ARCADE ACTION!

This idea is to promote a tried and true, but dying scene plagued by unintuitivity. It is the arcade, which has become an endangered species. The only way it will survive is to evolve. To do so, it will take what started it all - a new level of interactivity.

The worlds first wearable computing device, known as a light comb. Credit: wearcam.org

WHAT HAPPENED?

New technology was a huge player in the success of arcade based video games. Every couple months, new machines arrived toting ever more amazing graphics than the previous. It was an experience you couldn't get anywhere else! But then technology began to catch up. Programmers pushing the limits of 16 and 32bit console systems paced most arcade action. Then the 64 and 128 bit systems arrived bringing with them the unimaginable: spectacular graphics have become obsolete. Arcade games of the day have been easily replicated on the home game console - and for a one time fee at the store, the sound of dropping quarters have gone quiet.

As of now, there are few games that still attract the hardcore players. Mostly, fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Soul Calibur, and Tekken. However, there are a few other games that have stirred up quite a following - like Dance Dance Revolution. For those unaware: it's a big machine, with a big standing 4-way dance pad. The concept is novel and simple: music plays, arrows scroll onscreen, when the arrow reaches the top step on the pad in that direction. Easy right? At 140 beats a minute, then combining moves between beats, the difficulty can easily become more than Joe Lackofmoves can handle. However, watching a pair of players move synchronously flexing speed and agility to hard fast pounding music, will woo most any crowd. It brings new people to the pad. They try, fail (and watching them stumble around is usually entertainment in itself), and most come back ASAP because of the fun factor.


IMMINENT FAILURE

Oh no! After a while, one looks into the vast array of colorful glowing tv/monitors and sees... the same thing. Little if anything stands out from the rest. The same gameplay, the same variants of the 8-way joystick, steering-device, and lightgun. We've been there, done that. On top of that, nearly every arcade game has been replicated onto the console (and with the same peripherals), which to most people means there's no reason to go to the arcade.

Now we have way more problems than we even thought: home technology which matches or beats the same arcade experience, a more convenient location (home), and the whole experience becomes aesthetically cheaper - a one time fee at the store. What does that make the arcade then? Obsolete. It can be saved though! It will require time, development, and upfront expenses to build a new foundation. Can the expenses be justified?

LET THE FUN BEGIN

In a striking blow to games everywhere: it may be time to retire the Tekkens, House of the Dead's, Daytona USA's and all the same dead end games doing little more than recycling the same damn thing. Evolution is necessary to survive. Enter cybertronics, advanced virtual reality, and wearable computing. The toughest concept to realize here is to ditch the joysticks. New gameplay experiences can/will use wearables with resistance, force feedback equipment, pressure/touch sensors, many degrees of motion sensory...

One side note. There's the matter of multiplayer communications. Even though the console systems are trying to pick up multi-player over the net, I'm sketchy yet as to if uplinking many arcades together would detract. If the arcades had it's own network (or it's own internet for the tech talk impared, like how bank ATM's all talk to each other) then I see possibilities.

It takes only one game to get it right. How many people with power would have stopped GTA3 dead in it's tracks, not realizing it would soon be the #1 game of the year? Now others look to their mentor saying "ok now they've done it and people liked it so we should do it". Sure you should, but don't be a copycat, be an innovator. It's the innovators that will make the money, not the copycats. This is where the research and development teams at universities should start to raise eyebrows. Combining new intuitive projects with a proven scene - it's like the rebirth of DIVX. It only takes a few people to prove a good thing exists. What if one day Berkeley rivaled Capcom in the arcade?

What is the arcade? It's all about giving the player an experience that they couldn't reasonably bring home.


AT WHAT PRICE

There are a few game makers that have put out games with extraordinary peripherals/designs. The arcades themselves try to make out fat by putting a rather devastating price tag on a single play. The machines are expensive, yes, but for example if you're trying to sell a Ferrari to a middle-income person, all you'll get is a window shopper.

Battletech battlepods. Mech games are destined to be path pavers of new technological advances in the gaming experience. Credit: mektek.net

Worse yet, the unexperienced players are turned off by the steep per play price, and a fanbase is never established.

Again, it's time to move away from the obsolete. This round, it's the quarter, the beloved shiny little metal clad. And as such, a suitable replacement must be made. It comes in the form of soft credits, or a one time all day pass, monthly membership, etc. Pay the cashier guy, and you get a disposable magnetic card or something similar. For those that are adamant about keeping their old coin-ops around, create a simple drop-in convertor which accepts soft credit or quarters. All machines are hooked into one central server that keeps track of your credits. Game over? Continue? It'll cost you 50 cents of credits... Ok, game on! And since it's soft money, it's easy to spend.

Also, since the experience is virtual, the best thing the owner could do is continuously create random low prices for games. A place like this is all about creating excitement. Oversaturate and you've slit your own throat. Done correctly, you're bringing in people that would have otherwise never dropped a cent at your place. Don't spam, be clever.


LIABILITY

Would you step into a CAGE housing big wires, actuators, monitors/multiple projections, strange things you strap to you body, etc? Why not. Are you going to sign a waiver before you get into it? Hmm, better think about it. Safety is a concern, but success will not be achieved unless the design is fluid - simple to begin, complex to master, safe to the end and no thoughts about "will this contraption maim me??". I'm sure that your electronic signature upon purchase of your soft credits will include amendments like "you agree not to hold us liable in case of personal injury" and other fun legal paraphrases.



HARDWARE MYSTERIES

The toughest part about this idea is trying to identify what peripherals would and would not work. What's out there? Motion tracking gloves, headsets, body wear. Position sensory systems. Limited interactive environments. Heavy duty impact devices. Laser modeling. I haven't heard of this, but magnetics for force and virtual impacts. I like the potential uses for electromagnetics. They require lots of power, and thus will be more expensive. The experience one could create with them would be surreal. Worth looking into.

At this time it's tough acquiring any of these neat toys. Try to find a reasonably priced pair of VR glasses with head tracking, then try to acquire them. Insert dedicated effort here. Air mice have recently been hyped. We had VR equipment like Nintendo Power Gloves a long time ago. The military is full of strange neat periphs, but see there's that catch of having to enlist... yeah. Capcom's new console game Steel Battalion has it going on with a new type of controller featuring dual joysticks and 40+ buttons. These things are great and all, but couldn't they be integrated into something grander?

It's not about rolling up a big ball of technology and calling it fun. The technology supports the fun. What happens when your friend calls you up shouting "Man I stuck my hand in this thing and it moved this giant robot arm and I choked evil aliens until they turned another color!" You're going to be like "WHAT?" and promptly find out what the hell is going on. Maybe you'll come back again. Maybe you'll come back often. Entertainment of that caliber could only mean one thing - the rebirth of a dying scene.


References:
Dance Dance Revolution - DDR Freak website
Capcom - Still making arcade games and what's up with the USA having a stupid looking character?
Berkeley University - technology heavyweight
DIVX - encoded video format, brought back from the dead
Steel Battalion - New mech game by Capcom, awesome new controller