Another arcade game from Brazil – Senninha GP

It had been a while since I had checked out the Brazilian arcade scene as it seemed to be at a standstill. I couldn’t find the indication of any other developments beyond GP Brasil, the only other arcade game made in Brazil so I simply forgot about it until today. And I was happy to find that another arcade title made solely in Brazil is set for a release next month and this time by a major Brazilian distributor DiverBras. The game is called Senninha GP and has been designed for both kids and adults as a racing game that takes many of the primary elements of Mario Kart and puts them into an arcade -style Formula 1 racer. Yes the chances of this seeing an international release are essentially 0 but I felt it is worth mentioning anyways (since I don’t often get to use my Portuguese for arcade gaming and it is an arcade game nonetheless).

Graphically it’s hard to say how the game really appears in motion – from the still shots it’s obvious that it is a little cutesy as it uses a cartoon character called Senninha as the protagonist for both the game and the cabinet artwork( the cartoon character is based upon a real life Brazilian F1 racer also known as Ayrton Senna who died in 1994. A charity foundation was later created in his name and the proceeds of Senninha GP will be going to this charity) . There are several different cabinets that they will release the game in, using a standard, deluxe and kids-ride style (that a typical adult can fit into with a little trouble) type release for each cabinet. The game includes a boost feature and weapons that can be used to attack other players (ala Mario Kart) and it does not include a stick shift. Senninha GP is slated for a general release in Brazil in February 2008.

For those Portuguese speakers out there I decided to translate my post into Portuguese for the heck of it, so hit the post break if you’d like to read the same thing but in a different language. Also below are some thumbnails of the various cabinet configurations.

[Info and pics via Hardgamer] [Discuss on the Forum]

How to discharge an arcade monitor (without killing yourself)

I’m not sure how many of you like to work on arcades but if you’re new to the hobby you may be wondering “How do I discharge a monitor? Can that kill you?” Well unless you can withstand a 30,000 volt charge (and I do not suggest that you try to see if you can – I am in no way responsible for you attempting such a thing, just to get the disclaimer out of the way) then it’s important to learn how to discharge a monitor correctly. I have seen a lot of text-only instructions online and while those may be nice, for a beginner they are not very helpful as you need to learn exactly what the name for each part is. I came across a site that walks you through discharging a monitor with nice pictures and even color-coding in the instructions so you’ll avoid taking a major shock to your body.

[How to discharge an arcade monitor – Pinx’s Video Arcade Sojourn] [Discuss on the forum]

Couple of new games in Japan – BlazBlue and Trouble Witches

[Via Arcade Renaissance]

Go ahead and put these under the “We’re not sure if they’ll ever be released outside of Japan” category. OK, you might see it as an import but it seems that most arcades don’t bother with imports these days, probably because parts might be a pain to find. Anyways, BlazBlue is a new fighter based on the Taito Type X2 hardware and while there are some magazine scans of the game out there with some not well-defined pictures, it’s apparent that the game looks nice. And it’s in HD so perhaps it uses the Viewlix cabinet (I can’t remember if Taito uses that or not) but either way it will look better than many arcades on the market due to that alone.

The other game is a horizontal shmup called Trouble Witches by Studio Siesta. The game has seen a release on PCs already but probably due to the huge popularity of shmups in Japan they felt that it would be the perfect game to translate into an arcade title.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Keeping the games clean

It’s a slow news day and while we wait for Matt to post more pics and impressions of the ATEI show and all of the great stuff there, I figured it would be a good time to write an editorial of sorts (aka officially rant) for those that operate games or who would like to run their own arcade one day. I already spoke about keeping the games fixed a little while back which takes me to the next logical step – keeping the games clean.

A couple of weeks ago I visited a place called Nickelcade. They have a lot of games available for a low price to enter and play and they certainly improved upon maintenance of the games but they still lack the all-important knack of keeping things clean. I don’t mean to single them out as there are plenty of arcades where the games are just plain dirty but it got me thinking about the subject as I was telling the others that went with me that it felt like I needed to take a bath after going in to that arcade because the games seemed to have a layer of grime on them that transported onto your hands after sitting down to play just one title. The floor had a brown tint to it like it hadn’t been cleaned ever. That doesn’t beg you to come back for more, especially if you have a two year old son there (who likes to suddenly lay on the ground for reasons only known to him).

Hit the post break to read on >