Arcade Heroes Week-in-review podcast #4

Posted July 6, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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Another week another podcast, I did this one solo and in addition to discussing the news we saw this week on AH, I also discuss the Midway purchase by Warner and the release of Demon Bride. There’s more than that of course so click on the link below to download it.

Volume issues should be solved this time, but please let me know in case you hear any issues. I wasn’t at the arcade this time, I was visiting my parents and did it on my brother’s PC so no ambient arcade noise this time around, but I’ll be there for the next one.

Click here to download the podcast

[Discuss on the Forum]

ParkR!, the amusement park finder

Posted July 3, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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I never get tired of spreading word of websites like Aurcade.com or ArcadeFly.com, where people can find an arcade near them. I bring it up often simply because too many people don’t know where to look for local arcades. But what if you are looking for an amusment park? Chances are people do know about local amusement parks since those tend to be quite large and advertise often in the states where they are located (or sometimes outside of the states where they are) but if you are taking a trip to an area where you might not be familiar with the surroundings and you want to see if they have an amusement park nearby, there is a new website that has been created to track such places – and not just in the US but all over the world.

Known as ParkR! (the k is supposed to be backwards in the name), the site uses Google maps to register and track amusement parks everywhere. Just zoom in to the area where you want to find a park, and if one has been registered it will have a symbol there that you can click on to get more information. The site is still in beta so I imagine that eventually it will have more features and include reviews of the parks as well. In the meantime, check it out by clicking on the link below.

[ParkR! Amusement Park finder] [Discuss on the Forums]

Tekken chief says unlockable characters are outdated

Posted July 3, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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Some interesting news related to the Tekken franchise – the guy in charge of Tekken stated in a recent interview that “unlockables are outdated”, primarily due to the nature of online play. Unlockable content was added into arcade fighters as a way to keep players coming back for more and the idea even made sense where console games were concerned but apparently Mr. Harada feels that the time for such content has passed and as such, the home version of Tekken 6 will have all playable characters available from the get-go. I wonder if the same idea will be used in future Tekken arcade releases or not, I have to imagine that unlockable content is still completely valid in arcades but what do you think about it?

[Via VirginMedia] [Discuss on the Forums]

Who wants a Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker arcade for several thousand dollars?

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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When someone famous dies, you can expect to see sites like eBay flooded with memorabilia that carries the deceased person’s name/image/autograph etc. on it. And naturally, moonwalksome people hope to milk their item for all it’s worth. Such is the case with the arcade title, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, where there are a couple of cabinets now for sale up on eBay.

One seller at first thought that they could fetch $13,000-$16,000 for their Moonwalker but they sort of came to their senses and lowered the price to $2450 (which is still too high for a game that was selling for just a few hundred dollars before MJ’s death). Another seller has theirs up for a mere $6500 in the hopes that a well-to-do MJ fan will ignore a couple of other entries that are selling the game for just a few hundred dollars. I think the only way you will get a price that high is if you can prove that Michael’s DNA comes with the machine but somehow I doubt that is possible.

[Current Moonwalker arcades on eBay] [Discuss on the Forum]

Raw Thrills releases H2Overdrive to arcades

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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Hydro Thunder fans, the day you have been waiting for has finally arrived as Raw Thrills’/Specular Interactive’s new take on Hydro Thunder, H2Overdrive is arriving at distributors around the country and then they are going onto various locations around the US. The game was shipped last Friday and I know that a few distributors already have the game on their showroom floors although from what I have heard, those are not sticking around for very long. With this news, you should be able to find the game at certain locations by this weekend – if you don’t find it, ask them about it.

For previous H2Overdrive coverage, click here. Keep in mind, there are no plans for this to come to game consoles at present time so this is an arcade exclusive title.

[Discuss on the Forums]

New trailer for Elevator Action Death Parade

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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Taito’s modern update to Elevator Action now has an official trailer and it looks pretty exciting. In our previous coverage of the game, we saw that it is not like the original game in the sense that this is a light-gun title but Taito is trying out some interesting ideas with this one, particularly with the elevator doors which open and close in front of the screen. With this trailer we see that there are several kinds of mutants in addition to human enemies you will have to fight off and while the resolution of the trailer itself isn’t very high, the game is looking pretty slick so far. My fingers are still crossed for seeing this in the States but it looks like it has a good chance to making it to Europe in addition to Japan.

Click here for the trailer (uses Shockwave Flash)

[Via Am.Net] [Discuss on the Forums]

Time to cringe, Asteroids to be made into a feature film

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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When Hollywood studios set their sights on adapting a video game into a film, you sadly have to worry about how badly the game will be butchered on screen. Hollywood has a terrible track record when it comes to these projects, although adapting films into games doesn’t fare any better. On occasion when they do want to adapt a game into a film, you really have to question what it is they are smoking there at the game studios because it makes little sense as to why they want to take the project on. First was Joust, which was announced ages ago but I haven’t heard anything on that project since and now, they want to make the classic Atari arcade game Asteroids into a movie.

(take a moment to scratch your head in confusion)

I don’t get it either – I love Asteroids as much as the next guy and I even have the game sitting at my arcade but I still don’t understand where this movie idea came from. They must be looking at what made truck-loads of money back in the day and tying it to the nostalgia that people still have for classic arcade games to come up with this idea. It’s no secret that Asteroids has made tons and tons of money over the years for Atari and it is certainly one of their best recognized and best selling games they have had in their arsenal but to have expected to see a movie come out of it was not expected. Strangely enough, it appears that four movie studios were bidding on this, with Universal Studios coming out on top. I do wonder if they will hearken back to the Atari 2600 Asteroids manual for an idea on the storyline, not that there is much there to work with.

[Via thehollywoodreporter.com] [Discuss on the Forums]

The Game Carry model sort of becomes a reality with the Games2U vehicle

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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Remember the Game Carry? Apparently someone thought that this would be a good idea to try out in reality. They didn’t put any arcade games in it but by driving around with a van loaded with video games it’s a new twist on the ice cream truck concept. From the Games2U commercial, they are even franchising the idea so that means that it must have been successful where it was originally tried out. Next thing you know they will have 18 wheelers driving around with the same idea although that wouldn’t be as easy to pull into a neighborhood as this van.

These vans do offer more than video games, they also have hamster balls and outdoor laser tag systems so that does make this sort of thing a good idea for outdoor parties. More info can be found at the Games2u site below.

[Games2U site / Commercial] [Discuss on the Forums]

Legos – the most common way to render retro games with stop animation

Posted July 2, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

I have seen many stop animation videos over the years and most of them involve using Legos of some sort. Sometimes those videos involve video games, or in this case, classics that were all arcade titles at one point.

[Discuss on the Forums]

Sega releases a smaller HUMMER (arcade version of course)

Posted June 30, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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While the HUMMER brand doesn’t seem to have a lot of like in it yet (it was being sold to a Chinese company last I had heard), Sega is squeezing a little bit more out of their arcade title HUMMER by releasing a standard version of the game housed in a Sega Rally 3 standard cabinet. This reminds me a little bit of what they did with RaceTV and R-Tuned in reusing the cabinets there but this is obviously a little bit different since HUMMER had been released with a motion base in mind. Who knows, perhaps this standard version will work out a little better since it will be more affordable than the larger deluxe version so we’ll have to keep an eye out for it.

[Via AM Net Blog] [Discuss on the Forum]