Apologies for the delay in finishing up on this but assets do take some time to trickle down to my hands but better late than never, right? Here is the rest of what was seen at Amusement Expo ’12 in Las Vegas, thanks to Jordan Fredrick for allowing me to use pictures he posted to his Facebook profile from the event.
UPDATE: I have received various pictures from Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report, see below
UPDATE#2: This is what I get for not going to the show. More corrections added on the Raw Thrills equipment that was seen there.
Big Buck HD – Brochures I received from Play Mechanix and a video with a Raw Thrills employee (Jeff) describing the game in more detail. This is also a good place for me to reiterate a correction I received about this, where the game was natively built to support 1080p @ 60FPS+, the first arcade game known to do so (Jordan Fredrick tells me that the already released ReRave runs natively at 1080p; obviously BBHD runs much more detail so I suppose the best way to settle it is that this is the year of the 1080p arcade game) as it’s not upscaling from a lower resolution source. It is powered by nVidia graphics cards, although which model exactly wasn’t shared; I also found out the following about the online play: “Online for BBHD is woven much more deeply into the game. We have added many new features and integrated them in such a way that they become core to the game experience. My personal favorite is Showdown. This is where up to four players can play each other from different locations.” I like the sound of Showdown; This makes the game much more of an online experience than before where it was just posting top scores to a leaderboard.
This is the only video I have found of the game in action from the show so far:
(Photo Credit Below: Jordan Fredrick)
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited – Here are some videos grabbed from the show of a few of the features TTT2 has that we have discussed in writing:
Live Monitor Demo – as you can see from this, the Live monitor really is what the players will use to take advantage of the online features that TTT2 has.
1v1 Battle:
1v2 Battle:
Pump It Up Infinity – No word on when this will be released as it sort of came out of nowhere. But there are plenty of videos on Youtube, here are a couple:
4 players:
Also from Andamiro is a new videmption concept that is based on their Tower of Hanoi (rechristened as Winners Ringer) game idea called Teeter Totter Castle; they also have a new baseball videmption game called AR Baseball
Real Steel – It’s a videmption game based on a movie from last year that we discussed a few weeks ago. It looks different than the pictures shown in Replay Magazine but same concept. I was told that with this game you don’t want to just pull it back and let the glove go – you want to act like you are punching with it yourself. (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick)
Update: Incredible Technologies is going to be rolling out Power Putt LIVE during this Spring season so it’s just around the corner. It’s the same concept as the first game, but with online features and more content such as additional courses
Dead Heat 42″ – Nice new cabinet for Namco’s lead arcade racing game. There are no changes that have been made to the software, aside from the obvious improvement in appearance from the larger screen. (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) UPDATE: I almost forgot to mention this but I was told that there was a new version of Pac-Man Battle Royale software at the show. The cabinets were the same but the game itself has been improved with better AI and a few other features. More info on this will be coming soon.
Fast And Furious Super Cars – New cabinet update kit for Raw Thrills’ FnF Super Cars as well. This looks like they are taking their “Panorama” idea that is coming out for Big Buck HD and applying that to other games. So with this cabinet you will be able to include your own monitor and it is assumed that the cabinet itself will cost a bit less than the full dedicated version. (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) UPDATE: This was actually a Crusin’ Exotica 27″ cabinet that is using a new FnF Super Cars kit. Raw Thrills states: “We will add support for newer CRT cabinets by Atari, Raw, and other manufacturers in the coming months.” As such it will take a little bit more work than a typical racing kit however the results of good work will appear as they do below. I personally have a pair of Tokyo Drift cabinets that I have 1080p monitors inside of but that game wasn’t designed to run with that high of a resolution like SC is.
Wheel of Fortune – This game has been around for a little while but now they have a new cabinet out for it, which I also assume is a measure to offer a cabinet at a lower cost. I like the lit control panel. (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) UPDATE: Raw Thrills has filled me in on this, “The new Wheel of Fortune is video-only. There is no spinning wheel.
Sales of the deluxe Wheel of Fortune have been great, it’s just that there is a need for a smaller-footprint game at high-traffic or smaller locations.“
UPDATE: Terminator Salvation – This is a new cabinet for the “Mini-model”. We had seen a different version of the mini model before but apparently that wasn’t a big seller and this gives smaller venues something a little nicer that fits closer with the Deluxe version, in part thanks to the 3D marquee. Ok, what I had been going on is what I was told from someone that went to the show but apparently the information was incorrect. This is actually a 4th version of the Terminator cabinet available (I had noticed that the monitor did look a little larger) that is a go between the 32″ mini and 42″ deluxe. Raw Thrills tells me: “The 32″ Fixed gun version has sold quite well and still has a following for tight, high-traffic locations. This 42″ version was designed at operator requests to fill a niche between the 32″ Fixed and the 42″ Deluxe, which is still the flagship game.“
UPDATE: Pentavision Global Booth DJ Max Technika 3 – Latest appearance of the touch rhythm game by Pentavision (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) Updated with the fighter Koihime Musou. Unknown if interest in this was high enough to warrant a release here but as always it depends in part whether the price is right. I think if they offer a good kit for it, some places would go for it.
Virtua Tennis 4 – Sega’s newest sports game and entry into their somewhat long running series of Virtua Tennis. We’ve seen it before but it’s available now (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) UPDATE: Operation GHOST below
Stern’s Transformers pinball setup with a ticket dispenser to appease redemption locations (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick) UPDATE: Photo added of the AC/DC Pinball
ReRave drawing some attention, just like at IAAPA (Photo Credit: Jordan Fredrick)
UPDATE: InJoy Motion’s Booth with Dido Kart 2
Update: GlobalVR – Only news here is that they now have a kit available for FrightFearLand to convert more generic CRT cabinets over to the game. Kevin suggested I see if I could convert my House of the Dead 4 SUper Deluxe over to it – that would be tempting if it could work.
Update: A sports simulator by Visual Sports
If anything else major comes along, I will be sure to post it although I have the feeling that this is about it. Check in with this post if you want to see a little more
Kevin also stopped by Salt Lake and visited my facility as well as a couple of others here. Not sure if anyone wants to see those pics or not but I have them.
… that Pump it Up notechart, wow. XD
big buck hd could be the best gun game i’ve seen in a bit! can’t wait to get my paws on it.
That new Super Cars cab looks like a converted Cruis’n Exotica unit with the new flat panel screen. I can’t be the only one thinking of this.
That is what crossed my mind too but I wasn’t sure of it.
The Super Cars game shown above is exactly what you think: it’s a Cruis’n Exotica converted to an LCD Super Cars game. We are selling a conversion kit to change over old “dead wood” cabinets to a new high-earning game. The fact that people thought it was a new game shows how effective the kit is!
No more hunting games plz. Make more racing games raw thrills and specular. Namco and Sega should do the same, too.
The demand for racing games should increase, NAOW.
Um really? They release one new hunting game once every two years or so and yet there are several new racing games that come to arcades every year. In 2010 Sega had at least 3 of them by themselves. Last year Raw Thrills released two new racing games, Sega added another, Namco has one. InJoy showed off their racers, of which they have a couple available; at IAAPA last year three new racing games frmo Wahlap were shown off for a release this year. So I can’t figure how we are lacking in racing games. It is the most thoroughly covered genre in the arcade industry, to the point where it’s a little too much. If anything we need a few other kinds of games to help variety. Otherwise arcades will become only be virtual racing centers – well redemption centers with a bunch of racing games.
I know how you feel, sorry for the fanboyism.
Racing is just my favorite genre.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound harsh – it’s just that there have been so many racers come along in the past several years that as an arcade operator I’m dying to see a little more variety. I don’t mind seeing a new racing game come along, I just don’t want that and light-gun games to stick to being the primary focus we get on games since there is really a lot that can be done in arcades still. But at the end of the day, it partially depends upon what people want to play, not what I want to see.
Yes, that Super Cars is indded a Cruis’n Exotica large cabinet conversion. This was on display to sell their new kit version of Super Cars. You have to saw of that back of the cabinet, and add your own monitor with this conversion. We made try this with a couple large Cart Fury cabinets if they come up with the graphics for that particular caibnet.
The F&F Super Cars WAS a conversion kit that they are now selling. You provide the monitor and it converts deluxe Midway racing games. The kit was $2,499.00.
I didn’t get a price on the new Dead Heat cabinets but I can tell you that it is incredible what those couple of extra inches will do for gameplay. I would much prefer to play it on one of the newer cabinets.
The new smaller Wheel Of Fortune cabinets are $2,500 less than their deluxe counterparts and it was executed really well. I almost liked it better without the touchscreen to be honest.
Pump It Up Infinity is a new collaboration between Andamiro and a few of the team members that worked on the Pro series. They plan on selling it only in the US and Europe and the software shown was VERY far from done. I was told about 2-3 months and it will be ready for shipping but from what I saw, I would add a few months to that estimate.
And of course, ReRave was there. Having worked on the cabinet art and some of the in-game graphics, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. A lot of people are complaining about the actual cabinet design but the screen completely steals the shown and I never really even noticed the cabinet. Definitely had a lot of traffic throughout the show, especially for being in the VERY back of the hall.
ICE also had a new prize redemption game that was extremely similar to Pentavision’s Mr Vacuum that was licensed as Cut The Rope themed. The one thing that bugged is that it seemed like they just picked a random game to throw the licensing onto. If you have ever played the game, You cut the ropes to get the prize to the little monster guy. After hearing this, You would expect a Barber Cut type game, yes? This was one instance where the theming and licensing didn’t really match the gameplay well.
Thanks for the input Jordan.
Seeing how I already have a couple of older Tokyo Drift kits a new Super Cars kit would be tempting as I already have mine running on 1080p screens but it looks horrendous since the game is running at something below 480p. Even then the game still does pretty well every week.
It’s always good to see one game drawing a lot of attention and ReRave has done it twice in a row now. If I had the money I would probably go for one but I’m still in the process of resolving my Dariusburst so no new big purchases for a little while.
Is it me or does operation ghost cabinet look very long from where the guns are located to right up to the screen compared to other gun games?