Hello fellow arcade fans and welcome to the latest collection of arcade news for this Easter holiday weekend. This week itself has been rather quiet for news, although I am working on a new locations post. That will probably be done on Monday next week. Let’s check out some of the items of interest as you go into this Spring Break weekend:
More Collector Events – Midwest Gaming Classic and Zapcon
As we arrive into the wonderful Spring days of April, let’s mention some of the arcade events you can expect to find out there. The ever popular Midwest Gaming Classic opens on the 13th of April and goes through that weekend; arcade fans in Milwaukee will have plenty of reasons to attend, including the appearance of a production version of Cosmotrons. Further west in Arizona, arcade fans should be interested in Zapcon 6, where a very nice list of arcade & pinball machines will also be found. As a part of that, I’ve been told of “Sid Seattle Obscurities” tournament where users will get to compete on 10 different rare obscurities that Saturday. Should be quite interesting.
Black Rose & WWF Royal Rumble Pinball Go Color
The latest game colorization from ColorDMD tackles is the wrestling game WWF Royal Rumble by Data East; right before that was Black Rose by Williams. Their latest updates can ben found on the main There’s no preview for Royal Rumble yet so here’s Black Rose:
Capcom Cans Cytus Omega
There’s been a bit of discussion this week regarding the status of Capcom’s arcade division – primarily due to this article posted by Japanese news site 4Gamer.net about the cancellation of Capcom’s rhythm game Cytus Omega. Capcom has been very quiet after JAEPO 2017 – they were nowhere to be found at the 2018 show and nothing has been said about games like Attack On Titan since the ’17 event. Funny enough, our last mention of both of those games was in a post entitled “JAEPO 2016: Capcom Keeps Attack On Titan Arcade and Cytus Omega Alive” Not so much anymore.
Specifically discussing Cytus Omega, Bemanistyle points out that it’s a challenge to compete in Japan’s rhythm game market these days due to saturation of the genre in that market. Overall, we need something more concrete to know exactly why their arcade division is relatively quiet but I would guess that it has to do with the budgetary part of what BemaniStyle mentioned. Capcom makes their cash through console games these days so that’s where most of a budget is going to go. That said, there is at least one arcade project they are working on at the moment, the collaboration with Raw Thrills on Mario Party Challenge World. That is currently on track for a Fall 2018 release. It seems likely that their budget for now would be focused on that, given it is likely to be a sure-fire hit for Western markets. Either way, we’ll keep an eye on what they do as always.
In related news, if you are into Japanese arcade rhythm games then Taito did put out Groove Coaster 4 this week; they are also promoting the original soundtrack to the series as well:
Another Tomy Waterfuls Ring Toss Spotted On Test
I caught this tweet, showing that if in Pittsburgh and really want to check out that new Tomy Waterfuls Ring Toss game that ICE is testing out, now is your chance. Here’s our preview of that game, here.
DID YOU KNOW that #FunForeAll is one of only two places in America to currently have the ticket game #Waterfuls? For a limited time only, come play one of the truly unique games in our arcade and WIN yourself some #tickets! #Pittsburgh #Pennsylvania #arcadegames #arcade pic.twitter.com/WUaT6sZva8
— Fun Fore All Family Fun Park (@funforeall) March 30, 2018
Arcade Factory Footage
With the release of Ready Player One, arcade nostalgia fever is at GET HYPE levels once again (from what I’ve heard from friends, sounds like it’s pretty good but I haven’t had the chance to see it yet). To go hand-in-hand with that, check out Tony Temple’s collection of archive footage of arcade machines being manufactured on the factory floor. Most of it is from the Golden Age but there are a few newer ones too (mainly from pinball makers). Here’s one of several videos he shared:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUmv0cWaPY
Atari Space Race Prototype Discovered
Along those lines, if you are into classic games and particularly prototypes, the National Videogame Museum recently got their hands on a prototype of Atari’s Space Race. This isn’t a well-known game despite being Atari’s first creation after PONG – which is because the game wasn’t any good. Apart from the unique fiberglass cabinet (which looks far more interesting than the plain wooden design Atari would go with for production models), only two of these are known to exist.
NEW at NVM: Prototype Arcade Cabinet for Atari's Space Race. One of only TWO ever found. A slightly different color than the other known prototype, this model is in excellent condition and still fully functional! pic.twitter.com/kz95lU6zDq
— National Videogame Museum (@nvmusa) March 26, 2018
Crazy Tower Mega Footage
This is one of those games that I meant to capture some footage of for the AH channel but didn’t. On video, it looks exactly the same as the standard version; in person you notice the difference thanks to the larger setup. This is via AH advertiser PrimeTime Amusements who posted this last week:
That’s all I managed for this Newsbytes. Have a fun & safe weekend!
