Welcome to Newsbytes, our regular series of posts at Arcade Heroes that rounds up quick bites of news from around the world of arcades and pinball. As ever, Summer can be a slow season for such things, but thanks to our readers, friends and co-contributors out there, we’re able to scrap some things together outside of your bigger stories. As well as that, there are some clarifications and updates to a couple of subjects that have been taking up more mindshare in the arcade world (e.g. the Taiko No Tatsujin USA release), so whichever you’re here for, we have got you covered.
Taiko No Tatsujin USA Updates
First off, some updates to undoubtedly the biggest piece of arcade news this month. Taiko No Tatsujin’s confirmed USA release in November has inevitably got people talking, and a lot of information has came with that, much of it true, but some aspects false. Other people have reached out to Bandai Namco off the back of this, and one truth that has emerged is that they are aiming for wider US rollouts to commence around Q2 2025, with the initial limited run of cabinets pretty much all going to Round1USA. That first quota being filled up by them isn’t too much of a surprise from previous chats with BNAA reps though. This was something added late in editing to our below YouTube video on the story, but with less detail:
Another thing that we did not have clear answers on was how Bandai Namco would be handling any potential payments for the network side of things, always a sticking point for Western arcade operators. Though we still don’t have many specifics, it does appear from BNA’s responses that Taiko will be ran on “a ‘per play’ fee that is collected to support the online functionality and continuing music licensing” (i.e. some sort of revenue share) model. The specifics of this remain woolly for now though; depending on how you interpret the wording, it could easily mean a static per-credit fee instead of a percentage, or even simply revenue share and no networking fees. That latter one (or a deal for ops who already pay for it via Maximum Tune 5) would be most ideal, but we shall see.
Meanwhile, various rumors have been flying around about Raw Thrills being responsible for building the Taiko No Tatsujin USA cabinets, or at least them being of a much lower quality than Japan’s. This one is patently untrue for a number of reasons. It’s understandable that a lot of rhythm gamers would be concerned about this issue following certain past cases – the poorly-received DDR X cabinets, for one – but even there, RT did not do everything (they merely produced/provided parts), plus part of the blame falls at Konami’s door too for not exerting quality control to their usual standards. And there is no evidence that Bandai Namco will do this. Everything out of them says that the Taiko cabinets are going to be assembled with Japan-manufactured parts in the US, but not by RT.
In case anything more comes along there will certainly be more coverage of Taiko No Tatsujin USA; the interest in it has been big enough to eclipse most current arcade releases. That’s about it for now though…
Golden Tee 2025
Last month saw Incredible Technologies launch their Arcade Collection Live update, and with that now out there they’ve been revealing more about the next Golden Tee release. Golden Tee 2025 will notably mark the series 35th anniversary; RePlay have a great recent article on that history. Information from IT has been slowly trickling out onto Twitter/X, mentioning certain old courses that are getting HD upgrades. They haven’t unveiled a trailer or new cabinet yet though, perhaps those are coming next week. But will it top Golden Tee 2010’s full unveil where they had a band cook up a Golden Tee song?
Just note, none of the links below show anything from the courses, just the name and the logo:
- Rocky Hollow course
- Bear Lodge course
- Pine Coast course
- TPC San Antonio
- Sahara Dunes course
- Lexington Stables course
- Palmetto Coast course
- Basin Lake course
- Bahama Isles course
New Naruto Emblem Battle Details
Just before the Taiko No Tatsujin USA news dropped, one of the bigger stories of this month was Marvelous launching Naruto Emblem Battle into North America. At the time of press we did not have any answers from them on how the game would be distributed here, but now Marvelous have finally got back with details.
Regarding distribution, I have gained confirmation that the game is only available through Marvelous, with machines themselves being lent out to interested operators by their US subsidiary XSEED. This means you will not be able to buy the game, nor get it on a rental-style basis though any industry distributor. The only cost out of pocket would be for the “emblems” (cards – albeit these are more than just a baseball card-type object), although according to XSEED, that cost is a “trade secret”. Once the machine runs out of emblems, it needs to be restocked, otherwise it will not work. Other than that, the game does need to connect to the internet, but that doesn’t provide the operator with any features, it’s on XSEED for monitoring.
Marvelous also has no plans to be attending the likes of IAAPA, so it seems they only want to do their own thing at the moment. I do imagine that they could get more games out there by going to such shows and inking proper sales deals, but it sounds like they will just have their own strategy on handling things for now.
R.I.P. Haggis Pinball
In the event that you happen to have got your hands on a machine produced by Haggis Pinball, you now have something quite rare. Thanks to a tip from Vincent and confirmation from this detailed story on Pinballnews.com about the shareholders and liquidation proceedings, it is evident that they are no more. The Haggis Pinball site no longer works, while their social media accounts have disappointingly closed too.
I’ve never seen a Haggis Pinball game in-person, but it was nice to see someone else trying to join the fray. I think the lesson to be learned from any of these pinball-only producers is… consider doing more than only producing pinball. Back it up with a sports game (like basketball machines and alley bowlers) or something else that can help finances while you figure out the more complex deal of pins.
Sure, if you include “pinball” as a part of your company title, then you might feel forced to produce nothing but that, however from a business perspective, just focusing on a heavily competitive niche product with various established players is not a sound business plan. Unless you happen to cook up a mega hit right out of the gate and you can figure out how to sustain that over the long run.
Each company like this that collapses and takes pre-order money with it, further poisons the well for others down the road, although I really hope this puts a nail in the coffin of taking consumer money in this industry before you have a product ready to roll out the door. It probably won’t, but one can hope 😛
Project Neon Launches
Project Neon, a new indie vertical shooter for the Neo Geo MVS and AES by FULLSET, recently saw playtesting out at some real arcades after being originally announced way back in late 2019. Now, following a January pre-order period, the game is just about ready to officially launch. This brief final review shows some of its neat extras buyers will get, including stickers and a few glimpses of unused content:
exA-Arcadia @ EVO 2024
As of writing, EVO 2024 is currently happening in Las Vegas, and though it does not feature the same degree of arcade announcements and attendees that EVO Japan did back in April, there has still been some arcade action at what is now not just a tournament, but the biggest fighting game event around today.
exA-Arcadia again have got a presence in the dedicated arcade area – the largest ever for an EVO so far – where they have previewed their new titles (Arcana Heart 3 Xtend, Axel City 2, Breakers Revenge Chicago, and Jitsu Squad Feat. Samurai Pizza Cats), as well as the ARC-32 cabinet. That last one was supposed to first appear at Amusement Expo in March, but there was a hold up, so both EVOs on either side of the globe have served as its official debuts instead. And that’s not all…
ExA have got most representation at EVO 2024 in the arcade area by Game Saru and 100 Yen Life, where alongside their usual batch of imports they also had a very nice custom four-player Viewlix VS running exA games that can support more than two (e.g. Nippon Marathon). However away from that, as you can see in the above video, even Riot Games brought some unique custom (but similarly officially endorsed) ARC-32s running their new console/PC fighter 2XKO on their booth. I’m told that “exA x Riot” is a developing partnership, but details on that beyond what we see at EVO haven’t been provided. Here’s a clip of day 2.
On another EVO note, this time there is a massive SFIII: 3rd Strike tournament being held, bringing together what might be the most 3S games under one roof – ever. I want to tip my hat to Lemony Vengeance, who not only borrowed my 2nd Impact board for the event, but has gone and upgraded it to 3S. Once he brings it back, I’ll have to be operating it in a cab once again…
In other arcade-related event news, Classic Game Fest and Southern Fried Gaming Expo are also taking place this weekend. Then CAX is next weekend and I will be attending that one this year.
The Rise Of The Immersive Reality Room
Back at IAAPA 2023, I was asked to say something in regards to the QBIX room at a press conference for it, and the phrase “Immersive Reality Room” popped into my head. Perhaps a full post about these attractions is warranted, but for the moment, we will look at some updates on two of them out there: NeoExperiences and a new game for Inowize’s QBIX.
I bring up NeoXperiences first as they were one of the earliest companies to develop a product that would fit into the IRR mold. Long time readers might remember the Scale-1 Portal – that was essentially a prototype of what is now the NeoXperiences IRR system. I haven’t seen them at IAAPA for a while, but they have been there; I’m also uncertain of how many units they have out in the wild. Either way if you have one, you might be interested to know that they have a new axe throwing game that allows you to have a virtual axe throwing arena (with soft axes, of course).
Then there’s QBIX, a newer and more compact system from Inowize that does have a few installations in both Europe and the States. They released a new chef/cooking game at Amusement Expo and now they have another game that just launched, Bubble Smasher. I believe this brings the number of games available for the QBIX up to six. Here’s the trailer:
And while not a room per say, Taito has also just launched Bootverse, one of several new-style active FECs in Japan. Though not part of their proper IRR attempt (CUBE) for certain Taito Station locations in Japan, this does have some IRR-like attractions, such as Bub’s Putter Battle (graphic-based mini-golf in a small space). This is probably best to discuss more on the next Location Watch but it is just one of several nice callbacks to Taito’s history, including Ninja Warriors Extreme Stage, Sonic Blast Man Survival, and perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, a new laser-tag system themed after their 1990 classic Space Gun called Space Gun Field. Projection map the aliens onto walls, make them targets, and that’s an IRR too:
What do you think about these types of rooms and facilities? The space they take up and the expense puts them into a small attractions/FEC category (it’s probably why we haven’t seen Taito properly market theirs), but I can see these becoming more prominent than VR arenas in the future. That’s because they require no wearables and all of the issues that come from those, yet they still allow for multiple users to enjoy a game. They feel more social in that regard, since you’re not on the alert of running into someone that you can only see virtually (and the weirdness that comes from that in VR arenas – lag, distance miscalculations). I’ll have to do a video some time looking at the various IRR options that are out there right now.
Comparing Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR Cabs
A bit of fun from the AH YouTube channel now – we got a lot of glimpses at Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR before the final cabinet model hit production, and this short video looks over the changes made to its design. As for the software though, there is still no sign of anything further than the second level; the final three stages that are planned will likely all be dropping at the same time now, though exactly when remains unknown.
Also, Raw Thrills has made a big old accolades trailer for the game. Haven’t seen one of those for an arcade title in a while. Round1USA have touted that the game is available at their locations too.
New Arcade Releases June 2024
Want to know what the major arcade releases were last month? Here you go:
Headlines
Bandai Namco Tests Out Idolmaster Tours In Japan A Second Time, Inside-Games.jp Reports – whilst we get Taiko No Tatsujin USA, they get Idolmaster. Though the game looks like it may be popular there, it’d probably be a different story here unless that franchise ever becomes more recognized out West
Bandai Namco Technica Are Loctesting King Kong VR In Japan – slightly surprising that they’ve gone for this to test and not Godzilla Kaiju Wars, all things considered
Bamco Also Had A Shareholders Meeting Where They Were Asked About Overseas Arcade Expansion…
Smithsonian American Art Museum Celebrates Arcade Games
Sega’s Initial D The Arcade Ver 2.5 Adds A Prius Z And Much More
Maximum Tune 5DX+ Finally Gets A New North America Event
“ALL.Net Air”, A Mysterious New Sega Network Trademark…
The eSports Prize Money Is Heating Up For Gundam EXVS
Unedited Hour Of Undertaker Footage For Wrestlemania Arcade
A New Video On Old Arcade Games From The Soviet Union – we’ve discussed this a couple of times in the past but every once in a while, someone has a new take
For Those Interested In The New Pokemon Card Arcade Game In Japan
Arcade Attack Interviews Eugene Jarvis
Sega Amusements’ CEO Paul Williams Celebrates 60 Years
Matt Page Of Sega Amusements Marks 10 With The Company
Bop It! Arcade Gets An Update From Sega Amusements Too
Taito Tests Out A Big New Godzilla Pusher At A Round1 China Location – we’re not huge on pushers here of course, but interesting to consider who may be working with them on this and how it can come West. Some have bet on UNIS in the AH Discord from their past partnerships…
Meanwhile Konami Are Excited About Castlevania’s Marble Pusher Coming To Round1USA
Konami Also Release A Pusher Based On Their ‘Power Pros’ Video Game Series In Japan – looks like this one is destined for R1USA too… as someone on the D&B Reddit has shown
[Console Headlines]
SNK SVC Chaos Rerelease Is Now Available For PC/PS4/Switch – I wondered why was no PS5 release, and the word on the street is that it’s possibly due to the old chestnut of input lag issues… or just SNK being SNK
Taito’s Hat Trick Hero Launches For Arcade Archives – some very interesting details were shared about how Taito Europe were heavily involved in its creation
Arcade Legend VR Adds New Prize Store Update – I really need to get a controller fixed so I can play this
Double Dragon Revive Announced For PC – would be great to have an arcade release with exclusives
Japanese Press Conference On Raiden Nova
Realistic CRT Shader Comes To RetroArch For The Genesis
A Saturn Audio-Only Kenji Eno Title Becomes… An Audiobook
Sunsoft Preps A Sequel To Gimmick 32 Years After The Original NES Release – if it wasn’t for the Gimmick EXA release then they wouldn’t be doing this, by what I’ve heard from behind-the-scenes. Not all fans are happy with this looking at the quality though.
That’s all for now on this Newsbytes. Which of the latest arcade news (e.g. Taiko No Tatsujin USA) interested you most this time?
