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F-Zero Draws Console Gamers To Arcades?
Thanks to Gamers.com for their report discussing the newly revealed synergy between F-Zero's home and arcade versions (here's an alternate article at GamePro.) According to the article, "..customized racers are freely interchangeable between the arcade and console versions of the game. Just save a custom racer to the GameCube memory card with either game, and you can transport it from one game to the other." As well as this, "..winning a race in the arcade game can unlock.. ships or tracks as a special bonus - save that data to a GC memory card and you can play an otherwise unavailable ship or course in the home game." You'll also get a special magnetic License Card for high scores in the arcade version, in this interesting attempt at providing incentive for players to return to arcades.
I love playing in Arcades, but unfortunately I just don't see the reason why anyone would go to the effort of saving their game to a memory card and taking it to the arcade.
Why not just play the game that you already own from the comfort of your couch rather than standing feeding loads of quarters into a machine?
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Wasn't this feature available with the Neo-Geo?
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Nothing helps progress like competition. If people can show off in front of a whole arcade or a whole city or even the whole world, of course they're going to do it.
Other game companies should get in on this action.
I purchased an import version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for my Dreamcast. It also had this kind of connectivity, but in the form of points earned from playing and victories. You need victory points to buy the hidden characters, uniforms and levels in the game. Much to my chagrin, there are many things I cannot unlock because the import version requires points you can only aquire by playing people in the arcade. I have not been able to find a machine in the US...and I no current plans to visit the land of the rising sun. :- /
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Yeah, it will definitely suck in a few years when you want to play F-Zero for nostalgia but can't unlock everything because the arcade version is no longer available.
The idea does sound intriguing though. But if you ask me, I think your standard cabinet arcades are dead. It's cheaper and more fun to play on your favorite console at home. Now, notice I said cabinet style. If you to attract more people to the arcade, you have to make a setup that isn't feasible as a home option. Dance Dance Revolution is one idea. It has a large dance floor which is a million times better than the home pad version. Another idea is BattleTech and virtual reality. These setups are too costly for the average user but I've seen people readily hand over 5-10 bucks for 10-15 minutes of playtime.
Most of the arcades where I am from are dying or are dead. It's kind of sad really.
Kid eagerly bounds up to the F-Zero machine, clutching Gamecube Memory card in hand. After spending 10 minutes pulling out the accumulated chewing gum that's been wedged into the slot, he plays his game. Reward won, he retrieves his card and eagerly turns around to go home... ... and gets mugged by a group of pimple faced smackheads who've blown their parents dole money (stolen, natch) on the fruit machines.
Or is that just BRITISH arcades?
Great idea, but there is something that is going to ruin it in the blink of an eye:
Cheat devices
People are going to use these to hack together overpowered super cars and drivers, and then take them to the arcade and try and dominate the score boards with them. This may be worked around if Nintendo implements some careful cheat protections, but I think that something like this is more or less doomed to being hacked to death. PSO on the DC anybody?
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Yes, but I'll go you one better. I bet there aren't any buffer overflow checks on that arcade machine. Why should there be? They've (almost) never had to worry about this sort of user input in the past. Even with the Neo Geo systems, it would be really difficult to put your own code on the memory cards, but there's a memory card available from Lik Sang that has a USB port on it so you can back up your games to the PC. All you gotta do is hack up some code, toss it on the card and plug it into the arcade game. Boom, anything from crashing the machine (and resetting high scores) to wiping people's memory cards to free games, depending on exactly how many priviledges the game code in the arcade machine has.
Because at home most people dont have a whole device that you sit in that moves, and vibrates and has 6.1 surround sound, with a crystal clear TV. Some of you may do, but many many do not.
Sure, that's all fun and games, but how long before someone simply figures out how to change the high score on their magnetic cards? Without actually storing it on the machine, and letting people take something home to play with, is just asking for trouble.
I think this may encourage more than simple "connectivity." It'll be interesting to see what happens, either way.
Simple. Just institute classes of racers/vehicles. Those withing 'normal' bounds and those above. Surely it's not hard to check a few key numbers and report whether they fall into Class A or Class B.
I'm just pissed that they haven't instituted a unified memory card system yet.
And for that matter, why don't arcades offer fighting games where people can import their own fighters fully made from, say, a small program freely available on the Net. And with a single memory card they could import the character to any console version of said game....
Jeffool.
Hey, I'm onto something here!
What a great idea! I buy a game to play at home, but don't get use of the full game because there won't be an arcade withing 1000 miles of me with the game.
I guess this is to be expected from Nintendo -- with their push for the gameboy-gamecube connection. Now you can pay 100% for a gamecube game and get 90% of it in return.
I certainly hope there are cheats that can open up the "hidden" tracks for those of us stuck in the god-forsaken corners of the world.
Maybe the future of arcades is to provide instant LAN setups... Replacing low income games with banks of gaming setups with boxes, monitors and comfy gaming setups. Random groups get together and Doom out, or whatever it is you kids do these days.
Replace the GC memory card with the USB RAM keychain...
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Things like DDR, Time Crisis 3, and F-Zero are giving kids a reason to head to the arcade. The problem is that there aren't any. And where there are arcades, prices are high. 1 dollar per credit is a little nuts if you ask me. And most arcades don't update with the newest games.Someone should open up a chain of very small arcades in areas with lots of gamers and no arcades, like suburbs. The arcades don't need a lot of games, just the new big ones. They can make money of skee-ball, crane machines, mini golf, a skate park, birthday parties, etc. However, they should also be run with the gamer in mind. When new games come out that will be popular the arcade should get them asap. High Score and such should be taken seriously. Tournaments could be hosted. A LAN area would work well too. Set up a chain/franchise of these and money is coming your way.
Also, back in the day arcade games used to be superior to home games. Obviously today they aren't. Expensive peripherals like light guns and ddr pads add something. But what we really need are arcade games that use vastly superior technology than console and pc games. Think about it. A 300$ console setup + television has a game of equal quality to a 3000$ arcade machine? For the very high prices arcade machines could have extremely powerful computers inside and have pixar quality graphics and surround sound, etc. that gamers can't get in their homes.
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What made the arcade great was that you couldn't find any of those games or experiences anywhere else. Now with most arcade games being released for home consoles, the demand for arcade games have diminished.
More creativity has to be put into arcade games. Look at Japan. The arcade is still as big as ever because many of the games they have aren't available at home or would not be able to be played on a console/pc anyways.