The work on remodeling a space to move my arcade continues, as such I have not been able to keep news flowing on the site. I have been slowly working on another look-back in arcade history but it is taking a while. For now, here is some news from the wonderful world of arcades:
Art of Atari Book Review
I did have time to make a video but it didn’t require much editing or filming and so it was possible. To sum up this video, the Art of Atari is an excellent book, well worth picking up. For more details:
Raw Thrills To Debut A 42″ Version Of Jurassic Park At JAEPO 2017
Overseas, Raw Thrills works with different partners from Betson, particularly Bandai Namco Amusements. Such is the case in Europe as well as in Japan. As a part of Bandai Namco announcing the games that they would be showcasing for JAEPO 2017, two Raw Thrills products are included – The Walking Dead and a new version of Jurassic Park (just hardware, no indication on software changes yet but it is possible that they will have tweaked it there for the Japanese market. The same was done for Terminator).
Beyond that, the other announcements are focusing on Project i-CAN, their VR setup; Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX+; Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Maxi Boost ON; Point Blank X; Synchronica (hadn’t been sure if that one ever got out of testing so this might be a return…the cabinet looks like it has a new art package) and a few others we have known about. I am a little surprised to see their AR kids game, the Disney Magic Mirror listed as an overseas title as I do not recall seeing that one over here yet but Japan will get a taste of the World’s Largest Pac-Man as well.
Outside of Bandai Namco, we’re keeping an eye on announcements but not seeing anything that looks like it is going to be coming West yet (at least in an official capacity)
Aurcade.com Acquired by Galloping Ghost
They had a close relationship for a long time and now Galloping Ghost Productions (which operates the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL) has acquired the Aurcade.com website. If you are not familiar with them, they track both locations and high scores, relying on user input for much of their content. GGA plans on expanding the site although I have not caught wind of exact plans yet. Either way, it should be exciting. Check out Aurcade.com here
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Redemption Game Seen On Test
Thanks to “Mr. TMNT” for sending this in. Gotta love internet anonymity, right? If you drop by the Round1USA at the Puente Hills Mall in California, then you can come across a test for a new Andamiro redemption game that uses the more recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license. Don’t have more info than that at the moment but I imagine redemption fans will be capturing footage soon enough (that, or it will be at Amusement Expo next month). As you can see, each side represents one of the turtles for 4 player action; otherwise it appears to be a coin drop into the target kind of game:
Arcade Ports Of The Week:
As I did in the last Newsbytes, I’ll take a look at new homebrews that have something to do with arcades. Granted if we saw someone creating new content for old arcade hardware then we’d be all over that. For the record (again), I prefer original ideas on classic systems instead of ports. As it is, it is easier to unofficially port old arcade ports to old systems that didn’t get the game back-in-the-day for whatever reason:
Scramble (NES) – If side-scrolling shooting action is your thing, then Scramble will finally land on the NES – in an orange cartridge to boot. Released by Khan Games:
Tempest Elite (Atari 8-bit PC) – Atari had a heck of a time trying to port their color vector title to their home hardware. Efforts were made but ultimately failed to materialize until the Atari Jaguar thirteen years after the arcade release. Now someone is bringing the game in raster glory to the Atari 8-bit platform (Atari 800,, xEGS, etc), upgraded from a previous release known as Tempest Xtreem. This will be available for purchase on a cart:
Street Fighter II (Amstrad CPC) – I personally can’t play arcade fighting games on a keyboard – I love the keyboard for many kinds of games but it isn’t the right control for fighters. Otherwise if that doesn’t bother you and you happen to have the somewhat obscure Amstrad CPC, then Retroworks is bringing one of the most beloved fighting games in history to that machine (well, one of the models…not sure which as there were a few). I’m not really familiar with the Amstrad’s capabilities but this is looking impressive:
