Amusements operators and manufacturers in Europe are descending upon London today as the 2022 European conference and expo by IAAPA gets underway. I am unable to attend myself but I have some proxies there about to feed us some info. Until then, here’s a preview for the companies which are focused more on the arcade side of things, with the conference side starting today and the expo side opening tomorrow.
For the uninitiated, IAAPA is a trade organization which puts these big amusement industry trade shows together, which are focused on education and promotion of various products that find their way into both the amusement and arcade industries. The European expo generally takes place in September while the biggest IAAPA event of them all takes place in November. Click here to watch my videos from the IAAPA 2021 event.
Axion Holographics
Starting alphabetically, we have this Australian company where they have an amusement product that uses 3D glasses for the effect. While not a true hologram, that is what they are aiming for, as this promo video shows. I’ve seen them at IAAPA before and they are headed to both the EU and US shows:
Bandai Namco Amusement Europe
Namco represents quite a few North American companies in Europe, which is sometimes confusing for people, as in those instances BNAE is the distributor in Europe and the Middle East for those products. No announcement has been made in regards to what they are bringing there that I’ve seen, but they do represent “Raw Thrills/Play Mechanix, Adrenaline Amusements, Andamiro, Apple Industries, Triotech and TKM,” so you can certainly expect to see the latest games from them, plus Namco’s own products like Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship and Pac-Man Baller. I also have to imagine that the latest software build for Raw Thrills’ Fast & Furious is there.
Elaut USA
This maker of high-end crane machines will be there although their announcement page doesn’t mention any particular new titles.
Electrocoin
This UK-based distributor has a number of new redemption games that they are showing off, including two new Mr. Do branded machines (Air Balls and Space Rocks, respectively). But the big attention grabber that was going to be there, was Stern Pinball’s new James Bond 007 game. As I was writing this post though, Stern sent out an email stating that they are postponing the launch of the game, and I have now got confirmation from them that “The games have been removed from the Electrocoin booth. No new pinball for this show.“. Which is a shame for any pinball fans that were going to attend, but is understandable considering recent events.
Hero Zone VR
This is a new free-roam LBE VR experience that uses wireless VR headsets and unique content for their adaptation. Their IAAPA profile states that this is already installed at “150+ locations,” I presume most are in Europe.
Hologate
Hologate will be showcasing a couple of new products including Ghostbusters VR Academy and their non-VR Hyper Golf product, along with the latest setup of their Blitz VR system and the Hologate Arena. Interestingly, Ghostbusters VR is a hybrid-experience where you can use the arena for one type of game and the Blitz driver for another.
LAI Games
While they have a small booth per the map, they are taking Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade DX – at least one of them from a post on Instagram.
NeoXperiences
This French company used to be known as Scale-1 Portal but with this better name they’ve been more focused. I would call them a Mixed Reality company, focusing on projection mapped 3D rooms with a variety of game experiences inside. Here’s something that will probably be at this IAAPA show:
Playmind
The creators of the Playbox will be at the show, possibly demonstrating their new 4-player model of their high-end ball toss machine. Here’s the 6-player model that I saw last year:
Sega Amusements
I covered Sega’s IAAPA Europe plans on this post, where they are focusing on some new redemption content. They also posted a couple of videos to highlight their new SMART Darts system, although one of the videos mainly just shows people smiling in slo-mo instead of the system so here’s the more pertinent one that quickly shows the system being used:
Trio-Tech
This company doesn’t focus much on arcade products these days, finding more to do with rides and interactive theaters, although I do imagine that their STORM VR system will be on hand.
UDC Ltd.
This UK-based distributor is showcasing product from both Ace Amusements and Touch Magix; They also represent Step Revolution (StepManiaX) in Europe. They put together this nice time lapse video of their booth being put together:
UNIS
News on their IAAPA EU booth were posted here, where they have new redemption, videmption and air hockey tables on hand; I also heard that they are producing the Emoji Roller game and expect to have units shipping by IAAPA.
Valo Motion
This newcomer is focused on mixed reality sports, where they feature things like an interactive trampoline or climbing wall, or a multi-user arena (without VR headsets).
WIK
This Polish manufacturer has an odd shaped booth per the map, which should be home to their latest sports titles (basketball & air hockey machines, primarily). They also do occasionally have a videmption game to show off but most focus is on the sports stuff. They are working with Bandai Namco on the new Pac-Man Baller game, as one example.
That’s all I could find – if I missed anyone who is making an arcade product, please let me know and I’ll add you to the list 🙂
