The annual “Spring Show” known as Amusement Expo International is upon us, with the current crop of arcade manufacturers coming together to promote the newest arcade games that will be shipping in time for this Summer. What can we expect to see at this show? Let’s take a look!
Note that I will be holding a livestream on YouTube about this later this morning (11:15am MST), in case you enjoy joining in on the discussion.
I will start with Arcade Heroes’ advertisers, then get into the rest, alphabetically.
Raw Thrills
Booth #327 (Betson’s booth) – This will be the roll-out event for Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR, which is in production now, but it will also mark Raw Thrills throwing down the gauntlet on VR more than ever. Four VR products will be a part of their booth presentation, from the aforementioned Godzilla, to King Kong II, T-Rex Safari VR Adventure and MotoGP VR. At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a Big Buck VR materialize by the time of the next World Championships…
Eugene Jarvis will be holding a seminar called “What Makes Great VR Games” on the 19th around 10am. He will discuss the development of Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR, along with the other VR developments they have on the docket. In regards to Godzilla, locations that ordered one should start receiving them soon, although it might be April when it officially rolls out.
I haven’t heard anything in regards to Series 3 cards for Minecraft Dungeons Arcade. If they are there, they’ll be covered in detail.
Play Mechanix has announced details on the Big Buck Hunter Championships XVII event, taking place in Chicago on October 11th & 12th. Once again, over $100,000 in cash is up for grabs – players can already start competing to qualify on any online connected Big Buck Reloaded machine.
I wouldn’t expect anything else, but Raw Thrills have been known to bring a surprise or two to these shows before.
Also of note, RT have just overhauled their website with a new look.
Touch Magix
Booth #209 – You can see their planned line-up via the top banner, where they will debut Pudgy Penguins Polar Challenge. They will also be showing off their other in-production titles; Pop It!, Crazy Prize, SpaceWarp 66, Mega Blaster, and Carnival Cups Crane.
As an aside, Wahlap does not have a booth at the show, but various manufacturers such as Amusement Source Intl. and Sega will be representing some of their products.
Video Game & Pinball Makers
Now for the rest, starting from the top with A. All of this is to the best of my knowledge; note that there some companies who were at IAAPA who will not be at this show (at least with a booth). This includes Barron Games International, Chicago Gaming Company, Jersey Jack Pinball, and Retro Arcade Remakes. RAR will be at Midwest Gaming Classic with a new Atari game of their own, so stay tuned for that. JJP often skips out on AEI, but I am surprised to see Barron and Chicago Gaming passing it up this time.
Adrenaline Amusements
Booth #1827 – I have not heard of anything brand new coming to their booth, but sometimes Adrenaline does offer up a surprise. Otherwise, Drakons: Realm Keepers will certainly be there (perhaps with an LCD instead of the LED panel, as was seen in Europe at EAG during January), as well as NFS Heat Takedown and Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Alan-1
Booth #1705 – Debuting last year with their first game, Avian Knights, Alan-1 are returning with that game in a 2 and 4-player configuration. They will also have a 2 and 3-player cabinet for the newly-announced Asteroids Recharged.
As previously mentioned in the Asteroids announcement post, I had the opportunity to visit the Alan-1 facility in Tooele, UT this past Friday. I had the opportunity to see both games under construction. Since I had made the trip and had a little time, I even went ahead and helped install the T-molding and some audio wiring on the Asteroids cabinet.
The art on Avian Knights is slightly higher quality (as it is final, as opposed to Asteroids, which is still early) – it even has texture to it. For any one who saw that game last year, the cabinet has changed a bit thanks to feedback from the show. It no longer has fan grills on the front; It still has the fans but in a way that is better hidden.
Bonus points to anyone who knows the reference for what “Alan-1” means.
American Pinball
Booth #2217 – On top of another showing for Galactic Tank Force, this will be the industry debut of Barry O’s Barbeque Challenge, which just started shipping a week and a half ago. Some locations already have one, but I’m sure for many like myself, this will be your first opportunity to play it. Here’s the game as seen at the Texas Pinball Festival this past weekend.
Amusement Source Intl.
Booth #607 – ASI had quite the packed booth at IAAPA, cramming a huge number of games into a small space. This time, they have a booth that looks 2-3x the IAAPA size, so I’m curious to see what they’ll bring. They have been rather quiet on social media as of late, but I know that they’ll have the lesser-seen DX version of Sky Riders there, thanks to a comment I saw from ASI’s Cory Haynes. Amusement Source tend to carry titles from Ace Amusement, Wahlap and others.
Andamiro USA
Booth #1115 – It makes my job a whole lot easier here when a manufacturer posts the whole selection of what will be at their show booth, like Andamiro did with this graphic:
I have to assume that the non-Shaq Tic TAC Toe basketball game will cost less than the Shaq version. They posted about the Krazy Ballz redemption game here; Wacky Racer is a SpongeBob whacker (i.e., whack-a-mole style) game.
Where’s Pump It Up? you might be asking. I’ll have to ask why, but I have noticed that they stopped bringing PIU to the Spring shows in recent years. That doesn’t mean they’ve stopped selling it. It’s more along the lines of the products brought to any show are there for the particular purchasing audience. Redemption is always a safer bet, so it gets more love.
Bandai Namco Amusement America
Booth #127 – Sometimes Bandai Namco tease a surprise, sometimes they keep quiet. This time and last IAAPA are the latter so one can only guess, beyond easy certainties like Dead Heat Unleashed. They did at least debut Jukebox Bowl-o-Rama at last year’s AEI.
What I would like to see? All of the new BNA titles we’ve seen and reported out on location test over the past 12 months – Bike Dash Delivery, GoldStorm Pirates, Taiko No Tatsujin USA Version. Will any of those show up? Your guess is merely as good as mine.
Bay Tek Entertainment
Booth #727 – Bay Tek always keeps their cards close to their chest, although they do seem to be bringing fewer test games that never see the light of day to shows compared to the past. They recently tested then launched Goatz N Ropes, and bought up Hyperdeck, so I would certainly expect those products to be joining their other staple releases.
Coastal Amusements
Booth #513 – Coastal Amusements tends to reflect their IAAPA booth with some small changes for Spring; Ace Amusements’ Surf League is supposed to roll out in April, so I would assume that it and fellow Ace piece Bullseye Crack Shot will have a prominent spot on their booth. They also do tend to have something new – be it a redemption or videmption piece – at Spring shows, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled.
Elaut Group
Booths #141, 237, 245 – The Elaut Group includes Elaut USA, Benchmark Games International, and Coast to Coast Entertainment. I haven’t heard about anything new-new on them since IAAPA, with Elaut focusing on their new Smurfs and Superman games, while BGI is selling their new boxer, air hockey table, and VRX cab. The boxer and air hockey are still not on BGI’s website though…
exA-Arcadia
Booth #553 – Having skipped both IAAPA and the Japan Amusement Expo last November, exA-Arcadia will be back in action at AEI and are going to bring around 36 games installed across several ARC-1 upright cabinets in both 2- and 4-player configurations. I haven’t heard what all of those games might be – though most will be previously released titles. For new-new, there will be a surprise coming to Jitsu Squad which will help set it apart content-wise from the console version; it also plays differently anyways (far less text and they’ve cut certain sequences down so that it flows like an arcade brawler should. This means that enemies are less “spongey” than in the console version).
exA will be saving most of their bigger reveals for Evo Japan 2024, which is taking place near the end of April. It is possible, however, that I will get a chance to see a few of those at the show, they just might be under embargo for the time being. Several fighters will be unveiled at EVO Japan, showing the direction that we can expect to see for exA for the rest of the year and beyond.
ICE
Booth #414 – While ICE was at IAAPA, they didn’t have anything really different from IAAPA 2022. This time should be different, as they recently began production on Quarterback Pro and Double Dribble. They were at DEAL 2024 in Dubai a couple of weeks ago; I would assume a similar setup.
That said, JDevy did notice from this Instagram post mentioning the DEAL booth, that there was a new videmption game nestled in-between Treasure Cove and Whack-A-Clown called Forest Jump. This could be ICE or it could have been someone else’s piece mixed in with the ICE product, since it was a distributor booth.
IGPM Group
Booth #2015 – Mainly representing Kalkomat, IGPM will have plenty of boxers on hand, including the partial video boxer, MMA Boxer. They also should have an air hockey table or two.
UPDATE: IGPM sent out an email this afternoon stating that they have entered into a deal with the online sport Power Slap, for branding of some new video boxing machines:
Incredible Technologies
Booth #627 – IT’s Arcade Collection has been performing quite well, according to RePlay Magazine’s recent operator polls. Otherwise, IT has been quiet outside of general Golden Tee discussion. Perhaps we’ll see a preview or the production version of Golden Tee PGA Tour 2025, although I’m not certain about that as GTPGA’24’s was so low key that I didn’t hear about its release until a month after it happened. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
JET Games USA
Booth #813 – JET made a big impression at IAAPA, particularly with their Big Shot and Mega Shot games. Mega Shot should be a showcase piece again as that will be launching very soon (at IAAPA they were saying March, so we’ll confirm if that is still the case).
LAI Games
Booth #439 – Aside from the new releases seen at IAAPA (Air Strike, Asphalt Moto Blitz DX, Cosmic Tower, and Dragon’s Bane), LAI will debut a new video arcade racer from Superwing called Smash DX. You can read more about that one here; they also launched this trailer for it last week:
PLAYMIND
Booth #1147 – In addition to their revamped 4-player PLAYBOX game, PLAYMIND will be showcasing the smaller 2-player model. This will be available in two styles, including the new “Carnival” edition. Both are the same concept as found with the larger Playbox, but much easier for space/budget-limited venues to operate.
Sega Amusements International
Booth #227 – Sega Amusements will be showcasing their recent releases, particularly Apex Rebels, Zombies! Ready, Deady, Go!, and assorted prize or redemption pieces like Skill Fall Revolution. They also sent out an email promoting how VR Agent is available to ship again, perhaps in part due to the flurry of VR press releases that have formed the show’s VR hype train.
This event should give me a chance to try out that fourth track on Apex Rebels that wasn’t available yet on the 70% complete version at IAAPA but was kindly shared by SAI and 3MindWave with us, Motorland Sakura. Otherwise, Sega tends to hype new-new games up before shows as opposed to popping out surprises, so I wouldn’t expect to see anything we haven’t seen before.
Stern Pinball
Booth #213 – This will be the first time I’ll get to play JAWS, so it will mark two pinball machines that I will be checking out for the first time. I would also expect Stern’s other in-production titles to be there, such as Venom, Foo Fighters, 007, etc. If Stern were releasing something previously unannounced, they would have rolled out the red carpet already as they don’t do surprises, but I would be expecting to hear news about their next release here relatively soon.
Team Play Inc.
Booth #1015 – Team Play was recently the subject of a RePlay Magazine cover story, detailing their expansion into a new facility with more space to put towards production. This time the makers of Carnival Wheel are going to roll out the 4th generation of their popular Pixel Pix photo booth, while promoting their other current production games.
Trio-Tech
Booth #404 – Trio-Tech doesn’t really bring their giant experiences to a show like this, focusing more on what they can offer for smaller operations than theme parks. The company just released their Super Blaster arcade machine so that will certainly be on-hand, along with the Typhoon and Storm VR.
UNIS
Booth #701, 705 – Just in time for the new Godzilla X Kong movie, UNIS will show a working version of that licensed whacker game, along with many of their prize and redemption games. They are also launching a new variation of their Space Raiders game that uses the Addams Family license, a Funko Pop-licenced Over The Edge reskin, the 1-player version of Over The Edge; and more. Bigfoot Mayhem should also have reached the production phase by now.
Virtual Reality
Companies that are primarily focused on AR/VR products are located below. There is also a big VR event & seminar being put on by VR Guru Bob Cooney, which is looking to promote VR to the industry while helping operators in selecting and running some of these products. That does take place before the trade show floor opens (it started yesterday), so if such a conference interests you, you’ll have to be in town sooner.
Some of the VR titles that will be at the show were also at IAAPA. Here’s a number of those:
Creative Works / Valo Motion
Booth# 1900,1906 – Creative Works announced that they are now representing Valo Motion in the States and that relationship will bear fruit at the show. Valo focuses on Mixed Reality experiences; aka, ones that focus on interactive projection mapping and don’t require wearables. I’ve noticed this slight shift towards Immersive Reality Rooms in recent times, although there certainly aren’t as many options in this space yet as you have with VR.
Creative Works still represents various VR companies like VAR Box, Limitless VR and others, so I imagine those will also be represented at the CW booth. Valo Motion also has their own separate booth (1906).
Hero Zone VR
Booth#1939 – This is a free roam arena based system with multiple experiences available. A press release was sent out stating that they will be showcasing a new VR escape room and a mobile Hero Zone solution that operators can get now.
Hologate
Booth# 2317 – Perhaps the most prominent of the tethered VR arena producers, I saw Hologate promoting their Ghostbusters VR Academy, since there’s a new GB film coming along this week. I am not aware of them launching any product we haven’t seen previously however. They might include their mini-golf product that was at IAAPA.
INOWIZE
Booth #2227 – Inowize will focus their attention on the Immersive Reality game room QBIX, launching a fourth game for the system called Chef Express. It is a multiplayer cooking game that is certainly a change of pace from zombie shooters and the like.
Koliseum
Booth #2312 – If you’re in the market for VR foosball/table soccer, then check these guys out. They distribute through Barron Games, so I am surprised they have their own thing here instead of Barron coming to the show.
Pico/VR Collective
Booth #2437 – Pico will be showing off new headsets, but otherwise I’m not sure what else might be on display for this booth. They have a decently sized space in the Free Roam VR area, so there’s that.
Rilix
Booth #2047 – This Brazilian company has been quite successful getting their Rilix Coaster out into the world. I don’t know if they have a new variation of that (like they did with the SpongeBob SquarePants VR Coaster) or something else.
SPREE Interactive
Booth #2401 – This German-based VR producer was at DEAL a couple of weeks ago, touting both their free roam VR arena and new VR escape room. Outside of an announcement, I would expect a similar setup for AEI.
SynthesisVR
Booth #2445 – This company produces a content management platform as opposed to a hard product like arenas or headsets. Perhaps they’ll have a demo that can be used.
VR 360 Action
Booth #2012 – The most recent hardware release from VR 360 Action is Crazy Speed, a racing simulator that doesn’t use a VR headset. I would expect to see that, along with their headset-based simulators. No word on a machine giveaway this time, however.
VRPark
Booth #2332 – Offering “the world’s first convertible X-in-One VR Motion Simulator,” VRPark make specially themed motion rides that can be adapted to events or holidays. One example is riding Santa’s sleigh… where you’re sitting in a seat that looks just like it.
Worlds Beyond
Booth #2407 – This company out of Hungary is offering a “LBVR cyberpunk experience” at the show, but I haven’t been able to uncover more than that.
Anyone else?
There are many more exhibitors on the list than is shown here, including photo booth & crane machine manufacturers, bulk vending suppliers, and so on. Since our focus here is more on video games/pinball/VR, I’m not really diving into those others, but if you want me to look into something related to one of those others, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
That wraps things up for now. It’s not a ton of new-new stuff, as is often the case with AEI, but still shows us what to expect for arcades going into the summer time. Stay tuned to the site for more; at least one post is scheduled to go up tomorrow and depending upon the info I get, perhaps more than that. Also sub to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already – I’ll be posting videos from the show there as soon as I can, but my time and Internet tend to be limited. Most will start showing up on Friday.
Thanks for reading! Do any of the previewed Amusement Expo 2024 booths interest you?
