Newsbytes: MGC’18; Billy Mitchell Disgraced; New VLOG; The Last Starfighter

Hello user and welcome to this week’s Newsbytes

Midwest Gaming Classic In Full Swing

For those gamers in the Midwest who are looking to get their fill of arcade and pinball goodness this weekend, there is the annual Midwest Gaming Classic, underway as I type this. There is quite a bit to do there, including making your own map for the upcoming indie arcade release Cosmotrons (which is there with the production version of the game). I also look forward to seeing if Galloping Ghost will have any games there which will be shipping soon.

If you want to play Iron Maiden, then Stern brought…a few:

Stern Pinball / Marco Specialties Booth at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee Wisconsin – 30 Iron Maiden Machines! pic.twitter.com/h9TLOoc6OE

— Stern Pinball (@sternpinball) April 14, 2018

Billy Mitchell Disgraced As Twin Galaxies Removes His Scores

Initial news link; also link to Guinness also removing his records. I see various people on the interwebs spending a lot of time talking about this but I fail to see why this is supposed to be the most important bit of arcade news since the release of PONG.  It is a real shame and a disgrace that someone like Mitchell (the proclaimed “Videogamer of the Century”) would go to such lengths as cheating to “protect” their legacy, only to end up completely wrecking it for the rest of time. Mr. Mitchell is supposed to make a statement at MGC but unless he’s able to provide strong evidence to turn things around, I think that reputation is now thoroughly wrecked. But I also don’t find this to be worth salivating over ad nauseum so….moving on (unless they make this part of the story into the upcoming The Last Starfighter ‘sea-boot’ 😛 but I would hope not as there was nothing wrong with having the down-on-his-luck kid become the reluctant but talented hero).

UPDATE: Billy Mitchell issues a response on video to Old School gamer Magazine (a magazine that I have been submitting & publishing articles in, as a note). He is stating that all documentation will be made public along with witnesses so for him, it’s certainly not over:

Sega’s Special Driving Simulator

Sega has long been known for simulators but not all of them were created for the amusement market. Here’s a brief video of their education driving trainer, the SLDS-3G:

https://twitter.com/SEGA_OFFICIAL/status/985048995473969152

Arcade Heroes VLOG – The 3 T’s Of May

Discussing the upcoming games with more footage of Sega’s Transformers Shadows Rising that I grabbed at Amusement Expo than had been posted:

Funland, Circa 1989

We have mentioned the famous Trocadero on the site here many times over the years. Unfortunately it is no longer a wonderland of arcade goodness but back in 1989 it certainly was. If you want to see what you might have missed out on or just love to reminisce, check this out:

The Last Starfighter Reboot Might Be Happening (Again)

When I say again, that might be at least the 3rd time in recent years that I know of that the ‘cult classic’ film by Lorimar, The Last Starfighter, may be getting a reboot. I remember about 10 years ago or so reading about a “The Son Of The Last Starfighter” project that went nowhere, then a couple of years ago, the people looking at it were talking about making it a TV show that was Miami Vice in Space and it wouldn’t have anything to do with video games. That was like saying you’d make a TRON reboot without having anything to do with computers.

Of course, with several attempts at rebooting this, nothing is sure…and not all reboots are worth the trouble either. But the concept art behind this latest effort looks fantastic and makes me wonder if the chances are any better this time. If so…then perhaps we’ll finally get an arcade tie-in that we’ve been waiting for since 1984.

Speaking of reboots and video games – has anyone seen Rampage? Is it any good? I won’t have the chance this weekend; Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman (original creators of the concept) seem to like it

Hometown Premiere with Fans, Friends, Families, Film Folk and over 3 decades of Game Refuge & Bally/Midway buddies…. What a BLAST! pic.twitter.com/dbR5aXh2LU

— Brian F Colin (@BrianFColin) April 13, 2018

That’s all I managed for this weekend – make sure to go out and game!