Newsbytes: The Site Is Back; MaxiTune 6RR Release Date; New Games For Asia; D&B Update & More

Greetings and welcome to Arcade Heroes. This Newsbytes post is made to catch us up on some arcade news from around the world, but due to some backend issues with the website here, I’ve fallen behind. Let me address that really quick:

We’re Back!

Apologies for the recent site errors and downtime – I’ve had to upgrade some things to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, but there were some obstacles in that regard, some of which came from some not-so-helpful customer service from my registrar. Fortunately, that is all passed and now the site should be running without a hitch for the foreseeable future – although that said, I have come across posts where images aren’t showing up despite showing up in the media server, so I’m not sure what that’s about. Either way, thanks for sticking with us!

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6RR Release Date (And Maximum Tune 5DX+ Updates)

Let’s get back into the rush of things with some news on Bandai Namco Amusements’ Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series (just known as Maximum Tune here in North America). First, a release date has been announced for the latest build of the game, 6RR, which is set to launch on December 22nd. Note that outside of imports, this is intended just for Japan/Asia/Oceania sales territories and not North America.

For North America, we’re looking at Maximum Tune 5DX+’s launch, which has been previously discussed on the site. While this hasn’t been given an exact release date yet, I’ve placed my order for an upgrade kit, and here’s what my distributor told me (paraphrasing): “The kits are just boxes which will include the artwork and other materials needed to upgrade. You’ll likely be getting the kits on the week of the 19th, but Namco said that the kits will not be activated until the first week of January. We’ll keep you posted.”

This activation deals with the online nature of the game, so it looks like BNA is wanting to get the kits out to the various interested buyers, then once they have them in hand, will activate the game on a certain day. If that changes or more concrete launch date details come along, I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Taito Releases Tetote x Connect In Japan

H/T to Kieran May for the tip. It’s not been a secret that the arcade business in Japan has been in dire straights for the past two years now, with various manufacturers pausing their developments or outright canceling them and closing up their arcade divisions. It seemed like Taito might be in the latter boat, but surprisingly they launched a new rhythm game back on the 1st by the name of Tetote x Connect.

First revealed at the JAEPO 2020 show, this game would have you dancing with a virtual idol to different J-Pop songs. Originally they were promoting one of those idols to be the popular Hatsune Miku, but she is absent (I think, I’m not an expert on the character and her different appearances 😛 Feel free to correct me if she’s the pink/blue-haired gal below) in the most recent promo trailer:

Speaking of rhythm games, Konami’s Dancerush Stardom has been cloned. This Yuto Games company has been promoting a ton of new games all over certain social media channels as of late and has either cloned or purchased the old InJoy Motion catalog.

Wahlap Posts A Video of Crazy Rafting

Also on the subject of China, Wahlap has been in the news some lately with their Asia release of Asphalt 9 Legends, but at a recent tradeshow, they also promoted a new rafting game by the name of Crazy Rafting. This takes the idea of Namco’s old Rapid River and presents it in a more modern engine, while also throwing dinosaurs into the mix, where something like a T-Rex can snatch you and you have to use the paddles to shake it off. This wasn’t at IAAPA so I’m not sure if we’ll ever see it here.

Twin Tiger Shark Released

First mentioned back in January of this year, the love letter to the old Toaplan arcade shooters of ages past is now shipping out to customers. This plugs into an existing JAMMA arcade cabinet, where you can enjoy it in all of its STG glory. I’ve seen a few backers post about receiving theirs; Not sure if you can order one apart from having backed it. If you have one, what do you think about it?

Incredible Technologies Promotes Arcade Collection

It wasn’t at IAAPA, but IT has recently posted a video to show off their upcoming Arcade Collection game, giving us a more complete look at a piece that was only teased about previously. Designed as a kit, if you have an IT Showcase cabinet (which has been the cabinet that they’ve sold most of their games in for the past 14 years or so), then seems to me that this one is a no-brainer. An extra bonus is that they’ve remastered the graphics for more modern monitors. Check it out below; Game page is here.

Things Are Going Well Over At Dave & Busters

One nice thing about an arcade company being public is that they publish status reports for investors to look at. This helps us know exactly how things are going, and in a spot of positive news, things are going pretty well for Dave & Busters as of late, according to their 3rd quarter financial report.

If you don’t want to go over that, Jdevy posted a summary on Discord:

• New stores & store renovations are in the works, although they may be closing one underperforming location.
• They are grabbing a Transformers VR piece. I only know of one, which was the Transformers: Battle Arena by Meta4 Interactive, seen at IAAPA (I haven’t published a video of that yet, but will likely post soon)
• They will be doing a Summer of Games promo in 2022 once again. What those games will be have not been revealed by the company yet.

For one negative thing, it does appear that the inflation that’s been affecting pretty much everything lately (took my family out to eat last week and I was floored by how much the bill cost – was twice what it was in the past) is also affecting them and game prices, per users on the Dave & Busters Reddit forum. To be fair, I imagine that ops and arcade chains everywhere are raising prices, so I doubt it’s just D&B. I haven’t heard of what anyone else is doing though, apart from this (Thanks to liamc for the link)

How A Blind Gamer Plays Games

H/T to Kieran May for the link.

In the past, I posted a Facebook post from one of our loyal readers, Aaron Danvers-Jukes, who described his journey into arcade gaming even though he is blind. I’ve heard stories of other gamers who love to play games even though they cannot see them, and here’s a video showing one Michael Espinoza and how he manages to enjoy fighting games despite being unable to see them. I put the link above just in case it doesn’t embed for you below.

What’s The Worst Arcade Game You’ve Put A Coin Into?

While arcades usually avoid having truly bad games show up – they tend to be rigorously tested and have to show that they can earn before being produced – there are still some that have slipped through the cracks. There are a few terrible games in the 70s (although some you cannot rely on emulation/simulation to properly reproduce and you can only experience them on an original cabinet), but even in the beloved 80s and 90s there were some bad ones made. Here, YouTuber John Hancock goes over 5 titles he finds as bad, but of course this sort of thing varies. For me, one game that I really couldn’t stand, even after giving it a few chances, was Data East’s Mutant Fighter.

What are the worst arcade games you’ve played (old or new), in your opinion?

Headlines

Nolan Bushnell Talks The Early Days Of Arcades

Scientific Study Shows Little To No COVID Infection Risk At Movie Theaters – Great indoor ventilation is the key (a thought for arcades to implement too)

Nu Game Arcade Closes – Right after an expansion too, really sorry to hear this

GENDA Taking Over Sega Arcade Locations In Taiwan – I do have another Location Watch post to go up soon, hang tight

Retro Raccoons Soon Adding A 1-Player Mode

A Blast To The Japanese Arcade Past

Spooky Smashers Unveiled – I hope to get into more details on this one later this week

People Are Really Getting Into Midway’s The GRID

F1 Champ Alain Prost Enjoying Some 90s Sega Arcade Games

Now that the site issues are settled, I hope to also get to the last IAAPA post; I still have a few more videos to do there, but I’ve gone through the bulk of it. Here’s the latest of those. I can’t recall if I mentioned it, but ShouTime had mentioned at IAAPA that the latest game updates now had all of their games running at incredibly low input lag, making it so that it’s about as good as you can get without using a CRT. Axel City 2 will launch next year: