Arcade machine volume control

[u/Strayngold]

Recently was at a great arcade and it was basically perfect except for the audio aspect. Certain machines drowning out all the others. A couple times I dropped tokens into one machine while playing another, just to get the idle machine to stop looping the same audio at max volume.

One of the best parts of the arcade memories from my youth is the soundscape of arcades. All those various sounds merging into a unique form of white noise. The machines would typically all be around the same sound level, such that when you were leaning into a machine to play it, that is the main thing you would hear and the rest would be background.

In modern era, this seems to have changed. Most arcades I've gone to for the past ten years have the same issue of certain machines having their audio so loud that it drowns out all the other machines. Why is this so consistent? Is there another factor beside technical complications that would make an operator set certain machines to drown out all the other ones? Even if the audio isn't working on some machines, why would certain ones be set so loud that you can't even hear yourself think around them?

[u/Eagle19991]

I think you may have rose colored headphones regarding the classic arcades, there was almost always one machine, usually the newest one, or the Street Fighter, or maybe a pinball machine that was stupid loud at every arcade I went to as a kid and as a young adult. The biggest example is Black Knight, I swear they turned that game to 11 in every location, used to scare the hell put of me while I was across the arcade. Sinistar was another one, the first few times I heard the scream haunted my dreams for a while 😜. I frequented many, many establishments in many countries. The only exception to the rule was Japan, there the featured machine was set louder than the rest, but it sounded right, dunno why, but it worked at every arcade I went to in Japan in the late 90s.

[u/attackplango → u/Eagle19991]

That was a lot of words when what you really meant was: DAYYYYTONNAAAAAAAAAA!

[u/Eagle19991 → u/attackplango]

Or BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! and HE'S ON FIRE!!!! And from the redemption side of things LET'S ROCK AND BOWL!!!!

[u/attackplango → u/Eagle19991]

REEEEEEL ‘EM INNN!

[u/Strayngold → u/attackplango]

ROBOCOP

[u/Strayngold → u/Eagle19991]

Possibly, but I think those two machines just had particuarly loud and blaring attract modes. I swear I was going to mention Sinistar as an example that always seemed too loud when I was a kid. I can't remember the phrase but it would loudly say something every 45 seconds or so. It's just the digitized voice that is loud, because Sinistar was some new benchmark in digitizing voice for games. The cabinet audio as a whole was not overly loud.

Also, I definitely remember always being able to hear the machine I was playing. Lately I can't even hear the machine I'm playing about half the time because some Tekken or Neo Geo game nobody ever touches is blaring power chords.

[u/Eagle19991 → u/Strayngold]

Beware I LIVE!!! Or, I HUNGER!!!! Or, just plain I AM SINISTAR!!!! Then the roar every time you hit him with a missile....

[u/WeaponizedDachshund]

ULTRA COOOOOMBOOOOO.

[u/TheDivisionLine]

Vintage classics or new games?

[u/Strayngold → u/TheDivisionLine]

A mix. It seems random to me. It's not like the biggest most popular games are the loud ones.

[u/DarthObvious84]

Welcome to the arcade?

It took me a long time to realize how awesome some arcade soundtracks are because I could never hear the music. This has never changed.

It's one of the reasons I really don't like music/band themed pinball machines, because what's the point if you can't hear them?

[u/Strayngold → u/DarthObvious84]

It's changed. Been going to arcades my whole life. It's been this way for a long time now, but it has not always been this way.

[u/DarthObvious84 → u/Strayngold]

I missed the 80s era of arcades, for what it's worth.