Newsbytes: The Hobbit Update; Pac-Man Clock; Pink Panther; D&B Upstate NY move; Raiders of the Lost Arcades; NTG#59

I missed out on doing a Newsbytes last week since I was much too busy but no Comic Con this week so let’s get to it. Lots of videos for today’s post.

The Hobbit Pinball Updates: Yesterday Jersey Jack Pinball posted some updates about their in-production The Hobbit Pinball machine which included the video below showing a match. Once again, this shows the benefits of having an HD color display since this level of animation isn’t something we normally see in pinball. They are also in the process of clear coating playfields (first video below) so it probably won’t be too much longer now before the game is finally in the hands of customers and locations.

Speaking of JJP, they also re-uploaded the Pat Lawlor game announcement video that was originally posted back in January 2014. The re-upload is the same trailer as we’d seen then so the idea here is to bump the hype up again as we will hear new info about Pat’s latest pinball creation later this month at the Pinball Expo. Given that it will be an original title from a pinball master designer, I am very curious to see what it will be. Given the time that has passed, I have to imagine that it is not too far off from production but since The Hobbit has to come first, we will probably have to wait until next year.

Pac-Man Premium LED Desk Clock – Here’s a surprise that popped up on Amazon from Raw Thrills – a Pac-Man themed LED desk clock by Raw Thrills. Where they designed the Pac-Man Chomp Mania videmption game for Namco, they took the LED marquee and shrunk it down into this clock. Amazon says that it is unavailable at the moment but where this video was just posted the other day, I imagine it will be very soon. My arcade needs a clock so this will likely be a perfect fit.

Pink Panther Jewel Heist Trailer – This just hit Youtube, officially showing off the new videmption game frmo Play Mechanix and ICE. I’ve played this style of game on old consoles like the Atari 2600, where it is a lot of fun as a 2 player game – for tickets I’m sure it works out well with getting some repeat plays.

Dave & Busters Moves in Cheektowaga, NY – If you know where the Walden Galleria Mall is in Cheektowaga, NY, then a new Dave & Busters location can be found there as they moved locations. As seen in this news report below, the new space offers 200+ games and they also tout D&Bs new mobile app which allows consumers to win virtual tickets.

Skycurser Kit Poster – The JAMMA kit for the upcoming shooter Skycurser is well into development and the team just unveiled the poster which will be included with the kits.

A few days ago we teased the 19X27″ poster that will be included with SKYCURSER conversion kits. Well, the time has come and we are thrilled to be sharing it here first.

What do you guys think? Would this make you want to play the game if you saw it at your local arcade?

Getting artwork like this with an arcade game isn’t that common these days – I remember one for Rush 2049, Gauntlet Legends and the kit for Oriental Legends 2 but there haven’t been many others that I can think of. Big Buck has sent along posters to promote different specific events which has been nice.  The game flyers don’t really count since those often have more technical data on them to sell the game to operators and not so much earn plays. In the interest of full discolsure, I did purchase a kit and should have it before the end of the year – I will certainly do an “unboxing” of the kit once I get my hands on it.

Raiders of the Lost Arcades – Thanks to George Arbogast Jr. for sending this link my way, I meant to post about it the other day. A UK game writer by the name of Kieran Hawken wrote up this article called Raiders of the Lost Arcades, which is about him searching for a good arcade in the Southend of the UK. He did come across some new videmption titles that didn’t fit his fancy (they tend to be the money makers right now hence the greater production) but he did find some good venues for some arcade gaming. Check out the article here.

Name That Game #59 – With an extra week I thought that more guesses might have come along for the last NAme That Game, so I will hold over one of them for this time. For the other two, here are the answers:

#1 – Sega RaceTV by Sega

#2 – Redoing this one below

#3 – Dazzler by Century Electronics

For this week, people falling over