Happy weekend everyone, where it’s Saturday I hope that you’ve found some arcade fun to enjoy out there. Here are a few stories wandering the net out there to share, starting with:
Polygon: Massachusetts Town Overturns three-decade ban on arcade games – I am pretty sure I have mentioned Marshfield, MA before although it’s hard to remember after several years of posts. They instituted a ban on coin-operated video game machines back in 80s, something that stemmed in-part from the negative stigma some arcade joints carried with them at the time (for a look-back, many arcade apperances in late 80s/early 90s movies re-enforced that idea, I’m reminded of the arcade scene in Robocop 2). Most towns just wanted a piece of that sweet arcade pie and instituted hefty fees/fines/taxes on licenses for the machines, which still are in effect in many areas. Either way, after the efforts of Craig Rondeau, the town finally voted to overturn the ban. Interestingly enough it wasn’t a unanimous vote in favor – many voted to keep the ban in place including all 10 members of the town’s advisory board who I guess just dislikes small business or something as I’m not sure what the excuse would be now to keep the ban in place.
A little while back I was pointed to a video of a Danish programmer who was working on his own arcade version of Sonic The Hedgehog. Now called Sonic: Rise Of The Hedgehog, Nicolas has just been doing this for his own interest and the project has progressed to the point where he has it in an arcade cabinet. What he has done a little different is something with the hardware that is a neat idea – when the player is close to a secret, there is an LED that lights up as a way to alert the player. It is a cool way to offer feedback to the player in a joystick game (which generally do not offer much player/force feedback aside from the sound system). There is more to it than that, graphically that has improved a lot since we last saw it, check it out below. My only other thought for something to improve the ability to run along without suddenly running into something would be to use one of those ultra-wide screens (which would work really well in an arcade box for fighters, platformers or brawlers). Once this game has enemies and some music, it looks like it would be a lot of fun to play:
Finally here is a new video also uploaded to Youtube a few days ago but Atari guru Scott Evans. It is old footage of an Atari VP by the name of Don Osbourne as he is interviewed by some guy about the new Star Wars Arcade game, while defending Atari’s plans at the time for arcades. Speaking of Star Wars, if one of the arcade development houses aren’t looking to get in on the Star Wars VII action next year then I think that would be short-sighted. Yes there have been an awful lot of Star Wars games on the market as a whole over the years but some of the best have come from the arcade sector. Also the release of Episode IV spawned many great games just based upon ideas from the movie, as did elements of episodes V and VI. Granted, few people know at this point how the movie will turn out in the hands of a completely new team. It’s also unknown whether or not it will have some ideas presented that people in the theater will be thinking “Wow that would be fun to try” but there is already a console game in the works that involves SW7 to a degree so I think it would be better to see something ready close to the movie as opposed to a couple of years later. Anyways, here is the video.
BTW – A new unboxing post will be up possibly on Monday. This time for a pinball game! 😉
I’m pretty sure Stern or Jersey Jack has already secured a license for a new Star Wars pin. Let’s hope SEGA makes another SW arcade. How well is Transformers doing at The Game Grid? I have yet to find one in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area, CA.
It’s been doing well. It did start a little slow but it also has been a slow time of year.
Pinball seems to be the likely choice but they can wait until the film is pretty much out I imagine. I’m just thinking that if we wanted something like Trilogy Arcade then some movement on that should happen now as opposed to when all the hype is going on with its release next year.
About the only good thing that came out of Star Wars episode 1 was the Pod Racer arcade game…hopefully Raw Thrills can get the Star Wars license out of Disney and do some sort of spaceship themed racer (or combat pilot game). It’s been far too long since there’s been a good space combat game.