We’re not sure where this is from but we’re pretty sure that it’s unofficial. Still, it goes to show you how much people would like to have a GH arcade title - there is Guitar Freaks but that is a little bit different than GH in gameplay and of course GH has a lot of the rock ballads people love to play. Either way it looks like someone put a bit of thought and time into building this system with artwork covering most of the cabinet and with a coin mech on there I wonder if more than one of these will be making their way through the underground.
Until I saw the post on Kotaku with their timed exclusive of this footage, I admit that I had never heard of the show called The Middleman. For one it’s on a network I never have a reason to watch and secondly now that I’m running my arcade I only catch late night TV if I’m in the mood for it. But from what I can tell about The Middleman is that it pays homage to plenty of nerdy things and in the case of the footage being discussed, the heroine’s favorite game is an ultra-bloody sidescrolling arcade game called Gut Wrencher 1 (which was made up for this show). I know several guys that would kill for a girlfriend as into video games as this girl is but in the meantime I guess you’ll have to settle for watching this until that special someone comes along (or just move on).
BTW- Sorry, I would embed the clip but WordPress only allows a very small number of video sites to have embedded material through their service and blip.tv is not one of them.
We discussed the newest game by Incredible Technologies just the other day and already there is a video preview of the title up at Youtube. What is slightly unusual about this is the fact that many arcade games don’t get video footage straight from the companies releasing them before the game is released and we usually have to rely on footage from a test location until the final release comes along.
From the video, Power Putt Golf does look like fun. They only show hole-in-one-shots throughout the video to demonstrate the types of things you can do and there are certainly some crazy things that I doubt you would see in a real miniature golf course, like that one where you shoot the ball on top of a volcano/plateau object. A high quality version is available at the actual video page (it’s really too bad that you can’t embed the high quality versions yet) or you can check it out below.
The EVO 2008 Championship Series has come and gone, being held in Las Vegas from the 8th-10th and one of our readers, Chris Ainsworth has kindly sent us a link to his page where he documented his evening at the fighting tourney.
Capcom made quite a display of fighters, providing ten Viewlix cabinets for the event. Eight cabinets featured Street fighter IV while two others featured the latest build for Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Looking at the pictures you’ll notice how most, if not all of the cabinets are two player cabinets yet they are all linked, even on Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. Just to veer off the subject for a moment, I really hope that this is not some new trend they are trying to set - while giving each player their own cabinet has it’s advantages, it also has the disadvantage of costing much more for the operator and taking up more space. I do find it strange that they would go to the trouble of making these 2p cabs if there is no intention of using them in that manner so hopefully it is just an option to link them. I don’t buy for a second that the hardware is incapable of handing two people on the same cabinet, the extra processing involved is minimal in adding a second player especially for this type of game and even if this were true it shouldn’t be difficult to upgrade the hardware as it’s just a custom PC.
Anyways, back to EVO 2008. Who says that fighters are dead? The event here certainly looks like it was a success. They also had Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix running on an Xbox 360 in a kiosk and Blazblue was at the show for at least one day. They also had a number of consoles there but the main focus was on the arcades. From Chris’s description, it sounds like he enjoyed Tatsunoko vs Capcom the most, even though it’s currently in an unfinished state. If Capcom does manage to take care of the licensing then who knows, this could be the next Marvel Vs. Capcom.
In addition to the pics Chris provided, he also took some video, embedded below. Enjoy!
In the latest issue of the trade publication, RePlay Magazine, they have a section called Operator’s Interface where they interview arcade operators under the age of 40 and get their opinions on subjects like how they got involved in the industry, why they choose this industry over others, how do they plan on growing their company, what’s the best part of the job, what is their outlook on the future of the industry, etc. It’s not a new feature but certainly an interesting one where you can get different perspectives on the industry from individuals that have had differing experiences in the same line of work.
I was asked to contribute to this particular issue and I did - writing way too much about my thoughts on the subject than they had space for but I was happy to do it nonetheless. I am the youngest operator from the batch in this particular issue but in the future they will have an article where they will take the information from all the operators they have talked to and summarize it which I am sure will make for a fascinating read. Thanks to RePlay Magazine for giving me this opportunity and if you are an operator under 40, feel free to contact RePlay Magazine and I am sure they would be happy to hear from you and your perspective on the industry.
Way back in September we reported on a new light-gun shooter by Atlus Japan called Vulcan Wars. It was shown at JAMMA 07 and even then there was very little info available on the game and since then the game had disappeared - until now as the game has shown up on a location test in Japan. It looks like the cabinet hasn’t changed much from last September (it’s still gigantic) but unfortunately we still have almost no information on how the game plays (it still looks like you are in a gunship of some sort). Maybe this time it will test well and stick around for us to find out more about it.
UPDATE: I came across a very interesting piece of information about Vulcan Wars. This is not so much a light gun game and there is a reason why it features this type of cabinet. The guns apparently fire “live-ammunition” - BBs to be exact. I guess this explains why the game has been delayed as they have worked on figuring out how to make this work (without causing physical harm to people). From the site where I uncovered this information, it seems that the game is quite difficult. Now I’d like to find out more about how this works and what material they have made the screen out of. [Via Aries Small rooms].
There are many ways to pay for your arcade experience - quarters, tokens, card readers, etc. and naturally quarters have been the staple for the industry for quite sometime now as we are referred to as the ‘coin-op’ industry. But there is a new way for you to pay that was recently seen in Japan and that is through…your cell phone. It might not seem like the likely candidate for such a system at first but seeing how everything else can be done on your phone these days, why not pay for arcade games while you’re at it? The terminals seen by the blog Wired are by Edy and were placed on some Virtua Fighter 5R console at an arcade in Ikebukuro. The system is already supported by all three of Japan’s wireless providers and there are many phones that already have intergrated the technology for use in other services.
As for seeing this system elsewhere, I can only guess as to when it will come around. It depends on how widespread it becomes in other services first but as the writer at the Wired blog points out, it looks like this particular system can be integrated into older cabinets.
Our friend Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report has given an interview to a website called TechRadar in anticipation of his upcoming seminar at the Edinburgh Interactive 2008 show. In the article Kevin discusses current trends in the arcade industry including how they are stacking up against consoles in terms of graphics and power as well as the continuing trend of players to look for ‘casual’ games where they don’t need to dedicate hours and hours to a game in favor of a short burst of fun. Overall it covers why arcades are not down for the count, which is a theme that we hit on often here because I think it is necessary to do so until people in general start believing in the viability of arcades instead of passing them off as dead.
Remember that new fighter called Dark Presence which will feature digitized actors in HD and it will be coming out this year? We certainly do and we have the schwag to prove it. Galloping Ghost Productions kindly provided us with some Dark Presence related mechandise, including a couple of T-Shirts and some pin-on buttons. The quality of it all is pretty nice and I am quite looking forward to playing this game soon when it goes on a location test tour (which I hope to have my arcade, The Game Grid, be a part of).
Anyways, here is the ’schwag’, in all it’s glory (click on the thumbnails to enlarge).
Here is some brief news about the Big Buck Hunter tournaments currently going on. The Regional Qualifiers began yesterday and as a reminder are going until Sep. 7th. To enter one simply needs to make an account on a BBHPro Online machine and play. They also have announced the winners for the RamJam competition, the top 5 of which are from Texas. The BBHPro Regional tourney will lead to the World Championship which has $10k up for grabs, all of which is good news for locations carrying these games. More details are located in the press release after the jump.
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