First Snippets of the GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2012

This past week, from Thursday to Saturday was an arcade trade show event that took place in Taipei, Taiwan. Not being able to make it there directly we have had to wait for news to trickle out and so far here is what we have.

Website Gamavi.com (Provided by Stinger  Report newsfeed 1202) has some details on the Namco Bandai booth, in particular with the most recent version of their famous Gundam pods and Dark Escape 4D. In the case of the latter that is still on track for a Western release sometime later this year as far as we know but for the Gundam pods, that is still an overseas thing. But this marks the first time I know of that they have been demonstrated in such a manner outside of Japan. So this could mean that finding one of these illustrious pods will become a little easier, if you just so happen to find yourself in Taiwan or China instead of Japan.

With Dark Escape actually on its way to us let me focus on that for the moment.  Namco has apparently had a change of heart in regards to branding their 3D content. Recently at a Dubai trade show we saw that they changed their DeadStorm Pirates 3D to 4D+. I imagine the plus comes in part because DSP4D is a bit like Galaxian 3 in that it takes up a bit of space and four players are

Click for a larger view

involved(Galaxian 3 had six but DE4D using 4 is more then the two the game normally supports in other versions). Dark Escape had the 3D moniker to it last we saw it but now it’s 4D. Now this is with reason – generally in the coin-0p industry any time you have a feature that goes beyond the standard controls and stereoscopic 3D they call it 4D. There is no standard yet at what separates 4D, 5D, 6D or even 7D. It’s all up to marketing departments, kind of along the lines of the “bits” arguments of the late 80s and 90s. What DE4D (which looks better abbreviated now then DE3D did) entails at this point is 3D w/ glasses, surround sound, seat vibration, air blowers and the heatbeat sensor. The article mentions that the game tracks how many people are considered to be scared by the game and it apparently also has something to do with game progression. I think it my change the game in ways like we saw with the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness.

Beyond that link, there are a couple of things to share from Youtube and Facebook in the area of rhythm games. Konami still is pushing their bemani lines in Taiwan where they have a strong audience and they brought the latest version of Sound Voltex Booth and Dance Evolution Arcade.

Really brief video of someone attempting to play Sega’s MaiMai

Also here is a short report from Music Game Fantasia about some of the music content there. (Updated link with English version text!)

More GTI coverage coming later this week, stay tuned!