2001 in video games: arcades adapt while Final Fantasy, Pokémon, and The Sims all march on

The number-one arcade game for 2001 shows that times were a-changin', because it's not an arcade game: it's a photo booth.

A couple of names of these number-one "games" popped up in my research: Canvas Shot and Flash Shot, but I couldn't find actual images of either machine, and obviously no gameplay, either. Even the runner-up game, certainly the number-one in North America, was Derby Owners Club, a horse racing game that didn't operate like what had become a standard arcade game.

(photo source in link)

I couldn't find a gameplay option for that one either, but that's because it relied on player cards that you would insert to register your horse in a race and could play it on different machines. It had a huge video screen and seated gameplay console monitors, and looks more like one of the 1970s cabinet games that I was researching at the start of my project. 

In either case, whether it's a photo booth or an oversized racing game, what's clear is that in 2001, after nearly twenty years of home video games stealing more and more of their quarter-paying customers, the arcades were ready to rely on hooks and gimmicks that a PlayStation couldn't offer, just like movie theatres have been doing since coming out of quarantine and trying to woo people back to the cinema with ScreenX, 4DX, and popcorn buckets. 

Meanwhile, on the home front, Pokémon Gold and Silver continues its reign as the best-selling handheld game for the Game Boy Colour (and OG Game Boy, too), while The Sims also keeps its hold on the top spot for home computer games.

On the PlayStation 2, Final Fantasy X makes the leap that I experienced between FFVII and VIII feel like a minor upgrade compared to what was waiting for me in watching this gameplay. And yes, I watched a gameplay video for Final Fantasy X, partly because I was again struggling to find a site that hosted it and partly because the video I found was a crazy forty-something hour-long full playthrough. It's hard to even tell how long it is because it breaks the YouTube counter about two-thirds of the way through.

I won't even pretend that I watched the whole thing, but I did stay with it for the first several minutes and then jumped around to a few different parts while staying away from the ending because, you never know, I might play it someday.

Again, the leap forward is astounding and I'm retroactively really happy for all of the Final Fantasy fans who must have been blown away by this game.