| The 35th Amusement Machine Show was held for four days from September 18, 1996, at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center (Tokyo Big Sight), an urban waterfront area. Seventy-seven companies participated in the show. There were 1,409 booths and 2,005 types of machines exhibited at the show, excluding components, panel exhibitions, etc. This year, partly because the show was extended by two days for the general public, a total of 40,256 people visited the show, about 10,000 over the previous year. |
| An overwhelming number of the machines were in the amusement vending machine category, an area that has become popular due to the Print Club (sticker-making machine) boom, and 31 companies, nearly 40% of the participants, exhibited newly developed machine types. Upgrades and new versions accounted for 30 machine types, or 375 individual machines.In the video-game category, more and more exhibits featured sports experience games targeting families and couples, and offering a kind of entertainment not provided by video games for home use. However, few products demonstrated new concepts and this reflected the general mood of "groping in the dark" that continues in the industry. | |
