Sega has updated the website to their upcoming arcade mech title (which runs off of their new arcade hardware, Ringedge) Border Break and with it, a rundown of how the cabinet works. As interested as I have been in the game itself, I was really curious to see how the cabinet worked since Sega said it would use a touch screen and it had a sort of mouse-like controller as well. In addition to that, they have included a headphone jack (a feature that is certainly not used often enough) and overall the cabinet looks pretty cool thanks to the lighting.
After watching the video below, I am convinced that the mouse controller is pretty cool and if it became standard in arcades then I think it would open the doors for FPS titles to be tried again (anyone up for an OutTriggers update?). at the same time it almost seems like the touch screen in this game isn’t incredibly useful since the mouse could work easily for menu functions and a wheel on the mouse could do things like switch weapons. Either way it looks like an intensely fun game that in one way the style of play reminds me of Star Wars: Battlefront. A Battlefront-like game could certainly work in arcades although this one seems to be a bit complicated for many Western arcade goers. What do you think?
I wish it were a hack n slash, but that’s just me.
BTW it was funny how the guy played it in the video on one token. A Sega game that only needs one token? Yeah right!
yo, the “token” was a 100 yen coin, which is about a dollar. i’m guessing ur american cuz in japan and europe they have more dollar coins in use.
actually I’m from the UK and we use either pound and europe uses the euro. what gave you the idea I was from america?
it might just be me but I find the touch screen idea a bit of a gimmick. I come up with ideas for arcade games in my own time and have been doing so since 1998 and I can think of better things that make way better use of the touch screen genre than this game. man when I leave uni I hope to design arcade games for a living by presenting my ideas to companies like namco, sega, konami, rawthrills etc… I have many original ideas I would love to become reality.
Agree with the gimmick – would have been better to have a flashing button bezel round the side of the screen (like a Gundam cockpit).
I wonder about this game – it makes me think of ‘OutTrigger’ and other FPS attempts by AM4. These guys have come late to the kiosk concept.
I think that the potential for an FPS in arcades is still there as long as you have the right game and the right control scheme. From this video, it looks like the mouse that Sega made works perfectly and as long as it’s durable enough to take a beating, I’d like to see more of this in arcades. Since Activision cozied up with the idea of an arcade game with Guitar Hero, I think that they could be approached to do a game like Nazi Zombies for arcades, just give it a Border Break-like control scheme (minus the touch screen), add tons of maps to it that the consoles don’t have and you’d have a hit on your hands.
And if no one believes me on that one, my tiny arcade has a PC LAN and I have Nazi Zombies on my PCs via CODWAW. Since I started running it a little more than a month ago it has racked up over 408 hours of play between 7 PCs. As I type this, 3 people are in here playing it co-op right now. None of my arcade games gets the same amount of attention sadly. Something like this has an attractive potential in arcades, it just has to be tapped by someone with the courage to take it up.
I could see this style of gaming becoming extremely popular in many arcades, especially ones geared towards LAN play as Shaggy had mentioned. This concept definitely targets the new generation of gamers back into arcades, people are becoming accustomed to technology being more technical and involved. The technology is there, cost efficient and easy to built..so why not throw in a mouse, joystick, touchscreen and of course a full control panel with buttons.
The key component that will appeal to most gamers is the mouse which creates a whole new level of competitive game play for all of the major FPS titles. This type of cabinet allows owners to maximize profit by eliminating operators and simply upgrading the games/hardware based on what is in demand. For example, a new graphics card runs for about $100-$200, and every year they release a new game for around $60. This concept is much more feasible then buying new machines or sharing earnings.
I do hope this gets translated so it comes to the west. if sega and other japanese arcade companies did more research into western arcades and came up with things that would make their games become more globally release and found good ways of doing this there wouldn’t only be in the money for themselves but it would actually improve the popularity of arcades in the west and the rest of the world. take tekken 6 for exsample, it was released almost 2 years ago and is still going strong in the arcade.
this looks epic to me… presentation looks really great! i would love to give this one a try and i hope it does well out there in the east.