2nd edition of Arcade & Pinball World Records book now available

Twin Galaxies has announced the 2nd edition of their book entitled ‘Twin Galaxies’ Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records’. It covers Arcades and Pinball machines only (which of course are totally dead according to certain experts), featuring not only high scores for many, many games but also bios for 265 of the top arcade gamers in the world. Overall it’s a 758-page book and it was written with the hopes of increasing interest in arcade competition play (which combined with documentaries such as The King of Kong or Chasing Ghosts makes it an excellent tool for such work). Here’s a listing of features that this book carries:

• The individual rules for playing hundreds of arcade coin-op and pinball games 
• The highest scores on thousands of different arcade coin-op games
• A series of biographical features that introduce the reader to 265 of the top arcade gamers in the world
• A series of historical features that take the reader on a tour of the history of electronic gaming

[Twin Galaxies Press Release] [Discuss on the Forum]

The King of Kong released today

The documentary about two arcade champions is being released in theaters today, although it appears that it will be hitting theaters in a slow wave instead of a braod release. According to the listing from the website, it will be showing up at one theater in my home town on the 31st of this month). As a reminder, this is a documentary that covers rivalries between a few select players, mostly Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe as they compete on Donkey Kong (Billy Mitchell did break Wiebe’s score after the documentary was finished). It also sounds like Mr. Mitchell is not too happy with how he is portrayed in the film, although the official website says he hasn’t seen it yet. Either way, hopefully you’ll be able to see it yourselves here soon. Hit the post break for a full listing of theaters and cities where you’ll be able to catch The King of Kong.

[Official King of Kong Website] [Discuss on the Forum]

Death of the arcade being greatly exaggerated by mainstream game journalists

[Via Gametrailers via Arcade Renaissance]

I caught this at Arcade Renaissance and I’m glad I did. Anytime we can debunk falsehoods that come from the mainstream gaming journalism world I’m happy to line up. Of course the level of incompetency you see in the video is just bad that it’s really not hard to do. Ryan at AR makes several good points which I recommend you read, I’m just going to add my own thoughts to the debate. Let’s begin. (BTW- I’ve updated a few of my comments)

1. Against what everyone seems to believe the arcade is not dead. In 2006 the industry made $6 billion. Last I checked, that means NOT DEAD. OK it’s definently not as much as it was back in the early 80′s and it does show that the number of arcades has dropped, but last year also didn’t see many affordable good games come out, unlike this year. Also how on earth did GlobalVR post its best sales ever this last May if the arcade is dead? Did ON Networks even go to an arcade on the weekend to check it out? Did they bother to ask arcade developers what their earnings are? In fact did they research anything before putting this piece out? Read on.

2. “It’s like a malt shop in the 50′s, it’s not something we have anymore” – OK so I suppose those businesses I see around my state that call themselves arcades aren’t really arcades. They must be figments of my imagination , even though there are several of them and they always seem to be packed on weekends. I guess I should take some pictures or video so I know I’m not going insane.

3. Pong was released in 1972 NOT 1971. At the very least the dates for everything else was right so it’s not a big complaint.

4. Nail in the coffin was the Sega Genesis? You have got to be kidding me. Everyone knew that no matter how nice the home version was, arcades were ALWAYS better and thus people still went out to play. Also talking about Sega like they were the first to come up with the idea of bringing their arcade hits to the system is completely false. Atari was doing that in the late 70′s and is one reason why the 2600 became so huge. Even the NES did that before the Genesis.

Initial D4 Websites

 

While checking up on the Sega Amusements (US) website I noticed a banner for their new racer Initial D4 that states “Click here to see what all of the HYPE is about!”. I think they need to work on the hype part a little more by releasing some videos and screens to some of the big game websites to get the word out but I digress. It will take you to a page that appears to have been written for arcade operators to sell them on the game and it includes some interesting testing data that shows how much the game made on certain dates in both the US and the UK. Price was $2 per play in the US (ouch) and £1 in the UK. The game made a considerable amount more at the UK location, raking in almost $5,500 in one day, which is pretty impressive although it had two cabinets instead of 1.

They also have a link to the official ID4 website (in English) that I did not know about which features a good amount of information about the game, how it plays, how the cards work and also some screenshots. This game looks really good and if players know about the internet rankings it could be a good hit.

[Sega Initial D4 site for operators] [Official Sega Initial D4 website] [Discuss on the Forum]

Pics from this years California Extreme event!

(Photos Courtesy of Ataricade (www.ataricade.com))

The California Extreme(CAX) event has come and gone but with it are a ton of pics! Here we are reposting many pictures taken by user Ataricade (who runs an awesome Atari arcade related website). The event looks like it was a total success judging by not only the pictures taken but also the reports from those that made it there. I’ll try to provide a brief synopsis of the pictures by row, separating commentary for each picture by semicolons.

1) Before the storm a@ 9am and then after. Getting a look at the game floor, notable for inclusion of Midway’s The Grid; Primal Rage with a unique Addams Family pin that has been modified to accept input from a cycle. Very strange and requires a lot of effort to get the flippers powered up.

2. Several pins and what looks to be a Super Zaxxon cabinet; A huge row of pins manned by several players; People enjoying themselves with games like Venture and Frogger; another shot of the pins with some games that are a little hard to identify but on the right is supposed to be a prototype Atari game, I’m not sure of the name.

Hit the post break for more pics, with a few surprises and cool stuff inside.