Just a couple of items to talk about this evening. They don’t really have much to do with each other and I almost broke them up into different posts but I’m a little pressed for time right now so combined it is!
First, a few weeks back I was interviewed for the Gameroon Junkies Podcast. What is Gameroom Junkies? They are a blog that covers stuff that are of interest to arcades with a particular focus on private gamerooms. Collectors can share photos of their gamerooms for others to admire/salivate over. They run a regular podcast (which sadly I cannot say for AH anymore – although Kevin and I have discussed doing another one, one of these days when we both find the time) and a part of Podcast #26, they get into pinball fever and the recent PAPA events and talk to me about my recent book, The Arcade Experience. You can listen to the podcast right here and my thanks to Preston for the interview!
Also while doing some random Twitter browsing I came across this unique little gem an EVE Offline Arcade game. I am not an EVE player myself although my brother is and from what I have seen him play, EVE seems to be one of the last games you might think would see such a translation due to its complexity. Well if you look closely you can see that this is kind of like that Mission Craft arcade title from 13 years ago that took Starcraft and turned it into a vertical shooter. This particular game takes EVE and makes that a horizontal shooter. This is as it was seen this week at EVE Fest 2013 in Iceland via CCP Sisyphus on Twitter. Doesn’t seem likely that it would have been made for a wide release as a bonafide arcade title but you never know. If it did it would probably be a little more attractive with the bigger screens although the cabinet itself has a little bit of a Last Starfighter vibe to it as it is. If anyone has a little more information on it please don’t hesitate to share!
UPDATE: I found a website dedicated to this arcade machine that also has some screenshots, thanks to my brother who pointed it out to me. It looks pretty good actually and they built a webcam in it to take pictures of the players with their score in both singles and doubles. The game itself reuses assets from the EVE Online game and has been designed with R-Type style play in mind. From the sounds of it, they did just make this for the EVE Fest but why not put the work to wider use and release it as a game for operators to buy? 😀
Now that’s looking sweet!