Here are a few quick links to enjoy as you start the weekend. The first few cover newsfeeds 1263-65 via 
UPDATE: Examu has announced that they will be releasing an update to Arcana Heart 3 called Love Max !!!!!. It’s just being released on the NESiCAxLive download service though, so for now it will just be a Japan thing. [Source]
First off, some articles about the recent DNA Conference that was held in LA earlier this month. We’ve discussed this conference already but these articles at the Polygon website present a little more information about the ideas behind the conference. In a nutshell, designers are seeing the future of arcade entertainment involving more social media, smartphones, and huge multiplayer experiences that require large groups of people participating in the same location at the same time as opposed to Massive Multiplayer Online experiences. I suppose we could call these ideas Massive Multiplayer On-Site Arcade Games, or MMOSAGs. That’s not from the articles, just my own thoughts on the trend. Article 1: The Death of the Arcade Could Mean The Future Of Out-Of-Home Gaming / Article 2: The Future of Arcades Is Wet, Huge, Tiny, Communal, and Impossible On A Console.
Next up, for those Sega fans out there, here is a Kickstarter project that involves a book that is looking to cover the “unofficial history of Sega” and is titled Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Sega Enhanced Edition. Being an Enhanced Edition, they are looking to take the pre-existing book and make it better and of course since arcade games are an essential part of what Sega has done over the decades, there will be plenty of that to enjoy. The project has 24 days left to reach the Kickstarter funding goal.
We knew that Konami was cooking up some sort of update to their Guitar Freaks/Drum Mania arcade series called Gitadora but what we had seen of the cabinets was only partial. Here’s a picture of the new drum set via Ariesu.com. No I don’t expect we will see these out West, except for at a Round 1 location perhaps.
Disney is holding a special 30th Anniversary event for TRON tomorrow in LA. Here is the website. I understand that this particular event will have live music but honestly, why not do a Fathom event where the thing is broadcast to select theaters around the country for fans of TRON who don’t happen to live in LA? I don’t get that really, as it seems like a decent opportunity to build on the TRON brand. No, Legacy did not reach anywhere near a level of AVATAR in terms of earnings but they never should have expected it to, much like the misjudgement back in 1982 that TRON was supposed to decimate Star Wars in the same way. The movie still made about $400 million which is more than the budget and it certainly could have done much worse. And we got TRON Uprising out of it, which I’ve found entertaining for the few episodes I’ve managed to catch.
And finally, an article over at Computerandvideogames.com about what it was that made Mortal Kombat (and moreso the 90s) so great. This is where I realize that the 90s to me was like the 70s to my parents. Hurray on that one? But on a more serious note, a question this article brings to mind – can arcades do what Mortal Kombat did and shock its way into success? Seeing how the violence in modern games is several levels above what it was when such things were “new” back in the 90s, I doubt that. At least, not in a way that wouldn’t entail jail time of some form.
BTW – I do have that Sega interview on stand-by to publish, I’m just waiting on some media to make it more visually interesting. It should be up anytime now, but Sega is of course very busy getting ready for IAAPA in a few short weeks so hang tight.
