Nostalgia: Gaming Kiosks at Grocery Stores...
Nostalgia: Gaming Kiosks at Grocery Stores...
Another sign of America's erasure of public spaces
Arcades come in many forms—and If you grew up in the 90s-2000s (or had kids who did) you remember these gaming demo stations in Wal-mart, Target, and even Mcdonalds.
The monitors for these gaming stations were usually absurdly high in the air, reminding many of the neck pain that went along with playing while your parents shopped.
These game stations usually only featured demo versions of their full retail release, giving you just enough time to get familiar with the game’s controls.
During the Ps2/ Gamecube/ Xbox era— these stations would even surprise you on what games would be available— maybe an employee put in the CD for a real game even — letting you get your hands at playing the newest Ratchet & Clank or something.
What’s most fascinating about this era was that it was before DLC, before micro-transactions, before huge hard-drive game installs…This was the peak of home console gaming, you bought the game and it was expected to have a complete single-player mode (and often multiplayer too!) + countless hours of replay value! Games just aren’t the same anymore— now they are streamed directly to our boxes, often incomplete, in dire need of their expansion packs.
And as time went on, I noticed more of these stations were replaced with the next gen (at the time): the Xbox 360, and basically only let you play Viva Pinata, greatly reducing the desire to check for us to check new titles. These stations which were the highlight of our trip to the grocery store, quickly became an afterthought.
Of course, the experience on playing these gaming stations varied depending on the state or region you were in —maybe you played Guitar Hero with a standard Ps2 controller
still….we all tend to remember what the neck pain felt like….
This is why you pull up a chair when it comes to this.
“...it was before DLC, before micro-transactions..” Damn. Those days are gone but I’m glad to have lived them if anything.