As a follow up to some discussion from a previous post about motion controlling in video games and how that might affect arcade gaming, let me throw something else out there to consider for coin-op arcade gaming – Augmented Reality or Augmented Virtuality (AR or AV), AR involving real world objects that are overlaid with virtual imagery. We have featured a couple of posts about AR being used in the coin-op sector before but it hasn’t seemed to gain a lot of attention so my question to you is – should it? Could AR or AV be the next step in providing a very unique experience to arcade (and even pinball) gaming or is it too much of a gimmick to have any lasting use?
To ignite the neurons, here are a couple of videos I have found which demonstrate some AR/AV uses. Where this generally has to make use of a webcam, that means that it is possible to do on console systems as well but I do not think that should mean that it not be tried anyways. But it also can be used with Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) which could bring us back to virtual reality applications. A good recent example of AV in the arcade industry recently was Sega’s Brick People and Chicago Coin’s Putt Championship Edition so there is some experimenting already going on with the concepts but how far will we see it go?
More example videos after the jump and there are plenty more examples to be found all over youtube.
The Gizmondo AR game
A couple of examples of using a mobile device. Imagine if users cell phones could be used as controllers (although implementation on that could be difficult)
the neon racer is a perfect Example of what the wii cannot not replicate at home. arcade companies need to realise that they are not limited to what can be done in the arcade that cannot be replicated at home and this is a fine example of that game.
what companies need to do is make a long list of what can be done in the arcade that can’t be done at home such as large scale, multiple monitors for e.g. driving games.
people still prefer going to play certain arcade games e.g. the dance dance revolution is a good example because they release a home version for the playstation and even after nearly 10 years since it came to playstation people still prefer the arcade original, not to mention you need alot of space to play and the fact that the dance mats are crap anyway.
people (particuarly crittics) tend to think that because the wii has come out theres no point in going to arcades anymore since you can do stuff at home you can do in the arcade and that they think arcade companies can’t come up with anything that can’t be done at home. thats not true at all.
My personal thought is that games consoles are fun and arcades too and I think they can both co exstist together.
another take is that arcades are mentioned in cartoons like nick e.g. fairly odd parents and arthur in a positive way too so really its just people like game crittics trying to promote home games more because they don’t know what go’s off in the arcade world there for it’s easier to just say that arcades are dead which to me will never be true as long as many people like us and average people still like going to arcades.