Arcade Heroes

At the end of January, one of the biggest arcade companies of this century quietly celebrated their 25th anniversary. That would be Raw Thrills, who were founded in Skokie, Illinois on January 26th, 2001, by Eugene Jarvis, Andrew Eloff, and the now-retired Deepak Deo. Originally comprised of many ex-Midway employees, they would go on to make many hit titles and earn their place among the most seasoned arcade studios across the world, in conjunction with Play Mechanix (who they merged with in 2006) and various global partners.

So, while we are a ways off from January, this is still a good opportunity to check back on what Raw have done over the past two decades and a half (featuring some exclusive information especially provided by Eugene and Andy at RT) – and take a small look to the future 🙂

Arcade Games

For this look back, we will run down Raw Thrills’ releases in chronological order, only splitting things up between proper arcade games and redemption – as well as some rare coverage of their cancelled titles, and a few thoughts on what’s likely up next from them at the end. Note that this is not a complete encyclopedia of every Raw Thrills game; there are several we have left out for time and length’s sake and/or their relative lack of notability (e.g. Nicktoons Nitro, Cars, numerous sequels and content updates). But this should serve as a good guide to all their biggest releases up to today, with a few fun anecdotes about them along the way.

Target: Terror (2004)

While Raw Thrills were founded in 2001, it took a few years for their first arcade works to come out (they had actually planned to make console games at first, and the earliest projects that kept them busy in the meantime were a few obscure casino games they made for IGT). Following the lead of Midway’s older Area 51 and Maximum Force, their first light-gun game wasn’t the most advanced out there, but featured a timely theme and some great live action video capture animations and gameplay. It was a solid start that would get them off the ground, marking the return of major Western arcade game developments after Midway/Atari Games had shuttered back in 2001. Notably, the ending of this did tease a sequel, but as it currently stands, this is still the only entry in the series, with just a Gold update and Wii port released afterward.

Here is a photo from Target: Terror’s first appearance at a tradeshow, what was then called AMOA. Here, Andrew Eloff shows the game off to pinball design legend Steve Kordek:

The Fast and the Furious (2004)

Alongside Target: Terror was a racing title that really put RT on the map, being their first arcade racer and the first of many to use the Fast and Furious license. This began development as “Hot Cars Street Racing,” but since people kept noting its similarities to the then popular films, it was suggested internally to attach the F&F IP (which they got through one of their contacts at IGT in a stroke of luck). It was a resounding success, leading to sequels like Tokyo Drift (2008), SuperCars (2011), and The Fast & The Furious Arcade (2022). The game was made available as a conversion kit in all of these instances excepting the most recent one, which is how I was able to feature both Tokyo Drift & Super Cars at my arcade until I replaced them with Cruis’n Blast. Super Cars is where they had more tracks than in any of their other racers, and it included features like achievements.

Pic from a video shoot at Raw Thrills

Eugene added that when they first began pursuing the license, it was tied up by Sega, and then Namco(thanks to the PS2 & PSP iterations of the game), but they both eventually passed on the license as the title grew stale with no planned sequel. Joe Kaminkow was instrumental in procuring the license for Raw Thrills.

Big Buck Hunter Pro (2006; with Play Mechanix)

In 2006, Raw Thrills merged with Play Mechanix (an existing game studio founded by fellow former Midway alumni George Petro), and this gave them access to their resources and properties – including their crown jewel, the Big Buck Hunter series. Listing every entry in this series would make this piece go on for significantly longer, so we won’t go there after this, but the successful release of Big Buck Hunter Pro was succeeded by Big Buck Safari, Big Buck Hunter Open Season, Big Buck World, Big Buck Hunter HD, Big Buck Wild, and most recently Big Buck Hunter Reloaded, which continues to receive content updates. Needless to say, the cultural impact from this game has made it the definitive way to digitally hunt, and Play Mechanix has put on annual World Championships with big cash prizes since 2008.

The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes (2006)

We’ll mostly stick to the same rule as Big Buck for Fast and Furious, given that it received numerous sequels too, but one that deserves special exception for inclusion here is the sister Super Bikes series to the original car-based F&F, which was just as (if not more) successful. This actually stopped using the movie license with its highly successful 2010 sequel, instead using only licensed bikes (e.g. Yamaha), but that hasn’t stopped it continuing to today with a third instalment arriving in 2019 and most recently the redemption-focused Jackpot Racer. It’s also worth noting that this is among Raw Thrills’ last games to use a CRT monitor.

The sequel, Super Bikes 2, became an enormous hit and the dominant motorbike racing game on the world market. I still hear about distributors seeing demand for these, so your chances of finding one out there are still pretty good.

Guitar Hero Arcade (2009; with Activision + Konami)

RT’s first and most popular foray into rhythm games was an arcade conversion of Activision and RedOctane’s console guitar playing juggernaut. Selling 2,000 units in only 90 days, it has since been a staple of many locations, despite its lifespan being cut short. Contrary to popular myth, Raw Thrills did have licensing through ASCAP.  The game was also done with the full approval and co-operation of Konami (since they did the game concept first with Guitar Freaks), which also led to a partnership between the two companies for a time. They haven’t done much in the rhythm game genre since then, and don’t seem to have any future plans changing that. Still, this is one of the few games that really holds its value, commanding high prices for used units; I occasionally get people asking if we have one, but they are very hard to come by.

H2Overdrive (2009; with Specular Interactive)

While their alliance with Play Mechanix definitely paid off, RT didn’t only work with them on game software. One third party developer in particular would make a few of their most acclaimed titles for an all too brief period, beginning with this futuristic speedboat racer. Specular Interactive took direct inspiration from Hydro Thunder, as their studio was founded by its original creator Steve Ranck, who was joined by a few of his former Midway co-workers. In the process, they created a very worthy spiritual successor to HT (there was going to be an actual Hydro Thunder II before Midway shut down their arcade division). It was also one of the first Raw Thrills titles to be released in China via UNIS, who they have continued to work with on various deluxe motion model cabinets (though Wahlap do make some of their games there too).

Terminator Salvation (2010; with Play Mechanix)

One of the biggest arcade shooters of the 1990s not to come out of Japan was Midway’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. With a new film out in Terminator Salvation, Terminator 2: Judgment Day arcade designer and Play Mechanix head honcho, George Petro, saw a great opportunity to bring the franchise back to coin-op.

As their first major licensed light-gun game was another big hit, and one that would arguably outshine the completely forgotten console titles for the film. George Petro told me about its development at IAAPA 2025, stating that they had been working on it for quite a while when they decided to scrap their original prototype version and start over, as it “just didn’t look right”. The end result was much better, and employed some cool graphics effects, such as the glowing red eyes in the darkness. They also rigorously tested the guns, throwing them out of buildings until they found a design that held up (that same shell was reused for Aliens Armageddon).

There were three versions of this that released in arcades, with the Deluxe version being the most prevalent. I grabbed that one and it became a big hit in my location; I also recall how the guns had straps to help with the weight for the 40~ minutes of play (something unusual at the time, as most gun games would be over in 15~25 minutes). This introduced the idea of hitting the clip to reload your gun, and it additionally marked the first time that Raw Thrills would produce a Super Deluxe model of a game (pictured at the top). That big screen version would go on to serve as a direct inspiration for the design of the Hero’s Duty cabinet that was seen in Disney’s 2012 film, Wreck-It Ralph. Have you seen one of these monsters out there?

Dirty Drivin’ (2011; with Specular Interactive)

Following on from H2Overdrive, Specular made a second original racer for RT with this nod towards Midway’s Offroad Thunder. It packed in more attitude, presenting a fun vehicular combat racer that was similarly a big hit. I had the privilege of visiting Specular’s studios to see the game in development, which was a blast of a time. My only nitpick is how complaints from other operators and location testing saw them redesign the skull-head crank (originally made using real slot machine hardware), replacing it with a less satisfying Hall Effect crank that was placed on the control panel. That aside, it was still a fun game and one of the few to get the feel right when it came to both racing and blowing up other competitors.

Winter X Games SnoCross (2012)

Showing their range, Raw Thrills moved into winter sports simulators with this snowmobile game, albeit still using racing as a basis. This was essentially a spiritual sequel to one of Midway’s last arcade titles, Arctic Thunder. This borrowed some beats from Super Bikes 2 and has influenced other snowmobile racing games to appear on the market since. They would return to the X Games license later on for X Games Snowboarder (2018).

Batman (2013; with Specular Interactive)

The third and final mass-produced arcade game RT did with Specular Interactive broke conventions by being a much more combat-focused mission driver, rather than a standard track racing game. Sadly it would prove to be the last partnership between the two to release, even though it far outsold Dirty Drivin’. After this, Specular would go on to only make Project Hades for the 4D Valkyrie motion platform by South Korea’s Simuline, as well as an unreleased jet ski curiosity called Splash! with RT and fellow now-defunct arcade developer Injoy Motion, before being sold to Take Two in late 2016. It’s a shame, as they had a lot more to offer to arcades. That said, you can still find Batman out there (I’ve had one since release), and it continues to be a high demand game for both arcades & collectors. It was a real powerhouse graphically, and crafted with a ton of attention to detail. Read more about its development here.

Aliens: Armageddon (2014; with Play Mechanix)

The popularity of Terminator Salvation and Play Mechanix’s older Aliens: Extermination (which PM made with GlobalVR just before Raw Thrills’ merger) would lead to their next big light-gun shooter, with some of the best ever graphics found in arcades up to that point in time. Directed by Play Mechanix’s Will Carlin, who previously did the Big Buck games, Terminator Salvation and ICE’s older Johnny Nero Action Hero with Mark Macy, it was one of the first RT titles to get an unboxing video on our YouTube channel, with many more following. Its cabinets also later ended up being rebranded to Alien Covenant at most Dave & Buster’s locations with the release of that film, but they oddly didn’t get any new in-game content to coincide alongside it.

Like Terminator, this did see additional cabinet releases giving it smaller, fixed machine guns instead of the larger wired ones, although it did not enjoy a Super Deluxe model.

Super Alpine Racer (2014; with Bandai Namco)

One of RT’s closest partners in the industry has proven to be Bandai Namco, who they first worked with on exclusive distribution of their products into Europe as far back as their earliest days in the 2000s. After the success of Winter X Games SnoCross, they were then enlisted to make another winter sports game, this time based on the old 1994 Namco skiing title from the early days of 3D experiences. Using the same foot-based motion control concept with a new vertical screen cabinet, it was a pretty decent revival, though aside from one big exception below (and the Galaga Assault + Pac-Man Chomp Mania videmption games), Bandai Namco have largely stuck to simply selling their games in Europe and occasionally Japan since then.

Jurassic Park Arcade (2015)

By this time, Raw were churning out hit after hit, and our next example has to be possibly their biggest of all. Building off the success of previous environmental cabinet mounted gun shooters like Sega’s Let’s Go Jungle and Transformers: Human Alliance, as well as the previous three interpretations of Jurassic Park in the light-gun genre, Raw Thrills’ take on the iconic franchise would become the one of the greatest arcade hits of the 2010s. This was Raw’s first fully self-made shooter since Target: Terror way back when, though the base game engine still came from their friends at Play Mechanix.

That “King of Earnings” title on the flyer still rings true today, already over a decade on from release. It was my #2 overall game for 2025; then as per the Player’s Choice survey in RePlay Magazine for February 2026, JP was the #1 rated game among Deluxe video games in the industry (with seven of the other ten titles also belonging to Raw Thrills). While RT have never unveiled any exact numbers, it is still in production today with many locations continuing to pick it up, and I know for a fact that it did surpass 10,000 units in sales some years ago.

Eugene provided some interesting insight on this one too; years ago there was a trade magazine called Game Developer. Eugene provided a “post-mortem” look at the development of the game in an interview with one of their writers. In that article, he revealed that the game cost around $4 million to develop. He added for this article: “The Megahit’s extreme budget almost bankrupted Raw Thrills, but it’s become one helluva game, now in its twelfth year of production. A must have for every arcade.”

No argument here!

The game has been made in two environmental cabinets; a deluxe edition with motion via RT’s “Thrill-D” air ride base, and one without. Chuck E. Cheeses also got smaller mini motion versions without the enclosure, and even Japan received an exclusive version that converted Bandai Namco’s less-than-successful AKB48 shooting game cabinets into it. There was additionally a short-lived home version offered for a time during the early COVID era through ICE. You can read more about the development behind the game through this article where we interviewed Eugene about it.

MotoGP (2015; with Play Mechanix)

While this wasn’t the first MotoGP arcade game (that honor would have to go to Namco’s lesser-seen 2007 title, which was largely similar to their console games), Raw Thrills’ take on the license would be their first motorbike racer to not fall in with the Super Bikes series, and their first to be made in conjunction with Play Mechanix. Despite using the triple whammy of licensed motorbikes, tracks and racers, this didn’t do as well as Super Bikes 2 on the market, but did find some success in Europe (perhaps naturally so, as it’s where the grand prix originates), and would later receive a VR version in 2023.

Cruis’n Blast (2016)

Raw’s biggest racing hit by quite some distance – both of this period and probably all time – would have to be the grand return of Cruis’n to arcades, fully licensed by Nintendo themselves (though RT did all the heavy lifting in development). We got to cover this one from a very early stage on location test, when it was originally known under the working titles of Cruis’n Adventure, then Cruis’n Redline, undergoing numerous changes in the process (it had a card system for unlockable content originally). At one stage it was even going to be named just Cruis’n, before becoming the Blast that we all know very well.

It has proved to have longevity rivalling that of Jurassic Park’s, though earnings have naturally tailed off a little with the passage of time, as well as the game becoming available on the Switch in a rare recent arcade-to-console port (though that was recently delisted from online storefronts). There was a content update in 2020 too for some car changes, with any cabinets shipped since then coming with it. Eugene spoke with us more than once about its development, as well as on the Cruis’n series as a whole, which is of course among those he is most proud of. Several direct captures are available for the game on the Arcade Heroes YouTube channel.

World’s Largest Pac-Man (2016; with Bandai Namco)

Raw’s other major collaboration with Bandai Namco was big in more ways than one, as it took advantage of massive LED screens to bring the fun of Pac-Man (and Galaga) to arcades again in a centerpiece for any location with the space. They would continue to use the big screens for Space Invaders and Bust-A-Move Frenzy, which are covered later in the videmption category. Note that this did also feature two player Pac-Man fun, while otherwise retaining the gameplay of the original.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2017)

Whilst most of their works stuck to the racing and shooting meta that has informed most non-redemption arcade games since the 2000s, in the midst of some of their biggest successes RT took a gamble and went straight back to the glory days of beat ’em ups, with a new piece for those pizza loving heroes-in-a-half-shell. Based on the 2012-2017 Nickelodeon version of the show, Matt Cianchetti (the producer of this, the next game mentioned, and QA tester on many RT and Midway titles since the latter half of the 90s) had told me that he played “almost every beat ’em up” that he could to finetune the gameplay. It unfortunately didn’t trigger an arcade revival of the genre as some (including ourselves) had hoped for, but is has become a cult arcade favorite, and enjoys a resale value greater than the original price (I’ve even had some distros ask me if I want to sell mine). It can also be found on home consoles and PCs as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants.

The Walking Dead (2017; with Play Mechanix)

After Raw made the fourth iteration on Jurassic Park in arcades, they and Play Mechanix found a new license to take into the realm of on rails shooters, in the form of The Walking Dead. This differentiated itself from the pack by using a new mini crossbow-style controller, instead of the standard mounted machine gun or pistol. The controller also used a lever reload function, with reloading being rare in mounted gun shooters. While it’s not alone in the arcade zombie shooting genre, it was one of the best performers on location and only ended production relatively recently (though is still available as an additional mode on Big Buck cabinets). The trailer that we were given is one of the most watched videos on the AH channel.

Injustice Arcade (2017; with NetherRealm Studios + WB Games)

Though the return to beat ’em ups with TMNT didn’t result in another mainstay line of games to add to their racers and shooters, RT’s other experiment of 2017 wound up providing them with their third major genre – trading card games. These had always been successful in Japan and Asia when the likes of Sega started doing them in the 2000s, but most struggled to find a long-lasting formula out West up to this point. However, certain names at Dave & Buster’s had faith in exporting and tweaking the concept, and were one of the biggest supporters of RT taking it on.

This first effort by them really leaned hard on the novelty of the trading card aspect, to the extent of it having little gameplay compared to the original Injustice: Gods Among Us fighting game, but the arcade adaption became a definite hit at many locations nonetheless (our site coverage got many views). It got three major updates adding more game content and cards to the base roster of 200, with the most recent being 2022’s Series 4. Rumor has it that Series 5 will see a release this Fall…

Halo: Fireteam Raven (2018; with Play Mechanix + 343 Industries)

Not long after The Walking Dead released, RT and PM already started pushing another big name on rails shooter, this time opting for the Halo franchise as their license in a significant surprise (they dropped the announcement for this one out of nowhere in an episode of the Inside Xbox webshow). It debuted in 2018 with a huge, four player super deluxe theater cabinet reminiscent of Galaxian 3, being one of the largest arcade machines we’d seen in some time.

After problems that stemmed from the supply chain issues of the COVID pandemic, the super deluxe model was replaced with the standard two player environmental model. Like their previous works though, this has had pretty good legs on the market since then, thanks especially in part to the Assault model with tethered instead of mounted guns coming along in both four player and two player flavors.

Marvel: Contest of Champions (2019 at Dave & Buster’s, 2024 other arcades; with Kabam)

After Injustice, RT’s next trading card effort was another superhero battler conversion, this time going for Marvel and slightly more involved gameplay (albeit still less than ‘proper’ fighting games). For five years this was exclusive to Dave & Buster’s locations in the US, owing to their close relationship (they helped fund and commission several of their games around this time), but finally became available to other arcades in 2024. Like Injustice it has had numerous updates adding more cards and content, a release in China (shown above) and getting series 3 cards earlier this year.

Nitro Trucks (2020; with Play Mechanix)

One of the few non-licensed games RT has released sadly came at a very bad time for the industry. Nitro Trucks was even closer to Offroad Thunder than Dirty Drivin’ had been, as it did not feature a weapon system, but did involve driving trucks in the mud. Designed by Play Mechanix as their second racer after MotoGP, this also featured closed circuit courses (whereas Raw Thrills-designed games generally favor open, point A to B circuits). It was a pretty solid driving game but is now no longer in production; 2020 really just wasn’t a good time to release almost anything in arcades, unfortunately, leaving some fun games in a place where many have overlooked them.

King Kong of Skull Island VR (2021)

Raw Thrills’ first foray into VR experiences also came just as COVID hit, which wasn’t ideal. But this was still pretty successful, taking the formula established by LAI Games’ Virtual Rabbids and adapting it to King Kong with a little more interactivity using motion controls. Off the back of it, they would also make an improved 2023 sequel and a similar dinosaur-based piece called T-Rex Safari, though the latter seemingly hasn’t been as prevalent as Kong (possibly due to the mood on the technology cooling, but also a certain bigger VR shooter that released soon after, which we’ll get onto in a moment).

Minecraft Dungeons Arcade (2021; with Play Mechanix + Mojang)

Coming out of the worst of COVID, one of the first arcade successes that marked the easing of lockdowns was a pretty unique deviation on what Raw had previously been doing with their original couple of trading card games. For this, they moved away from the comic book battlers of Injustice and Marvel to the RPG spin-off for one of the biggest ever console, PC and mobile video games in recent memory, Minecraft Dungeons, and created an arcade hack-n-slash adventure with Mojang and Play Mechanix. It went widespread very quickly in the US, with Dave & Buster’s immediately acquiring cabinets for all of their locations, then other arcades got the chance to pick it up soon after.

Videos of this release have ended up being some of the highest viewed on the AH YouTube channel, including this unboxing and direct capture footage of its levels (which goes to show what a killer IP can do). It recently received its Series 5 update, adding a Legendary card for the infamous viral Chicken Jockey sensation from the 2025 movie, but now that the below video on it has been made, my machine has moved on to another venue:

Fast & Furious Arcade (2022)

Though there has been a ‘no sequels’ rule we’ve been following for F&F and Big Buck, we shall break it in this case as it is one of the most notable recent releases and been very influential among modern racer design. This popularized the current trend of stacking two monitors on top of each other for deluxe racing and shooting titles – a little known fact is that Sega originally attempted to do this when they were planning a House of the Dead 5 in the early 2010s, long before Scarlet Dawn came about, but that never released, and Raw then came around to the idea instead and actually got it to market. This also got a standard cabinet, keeping the two screens at a reduced size but nixing the motion base.

It’s quite a sight to behold when you have four DXs linked together:

NBA Superstars (2024; with Play Mechanix)

Seven years after they returned to beat ’em ups, Raw Thrills also revived the arcade basketballer video game with Play Mechanix. The game’s success has been a slower burn than some of their other titles, but in the February 2026 Player’s Choice survey by RePlay, it was #1 among standard video games, despite only 20% of locations surveyed having one. With new content updates since its release, more on the way, and a recent Chinese version from Wahlap adding card vending, this could continue for a while yet.

Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR (2024, 2025 non-VR version)

Touted by Raw Thrills as “the most high-energy and exhilarating game we’ve ever created”, Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR brought all of their experience from gun and VR games into one big attraction. To me it feels a little bit like Gunblade NY on monster steroids, hitting the players with non-stop action as tons of giant kaiju & robots look to lay waste to the city.

The new non-VR deluxe version then doubled the game length, whilst presenting the action across two screens. As of writing, this is one of Raw’s latest releases, with cabinets shipping out since December. For locations that don’t want VR, it’s a great alternative, and with that longer game length, makes it even better.

Top Gun: Maverick (2025; with Play Mechanix)

One type of game that was conspicuously absent from Raw Thrills’ repertoire up to now had been air combat games (a lesser seen genre in arcades overall since the 2000s, with only a few exceptions), but they finally rectified that just last year in their latest collaboration with Play Mechanix to release. The game design changed quite a bit through its development cycle, initially operating much closer to Global VR’s older Blazing Angels Arcade with an off-the-rails style of gameplay. Too many people got lost in the skies on test though, so they kept reworking it until we received the action-packed linear dogfighter that it is now. Speaking of Blazing Angels, its cabinet designer also did the machines for this.

Stranger Things Arcade (2026)

As we finally arrive at Current Day, we have another game which pivots from the norm of Raw Thrills’ usual genres, going into the ball toss realm. We’ve seen some large form factor ball toss arcade games come along in recent years, but none that had a license attached to them, and in a cabinet like this one. Starting off as a D&B exclusive, that time is coming to a close so that soon other venues will be offering this unique entry in Raw Thrill’s repetoire.

Redemption Games

It’s a simple fact that nearly all ticket redemption outperforms video games in arcades for many years now, and almost any company in the business of developing machines has to acknowledge that in some way. Raw Thrills have of course done this many times, being one of the key developers of videmption (video redemption) pieces. Though they aren’t our main focus here at Arcade Heroes, they still deserve a mention and have plenty of variety in their scope, so here’s a quick rundown of nearly all those that RT have made too. We’d also note that usually, these have an “amusement only/non-ticket mode” built into them, where the game then plays like a standard game would, where you’re aiming for that high score.

• Wheel of Fortune (2010; with Konami + Play Mechanix) – After Guitar Hero Arcade, Raw Thrills also worked with Konami on this videmption adaption of the popular game show. It was a pretty safe bet at the time as ICE’s Deal Or No Deal game was huge, but ICE would go on to later make their own take on the title with Play Mechanix too, which has since largely replaced it.
• Frogger (2010; with ICE) – Speaking of ICE, Raw have also collaborated with them on videmption plenty of times, including on this revival of the old traffic dodging frog game. Though Konami officially licensed this one out, they didn’t co-develop it. We also once saw a pic of a World’s Largest Frogger on test, but that must not have passed muster.
• Doodle Jump Arcade (2012; with ICE + Lima Sky) – The big arcade trend that kicked the 2010s off out West was many mobile-to-arcade conversions of simple but effective app games, all in the ever-expanding videmption genre. Raw and ICE rode this wave with the hit cartoony platformer created by two Croatians.
• Monopoly (2013; with ICE) – Redemption interpretations of classic board and party games have constantly kept happening, and this was a pretty straightforward take on the old economics battler.
• Barrel of Monkeys (2013; with Play Mechanix) – For another example of the above, RT and Play Mechanix also brought the plastic monkey chain game into arcades.
• Pac-Man Chomp Mania (2013; with Bandai Namco) – Originally known as Pac-Man Ticket Mania, the little yellow guy was seeing a lot of arcade action around this time with the four player Battle Royale game, but also this videmption piece that RT helped Bandai Namco out with.
• Galaga Assault (2016; with Bandai Namco) – Pac-Man was not the only classic Namco title to get the videmption treatment from them and Raw in the 2010s, as Galaga also made a return in one of the simpler shoot ’em ups out there. I’ve had this one for several years, operating it in non-ticket mode.
• Space Invaders Frenzy (2017; with Taito) – Probably the biggest videmption piece Raw Thrills have ever made, and a strong performer, the legend of Space Invaders well and truly lives on with this huge mounted gun and micro LED screen reinterpretation. Like several of the games here it is also possible to set this to a non-ticket amusement mode, but many of the cabinets out there have ticket play enabled. The concept was so good that they and Taito returned to it with Bust-A-Move Frenzy, which isn’t as common but is still a lot of fun.
• Choppy Wood (2017) – Less big was this original lumberjacking game, where the name speaks for itself. Oddly enough it only released for Chuck E. Cheese locations too, despite going to a few trade shows and being tested elsewhere.
• Slither.io (2019) – This was a conversion of not just a mobile but a popular browser game, from when the likes of Agar.io briefly ruled the world. Both had already been through their biggest period of success by the time one got picked up for arcades, so it didn’t do as much as it could’ve done, but it was still neat to see.
• Nerf Arcade (2019) – The logical next step from Space Invaders Frenzy was making games using its base but with smaller screens and better graphics. Despite releasing just before COVID came along, this has probably been one of RT’s biggest videmption successes.
• Centipede Chaos (2019; with ICE + Play Mechanix) – Several years before Alan-1 started their arcade Recharged range of classic Atari games, ICE, Play Mechanix and RT worked together to resurrect one of the biggest arcade classics of the 80s. Made for ticket play, this also had an amusement-only mode. It did not use a trackball, but an analog joystick.
• Monopoly Roll-N-Go (2020; with ICE) – We are definitely straying into less game-like territory here, but Raw Thrills were involved with this second Monopoly arcade piece, and it has been a major success. Spinning a giant die in a wheel-style game grabs a lot of attention in any venue.
• Ship Wreck (2023; with ICE + Play Mechanix) – Possibly the closest Raw will get to working on a carnival redemption game, this pirate-themed piece involved tossing balls into a grid of targets; getting a certain number in a row would earn the player tickets.
• Angry Birds Boom! (2024; with Play Mechanix) – The success of Nerf Arcade has meant that the formula has lived on. Play Mechanix had previously made Angry Birds Arcade with ICE, but this went for a different approach that was part classic Angry Birds play combined with Nerf-type shooting skill.
• The Wizard of Oz (2025) – Alongside Nerf influencing subsequent developments, Monopoly Roll-N-Go’s success saw Raw go it alone for this similar video roller based on WOZ, with the added component of card vending and a giant glowing orb instead of a Monopoly die.
• Jackpot Racer (2025) – The newest of the videmption bunch, this one needs little introduction, as we mentioned it earlier in talking about Super Bikes, and it has seen its fair share of coverage recently on AH anyhow. In a nutshell, this takes the winning Super Bikes formula and modifies it for two screens, plus shorter one minute long plays.

Cancelled Games

Like most any other game company, Raw Thrills has also had numerous titles in development that didn’t make it to market in the end for one reason or another. There are probably some that have gone under even our radar, but since they operate out West we do know of a good few, often thanks to them briefly turning up on location test and people spotting the cabinets in the brief time that they’re out there. This is usually where their stories end though, as many have simply vanished afterwards without even appearing at any trade shows or being officially announced. Could they revisit any of these scrapped concepts someday? Who knows…

• American Idol (2008; with Konami) – Around the time Guitar Hero Arcade released, Konami were also working with Raw Thrills on this odd video karaoke recording piece. It did make a single appearance at a US trade show back in the day, but unfortunately it was one of those that I missed at the time, so I never got to see it in person. It had a microphone you would use as a controller, and there’s little else to recall about it.
• Dance Central 3 (2016; with Harmonix) – After one or two dabbles with Konami, RT have almost entirely shied away from rhythm games, with the one exception being this attempt to officially bring Dance Central into arcades (there has been various bootleg Chinese versions). We reported on its testing first alongside the earliest sighting of Cruis’n Blast, and the now-defunct Bemanistyle site covered it too. It didn’t pan out though, and RT got along just fine without it as this was when Jurassic Park was hitting the scene.
• Splash! (2017; with Injoy Motion + Specular Interactive) – Mentioned above in relation to the other games they did with Specular Interactive, this would’ve been a different kind of water-based racer to H2Overdrive, with players getting behind the handlebars of jet skis. It did turn up on test in the UK and even at their EAG Expo one year, but soon faded from view with Specular and Injoy Motion themselves, as they would never put their names to anything else after this.
• Nex Machina Arcade (2017; with Housemarque) – Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments of these cancelled titles, this conversion of Housemarque’s Robotron and Smash TV-style shooter would’ve been the first twin stick game to grace arcades in several years. Despite being officially revealed in 2017 with some very nice cabinet renders and all, we never heard about it again, besides the suggestion that it bombed in testing. I don’t recall seeing it in Raw Thrills’ “graveyard” when I visited them in 2024 either, although it’s possible I just overlooked it.
• Mario Party Challenge World (2018; with Capcom + Nintendo) – This is one you have most likely heard of before – and not just because of the red plumber, as it unusually made multiple appearances on test and at trade shows before ultimately getting the axe. Using the art of projection mapping, Mario Party Challenge World was a troubled project that sought to convert one of Capcom’s Japanese medal games based on the series into a Western ticket redemption piece. But therein lay the issue, as certain things that medal games do are not legal in numerous states, and those involved struggled to hone the game design around that. However, this is also a rare case where the prototype cabinets actually stuck around – they were sold on to a very small number of locations like Cinergy in Tulsa, and one or two remain out there.
• World’s Largest Frogger (2019; with Konami) – Though they haven’t released any games with them out West for a while, Konami have actually kept close with Raw, as is evident from them recently distributing Minecraft Dungeons Arcade in Japan – but also this big screen iteration of Frogger which showed up on test twice here. Since they already did the videmption take on the game though, perhaps this felt redundant?
• Tetris Dimensions (2019; with ICE + Play Mechanix) – Besides Mario Party, the other big cancelled curiosity given the IP at hand would be this one, a videmption retooling of the original king of puzzle games. It was tested once in 2019 and we got great coverage, but only months later it became clear that the game had already failed to produce the right numbers. In talking with someone at PM about it, they said it was shocking how many people didn’t understand how to play Tetris. I’ve seen this pan out with other puzzle games too, which I guess is a sad testament to the dumbing down of society in the age of phone scrolling and 10 second videos.
• Star Trek Battleground (2019) – Another videmption game that appeared on test during 2019, Raw experimented on projection mapping again with what would’ve been one of the few recent arcade outings for Star Trek, besides Dave & Buster’s exclusive pushers and VR platforms. Like Mario Party it also didn’t release in the end, but we did get some good looks at it before it used a Transporter and dematerialized out of here, including some exclusive comments from producer Matt Cianchetti.
• Star Trek Section 31 (2020; with Xion Games) – After Battleground didn’t work out there was clearly an attempt to still make the most of the Star Trek license, but sadly this on rails shooter didn’t come to fruition either, likely due to COVID-related issues. You can however view some early concept footage and artwork, thanks to one of the developers they had contracted on the project, veteran Midway artist Xion Cooper.
• Asteroids (2022; with ICE + Play Mechanix) – After Centipede Chaos, ICE, PM and RT looked to bring another Atari classic into videmption, but it didn’t happen in the end. We never got that great of a look at this one, with only a few partial glimpses from the backgrounds of photos and videos, however it did briefly exist, reportedly handling up to four players simultaneously. Fortunately the property didn’t stay dead though, as Alan-1 released their Asteroids Recharged Arcade a couple years after this.
• Tecmo Bowl (2022; with Koei Tecmo) – The latest cancelled Raw Thrills piece that we know of is another definite disappointment, as once again it would’ve marked the return of a much-loved title to arcades (with Tim Kitzrow on VA, like the NBA games). It wasn’t to be though, as despite some teasing and it staying in development for a couple of years, Tecmo Bowl didn’t touchdown.

Future Games…

Finally, a little nod towards what might be next from Eugene and co for arcades. Back at IAAPA last November, there were a few hints being dropped by certain names as to what was coming up in the near future. There is talk of a major new development being made with Play Mechanix, along with a standard version of one of their other titles. There’s no word yet on what this major developer is specifically like, but it is supposed to be using their latest in-house graphics engine, with significant advancements on those they have had in previous titles.

Hardware-wise, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more double or even triple-screened cabinets in the near future, as those have been proven to do well despite their cost. By all accounts, Godzilla Kaiju Wars has also been a success, but given the state of VR nowadays, it looks like there won’t be many (if any) upcoming titles using the full gamut of that technology. It would be interesting if they went back to augmented/mixed reality though, after having their teething issues with it on the unreleased Mario Party Challenge World and Star Trek Battleground.

Whatever they release next though, we look forward to covering and playing it in months to come, and we send our best wishes to Eugene, Andy, and everyone else working on them – happy 25th anniversary 🙂 What’s your favorite arcade game to come from Raw Thrills?