Eugene Jarvis Returns To Arcades With Target Terror

Thanks to 1UP for its story noting that famed arcade game designer Eugene Jarvis has resurfaced with a new company and arcade-only videogame. According to the report: "Raw Thrills is the name of the company, and Target: Terror is its game", and this new title is "...a two-player shooter, set in real-life locations threatened by terrorist attacks. Levels mentioned in the announcement include the Golden Gate bridge, the Los Alamos nuclear research facility in New Mexico, Denver International Airport, and a climactic stage where an airliner threatens to crash into the White House." Jarvis, the creator of creator of Defender, Robotron, and other arcade classics, says he plans to change the depressed arcade market by bucking the trend of "...ultra-low budget dogs, ports of faded consumer titles, or overpriced white elephants that just don't earn." Update: 02/02 21:53 GMT by S : A member of the development team has confirmed the game is "a light-gun shooter".

Comments

Recipe for success, but not revival

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While I have little doubt that, if done well, this new game will succeed, I very much doubt that it will revive or spark a revival of the arcade.

The arcade had two appeals: atmosphere and easy, library-like access to games. The atmosphere hasn't changed, and that's been a big problem. The evolution of games and gaming in general have taken the typical gamer away from the open, cacaphonic and busy, glitzy room and toward tightly-packed rows of computers where more than a handful of friends can play with and against each other in the same virtual world.

PCs and game consoles have made access even easier and more convenient. Now you don't even have to walk across a room to play the next game, because it's only a mouse-click or DVD/CD/Cartridge swap away. And best of all, you can play all of these games sitting down.

PC and console gaming has had the time not only to one-up arcade gaming, but lap it. Configurable controls, co-op modes, engaging stories, saved games, multiplayer against humans rather than bots, multiplayer with more than a handful of friends, etc. All have lured the modern gamer away from the arcade, by and large.

And all of this has been simple progress, an evolution of gaming. In the past, Centipede and Pac Man were kings of the electronic gaming domain. The equipment was too expensive, too large, and too bulky for all but the most wealthy of gamers to have home access. The best business model was to put a bunch of the giants in one room and charge a coin or two per play. That won't work, anymore, and it's not a dearth of quality games which have caused this decline; this new game would work just fine on an xbox or PS2, and that alone should be an indication of why more games like it will not cause gamers to flock to the Electronic Arcades as they once did.

Times have changed, and they will again. The arcades will go the way of the news reel, and nothing can change this. Whether or not it is for the best is a matter of personal opinion.

~UP