New Exa-Arcadia system resurrects shooters, fighters, retro games

[AtariShag]

New Exa-Arcadia system resurrects shooters, fighters, retro games

JAEPO 2019 is in full swing over in Japan this weekend, and one upstart has been making waves by the name of Exa-Arcadia.

The short of it is that the Exa-Arcadia is like a modern Neo Geo MVS or PlayChoice-10. Unlike other recent attempts at offering kits (RIP Airframe), this one has been gathering a ton of developer support. I've compiled all of the news so far into this handy post:

https://arcadeheroes.com/2019/01/24/jaepo-2019-the-exa-arcadia-thread/

One of the more interesting announcements happened last night when Sunsoft unveiled Gimmick! exAct Mix for the platform. Gimmick! was a Famicom/NES release from 1992; this remake allows players to switch between the new HD graphics (not a filter - they were all remade by hand and mapped to the original code) and the NES low-rez graphics at the touch of a button. I'm curious to know what retrogamers/fans of PlayChoice cabs think of this one:

 

[tigerstyle]

pretty neat! I wonder if those games will be region locked and use an account system like most modern japanese pcbs..

 

[FrizzleFried]

It's going to come down to price point for the unit and carts... I have to admit it looks very interesting...

 

[AtariShag]

pretty neat! I wonder if those games will be region locked and use an account system like most modern japanese pcbs..

Nope, no region locking. While it will use an account system so players can track stats and stream their play on Twitch, online is not required. This was designed to push back against modern Japanese networks like Nesica, which take a 30-50% cut from the operators. They want ops to keep 100% of the cut, just like the good ol' days.

It's going to come down to price point for the unit and carts... I have to admit it looks very interesting...

By what I was initially told, they are aiming for around $2000 on the main board, then $800-$1000 per game cart. ROI depends on the location of course, but they did post that the 3D fighting game they'll launch with (Kung Fu Vs. Karate Champ) made over $500/wk on it's test, beating out the other fighters on location. If earnings are even half that for most of the games, it'll be a quick turnaround.

 

[highscoreheroes]

It's absolutely mindblowing to see anything new regarding Gimmick. It's hands-down my all-time favorite NES/Famicom game.

The ExaArcadia has interested me for a while, I'd really like to develop games for it.

 

[Ghostlyguy]

It's absolutely mindblowing to see anything new regarding Gimmick. It's hands-down my all-time favorite NES/Famicom game.

The ExaArcadia has interested me for a while, I'd really like to develop games for it.

Out of curiosity, are you a game designer?

 

[pinge80]

Gimmick! Is quite an oddball game to release 2019.
I had it s a kid on the NES. Scandinavia was the only place it got relased apart from Japan.

 

[highscoreheroes]

Out of curiosity, are you a game designer?

I do gamedev with my friends as a team, we did a Game Boy-style dungeon crawler as our first game back in October: https://stungun-games.itch.io/rakuga-fantasy

This was for a week-long contest so it's kinda rough, rushed, and unbalanced, it was way too ambitious for the timespan, and a lot of the other entries ended up being much simpler games (not to knock that, a simple game would've made more sense).
I was the lead graphics designer tho, I did most of the monster sprites.

I've been into the ExaArcadia for a while, my friends and I have more games planned out and I've been kinda pushing for the possibility that we try to hop on it while we can, and while it's a thing.

We've been working on a shoot-'em-up the past couple months with the intention of hopefully releasing it for both the Arcadia and the Switch eventually.

Here's a mockup screenshot, I do all the pixel art.

We also have a Mario Bros./Bubble Bobble style game planned for later on.

 

[whitefox]

Follow one of the developers for this game and check out photos of the testing arcade game itself here:

https://twitter.com/moftsoft

 

[Ghostlyguy]

I do gamedev with my friends as a team, we did a Game Boy-style dungeon crawler as our first game back in October: https://stungun-games.itch.io/rakuga-fantasy

This was for a week-long contest so it's kinda rough, rushed, and unbalanced, it was way too ambitious for the timespan, and a lot of the other entries ended up being much simpler games (not to knock that, a simple game would've made more sense).
I was the lead graphics designer tho, I did most of the monster sprites.

Thanks for sharing. I checked out the GameJam game. First impressions.
I liked the simple color palette and the humor. The mini map. The danger meter was interesting.

Here is some constructive criticism:

• Though I liked the minigames during combat. I'm not sure I always understood how the fighting mechanics worked. I ended up loosing health before successfully attacking.. I didn't complete the game, mostly because I didn't learn the fighting mechanics. It was common for me to get a game over after my first encounter. But it got me to treat the threat/danger meter more seriously and use it to avoid battles.
  
• As for the movement controls. It should be only 1 key press/rotation. There were many times I turned passed my intended direction because I held the arrow key too long.
  
• Perhaps blur motion to telegraph the rotation change, in-between the views. would help signify that you changed direction. I was confused a few times then I rotated to a identical hallway. Only clarified when I watched the mini-map. I would like to be able to navigate without using the mini-map all the time.
  
• I liked how the hallways/doors/chests rendered having the sprites enlarge the closer you got. It's a shame you didn't have more time to add more detail to the walls.

But yeah, I like that you are striving to make smaller games. It helps with the most important aspect of game design... project completion. As you have probably discovered.

What engine are you using? GMS, Construct, Unity or something else?

 

[highscoreheroes]

What engine are you using? GMS, Construct, Unity or something else?

It's all done in GMS, yeah. Thank you for trying it out too, and I appreciate the criticism. I'd like to do a sequel or "deluxe" edition eventually, I've been pasting criticism into a text document to refer to for that.

Smaller games are definitely a lot easier for me to focus on.

 

[AtariShag]

It's absolutely mindblowing to see anything new regarding Gimmick. It's hands-down my all-time favorite NES/Famicom game.

The ExaArcadia has interested me for a while, I'd really like to develop games for it.

The more content the merrier I say. This is one way for indie developers to get noticed, since the amount of content available on the arcade market is minuscule compared to what comes out on mobile/Steam/consoles.

Have you reached out to ShouTime of Exa yet, or are waiting for your current project to move farther along?