Newsbytes: NBA Superstars At Dave & Busters, Rhythm Game Updates, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Pinball, More

Welcome to Newsbytes, our regular series of posts at AH that round up quick bites of news from around the world of arcades and pinball. Up until the Genda/NEN acquisition report the other day, it was a slow one for major news last week, but we do have several stories that have built up since the last one to cover here. These range from NBA Superstars’ timed exclusive rollout, to some new pieces of arcade media out of Japan. Let’s get on to the news:

NBA Superstars At Dave & Busters

Though not out to the wider industry just yet, NBA Superstars is now available to try at any Dave & Busters location that has received it thanks to their timed exclusivity deal with Raw Thrills. These have been rolling out since the end of May, so most should have it fully set up by now. Plenty of people have already visited their local D&B store or made a trip to the nearest one to get a first play of the game, including some of our readers; I would be one of those, but I have not had time to hit up mine to check it out. Jdevy sent us this photo of his (feat. LeBron James) in the AH Discord server:

And for a closer look, this video from Retro Ralph has you covered:

Bowl Expo in a few weeks time will offer a chance to get more hands-on with NBA Superstars, where it will make its full-scale launch to the industry on RT/Betson’s booth. Until then, here’s some impressions on how it plays from DaiAndOh. It should additionally be noted that as D&B own Main Event, cabinets are rolling out to those locations too.

Rhythm Game Updates

As we slide into Summer, the main rhythm game developers in the arcade industry look set to put out new content to keep their players engaged over the holidays. Reflecting that, there are a couple of new versions of these out of Japan to speak of here. One that has just been announced over there is Chunithm Luminous Plus, the latest edition of Sega’s second major arcade rhythm game. This series has of course been officially available elsewhere in Asia since the start of the 2020s, so if the Maimai DX location test at Round1USA is a success, we could maybe soon see it reaching their locations as well?

The initial announcement of this one was already mentioned in the last Newsbytes, but Konami have also now released Dance Dance Revolution World, the biggest new version for DDR in quite some time, to Japan, most of Asia, and R1USA (no D&B anymore – their cabinets seem to be staying on the older A20+ version until the end of time…). It came a lot sooner than expected by the sounds of things, unusually receiving no accompanying pre-launch location test to iron things out. Perhaps they just didn’t think there was any need, with DDR being such a long-running franchise? Check the stream below for footage:

Andamiro USA have also finally posted about Pump It Up Phoenix 2024, though that one has been pushed to cabinets for a couple of weeks by now.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Pinball

Connoisseurs of pinball might recall that several years ago, a company by the name of Zidware was in the process of making some original pinball machines. The whole thing with those designs ended up becoming a fiasco, but fortunately, some have taken those unreleased designs and given them some new life. One was a game based upon Lewis Carrol’s classic Alice In Wonderland book. Now, that game is getting fixed up and released by a new division of Dutch Pinball (Dutch Pinball Exclusives) that is focused entirely on limited “boutique” releases – not really stuff for locations, but for collectors who are willing to spend some cash to add a unique game to their collection.

More details on this upcoming game can be found over at PinballNews.com, where the news broke. I do hope that a lot of the art remains intact, as the demo stuff looked fantastic. What do you think about it? It does surprise me as I wasn’t aware of Dutch Pinball doing anything other than “boutique” (the pinball world’s word for “indie”) releases as it was, but I don’t follow some of these developments in the pinball world as closely as some others.

What It’s Like To Work At A Japanese Arcade

Continuing the Japan focus, this fun video recently released. Having operated an arcade for 16 years as of last Saturday, I really enjoyed this “day in the life” look. Granted, certain operational aspects are different (as a single location, I don’t do anything like plot sales goals – I just try and come up with creative new ways of marketing on social media and try and watch for certain local events that might bring people into the mall where I’m at), but for anyone who has worked at an arcade before, I’m sure you can find something to relate to:

Space Invaders Gigamax R Invades Round1USA

We did previously run a post about this game when it hit its first US location a few months ago, but now that it is rolling out to more, let’s touch on Space Invaders Gigamax R once again here. This is a new arcade version of the giant Space Invaders Gigamax game that Taito have brought out to events from time to time, exclusive to Round1USA. It sounds like select locations should be getting it within the coming weeks (AH reader ArcadeZ passed on this photo of one being set up in Greendale, WI), but some won’t due to size/space issues:

May Arcade Releases

NBA Superstars’ timed exclusivity release wasn’t the only arcade launch last month; several new games have shipped to the whole industry. In case you are curious about what has released up to this point in the year and what is coming soon, be sure to visit our releases tracking page:

Arcade Heroes At Trade Shows

July will see some arcade related events, and I (ArcadeHero), will be attending a couple of them. I’d really like to see other AH contributors (e.g. Ted, Oga-Shi) here for something like IAAPA, but we’ll have to see how that goes and what they’re doing.

Anyways, as briefly mentioned earlier, Bowl Expo is coming up at the very end of this month, with the trade show part happening on July 1st & 2nd. A few companies have been posting that they’ll be there, although aside from NBA Superstars, I don’t know what else – if anything – might make an “industry debut”. While Bandai Namco have revealed new titles like Pixel Bash at the show in the past, they are not on the exhibitors list for this year. Amusement Source International is, however, and it seems like they always have something new for each show – perhaps something that they grabbed at the recent AAA Expo.

Later this month, I’ve also been invited to CAX 2024 to speak at a panel for Alan-1 Inc. They are the creators of the upcoming Asteroids Recharged and Avian Knights titles. I’ll also be around at their booth and checking out the show in general to play some of the awesome rarities that you don’t usually come across. Just a note – because of a consultancy role that I’ve recently taken on with Alan-1, coverage surrounding them on the blog here will be handled by another writer and not myself. I want to remain as impartial as is possible in the coverage; although in the case of videos, I’ll still be doing those, they’ll just be specially sponsored.

Aside from these, I don’t have any other plans for shows over the rest of the year apart from IAAPA… but you never know what might happen. 🙂

Speaking of sponsorships, be sure to check out the LBX Collective, which AH is also working with on their LBX Daily Show podcasts with the Arcade Corner every Wednesday:

What Is The Deal With Arcade-To-Console Ports These Days?

Again on the topic of NBA Superstars, its announcement generated a lot of somewhat misinformed comments from people who believe there isn’t an arcade industry for games like it to release to. Some even think that it should simply be put out on consoles from the off (or at least, as soon as possible)! While the complaints from those who aren’t likely to see a cabinet of it nearby are understandable, off the back of this discourse our official YouTube channel now has a video explaining in detail why that isn’t really ideal:

Headlines

New Corporate Video For Sega Japan – Spot the arcade nods, both old and new…

Content Update #51 From StepManiaX

Read Japanese Arcade History In Coin Journal 1993

“Developer’s Day” Discussion With The Guys Who Created Gottlieb’s KRULL

Taito’s Chairman Was Nearly Kidnapped By His Employees In ’85

Super Sprint Reproduction Cab Goes On The High Seas

New QBIX Game Bubble Smasher Teaser Trailer

Sega Amusements Holds Their Annual Kick-Off Meeting

Trio-Tech Honors D-Day With A Really Awesome Simulator

Trio-Tech Also Celebrates Their 3000th Typhoon Installation

The X-Files Pinball Gets Colorful – So Does Viper Night Drivin’

Official Accessories For JAWS Pinball

A Different Take On The Unico LCD From An Arcade Monitor Tech

Idolmaster Tours Gets Its Second Location Test Period From June 26th

Unused Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 Track Released By Yuzo Koshiro

Tokyo Joypolis Holds Sonic’s 33rd Birthday Party With Some Special Sega Guests

Park Avenue Open Day 2024 Hosted By UDC, Electrocoin And Others In The UK – Not much new of interest in video for us though

Laserforce Adds Fitness Tracking To Their Laser Tag System – I’m surprised this feature has taken so long to implement

St. Louis Game Company Rolls Out Thermal Ticket Printers For Cranes – Crane fans will have to explain to me how this is “groundbreaking”

[Console Headlines]

Street Fighter 6 Adds M. Bison, Elena, And Fatal Fury Characters – Will be available on Type Arcade in the future too

IGS Classic Arcade Collection Up For Asia Import Preorder

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Gets A New Retro-Style Beat’Em Up

Four Hour Sega Rally Saturn Documentary From Pandamonium Premieres

John Carmack Knew The Meta Quest Pro Would Be A Flop, But Lost The Internal Battle To Stop It

Sony Cedes, Will Allow PSVR2 Play On PC – There are a bunch of restrictions for it though, Kevin Williams surmises that this is an out for Sony on their VR plans

Taiko Frenzy Comes To VR – Perhaps this is the next Beat Saber?

Atari’s Metroidvania, Yars’ Rising, Gets A PC Demo

The Goofy Squirrel With A Gun Gets An August Release Date

IKEA Is Hiring 10 Virtual Employees For Their Virtual Roblox Store

That’s all for this week. For any fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day! Which of these news items (e.g. NBA Superstars rolling out) interested you most?