With the Tokyo Game Show over, we focus our attention to the AMOA Show, held each Sept/Oct. in Las Vegas, Nevada.

If you've followed our articles in the past, you'd be familiar with this show, if not, below is a brief description.

The AMOA Show is held jointly with Fun Expo, which deals more with the Redemption side of the industry, while the AMOA is generally focused on the video game/pinball arena. With what we've witnessed in the past few years, this show should be called Fun Expo, almost in it's entirety, as we sadly see less and less video games/pinballs that are offered here.

So before we get into the status of what's been happening with the arcade industry, let's cover what SNK and/or Capcom had to offer at AMOA 2004.

Side note: Sammy will be operating under the Sega name as of October 1, 2004.

If you haven't been keeping up with what's been going on with SNK's Neo Geo, SNK Playmore, closed down Neo Geo MVS operations due to the heavy losses from the bootleg market. So in order to protect their IP's, let alone help Sammy's lagging system, SNK Playmore agreed to release certain titles on the Atomiswave. This move, not only prevents any bootlegging from occuring, but also allows the SNK programmers the needed hardware boost to take them to the next level.

We feel this move, as said before, is a necessary one, not only for reasons above, but in order to grow into the home console market, it is almost mandatory for success that the power of the originating hardware match up with the hardware in which the title is to be ported to. Going from 16-bits of the Neo Geo to 128-bits of either the PS2, XBox or Gamecube wouldn't translate too well and earlier releases from SNK Playmore, such as KOF 2000/2001 has shown that. Furthermore, with Sony's structure on the approval process, they normally demand games from developers to have the 3-D perspective, going away from the 2-D graphics. In this case, in the long run, SNK Playmore would have start from scratch for every game they'd release, rather than developing it off a 128-bit system in the first place, which would allow multi-platform distribution and most importantly, cutting down expenses.

That being said, Sammy released for the first time shown in the US, SNK Playmore's King of Fighters Neo Wave on the Atomiswave system. In brief, the Atomiswave uses the core hardware configuration as Sega's Naomi system, however, running on less RAM.

SNK Playmore/Sammy

So going from 16-bits to 128-bits, we'd expect a kick ass game from KOF Neo Wave, correct? Not exactly. It all depends on your taste. Breaking down the game, from a graphical standpoint, the backgrounds are much sharper and crisper. The downside is it's so plain with little or no interaction between objects, which from what we noticed and leaves a rather dull presentation.

In terms of character sprites, the details have been given somewhat of a face lift, but not to the point where we see such a big improvement over, say KOF 2003. We would say it's an upgraded version of KOF 2003. Animation of the sprites are a tad increased over the Neo Geo versions, but again, no where near the smooth animation we'd expect from this 'new' title.

Fight the Fight!

Character and Mode Select Screen (Those Sammy Monitors are just horrendous):

Where the game really shines is the gameplay. Given the extra processing power, there is a huge difference between KOF Neo Wave vs. any KOF of the Neo Geo. Certain moves on the 16-bit Neo Geo would cause slowdown and lag in combos or when a specific super is performed. This obviously disrupts the gameplay and makes less of a fluid game. Despite the near equivalent frame rate of the Neo Wave vs. KOF 2003, the gameplay controls are much more responsive, allowing moves to come out easily with less error on the gamer's part when it comes to the more complex combo attacks.

The one big issue that we hope Sammy fixes is their default cab joysticks/button layout. Some of the cabs we tested didn't have an intuitive button layout and isn't gamer friendly. We forgot to take a picture of the button layout, but to give you an idea, with 4 buttons going across and 1 button below with the weak kick being the first button on top, weak punch as the second button on top, hard punch as the third button, the 'heat' mode as the 4th button and the hard kick as the button on the bottom. Let's put it this way, if we were to attend an arcade with this set up, we'd lose interest real fast. Sammy really needs to redo their cab setup, sorry to say, but it's not impressive by any measure. On top of the poor button layout/controls, their picture quality in their monitors are subpar, compared to other ones in the industry. (One note though, with KOF NeoWave, the button layout is configurable in the system software.) Given that they now own Sega, maybe they should also use the Sega cab design as they are far superior to what Sammy has to offer.

Hardware controls aside, KOF NeoWave is a very enjoyable game. With three modes of play, "Heat Mode", "Just Defense", and "Super Cancel" this opens up many different possibilities which enhances replay value for the gamer.

Given the volume of the cabs at a low setting, we didn't really get a chance to evaluate the sound effects or soundtrack.

Capcom

Nothing to show. We were hoping Capcom Fighting Evolution, but no dice. At ASI 2005 we expect to see Sammy vs. Capcom. For goodness sakes, show us something!! We're tired of walking by the the booths with all those plush dolls and skee ball machines. Where are all the video games?!!!

Namco

We're not really into Namco Fighting games, but heck, Tekken 5 was a most impressive fighter and it's great to see Namco is taking the right steps to help it's market share. T5's release will mark the 10 Year Anniversary of the Tekken franchise, so this is a huge title for them. We'll discuss what we mean by that a little later in the article. For now, let's review what Tekken 5 had to offer.

This game is a beauty.

Tekken 5 runs off of the Namco's proprietary System 256 stilling using the PS2 CPU, but overclocked to run about 1/3 faster. With the interactive environmental effects added in this game, the extra processing power is a necessity. Namco's efforts and hard work were immediately noticeable, from the design of the cab itself, the features of the game and the reworked from the ground up, brand new game engine. Yes, that's right, the game engine was completely redone to please the most demanding Tekken fans out there.

A few cool features Namco added was the time release feature, which was done in other games, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and the IC Card System, allowing players to save and customize their fighters with different outfits and customize their names.

Namco's IC Card

Notice Custom Outfit and Name

Another neat and unexpected feature was the ability to use your own PS2 controller or stick. So if you've ever wanted to knock a few heads when you've dumped quarters into the cab only to find out that the sticks are broken, with Tekken 5 dedicated cabs, you can bring a spare, just in case the hot girl next to you broke the sticks. Another huge advantage I must say is, have you ever played next to someone who stinks? Yeah, bring that extra long cord. Namco thought of everything here.

Again, we're not really focused on Namco stuff, but Tekken 5 makes it impossible for us not to give them their deserved props.

State of the Arcade Industry

To review and remind fans, operators or whomever is interested, here is an overview of some of the big gaming companies that have left the arcade market in the past few years, some being as recent as June 30th, 2004:

-Midway
-Acclaim
-Konami (arcade rights bought out by Betson Distributors)
-Capcom Coin-Op Corp.(exited out of Coin-Op as of March 31, 2004)
-SNK NEOGEO USA Corp.(exited out of MVS/Coin-Op as of June 30th, 2004, for US Market)

Compared to years past, the floor space that, for example, Sega or Namco would occupy, has drastically decreased, maybe to half it's size. There is no mystery to this, as the economy has shown it's weakness in arcade game popularity, hence with less demand, there is less production for video games...therefore, less to show.

The disappearance of the larger game developers causes a domino effect, as many mid-level game distributors have closed down in the past few months and many are in the midst of closing down shortly.

We've always been excited to attend the AMOA, simply because it's in Vegas and heck, there's nothing like seeing what's new out there. This year though, we were very disappointed, and quite honestly, don't know how many more shows is left with the AMOA. There simply isn't enough product to show nor buy for arcade operators to attend this event if it keeps up at this pace.

Sadly enough, the most exciting part of our trip was the cab ride back to our hotel. While standing in line, one of the attendees yelled, "Anyone going to the Bellagio?" We decided join this gentleman, as it allowed shorten our stand in line, also relieving us from the beating sun.

So we hop in the cab and started to chat about the show. We forget the gentleman's name, however, we do know he's an arcade operator from North Dakota. During our conversation, he says a number of interesting facts. He's been attending these shows for a number of years, given he's been in the business for over 30 years.

He comments, "there wasn't much at the show to buy, was there?" We ask,"What do you mean, in terms of video games or redemption?" "Video games, there just wasn't enough product. I remember 15 years ago, when the show floor was 3 times as large and the whole show floor was completely video games, with little or no redemption products at all."

So we asked him, "During your years, has it ever been this bad?" His response, "Yeah, during the late '70's to early '80's it was pretty bad." The market as we know it, is a different beast now. Back then, it was different in terms of production. There were only a few developers, so product and technology was limited. Today, we have all the resources to develop pretty much whatever we can imagine. The problem the arcade market faces today is evolution of the home gaming consoles. With the processing power of the home console surpassing most of the arcade hardware, fewer and fewer people find a good enough reason to leave their homes and make their way to the local arcade. To place the stake in the coffin, with on-line capabilities of home systems, having the ability to challenge virtually anyone across the country in the comfort of your own home pretty much leaves the arcade operator fighting a losing battle.

To add more damaging facts to the matter, the King of arcade fighters, Capcom will be releasing Capcom Fighting Jam/Evolution to both arcade/home almost simultaneously. Great for fans of console gaming, but terrible for the arcade operator as their biggest competition is no longer the operator down the street, but the kids kicking it in their house, playing hours upon hours of gaming without the need of feeding in more quarters.

The arcade industry knows it's in trouble, with little hope and no escape route in sight, it will take some innovation, not only in creating new games, but also recreating the business model of the arcade itself. What can an arcade offer that we cannot get at home, that would motivate us to get out of the comfort of your own home, take a drive (with the associated high gas prices) and fork out more money to play a game in the arcade? New video games? Nope. Redemption? Helps with family oriented outings but not necessarily those single gamers. On site food service? Yuck, not the way most of them taste.

So what is the solution? Like any "big mess" (as Kerry likes to put it), there is no single solution to recovery. It is a grouped effort, with different trial and error practices to see what works and what doesn't.

What we do know that has worked in terms of keeping the scene alive:

Monetary Prizes in Arcade Gaming

The makers of Golden Tee, Incredible Technologies came up with a great idea, which isn't in any way new to us, but because of it's timing and how they implement it, it works. If anyone is familiar with their system, it's something, if thought up correctly, could work for a number of other games. We're not sure of the name of the association that sets up these touraments, so forgive us for an errors.

So in short, players of the Golden Tee Network enter in a weekly/monthly contest. A number of these machines are, as described above 'Networked' (works wirelessly, wherever cell phones work, these cabs will work or with broadband connection) to each other keeping scores of each contestant. The person with the highest score (lowest score in golf) would win and get a check sent directly to them. Any time there is money involved (gaming market, aka gambling), it's a very sensitive issue, however, this part of the market will have the older (21+ age group) pretty much taken care of. So the bottom line is, like legalized gambling which is so huge, we wouldn't be surprised to see this implemented in arcade games at a higher scale in the future. Money always brings people to the table and it works.

Organized Competitive Gaming Tournaments

Without gaming tournaments we would say Capcom arcade games would've died a long time ago. For some reason, many companies, such as SNK and Capcom, at least here in the states don't and haven't seen the huge benefit of what an official tournament could do for the growth in their arcade sector. At this point, it's too late. Both SNK and Capcom has asked us on occasion on ideas of how to help their bottom line numbers in the arcade market. Numerous times, we have suggested to them the idea of officially hosting arcade tournaments. To this day, as we know it, neither company has taken the suggestion, and we understand as they are held by strict guidelines and budgets controlled by their parent company, both located in Japan. Furthermore, we don't believe they truly see the overall benefit, which for some reason is clear to us.

In the U.S. market at least, sites such as www.shoryuken.com, we would say have single handidly increased Capcom's sales for both the arcade and home markets due to their large annual gaming tournament. Now how exactly does these tournaments help sales numbers? Anyone involved in the competitive gaming scene would have some idea on how this works.

The most 'effective' form of advertisement, isn't the internet. It's word of mouth advertising, as long as it's positive. Think about it. Have you ever been to a friend's house and saw their FAT home theater set up? You ask "dude, that is simply BAD ASS!!." "Yeah bro, let me tell you about this and where you can buy it" your friend replies. You will normally trust a friend recommending a product more than one that is advertised in a magazine, on TV, whatever the source. What tournaments provide is word of mouth advertising. One of your friends may play competitively, talks up a storm about how awesome the tourney was, what games were played in them, etc. You get excited, go out to the store to BUY the game (and the joystick, the memory card, the strategy combo guide) to practice those infinite combos constantly, talk your trash, join the tournament and tell another (different) friend about how good you are. That other friend talks trash back, is influenced to buy his own copy to beat you down in M v C 2. The competitiveness in players stirs up excitement, anger, egos and in the end promotes the gamer to do whatever is necessary to get better....which is to buy the gaming gear to get better. You get the idea.

Only thing is, we sure hoped Capcom, SNK and other gaming companies would see this a long time ago. It's what we would consider a surefire growth plan, that costs a helluva lot less in terms of marketing and advertising expenses, which is also much more effective in terms of returns. Many of these larger companies use conventional advertising methods (such as TV, magazine advertisements; however they cost millions of dollars), as they've worked before, but the market has drastically changed, from it's distributors, all the way down to the end-user themselves. The most successful companies (like Dell) out there today think outside of the box and use methods that are unique, methods that work, methods that give you 2 dollars for every dollar you spend = profit. With today's advertising, it's more like forking out 4 dollars, while getting only 1 dollar back = loss.

Continuing on the idea of hosting tournaments, enter in Namco. Someone in Namco is listening to it's fans, yay!!! For Tekken 5 fans out there, Namco has announced a nationwide tournament to be held in February 2005. Whether this tournament they're hosting is to be courteous to it's fans or they really see the benefit in this, we must give them high fives for taking the initiative to make an attempt in increasing their market share. In the current harsh conditions as we call the arcade market, it's either push your product or push you ass out the door. Not to sound vulgar, but that is the reality of how it is these days. We salute Namco for going after their checks, not waiting by the mail box for the check to arrive. For those interested in Namco's Tekken 5 tournament, check out www.tekken.vg shortly for updates.

What does this all mean?

We're upset about the current condition of the arcade market and the efforts that companies have put in making it work. From the software standpoint, Incredible Technologies and Namco is making a bold effort in restructuring what is left of the video gaming biz. Unless more companies join this group in making innovative software, expect more and more closures of arcade distributors nationwide along with it's supporting operators or arcade shops. One nightmare we don't want to wake up to one day is an arcade location that is void of video games, stocking only skee ball and other redemption items.

Like the stock and real estate market, there will one day be a resurgence in the U.S. market with arcade gaming, but it doesn't look like it'll be anytime soon. On the bright side, it's nice to know some gaming companies putting in their efforts along with websites hosting tournaments to support the cause.

So if anyone cares about the arcade market, the clock is ticking and there isn't much time left. If anyone wants to keep it alive, there's more to do than to say. We (fans) are waiting. Let us know when you come up with something that makes us want to leave comfort of our house.

Hey, maybe if some of these companies make some of their fighting games on-line (at higher speeds than what we currently have at home), that would be a good enough reason. Just throwing ideas out there, hopefully something will click. =)

For more photos of the AMOA Show 2004, go to http://www.snk-capcom.com/gallery/albums.php