the old games. If you can get a high score your initials stay around so I practice at home to try and top the local high scores on my favorite machines.

[@JessieProductions]

There was a study done that showed that if you reward kindergarteners with stars to draw, even if they would already draw on their own, they would stop drawing unless they were given stars again. Likewise, with modern arcades, if you reward players with tickets, even if the games are fun, the players will not be there for the games anymore. PS: Pinball absolutely rocks

[@luigifan4585]

Which is why Round1 is the only good chain of arcades anymore. They actually have a good selection of games you play for fun, namely the rhythm games

[@UglyNTRBastard]

I love how despite the fact they technically lost money on their prizes, you still probably gave them more money than most of their other customers. And them nerfing the games meant a big spender (probably a lot of big spenders actually) were now out of the picture. So I have to wonder: did they really save that much money by nerfing the games when you account for lost customer loyalty?

[@app0the]

@@UglyNTRBastard some gambling places contract people to sit around at the highest output machines and play to draw people in, they could've used that tactic instead of wrecking up the whole thing :p

[@AidenRKrone]

12:10 - The _countless_ hours I spent standing at this specific machine and staring at the revolving light… One of my best memories as a kid was going to an arcade in Myrtle Beach and winning the jackpot four times in one sitting and walking away with thousands of tickets.

[@Techn0Fox]

The only time I like going to arcades now is to play japanese rhythm games. It's not simply something I can play at home usually since they often require specific equipment that isn't available for cheap. They're very skill-oriented too, so they feel very rewarding on a personal level. But everything else I'll see that you've mentioned I just think "What's the point?". Most (if not all) arcade games are just dumbed down gambling machines or other video games you could find at home consoles. The only drive now for a lot of people feels to be the social environment, or simply the addiction.

[@Play-On7]

When I was growing up in the early 2000s my local mall had a massive arcade spread across three rooms. My parents would take me their almost every other weekend. The arcade was right by the food court and we would get McDonald's when we went. I miss those times.

[@matthew_natividad]

I remember one at my local mall in Canada till it shutdown not long after

[@benshapiroscrustyass1402]

I know those ticket receipts are a lot better in terms of waste, but I miss getting those giant ropes of actual tickets and watching them go into the counting machine

[@jvever4904]

Man, I havent stepped inside an arcade in years, this is a nostalgia trip

[@jonnyd9132]

As someone who was way into ‘arcade culture’ back in the 80s and 90s. I gotta say I got a pretty harsh reality check of the current state of video arcades when I stepped in and saw a ‘Fruit Ninja’ cabinet. At first I thought I was hallucinating XD

[@fishdude2954]

Yeah I don't understand the point of those at all. It's the exact same controls as on mobile and you have to pay for it, whereas something like Tempest, Crazy Climber, or Tapper can't be replicated accurately without an actual cabinet

[@pepito3596]

your content is actually so underrated, it really breaks my heart that a lot of these videos are under 10k views. your editing style is amazing and the quality is amazing for a channel that is in the low 4 digits of subscribers. looks like more and more people are making comments like this. def binging all of ur videos, keep up the great underrated work

[@statesminds]

Fighting games in arcades in the ‘90s was my jammmmm. A super fun arcade game with a group of people is Killer Queen. Taiko no Tatsujin is crazy fun too

[@brendaclark-jennings9308]

hoping 2023 brings more people to your videos, its crazy with the quality and atmosphere you create for your vids that this only has 2k views

[@ToontownAndCpenguin]

Thanks to the fact that I played so many of the jackpot games as a kid at arcades, I'm well aware of my tendencies when it comes to gambling & am better able to limit & regulate myself. I set aside a budget & I never let myself exceed it because I learned at an early age. I almost never gamble though due to the fact I fear that I will lose self control since I know how I am. An example I can give is when my family went to a casino for my dad's birthday, we were all adults so we figured we'd have some fun & while my little sister enjoyed herself since she gambles a lot when taking trips with her boyfriend, my mom was miserable & my dad reached his limit so he was hanging out, having a drink. I already passed my budget & didn't get anything out of it so I was hanging out with my mom when she handed me a $20 & asked me to get her a drink, I told her that was a bit big & she responded with saying she didn't have anything smaller so I went off to find the soda & discovered it was free so I got my mom a soda without spending the $20 & saw a machine that was calling my name. I inserted the $20, pushed the button for the biggest bet which was like $5, & then wound up triggering so many things such as extra spins & more money earned & whatnot, it would not shut up so when it finally did stop, I decided to cash out because it honestly scared me, I was like, this is the sort of thing kid me would get excited about & keep trying to make happen again so I just was not having it, I already exceeded my budget & did not want to do more. I cashed out, handed my mom her soda, & when she asked for the change from the $20, I handed her $90. She asked how that happened & I was honest & told her the truth, thankfully she thought it was funny so she let me have the whole thing of which & spent on Pokemon cards. Today, I still know how to work some machines, I started watching Matt's videos back when he had the numbers in his name, I'm pretty sure I found his channel around 2013-ish? It helped me tune those skills I tried building up as a child, I'm more of a crane person so those were my favorite videos, Banking Out at the Outer Banks was the first of his I watched. Still, I learned a lot about various jackpot machines from watching plenty of youtubers & there's the knowledge from when I was a kid. There's this place that closed down years ago but I use to go to it a lot because it was over by where I use to live & my next door neighbor always had his birthday parties there. It was called Super Play, it was more about the playground & less about the arcade. The arcade was a small strip of machines & for birthday parties, we always got some tokens. I swear it was a yearly tradition for me to get the jackpot on this game where a ball spins around to "around around the ball goes, where it stops, nobody knows" because it was the first thing I always went to, I'd empty my tokens on it, & I always hit the jackpot. One year, I hit it twice. I was wearing my tickets like a super long, fancy scarf & I swear all the kids at the birthday party must of hated me. Now, I use those skills for good. There's a small arcade with machines that breakdown a lot near me. My cousin came to visit about a year ago, bringing by his two youngest kids & I was asked to take them somewhere fun so I took them to the arcade & the oldest wasn't so much into the ticket machines but the youngest was trying his best to figure out how to exploit them so I showed him how to get a big ticket prize on the pachinko machine of which might of been unfair given I learned how to play pachinko from a very young age, my grandpa had a pachinko machine setup in the basement of the house my grandparents had when I was growing up, they had a bar down there with legos & games lining the shelves & a pachinko machine on the wall, I'd pull over a bar stool & play it for hours & when I was really little like 4, I'd cry when I ran out of balls. So I was able to figure out the trick with the one at the arcade, it does the thing where it doesn't drop the ball where you want it to so I knew to drop it seconds earlier & where you want it aimed because the looks were deceiving. Anyways, after explaining to him how it works & actually winning the bigger prize twice in a row, he tried it & kept getting it himself & one of the times I did it, I managed to get the ball into the extra balls hole which was designed in a manner to not allow it to happen, I swear they made it super difficult, he managed to replicate that play. I ended up giving my tickets to his older sister because she played a lot of the non-ticket games & I didn't want any of the cheap stuff at the prize booth anyways, I just enjoy playing the games. Both kids said they had a lot of fun at the arcade & I do fear of the monster that might come of that boy one day, knowing how to rig one machine might push him to figure it out for others. I still say I did so for good, it's teaching kids how to get more at an arcade, they're getting ripped off, might as well have fun doing so & learning the system.

[@JohnMuhaw-qu1wi]

& the Pulitzer prize goes to...

[@cosmichal9548]

I remember being so excited when an arcade opened in my small town when I was in high school. I was determined to save up tickets since I’d never been able to do that - arcades were a rare treat and usually far out of town. I saved up several thousand tickets for a big prize I wanted, went downtown to the arcade….and it had closed permanently without notice 😢

[@OmegaDonut]

i keep forgetting you are under 100 subs criminally underrated 2023 expect a lot of growth trust me

[@dreamyjellies]

Thank you!

[@aliastorino5607]

As a person who worked at an arcade for like 6 summers I can confirm that it’s the most bizarre experience ever.

[@samu-chan]

why

[@pinchetii6555]

Doesn’t that mean 6 yrs

[@aliastorino5607]

@@samu-chana lot of stuff I’m not gonna say to a random commenter, those were the wildest summers of my life. But yea it’s all around a really weird environment to be 24/7 and the hours we worked we had time to get ourselves into a lot of trouble but our bosses never cared. I was arrested on shift once so that was fun.

[@AltecE]

Musée Mécanique in San Francisco is full of those vintage Victorian-era penny arcade machines up-and-running for people to use. Admission is free and each machine is super cheap to play. Definitely a must-see if you’re ever in the area 🙂

[@matthew_natividad]

And pinball hall of fame in Vegas

[@darkforestwarriors]

We actually have a new-ish arcade in our city, and their system is to charge a fee at the door (about 20 bucks) but then you get to play all the games inside for free! It rules because then you don't have to be picky about the games you play in case you suck at them, also they don't hand out tickets or prizes, you go for the games and the experience. They have a good variety of games too, classics like pac man, galaga, dig dug, a whole pinball section, dance games like ddr, tons of cool rhythm games mario kart, other racing games, air hockey, theres something for everyone. Love to hang there with my friends

[@electricrage272]

Growing up, my local Chuck E Cheese's did have some rigged games, but there were mainly luck/skill based games that were fun! Especially the ones where you have to time putting in a token so it can go into the win slot. The older games they had at CEC were more fun and had charm compared to some of the modern ones I saw. I would always win a lot of tickets to my grandma's surprise! Her reactions were hilarious, she was like "How did you do that?" I had several hundreds of tickets saved every night and would usually cash out for junk according to my mom, but I did get some fun little toys too! I miss that part of my childhood very much.

[@K9arcade]

Diehard arcade fan and channel here. I enjoyed the history segment, and I too think the modern version of arcades are quite weird, and I am biased to the coin-op amusement wonder of the 80s,90s and 2000s. Those games allowed you test your skills and provide an amazing sense of community hanging out with other fans. This scene still exists but is mostly for multiplayer, racing and rythmn games, I feel weird when I just see kids playing candy crush or whatever but maybe I'm just old. Classic arcades are somewhat coming back and I hope they never die. 💙

[@tanatofu]

I worked in an arcade over the summer and we had the classic tokens and paper tickets and holy shit. They caused SO MANY PROBLEMS. There are so many things that are SO TRUE in this video about the experience of the workers.

[@Flywnacki]

I remember there was a jackpot machine at a local arcade that would only allow a playcard to achieve a jackpot once. The first win was really easy to lure you in, but on every future attempt it would just slip off the jackpot. So there's another piece of playcard related trivia.

[@f0-f09]

I remember during my little sister's birthday years ago, we went to an Incredible Pizza, I found this cool remixed version of Space Invaders and somehow managed to find this weird thing in the game that managed to get me so many tickets that I got enough for a lava lamp, and a thing for my younger brother and a another thing for little sister, I felt like a king that day

[@milkjamjuice]

Thanks for the video! This brought back memories of my arcade days as a kid in the 1980s and early 1990s. Anytime my mom wanted to go the mall, she would give my brother and me one dollar each and let us hang out in the arcade while she did her shopping. We mostly played games like TMNT, 1942, Space Invaders, etc, and we would challenge each other to see who could make the dollar last longer. I miss stuff like that. I actually lived in Japan for most of my adult life, and the arcades there are a LOT of fun. You have classic fighting games, retro game areas, rhythm games, card games (really hard for me to describe), horse racing games, medal games (kinda like gambling), shooters, moving seat shooters, crane games, the “jackpot” games there would reward you with candy, but my #1 FAVORITE game there was Idolm@ster. You play as an idol producer and try to promoter your pop group; it’s super fun because you play with people using other machines all around different areas in the country, and you save your progress by using a flexible waxy paper card that the machine prints a picture of your idol group on, and the data is contained there. The series has since moved to consoles and hasn’t been released in English, but I still recommend it!

[@blueca]

i absolutely love fizzy soda candies, the little tablet ones in the tiny cans with names that were very clearly copying coca cola (crash, sprint, etc). i could probably find them online for very cheap, but i don't bother looking because ive only ever seen them at arcades and getting my fizzy artificial grape candy fix met through means other than the prize counter would be one more reason to stop going to arcades.

[@agkawaii9267]

i totally forgot about these!!! i loved the grape flavor, there used a roller skating rink near me with an arcade that had those and i would always use all my tickets on those little soda candies

[@shainahullihen1159]

My arcade at my mall had bubbles called Tasty Bubbles that my friends and I got and one was pineapple flavor, did not like that flavor after eating it. I definitely don't remember eating my grape flavored bubbles 😢. But, the bubbles made our tongues numb for a short amount of time 😂.

[@retronova_official]

I’d probably try to go to more arcades if there were more retro cabinets.

[@marccaselle8108]

There is a place 2 hours south of me called flippers bar and arcade and it has mainly pinball machines and some arcade machines. One of the arcade machines is a multi game arcade machine.

[@TheKing-cb3kl]

Arcades are still some of my favourite places to go to, there is just something special about the feeling, plus a lot of the games really can't be replicated at home Sure you can play taiko no tatsujin at home, but it feels weird without the oversized drum, and racing games are on all home consoles but having the petals and wheel is much better

[@cherryberry7431]

My mom used to just buy the prizes at the counter at Chuck E Cheese because me and my sister were too little to collect tickets for anything more than the under 150 tickets items. We also tried to hoard the tickets at home to turn them in someday but we always forgot about them LOL

[@buttermilkenby]

I remember last year, I went to an arcade on a day off to start grinding tickets so I could get a spongebob hockey table. I won it and was able to also get a spongebob activity board and other spongebob prizes as well. I felt like I owned the place for about 2½ seconds before realizing I was 18.

[@purbleplacer]

Great Video! I work at a local arcade, and you hit things so many things right on the head, especially with how expensive everything is. The lowest priced games I've seen have been like, $1, and I've seen ones that go up to $5. The prizes are also so expensive compared to what games usually give out. I feel so bad for kids then they come up to the prize counter super excited wanting a stuffed animal and they have like, 40 tickets and have to get a few tootsie rolls instead. The electronic cards for games defenantly make spending money easier, but (i assume at least) they also make redeeming tickets easier. the system where I work at least makes it super easy to add or subtract tickets.

[@Pal150]

I personally think that arcades switching to a more adult market is working a lot better for them. Look at a company like the rec room. They do great, and they mostly apply to an adult demographics.

[@Kitsunzero4]

I remember finding a King of Fighters cabinet in a Chuck E. Cheese when I was a kid. Since I didn't grow up in the 90's, I was so amazed by it since it wasn't like any of the other ticket based games.

[@sonicx0846]

I remember once Arcades started using Chips instead of Tickets I felt really confused. (Great video dtw)

[@kujakubes241]

Round 1 and Dave & Busters is such a blessing considering they’re the only arcades that are worth a visit

[@wolfgangervin2582]

Yeah, D&B still has substantial Sega and Namco support.

[@kujakubes241]

@@bleeeeeeghghgh oh yeah, it’s absolutely stellar since I’m a rhythm game player already, it’s literally paradise.

[@markloveless7715]

Ur utube page is gonna blow up... Great content, production, and presentation. Plus ur persona/vibe is quite charming and warming aka genuine.. keep up the great work... U'll have a million subscribers one day 💯

[@Tribenix]

Dave and busters has these games called: “Star Trek coin pusher” and “SpongeBob coin pusher”. Only play the side with the cards. Star Trek: if cards in middle, impossible. SpongeBob: if cards on very edge, impossible. Once you collected many many cards for Star Trek or many sets from SpongeBob (basically hoard the hands for ages), turn them in.

[@amarie1693]

Brutalmoose has some awesome videos covering these. Though I haven't played one of these updated ones, are you allowed to save up the cards for another visit?

[@luigifan4585]

@@amarie1693 Yes, you're allowed to save them up. It's practically expected since the owners know you'll want to hang onto them until you achieve a full set(which is completely luck since there's one card that's intentionally rare to get)

[@Dewy3739]

Wow you popped into my algorithm and I love your content. You are so chill and relaxed and I love all your takes and references

[@RamieTV]

I remember as a kid I played the games that didn't award tickets sparingly because I didn't wanna waste my tokens on games that I couldn't earn prizes off of. I played it pretty safe though, I didn't bother with the super crazy jackpots cuz I knew I could never win them. As an adult, any time I go to an arcade I actively search for the "real games" that don't earn me tickets cuz they're more fun anyway. It's surreal to see the prize counter go from something you were excited to see to a scam that's not worth your time. Especially when you've got some disposable income to just buy your own damn pencils...

[@Mr._Pollo]

Cool video! Although I do agree that most mobile game arcade cabinets do dumb down the controls and gameplay (examples being Fruit Ninja, Flappy Bird, Crossy Road, Candy Crush and Temple Run/Subway Surfers), there are some examples of cabinets putting their own spin on the controls (such as the Angry Birds Arcade cabinet with the built in slingshot). I do appreciate that you mentioned the Doodle Jump cabinet though as an example since that one is the most overlooked one compared to the other cabinets. It’s getting to a weird state where a decade has passed and these mobile game cabinets are becoming nostalgic to the people who have grown up with their mobile counterparts (like me), but I’m happy to see that most of the arcades that I go to still have a few of these laying around in an operational state.

[@xwrecker]

Coin pushers/flingers and amusements like the Lionel train and happy farm egg game were my core memories of Chuck E. Cheese along with a handful of arcade games

[@omnomnom1410]

This is the second time this channel randomly showed up on my feed, and the second time that I watched the entire video. Awesome channel, may the algorithm bless you

[@BiscuitBoy225]

There was a coin op arcade kinda near where I lived. There was no prize corner, it was jsut the games. But it was jsut so great. I have plenty of great memories in that arcade, lots of them with my friends and family. It’s such a shame it got shut down cuz of COVID. I really miss It. RIP James Games

[@brandonlawson2460]

Got my 20,000 tickets ,let's start with a whistle! "You got 2 left" shit give me a spider ring!

[@xForbin99]

The way you talk is so satisfying thank you for appearing in my recommended. Subbed

[@lucarin8191]

cant wait until you hit 100k :) your content is high quality. im binging it right now.

[@eliserss9179]

i love these american culture videos on things we usually dont think twice about. i can tell you're going to be one of my favorite youtubers!

[@boredandquarantined3161]

I literally only go to arcades for the Japanese rhythm games that have a way of rhythm that consoles can't recreate ( see maimai, wacca, chrono circle, take your pick)

[@matthew_natividad]

Arcades are pretty much my childhood, which my taste in games evolved over time as I grew older from playing crusin n bowling at woody woodchucks to rush n ski ball at Chuck E. Cheese to initial D/wangan midnight n alien extermination now to Maimai and sega motor works all evolved and caught my attention as I grew up

[@jimmycumbest6877]

Used to work at an arcade with coin dozers. You know how when you're in Las Vegas and you see folks with a cigarette in one hand, the other hand on the spin button and no joy behind their eyes? I've seen those same kinds of people at coin dozers.

[@AnEscape2Nowhere]

I went to arcade recently and I was having a blast, honestly. But then this family of like, 4 kids and two parents placed themselves on all sides of coin pusher and just went ham. I felt so bad for the kids, just feeding in coin after coin so dad could get whatever prize he wanted when they clearly wanted to go play some of the fun ones.

[@TheBigExclusive]

Very nice video. You have a good voice for speaking in videos. I hope your channel grows. I would say Retro-arcades or "barcades" are making a comeback because some people are sick of playing carnival games and ticket games that dominate modern arcades. There were some pretty memorable arcade games released during the 1970s to 1990s. Mobile phones just don't deliver the same experience as playing a big arcade cabinet with joysticks and friends next to you. Or sitting in a chair with a big steering wheel and playing Daytona USA and racing other people live. Combining these classic arcade games in a bar setting is a great idea.

[@dreamyjellies]

Thanks for your comment! I appreciate the feedback and I’m glad you liked the video :)

[@salemfae]

Your channel is great! Looking forward to more. Rly good relaxing stuff for when I should definitely be asleep lol

[@spenceduggs8449]

I remember heading to an amusement park with an arcade section, and seeing these big green mushroom hats as a prize for some tedious ball throwing game. I wanted the hat, but didn't want the bother of playing the game, so I approached and plainly asked how much one was. The attendant kept trying to explain that it wasn't for sale, and I interrupted, asking how much. Pretty sure I ended up paying ~$15 for something that likely cost a dollar or two to make, but I was still happy 😭

[@sukottotsukeshi.]

At times I do miss the feeling of being handed a full cup of tokens and winning a sizable amount of tickets in the end hell the best prize I won at Chuck E. Cheese was a the first ep dvd of battle force 5 with exclusive cars for a couple thousand tickets from a malfunctioning game

[@HieronymousLex]

Apparently people don’t know the difference between a redemption game and an actual arcade game. If you receive tickets in return, it’s a redemption game and has zero to do with arcade culture

[@cece9781]

During the summer, my family would go to a beach house and within walking distance, there was an arcade. I don’t remember how old I was though I was younger than 10, I remember being obsessed with that arcade and begging my parents to go every day when they just wanted to go relax on the beach. One day my family finally went and my dad was determined to get me something big from the shop. Him and I spent hours in that arcade and won a bunch of jackpots. My dad was able to get 2 lava lamps for me and my brother as well as a “Girls Only” LED sign a few days later. I’ll never forget that year, probably one of the best moments of my childhood watching my dad get stacks of tickets with a tiny crowd.

[@Jennn]

Gosh, I had no idea arcades existed as early as they did. What a well made and truly informative video! Thanks you

[@Ninja_4561]

8:00 emo goose? AMOGUS?!?!?

[@GippyHappy]

I got about halfway through this until I asked myself why am I watching this, I don't care about arcade lore I just dont want to go to work

[@cerealexperimentsgrain]

i love how chill these vids are

[@Zvisk]

I worked at an arcade for years during and a little after highschool. These days its also very popular to tailor to one very extreme dedicated niche crowd while also generalizing. The arcade I worked at imported games from Japan and we'd have the same people come in daily and occasionally spend a hundred or so dollars a day to just secure a spot to play nothing but DDR, Sound Voltex or Groove Coaster for the whole day so they can grind their dailies ontop of clear the event for the season.

[@tylerramos7633]

It makes me sad being a 2000s kid (born ‘96) that I experienced the end of the arcade age. These days there’s only a few I know of that exist basically as a novelty

[@jamstarr]

Honestly, i might just be salty because i still have many fond memories of arcades but like this video seems just a tad nilistic? I havent visted arcades like every week since the pandemic but this is the first time ive heard of automatic prize dispensers. There is a air of sketchyness towards stuff like jackpot games but most kids were aware and either knew when to stop or were warded off by their parents. I also never liked the attitude of always wanting a bigger prize, like you were either there for an expirence, or were trying to win a decent prize and did get one (then again i at most liked going for a semi large plush) The history section was also not great, it felt like just going off other peoples memories instead of just going through facts (but maybe that was your intent, this is different from the other videos you have that i watched and generally enjoyed). You literally just started making videos awhile ago and i did just discover your content so i dont wanna come across as rude but this is your worst video.

[@onestevewaffles]

Uh, have you visited the arcade in a while? They’ve changed a lot I think you’re opinion might change if you visited one soon.

[@jamstarr]

@@onestevewaffles I looked through basically all of the places i visit and i thinkymy comment still holds up. Then again theres only chain places near me , very few locally owned ones so that could be why i have a different expierence but still

[@onestevewaffles]

@@jamstarr oh ok. Seems reasonable, we all have different experiences so it might be different for hers.

[@AshtenPassion]

This is such a weird comment what 😭

[@cashnelson2306]

"cynical" is the word you're looking for

[@momothebug]

I'm 25 and I've never been to an arcade that has tickets. It's always been a card that you load money onto and when win it loads the tickets onto the card. There's a machine you can swipe your card at to see how much money and how many tickets you have and when you want to buy a prize you just swipe your card at the counter. I find it interesting that American arcades are only now moving away from physical tickets. Our arcades used to have pretty cool prizes, all the knick-knacks of course, but also appliances like hair-dryers and microwave ovens. For some reason I always thought that was so cool. Now I think they have figures like pop vinyls and Lego sets for the high end prices. I haven't been to an arcade for years, though.

[@eggsamillion]

Your videos are super well done. You deserve way more attention.

[@BortPlayz]

How is this channel not bigger, your content is amazing!!!

[@Creatorsan]

A memory I have with arcades is when I was a child, was I played a roulette wheel with a super tiny jackpot spot in the centre/sides of the wheel. Now, the odds of winning that jackpot is super low if you have a pretty bad sense of hand to eye coordination. I ended up winning the jackpot (Which was 2000 tickets) as a 8 year old. But it gets better. My brother (same age as me) also won the jackpot from the same game. We felt like legends carrying stacks of tickets around the arcade. Watching them all come out of the machine was very satisfying.

[@MusicGameFinatic999]

Good content, keep it coming!!!

[@syxodude91]

Growing up in the 90's when fighting and beat em up games were the kings of the arcade. The flashing lights, the action, the music. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Also all the big time pizza spots like Round Tables always had a fighting game arcade cabinet.

[@nonickels8975]

I loved this vid. Hit me right in the feels. Thanks

[@WhatIsTomeeDoingNow]

In one of those arcade/casino places found on NJ Boardwalks, they had Quarter Pushers. I was playing the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory version, and I was able to finish a set with the Golden Ticket so quickly, I just kept playing! Those are definitely luck based, but it might be my favorite, up there with Skeeball, Dance Dance Revolution, Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Project Diva Arcade, Taiko No Tatsujin, and Stepmaniax.

[@draguladriver]

i went to an arcade a little while ago, walked away with two rubber ducks from a (surprisingly easy) claw machine and a 3-inch plush unicorn keychain. best day ever

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

The value that arcades offer in my opinion is unique hardware. I can only do so much with a VR headset & a laptop for games. But when I go to my arcade I can play a snowboarding game with the fans blasting cold air at me as I fly through the track, I can smack some drums in a way I can't at home, I have a guide for playing a dancing/rhythm game that is different than something like Just Dance. If arcades leaned more into these types of experiences I would love it, in my city there is only 1 arcade and even that feels lacking compared to what I have seen in places like Japan.

[@shloobington]

I fell in love with ur channel its so good

[@sycoraxrock]

First: I love your channel. Second: I’d love to see more of those big-screen upgrades of Pac-Man & Space Invaders that actually give you tickets. Partially this is because I am *crazy* good at the Space Invaders one (which you still see as a non-ticket machine, but for a while it had a reputation as a fairly easy ticket-grinder. It’s the only arcade game where I’ve had the high score on *multiple* cabinets. Not a brag I swear!)… aaand partially, they’re just cool and I want to see what, like, the “ticket” version of Asteroids is.

[@ViktorErikFade]

I met Philo Barnhart who helped with Dragons Lair With the newer unlimited play style arcade set up is fun and I play it every time I go to Pinball Palace Philo is such a sweetheart

[@JEdwardBanasikJr]

Great video thank you! The cost to purchase a new arcade game or redemption machine can easily be over $20K. For anyone who wants to go down a rabbit hole ... Arcade Heros youtube channel talks about the challenges and costs of running an arcade as he owns two in Utah. Also there are videos out there on the annual IAAPA trade show that happens in Orlando each fall that will show off the latest from the manufactures in the whole amusement industry including video, skill and redemption games.

[@vicbaez]

The background music is super chill. Great vibes

[@aldromar9490]

There’s a really great arcade near my house that’s only a $15 fee to get in, but man is it worth it. They have classics like skeeball and DDR, old arcade games like Street Fighter, Daytona, and Time Crisis, a bunch of pinball machines, and even an N64, and the classic versions of the NES, SNES, and Genesis. To top it all off, 80’s music blaring from the speakers at all times. Such a great place.

[@mettatonex7221]

I remember at this Dave and Busters that my little brother always insisted on going to and I would tag along just for the hell of it, there was this sort of roulette machine that used flashing lights instead of an actual ball, and I was really good at extracting tickets out of. It wasn't luck based; you just needed precise grasp on the timing of the spin and when it was going to stop, and I just happened to have the right rhythm going.

[@alexrivers8163]

I'm sure parents that bought their kid a home gaming system also said no to taking their kids to the arcade even when they wanted to go because "just play the ones at home" meaning fewer kids would even be allowed to go reducing the participants. I doubt teens at the time just up and stopped going because they got these because arcades would've been an easy way to run in to random friends you weren't specifically hanging with that day.

[@nicosledakis7452]

god i love this channel. the vibes 👌 ✨