Newsbag: Abari; Midway 90s Doc; Steve Bristow; NTG#37

Welcome to the last day of February. Depending upon where you are, perhaps March will improve weather wise. Either way, where arcades are usually an indoor activity, you can enjoy them at any time of the year 😉

Abari, New Bar/Arcade Coming To Charlotte, NC – A play on the word ‘Atari’, a new bar/arcade is looking to open their doors this April by the name ‘Abari’.  There isn’t a ton of detail on what they will offer in the game selection yet, aside from this blurb:

The new bar will feature arcade games from the 1970s through the late 1990s in a slew of categories, from racing and fighting to classics like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. Pulliam said he also plans to host tournaments of console games, including Mario Kart on Nintendo 64.

Hit up the What’s In Store Blog for a little more info, and good luck to the business in the effort!

Level 257 Pics – In case you are curious to see what the new Namco Entertainment owned Level 257 location in Schaumburg, IL looks like, Chicago Eater has some pics. The arcade area looks smaller than I thought it might be, but they obviously are focused on the ‘eat’ part of ‘eatertainment’. In addition to a specialized Pac-Man Battle Royale and what looks to be a specialized Pac-Man’s Arcade Party units built into a long table. They do have some classics on hand(although the Chicago Eater article doesn’t get close-up pics) and some pinball machines as well. Seems to be a rather small arcade selection given the size of the overall facility but everything does look nice.

Midway 90s Documentary Teasers – While browsing Youtube this week, I came across a couple of teaser videos that feature short blurbs from Eugene Jarvis (Raw Thrills) and George Petro (Play Mechanix) discussing Midway/Williams history, with a focus going to the 90s era. A Kickstarter is coming soon to help fund the project, we will have to keep an eye on this one.

Almost Lost Footage of two InJoy Motion games – Years ago I got my hands on some direct footage for two InJoy Motion games, Power Boat GT and Top Gunner. I believe I shared the clips just on this site but not to Youtube. I was browsing an old hard drive and came across the clips so I spliced this together. Both games have been available on the market for several years, in fact I believe they can still be ordered. They haven’t surpassed the active manufacturing time that Aliens Extermination has (which amazingly enough is still available new – the game was released in 2006 which might be a record of some kind) but that would be close.

Steve Bristow Passes Away – I’m not sure what the deal has been with February 2015, but more news of a passing away that I shared to the AH Facebook page earlier in the week. It is not of Leonard Nimoy who passed away (RIP as well Mr. Nimoy), but of Steve Bristow’s passing. He had a strong involvement in coin-op video games from Computer Space and onwards at Atari through 1984. As a VP of Engineering, his work was crucial in the development of many of Atari’s projects at the time, including Atari’s short-lived pinball division. This page at AtariBook.com features a run-down of his time at Atari and includes memories and condolences from people who knew him well. (Correction: For some reason I had Bristol instead of the proper Bristow as Steve’s last name, my apologies for the error)

Name That Game #37 – Last week’s NTG generated some surprise on AH social media by the existence of Enix’s ActRaiser as an arcade game 😉 This little guessing game is to entertain and inform!

#1 – Vanguard by Centuri/SNK

#2 – ActRaiser by Enix

#3 – Gold Bug by Centuri

Fer’ this week: