Apologies, forgot to upload last week's dev blog -- and it was a doozy, so let's make sure we don't pass it completely! I'll roll last week and this week into one post. Today we're talking about the new animated backgrounds we're adding, one of which you can see in our updated demo. Nearly every single background in the game is animated, adding lighting effects and other subtle animation cues. Little things that bring the otherwise static images to life. Today, let’s go over three scenes, and how they’ll be different under the new animation. First, we’ll look at the Funplex.
The Funplex has three main effects going on. The first, and most commonly used across all the revamped backgrounds, are glowing elements glowing brighter than before, with the extra glow fading in and out softly. It’s almost impossible to see unless you’re looking for it, but adds some life to the scene. next, the prize game at the bottom left has a shifting color scheme, to reflect the lights inside the game changing colors. Finally, there’s a simple animation of the UFO Catcher crane lowering and raising. Next let’s go to Flotsam Beach, home of the Obligatory Beach Episode Where Everybody Wears Sexy Swimsuits.
The streetlights (in the niiiiiiiight) pulse, in a bit more obvious a fashion as this is an old Mid-Atlantic beach town under disrepair. Similarly, some of the tube lights in the arcade will flicker, showing the double tube bulbs before turning back on full strength. I considered a cloud animation, since the clouds animate during the daytime scene, but figured the lighting was more important. Finally, let’s look at a scene from later in the game, which I won’t spoil beyond showing you this vague imae of a run-down arcade...
Lots of stuff going on here — glitched out game screens, pulsating neon lights, error codes, and more. It’s a flashier scene, to be sure. “But wait!” you might say, as I’m pouring the gasoline and getting the match ready. “What if I don’t want to be distracted by fancy background effects? Also, put down the matches, please.” Not a problem! We've revamped the Preferences menu. Not only did we improve the ‘Style’ option to show you what each of our three UI styles looks like, but we added an option for the background animations. It defaults to Slow, which should provide ambiance without being distracting — but you can turn them Off completely, or even make them Faster if you want something flashy and fun! It’s up to you. As we finish up the story and start polishing up the game, we’ll have more new features to show you — including a pretty big one which we’re not ready to talk about yet. Let’s just say there’s a reason I had to crop down the Preferences screen… Okay, with the technical stuff aside, let's do some goofy shenanigans next. I like world building. Hey, who doesn't? And frankly I've been wanting to do more world building for 20XX, the timeline in which Arcade Spirits takes place, where the video game crash of 1983 never happened. How are things different? How are things the same? Let's find out. Not sure if these are canon or not -- we'll know if we end up selling so well that a sequel becomes a good idea. So hey, if you want more... y'all know what to do. Spread the word! Introducing THE (entirely fictional) 20XX TIMES, an (entirely fictional) Newspaper From The Year 20XX. --- President Mitchell Embroiled In New Emulation Controversy – Tweets Focus on "No Hot Sauce Collusion" New allegations have risen regarding President Billy Mitchell's most recent high score submission to Twin Galaxies for Donkey Kong. Independent investigators have verified that his video evidence was created using MAME emulation, thus negating his score. When pressed for a comment, President Mitchell instead focused on another scandal facing the White House, concerning illegal campaign contributions made by a hot sauce manufacturer from Georgia. Sources say that he was encouraged to divest his own hot sauce company prior to election as President in exchange for a sizable campaign contribution, filtered through numerous individuals. Twin Galaxies has struck President Mitchell's score from the record books pending a complete investigation. The White House has issued no comment, although press secretary Roy Shildt stated that President Mitchell remains adamant that any reports of falsified scores are “fake news” from “dishonest scoreboards.” --- Nintendo to Announce the Nintendo PlayStation-U Pro, With Features Similar to Atari XLX Sources close to Sony of Japan say that an announcement is just around the corner regarding a new release of the Nintendo PlayStation-U, dubbed the “PlayStation-U Pro,” which will have both advanced 3-D capabilities and better support for consumer-grade CRT televisions for full backwards compatibility with classic titles. Critics have long lambasted Nintendo for having a distinct lack of backwards compatibility with still-hot retro titles and eSports standards, forcing players to re-purchase barely upgraded remasters of classic titles if they wanted to move forward to the next iteration of Nintendo hardware. Meanwhile, their primary competitors in Atari and Sega have maintained twenty-plus years of backwards compatibility, able to read and play any discs from earlier consoles through embedded hardware or emulation. “Nintendo thinks they deserve the attention of gamers, just because they beat everyone to optical media back in the 90s,” an alleged source within Atari posted on Facewall today. “And don't get me wrong, the Nintendo-Sony partnership really moved the whole industry forward. But they did so at the expense of supporting home ports of arcade classics. Atari believes in game preservation, and will always maintain full backwards compatibility.” While many game developers have pushed for adoption of HDTV for higher resolutions and crisper images, a counterpush by gamers for CRT support in order to properly display older titles was embraced two generations ago by Atari and Sega, resulting in the multi-monitor setups common today. --- Exidy Partners with Gottleib For New “Indiecading” Push With the rising trend of bespoke arcade games crafted by independent video game developers, it was only a matter of time before one of the big names sat up and took notice. In this case, two mid-tier players in the arcade scene are teaming up to scoop up the rights to mass-distribute several indie titles, under the “Indiecading” name.” “Exidy has always pushed forward with innovative new gaming experiences,” explained CEO Paula Westenbach. “Together with Gottleib, we believe we can get a wider exposure for these great titles. No longer will you have to go to a smaller arcade to enjoy these amazing games – we'll be in Deco's Palace, DisneyQuest, and several other major chain arcades.” Exidy-Gottleib are currently in negotiations for the rights to Magical Moon Cuties, the hottest independent title on the scene. If all goes well, we can expect to see this game in an arcade near you within the next fiscal quarter. --- OpEd: MicroPlay To Unveil Revolutionary New Ultra-Responsive Arcade Joystick; Snake Oil or The Next Big Thing? Here we go again, folks – another company claiming to have the next big thing in arcade hardware. MicroPlay, a recently formed mash-up of the decaying corpses of FunWare and Sinneslöschen, have announced their first commercial product, a new “psi-responsive” joystick. According to Cooper Technologies, the parent company which bought out what was left of those two once-slightly-better-than-mediocre companies, this new joystick will “use bio-electric feedback to read the user's intentions, providing unparalleled responsiveness in arcade gaming.” So basically it reads your mind. Through your hand. Meaning... why tap the joystick at all, if it's just going to predict what you want to do based on your thoughts? Yyyeah, I'm thinking this is yet another flop from Cooper Technologies. From my research, only ONE tech initiative of theirs has gotten past the investment stage – remember the Phantom Console, which ended up basically being a phantom? That was them. They also had a large market share in the technology behind the Nintendo 32x, that abysmal add-on. About the only thing they've ever done which went anywhere was “Iris,” a dime-a-dozen virtual assistant with extremely limited capabilities and a heavy-handed sponsorship by PizzaYums. But hey, she's cute, and people like cute apps, so... I've said it before, and I'll say it again – arcades are driven by highly short-lived gimmicks, but ultimately are ruled by classic titles that bring people back time and again. All sorts of gimmicks have come and gone, including force feedback, and virtual reality. (Although recent moves by the Oculus-Ouya partnership suggest they may be taking a run at that cheeseball 90s helmet-and-gloves idea again.) So I wouldn't expect much of anything from these supposed telepathic joysticks. Besides, with Fist of Discomfort expected to move on to optional USB controllers with its forthcoming iteration, who really needs built-in control innovation? Just bring your favorite input device to your local arcade, and have fun. Don't trust in the snake oil salesmen.