I was looking to go to the EAG, but I'm moving house this week so won't be able to make it. Very surprising Crown Direct have such a large stand, wonder what they're distributing?

Yeah, that is surprising isn't it - must be those strange European machines you always see at the show, and then never see again.

I can't see anything obvious, though if Sega is a partner they might be showing the larger Sega cabinets there, at a stretch:

http://www.crowndirect.co.uk/?main=partner

Crown are no stranger to distributing large cabs, they were handling Pump It Up last time I was paying attention to what was going on.

It's baffling trying to work out what Sega are up to, who they are trying to appeal to etc. Who in this country will provide a decent venue or setup for redemption machines?

The only time I've ever seen redemption work in this country is at Namco Wonderpark, no other arcades had a setup which made you actually want to bother with it. Funland had masses of machines back in the day, but they were all ultra tacky shite and the prizes even worse. I remember spending ages getting enough tickets for some really classy Tekken 2 collectables at Wonderpark! XD

These trade shows do my head in, when will the heads running that "industry" realise that they are on a completely different planet to their potential customers?

Time for my yearly Open Senses post!

I popped down to EAG today, but there was hardly anything worth talking about. Let's Go Island! was only there in the form of a trailer, but it looks like it's going to be fun. Sega Racing Classic (just Daytona at a higher resolution) was there too, as was Tetris Giant (that Tetris game with the giant unresponsive joysticks). Nothing else was worth mentioning at the Sega Stand; they didn't even have any Virtua Tennis or Virtua Fighter cabs

Bandai-Namco had a 4-player Tank! Tank! Tank! setup, which was cute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iNAlIJMJc0

Konami/Electrocoin had the latest Bishi Bashi game ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGsYz6pmy58 ), which was fun. Apparently Electrocoin are planning on 'localizing' it for Europe, which is going to involve turning it into one of those ticket redemption games and possibly removing some of the harder minigames. Great.

And that's it. Depressingly, there wasn't a single standard 'joystick and buttons' arcade cabinet in the entire expo. After a couple of hours I got bored and went home to play BlazBlue Continuum Shift instead.

Hello there

Thanks for the impressions, sounds about on par with last year. How did the venue compare?

I'd forgotten about Sega Racing Classic, I guess all those 15 year old Daytona cabs are finally giving up the ghost? I've noticed the Troc reduce from 12 machines to 4 in the last five or so years.

Shame Let's Go Island! wasn't there, even though it will probably just be more of the same.

Were Sega still pushing UFO Catchers? I wondered whether they had done anything with Dinosaur King too, now that the TV series and toys have become mildly successful over here. The card machines had long since disappeared before that happened though, and the DS game was released without the card reader in the UK (despite being similar to the Mushi King DS game).

Hey,

The venue was pretty much the same sort of thing as Earls Court. The room contaning EAG was much smaller than ATEI of course, but it had wider aisles between stands so everything was less cramped than usual.

I didn't notice any UFO Catchers or any Dinosaur King stuff at the Sega stand, but I wasn't really paying attention to the non-videogame stuff.

And I'd say it was far worse than last year - last year had DJ Max Technika, BlazBlue, Street Fighter IV, Battle Fantasia (which had been out for ages but I hadn't played it before), UBeat, Brick People, Tekken 6 and so on. This year had Bishi Bashi, Hopping Road, Tank! Tank! Tank! and nothing else worth playing. There weren't any fun older cabs either, such as Outrun 2 or After Burner Climax.

I shouldn't really complain because it's supposed to be a trade event instead of a massive free arcade, but I had far more fun with the recent BlazBlue Continuum Shift leak than I did with every game at EAG combined.

Ah, that is a real shame.

Thanks for letting us know what was there though

I hope this is the industry treading water through a rough patch, but I don't really believe that. I see how busy the Troc can be and wonder why there aren't many more new machines being released. Perhaps the scale back of arcades in Japan is mainly to blame.

Speaking of which, a daft light gun game called Haunted Museum from Taito came and went at the Troc, which was really good fun. It appeared about six months ago, must have only lasted about three months. U-Beat has gone too, and Technika doesn't have the membership cards available.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/02/17/taito-brings-light-gun-games-pogo-stick-racer-to-aou-2009/

Bah.

The world's turning to shit as far as arcades are concerned and has been for a long time. I can't see arcades having a renaisance either. There's a whole load of reasons why it's so bad at the moment. Really someone needs to give them the Wii treatment. Games like Love and Berry and Mushi King were right on the money as the older demographic is all but lost to the economics of a higher return from fruit machines per sq ft and you're not going to let your 8 year old play House of the Dead 4.

The last 'new' game I played was Raizing Storm from Bandai Namco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSkFAm1pSIA&feature=related

Which is basically a follow up to Crisis Zone, with a less interesting gritty theme and 2 player action.

The most bizarre thing is that "Sega Racing Classic" or whatever they're calling it. It's Daytona at a higher resolution, but with all reference to Daytona (even the lyrics in the songs) removed. What's the point? Are they not aware of how many original Daytona cabs are still out there?

yeah that's a wierd one isn't it. Although it's HD it's all original assets though, so a rather pointless upgrade although widescreen might make a bit of difference to the experience I suppose.

I think the stripping of music and the Daytona name are to do with licensing issues. Presumably there's still a demand for Daytona and keeping the old cabs going is becoming increasingly tiresome. It's always the bloody shifter or steering that get broken in my experience, so whether the new units will address those weak points I'm not sure.

@Saur Incidentally thanks for the 'stuff' you sent me. I was blown away by how good it runs! Fond memories

Sega are still capable of really great machines, it's just that these days you never see them outside Japan. It's amazing how bizarre the arcade "industry" is in the west, neither the guys running the show or the audience they are trying to peddle their bullshit to have any idea what they want.

Oh dear Oh dear oh dear. Look at this travesty that I spotted in Namco today.

Yes your eyes do not deceive you. It's an arcade game based on sms texting.

Typing of the Dead though? It doesn't have to be a terrible game...

Well based on the attract mode the game is essentially a game you might expect to see as part of a typing tutor. Words fall from the top of the screen and you have to text them before they get to the bottom. It's probably OK in that regard (I didn't play it).

I did play Terminator Salvation, which was pretty dodgy. Visuals were OK, the reload mechanic was nice - bang the clip in on the big plastic assault rifle to reload, but the game design was pretty lame. Enemies get a red outline if they're about to hit you, you shoot at the stuff with the red outline. The enemy scripting is dull and provides little in the way of 'stress' moments.