It is hard to believe, but as of today, this site is now nineteen years old. Let’s take this opportunity to look back at some of the events we’ve had over those years, while looking forward to the future.
Why We Do What We Do
As we often do on this anniversary, we link back to the very first post, which had been published by the original site founder, “Arcadeheaven”. He chose to remain anonymous, although you could ascertain without too much information that he was someone deeply involved in the arcade industry. He eventually transferred site ownership to myself (Adam) back in 2010, and along with some other great help on both the writing, contributor and advertising side, it continues on stronger than ever to today.
The mission of the site then, as it remains now, is to cover the news of the arcade industry. We put a strong focus on the amusement of it all – video games first, pinball second, then other aspects often found in the “Location-Based Entertainment” (LBE) space. Why don’t we focus on redemption, when that’s the Golden Goose of the industry? It doesn’t really need the “signal boost”. Like video games used to do, you just set a good ticket game down in the right room, and it “prints money,” as the old joke goes.
Arcade video games however, are often ignored by the mainstream gaming press, outside of the rare instance where there is a major IP crossover that gets them talking – like Mario Kart, Tomb Raider, or most recently, Resident Evil 2. Each time that happens, it seems to confuse a few people out there, who are perplexed by “who is this being made for?”, as there is little to no press on the many other games that developers spend millions of dollars on developing and releasing for the wide market out there.
The main media press can be forgiven to a small degree, in that no advertising dollars from this side of the business is thrown their way, and few (if any) know how the industry operates. That’s no excuse for them not trying to learn more though, so that they can correctly present the news of any given release to their readers – there remains plenty of fan interest in numerous arcade titles, including rhythm games, which have been seeing a resurgence out West with Maimai DX and Taiko no Tatsujin coming over officially.
Despite that lack of interest from their part, we’re happy to continue to pick up the slack, as uphill a battle as it might sometimes be. We’re also grateful for the trust given to us from those within the arcade sector, so that we can keep promoting it to the people as far and wide as is possible.
The Writers
Given the shocking and sad news that hit us yesterday with the passing of former Arcade Heroes writer, Nick Thorpe (HeavyElectricity), I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some other writers we’ve had on the site. Most have long gone onto other things, and unfortunately I haven’t heard from them in a very long time to know how things are going for them. If they ever come across this though, know that I’m grateful for the work you did and you’re always welcome to return.
HeavyElectricity – First off, with Nick’s passing, it is only right to put him first here and recognize what he did for the site. He posted from 2008-2012, and shortly after that he went on to Retro Gamer. His presence in the UK allowed him to visit the likes of Sega Amusements and check out games as they were in development, including Sega Rally 3 and GRID. He additionally attended UK shows like ATEI and EAG, reporting back for the site. We’re all heartbroken to hear of his passing. RIP.
ted90909 – Ted is one exception to being a “former” writer, as he has been a major co-contributor to how the site has stayed up-to-date lately. With my many arcade obligations, it has become difficult to keep up with everything on a timely basis, but through his love of arcades (also seen in other projects he works on, such as the preservation of the Michael Jackson AS-1 game and statue of Sonic from SegaWorld London), Ted has been reliable and prolific in keeping the site running. That has included sourcing information on numerous locations and games (he was the very first to discover Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot, for example), to co-writing many posts that go out weekly. He is another UK-based writer, so has covered EAG too.
Twisted Supreme – When I first found the site at the beginning of 2007, Twisted was the busiest writer on the site. He had an affinity for football (soccer) games and the sport itself, and I remember playing some Halo 3 with him on the Xbox 360. Like Nick and Ted, he lived in the UK and was able to get access to shows and developments there (his coverage of ATEI 2007 introduced me to both the site and the concept of game shows outside of E3). His last post was in 2009 and we haven’t heard much from him since.
SaraAB87 – Sara had a soft spot for the biggest machines in arcades – simulators. That came through in several of the posts she made on here, tracking the history of long-gone Sega R360 and Galaxian 3 installations, especially those that used to be nearby to her out in Canada (including at the famous Skylon Tower arcade, well-known for keeping many classic titles alive). She is also still around online unlike some of the other contributors mentioned, and we wish her well in anything she is doing now.
Metafox – I knew Metafox from various Atari forums, and it turned out he also enjoyed arcades a lot (lots of crossover there with Atari and Sega fans, usually). He contributed a few stories to us early on, including the discovery of the cool prototype game The Act: An Interactive Comedy, but one day he said he was going off grid and quitting the internet, and I never heard from him again. If you’re still out there, drop us a line…
We have had some other contributors too, including Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report (who remains a great source to us) and a certain half-Welsh true blue Arcade Hero ( 😉 ), but those are the main writers we’ve hosted. One more by the name of Jack Frost did recently join, but he has not written anything yet.
Also, this is still one place where human writing will remain the way of doing things. Using AI bots to write copy hasn’t ever crossed my mind at any point since their rise. Some might claim that’s a Luddite thing to do, as it would speed things up; however, it would also immediately introduce scores of AI-hallucinated errors, and I really think that if you let the computer do anything for you that’s ultimately unnecessary, it will only de-stimulate and affect one’s own creativity. The brain is like a muscle – if you don’t use it, you will soon lose it. Or to quote one of the most prescient lines from the 1982 film TRON:
“You’ve got to expect some static. After all, computers are just machines; they can’t think.”
“Some programs will be thinking soon.” -Alan Bradley
“Won’t that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop!”
So call us “boomers” or whatever, we’re going to keep writing and creating on our own, with no generative AI involvement whatsoever. Just like actual arcades, it’s all made so better with that human touch.
The Hall of Fame
One big effort this year that’s worth mentioning here was launching the Arcade Heroes Hall of Fame. This includes both game creators and the games themselves, but feel free to check it out if you haven’t already.
We have a lot more to add to this, but time is limited, especially with…
IAAPA 2025
Finally, for the thing that’s currently taking up much of our attention of the site, we still have a lot of IAAPA coverage to go through, which hopefully will be completed soon (though uploading the videos will take a little while). In case you missed the posts that have gone up so far:
- IAAPA 2025 Part 1 (Raw Thrills, Wahlap, Alan-1, TouchMagix, Blue Motion Games)
- IAAPA 2025 Part 2 (Bandai Namco, Sega Amusements, LAI Games)
- IAAPA 2025 Part 3 (exA-Arcadia, AVS Companies, JET Games USA)
There should be at least three or so more posts to go, covering the remaining companies and arcade games that were there. If possible we will also try to get one of our mainstay Newsbytes and Location Watch posts out before 2025 is over, as well as the regular Year-In-Review post. I additionally want to record an IAAPA review video for the YouTube channel soon, although I did already recently do one on a stream with Kevin Williams, Brandon Willey, and Clint Novak at The LBX Collective.
Thanks again to everyone who supports the site; long may it continue. What’s been your favorite Arcade Heroes coverage across these nineteen years of the site?
