As we head into the weekend here are some positive things to look into as the general news of the day has been pretty horrible. My heart really goes out to the families hit by the atrocity today in Connecticut, its something that splinters your soul moreso when you have children of your own about the same age and in school. As far as advice goes in talking to kids about tragic events, Fred Rogers has some pretty solid advice in that regard.
First off is something I thought I had covered on the blog but I guess I must have just mentioned it on Twitter. Thanks to Stinger Newsfeed 1276 for reminding me that I hadn’t. In my time spent scouring the internet for internet news over the years, I have occasionally come across the lamentation that in the UK arcades have really taken a hit over the years, with one of the largest punches coming with the closing of the arcade facility at the Trocadero. A new project that is seeking funding through Kickstarter is looking to change that by creating an “Epic Arcade”. One where the goal is “…to build an arcade in the UK like the ones thriving in Japan. Classic games. New games. Everything in-between. 3 floors. 200+ games.” Of course to create something of this size you need some good capital and thanks to Kickstarter they are giving people a chance to be a part of that. The location will be in Edinburgh, Scotland and if they hit their goals they plan on opening about 30 weeks from now. Check out the Epic Arcade campaign here – Visit the official Epic Arcade Project website here.
I didn’t find out about this until now but tomorrow the Family Fun Arcade will be holding a special party to celebrate the legacy of the location before they close on the 31st, along with the Japan Arcade which is owned by the same person. Full details in case you need a refresher can be found here at ArcadeRelief.com. Then there are these trailers on the event below
Way back in 2008 we ran a story about a school arcade project by the name of Bionic Roshambo, a more intense way to play rock-paper-scissors. Bring us to today and the game has been rebuilt by Kieran Nolan for use at an exhibition in Dublin called GAME: THE FUTURE OF PLAY. Here is Mr. Nolan discussing the game below
This piece of news was shared by ArcadeHD, a new blog “reviving classic gaming 1 pixel at a time”, uncovered footage from the 80s showing Ms Pac-Man cabinets being built at the factory. Just in case anyone was ever questioning the rarity of Ms. Pac-Man, this is a small glimpse showing that they are not in fact rare. It also makes me wonder if there is any footage showing some newer games being built, I imagine that there has to be.