LogFAQs > #892430196

Arcades in the US have pretty much distilled down to 1) Dave and Busters and 2) serious enthusiasts who run their own places, and I mean *serious* enthusiasts. You can't go half-measure on arcades anymore or else you'll end up with busted machines in the corner of your janky business that no one cares to fix.

While I appreciate Dave and Busters for trying to keep the dream alive, the whole setting seems way too... manufactured and "corporate" for me. No fighting games, largely ticket-spitters. Props for getting new games (I did appreciate the opportunity to play Star Wars: Battle Pod), but their pricing system is so damn obtuse that it's easy to not realize you're getting taken for a massive ride every time you swipe your card.

As for enthusiast locations, naturally they're very specific to region. I'm oddly lucky living in New Hampshire because there are multiple places for me to try. Funworld in Nashua, NH is a good quick stopover for a fix, although it's really starting to fall apart in the last few years. There's also the Pinball Wizard arcade in Pelham, with a rather large collection of pinball, but also plenty of classic games as well. It was nice to see just a line of Capcom fighters in order of release.

Lastly there's Funspot in Laconia, which is the home of the ACAM, the American Classic Arcade Museum. Dude, if you want to find some old-ass games that are running fine, you go here. And I mean OLD-ASS. Like SEVENTIES. It's a giant collection, and most of the games suck by nature, but it's still cool to see them.

EDIT: Oh yeah, DDR. The second subject of this topic. So, you can pretty easily find DDR in any Dave and Busters. Last one I went to (in Braintree, MA) had a DDR A machine, which is the DDR that came out in 2016. They added a few extra "Western" songs that the Asian versions didn't get initially, such as Happy, Shut Up and Dance, Time Of Our Lives, so clearly support is happening.
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CyricZ