Exploring Arcade UFO - A Rare Gem Of Japanese Arcade Gaming In America
By TJ Denzer ·
Arcade UFO in downtown Austin, Texas is a rare find in the United States - A traditional Japanese-style arcade. We spoke to the owners of this unique venue about how it came to be and what makes it continue to be worthwhile today.
In Japan, arcades are still a common occurrence. Between Pachinko machines, fighting games, rhythm games, and other more outlandish styles of digital entertainment, the arcade culture still thrives in a way that didn’t quite keep the steam in the rest of the world. A part of the floundering arcade business model elsewhere is the constant growth of the home console market, but the fact is that American arcades and the developers of games for them simply weren’t able sustain interest the way they have overseas. It’s not a completely lost cause.
Establishments like Pinballz keep the dream alive with their collection of pinball and classic arcade machines that still tote the classic American arcade experience. Meanwhile, leagues like the Killer Queen ATX help build communities that still have interest in getting out there, joining up, and having a good time with an arcade game in person.
That said, if you want to throw down on a good fighting game, there’s still a fantastic place to do it in Austin, Texas. Arcade UFO is an unassuming little building tucked away in the backstreets of the University of Texas area, but it offers something you’ll rarely find anywhere else in the United States – A traditional Japanese arcade experience. Inside the building is an excellent working collection of authentic arcade cabinets imported straight from Japan as well as some custom made cabinets that feature the latest games while keeping the traditional arcade aesthetic intact. Under new management since late 2017, this establishment has been a fantastic little hub for players to meet up and throw down on the best old and new school fighting and rhythm games.
With that in mind, we caught up to owners Rob Campbell, Matt Laux, and James Taylor to talk about the what Arcade UFO is doing, the challenges associated with this very specific type of arcade, and what lies in the future.
The Latest In A Line...
We kicked things off by asking where Arcade UFO began. According to Rob, it all began with the three friends being enthusiasts and regulars of the Arcade UFO themselves, as well as the arcade being one of the longest living in a series of ventures before Rob, Matt, and James came along.
“We purchased Arcade UFO from the original owners in September 2017.” Rob explained. “Ryan Harvey was the one who started it all in 2008 shortly after another arcade, Einstein’s, closed down. Einstein’s had a lot of tradition behind it and Harvey wanted to continue that and give the community another good place to hang out. Arcade UFO has actually been a part of a long chain of arcades that have sprung up and closed down, but UFO has had a longer run than any of them so far. I was probably the most recent one among the three of us. I moved here in 2013 to study at the University of Texas and was looking for a place to play music games. Eventually I came by here and pretty much became a regular. It’s a similar story for all three of us at different times in the arcade.”
According to UFO’s owners, the interests and diversity of the Arcade UFO collection has swayed over the years. Despite a shift in balance between the type of games seen in the collection, the team has maintained that an original aesthetic
“Ryan Harvey was an old-school enthusiast and a serious competitor when it came to Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike,” Matt further explained. “The business has always been about keeping the vibe of a traditional Japanese-style arcade, but where he was a huge fighting fan and we’ve kept that, we’re big music gaming fans and we’ve worked to expand that part of Arcade UFO.”
Despite being more music gaming fans themselves, the three have ensured that fighting games continue to be a firm foundation of Arcade UFO, true to what Harvey established.
“3rd Strike has always been a major thing here,” Rob clarified. “Largely because of Harvey and the community he formed around it. Back when the arcade first started, they purchased Street Fighter IV boards on legitimate PCBs straight from Japan and Arcade UFO was one of a single digit number of arcades in America who did that, so it put us on the map in the fighting game scene.”
To that end, Arcade UFO has taken on a big role as a fighting game hub in the Austin gaming community and attempted to supply old school fans and newcomers alike with a constant place to come, play, and compete.
“At various times in UFO’s history, it’s been seen as a sort of fighting game Mecca of sorts,” James claimed. “We have a lot of good players here, some of which we’ve sent to EVO, and we’ve done location tests on various games as well.”
Where the Interest Ebbs & Flows
Of course, when it comes down to it, building a hub is only half of the equation. The formation and reaction of the community around Arcade UFO has also played a huge role in helping them build and maintain this style of arcade. The venue hosts regular community-organized tournaments, and streaming groups like Mug and Games (who regularly stream for Killer Queen ATX) have lent a hand in the past to helping spread the word on tournaments. That said, the UFO team remains modest about their success, speaking to an ebb and flow of interest in competition
“That tournament scene has always been a part of Arcade UFO though,” Matt explains. “It waned a bit before 2018, but it has a lot to do with the ebb and flow of fighting games and how well they do. There were a few flops in recent years, such as when Street Fighter V first came out. It had a lot of starting hype, but it died out pretty quickly.”
“It’s a combination of things too,” Rob continued. “Before we bought Arcade UFO, Harvey and other owners were starting to find it difficult to put as much time into the place due to other obligations. The machines were starting to wear out and weren’t in the best playable condition. Included in that, fighting games on home consoles have just gotten better, to the point where net code is getting pretty solid and online play is much easier to do. That said, since we’ve been here, it’s been on an uptick. The machines are good working order and the games that have come out recently have a lot of competitors interested in playing again.”
It’s interesting to consider, but most certainly sensible to think that arcade business have waned because there are less interesting new cabinets being produced than during decades like the ‘80s and ‘90s, but games like Dragon Ball FighterZ have also galvanized fighting fans across the world. With that in mind, Arcade UFO spoke to a cyclical trend that they’ve seen in the release of new games.
“It really depends on whatever the new hotness is in fighting games,” Matt began. “Sometimes things go by the wayside, but when something new is out, people come out to play, and that cycle repeats every time a new game comes out. It feels quick sometimes, but that might also be because so many fighting games have come out within just months of each other recently.”
“Dragon Ball FighterZ, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, and Tekken 7 have been great for us and the fighting community,” James added. “Arcade Edition really helped redeem Street Fighter V.”
For Those Who Must Prove Themselves
Speaking to the tournaments, many of Arcade UFO’s events and organizational affairs are community driven. Though there are weekly events in several games, it’s mostly folks from the various gaming communities that work on organizing at the UFO venue.
“Tournaments are mostly community-run,” Rob began. “We’ve got plenty of regulars at the arcade who help organize the communities for any given game and they often offer to help us run the tournaments. We’ve got a few weekly, but most casual things going on. There’s not really any massive structure to it, but it’s been a fairly successful turn out. There’s definitely some overlap between the community members who play several fighting games, but each game also definitely has a pretty notable group behind it.”
The Arcade UFO faithful aren’t simply confined to the UFO venue either. To its credit, the owners have been able to claim that some of their regulars have made appearances at major fighting game events throughout the world.
“Yeah, as we mentioned before,” Rob said. “Arcade UFO has sent people to EVO in previous years.”
“We’ve also stayed up on some of the major Street Fighter events,” Matt added. “We recently sent some players to the Co-Op Cup 3rd Strike tournament in Japan. We invite people to come in, practice, train up, and use our place to organize tournaments regularly. It’s been pretty great to see what kind of events people have set up here at UFO.”
What Does An Arcade Owner Play?
Clearly James, Matt, and Rob are enthusiastic about what they do with Arcade UFO. All three were regulars even before they became owners. With that in mind, we asked what their games of choice were during the interview.
“We’re all huge into music games,” Rob began. “And Beatmania 2DX has definitely been a favorite among them. It’s a DJ-style rhythm game and one of the first rhythm game genre to have been released.”
While they all agreed on a shared interest of the music games, James admitted he has had his eyes on a classic fighting title recently.
“I’ve been playing a ton of Soulcalibur lately since they announced Soulcalibur VI,” he explained. “Funny enough. We had actually put in a Soulcalibur II board on one of our machines because we had some extra hardware. It’s been really popular and even more so since the announcement of Soulcalibur VI.”
“I would say that besides the current gen fighting games,” Matt added. “Soulcalibur II is actually one of the most played games here right now."
Making The Music Matter At UFO
When it comes to fighting game tournaments, Arcade UFO has it covered easily, but with the combined interest of its owners in music games, we had to ask if they’ve ever considered tournaments or events based around the rhythm arcades.
“It’s something we want to do more,” James explained. “But they’re so much harder to run because of the style of game they are, the diversity in the music, and the skill gaps in players.”
“It’s just knowing what we can do that makes that competition a little harder,” Rob continued. “Many of us in the music game community know each other and see each other play on a regular basis. We all kind of know how we rank, so it makes it a little trickier to organize.”
That said, the owners didn’t count the possibility of music game events out, and even hinted at some new opportunities in the future of Arcade UFO.
“We’ve done rhythm game events before and it’s most certainly something we want to do again,” Rob expressed. “We’re gearing up this year with some new games in here. It’s nothing we can announce yet and there’s a lot of details we need to nail down in getting those machines in here, but it involves some pretty exciting machines we’ve been asked about. If we can get it done, there will be some great new things at Arcade UFO for music game fans in the near future.”
The Challenge Of Modern Age Import
The aesthetic of Arcade UFO also brought up an interesting point. The fact that most of the machines are authentically Japanese means they must mostly be exported, but few of them (outside the custom built cabinets) are less than a decade old. On this matter, they spoke to one of the biggest challenges associated with getting new games for a Japanese arcade, as well as what keeps new Japanese arcades from coming Stateside.
“One of the issues with doing Japanese-style games in America,” Rob explained. “Is that a lot of the newer game cabinets have a server unit that connects to a server through certain companies and downloads games and game data (like updated builds) to the individual cabinets. The only way for a cabinet to connect to a company’s server is if it’s connecting from a network in a location approved by the company. There’s subscription fees and various protections in place. More importantly, a lot of those companies and the servers for them are in Japan. Some companies won’t sell a subscription to those games outside of Japan, which is why a lot of our modern games like Guilty Gear Xrd and Dragon Ball FighterZ run on PS4 systems set in custom-built cabinets. It’s near impossible to get proper cabinets of some of the newest arcade games outside of Japan for that reason.”
Essentially, what was described is DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) for new arcades and it’s an illuminating detail to a big barrier that most certainly had an effect on American arcades looking to stock the latest machines coming out in Japan. Few Japanese companies producing new arcade machines in this day and age have enough capital invested outside the country to bother with a system that would allow these types of server-run arcades to operate properly.
Even still, the Arcade UFO team has pulled together whatever they could get their hands on and worked tirelessly to ensure their selection of games remains both vintage and fresh for the community that adores them.
Where UFO Is & Where It Goes
Despite any and all challenge, the Arcade UFO team feels good about the future and they’re happy to see that folks are still coming out to support the business.
“It’s been good to see what’s happening so far” Matt proudly stated. “We’ve seen that an arcade like this in America can be done and we’re really happy with where we’ve landed so far. It’s been illuminating that arcades can still be a viable thing in 2018.
“One of the most important things we’ve learned is that small improvements and care can have big payoffs,” Rob added. “We’re one of the only arcades like this in the nation.”
“We have a total mix of high-schoolers, older players, and everything in between with every interest that want to come play the music games or try out new fighting games,” James concluded. “It feels good to be here.”
And truthfully, that might be what matters most. Arcade UFO isn’t the biggest arcade you’ll see, but they serve a very specific type of style up and they do it enthusiastically and well. Even as we came and went, we saw players of all types either going solo or gathering around machines. These are people that dig their games and they dig playing them with others. And if you’ve got an itch to groove to some music, hit a big combo in the newest fighters, or throw down on a classic clash in a more than nostalgic and intimate setting and style, Arcade UFO will be more than worth your visit.
Want to learn more about Arcade UFO? You can find them on their official website. To keep up on their latest events and happenings, be sure to follow them over on Facebook and Twitter as well.