January 15, 2011
Marwencol Showtimes At The Uptown
The Death Of The Traditional Arcade
In Calgary arcades are quickly going out of style. A few years ago they populated malls and pool halls, but now you’d be hard pressed to find even one traditional arcade left in this city.
Whether it’s the growth of home gaming systems or the fact that arcades are just too expensive to run nowadays, these traditional gaming centres are slowly becoming a thing of the past.
Erickson Dela Rosa was big into arcades when he was younger, but says now they are rarely worth going to due to the lack of culture. Photo Credit: Marina Giannitsos.
Len Sbitney, owner of the Leather Pocket a northeast pool hall, used to have 14 arcade machines in addition to his billiards room. About a year ago he shut down his machines, saying they cost too much to maintain and run daily.
“I’ve got rent to pay and if the games aren’t making any money there’s no sense having them,” Sbitney said. “Since I’ve given up that arcade there has probably been about 12 people who have come in and asked me where the arcade went.”
According to Dela Rosa, it’s not only the lack of interest that’s causing arcades to shut down, but also the growth of personal gaming systems and online play.
“Arcades are finished because people will just play games on their Wii’s or their Xbox’s and I’m guilty too, I’m an avid Xbox live player,” he said. “All my friends are too.”
Dela Rosa added that with how huge Calgary is today and how much it continues to grow; it’s harder for young kids to justify making the huge trip to go to an arcade, especially when they could easily just stay home, save their money and play online with their friends.
“Calgary is just a hard place to get around in. You can’t just say ‘let’s all go to the arcade,’ if you’re younger because you have to wait for two buses and a train,” Dela Rosa said.
Although the arcade scene may be dead, community
As a child, Erikson Dela Rosa, now 27, used to go to arcades like Easy Street and Wizard’s Castle in local malls at least four times a week. He would go after school and even skip classes on occasion to best his rivals in some of his favourite games, like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
Now the only time he visits arcades is when he’s in Toronto – where there’s still a culture and a following for it.
“The people here are interested in different things and it’s not big enough to have a sub culture like that. I mean, it’s Calgary, you come here to make money and die,” Dela Rosa said. “You don’t come here to live it up, it’s not one of those places where there’s always something to do, it’s not.”
Although small arcade machines still exist in the nooks of bars or crannies of movie theatres, Dela Rosa says it’s not the same sort of intense and competitive environment he remembers.
“I feel sorry for kids now; the Cineplex is what they have as an arcade? It’s so pathetic. Back then arcades were huge, they were completely massive,” he said. “It was a really different culture and really cool to be around.”
The only arcades you will find these days in Calgary are at the Cineplex Theatres, meant solely to keep movie goers entertained while they wait. Photo Credit: Marina Giannitsos.
Len Sbitney, owner of the Leather Pocket a northeast pool hall, used to have 14 arcade machines in addition to his billiards room. About a year ago he shut down his machines, saying they cost too much to maintain and run daily.
“I’ve got rent to pay and if the games aren’t making any money there’s no sense having them,” Sbitney said. “Since I’ve given up that arcade there has probably been about 12 people who have come in and asked me where the arcade went.”
According to Dela Rosa, it’s not only the lack of interest that’s causing arcades to shut down, but also the growth of personal gaming systems and online play.
“Arcades are finished because people will just play games on their Wii’s or their Xbox’s and I’m guilty too, I’m an avid Xbox live player,” he said. “All my friends are too.”
Dela Rosa added that with how huge Calgary is today and how much it continues to grow; it’s harder for young kids to justify making the huge trip to go to an arcade, especially when they could easily just stay home, save their money and play online with their friends.
“Calgary is just a hard place to get around in. You can’t just say ‘let’s all go to the arcade,’ if you’re younger because you have to wait for two buses and a train,” Dela Rosa said.
Although the arcade scene may be dead, community gaming is still big in Calgary. If anything it is on the rise in a new way with the help of internet cafes and pc gaming centres.
Shane Chaba, owner of Switchbox, a computer gaming room in Southland Crossing Plaza, said that even though his business also suffers from the grip of online play and personal gaming systems, he is confident that many gamers still do appreciate the community aspect.
“The social atmosphere, that’s why people come here. People can come here in groups, where at home it’s harder to game in groups,” he said. “A lot of our customers met each other here and now they not only hang out here, but also outside of Switchbox.”
Switchbox hosts monthly LAN parties – local gaming competitions, which have quite a positive attendance rate according to Chaba. He said that a recent LAN party Switchbox hosted in early October had over 51 competitors sign up and they continue to get more and more with each event.
Many of the Street Fighter gamers from Tubby Dog modify their controllers to resemble the classic controls you see on traditional arcade machines. The Photo Credit: Danny Luong.
Another area where community gaming is thriving is Tubby Dog. Every Wednesday night they hosts a Street Fighter competition, with the ultimate prize being a Tubby Dog.
Gregory Dawson participates in these weekly competitions. He moved to Calgary from Newfoundland in 2006 and said when he first arrived he used to play at the U of C arcade called the Cove. Since the Cove has shut down, Dawson gets his Street Fighter fix at Tubby Dog where he says the experience is much better because it’s not neglected like traditional arcades are nowadays.
“It’s not a dinky, squat arcade stuffed in the corner behind a pool table,” he said.
“Also, the controllers always work here because we bring our own. At the arcade, if the controls are broken, you just go to the guy at the counter who doesn’t give a crap and that’s it, you have to leave because it doesn’t work.”
All the monitors and controllers at Tubby Dog are donated by the players and there is also a donation jar, which they use to buy new equipment for the community every once in a while.
Most importantly, everything is organized for the players, by the players.
With the help of places like Tubby Dog, traditional gaming continues to thrive from gaming nights and tournaments like the Canada Cup. Photo Credit: Danny Luong.
Dawson said that this support from the players is the only way community gaming can survive these days because old school arcades don’t support the development of the gaming culture anymore.
“Arcade owners don’t actually have an interest in the play, they just care about the business,” he said.
“Most arcade owners treat the games like vending machines, they never really catered to the players who wanted a scene, so we kind of have to do it ourselves nowadays.”
Even though arcades may be extinct in Calgary, places like Switchbox and Tubby Dog allow for the gaming community to thrive and grow in a new and modernized way.
To contact the author of this post: marina.giannitsos@wildgunmen.com
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