Welcome to this week’s Newsbytes, where I curate some quick arcade news items as opposed to giving them a lengthy post.
Before we get to that, I’d just like to bring attention to an honor we received this week from one website called Feedspot. Feedspot aggregates blogs, channels and social media feeds into one place, and they created a “Top 15 Arcade Game Blogs, Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2018” page. In the top spot is Arcade Heroes! I’m honored to have the site recognized like this; if one of you submitted us to this site, then you have my sincere thanks as well.
Now, onto the news.
Tokyo Game Show 2018 Arcade Announcements
The gaming world has been feasting on news coming out of Japan this week, and while the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) tends to focus on home console releases, it’s Japan, so companies there are often working on arcade releases in addition to their console brothers. This is further enhanced by the upcoming Exa board, which is where Devil Engine will find a release.
Beyond Devil Engine, here are other places where arcades were prevalent during the event (or otherwise capturing :
Puyo Puyo eSports Coming To PS4/Switch & Arcades – Puyo Puyo got it’s start in arcades way back in 1992, but has been getting most attention on consoles with releases like Puyo Puyo Tetris. Puyo Puyo eSports is removing the Tetris part of it to focus on proper Puyo, which I don’t mind. Sega will be releasing the AC version “at a later date” and it is also unknown which platform as I’m not sure if their ALL.NET+ Multi has really been going anywhere. I suppose they could always make it a follow-up to Giant Tetris…
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy Arcade Playable At The Hamster Booth (NESICAxLIVe 2)
Psyvariar Delta Announced For Steam (PC) and Arcades (Exa-Arcadia)
Vakyrius Danmaku Unlimited On Test At Mikado Arcade (Exa-Arcadia)
Taito Brings 3/4th Size Arcade 1up Machines To Japan; Had A Fancy TGS Booth To Promote Them
SeaWorld Pulls VR Tech From The Kraken Unleashed Roller Coaster
Some of the earliest adopters of VR tech on the amusement market were roller coaster rides. Theme parks had the means and the money to adapt existing attractions like roller coaster rides to use them, although I do recall hearing that there were some road bumps at first with the headsets not handling the stress of such things very well.
While that appears to have been overcome, another issue happens with VR coasters that I didn’t realize until I read this story that SeaWorld has removed the VR headsets from their popular Kraken Unleashed ride. The issue – VR not only increases the costs by having that many expensive HMDs per seat, it also increases wait times by a bit, as more time is spent getting the headsets fitted to each rider’s head, then after the ride each set has to be cleaned. So I guess you could say it was leashing the Kraken 😛 It was enough of a hassle that SeaWorld has changed their tune on the tech…I wonder if any other VR coasters will soon be following suit.
This also serves as another example that VR is not some wonder tech that can be applied to anything and just print money from there. A similar lesson is there for mobile (touchscreens aren’t the best control scheme for every game style on Earth), but I’m wondering when we’ll see the industry realize that about VR too.
Teacher Uses Daughter To Rob A Barbercut Lite; Gets Arrested
The following video was posted to the Salem NH Police Facebook page this week, which soon managed to identify the man who was using his daughter to steal products out of a Barbercut Lite merchandiser machine. There is always a risk of theft from unattended merchandisers from people who just don’t want to take a chance at the games, but that is one reason I’m not a big fan of the machines. People rarely get upset and emotional over video games, but when something goes wrong with a redemption piece, some people just lose any sense of dignity. This situation is a bit worse though, but it’s sadly not the first nor the last example of incredibly bad parenting in the world. I am surprised the child managed to get out, most of the time the child gets stuck and the fire department has to come out and rescue them:
[fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/SalemNHPolice/videos/285878062017572/” bottom=”30″]
Reminder: Golden Tee 2019 Ships In A Few Days
To celebrate, the Golden Tee social media accounts have been busier than ever:
Happy Birthday OutRun!
I sure look forward to seeing OutRun 3…whenever that is 😉
https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/1042739458859327489
That’s all I managed to find for now, have a great weekend!
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Are you trying to tell us we’ll see outrun 3 sometime this year in November perhaps???
It’s just an “educated guess” on my part. The only thing I know is that there is supposed to be something else at IAAPA that is new, but isn’t House of the Dead. Could be a video game. Could be videmption. Could be both where they have a few new pieces. Sega has been tight lipped as usual on that one (everyone else has been on their stuff too).
I’m guessing OutRun 3 is a possibility as we first heard about OutRun 3 almost two years ago ( https://arcadeheroes.com/2016/12/16/off-site-interview-paul-williams-sega-amusements/ ). General development time for most arcade titles seems to fall in the 18-24 month range. So unless Sega decided to can that project in favor of something else, the time frame should fit. Also, a racing title would also make sense – they already have Transformers and HOTDSD, so throwing a third gun game in there wouldn’t be a good fit. Although, they could be counting a new cabinet (say, a Transformers SR upright OR a Daytona Special Attraction) for whatever it is too.
That would be so cool. In all honesty, it is a little weird to me that developers will sometimes give him news and then have him wait to report it. Is it to avoid creating buzz too early?