Admittedly I didn’t know that Red Bull, makers of the famous energy drink, were in the game blogging business. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just caught me by surprise when I saw Play Mechanix sharing a feature article that is now gracing the Red Bull site entitled “Play Mechanix: The Saviours of The Arcade Scene”. Given that language is similar to our motto here, I imagine someone at RB must read the site, which in that case, I hope you enjoy it 😉
Anyways, the article is an interview with Play Mechanix CEO George Petro, who gets into his personal history in the arcade business at Midway with games like NARC and Terminator 2 and later with his own company Play Mechanix. He formed PM because even in the mid-90s the writing seemed to be on the wall for Midway, as far as what direction they really wanted to go in (down the tubes to bankruptcy, zing!).There is a look back at some developments in the 90s including the never released Joust 3D project and why that was canned (thanks BioFREAKS!). Â There is also some information there that I didn’t know about, in regards to the history between PM and Raw Thrills before the companies merged. Â There is some history about how the Big Buck Hunter series came to be and where it is at right now and they don’t forget to cover non-BBH games like the new Aliens Armageddon. They do throw the question out there about VR and if PM sees a future in it, to which George points out the Hygiene Problem with VR in a public space. Overall it’s worth the brief read, hopefully it reaches out to some in the gaming sector that don’t normally keep tabs on what is going on in the arcade realm.
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If arcade game history interests you then check out this arcade history timeline that was put together by M&P Amusements. It only touches on the highlights and I am not sure why some games are used (I would put Mach Storm in the place of Dark Escape 4D but maybe that’s just me; not sure why Sega’s Strike Fighter is mentioned when something like Galaxy Force 2 came before it and it went further) but I can be nitpicky when it comes to those things and get into way too much detail. Here’s the timeline to enjoy via M&P’s website:
Interesting looking at it but not much is shown about the 90’s much. What about games like Daytona and ridge racer that became the true sucessful arcade driving games or time crisis and the house of the dead series.
Another thing that bugs me is why is there a Facebook logo next to the dead heat when it doesn’t use it?
I also think wangan middnight and initial d should be included in the 00’s section.
But good read though
I have to admit I wasn’t expecting much but the Play Mechanix article gave a really good look of their history. Well done Red Bull.
As for driving games Race On by Namco in 1998 already had that camera feature they list for Mario Kart in 2005.
And I can remember a game even older than 1998. Real Puncher by Taito in 1994 also had a camera that took a picture of the player to use it in the game.