Changes

Last week I commented on the slump in cinema receipts. This started turning cogs in my head and as I looked towards the future of home cinema, I thought about a similar situation.

Once upon a time, when I was young and you were younger, coin-ops ruled the video game market. Games would come out in the arcade and you would marvel at them. Some time later you would see a port made to a home console, which was vastly inferior.

I guess it was sometime during the 16-bit era when we first started to see ports of games which were arcade perfect. There was a boost in power in the arcades but with the new consoles, it was diminishing returns in terms of power. We're at a point when current consoles are used as the basis of the new boards.

Home consoles were able to produce experiences that could rival or match the arcade machines. Light guns became common, as did steering wheels. It's not far-fetched to produce one-off peripherals for games. We saw it with Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast, whereas with the Dance Mat we have seen more than one game take advantage of it. The same can be said of the bongos released with Donkey Konga on the Gamecube and the Eye Toy on the PS2.

Looking at it now, the arcades have definitely taken a back seat to home gaming. We still get the big games released in the arcades but it's definitely left to the biggest games that have traditionally remained draws to the arcade, namely racers, shoot-em-ups and beat-em-ups.

So now we look at the movies. Cinemas have long been the focal point yet we're seeing drops in attendance attributed to DVDs. With DVDs we are now able to experience movies in a way VHS could not manage. It gives us crisp image quality (arguably better than the cinema) and Dolby Surround/DTS sound (not to mention the extra features that are so popular now).

Whilst we've been able to reproduce cinema experiences in the past, technology has caught up and made it a lot easy for anyone to do, argubly easier than recreation of the arcade experience at home.

All TVs are usually showing off the ability to produce Dolby/DTS sound out of the box, negating any extra peripherals. Our TVs are also becoming larger and larger whilst being slim enough to hang on our walls. On top of this we are now on the verge of HDTV taking off and either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, further pushing the envelope.

Maybe cinema can look at the way the arcade market has sort to distinguish itself aside from the big games. We have cabinets which contain technology that is not currently viable in the home or seek to further enhance the experience. For example, F-Zero makes use of a cabinet that rocks you about as you play. Outrun 2 SP also has a cabinet that reacts to your driving rocking you about.

More cinemas therefore should start to embrace digital projectors. I love the picture that we currently get in cinema and I am a big fan of analogue technologies. However, it may help draw in audiences who are as big on going to the movies. Picture quality would improve and the consistency from cinema to cinema would be constant. It'd be a noticeable and tangible change, bringing it more into line with the clarity offered by DVD.

Aside from the actual movie itself, how about making the seating that more comfortable and luxurious. Why not make sitting in a cinema seat, an armchair away from home?

There's probably a whole lot more similarities here and lessons that could be applied. Who knows the cross over of ideas may work both ways.