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

hm

[jermyjerm]

I'd be interested in seeing how realistic the locations are. I've been increasingly impressed with games that simulate real life locations, like Midnight Club 2's version of LA, and that's just on consoles.

I wonder if a slew of arcade games with similarly relevant themes (EG. fighting terrorists rather than zombies or aliens) and very detailed, lifelike graphics would help revitalize arcade gaming.

Save the arcades?

[_Sexy_Pants_]

While his heart is definately in the right place, an arcade-exclusive game won't do it, especially since a good game by today's standards is usually a deep game, as opposed to an addictive one.

I have a few ideas about what arcades need:

a) gimmicks - take advantage of what home consoles can't do. DDR's got it right, as do the air hockey tables many of them have.

b) attract girls - I don't know how to do it, but the best consumer for an arcade are teens who can drive (because they can get there). But why go to an when girls will just wait around bored? If you go solo, you're just being a nerd. Arcades need to be an acceptable social atmosphere.

c) return to old-school point-based games. From personal experience, when I play a video game, if I just blast through levels in, say, a light gun shooter, nobody cares. However (not to brag) my friends have crowded around me when I play Ms. Pac Man really well, or even Snake on my cell phone. Not only are these games exciting to watch, but they're competative

d) competition - the arcade is the only place where you can face-off with a person you've never met before in a video game. Nurture this

e) ADVERTISING - for arcades and arcade-only games. It works for every other business, why don't aracades give it a try?

f) Corporate Arcades - the best way to make a good arcade is to spend enough money to make one (and then advertise with this money). Instead of making a stupid arcade-exclusive game, why don't you take the money required to make it and start a chain of arcades? If it doesn't work, well neither would the game probably

Re:Too bad...

[Radius9]

I worked at Bally/Midway when they closed their coin-op department, and it wasn't Neo-Geo that killed the arcades. What was happening was that graphics alone no longer made people want to play the machines, because, to be honest, there really isn't that much of a difference between 50 million polygons a second compared to 100 million. It doesn't look different enough from the version they can play at home for people to actually spend money on. So the things that were doing well were machines that could offer something you couldn't get at home, primarily things like cockpits/seats, dancing pads, light guns, etc. Unfortunately, these had the side effect of increasing both the footprint of the cabinet as well as the cost. In addition, many of these machines are really only fun when linked between several players, increasing the cost even more. This meant that it no longer became profitable for most of the operators to run/maintain the machines since they could fit less machines in the same amount of floor space, they were more expensive, and had more parts that break/wear out, increasing the operating cost as well as the downtime on the machine. At that point, operators started increasing the cost of the games from 25 cents to 50 cents to 1 or 2 dollars a game, which makes people less likely to play unless the machine is truly spectacular, etc. It is these factors that played the largest role in the decline of the coin-op industry.

On a more positive note, Eugene has been around in video games for more than 20 years now, and has consistently made games that were fun and were at the very least decent earning games for the operators. I can't think of any games he has done that I was disappointed with. If there's anyone who I would pick from the video game industry to make a truly kick-ass machine, it would definitely be Eugene Jarvis.