Today the EAG Expo 2013 took place and with it, some new stuff. AH writer HeavyElectricity (Nick Thorpe) was there to check everything out and he will be providing a larger and more detailed look at what was there soon but until then you can feast on some of these previews:
New game: Dead Heat Riders by Namco. Taking a page from what has been done with the Fast And Furious series, Namco has translated Dead Heat into a motorcycle racing game. Nick suggested through twitter that the game is more of an update as opposed to a sequel, I’m sure he will have more details. One thing I wonder about though is why the marquee’s don’t have the title “Dead Heat Riders” on it – one almost might think the game is called NOS since that is much more prominent on the cabinet than the game name. Otherwise, the cabinet may also remind you of Namco’s Nirin, a more technical racing game that they released a few years back, I wonder how this compares as far as how the physics and features are; one obvious difference is that this has a camera for the NamCam avatar feature. UPDATE: As a clarification, this DOES NOT link up with Dead Heat Street Racing.
Sega had Dream Raiders to show off, as well as the UK debut of Pirates of Monster Island which just so happens to reuse some assets from DR but is a videmption game where you fire a cannon at on-screen objects. They also had displays for their other redemption products as well as products from ICE
Electrocoin had a variety of items to show off, from X-MEN pinball to Wahlap/IGS’s Power Truck to something that is going to challenge Andrenaline Amusement’s Black Out, a pair of games called Push Koong Totem and Push Koong Rocket. From the picture shared on Twitter of these two games, it uses transparent LCD technology just like Black Out although from these pictures it looks like it has improved contrast. No idea who the manufacturer is yet but the Push Koong Rocket looks like the concept behind Tower of Hanoi/Winner’s Ringer but you are trying to build a rocket ship.
Image source on the Push Koong is from InterGame Ltd’s Twitter
UNIS also is at the show, they have some pics up on their Twitter feed. At the moment it looks like the same line-up that they featured at IAAPA so those who couldn’t make it to that show but can to EAG have a chance for some hands-on time with the games. I have not seen After Dark in any of the photos yet but their videmption products like Pirate’s Hook have some prominent attention there.
As mentioned, stay tuned for more details right here on Arcade Heroes!
Guess that explains the comment namcoamerica youtube channel made about a future release, is dead hea racer even though it’s an update going to have new levels? I think it would be pointless if it’s just everythings the same as dead heat apart from riding motorcycles. I would thought there would be news levels since the comment namco made on it’s youtube channel that ones of the locations a viewers comment stated he wish he could drive on a level set in (I forget which state) and namco responded by saying they were considering whether or not to have that in a future release
Basically, it is the same as Dead Heat except with motorbikes. The version shown at EAG contains the original 4 courses from Dead Heat, licensed cars replaced by generic bikes with names like Sport Type, Street Type and American Type. The new cabinet lacks the PIN pad and sports a bike that shares some similarities with the one used for Nirin, but I can’t yet confirm if it’s the same one. Pointless? I’m afraid so. It merely makes slight alterations to the original, rather than any improvements.
If it’s got no pin then how are you suppose to register a pin? Unless its just a beta cabinet used on test. I hope if its got the original tracks that it at least have at very least 4 new tracks equal to the same as the original. I hope I get to see a video of it soon because it was a real surprise seeing this at the eag show report and I’d be gutted if its basically the same game but with bikes and no new tracks, it would just seem namco be taking the arcade scene for granted with this game :-/
Where’s the rest of the photos along with videos and description of each game from the show? Surely they should be uploaded way by now :-/ ????
Not yet, Nick is still working on it, I imagine it will be up this weekend.
Oh right ok, I take it there must be a lot of stuff taken at the show not to mention the briefing and description of each game
Last I saw him mention something about it, he said he already had 1000 words for the article and he wasn’t close to done. So at the very least the wait will lead to a very detailed article!
Yeah of course sorry LOL it’s just I love this time of year and really look forward to reading about what new arcade games are shown and coming out soon 😀
Dead heat but with motorcycles? this should be interesting. I also really need to give Nirin a try.