15/8/06

“The Growing Retro Revolution!” (#498)

Stinger REPORT Skinny!

(4/08/06) Growing nostalgia on the part of 30-something consumers has fueled an explosion in retro gaming as a popular past time. While the hobbyist MAME community grows, the Stinger charts the appearance of a new home retro cabinet from Awesome. The market for visitor attractions sees a growth also in museum exhibits based on retro gaming, the Game On event to be joined by Virtual Arcade Experience. All this supported by online consumer retro from the likes of Xbox LIVE Arcade and GameTap. All this in the shadow of the surprise downscaling consumer game exhibition E3.

(For the full story, go to the Main Report online at – www.thestingerreport.com)

Main REPORT:

The Stinger Report has charted for some time the popularity of utilizing classic arcade titles from the golden age of video amusement. Initially as opportunities for the amusement sector to hope drop titles with a proven revenue-generating background into a changing market. Titles such as the UltraCade, TeamPlay and Namco range of classic cabinets saw differing success in this market.

Behind all this ‘official’ amusement application there has been a vast 'Hobbyist' sector of home players. The Stinger has been one of the first to cover the MAME community (see Stinger #388), the ability to exactly emulate the functions of the majority of arcade machines from the industries heyday on a conventional PC.

This burgeoning interest in retro has seen a new and expansive business arise, to support the MAME and industry beyond.

The biggest development has been in the number of cabinets that have been installed in game and recreational rooms The market first for original classic cabs and now for multi-game cabinets able to swap from one game to the other, comprising control configurations to play driver such as Pole Position and Super Sprint, or shooters such Defender and Galaga, or puzzlers such as Arkanoid and Bubble Bobble.

Originally these specialist cabinets were home built DiY (do it yourself) projects, but an industry has grown to support them. One such newcomer is Awesome Arcades, with their 'classic home arcade system'. The company has created a slickly styled home player’s cabinet - but gone the extra mile with licensed classic content for inclusion in the package (the Exidy titles in a signed licensed for the platform).

The 'Awesome AC 601' is one of the new styles of electronic furniture; the company comprises those with a working knowledge of the hobby and classic arcade scene. Stinger Report owners KWP adding their name to the advisory team, a supporter of retro gaming KWP also supported the smaller Digital Tables aspiration for UK home gaming.

With the classic cabinets in circulation the unusual industry of retro spare parts has emerged with companies building new control interfaces for long-past classics. The 1982 classic TRON the recipient of player customized Apache spinner controllers to fulfill hobbyist needs – literally customizing their cabs. While the retro cabinet sector grows the application of entertainment based on classic titles moves into a new area – the use of nostalgia retro chic to enthrall visitors.

2002 marked the first application of the video entertainment museum attraction on a large scale. The 'Game On' museum attraction returns from an American tour to its birthplace in London. Originated in 2002 for a Scottish venue and predominately the Barbican in London. The concept returns to London in 2006 at the Science Museum.

The original attraction comprised 500 consumer and amusement classics, covering over 1000sq. ft., developed as a traveling exhibit, but also available for hire. With this return much of the Science Museum thinking is based on a £1million partnership with the consumer game company Nintendo, in a four- year sponsorship deal, which will bring Game On to the venue, but also see their ‘Launch Pad Gallery’ interactive area receiving a makeover. Game On competing with Videotopia in America, another traveling video game exhibit.

Game On however is a more pro-consumer experience. Recently a consortium of investors stated an interest to develop an international video arcade exhibition that would focus on machines and their development. The concept ('Virtual Arcade Experience') has been on the drawing board for a number of years, originated as a San Jose Atari Museum scheme, the concept has matured into an amusement experience.

The concept builds on the aspiration, inspiration and application of Out-of-Home entertainment. A mixture of highly prized classic machines, interspersed with detailed biography of their development, concept and impact -- the VAE given exclusive access to developers and collectors to compile a living history. The 30-something audience has fond memories of the systems and is eager to pass on their nostalgic love affair to a new audience: namely, their own kids. The concept is both an exhibit but developed to offer a night-venue component for corporate and private entertainment using an original smart card activation scheme and 'Machine Wall' interactive display.

The first VAE venue is expected to be a London entertainment venue, while the hi-tech museum element will be presented to the first interested parties at the coming Museum Association UK gathering near the end of the year. Continuing KWP's involvement with amusement archaism, the concept is being represented by TSR’s owner.

The classic titles from arcade have offered financial salvation to a number of consumer product lines. The mobile phone industry has released a hoard of classics for their handsets, while the toy industry cashed in with all in one TV plug-in boxes playing classic titles.

The consoles have eyed classic arcade content hungrily - Nintendo previewing their latest console (the Wii) with the promise of downloadable classic arcade and past consumer titles through their Virtual Console network service.

More recently Microsoft announced it was to release updated versions of popular 1980s-era arcade games through Xbox Live Arcade, an online service that player connect to via their console paying a monthly fee. Seen as a new competitor to the popularity of the PC MAME community, Microsoft has taken it upon them to 'update' these classic for application on their subscription network.

Whether Pac-Man, Frogger or Galaxian need to be updated was not considered, though a need to 'control' the dissemination of Thirty year old IP may have more to do with the move. That players’ via the Freeware of MAME, have been free to play these games and more to their hearts content has fired the IP owners to clamp down on use of properties after a failed attempt to put an end to MAME.

What Could this all Mean:

The popularity of classic titles for consumer consumption has turned from a hobbyist’s interest to big business the application of which is turning into a profitable arm of the consumer game sector.

While the purists play with their MAME game ROM images, a number of delivery services for the casual player are taking hold and so monopolizing the future opportunities to disseminate classic amusement. Along with XBox LIVE Arcades retro online selection growing by the day, there is GameTap who distribute online over 600 PC enabled classic game titles from arcade and beyond to be supplied though a subscription service.

This subscription model emulates what is being seen in the mobile phone field with the circulation of retro titles on handsets, proving extremely popular. The rebirth in classic gaming, spurred by retro PC and online content hopes to address the control of these classic, and add addition revenue to a number of the arcade factories. As was stated a few Stingers back; it would take large sales to get the amusement arcade houses to have a serious interested in retro, and so now that the lawyers are being dusted off the action will commence.

Many have seen the resurgence of retro as another indication that conventional consumer contents are failing to keep the audience enthralled to buy new games with ever-increasing price tags – the aspect of a player backlash possibly funded by a retro revival?

Breaking Stinger News – While the consumer games industry looks towards retro arcade titles to secure future revenue, cracks appeared more sharply in the consumer games market edifice. The prestigious showcase of all that is successful in home gaming, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3), which annually overflowed the Los Angeles Convention Center, found itself suddenly deserted by its “anchor” exhibitors.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) that runs the show was in the middle a whirlwind of controversy at the end of July as various consumer game websites attempted to downplay surfacing industry gossip. Influential site Next-Gen.Biz stated that the main exhibitors of the over-hyped and overblown E3 event had taken a collective decision that the vast $20 million cost (per major exhibitor, per year) to exhibit, promote and support the event was not cost-effective, and not increasing revenues.

Speculation that E3’s organizers were fielding an increase in booth space prices acted as the final straw and with the pressure on multi-million dollar marketing efforts for an ever-dwindling consumer sales market, it was felt the money and effort to support E3 could be targeted better elsewhere. All it took was Sony, EA, Nintendo and Microsoft to confirm their removal and the edifice collapsed!

In order to spin the news the official statement claimed that a new show (E3 Media Festival) would better suit media needs to cover games - but in a smaller format going from a estimated 60,000 attendance to 5,000 housed in a few local LA hotels. No amount of doubletalk could hide the fact that the original E3 concept sprung from Consumer Electronics Show (CES) over 12 years ago was scrapped, (CES linked to rumors of a new game event of their own next year).

Some have charted the collapse in support of E3 – the most visible representation of the consumer sector’s extravagance – as a precursor of the encroaching storm for the industry. Growing player apathy toward the new console platforms, and the increasingly formulaic nature of the big titles, are seen as evidence of a growing malaise.