They're dead in the sense that they're more of a niche thing now as opposed to being everywhere like they were decades ago.

Despite the humility and self-effacing humour, you too are a legend Ralph. We are all indebted to you for your support of the community and your friendship. 👾

The arcade scene is still hanging on in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area. There’s some great spots in the area around here. Great video Retro Ralph, hope you have a good weekend brother!

Thanks so much for the reference! Yes, over 32,000 games sold since 1979! Come out to TNT and we will walk you around!

This is a great topic one that Retro Ralph, Todd Tuckey, and I have been discussing. I have been doing this a long long time. Ralph is the man!! Keeping things rocking.

arcade gaming is still alive the cool thing is collecting them and making your home arcade because the thrill of it for me is finding new games iv never heard of and the people you meet along the way just make it better

Arcades and this hobby are definitely still alive. Whether it is a commercial or home arcade...I feel this hobby is still growing! For me personally, I too would love to have my own BarCade someday. For now my home arcade is growing as I seek out real machines. This community is what it is today because of ambassadors like you Ralph! Keep the videos coming, love the passion you have and inspiration you impart to the community to repair/restore/preserve these treasures!

Good memories of the Time Out in my mall back in the 80s and 90s. Was sad to see it turn into a mostly redemption center and eventually closed down and turned into a mobile phone store.

Hands On The Screen... Feel The Love !!!

A few years ago I was finally able to get my holy grail. Original KI that I restored. After that, I fell down the rabbit hole and now have several games that I have restored. Since I am in the skilled trades industry, working on the restoration's has been very enjoyable for me. I am happy that I can contribute to bringing some of these classics back to life. The nostalgia for friend and I has been amazing. Arcade games are alive and well due to others and myself. Thanks Ralph for added inspiration, especially on my Robotron that just restored. It turned out beautiful. Happy gaming!

I still need to go and play Primal Rage 2. I can't believe I haven't been there when I live so close. Was at the pre-release screening for insert coin with Boon, Tobias and a bunch of other legends of the arcade scene. Amazing experience.

Scene is great in my area (southern Indiana) we have four retro arcades / barcades, one expanded last year and their original location is expanding currently!

I preemptively took your advice, Ralph! Was at the Freeplay Pinball arcade last night playing Foo Fighters. Keep your things stranger, and your parks Jurassic, Ralph! See you on the next one!

Ah, the early days of arcade gaming - Back in the 80s and 90s, arcades were all the rage, and people would flock to these colorful, neon-lit spaces to get their gaming fix in our local mall called two bit operation arcade. One of the most memorable things about these arcades was the black lights that made everything look like it was glowing. The carpets, the walls, the posters - everything seemed to come alive in the eerie, otherworldly glow of these lights. It was a truly unique experience that you wouldn't find anywhere else. From a distance you could hear all the arcade sounds from Tron to Mario dying in donkey Kong and the amount of people was insane! And then there was the music - oh, the music! The 80s were a golden age of pop and rock music, and these arcades would play all the hits. The music was a perfect accompaniment to the black lights and glowing screens. Of course, the real stars of the show were the games themselves. There were classics like Pac-Man, Star wars, and Donkey Kong - games that had become cultural touchstones in their own right. And then there were the new games that were pushing the boundaries of what arcade gaming could be - games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken. People would line up to play these games, eager to see who could get the highest score or beat the toughest boss. There was a palpable sense of excitement in the air as gamers huddled around the screens, cheering each other on and sharing tips and tricks. Looking back on those days, it's easy to see why arcades were so popular. They were vibrant, exciting spaces that brought people together around a common love of video games. And while gaming has certainly evolved since those early days, there's still something special about those neon-lit arcades with their black lights and 80s music. Best times ever to be alive!

High Scores Arcade in Alameda, CA is my favorite arcade in the bay area for their dedication to the classics!

I travel allot for work and always hit the arcades / Barcades in whichever city I am in.. sure as hell beats sitting in the hotel room in the evening after I finish work

Not sure if it's going to survive in the long run since it is so niche and will satisfy the nostalgia feels for people who grew up in that era (being a kid in the 90s in the early video game era was something else). I remember in the very early 2000's when I was in high school, there was an Arcade spot located in downtown (24/7) that was packed to the brim all the time, especially on Friday night after 4pm and Saturday night (that was the spot to go). One of my friend was extremely good at Dance Dance Revolution (it was pretty new at the time) and there were always crowds of like 40 people surrounding that arcade just to watching people dance. It was the time where people would line up their quarters on the arcade screen just to get in line to play. That place is now closed unfortunately.

There's a coin op laundry just down the street from me with a 4 slot Neo Geo, Cruisn' Exotica, and Tekken 3 running. 25 cents per credit :)

Arcade gaming is indeed alive and well. In my area, we actually have a gaming store which also operates an arcade. The arcade is “Game On” in Lake Grove,NY (Smith Haven Mall). It’s clean, well-maintained, and well-stocked with free play upright machines. They even have some strategically-placed home consoles and comfy furniture. Admission is reasonable. We also have the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City,NY with a permanent playable arcade exhibit (60+ machines) and numerous events throughout the year centered on retro-gaming. Oddly enough, I see plenty of folks under fifty attending these venues. Bar-Cades are a great idea, because not everyone likes to play pool or darts. Games like Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Centipede, Tempest, Galaga, Frogger, Defender, and Robotron are TIMELESS. The learning curve is short and the fun instant. I’d add Star Wars, Berzerk, and Wizard of Wor to my personal list. Places like Dave & Busters replaced the old “Mall” arcades. But those of us who are serious about our gaming would certainly be better served by dedicated venues catering to 80’s and 90’s era arcade players.

Still have a few local arcades around my area as well as a vintage video game shop. Arcade and classic gaming is stronger than ever and I love it.

I can’t wait to go back to Galloping Ghost 👻

Yep my wife and I went to Starfighter's Arcade at Falcon Field this past Saturday and had a blast! Crazy to think it has been over a year since we last went there. lol We are going to try and go more often when we can. They have a really good selection of arcade games and pinball tables! Game on!!

Could Retro Ralph be the future of arcades? I’m not a big fan Dave and Busters style “arcades” with few classics, no pinball, and only monster sized (and monster priced) games that chew up sawbucks like the new quarter. Ralph you’re the perfect prototype of the arcade owner of tomorrow! You can talk classics, mod with the best of them, and you have mad credibility that’s been earned right here on KZfaq. You live in one of the biggest family friendly destinations on the planet! I could definitely see myself attending or speaking at a convention then rewarding myself with a visit to RETRO RALPHS ARCADE featured in Electronic Gaming Annual Arcade destinations! Featuring Kim’s Barcade where you can take a load off while playing the 80’s classics. Every minute on my per diem expense account. I think we have a winner Ralph!🎉🎉🎉

The BarCade near me luckily survived during covid! Such a fun place to go to with my buddies! They are alive and thriving! We will see you oooooon the next one!! 🎉🎉

Back in the early 2000s Barcade kept the dream alive and was a leader the arcade bar movement. I realize that Barcade is used as a generic term by many, but I think it is important that people who influence in this space to respect all the leaders, and this includes respecting that Barcade formed before most thought arcade bars were possible.

LOVE YOUR CONTENT RALPH!!! CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT VIDEO! 😎💯👍♥️♥️😀

RIP Arcades... I hear Michael B is switching to "Best Canadian Movies" for his channel.

they are always Poppin around here in Northern Cali!!!!! Happy Gaming!!!

I shall be attending my local barcade this wekeend, NQ64 in Birmingham UK, awesome place!

Again, I love these videos where you speak your mind about a passionate topic.

Alive over here. HUGE arcade here.

Nice video. Although I wish you mentioned "Interactive Arcade Museums". There are several. I visited "Musee Mechanique" in San Francisco, California. Great arcade with lots of arcade Machines from the late 1800s to late 2000s. It's privately owned, and the owner seems like a nice guy. It would make for a great "Chasing Nostalgia" video (hint hint). There's also Nickel Arcades too. I've visited a few where they charge you a flat rate at the door (like $10 dollars) and all the machines cost a nickel. The machines are older, but It's really great for people and families on a budget. And if you trying to find older retro machines. Nickel arcades have them. Great video!

I love that the very first clip you show of arcades is a Pump It Up machine (one of my favorite dance arcade games) 😂

WHAT'S UP RAFA!!! I am actually going to attend a Galaga Tournament this Saturday at Arcade Revival in San Bernadino Ca., Wish me lucky... I'll checkout the place while I'm there and see if they would love you to come over and visit. Lol...

My area doesn't have anything but I love the home arcade community and company's like arcade 1up, unico and rec room masters. The arcade scene basically evolved like ever other business model.

Great video Ralph! Love your continuous passion for our hobby💯🙌 Have a wonderful weekend My Guy!😁🤙🏽

One thing for sure, my first trip to Cobra Arcade Bar in downtown phx last month was proof that bars and arcades are the perfect combo.

Most if not all of the Arcades I would have gone to in my youth have either closed down or have become purely ticket redemption locations. But there are 2 new locations opening here very soon, one is a Pop up Arcade so might not be there for very long, they are opening next month and I am so excited to grab a bunch of friends and check it out. The other is a new location for a chain of Barcades in the UK that have been really successful (Visited one of the locations when I was over in Scotland a year or 2 back) No details on when this one will open but when they do, I'll be there!

Great video!!! Last week I just picked up an original Gauntlet 1 arcade with all original art and Atari joysticks. It’s in my top three arcades of all time.

One thing I hate about the D&B “arcades” is the tickets to turn in for a Jolly Rancher(I think those are 500 tix). Token Taverns may do a billion with Ralph making a cameo! Ralph is the next Chris Pratt!

I really miss there being a space where there is a cacophony of videogame sounds, exited people, and the newest coolest stuff. It was so exciting. I wish someone could figure out a business model where what I'm describing can be commonplace again with modern gaming. A bunch of computers and people wearing headphones in a cafe is just not the same at all. Imagine the day Street Fighter 6 launches for example, there is a place in your town where you know tons of ppl are going to be, all eager to play against each other and be in awe over the newness of it. God that sounds so fun. Edit: saying all that, I love the resurgence of old school arcades and arcade bars and will always support them when I see them. Great to see.

My dream wish for Galloping Ghost, is that they get dedicated cabs for Sunsetriders and G.I. Joe

❤ALIVE & WELL

I may have to go to Brookfield!

The arcades that late era Baby Boomers and GenXers knew went away in the '80s. Arcades started to change in the '90s as it was the era of fighting games and redemption games. By the time the late '90s arrived, destination arcades were becoming a thing of the past. The '00s was all about redemption games and the name "arcade" was used rather loosely. Fast forward to '08 when the economy tanked and home arcades started become a thing with people collecting arcade games and pinball machines that were sitting around warehouses, etc. As all things retro eventually have a sort of renaissance; the popularity of the classics saw the rise of barcades and retro arcades. Pinball is back and flourishing quite well, again, and destination arcades filled with classics from the golden age and earlier are popular, again. The video of Past Times proved there is still a passion and love for arcade games. There are numerous places like Past Times around the country and they are filled with the young and old having a good time. Arcade games and pinball machines are the car scene; the passion and love is still there and so is the demand.

Arcades have morphed into Barcades, which are great, because they usually server food as well as drinks, plus a mix of pinball, arcade games, and sometimes other stuff like duck-pin bowling, axe throwing, etc. Plus with options like Arcade1up, AtGames and iiRcade, having a select few fav's in your home is now possible for a reasonable price without the hassle of trying to keep a 40 year old machine up and running.

When is YOUR arcade starting up Ralph??? (Kidding, not Kidding)

People have been saying arcades are dead/dying since the late 90's and early 2000s. The fact is arcade never died to begin with, if it was dead game like House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn, NFS Heat Takedown and what ever Exa puts out wouldn't exist.

Are arcades now expensive in arcades like 30 dollars

Great video as always

We have some places to play games only majority of the arcades are ticket casino's 🙄

pinball is going crazy right now

In my opinion the arcades are long dead. It's nothing like when we were kids and literally every establishment you went to an arcade machine was there to be played and they were still being made in abundance and multiple styles. But not all is lost, if they weren't so awesome to begin with people wouldn't preserve it. I think of modern arcades places with older games like a museum - I am thankful to the people that preserve this history. In a way it's underground now.

Unfortunately the arcade scene here in Switzerland is... let me say... just dead. I would love to see some barcades or arcades here. It is quite hard to find any retro arcade machines here. Some of the retailers have a few Arcade1ups but it is far from what you guys in the US have.... 😞

I can’t listen to your message at the end because I spent $100 at my local arcade and I can’t legally drive if I wanted to as I don’t have a drivers license. 😂

I feel like I into the hobby of collecting and fixing games right before the prices shot up, so I do miss when you could get games for next to nothing, but at least there are plenty of barcades that have the money to keep these games in shape and playable. (besides, I ran out of room a long time ago)

You should open an arcade name Retro Ralph's arcade.

Galloping ghost also has Beavis and Butthead

I live in a town with a Barcade (franchises that are bars but with old school 80s/90s arcade - no D&B ticket crap)... it is packed all the time. Arcade is not dead, the vendors are providing something no one wants. We dont want D&B style BS... we want old school, quarter play coinop.

well the wife and I are working up to going back out again, but there are definitely a couple barcade locations I've been curious to check out! nothing anywhere near as cool as something like galloping ghost or the pinball hall of fame in vegas, but would still be worth checking out for sure.

You can still find arcades scattered around but they're slowly going away sadly...

The arcade has evolved.

Its great to see developers like Sega, Raw Thrills, and others are still keeping the arcade concept alive! Heck, arcade games are practically in Sega's blood. While barcades have become a larger part of the arcade story today, and there's people like yourself and even us who fight to keep the genre alive, I'd honestly like to see a much bigger revival of arcades, and I think its possible with the right ingenuity and innovation being applied; VR in arcade gaming is a good example of this.

Arcades are not dead, they have just become "Kiddie Casinos" mostly.....

Home consoles and PCs outpower the arcade cabinets now. Once that happened, the arcades dried up.

I don't understand why dave & busters doesn't have any pinball machines.

Goonies NEVER say die!

The thing is, arcades had their glory days back when home computers were comparatively mediocre and you had to spend about 20 mins waiting for a tape to load for a comparatively inferior game. These days home computers are way more powerful than arcade machines, so the appeal just isn't what it was back then. However for die-hard fans of arcades from back in the day (like me lol) the appeal of arcades will never die!

RALF! Last month i got 3 cabs that had NEO GEO 4 slots in them can You Cover Some of the neo geo options i know there is 161-1 neo geo carts with 3 differnt versions. THANKS !

When people say arcade scene is dead they obviously don't mean there are no places on planet earth that don't have arcades. Thats like saying "is horse and buggy dead" and someone shows a video of the Amish as 'proof' that the "horse and buggy" scene is alive and well. Yes arcade scene is dead and it's been dead since late 90's. It's become a nostalgia thing which is fine and I hope more pop up but saying it's alive and well is not accurate at all. You look old enough to remember what it was like at least in the early 90s or into the 80s.

NEVER! 🥲

I guess I would consider myself a casual collector.

My personal arcade scene is dead since i ran out of room for my arcade1ups. Also died when they recycle games, cabinets and the price hikes. But the traditional arcade scenes will never die for me, they will always live in memory for me. I wish we still had arcades like in the 90s and early 2000s, but thankfully they will live on thru others passion for collecting retro machines.

Arcades, nah. Barcades, however, it's thriving. Lots more opening up lately.

Not dead, just different. It used to be a bit of a fad in the 90s, it's not anymore, however. The burgeoning retro scene has given the rise of "Barcades", and on the mainstream, It's mainly large chains like RoundOne, Dave n Busters, and Main Event that have taken the place of new arcades.

Retro Ralph I would like to know something when are they going to bring out new and improved arcade games like when the last last arcade errors were over when are they going to do new improved arcade games to come out soon instead of always using the PlayStation 5 and Xbox and Nintendo switch I want to see something new in the arcades something new and approved that keeps the life going on in the arcade forever and ever🎉🎉🎉😊😊❤❤

Hi

Plandemic really did some damage to this scene. But it's cool that some businesses made it through. We lost Recroom Masters too, but now they're back. Idk how their quality is now, but back before that bs, they had amazing stuff. I think arcades will linger on for a while, in one form or another. Personally i'm not so much into standard arcade games anymore, i like pinball, foosball, and the arcade games with lightguns, steering, stuff that i can't get on my multicade. But like Todd Tuckey said, "nobody is going to care about Tekken 4 in 20 years" the golden age is past. The LEGENDARY games we still remember, that's seemingly over with. Sad really.

DO IT!!!!!

Got bored of my Arcade in a couple of days. Arcades were back for a hot minute because of 1up, but it's dead. The games are rudimentary, nostalgia factor is dying, and there are no new games. We're Americans, we're a console and PC nation!!!

It died like 10 years ago. It's only sort of coming back now due to the retro fad. Where are the (good) new arcade games? Everything is going to consoles

I don't know if it's really controversial. "Dead" is hyperbole, but come on. A couple successful arcades aren't a thriving industry. I hope it's really growing, but seeing Sega withdraw from their arcades in Japan is very discouraging. Especially when most of their new arcade products are crappy redemption machines. Racers? Getting hard to tell all of these low budget looking releases apart. They all literally look like Asphalt, a mobile game. Even Konami's music games are slowing down. I know I'm being negative. I want to see small arcades thrive too.

No its not + its always live

I’m NOT Zohar. Please believe me, please, please, Ralph. Pdubs out.

Hope not…. I own one

its very alive my sales prove it, home arcade gaming is more and more popular.

This is a very strage videos. If you grew up in the 80's or 90's then the answer is obvious. I saw every local arcade around me shut down 1 by 1. Arcades / game lounges are making a small resurgence with new pay models but yeah definitely dead.

Arcade scene only alive when the X generation is alive

Sorry Ralph but I'm just going to continue to build my own arcade machines and watch this crap 😂

Click bait

Great video. I wish we had a barcade here where I live.

Ralph….when are you opening your barcade?

Thank you, Ralph!!! Let's just do it!!! Great beer and arcade machines shall inherit the Earth!!! BAWHAHAHA!!!! & SEEYA ON THE NEXT ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the business model has changed,they used to be something to hang out and waste X amount of coins for 30 mins with your mates now? they are "a day out with the kids" and you pay at the door for unlimited play inside

Hey ralph awesome video... I just baught a big buck hunter pro arcade and the guns may need to be calibrated and the sound dosent work... can you help? Tried messanger on Facebook but said not accepting messages or what have you is there another way I can reach you? Call or text or email thanks... not technology savvy ..not up on all those new apps.

Hi