***Conference Report - ASI, Las Vegas
by John Latta

The Coin-Op market is often seen as being at the leading edge of
entertainment content for its use of 3D technology and bringing out
leading fast action games. The ASI show is one of two annual events in
the US focused exclusively on coin-op and the WAVE Report went to
sample industry trends.

Sega was showing a new racing game (Super GT) based on the Lockheed-
Martin Model 3 platform. We previously reported on Virtua Fighter 3
(see WAVE #609.8) but this has not sold well in the U.S. where players
have grown tired of fighting games. We tried SuperGT and was impressed.
A number of comments were heard from the show floor that it is the best
driving game yet. However, Sega has again gone to new heights with
pricing - the unit sales for approximately $19,000 to the operator
(approximately the same price for the single seat Deluxe version with
motion and a 50" - screen or the Twin two seat smaller screen). In a
new twist, Sega has a leasing arrangement with Firestone Financial
Crop. This is an 18-month lease, which cost the operator a total of
$20,200 including the FMV payout of $4,400 at the end. The lease
payments average out approximately $800/month, which is approximately
$200/week. If the game does well over the 18 month period as the best
title yet has done, Daytona, this is a good deal for the operator. We
see where Super GT has a much better chance to succeed than Virtual
Fighter 3 ever did (at least in the U.S.)

There was no end to the high cost of games with Sega; its House of the
Dead costs $14,900 (based on the Lockheed Martin Model 2) and $15,900
for Top Skate. Sega was not alone in its pricing with Namco with its
Alpine Racer2 Deluxe at $19,245. A new lower cost version was released
called the Alpine Racer 2 Compact for $12,945.

Konami provided only a few more details on its Cobra 3D technology that
it is using from IBM Japan (see WAVE #609.8). They were showing video
clips from a game called PF573 (Polygon Fighter) which looked
impressive, however, one has to wait on the final game to make quality
judgments. This is expected to be ready in May and pricing has not been
set. A driving game with the same technology is due in December.
Another game that was impressive with its human interface was Hang
Pilot. Similar in concept to the Evans and Sutherland hang glider game
the Konami version has two screens - look down and forward. One steers
with a hang bar. The objective of the game is to navigate to air
balloons. Similar in concept to Namco's Prop Cycle the game appears to
be more of a challenge. Pricing for Hang Pilot is approximately
$20,000.

Running counter to the high cost trend was ICE (Innovative Concepts in
Entertainment) with a game called SkiMaxx at $9,000. This is a single
paddle water ski game based in part on Alpine Racer. In comparison to
Sega's Super GT the 3D image quality was no where the same but for the
operator on a budget, most are, this could represent a good buy.

As a follow-up to its announcement at the ACME show, Microsoft was
present with some of the first Windows standards based coin-op
platforms. Showing in the booth was a game written by Inner Workings in
England being hosted on a Windows system built by HanproPC using the
3Dfx Voodoo chip. The game is called Plane Crazy whose objective is to
fly an aircraft down a narrow canyon. We found the flying challenging
but the lack of depth cues made navigation difficult around the walls
and other obstacles. No pricing was announced and the game is due Q4
1997.

The WAVE Report spoke with Frank Happ, President of Happ Controls. This
company has been one of the strongest supporters of the Windows
platform initiative. Frank is working to develop components to
implement a Windows standard system and will do all but the final
system. As Frank indicated he does not want to be in the software
publishing business. Yet, his major concern right now is that there are
not enough titles available.

As a follow-up we spoke with Jason Robar, Games Technology Evangelist
at Microsoft. He indicated that Taito and Dynamo will be coming out
with systems also. Software publishers either committed to titles or
seriously evaluating them include: Sierra, Interplay and Electronic
Arts. Jason expects that there will be from 1 to 2 locations this
summer running tests on Windows based systems. He expects 3 - 10 titles
by the end of the year. The major roll out of systems will come in H1
1998. Jason cautioned that it takes at least 12 months for a new title
to be developed and this is consistent with a 1998 schedule.


Wave Issue 9706 3/28/97 Article 6-01