Newsbag: Tough Coded Live ; Galloping Ghost Fundraiser; Sonic Arcade Game; JAEPO News

It has been a busy week for me, thus the few updates to the site here. This has been due to a partial move at my arcade – most arcades have a back room or office where dead games, parts and other assorted items are stashed away and I found out on Tuesday that I had to get everything out of my backroom by close of business today. The mall is doing a new construction for a Bed Bath And Beyond so I will lose that room and eventually get a much smaller storage area to work with. The room in question was as big as the front game floor area so its taken some time but fortunately the game floor won’t be cut down so I don’t have to lose anything there.

Anyways, there are a couple of tips and some other news items accumulating in my email so while I have a moment I wanted to get to them to share with all of you.

First a tip thanks to Dave K. about a new shooter game that while it isn’t exactly setup as an arcade game, it certainly works best as an out-of-home attraction. Called Tough Coded: Live, 2 players take up the challenge of going on stage to play a sidescrolling shooter that is actively controlled by a Video Jockey (the VJ). The concept of an attendant having some control over the action isn’t new in the arcade arena  although generally speaking those attendants don’t really take a “Dungeon Master” level of control like this game does, throwing up random George Clooney’s into the game and so on. Visually, this seems like something Jeff Minter could get behind, although he prefers vectors over sprites & pixels.

The Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL has carved out a name for themselves with the largest collection of video games available to play and a thriving high score tournament/streaming circuit but they aren’t done there. They are currently holding a fundraiser to generate the capital needed to expand their arcade, which will greatly benefit their game selection but also add to their other aspects including adding more pinball, console gaming and PC gaming as well.  They have a goal of $500,000 to make this all happen, if you are interested in contributing you can do so here. Dock Mack of GGA mentioned to me that they have already gained support of some people in the industry including Larry DeMar, George Gomez, Steve Ritchie and Brian Colin.

Yesterday the web was buzzing with news over the next Sonic The Hedgehog game called Sonic Boom for Nintendo consoles. Getting back to the indie scene, this video shows an independent project to make a Sonic arcade game (that can go into a cabinet as opposed to the lose term of arcade game) out of Denmark. Unfortunately I’m not sure if this is intended to be something just for a single gameroom or if there are bigger plans than that. At the moment it looks like it has a ways to go before being read for primetime; it also isn’t clear if the zoomed out view is a final choice or not (that makes it seem more like Mario). Thanks to Mark for the tip!

Finally, the next big trade show is just a week away, this one taking place in Japan and is known as JAEPO. Most of what will be revealed is more for Japanese and limited Eastern markets but aside from just being of interest for arcades in general, who knows what might show up for the West. Unlike Western trade shows, manufacturers tend to reveal most of the games that will be showing up, so far Sega has mentioned Initial D8, Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade, Guilty Gear Xrd Sign, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, Puyo Quest Arcade, MaiMai greeN, and shiny new versions of Border Break and Shining Force Cross. Namco has unveiled that the idol light-gun game AKB48, Maximum Tune 5, a new version of Gundam, Deadstorm Pirates SE, Mach Storm and Super Alpine Racer will be there; Konami will have the latest versions of Steel Chronicle, Jubeat, Reflec Beat and Sound Voltex Booth 2; and finally Taito will have Groover Coaster Arcade again and Ultra Street Fighter IV. Again, there will probably be a few surprises in store but this covers what has been announced so far.