I’m running a few days behind on this news, but two UK-based distributors (Electrocoin and UDC) held their 35th annual Park Avenue Open Day. This is where some new games for the amusement business were put on display, including some titles we might see further West at some point. Let’s take a look.
As a note, I’m reporting on these from a distance by checking websites, Twitter and reading articles from those who were there, since I’m not in the UK. I’m striving for accuracy here but if there is anything incorrect from the initial report here, I’ll be happy to fix it.
H/T to Toby for the featured pic; Intergame Online also has a report along with some photos from the event.
Electrocoin
As Stern’s official distributor in that part of the world, EC debuted the new Foo Fighters alongside the unique 60th anniversary LE model.
Per this interview with John Stergides Sr. at EC, they also showed off some new redemption pieces, a 4-player merchandiser called Treasure Alliance and some crane machines; The previously released videmption game Skill Shot was also on hand. A “new single player game” with high income potential is also mentioned, but in checking places like Twitter and some other articles, I’m not sure what game that is at the moment.
UDC
Two of the games mentioned in the headline were found on the UDC side, where we’ll start with the innovative one first. UDC works a lot with Chinese manufacturer/developer Ace Amusements, where many of their games have found their way stateside through various distributors but UDC tends to be the first to debut their pieces.
Air Zone Deluxe
Ace Amusements is behind the Prop Cycle-like game Sky Riders and with this piece they’re breaking away from cloning an idea to create something interesting and original – a hybrid air hockey/video game. As you can tell from the cabinet shot, players use air hockey mallets and a puck to control the action, with the setup being like a Boom-a-rang table.
I found this footage of the Chinese model being played – I do think that the concept is a great idea but they need to get the framerate up to 60 instead of the sub-30 that it’s showing here:
Bullseye Crack Shot
Here’s a new light-gun game that follows the style of the Skill Shooter mentioned above, which is a variation of Taito’s Gun Arena/On Point game that was released a few years ago (the main difference in all these being – no BBs/airsoft pellets are used; They’re proper light-gun games with a vertically-oriented screen, realistic guns and game scenarios that put your speed & accuracy skills to the test).
For Bullseye’s part, there are six scenarios to choose from, a few of them fitting into shooting targets, others involving enemies where the graphics are reminiscent of Borderlands.
A videmption version of Super Wings and a game called T-Rex Fight (although is this Dinosaur Era EX but with a different name? Sometimes Chinese-made games will do that, even showing two different names on the same cabinet) were on hand, but I’m not sure how many of their other “New for 2023” games like Go Go Basketball were also around or not. Some other redemption games can be seen in the
Is there anything from the event that catches your eye, or if you’re not in Europe, hope to see go further West?
