Next up for our IAAPA recap is Coastal Amusements. Based in New Jersey, Coastal has long supported a mix of cranes, redemption, and videmption pieces in their line-ups. They’ve been increasing in the latter, and those games can operate without tickets if the location desires.
In case you missed/overlooked previous recaps:
IAAPA 2023: The Raw Thrills Round-up
New Fighters For Arcades: Omen of Sorrow
IAAPA 2023: The Sega Amusements Round-up
IAAPA 2023: Pinball (Stern, Jersey Jack, American, Chicago Gaming)
IAAPA 2023: The LAI Games Round-up
The Coastal Amusements Booth
While the size of the Coastal booth remains constant, I’m not always sure what to expect with them, since they import games that might have flown under the radar. One thing that is very clear from their booth this time is that they have a very strong sales relationship with Ace Amusement, though like most Chinese factories they are distributed by others here too (LAI, ASI). Here’s a tour of their booth, which also shows their crane and redemption game line-up:
Bullseye Crackshot
The skill-based shooting gallery game is a hot item right now, and Coastal has their answer for it via Ace Amusements. Bullseye features a plastic gun as opposed to a metal one, which they said was both due to cost and appearance. I haven’t seen what metal guns look like after some months on location but Paul at Coastal mentioned something about them getting a bunch of scratches and the like which aren’t as prominent on plastic guns. The guns still have recoil to them though.
This is available in both single and double gun configurations. It begins shipping by the end of the month.
Surf League
While see saw an angled shot of this game at IAAPA Europe, this one caught me by surprise. Designed by Ace Amusement, the quality on the graphics are noticeably improved over what I’ve come to expect from Ace. It also marks the second surfing game we’ve seen in recent times, the other one being Team Play’s Surfin’ Surfari. This one comes in a much more compact cabinet, although it is sold in a twin design.
Shipping on this one is still TBD, as Coastal & Ace work to make some changes based upon feedback at the show.
Wild Things/Dinosaur Era
Ace & Coastal also teamed up for Wild Things, another video water shooter in the vein of Ice Man/Ice Walker/Dinosaur Era. As mentioned in the video though, they’ve improved the gameplay a bit over where Ice Man and the graphics are rather good.
This and Dinosaur Era will ship in January 2024.
Redemption
For redemption pieces one could find at their booth, these included:
- Boardwalk Big Spin
- Break The Plate
- Plinko
- Ring Toss
- Road Trip
- Snow Day
- Showtime cranes
- Toy Castle
Of all the games they demonstrated at the show this year, their best is… either Bullseye Crackshot or Surf League. I’m torn between the two as Surf League really was a surprise to me. The market for young players needs more good games and the right kind of game can do extremely well on location. With some improvements underway, I look forward to seeing how it ends up for production.
What impressed you the most out of Coastal’s offerings?
