Pics from IAAPA 2009 (Part 1)

Well I’m back from IAAPA 2009 and it was an excellent show, as expected. I had always heard how large it was but you have to see it (and walk it) to believe it. I am going to start off with some picture updates here since that is a bit easier to get up and later I will be uploading videos to my YouTube channel. I took more video than any of the other shows I’ve been to which in part is due to the amount of content I found there.

Here we go – Click on the images to see them full-size. Games to look for below: Cooking Mama, Tank! Tank! Tank!, Dead Storm Pirates, Terminator Salvation, Big Buck Hunter Open Season, Sega Racing Classic, Hummer and more.

Cooking Mama (Universal Space) – This licensed game from a company I had not heard of before (but they’ve been around for a while) is intended as a video redemption game for kids. It makes use of a touch screen interface that the player can use either their hands or a stylus to control. It has a very attractive cabinet that makes reserved use of LEDs.

Tank! Tank! Tank! (Namco) – This was certainly one of the best games of the show.  If you enjoyed Tokyo Wars even a little bit, this one is right up your alley as it’s Tokyo Wars with major upgrades. The force feedback in the wheel and the seat were done perfectly and it’s not a bad looking game either. I did ask the designers if there was any influence from Earth Defense Force 2017 (due to all of the ug blasting) but it appeared that they had never heard of the game before. Two of the designers are pictured here, they were grabbing people walking by to come and play. Tank! Tank! Tank! begins production for the US in three weeks. I did ask the designers about possible updates for this game in the future and they promised that there will be additional content released at certain intervals via USB stick drives.

Deadstorm Pirates (Namco) – This was unexpected and thus a pleasant surprise. While the software is only about 60% finished, what was available to play at the show felt complete and polished and overall it was a very enjoyable experience. Like Let’s Go Jungle, its a much stronger co-op game than a single player one and the Wheel Action scenes (where you have to steer the ship around objects, etc.) were pretty cool. This game is powered by Namco’s System 357, which is based upon the PS3 and is also used in Tekken 6 and Razing Storm. The game has a heavy Pirates of the Caribbean influence throughout, even the captain has a tinge of Johnny Depp to him. Probably one of the coolest sequences I played is the part where you man the cannons and you get to blast some ghost ships out of the water.

Terminator Salvation (Play Mechanix/Raw Thrills) – This is another one of my favorites from the show. I asked RT why there was a long delay between the films and the release of this game; They explained that they wanted to get it right (citing the terrible TS game that came out on the consoles) and was willing to take the time to do it. They also see the game attracting more attention due to the Terminator brand than the movie itself, which is a logical thought and from what I played, it all is paying off. It is a lot of fun and while the build that was at the show was not complete (the game is scheduled to be finished and released in February) it was excellent. They throw a lot of enemies at you and the theatrics that play out during the levels are well done. I was also pleased with how long each mission was so I expect that this will have a bit more to it by the time that it reaches production. The cabinet is very sleek and you have to see it up close to really appreciate it. TS will sell for about $9000 and it comes with a 42″ screen and large guns. The clip reloading feature is cool and it works better than I thought it would. And no, the full size Terminator robot does not come included with the cabinets.

Big Buck Hunter: Open Season (Play Mechanix/ Raw Thrills) – This is the new BBHPro update. It looks about the same but where this differs here is the content that they added to the game. It has some really cool bonus games  and uses online features similar to Big Buck Safari. I heard that some people from the LA Zoo were at the show and they were “horrified” by the Big Buck games, Safari in particular, but otherwise the game continues to be a fixture on the bar/arcade landscape. There was a super deluxe BBS setup on the floor as well.

It’s worth mentioning that Guitar Hero Arcade isn’t done yet. There aren’t any details I can get into at the moment, but the game will be seeing some updates in the near future, including the promised Coin-Up abilities and more. PUTT Championship Golf and H2Overdrive were also available to play at the Betson booth.

Sega Racing Classic (Sega) – The game that everyone’s been talking about was at the show, in a four cab setup. Sega is promising that this is going to cost less than a standard driver – they would be crazy to charge a full modern driver price, especially where this is just emulated code running on RingWide.  The Sega rep laughed when I mentioned the drive behind the RingEdge/RingWide as a console movement that’s going on the internet and denied that there are plans for Sega to do such a thing. While graphically SRC is a let down as well as the fact that they can’t add more tracks to the game, at the very least the cabinet is solid, attractive and the sound system is excellent. I even got a picture of the shifter, just for you guys.

Hummer standard (Sega) – This one surprised me as it is a fun game with nice, shiny graphics. People were playing it every time I was at the Sega booth. Production on this one starts in January. They also had the deluxe version of Hummer there with four units although for some reason only three can be linked at a time. On the other side of the Hummer Deluxe setup they had two SR3 deluxe, two Rambo deluxe, two Harley Davidson deluxe games and Tetris Giant (yes, that is what they are calling it, not Giant Tetris)

Misc stuff: – These are the last of my pictures – Part 2 will include much more from Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report

Galactix – This was a cool video redemption game where the token is essentially your controller. Put a token in and on the screen it fires a missile. Depending on the target you hit it will determine the number of points you earn. It can handle up to six players:

Lobster Zone – not just for Japan!

Virtusphere was at the show. This is quite a sight to behold although I didn’t give it a try myself.

While Stern’s booth was lackluster (they only brought one Shrek and one NBA pinball – I was hoping to see a LOTR special edition or a pre-production Big Buck Hunter) there was something notable for pinball at the show – Retro Pinball’s remake of Gottlieb’s King of Diamonds. This is going to appeal more to collectors than operators as pins from this era are something of an acquired taste but it’s cool in the respect that playing the game feels like you took a step back into the past to play one of these old games when they were brand spanking new. I do wonder if Retro Pinball will ever decide to create something original at one point but that probably depends upon how well King of Diamonds does. This game should be released in January.

Bob’s Space Racer’s midway booths – it has been a long time since I visited a big theme park and as such I tend to forget about midway style games like these. I’m also used to seeing rundown midway stuff so seeing this in new condition is impressive.

There were a lot of animatronic displays to see and this horror themed booth was one of the best. I’ll be uploading a video of this display later on

Stay tuned for much more as I begin getting the videos uploaded to YouTube!