Monday Variety Post: Reflect Beat goes Lime; Retro mini-cabs, New Arcade Book

arcadehero June 20, 2011 3

“It’s all of your favorite hits with more variety”, variety being the radio code word for “you are going to hate most of the schlock we play with a few decent songs you actually like filling in the gaps”. But that’s for music on the radio which is not our specialty. Here’s what’s going on in the arcade world, TODAY! (and before I get too far in, Happy Belated Father’s Day to those dads out there)

This week Konami tests a sequel/upgrade to Reflec Beat which must mean that their twist on the bemani genre is doing well. I know it’s had some success outside of Japan, particularly in Taiwan. This is called Reflec Beat Limelight as shown above and has a green theme to it instead of a purple one, the logo almost makes me thirsty for a citrus-y drink. Click here for the test page.

(This news item is brought to us by The Stinger Report, newsfeed 1058)

Miniature retro arcade cabinets aren’t necessarily a brand new idea, we’ve covered several different kinds in the past and the quality on these appears to be quite good. You can buy them too as they are being sold by a company called Retro Heart, from anywhere between 15-40 British quid. The Star Wars Cockpit cabinet is the item that nabs the higher price tag, as I’m sure it’s a popular but don’t forget the arcade power of TRON.  Via Technabob

Here is something we don’t see every day (or week, or month) – a book about arcade games. Called Bits, Sticks, and Buttons by Sean Newton, it’s “an unofficial guide to the 50 greatest arcade games” ever released, with input taken in from numerous arcade collectors particularly from the KLOV forums. A video preview is above and you can buy it here at Blurb.com where you canalso preview 15 of the books 80 pages before you buy. It looks like it’s worth reading, especially if you are into collecting arcade games.

Since we’re on the subject, let me plug my own book which is languishing in “development hell”. I have slowly been working on and off it for the past several months during little free time I have, it’s still a little ways off as I haven’t really had time to sit down and focus on it exclusively, but I’ll get there at some point down the road.

3 Comments »

  1. Gabe June 20, 2011 at 9:13 pm - Reply

    So AH, what can you tell us about *your* book?

    Sounds interesting. 🙂

    PS: Had a look at the preview of Sean’s book. Great stuff.
    In particular, the “MVP” section looks really fascinating.

    • arcadehero June 23, 2011 at 7:17 am - Reply

      Not much yet – it’s kind of an extension/expansion of the MIA articles but with some humor. Still many drafts to go through and research. 🙂

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