'Dancing Arcade Game' Draws Huge Crowds

N E W  Y O R K, Dec. 4 -- The video game with the biggest crowd around it at the Bar Code arcade on a recent Saturday night didn’t feature ultra-violent gun battles or buckets of blood and gore — just some slick dance moves.

In “Dance Dance Revolution,” players score points by dancing in time to the music (see sidebar for a complete explanation).

The peculiar game is one of the top attractions in the Times Square amusement center, and it has become a phenomenon in many arcades on the West Coast, spawning tournaments and luring new customers

It’s provided a welcome change for those worried about video-game violence, including lawmakers in places such as Indianapolis, St. Louis and other cities that are battling to bar minors from playing violent video arcade games without parental consent.

The game’s success also offers game makers a compelling reason to find more family-friendly hits, says Timothy Burke, a Swarthmore College professor who studies pop culture and youth trends.

“Kids are saying, ‘I’ve been waiting for something new to do,’” he says.

The game, which has been described as high-tech combination of the children’s games Twister and Simon Says, is clearly a change of pace from the usual assortment of fighting, racing, and shooting games.

Burke calls it “an exotic, videofied form of karaoke.”

“It puts you at center stage, as if you were the star.”

That kind of novelty is providing a welcome boost for the arcade game industry, which has lost ground to home games and other forms of amusement in recent years.

Its total revenue has fallen from $7.3 billion in 1989 to $5.7 billion last year, and pool tables passed video games in revenue in 1999, according to research by Vending Times, an industry trade publication.

Showing His Skills

At the Times Square arcade, the chance to show off in front of the crowd was what turned Rey Diaz on to Dance Dance Revolution.