Last week, yours truly was called upon to protect the city and county of New York from the forces of evil. Luckily, jurors get a whopping 2 hours for lunch and my local Hall of Justice is a few shorts blocks away from one of NYC’s truly hidden gems – Chinatown Fair. Once famous for its dancing, tic-tac-toe playing chicken, Chinatown Fair is the city’s last bastion of the smoke filled, dimly lit arcade scene that bore nerd havens in malls and boardwalks around the country throughout the 80s and mid 90s.
I had last been in a proper arcade sometime in college (Pinball Pete’s represent!), but arcades had begun a quick and steady descent into obsolescence in this country some years before that. Starting with the earliest consoles, each generation inched closer and closer to delivering a true arcade experience.
The Playstation/Saturn era finally delivered parity, but the home experience still came up short in perhaps the most critical area: competition. This generation’s online matchmaking took care of that, and now just about the closest thing you can find to an arcade in the States is some kind “Chuck E. Cheese for adults” nightmare with lots of bad food and fairly lame out-of-home-attraction type games.
CF's networked SFIV cabinets - the only ones in NYC?
Chinatown Fair is unapologetic in its lineup and old-school decor. The place is lined wall-to-wall with Capcom, SNK and Namco fighters. A few big cabinet driving games, light-gun shooters, shmups and the obligatory Dance Dance Revolution machines round out the collection.
The latest additions to CF are all imports, as the scene’s still vibrant across the Pacific. It was a good opportunity for me to see how arcade companies are adapting their hardware to suit more casual play styles, just like in console games.
A few driving and rhythm games at CF feature a proprietary card system that tracks players’ progress, much like a players’ club card in a casino. So after a one-time nominal purchase on the actual game cabinet – for example, a racer based on the anime Initial D – the player can insert their card into any Initial D cabinet they encounter in any arcade in the world, and they’ll be able to use the car they’ve customized on the tracks they’ve unlocked progressing through the game. It’s like having a savegame file that’s always with you, or an Xbox LIVE account that works in the arcade.
I thoroughly dug my visit to Chinatown Fair. It feels like one of the divier spots from my time in Japan. And I mean that as a huge compliment. I can understand how the arcade business model got phased out, but it’s kind of a shame that there are so few of them left for younger gamers to experience. If you happen to know of a particular good spot in your town, be sure and leave it in the comments.
Mmmm… Pinball Pete’s.
I think I may go there for lunch today.