New Dave and Busters opening in Indiana

Posted May 21, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: ,

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Thdaveandbuste last time we talked about Dave and Busters, earnings were down a little bit for them and we hadn’t heard much about their plans to deal with the economy as it is. This time, we have news of a new D&B to open in Indianapolis Indiana. It’s not much in the way of news but it’s something and every new arcade that opens is a good thing in my view. I have also noticed that Indiana has been in the news a little bit when it comes to arcade-related things as we had a new large FEC open there earlier this year.

[Via Indystar.com]

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Bandai Namco Japan announces Tank! Tank! Tank!

Posted May 17, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , , ,

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Another Japanese arcade game which has the potential to hit the overseas market due to it’s content has been announced by Bandai Namco Japan and this time it’s a tank combat game of some sort called Tank! Tank! Tank! Namco has dabbled in tank games before in arcades, from games like Tank Battalion to Tokyo Wars (the latter I enjoyed a lot although it felt like a demo of a full game since it only featured two levels) but it has been a while since they touched upon the genre. We don’t have any concrete details beyond what the cabinet looks like at the moment but if it was like Tokyo Wars with a ton of levels and several different tanks to choose from I’d be down for some crazy tank blasting action.

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Forums down

Posted May 15, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags:

Just a quick note here but the forums are down for some reason and I think that they have been for a couple of days. I’m not sure what’s up with them right now but we will try to get them up and running again soon.

Also on a quick note, I have found out that we’ve got a couple of games headed towards release in the next two weeks: DDRX and Nirin come out next week and H2Overdrive is in two weeks. I’ll be sure to make a post on each when the official word comes down that they are available.

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“Adult arcades” booming in Florida

Posted May 15, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: ,

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stinger11

I’ll apologize in advance for the headline, as when you look into this, it sounds different than what you might think – this has nothing to do with XXX adult arcades, just a type of arcade sprouting up in Florida that is sort of like a grown-up redemption center.  The players do play games like slot machines although they are not rigged for payout, instead you can win prizes which are generally gift cards. The news story does show some people who are really into the games and then goes off on a thing where people are being exploited by the arcades since there are so many and they show up in areas where their target base frequents. I guess they’ve never heard of target marketing and that these people are old enough to make their own decisions as to whether they will play there or not, so I can see why the state isn’t exactly pursuing these arcades like the journalists seem to want them to. Of course if it continues to boom and rake in even more money I’m sure the state will figure out some way to get their hands into it.

You won’t find any arcade games like we normally discuss on the site here but it’s interesting to see nonetheless. Full story (w/video) here at wptv.com.

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Videos from GTI Expo 2009

Posted May 14, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , ,

Another arcade trade show has come and gone and with it there are plenty of videos to give us a glimpse of what happened. Quite a few interesting games were at the show, some we have seen before and some we have not. Check out the videos below for more

1st: Some DDR-like rhythm game where you use your hands; Battle Stations/Ocean Force; DJ Max Technika, Aquarace, Razing Storm, Speed Driver 2 and more.

2nd: I’m not sure what this is but eat your heart out Rock Band

3rd: Speed Rider. This looks like a cross between Super Bikes and Nirin and it even has a nitro button.

4th: Some card game reminiscent of Sanguozhi War

AM-NET blog also has some pictures from the event if you are curious to see more, including KOF2002UM and another touch screen rhythm game called Touch Mania.

BTW- I still do have a few more videos that need to be uploaded from ASI09, they were taken on a different camera that is not mine and the computer they were transferred to was fried a short time ago although that was just the motherboard so the HDD should be OK. I really apologize to everyone for taking so long on the last few vids but I do promise that as long as the HDD they were on was not lost, I will get them posted.

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Finally, a better look at Battle Stations

Posted May 14, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , ,

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Way back during IAAPA last year, one surprise we got was that Smart Industries had picked up a submarine combat game from an Asian developer that they called Battle Stations. from the reports we got at the show, it sounded like those who played the game walked away impressed but unfortunately we did not see much else about the game after that – there were a couple of cabinet pictures and no videos. For a time, Smart put the game up on their website, only to remove it not long after that. It wasn’t at ASI and I asked them about it and they told me that we would hear more “in a few weeks”. It’s been much longer than that with no word from Smart and I have e-mailed a couple of people there about it and have never got a response about what they are doing with the game. As such, I do not know if Smart is still going to bring the game to light in the US but if they aren’t willing to then I hope that someone else does as I have finally found some more information on it and it looks pretty neat.

As it turns out, the game was created by IGS, who has created a number of arcade games that include games like Oriental Legend 2, which I have at my arcade. In Asia the game has a different name however, which is why I overlooked it until now when I found some time to do some digging. The game is called Ocean Force there and fortunately they have a small website dedicated to the game where we get a look at how the game plays and on top of that, I have discovered a video of the game in action on Youtube that I will be posting in a few minutes that has to do with another arcade event, stay tuned!

[Ocean Force/Battle Stations IGS site]

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New arcade museum exhibit to open on May 30th in New York (updated)

Posted May 14, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , ,

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(thanks to Susan Trien for the corrections)

While the idea of a museum exhibit dedicated to arcade history isn’t exactly new, it’s always cool to see one setup. On May 30th, a new exhibit dedicated to arcade history will openvideotopia up at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York called Videotopia, and it will be open until November 1st this year. The exhibit is an international traveling show from The Electronics Conservancy. It will function a lot like a standard arcade – you can purchase tokens for 25¢ to be able to play the games, of which they will have 100+ to choose from. On top of that the museum will have kiosks and interactive displays to teach visitors about the history of video games. To get in there is the admission fee for the museum and they will sell Gamers Admission Passes that will allow for unlimited admission to the exhibit through it’s duration.

One interesting feature they will have is that people can win tokens by answering game history trivia questions at “Power Up” stations located throughout the complex. The exhibit will feature more than just classic games (which arcade museums generally tend to focus on) as it will have games all the way up to modern times. They also separate games by manufacturer, year made and hardware used. They naturally have Computer Space and Pong and they even have some rarities such as Sega’s Time Traveler (which you can see in the lower right area of the picture above).

[Via Gamasutra] [Strong National Museum of Play] [Discuss on the Forums]

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Deathsmiles 2 and a slightly different way of revenue sharing in Japan

Posted May 14, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , ,

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I have lost track of the times I have brought up costs in the arcade sector since it is an on-going issue. Since I joined Arcade Heroes, some manufacturers have certainly improved in bringing the price down to levels that are more reasonable for smaller operators so that we can own the games ourselves. Of course one option that any operator can look at is revenue sharing on a game that is put on location by a distributor and then ypu split the profits from there. There also is financing options that can be made available, assuming you have good credit and a good track record of earnings.Everyone has to decide on what options will work out for the best in their situation but in Japan, Cave, the developers of many bullet hell shmups including the recently released Deathsmiles II are offering something that is sort of new – they will place a machine on location for free and then the revenue is split between them and the operator from there. This actually has been practiced off and on in Japan before although the free cab is a departure from what we have seen before.

The one question to ask now is if this is successful would we ever see a similar model used in the US? I would see some resistance from it as it would cut out distributors completely although that debate is not new.

[Via BeefJack.com via Versus City] [Discuss on the Forums]

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Why playing fighters in the arcade is better than online

Posted May 12, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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This comes right on the heels of the Capcom post below comes another article that is sort of related to what that is talking about although this is focusing on what it is about an arcade fighter that helps itself stand out from playing virtually the same game online – the personal experience. It’s a great article that gives us the story about Alex Valle and his view on arcades and growing up playing Street Fighter II and now playing online against people on SFIV. Perhaps the best line from the whole thing that gets the point across: “In short: Play online if you want to practice, play in arcades if you want to fight.” Sadly many newer players didn’t grow up in arcades like many of us did and the concept seems to escape them, but we have to keep beating that drum despite that.

Of course this idea can be applied to other types of arcade games beyond fighters although the fighters generally carry with them the most loyal players.But if there is one thing that arcades do with excellence, it’s multiplayer gaming and that has been true ever since Pong.

For the full feature, check out the article at Kotaku

[Discuss on the Forums]

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Today’s “no-duh” moment from Capcom: arcades hit by consoles.

Posted May 12, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: , , ,

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When it comes to the debate as to whether or not arcades are affected by consoles, I personally believe that the argument is straightforward. If arcades were not affected at all by consoles then arcade-to-console ports would have zero effect on sales and people would still still be headed to arcades like it was 1982. That’s why I believe that the more games that provide an experience exclusive to arcades is important and that goes beyond making billions of racing games.

capcomlogoCapcom has recently mentioned this issue, first citing how differences between arcades and consoles is negligible and that there is a lack of sales inducing games. At the same time they are happy with how pimping out Street Fighter IV in arcades worked for console sales, which they have previously stated would have not helped the arcade industry in the US, despite numerous stories we saw of lines of people waiting to play the game at the few locations that purchased the game.

Another issue I have with their statement is that when it comes down to differences between games on the consoles and the arcade, it’s not just about graphics – they themselves added more content to SFIV for consoles and this seems to be very common with all of the arcade-to-console releases for a while now. In the case of SFIV for the console, an arcade stick was released to bridge the gap and to top it off for this example, it is not like SFIV sat in arcades for a long time before the console version hit the streets and players, who are more savvy then they might get credit for, knew about that not long after the announcement was made for the game coming to arcades. If Capcom is going to complain about the difference between arcades and consoles being a problem and they are sincere about it, then why not set about to solving the problem by designing their own arcade games to provide a more than neglible difference from the consoles? Since they are planning a console release in the future anyways, make the console players pay for development costs instead of arcade operators and throw in technology on the arcade that surpasses what a console can do which does not have to be terribly expensive. The tech inside of consoles is always lagging behind the PC as it is so take advantage of that when possible, I say. I know that the issue does get a little more complicated than that and we have discussed it before but I get tired of hearing excuses instead of solutions to the problems of the arcade inudstry from the likes of Capcom who obviously is far more worried about their console sales than arcades anyways.

[Capcom article at GameBizBlog.com] [Discuss on the Forum]

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