Japan, often considered the last country with a passion for the arcade experience, is starting to lose interest in coin operated entertainment. Two of the biggest arcade chains in the region have already shut the doors at over 20% of their locations, and earnings continue to plummet. Some in the industry are blaming the latest generation […]
Japan, often considered the last country with a passion for the arcade experience, is starting to lose interest in coin operated entertainment. Two of the biggest arcade chains in the region have already closed the doors at over 20% of their locations, and earnings continue to plummet.
Some in the industry are blaming the latest generation of consoles for sending the 6.9 billion dollar industry into a slump. Others blame the cigarette smoke that fills Japanese arcades, the expense, or the lack of innovation. When you get right down to it, it’s really the fact that you just don’t need the arcade anymore. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love arcades. I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of both hours and dollars in them. However, it’s gotten to the point that besides the zomg-rip-off ticket/prize system and the creepy guy who stands a tiny bit too close while he watches you play, there just isn’t much at this point about the arcade experience you can’t get at home.
Hopefully the industry manages to come up with something that is both enticing to many and one-of-a-kind to the arcade environment. Otherwise, it seems that even in the arcade capital of the world, arcades might be done for.
[Via Reuters]
Oscar Pistorius is a sprinter with a difference: he runs on two artificial lower legs and feet fast enough that he might qualify for the Olympics. And that’s something he has the ability to now attempt, given that the Court of Arbitration for Sport has just overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics that had banned him from competing against able-bodied runners. All because of the specialized carbon-fiber Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetic feet he uses, which represented an unfair mechanical advantage maintained the IAAF. So the advanced artificial limbs, designed after the shape of a Cheetah’s hind leg, were put to the test in the lab.
A study led by MIT professor Hugh M. Herr revealed that the high-tech feet didn’t give Oscar an advantage over able-bodied runners, conflicting with a January study at the German Sport University which said they were 30% more efficient than a human ankle. The German study also suggested that the springy feet meant that a user would need 25% less energy expenditure than an able-bodied runner to accomplish the same sprinting speed: this is the study the IAAF based the ban on.
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