With the increase of costs of the new systems (CPS 3, NAOMI) and added to the arrival of the N64, PSX and Dreamcast, those places were changing to rent per hours of those consoles, and while more young people and adults could buy one of these consoles for their homes, the arcades and console rental places were reducing their customers, added to the phenomenon of home computers adapted as arcades, thanks to the M.A.M.E. That's why (even though it goes back to the Street fighter days) I could see a 'maquinita' in many places, especially in 'popular' neighborhoods. Many operators leased the machines to stores, neighborhood pharmacies, tortilla shops, etc., for a percentage of the profit. Thus, an operator could save the cost of a new 'machine' every time he wanted to have new games.

The KOF boom was thanks to the modularity of the MVS system, and the ease of switching between cartridges. Now in 2020-2022, the arcade business is close to extinct. KoF of course and GTA, most kids that play KoF preffer modded versions that let you do desperation moves non stop while old school players look at them with despise and tend to play vanilla. Used to go to play arcades with my bro and a friend and we used to take turns, then a place with n64 and psx opened and switched to mario kart, golden eye and the likes and we didn't look back to the arcades.Īrcades are still quite popular in certain places but now most of them are modded xbox 360's inside a cabinet and a system that gives you certain ammount of time per peso, most popular games in those arcades are.

They became less popular when renting consoles became a thing, one of the risk of playing 'maquinitas' was your mom spoting and scolding you in front of everyone, renting a console in a more private place, divide the cost with another 3 friends and play other genres that weren't meant for arcade sticks was better for the rising generation at the moment (millenials),

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