We have been following the development of the independently made arcade title Friction for a couple of years now and I’m happy to pass along the latest information about the game, coming to us from Coast To Coast Entertainment. Before I get to that press release, here are some links to our previous coverage on the game: First post about the game; First look at the prototype cabinet (w/ videos); Amusement Expo appearance (w/ hands-on video); since then the game has seen some changes and now a 42″ LCD version is in the works, to be released at a later time. The kit however will be made available at IAAPA and at a killer price. With that operators can convert appropriate cabinets (whether it’s an old light gun game like Area 51 or Time Crisis 2 or something else) over to something that is both brand new and fun.
And now for the press release:
Friction, a new 2 player gun game will be released during this upcoming IAAPA show in Orlando, Florida. Friction is a collaborative effort between Chris Cotty, Coast to Coast Entertainment and Friction Game Studios. The game will be initially released in kit form, and a dedicated large screen version will follow. Game play is challenging as you shoot transforming robots intent on exterminating mankind. The kit comes with everything necessary to convert any CRT cabinet. Both the kit and the dedicated game yield impressive earnings while being offered at the most competitive price in the industry. Come see Friction at coast to coast entertainment booth # 2004.
I’ll be sure to drop by the Coast to Coast Entertainment booth and check out the kitted game there, hopefully the LCD version will be ready by Amusement Expo.
Here’s a direct capture video from the game. Note that blood is optional so it can be shut off by the operator if they choose. More videos can be found here.
Go Chris Cotty! Glad to see he is still at it, especially offering a kit! We have been kit starved for awhile now, so if this thing grosses well I could see it going somewhere.
I applaud the effort but this game looks to be extremely basic and a bit out-dated. I can’t see how it can compete with the likes of time crisis/desdstorm pirates or lets go jungle/island (haven’t played island yet but i am assuming here it will be as good or better than the 1st)… it does seem to have a good pacing though but enemy patterns are a bit basic and camera angles are also pretty basic. Granted I haven’t looked at all the vids yet but from what this one shows me we need to up our game just a bit if we want to be taken seriously… i am not trying to stomp on any toes here just my honest opinion…
Too each his own – most people want a game with cutscenes, voice acting, etc. and this has none of that but it was quite fun to play and it was one of the few games at a show I actually bothered to play through the entire way.
The primary market for this will be route/small operators – people running machines in small venues that might have an old gun game on site and need something to liven things up a bit. There has been a dearth of game kits made available in recent years and this will fulfill that need and at a really low price compared to other games in the industry. Games that are solid fun at a low price is something we need more of. We have plenty of $10k+ games out there and plenty of people still don’t take us “seriously” as you suggest so it can’t hurt to have more titles that target the lower end of the market can it?
My problem with Friction is that — in its current state — it is impossible. Your lifebar starts decreasing immediately as some enemies enter the screen, giving you no chance to kill them without taking damage even if you know where they’ll appear. It is even more unfair than Target: Terror, which looked nice but was an awful game. Good gun games give you a way to avoid damage if you are skilled.
But what do I know? Most casual players these days don’t even care about winning vs. losing, they’ll just Continue their way through the game until they win. So maybe this system is genius…
To defend this game, when Target Terror came out it was the same year as Ghost Squad. So let’s see compared to Ghost Squad, Raw Thrills had nothing to compete with. At the same time the game was fun to play and was sold at an attractive price point. I doubt that SEGA sold as many Ghost Squads as Raw Thrills sold Target Terrors. I could afford to purchase Target Terror. Ghost squad? Forget it! Also with the SEGA games when they break down they are waiting to ding you on the parts. Not so with the Raw Thrills games.
In my area the only Dead Storm Pirates is at Dave n Busters. Why? Because no operator can afford this game!
The industry needs more affordable games that are fun to play. Case in point the Nintendo Wii. Everyone laughed when the specs were made available. But if we count how many PS3 and Xbox360s have been sold, they still don’t equal the sales of the Wii. Good value is important even more so than flashy cut scenes and bloated price points that most operators can’t afford to pay.
Crabby, good post!
We are an operator, and bought 5 new Ghost squads, around 10 dedicated Target terrors, and another 12 or so target terror kits. While Ghost squad has been a good game, we did much better with the Target terrors dollar for dollar. This si why we are excited to see a new affordable gun kit. We operate a ton of pizza places that do not have room for cockpit games. We have been stuck with uprights, Extreme Huntings and Target terrors that need to be rotated. But no kits or suitable uprights in the last few years has put the rotation schedule in a huge log jam situation. We need decent affordable kits to be able to keep Round Table and Godfathers sites on the route! The Ghost Squads and other big games, like the Rambo’s we bought last year are great for the bowling and FEC stops, but the return is just not there any more, and like you say, the parts for these games are a killer! Rambo has only been doing around 100.00 a week, and the DLP monitors are dropping like flies. The Target terrors have been reasonable to keep running, and still earn well in relation to these big games with overpriced parts.