Amusement Expo 2010 Wrap-up part 2 (this time in pictures!) UPDATED

Via

We’ve provided a bit of video from Amusement Expo but there were a couple of things that I wasn’t able to grab with my camera but Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report was also there and captured a few moments with his camera, including something I had completely missed, with Namco getting four girls to wander around with Pac-heads on. Good times. Hit the break for more photos.

The two ladies on the left were on hand at the Namco booth to help show off the games in action, they are the two I recorded finishing off Deadstorm Pirates. On the right you can see Jason Arney who is part of Namco’s research team who resides in Japan.

In the center of this picture is the head dev behind Pac-Man Battle Royale, whose name I unfortunately am forgetting at the moment. Kunito Komori (thanks Sam)

More Pac-Man Battle Royale action. The cabinets were rarely left vacant as you could probably tell by now.

It might not be exactly clear here but this picture shows one of the new updates to Namco’s Tank! Tank! Tank! that features bee-bots instead of spiders

In addition to software updates they have changed the cabinet a little more to help clarify what the game is to people passing by. If you haven’t heard of this game previously, it’s like a modern remake of Tokyo Wars but with much more content to enjoy.

The Pac-Girls wandering around the show. I had personally missed out on seeing them do this but it was a nice way to help people know about the new Pac-Man if show attendees didn’t hear about it already.

The new “standard” Razing Storm cabinet with a 42″ LCD monitor

The System 357 powered Deadstorm Pirates. They had the volume up a little too high for me but the latest software is fun to play and the game looks great. This will be released in May. Also below is a look at the stage selection map.

Terminator Salvation Arcade by Raw Thrills’. This featured the latest software build which includes voice-acting and cut scenes not seen at IAAPA and you could complete the whole game. They also spruced up the graphics a little more which no one is complaining about, in fact seeing it in person the game is looking really nice.

Here is an indie light-gun shooter which was at the show, Friction which we have discussed here previously, with one of the game designers Juan Castillo on the right.

GlobalVr’s new NASCAR Team Racing. As we mentioned in previous posts, this has online play and a larger focus on racing as a team, as the name implies. Coming in April

Incredible Technologies had a great booth at the show and they were offering some awesome deals on their games, including some money off for operators who could get a strike on Silver Strike Live (which I managed to do the first time I tried, although I’m not even close to as good on this game as some are)

Sega was proudly showing off their new Rambo cabinets.

The Let’s Go Island preview cab next to a Harley Davidson. I didn’t find out when we’d hear more about Let’s go Island but I had hoped to see more if it at the show.

Hummer Extreme Edition. I like this game, it’s fun to crash into things for the boost instead of just having a boost there.

Further back you can see they had the dual seater mini-motion version and Sega Racing Classic. I actually played the dual Hummer by myself and it was fun to try it that way, my teamwork rating was “Great!”

Tetris Giant is always fun

I was very surprised to see this at the show. Seems a bit old to be bringing back but the LCD is a nicer feature than the projectors

Sega Rally 3

A closer look at Sega Racing Classic

The Game Gate VU was more popular at this show than at the other ones where it was on display. They were with Sega at IAAPA but this time they had four cabinets setup as opposed to two. Not sure what the price is now but if it’s better than the original $6000 they wanted for it, perhaps it’s time to give it a second look. They are going through iGames for the public use license on this; I am a member of that organization already and they give us some nice benefits so there should be no worries about the public use on this now.

DJ Max Techinka was at the show with two cabinets featuring the latest software that the game has, which includes online features.

Pump It Up Fiesta with Dasbacon of Bemanistyle.com showing us how it’s done.

UPDATE: I missed out on a few things, I’ll also be posting a podcast later today when I get the time

MaruBot Football League was there, featuring enclosed robot soccer action. They have been tweaking the play on this to get it right, as at IAAPA it left me wanting more but I didn’t have the chance to see how the game has improved.

The rebadged Tippin’ Bloks at the ICE booth. This is a fun game to play and feels like a classic title

TrioTech had a number of different ladies showing off how to use the Stomper DLX cabinets, which as we have mentioned previously is a more compact version of their UFO Stomper game.

Tournament ratings at the Stern Pinball booth

Discover more from Arcade Heroes

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

24 comments

arcades4ever March 16, 2010 at 12:37 am

is this a new rambo arcade cabinet and if its not then how come there isa touch screen just like the one from sega primeval hunt?

Shaggy March 16, 2010 at 12:42 am

That is the Primeval Hunt cabinet but it lacks a touch screen

arcades4ever March 16, 2010 at 9:43 am

then why has it got a touch screen in the photo with the touch screen displaying rambo with a firey background, is it an all new rambo or the same old game?

Shaggy March 16, 2010 at 4:28 pm

That’s not a touch screen, trust me, just a marquee picture. They used the same thing on the new Ghost Sqaud cabinet, which just shows that they had a lot more Primeval Hunt cabinets sitting around then they needed and scrapped the touch screen to save costs.

ECM March 16, 2010 at 12:44 am

How is the vertically-oriented monitor factored into Tank!Tank!Tank!’s gameplay?

Also: really sad to see that Shining Force Cross didn’t show in any form 🙁

Shaggy March 16, 2010 at 3:13 am

It seems to be more for high flying objects, such as the spiders/bees scaling a building or so it can better show you the height scale of other enemies. Your reticule auto-aims for you too but that’s all I can think of on the vertical screen.

I was just sad that Sega didn’t show more stuff we haven’t seen in one form or another, we’ll have to wait for IAAPA on that.

bacon March 16, 2010 at 10:37 am

hahah Kevin, I love you for getting pictures of me playing dancing games these past two years. Was so good seeing you and getting to have some really good chats!!

editor March 16, 2010 at 4:37 pm

Likewise – hood to meet in person – remember to send that information.

Bill March 17, 2010 at 12:05 am

So, in a nutshell, which driving game would be best to pick up a twin of? Thinking about sega Rally 3, Hummer, Twisted, etc. I think Tank tank is out of our street route price range. Getting tougher to pick these lately due to the lack of penetration and earnings reports.

Shaggy March 17, 2010 at 12:22 am

The only racer I’ve seen any sort of earnings on is H2Overdrive.

So you have any NASCAR’s? The new update could be a nice way to go as I think it adds some valuable content to the game but will really shine when the online play is enabled but depending on the location that might not be available.

I personally enjoy Hummer as it focuses on smashing things to get a boost which then allows you to smash other vehicles – it’s almost like a Chase HQ2 game when I come to think of it. If I had the income then I would be debating between this and a standard H2O, although leaning H2O as that has the leveling up features.

SR3 has the name and beautiful gfx of course.

Twisted has that new track update which makes it a better game although they still need to fix that issue with the boost.

I want to see a final price on the standard H2Overdrive but that is a tempting one for me personally as I’ve had people ask for an H2O and I don’t have the space for another 42″ game.

So in other words, I’m not really sure, it’s hard to pick. I guess you could take the silence on the earnings reports to mean something too.

Bill March 17, 2010 at 12:54 pm

I should have mentioned, we already have H2O Overdrive. earnings just okay, but then again, nothing really shines like the old time collections these days. And yes, we have some GVR Nascar games, so that update sounds interesting.
Thanks for the good words on Hummer, as maybe that should be our pick.

OPZ March 18, 2010 at 12:20 am

Hi Bill,

I was wondering what your average weekly earnings were like for H2Overdrive if you would like to share this info. And also what type of location is it located in, ie. bar, arcade, movie theatre, etc. etc.

Bill March 18, 2010 at 1:11 am

H2O, a twin is currently earning around 180.00-215.00 a week. Movie Theatre lobby location. Not great, but strong considering the typical real numbers video is producing these days.
Will try another pair in our seasonal amusement park this summer.

OPZ March 18, 2010 at 1:40 am

So both together are earning 180-250 a week or is each one earning this much for a total take of 360-430
for both machines? Thanks for the info….

Bill March 18, 2010 at 1:13 pm

That is for BOTH seats combined. As you see, not great. But that seems to be the case with all these new videos lately as interest has waned. We are putting out a new terminator Salvation gun game this week, and hoping this might be the one to crush the gross revenue barrier?

OPZ March 18, 2010 at 5:49 pm

Yikes! I was hoping it was for each. Well thanks for the information. It would be nice to see how much more the Terminator Salvation will earn. I am hoping that it being a shooter and with a popular license it should do much better.

Bill March 19, 2010 at 1:15 am

I am also hoping Terminator will be good. Have been so dissapointed with the video returns the last few years. It will be in a Bowling Center, by the way and will be competing with other games in the arcade including Sega Rambo DLX, Primeval Hunt DLX, Ghost squad Evolution, and many of the newer typical driving and dance games. Will be interesting to see where Terminator falls in place in the way of collections. We have been waiting for that special game, that we know we can safely buy 12-20 units of. It’s been years now, with exception of the Initial D and Maximum Tune driving game series.

Shaggy March 19, 2010 at 1:23 am

When I was at the Expo I ran into the sales guy for my distributor and he was telling me how he placed a Terminator at a place in Idaho and the operator there thanked them for it as they had never seen a game earn like that since their location opened. This sales guy is never a sensationalist so I believe it. I’d love to pick on up for my location and see how it does but I am far short of the funds to do so.

OPZ March 19, 2010 at 1:24 am

Wow this is the most well stocked bowling center I have ever heard of in terms of arcade games. You seem to have newer games than most FECs I have been to.

Bill March 19, 2010 at 1:29 am

Cool, very glad to hear that. We have not given up on video, and we also continure to integrate redemption in to the mix. Still trying to keep a dozen large bowling center arcades alive. That market is getting tough.
We would have had numbers on terminator already. But like much of the new stuff lately, it has taken 3 weeks to get it running after pulling it out of the box. Waited a week for the I/O board, that did not fix it. Another week for a computer to arrive. I/O failure now cured but the replacement computer kept crashing. Computer number two showed up today and the game is running. Will let it burn the weekend before taking to location Monday. Like I say, anxious to get numbers on this one.

Shaggy March 19, 2010 at 1:58 am

@Bill – How much did Terminator cost? I have got a few numbers on how much they are selling for (as it obviously changes upon the distributor a little).

OPZ March 19, 2010 at 1:35 am

Yes it would be interesting to see the numbers on Terminator at your location. I assume like everywhere else you rake in all your money through your redemption side of the business. Part of the problem with video is the ever increasing costs of the machines. I can buy a car with the prices some games are charging. Where are the good games in the 4-6 grand category? There just aren’t enough of them.

Bill March 19, 2010 at 2:22 am

So true! And also missing are the conversion kits that earn 100.00 a week. Our lat big run was Extreme Hunting. What to do with the typical pizza location with a small gameroom that only fits uprights. Nothing to replentish this end of the route.

At Shaggy, a little over 7000. But we get pretty good pricing.

OPZ March 19, 2010 at 2:31 am

Wow that is a good price, I figured it would be around 10K, so you get good pricing. Please keep us posted as to the earnings. I would love to hear about how it goes and player reaction to this game.

Arcade Heroes