Newsbytes: Making TMNT Pin; Spitfire Revealed; OutRun 1up & More

It’s been yet another crazy week, but regardless your political persuasion, arcades are still there to provide for some escapism. It does seem that a lot of people are still talking about the Sega situation, but there is still some dubious info out there – just a reminder that their operations have been sold off to another company, some resources going towards console development. As it currently stands, Sega Amusements is still around and continues to work on new arcade games, some of the newest ones hoping to release Q1 2021.

Anyways, here are some quick pieces of news from the industry:

Stern Pinball Releases Making of TMNT Video

In case you wanted some gnarly behind-the-scenes info:

and this isn’t news, but boutique pinball maker Spooky Pinball posted this fun video this week:

What Was Midway’s Unreleased Spitfire Like?

Way back in 2013, I published a post about unreleased arcade games developed by Midway. A couple of former Midway employees including Brian Colin and Steve Ranck contributed to the post, but over time we’ve had other Midway employees chime in about projects they’ve worked on. Perhaps there is enough information out there to do Part #3 – in fact, I’d love to hear from any of you with whatever details you’d be happy to provide so we can preserve the memory of these games, even if the games themselves have been lost to time.

Anyways, here is Earl Vickers, programmer for the mysterious Spitfire that is briefly mentioned on the post, giving us more details than I had ever seen about this visceral early 80’s arcade game that never was:

Also speaking about 80s Midway games, there are additional endings to The Spectre Files: Deathstalker, although hard to tell if Brian was being sarcastic here…

New Redemption Piece Out Of China: Slide Up

I’d never heard of Super Wing before, but they appear to be a typical amusement game manufacturer that one occasionally finds in China. They do have a few video pieces such as Golden Adventure, although most of their video stuff involves water video games. They posted on the AH Facebook group about a new redemption game called Slide Up, which looks like it’s going for the same kind of gameplay you find with All-In and Power Roll. Here’s a pic, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this find it’s way here through a company like Coastal Amusements, eventually.

More From The Kung Fu Vs.Karate Champ

Earlier this week I posted about the release of Vritra Hexa, and took the opportunity to post a direct capture video from the updated version of The Kung Fu Vs. Karate Champ. The initial release version came with only one difficulty mode (what I like to call Japan Challenge, with aggressively hard CPU characters, but Japanese audiences prefer it that way), where with my mid-range fighting game skills I found it difficult to pass the first character. Most of my customers did too, so it was very welcome to get this update that added Easy and Normal modes. I was able to complete the game in the other video I did for my arcade business channel, but this one that I uploaded to Arcade Heroes is of the Bruce Lee type character not quite making it to the end.

Arcade1Up Announces OutRun

For $500, you can get a licensed Arcade 1up racing cabinet that includes OutRunners and Power Drift, but it won’t have the Ferrari license. If you own a retro arcade business, do you think that Arcade 1up helps or hurts your business, especially now? I hear mixed ideas on it…some say that no, there’s no effect since the hardware is not comparable to the real thing, but on the other, I’ve had customers come in, mention A1up, not buy tokens because they have it at home.

Repair Tips: Talking JAMMA Harnesses

From our friends at Arcade Repair Tips:

VR Gambling?

I don’t know what the future looks like for Virtual Reality post-pandemic, but that isn’t stopping all developments – including its use in gambling. I haven’t seen anything recent in trying to do VR slots/cards/etc, but this article from a gambling fan site does offer up some suggestions as to how it can be done. I think they run into the same challenges as found in the amusement business, and now you particularly have the added dimensions of people being super germ conscious. What do you think, is this the next big thing or next big flop?

Metal Slug 6 Comes To The Dreamcast

I guess if you really love Metal Slug 6 & Sega’s Dreamcast, and don’t want to pick up the MS6 port that was on the Wii (or the arcade original on Atomiswave), there’s this. If you ask me, I’d prefer more Dreamcast to Atomiswave ports…

Polycade Eyes The Console Business

I wish the Polycade crew the best of luck, but to be perfectly honest, another PC-as-a-console is going to be a super hard sell to the current market of crowded options. In addition to the Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and Switch, you also have the PC with a plethora of options and box solutions, smartphones/tablets, Raspberry Pi, Google and Amazon with their game streaming options, UNIS’ new $179 exergaming console, Arcade 1up and other similar competitors, then other New Retro consoles like the Intellivision Amico and the Atari VCS. Looking at the Polycade 2600, it’s closer to the VCS in how it seems to be aiming (consolized PC). If they can get some exclusive titles on board though(something the VCS lacks entirely), then they could have something, otherwise, I dunno.

That’s all for today, have a good weekend.