Welcome to Newsbytes, a post that curates news from around the arcade and pinball world. There’s plenty to digest in this one than can fit into the headline, so let’s dive in:
Pre-Orders Open For Shinorubi Pink Label & Donut Dodo Do!
It’s been a bit since exA-Arcadia released a new game cart but the wait is finally over as they now have two titles up for pre-order, as mentioned in the sub-header. Shinorubi Pink Label is a scrolling shoot ’em up, heavily adapted from the PC version to properly accommodate TATE mode, while Donut Dodo Do! has also been heavily modified from its console cousin to present something of an arcade exclusive sequel (2-player simultaneous play, new levels). The pricing on the games is around $1250 & $850 respectively, which means DDD is in the “value” class for pricing like Astro Ninja Man Exa and Cosmic Digger 3671.
Here’s some early footage of Donut Dodo Do!, before the 2-player mode was implemented (Shinorubi play is here):
Atari Acquires The Rights To “12 Classic Arcade Games”
When you think of an arcade game like Berzerk, you might think it was an Atari game – not because it originally was, but because Atari licensed the game for the home ports and their marketing blitz gave off that impression it was one of their games. Well, 41 years later, Berzerk and several other Stern Electronics titles get to carry the Atari name, as the company has acquired the IP and will begin re-releasing the games as well as remastering some or all of them. Since most are rather obscure, I expect Berzerk & Frenzy to get most of the attention in that regard although there are still ways for them all to receive some kind of adaptation – even for coin-op, as I mention:
For those interested in just reading what the list of games are, with links
- Armored Car
- Atomic Castle
- Berzerk
- Dark Planet In 3D
- Frenzy
- Great Guns
- Lost Tomb
- Mazer Blazer
- Minefield
- Moon War
- Rescue
- Tazz-mania
NFS Heat Takedown DX Was At DEAL 2023
DEAL 2023 has come and gone and while there were many games there, one of the few that hadn’t been seen at shows like IAAPA 2022 and EAG 2023 was the deluxe version of NFS Heat Takedown. This comes from one of our sponsors, PrimeTime Amusements:
Is This The Playfield For Galactic Tank Force?
This was posted in the Pinside thread discussing American Pinball’s 5th game but without commentary. It certainly looks like it is the unpopulated playfield, which some are comparing to Dr. Dude & His Excellent Ray. Of course, gotta wait for the full reveal, although American is taking their time on this one:
Taiko No Tatsujin Now Testing At…A Japanese Supermarket
It’s unusual enough to have the American division of an arcade company promoting location tests for a game, but now things got a little stranger for Bandai Namco’s Taiko No Tatsujin as it is testing out at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Plano, Texas – a Japanese supermarket. Strange as that may be, it goes to show the benefit of arcade machines – they really can go into just about any business 😉
https://twitter.com/bandainamcoam/status/1636111533615751171?s=46&t=25eiHr3yc_VLSphC4pr6-A
New Indie Arcade Game From South America: Thunderball
Joe over at Indie Arcade wave has the goods on this new indie sports title, check it out
Headlines
Sega Amusements Working With Sega Forever On Archiving Arcades Games – There are some very interesting games spotted just in this photo
A New Game For The Playbox by Playmind
Trio-Tech To Launch A New Ride Film For Storm VR at AEI 2023
Two New Games Launching For The QBIX Platform At AEI 2023
Here’s Foo Fighters Pinball Running The Fresh V.90 Code
New Mahjong Game For Sega’s APM3 – i.e., you’ll only find this in Japan
Namco’s Super Rare & Obscure Navarone Is Coming To Arcade Archives On March 30th
You Know Your Game Isn’t Doing Well On The Market When Ops Would Rather Play Regular Minecraft On It
Jeff Bridges Reprises Role As Kevin Flynn In The New TRON Coaster At Disney World
Hanging Out At The Arcade In An 80s Mall
[Console] 5 New Homebrew Games For The NES
[Console] The Loneliest Pub In The Metaverse
[Console] NANDicide Killing Off Unused WiiUs?
[Console] Toxic Crusaders Becoming A Beat ‘Em Up
That’s all for this weekend, see you on the next post!
