Hello, and welcome to Newsbytes, a weekend post where we discuss various pieces of arcade news that usually don’t warrant a post all by themselves.
Arcade Heroes Site News
I’ll get this out of the way first – I think I will be canceling the mobile/PC arcade trivia game that I’ve been working on for the past few years. There are a couple more things I’ll try before completely giving up on it, but I was using one of those Trivia Kits that you can purchase on the Unity store and after it was “updated,” the game just refuses to import questions from XML. While I did get an answer from the dev about it, it didn’t fix the issue and after several attempts to get it to work by trying everything I could think of, it just won’t post questions, so it’s worthless. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to code and make something myself; Until then, this project is indefinitely on hold.
In other news, I just set up a new server on a discussion service called Guilded. At first, I thought it was just a straight-up Discord clone, but after poking around it for a bit, I found some interesting differences. One of those is that it allows you to operate forums! We’ve tried forums here on AH a few times, but they didn’t work out for one reason or another. Maybe this will or it won’t, but I am liking how it works so far. It’s free and easy to sign up to, so give it a shot if you’re interested.
ZOMBEEZ: A Killer Queen Remix Announced For Steam, Arcades
Looking for some Killer Queen-themed platforming, with a side of hack ‘n slashing? Then ZOMBEEZ could be the game for you. The very end of the trailer says “Coming to arcades in 2022,” but we’ll have to wait and see how that rendition will be.
Big Buck Regional Series
I should have mentioned this earlier, but different regional events have been taking place for Big Buck Hunter, as they close in on the 2021 Big Buck Hunter World Championship tournament. The next one is being held on Sep. 11th in Oregon; a few have already completed around the world. If you are interested, then you likely have been following BBH on social media to find out when the next event is taking place; But this is also the last weekend to place in the top 128 for the final challenge, so if you’re interested, get in on it now!
Playing Vritra Hexa v1.1.0 & exA & Round1
The side-scrolling shmup Vritra Hexa was recently given a software update, and after receiving it, I gave it some play time. The principal content addition is the Pink Vajra (vajra’s are the in-game weapons). I also think it might have added some new enemies, although not 100% sure about that. Here’s the caravan mode; I’ll be posting a full play on my Arcade Galactic channel soon:
Speaking of the exA, this week saw the commencement of the exA-Arcadia special event at the Round1USA Puente Hills at the City of Industry, CA. Most feedback I’ve been seeing about it has been on Twitter, where it sounds like there’s a pretty strong shmup/STG community in that area, with most of those games getting the love. One AH reader, Mr.JBRPG, filmed the units, showing some gameplay
If you got a chance to play, what did you think?
Space Jam Comes To LBE VR
Want to play virtual basketball? Then Arcadia.tv is looking to make that happen with their new and licensed foray into location-based entertainment VR with Space Jam: A New Legacy. Per this video below, you grab the virtual basketballs and run around an arena shooting hoops and making dunks for points. While the description in the video mentions that their design makes “arena-sized video games possible,” this isn’t the first time that sort of thing has been done in this business, but that’s ok. Would you play this if you came across it at an FEC?
Frontgrid Launches An Attendantless Version Of ParadropVR
Have you ever wanted to experience paragliding, but without the risks of the real thing? Then there’s ParadropVR by Frontgrid. I believe that they were at an IAAPA in the past, although with 80ish different companies showing off something VR related at IAAPA 2019, I missed them, if they were there. Either way, the versions they have shown in the past required a lot of space and an attendant; Now they have something more ‘arcadified’ that can operate without one. Not sure what pricing is on these, but perhaps we’ll see it at IAAPA 2021.
New Motion Sphere Model Shown At Senna Day
For a simulator that eschews a headset in favor of a dome screen – and a 360-deg motion cabinet, there’s Motion Sphere. We’ve mentioned it before, but I haven’t heard anything from them in quite some time, until this video popped up this week. This appears to show a custom model of the game which was designed to celebrate Ayrton Senna’s first championship win. Most of this video is a Brazilian interviewer asking questions of people (in Portuguese), but all they’re doing is discussing this and “Senna Day.” Still, there are some shots showing it in action; This particular version was designed to accurately recreate Senna’s first win, so you can see what it would have felt like to be in the car with him when that happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qrJEMMASHw
Preserving A Pre-Video Era Arcade Machine: Computer Quiz
Interesting timing as I can my own trivia game 😛 Fascinating history here
Indie Arcade Wave Chats With Decades Arcade
Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat Made Funny
If you aren’t familiar with Rifftrax or Mystery Science Theater 3000, then this might appear odd, but if you like jokes being made at the expense of bad cinema, then they should be up your alley. One of their latest efforts has been to make fun of the 1995 film adaptation of Mortal Kombat. Since that’s arcade related, here we gooooo (this is just a sample of some jokes, they riff the whole thing as an MP3 you can buy and play as you watch the movie):
And some Street Fighter. I do admit that I’ve thought about doing my own “rifftrack” of some arcade related movies
Headlines
[Non-Arcade] Vehicle Showcase For Cruis’n Blast Switch
7 Songs Added For StepManiaX Update #19
Valley-Dynamo’s New Jet Pong Puts On A Light Show
A Hotel Just For Virtua On? Why Of Course One Exists – H/T Arcade Belgium
Arcade Legend VR Is Coming To The Perth Games Festival 2021
The Bartop Arcade Machine Of The Future?
NeverAwake, A 2022 Shmup From the Developers of Vritra Hexa – No word on whether or not this will see an arcade release
Revenge of Death Adder Is Now 29
Remaking Part Of The Light Cycle Scene From TRON
Let’s end with pinball logic…or superstition. You decide!
