Time for another blending of news items together into one post. It does a body good, every once in a while at least.
About a year and a half ago an arcade opened up in the greater area of Copenhagen, Denmark called the Chassis Arcade. I did not hear about them until today, otherwise I would have been happy to do a write-up about the new location. But in that year and a half, they have made enough of a name for themselves that they are in the running to win the “Best new initiative in Copenhagen (Capital City of Denmark) in 2013” by the AOK Guide. You can read more about the Chassis Arcade as well as how to help them win by checking out this blog post here.
Next is something I noticed on Facebook but had not commented on yet. You might be familiar with a new console game called INJUSTICE, a superhero fighting game that was created by some of the people involved with Mortal Kombat. While not intended for play in arcades sadly, the work of the guys at the Galloping Ghost Arcade allows for players to get a feel for what one might be like if an arcade version ever was done. There is an album of photos of the cabinet on Facebook for any of those interested. The website StarSlay3r also has a brief interview with Doc Mack of GGA about the cabinet(thanks to The Stinger Report for this latter link). Speaking of console games that would make for excellent arcade titles, a German group by the name of Duranik has finally released a new shooter called Sturmwind for the Sega Dreamcast. I wonder how difficult it would be to do a NAOMI or Atomiswave port…
Next up is something that will be of interest to all of you who enjoy arcade history as well as game design and prototypes. Roger Hector, who worked for Atari starting in 1976 and moved onto Sente and then some other companies, was recently interviewed by the website 2600Connection (an Atari fansite). He not only answers questions about his time working for these arcade companies but gets into great detail and shared pictures of his work. He worked on the design for numerous games at Atari and became one to start storyboarding ideas. He came up with the 2 Game Module idea and worked on some prototypes I didn’t know existed like Indy turbo or Cafe Racer, which would have preceded Hang-On by a few years had they released it. He also dives into his time with Sente, sharing some photos I have never seen of the Shrike Avenger motion game with a unique motion arm to move the cabinet around(pictured below since it is awesome) or an exer-game prototype that made some headway but ultimately wasn’t released. There are various rarities that he discusses that have been forgotten about, and its a great read so don’t miss it. [Roger Hector Interview @ 2600connection.com]
I’m replying to this article late because I had something different in mind rather then just looking at the more current ones. When I was reading this, I had an idea on the back of my mind for a while in regards to the fact that many games we were used to in arcades are now console exclusive and that people are making customized cabinets out of habit. How is it the arcade industry doesn’t take full recognition of this and consider doing “late releases” for local venues like bars and such when people may actually be interested in these type of settings?
We can’t do exclusives anymore because our audience will get mad when we get home, but it is worth taking a look at and all the developers really have to do is just a little bit of code hacking to initiate certain modes/features while making the game accept credits for public use. We even had the actual systems being used as real hardware at many points to justify their use (System 256 – Tekken Tag 2 anyone?)
Sorry I meant System 357/359/369