Over in Tokyo, the AOU Amusement press day has come to an end. Exhibiting their coin-op wares were 55 of Japan’s leading arcade manufacturers including Namco, Konami and Sega.
The event started on a strange note with chairman Shozo Irie making a somewhat downcast opening speech. “The amusement-machine industry has faced tough conditions for the last few years,” he said. “Even in these hard times, though, the new machines introduced today will help enliven the minds of game creators across the country."
The big hitters at the show were Sega and Konami. Sega somewhat stole the show showing in game footage of Virtua Fighter 4 on a giant quad-plasma screen way above the venue floor. The new Naomi 2 title was not available to play and its two unnamed characters retained their anonymity.
Konami’s booth was packed out for the entire event. Of the thirty or so games the company were showing, fourteen were music and rhythm based. The most popular of which were Dance Dance Revolution 5th Mix and Beatmania II DX 5th Style, which saw long queues of dance hungry gamers waiting patiently throughout the day.
Namco’s biggest offering was Vampire Night, a light gun based shooter. The game is the first to be presented on the PlayStation 2 compatible System 246 board. The new board was jointly developed between Namco and Sega with the express purpose of being PS2 compatible, making Vampire Night likely to feature on the Sony machine.