Dance Dance Revolution At School

 

Over a year ago, West Virginia announced plans to incorporate Dance Dance Revolution into the physical education curriculum in all of their 765 public schools. Today, the New York Times takes a look at their progress, with nearly all of the state’s 185 middle schools already outfitted with the obesity-battling leg-shaking simulator and the remainder of the 765 due to receive theirs by next year. While the article goes over the regular praise for exergaming— namely, getting sedentary kids off their do-nothing keisters — it’s a welcome update on one state’s ambitious plans. Huge bonus points to the first state that requires kids to play Devil May Cry with that DDR pad.

[Discuss on the Forum]

[via Joystiq]

Arcade Flyers Archive Expands

The Arcade Flyers Archive now has flyers for pinball games and arcade amusement games, as well as video arcade games. They have already scanned 400 flyers for each of the new archives, with 50 to 100 new flyers to be added each month, so check back often.

The Act: an Interactive Movie on Location Test

The Act is an attempt at revitalizing the “interactive movie” arcade game made popular by games like Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace in the 1980s. The Act attempts to do this by fixing the one problem that these games always had: direct control. Instead of using a joystick and buttons to tell the character which way to turn or what action to take, the player uses a simple knob to determine the emotions of the player character, a shy man named Edgar. For instance, to get a date with a beautiful woman, the player must use the knob to control the amount of charm Edgar emits. Turn too far to the left, and Edgar appears uninterested. Turn too far to the right, and Edgar appears too overbearing.

The Act is the first game by Cecropia. The animation for the act was provided by several ex-Disney animators. The game has been in development for over six years, and is currently on location test in several locations in the New England area. To find out what locations are showcasing the game, check out the website for The Act.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Silver Strike Bowler Wins New Harley in Sweeps

 

You lucky guys in the USA, not only do they give away Harley’s to SSB players, but you also have the machines actually in pubs. Sorry I’m a little bitter because they just took out the SSB from my local!

“The great city of Milwaukee is known internationally for its bars and bowling alleys as well as being the world headquarters of Harley-Davidson, the classic American motorcycle company. 

Recently they all took center stage as Incredible Technologies awarded a brand-new 2007 Harley-Davidson Sportster to Marvin Piotrowski for winning the monthly Silver Strike Bowler’s Club Sweepstakes.

“Bowling, Bars and Bikes.  Nothing’s more American than that,” said Dan Schrementi, IT’s marketing manager.  “So it was very appropriate that a Milwaukee-area player should win the March drawing.  And having the presentation made at the largest Irish Pub in North America made it even more exciting.”

[Discuss on the Forum]

[Read on at Coin-Op Today]

[via Barcade]

Retro Arcade Scratch Cards

 

I remember our local football team used to go round once a week with scratch cards like these to raise money for the team (goes with out saying this was a amateur club). If only they were selling these scratch cards I would have bought a hell of a lot more. Who knows, they could of being playing top flight footy by now! 

[via Kotaku]

As I was making my weekly perusal of The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA) I ran across these amazing rub-off game cards posted on the front page. TAFA owner, Dan’s new girlfriend apparently has quite the little retro game collection herself including these awesome cards. The games came in trading card packs with one of those horrible pieces of rock hard gum and worked along the same principle as rub-off lottery tickets. You would rub off the silver covering on the dots as you made your way across the playing field and hoped you would make it all the way through without “dying.” Of course, if you were like me, you just ended up rubbing off all the circles anyway just so you could see what they all were.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Made In America: Stern Pinball Video Online

I have encoded the Stern Pinball segment of John Ratzenberger’s Made in America for those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it.

Shigeru Miyamoto on Game Head

Last night, Spike TV aired a tribute to Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto on their television show, Game Head. The show contains interviews with Miyamoto himself, Kotaku, and a slew of other Nintendo-influenced internet celebrities. The show is very interesting, and contains quite a bit of information on Miyamoto-san’s early days at Nintendo working on Nintendo’s early arcade games, as well as his contributions to the industry with the Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda series.

The episode is now available for viewing online at GameTrailers.com.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Space Invaders Plushies

I was just browsing the gaming blog, Kotaku, and saw this rather interesting tidbit. Indie plush toy artists Amy and Jude Buffum have made a series of eight Space Invaders plush toys for their in a limited edition of 25 for each set. They are available from Art Star Gallery & Boutique for a price of $25US each.

[Discuss on the Forum]

John Ratzenberger's Made in America: Stern Pinball

For those of you in the United States who missed the episode of John Ratzenberger’s Made in America where John tours the Stern Pinball factory, Travel Channel will be reairing the episode tomorrow at 3:30PM EST.

The show takes place while the Elvis pinball table was in production, so the episode focuses on that table in particular, as well as gives you an overview of how the Stern Pinball factory operates. It also includes an interview with Stern Pinball founder Gary Stern.

Stern Pinball is the last operator of coin-operated pinball machines in the world. It’s amazing to see that they still do things the old-fashioned way, not just with pinball tables, but with the way the whole factory operates. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say that it is a must see for fans of the silver ball, and for arcade fans in general.

[Discuss on the Forum]

John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Stern Pinball

For those of you in the United States who missed the episode of John Ratzenberger’s Made in America where John tours the Stern Pinball factory, Travel Channel will be reairing the episode tomorrow at 3:30PM EST.

The show takes place while the Elvis pinball table was in production, so the episode focuses on that table in particular, as well as gives you an overview of how the Stern Pinball factory operates. It also includes an interview with Stern Pinball founder Gary Stern.

Stern Pinball is the last operator of coin-operated pinball machines in the world. It’s amazing to see that they still do things the old-fashioned way, not just with pinball tables, but with the way the whole factory operates. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say that it is a must see for fans of the silver ball, and for arcade fans in general.

[Discuss on the Forum]