It has been a little while since our last news post, so let’s take the opportunity of the weekend to catch up with things in Newsbytes.
Keep in mind, if the site isn’t loading or pops up with a 503 error, just refresh – it seems to still be experiencing some problems. I’m trying to resolve them, but tracking down the why hasn’t been easy.
Round 1 USA Brings DDR A20 To The United States
Given the focus that Round1 gives to Konami’s latest arcade titles, this announcement isn’t really surprised, but that doesn’t keep it from being welcome. Released just a couple of months ago in Japan, Konami’s celebration of their iconic DDR series has culminated in DDR A20, replete with a golden cabinet into the US. I wouldn’t count on anything changing in regards to how Konami treats their arcade content in the US (don’t expect distributors to start offering the game any time soon), as nothing has changed over at Konami that I’m aware of…although it would be welcome in case they do. Round1 has also announced that they are bringing WACCA to the US, providing more incentive for music fans to drop by.
That said, alternate choices are out there, and I’m sure that Step Revolution isn’t complaining about Konami’s relatively lack of interest in bringing DDR to the mass market, as we can see by the StepManiaX production.
Round1 PHM ⚡️ #DDR #DDRA20 pic.twitter.com/pW1SnmZShS
— bemanistyle (@bemanistyle) May 16, 2019
Strikers 2020 Coming To Arcades
If you frequented arcades in the late 90’s, then hopefully you had the pleasure of coming across one of Psikyo’s Strikers 1945 games. They were essentially Capcom’s 1942 (vertical scrolling STG with WW2 style aircraft), beefed up with more enemies, power-ups, features and an alternate history of WW2 to play in as the “universe.” They were great fun, but it’s one of many franchises that hasn’t been heard of much in recent times – until now.
In an interview with 4Gamer.net, developers at City Connection (the present owners of the Jaleco and Psikyo IP; not sure if they own all or just some of the latter) sat down to discuss the upcoming Psikyo Shooting Library Vol. 1, and in the process of that interview unveiled that they are working on Strikers 2020. While it is mentioned for multi-platform support, they mention arcades as a part of that. It is also notable that City Connection was among the first companies to throw their support behind the shoot ’em up heavy Exa-Arcadia. With that, I’d give it a 99.9% chance that they are creating this for Exa. Via:
https://twitter.com/shmups/status/1129488727942713345
The goJAMMA Prototype Board
I can’t find any extra info on this one, apart from this tweet, but this could end up being a good alternative for any old failing JAMMA board you might have. It would be really nice to see more FPGA solutions on non-JAMMA games from the Golden Age of arcades too, but that is a taller order as that’s a lot of expense and effort that might only cover a few (or just a single) games. Got any more info on this? Let me know!
From concept to reality, a universal re-programmable arcade machine circuit board, for new and maybe old games. #fpga #arcade #homebrew #retrogames #jamma #intel #altera #videogame #exeter pic.twitter.com/jBifyEGdv9
— boneyard arcade (@boneyardx) April 5, 2019
Homepin Creates A Modern Alternative To Taito’s Ice Cold Beer
While this is seen in a video down below, it’s worth showcasing as there are a lot of bar/arcades out there which might be interested in this. Back in 1982, Taito released an electromechanical arcade machine that was created just for bars by the name of Ice Cold Beer. The object of the game was to guide a steel ball up a playfield of holes, using a balancing rail. It was tough as nails, but quite a hit in bars. Fast forward to today’s bar/arcade scene, many locations want to get their hands on that game, but for something that’s almost 40 years old and may not have been a huge seller back in the day (I don’t know how many units it sold, but if it was something like 1,000, you certainly don’t have that many working examples around by now, then you also have many more bar/arcades out there than 1,000), that’s not an easy find.
Enter Ride The Wave, by Homepin. Homepin is responsible for Thunderbirds pinball, and it looks like they are diversifying their portfolio a little with Ride The Wave. If you have a bar/arcade, would you like one of these for your location?
The TRON Roller Coaster at Disney World is coming along nicely
Per this video; once open, I’ll have to take a half day from IAAPA to run over to Magic Kingdom to give it a spin a few times (if I can) 😛 Seeing this made me go and revisit TRON Legacy last night and I like it even more now than I did initially.
The Games of CIAE 2019 & AAA 2019
During the unwanted hiatus, a couple of Chinese amusement trade shows took place, with different companies showing off their latest ideas. There always is a chance that some of these products will find their way over to Western shores (mainly the ones that are clones or pirated games :P), particularly anything labeled with the UNIS name. There are some really interesting games to be seen here, including a new basketball game by UNIS that uses a full LCE screen for the backboard of a basketball machine.
This second video by Highway Games is a bit longer and shows more video content, including Speed Driver 5 (confirming one thing I wondered about in the VLOG, that the back of the seat has an animated LED display, which is a cool little idea), that aforementioned video basketball game by UNIS, Speed Rider 3DX and more. There is also a new crane game control scheme seen at 17:46 that is rather impressive:
Unboxing A NIB 1988 Cyclone Pinball Machine
Gotta love these kinds of finds:
Well, I think that covers it for now. Here’s hoping the kinks in the site are ironed out over the weekend and we’ll be back to 100% to cover more news!
