Smartlaunch versus Antamedia

[rkrol]

I know so far Smartlaunch seams to be the best software out there, but I recently found a new one that looks to be really good. It is Antamedia, which can be found at antamedia.com.

Any input on this program?

[mythlogic]

I will run this by the guys at DreamGCS and our other software partners. I have heard of this from some of our Hotel clients before, but they end up going with SL because it is what we support and offer for free to our PC clients.

[rkrol]

Ok, thanks. It seamed like this was the closest competition to Smartlaunch so I wanted to know what the main differences were if any. The main one I was interested in knowing was if Antamedia creates barcodes for items and game time tickets like Smartlaunch. That is one nice feature I have seen with Smartlaunch.

It also appears the Antamedia does have setup to keep track of times on consoles, pcs, and even tables; which I thought would be great for more time tracking control compared to digital timers like RsteeleAUG has to use with Smartlaunch.

Let me know what you find out.

[Deeds]

First I'm hearing of this software, I'm very interested to know.

-deeds

[rkrol]

It looks really good. It is apr. $300 for 30 stations set up. I am hoping to get more info on it this week yet, but I will see due to my constant busy schedule.

[rkrol]

You can purchase additional system slots too. $999 for unlimited if you buy software and all. Below is the chat I had with support to answer some questions.

Jake: Internet cafe software question. Does this work with STEAM? I also noticed that you can purchase for number of pcs you wish to use. If you need more later can you purchase add ons for additional ones and for how much?
Antamedia Support Support: Hello, you can use any application on the client computers.
Antamedia Support Support: license can be upgraded
Jake: okay that is good
Antamedia Support Support: you can try trial version available for download from www.antamedia.com/download
Jake: how do you guys compare to smartlaunch? i know people who use it and they say that it is best on market that they know of but would like to find better because there is bugs ect.
Jake: The last question that I had was can your program create barcodes like smartlaunch?
Antamedia Support Support: i am sorry, but i did not try their software in sooner time period, i really can not say anything
Antamedia Support Support: not in the current version, but this option is already in list to be created in some of the next versions 
Jake: ok. how long of a trail do you get and do I have to give a credit card up front?
Jake: or only if I want it longer than the trial.
Antamedia Support Support: just download tria; versioon from our web site
Antamedia Support Support: it is limited to 4 clients
Antamedia Support Support: and 60 minutes, after 60 minutes you have to reboot the software to continue test next 60 minutes
Jake: oh ok I appreciate it. Thanks for your help I will try it out.


So I will give heads up on what I think

[rkrol]

preliminary examination of the software seams good, but have not tried anything substantial yet. As of now everything seams detailed enough but yet simple to look through. Screen does not all fit in my netbook screen. Not sure if I miss anything important or not because of it. Will inform of more as I have time to see it and try it.

[DreamGCS]

Ok, so here are the immediate issues that I can see off the top of my head.  Which is a shame as if the full feature set worked properly then this would be an excellent replacement to SL.  I also double checked these with the company to make sure we weren't just new

All things tested with Windows 7 Pro X64 and Server 2008 R2 x64
- The POS software doesn't communicate with anything but its-self on the main server and doesn't propagate items etc when you change them on the server.
- Barcodes are there but don't work

The major one:

- You can't do what most centers do here in the states, you cannot sell people time in a pre-paid fashion.  It says you can, however, it doesn't work as expected and the only thing that works is post-paid time, which most centers are not comfortable with.
- The POS system isn't username based its user based and those two things are different and not one and the same.  Which makes user management really cumbersome.

So I would say that this would be the closest thing I've seen in a while that could compete with SL, however, its just too broken right now to be considered an alternative.  But we'll keep an eye on it thats for sure. 


Josh Tacey
DreamGCS

[rkrol]

One negative I have is I cannot get antamedia off of my pc. I chose to just run it and not download it. Now I cannot get it back off. Everytime I turn on my netbook it takes forever to load into it and then I have to exit out of it.  But I got so frustrated with that and my screen was a hair to small so after a while it just could not appease my tastes like what I have in with SL.

[Tom]

I actually tried Antamedia long time ago, and it was lacking a lot of key features.
(they may have improved).

I'm curious to hear if anyone can recommend this over Smartlaunch?