Where Asia has focused on the player tournament, league applications and the use of this information for championship and player character customization, the international model for online, coin-op video game tournaments has focused on the prize and gaming generation of the technology. A handful of industry members (and players) dream of seeing the two methodologies merging to create a standardized methodology that could realize the halcyon vision of real-time, networked, remote head-to-head gameplay - linking players within a single site, across a state, across a country, and eventually across the globe into a single, virtual game environment.

(If that idea takes your breath away, consider this. Some even more visionary types would like to see this global coin-op online network happen, and they would like to see it further merged with the existing multi-million player base for MMOGs…home games that are already played online, most notably on a monthly subscription basis. MMOG stands for ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Games’. Outstanding examples include Sony Entertainment Corporations’ ‘EverQuest’.)

However, our focus here is on the current amusements scene and its likely next evolutionary phase over the next couple of months and years. Much has been written by TSR on the miracle that is the Incredible Technologies tournament infrastructure. Greatly underestimated by many, the company has created - especially with their latest LIVE! version of the infrastructure - a impressive and addictive prize tournament product. Games such as the Golden Tee series, currently represented by ‘Golden Tee LIVE!’ (Proprietary Hardware) have been bolstered by the adoption of this real-time live tournament structure. Not merely a one-hit wonder, IT have also offered a successful sports shooting series, represented by the latest ‘Big Buck Hunter 2006: Call of the Wild’ (Proprietary Hardware) supported by its own highly popular prize tournament element.

IT looks to the future with live advertising for the system, the inclusion of credit card payment, and the expanding of the functionality of the tournament environment to support the special requirements of individual operators as well as larger chains. The Gold Standard in tournament infrastructure that everyone has to reach - if not beat - to hope to draw the repeat visitation achieved in so many bars and clubs. In writing about the development of new tournament systems, the clear point has to be observed that IT has achieved what everyone else hopes to develop.

With success comes an undercurrent of concern, regarding the deployment of the prize tournament infrastructure over the years. Staking out the future of the amusement scene does entail certain growing pains. These range from the inevitable attempts at fraud against a prize infrastructure, to operator grumbling of possible conflict of interest by IT. This grumbling is based on operators’ speculation that (although strongly and consistently denied by IT), inevitably IT will be forced to consider operating their own machines. If this were to happen (say, under new management if IT were ever sold) then the manufacturer would have available to them a wealth of data on machine operational statistics. They would know how to “cherry-pick” the best locations.

Disclaimer: TSR wants to make it clear that there is currently no hard information that IT has any plans to operate their own machines. A previous accusation of the operation running their own route resulted in an end to the provocation (it was a matter of an IT founder and top executive owning a half-interest in a route, with no participation by IT as a company). The operator outcry also prompted IT to boost the levels and types of support that it gives to operators. Today, IT provides a respected teaching program, annual “summits” for close consultation with operators, and improved operator features on the current generation of systems.

The establishment of the latest derivation of the tournament infrastructure for the Golden Tee LIVE! platform has proven a arduous and intensive (if not expensive) project and this has resulted in readdressing priorities. Now that one-time partner Play Mechanix is developing competition to their previous exclusive sports shooting game tournament (closely followed by the new pretender from SEGA), the situation is even more fluid.

Having gone up against IT’s domination, Global VR / UltraCade Technologies have jointly created their own flavor of prize tournament infrastructure that allows deployment of their own products. The company, building on consumer content (see Stinger #445), has taken the network capabilities that are a feature of all PC content that is developed, and has built a prize tournament infrastructure. Both ‘EA Sports PGA Golf Tour’ (Proprietary Hardware) and ‘Need for Speed Underground’ (Proprietary Hardware) have pushed forward the application of network enabled amusement platform. The company has also embraced the player attraction route with the inclusion of a cross-platform IC Card, that stores players details and acts as their key upon the ViP tournament infrastructure of the GVR environment.

Having recently joined forces with UltraCade, GVR has also embraced the tournament enabled infrastructure developed by the former, a veteran developer(more on this, later in this report). UltraCade has had links to the fundamental applications of tournament development in the North American scene. More recently the company has developed a tournament enabled prize horse breeding and racing system. With ‘Breeders Cup’ (Proprietary Hardware) the company created a platform that took the best of previous concepts and packaged them in a compelling format. However -- no matter how advanced, the need to embrace a comprehensive system that addresses all the needs of the operating market can prove financially demanding if not crippling; and in creating the perfect package, the company has invested a considerable amount of their fiancés into the project. In sharing their experiences Global VR and UltraCade hope to create the definitive environment for their products and offer them an advance on those other manufacturers unable to plough in this level of resource - offering there definitive platform to venues before the competition wakes up.

The realization that a tournament infrastructure is out of the pockets of the remaining independent amusement development sector was realized by veteran cabinetmaker and newly-launched content developer TLC Industries. Working with TSR owners KWP Limited, the Amusement Tournament System (ATS) was developed -- hoping to offer to those developers interested an independent infrastructure for them to support that had the fundamentals such as fraud protection and prize payout capability. The ATS will see its first deployment with the TLC game ‘Texas Fold’em Select’ (FlexArcade), and already an intensive schedule of monitoring and transparency of collection figures is planned. A fundamental part in the popularity from the operators side of tournament system support is that the data collected is not used against the site by distributor or manufacturers with an eye on operating machines themselves.

It was revealed following the recent Sammy merger that SEGA Amusement USA was actively staffing up to become a player in the online tournament sector for their amusement business. The majority of SEGA Japan products for the amusement scene are dependant on their online capability represented by the broadband / fiber optic embedded ALL.NET (Amusement Linkage Live Network). The system has made games such as ‘Virtua Fighter 4’ (Naomi II) continue to offer a profitable return in the Asian market. Outside Japan, the same game lived (and died) like a firework - a quick flare, then a quick fizzle -- very likely because it was bereft of the ALL.Net IC Card and connectivity elements.

SEGA USA (the coin-op subsidiary) has before experimented with a connected system prize tournament. Those with long memories will remember when SEGA released an experimental venue playing network based around their 1998 ‘Daytona USA 2 Tournament Edition’ (Model 3: Step 2.1). The technology was based on an architecture specially created by what would go on to be UltraCade Technologies. Although it proved extremely popular with players, the then SEGA executive team was so bloated and inept that the project was scrapped despite its popularity - an example of the sterile thinking that resulted in the decapitation of the then top executive structure required by their Japanese paymasters. Saying this a large amount of operator estrangements to anything new during the 1998 period, and reticence to the reality of player paying extra fees for tournament gaming (in the days before the success of IT Golden Tee), compounded the collapse of a promising route.

In 2005, with the need to maximize investment, and to achieve a greater return for operators (especially if SEGA is now to operate these machines themselves), a plan has been started to revisit tournament systems and to bring the ALL.NET to the European and American scene. For the USA, the first ALL.NET game has been designated and aims for a summer release. ‘Extreme Hunting Tournament Edition’ (A-Wave+), which is already in operation falls into a crowded sports shooting scene, and hopes that the extensive capability of the ALL.NET will allow the game to defend a position against its main rival ‘Big Buck Hunter 2006’ (Proprietary Hardware) with its own prize enabled tournament architecture that has served the series well.

At this time EHTE, is placed at a number of GameWorks sites, leading many to wonder if SEGA operated machines within their sites will be the only venues to see tournament support. The game’s website is active and shows ‘Platinum’, ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Bronze’ rankings, the player registering at the machine. Whether or not this system is to embrace prize payout is yet to be revealed. But sources indicate that this opportunity has been considered. How the existing ALL.NET would be able to include a high score payout prize element - including the various State based restrictions -- has also not been revealed. Previously when questioned, SEGA blamed operator intransigence for their decision not to bring ALL.NET from Asia to the USA (a similar argument was heard from SEGA, regarding the non-deployment of the IC Card based arcade systems in the USA).

What seems to have been deployed so far is a specialized version of the AW.NET system, leading many to believe that the game is an A-Wave architecture modified for quick deployment in the US market. The Dreamcast based system had in Japan seen the AW.NET installed on a number of games, but had been abandoned - The cost-effective solution shown in the US offers an opportunity for SEGA to plug a hole left by their previous failed tournament experiment.

With the news that SEGA Europe is operating machines - a scenario expected to be revealed in the American market - and the full control of the GameWorks facility operation, it is expected that these 17 odd sites will be the first to be ‘fully connected’ with the ALL.NET / AW.NET infrastructure. For the remaining independent operators a concern regarding information interchange from connected machines has been voiced.

One of the most far-reaching developers of tournament and network gaming in their home market, in America and Europe little if any work has been done to deploy a version of - or an alterative - tournament products from Konami. However some experiments have been made in a small manner. Konami Europe did attempt to place ‘Silent Scope 2: Fatal Judgment’ (Hornet) with its network playing characteristics (Konami Internet Challenge), and have also supported non-connected tournaments using a paper card and high score password process, though this has still be a peripheral activity to the main focus of game sales.

Currently the prominent amusement factory has their own e-AMUSEMENT in Japan, which is a cross platform infrastructure that rivals many of the alternative systems from SEGA and Taito. The only system with mobile phone, PC and special terminal support, the e-AMUSEMENT architecture is second to none in the coin-op world. Recently TSR sources revealed that Japan was looking favorably at the possible deployment of e-AMSUEMENT outside of Japan, and already plans are being formulated to create an international version of the system for launch in the coming months. It is expected that much of this impetus comes from what has been seen and reported from the companies leading competitors.

The sudden appearance of ‘Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova’ (PC Hardware), claiming an active tournament structure leaves the door open to many possibilities. The game in Japan has been configured (as all Konami titles) to support e-AMUSEMENT, and the new e-AMUSEMENT PASS IC Card, though tournament connectivity is yet to be confirmed for international application and is expected only to be a high score charting, rather than a connected variant. In the Dancing Game genre a number of the copycat products have employed rudimentary tournament features. ‘In The Grove 2’ (PC Hardware) by ROXOR Games has been heavily promoting their tournament feature, based partly on codes and online support via USB Memory Card - recently running their North American Tournament 2005, which took place in Las Vegas. The ‘Pump It Up 2: EXCEED2’ (PC Hardware) by Andamiro also offers an extensive international tournament feature with the great play-off taking place in Europe at World Pump It Up Festival 2006.

One of the distributor manufacturers that has finally shown their colors in tournament application is Betson Enterprises. The company has moved towards the support of their own original development in this changed market and building on past investment into experimenting with tournament system -- such as a short-lived application of Taito’s ‘Battle Gear 3’ (GNet) NESYS tournament system in a limited field trial. The company now has invested support in studios Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix to create a practical American tournament model.

The popularity of the sports shooting game has been matched by the interest and player support of league and tournament enabled gaming for prizes. The idea was such that Incredible Technologies, through their partnership with the Big Buck development studio Play Mechanix, undertook excusive research and development of an infrastructure that supported a series of games that employed a prize element. It was surprising when in 2005 Play Mechanix decided to part company with IT. This was not a decision taken lightly (see Stinger #442), but PM officials felt they were forced to look towards future development and investment of the concept. They found what they consider to be a safe home with Betson Enterprises.

From this has been created a new version of the Big Buck franchise, and soon to be released on the trade is a network-enabled system to support the line. ‘Big Buck Hunter Pro - Tournament Edition’ (Proprietary Hardware) will apply much that Play Mechanix has learned and much that they hope will take the element of sports shooting prize tournament gaming into the next level application. Though the company will be seeing tournament competition from SEGA and obviously from their previous home IT, they still feel confident that they have the know-how to succeed in this increasingly competitive environment.

The other Betson-supported studio, Raw Thrills, has favored a ‘wait and see’ plan regarding the need for a connected tournament capability. The company has used on their product range a high score keyboard, originated by Atari Games. This keyboard supports the concept of a keypad entry system to store (on the particular machine) player details to achieve a flexible single machine infrastructure. It has been carried across to GAELCO games, and more recently to the last few Raw Thrills products, but its rigidity to support only single machines means that this system is unable to be used for wider prize allocation. Such limitations have led many to feel that connectivity is the only plausible route to establish tournament network gaming.

This system however still allowed Betson / Raw Thrills to run the Chicago Regional Fast and the Furious Tournament, on their driver ‘The Fast and the Furious’ (Proprietary Hardware), taking place in a grand playoff in November last year. This hometown tournament offered an interesting but not entirely practical solution. While in theory it could be deployed nationwide (as was being tested), it seems clear that the market’s needs would be better served by a connected system. Raw Thrills, accordingly, is taking a serious look at the possibility of making the necessary (large) investment.

Supported by such an influential distributor, Betson and these studios will have to prove to the operator not only a profitable revenue stream to support tournament and the expense of connectivity, but also the safety of access to such valuable data regarding the operation and utilization of tournament connected machines. The constant threat of information ‘data mining’ and “eliminating the middleman” is still weighing heavily on many operators’ minds.

Sitting on the fence….

One name that stands out for its lack of any announced online tournament plan is the newly merged Namco Bandai Gaming. The company has been surprisingly restrained when it comes to experimenting with tournament infrastructures. Namco America did experiment with a British-imported, online tournament system with a UK-made video pool game a few years ago. They even showed this game in their booth at a national USA trade show. But, Chicago-based tests did not prove strong enough to warrant rolling out the game and the tournament system nationwide, executives said. In Asia the corporation is aligned with the SEGA ALL.NET architecture, and so makes it difficult for international trial, though with the latest Tekken series the ALL.NET IC Card capability has been successfully deployed with the machines sold in Europe and America.

Rumors from Japan state that there is a strong possibility that whatever the success of the SEGA deployment of their ALL.NET interest, Namco will support this with their enabled hardware. To date, other than support of their previous partners, Namco has leaned toward using GALECO’s tournament investment (finally realized by the failed ‘GALECO Touring Championship’ racing game). Games such as ‘Mario Kart Arcade GP’, ‘Tekken 5’ and ‘Cobra: Arcade Stage’ have either not made the trip from Japan enabled for tournament deployment or have been castrated of this element.

It is however expected with the new merger with Bandai that an accelerated R&D spend will encourage Namco’s American team to re-evaluate the deployment of a rudimentary tournament infrastructure that can then be expanded to embrace other systems such as ALL.NET. Certainly, before any firm decision can be made, and before major resources can be allocated, crucial data needs to be compiled.

Namco does have one big advantage going for it, when it comes to the possibility of making a big commitment to ALL.Net with its games, or the possibility of launching its own online network system. That advantage is its location base in the USA, operated under its CyberTainment division. The biggest hurdle in making sure than an online network tournament is truly viable (other than technology and marketing), is making certain that a sufficient installed base is hooked up to the network in a reasonably short period of time. Namco could just make an “executive decision” to deploy ALL.NET across the full span of its American street and arcade sites. Such a deployment would then encompass the vast machine operation business run by Namco (as SEGA seem to have done with AW.NET / GameWorks on a much smaller scale). This, in turn, could help encourage non-Namco operators to buy tournament-connected Namco equipment. They would know in advance that the network was up and running…and successful.

As previously stated, Taito, via a relationship with Betson Enterprises, has experimented on a limited basis with the NESYS system in field application. But due to a variety of reasons, this system never saw greater deployment. It is known that Taito are now readdressing this issue. The thinking is that their current games - especially those such as ‘Half-Life 2 Survivor’, which began and continues as a successful LAN game -- should be given another chance to be deployed with the option of a coin-op tournament enablement - at least to the IC Card. It is expected that seeing expansionistic plans from their leading competitors at a series of exhibitions, Taito will find themselves drawn into the brewing arms race to dominate the high ground, though if they wait too long they may find they are too late.