Welcome to Newsbytes, a regular series of posts which focus on quick news pieces from around the wonderful world of arcades & pinball. We generally aim to publish these on the weekend so that you have something to read about them. As mentioned before news has been slow in the dog days of Summer, but this should round up everything we’ve missed over the past few weeks. Onward:
Bowl Expo 2025 Updates
To start things off, we had mentioned in our Bowl Expo/IAAPA Asia story that there were some things that we didn’t quite have or see yet. Now, thanks to some updates out there, we can finally provide those.
First off is Superwing’s Marksman, which we knew was there via Andamiro USA, but was not advertised by them besides in a preview at the time of publishing. That has now changed; this photo shows their Drew Maniscalo and Nick Montano posing with the game in its attract mode. I can’t tell if the guns use plastic or metal shells (I lean towards plastic), whilst for the game itself, it’s along the lines of the various shooting gallery games that have been popular over the past few years. I am not sure what is different about that aside from the cabinet putting the two screens together like this, though. This also would be one of the few “new-new” games at the show that wasn’t at AEI or another recent trade show. See more on LinkedIn.
Then it was believed that Bandai Namco’s GoldStorm Pirates was going to be at AVS Companies’ booth, since they had announced that they were representing them among their products and the game was stated to be appearing somewhere at the show. As AVS simply had a tabletop Pac-Man Pixel Bash cabinet, however, GoldStorm ended up over at the AAMA booth – which is a surprise, as I can’t recall the last time that the AAMA hosted product outside of their Gala. The booth also had the Disney Photo Booth from Face Place and JET Pong by Valley-Dynamo. Thanks to Steve and James for sending this our way:
Finally, while UNIS was the only one at both Bowl Expo and IAAPA Asia with video games, prominent crane and prize redemption manufacturer Dreamfuns attended both too, as this video shows. Their IAAPA booth was far more impressive than their Bowl Expo one, but regardless not everyone can handle two shows on opposite sides of the planet simultaneously. Photos can also be found on this LinkedIn post.
BuckFest 2025
Raw Thrills has begun promoting the next rendition of their Big Buck Hunter World Championships, but instead of using that somewhat wordy but familiar name, they are now calling it “BuckFest”. This leans more into it being a general arcade event, but Big Buck players won’t have to worry as the Championships are still taking place, with $125k in cash prizes being awarded to the main participants. Check it out here:
Win A Missile Command Recharged At CAX 2025
As mentioned previously in the post on Missile Command Recharged Arcade, Alan-1 recently announced their “Grid Gauntlet” tournament at California Extreme 2025, organized using their MLeS app. “CAX” as it is often called, is as of writing, being held this very weekend, so this might pique the interest of any attending. The winner of the tournament, as you might have surmised from the headline, will win their very own Missile Command Recharged Arcade machine; the winner will be announced on Sunday afternoon. Note that unlike last year I will not be attending the show, but I will be keeping tabs on how it all goes down. Also, they were going to have a new Atari Recharged game that had not been announced yet, but have ultimately decided against it as the software is still early (the cabinet is ready though).
Also, CAX is looking good so far.
JAWS 50th Anniversary Edition
The iconic film JAWS just celebrated 50 years in existence, and I heard a pretty convincing argument that it is the most influential movie of all time. That was based on the fact that no other movie influenced actual human behavior quite like it did (people refusing en mass to go into the ocean, in this case, which really happened in the summer of 1975). To celebrate the film’s release 50 years ago, Stern have now put out a brand new anniversary edition for their pinball rendition; this trailer lays it all out neatly:
Along the same lines, Stern also have released a new “Making of” video, this time for Dungeons & Dragons. I will have a D&D Premium here at my arcade soon, but I’m having to wait on Stern’s manufacturing schedule, which has them being made sometime in August. :/
Raccoon Rampage Gets A 2-Player Model
UNIS sent out an email a few days back stating that they are now shipping a 2-Player version of their sit-down video redemption arcade game, Raccoon Rampage. I’ve heard them say that the 4-Player version has been a strong performer, although I haven’t seen any concrete numbers on how much it pulls in on a location. If you haven’t seen this one yet, it’s your usual kiddy-focused water gun videmption game in the Ice Man mould, blasting a stream of water at the screen and recycling that for a few levels. I don’t know the price for these as of right now, but you can get one from your local UNIS distributor.
Earthion Pre-Orders & The EXA ARC-1 Series
Finally, for those interested exA-Arcadia, here are a couple of notable things on them. First, the EXA Label edition of Yuzo Koshiro’s Mega Drive/Genesis-based shoot ’em up EARTHION is now available for pre-order. Per that page, in case you’re wondering what makes this version special:
Developed by exA-Arcadia in cooperation with Ancient staff members. Skilled designer, Makoto Wada, pushes the 16-bit specs to their pixel limits. Famed Pokemon artist, Mitsuhiro Arita, joins as the Illustrator with a stunning hand painted piece. Yuzo Koshiro himself supervised all 5 soundtracks covering each of the classic console variants that the 16 bit generation knows and loves.
As standard with EXA LABEL releases, this title features a perfect rendition of the ORIGINAl game mode with enhanced sound. The EXA LABEL mode completely changes the gameplay to focus on arcade style scoring and Hyper usage. Uncover all of the secrets to get the high score. EXTREME difficulty is also available in both modes to veterans who love the challenge our releases bring to the table. Practice any stage in both modes in SCORE ATTACK.
Play the definitive arcade experience in EARTHION EXA LABEL with the game industry leading 1 frame input lag response!
Then on the hardware side of things, whilst interest in exA-Arcadia’s ARC-32 would take precedence over their American-style ARC-1, I don’t have the former (yet). I do however have the latter, and that plus a sponsoring deal for the YouTube channel meant that these two videos overviewing it got made. I meant to get these published last year, but got sidetracked – I still have more to do, particularly one showing how to change out the coin door. If I ever grab a different control panel, then I would also post that.
This second video where I change the monitor orientation also has an Omen of Sorrow unboxing and install with it too:
Headlines
Konami Puts Out A Japanese Trailer For Contra Burst’s US Release – Odd considering there’s been no sign of the game in Japan, but they have promoted their other R1USA exclusive releases (e.g. the Castlevania pusher) before in this same way
Sega Releases Chunithm X-Verse To Celebrate 10 Years Of Their Rhythm Game – Will it follow Maimai in receiving an official US release soon? Once again, who knows. Speaking of which, that celebrated 13 years in operation recently as well
Bandai Namco’s Latest Gundam Extreme Vs Update, Infinite Boost, Is Out Now In Japan Too – But not at their NYC Cross Store… this is also another arcade title celebrating an anniversary, outdoing the Sega rhythm games with its 15th
WMMT Speed Ignition Gets Changes (Including Its Control Panel) From Player Feedback – This is why I always say ‘wait and see’ with tests
New Online Tournament Event Coming To Maximum Tune 5DX This Week – Nice chance for US players to interact with Singaporean ones
An Interview With The Idolm@ster Tours’ Producer & Licensing Manager – Apparently this hasn’t been doing so well though
Taito’s Godzilla Kaiju Drop Starts To Land At All Round1USA Locations
Sega’s Japanese Bingo Theater Medal Game Has A Persona 5 Collab
Input Lag Test For exA-Arcadia – For those curious to see how the low input lag looks in action
There Is A Mystery Location Test Going On In Japan Right Now
A Pac-Man Café Has Popped Up For The San Diego Comic Con
Incredible Technologies Reminds Us Of Their Non-Golden Tee Works – As a part of their ongoing 40th anniversary. I get that Golden Tee is their Golden Goose, but it is nice to see them remember that they did make other games, once upon a time.
Valo Motion Celebrates 100 Installs
New Collab For StepManiaX And Unbeatable
Killer Queen Arcade Adds A Long Awaited Tutorial Mode
Content Farm Yuto Games Launches New Bow & Arrow Shooting Game
The Angry Video Game Nerd Visits Galloping Ghost Arcade, Recreates Famous Photo
Amusement Source International Showcases New Product On Their LinkedIn Page – Including the Rooster ‘N Bro 2DX game that was supposed to be at AEI 2025, and a new eight player Chinese neon crane.
[Home Headlines]
Former Sega Game Designer Kazuya Takahashi (House Of The Dead 4, 2Spicy) Has Directed Donkey Kong Bananza – This is a surprise… however, HOTD4 was much-loved of course, and though never successful 2Spicy definitely has its fans, so the fact that Bananza has been received well tracks
Looks Like There Will Be A Donkey Kong Movie From Nintendo And Universal Soon
The Golden Tee Arcade Classics Collection Is Out Now Via Atari And Digital Eclipse – Site link – I wonder if this ancient GT lore is still in there…
Andamiro Officially Launches Pump It Up R!SE’s Early Access Period For Steam
Big Layoffs At Xbox; Rare Veterans Like Gregg Mayles Retire From The Company
Weird Al’s “Secret” NES Game – Have a laugh before the next bit of news…
Guitar Hero Reference Removed From Tony Hawk 3+4 Because We Can’t Have Fun Anymore – It used to be that game companies took jabs at each other all the time, but now it seems to be a sport for some to suck the joy out of gaming. People mad about this need to not only go and touch grass, but roll in it and get a life.
We Have Our Live Action Link & Zelda – People mad about this need to see my short rant above.
YouTuber Faces Hefty Fines & Jail Time For Reviewing Pirate/ROM Consoles
The New Management Of Commodore Announces The C64:Ultimate – I wasn’t a Commodore kid, but if this pans out, it’ll be cool
That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of the above stories (e.g. the Bowl Expo updates) piqued your interest most?
