Las Vegas Amoa Wrap Up

Las Vegas Amoa Wrap Up

The crowded September exhibition schedule continued with a bumper showing in America. The Amusement and Music Operators Association (AMOA) event played host to the second big amusement show of the 2006, again supported this year by the Fun Expo bringing the family entertainment centre and attraction business, and for the first time featuring a joint relationship with the Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift Show.

On the attraction front Fun Expo turned the corner of previous poor attendance, and showed an increase in exhibitors and visitors with sources suggesting an 8 per cent increase on 2005. The IALEI association support of this component of the event pleased that their efforts had paid off. It is the increase in Family Entertainment Centre (FEC) development that marked a positive trend, with the largest number of newly built or newly planned developments since the height of the industry (Stinger feature on FEC and MUE venue development scheduled for next month).

SEGA America – The booth showed the drive that now moves SEGA towards amusement as a core component of their revenue stream. The company showed ‘Afterburner Climax' (LindBergh) in its three packages, including the first US showing of the SimuLine developed motion system version of the mid-air combat simulator.

The big play systems continued with the first international appearance for the shooter ‘Let's Go Jungle' (LindBergh). The Theatre Cabinet design, revealed by the Stinger, reminiscent of the ‘Lost World' previous development; though the system was shown in the big Jeep style cabinet, SEGA executives were heard to voice plans for a smaller deluxe and ‘standard' style cabinet configuration for the US market.

The importance of tournament systems was on display at SEGA America with their increased GameWorks business with the ALL.NET connected ‘Extreme Hunting 2 – Tournament Edition' (PC Hardware). The GameWorks sites so far are the only ones to deploy the ALL.NET system, but it is expected that the company will be pushing the system in the face of new sports shooting tournament games from competitors. This speculation was fueled by the announcement that New Edge Networks, a management company that handles networks, had been hired by SEGA to support a package for their ALL.NET system – hoping to expand connectivity beyond just GW facilities.

The move towards updating the market's perception of amusement was continued by SEGA with the launch of the LindBergh Universal Cabinet configuration, replacing the popular Naomi system. The first application on display was ‘Virtua Tennis 3' (LindBergh), the players sitting at a large plasma display and two-player controls.

Namco Bandai Games America – The available number of new videos from NBA was limited to ‘Rockin' Bowl-o-Rama Tournament' (PC Hardware), the new tournament enabled system that is also an update kit for the machines already fielded. The company ran on the booth a number of tournaments awarding prizes to winners. Shown previously to the North American market, ‘Time Crisis 4' (Super System 258) graced the AMOA booth.

The autonomy that is being given to a number of the Japanese amusement factories was on show at AMOA. For a third time, Namco has turned to their relationship with American independent studio Dell Electronics (famous for their ‘Flamin Finger' and ‘Turret Tower' project for Namco). The company showed 'Jumpin' Jackpot,' a physical skill game that has players attempting to match movement with a light system as if climbing a virtual rope ladder. Namco having placed their specific development plans for the American territory in bowling and specialist prize game systems – including an agreement with Cashbox Games (‘Comet').

Global VR – The operation was buoyant from the Innovation award from AMOA for the ‘UltraPin' (PC Hardware) system, this example of the new move by the company to re-take their lead in amusement with big investment first outlined at ASI'06 started to appear at AMOA'06. The big presentation at the show was 'Aliens Extermination' (PC Hardware), the game building on the Twentieth Century Fox film license. Those with long memories could see the influences of the Midway ‘Terminator' game film license, and the standard SEGA cabinet ‘L.A. Machinegunners'. The game using a mounted two-player machine gun experience developed by studio Play Mechanix, their last independent game to be developed before they moved to Raw Thrills. The game caused a bit of a stir with players using a unique gun interface feature that is hoped to enhance the onscreen action (more details on developments in our coming Preview'07 coverage).

Betson – The company showed their growing ranks of video amusement to the assembled crowd, the first presentation of ‘Big Buck Hunter Pro – Tournament Edition' (PC Hardware). The promised tournament version of the game will act as direct competition to the Incredible Technologies Big Buck title – Betson claiming incredible revenue numbers from their version – before the tournament version is released in March. The company also showed their popular SuperBike driver, and their distribution agreements with Global VR and Konami.

Incredible Technologies – The developer cemented their increased investment in their amusement range with strong tournament applications to their complete range. The company had just completed the largest software update of their connected machines, with ‘Golden Tee LIVE! 2007' (Proprietary Hardware) adding new courses and addressing player needs for an enhanced 2007 tournament calendar schedule. This was matched with ‘Silver Strike 2007 Bowler's Club' (Proprietary Hardware), with a sweepstakes held on the booth to win a machine.

News Story with thanks to Kevin Williams, please visit www.thestingerreport.com for the full story and others.