The inverse-arcade deal.

[Chuplayer]

I went to Freehold Raceway Mall in New Jersey for the first time in a long time today, and I saw Ghost Squad in the arcade there. I was ecstatic! Then I saw the price per play. 5 tokens. Okay, so you gotta do the math, but I knew I wasn't going to like the result.

$.25 per token * 5 tokens = $1.25 for one play of Ghost Squad WTF

Barring super-deluxe 3D/movie game/ride things, this is the second most expensive game I've ever seen. #1 being a Virtual On cabinet I saw a few years ago. Virtual On 1. Not that Tangram sequel. That was possibly more ridiculous than Ghost Squad at $1.50 per play.

I only played one game, and only because I had five quarters burning a hole in my pocket. Luckily the token dispenser took quarters. $1.25 is absolute ass. I can't believe arcades are coming to this.

In case anybody is masochist enough to go there, they had MvC2, CvS1, Outrun 2 (player 2 side's screen was screwy but still playable), Soul Calibur 2, Police 911 2, Beach-Head 2000 (not working), maybe a Tekken, some boring motorcycle game, and the other half of the establishment was redemption machines. And skee-ball, which is awesome, but not at their prices.

[nyprimus4]

I played this earlier in the year many times on a cruise in the arcade. Awesome game, cool its getting ported to the Wii.

[SaraAB]

Head over to Chuck E Cheese, every game is 25 cents per play, EVEN the big simulator type games. They let adults in with no problem, you must be over 18 though or have an adult with you. As long as you are not causing trouble you can play the games and stay as long as you want. The location near me has a decent selection of modern arcade games. You won't find ghost squad in there though, as CEC tends to go with the more non-violent games. They do have star wars games though. Even though the games are 25 cents per play, they do work (there was not one broken or down game), the staff is also friendly and courteous, and there are plenty of staff members around to refund money if you lose it.

People wonder why arcades are dying with prices like that, its even more ridiculous at Dave and Busters though, where your average game will cost you 2-5$ PER PLAY and the large simulators cost in upwards of 5-10$ PER PLAY. Its a complete ripoff but they disguise it with their confusing points system that is almost impossible to figure out. Plus our D&B location has horrible service, crass employees (even worse than retail employees here!!) and broken games. Not to mention they have a poor selection of OLD, outdated games. They also raised prices on food and games recently. Fortunately if you sign up with their email club you can get FREE points in the form of printable coupons emailed to you. I would highly recommend signing up with their email club because you get free points at least twice a year, once on your birthday and usually once around christmas/new year.