Welcome to Newsbytes, a curated look at arcade & pinball news from around the world and wrapped up into one post.
Enter The Gungeon: House of the Gundead Testing At PAX West
It sure has been an age since we last heard about Enter The Gungeon: House of the Gundead by Griffin Aerotech. In case you forgot or if you missed the news, this is a light-gun game that was announced back in the Summer of 2019, promising to bring a unique take on the popular console game to arcades. Griffin Aerotech themselves had previously released the shmup Skycurser, along with their own JAMMA-based platform Airframe to market, but this project was certainly the biggest that they had tackled. Sadly, the game had been delayed thanks to the pandemic and while I’ve tried to find out an update on it, there’s been nothing to share since two years ago – until today (direct link to the tweet in case it doesn’t embed for you)
“Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead” is testing at #PAXWest. People are feelin’ it (the guns rumble)! pic.twitter.com/q8MXchBcMa
— Griffin Aerotech (@griffinaerotech) September 3, 2022
Here’s the sideart (link)
The cabinet has certainly changed from the reveal announcement but no other info was shared on it that I can find. Hopefully things go well for this test and it finds testing at some real arcades soon – then launches. The official website is saying it’ll be available this year and you can pre-order it now if you like. What do you think about this game?
Astro Ninja Man EXA Now Up For Pre-Order
If you own an exA-Arcadia and want to grab a new game without spending a lot of money, then this new release will be for you. Based on the NES Homebrew game with some additional enhancements, this is a shmup that was edsigned to push the NES to it’s ultimate limits. US customers can pre-order here; European customers can from Red Sun Systems.
If you want to watch an hour long livestream from the game’s test, click here.
Fast & Furious Arcade Gets a High Score Page
Did you know that Raw Thrills has a high score tracking site? If you ever visit their website directly, then you should notice the tab that says “High Scores” on the right. Hit that up and you’ll see which games track scores using RT’s QR code system. JDevy noticed that they’ve now added their upcoming Fast & Furious game to the roster, also giving it the new title of Fast & Furious Arcade. No location is being reported yet so I imagine that these scores are from internal tests – or it is on location but after the techs set it up and tested the feature, no players have tried it yet.
Playbox Launches A 4-Player Model
At IAAPA 2021, I got to check out a new concept in ball toss gaming, the Playbox. The original model was designed for handling up to 6 players at once and features multiple games to choose from. The 6-player unit is quite large and now there’s a smaller model that will work out for locations that may not have the space or budget for it. Here’s a render; They will also be at IAAPA Expo Europe in a couple of weeks:
Here’s my footage of it at IAAPA 2021:
Sega & Komuse Testing Sync Pong
JDevy also spotted a new redemption game on test out there by Komuse and Sega called Sync Pong. He didn’t say where it was found, but he noticed that the game has a listing on Komuse’s website already, which is nice. This is another ball drop game but features three moving rings. My guess is that this will be showing up at IAAPA.
Spooky Pinball’s Total Nuclear Annihilation 2.0 Up For Pre-Order
Missed out on Spooky’s TNA machines when they launched a few years ago? Well demand for more has been there and the company is making more. The cost is a bit higher than the originals; Now they are $8995 plus freight (IIRC it was closer to $6k originally) but it does come with various upgrades as mentioned below. They are limited to 250 units though and 100 are already accounted for, so if you really want this, act fast.
Spiking Energy Costs In Europe Threaten Arcades (And Others)
I’ve been sort of following the news about skyrocketing electricity costs over in Europe but hadn’t seen some hard numbers on what people are facing until Kieran M. sent this story along of an arcade in the UK which is facing a £500k annual electricity bill.
I might need to do a video to discuss this as those who an interested in arcades often ask about electrical costs. It’s a difficult question to answer as every region and power company is going to charge different rates. That said, there is one thing mentioned in the story that shows why arcades in particular stand out – while these rising costs are affecting everyone, it affects arcades a great deal since they require a bit more electricity to operate than most businesses.
There are a number of factors causing these hikes, a major one for Europe being the Russia/Ukraine War, and we can’t do anything about those issues. For what can be done, I’d recommend that the arcades facing these charges find ways to conserve energy where they can – are there light fixtures that have four bulbs in them where you could do with two (or remove some fixtures all together if you can)? If some games are still using incandescent bulbs, can you convert them to LED? Do you keep the entire arcade on when no customers are around? Maybe targeted game activations would work.
That’s something I’ve done by not turning everything on when I open up – just specific circuits of stuff at the front+signage to explain why most of the arcade is off. I’ve been doing this for years as I often don’t see many (or any) customers at open time (I have to be open at a specific time; Otherwise I would open later). But doing so has saved me thousands of dollars over the years.
Of course, that’s just a band-aid when the base cost is skyrocketing but I think you’ve got to try to do what you can within your sphere of control.
What Business Models Do Most Arcades Use?
Speaking of business, one of you asked so I filmed this earlier in the week.
If there is another subject you would like to see me tackle, then please say so. I’m also up for livestream ideas. I will try and livestream from IAAPA this year, which could be interesting.
Headlines
Enjoy Retro Arcade Art In A Reprint Of Artcade
Some Models Of San Francisco Rush Were Black Instead Of Neon Green
How To Setup A Tournament With Stern Army
Round-up of August’s Arcade News
[Tech] Meta Is Developing Mind-To-Text Tech – No thanks
[Console] The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection Is Now Available
[Console] There’s An Elden Ring Manga
[Console] Rare’s Never Released Handheld Console – The Playboy
[Console] Retro Studios Once Pitched A Legend of Zelda Game
That’s all for this week, see you on the next story
