Arcade Ascension
Grab your bag of quarters and queue up for a multiscreen experience!
Summary
Arcade Ascension is a collection of projects revolving around multi-screen dashboard layouts that can be used for locally capturing or broadcasting multiplayer gaming events. These projects were made for use cases such as speedrunning competitions, environment spectating, ambient radios, and collaborative broadcasting just to name a few. The goal was to replicate the joy of arcades, computer labs, or LAN parties, but in a virtual format that can be hosted online. The digital arcade demonstrations featured video game franchises such as Super Mario, Bomberman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, and a handful of others. All of the components of this project can be viewed through the Arcade Ascension YouTube Playlist where Arcmaevotix is home to the original versions and Nehrpsyznet is home to the remade versions.
Process
The development of this project started in the mid 2010s with questions about casting the media of multiple viewports within one scene on a single display. There had been various examples of this before with news networks, sports broadcasting, multiplayer gaming YouTube channels, and other outlets showing that this was possible and could be utilized in creative fashions. Once I had obtained the hardware and software necessary to build out a running framework, using media players as testing grounds, I then got the idea of building out dashboards that could facilitate a multiplayer experience / arcade gaming experience for titles that have no built-in couch co-op or split screen. This led to me creating digital dashboard layouts for broadcasting speed-runs, ambient radios, multi-cam scene recording, and simulating split-screen multiplayer for games such as Mega Man X6 and The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker. As the 2020s came about, the dashboards became more sophisticated, stylized, and existed as a sort of virtual environment of their own with ambient animations, visual staging, and immersive transitions.
Reflection
Arcade Ascension, while simple in concept, has allowed me to host a wide number of events and pursue many different projects in the space of broadcasting and building live digital environments. Whether it be an EDM radio backdropped by Trackmania lobbies, a simulation of multiplayer for a game that doesn’t traditionally support it, or a celebration of a piece of media from two decades ago that sports immersive sequences and features such as a changing time of day within the landscape of the dashboard. It has been one of the most crucial projects in increasing my experience with tools such as OBS, After Effects, VB Audio, VLC, Mixxx, etc. This paved the way for me to build components for other projects as such as Radiant Crate Digital Home (RCDH) which was integrated into Horizon Wave (now known as Prisxane). This allowed end users to have access to an entire library of custom layouts and overlays themed around various uses cases, media franchises, and hardware aesthetics.