It has been quite the week for gaming news in general with the revelation of Nintendo’s latest game console, the Switch. I find it interesting that no one is saying that this one means the ‘death of the arcade’ as that seems to be said with every new console these days… perhaps operators are seeing that the predictions of doom from the Xbox 360/Wii days didn’t pan out.
Let’s get to our newsbytes!
Pinball Expo 2016 Walk-Through
Courtesy of PinballNews.com, this video let’s you experience the expo like you were there but without needing to wear your feet or wallet out 😉 Lots of great stuff can be seen in this video including Dialed In!, Alien, Medieval Madness remake, Batman 66, Domino’s and even Doom Pinball (10min in for that one). Right after that is the interesting P3 Pinball system. Lots to see in this video:
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX+ Official Site
Namco’s latest technical racer has been in the news a bit as of late and there’s been news about the US version but I was asked to wait for an official release that has updated info. In the meantime, the fan sites have been promoting all of the WMMT5 news so you can see what’s going on there (the latest cabinet image as seen in Replay, which is apparently not final; release pushed to January; it will be at IAAPA 2016).
Otherwise, Bandai Namco has launched a site for the latest software build, 5DX+. You can check that out here.
New Breakout Seen At Specialty Coin NW Showcase
We broke the news about Atari’s return to the arcade with the new Breakout by Coastal Amusements some time ago. Now the game has been shown at the NW Showcase by distributor Specialty Coin. This will also be at IAAPA in a few weeks:
Imply’s Green Bowling To Be At IAAPA 2016
In the interest of full transparency, I’m looking at some professional involvement with the Imply company although I am not sure of the full extent of it yet. I will still do everything to be impartial here, even if that includes handing certain reporting over to Sara or another writer for the site if the case warrants it. Their primary thing is bowling however and not really arcade/pinball games and as you know, we don’t cover bowling that often as we haven’t seen many coin-op solutions to discuss and when they have been mentioned, they don’t really generate a lot of traffic as that isn’t what most of you are here for. 😛
Anyways, Imply has a new bowling lane they are debuting next month called Green Bowling. According to the email I received about it: “[Green bowling uses] Eco-friendly sustainable and recyclable materials, exclusive furniture and graphics, glow in the dark, synced lighting effects, interactive avatars, a smartphone interface, sofas with built-in USB charging station, adjustable lane bases, and an innovative ball return system beneath the gutters.” The company will be showing it off at IAAPA, here’s a promo trailer:
Faceplace Election Booth Update
To close this week off, might recall that Apple Industries’ Face Place Photobooths running Smile 2.0 software received an update not long ago that would let users take their picture with Presidential candidates Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Apple has been tracking the results as promised and so far, Trump has maintained a commanding lead. Here are the latest results:
