While the IAAPA trade show tends to soak up most of the arcade news that’s out there, it is not the only amusement/arcade related event of it’s kind to find out there. Every January is a show in London, UK, know for the past while as EAG. EAG 2018 opened this week and thanks to readers on Twitter, we have a look at what was there.
As a note, since IAAPA tends to be the show that major manufacturers launch new product, there are many titles that will have been revealed but EAG tends to be the first time that these games show up on European shores.
BTW – I’m not sure what happened with WordPress but it used to be that you could embed single tweets into posts just fine but now they don’t show up correctly. I’ve been trying to find a plug-in to fix that but so far no luck.
A 32-minute Tour Of EAG 2018
Just posted to YouTube by Pinball News, here’s a tour of the show if you have the time. There are a lot of slot machines and similar games found there as laws and the market for those kinds of games is a bit different than what you tend to see in the US at large.
Nintendo Arcade Visits EAG 2018
An even longer video of EAG to check out:
Now onto the games:
Race Craft (Tecnoplay)
Let’s start with something that wasn’t at IAAPA. Long time readers might recall the conversion of a mobile game known as Mini Motor Racing to arcades. This was commissioned and manufactured by an Italian company known as Tecnoplay. It has been a few years since MMR was released (it being very rare in the US…Benchmark once showed an MMRA at IAAPA but I don’t know if they ever sold any) and now Tecnoplay is here for round 2 with Race Craft. To be accurate, Xavier at Arcade Belgium clarified that this new game is: “…developed by Vae Victis and Sany, produced by Octavian and distributed by Tecnoplay.” You can find the Race Craft webpage here; it was designed upon a procedural engine, where “you can randomly generate an endless number of realistic racetracks and craft your car to reach the top in every race and eSports challenge.” Image provided by Toby; he mentions that it moves although I don’t see this listed on Tecnoplay’s site yet to find details such as the range of motion. But thanks to the procedural engine, no one can claim there aren’t enough tracks 😛
Light Cycle VR (IMMOTION)
While we never saw an official TRON Legacy light-cycle arcade game, the explosion in VR developments has led companies like IMMOTION to fill that gap. The company has some other TRON style cabinet/controllers available but not many details are found on their website yet. (Found this image on Twitter but now unable to find who snapped it; will update this post with credit once I find them again)
3D Extreme Flight 2 (Funshare)
Toby came across a Chinese company called Funshare with a motion simulator with a game called 3D Extreme Flight 2. He mentioned the Galaxy Force cabinet inspiration although the game was not working when he came across it. I found this picture of the cabinet on Facebook but not anything about the game software; 3D Extreme Flight (the first one) seems to be classified as a kiddie ride.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Raw Thrills)
This game was certainly the most popular title I covered during IAAPA 2017 and it is made an equally large splash at the Bandai Namco Europe booth. It appears to be the same cabinet as seen at IAAPA but am unsure whether or not the software is the same. From what a local distributor is telling me, these will ship in the US next month so if you’ve been chomping at the bit to see this one, your chance will come soon. Via Toby.
Speaking of Bandai Namco, the reason that TMNT is at their booth is that Bandai Namco Amusements Europe is the official distributor for companies like Raw Thrills and Adrenaline Amusements in the European market. Thus they also had Injustice, X Games Snowboarder, Rabbids Hollywood (seen in the tweet below) and some other titles there to check out.
https://twitter.com/7Ten/status/953234834838773760
We Play VR (AI Solve / Bandai Namco)
We Play VR was seen at IAAPA17 and it was at EAG as well. I believe this is available to purchase and setup in Europe already but will be available in the USA in February:
@EAGExpo day 3 is about to start. Come and visit us at the @BandaiNamcoUK booth, 620 and experience the wonders of #WePlayVR #EAG2018. pic.twitter.com/cnosv0bVRt
— AiSolve (@AiSolve) January 18, 2018
Dance Dance Revolution A [DDRA] (Konami, Electrocoin)
Long established distributor had something for DDR fans, Konami’s latest DDRA. European handling of Koanmi’s wares is generally different from the US; I’m guessing the minimum order of 50 units was not required in this instance. Videos are embedded into these tweets; click on the shortened link to watch in case it’s not embedding in your browser:
#eag2018 the doors open!!! See you on #stand516 #comeandseethegoodies @Konami #DDRA https://t.co/vaphOsBJL1
— Electrocoin (@electrocoin) January 16, 2018
@stephnorbury @ExCeLLondon #eag2018 @KonamiUK @Konami #stand516 #DDRA #dancedancerevolution #ddrx #dancinginheels #crowndirect pic.twitter.com/WKOiAMPm8t
— Electrocoin (@electrocoin) January 17, 2018
Guardians Of The Galaxy & Other Stern Pinballs (Electrocoin)
If you are a pinball wizard and wanted to get your fix of Stern’s latest content, then Electrocoin was also the place to go. I believe this was the first event that GotG was shown in Europe.
— Electrocoin (@electrocoin) January 17, 2018
Atari Pong Table
Toby had a couple of pics from the UNIS booth for the upcoming Atari PONG table that we saw at IAAPA but it hasn’t just been making the rounds at amusement shows – this got a bit of attention at CES 2018 last week too. I’ll share that video here in case you missed it:
Hologate
This was at IAAPA and I captured a little video of it but here’s something the company made touting their EAG presence.
#EAG #LONDON just finished… great success for #HOLOGATE we had a really good time here, hope to come back next year! pic.twitter.com/sPzCcZRg4w
— HOLOGATE (@HOLOGATE) January 18, 2018
Operation GHOST & Daytona Championship USA
Sega was there and had a similar booth to what was setup at IAAPA. This marked the first time that the upright Operation GHOST would be showcased in Europe like this.
Also, Toby snapped a few pics and posted them on his Twitter:
https://twitter.com/7Ten/status/953229398584545280
That is all I’ve managed to gather for now. If there was something else there that is new for the arcade business that was missed, let us know!
Race craft looks interesting to play if I come across it.
Iam curious about the height of TMNT though. I know it’s especially catered for kids but I hope the panel isn’t too low down that I have to crouch on my knees as a lot of the games these days that you just press a button or joystick you have to sit down on your knees to play the game such as Crossy road. I think games like this should have seating so everyone can play properly.
I’m very surprised sega didn’t use this opportunity to show the new house of the dead game when it’s due out later this year. I know it’s unclear how far completed the game is but I thought they would show the game at the show even if it’s incomplete like when they showed sega’s lets go island with just the screen and half the cabinet.
The TMNT cabinet looks exactly the same as the IAAPA build and I had no issues with the height of the CP (I’m about 1.6 meters tall). While I am not sure of the exact height from the floor, if it is lower than normal then it isn’t much.
Looks like Sega will be pulling the guns out for JAEPO at least, it’s just often up in the air as to what will go West. Either way, shaping up to be an exciting year!
Racecraft is a PC game, which seems to have been ported to the arcade. You can buy it on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/346610/Racecraft/