Features// Report: Amusement Trade Exhibition International Show

Launching at the show, Blazing Angels incorporated a highly realistic fighter cockpit with a rich display - the system proved alluring to visitors. While next door the network appeal of their driver EA Sports NASCAR Racing, saw six-player connected races and happy faces for players.

Global VR has Paradise Lost licensed from Ubisoft's Far Cry, developed into a twin-rail machinegun game. GVR also showed America’s Army, re-developed for the needs of the pay and spray market. The success story of licensing content into Amusement is a downplayed story; it has, however, opened the way towards casual game development for other consumer licenses.

It’s not just the Americans licensing home content for Amusement, Japanese giant Konami also had a presence at the show with the launch of its atmospheric gun game, Silent Hill – The Arcade. A specially enclosed cabinet added to the intensity of the demonic blaster based on the million seller console title.

Also on display Konami brought its BEMANI (its music video game division) latest trilogy titles, Guitar Freaks V4 Rock X Rock and Drum Mania V4 Rock X Rock; both the drum and guitar-based music games were operational in 'Jam Session' mode. Konami was quick to point-out who originated the concept and application, though conceding to the console titles’ dominance with the Guitar Hero franchise.

As with Tekken 6, the fan community attended the BEMANI appearance in droves, an estimated 50 non-trade visitors making the trek to ATEI to play games they cannot find anywhere else – and making a lie of the percieved state of arcade game interest. Along with the Konami music games, Andimaro showed the latest in its phenominally popular dancing stage titles. Pump It Up!: Pro was on show for the first time internationally, combining styles from two of the most popular genres of music games. The machine was a blur of activity with the latest moves displayed by acrobatic players.

Another of the American developers at the show, Raw Thrills, presented a new sport gun game targeting the pub and bar sector. Big Buck – Safari, has taken the popular brand of sports shooting and deposited it in the depths of Africa - a blast fest of wild animals to be shot by the player.

Through its legendary founder, Eugene Jarvis, Raw Thrills has achieved a unique style of presentation, a style that has found its feet in the current Amusement scene, along with drivers such as Fast and the Furious: DRIFT.

Finally, ATEI demonstrated the move by Amusement towards mid-size attractions. At the show, big sit-down experiences hoped to offer an experience unachievable on home systems. SEGA showed OutRun 2 Special Attraction offering motion seats and big screen to the driving game, while swivel seating and dual screen action were added to the shooter with Let’s Go Jungle Special. Supporting this, the company showed one of three different two-person, passive capsule ride systems at the show (Mini Rider II).

A themed multi-seat 4D theatre was also operating on another corporate booth, with long queues to ride the intense 3D ride film, speaking of the popularity of this kind of technology.

Other Amusement investment on display included Open Source platforms for consumer and Flash developers to work in Amusement – new robotic ‘foosball’ technology; and the latest in touchscreen and flat-screen displays to name a few. While overall ATEI'08 proved that though bowed, video Amusement still has mileage in the market, and can provide some surprises beyond the hardcore arcade players’ base.

^{About the author: Kevin Williams is founder and director of the out-of-home leisure entertainment consultancy KWP Limited. His extensive years in the global video amusement and hi-tech attractions industry includes top management and design posts, with special focus on new technology development and applications. A well-known speaker on the industry and its technology, he pens an extensive number of articles. Founder and publisher of The Stinger Report - a popular industry e-Newsletter and web-based information service.}