Amusement Expo 2026 has now wrapped up and with it, I’m back home and able to start distilling the news. We already covered a few new announcements and now we take a look at Alan-1 and their big reveals at the show.
MirrorFX Brings An Old Idea Back To Life
When I first made a visit to Alan-1 to see Asteroids Recharged (as their factory is in my backyard, so to speak), I suggested that they take a look at the classic “Pepper’s Ghost” effect that was used in games like Space Invaders and Asteroids Deluxe. With their “Brain Trust” of volunteer game players and designers, the idea kept bouncing around, until recently the company decided to make it a reality. It’s been rare to see it used in modern times, and certainly in the way that Alan-1 is doing it. This borrows a page from Taito’s obscure 1985 release, Wyvern F-0, by overlapping two monitors on top of each other, the foreground done with the main game objects. In this case, they aren’t overlapping CRTs though.
Here is a prototype cabinet for Yars that gives you an idea of how it works (this was before the glass was installed and artwork applied). The main effect is accomplished by bouncing an image off of either glass or a half-silvered mirror. It creates a pseudo-holographic 3D look, and in this case, creates something of a stereoscopic 3D effect without the need for glasses.
Breakout, Caverns of Mars, & Yars Recharged
Starting with these three Atari Recharged console-to-arcade releases, the remainder of Alan-1’s Recharged ports will use this technology, dubbed the “MirrorFX.” All three debuted at Amusement Expo, and it was the first time I got the chance to play them as well.
It’s a cool effect, particularly being one of those things that can’t be accomplished on a typical home gaming setup. The level of depth seems more pronounced on both Caverns of Mars (CoM for short) and Yars than it does Breakout, which is likely due to how they have more detailed, scrolling backgrounds.
As mentioned in the video above, this is the first time that both CoM & Yars have come to the arcade. It will be interesting to see how they perform, particularly Yars since that is a twin sticker shooter now.
It’s important to note that this is not the only change made to each game. As a disclaimer, I have participated in QA testing and providing feedback and ideas for all three of these games, but I am not working on the code or art. Several others also contributed ideas and feedback in the process, and not all ideas have been used.
In addition to the Pepper’s Ghost effect, they’ve added:
Breakout
- Changed the UI to show the time left on power-ups as a bar
- Added an integrated story about the player protecting the operating system (which is also a little nod to TRON)
- Text from the OS is also put into the power-up bar and sometimes elsewhere on the screen
- Added new Bonus Bricks that use the values of Atari’s home console systems (2600/5200/7800)
- Restored the colors of bricks to match the original
- Added dynamic text effects, particularly when it says “BREAKOUT!”
- Added in some new animations, including an explosion, cracked bricks, and fireworks
- Added in some sounds, including for the coin drop
- Added a tutorial
- Added a Hall of Champions leaderboard
- Added ticket redemption support (optional)
- Integrated the Alan-1 MLeS app
- Support for other hardware “toys” (wind, rumble, LED, and knocker effects)
Caverns of Mars
- Restored the look of the ground to a maroon with an outline, instead of the black
- Redesigned all levels to be fixed instead of procedurally generated
- Added more levels based on the fixed design
- Added more elements to each stage, including buildings, more enemies, destructible pipes
- Brought back the open cavern space with enemies to fight in-between levels
- Brought back needing to escape the cavern after hitting the reactor
- Changed & improved the UI, also adding in a radar and depth meter
- Added a 3D Mars level selection screen
- Added a destructible barrier you need to blast in-between caverns
- Added new graphics for selecting the perks; also adding a “taunting” Martian billboard after those
- Added ranks based on your scoring
- Added a celebratory game ending sequence + Hall of Champions leaderboard
- Added ticket redemption support (optional)
- Integrated the Alan-1 MLeS app
- Support for other hardware “toys” (wind, rumble, LED, and knocker effects)
Yars Recharged
(Note that it is not called Yars Revenge Recharged)
- Brought back the Destroyer Missile enemy
- Changed how damage works with the Qotile (earlier levels it dies in one hit from the Zorlon Cannon instead of two)
- Set the game to 128 waves (called Hives)
- Added a tutorial
- Added ranks based on your scoring
- Added a celebratory game ending sequence + Hall of Champions leaderboard
- Added more animation to Yar’s death
- Added some new sounds
- Added ticket redemption support (optional)
- Integrated the Alan-1 MLeS app
- Support for other hardware “toys” (wind, rumble, LED, and knocker effects)
There are a variety of other smaller changes that went into these that we don’t need to dwell on here, but suffice it to say, these are all the superior iterations of the Recharged games available. They are more faithful to the original games, without turning into precise copies of the source material and can stand on their own.
A shipping date has not been announced for them yet, but that should be coming soon; they will definitely be available this Spring.
On a personal note, CoM is my favorite of all the Recharged ports. It feels like a reverse River Raid, which was one of my favorite shoot ’em ups to play on the Atari 2600 – and that also never saw an arcade port. Also as an Atari fan, it’s great to see these names gracing the scene. They provide players with something different from the norm, which is great in my view, although I do have to temper that from my operator side to say that different doesn’t always equate earnings.
We’ll have some more news on Alan-1 soon as these were not the only new titles at the show, so stay tuned!
Discover more from Arcade Heroes
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
