Newsbytes: Bubble Bobble Whacker; Touch Magix Games; Lightning Knights, Atari Lynx 30th & More

Welcome to the last day of August, which has been pretty slow for arcade news overall.

Bubble Bobble Whacker On Test

Let’s start off with another Japanese location test, although this is one that could certainly find it’s way to the States. Taito has begun testing out a Bubble Bobble themed whacker game. Would you play this if you came across it?

このような感じで出てくるのでたくさん叩いてね！
御来店お待ちしております！ pic.twitter.com/Ypr0VEFmZL

— タイステアリオ蘇我店 (@Taito_Ariosoga) August 28, 2019

Touch Magix Reports Success With Dicey Jump & Hop’N Stack

You’ve probably noticed the advertising at the top of the site, showing off a number of videmption pieces by Touch Magix. If Chuck E. Cheeses serves as your location of choice, then you are likely to come across two of their latest pieces, Dicey Jump and Hop’N Stack. The company reported that they’ve completed “shipping of 100 units of Dicey Jump and Hop N Stack games to Chuck E Cheese out of a large order of 150 units.” They’ve also sent along some income reports, something I haven’t seen for many games in a while. You can grab that file as a PDF here; they appear to be doing really well for original games that have no licensed character or name to them.

BTW, I have seen footage of Touch Magix’s next videmption game, and it’s looking like it is keeping a similar spirit to these games, while going the route of a driving game. We’ll see that one at IAAPA, so TM is staying busy.

Lightning Knights Testing In Japan

The Exa-Arcadia feed has been getting a little busier lately, after announcing tests for titles like Aka & Blue Type-R and Nippon Marathon Turbo Hyper Running, another previously announced title is on test this weekend in Japan. Lightning Knights is the arcade version of Iron Crypticle, a multiplayer top-down dungeon crawler that should remind you of Gauntlet. It’s a twin-stick shooter on console, so I’m not sure how it will have changed for single stick use.

【ＥＸＡ基板ロケテのお知らせ】

タイトル：
「風雷の騎士団」
４Ｐ同時プレイ可能

ロケテ日時：
８月２６日（月）から９月１日（日）まで

場所：
池袋ゲーセンミカド

是非ご参加ください！#ＥＸＡ基板 pic.twitter.com/MysR03H6mt

— exA-Arcadia 【公式】 (@exaarcadia) August 26, 2019

The Atari Lynx Turns 30

Tomorrow (Sep. 1st) marks the 30th anniversary of the Atari Lynx handheld console. While this year also marks the 30th anniversary of the  Nintendo Game Boy (a handheld I did have at home and thoroughly enjoyed), I didn’t mention that on the blog when it happened, as the GB wasn’t really known for arcade ports. It did have some, but the Lynx would become the handheld known as the “portable arcade machine” thanks to it’s many quality ports that could take advantage of it’s powerful, console-like hardware (to be fair, the Game Gear which was released in ’90/’91, would also have a number of Sega arcade exclusives, so we’ll have to mention that next year). Those would include Steel Talons, STUN Runner, Paperboy, Rampage, Xenophobe, Ninja Gaiden, Rampart, Ms. Pac-Man, Double Dragon, Toki, Xybots and many others. Which one was your favorite?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vii06B6qwfU

(Side note: As a kid, I remember seeing ads for the Lynx in comic books, but I didn’t have the $180 to buy one. Didn’t know anyone that had one. Finally picked one up around 1997 and built up a decent collection. Another really cool aspect of these were the ComLynx abilities. Some games could handle up to 8 players at once, although none of the arcade ports went that high. Games like Rampage, Rampart and Xenophobe were a lot of fun with two players, but it was difficult to find someone else with a Lynx to do that with.)

Old George Petro & Eugene Jarvis Interview

With the Atari Lynx news, I was also reminded of an old interview where Play Mechanix CEO George Petro had said that he got a Lynx so that he could play Paperboy on the go. I couldn’t find that particular one (I think it might have been on a Midway Arcade Treasures disc), but I did come across this video from nine years ago that I never had seen before. It interviews both George Petro and Eugene Jarvis, not long after their two companies merged, and they were producing Terminator Salvation. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3f6zdgP9es

The Sega R360 Mini

Highlighting this fan-made miniature Sega R360. It doesn’t appear to have the gyroscopic rotation that the cabinet is famous for, but it’s still looking like a nice labor of love:

#ミニチュア #アーケード #R360
毎日少しずつ。配線をしまってまずはコクピット部を作りあげる。通電テストも良好。が、わかっていたが内部の画面はほぼ見えない。ATEND側のモニタで遊ぶ方式で正解。モーター駆動で問題発生。リングがキツくて回らない。シリコンスプレーで何とかなるかなぁ pic.twitter.com/BK5c12HQnj

— gaug (@gaug888) August 28, 2019

8 Minutes Of The UKPinfest 2019

In case you need a pinball fix (without playing a machine):

We’ll close out with this fanmade Mortal Kombat video…yeah, it’s the newer MK, but no worries

https://twitter.com/DeejayForte/status/1167155852949819394

Have a great weekend everyone!