Welcome to another exciting edition of Newsbytes, although the past couple of weeks have been a tad slow on news like this to discuss, so I skipped it last week.
It’s also “Small Business Saturday,” a day to focus on the small businesses which still employ millions of people. Not all arcades are open yet, but for those that are, they are just as capable – if not more so – as keeping things clean and safe as any Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or Costco (all of which I’ve seen just as packed and busy with customers as they were pre-pandemic, while small businesses have been ignored, or not allowed to be open). They really need help, so please give them some love if you can.
exA-Arcadia Celebrates Their First Year In Operation
As of the 27th of November, newcomer exA-Arcadia can say that they’ve been on the market for a year now, as that date marked the initial Japanese operation of their EXA board along with Aka & Blue Type-R. They’ve been one company that has kept some arcade news flowing this year, releasing 12 titles over the period, with Cave’s DoDonPachi True Death EXA Label launching this coming Monday. As I have hinted at a few times, they have a lot more to come next year.
To celebrate the milestone, the company has launched a new – and final – update for Aka & Blue, which brings several enhancements to the table thanks to a major update in the game engine (Unity). Owners of an A&B cart will need to send it into exA for the upgrade; US customers will send it within the US, now that they have a facility in CA that can handle such things.
They also have opened up their first branded location called CLUB EXA, which is being done in conjunction with World Game Circus in Tokyo. If you really want to experience all that the exA has to offer, then this is the place to go as they have everything available for the platform available to place. That includes Aka & Blue Type-R running on a 4k screen, a 4-player set up for both Lightning Knights and Nippon Marathon Turbo, all of the different STGs and fighting games, and presumably will have many other titles to enjoy as they launch.
Also speaking of an upcoming exA game, an update on the arcade version of Noisz ArcCoda was posted to Twitter this week, offering up some details on what will make the coin-op version different.
Jersey Jack Games Now On Scrobit
I mentioned Scorbit on a previous Newbytes, although it was extensive enough that I should’ve made it it’s own post. If you are using the Scorbit service to track scores on your pinball machines, then you can now add Jersey Jack Pinball machines to the mix, and without needing to add any Scorbit hardware or paying any fees. Sweet deal!
Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland Was On Test in Texas
I guess this wasn’t an “official” reveal, despite being streamed to the world via Twitch, but in case you’re curious about the first game from deeproot pinball (yes, they insist on spelling it like that, without caps), then this should satiate your curiosity for now. It is a great looking game and I love that touchscreen concept with everything that it can do – although I really hope that it’s capable of taking some direct, hard punches without breaking, as people will slam it like they do the glass some times. Other than that, it does look like fun and the animations are great too.
Oh, before we leave pinball news items, Stern has a TMNT pinball topper, but like the Jurassic Park one, it looks pretty flat for what they’ll likely charge for it (that said, all of Stern’s toppers sell out despite being fairly basic/lame, so I guess people don’t mind on the price side).
New Trailer For Darius Cozmic Revelation
Coming to the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation 4 this February. More HD remasters of arcade classics, including the elusive G*Darius, which so often gets overlooked in these kinds of compilations
Looking For A Shiitake Mushroom?
Thanks to Oga-shi for the tip on this one. There’s a crane machine for that in Japan, as shown by this tweet. There’s one that offers onions too…
静岡のホットなエンターテイメント
＿人人人人人人人人人人人人＿
＞ しいたけキャッチャー ＜
￣Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y￣ pic.twitter.com/dlOOILotjw— キカイ / 静岡系絵描き (@kikai_RGB) November 24, 2020
Twin Galaxies Counter-Sues Billy Mitchell
And the saga I’m entirely bored with (only having to mention it because you’re supposed to on an arcade news blog) continues as a game of two expert Pong players going back and forth… Wake me up when there’s actually a verdict.
Checking Out The Arcade Sidekick App
I thought about doing this for the Arcade Heroes channel, but since I have two clubs that are specific to my locations, I did it for them instead. Regardless, I’d still recommend grabbing this app for tracking scores and making friends.
We’ll end with this huge stretch for being “arcade news,” seeing the improvement in TRON Legacy’s de-aging CG by using deepfake tech from today. I remember the original being knocked, but it was pioneering the technique, where they did a fine job on it with the computing power of the time. That said, if Disney ever remasters the movie, they should use this:
…Really? You have to send back the cart for updates? Are you kidding me? Look, not having a mandatory internet connection is one thing but not using it AT ALL to distribute OTA updates is absolutely crazy. Exa has to do better than this, that’s just ridiculous.
Considering that NESICA had it’s entire library leaked online due to connected servers, this is about the only method that will keep the roms from falling to piracy.
If your security is good then it doesn’t matter if your server is leaked since no one can crack them.
If your security sucks then someone can go buy an Exa game kit, crack the encryption, and dump it. No need to go snooping through a server.
And Exa’s security is rock solid. I know who worked on the security infrastructure for Exa and his latest work on Pump it Up XX remains largely uncracked.
I’m not saying distribute full games online (though that would be nice, no one said digital distribution MUST mean revshare.) but for god’s sake don’t make people ship out their kits for a patch.
Not putting patches up online is not helping security, it just sucks for operators especially in these pandemic times when everything is backed up in the mail.
I get what you’re saying.
It always bugs the hell out of me whenever I read about someone who imported a setup and when it came out to newer editions or some big patch upgrades (SSFIV: Arcade Edition *shudder), these japanese companies act as if they really don’t give a squat for your investment when you’re overseas.