Hello user, and welcome to another thrilling edition of Newsbytes. This is a curated collection of news from the amusement (arcade & pinball) world that we run every or every other weekend here on Arcade Heroes. We did miss it last week, but fortunately enough has accumulated to give it a go this week, so let’s get to it!
Mike’s Arcade Fundraiser
This is a story I had meant to get to by itself, but fortunately, it didn’t need my signal boost to surpass the fundraising goal thanks to the community at large. From the GoFundMe page, here’s what happened:
Just after 5:30 p.m. on Apr. 21 the Circleville, Marysville and Junction fire departments responded to a fire inside a business on Main Street in Circleville.
According to Piute County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Whittaker, it appears the fire started in a woodshop in the back of Mike’s Arcade where the business restored arcade machines.
After speaking with Mike today, it seems his entire building was a total loss, he will have to set up a temporary location and start over.
The arcade community knows how valuable our vendors are to us to keep the arcade industry going. Please step up & donate what you can to help Mike’s Arcade rebuild. If you cannot donate, a share is just as helpful!
Mike’s Arcade is an arcade parts business that just so happens to be located in Utah where I’m at (Circleville is a bit remote though – never been there myself and it would be a few hours drive from where I’m at). Another arcade parts company by the name of Twisted Quarter put this together; If any of you out there have had to buy parts for arcade machines before, then you’ve probably done business with one or both companies. While they have surpassed the fundraising goal, rebuilding from a total loss can take more than $10k to do, so if you are willing & able, you can still donate to them here.
First Look At Adrenaline’s Hungry Hungry Hippos
As summer approaches and the US looks to re-open fully (restrictions continue to vary depending on the state, although it sounds like most places are allowing arcades to operate now), more new games will be coming our way. One company that has been rather busy as of late is Adrenaline Amusements. We’ve covered a few different game tests of theirs in recent times, including Twister and Drakons, and word on the street has been that Dave & Busters is looking at going all-out this summer with several new games for their locations. One of those mentioned was Hungry, Hungry Hippos, based upon the classic kids game of the same name. Here are some renders from the game manual, where it mentions that the players sit on the hippos, then use the levers to chomp at the marbles. It’s a clever way to do it although as an op, the only thing I wonder/worry about with heavily mechanical games like this is reliability:
Amusement Expo 2021 Update
I’ve been running some polls around various places on the net to see what operator interest is in regards to Amusement Expo 2021, and so far the results haven’t been too surprising. Since my social media on both Twitter and LinkedIn have an international reach, a lot of respondents from overseas say that no, they won’t be attending. What I’ve really been curious about are US operators – since there are no intrastate restrictions on travel, will they go? I posted a poll in a closed Facebook operator group, where a vast majority of ops there are in the US, and so far the results are a little more even between Yes & No.
While I haven’t heard many manufacturers mention the show yet, one who did this week was exA-Arcadia, making official their presence there on their website.
exA-Arcadia will showcase both 2 player cabinets and 4 player cabinets especially designed for both FEC’s and single site locations at Booth #338. Over 16 games will be on display within the cabinets. This will be the company’s initial exposure into the North American market at a major trade show Paul Jacobs, Head of Sales – North America, along with other company representatives, will be on hand to interact with prospective customers, explain the unique features of the exA-Arcadia system, and answer any questions from attendees. Look forward to more announcements and an on hands preview for showgoers.
I also have it on good authority that a new game & exA partner will be introduced at the show, but we’ll have to wait and see who that is.
Beyond that, most manufacturers will have a presence there, looking at the latest floor map. Raw Thrills (Betson), Sega, Bandai Namco, Incredible Technologies, Stern Pinball, ICE, Adrenaline, LAI Games, Triotech, Bay Tek, Touch Magix, Coastal, Andamiro USA, Elaut, Smart Ind., The Really Big Crane Co., IGS (via Amusement Source Intl) and VRSenal are all there, among others. Yeah, it is a smaller show and some names are missing like American Pinball and Barron Games, but apart from exA-Arcadia bringing new stuff, I know for sure that Minecraft Dungeons Arcade, Golden Tee PGA Tour Golf, The Mandalorian, and Retro Raccoons will be there. I’m not sure if Sega will bring Mission: Impossible, but I’d assume that they would, and there’s a chance that this would be the time where they finally unveil Men In Black. Either way, it won’t be devoid of new stuff to see and play.
Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade Update
Thanks to both Wahlap and Amusement Source International for sending me these clips, showing more of the upcoming app-to-arcade racer. This will launch in China first, and if there’s enough interest in the US, it will find its way over here.
New Golden Tee PGA Tour Video
Golden Tee also put out this new video for their upcoming Golden Tee PGA Tour; Please note that in the last Newsbytes, I erroneously stated that Golden Tee LIVE 2021 had been discontinued, as one of their distributors had told me that such was the case, then one of their Twitter accounts snarkily set the record straight. You gotta love intra-company communications!
Namco Museum of Art: Steel Gunner
It has been a little bit since the last Namco Museum of Art video, and fans of their 1991 arcade game Steel Gunner are in for a treat with this latest piece. I didn’t know that the game was originally going to be called Metal Protector, then Crasher before Namco settled on SG. This seems like a cool IP to resurrect if they were looking to do so anytime soon. To anyone who understands these videos (which are all in Japanese), do they give credit to the artists at all?
Headlines
Not a lot of these this week, but enough to maybe kill a few minutes
New Secret Discovered In Mortal Kombat
The Story Behind Konami’s Gyruss (Japanese)
Some Pics Of The Original Centipede Design Docs
Another Day, Another Exposé On The Secrets Of Rigged Cranes
That’s all for today, have a great weekend!
