Sega AM2 boss: Arcade market outside Japan is “practically dead”

Posted October 8, 2008 by twistedsupreme
Categories: Arcade Coverage, Arcade Locations

[via VideoGaming247]

That’s encouraging isn’t it? Admittedly arcades in Europe and American pale in comparison to those in Japan, but I’d like to think they still have a pulse. Hell, they must do because we get a fair few hits everyday on this site alone. Anyways, this is what AM2 boss Makoto Osaki had to say.

Let’s not even go into the overseas market… it’s practically dead, he said. The market there is entirely redemption [prize] machines now. The users in America just don’t go to arcades anymore, because they don’t see why they should invest the effort when they have games at home. In Japan, you’ve got arcades near train and bus stations that the vast majority of the people have to pass going to and from work, so they get a lot of traffic.

[Read on for the full interview which covers the release of Virtua Fighter 5 R - Kikizo]

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The Guardian goes to Akihabara

Posted October 7, 2008 by HeavyElectricity
Categories: Arcade Coverage, TGS, The Stinger Report
Tags: , ,

It’s almost time for the Tokyo Games Show, which means that practically everyone that covers the gaming world is set to flock to Japan in search of the latest cool things. UK newspaper The Guardian is amongst the masses represented at the event, in the form of one Aleks Krotoski - British readers may remember her as “that American lass” from Channel 4’s late-night gaming output from the late 90s and early 00s (Bits and Thumb Bandits, respectively).

Anyhow, the problem is that in her tireless dedication to the task, Aleks has found herself in Tokyo a tiny bit early. However, she endeavours to entertain us by blogging her pre-show jaunts into the wilderness, and here we find her venturing into otaku’s paradise Akihabara. Naturally, this involves some out-of-home entertainment and she ventures into a pachinko parlour, followed by a trip to a large arcade. Not a great deal of new information in there, but it’s good to see a familiar face getting excited over the arcade scene. If you fancy reading her thoughts, check out the link below.

(Incidentally, it’s good to see that Aleks is still knocking about. Very good indeed, given that Violet Berlin - the other famous lady of the gaming world - has gone a bit quiet and everything.)

[Guardian Games blog] [Discuss on the forum]

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Rumor: Raw Thrills’ bringing ‘American Idol’ game to arcades

Posted October 7, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Coverage, Arcade Games, Arcade Software, New games, Raw Thrills, Rumor mill, Rumour
Tags: , , , , ,

The rumor mill is churning right now but we have another rumor to look at right now in regards to what you might see in the near future from Raw Thrills’. We posted the rumor about the Guitar Hero arcade the other day and when I contacted Raw Thrill’s about it they said: “We can neither confirm or deny any rumors in relation to Guitar Hero”.

Interestingly enough we have been contacted by a source wishing to remain anonymous where they suggest that another game that Raw Thrill’s is working on has something to do with American Idol and it’s a video game. This seems to suggest that it could be something along the lines of SingStar, Lips or the microphone role in Rock Band. American Idol is certainly a popular show and for arcades to have a handle on that could be pretty big. I wouldn’t be surprised that if true, this game could also get some pretty big marketing exposure in the next season of American Idol. I do trust this source, which is why I am giving this rumor some attention.  I decided to contact Raw Thrill’s about this American Idol rumor prior to posting and they could not confirm nor deny it at this point just like Guitar Hero but it’s certainly interesting to think about. Music games have always had a strong presence in arcades thanks to bemani titles but for an American developer to throw down the gauntlet is unusual. We’ll keep you posted of course but it looks like we’ll have to wait and see about the truthfulness of these rumors. At least IAAPA is only about a month away so we’ll see how this holds up.

[Raw Thrills'] [Discuss on the Forum]

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Indiana Jones Pinball review in latest issue of Hardcore Gamer

Posted October 7, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Coverage, Arcade Fun, Arcade Games, Magazine Coverage, New games
Tags: , , ,

While we sometimes have a place to chastise game magazines for ignoring arcades, there is one magazine that has always been open to covering the arcade scene - Hardcore Gamer. They were open to the idea even before I began writing arcade articles for them and it certainly has been a privilege to be able to get the word out about games that aren’t Street Fighter IV in a print magazine. While it is unfortunate that HGM is only printed four times a year, at the very least it’s always an interesting magazine when it is published.

This latest issue marks the second time they have printed a review about a modern pinball game - the first was when I wrote an article about Spiderman pinball. Of course don’t expect to find pinball reviews in other so-called “gaming” magazines - they stopped giving pinball needed attention years ago for probably the same reasons they began ignoring arcades. Indiana Jones pinball can simply not be missed - I believe that it is one of the most popular pins Stern has released in years. At AMOA they told me that the game was breaking earnings records everywhere - at my own arcade it has been one of my top earning games several times.

You can check out the article here as it’s downloadable (Issue #33) or if you can find a hard copy, it’s on page 66, right before the back cover.

[Hardcore Gamer Magazine] [Discuss on the Forum]

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Big Buck Hunter Online Region Qualifying Finalists revealed

Posted October 7, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Software, Big Buck Hunter, New games
Tags: , , ,

Thanks to a link posted in the comments to news on the BBH World Championship, we have a look at those who qualified in the regional tournaments to the game and they will move onto the finals to compete for the $10,000 grand prize. This certainly makes me eager to receive my Big Buck Safari Online kit (which I ordered last week) and to start seeing the tournaments being with that starting next month. I won’t post the players who won here, I’ll let the link take care of that but it looks like Texas is certainly in a strong spot once again. No one from my state qualified as usual - honestly though I am not sure how many online enabled versions of the game are around here.  I do have a couple of players who come in and play on Safari who are ridiculously good at the game, I wouldn’t be surprised if they manage to place well in any upcoming Safari tourneys.

[Pappy's Porch - Meet the Playaz!] [Discuss on the Forum]

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Here’s another school project arcade - Bionic Roshamo

Posted October 7, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Coverage, Arcade Software, Arcade Video
Tags: , , , , ,

We’ve got nothing but love for arcade games that came out of a school project this week. Seriously - if you have one out there then send us a link to info on the game and I’ll be happy to post about it when I get the time. Personally I’ve always been fascinated by ‘homebrew’ projects. As an avid Atari collector I have quite a few in my collection that spans from the Atari 2600 to the Atari Jaguar. They are usually an effort of love that takes a lot of hard work to make something that likely will not be noticed amongst the masses and when it comes to arcade games you really have to be hardcore to get these thing off the ground as you have to do more than just design the game and in the cases of these school projects they design the hardware and the controls.

Anyways, onto the project. Called ‘Bionic Roshambo’ by Kieran Nolan for his master’s degree project in Interactive Media, it takes rock, paper and scissors and makes it into an arcade game by using custom built glove controllers. No they aren’t modified NES Power Glove’s - they actually detect what hand gesture you make to use in the game. While the game is fairly simple I think that this sort of technology could be enhanced and integrated into other uses for arcade gaming as well, which is another strength that arcades have is in the flexibilty and creativity one can institute in the controls.

Here is a very short direct feed video of the gameplay; also below is a link to the website with more information along with the thesis attached to the project. Unfortunately the pics on the site are rather small but at least you can get an idea of what it’s like.

[Bionic Roshamo site] [Discuss on the Forum]

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Another school project arcade game - Starcell XF-1

Posted October 5, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Gaming, New games, Shmups
Tags: , , , , , ,

I’ve stumbled across another homebrew arcade school project and maybe it’s just me but it seems like these are becoming more common lately. This particular project, called Starcell XF-1 is an original game running on original hardware that the students designed and you can see it in the video below. The game was inspired by another arcade shmup, Raiden and it looks like it could easily fit into the style of games you’d find in the early 90’s. It’s pretty good work (I especially like the music used in the video which you can hear by visiting the link below) - I just wonder how many of these students are interested in pursuing careers in the actual arcade industry down the line, I think that there is certainly a lot of room for people to get into the industry.

[Starcell XF-1 page] [Discuss on the Forum]

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First look at Dark Presence’s prototype cabinet

Posted October 5, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Games, Arcade Gaming, Arcade Hardware, Arcade Software, Dark Presence, New games, fighters
Tags: , , , , ,

It’s been a little while since we looked at the new and upcoming fighter Dark Presence as they have been working on putting the finishing touches on the game as well as working on their cabinet design. We have previously revealed that there will be four different designs - the one pictured here is the work-in-progress 42″ version. What you see here is lacking some final artwork around the screen and elsewhere along with a few other touch-ups. The sound system is in place (notice the subwoofer below), as is the prize door compartment (not yet completed), shocks, and USB ports (so you can save your stats to a USB drive). It also features a strong UPS inside so if the power goes out the game will be playable for a “long while” (which I can appreciate since we’ve had the power go out twice in the past three days). While the cabinet is pretty big, the cabinet is modular, breaking down into 5 different pieces so it can be moved around without much trouble. The control panel is large so that players don’t have to feel cramped as they play next to each other; the control scheme works as follows:

Right arm       Block    Right Kick
Left Arm                     Left Kick
Special

They built it to be easy for novice players but leave room for advanced players to pull off a lot of moves. On top of that the cabinet will be upgradable for their next fighting game, Conquering Light.
[Galloping Ghost - Dark Presence] [Discuss on the Forum]

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Another console based coin-op machine, PlayCoin

Posted October 5, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Console Hardware
Tags: , ,

Well it hasn’t been long since we saw the demise of the Xbox 360 powered “Arcade Station T2″ and here is another console-powered coin-op system, this time out of Greece and based upon the PS2. It doesn’t include a monitor or a base so it’s more of a tabletop type of device but I’m pretty sure this won’t see a wide-release outside of Greece.

This sort of thing reminds me of many places I saw when I lived in Brazil. While they have proper arcades there, it was a common site to find small places where they set up old game consoles for people to play and charged them per hour. I usually saw the PS1 and on occasion the N64 and once I saw them setup an Xbox. I have never been to Greece so I don’t know if they have similar places but I imagine that this is what this is what something like the PlayCoin is made for.

[The PlayCoin @ Electrop.gr] [Discuss on the Forum]

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The Stinger Report visits Preview 2009 in London

Posted October 4, 2008 by Shaggy
Categories: Arcade Fun, Arcade Games, Arcade Software, New games
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Preview 2009 has now come and gone and thanks to Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report we have a look at what went on there. In addition to demonstrating a number of games we already knew of (Rambo, SR3,

Blazing Angels, NFS Carbon, Golden Tee, etc.) there were a couple of new additions, like a new game out of Korea that looks like a video version of Whack-A-Mole or TAB’s new large touchscreen unit (pictured to the right). So let’s get to it! As always, click on thumbnails to expand them and for interest of space we’ll put everything after the jump, so click below to begin.

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