And the winners are…

While it is not quite 2010 yet where I am right at the moment, for the website the timer has passed onto the new year and so our Game of the Year/Decade polls are now closed. So what were your choices?

Game of the Decade – H2Overdrive – Raw Thrills’/Specular Interactive’s follow-up to Hydro Thunder took the cake by quite a lead for the best game of this past decade. In second place In The Groove 2 came in with 12 votes and DJ Max Technika and Outrun 2 SP tied for third with 10 votes each.

Game of the Year 2009 – DJ Max Technika – This took an early lead and managed to hold onto it, even though for a time it looked like H2Overdrive would catch up. Coming in a very distant third place would be BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.

Pinball Game of the Year – Lord of the Rings Limited Edition – Even though the new LotR pinball re-release has only been available for a short time, it handily came out on top in the poll. Following behind were CSI and King of Diamonds.

This also reminds me that I will have to make a new page for game releases in 2010, especially where there are some exciting projects to look forward to  If you hadn’t seen our 2009 page, click here. Thanks for your votes and Happy 2010!

(BTW – I am hoping that I will have a look at a new game I will be debuting at my arcade soon – a tank combat game by an indie PC game developer who I convinced to make an arcade version out of it. It wasn’t hard since the developer will be my future brother-in-law. Anyways, it is very close to being done but the motherboard that was going to be used in the machine was bad so we need to get a new one to make the thing work. stay tuned)

Remember the polls! 1 week left to vote!

This is just a friendly reminder to vote in our Game of the Year and Decade polls for your pick of the arcade titles that left the best impression upon you. The polls this year have been more popular than in previous years, my thanks to everyone who has participated. Whichever games have the most votes by the end of Dec. 31st will be declared the winners.

Current leaders – Decade game – H2Overdrive; GOTY2009 – DJ Max Technika ; Pinball GOTY – Lord of the Rings Limited Edition

Game of the Decade poll

Game of the Year 2009 Poll

Pinball Game of the Year Poll

The Arcade Heroes Game of the Decade poll

As we are seeing a close to the decade, it’s only logical that we see what people think was the best game of the decade. I have compiled a list of games that are either well acclaimed by players or arcade operators that have been released between January 2000 and now. Putting every single game on the list that was released in arcades over the past 10 years just wouldn’t do – in fact the list seems a bit large as it is. Hopefully what is on the list will please everyone but since it probably won’t, that’s where you use the “Other” option but if you choose Other, please specify what game earned your vote in the comments.

Because the poll is so large, I am putting it after the post break, so click below to begin. I also have set it to not accept repeat votes so hopefully we won’t have the same problem as in the last one.

The Arcade Heroes Pinball Game of the Year 2009 poll

In conjunction with our coin-op video arcade GOTY poll, we also like to see how people are feeling about pinball games. Obviously the number of games is far lower than the coin-op poll but we do have one pin to add by Retro Pinball, although I’m not sure if it really counts since it’s just a remake but I’ll let you guys decide that.

[Discuss on the forums]

The Arcade Heroes “Arcade Game of the Year 2009” poll

It’s that wonderful time of year again where we see what you the readers consider to be the Arcade Game of the Year in 2009. We have had some excellent games come to arcades throughout 2009 and I am excited to see everything we’ll get to play in 2010. I tried to get everything in there but I might have missed a game or two so if that is the case there is an Other option or you could suggest I add it to the list before voting so I can get it on now.

In regards to the Game of the Decade Poll, here are some suggestions for that, please give me your feedback on this!

The Arcade Heroes "Arcade Game of the Year 2009" poll

It’s that wonderful time of year again where we see what you the readers consider to be the Arcade Game of the Year in 2009. We have had some excellent games come to arcades throughout 2009 and I am excited to see everything we’ll get to play in 2010. I tried to get everything in there but I might have missed a game or two so if that is the case there is an Other option or you could suggest I add it to the list before voting so I can get it on now.

In regards to the Game of the Decade Poll, here are some suggestions for that, please give me your feedback on this!

What do you want to see on the Game of the Decade poll?

If you have been reading AH for more than a year then you know that at the end of each year we like to run a poll, asking you what you think deserves to be called the Arcade Game of the Year. We will be doing that for 2009 in just a couple of weeks but reader Andrew reminded me of another poll we should be doing at the same time – a Game of the Decade poll. Since 2010 is just around the corner, it’s only logical to ask which title you think is deserving of the pick from 2000-2009. Since there are many choices to put on that list, I want to present a reasonable list of about 30 games to pick from, or shorter if necessary but instead of me picking them, I want your input. So we’ll just get this out of the way right now – which games do you think should be on the list? Comment below!

(I still am working on uploading IAAPA videos but I have already wasted two hours trying to upload Dead Storm Pirates and the UNIS booth video as Youtube apparently can’t handle MOV files larger than 300 MB.)

IAAPA Poll: What game are you most looking forward to?

Before we get too far away from IAAPA, I’d like to do a poll concerning games at the show that I meant to do sooner but forgot to. It’s straightforward – of all the games we discussed at the show, which piques your interest/excitement the most? If I missed a game, I apologize but I believe that this list should encompass everything that is brand new that we saw there.

[Discuss on the Forum]

How much would you pay for an arcade poster? Would you pay $1400+?

[Thanks to Oga Shi for the tip]

One cool thing I miss about arcades is that they use to produce a poster for every game that the operator could put up as advertising for that title at their location. While some games today do occasionally come with a poster (mostly ones from Japan or Taiwan – I got one with Oriental Legend 2 and I was told that the BlazBlue kit comes with a bunch of promotional materials), many just have a flyer and not much else. Some old posters have become collectors items, like the nude Centipede poster by Atari or as is the case with this Gradius poster in Japan, which went for approximately $1445 USD or 138,000¥ in Japan. Rarity, condition, the quality of the artwork and the game that the poster belonged to is always a factor with these things but if I ever happen to come across for one of these Gradius posters for cheap then at least I know where to sell one now.

[IT Media – Gradius arcade poster auction goes for 138,000 yen] [Discuss on the Forum]

Poll Time – Your Favourites?

This weeks question is…

On to the last poll results. Nothing particularly radical revealed, but nice to know all same what our readers get up to;

I’ll try and make this a weekly thing, feel free to remind me and/or put any suggestions forward.

[Discuss on the Forum]