Stride gum launches a Save the Arcades initiative

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

When it comes to saving arcade companies across the US, I never would have thought that a gum company would be spearheading an effort to save them. So I am quite surprised and pleased to see this effort that STRIDE gum is taking to save one of four arcades by running a contest where you can play an online game they are hosting and contribute your score to an overall tally that is tracked for each of the four arcade companies. You pick the arcade you want to support and your score is added to the tally. I have to say that in this age of big business bailouts it’s great to see one business coming to the aide of smaller businesses like this (especially where it doesn’t require taxpayer dollars to accomplish).

Two of the arcades that are on the list are ones we have featured here on Arcade Heroes in the past (ArcadeUFO and Game Galaxy) and I am surprised to see them on the list as struggling and I hope that all of the arcades on the list will weather the storm of the tough economy whether they win this Stride contest or not. At the time of this writing ArcadeUFO (which is in Austin, TX) is leading the pack with over 41 million points; the three other arcades in the running are Game Galaxy (Nashville, TN), StarBase Arcade (San Rafael, CA) and Star Worlds Arcade (DeKalb, IL). Naturally if you live close to any of these businesses, be sure to drop in and give them your support by buying some credits and playing some games. Don’t forget to get some Stride gum next time you have a chance to as well.

You can support your favorite arcade via Stride by going to this page and playing Zapataur.

[Help Save The Arcades With Stride] [Some press related to this - Kotaku / Gamewit] [Discuss on the forums]

Indie arcade game Get Outta My Face at SXSW

We reported about the new indie arcade game Get Outta My Face making an appearance at the tech show known as SXSW in Texas a couple of weeks ago and now we have some pictures of how it went, thanks to the game’s creator, Will Brierly. The game even got a very brief mention on an NPR news show that was discussing SXSW. Will reports that “The games had a crowd around them for the whole weekend. I was truly amazed by the response!” A few pictures of those crowds are below, just click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

Even Master Chief was seen with the game:

Thanks to Will for sending us these pics, and we are eagerly looking forward to the upcoming release of this game for arcades everywhere to enjoy!

[Snow Runner Productions] [Discuss on the Forum]

Students in India start-up new company to make arcade titles

When it comes to places where arcades are bucking the downturn trend, India is one place that is making waves on that map, as we have previously reported. And perhaps thanks to that, arcade development in that country is also starting to increase, as seen in this story where two students spent all of their time building an arcade machine for a contest instead of studying. They won the contest with a motorcycle racing game that used pnuematic controllers for realistic movement but when they couldn’t find a partner to create that, they went on to create a coin-operated type of kiosk that could easily convert any third-party PC game into an arcade title they call GaMa. Their first new game to use their idea is based upon T20 cricket (which is some sort of format for cricket adopted by the Indian Premier League) and it is currently testing at a few FECs in India.

It should be interesting to see how arcade development continues to grow in India. While the games we’ve seen come out of there so far have been made to cater to players in that country, I imagine that it won’t be long before we start seeing Indian developers making a push to sell their product internationally.   

[Full story @ LiveMint.com] [Discuss on the Forums]

Paul's Billiards and Arcade opens in Ocean City, MD

A small new arcade has opened in Ocean City Maryland and even though it is still relatively small (with 2 pool tables and 19 arcade games total, which includes redemption and pinball) it has already gained a following with the locals. They even have an unofficial mascot, with a dog named Ralph and patrons are requesting more games, including a Nintendo Wii setup.

We wish the best of luck to the success of Paul and his new small business, it’s always good to see new arcades opening up because it has the effect that I have talked about before – the more arcades that are out there, the more customers arcade makers have to sell to, which sales should translate into more development and in turn more enjoyment for players who get more games.

[Info and pic via Delmarvanow.com] [Discuss on the Forum]

Paul’s Billiards and Arcade opens in Ocean City, MD

A small new arcade has opened in Ocean City Maryland and even though it is still relatively small (with 2 pool tables and 19 arcade games total, which includes redemption and pinball) it has already gained a following with the locals. They even have an unofficial mascot, with a dog named Ralph and patrons are requesting more games, including a Nintendo Wii setup.

We wish the best of luck to the success of Paul and his new small business, it’s always good to see new arcades opening up because it has the effect that I have talked about before – the more arcades that are out there, the more customers arcade makers have to sell to, which sales should translate into more development and in turn more enjoyment for players who get more games.

[Info and pic via Delmarvanow.com] [Discuss on the Forum]

Article: Will 2009 be the year of the arcade?

When this decade started, things weren’t looking terribly rosy for arcades. But they have held on thanks to a few companies sweating it out and continuing to bring us games; that and some lcoations have remained dedicated to their palyer base, importing if they had to and providing something that players would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. While I still think that we have a ways to go, from recent news of different game releases and a number of new locations popping up all over the place (whether they are FEC or not), I think that 2009 is going to be a fine year for arcades overall, especially if the games we saw at IAAPA live up to providing a fun and exciting experience.

UK gadget website T3 has just released an article that takes an overall look at arcades and with ATEI coming up with the promise off showing off even more arcade releases for ’09. The article is very optimistic, which contrasts starkly with the standard ‘arcades-are-dead’ fare. They discuss many of the new releases that are expected to make an impact on the scene and they will also be attending ATEI and providing some coverage of the event there for more people to see.  Of interest in that article, we find our friend Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report making an interesting revelation:

The Stinger Report man teases T3 with talk of “a brand new concept in game platforms for public space in 2009” debuting at ATEI, “with the first ‘Game Gate UV’ cabinets on display that bring consumer gaming into a Pay-for-Time package.”
He adds that a number of major arcade players “have signed up to support a machine, which opens a brand new chapter in the amusement industries history.”

So has someone finally managed to create something like the Xbox 360 powered T2 arcade machine without all of those legal troubles? It sure looks like it (as you can see it pictured to the right there) but we’ll have to wait until next month to see what it is all about. If several arcade companies are part of the deal that is also very interesting news and it should be cool to see how it all pans out.

[Article: Will 2009 be the year of the arcade - T3] [Discuss on the Forum]

Virtual-Kade opens up in Kentucky with focus on VR and exergaming

We’re happy to report new of yet another new arcade facility opening it’s doors to the public, although this one is a little different as they don’t appear to have any coin-operated arcades (except for the LightSpace floor, a device we talked about a while back but that is on freeplay) and instead are focusing on ‘virtual reality’ and ‘simulation’ type games. That also includes a number of game consoles  that are lined up along the walls that play from a variety of games they can switch out (which I imagine have to be attended constantly to avoid theft or the changing out of a game). It looks  like a couple of those also have a motion seat for the player to get comfy in.  I also think they have one of Trio-Tech’s 3D theaters although they do not mention it by name or show any pictures of the unit, they just say that it’s a 4 person virtual theater.

They also have some exerbikes with a game installed called Game Bike Pro. We’ve discussed something similar to these where an exercise bike is essentially the game controller. I hadn’t seen any amusment facilities pick them up until now so it will be interesting to see how they do outside of a gym.

Finally they have a game called Makoto – you stand in this area with up to two friends and there are these polls that have sensors which will light up and you’re supposed to hit it with a soft bat, competing for the high score. It’s an interesting game that I hadn’t seen before but in the brief appearance this game makes in the video below it looks like the sensors weren’t lighting up very fast.

With a refreshment area, golf simulator leagues, GLO Wii Bowling and a pretty cool environment at night they will easily reach their target market of college age kids. It would be cool if they got a couple of proper arcade machines   in there too but for now it certainly looks like they have enough to keep people quite entertained.

BTW – VirtualKade is located in Murray Kentucky.

[VirtualKade website] [News article about VirtualKade via Kentucky State & Regional wire] [Discuss on the Forum]

Say hello to Friction – a new arcade company and a new game UPDATED

AMOA is here and with it plenty new stuff to talk about. But today we don’t have just any news to talk about – it’s not every day we get to introduce to you a new company that is joining the fray of the arcade industry!

The name to remember – Friction Game Studios. Based in Los Angeles California, they have been working for some time on their first game known as Friction and soon you’ll be able to see it for yourself, either as an operator or a player.

Friction itself is a light-gun title where the gameplay looks to fit between Area 51 and F.E.A.R. (one the game’s designers is a fan of the latter). You play through three huge levels where you fight against hordes of robotic foes and on top of that there is plenty of destruction you can wreak on the game environment, with many breakable objects (ok, buzzword time: it has “destructible environments”)  and several types of weapons for you to use. From the official website about the game, here are all the features:

• Real-time dynamic lighting using programmable pixel shaders
• Fully destructible level geometry
• Ultra-realistic physics and motion captured character animations
• Over 14 different enemies with varied attack behaviors
• Variety of player weapons and powerups
• Unique transforming super bosses with special attacks

As you can see from the video and screencaps below the graphics are pretty good (much better in person and on top of that the game upscales it’s resolution depending on the monitor), as in addition to the physics involved it also uses specular lighting effects. It’s more impressive when you think about the fact that this has been put together by a small team (of I believe two people sorry, I misspoke there – the company has two founders) as opposed to a team with hundreds of people.

(Click on the images to expand them)

The game’s configuration for cabinet or kit form is still TBD, their preference is to go with a full cabinet. No word on pricing or exact specifications on the hardware yet (they are not ready to reveal that at the moment) but it is sufficient to say that this should be something great for operators to add to their arsenal.

Here is a video of the game in action. There are a couple more videos on their website:

friction_gameplay_3

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We can expect to see more from Friction Game Studios in the future, so stay tuned and we welcome them to the fold!

[Friction Game Studios Website] [Discuss on the Forums]

Sega Amusement USA Management shuffle

Well it seems that things have not been going too well for Sega Amusements USA lately – with rumors of RaceTV being a disappointment, operators not being sure about Primeval Hunt due to the price and touch screen and with increased competition across the board, it comes with little surprise that there has been a shake-up on the management level of the company. Intergame Online reports that Paul Williams from Sega Amusements Europe is headed to take over Sega’s coin-op sales in the US, along with continued responsibilities of managing sales in Europe and the MidEast. Whether or not there are other changes on the horizon remains to be seen but either way we hope that it’s change for the better (more reasonable prices would be a good start).

[Via InterGame Online] [Discuss on the Forum]

Signature Devices' mysterious new arcade game

Signature Devices Inc., the makers of Paradise Lost released a press release yesterday that left me a little confused at first but after carefully reading it again it sounds like they have completed work on a new arcade title that might have been alluded to back in August of last year although they may have moved on from the VORTEK platform as the new press release makes no mention of that. The title of the new press release is: “Signature Devices, Inc. Completes New First Person Arcade Action Game“. Then in typical fashion of a developer announcing an arcade title they talk about the game without mentioning its name (if the publisher has not yet annouced it, they refrain from revealing the name, which is something I’ve seen before as a standard in the arcade development industry).

Signature Devices, Inc. (Pink Sheets: SDVI – News) is pleased to announce that the Company’s new turret-based, first person shooter arcade action game has been completed. The fast-paced game takes place on an alien planet and the player is in the role of an advanced scout for an incoming colonization. With multiple futuristic weapons to select from, the player must combat a variety of alien enemies to stop them from destroying the colony before it is too late.

Sounds like a brand new arcade game that is a little like Paradise Lost mixed with Aliens: Extermination is around the corner. The press release doesn’t mention GlobalVR by name, who they’ve published through before but apparently they are already receiving royalty payments for this new game :

The Company has been receiving royalty payments of $100.00 per unit for each Standard or Deluxe cabinet that contains the Game and $50.00 per software upgrade kit for another first person shooter arcade game it developed, Paradise Lost. Signature Devices maintained the rights for the product and plans on publishing the product for PC and distributing the product on its upcoming phatyaffle.com web 2.0 gaming community.

When I first read this I thought that they might have been talking about a PC only release all along but it sounds like they plan on releasing a PC version of the arcade title sometime soon. Hopefully they are smart enough to give the arcade version enough time to settle into arcades before they do that, otherwise they would undermine themselves.

As we find out more, we’ll be sure to keep you informed!

[Signature Devices Completes New Arcade Title(Full press release)] [Discuss on the Forum]