I am sorry I am a little late with the coverage but here’s some videos from last week’s Rochester Game Room Show:
Overview Part 1
Overview Part 2
Some of the parts that were for sale at the show
Working Tempest
Midway’s Flying Turns Mechanical Game
Archive for the ‘Midway’ category
Rochester Game Room Show Coverage
April 19, 2008Midway turns to Out-of-Home to secure line of credit
March 7, 2008
The National Amusement Inc., operation has replaced the previous Wells Fargo Foothill agreement, to secure credit facilities for the crippled Midway consumer game operation. The $97.4 million loss during 2007 the worse admittance of failed policy by the once prominent publisher; the company will now focus on casual gaming for consoles and is expected top announcement major reconstruction. That this once prominent amusement corporation now turns to National Amusement (leading movie picture facility company with over 1,500 screens) – depending on the financial security of the movie house and amusement machine operator to secure consumer game business.
As for my personal thought on this – all I can say is how the mighty have fallen. Atari is in the same boat although they seem to be making a slight turn around (Atari/Infrogrames was not the arcade division – Atari Games was actually bought by Midway not long before Midway pulled out of the arcade business completely). I guess we’ll see if this does the same magic for Midway.
[Via GameIndustry.biz] [Discuss on the Forum]
‘Joust’ coming to the big screen and comic books
August 28, 2007
[Via Gamedaily BIZ]
Not long ago I was reading about upcoming movies for 2008 and the rest of 2007 on imdb and I noticed a disturbing trend of video game based movies that are in the works. I still haven’t seen a movie based on a game that did not deserve the riffing treatment from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one of my favorite shows BTW). It seems that Hollywood studios want to turn every popular franchise into a movie in the hopes of cashing in and now they are going to do it to the arcade classic Joust.
First I can’t help but wonder why now? I also wonder why they chose Joust of all the classic games to make a movie. Sinistar probably would be easier to work with but it doesn’t matter as that would probably suck anyways. Games should stay as games, not turned into B-movies. According to the producer, the movie will take place in Las Vegas, 25 years in the future where the city is suspended in mid-air. Now we all know that movies featuring cities in the air means cinematic gold, especially when they hype it as being “Gladiator meets Mad Max”. Of course how they will work lava showing up in Las Vegas remains to be seen (in case you are not aware, Las Vegas had nothing to do with the original game) They even go as far as mentioning the success of Transformers, which somehow translates into a great market for Joust as apparently all those young kids who loved Transformers just can’t wait to see guys getting knocked of flying ostriches. Either way they are set for releasing this next June, along with a new comic book series based on the game by Dark Horse Comics. We now wait with baited breath to see how Hollywood is going to ruin the memory of this beloved game franchise.
'Joust' coming to the big screen and comic books
August 28, 2007
[Via Gamedaily BIZ]
Not long ago I was reading about upcoming movies for 2008 and the rest of 2007 on imdb and I noticed a disturbing trend of video game based movies that are in the works. I still haven’t seen a movie based on a game that did not deserve the riffing treatment from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one of my favorite shows BTW). It seems that Hollywood studios want to turn every popular franchise into a movie in the hopes of cashing in and now they are going to do it to the arcade classic Joust.
First I can’t help but wonder why now? I also wonder why they chose Joust of all the classic games to make a movie. Sinistar probably would be easier to work with but it doesn’t matter as that would probably suck anyways. Games should stay as games, not turned into B-movies. According to the producer, the movie will take place in Las Vegas, 25 years in the future where the city is suspended in mid-air. Now we all know that movies featuring cities in the air means cinematic gold, especially when they hype it as being “Gladiator meets Mad Max”. Of course how they will work lava showing up in Las Vegas remains to be seen (in case you are not aware, Las Vegas had nothing to do with the original game) They even go as far as mentioning the success of Transformers, which somehow translates into a great market for Joust as apparently all those young kids who loved Transformers just can’t wait to see guys getting knocked of flying ostriches. Either way they are set for releasing this next June, along with a new comic book series based on the game by Dark Horse Comics. We now wait with baited breath to see how Hollywood is going to ruin the memory of this beloved game franchise.
When a game room becomes an arcade
July 14, 2007
While I don’t often post about game rooms I think this one is worthy enough for it as this guy has so many games that it’s more of an arcade than a game room. In fact I think he has three times as many arcades as one of my local mall arcades. They are all classics of course so if you were in this place it would feel like going back to an 80’s arcade. I especially love the look of the room when the lights are off, giving way to nothing but arcade lighting for that authentic retro feel. Hit the link below to check out the room in it’s entirety.
Tron and Battlezone CG cabinets by Peter Hirschberg
July 7, 2007This has been fairly slow week without a lot of news to post about but don’t worry, we’re still here. I’ll put this post into a ‘time waster’ category but a cool time waster nonetheless (for you classic gamers anyways). Very nice 3D animation of the BattleZone and Tron arcade cabinets by Peter Hirschberg.
Defender Prototype
July 5, 2007It’s another slow news day in the arcade world so I thought I would bring up this
interesting Defender prototype. One of the things that makes it interesting is the slightly inspired by Star Wars artwork on the side of the cabinet – which obviously didn’t make the final cut due. This is the real thing and all the details (including more pictures) can be found by checking out the link below.
Southern California Classic Collector’s (SC3) Meeting on 5/12/07
May 11, 2007Every time I hear about groups of arcade collectors coming together to play, it’s always far away from where I live. These events are always great fun though, allowing you to get together with real enthusiasts and not just whoever, to play and discuss your favorite games. While this primarily covers classic arcade gaming, they will also have many game consoles on hand. What’s cool is that collectors will be bringing their own arcades to the meet, so it’s like building your own huge classic arcade game room for a day. Here are the details straight from their website:
” Southern California Classic Collectors (SC3) is hosting its next collector’s meeting on Saturday, May 12, 2007 from 6:00 PM ’til 11:00 PM. Once again, the gathering will happen at Steve Hertz’s home in Claremont. If you attended last October’s meeting, we’d love to see you again. If you weren’t there, we hope you can make it this time!
What can you expect at this meeting? Steve’s incredible coin-op collection is once again going to be the centerpiece (you can’t have a garage full of dozens of top-quality cabinets and expect it not to be). Steve’s busily cramming even more machines in there even as we write this, if you can believe it. But we operate on the philosophy that “more is better,” at least where games are concerned, so we’ve also arranged to have a full complement of MAME titles playable on a 65-inch HDTV screen. We’re also keeping the row of historical home consoles we displayed at the last meeting. Vectrex, Atari 2600, Intellvision — we’ll have ’em, and more.
How to Attend
All you need to do is email sc3-invite@oriole.net to RSVP and get directions to the meet! We just need to know your name and how many people you’re bringing. You don’t need to bring anything else, although we encourage everyone who can to bring drinks (soda, water, beer), and of course your extra games if you’d like to trade. We’re also asking folks to bring their Nintendo DS consoles (see below). We’ll be taking up a collection for a pizza fund, so bring about ten bucks if you want to eat.
Bring Your DS!
If you have a Nintendo DS, bring it! We’re hoping to assemble as many DSes as we can to engage in some head-to-head wi-fi merriment! So, obviously we could use some wi-fi enabled games as well (Mario Kart DS will definitely be on hand).
Who Are We, Exactly?
If you aren’t familiar with SC3, we’re just a friendly group of videogame enthusiasts who like nothing better than to get together to talk, trade, and play games. We’ve got a soft spot for games from the “classic” days of the early 1980s, but we love games of all eras, from Pong to PlayStation 3. If you love videogames, you’re welcome to attend!
SC3 has made a point of keeping our meetings relaxed and informal, but the atmosphere will include some beer drinking and there may be some R-rated game content. This is an adult get-together where supervised minors will be accepted. Parents should take this into account and please let us know if you have questions.”
Some pics of games that will certainly be there:
Southern California Classic Collector's (SC3) Meeting on 5/12/07
May 11, 2007Every time I hear about groups of arcade collectors coming together to play, it’s always far away from where I live. These events are always great fun though, allowing you to get together with real enthusiasts and not just whoever, to play and discuss your favorite games. While this primarily covers classic arcade gaming, they will also have many game consoles on hand. What’s cool is that collectors will be bringing their own arcades to the meet, so it’s like building your own huge classic arcade game room for a day. Here are the details straight from their website:
” Southern California Classic Collectors (SC3) is hosting its next collector’s meeting on Saturday, May 12, 2007 from 6:00 PM ’til 11:00 PM. Once again, the gathering will happen at Steve Hertz’s home in Claremont. If you attended last October’s meeting, we’d love to see you again. If you weren’t there, we hope you can make it this time!
What can you expect at this meeting? Steve’s incredible coin-op collection is once again going to be the centerpiece (you can’t have a garage full of dozens of top-quality cabinets and expect it not to be). Steve’s busily cramming even more machines in there even as we write this, if you can believe it. But we operate on the philosophy that “more is better,” at least where games are concerned, so we’ve also arranged to have a full complement of MAME titles playable on a 65-inch HDTV screen. We’re also keeping the row of historical home consoles we displayed at the last meeting. Vectrex, Atari 2600, Intellvision — we’ll have ’em, and more.
How to Attend
All you need to do is email sc3-invite@oriole.net to RSVP and get directions to the meet! We just need to know your name and how many people you’re bringing. You don’t need to bring anything else, although we encourage everyone who can to bring drinks (soda, water, beer), and of course your extra games if you’d like to trade. We’re also asking folks to bring their Nintendo DS consoles (see below). We’ll be taking up a collection for a pizza fund, so bring about ten bucks if you want to eat.
Bring Your DS!
If you have a Nintendo DS, bring it! We’re hoping to assemble as many DSes as we can to engage in some head-to-head wi-fi merriment! So, obviously we could use some wi-fi enabled games as well (Mario Kart DS will definitely be on hand).
Who Are We, Exactly?
If you aren’t familiar with SC3, we’re just a friendly group of videogame enthusiasts who like nothing better than to get together to talk, trade, and play games. We’ve got a soft spot for games from the “classic” days of the early 1980s, but we love games of all eras, from Pong to PlayStation 3. If you love videogames, you’re welcome to attend!
SC3 has made a point of keeping our meetings relaxed and informal, but the atmosphere will include some beer drinking and there may be some R-rated game content. This is an adult get-together where supervised minors will be accepted. Parents should take this into account and please let us know if you have questions.”
Some pics of games that will certainly be there:
ebay listing of the week…..
March 8, 2007Mortal Kombat II
Starting Bid – £100
End Date – 12th March 2007 20:00 GMT
Not much floating about on ebay this week, in fact there’s quite a bit of tat on there at the moment. I did manage to find a Mortal Kombat II up for sale. It has a very reasonable starting price of £100, and seems to be in good condition. I guess the real reason this game was so popular was the violence that the game specialised in. For anyone not familiar with the game, the idea was to beat your opponent to near death with a variety of brutal moves. For example the character Scorpion would throw a harpoon at you and then drag you over to him so he could beat on you some more. Then when they were almost dead you’d be prompted to “Finish Him”, at which point you would perform a devastating fatality move. This ranged from Sub-Zero pulling your head and spine from your body to Kano ripping your heart out of your chest. Gruesome stuff!
Arcade Heroes 
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