Tank! Tank! Tank! on location test

Posted June 17, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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Here is a quickie – Namco’s latest offering, Tank! Tank! Tank! is on location test in Japan at the moment and as proof, see the supplied picture above. According to the test report at Kobayan, the cabinet has two foot pedals, one for forward motion and the other for reverse; as we saw in a previous video both the steering wheel and the seat have force feedback and the cabinet has a camera to take a picture of your face for use as an in-game avatar.

There are three modes available to play in test version – the aptly named “Everybody in a huge fight with the enemy” which was seen in the aforementioned video where players work together to attack gigantic enemies for 120-180 sec.; the “fight with all enemies” mode (I assume this is plain deathmatch) and then team deathmatch. No word on if there will be extra modes by the time this is ready for the streets but so far it’s shaping up to be an interesting game.

[Location Test report @ Aries Small Room] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 1 Comment

Explore the TOMB by 5W!TS in Boston

Posted June 17, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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If you are in or near the Boston, MA area and you’re looking for something a little different when it comes to the TOMBout-of-home experience, then a company called 5W!TS is offering just that in the form of a complete interactive adventure called TOMB. In TOMB groups of players enter inside with a guide and once there they have to solve puzzles together using their “mind and body to solve physical and mental challenges” where you unwrap the mystery of the Pharoh’s Tomb. One interesting aspect of this is that the group can lose where they “die” (not literally of course – that would be shut down in a jiffy!) and get a different ending than if they ‘live’ to the end. The expeditions take about 45 minutes are are suitable for most ages.

It’s not hard to endorse out-of-home entertainment experiences like these, from the sounds of this they provide a “mixed reality” environment where special effects blend in seamlessly with the game. Have any of you been to this already and if so, how would you rate the experience?

[5W!TS TOMB website] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 6 Comments

New site to help you with repairs: Arcaderepairtips.com

Posted June 16, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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When you own an arcade game, one of the things you will inevitably have to do it fix it. Sometimes games have minor problems that are quite easy to fix and sometimes they present you with a real head scratcher. In either case, you need to know what to do and while there are plenty of professionals out there who fix games as part of their living, if you don’t have that knowledge yet but want to get there, then a new website that is all about arcade repairs might be just for you. It is still fairly new site so it doesn’t have a ton of info on it just yet but it looks like they are adding more regularly.  Once the site is filled, it will be an excellent resource for those of us who are still working on becoming techs.

The site is being run by Varcade Entertainment, thanks to Jonathan Leung for sending us this info.

[Arcaderepairtips.com] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 1 Comment

New experiment: The Arcade Heroes Week-in-Review ‘podcast’

Posted June 14, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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OK, so I have decided to try ‘podcasting’ – of course I don’t know if you can really consider this a podcast, it’s just an MP3 file to download here where you can listen to me discuss the latest happenings in the arcade industry over the past week that we have posted about here on AH.  I don’t have a lot of technology to work with though so right now it’s pretty plain, but as I become more comfortable with it and get some input from you guys, we can make it better.

For this first episode I discuss E3 and what involvement arcades should have with it; Metal Gear Arcade, H2Overdrive and the many other new games that have come along over the past couple of weeks. If you have any comments – good or bad or you just want to discuss the latest happenings over the past couple of weeks, post the comments here. As a side note, I did record this while on the job at my arcade and I even had a couple of people in playing games while I did it although they didn’t seem to notice what was going on. :)

Unfortunately I cannot upload the file directly to WordPress as apparently we need an upgrade to store even simple MP3 files on here now (which is a recent change), so you can find the file off-site by clicking here. It is about 37MB in size and it’s an MP3 but please let me know if there are any problems with the recording, I had an awful lot of trouble uploading it on the connection I am using.

Minor update: I just remembered that I forgot to mention a few other contributors, including Phil ver0 (who posts regularly in our forums) and Oga Shi. I apologize for forgetting to mention you both during the recording.

Comments: 9 Comments

A long detailed look at H2Overdrive on 1up.com

Posted June 13, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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One of the new shots from H2Overdrive via Noe's blog

While it has not been released yet (although I believe that it will be in the next week or so), H2Overdrive is already creating fans and one of them had the lucky chance to visit Specular Interactive’s studios in Southern California where he got a chance to see the latest version of the game and sit down with the staff for some interviews. The game has changed considerably since it was seen at ASI, which was discussed at in my recent interview with Steve Ranck of Specular but here you can really see in great detail how the game differs. They have even changed some of the things on the cabinet, including the addition of an LED speedometer. This game is going to be quite deep and also to dispel some rumors, this is NOT currently being ported over to Xbox Live. For the time being (especially for us operators) this is arcade exclusive.

The site is at 1up.com and while the user, Noe. V. is not a staffer at 1up but he is responsible for uploading the many clips of H2Overdrive that you can find there including the latest trailer that we discussed a few days ago. With this in-depth interview, two video interviews and new screenshots, this should certainly be enough to hold you over until the game starts landing in arcades in the next week or two.

[Noe V.'s Blog with tons of H2Overdrive goodness] [Discuss on the Forum]

Comments: 2 Comments

Check out the BestSim Racing simulator GAMEFRAME

Posted June 13, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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There are many ways to make a racing simulator and that is perhaps the reason why we see so many variations on the idea. This one by BestSim is certainly interesting in that it doesn’t have a lot of bars that get in the way, making for a simulator that takes up little space compared to other sims. It essentially provides a sleek and stylish frame for the seat, controls and monitor(s) to sit on, along with extras like bodyshakers to provide the kind of racing experience you expect to find in an out-of-home entertainment environment. Check it out via the link below.

[GAMEFRAME at BestSim] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 2 Comments

Take a stroll through the virtual Pac-Man museum

Posted June 13, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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Not many video games have enough material created around them to garner the attention needed for a museum type display but Pac Man certainly has and that has led to the creation of an online Pac-Man museum. The site is not endorsed by Namco but if anyone would ever put an actual Pac-Man exhibit to go to, the person who runs this site would be the one to talk to about it. They look at the many Pac-Man collectibles that you can find out there, cover the game’s history and provide a great source for buying everything Pac-Man related. check it out at the link below.

[Pac-Man Museum] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 1 Comment

Pics from the UK Park Avenue Open Day event

Posted June 13, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
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Kevin Williams at the Stiger Report has sent us some pics he took from the UK Park Avenue Open Day distributor event and with it we get to take a look at a couple new games coming to Europe. First off and most surprising is Taito’s Hopping Road, a quirky game controlled with a pogo stick that had been seen previously in Japan. Other titles seen at the show include Taito’s D1GP racer, Raw Thrills/Konami’s Guitar Hero and Konami’s DDRX, Sega’s Pigs Might Fly, GlobalVR’s Blazing Angels and Need For Speed Carbon, Namco’s Nirin, the Game Gate VU and more. Click on the thumbnails below to see these games in more detail.

banfs d1gp ddrx electrocoin gha hroad1 hroad2 hroad3 hroad4 marathonrunner nirin pigandgg starball starball2

[Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 3 Comments

Metal Gear Arcade with an official site and trailer

Posted June 13, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games

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As further proof to the world wide release of Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Arcade game, they have a website setup for the game which includes more screenshots, info and even a trailer of the game in action. I find it irritating once again to see coverage of this in the blogosphere not only does not mention the world wide release but some are even downplaying the game saying it can’t be better than the PS3 version despite the fact they they have not played it. I’m not surprised by this naturally as I discussed this yesterday but at the very least this seems to be be getting more attention than even Guitar Hero Arcade did and that will translate into more attention for arcades overall.

From the trailer we can see that the game is going to be quite different from what we normally see in arcades, although there have been a couple of games in the past that are first or third action like this. With the online features it should stand out further from the rest of the crowd and of course it also has great graphics enhanced by the 3D goggles and 5.1 surround sound. You can see the trailer by going to the official site below.

[Metal Gear Arcade site] [Discuss on the Forums]

Comments: 1 Comment

The Barbie Doll Foosball table

Posted June 11, 2009 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games
Tags: ,

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We haven’t seen anything really new in foosball for a while but out of everything I have seen this one foosball table to make heads turn. Called Barbie Foot and designed by Chloe Ruchon in France, this is a neat idea that AFAIK has not been done before. The use of Barbie dolls in place of the standard wooden foosball people most certainly gives this a different personality than most foosball tables and if it were to be placed in an arcade environment it likely would attract people of both sexes despite it’s more feminine theme. It’s unlikely to see it anywhere though since it was done for a design festival in Berlin and is not necessarily intended for mass production.

More photos can been seen of the table here.

[Discuss on the Forum]

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