The site has been fairly quiet this week as I took a Summer vacation with the family to the California Extreme even in San Jose, CA. That included time beyond the two days of the show, taking in the different sights that the Silicon Valley area of California has to offer.
At California Extreme, it was reported that the newcomer company Exa-Arcadia would be debuting their EXA platform to the West, and boy did they deliver. Here is a collection of news, videos and more that all revolve around this company and what they are bringing to the table.
The Interview – Sit-Down With Eric “ShouTime” Chung, Exa-Arcadia CEO
For the “quick” refresher, click here to our first news story about the platform that was published in February of this year.
For a longer, more in-depth and fresh update on the platform, here is the interview I recorded with ShouTime at CAX. Admittedly I should have written questions down in advance, but instead I just did whatever popped into my head 😛 Both of us were a bit tired and not feeling particularly photogenic, so we did this podcast style:
EXA News @ CAX 2018
If you follow me on Twitter, I was posting news during the panel discussion about EXA for all to enjoy. This continued to be STG/shmup heavy, but it sounds like that will cover the genre for now (the next round of news will involve fighters – a couple of items are going to be huge). For the tweets:
The card/smartphone system discussed in the interview above was unveiled here. One thing we didn’t talk about in the interview is the ability to stream your gameplay from EXA to Twitch, while creating a player account and being able to track other players as to what EXA games they are playing/streaming:
A card/smartphone system will be available for @exaarcadia along with Twitch streaming pic.twitter.com/x6r1QZFhpV
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) July 28, 2018
On this one I meant to say “development partner,” but because Twitter is still backwards by not having an edit function and the news was flying fast, it stands.
Dangen announced as an @exaarcadia development . game not announced yet pic.twitter.com/OdqAu7yHVX
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) July 28, 2018
A new bullet hell shooter:
Valkyrius EXA version announced for @exaarcadia pic.twitter.com/A4bA4LaBvo
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) July 28, 2018
Final game announced for the @exaarcadia – Shikhondo Death Label pic.twitter.com/RPXkhF1cwp
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) July 28, 2018
EXA Game Footage
If you follow Arcade Heroes on YouTube, then you should have seen these popping up. If not, here are the games in action! If you like, there is an Exa-Arcadia playlist I created for YouTube that you can access here.
I did capture footage of Aka & Blue Type R, but due to a technical glitch, what I have is unusable (in part to being too brief) :/
Note: As always, these are prototype builds and are subject to change when the final product launches later this year.
The Kung Fu Vs. Karate Champ – The video of this on Steam (under the title Shaolin Vs. Wutang) plays much smoother than what I filmed, so I imagine that frame rate/animation improvements are in store. In fact, there was a software update for this on the first day that improved the play. So, don’t make final judgments yet 😉 Personally, I wasn’t terribly good at this, but it was fun.
Cosmic Digger 3671 – I’ve never come across a Heiankyou Alien machine (there wasn’t one at CAX either), only having a passing familiarity with the title from online research. The EXA version plays at a faster pace, with a tiny touch of Jeff Minter effects thrown in for fun. This one marks the first of many 1-4-player games destined for the platform.
Strania EX: The Stella Machine – G.Rev is making a real comeback to arcades, providing Strania in a physical format for the very first time (previous releases were digital only).
Super Hydorah AC – Out of the available STG’s, this one was my favorite. I am also the player in the footage here, unlike the vids above:
Infinos EXA – From fishing to game design is quite the leap, but a very good one as shown in this case.
I grabbed some brochures and meant to go back to get my hands on the Aka & lue Type-R soundtrack, but when I left the hall to grab some money, my kids were all tired, hungry and done with the show, so I had to get that taken care of and was unable to return. Until next year, perhaps 😉
As mentioned in the interview above however, expect to see Exa-Arcadia at IAAPA 2018!
“‘Ticket redemption is illegal in Japan'”, Eric chung.
What about Pachinko machines? Do they not give you coins for redemption?
That’s also getting into semantics – there are no “ticket” games in Japan and thus, no ticket redemption and a support network for that. Certainly not like anything that we have here in the States. Only if you want to stretch it further from pachinko and call UFO Catchers/crane machines ticket redemption.
Pachinko has a special carve out in the law in Japan.
There is no direct cash back for japanese Pachinko. That’s illegal. However, some prices (perfume, little gold plates) have a market for cash back.
It seems that Exa Arcadia really plans to open up to various vendors to fulfill different niches, and that will translate to a series of universal, and sometimes custom template cabinets for various unique gameplay experiences.
I look forward to how expansive Exa Arcadia will become in the coming years.
I glad to see some coverage with gameplay videos.
But I would have liked to see what the hardware will look like. Will the game be on hardware like the taito type x?
Unfortunately there were no hands-on models of the hardware – I only saw it on a single slide during one of the Exa presentations. But, it is essentially like a Taito Type X2 box, just with a little more “flash” to it
CAN WE GET A PHOTO OF THE HARDWARE PLEASE?
As soon as they release one, then YES