Welcome to Newsbytes, a curated look at arcade & pinball news from around the world and wrapped up into one post. It’s been a little bit since we had one of these but I’ve been able to scrounge up enough for this post.
BTW I will have some coverage on IAAPA Expo Europe 2022 here soon. I was not able to attend in person but I have contact with some who were, so we’ll get that out sometime this next week.
James Bond Pinball Pics Leak Out To The Net
This should come as no surprise given the online age in which we live, but here are some leaked pics of Stern’s next game. The “official” reveal was canceled “out of respect to the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” as Stern had planned on revealing the machine at the Electrocoin booth for IAAPA Expo Europe 2022. There’s always someone with an “in” on the pinball scene though, so these popped up on places like Reddit, Pinside and Facebook.
These might not be final-final pics but it does make it obvious that this is all based upon Sean Connery’s Bond and not any of the others. This makes sense from a marketing stand point – I’ve always seen Connery’s Bond top fan lists (and the pinball market does tend to be older). I’ll run a separate post about this once the official announcement is made but expect these to start shipping soon. First is Pro, then Premium
(IMHO this ^ would look better without the giant DR. NO logo on there, but maybe that’s just me)
Dave & Busters Announces Middle East Plans; Testing Game & Go Food
We’ll start today with a couple of stories from Dave & Busters.
Dave & Busters To Open 11 Units Across KSA, UAE, Egypt
Meet Dave & Buster’s New, Futuristic Revenue Stream
To comment on the first story, just opening a single location internationally is big news but D&B is going for 11 across three countries. This is being accomplished via franchising, so I imagine that if it’s successful, it’ll just grow from there. I’ve often heard that the ME is a growth market for arcades & amusement, with places like Dubai setting the stage for that over the years. There’s also been the DEAL show going on for more than a decade, where I hear positive comments from manufacturers who attend.
On the 2nd story, this is another interesting concept that they are experimenting with in conjunction with Coca-Cola, where they have what’s essentially a convenience store on-site; You scan your card when you go in and you’re charged once you leave, based on what you bought. Pretty cool and as the headline says, futuristic. This is currently testing at the Hollywood, FL location where, if successful, it’ll roll out to their other stores.
New Promo For Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade
It’s quick but shares some player feedback:
Betson’s Northwest Amusement Showcase Taking Place On Oct. 1st
If you find yourself in the NW region of the US and are in the arcade biz, then Betson has a pre-IAAPA show coming up that will preview some new stuff and educate operators via seminars. I imagine that Fast & Furious Arcade will be there but you can also expect to see games from Andamiro USA, Bandai Namco Amusements, Coastal Amusements, Incredible Technologies and Rilix.
While I wasn’t planning on this myself with IAAPA so close, for some reason my IAAPA press credentials were denied (never had a problem since first going there in 2009) so if I can’t get that resolved, I suppose this showcase will become my IAAPA trip instead.
Industry Icon Al Kress Has Died
Replay Magazine shared the sad news that Al Kress has died following complications of a fall he had in his
home earlier this month. He is one of the few people in the industry who has done it all – he was an operator, a distributor, and a manufacturer. The latter was Benchmark Games, which became a part of the Elaut Group a few years ago. I had the pleasure of chatting with Al a few times over the years and he always had sharp insight.
You can read his obituary here; Replay will also have a special story about his life in their upcoming October issue (Al has appeared in Replay many times over the years)
RIP
Revolution X History
Insert Coin Doc posted a couple of insightful videos for Midway’s Revolution X – if you enjoyed that game at all (or if you’re a fan of Aerosmith), this is some good stuff:
Fixing A Broken LCD Monitor
If you have experienced the backlight dying on one of your Makvision monitor games, hopefully this video will help:
Talking Tekken 8 For A Moment
As I mentioned when Street Fighter 6 was revealed, there’s not much for an arcade blog to say about games which aren’t destined for real arcade use. But of course since the arcade is where many of these big games won their fame, it’s natural to expect some talk on it.
I would like to do a livestream discussion about fighters and the modern arcade on YouTube, why we don’t see big names hit the arcade scene anymore and such, which I hope to do sometime this next week. Until then, here’s another Tekken you’ll not see in American arcades (although I’m hearing there won’t be a JP arcade release either)
Speaking of fighters, there is one on consoles that is possibly headed to Japanese arcades called Omen of Sorrow. This is a nice looking 4-button fighter that is going to be testing on Taito’s NesicaXLive 2 platform here soon. If it passes the test, then it might be available at Round1USA locations that still have that.
Headlines
Andamiro’s Latest SpongeBob Redemption Game Is Now Shipping
There’s an English Page For Andamiro’s Chrono Circle Game – I won’t expect this to be available for anyone other than Round1USA, unless it’s at IAAPA
Betson Opens A Giant New Distribution Center In Vegas
Modders Have Added The NFL 2023 Player Roster To Midway’s NFL Blitz – H/T to Retro Ralph on finding this
US Adults Are Cutting Back Entertainment Spending – Which means arcades, among other things. I’ve been seeing this happen for most of the year so this is no surprise.
More Designs Added To The Arcade Heroes Teepublic Store
EVGA Severs Ties With nVidia And Exits The Video Card Business – This is a strange story and it sort of applies to arcades since they all use PC GPUs. Not sure how many arcade machines have used eVGA though. It’s strange to me that they aren’t going to even try to work with the likes of Intel or AMD.
[Console] Gimmick! Is Coming To Consoles, But Not The ExA-Arcadia Remaster
[Console] Ayaneo Hopes They Have A Switch ‘N Steam Deck Killer On Their Hands
[Console] Operation Wolf Is Coming Back…But Not To Arcades – When a game is made for consoles first, don’t expect it to be just like the arcade original
[Console] New Rise of the Triad Game Coming Soon To PC
[Console] A Detailed (True) History Of The Magnavox Odyssey
[Console] More Sega Goodness Comes To Switch
[Console] That’s One Big Sonic The Hedgehog Ballon
[Cool] AI-controlled Robot Plays Go
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the next story
The post Newsbytes: 007 Pinball Leaks; Dave & Busters Expands Internationally; Al Kress Passing; More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.
