Namco Bandai: Gundam Helps Realize Dome Screen Display

Jun 1, 2009 17:50 Yukiko Kanoh, Nikkei Electronics

"We could never have commercialized the dome screen display without Gundam," said Akira Okubo, general manager of the Amusement Machine (AM) Research Dept, AM Business Unit at Namco Bandai Games Inc.

He delivered a lecture titled "Monozukuri (manufacturing): How to Make a Game Machine" at a workshop hosted by the Japan Society for Precision Engineering May 22, 2009. Okubo discussed the history of arcade games that Namco Bandai Games has dealt with and the design of game machines.

"Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield" was one of the arcade games that Okubo cited in the lecture. This is a kind of so-called "virtual game." Virtual games are the fusion of "electro-mechatronics game" technologies, which combine mechatronics and electronics technologies, and video game technologies.

To increase the reality of such games, apparatuses that reproduce actual circumstances are used for virtual games. For example, in a racing game, an apparatus equipped with a seat, an acceleration pedal and a steering wheel found in a typical automotive cockpit vibrates in accordance with the player's steering so that the player finds the game more realistic. Accordingly, manufacturers have to develop a large dedicated machine for each game.

Okubo said that Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield is an extremely unique virtual game for both developers and users. Its key feature is Namco Bandai's dome screen type display known as "P.O.D. (panoramic optical display)" employed for the game machine. As the P.O.D. surrounds the player with its display, the player can feel as if he or she entered the scene on the screen.

Players ride in the cockpits of mobile suits seen in the anime series, "Mobile Suit Gundam," and fight as a team against enemies attacking from all directions. The images of the enemies, etc, are shown on the display surrounding the player. Using the voice chat functionality of headsets equipped with the machine, players can chat with other players in the same team in real time while playing the game.

Display utility changes as number of plays increases

Explaining the characteristics of highly virtual displays like the P.O.D., Okubo said, "As you play the game more, you can use the display more efficiently and change the way of using the display."

Initially, though players find the realistic images vigorous, it is difficult for them to enjoy the game while reacting to every piece of visual information on the entire screen, he said. However, as they play the game more, they change the way they look at the display so that they can widely recognize the images around them and play the game more advantageously.

"Some heavy players can play the game just by watching the radar and scarcely looking at the surrounding display," Okubo said.

The P.O.D. projects images on the oval sphere-shaped dome screen from a projector and a fisheye lens behind the player's head. Given the need to change the screen in real time in accordance with the player's operation, the P.O.D. "processes images using a powerful image processing engine," he said. It is a gigantic machine equipped with a lever and a control pedal on each side as well as speakers, measuring 1,870 (w) x 1,730 (d) x 2,060mm (h) and weighing 380kg.

Dome screen display temporarily shelved

Okubo also revealed an episode concerning the development of the P.O.D. The P.O.D. is the upgraded version of the "O.R.B.S. (over reality booster system)," a similar machine exhibited for reference at the 39th Amusement Machine Show in 2001.

The development of the O.R.B.S. mounted with a hemispheric dome screen started from a rough sketch that Okubo was handed by his boss in 1999, he said. It was a simple drawing of a 2m-wide dome screen with a projector. It was the time when downsized projectors started to become common in homes, and the design was drawn to discuss using projectors in arcade games.

When developing the O.R.B.S., they paid the most attention to boosting reality by surrounding the player with a screen, Okubo said.

The O.R.B.S. was regarded very highly by test users. However, it was not commercialized and was shelved for such reasons as its "large size," "high price" and "lack of suitable content."

At that time, the developers joked, "We could advance (the commercialization) if only we could use 'Gundam' characters." Then, they could evolve the O.R.B.S. and commercialize the P.O.D. after acquiring Gundam content following the business integration between Namco Ltd and Bandai Co Ltd in 2005.

"If it weren't for our business integration in 2005, the O.R.B.S. would probably be still on the shelf even now, I suppose," Okubo said. "Ingenuity, enthusiasm and other factors are necessary to create something that the world considers 'new.' But I feel that another element, luck, is also needed."

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