SEGA SAMMY to reveal Naomi 3!

The date has been set! May 26th!

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The yearly Sega Private Show will this year be held in 3 Japanese cities. First up is Tokyo on may 20th, followed by Osaka on may 24th and finally Fukuoka will get the newest Sega arcade cabinets in on may 26th.

This edition will finally see the unveiling of Sega's new PowerVR arcade board, which was develloped in cooperation with the British Imagination Technologies.

This new system, that should become Sega's first next-generation arcade board was already announced last year. But it's not yet known if this will be the third NAOMI board.

The systems hardware will consist of a high-end PowerVR Graphics card. This technology was also used in the first 2 Naomi systems.
This is not just another graphics card. According to some sources only the next generation game consoles would be able to handle possible conversions, with concessions made in the graphics department.

One of the first titles should be Virtua Fighter 5.
Although the existence of this game is based on rumors, it's already known that the best Virtua Fighter players are cooperating with AM2 on a new part in the series, just alike they did with VF4 EVO and VF4 FT before that.
A new Virtua Fighter always appears on a high-end system, so the chances look promising that we will be able to marvel at some impressive footage come may.

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http://www.servicegames.nl/index.php...iew&id=1867&s=

Here's the hours I'd have for an arcade:

Sun 12N-8p
Mon-Fri 3p-8p
Sat 10a-10p (off duty cop on premises from 7p-close)

To help offset arcade costs, a wall-mounted monitor with a slideshow of rotating ads wouldn't be a bad idea. Of course you couldn't really rely on it much at first- but once you gain a bigger clientele, you could raise the fees for that.

All-you-can-play events would be a good way to draw people in during offpeak times. An arcade could have a $10 cover charge for AYCP on all token games, with Quarter games remaining on their normal per-play price.

I'd have a small redemption game section- you need some RGs, but some places overdo that. RGs would be Quarters Only games.

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Originally Posted by gameoverDude

Here's the hours I'd have for an arcade:

Sun 12N-8p
Mon-Fri 3p-8p
Sat 10a-10p (off duty cop on premises from 7p-close)

To help offset arcade costs, a wall-mounted monitor with a slideshow of rotating ads wouldn't be a bad idea. Of course you couldn't really rely on it much at first- but once you gain a bigger clientele, you could raise the fees for that.

All-you-can-play events would be a good way to draw people in during offpeak times. An arcade could have a $10 cover charge for AYCP on all token games, with Quarter games remaining on their normal per-play price.

I'd have a small redemption game section- you need some RGs, but some places overdo that. RGs would be Quarters Only games.

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Personally, I think you need almost 24 hour arcades. That is how Playland was and it still didn't help. And the thing is, you practice at home in training mode if the games cost too much and then you go to test your skills at the local arcade. Whatever, I think an arcade could be done with the best of both worlds, but I don't have the money to do it myself, and the onese calling the shots just aren't giving people what they want.

ssb

You'd pretty much have to be open - and busy - 24 hours a day to make a go of any arcade if you only charge .25 per game. Either that, or just stick to older, cheaper cabs.

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with new games, other than one or two near the front. The rest would be older, 2D stuff.

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Originally Posted by ssbomberman

Personally, I think you need almost 24 hour arcades. That is how Playland was and it still didn't help. And the thing is, you practice at home in training mode if the games cost too much and then you go to test your skills at the local arcade. Whatever, I think an arcade could be done with the best of both worlds, but I don't have the money to do it myself, and the onese calling the shots just aren't giving people what they want.

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Playland sounded amazing, but when all of my friends at home got to PSU, it closed. :( I never got to see it, but I do remember one of them telling me about the auction, which I couldn't go to either. Sad.

I don't know of any good arcades in PA at all. There's only one left around where I grew up and it's not very good.

Just as an aside (just to show that yes, you can actually operate an arcade nowadays and not lose your shirt): there is an arcade close to where I am from called Tokyo Game Action (omg ******-chans-r-us lawlz), who specalize in import gaming. Right now their clientele is mainly obsessive-compulsive Bemani players (although they are expanding to get the obessive-compulsive fighting game players too), as they have the latest versions of several games there (DDR, IIDX, GF/DM, Pop'n) and a per-day rate ($20) that is expensive for your average player but is a tremendous value for said obsessive-compulsive player. They are only open four days a week, but the days they are open they tend to run fairly late (they say midnight, but they're usually open to 1 AM, at least). Needless to say, the place turns a nice profit even though they have to lay out a good amount of cash for the latest updates. The owner also spends a lot of time trying to foster a local community (both on-site and online) and has a fair number of events, from tournaments to some really random stuff (like one night where they ran a game show that worked like a clone of Press Your Luck).

If more arcades were run like that... some of them could actually turn a profit! What a concept.

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Originally Posted by recon_zero

Oh yeah... DDR, DDR, DDR.... does this help DDR?

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The funny thing is, I have a feeling the market is about to be flooded with DDR clones. You already have all of these versions of DDR and Pump floating around, with a second release of ITG (with its own cabinets) coming shortly. On top of that, you have a couple of other games (Neon FM: Dance Radio and Dance Trax) and I've heard rumors (from sources I would consider reputable, but who knows) that there is another version of DDR coming out. Yikes.

-Dippy

dipstick hit on what I was trying to say: the thing that will keep an arcade profitable today is building a community for it. That sense of community will not only attract more gamers but sustain your arcade.

The flat-rate daily play charge thing is a great concept. I beat Gauntlet Legends at Disneyquest which used a similar structure, but you had the option to either use the unlimited play card or charge as you went, with a minimum purchase of I think 10 dollars to get in.

I agree that arcades are only dead because of poor management. Of course too many arcades would still fail, but good well-maintained arcade communities that cater to the obsessive compulsives (fighters music maybe shmups, scattered old games) spaced out properly would likely succeed. That's my opinion anyway.

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Originally Posted by AGES

The date has been set! May 26th!

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YAWN!!!

Seriously, nobody cares. Virtua Fighter 5 for a home system, maybe. But Virtua Fighter 5 for the arzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Huh, what? Oh.

See? I just fell asleep before I could finish that sentence.

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Originally Posted by Cowdisease

Seriously, nobody cares. Virtua Fighter 5 for a home system, maybe. But Virtua Fighter 5 for the arzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Huh, what? Oh.

See? I just fell asleep before I could finish that sentence.

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Even that won't change a thing (exhibit A: Soul Calibur 3)... unless it's on Xbox Live (which is really should be, the difficulties of low-latency gaming be damned).

It'll be highly reveleant in Japan (where VF4:FT is one of the biggest games in town), but it will be completely irreveleant in the US. Since most of us live in the US... well, yeah.

-Dippy

I really don't see the significance of Naomi 3, or any other post-MVS arcade platform for that matter. The only reason the MVS survived as long as it did was because it had a huge technological advantage over home systems for a good 4 or five years. Even the playstation couldn't handle some NeoGeo games. From the sounds of it, home consoles will surpass Naomi 3 by the end of this year.

The only thing it has going for it is that VF5 will probably be huge in japan and that will help get a lot of systems out there. If that happens, you can count on sega releasing more games on that system.

But as great as the virtua fighter series is, the cheeseball dialogue and limp character design makes it totally unappealing to most american gamers, so we won't be seeing too many Naomi 3 based games in our dwindling arcades.