Were sequels / new releases in arcades anticipated?

[emceelokey]

I was just thinking about how people would camp out for high profile games like Madden, GTA, Smash Bros. and what have you but I don't ever remember anything like that for an arcade game. I grew up in the "Fighting Game" era of arcades, and for updates or sequels, I never really experienced anyone really anticipating games like that in arcades. I usually didn't know that there were sequels or new editions of games until after they were out and had huge crowds around them. I remember I first learned of Mortal Kombat II when I was visiting my cousin's house and he was telling me that a new MK was out and I didn't believe him. We ended up going to the local bowling alley that night and there it was MK II. He even knew some fatalities. I just never heard of an arcade game "Launching" much like console games. The arcade game would usually trickle into the local arcades within weeks of each other.

Was there a big fuss leading up to the release of Ms. Pac-Man or Donkey Kong 2 or anythgin like that?

[Brian Deuel]

Nah. They just appeared and that was that. Wacko overhype was pretty much non-existent in those days, and media outlets were a bit limited compared to nowadays.

Thank God.

[kedawa]

The first arcade release I was ever hyped for was SF2CE.

[Cinder6]

People camp out for Madden?

[chrisbid]

i remember seeing ads for the arcade release of mortal kombat 3

[weirdguy]

Release and location testing of the latest Metal Slug were anticipated a lot in Japan I think.

[Pantechnicon]

Wacko overhype was pretty much non-existent in those days, and media outlets were a bit limited compared to nowadays.

Exactly. I've made mention of this sort of thing before; that there was no World Wide Web or 24-hour news cycle empowering game enthusiasts to disseminate and pick apart every bit of minutiae concerning the hobby. This is also why most people (at least in my neck of the woods) went blisfully unaware that there was even a crash of the video game market in 1984.

As far as arcade machines are concerned, past or present, it's a completely different type of product than home games, and one that doesn't really lend itself to that sort of thing. Your local Gamestop can order 500 copies of GTAIV and move them in the space of a few hours. On the other hand, an arcade machine operator buys one - maybe two - of the newest DDR machines at $10000 a pop. Konami has already made their money off the operator, but now he is in the position of having to cross his fingers and hope that that he didn't buy a pair of lemons; that he can make back his investment, plus some extra, in the next several weeks, because there simply can't be enough kids with pockets full of quarters queued up outside the arcade at midnight for it to happen any quicker than that.

So no, hype like that doesn't work for arcade machines, at least not on a level of reaching out to a Smackdown-sized television audience.

[diskoboy]

Back then, alot of arcade sequels were generally disliked.

The only sequels I know of were well liked were the obvious Ms. Pac-Man, DKjr. and Galaga.

Ms. Pac Man came out when the first game was still huge, so it was obviously gonna be a massive hit. Galaga was one of those rare games which sequel was actually better than the original in every way. EDIT - And Ms. Pac-Man got the loving reception her male counterpart encountered. The first time I saw a Ms. Pac-Man machine, the arcade got 3 machines, and the crowd was still so deep, you couldn't see the game at all if you were under 5' 2".

Asteroids Deluxe, Frenzy, Stargate, Space Invaders Deluxe, Blaster, Q*Bert's Qubes, Super Zaxxon, Donkey Kong 3, even though they're now considered classics, as well, weren't huge hits in the arcades, compared to their previous versions. The crash had alot to do with it, as well...

In 1983, Q*bert was arguably considered Game of the Year. Q*bert's Qubes didn't come out long after the original. Yet to this day, I've NEVER seen a Qubes machine in the wild.

[Haoie]

That kind of stuff really only happens for mainstream titles, often sequals or something late in the series.

Still, you might recall the days when arcade lines for certain games stretched around the block. So hype isn't a recent thing, hmm?

[Sanriostar]

Arcade games just 'showed up'; usually in the early summer. I still remember seeing DK Jr., Ms. Pac-Man, Millipede, and Stargate for the first time. What was funny was that when I saw Ms. Pac, the line was way,way,way long, and I played normal Pac-Man. After I did that, I regretted it 'cause I thought I might not see Ms. Pac again.....LOL

[ccovell]

I remember waiting in anticipation for Rad Mobile and the Simpsons to come to my local arcade. (Probably because EGM hyped the former a lot back in the day.)

[thetoxicone]

If there was any hype in my town it was because people played them in bigger cities and they took awhile to make it to small town South Dakota

[FrakAttack]

They just popped up here and there so it was mostly word of mouth. There were also a lot of rumors, of course. I remember when we would catch a glimpse of a new cab on the back of a delivery truck and get so excited, even if it was destined for some other town. Sometimes we'd even ask the guy where it was headed and then travel there a few days later. In the glory days, we'd go half way across the state to play certain games.

I kinda miss the joy of discovery we shared back then, when gaming was brand new. At times, it really felt like magic.

[rbudrick]

I remember there being a pretty good hype for MK2 and SFIII (SFIII was received rather luke-warmly).

-Rob

[mailman187666]

In 1983, Q*bert was arguably considered Game of the Year. Q*bert's Qubes didn't come out long after the original. Yet to this day, I've NEVER seen a Qubes machine in the wild.

Funspot out in Laconia, NH. I just played it for the first time over the weekend and loved it.

[Sanriostar]

Related to the Joystik magazines' addition to the DP archive, I now remember that I saw Super Pac-Man in that magazine before I saw a machine. That might be the only example of a 'game preview' for an arcade game I experienced back-in-the-day.

Super Pac has since become one of my top games, too!

[Sudo]

Funspot out in Laconia, NH. I just played it for the first time over the weekend and loved it.

I've lived in NH for a year and a half and still have yet to visit Funspot. :( I really need to get around to it sometime this summer.

[FlufflePuff]

I remember being really excited to see MK2 hit the arcade, but I don't recall ever knowing the actual release date. I just knew that it would show up eventually and that was enough for me. Beyond that I never had much anticipation for an arcade game.

To tie that into the home market, I disctinctly remember knowing when MK2 came out on the SNES and making a special trip to the video store to rent it on release day.

[CosmicMonkey]

I waited. And waited a bit longer. Then forgot about Space Harrier and Outrun.

Finally all these years later Sega hits us with Planet Harriers and Outrun 2 / Coast 2 Coast. Talk about taking your time.

I've always looked forward to new installments in the Time Crisis and House of the Dead series too.

[Ed Oscuro]

I was just thinking about how people would camp out for high profile games like Madden, GTA, Smash Bros. and what have you but I don't ever remember anything like that for an arcade game.
Arcade games sort of straggled into arcades days or longer after release - cabinets are big, and kits take a while to set up, after all.

That said, arcade games didn't appear by magic and avid players knew what was coming from news of arcade expos, location tests, rumors, etc.

[Bojay1997]

While the level of hype might not have been the same, the combination of magazines like Electronic Games and television shows like Starcade, as well as local news coverage for certain games (Dragon's Lair and Cinematronics games which were produced in San Diego where I grew up) definitely resulted in a lot of us anticipating certain games coming to our local arcades. While it wasn't day and date like home games are today, I was certainly aware of what games were on the way and so were many of my friends. I was also lucky enough to occasionally visit a test arcade at University Towne Center in San Diego and they often had the newest stuff which would then hit the local arcade I went to in southern San Diego weeks or months later. Again, whether it was me or one of my friends, whoever had played a game on test would relay info about it to the others at our school who were into arcade games.

[figment1988]

i do remember hearing that some movies in 1982 were shown with the ad for Dig Dug when it came out.

[XYXZYZ]

Like Kadewa said, the only arcade game I remember any hype over back in the day was SF2 Champion Edition. But ever since Al Gore invented the innanets, There was quite a bit of interest in local communities over Neo Geo stuff like SvC and now SF4...

[Gentlegamer]

I remember the joy of visiting various places (supermarket, laundrymat, etc.) and seeing a new arcade game. Of course, I was a kid, and was not plugged into any kind of "industry news" that was accessable to me.

[mailman187666]

I've lived in NH for a year and a half and still have yet to visit Funspot. :( I really need to get around to it sometime this summer.

oh man you have to go there. All the games are so well preserved, they have so many games from the 80s and early 90s it would make some people cry. Its honestly the closest thing you could get to re-living the "back in the day" arcades. There isn't always many people there when I go but that means no waiting. I've seen many posts saying that they wish they could go back to an arcade like that again but it will never happen. It is still happening on the second floor at funspot. Trust me, if you live close by and have never been, you'll love it. It may not be the arcade scene it used to be, but they have all the games from that era waiting to be played for just 25 cents. They have the arcade version of Chiller, Contra, Q-Berts Qubes, every version of pacman, Arkanoid, real early pinball machines (lots of em), Double Dragon 1+2. Thats just the tip of the iceburg. I'd say if you are in the area to GO GO GO.