It’s been another weekend with very little arcade news to speak of – calm before the storm of Amusement Expo I expect – so I’ve had to strain a little on news today, hope you don’t mind.
First off news has come out that the Las Vegas location for Gameworks will be moving – something to keep in mind as I first saw it as closing but that later changed to moving. The high rent costs of being on the Vegas Strip wasn’t holding up with the foot traffic they received so they will open at a new location that is catered more for the locals than for tourists. I visited the venue a few times myself although I was always surprised at how dead it was as they had a pretty awesome selection of games to play but that also could be that I wasn’t visiting on a weekend and rather a weekday, which is generally slow no matter what arcade you happen to visit. Via Replay News
Next up is something from the past – way back in 2007 we reported that a unique video game was looking to break into the arcade market called The Act: An Interactive Comedy. The unit was location tested but at the end of the day didn’t do well enough to move forward (some companies the developers presented the game to wanted to make some changes but the developers resisted those deviations from their vision) and the game ended up getting cancelled. It seemed that it would be lost to the market at large forever – only 40 kits were made along with a couple of prototype cabinets which were sold off on eBay. I snagged one of those kits and I have had one setup at my own arcade since I opened in 2008. Recently, Arcade Odessey in Miami has had one setup too (although we have both had an issue with the knob controller burning out, which is a bit frustrating) but not everyone will have had a chance to try this game – until now. React Entertainment has resurrected the game and will give it a wide release through the iPad. No knob is required, instead slide your finger on the screen for the same effect. I guess that shows that it could have worked out for a TouchFX type release too. Thanks to Nick at arcade Hunters for pointing this one out.
[video type=”youtube” id=”1VETqZT4KK8″ width=”600″
Here’s an old but good type of article we used to do on a regular basis on Arcade Heroes, the eBay Game of the Week. I would keep it up if I had the time to really spend on looking for a cool item each week but alas, that doesn’t always work out.
Here is a listing for a Sega Laser Ghost. I have read about this before but never actually seen one, it’s a 3 player light-gun game that took a very early stab at using augmented reality, before that was a buzz term that everyone uses now. This cabinet in particular has some issues so it would need some work and it’s local pick-up only but I wonder how many of these are out there. That’s a beast of a cabinet so that probably limits its appeal for collectors but it’s still a neat piece nevertheless.
I was at Gameworks Las Vegas this past Tuesday hoping to get a glimpse of the arcade before it closed (or relocated). The odd thing was that the hours stated it closed at midnight but at 9PM the escalators were roped off and turned off. I ended up calling the next day inquiring about the hours and the lady who answered had no clue what I was referring to about being closed early the previous night. Based on reviews posted in various places on the internet, it seems like the games were neglected over the years. Hopefully the new location will get enough foot traffic so that the owners can at least maintain the games.
I didn’t realize Laser Ghost was that uncommon. I played it quite a bit when it came out. I would best describe the gameplay as a cross between Ghostbusters and Beast Busters. The small “scope” window that the laser would appear was neat but I imagine it would be costly to fix/repair if it every went out.
They have a sega laser ghost in cleethorps in the UK but I’ve never bothered going on it as the screen is too dark to see and I think it’s still there now.
So the act is coming to the app store? At least we’ll get to play it though but it does seem discouraging with most games going to ipod and ipad for simple games like that but what arcade companies need to do is come up with arcade games that cannot be replicated or nowhere near replicated so it gives arcades it’s own advantage like the knob. Games like time crisis, dead storm pirates, tank tank tank, I don’t think they work well at home and forget the Playstation move, it may be good but it’s far from perfectfrom what Ai’ve heard 😛