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Sega Merges With Pachinko Company Sammy
conform writes "The New York Times reported today that Sega Corporation (the Japanese parent company) has merged with Sammy Corp, a vendor of pachinko machines. The Sammy side of things are expected to dominate post-merger operations, and will likely shift Sega operational focuses back to the arcade market. Also, the end of the article notes in passing that SquareSoft has been aquired by rival RPG manufacturer Enix."
Sammy has done a bit more than just Pachinko, notably the very fun shooter, Viewpoint : Some sammy games emulated in mame
From what I've been hearing the past couple of years, arcades are about dead(true from what I've seen too). I really don't think it would make sence for Sammy to push Sega tward the Arcade again. Especially when Sega is establishing itself as a third party developer for counsels. On the other hand, Sega does make a few games that would be cool in arcades(Panzer Dragoon, anyone?). Just curious if anyone else thinks arcade develpment is dead (whimpers, remembering "killer instinct" machines)
"I am the Flail of God!" -Genghis Kahn
Wow ... this is like Vivendi ... merging with ... Las Vegas! Imagine the kids from THAT marriage. *shudder*
EA and SquareSoft have a publishing deal, and that's all (that I know of -- EA very likely owns some stock in Square, but certainly not enough for a controlling interest). Sony owns a minority interest in the company, after bailing them out from the Final Fantasy Movie failure (sad, really, because the movie had much promise but didn't deliver). And now Enix and Square merged, with Enix likely to be the dominant side of the merger. However, this is a dupe in a way, though it would've better been noted as an item in Slashdback. "Hey, remember that article about Enix and Square merging? Well, they've done it!" Or something like that.
This isn't a particularily stunning move (that SOMEONE would take an interest in Sega), as Sega has been a target for quite some time. Sega has been bleeding money - earning less than expected even though they ceased hardware production.
The reason? Poor sales of the "2K" sport series, combined with heavy marketing of the series. They've been unable to dethrone EA, even though they're producing quality product.
Personally, I've got a soft spot for Sega because of Phantasy Star and "blast processing".
Here's a good Genesis game (Thunder Force III): Review.
Video Game News, FAQs, etc
It's a Japanese variation on pinball, used as a form of automated gambling. It was huge in Japan in the 70's/80's, and still big today, though less so.
If I recall correctly, Nintendo's foray into video games grew out of their interests in pachinko.
I'm pretty sure that Squaresoft wasn't acquired by Enix. Rather Square (not Squaresoft) merged with Enix. As I recall this was a long time ago and there was a large fight over stock prices. Square's stock only got about 60 some cents to Enix's dollar in the new company, making square stockholders quite angry. The dispute was settled about a month ago.
I wonder what percentage of Sammy is:
Supported by debt backed up by Microsoft (This in regards to speculation on what japanese entity is benefitting from $590 million insured by Microsoft in their last quarterly statement.)
Run by North Koreans. (note: not a Troll! It is well known that most Pachinko parlors in Japan are run by North Korean families (think: mafia), for the purpose of exporting cash to North Korea.
"Pachinko for the XBox, great, what shall we call it?"
"How about AI Pachinko."
"We'll get sued, but I like it..."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Is this the merger that was reported before, or has Enix actually bought out Square lock, stock & barrel?
Either way, hopefully we'll get better RPGs out of it. I'm playing Final Fantasy X now, and my enthusiasm is dropping like a stone. Watch cut scene, walk, watch cut scene, walk, it's like they combined the linearness of a rail-type shooter with the annoying random encounters and levelling-up of an RPG. And the characters just don't emote. Pretty, but shallow, and ultimately boring.
I just finished Grandia, a Sega Saturn game that was ported to PS1. It was far more advanced than FFX.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
It's kind of a pinball slot machine. You use little steel balls instead of coin tokens.
Hell, why not just try it and find out.
Close. Nintendo started out making playing cards for gambling. They may have made pachinko machines for a while, but cards were their bread and butter for many years.
What do you mean, "biblical?"
We mean real wrath-of-God type stuff. Plagues, darkness--
The dead rising from the grave!
Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes--
Riots in the streets, Square bought by Enix, Sega on Nintendo, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
Pachinko...
Pachinko?
One of the previous generation's best video game companies has decided to do... Pachinko?
The stupid game which consists of "invert bucket of ball-bearings over machine, watch them drip through, every third bucket or so win a colored ping-pong ball that you can trade for crappy chucky-cheese-esque prizes"?
Nope. This proves it. I have finally lost any sense of contact with the world whatsoever. Time to wander off into the woods and live on skinned squirrels and assorted tubers. You folks have just gotten WAY too sureal for my liking.
And here I considered myself something of an eccentric. Heh. I can't possibly compete with how cracked reality seems.
hey,
i built it using an mk2 cab i purchased off a friend for $300, a pc w/ a duron 1300, 512mb ram, and a trident blade t64 video card. interfacing between the pc's ps2 port and vga out with the joysticks, buttons, and arcade monitor done largely with the help of andy warne's j-pac.
all games run perfectly, with the exception of newer 3d additions to mame, such as cruis'n world. i've done a/b comparisons between mk2 running off the actual game board and emulated with MAME, and i cannot tell the difference.
it took a lot of work to get it right, but it was definately a labour of love. the hardest part was getting my video card to output at low horizontal refresh rates and resolutions that are compatible with both the monitor and various games - but you can now bypass all this hassle by purchasing andy warne's new arcadeVGA, a new radeon-based video card made for outputting video compatible with 15khz arcade monitors! no special software or configuration, you just pop this into your pc and you're all set. i wish this card was available 4 months ago when i got started.
good starting points:
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
J-Pac and ArcadeVGA
Happ Controls (however you can save some $$$ by not getting it from their online store, and finding a local distributor)
good luck!
Yeah, and you won't see those expensive machines in the arcades either...
At least around here, the only arcades that are left are:
* Dave & Busters - if you convert your credits back into $$$, you'll find you're paying $.50+ for most of their mis-maintained games.
* Nickel City - Cheap old arcade games! Yay. Overrun by rugrats! Boo.
* Putt Putt/go-kart places - A few newer machines, most $.50/game.
* Sony Metereon - $2 to play DDR. No. No thank you.
Arcades as I knew them from the 80s and 90s are dead. I used to pump $10, even $20 into machines, but why do that now? $20 will *buy* you some pretty good games, regardless of what machine you've got at home. And now with online play, there's even less reason to go to the arcades where you could play an online game for $3-7/session...
Try Guilty Gear, Initial D, Art Truck Battle, etc. etc.
I don't know how a pseudo-responsible news agency like the NY Times can do mountains of research to find out what video games the Beltway Sniper was probably playing, and zero to find out stuff like this. It make it sound like Sega gets bought out by a non-player and that you'll see Sonic Pachinko games.
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