Beer and games. They go hand in hand right? Well what do you do when you want to combine your too favourite past times? You do this….
That’s right, you build a bar for the beer and then you build arcade controls into the bar. Simple really.
Hit the link to see more of Burke’s MAME bar.
[via ArcadeControls and RetroBlast] [Discuss on the Forum]
I can’t believe I missed this. I am always pissing and moaning that I never see many tables out and about and I’ve just gone and missed a pinball show with lots of table in the UK! Dammit! Anyone else get to go? Can you tell us what was there? Can you make me insanely jealous?
UK Pinball Show, now in its 4th year, will take place 30th & 31st August 2008 at Wicksteed Park, Kettering. Visitors will have the opportunity to play over 100 iconic pinball machines from classics like The Addams Family to Stern’s latest pinball, Batman: The Dark Knight.
Tournaments for players of all levels will also be happening, including the official UK Open Pinball Championships where the winner will be crowned UK Pinball Champion.
Nick Bennett, of organisers Pinballers Anonymous, said “Pinball retains its position as one of the most popular computer games formats and the chance to play this many full size machines is rare. For the forth year running we’re organising the largest show of it’s kind in Europe, making a huge number of machines available to visitors and with the continued resurgence of pinball we are expecting more visitors than ever.”
I am always reading about seminars that take place at events such as E3 and GDC and I am always eager to hear what some of the these industry experts have to say on different subjects, as well as hearing thier different experiences in games development. So I was pleased to hear that there is a seminar planned for ATEi 2009 all about redemption. Now this is not necessarily the kind of thing I would get excited about. However, it is a part of the arcade biz that I know little about and therefore I am looking forward too hearing what is said. Hopefully this will go down well and we see more of this type of thing from the ATEi.
Organisers of ATEI, which takes place at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre across 27-29 January, have added business knowledge enrichment to the programme of activities scheduled for the 2009 edition with the announcement of a high profile Redemption Seminar, offering show visitors valuable insight and operational tips on what an increasing number of amusements operators are discovering as their fastest-growing profit centre. Read on…..
Well that didn’t take long! An infinite combo has been found in Street Fighter IV, it can be done with the new character El Fuerte where he cancels a standing fierce punch into a cancelling run over and over again. It can be stopped if you get dizzied but then you can start it up again. Infinite combos are not welcome in fighting games because it usually means that players will play with just that character and use that combo to win all the time (also known as being cheap). There’s a video of it in action below, no word yet on when Capcom will get this fixed however.
Kotaku has an update with a statement from Capcom on this: “In that video El Fuerte does not chain together infinite FP cancels. He chains some together to dizzy the opponent and then repeats a similar combo to win in one round, but that hardly constitutes the use of the term ‘infinite…Let’s wait and see what the Japanese players say about the tiering before we hastily condemn anything.”
[Via the Official Xbox Magazine UK] [Discuss on the Forum]
I almost forgot to post about this since we already posted about NFS: Carbon going dedicated but it is one
game that will be at AMOA next week. From the press release they reveal one interesting thing about the game - that it has a separate pedal for the NOS so you don’t have to take your hand off the wheel which is a good idea. So that’s some good news but for some bad news, GVR tells me that Justice League will not be at AMOA, which probably means that it will show up at IAAPA. It looks more like IAAPA is going to be the really big event for arcades this year but at least AMOA will have a few things to check out.
Speaking of AMOA while I had no plans on going once again the opportunity might open for me. I am looking at getting a Tsunami Motion Cabinet and it just so happens that the game is down in Las Vegas and the seller may only let go of it if I go down and get it myself. While I’m really not excited about the prospect of driving a truck around Vegas, that could mean that I could coincide the trip with a visit to AMOA. I’ll find out more and let you know if I can make it.
It’s been a little while since I did an update on how my arcade is going and I’ve had a few people ask about it so here we go.
We finally got a sign put up a week ago, something that should have been completed two months ago when we opened but was delayed due to waiting on approval from the mall, the city along with production and a few other things. It certainly hasn’t helped that I didn’t have such visibility until now but I’m glad it’s finally taken care of. Unfortunately it is already falling apart, one of the buttons that was on the box broke off and disappeared over the past weekend, which I am not happy about. They are supposed to get it fixed, but I have to wait, yet again.
Another thing that hasn’t helped is the fact that our air conditioning has not worked since we opened so basically we’ve gone the entire summer without AC. I have been fighting to get it fixed and fortunately I am not going to pay for the repairs but that has meant that I have had to sit and wait and watch people go out the door when it’s sometimes hotter inside than it is out. It also has made it uncomfortable to be there all day but also about a week ago that was finally fixed after the entire unit was replaced. That certainly has helped make it pleasant to be inside for once.
I have had some great regulars that come in just about every day and part of that is due to the PC LAN. But it is working out like I planned - they play both the PCs and the arcades and in some cases they have been exposed to arcade titles that they never would have cared about otherwise.
Hit the post break for my musing on game earnings, games breaking, marketing, school starting and what to do next.
I have to admit that I have never seen so many people excited for one arcade to open before but we have mentioned ArcadeUFO before and as of today they are officially open. They are open in the Austin area and as part of the fuel to the hype behind them they have both Tekken 6 and Street Fighter IV available already. We wish them the best and if you live in that area be sure to drop by and give them your support!
One area where arcade titles have tread before is that of making a game that can be played by people who may have a disability that prevents them from enjoying games otherwise. Atari Games did it with San Fransisco Rush 2049 and I have heard of a few other games using similar features. I’m happy to report that a competition will begin on September 1st where the goal is to design an arcade title - which can be anything that you’d find in an arcade whether it’s a video game, pinball, air hockey, pool, cranes, etc. - that can be “[bring] games to those who cannot play arcade type games using conventional controls due to disability.” For first prize they are giving away a nice laptop computer that is worth £1200! That and you’ll feel great working on such a project as well.
Hit the post break for the full rundown on the compo including some tips and links for those interested in getting started and good luck to those who enter!
Coin-Op TV has an interview up with SFIV producer Yoshinori Ono taken from Comic-Con 2008. In it he discusses the effect that the fans had on making the game come together in the first place along with other tidbits on the development of SFIV. Check out the video below to enjoy.
Sometimes people need to learn how to chill out, as is the case with this story out of Lancashire, UK. Here’s the story from This Is Lancashire:
TWO thugs brutally attacked a young man in a nightclub — because he beat their arcade game score.
Gareth Fitzsimmons had been using a games machine on which players pay £1 to thump a punch bag three times.
But when he beat the score set by two men nearby they set on him.
Mr Fitzsimmons, aged 22, from Great Lever, suffered a shattered jaw after being repeatedly kicked in the head.
That game would be Dragon Punch, or one of it’s clones, a game where you pull a punching bag down and hit it as hard as you can. The harder the hit, the higher the score. It’s a game that earns ridiculously well and
it can be found in many locations all over the world but unfortunately I’m sure that anti-gaming heads will use this one example of a violent act occuring with a video game involved while ignoring the fact that these kind of games are played hundreds of times every day without such incidents following them up. Victim picture on the right
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