Newsbits: Arcade from 1968; Rocky Mountain Expo; Star Castle on the Atari 2600; more Gundam Pilot videos; Retrocade Magazine

Earlier this week the news was quite slow but this latter half has improved a bit, where I have enough to do yet another multi-story post.

First off is something I did see a few days ago on Twitter but I was sidetracked by other things and forgot about it. Thanks to Barrie Ellis for the tip and reminder! These are pictures of an arcade circa 1968, so four years before video arcade would become a thing. It’s the Wonderland Arcade in Kansas City, MO. They had plenty of pinball and several EM games to enjoy – you had to be 16 or older to play the pinball machines though. I wonder a little more about the history behind the place and how they fared when videos became a big part of amusement. [Via Retronaut / Also you can view larger versions on Imgur ]

If I was in Colorado right now (which isn’t too terribly far from me, I could make the drive if I had scheduled for it), particularly Centennial CO then I could make it to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown & Gameroom Expo. It’s been going on all day today and goes until Sunday when the show closes at 5PM that day. Here’s a KLOV thread about it for those interested.

There are a lot of remakes and ports out there for arcade games but I find this one interesting in part because it’s something that was done to just see if it could be done when originally was thought that it was impossible. That would be Cinematronics’ Star Castle, a vector game that Atari wanted to get put onto the Atari 2600 but it was an extremely difficult task and the programmer, Howard Scott Warshaw instead created the sort of Star Castle-like game Yars Revenge. These many years later a former Atari employee D. Scott Williamson decided to take that on as a challenge and after a couple of years in development, the 8KB game is complete and playable. Read the whole story here. [Via Kotaku]

Namco Japan has released more videos of Gundam Pod Ace Pilot Training. So if you get a chance to come across one of these pods, you will be ready to not suck at the game. My desire for a Western mech arcade title seems to be increasing daily but I must temper that with these videos I suppose.

If you are more of a fan of the classic arcades than the modern stuff then there is a new print magazine for you – Retrocade Magazine. The video here gives a pretty good run-down of what they are all about and you can also get a digital version of the magazine if you so desire by visiting their website. That is certainly one way to get around the lack of print coverage – create your own!