Kansas declares coin pusher redemption games as “illegal gambling devices” while state brings casinos in

(thanks for the tip Dasbacon)

And now for a great “WTH?” moment to start our week off. Arcades such as Dave & Busters and others who operate coin-pushing machines in the US state of Kansas have been forced to remove those machines from their locations as the state recently passed a law declaring such popular games as illegal gambling devices. We don’t follow redemption very often here but when it comes to games that can make tons of money for any arcade location, coin pushers are usually at the top of the list. This is also why such machines generally cost quite a bit to purchase in the first place, as they are guaranteed to make a lot of money. I personally don’t see the appeal behind them but having worked for an arcade in the past where we had several pushers, the earnings were always solid. Of course there are certain redemption games that blur the line between a gambling device and a gaming device, especially in the case of pusher that are more about luck than skill to win tickets. With that in mind I am not aware of other states where pushers are illegal.

So why are they doing this? Kansas is not well known for being an anti-gambling state (that honor actually goes to where I live in Utah and arcades here can have coin-pushers) but when you dig into the story you’ll find that while Kansas is pulling a hard line on pushers, they are opening the door for casinos to move into the state. This means it’s likely that in pandering to what casinos want, which is less of what they perceive as competition from the arcade redemption sector, they targetted these machines specifically as they are the closest to blurring that line. Quite lame really as I am sure that the casinos will be able to make their money hand over fist even if every arcade place there had nothing but pushers on location.

You can read more about it here at kmbc.com

Kansas declares coin pusher redemption games as "illegal gambling devices" while state brings casinos in

(thanks for the tip Dasbacon)

And now for a great “WTH?” moment to start our week off. Arcades such as Dave & Busters and others who operate coin-pushing machines in the US state of Kansas have been forced to remove those machines from their locations as the state recently passed a law declaring such popular games as illegal gambling devices. We don’t follow redemption very often here but when it comes to games that can make tons of money for any arcade location, coin pushers are usually at the top of the list. This is also why such machines generally cost quite a bit to purchase in the first place, as they are guaranteed to make a lot of money. I personally don’t see the appeal behind them but having worked for an arcade in the past where we had several pushers, the earnings were always solid. Of course there are certain redemption games that blur the line between a gambling device and a gaming device, especially in the case of pusher that are more about luck than skill to win tickets. With that in mind I am not aware of other states where pushers are illegal.

So why are they doing this? Kansas is not well known for being an anti-gambling state (that honor actually goes to where I live in Utah and arcades here can have coin-pushers) but when you dig into the story you’ll find that while Kansas is pulling a hard line on pushers, they are opening the door for casinos to move into the state. This means it’s likely that in pandering to what casinos want, which is less of what they perceive as competition from the arcade redemption sector, they targetted these machines specifically as they are the closest to blurring that line. Quite lame really as I am sure that the casinos will be able to make their money hand over fist even if every arcade place there had nothing but pushers on location.

You can read more about it here at kmbc.com

New redemption – Free Fallin

I remember seeing this briefly at ATEI and having a little play on it. It’s defiantly one of this addictive one more go, I can do better, types games which always make a great redemption piece. Free Fallin is a gravity defying test of hand-to-eye co-ordination, asking players to stop a ball in mid-descent amongst a chute of ticket values following its cascading fall though a pinboard at the top of the playfield. Hitting the midway marker wins you the bonus jackpot.  The game comes in 2 sizes; a 2 1/2 metre standard and a 3 1/2 metre deluxe

[via Coin Op News]     [Discuss on the Forum]

Redemption Education

Ever thought that playing redemption games could teach you anything? No? Me neither. But below is an interesting piece on how a parent has actually noticed the way there kids play redemption games, and how it can teach them how to invest thier money. It’s quite an interesting way to look at it, but one that seems obvious to me, now that it’s been pointed out.

[via Three Thinking Hats]

I mentioned in a previous post how I am teaching my eldest daughter about money, saving, and frugality using a “money jars” system. I have been looking for a good way to introduce the concept of investment, risk, and return to her but I realized yesterday that one of her favorite pastimes is providing her with a great introduction to the subject.

Every big mall in Indonesia, and pretty much all over Asia, has a video arcade. In Indonesia, the biggest chain of these arcades is called Timezone. A lot of the games give out tickets based on how well you have performed in the game. A large number of the games are games of chance, for example; the kind of game where you have to press a button that drops a ball into a spinning wheel of fortune which, depending where it falls, could either win you one ticket or one hundred. Some of the games are more skill or reaction time focused such as hitting moving crocodiles on the head with a mallet or metal fish with a magnetic fishing rod.

At the end of your session in the arcade, you can take your collected tickets and exchange them for toys and knick-knacks at the main desk. The more tickets, the nicer the gift. If you are feeling particularly frugal, you can save up your tickets over the months and go for a particularly large item (the biggest thing I ever saw being collected was a portable air conditioner for about 15,000 tickets which must have taken years to save up for). 

Redemption Seminar at ATEi 2009

I am always reading about seminars that take place at events such as E3 and GDC and I am always eager to hear what some of the these industry experts have to say on different subjects, as well as hearing thier different experiences in games development. So I was pleased to hear that there is a seminar planned for ATEi 2009 all about redemption. Now this is not necessarily the kind of thing I would get excited about. However, it is a part of the arcade biz that I know little about and therefore I am looking forward too hearing what is said. Hopefully this will go down well and we see more of this type of thing from the ATEi.

[via Coin-Op News]

Organisers of ATEI, which takes place at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre across 27-29 January, have added business knowledge enrichment to the programme of activities scheduled for the 2009 edition with the announcement of a high profile Redemption Seminar, offering show visitors valuable insight and operational tips on what an increasing number of amusements operators are discovering as their fastest-growing profit centre. Read on…..

[Discuss on the Forum]

ASI 2008 – my view (part 2)

Continuing on with my ASI 2008 coverage is a continued look into products that one could find at the show.

Coastal Amusements had their new Sea Wolf game on display which received a lot of attention(they also had a number of redemption games there too). They had six units setup that were constantly being played and I could tell why – it is a very fun game. The gameplay is quite simple like a classic game – the only thing I don’t like about it is the price tag which I guess in the redemption sector is where they’d like it but for the video sector is a little high. A video of this is coming up in a post later today.

Trio-Tech had their UFO Stomper on display (which I also have a video of) along with their Motion Wave Theater and Jett Rider. UFO Stomper is a lot of fun with many mini-games built into the unit that really can give you a work out. It was fairly popular from what I saw and I wore myself out going through the adventure mode. You might be able to find this at an FEC but for a couple of reasons (size and price) it is impractical for small locations. Great attraction though. I was hoping to see a Wasteland Racer there but it looks like they have dumped it (as it even isn’t on their website).

Andamiro had three Pump It Up games setup – all looked quite nice and I saw people playing them everytime I walked past the booth. They also had a fun video redemption game called Hammer 2 where the players use soft mallets to smack video images on the table, sort of like whack-a-mole but more advanced. It was some nice fun for two players.

Beyond that the floor featured many redemption items and a few touchscreen devices, including new tabletPC-like models from Touch Tunes (pictured) and Merit. There also were a number of air hockey tables on the floor, each with some new ideas that mostly involved sound. My brother and I played a couple of games at the Barron Games booth, including a match where you could have four players to a table or each player could “dual-wield” (OK, my term, not theirs) the hockey puck deflectors. It also had a bumper in the middle of the field. I saw another air hockey table(it might have been at the ICE booth) that had a shield in the middle to avoid flying pucks and also used some new ideas with sound. It had been a long time since I had played air hockey, I forgot how fun it could be so I will have to look into one of these for my own arcade.

While it’s not a game, I did come across a booth where they were demonstrating some LCD monitors to go into standard arcade cabinets. The monitors were made by Ally Star Technologies in Taiwan and overall I liked the quality of what I saw. They had several sizes of monitors and most on display had a widescreen display ratio and good contrast ratios and options. They make screens from 8.4″ in size to 47″, each size improving in technical specs (the 47″ screen can do 1080p). I am thinking about one of these widescreen displays for my conversion of a cabinet into The Act – the actual model that Cecropia made had an LCD widescreen monitor so I’d like to get something like it.

Finally I did come across one new development in the redemption sector that is interesting. It takes the self-redemption concept to the level of not needing employees at a desk to count tickets and grab prizes for people. Called the Database Prize Center by Smart Industries, the redemption counter is basically transformed into some cabinets where the prizes have the value printed on a sticker – the person feeds their tickets into the machine and it lets them choose what they want (as long as they have the tickets to afford the item). It does essentially replace redemption arcade employees with machines but there are some types of locations that may not want to run a redemption desk or can’t do it at all that this is useful for. If it grows (initial reports state that it’s already proven to work successfully in a number of different venues) it could become a standard thing in the industry so I thought that it was worth mentioning.

So that was ASI in a nutshell. Today they are having the show open to the public and we’ll see how that goes and what people think of the offerings there. I also stopped by The Star Trek Experience at the Hilton hotel – for a Trekkie like myself it was awesome. I even bought a “KHAAANN!” t-shirt which looks great. Stay tuned for some ASI videos!

[Discuss on the Forum]

Namco Brent ATEi 2008 Impressions

(More pictures after the break)Next up in the ATEi 2008 round up is the Namco Brent stand, and of course as all of you will know they had two sequels to two of the most popular games.

Now don’t get me wrong but I was a little pissed off as there was only one Tekken 6 cabinet at the show. Now I know I should be grateful, but it was nigh on impossible to get on it, and when I did I got my ass handed to me on a plate. Granted the later was more to do with me sucking at Namco’s latest beat ‘em up, but surely they could of mustered up more than one cabinet. Or is this just a sign of how unimportant beat ’em ups are to Europe. Saying that, the ATEi is supposed to be an international show. Who knows what the reason is, so back to the game itself (sorry rant over).

The game itself looks fantastic, the cabinet looks sweet as too. Note that the cabinet present had a two player set up, as apposed to the ones we’ve seen in Japanese location tests. These were single player cabs but network linked for Vs matches. Game play wise, from what I got to play that is, it had nice solid combat and what looked like some neat combos (note again –  I received these fore mentioned combos!). Also, as most of you will have seen from videos, the game has a monster character selection which gives the game a great amount of depth if you wish to learn more than one fighter, not that this is the case as most people have their favourites. Please take in to consideration also I’m not a huge Tekken fan, so please excuse my obvious lack of knowledge of the game. I’m more of a Street Fighter man, and anyone that wants to send me to AOU to check out number 4 in the series feel free to email me!

[Discuss on the Forum]

(More pictures after the break)

Sea Wolf improved upon, released

[Via Play Meter News]

We’ve see the videos and the pictures of Sea Wolf by Coastal Amusements and it was quite a popular game at IAAPA 2007 so all we have been waiting for is a release announcement. Well Sea Wolf is finally here and it has brought some improvements along with it. While originally it was intended as a redemption only game, the reaction they received at IAAPA led them to modify the software so that it can be used solely as a video game if the operator wishes. They also have modified the cabinet with some extra lighting on the seat, edge glow plexiglass and lighted fire buttons. Whether or not the pre-announced price of $7500 will change (we could hope that it would go lower but that isn’t likely) but it’s great to see an new company join the relatively small collective of arcade developers out there and to bring something a little different to the table on top of that.

[Discuss on the Forums]

Sega prepping for a huge presence at ATEI

ATEI is fast approaching and with we’re beginning to see announcements of what to expect at the show. If Sega’s press release is any indication, this show is going to be huge and fortunately we’re going to have coverage straight from the show so stay tuned to the site around ATEI time.

In the press release Sega is estatic to announce that the final versions of UFO Catcher, Shoot This, Win This, RaceTV and Primeval Hunt, Mini Rider 2 and Sea Wolf will be at the show, along with previously released titles Ghost Squad Evo, Pin Air, Let Me Dance and Outrun 2 Attraction. Primeval Hunt has also been confirmed for a general release in February 2008. For the full press release, hit the post break below for all the juicy details which also alludes to a “ground breaking revelation” coming from them sometime early this year (@ ATEI perhaps?) (thanks to Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report and Justin Burke of Sega) [Discuss on the Forum]

Pirate Revenge – another new title from IGS

[Via Insert Credit] (Click on the image to enlarge)

Pirate Revenge is an arcade/redemption title by IGS (also known as American Alpha) that appears to be a new title from the aforementioned company although as to how new I am not 100% sure. The site says it’s been up since April, a picture of two cabinets is dated from May but I have seen no mention of this game on either the IGS or American Alpha website. It was however mentioned in a Stinger Report a short time ago but there was no further information on the game at the time.

There is a video of the game on the official website and it looks and feels a lot like an early 90’s arcade game that used 2D graphics while trying to get a 3D feel. It’s really hard to tell from the video how detailed the graphics but between that and some of the still found on the site it appears to mix 2D CG-rendered sprites and hand-drawn sprites which gives it a decidedly old school flavor to the game although that won’t bring mainstream players flocking to it by any means (I suppose that’s what the ticket dispensing option is for). There are a couple of different characters to choose and play and like all IGS games, they can be set to either arcade only or to dispense tickets. If this shows up on the American Alpha site then we can expect to see it overseas in an official fashion, otherwise you’ll have to import it. Personally I think the cabinet looks awesome and in fact I would go as far to say that it’s the coolest looking arcade cabinet I’ve seen come out this year – no where else will you get a pirate wheel for a controller that also includes built-in LEDS (until some shmuck thinks up such an attachment for the Wii since that seems to be getting all of the ridiculous different attachment designs these days).

[Pirate Revenge Site – choose the English option to read] [Discuss on the Forum]