Newsbytes: Disney Quest; Indies including NEON FM, VEC9, Skycurser; NTG#71

We’ve got a bit of arcade news, especially for indie arcade developments going into this weekend so buckle up and let’s get to it!

Disney Quest Not Closing Rumor – (Thanks to Michael Louie for this link) This story is a couple of weeks old but we haven’t heard the rumors confirmed nor denied yet so might as well share. If any of our astute readers out there know something please comment below! Rumor via ThemeParkTourist.com; also thanks to Stingray Travel for this additional talk on the rumor from the Unofficial Universal Orlando Podcast

NEON FM Gets A Major Software Upgrade – Independent arcade developer has rolled out a major upgrade to their NEON FM game, which you can see in action below. The framerate is higher and more ‘flash’ has been added to the effects making this stand out a little better from a graphics perspective. Given that NEON FM games are connected to the internet, this update has already been rolled out worldwide.

Speaking of indie developments, Skycurser is now at the Galloping Ghost Arcade where the big unveil with the developers included level 3 (other beta versions out there have two at the moment). The game is still in beta form with the full version expected to be finished some time this year.

Doc Mack of GGA and the Skycurser development team discuss the new game Photo: Jeremy Fox

VEC9, The First True Vector Arcade Game Since Empire Strikes Back – Here is another overlooked story, thanks to Michael Louie for passing this link along as well. It also covers the efforts of an indie team, which seems to be the theme of this post! This story at Chicago Reader gets into the development, or post-mortem, of the work that brought about a new bona-fide vector monitor arcade game. Called VEC9, it is currently found at the Logan Arcade in Chicago, IL if you ever want to get your hands on it to play. Pretty cool effort, especially in the bone that it throws to vector fans everywhere. Too bad that tech can’t be mass produced these days or turned into a flat screen (and not lose the special effect that vector provides). For more info, check out the Vec9 Homepage.

Tutorial video for Bandai Namco’s Galaga Assault – I saw this show up the other day and it was nice to see after it had been a while since the Bandai Namco Amusements Youtube channel had posted any videos. This simply shows how the new Galaga Assault plays in redemption mode, which is how most units will be setup out there in the wild:

DeadStorm Pirates 4D+ Shows Up On Ebay (Thanks to Kevin Williams for the tip on this) – I remember coming across this at a tradeshow one year (seen in the pic below) but after that, the game seemed to disappear into the ether. It did have excellent stereoscopic 3D, running well above 60FPS which made it run without interlaced lines or other artifacts that plague poorer 3D and it was based on a tried-and-true arcade game. But at the end of the day, the near $400k price tag for a slightly upgraded 4 player arcade game was too much for most venues to handle. Here is a link to an eBay auction where you can buy not just one but 3 available DSP4D units that the seller has available. It is unknown how many of these were made but it certainly was very low.

Name That Game #71 – Since there was a little break on the Newsbytes posts, there was a break on NTG. Here are the answers for #70:

#1 – Dirt Dash by Namco

#2 – Super Dodge Ball by Technos

#3 – Reikai Doushi / The Last Apostle Puppet Show: Chinese Exorcist by Home Data

Guesses for this week:

This week’s post is brought to you by: Making do with what you’ve got

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