Checking Out IAAPA Expo Europe 2023 (From Far Away)

A mighty big thanks to the Stinger Report/Kevin Williams for sending these photos my way – I am not at the expo but thanks to the info sent, it’s like I was there to check it all out and I’m here to guide you through it so you can feel like it too! The Stinger Report will have complete coverage in an upcoming issue of their newsletter.

What’s IAAPA Expo Europe?

In case you’re new to the modern arcade market, IAAPA is a trade organization that represents all kinds of amusement-related businesses, from arcades to theme parks. They hold a few expos every year, with the one talked about here typically being held in September so that European customers can see some of the latest ideas and products that can enhance their own businesses. I wrote a preview about the show here.

The larger IAAPA 2023 show will be taking place in November; As a happy note, I just received approval for my press credentials, so thanks to IAAPA for that.

Now that the show has been underway, let’s see what various exhibitors had to offer:

Ace Amusement

This growing Chinese developer had some new titles to show off, particularly a water cannon shooter called Wild Thing Wipe Out. It appears to be a Wild West/Western themed shooter game. I assume it plays in a similar way to Ace’s other water shooters like Dinosaur Era(scroll down and you’ll find a new version of that game called Dinosaur Era X-Treme). This is showing some characters along the top there – I’m not sure if it also might vend character cards? UPDATE: Kevin pointed me to this distributor site which lists the game in Italian. You can see from the full cabinet image (which I’m including below) that there is a car deposit slot. I do like that it doesn’t go into a breakable container, like my Minecraft one does (I’ve given up on replacing those pink card grabbers in MC’s case):

A little more of the booth:

Another new game they had for kids called Surf League. As a twin cabinet designed for the kids, it has surfing penguins in it but I haven’t seen it in action to state more. Note that Nitro Speed has been available from a few distributors for a while:

Who might be distributing these games in Europe and elsewhere? It depends. Nitro Speed is already sold by UDC for the EU market but until someone says so, I’m not sure who might carry games like Wild Thing Wipe Out and Surf League in North America at the moment. Perhaps we’ll know once the big IAAPA show hits in November.

Bandai Namco Amusement Europe

While BNAE was promoting their new Pac-Man Sports line on YouTube, Kevin just shared these photos that highlight the video products. There’s nothing new-new as expected, so no GoldStorm Pirates or Bike Dash Delivery. Maybe for IAAPA proper?

Here’s a preview for one of the Pac-Man games I mentioned above:

Bitronic

Here’s a company out of Spain with the rare, European made Super Hoop pinball machine and a soccer game called Pin Shot. Super Hoop was designed by Quetzal Pinball and is sold through Bitronic. Pin Shot isn’t listed on their website at the moment, from what I can find.

Electrocoin

This was the only pic that Kevin sent along from this veteran UK-based distributor, so I’m guessing that for new-new video games they didn’t have something along those lines there. You can see their Skill Shooter behind the Roll-A-Ball game there though. If you’re looking for more pics of their booth, check out this post from EC on LinkedIn or this one from Facebook.

ELMAC II

I’m not sure why this Italian game distributor has a II in their name but they did have a packed booth with games, including two video titles: Speed Driver 5 (which I’ve covered many times before) and a new one called Parkour Motor 2. I’ve never heard of Parkour Motor so I’m not sure who makes it but as you can see, it’s a motorcycle racer with a cute theme:

FunInVR

They are not listed on the floor map as FunInVr, so I’m not sure what booth this was at, but I found this short video:

ImSim

There also weren’t pics of this professional simulator manufacturer, but they posted this to promote their booth:

Inowize

The latest version of Inowize’s QBIX was on hand (check here for more details) but this is the only pic sent from their booth. That said, Inowize themselves posted a brief video on LinkedIn.

JET Games

Here’s an American company that unveiled their latest videmption title called Big Shot at Bowl Expo earlier this year and now they’ve shown it in Europe. It should be noted that the competition for these types of light-gun shooters is growing, you’ll see more further down this post.

Update: Kevin did have a pic from this booth but JET posted this better staged/not awkward photo to their LinkedIn, so we’ll go with that instead 😉

JNC Sales

Here’s a UK-based distributor who has a couple of videmption games, Pitching Time and Lucky Pong Challenge. The former is a ball toss game, the latter a beer pong game with video screens:

Kalkomat

Polish company Kalkomat is no stranger to creating electromechanical amusement games and here’s a new one they’ve made called Let’s Goal. It’s hard to tell exactly how it plays from this pic but it might be like an old 1v1 EM game that came out in the States back around 2008 or so (unfortunately the name escapes me – I don’t think it was Fireball Fury but if I can remember, I’ll fix this post):

Here’s a new version of Hit The Green that is now called MMA Boxer and it has a big screen at the top:

LAI Games

LAI had a small booth that was just showing a single Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade:

Marsaplay

This is a manufacturer out of Spain who has some rather questionable games on their booth. The pics speak for themselves :O

Nigelhell GmbH

Those looking for pinball could find it at the Nigelhell booth, with what appears to be at least eight pins on hand (four facing forward, then I’d assume four facing away):

Re-Play.Biz

This Italian distributor has what I think is a reskin of Electrocoin’s Skill Shooter which is shown here as Top Gun. They also have a new wheel spinner videmption game that seems to be looking to offer a cheaper alternative to Team Play’s Carnival Wheel:

Sega Amusements International

Sega’s always great about revealing what they will bring to a show and for this one their newest piece is a redemption one called Ballzania (upper right hand corner or this post on LinkedIn). Also on LinkedIn is a post showing the team manning the booth.

Spree Interactive

This comes from Elizaveta Novikova on LinkedIn, showing Spree Interactive’s booth:

UDC

They did a time lapse video that you can see here; As mentioned in the preview, Touch Magix was there with Pop It! and Step Revolution with their Step ManiaX dance machine:

For some pics:

UNIS

I wasn’t sure what UNIS might be showcasing for this show but there’s at least one new game called Bank A Ball. UNIS also posted some pics to their Facebook page.

There was another awkward facial expression in one of these pics so I covered it up…

Valo Motion

I caught this one on LinkedIn; Click here to view the pics in better glory:

Wik

This Polish manufacturer had a wide variety of games on hand, including a new EM shooter game with a big LED matrix display at the back called Farm Story. This comes with a realistic looking gun; Perhaps I’ll see it at IAAPA 2023.

Yuto Games

Kevin didn’t send any pics from Yuto, but they did post this video, which has focused on their arrival and setup at the show, but there are some quick hits of the games:

That’s all I can find for now – if I encounter or am sent more, I’ll be sure to update this post. Again, thanks to Kevin & The Stinger Report for the pics.