Welcome to another weekend and another Newsybtes. This is where I compile quick news that usually doesn’t need a full post to discuss it, so these are all combined together.
It was a very busy week, so in case you missed a story published since the last Newsbytes, here’s a summary:
- Bust-A-Move Frenzy Seen On Test
- Taking A Closer Look: IGS & UNIS’ Ultra Moto VR
- Book Review: Arcade Perfect: How Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat And Other Coin-op Classics Invaded The Living Room by David Craddock
- Stern Pinball Pulls The Curtain Back On Elvira’s House of Horrors
- Let’s Talk About: Graphics
- UNIS Producing A 2-Player Version Of Fantasy Soccer
And now, onto the news:
YouTube Milestone
I just wanted to thank the 7,000+ people who have subscribed to Arcade Heroes on YouTube! I’ve had the channel since 2007 and no, it’s not the biggest/most watched arcade-related channel on the web, but I’m grateful to have you follow it. If you don’t, then join in the fun! To reminisce a little, here’s the very first video of the channel, taken with a really crappy camera. The same camera was used when I attended my first trade show in 2008, but that’s often cringe worthy to watch. Fortunately, my camera quality and work have improved a little since then.
I do intend to do something with live streaming here soon…I just need to find the time and figure out a configuration that works, as I have attempted to do a livestream a couple of times to no avail. It’s not a perfect platform, but it is the biggest, so I’ll figure something out to start doing some additional content of interest.
And yes, I still have videos uploaded to alt sites like BitChute and DailyMotion (I tried Vimeo too, but the limitations on a free account just don’t fit with what I do; overall, just testing the waters of alternate platforms), although the growth there is near zero, so I won’t really focus on them unless something major changes.
BayTek Unveils Willy Crash Mini
Willy Crash is a videmption game that was unveiled last year, a game that took on the appeal of extreme stunts and virtual bodily injury to play for tickets. Now, street operators that were interested in the game, but maybe didn’t have the space or the budget for that version should be pleased to hear that a Mini version of the game is now available.
Jdevy, who sent me this, also made an interesting point about one background detail worth noting. Notice that the game room features nothing but BayTek products – excepting one game (maybe two, as there is a redemption game in the back that I’ve not seen before). That would be Surfin Surfari from Team Play that we talked about a little over a month ago. Unless I originally mistook that for a Bay Tek game, but maybe there’s something more there between the two companies that has been blooming behind the scenes?
Jurassic Park LE In Action
Our friend Nick at Arcade Hunters has a bunch of footage of the LE model for Stern’s Jurassic Park. These just barely started shipping out, as the company first focused on producing and shipping Pro models:
A Loaded Exa Board
Curious as to what the new Exa-Arcadia board looks likw with all of the cartridge ports occupied? Well here you go.
いよいよ出撃します#ＥＸＡ基板 pic.twitter.com/mUKVECe9Ob
— exA-Arcadia社長 (@exaarcadiaceo) September 18, 2019
There was also this shot that was shared on the Arcade Otaku forums that shows a slightly different daughterboard configuration. I enhanced the contrast so that you can see it better. This one seems to have a smaller/different graphics card than the above; the above having what looks like an I/O card of some kind in there. Either way, we see that there’s support for USB 3.0, Display Port, DVI, VGA and JVS I/O boards. It’s also even smaller than Type X2 boards.
Some Japanese arcade sales numbers
We rarely come across arcade sales numbers, especially for titles that come out of Japan. But sometimes the information finds it’s way online, as it did in this tweet by John Andersen. That’s quite the drop between sequels on Double Dragon, but not entirely surprising. Sequels aren’t always guaranteed to emulate the success of the first, and when DD first came along, there wasn’t much like it. That meant that the rest of the series suffered from it’s own success.:
"Exciting Hour" 10,000 arcade games sold.
"Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun" 7000 arcade games sold and 360,000 Famicom games sold.
"Double Dragon" 20,000 arcade games sold.
"Double Dragon II" 8,000 arcade games sold.
"Super Dodge Ball" 8000 arcade games and 500,000 Famicom carts sold. https://t.co/p7r0m2lC2N— John Andersen (@JohnAndersen21) September 19, 2019
#InTheHunt Arcade Road Trip!
With the various online friends I have who are involved in the arcade business, I frequently see posts about road trips to go and pick up games. I’ve done it before too, although it’s infrequent, at best. I also have generally kept the trip under 100 miles. But, where I moved my Neo Geo MVS cabinet into a private location to operate, I’ve had a lot of people asking what happened to it (particularly “Where’s the King of Fighters?”).
I mentioned that to a friend this week while we were wokring on some games at the said location and he found a Neo Geo listed on Facebook Marketplace. It was located in Fruita, CO (which is just outside of Grand Junction), so I asked for some quotes – but I didn’t come across anything reasonable, since they all wanted it to be paletted, and the seller didn’t have the means to do so. Even if he did, it would have cost around $350-400; but since he didn’t, I was probably looking at $500-$600. Or, I could rent a truck and go pick it up myself, which I spent all day Friday doing.
Driving back to Utah with the game in the truck
While it can be a little stressful to go driving through winding canyons and facing the occasional wind bursts when you get into more open areas, the nice thing about driving through central/southern Utah is that the views are spectacular. It’s certainly more interesting that grabbing games in areas of the Great Plains (sorry guys 😛 ).
The perk of doing arcade road trips out West is enjoying the majestic Utah scenery. This also classifies as the furthest I've gone to get a game (a 2nd MVS that would've cost too much to ship) pic.twitter.com/mtllELmlPj
— Arcade Heroes – The Saviors of Coin-op Newsblog (@arcadeheroes) September 21, 2019
ZUNTATA’s TGS 2019 Appearance
Would it be safe to say that ZUNTATA is a Japanese gaming institution? I’d think so. Here’s the band’s most recent live appearance, from the Tokyo Game Show. Plenty of arcade music goodness here, although you have to jump to the 10 minute mark for it to start; there’s also a bit of discussion in Japanese at certain points. But jump around the line and you’ll find some tunes to listen to as they rock out (with an appearance of a keytar…although I think that some or much of it is “lipsynced?”):
I’m still waiting on some news from IAAPA Europe 19 and the AAMA Gala, so if anything significant comes through there, I’ll probably post about it during the week. There were a bunch of a LBR VE items at IAAPA Eu, but not much that is really “arcade” specific that I’ve seen, so I’ll defer to Kevin Williams on that.
Let’s end with some fun Metal Slug cosplay; also a note that I’ll have a story on another up-and-coming indie arcade game at the beginning of next week!
https://twitter.com/m_orange_cos/status/1173114798407442433
