It’s Labor Day weekend in the USA and I don’t have a bunch of time to spend on this multi-news post so it will be “short.” For anyone taking the weekend off, have a safe Labor Day trip! If you come across any arcades out there, give them some play!
Pinball – To any owners of the Star Trek Pinball machines by Stern, they have finally released the code update that adds 
the “Karl Urban Speech Pack” that they teased months ago but the update is quite large, adding much more to the game than just some lines of speech. You can read about it here, I updated my machine and there are no problems. I know Stern releases code updates for all of their games but it is not often that they release such a significant set of additions to the games like this. In a way it’s a new game although I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time on it yesterday to explore those additions.
Last week The Galloping Ghost Arcade obtained another World Record – while they track many in regards to high scores, this one was different. It was for “The most people playing arcade games at once”. It must have surpassed efforts like CAX and other events that bring together a lot of games and a lot of people at once. Here is the evidence from GGA:
Las Vegas Arcade – Las Vegas Soho in London, UK has been adding quite a selection of fighting games to their mix. I believe they are the only venue in the UK to offer the latest KOF and Street Fighter games. I will follow-up when I have more time to get into detail but here is their Twitter account where you can keep tabs on that if you are in the area.
Big Buck HD – Speaking of records and contests, Big Buck HD is in full World Championship Qualifier mode. You can got to any online Big Buck HD machine to participate but to qualify you will have to play in the tournament several times. They have the grand prize at $15,000, with more cash available for lower level winners. It is still the largest arcade game competition in the world with the biggest cash prizes and widest player base out there. They are also doing a couple of other promotions. There are coupons to get one free game on any unit, found on Old Wisconsin meat products. While I imagine something like this might have been tried before, I cannot recall such a promotion. It’s a neat idea that further demonstrates the bonus of having online arcade games.
Sonic Rise Of The Hedgehog – Mentioned a couple of times on the blog previously, the DIY Sonic The Hedgehog project is finally complete. Nicholas, the project creator has provided a detailed look at the project from start to finish, which he did to create “the first Danish arcade machine”. I imagine it would be too much to hope for Sega Amusements to sell this as a kit game for JAMMA cabinets 😉 Congrats to Nicolas on his efforts! Perhaps more arcade projects are in his future?
