This week is the International Bowl Expo event and it’s an opportunity for arcade game makers to show off their latest product lines. While this will entail titles that were previously seen at the likes of IAAPA 2022 and Amusement Expo2023, there are some new pieces that are making their debut. Let’s take a look, starting with companies who are sponsors here on AH.
If you want to spend almost two hours watching me talk about it, here’s a video; Otherwise, read below:
Touch Magix
Fresh off of their award-winning Carnival Cups Crane game, TM is bringing two games to the scene – Pop It! and Magix Pool.
Magix Pool hearkens back to Touch Magix’s roots as they were long involved in projection mapping before diving into the arcade space. Their first coin-op game was the Magix Floor, where people would stomp on the image; This is similar but applied to pool. More details on that one is here.
Pop It! is a fidget toy that is now joining the arcade space (like the similarly named Bop It! did recently), with this new ball drop videmption concept. It controls much like a crane machine, but instead of lining up a claw, the player has a light target that shows where the ball is most likely going to drop when they line things up and push the Ball Drop button.
Raw Thrills
Raw Thrills and Betson will be there although I have not heard of any new-new content that should debut there (Fast & Furious Arcade debuted there last year). As it is, one can expect the latest versions of their games like MotoGP VR (which launches next month), Minecraft Arcade S2, Halo: Fireteam Raven, and King Kong VR.
The other two sponsors are not exhibiting at the show.
Here are the other amusement-related exhibitors that will be at the show – note that many who generally participate in IAAPA or Amusement Expo don’t exhibit at Bowl Expo. If they aren’t mentioned below, it’s because they’re not on this list.
Andamiro USA
I would not expect this to be much different from the Amusement Expo setup, with SpongeBob VR Bubble Coaster, their other SpongeBob redemption games, and Tic Shaq Toe. It would be a shock if they happened to bring Pump It Up 2023 Phoenix, so I don’t expect that.
Bay Tek Entertainment
I haven’t seen any announcements from Bay Tek as to their Bowl Expo intentions, so can safely bet their headliners (Rock The Rim, Skeeball product, Axe Master, Big Ticket Drop, etc) will be there, as perhaps the new 2023 versions of Big Bass Wheel and Ticket Monster.
Coastal Amusements
It seems that these guys passed on Bumper and Bridge Man, which is too bad on Bumper, but they will debut a new videmption light-gun game as recently mentioned on the site, Bullseye: Crack Shot. I’m not sure if their Bowl Expo booth will be the same as their Amusement Expo one otherwise; If so, you can expect to find various videmption and redemption titles, such as Real Heroes: Fire Rescue, Galaxy Rangers, Break The Plate, and more.
Elaut Group (Elaut USA, Coast To Coast Entertainment, Benchmark Games)
I’ve not seen any news as to what the companies from Elaut Group will bring but it should be consistent with their crane and redemption titles that were seen at other shows, including a non-water version of Real Heroes: Fire Rescue.
ICE
I know that there are a lot of developments going on at ICE but so far I haven’t heard of anything new-new, so I imagine you would see a similar setup to their Amusement Expo offering, with a focus on the newest stuff like Ship Wreck and World Football Pro.
Inowize
Similar to their Amusement Expo 2023 booth, they will showcase their QBIX Mixed Reality gaming room and their Arkadia VR 2-player model.
JET Games
This company has been bringing more videmption stuff over from China so it’s possible that they could nab something that we’ve seen at an international show, otherwise I’d expect to see their redemption games and kiddie rides.
Komuse USA
I’d expect a similar setup to Amusement Expo, with a bigger focus on their brand new Air Slide game that was at AE23. That should mean lots of new redemption games.
LAI Games
While it was at IAAPA 2022, Bowl Expo marks the launch of Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade VR for the company (which I’ve changed on the Arcade Releases page). That should be joined by their other in-production products like Rick & Morty, FGTeeV, Virtual Rabbids and so on.
Sega Amusements
Sega will be promoting a similar booth to Amusement Expo, headlined by titles like Bop It!, Jumanji, VR Agent, Drone Racing Genesis, etc. If you missed it, Hyper Cross is on test in the USA too, but it is not likely going to be there (as it wasn’t mentioned in the press release). I’ll expect that one to be at IAAPA.
Team Play Inc.
They don’t have a new-new product to promote, still focusing their efforts on promoting Carnival Wheel and their photo booth kiddie ride Photo Motion.
Trio-Tech
When going to smaller shows, Trio-tech doesn’t feature their large theme park-grade attractions, instead focusing on their arcade ones. This time it will be the Typhoon 10the Anniversary and Storm VR (which will also debut a new ride film)
UNIS
Giving a strong push to their Emoji license, UNIS will debut a new redemption/videmption game called Emoji Frenzy; This is the 3rd in the Emoji series of games, following Emoji Roller and Emoji Party. That won’t be the only game at their booth of course, but it will be the newest of the bunch. Here are a couple of pics on this one shared by Jdevy; It’s not just a ticket redemption game, it also vends an Emoji stress ball:
Per Jdevy, here’s how the game plays:
You collect all the Emojis 3 times in a game session to go into a bonus round where you can catch moving Emojis worth a staggering 10 tickets a pop. You can win insta bonuses on the playfield every now and then, including bonus tickets and an automatic emoji ball dispense. You hit “level up” emojis to get to the emoji ball dispense.
VR & Other
For Virtual Reality focused companies, Hero Zone VR, Hologate, Rilix, and VRsenal will all be there, but I am not aware of them showing off never-before-seen products. That said, there always can be a surprise, so you never know. There are also a few companies who are “adjacent” to video arcades – IGPM Group with their boxers and air hockey tables, Pixel Games with their Light Floor, Valley-Dynamo with their air hockey & foosball tables.
That’s all I’ve heard of for this show – if there are any other details, I’ll be sure to provide them in a follow-up post!
