Most of the successful arcades I've been to have either been in shopping malls, or part of a restaurant. Location is essential! The free-standing or hole-in-the-wall arcade really hasn't got a lot of potential these days, because most people aren't going to bother driving out to them. In Japan, where most people walk from place to place, it's easy to stop in an arcade on the way home from work or school, but not in the US.

Another thing is that a lot of arcades have poor game selections. Either they'll have a couple of stupid new gimmick games, or a few really old games. The ideal arcade should strive for the perfect balance of both modern and clas.sic games. The arcade that I frequent has most of their modern games on the first floor, and an entire basement full of older and clas.sic games that we all call "the graveyard." In it's heyday, it was the best of both, but unfortunately as of late they've had a really hard time keeping up with new releases.

Another problem is that a lot of Japanese publishers don't want to bother bringing their good games here. Take Capcom for example-- if any game could have shot some life into my favorite ailing arcade, it would have been a sequel to one of the biggest arcade hits of all time. But instead, Capcom simply skipped over US arcades, and now the arcades have to fight even harder to lure gamers in versus staying at home to play a console. On the flipside though, Konami and Activision are bringing the Guitar Hero franchise to arcades. I guess the idea is that people who love Guitar Hero at home would love to go to an arcade to show off their skills. Will it work? I hope so, but only time will tell.

And lastly, US arcades need to advertise. I once spent three hours in an arcade and only spent $5.00, and it was because they had great value on a lot of games I liked playing. Compare that to the $60 it costs to buy a new game, which often times only lasts 6-8 hours, and the arcade suddenly becomes a very appealing alternative. Also, how are people supposed to know what games an arcade has without going in? A well placed TV spot every now and thenwould certainly help, but that would only be possible for an arcade chain (which would actually be a very good business model, if all of the arcade operators in a certain region could come to an agreement on it).

Arcades don't have to die. Unfortunately, they are dying, and I haven't really seen much evidence of that trend reversing itself yet. The best that arcade aficionados like myself can do, for now, is continue to support our local arcades with our patronage, and collect whatever arcade related stuff we can to preserve (I actually own an arcade machine, but I'm certainly willing to collect more if and when I have the room for it).