The Interactive Achievement Awards recognized the year’s best console and computer games, but not arcade videogames. For years, arcades had been consistently stereotyped as breeding grounds for violence, but fortunately, they began changing for the better. Disney followed Gameworks’ lead and opened DisneyQuest, a five-story entertainment center at Walt Disney World. While similar to those at Gameworks, the attractions at DisneyQuest featured Disney characters and themes. Disney planned an additional twenty DisneyQuest centers around the country, with the rest scheduled to be built in Chicago in 1999.
Although big seemed to be better, Gameworks began opening smaller entertainment centers. The new Gameworks Studios were one-third the size of the regular Gameworks centers, yet featured big, brand-new arcade games that were just too expensive for older, smaller arcades to support. Just as the movie industry had to find unique ways to get people away from their TVs and into theaters during the fifties, arcade manufacturers were facing the same dilemma. One calamity resulting from this shift to the home was the closing of Acclaim’s coin-op division early in the year.
Meanwhile, another Japanese arcade company continued churning out machines that the public clamored to play. Following the success of Beatmania, Konami released Beatmania 2ndMix in March. The new version followed the same game play as the original, but included a new mix of songs. In September, Konami released Beatmania 3rdMix.
Check out more of the rich history of the industry in Leonard Herman’s book Phoenix IV available at Rolenta Press www.RolentaPress.com and make sure to sign up to get Old School Gamer Magazine for free by clicking here!
Leonard Herman, The Game Scholar, is regarded as one of the earliest and most respected videogame historians. The first edition of his book Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Home Videogames, which was published in 1994, is considered to be the first serious and comprehensive book about the history of videogames. He has written articles for Videogaming & Computer Illustrated, Games Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Pocket Games, Classic Gamer Magazine, Edge, Game Informer, Classic Gamer Magazine, Manci Games, Gamespot.com and Video Game Trader, which he also edited. He has also contributed articles to several videogame-related books, including Supercade, The Video Game Explosion and The Encyclopedia of Video Games. Mr. Herman has also written the book ABC To the VCS (A Directory of Software for the Atari 2600), a compendium of game summaries. He has also written and designed user's manuals for the following Atari VCS games: Cracked, Save the Whales, Pick-Up, Rush Hour, Looping, The Entity and Lasercade, as well as the user's guide to Ralph Baer's Pinball! for the Odyssey2. In 1994, he founded Rolenta Press, a publisher of videogame books, whose catalogue included Videogames: In the Beginning, by Ralph H. Baer, the inventor of the videogame console, and Confessions of the Game Doctor by Bill Kunkel, the world's first videogame journalist. Two Rolenta Press books were included in a list of the top ten videogame books of all time by Game Informer magazine in 2008. Mr. Herman has served as an advisor for Videotopia, Classic Gaming Expo and the National Videogame Museum. He has appeared in several episodes of G4's Icons and in the documentary, The King of Arcades. In 2003, Mr. Herman received a Classic Gaming Expo Achievement Award in recognition for his accomplishments in documenting game history
