America’s Most Haunted Pinball; Initial D8; Name That Game #10

arcadehero July 19, 2014 5

Well this week has been a slow one for news, I’ve been busy otherwise. One thing I took care of this week was checking out a spot at the Salt Lake Comic Con. Myself and another local arcade, Atomic Arcade will be providing some arcade goodness for the convention in September. While a Comic Con event in Salt Lake isn’t something that generally draws international attention, the show last year brought in an impressive number of people. The arcade area at this upcoming event will be visible from almost anywhere on the show floor and we’re going to get a huge “arcade” banner up to so it is something that should be on everyone’s mind at some point ;). Now the challenge is figuring out what games to take. Moving games is always a bit nerve-wrecking but some of the dimensions of the stairs/elevators prevents me from taking anything huge like Dariusburst.  Anyways, to a little news that we can discuss going into the weekend.

Spooky Pinball LLC has a love for pinball & horror/terror/scary themes. They like pinball so much that they currently have an original design which has been in production for a few months, which they call America’s Most Haunted Pinball. The game is designed by famous tech modder Ben Heckendorn. There are a number of videos out there about it, one of which mentioned the first commercial units began shipping in April but I overlooked it until now for some reason. This week Spooky Pinball posted a picture showing the games reaching the assembly line, a feat that is always worthy of excitement for pinball fans. As long as it is followed up with good support then that can setup the opportunity for another game down the line. Here is the pic followed by an explanation and a trailer

EDIT: I almost forgot to add this but this is Ben Heck’s second foray into pinball that I know of, his first was working with John Popadiuk on Ben Heck’s Zombieland Adventure Pinball.

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Here Mr. Heck describes the modes for the game:

And a trailer, showing the irreverent nature of the game:

If we mosey on over to Japan for some news, Sega has released the latest version in the Initial D series, Initial D Arcade Stage 8 and Transformers Human Alliance finally gets a Japanese release; they also are testing out a new version of their F2P coin-op arcade game Puyo Puyo Quest. Konami released their newest Bemani title this week called BeatStream along with WORLD SOCCER Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2014.

For those curious about the features (in Japanese):

initialD8

beatstream

In regards to ID8, there is zero indication that Sega has interest in giving this North American localization although who knows what might happen if Bandai Namco does well with the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 tests here. On Konami’s BeatStream, that looks like their answer to the various touchscreen music games on the market like ReRave or DJ Max Technika.

Name That Game #10 – Last week I knew the last game would be quite obscure but I thought that the second game would have been recognized by some in the shooter circuit. Here are the answers for last week:

#1 Krull by Gottlieb/Mylstar

#2 Solar Assault by Konami (technically this was Solar Assault Revised but just Solar Assault would have been fine)

#3 New Sinbad 7 by ATW USA (when I said this one was obscure, I wasn’t kidding 😉 )

Here are the mystery arcade games for this week

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The challenge question:

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5 Comments »

  1. The Dude July 19, 2014 at 2:18 pm - Reply

    1) Kung-Fu Master
    2) Pigskin 621 AD (schooled one of the devs at CES 1992 on the Genny version)

    no idea on 3

  2. Arcades4ever July 20, 2014 at 10:44 am - Reply

    Other 2 games I no idea but Kung fu master. Man I completely forgot about that title. Btw has there been anymore info regarding namco testing wmmt 4? I think sega should give initial d another chance. Does it use an online feature similar to wangan midnight 4 making it impossible for import and an English international version? last latest version I played was 4th game in series at trocadero before it closed down

    • arcadehero July 21, 2014 at 2:18 pm - Reply

      I haven’t heard anything about the test lately, I will have to ask Namco. I think ID deserves a shot as well, I have people asking me about both games even at my arcade. It would be nice to have new ones although affording them is another question (usually $20,000 for a pair). Too bad the newest ID most will find is ID3, a lot of those are looking beat up these days.

  3. Arkanoid July 21, 2014 at 7:36 am - Reply

    #3 is Galactic Storm by Taito

  4. theptr September 12, 2014 at 9:53 am - Reply

    ID8 is available at the Round 1’s in SoCal.
    IC cards are available but no network.

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