This past week was probably the busiest arcade news cycle that we’ve seen since March, but that doesn’t prevent us from having another Newsbytes, a curation of quick arcade news items from around the world. Let’s hop to it!
Super Nintendo World
In case you missed the special Nintendo Direct yesterday, here you go. Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto takes you on a 15-minute tour of the first major Nintendo theme park, which technically does fit into the theme of the blog here, being out-of-home entertainment/amusement. One thing I liked about this park is that they’ve essentially designed it to be like a gigantic game, which if you stretch the definition, you could imply that it’s the world’s largest arcade game…
That said, to make it extra cool, they should have an actual arcade game room full of nothing but Nintendo made/branded arcade machines (Donkey Kong, Radar Scope, Nintendo VS., Luigi’s Mansion Arcade, Cruis’n Blast, etc.). Maybe they could do so for the International versions that will be coming to other Universal Studios parks that he mentions at the end.
DoDonPachi True Death EXA Label LE Units Shipping
This past week has been a very busy one for exA-Arcadia in Japan, as they’ve been shipping out a bunch of units to buyers. Among the shipments have been kits for the highly anticipated DoDonPachi True Death EXA Label, and per this tweet as well as this one, some users have received their Limited Edition exA consoles with the DDP theme.
Stay tuned this next week as we’re going to have more exA news to share, including the announcement of a new game! Until then, you can enjoy some more direct footage from my most recent exA acquisition, Vritra Hexa; Or, if you’ve already seen that, then check out an almost out long capture of Super Battle Princess Madelyn from WGC:
Once Upon Atari
Last week I mentioned some arcade/gaming books, and here’s another one, although it probably has little to do with arcades. Once Upon Atari is the biography of Howard Scott Warshaw, one of Atari’s most famous game designers. He created Yars’ Revenge, Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark, and of course, the infamous E.T., all for the Atari 2600. If you need more game-related reading, then check it out!
About The Genesis Crest Cabinet…
Thanks to Keith B. for giving me a heads-up on this new cabinet from SegaSammy that needs a quick explanation. As the article at SegaBits currently says, it was assumed that the Genesis Crest would be a new arcade cabinet, but Kevin Williams confirmed that it is, in fact, a new cabinet platform for SegaSammy’s gambling/casino operations. Yes, the official page for this mentions “games” and “gaming” without any mention of gambling, but that’s because the casino sector has been using those terms in recent years since they carry a less problematic legal connotation with them. You also have “skill play” casino games now that further blurs the line and confuses people. But in a state like mine that outright bans such ‘gaming’ machines, I could not grab one of these.
You’ll also notice from the games page that the titles don’t look like your typical arcade titles, especially for such a snazzy cabinet platform. If you click on one of the games specifically though, say Mighty Diamonds, then you’ll see that these are 100% casino games – video slot titles.
If this were designed as an arcade machine, the configuration would be a bit different, the games would be totally different, and it’d be handled by Sega Amusements International instead of SSC.
Unboxing & Setup of A Big Buck Hunter Arcade 1up
[Thanks to Thrivid on the AH Discord for the tip] If you’ve been curious about the arrival of Big Buck Hunter to the Arcade 1up space, then you are in luck, and just in time for Christmas, as the “Buy Stuff Store” has posted an unboxing of the machine to Facebook. Unfortunately, Facebook video embeds don’t work well here, so here’s a link. It includes four Big Buck arcade titles: Big Buck Hunter, Safari, Open Season, and World. It’s definitely better with the machine riser, unless you just want it for little kids to play (or you set it on a table).
Cowabunga Color
The latest ColorDMD release slices its way to the Turtles, albeit not the new Stern one, but the Data East game from the 90s:
Dave & Busters: Adapting To Survive
They’ve been able to avoid declaring bankruptcy so far, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t out of the proverbial woods yet. I’ve seen some pretty dire news out there about a majority of small businesses being unable to pay their rents for December, and the cascade of closures from across different industries continues to have a ripple effect.
For what D&B is doing, you can read up on it all here; They are focusing on improving the efficiency of their kitchens by decreasing menu selection and adding more components to get food out faster, among other things. Only 90 of their 137 of their locations are open at present, with expectations that they may have to re-close some locations. We’ll keep an eye on it all as the situation slogs on.
How To Make An Origami Silverhawk
If you’re really a Darius fan, and enjoy origami, this one’s for you:
That’s all I managed to find for now – have a good weekend!
