It was a quiet week on the site as I was busy, busy, busy working on a game conversion of a Need For Speed Underground to a Redline Rampage Gas Guzzlers and troubleshooting that. I’m not a trained technician but I used to repair computers for a living so the same basic concepts of figuring out problems there applies. In the end I think it turned out nicely; the only things left to do include finishing the art and replacing one of the force feedback I/O boards. I got a killer deal on the cabinets and kits so even though it isn’t a well-known title, it was a no-brainer . While I need a few weeks to really get a feel for how it’s performing, I’ve been impressed with how it has been doing this Saturday, from the number of people I’ve seen playing so far. I’ll be posting videos of it before too long.
Anyways, on to some news!
Cosmotrons Map Contest
Shane Gutbrod of Arcadeaholics sent this new Facebook poll my way, asking for input on which maps from the Cosmotrons Map Maker contest should go into the game. One is called Divide and Conquer, the other Rain Dance. They also posted this video about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sr5vSh5w_c
NEO GEO Mini Image Leaked
Thanks to Kevin Williams for sharing this. SNK has been big on promoting old MVS titles across just about every platform one can find and now they are jumping on that hot bandwagon of miniaturizing their old hardware and throwing a bunch of games on it. Instead of making a minature AES, they are leaning more towards the arcade side although I’ve heard both positive and negative reactions to this:
YouTube Channel Updates For Raw Thrills, Bay Tek Games & ICE
While I follow every manufacturer I know of that maintains a YouTube channel, most of them don’t post frequent updates. So when not just one but two of them post several updates, you take notice. First with Raw Thrills. After they posted the trailer for TMNT, several other videos popped up although all are re-uploads of older games. Click here for the Raw Thrills YT channel.
Redemption game maker has posted several videos showcasing the likes of their popular titles like Big bass Wheel, Full Tilt, Ticket Monster, Sink It, etc. We’ll showcase the latest upload, showcasing a charity event that the company has run. Click here for Bay Tek’s YT Channel.
ICE has also been posting a few updates, including this fresh one showcasing their Super Chexx Pro. Click here for ICE’s YT Channel.
And The Pinball Capital Of The World Is…
I saw Stern’s Twitter account touting this Chicago Reader post focusing on Pinballmap.com and showing what machines you can find in the Chicago area. With 530 machines (plus the continued existence of Stern Pinball & the long history of pinball in the city), one might consider it to be the pinball capital of the world. But, if we go solely by the numbers(go to the map then click on the pink pointers), it appears that Seattle would be it at 814 machines in the region, followed by Portland, OR (782 machines) and the Bay Area of California(721 machines). What makes a city a pinball capital for you?
If You Don’t Want To Clean It, Don’t Operate It
Speaking of pinball, my brother sent me this image that he found on a Reddit thread, taken from a hotel arcade lobby in Arizona. As my sub-headline says, I don’t really understand why one would even want to bother operating a pinball machine on location if you’re just going to leave it like this. Like it or not, pinball requires maintenance and part of that is cleaning the playfield once in a while. If you want it to earn, then it needs to be clean. Personally I try to do it once a month – just use some Novus 2 cleaner and a few minutes of time. I once came across a Batman pin that was almost in this condition but it amazes me that anyone would put any coins into a machine that looks like this:
That’s all of the quick news I gathered for this week. Have an awesome arcade-filled weekend!
