Tomorrow’s Arcade
I wrote a few days back about how I see the future of arcades as being bleak, but have since come across some new developments, one being more a reinterpretation of a classic, and the other being something entirely different.
Pinball News has a piece about some video pinball machines: Preview 2007. The pictures are in the last half of the article. The first is the futuristic (and aerodynamic) TAB Austria Virtual Pinball system (better photo on their site), which Chap favors. I happen to think it looks plastic-y. It also appears to have a track ball, presumably for their own brand of Golden Tee (hah).
I happen to favor Global VR’s take on the genre, UltraPin. (Photos in the Preview 2007 article, above. They’re hiring on that project, too!) It’s a much more traditional design, with a flat panel mounted in a smaller-than-standard pinball cabinet. Chap doesn’t like it — and his opinion is dead wrong. As somebody who has a thing for classic pinball machines, I may be slightly biased. I also think there’s something satisfying about a big wooden cabinet. It has substance and mass. It’s good for nudging about to try to keep the ball out of the outlanes.
The basic idea is that this video pinball machine allows many pinball tables to be housed on one unit. As far as I can tell (based on what I see on the screens), the two companies are taking different approaches to their offerings, content-wise. Global VR has licensed some of the classic, tried and true Williams titles (Medieval Madness, Funhouse, Pinbot, etc.) for UltraPin, while TAB Austria seems to be taking it from the top, so to speak.
It would be very interesting to play each of these. The Visual Pinball system, which allows you to play classic titles on your PC, isn’t as horrible of an experience as you might think. But it’s a far cry from the real thing, which makes me wonder if the UltraPin will be a successful imitation. While those titles are classics for good reason, they were designed to be played on a real, physical table, not on a flat panel, no matter how beautifully rendered. To be cynical about it, it comes off as more of a novelty nostalgia machine than a new direction for pinball.
As such, it’s possible that the TAB Austria will have a better play experience, if their games are in fact designed from scratch, and designed to be played on such a platform. There’s a real opportunity here to break some new ground with the genre by taking the basic, familiar elements of pinball and expanding the game from the confines of a single table (several tables chained together?), or adding other game elements that would previously have been impossible.
In other news, Chap pointed me to an blurb about a new/upcoming coin-op video game called The Act, on Drawn. In their own words:
Developed by former Disney animators, The Act is a unique interactive film experience. Using only a simple control knob, players control the personality, emotions, and actions of Edgar, the story’s main character.
I also found an article about from March 2005 on Gamasutra by Ernest Adams (link — registration required), which has some nice descriptions of the gameplay:
The game is called The Act, a reference to its dramatic nature and the fact that the player “gets into the act.” Here’s how it works. Edgar, a window-washer several stories up on the outside of a hospital, sees Sylvia, a beautiful nurse, through a window he’s cleaning. He starts to fantasize about meeting Sylvia in a Casablanca-style nightclub. After some introductory footage, the game becomes interactive. The object of the first level is to help Edgar to get Sylvia’s attention and persuade her to dance with him in the nightclub. By turning the knob, you control how direct Edgar’s approach is. Go too far, and Edgar will pounce on Sylvia, causing her to walk off in disgust. Be too timid, and Sylvia gets bored and leaves. Use a delicate touch, and she responds well. Since time keeps moving forward, it requires a good sense of control and timing - classic precision-oriented gameplay with a completely new objective.
Very, very interesting. I’m curious about how the lengthy narrative aspect of it works out in an arcade setting, and I think it very wise of the developers not to use voices, as arcades are pretty noisy places (and the games with the good sound get turned down in favor of obnoxious drum & dancing games). I’d like to see one of these on location, but it sounds like they can only be seen at conventions for the time being.