3 Newsfeeds For The Price Of 1: Sega launches ALL.NET+ Multi, Fantastic Arcade, Midway Classics

Some newsfeeds have been accumulating so here you go.  Newsfeeds 1258-1260

First, Sega has launched their new “ALL.NET P-Ras Multi” system to compete with Taito’s NESiCAxLIVE service (both are currently limited to Japan). Both offer operators the opportunity to download games to a cabinet as opposed to purchasing a hardware kit or full new dedicated cabinet to get a new game on the floor. Sega’s service is launching with the following games: Under Night In-Birth, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R and Love Arcade. The first two games are 2D fighters, the former is new and I think deals with vampires, the second is the “culmination of the Guilty Gear series” so it will likely be a fan service game and the third is a collection of several games with some simple STG games, a sequel to Trizeal called Combatzeal and finally Pengo – an 8 player remake of Sega’s 1982 classic that we thought was cancelled but finally has a home. With it coming under this system I doubt we will see it out West to compete with the likes of Namco’s Pac-Man Battle Royale but you never know, Sega could create a new design to support 8 players on one cabinet. The system runs off Ringedge 2 hardware but there is nothing about the specs on that still. So far these games aren’t pushing anything that an intergrated graphics chip couldn’t handle so it’s unlikely to be anything that is a leap over Sega’s other PC boards.

UPDATE: After publishing this post I just caught this. The latest version of Wizard of Oz Pinball by Jersey Jack Pinball was at the Pacific Pinball Expo yesterday. Pinballnews.com has a lot of pictures of the process of unboxing and setting the game up. It had sounded like the game was going to start shipping this month but that seems to not be the case as the software is still “a long way from complete”. I guess I didn’t expect that to be the case given how long the game has been in development but it is what it is as software is done when it is done in the case of any game. Still, hopefully there won’t be many more delays for this to finally make its way to market.

Next is a gaming event recently held in Austin, TX that we have covered before called Fantastic Arcade. It’s a celebration of indie games made for home platforms but generally the creators go to the length of creating an arcade cabinet for it. I wonder if any of them have tried to put the game out on a location to see how it does. Of course if we had a download system in the West like ALL.NET+ or NESiCA, then getting these games into an arcade would be a simple task. Anyways, Joystiq has photos of the latest Fantastic Arcade event.

Last and least, Warner who currently owns Midway and Atari Games content is releasing yet another multi-game arcade compliation for home consoles to yet again enjoy classic arcade games on an Xbox 360 or PS3 but now with “remastered visuals”. MTV’s non-music related gaming blog has more details and there is also this fancy teaser video that doesn’t show anything from the new compliation itself. It will be available in November.