Newsbytes: Big Buck World Champion; IAAPA EU; Moon Patrol; MaiMai Universe; & More

Welcome to October, and the first Newsbytes of the month. Hopefully, arcade news picks up a bit from where it’s been over the summer, although it’s hard to say what to expect given the continued issues going on out there.

Of course, the arcade biz has a lot of games that fit in perfectly with the theme of the month, and I posted a full capture of Sega’s House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn to celebrate. I’ve also got a capture of The Walking Dead already up for anyone interested:

Now, onto news:

And The 2021 Big Buck Hunter World Champion Is…

Drew Baldock of Canada, who nabbed the $20,000 grand prize after an intense battle with Chris Fream. Congrats to all the winners…this was quite the event. You can catch up on it with the Big Buck Hunter Twitch stream.

IAAPA EU 2021 Wrap-Up

The IAAPA Expo Europe 2021 event was held this week in Barcelona, where I heard some mixed things about it all. Attendance was down compared to 2019 when it was held last (“over 8,500” was the number reported; Was around 15,900 in 2019), although reports said a lot of big buyers were around. I know of one major FEC op who flew over there to attend and sounds like he was happy with it, from what he’s told me. New products that we’ve discussed on the blog were shown, including Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade, Jet Blaster, and Skill Shooter, but there were also some Augmented Reality and simulator concepts on hand, from what I’ve also seen.

I placed some pics I found on Linked and Twitter to this YouTube post, if you’re interested; There was also this brief video posted by DOF Robotics that shows their VR ride (which I’ve filmed before, but this has an updated look to it, taking a not-so-subtle page from Stargate)

JAEPO 2022 Has Been Canceled

In Japan, their biggest tradeshow has just been canceled. This is a bad sign for the Japanese arcade industry, which has been hit a bit harder than the US side of things in terms of the pandemic. Recently, JAIA members voted to cancel the JAEPO event, although at this time it is unknown if they will try an online-only format (by what I heard, that was a big flop). Here’s the news in Japanese; Bonus if you can find the guy asleep on the Zoom call:

Project Neon Tera Factory Update

It’s been a while since I’ve seen an update for this vertical scrolling shoot ’em up that’s in development for the Neo Geo MVS & AES, although it’s possible I just missed it the last time they posted something. Either way, this is looking better and better…

Playing The Moon Patrol Remake On Intellivision Amico

I’ve sort of been following the development of the Intellivision Amico since it was announced way back when with a number of arcade remakes piquing my interest for it. I don’t have any nostalgic attachment to the brand, since I never had an INTV growing up and didn’t know anyone who did, but I did have a few INTV developed games on the Atari 2600.

Yesterday, an event was held not too far from me where the Amico appeared, along with several games. While it wasn’t intended for the event, I was able to check out Moon Patrol, but as I’ve found out in the aftermath, there seems to be a lot of love or hate for this system. I really have paid little to no attention to the behind-the-scenes and all that which has gone on, I just wanted to share my thoughts on what I experienced, so take that for whatever it’s worth.

MaiMai Upgraded To Universe

H/T Kieran May for this one. The latest version of Sega’s rhythm game MaiMai (aka “The Washing Machine Game”) is out now and is called MaiMai Universe. It’s an upgrade to the existing MaiMai cabinets, with new artwork and more songs to please fans. If you’re interested, here’s a 5 hour steam of the game in action from World Game Circus in Japan:

Pinball Code Updates

This week saw some code updates for a couple of pinball machines out there – Stern’s The Mandalorian and Spooky’s Halloween. The Mandalorian did add an interesting new mode to it called Challenge Mode that is fun to play, but only go for it if you’ve got the skills. Spooky’s Halloween also got a major update…since it’s more than just bug fixes and polish on both games, here you go for some video action

Headlines

Lyman Sheats and Josh Sharpe Are Working On The Cactus Canyon Remake

Dave & Busters CEO Brian Jenkins Retires – No replacement named yet

The Stinger Report (Amusement Industry Newsletter) Has Moved To A Paid Subscription Model

Atari Games’ Ed Logg Talks Arcades & His History

2020: Toilet Paper Rolls In Crane Machines 2021: Gas Cans (Petrol in the UK) In Crane Machines

Nu Game Arcade Opens Their Expansion

Forget Fake Sealed Pack-In Console Games, Hello Rare Arcade Data Cards

The Street Fighter II Homebrew On The NES Is Looking Fantastic

Let’s end with this clever insurance ad starring Ryu from Street Fighter, where I guess using humor in selling insurance is a thing overseas too…(this has English subtitles)

That’s all for this weekend, thanks for reading!