Getting the kids into the arcade and Mario Kart GP 3?

In our youth many of us played the classics such as Asteroids, Pac-Man or Defender. But what do the kids these days get out of the arcade? That is an interesting question that is tackled in the latest Stinger Report. It seems that arcade manufacturers across the board have become very interesting in the age groups of 5-12 and as such they are releasing a number of games to appeal to kids. This certainly is not a bad idea when I visit an arcade I usually see kids mostly getting into the redemption games and not so much the video games.

Sega appears to offer the strongest line-up of kids games; we have seen Dinosaur King and Love and Berry: Dress up and Dance both of which appeal to opposite genders respectively (boys love dinosaurs and girls love dressing up). In Japan they also have released games such as Marine and Marine (fish-based card collecting and battle game), Beatle DASH! (sequel to MushiKing), and Thomas the Tank Engine. Soon they are set to release Rhythm Nation (this got some attention on some mainstream sites only because it was based on a GameBoy Advance title) and BowWow which is a cross between a kiddie ride and a dog collection game. There is a lot of information to pour over here so hit the post jump for more on this as well as Mario Kart Arcade 3.

Half Life 2 Survivor Ver. 2

I have just discovered that there is a new version of Half Life 2 Survivor coming out, imaginatively called ver. 2. Currently on loaction test with new features which include (from what I can make out);

-More WEB services & online support.

-Long-awaited new weapons & new battle map.

-New appearances.

-Battle Mode/Single player tutorial during loading.

Head over to the website for more information

It’s just a shame the chances of seeing this over here are very slim.

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Preview Space In High Demand

[via Coin-Op News] 

Space is at a premium at this year’s Preview 2008.  Organisers Howard & Wikberg have been inundated with requests for larger stands, with some companies increasing their presence at the industry-leading show by up to five times!In the Champagne Suite the most obvious changes to visitors will be that Crown Direct has combined stands CH14 and CH15 to create the largest ever stand at Preview.  Astra Games has doubled the size of its stand and now occupies CH2 and CH3.  

United Distributing Company have increased their stand size and others such as Brent Electronic have moved from the Entrance Hall to a new larger stand (CH17) inside the Champagne Suite.

In the Chablis Suite the changes are no less marked.  Hamayoon Amusements has moved from NT55 to NT50, effectively increasing its area by five times.  

Hazel Electronics has doubled its stand size and Playsafe Monitoring has moved from NT36 to NT58.  Reflex Gaming has chosen a significantly larger space to showcase its latest products.

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Founder of Namco Receives Prestigious Award

[via Barcade]

Masaya Nakamura, founder of Namco, was given one of the highest awards one can receive from the Japanese government. Nakamura received the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette” in recognition of his valuable contribution to the industry.  
 
Nakamura founded Namco in 1955 and as leader of entertainment business, Nakamura’s contributions to the industry have been well recognized.  
 
Some of Namco’s most popular games to date are:  
PacMan-the most famous one, Ms. PacMan, Galaga, Donkey Kong, MarioKart, the Tekken series, the Time Crisis series, the Soul Calibur series.  
 
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Updates at Coinopexpress, DDR and Battle Fantasia

The always interesting and popular distributor Coinopexpress has updated their website with a few new additions. First they have added Konami’s next DDR installment known as Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 as a cab and a kit to their website with a tentative release date of 8/31. No price has been announced yet.

They also are running a promotion for Taito’s Battle Fantasia which I was not aware of it’s release; I thought it was still going through testing. They have 10 kits available for a special price of $1780 USD although you would probably want to have Taito’s new HD cabinet that these are being showcased with in Japan, but I assume that it will work with a regular SD monitor.

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