Newsbytes: Eugene Jarvis Talks Cruis’n History; exA Updates; Miner 2049er Arcade;

Welcome to Newsbytes, a semi-regular weekend post that brings together news from around the world of arcades and pinball.

Eugene Jarvis Talks Cruis’n USA History

I’d been teasing this interview for a while and it was finally posted yesterday after Raw Thrills tried to fill my request on some Cruis’n USA development materials. Unfortunately, they were unable to locate anything, but that’s ok. While we spend a bit of time on Cruis’n USA (since that’s the game that got the ball rolling), he also talks plenty about Exotica and Blast. I think that there are also some things of interest for game developers here, where he discusses much of what went on in developing a game without any of the tools & libraries that exist today. Enjoy:

exA-Arcadia Posts New “How To Play” Videos For Lightning Knights & Akyrios EXA

Both are in Japanese, but if you are interested in an English “How-to” vid for Lightning Knights, I made one myself a while back. Here’s a link to the Akyrios vid.

And here’s the trailer for Rival Megagun XE. I was going to post this with the announcement of the game shipping, but that hasn’t happened as of this moment, so it won’t hurt to repeat.

Steve Ritchie Joins Jersey Jack Pinball

“The King of Flow” has left Stern and joined up with Jersey Jack Pinball, with LED Zepplin being Steve’s last design for Stern. It’ll probably be a while before whatever he’s working on is announced, as we’ve seen some other designers join up with the likes of companies like American Pinball and still no news on what they’re making. Of course, the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in that regard, with component shortages affects everyone in the realm of manufacturing.

The Lost Miner 2049er Arcade

Kids these days won’t have a clue what the heck Miner 2049er is, but some of you Gen Xer’s probably will. For those who don’t, it was originally created for the Atari 400/800 PC family, then was ported to a bunch of other systems like the Commodore 64, Atari 2600, ColecoVision & several others. The game was a single screen 2D platformer where you are a miner by the name of Bounty Bob, and your goal is to claim ground in a uranium mine. Simply walk over the ground to claim it, while collecting items and avoiding enemies. This is one that I played a bit growing up, it often being one of my go-to games to play when I broke the Atari out:

Back in those days, a few popular PC games made the jump to arcades, including titles like Lode Runner, Pitfall II, and Spelunker, but Bounty Bob never joined them. Turns out that he almost did after the discovery of a game marquee led a Miner2049er fan on a quest to find out if the marquee was real or fake. It is real, but at the moment it appears to be the only surviving artifact of the canceled game, which was in development by the obscure Nova Games of Canada (the only game of real note that they created was Intrepid).   I imagine that Miner 2049er probably would have looked vastly superior to the PC versions of the time – maybe the PCB for it still exists out there and can be recovered.

Have You Ever Reached Street Fighter II’s Secret Ending?

If not, then star player Daigo shows you how it’s done, by beating the game without losing a round:

Japanese Operator Promo Discovered For Namco’s Tower of Druaga

It seems we have quite a few Japanese videos today. Here’s an oldie, showing Namco’s promo for Tower of Druaga. I wonder how rare this game is here in the US.

If the embed doesn’t work, here’s the direct link.

I found a promotional Namco tape from the mid-80s, which I believe was used to demo games to arcade operators. Their salespitch for "The Tower of Druaga", in particular, is truly incredible. A must-watch. pic.twitter.com/4xyrz086fn

— Kaelan Ramos (@KaelanRamos) April 23, 2020

Headlines

Former Sega President Kenji Matsubara Is Now SNK’s CEO

Now Is The Time To Get Your Hotel For The Big Buck World Championship 2021 Event

August Content Update For StepManiaX

Spooky Pinball’s New Pinotaur Board Is Coming Along Nicely

One Place Where Chuck E. Cheeses Seems To Be Doing Well Right Now: Costa Rica [Story is in Spanish]

Japanese Arcade Game Importer Game Saru Shutting Down Indefinitely

Looking To Protect Your Mortal Kombat PCBs? Check Out Scanline City’s Cases – More games coming soon

The History Of TMNT: Turtles In Time Arcade

Embed Card Systems Turn 20

Now You Can Get A Pac-Man Themed Timex Watch

[Non-Arcade] Game Boy Candy Is A Thing

Let’s end with Space Harrier:

あまりにもくだらなくてボツにしようかと思った、ハリアーの建てもの探訪😂#アイロンビーズ #パーラービーズ#スペースハリアー pic.twitter.com/5FuyTE7XzO

— あつまれ！ものまねの森 (@ginchan00758) July 29, 2021