A little bit of arcade fever @ PAX 2010

While the Penny Arcade Expo isn’t intended to focus on arcade titles, there are a few setups there which pay homage to arcades in the form of an arcade cabinet.

These are via Gamesradar, I will update this post in case I find any front pictures of the Castle Crashers arcade machine.The worst thing about looking at these is the thought that each one would probably sell quite well in the current arcade market but none of them will be getting an actual coin-op release. But seeing the interest here that show attendees have in arcades, it would be awesome if some new, exclusive coin-ops made a showing at this PAX or a future one. At PAX East earlier this year there was a full-blown classic arcade setup for attendees, so why not bring some new stuff to the table and get the word out there?

Joystiq pulled through with a frontal shot of the Castle Crashers cabinet. It looks a little different than the prototype sketches (I expected a Darius Burst-style dual screen thing) but it’s likely they didn’t have enough time to complete the entire thing. It’s still pretty awesome however.

The new NBA Jam remake. Didn’t the original have a slightly larger control panel?

Mortal Kombat 9 once again, this time minus the Move controller. It seems that whoever made this was the only one unable or unwilling to give it some arcade controls but the double sided design is cool.

Raw Thrills' releases Terminator Salvation Super Deluxe

The other day I had mentioned in the Twitter feed that there was a new Terminator Salvation cabinet that was being made available for release, a 32″ cabinet with mounted guns. I had no idea that they had this in the works however, a Super Deluxe cabinet somewhat similar to the Big Buck Safari Super Deluxe machine but arguably far more impressive. What I was sent is a rendering but I imagine we’ll be seeing photos of the real thing very soon.

The MSRP on this is quite notable at $17,995.00 – considering that we have seen many games that are much smaller than this go for that same price, RT is certainly making smaller games at that price point look bad. This cabinet is available now and as to where you’ll likely find it, the local amusement park is probably a good place to start.

UPDATE: Found out that it has a 100″ projected screen. With a screen that size I almost wonder why they didn’t add two extra guns to the unit.

Raw Thrills’ releases Terminator Salvation Super Deluxe

The other day I had mentioned in the Twitter feed that there was a new Terminator Salvation cabinet that was being made available for release, a 32″ cabinet with mounted guns. I had no idea that they had this in the works however, a Super Deluxe cabinet somewhat similar to the Big Buck Safari Super Deluxe machine but arguably far more impressive. What I was sent is a rendering but I imagine we’ll be seeing photos of the real thing very soon.

The MSRP on this is quite notable at $17,995.00 – considering that we have seen many games that are much smaller than this go for that same price, RT is certainly making smaller games at that price point look bad. This cabinet is available now and as to where you’ll likely find it, the local amusement park is probably a good place to start.

UPDATE: Found out that it has a 100″ projected screen. With a screen that size I almost wonder why they didn’t add two extra guns to the unit.

"The Arcade 80's Trunk" brings some class to your 60-in-1 PCB

Newsfeed 863 via

Not content with running your 60-in-1 PCB in an old cabinet you picked up off of Craigslist? Then you can shell out the cash for one of these high-quality cabinets by French luxury designers Pinel & Pinel. The 60-in-1 PCBs themselves are increasingly popular as they offer 60 emulated (albeit unlicensed) classic games on a board that goes into any JAMMA cabinet, although screen orientation might need to be adjusted. There are two cabinet versions to pick from, Classic (coming in at 11,500 Euros) and GT (13,500 Euros where you get stripes painted on the cabinet for te extra money). At the very least you get an iPod docking station built into the front of the unit, which is coupled with two 400W speakers and a 1000W subwoofer.

[More pics @ On-Mag.fr]

“The Arcade 80’s Trunk” brings some class to your 60-in-1 PCB

Newsfeed 863 via

Not content with running your 60-in-1 PCB in an old cabinet you picked up off of Craigslist? Then you can shell out the cash for one of these high-quality cabinets by French luxury designers Pinel & Pinel. The 60-in-1 PCBs themselves are increasingly popular as they offer 60 emulated (albeit unlicensed) classic games on a board that goes into any JAMMA cabinet, although screen orientation might need to be adjusted. There are two cabinet versions to pick from, Classic (coming in at 11,500 Euros) and GT (13,500 Euros where you get stripes painted on the cabinet for te extra money). At the very least you get an iPod docking station built into the front of the unit, which is coupled with two 400W speakers and a 1000W subwoofer.

[More pics @ On-Mag.fr]

New pixel art Coin-Op Posters for charity are pretty cool + Pac-Man in Vegas pic

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Thanks to for the news

Art and arcades have always gone together in some form and while this story doesn’t have anything to do with sideart, it does have something to do with arcades being portrayed in art and for a good cause.

This artwork, done by Gary Lucken, features eleven different cabinets drawn in “pixel art” style and you can pick up a poster (for the game room, arcade or just because) for $25. The proceeds goes to a charity that works as follows:

SpecialEffect is a charity dedicated to helping ALL young people with disabilities to enjoy computer games. For these children, the majority of computer games are simply too quick or too difficult to play, and we can help them and their parents to find out which games they CAN play, and how to adapt those games that they can’t.

The go-between the artist and the charity is the Poster Cause Project. We’ve actually covered a few instances before of arcade titles that have specific functions for helping disabled gamers play, such as this article discussing efforts in the 70’s to make arcade games more accessible; to modern functions found particularly in racing games from Rush 2049 to a modified version of MaxiTune 3 so players in wheelchairs could easily play.

Find out more at The Poster Cause Project

[Via GameSet Watch]

Also as a little follow-up to Amusement Expo on something that is sort of art related, Namco was handing out a bunch of Pac-Man Mardi Gras Beads and the necklaces turned up in places on the strip outside of the show. Might be considered NSFW so it’s after the break.

The Chinese Sega Rally 3 cabinet

Via

Sega Rally 3 has had a couple of different cabinet designs which vary upon the region where the game is sold and here is a new one (which correct me if I’m wrong, looks like one of the cabinets used in a recent Initial D title, either 5 or 4) which is coming out of China. I’m not sure if the screen is any larger than the European or US SR3 cabs but overall I like the look of the cabinet overall. It doesn’t have near as many decals as the new Midnight MaxiTune 3 DX+ racer which Namco is showing off at AOU2010 but it’s close.

[Discuss on the forums]

Tekken 6 clone cabinet emerges from China

Have you ever played Tekken 6 in an arcade? I have, and my experience taught me two things: firstly my friend is better with the capoeira characters than me, and secondly the cabinet is quite a lovely piece of work. The problem is, there are just too few of them in the world. What are we to do? The answer, possibly, is to get one of these clone cabinets from Guangzhou’s Unique Top Electronic. They’re designed to look quite close to the real thing, though they’re definitely not quite indistinguishable – details such as the red panels underneath the monitor give things away pretty quickly. Still, perhaps not a bad alternative if you’re in the market for such an item – and hey, it’s certainly easy to imagine that the demand is out there.

[UTE product page] [Discuss on the Forum]

An overview of the Delta 32 cabinet

It has been a while since I first heard about the Delta 32 cabinet but at AOU, exhibitors were proud to show it off. Arcade cabinet production is certainly quite varied in Japan and these Delta 32 cabs are quite impressive for their quality although I am not sure how much they cost. It’s really nice how easily the monitor changes positions and if you’re a shmup fan or owner then this is a great cab to go with.

[Discuss on the Forums]

The Octane 120: Hey, you've got a kegger in my arcade!

As there are many arcade cabinet builders out there, anyone who makes these sort of cabinets professionally needs to do something to set themselves apart.

And in the case of this new setup by Dream Arcades coming out in September, that means integrating a kegerator inside the cabinet – with two taps (one right next to the steering wheel so you don’t have to get up and the other in the rear of a cabinet for people standing by) for pouring your ‘favorite’ beverage (anyone want to guess what that will be? I’m betting on milk! :P) it’s a party waiting to happen. Beyond that it has a high-end PC inside with 200 licensed PC titles bundled inside (no mention of MAME)  and it can also handle “PS3 racing games through the built in wheel” and has a joystick and adapters so you can play PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii games on the platform as well (if I had one I would try and hook up my Atari 2600 to the thing). Along with a projector that creates a 10-ft image and a 5.1 surround sound system it’s quite the setup although the price of $6,995 means you’ll have to save up your pennies to get one or hope that a friend does. Thet only other thing it needs is some killer side art, to be frank just a black finish is rather lame considering everything else this cabinet has.

[Via Gizmodo] [Discuss on the Forum]