Insert something clever about the weekend here! For some news roundin’ up:
Round1USA San Jose Grand Opening Sep. 4th. – It was supposed to have opened already but thanks to inspections and those sorts of things, the new Round1USA location at the Eastridge Mall in San Jose, CA has pushed their grand opening back a week to September 4th. As usualy they have a strong selection that caters to the tastes of skill gamers and those who enjoy Japanese games: Beatmanian IIDX 22, Gitadora (both drums and guitar), Pop N’ Music 19, Sound Voltex III, Initial D8, MaxiTune 3DX, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Music Gun Gun 2, GTI Club, Virtua Fighter 5, Road Fighters, a couple of Pump It Up games, DDR and more. They also have a few US based games like Jurassic Park Arcade, Mario Kart GP DX, Star Wars Battle Pod, Super Alpine Racer, Batman and more. You can see the almost complete games list here at Zenius (they are missing some of the fighting games mentioned on the FB page); here is that Facebook page for the event. Thanks to Michael Louie for the tip!
Jersey Jack Pinball Game Room Show – Jersey Jack Pinball started their 2nd Annual Game Room Show yesterday, where people visiting the factory in Lakewood, NJ there could enjoy some pinball games, food and fun. They’ve been posting pictures from the event to their FB page and on Twitter I’ve been seeing players posting their high scores using The Hobbit’s online score reporting feature. They do have more than just JJP games on site, with some older titles like Pinbot, The Shadow, Star Wars Ep. 1, Black Belt and more to enjoy.
UK Pinball Party – Also in pinball related events, here is a highlight reel of the recent UK Pinball Party held at the Heighway Pinball warehouse in Merthyr Tydfil, UK. In addition to their new Full Throttle pinball game, they had Stern, Jersey Jack and Williams machines there for patrons to enjoy. They had originally said that it was their hope to make this party the global launch of their in-development Alien Pinball but ” but suppliers have let us down and the whitewood won’t be ready now until next week.”. They are now targeting October; here is one report of someone that saw what they have so far, I won’t grab all of it:
Was a real ‘wow’ moment, seeing the cabinet for the first time. Artwork on side panels and translight is just beautiful. Of course, the side panels on Heighway pins are also back lit, and this works to tremendous effect with the crisp starfield background.
Rotating beacons on the topper were present, and the effect is just chilling. Perfectly captures the effects during the end of Aliens and can imagine them adding greatly to the atmosphere during play
Andy showed us some of the custom moulds too. A translucent egg, painted, and then under lit with four addressable RGB LEDs. This allows effects to be shown, such as a creature moving within the egg. Have to admit i was sceptical when i first heard this at Pinburgh, but having now seen the effect i must confess it is very effective.
Custom mould of the alien queen is also to a very high standard, and fans on the films will not be disappointed. These aren’t cheap toy models that other manufacturers might use.
ColorDMD Updates – The wizards at ColorDMD have announced the next supported game for their ColorDMD hardware and software – Stern’s X-MEN. On top of that, Chicago Gaming Company has released this trailer showing a ColorDMD update to their Medieval Madness remake which looks really good with the extra dots in play. The remake machines already came with color displays so my guess is that this will be a firmware update.
Big Buck Qualifiers Success – Time is running out on the World Championships for Raw Thrills’ Big Buck Wild arcade game. By using this multi-month setup, participation has skyrocketed up to 5000 players instead of 1500; also as we see below, the Ladies Qualifiers prize pool has increased thanks to those players. You can participate in the qualifiers by playing the game with your real name at any connected Big Buck HD/Wild machine – play more and that increases your chances of landing in the top player circuit.
NEON FM Asian version debuts at GTI Asia China Expo – Despite the economic turmoil that China is in, the show has moved forward to show off the latest arcade products there. Among those is the debut of US developer’s rhythm title NEON FM. This game has been available in the USA for a while now but this version, developed in conjunction with Andamiro, features a new cabinet and songs from Pump It Up. We should have more pictures from GTI soon so stay tuned.
Name That Game #55 – Answers for last week, which were all guessed correctly 🙂 :
Now get ready for the fury of…
There was another post saying Sega Showdown (driving game) will be one of the games at the opening of the San Jose Round 1. I’m excited for that since I haven’t seen this title anywhere.
1 Combat Tribes?
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3