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Date: October 07, 1987 17:48
From: KIM::RAINS
To: @SYS$MAIL:ENGINEER
FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH FLASH Late report from our man, Dan Van, in the heart of enemy territory, Tokyo, Japan. He reports that the JAA show is pretty busy, and there are plenty of new products being shown. A quick rundown: SEGA: showing AFTERBURNER in 4 or 5 different cabinet configurations, including a new intermediate cost sit-down. The program has been updated slightly, but remains basically the same. They were also showing a Baseball game in the same cabinet and on the same hardware as DUNK SHOT. Excitement on afterburner is still high in Japan, and among the international visitors at the show. NAMCO: is getting a lot of interest by American and European visitors in their PACMANIA game. Dan feels confident that we will have to show this product at the AMOA and make it available before Christmas. Namco is also showing their new linkable cabinet multiplayer driving game, FINAL LAP. They have four 2-player cabinets linked into an 8-player Pole Position type game. Dan isn't sure how significant the product will be, though the game gets a lot of play at the show. DATA EAST: is showing their 3-player Gauntlet-style REAL GHOST BUSTERS game, but Dan claims it's a bust. Not to worry.... TATSUMI: is showing a new first person, 3-D flying game which Dan claims is graphically superior to Lock-on or Afterburner. He's not sure if the game is better than afterburner, but it looks like someone else is starting to do some real 3-D stuff. TAITO: showed a video machine gun game, OPERATION WOLF, which was apparently receiving some attention. Dan says the compact cabinet design was highly favored as a good concept. KONAMI: is showing their 2-player Gauntlet-style game, DARK WARRIOR. Dan says the graphics are good, and the view is zoomed in much closer, so the characters and monsters are more than twice as big as Gauntlet. KASCO: has a genuine shooting game. The player gets 5 shots from a rifle with pneumatically fired plastic pellets. He shoots at a moving paper target, and the machine vends the target at the end of play. The rifle is secured to the cabinet by a cable and retaining bar arrangement, but is probably not safe enough. The cabinet is about 4' x 8'. There were a few other odds 'n ends, but that's the bulk of his report. I'll let him fill in the details when he get's back. -Lyle
Oct 07, 1987