As the week begins to wind down I hope you are all ready to find an arcade near you to support, in case any are near you. I’m not sure what to expect as locally the weather is going to warm up to the 50s which we have not seen in a long while so that can either be good or bad depending upon what activities people want to go and check out.
Anyways, some news for you all. Back at IAAPA 2012 there was a Chinese company by the name of Sealy which had an assortment of games on hand from medal games and a 1-on-1 fighting game to a 5D theater. I captured some video of the fighter game which was setup VS. style which curiously was the most watched video I took from the event. It is a unique fighter game but with some strong influences from Super Street Fighter IV and Mortal Kombat. Graphically its close to SSFIV and some of the HUD elements are the same. Either way I was contacted by Sealy and it turns out they are selling the game in the USA as either a kit or a VS cabinet. they didn’t say how many units were available for sale but they are looking to move some units. If anyone is interested you can use the Contact Us page here and I can forward the contact information. One nice thing about this from an arcade operator perspective is where Chinese companies are not bent on releasing every fighter game to home game consoles, this is one of the few that will probably remain arcade exclusive for a really long time.
Speaking of fighting games, in the world of KickStarter, how about supporting a poster that mashes up Street Fighter characters with Seasame Street characters? Super Seasame Street Fighter? I bet Capcom is scrambling to make this happen as we speak (at least they should be, amiright?). It’s like the key to making exciting edutainment games was sitting there right in front of us the whole time. This is being done by an artist in my neck of the woods, he made some posters for tournaments we’ve run at the arcade.
In case anyone missed it, the Sandy Hook Arcade Center that we reported on a short time ago has opened its doors. Here is a video from Polygon showing off what they have on hand.
Speaking of Polygon, they just posted a large article about Jersey Jack Pinball today that takes you into their factory. Great for some more mainstream attention hitting pinball.
Via The Stinger Report, a wrap-up of the recent JAEPO 2013 Expo in Japan with more photos of booth girls than the games themselves, something not found in most of our coverage of the event. Found at Crunchyroll.com.
And I was sent this earlier today, an infographic by Stuart Kerr of Liberty Games on the history of Sega arcade racing games. As a bit of constructive criticism I have to say that this is not a “100% complete” history as quite a few titles aren’t on there but when it comes to the big titles that most people remember, it nails them down. Besides, to place a description for EVERY Sega racing arcade game, the graphic would probably be a mile long. For some reason when I am researching retro game history I always seem to overlook Turbo. Not sure why. Either way, bring on more arcade infographics I say!
Here’s the graphic, get ready to scroll…
The history of Sega racing is pretty cool although I feel there are a few racers that definitely should have made the list. The most notable one that comes to mind is the Initial D series.
Biggest omissions for me are Scud Race/Super GT, Ferrari F355 Challenge and the Initial D series.
R-Tuned, Hummer Extreme & Sega Race TV should also be worth a mention. As much as I like Crazy Taxi, I can’t classify that as a racer. Also Grid (Sega Rally 3) originates from Codemasters. Similar thing with Ford Racing Full Blown.
Scud race was the very first realistic car racing game at that time and I’m surprised that weren’t mentioned. I wonder why also 18 wheeler and it’s sequal king of the Route 66 weren’t mentioned?
I see that Top Skater getz no love