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!
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 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.
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.
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?
Name That Game #14 – As I am pressed for time at the moment, I can’t make gifs this time around – here are your answers for NTG#13, which were all guessed correctly between a couple of you 😉
1: Pool Shark by Atari
2: Jack the Giantkiller by Cinematronics
3: The Cliffhanger: Edward Randy by Data East
For this week:
1 – TROG! – Bally Midway
2 – Cyber Commando – Namco (was this ever released in the US?)
3 – definitely played this before but I don’t know the name.
As for Cyber Commando, was this ever released in the US? I lived near a Namco arcade in the 90s and it was one of their primary test locations. I had seen a bunch of Namco games on test during this period and this was not one of them. I never played Cyber Commando but I heard about it and have been trying to find one ever since.
It’s balloon bomber isn’t it. It was on taito legends 2 xbox version
Not that I have ever seen. It is likewise a game I would love to come across but it also must be rare in Japan. I’ve never seen a cabinet among pics of game centers there
I know the first game (even though it’s been guessed I thought I’d voice myself)! Trog! Played that all the time with my bros. Nice to see it recognized by the guess that game.
2nd one also already guessed
3rd one seems super obscure but it’s definitely a variation of the Sabotage game or Paratrooper… or that game on the old ipods called Parachute, take your pick. But nope don’t know it for sure.