Just a reminder, this weekend is the first ever “Insert Coin” event which is being held at the Rodber Suite at Northampton Saints. This brand new show is certainly offering a lot to see and do; with games to play, tournaments to enter, tech tip sessions and prizes to be won. I Can’t make it myself, but I wish the organisers every success. That way i can go next year. If you haven’t got your ticket yet, don’t hang about! Head over to thier website for more info.
So I picked this up on release a few weeks ago. I’d been waiting for the PC release because I have an X-Arcade stick and was looking forward to having the “arcade experience” at home. Much to my dismay, it appears SF4 only supports keyboard and 360 controllers. I can assign keyboard buttons to the arcade stick for one player, but not for the other.
Apparently they want to make recreating the arcade set up at home harder than it should be. In a way I can see why, otherwise it will be quite easy to take a high end PC and build your own cabinet. However this is not want I’m going too. So Capcom, please release a patch and support non 360 arcade sticks, please? Especially my X-Arcade stick!
This week on our podcast, Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report joins me again as we discuss not just the news of the week but some other aspects of the arcade industry as well, including a retrospective of the once great arcade company Midway. We also cover a little bit of news that wasn’t on the site this past week but is relevant to what we do. This is the longest episode yet with a little over an hour of content so we hope you enjoy it!
One major arcade event I would love to attend one day is California Extreme (or CAX for short). I probably say this every year that we post about it, but I figure I should keep that goal so it actually happens one day. As you might know, CAX 09 starts tomorrow and goes through Sunday and it’s one of the larger arcade and pinball shows around where you can not only play a bunch of classic games, but some new ones as well, including some very rare titles. Last year they had a location test version of The Act there and I’m sure that there will be some nice goodies there this year as well.
In case you are lucky enough to make it to CAX tomorrow, drop us a line, let us know how it went and if you want to share any pictures, we’ll be happy to dedicate a post to them.
UPDATE – ChaseThe ChuckWagon.com has posted some videos of the event before the doors open, I imagine that they will be adding more soon
While piracy in the arcade sector is not as common as it used to be, it still occurs here and there. In the most recent case, the man who created the Ultracade setup is accused of selling counterfeit packs of game compilations that owners of an Ultracade setup could use to upgrade their game to feature more titles. David Foley allegedly began to do this after selling Ultracade to GlobalVR, undercutting the prices on the official packs by selling them at lower prices on eBay. Mr. Foley also allegedly worked with Micahel Daddona to produce the packs and on top of that they even made game packs using some titles that were never licensed for use on the Ultracade platform, including games from companies like Nintendo, Namco and Taito. We’ll have to wait and see what the courts decide but if convicted I imagine that Foley and Daddona are looking at some hefty fines and maybe prison time. Foley has pleaded not guilty in this case and was released on $100,000 bond.
Mr. Foley
BTW- I did a little research into this guy (Foley) and it looks like he has a history with MAME like developments when he attempted to trademark MAME (which he did not own) so he could stop the development of systems that were like Ultracade. Since he did not create or own MAME prior to filing for the trademark, it looks like that did not work out too well and he brought upon himself the ire of many arcade emulation fans. [Source] [Slashdot]
UPDATE – I did some more checking and I discovered something interesting – David Foley is listed as a co-founder of Nanotech Entertainment, who not long ago announced Xtreme Rally Racing for arcades. In fact, if you check Mr. Foley’s website and Nanotech’s (which use the same design), he is listed as Nanotech’s co-founder and CTO. I should point out that the other founder of Nanotech, Robert DeKett is not part of this indictment and Nanotech was not listed as a company as involved in the Ultracade scheme.
I also have found a SF Gate article which gets into more detail on the indictment.
UPDATE -
Bob DeKett, CEO of Nanotech Entertainment replies:
While I cannot comment on any specifics on the case, I can tell you I was the VP of Business Development at UltraCade, and then at Global VR, and was involved in deals licensing the IP in question. I don’t believe that David has done anything wrong, and I believe he will be vindicated by a full acquittal. I can also tell you that he still owns UltraCade Technologies, and that Global VR defaulted on the purchase of certain assets of UltraCade Technologies, never completing the payments that were due. None of the UltraCade creditors that were to benefit from the deal have received a dime. David and Global VR have been fighting this in a civil lawsuit that was started in 2006. I would caution people to wait until this is settled and know the entire story before rendering a judgment or opinion about the situation. Remember, in America you are innocent until proven guilty. David has to do nothing to prove his innocence, it’s up to the DA to prove the claims.
[Via Gamasutra] [SF Gate on this story with more details] [Discuss on the Forums]
Most of the news this week seems to be revolving around Japanese releases but that’s OK – even if you don’t live in Japan some of these games could make their way to a location near you via imports or ‘official distribution’. It’s also interesting to look at trends coming along in the arcade industry no matter where they are based.
Today Taito has revealed a lot more info on their strange FPS called Cyber Diver. This game is intended as both an upgrade kit for Half-Life 2: Survivor games (which in case you did 
not know, was Taito’s most recent entry into the arcade FPS genre) as well as a stand-alone unit that looks to offer 5-on-5 combat. The game will use Taito’s new arcade hardware called Genesys which produces some nice graphics from the looks of it but the game itself features an unusual design that combines elements of things I have seen in Halo, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Red Steel (with the melee combat – but this also includes lightsabers) and Unreal Tournament 3. It also adds it’s own flare to it with dramatic displays that take place when you change your weapon into something else or transform your character. It’s all a bit crazy and you can see what I mean by checking out the video that is currently on the official Cyber Diver website. The game is going on location test in Japan so perhaps someone will grab some video of how it works with the cabinet here soon as well.
[Pics via Gamespot Japan] [Cyber Diver Website] [Discuss on the Forums]
(Photo via the Chicago Tribune)
After news came out that Stern Pinball had to layoff a few people, I began hearing rumors about the imminent closure of the company. Some felt that with a recession happening in many parts of the world combined with the interest in pinball itself not at the highest levels anyone had seen, the end was near. I even had one person tell me that CSI would be their last pinball machine although that was soon debunked by the release of 24 and then NBA pinball. To reinforce the notion that Stern is going to stick around producing new games, Gary Stern himself has said that they are not quitting the business, according to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune. The article delves into the difficulties of producing new pinball games and covers some of the history that Stern has in pinball. There aren’t any new details on upcoming titles like Big Buck Hunter in the article but it’s probably a good thing that articles like this are out there to combat negative perceptions.
[Pinball maker hangs on - Chicago Trib] [Discuss on the Forums]
A new and interesting shmup is now on location test in Japan and seeing efforts like this makes me long for seeing some good shmups in arcades outside of Japan again. Called Exception, this shmup has elements from games like Asteroids, Blast Works, Mars Matrix, Panzer Dragoon Orta (and probably others I am missing) that with physics processing, combine together to create something quite unique and a bit abstract. The only thing I don’t like about it is the constant blur effect that occurs when blocks are pushed away en masse – it kind of gives me a headache to watch where it keeps blurring up like that (although I’m told that it looks much better on an HD screen as opposed to what you see in the youtube video – that and it’s probably just me getting older 
). The game does also include multiplayer support but I am not sure what the arcade version will have different from the PC version which has already been released.
UPDATE: There is a new official site for the game which includes more information on the arcade version of the game (it will have an extra stage the PC version doesn’t have and different difficulty options so more players will find it easier to approach). Check out that site here.
(thanks to Aaron Auzins for the info and translation)
Konami’s Wii Sports look-a-like, Mocap Sports is on location test in Japan once again and with it we get just an extra detail or two of what we can expect to see from this game. As of right now there are going to be at least three different sports you can play – boxing, tennis and baseball (both batting and pitching) . According to the text on the graphic above, it states: “Real baseball/tennis/boxing competition with ball-shaped controller! Speed and power measured by hand/arm coordination/thrusting! It just takes a simple swing of the controller to play!”
The game will be on location from today until the 20th at the Rundown Yokohama West Exit Shop, Kanagawa Yokohama City West District in Japan. If we hear more details, we’ll pass them along.
One additional indicator that summer is in full swing in the northern hemisphere (in case you didn’t know already) are the number of articles highlighting beach arcades. I posted about one recently and here is another one, via Kotaku. Interesting to see it on Kotaku since they recently also had a post where the headline suggested that arcades in the US are all dead. The article which is the subject here was not written by the same person who posted the aforementioned headline however and they take a look at a couple different beach arcades from California to New Hampshire and delve into why these places are so awesome. Of course beaches aren’t the only places where you can find great arcades but in case you are visiting a beach, chances are you will find a nice arcade nearby.
BTW – I just noticed that the same writer added another article to Kotaku, this one covering CAX which is one of the larger arcade fan gatherings (if not the largest) in the US that happens on a yearly basis.
[When the Best Part of the Beach is the Arcade - Kotaku] [Discuss on the forum]
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