Downstairs, the battle raged on.
The original Dead or Alive didn't have a huge roster, with only eight characters to choose from: Kasumi, Hayabusa, Jann Lee, Leifang, Tina, Gen Fu, Zack, and Bayman.
The high schooler on the left, his face flushed with excitement, had chosen the most popular character, Kasumi.
The high schooler on the right had picked Leifang, the Chinese martial artist in a qipao.
The two began trading blows on the screen, the thud of each strike vibrating through the air via the arcade cabinet's speakers.
"Heh, you can't even touch me!" The high schooler on the right clearly had some fighting game experience. He skillfully manipulated the joystick, seizing an opening in Kasumi's defense. "Eat this combo!"
Leifang dashed forward, unleashing a fierce series of punches.
Kasumi was driven back, step by step, until she was pinned against the very edge of the arena, her back to the towering chain-link fence.
"Damn, I'm trapped! I'm gonna get crushed in the corner!" The high schooler on the left broke out in a cold sweat.
In traditional fighting games, being cornered almost always means getting completely dominated. In a panic, he started mashing the joystick and buttons wildly, trying to make one last desperate stand.
Just as Leifang's heavy punch was about to smash right into Kasumi's face on-screen, Kasumi didn't block as expected. Instead, she impossibly ducked under the blow, then lunged forward, grabbing Leifang's wrist with pinpoint accuracy.
What followed was an incredibly flashy and powerful shoulder throw!
Leifang was launched into the air, then slammed violently into the chain-link fence at the edge of the arena.
BOOM!
With a deafening sound effect, a brilliant burst of fire erupted against the fence.
Leifang still had a third of her health bar left, but it was instantly drained by the terrifyingly high bonus damage. K.O.!
"What—What kind of move was that?!" The high schooler on the right froze, his hands still gripping the joystick.
"Holy crap? How did I win?" The high schooler on the left was just as bewildered, staring blankly at Kasumi's victory pose on the screen.
From the crowd, several veteran arcade regulars immediately pressed forward, their eyes gleaming with excitement.
"It's a counter! I was just reading the system guide nearby!" a veteran player in thick-rimmed glasses shouted, pointing at the screen. "This game has a brand-new system called Strike, Throw, and Hold! It's a rock-paper-scissors mechanic!"
"Exactly! Throws beat Strikes, Strikes beat Counters, and Counters beat Throws!" another player in a tank top added excitedly. "That Kasumi just used a Hold Counter! If you input the specific command in the exact frame before the opponent's attack lands, you can deflect the attack and deal massive counter-damage! It's a stroke of genius!"
"And that Danger Zone!" The glasses-wearing player pushed up his sliding frames, pointing to the smoking chain-link fence at the edge of the screen. "The arenas aren't infinite; there are danger zones all around the perimeter. If you corner someone and trigger a Wall Burst, it deals terrifyingly high damage! You can't just cower in the corner and defend like in the old games!"
The crowd erupted in excitement once more.
This revolutionary mechanic filled everyone with an unprecedented sense of novelty.
"One more round! I refuse to believe I'll lose again!" The high schooler on the right gritted his teeth and swiftly shoved a coin into the slot.
"Bring it on! This game is a rush—you have to attack!" The high schooler on the left, now fully fired up, gripped the joystick tight.
Clink! Clink!
The crisp sound of coins falling into the machine seemed, in that moment, to be the most beautiful music in the world.
Oguchi Hisao took a deep breath as he watched the scene below—an explosive, almost frenzied spectacle.
He turned to Takuya Nakayama, who remained outwardly calm, his eyes filled with admiration.
Letting Tecmo develop the game on Sega's hardware, then using Sega's distribution channels to flood the market...
The Managing Director's vision was impeccable.
Many in the industry had initially dismissed the game as a gimmick, a title that relied on sex appeal to grab attention. They never expected Tomonobu Itagaki to build such a robust and deep system.
By lowering the barrier to entry with the "Rock-Paper-Scissors" mechanic, even button-mashing novices could defeat seasoned veterans, giving them a massive boost in confidence. Combined with the urgency created by the "Danger Zone" mechanic, the pace of combat was accelerated to a fever pitch.
Players' adrenaline surged wildly during these few minutes of gameplay, and with it, the frequency of coin insertions skyrocketed.
In the process, Sega not only raked in a fortune from Model 2 Arcade Board licensing fees and hardware sales but also boosted the overall revenue of its arcade channels.
Not to mention, this hit game was bound to be ported to Sega's own Jupiter console next.
"Tomonobu Itagaki really knows how to play the players' psychology," Oguchi Hisao remarked with genuine admiration.
"He's a smart man," Takuya Nakayama said, setting down his paper cup as a satisfied smile curved his lips. "He knows how to avoid the direct fire of Virtua Fighter in the fiercely competitive 3D Fighting market and pinpoint his own audience. Sega needs smart people like him to enrich our ecosystem."
Tecmo Tokyo Headquarters.
In the spacious second-floor conference room, the blinds were drawn tight, letting only a few faint streaks of light filter through.
A thick stack of revenue reports sat prominently on the large mahogany conference table.
These were the detailed figures for the first week of Dead or Alive's arcade release across Japan.
Tomonobu Itagaki sat at the head of the long table, his posture imposing and commanding. Even in the dim light of the room, he wore his signature oversized black sunglasses, concealing his gaze from everyone.
He leafed through the reports with a casual air, his silver-ringed fingers tapping a rhythmic thump-thump against the paper.
"Sega Building No. 1 is absolutely crushing it," the development manager said, his voice trembling with barely concealed excitement as he pointed to the staggering figures. "The coin-drop rate is higher than even their own veteran fighting games. The data from other affiliated arcades is just as strong. Any arcade that has our cabinets is running at full capacity all day. Those crazy players are practically shaking the joysticks to pieces!"
"The players are very satisfied with our 'physical feedback' system," Itagaki said, a smug smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He casually pushed the priceless report aside. "That's exactly what they wanted to see. It proves we made the right bet."
"Not only that," the manager continued, "the 'Strike, Throw, and Hold' counter-mechanics have also been widely praised by the hardcore players."
The development lead quickly added, "In many arcades right now, veteran players are already taking notes in front of the cabinets, studying Kasumi and Leifang's frame data and hitboxes. Our system's depth is absolutely airtight."
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