It is the last Saturday before the IAAPA 2017 trade show, a huge event that takes place in Orlando, FL annually at this time of year. So for this week’s Newsbytes, we will focus on that. Also a Happy Veterans Day to those who have served in the military. I have several family members who have done so, including my Dad. I’m grateful for their service and sacrifices.

First, a few bits of news, just click on the link to see more:

Sega releases trailer detailing Party Mode setup for Daytona Championship USA

Cosmotrons Marks 1 Year In Development, Coming Next Year

Galloping Ghost Arcade Gets Their Hands on Data East’s Tattoo Assassins

The odd history of Atari’s Kangaroo

Round1USA locations are adding Gun Bullet X (aka Point Blank X) to their locations

The unfinished version of Asteroids for the Atari Jaguar has been found & released – You may need to be a member of the group to see this

I’ve recorded some direct footage of Raw Thrills’ Cruis’n Blast for you to enjoy

IAAPA 2017 Preview

Adrenaline Amusements

While researching this post, I found out that Adrenaline has unveiled two new Rabbids games for release in January – Rabbids Ticket Fiesta and Rabbids Hollywood. Check out the post here in case you missed it earlier.

Spinner Frenzy is likely to be the star of their booth but I have a hunch that they also might have a new version of Crazy Tower on hand but in lieu of the Rabbids games, I’m not so sure about that now. The latter was introduced last year but I saw an email for a distributor event in Oregon several weeks ago that mentioned a “Mega Crazy Tower”. I’ve not seen any pics of it so one can only guess by the name that it’s either a larger pyramid screen version or perhaps it handles more than four players. Here’s a trailer for Spinner Frenzy:

Andamiro USA

While this is an ‘off’ year for new Pump It Up titles, Andamiro is still doing a video game, albeit more a videmption one. Expect to find Tight Rope at their booth along with the companies various other merchandiser and redemption games such as another Spongebob redemption game, their new NFL Super Coins pusher, and Despicable Me Jelly Lab. Here’s a new trailer for the game that they released:

Bandai Namco Amusements America

Things are still really quiet from the Namco camp this year, the only new piece we’ve heard about is the We Play VR modular virtual reality setup. I am pretty sure that we’ll see Maximum Tune 5 again (and yes, I will ask about DX+). If they have something else new in video, then it likely is being saved as a surprise. Also do remember that if you are at the show and wonder why there is Raw Thrills product on the booth, Bandai Namco always combines the American and European sides together for IAAPA so any lines that Bandai Namco Amusements Europe carries (which includes Raw Thrills) will also be there.

Barron Games International

The primary star of the Barron booth will be Tap That, a re-design of Catch The Light Frenzy that we had seen earlier this year. I also expect to see some of their other recent titles like Fly O’Clock, Galaxy Collision, & World Tour Foosball.

Bay Tek Games

This redemption game maker has been embracing more videmption style games in recent years and there are at least two new titles we can expect to find within this class from Bay Tek: Perfection and Scooby-Doo Where Are You? The latter looks like a redesign of their popular Big Bass Wheel games, which includes a Scooby-Doo art package as well as a monitor to show off different animations from the cartoon series. Perfection was seen at the AAMA Gala last month and Bay Tek released this new video to showcase the game before IAAPA:

Coastal Amusements

Also mentioned recently on the site was Coastal’s latest app-to-arcade title, Qubes. This will be joined by Coastal’s other videmption series games that share the same cabinet. They also will be showcasing the new water videmption game Iceman that launched this past Spring. That will be followed by new redemption titles like Ring Toss.

GlobalVR

I only mention this as earlier this year their website went down and I thought that they were out of business since their last release was in 2014. The website came back up a short time later and in the Replay Magazine IAAPA preview, they pulled out an ad to say that they are “Still here to service you!”. I’m not sure how they’ve been making it without any new content or trade show presence in three years but they are still in business. I am not aware of them coming to IAAPA this year but I’ll keep an eye out just in case.

ICE

I haven’t heard much from ICE in regards to new products, except their new revision of their classic, Super Chexx Pro. They will also be showcasing their NBA Game Time and Collegiate Hoops sports games again. I have to imagine we’ll see other videmption titles on hand but if there is anything new, it will be a surprise!

Jersey Jack Pinball

Unveiled at Pinball Expo 2017 last month, Jersey Jack will be showcasing their new Pirates of the Caribbean game for attendees to see. I also imagine that they will have titles like Dialed In! and Wizard of Oz to enjoy as well but before too long they will have enough new games that I imagine we won’t be seeing much of their older titles in the future.

LAI Games

As mentioned the other day, the big game at the LAI Games booth will be Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride. Read more about it here if you missed it; it promises to bring an attendant-free VR experience to the arcade. Looks like you’ll need a bit of floor space for it though. LAI will also be showcasing some other titles but I have not read what those might be yet (most likely sports & redemption pieces including Let’s Bounce).

Raw Thrills

By all of the information I’ve received so far, it is safe to say that this will be the biggest trade show presence for Raw Thrills in their company’s history. Brand new pieces on tap include various games that we have covered on the site: Injustice Arcade; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; X Games Snow Boarder; and one other “big surprise”. I’ve been told that it is not Nex Machina but it is apparently going to make some waves. Top that off with other content we’ve seen before (Space Invaders Frenzy, Cruis’n Blast, probably The Walking Dead, Jurassic Park, Big Buck), there is going to be a lot to see and do at their booth.

Which of these new pieces are you looking forward to seeing in action the most? I have a hunch it might be TMNT – hearing distributors say that they are getting various inquiries about that one. But then the “big surprise” might steal all of the thunder…

Sega Amusements

Sega did send out a couple of press releases that involves their IAAPA setup, the first of which mentioned specific titles like Daytona Championship USA, Target Bravo: Operation GHOST (with a new upright cabinet), and a whole host of videmption/redemption pieces. I believe there is one other big surprise on hand but I’m a little shocked that we haven’t heard anything about it(normally we hear something from a location test or Sega promotes the new video game before the show). We’ll find out soon enough.

Sega is also making a good chunk of the booth about Daytona Championship USA again, now sporting the 100% complete software instead of the 50% complete version we played last year. I can also confirm via this tweet that the game setup here is using the highly coveted 4-speed stick shifter. As a bonus for reading this far down, here’s a picture of the shifter outside of the box:

Beyond that, I don’t expect to see World Drivers Championship 2018 here so that Daytona grabs the limelight but it is at least a possibility.

Stern Pinball

I’m happy to report that the recently unveiled Guardians of the Galaxy table will be coming to IAAPA, thus avoiding a situation like we had last year with no Batman 66. Star Wars & Aerosmith will also be there to experience in case you missed them at a show or out in the wild.

Team Play Inc.

As recently mentioned on the blog, Team Play will be showcasing their new video game, Family Guy Bowling. Judging by the size of their booth (it is the same as previous years), this will probably be the main thing at the booth but I imagine it will be joined by the Grumpy Cat Photo Booth.

Touch Magix Inc.

This industry newcomer has made some waves at Chuck E Cheeses & a few other FECs this year with the installation of their new Magix Floor Augmented Reality game. This will also be at the show, joined by a newcomer, Mannequin Challenge. This one appears to be using a Microsoft Kinect or Kinect-like sensor where 1 or 2 players need to pose exactly like what is shown on the screen. I imagine it will also be timed. They also have developed technology to add Augmented Reality to bowling lanes but those probably won’t be making an appearance due to space constraints.

UNIS

Universal Space will have another large booth at the show this year, showcasing their latest redemption & videmption developments including the new Wildlife Pics; Golden Saloon, a new virtual coin pusher that uses projection mapping; Lane Master which was seen last year and several other redemption games.

They also are introducing “two new VR games” that are set up in arcade-like cabinets: Tiger Knight VR and D-Day 2077. The first one looks like some kind of futuristic horse riding game with a VR headset while the D-Day game does not appear to be VR game but a sit-down mounted gun game. It’s hard to tell as the provided pic is low resolution but I’ll check out both to be sure:

UNIT-E Technologies

American company UNIT-e has a booth listed on the map but I have not heard what they might bring. The safe assumption is that it will be similar to last year’s surprise booth that showcased the resurrection of World’s Fastest Drummer. Previously Unit-e reps mentioned wanting to do a deluxe cabinet of WFD so perhaps that will be there along with NEON FM. There could always be a new surprise though!

Valley-Dynamo

Generally, we don’t include air hockey/pool makers on these lists since they don’t generally make video games or pinball machines but VD will be showcasing the new AllStar Baseball and Zombie League Baseball pinball-style batting games. Should be interesting to see these in action.

Wahlap

While they are listed on the exhibitors list, their website has been down for a while. Their past two or three IAAPA appearances were nothing special (repeats of previous years) but perhaps something will change this time…

Virtual Reality

One thing that is going to be a major part of the show is Virtual Reality attractions. 59 companies are listed with “Virtual Reality” as a part of their booth classification so competition in this format is stronger than it has ever been. A few of those we already mentioned above but many others have VR as an exclusive focus. Whether or not anything will catch fire though is another story; we’ve been seeing VR in many different forms at previous IAAPA’s and it’s still a tough sell for various reasons. Perhaps one of these companies will finally have the solution to overcome all of that.

Anything Else?

Of course – IAAPA has a ton of interesting and unique items that are at least worth gawking at – robotics, animatronics, inflatables, rope courses, motion theaters, dark rides, and so on. It’s always fun to just walk around and stumble upon something completely unexpected.

Naturally, I will have videos from the show to share so stay tuned to the site as well as the Arcade Heroes video channels (BitChute / YouTube) where new stuff will be rolling out over the coming weeks!