Since the officially licensed remake of Taito’s Ice Cold Beer was announced, many collectors and operators of classic games have been awaiting word on its release. That release is now upon us as the games will begin shipping out in February; this was confirmed to me from Retro Arcade Remake in an email but also with a distributor email sent out today saying to place your orders now – although this email fixes a specific date to when these begin shipping which is always nice to have (and is uncommon with most games). This comes from Shaffer Distributing:
QUICK UPDATE – I forgot to mention in the original post that these are being manufactured by Bay Tek in Wisconsin but the game design and support is being handled by Retro Arcade Remake.
It’s rare to see a purely electromechanical arcade machine (and not pinball) come along for amusement and not redemption but given how the bar scene is these days, the timing on this seems spot on. The official page for this one also lays out details like those above but does take a shot at some of the long lead times you might experience with the aforementioned pinball these days.
From the email I had received from RAR:
The new Ice Cold Beer and Zekes Peak are fully licensed through Taito Japan. The machines will look and play exactly like the original machines but are built and constructed with modern technology. This includes 7 layer 3/4 in plywood cabinets, screw drives with powerful stepper motors. Proprietary FPGA boards with original Rom coding. Most holes are individually sensored. Wifi and bluetooth enabled allowing for phone control by the operator for pricing, diagnostics, advanced game play and competition play between machines.
Checking Shaffer’s website, its not listed yet but given the ad I imagine that by contacting sales would get you taken care of. I’m not sure how many other distributors will be carrying this but it’s probably most will given the presence of Retro Arcade Remakes at various tradeshows and the strong interest the game has seen at those events.
The email did show a price around $5500 but I’m not sure how all distributors will handle that; I also haven’t tracked what pricing on an original is. This game will soon be followed by Zeke’s Peak, also licensed from Taito.
In case you hadn’t seen this one in action yet, here’s the game as seen at IAAPA
Are you looking at grabbing one?
Hi mate. Interesting… thanks for sharing. Wondered what the upgrade offerings will be; do you think it’s likely to be just themes / branding or a whole new offering? Like you mentioned a “Zeke’s Peak”, so if that’s the same concept, do you think that will / could come as a kit to upgrade an ICB? I don’t post much, but still look at each and every update, so thanks again for your time with posting all this great content. Regards
It might be different game types (just changing where lights light up) but they also did talk about offering custom themes to those interested. As for upgrade kits, that I’m not sure, I’ll have to ask!