(Click on the image above for a more detailed view)

We first heard about a Terminator Salvation arcade title way back at ASI in March and except for a brief view of the game on a location test in June, there has been little else to say about the game since information surrounding it has been kept under wraps. But thanks to a new press release sent out by Betson today, we have our first proper look at the game, including what should be the final cabinet design. As you can see from the picture above, they have changed the cabinet up quite a bit since the location test (which at the time was using just a Big Buck Safari Deluxe cabinet with different artwork. The size of the guns is positioning this game to compete with titles like Rambo Deluxe or Ghost Squad Deluxe  and I assume we’ll be able to find out how much the game will cost next week.

According to the press release (which is attached after the post break below) they also added a new reloading feature to the game that they are calling Clip action reload. While the press release doesn’t get into any details on how that works, it appears that you will reload by hitting the clip on the bottom of the gun. Where this will be at IAAPA next week I will be getting some more pictures, video and info on this new title, which will be appearing in arcades “soon”. As a side note, this is NOT the same game that graced the consoles earlier this year so no worries in the event that you were disappointed with that game.

UPDATE: Click here to watch a video I took of the game from the IAAPA show floor.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Terminator Salvation Soon to Appear in an Arcade Near You!

Carlstadt, NJ – November 13, 2009 – Play Mechanix devastates the video gaming world with the release of its latest arcade shooter, Terminator Salvation Arcade the latest thrill ride in the legendary Terminator Sci-Fi Franchise.

Inspired by the Halcyon Company/Warner Brothers worldwide release, Terminator Salvation Arcade captures all of the thrills and excitement of the 2009 mega-hit movie and then some. No expense was spared to design a cabinet that captures the essence that is Terminator Salvation. Adorned with glowing neon rifle holders and a life-sized replica T-600 model Terminator marquee topper with glowing red eyes, Play Mechanix has created the ultimate showcase piece. An impressive 42″ HD LCD displays in-game action cinematics of unprecedented realism. The players are thrust into the future and right on the firing line as Terminators of all kinds attempt to squash their resistance. Heavy-duty recoiling rifles, featuring a NEW “Clip” action reload feature, adds a depth of realism unparalleled in any arcade shooter. Players can add to their arsenal of weapons by securing numerous powerups including grenades, shotguns, rocket launchers and devastating miniguns. Full time 2 player play coupled with over 1 hour of cinematic gameplay spectacle maximizes high traffic, high replay and longevity in earnings. This game will surely delight arcade players and fans of all ages.

The sheer presentation value of Terminator Salvation Arcade will help assist operators to secure prime locations and premium real estate within those locations.  The traffic volume created with this exciting new shooter will promote increased earnings and extend players’ stay at the game through compelling and addictive game play. With the continued support of the Terminator franchise, this arcade shooter will be a high earner for years to come.

Please stop by our booth at IAAPA #6432 for a close-up look of this and other product on display. If you have any questions please feel free to call us at 201-438-1300 ext. 3408 or email us at info@betson.com.

Terminator Salvation Arcade is an official licensed product. Licensed from Halcyon Games, LLC.

About Raw Thrills

Former Midway game designer Eugene Jarvis founded Raw Thrills Inc. in 2001 to create the next generation of arcade game entertainment. After creating content for IGT, Raw Thrills has gone on to design and release the best selling titles Target: Terror, The Fast and the Furious, The Fast and the Furious Super Bikes and The Fast and the Furious Drift.

About Play Mechanix

Founded in 1995 by George Petro, a former game designer at Midway Games, Play Mechanix, Inc. has become the leading designer of coin-operated video games. In just under 15 years, Play Mechanix has created over 40 titles for the Arcade, Bar and Casino industries including the best-selling video hunting series Big Buck Hunter, Deal or No Deal Arcade and I Dream of Jeanie for IGT. Play Mechanix recently released Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season, the long awaited update for Big Buck Hunter Pro. Play Mechanix, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raw Thrills, Inc.

About Betson Enterprises

Headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, Betson Enterprises with 11 distribution offices nationwide is the leading coin operated distributor of amusement and vending equipment, coin operated parts, and service in the United States. With over 75 years of experience and leadership in the coin-operated industry, we will help you make informed decisions that are best for your business.

Betson offers entertainment and vending solutions for your business through our relationships with the operator community. For locations looking for a simple and profitable solution or vendors looking for equipment that fits any situation, Betson Enterprises can help you. Betson Enterprises has an industry proven reputation for quality and customer focus. For more information on Betson Enterprises, visit www.betson.com or call 1-800-524-2343.

(Thanks to reader kieranmay for the tip)

We have already mentioned Namco’s upcoming light-gun title known as Dead Storm Pirates a couple of times but up until now we really haven’t seen much other than the game cabinet. Now thanks to a new update to Highway Games, we have a much more detailed look at the game, which includes screenshots and more. First off the game will have five stages – four that the players can choose from and a final stage. Secondly, only the deluxe cabinet will feature the motion base and there will be a slightly smaller SD version although it will maintain the cockpit cabinet style so the players are shielded from outside noise to a certain extent.

Previously we have compared this to Sega’s Let’s Go Jungle and I still feel like it is maintaining that feel to it where the game will be stronger as a co-op game as opposed to a single player affair. In fact according to the brochure for the game (which is all in English interestingly enough, which indicates that this will be targeting markets outside of Asia) it labels the game as a “2 player closed booth gun style game”. We have already discussed the helm control in previous discussions on the game but I think that it’s a great addition which should shake up the feel of how the game works, almost combining a little bit of arcade racing with arcade light-gun shooting. Click on the thumbnails below to see the shots from the brochure.

[Dead Storm Pirates @ Highway Games] [Discuss on the Forums]

If you’re thinking: “that Moomba doll looks a bit small…?” then you’re right, because it is! Uzay resized it to just under 9 cm tall (originally it’s about 20 cm tall). The tiny papcercraft Nintendo DS Lite by Sonicscape Jun proves it! ;o)

Besides Lulu’s Moomba doll, Uzay200 has already built lots and lots of my models, like this NES Zapper for instance; don’t let the “holes” in the wall fool you though, because although my paper NES Zapper is life sized and the trigger moves, it doesn’t really shoot anything (just like the real thing! ;o)

And here’s another nice build by Uzay2000, by the way: Zora armor Link (and the Sword of the Phoenix in the background).

But wait there’s more, much more! ;o) Take for instance this Homer Simpson, built in just two days!

Earlier, Uzay2000 made Final Fantasy X Auron, and also what I think is probably my hardest papercraft model to date: Super Smash Bros. Melee adult Link!

It was a difficult model to build, Uzay2000 said, so it took him about a week to finish; which is actually pretty fast! (but he didn’t build the sword arm until a month later ;o)

I think Uzay2000 is a bit of a Zelda fan, because he also built young Link and Fierce Deity Link from Majora’s Mask. Young Link took him almost a week to complete, and for Fierce Deity Link, he split up the work building the legs on the first day, the body the second day, and the head and sword on the third day.

But Uzay2000 doesn’t only build Zelda models; of course he built Auron, but he also built Cloud, from my Kingdom Hearts version!

You must really like papercraft to build all these models, or be a really big Zelda/Final Fantasy fan!

Or both. ;o)

Thank you for building these Ninjatoes’ papercraft models!

Taito has another new light-gun shooter that they are showing off in Japan (the other being Elevator Action: Death Parade) and from this recent public demonstration of Music Gun Gun at one of Taito’s arcades in Japan, it looks like the game was interesting enough to grab some attention from the crowds passing by. From all appearances the game looks like it will be a shooting gallery style title with different mini-games available to play. As the title of the game implies there is is a musical element to the game as well but at the moment it is unclear as to how that actually works out. For more info on the public event behind this, click here.

UPDATED: Thanks to Aaron Auzins, here is a detailed description of how the game works.

The closest way to describe Music Gun Gun to American audiences would be akin to playing Elite Beat Agents by firing at the screen to activate circular timing markers. Players can choose a song from a menu and the gameplay allows for up to two players to participate in the rhythm-shooting stages. The timing markers appear onscreen with a circular dial on the outside that travels clockwise – if the dial travels the entire 360 degrees, the player misses the “note.” While players are shooting in time to the music, what is actually happening onscreen is players are in pursuit of an “enemy” that throws objects at the players. These timing markers indicate when these items would “hit and damage” the player, so the actual gameplay is in destroying objects hurled at the player, but it is done in rhythmic fashion. Of course, timing comes into play as if players shoot the circle as the projectile reaches the circle (it seems players in the videos are doing this at about 10-11 o’clock clockwise if you can imagine a clock), they receive a “perfect” rating, while being slightly off before or after the timing window results in a “good.”

The August 15 Ikebukuro location event report details a good turnout, with the author of the report being a little worried at first since at the beginning event, there were very few people stopping, but the picture displayed in the Arcade Heroes story shows the eventual evening turnout with many people checking out the game. The two cosplayers are modeled after the in-game characters Tama and Momo.
[Discuss on the forums]

The Nintendo Wii Light Gun is set to do again the
past year’s trace of being the most
chosen thing this year also. Its comparative cost
effectiveness has endeared it to players. Also the obligation of
bodily activity while playing notches up its
demand as well. Everyone Everybody seems to be in love
with the Wii Light Gun. Even untrained
people have been concerned to the Wii. One of
the basis why the Wii has become so
well-liked is its instructiveness and for those who
want to get or stay on top form the Wii will
definitely help out.

When you inspect the Wii games
package you will find that it comes along with Wii sports
games which are mini-sports games. These will provide you
with practice in and keep fit by using the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers. Your Wii will
normally
come with the Wii Sports disc and this will have a number of games
including bowling. All the games here
engage the user in a level of
activity linked with each game
and thus serves as a good workout. There have been many
groups who have lost
weight or gotten on top form playing
Wii.

With the Nintendo Wii Lightgun specially you
are constantly in action and you can change
your level of play to raise your
level of condition. You should treat it as you would
do, going to the gym. That is, decide which days you want to
get a workout using the Wii and do
it. Make sure your intensity is at a level that is
challenging and that you play the games for a reasonable enough of
time so that you do get the benefit of exercising.

Many of the games included in the Wii package are Olympic
style games which mean that you will get a
dynamic workout whenever you play. You can
give the 100m aquatics game and do the freestyle for you
will surely get a great workout from it.

There are much more accessories for the Wii and
for extraordinary games available. So you can
play WW2 games or special
Ego-Shooter Games (House Of Dead) with specially
planned weapons and light guns.

With the Wii Fit Balance Board you perform your aerobic or
even play scating in a realistic manner.

All of these Nintendo Wii accessories and Wii Lightguns add up to
form an impressive array of gaming and leisure
capabilities.

The Nintendo Wii is set to go over the

past year’s record of being the most

favored thing this year too. Its comparative cost

effectiveness has endeared it to players. Besides the must of

bodily activity while gaming notches up its

claim as well. All seems to be in love

with the Wii console. Even uninitiated

people have been attracted to the Wii. One of

the cause why the Wii has become so

well-liked is its instructiveness and for those who

want to get or stay healthy the Wii will

definitely help out.

When you take a look at the Wii games

package you will find that it comes along with Wii sports

games which are mini-sports games. These will provide you

with live out and exercise fun by using the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers. Your Wii will

normally

come with the Wii Sports disc and this will have a number of games

including tennis. All the games here

appoint the user in a level of

motion connected with each game

and thus serves as a good workout. There have been many

groups who have lost

weight or gotten healthy playing

Wii.

With the Nintendo Wii Blaster mainly you

are constantly in action and you can change

your level of play to boost your

level of health. You should treat it as you would

do, going to the gym. That is, choose which days you want to

get a workout with the Wii and performexecute. Make sure your intensity is at a level that is

challenging and that you play the games for a reasonable enough of

time so that you do get the benefit of exercising.

Many of the games comes with in the Wii package are Olympic

style games which mean that you will get a

dynamic workout whenever you play. You can

give the 100m aquatics game and do the freestyle for you

will surely get a great workout from it.

There are much more controllers for the Wii and

for extraordinary games available. So you can

play War games or special

Ego-Shooter Games (House Of Dead) with specially

planned weapons and light guns.

With the Wii Fit Balance Board you perform your aerobic or

even play scating in a realistic manner.

All of these Nintendo Wii controllers and Wii Lightguns add up to

form an impressive array of gaming and entertainment

capabilities.

Taito’s new update of one of their classic properties, Elevator Action: Death Parade isn’t due to hit Japanese arcades until November of this year but they now have a website set up for the game that will certainly be a place for occasional bits of info to come along on the light-gun rendition of this classic. We still have no idea if Taito will release this game in other markets – they previously have released games like Chase HQ2 through different channels in the US and Europe but beyond that we don’t see many Taito games made for markets outside of Japan these days. I imagine that EADP would work out pretty well in the US/European market assuming that people leave the elevator doors in front of the screen alone (which is one of the more interesting features that this game has). In case you have missed out on EADP, here’s a video of the game in action from AOU2009:

[Elevator Action Death Parade Official Site]

Namco has announced that their new title Razing Storm (which we have talked about quite a bit already and I recently got some hands-on time with the game at ASI) is now in full production and that as such it should be available worldwide shortly.  The game was quite popular at ASI and for FECs/arcades that pick it up, I imagine that it will be an eye-catcher at those locations for some time. As such we have moved Razing Storm into the Already Released category of our Arcade Release list for 2009.

[Via Namco America News] [Discuss on the Forum]

Hey, hey, it’s rumor time again, this time it’s about another Bale-Out! Just kidding, although the rumored game will have something to do Christian Bale in a sense. As you might know, one big movie that many people are looking forward to this year is the new Terminator movie, known as Terminator Salvation, set to be released on May 21st 2009. And rumor has it, according to an unnamed but reliable source of ours that a major arcade studio is looking to release a light-gun title based upon the new movie, later this year. Which studio that is they did not say but our source did state that the game currently looks “astounding” and should turn some heads when it comes out. I did try to find out about new releases from the various manufacturers at ASI but they were all silent on that point so I can only guess as to who might be working on such a title (which it could be any of them).   As soon as we find out more in an official sense we’ll be sure to pass it along but until then, what do you think if this holds true?

Personally I have not seen much on this movie yet, admittedly I need to catch up on the trailers although from what I have seen and heard, it sounds like it should be a good one and Terminator always seems to be the perfect fit for a light-gun arcade title, as it was in 1991 with Midway’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Stay tuned, we’ll be trying to find out more.

Little update: I have noticed that some commentors on sites linking to this post are wondering where they can find an arcade near them. Just a friendly reminder that you can check out the websites Arcade Finder and Arcade Fly to help you locate an arcade where you can then go and bug them about getting new arcade titles like Terminator or anything else that is coming along.

Oh and as for an update on the rumored title this post mentions, I have also been told that the game will not use mounted guns like in the T2 arcade title, but will use free movement guns connected to the cabinet, like we see with most arcade light-gun games. Of course who knows if they change their mind after testing, although personally I like having free guns more than mounted ones.

I also have added a little note to our Brazilian friends who are checking out this post in droves after the break below.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Para as pessoas que estão lendo esse artigo no Brasil (eu estou vendo que tem muitas pessoas vindo aqui da MSN), uma anotação a respeito deste post para voces! Embora que sou Americano, eu já morei no Brasil por dois anos e pouco, aonde eu aprendi como falar portugues e casei com uma Brasileira de MG também.

De acordo com ou rumore que recembemos o outro dia, uma empresa grande de fliperama vai lançar um jogo no fim desse ano que é baseado no novo filme do Terminator Salvation.  A fonte dessa informação vem pra gente de uma pessoa bem confiavél que já nos deu informaçoes no passado que provaram ser corretos, então é extremamente provavel que é verdade. Eu não sei se ou outro jogo de arcade que foi baseado no Terminator lançou no Brasil nos anos 90 (chamado de Terminator 2: Judgement Day), mas pelo que falou, esse novo jogo vai ser um pouco diferente daquele velho jogo e os graficos vai ser incriveis. Vamos ter mais informação a respeito desse jogo daqui nos meses seguintes e eu acho que vai ser bem legal.

Até mais!

Namco’s latest light-gun shooter will soon land in arcades (release is listed for March 2009) and in advance of that, Namco America has issued a press release on the game. There isn’t a lot of new information on the game that we didn’t know beforehand but, I did not know that this was put together by the same team who works on the Time Crisis series and they get into a little more detail on how the digital surround sound system works. I just hope that the machine guns won’t cost nearly as much as Crisis Zone’s gun did, which was (and still is) a bit of a joke.We also have a new screenshot of the game, click on it on the right to enlarge.

Also for a brief note Namco America’s arcade portal, namcoamerica.com has been updated with a new look. It’s probably been like this for a while so I admit that I missed out on it but I’ll look at keeping an eye on it more often.

Hit the post break for the press release

Razing Storm: Storms The Industry

Razing Storm is ready to explode into the coin-op industry. From the team that

brought you the infamous Time Crisis series, comes the greatest machine gun

shooter to hit the market. What separates Razing Storm from other shooting games

on the market is the combination of a creatively futuristic game play and the

arrangement of top of the line audio and visual components.

Razing Storm immediately engages the player into a stirring storyline of vital

missions that will decide the fate of the United States of America. Players are given

the option in link mode, to team up against hundreds of enemy soldiers, and

demolish the fully interactive environment. Buildings, furniture, windows,

appliances, you name it; everything can be destroyed! Some levels even make use

of other heavy firearms in addition to the machine gun, such as the cluster shot and

the rocket launcher! Using the foot pedal, the player can duck, hide, and reload

with an interactive step. But one of the most innovative features of Razing Storm is

the advanced enemy AI that reacts to the style of each player so everyone has a

unique experience.
Alongside its incredible game play Razing Storm’s has stunning System 357 graphics

that come to life in HD on the 60″ DLP monitor mounted just feet from the player.

Digital Surround-Sound blasts out of the speakers and makes the game louder and

more realistic as it separates gunfire, voice commands, background music, sound

effects, and bass into different speakers. Not to mention, the innovative heavy

recoiling machine gun giving the player the feeling of every explosive vibration.

Razing Storm will be available March of 2009!

So I recently finished playing ‘The House of the Dead: Overkill’, and even though it was way too short, it sure was fun. Here’s my review of the game.

I’ve been a fan of ‘The House of the Dead’-series for a long time, ever since my brother came back from his trip to Hong Kong back 1996 and told me about the arcade shooter he played there. Zombies, guns, lame ass dialogues, etc. I wanted to play the game so bad. Especially because I’ve been watching horror movies ever since I was a kid. So throughout the years, I’ve played every game from the ‘The House of the Dead’-series, and whenever I go to an arcade hall, I can’t leave without playing at least one game of the series. Hell, I even watched Uwe Boll’s movie, (no, I’m not proud of it…), because it was based on the game. And yes, I know there’s a second movie, but I don’t feel like watching that and shatter my dreams of this cool series. And I think I watched all the recent of zombie movies about a month ago as well (‘Land of the Dead’, ‘Day of the Dead’, ‘Diary of the Dead’, basically everything that ends with ‘…of the Dead’). So I got pretty exited when this game came out.

So what’s the game like? Well, it’s a rail shooter, so not much to say about the gameplay I guess. It’s pretty basic, you see zombies running toward you, and you shoot them and watch them lose limbs or explode into a puddle of red goo. Not much new, and the graphics…well…it’s a Wii game, what do would you expect?

Maybe, it’s just my TV, but this screenshot sure looks better than my TV itself. Maybe I should get an HD TV…hm…

But anyway, the graphics aren’t that good, the gameplay is pretty old school, so what is good about this game? Well, maybe you’ve seen the trailers already, but the game is in a totally different style than the other games. Below is a video of the developer’s diary, so you can see the style of the game a bit.

So in the game you play Agent G (from the other ‘The House of the Dead’ games) and Isaac Washington. The whole game revolves around the two of them going after a guy named Caesar and finally lead them to an [spoiler] incestuous mad warden [/spoiler]. Yep, that’s right, there’s some weird shit in the game alright. But their whole trip toward the end is really funny. Here’s a little screen of the two main characters.

So on the left you see Agent G, the cool agent who’s even too cool to tell anyone what the G stands for. On the right we have Washington. This guy is basically Samuel L. Jackson when it comes to his vocabulary, only 10x worse. He drops a f*ck, motherf*ck, mutherf*cker or a combination of the three, along with some other bad ass words in every sentence. I personally think the dialogues are really really funny, but I’m sure some people may think it’s too much. But it’s a grindhouse-style game, sex, gore and violence is supposed to be there. The style of the game is just amazing, every mission is presented as grindhouse movie and there’s this very wrong country rock soundtrack. It all fits together very well and I really enjoyed it.

So back to the gameplay, the only new thing here is that you can purchase and upgrade weapons, and you can carry 2 of them on every mission. After every mission you get some more money to buy more upgrades. Another new feature is the slow-mo item. When you hit this item, everything slows down; and I do mean everything. Music, reloading, movement, etc. The funniest thing is that the music slowly starts to speed up again and you hear this fast forwarding in the music. Though I didn’t find this item very useful (it’s only useful if you play with the cross-hair so you have more time to aim), I just used it because I like how the music slows down.
Another huge difference with the previous games is that the boss fights are way too easy. The first boss puts on quite a fight, but the rest of them can’t seem to hurt the player at all. Compared to the almost impossible boss fights in the previous games, these are way too easy. But at least that means you can finish the game, because I think I never finished ‘The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return’ on my Wii, the boss fights are impossible. I remember putting a fortune into the arcade machines and still, I never finished either one of them.
Another thing I noticed is that when playing as Player 1, you get a lot more attacks than Player 2 does. And most of the time, it’s because the zombies are just outside of the screen, and all you see is an arm attacking you. It’s kinda annoying because it’s very hard to see that arm and even harder to shoot it. If they made the camera like ‘Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles’ it would already be a lot better. In that game, you could move the camera a bit even though it’s on the rail, so you can get a clear shot at things.
And one last thing, the game is very short, I mean, you can finish it in an hour or so? Though it’s longer than ‘Ghost Squad’ on the Wii (which was about half an hour long) it’s still too short. But you unlock the director’s cut after the original story mode, and I have yet to play that. Hopefully that one is a bit longer.

So yeah, the game is fun, the style is great, it’s just a bit short and the camera can get on your nerves. I would have rated it 4 stars, but because of the length of the game, it doesn’t deserve that.

Rating:

The arcade scene in Japan is starting to get a taste of what’s to come and while the show has not officially started yet, several different Japanese manufacturer AOU websites have been updated with some info on the games they are showing off and Japanese arcade news site are picking up on the info. Let’s check the lists in alphabetical order (click on any thumbnails to enlarge):

CAVE: Visit their AOU site here

Everyone’s favorite maker of crazy shmups will be showing DeathSmiles 2 at the show. Should be fun to watch people play this one.

Examu: No AOU site I can find

The makers of Arcana Heart 2 will be showing off their latest 2D fighter, Demon Bride. I recall being told that we could see more games from Examu being released in in the States by Andamiro but I need to check up with them to see if that will still be the case or not. I found some shots of Demon Bride on the French arcade fan news site Neo Arcadia, it looks pretty awesome if you ask me.

Konami: Visit their AOU site here

So far nothing new to report from what I can find.

Namco Bandai: Visit their AOU Site here

Same as Konami.

SEGA: Visit their AOU Site here.

In addition to stuff we had heard about like Virtua fighter 5R and the mecha game Border Break, they have revealed a shmup game called Noah RAJIRUGI, a 2D fighter (colored me somewhat surprised there!) called the KERUBERUSU project , WCCF 2007-2008 is there for the football/soccer fans, and a new “family racing game” called AIKYATCHI (or the translator calls it “Battle strongest fastest racer”) was revealed. Aikyatchi uses an idea Sega seemed to be really falling in love with, the racing game where you have two players in one seat. It’s graphically behind their other recent racing games though. No pics yet of Border Break but click on the thumbnails below to see the games mentioned above (they are ordered in the same pattern as I mentioned them).

Taito: Visit their AOU site here

The game I have wanted to see from Taito the most is the reboot of Elevator Action, which they are calling Elevator Action: Death Parade. Sadly, the page they have on this reveals only a 3D rendering of the cabinet with the elevator doors closed over the screen. I’ll be keeing an eye out to find more on this one. They have revealed a new multiplayer party game, ala mini-games for the Wii in arcade form (which has been done before BTW with games like Panic Park but surprisingly we haven’t seen more of these kind of games in arcades lately) called Nippon Seigneur! (or maybe Senyo Kyotai, I’ve found two different places giving this a different name) and they are also showing off their pogo-stick controlled game “Hoppingurodo” (rough translation obviously). They also have a game called Haunted Museum listed on the site that is some sort of gun theater shooting game but that’s about all I could find out on it.

There is a little more but I’m out of time right now so I’ll get to it tomorrow. Tchau for now.

[Discuss on the Forums]

Play Mechanix just wanted me to pass along the newest online tournament for Big Buck Safari and once again, 20 people have a chance at winning some cash. They also have simplified the process for claiming your prize, where you go to the Winner’s Circle on BigBuckSafari.com instead of calling a phone number. The tournament is running now on online enabled versions of BBS. Good luck!

[Big Buck Safari website] [Discuss on the Forum]

It isn't really his fault.

By simply making the duration of the success song less then the duration of the failure sound, Nintendo made it more important not to miss then to actually shoot the ducks. It’s the dog’s sound and length actually breaks the gamer’s concentration, not the dog itself.

By Justin Baumgardner

Nintendo had no idea what they were really getting themselves into when they created Duck Hunt and released it with the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was simple enough: hunt a few ducks, destroy a few clay disks. There was moderate challenge there, and it was enough to keep you (and sometimes a friend) interested for a period of time.

But what Nintendo didn’t foresee was the sheer amount of frustration the game actually fed into the veins of gamers. It was bad enough that you had no idea how the Zapper worked, and why it had atrocious accuracy on some days over others. However, the addition of a particularly joyful canine made you want to rip your hair out towards the end of your gaming session.

Duck Hunt’s Fatal Flaw – It isn’t the dog. It’s the sound.

While the game is fun for the first few minutes of playing it, the software’s design actually prevents a player for playing long periods of time. This comes from the reward/punishment system instilled into the game’s mechanics.

The short-duration success sound for shooting a duck is extremely fast and rushes the player right onto the next round, whereas the taunting dog is almost double in length. This doesn’t seem like much of a problem. However, when you are in a groove of successfully shooting ducks in consecutive rounds and you miss – it’s the dog’s sound and length actually breaks the gamer’s concentration not the dog itself.

Look at a majority of your favorite games. When you do something right, you get rewarded with a tune, or fun sound, or something else consistent with your perception of success. If you were to do something wrong, you may only get a sharp tone or a “try again” style screen. You are encouraged to keep playing. It is fun to see that you can eventually succeed in whatever game you are trying to beat.

With Duck Hunt, things are the exact opposite. You are hardly awarded for completing a round, and you are laughed at when you can’t complete it. The image of the dog (as taunting as you might think) is actually only part of what makes you so frustrated when playing through Duck Hunt.

The dog in Duck Hunt is a prime example of classical conditioning. You are conditioned by the game to work for the happy “success tone” through its insanely easy first few levels. However, as it gets more difficult, you are discouraged to miss by an annoying 8-bit laugh. Where is that laugh coming from? The dog. Now, you are afraid to miss. You don’t want to be insulted and laughed at. However, notice that you don’t actually hate the dog when he is picking up the birds you shot. You aren’t thinking about him. You’re only thinking about not missing the birds.

The game trains its players to not want to miss, instead of just enjoying it for what it is. By simply making the duration of the success song less then the duration of the failure sound, Nintendo made it more important not to miss then to actually shoot the ducks. Players actually are worried they won’t hit the duck, instead of having fun trying to shoot them. The simple discrepancy in sound durations is what made the game frustrating, not the dog. The flapping of the duck’s wings don’t help either, as they act as a sort of “ticking” for the time bomb that is to ensue.

Look at a game like Eets for the PC or XBox (Gameplay video). When you successfully complete a puzzle, you get rewarded with a fanfare and congratulatory explosion of colors. When you fail? The game simply says “Bummer” and lets you try again. You easily move past that “bummer” because you want to be successful and solve the puzzle. With Duck Hunt, the sound durations are reversed. You easily move past the “success” sound, because you are fearful and bracing yourself for the “failure” laugh. There is no fun in gaming with fear.

So, Nintendo…

You didn’t know better. We forgive you. Releasing an 8-bit game back in 1985 was a huge accomplishment. Creating a light gun was genius and innovative. We aren’t going to flip out because one game made us angry.

However, the question remains:
The last time you played Duck Hunt, were you happy when your gaming session was over?

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Of course, classical conditioning aside, you always wanted to do this:

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Leave your comments below! We’d  love to hear from you!

I’ve changed my relax-around-the-house outfit from a long green jersey dress.

I now wear a Velcro white terry-cloth wrap-around lined with pink with rainbows printed all over it. Yes it is as ridiculous as it sounds, and I love it.

Also, I’m thinking of dropping $20 on this gem.

http://www.nerdyshirts.com/duck-huntin.html

Yeah, that’s all I had to say. Happy Monday!

AMOA is here and with it plenty new stuff to talk about. But today we don’t have just any news to talk about – it’s not every day we get to introduce to you a new company that is joining the fray of the arcade industry!

The name to remember – Friction Game Studios. Based in Los Angeles California, they have been working for some time on their first game known as Friction and soon you’ll be able to see it for yourself, either as an operator or a player.

Friction itself is a light-gun title where the gameplay looks to fit between Area 51 and F.E.A.R. (one the game’s designers is a fan of the latter). You play through three huge levels where you fight against hordes of robotic foes and on top of that there is plenty of destruction you can wreak on the game environment, with many breakable objects (ok, buzzword time: it has “destructible environments”)  and several types of weapons for you to use. From the official website about the game, here are all the features:

• Real-time dynamic lighting using programmable pixel shaders
• Fully destructible level geometry
• Ultra-realistic physics and motion captured character animations
• Over 14 different enemies with varied attack behaviors
• Variety of player weapons and powerups
• Unique transforming super bosses with special attacks

As you can see from the video and screencaps below the graphics are pretty good (much better in person and on top of that the game upscales it’s resolution depending on the monitor), as in addition to the physics involved it also uses specular lighting effects. It’s more impressive when you think about the fact that this has been put together by a small team (of I believe two people sorry, I misspoke there – the company has two founders) as opposed to a team with hundreds of people.

(Click on the images to expand them)

The game’s configuration for cabinet or kit form is still TBD, their preference is to go with a full cabinet. No word on pricing or exact specifications on the hardware yet (they are not ready to reveal that at the moment) but it is sufficient to say that this should be something great for operators to add to their arsenal.

Here is a video of the game in action. There are a couple more videos on their website:

We can expect to see more from Friction Game Studios in the future, so stay tuned and we welcome them to the fold!

[Friction Game Studios Website] [Discuss on the Forums]

(Click on the image above to enlarge it)

AM-Net has posted a flyer for Sega’s latest light-gun extravaganza Rambo and it gives us a first look at both the cabinet and the game. The cabinet is a lot like the House of the Dead 4 Deluxe cabinet, as the guns are similar and the small shots from the game look quite good, with lots of explosions and flames which you expect to see in a Rambo game. I can’t wait to see this in action – I know it’s testing in Europe and the US (I have not idea what the locations are in the US though) and AM-Net says that it will be coming in September (usually the international release isn’t too far behind) and in yen the value of the cabinet is around $16k USD.

So Sega is still not learning how to price their games more competitively IF this price holds for an international release – I learned the other day that Big Buck Safari Deluxe has a new price of around $6000 for operators – so $10000 less than something like Rambo Deluxe or Primeval Hunt, it doesn’t take much to imagine which game operators will go for. Whether Sega will do a standard cabinet for Rambo remains to be seen but I hope that something is done as this looks really cool and I would love to carry it in my arcade later this year, but if I can’t afford it I’ll just have to wait.

[AM-Net] [Discuss on the Forum]

For all those shooters out there, MO for Target Terror is here.

Release date: 22 Apr 08, ETA: 3 May 08.

Brand new price: $55 (pre-order before 21 Apr to get $2 off)

Self collect when the game arrives.

$5 deposit required. To order, email chataboutwii@gmail.com

Though Wii do not have much FPS games, but it has so many light gun shooter games. I am guessing alot of Wii players like to shoot with a gun than a control pad or mouse hahahaha. 1up for Wii.

More information:

- Gamespot

- IGN

MO main page

MO list:
1) combatjammer~
2)
3)
4)
5)
…

House of the Dead war im Arcadebereich immer eins der Beliebtesten Spiele für Shooter fans. Beide Spiele sind zwar nicht sehr lang von der Spielzeit, es gibt jedoch jede Menge alternative Wege zu entdecken. Auch unterschiedliche Modi sind in beiden Games enthalten wie Arcade Mode, Story Mode, Boss Mode. Man kann das Game alleine und auch zu zweit spielen, wobei es zu zweit sicher mehr Spaß macht. Grafisch ist der 2. teil nicht mehr auf der Höhe, der 3. Teil ist jedoch ganz ok, Spaß macht es auch ohne gute Grafik.

Ich werde bei diesem Game kein Review schreiben, da es für mich einfach ein Klassiker ist der in keiner Wii Sammlung fehlen sollte. Viele Leute werden diese Meinung nicht mit mir teilen, da sich bei diesen 2 Games einfach die Geister scheiden. Der eine wird es Lieben, der andere wird es Hassen und billig finden. Ich als Light-Gun-Shooter-Fan halte es für einen Top-Titel.

Primotechnology just recently reviewed Ghost Squad for the Wii. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

You begin the game as part of the G.H.O.S.T, or Global Humanitarian Operation and Special Tactics, Squad, a group of specialized soldiers based in the United States and operating under the authority of the U.N. Their objective is to take out terrorist targets without leaving any traces of their passing. After receiving instructions from your Commander, you play as Alpha Team and find support in the way of teams Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. During the game, you fight the Indigo Wolves, a terrorist group seeking to throw the world into complete turmoil by capturing presidents and holding military personnel hostage. It’s your job to take them down at all costs.

Click here to read more.

I just got myself a cheap and nasty Namco Guncon2 light gun for AUD$30 (delivered). I bought it primarily to use with my PS2, but also to use with emulators – specifically FCE Ultra running the Nintendo classics Duck Hunt and Hogan’s Alley. To my surprise, it actually works! I’m using the WinGun driver, which allows Windows to recognize the Guncon2, and running my PC’s video output to my TV using my graphics card’s TV-out (the Guncon2 doesn’t work with LCD monitors). It’s so simple it’s scary. But that Duck Hunt itch that I’ve had since the 80s is finally getting a good seeing to.

We’ve seen a small resurgence of lightgun shooters coming out in the home rather than just in the arcades. In the past, the genre that got its start with classics like Duck Hunt and Operation Wolf has always had mixed success in the home for two reasons. The first is that these games are designed around and require various extra pieces of plastic to get the most out of them, most gamers will shy away from playing a game that requires them to choose and purchase one of a variety of add-ons (that are often as expensive as buying a second game).

The second is more cultural, you don’t directly control your character’s movement in these games. Everything is on rails, pre-set, and inflexible. In an industry where the past decade was dominated by games built around huge worlds the player could freely explore and conflicts with multiple solutions, games where you glide around blasting everything that moves have of course fallen out of favor with both critics and audiences.

With the release of the Nintendo Wii, however, this has changed. Since the “gun” is already present via the Wii’s unique motion sensing controller, developers are now able to more easily bring their arcade games home, as well as develop original games since there’s only one controller to take into account, and no additional accessories need be taken into account (though firearm-like “shells” have been released to use with the Wii remote, none are required for any of its lightgun games).

This has caused an interesting shift. Originally, these were the games you played if you wanted to turn off your brain. Now, to combat public conception of the primitive (or pure, if you want) nature of the genre, recent releases have almost as much plot as they do action, with a tremendous focus on making you feel like you’re part of the action and dealing with other character rather than just gliding through a shooting gallery.

As this generation of consoles kicked off with Perfect Dark Zero on the XBox 360, a game notable for its nearly incoherent plot and constrictive level design, the big budget action games have been gradually forgoing story more and more in exchange for a focused experience where one travels from setpiece to setpiece with just a few sub-Arnold caliber one-liners to keep things coherent. Even shooter franchises known for their elaborate backstory such as the Halo series or Gears of War present next to no information about their respective settings in the games themselves, focusing entirely on action.

Are lightgun games still primitive by comparison? The genre is now built around atmosphere and immersion, while the big budget stuff continues to shave away at depth to the point where each title has a single thing that makes it stand out, be it Gears of Wars’ cover system or Halo’s regenerating shields.

The three most recent of these games on the Wii are House of the Dead: Overkill, Dead Space: Extraction and the upcoming Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. Interestingly the latter two were made because the developers wanted to tell a story first and foremost. Questionable story quality aside (all three involve megalomaniacs unleashing hordes of undead creatures that must be dealt with by the player and a companion), it’s a striking change in how we perceive game design that what was previously considered the most brain dead and base type of video game is now the one developers turn to when they want to build on a setting or developer their popular characters more. All three games take place prior to “current” events in their respective franchises, and all three feature almost as much banter as they do bullets.

All three games also introduce their own systems of tracking the player’s skill, upgrading one’s weapons and other things to keep the player coming back. All this while still maintaining the core gameplay of the genre, right down to each being gratuitously ripped off from an exploitative subgenre of cinema (be it House of the Dead invoking Euro-trash zombie flicks or Dead Space invoking, uh, Dead Space).