<I><FONT SIZE=2><SUP>THE</SUP></FONT>GRID</I>: Grid in Repla

Patrick McCarron

TRMK Admin, Co-founder
Staff member
As mentioned before the latest issue of Coin-Op Trade magazine <a href="http://www.replaymag.com">Replay</a> has The Grid as the cover story. Here is a picture of the cover and The Grid article that it had.
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<img src="/images/news/replay_cover.jpg" align=left valign=top><FONT COLOR="#FF8000">
<h4>Grappling with The Grid</h4>
First-person shooting games like Quake and Doom have been mega-hits in the home market for years, but what would it take to make this type of game successful in a coin-op environment? That was the challenge that intrigued Ed Boon and the rest of Midway's Mortal Kombat design team. The result, shown on this month's RePlay cover, is a unique new game called The Grid.
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"I always felt arcade games are unique and different from consumer games," says Ed Boon. "You can't directly port successful home games to the arcade. Coin-op games demand their own faster pacing, special characters, hidden characters, fighting moves, secret moves and other elements to keep players' adrenalin rushing every minute. At the same time, our team was intrigued by the success of first-person shooting games. We took the fun elements from those games and applied them to coin-op's classic multi-player, linked game experience, which has its own appeal."
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If anybody knows how to make a coin-op hit, it's the MK team. "Pacing is a key element," Ed Boon explained. "In Quake or Doom, you spend a lot of time looking for people or objects - long stretches of rather passive sequences, punctuated by brief spurts of conflict. Arcade games must constantly provide conflict and excitement. The player must always see someone, if only out of the corner of his eye, that he can attack or who can attack him. In The Grid, you're always either the hunter or the prey...and it switches back and forth every few seconds! This element, coupled with the magic of playing with your friends, has given us over-the-top earnings in every test location. Midway shipped 200 samples and in one location our game earned nearly three times as much as the next-closest title!"
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Ed is keenly aware that "Many operators have said factories need to offer new themes beyond fighting, driving and shooting. The Grid was a conscious effort to offer people a different gameplay experience," he advised. "With the hi-tech consoles at home, we thought how to stress the arcade's social environment and multiple players competing. It was a huge team effort by nine guys who put their heart and soul into it. We were very nervous that it was our first game since Mortal Kombat, but now that it's getting such a positive reaction on the street, we feel it's all been worth it!"
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You can read the whole Midway related cover story over at the Cover Story page on Replay's Website over <a href="http://www.replaymag.com/covstory.htm">here</a>.
 
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