Welcome to Newsbytes, a post of curated news about arcade & pinball from around the world.

GameWorks Seattle To Make A Comeback This Summer

When news hit that GameWorks as a chain was closing down at the very end of last year, it was somewhat of a shock to see what had become of the prototype to the modern FEC & arcade. That shock was particularly hard for employees, who had only heard the news from social media reports and not internal communications. Overall, it was a lousy way to end 2021 and start this year but there is some good news on the horizon for the Seattle location.

Geekwire is reporting that Greg Stevens & Howard Brand have partnered up to revive the location this summer. One interesting bit in the story is that they both recognize the role that the location played within the community and so they are looking to bring it back with the same vibe, games and even employees where they can. That none of the games were sold off is a little bit of a surprise; That makes me wonder about the status of the other locations. They are aiming to re-open by July.

If your curious as to the history of the company, click here. It would be something if the re-launch party was able to attract some star power like the original launch did, although they probably wouldn’t want Will Smith to attend this time…

Bobble Head Baseball Replaces Spider-Man; Super Bikes 3 Gets A Special Update

I mentioned Dave & Busters the other day when discussing Pac-Man Chompionship DX and there’s more going on for their line-up of games, so lets discuss what has been happening. Just note that I’ve not received any official word on these things, this comes from on-the-ground reports from users visiting D&B locations in this past week or so.

Let’s start with a game replacement – Adrenaline’s Spider-Man Homecoming videmption game. This has been a Dave & Busters exclusive since 2017 but now it appears that they are going the conversion route by changing the web-slinging game to Andamiro’s new bat swinging piece, Bobblehead Baseball. Jdevy had found what appears to be a listing for this specific conversion kit, although the link is now blocked. Regardless, it sounds like most if not all Spider-Man cabs will be getting the treatment. I doubt that Adrenaline will release the game, but no clue what will become of the existing hardware. BTW – this sort of thing used to happen all the time in the business – a game would stop earning and a conversion kit would be created just to replace a specific game. I have that with an old Xenophobe converted to a Knights of the Round.

Next up is a new, Dave & Busters exclusive software version of Super Bikes 3. This is mentioned in the latest changelog for SB3, but the game with this software has been showing up at D&Bs, even replacing a Maximum Tune 5 in one instance. Reportedly, this software adds a new track and the unicorn that is in the console port of Cruis’n Blast but I have been unable to get any confirmation from RT about it.

NeoTRIS Now Available For The Neo Geo MVS

The Tetris variation developed for SNK’s Neo Geo AES & MVS hardware is now available in proper MVS cart form, as reported by Arcade Belgium. The game is a variation of Tetris developed by Chips on Steroids that comes with some small additions like being able to set a piece aside and a caravan mode. The kit is 180€ + shipping (35€ for Europe, 50€ outside Europe); You have to email the creator directly to order.

Golden Tee PGA Tour No Longer Shipping With Monitors

Thanks to the continued challenge of getting certain components in arcade machines along with huge price increases, Incredible Technologies has told distributors that their new GTPGA cabinets will no longer include a 55″ 4K Samsung TV. This is being done with the expectation that they can ship units out in a more timely manner; To give you an idea, pre-pandemic, IT could ship out thousands of kits & cabinets when every September rolled around, but with this release units didn’t start shipping until January of this year. Here’s some additional info from the email they sent out:

The “shroud,” aka the back panel with LED lighting that encases the television, was designed to spotlight a 55-inch TV. It was also crafted with flexibility in mind, meaning any 55-inch, 4K television should fit into the unit quite nicely. The dimensions should accommodate all TVs this size.

The Golden Tee PGA TOUR Edition stand and bracket were designed to hold televisions weighing up to 77 pounds. The VESA bracketing is universal and should work with all major television brands.

It is worth reiterating, however, that the television must be 4K quality. This is part of our agreement with the PGA TOUR to deliver the highest quality presentation; it is also how we have designed new courses and the overall look. While the overwhelming majority of televisions sold these days are 4K, the GT PGA TOUR software will not operate without it.

If you’re looking at getting a GTPGA but want to know about any suggested monitors, then just ask your distributor and they should have some recommendations ready to go. That said, checking the official Golden Tee PGA Tour game page shows that they need to update the language which still says it comes with a monitor…

Footage Of The Ultra-Rare Taito Game Vertexer

Everyone has heard of Vertexer before, right? Well you can’t be blamed for not being familiar with it. Developed as a game that could be installed into Taito’s IDYA motion cabinet, it received a very low production run (I asked collector ShouTime about it and he confirms it did hit production, as opposed to a canned prototype). It has never popped up for emulation to my knowledge; As such the quality of photos for it out there have always looked like a thumbnail in a Gamepro Magazine from 1992 – until now:

今日の修理成果。機会があれば稼働できるといいなぁ。 pic.twitter.com/6qeRMEG3o8

— いろいろや　ひげねこ堂 (@higenekodo) May 5, 2022

Ninja Baseball Batman To Live On As A Comic Book

We’ve had some oddities land in arcades over the years, Ninja Baseball Batman by Irem being one of them. It was a great game but is relatively obscure as it came about in a time where beat ’em ups were hot but there were so many with higher profile names that many locations passed on it.  Still, hardcore arcade fans will likely be familiar with it and now the series is living on in comic book form, thanks to the efforts of original game creator Drew Maniscalco (who is also the current president of Andamiro USA), writer Dave Cook and artist Steve Gregson. Find out more here; They also just setup a Patreon.

Jersey Jack Talks Pinball With Indie Arcade Wave

There’s no reveal of their next game, although they have been teasing that such a thing is currently in production so I imagine we won’t have to wait too much longer before whatever it is gets announced. If you’re interested in who Jack is and what he’s done with the company, then give this a watch.

When You Sell Your Games

I do hope to be posting some more of these Operator Insight videos this next week, I just got a bit sidetracked with some other things. I am also working on a couple of Atari videos, one for their upcoming 50th anniversary date and another on an unreleased Atari arcade game I’ve been able to get a tiny bit of new info

Headlines

LAI Games Is Moving To A Bigger Location – Expect shipping delays during the process

Somniacs & Barron Games Partner Up For Birdly VR – I thought they already were partnered up on this but this makes it official

Here’s One Way To Combine Arcades & VR

The SEA Expo Starts On Monday

Duke Nukem Forever 2001 E3 Demo Leaked Onto The Internet

Gunlord 2 Is In Development – Bust doesn’t sound like it’s coming to arcades this time around

The Switch Has Now Outsold The PS4 In The US

That’s all for this weekend, see you on the next story!

The post Newsbytes: GameWorks Seattle Saved; Games Changes At Dave & Busters; NeoTris Released; & More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Location Watch, a semi-regular post where we highlight new arcade locations which are opening their doors for the first time. If you missed the last LW post, click here; It’s been about two months since our last one so there’s been a bit of accumulation on these sites. I also probably still missed some places out there despite spending several hours scouring the internet for news. As always, I tip my hat to both Replay Magazine and Intergame Online, who provided links to many of the places below. Also to those who posted tips on social media about new sites.

I normally loathe pulling the “like, subscribe, and share” schtick that’s popular with social media these days, but I’d just like to throw out a reminder that sharing these posts in particular can do some good as it can help these new businesses get some exposure and slowly help fight back against the typical & tired “arcades are dead” mantra. So if you know anyone near one of these places, send them the link to this story or even just the website or social media of the place you’re most interested in; If you yourself are near one, be sure to go and check the venue out.

North America/USA

Shorty’s Pins x Pints (Pittsburgh, PA) – We’ll start with a place that opened up in February, although like many locations we’ve mentioned over the past year or so, they were working to open in 2020 when you-know-what happened. The game selection is a bit more focused on things like duckpins, foosball, bocce ball, shuffleboard and pinball than video stuff, but they have 5 arcade games on hand with 10 pins, some of which you can see below. Find their website here (and they mention that a 2nd location is in development):

Retro City Arcade (Pembroke, NC)

This new retrocade opened their doors last month in North Carolina. They use the standard retro arcade model of having the games on freeplay behind an entry fee; 25 games are currently available. These include: Daytona USA, Fisherman’s Bait, Jambo Safari, Ladybug, Point Blank, Steel Gunner, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, and more. I am not finding a website or Facebook page for it but there’s this news article about them here.

Sprockets Fun Foundry (Keystone, SD)

South Dakota is not a place that shows up often in these posts but that changes today with a new FEC having opened their doors in the state this month. Keystone is a pretty small town, with a population in the low triple digits, but thanks to being the closest place to Mount Rushmore, it sees a ton of tourist traffic pass through (that’s the only way you’d be able to justify something the size of an FEC in such a low population place).

For attractions they have food & drinks, a strong focus on VR from the likes of both Hologate and Hyperdeck and an arcade with a focus on newer video and redemption pieces (I caught Jurassic Park Arcade and Minecraft in a couple of pics, most of the other pieces looked like redemption). If there are other attractions beyond that, they aren’t mentioned on the website at the moment but you can check them out there or on Facebook.

Panama Barcade (Boquete, Panama)

Speaking of infrequent places that have new arcades opening their doors, we head south to Panama for the Panama Barcade. Also located in a small town, they have brought a large selection of adult beverages to the area, along with retro arcade gaming. I don’t know what the collector or shipping scene is like for arcades in Panama, but I do imagine it’s a bit of a challenge. Some of their games include: Asteroids, DDR X2, Gauntlet Legends, Golden Tee 2019, Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker, Mortal Kombat II, Ms. Pac-Man, Neo Geo MVS (6-slot), The Simpsons and more. Find them here or on Twitter.

BIG: Best In Games (Ypsilanti, MI)

A 74,000 sq. ft. FEC in Michigan has opened their doors, bringing a sizable arcade to the area full of newer titles but a handful of classics too. As is usual with FECs there is no list of games, but the pic below gives you a good idea of what to expect. They also mention an area on the 3rd floor that has 16 retro games available to play. They also have bumper cars, an adventure course (sometimes called ninja courses), go-karts, axe throwing, laser tag and even the mightily impressive Grave Digger VR ride by DOF Robotics that I saw at the last IAAPA.  Their main website is found here.

The Beer Research Institute Taproom & Arcade (Mesa, AZ)

Stating that they are “Downtown Mesa’s First and Only Arcade Bar,” this company has 4,000 sq. ft. of space dedicated to their drinks and games. 40 arcade titles plus several pinball machines are available, including 1942, Centipede, all three Donkey Kong arcade releases, Galaga, Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter II, & plenty more; Pins include Comet, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Super Mario Bros., Tales from the Crypt and so on. Find them here.

Kudos Taproom & Fieldhouse (Taylor, MI)

Here’s a new FEC that opened in Michigan, bringing a strong focus to “field games” (cornhole, football bowling (which seems to be speedily gaining popularity), axe throwing, etc.) to their venue. They even have some hammocks setup for customers to lounge on, which is different. They do have a retro arcade but in the media I’ve seen about it, I only caught a quick, distant glimpse of those machines and couldn’t tell what they are. If you’re in the area though, find their website with address details here or visit them on Facebook.

Double Tap (Iowa City, IA)

Here’s a new bar/arcade that just opened up in Iowa City and it’s a part of a larger bar operations company called Paramount Barco. The website for the location isn’t active yet, but they do have a basic Facebook page up, which mentions the presence of “50 retro to current video games and pinball machines. From Asteroids to Killer Queen…”but no photos of the games yet. It opened in April though, so it is a place you can check out if you’re in the area.

Pirate Pete’s Family Adventures (Pevely, MO)

This pirate-themed FEC is mainly focused on mini-golf and Nerf Wars, but they do have an arcade area with air hockey, basketball, crane machines and other redemption pieces. I don’t see any video-only titles although there have been a few pirate themed games over the years that would work well in a place like this – particularly Taito’s own…Pirate Pete. Seems like it’d be worthwhile for them to get one of those at least, although they are rather rare. Anyways, find their website, here.

Sports & Social #12 (Allentown, PA)

The 12th venue for this sports-focused bar does include an arcade as a part of the mix, although I wasn’t able to find out what that might entail – apart from skeeball and some bar games like foosball and beer pong. Check them out here.

Also of note:

The 2nd Dave & Busters in Brooklyn has finally opened their doors.; A New Main Event opened in Waco, TX Recently

Europe & UK

Korekuta No Hakoniwa (Bethune, FR)

Here’s a new spot that wouldn’t be classified as an arcade location but as a “street” location, given that they have an arcade as a part of their other offerings, including a Japanese grocery store and manga sales. For the arcade side they have several Japanese candy cabs, all running original hardware games and a few others including an Aliens Extermination. They appear to have JAMMA games from the late 80s & 90s (I can see Final Fight in there, along with a Super Street Fighter II Turbo) and they also mention the Neo Geo. Find them at their official website

Gametown (Les Landes de Gasconge, FR)

Also in France is the 43rd location for the Veltmeijer Group, which operates Gametown, GameState and GameCity branded locations in Europe. I’m not sure if the location is just the room you see in the pic below or if there’s more to it than that (I imagine that there is), but between this and Korekuta mentioned above, it’s great to see some more arcade growth in France.

NQ64 #8 (London, UK)

The arcade bar chain in the UK known as NQ64 continues to grow as they just opened their eighth location, this time in SOHO (which is London I think – Londoners, correct me if I’m totally wrong). It looks like a similar setup to their other locations, which includes some extensive UV artwork of space, planets/moons/nebula on the walls. For the games they have the likes of Daytona USA, Guitar Hero Arcade, Mario Kart Arcade GP(2, I think), OutRun 2, Space Invaders, Tetris, Time Crisis (1,2 & 3), and even a couple of pins like Star wars (Stern) and Avengers Infinity Quest. They have a page on the NQ64 website here but are most active on Instagram.

Asia

Shott (Andheri West, Mumbai, India)

Headed over to the East, India continues to see a bit of amusement growth, including this new FEC that features bowling (enhanced with Touch Magix’s Spark Experience) and over 70 arcade games. Some of those come from the “home team” of India-based Touch Magix, but they also have stuff from Raw Thrills, Sega, ICE, Baytek, LAI” and more, all using Intercard. More info is found on LinkedIn

Timezone (Oberoi Mall, Mumbai, India)

This says it’s location #54 for Timezone but is just within India as between Singapore, Australia and some other spots in SE Asia, TZ as a whole has well over 200 (maybe over 300 now?) sites. This location offers plenty of what consumers familiar with TZ expect, including a massive arcade full of new games, bowling and more. The website for this location is here.

Of note:

Tokyo Leisure Land Kichijoji Store (Tokyo, JP) Opened On April 27th

GiGO Ikebukuro Building No. 3 Opened On May 10th (Tokyo, JP)

China gets a 3rd Sega Joypolis

Coming Soon

Arcade Club Blackpool Is Opening on June 9th

Another Main Event Is Coming To Texas

Arcade Legacy In Ohio Is Consolidating Their Two Locations Into One – Opening later this year

Dave & Busters Opening in August, GA On July 22nd

Stars & Strikes #16 Coming To Myrtle Beach, SC

Gravity Active Entertainment A Massive FEC In Liverpool, UK This Winter

GameState Looks To Open “The Largest Arcade In Mainland Europe” This Summer In Germany

An FEC Will Open In Spokane, WA Next Year

EVO Entertainment Group Is Building An FEC In San Antonio, TX – Slated for a December opening

Redcar, UK Getting An FEC

Respawn Arcade, Pinball and E-Sports Coming To Alexander City, AL This June/July

Quarters Arcade Bar #2 Opening Up Soon In Sugar House (Salt Lake City, UT) – Saw this in a private group chat, so no link for now

Thanks for reading! Again, if you’re close to one of these places, do more than just like their page and say how awesome it is. Be sure to go out and give them some business.

The post Location Watch May 2022: New Arcades In PA, NC, SD, MI, AZ, IA, MO, Panama, France, Europe, India & More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Location Watch, a series of posts on the blog where we highlight new arcade businesses that have opened their doors all over the world. I do try to do these once a month but lately it has been a little slow in this regard. That said, we have some new spots to check out – if you find yourself near any of them and like what they’re doing, be sure to do more than just “smash the like button” on their social media but go out and support them with your dollars.

H/T to various readers out there for sending me links as well as InterGame Online and Replay Magazine.

North America

Back To The Arcade (Allentown, PA)

In the previous Location Watch, I mentioned a new place that opened in Allentown but this one is different, which means that Allentown is becoming a solid place for some arcade fun. This one comes with an 80s theme of a sort, although they are not restricting their games solely to stuff released in that radical decade – as you’ll see in the video below, they do have those 80s classics like Congo Bongo, Tapper and such, but they also have 90s titles like Mortal Kombat and House of the Dead and even more recent releases like Let’s Go Jungle, FnF Super Cars, the 2008 Sea Wolf and brand new pinball machines. Visit their main website, here.

Castlecade West Towne (Madison, WI)

Our friends All Castle Games in Wisconsin continue to expand their operations, and more on the way. This one is in the West Towne Mall, with another in the works for the Brookfield Square Mall in Brookfield, WI. They do something similar to what I do, in that there’s no entry fee and they’re in malls; They are starting to switch over to card systems from tokens and have a mix of video games, pinball, redemption, and merchandiser machines. While sometimes they pick up some machines that are a few years old, they also tend to grab brand new stuff; This location has opened with Toy Story 4 pinball as one example. They also have games like Dead Heat, H2Overdrive, Injustice Arcade, Super Alpine Racer, and I think they have an exA-Arcadia there too.  Visit their website, here.

Expressway Food & Fun (Sophia, WV)

West Virginia isn’t a state that pops up on the Location Watch radar too often but thanks to a local wanting to give the community a more affordable option to have fun, we have this new location to discuss. Operating in a 4,000 sq. ft. space, food & parties is a big focus of the space with arcade games to entertain guests when they aren’t eating. From the photos it appears that they have a little space to add more games but they already have the likes of Big Buck Hunter, The Fast & The Furious, FnF Super Bikes, Jetpack Joyride, Nicktoons Racing, Road Burners, SF Rush The Rock, a couple of older pins that I am not familiar with, and more. They don’t appear to have a website nor a social media page yet, so you can find out more about them here via this news article.

Cinergy Entertainment (Wheeling, IL)

A new movie theater/dine-in/arcade experience has opened in Illinois, expanding the roster of their locations to nine. Most are in Texas, with this one marking the first venue in Illinois. It’s not stated how big the arcade is nor what games are on hand although judging by the pictures on their website, it looks like they feature sizable spaces stocked with all of the latest games in both video and redemption. Interestingly enough, their front page currently shows Raw Thrills’ never-released Mario Party Challenge World as a part of the mix at one of their locations (H/t to Jbean on Twitter for pointing out that it is likely from their Tulsa, OK location) although that certainly wouldn’t be this new place. Still, this gives you an idea of what their arcade spaces look like:

Bowl-A-Rama (Panama City, FL)

This is a reopening although it’s slightly unusual – way back in 2018, this center was destroyed by Hurricane Michael and only now, under new ownership, is it back open. While their main focus is on bowling, they do have a small game room on hand, as seen below. Their main website is here.

Underdogs Cantina (San Francisco, CA)

Here’s a sports bar & grill focused on Ma\exican food that also features an arcade, although from what little I can find about that space, it’s not huge. In addition to a couple of cranes and an IceBall alley bowler, they have video games including Big Buck Safari, H2Overdrive, and Terminator Salvation and at least one pinball machine with NASCAR. Visit them online, here.

Dave & Busters/Main Event Updates

While this one isn’t about a specific location persay, it does appear that some Dave & Busters venues will be changing their names to Main Event here soon. That’s an interesting choice as I would have expected all Main Events to be converted over to D&Bs and not the other way around.

New Main Event opens in Brownsville, TX

Europe

Pathé Games (Lieusaint & Marseille, France)

We don’t hear about new arcades opening up in France very often and with this one it marks the beginning of a new concept that I believe is being added to a number of existing cinemas there. According to their main website, they have sites all over Europe and even in Africa with Tunisia; It seems the Games side is to attach some arcade entertainment to the theaters (a common practice here in the States but I admit I don’t know how common the combination is in other parts of the world. I don’t remember finding arcades attached to the movie theater I visited in Brazil but it’s been almost 20 years.)

The first arcade site opened at the end of May in Lieusant and a second one in Marseille with “6 more locations” set to open up by the end of the year. Their setup uses tokens and no entry fee, featuring games that fit into 3 categories: Family, Gamers and Vintage. Per this page in French reporting the openings, they mention a number of games but even using the deepl translator, the article isn’t clear on whether these games are featured at both locations or just one (it’s highly unusual for venues to always feature the exact same game mix, although it wouldn’t be impossible, at least on in-production games). Some games mentioned: Halo: Fireteam Raven; Mario Kart Arcade GP DX; Minecraft Dungeons Arcade; Overtake DX; Speed Driver 5; Super Bikes 3 and more.

Babylon Park Camden (London, UK)

This Israel-based chain we’ve mentioned before continues their expansion into Europe, opening their first of many planned venues in the UK. The space spans 35k sq. ft. with a number of attractions on site, with it really pushing the indoor theme park concept with a number of rides to enjoy, including a full indoor roller coaster. The arcade games are spread all throughout the facility; Watching this video below they don’t appear to bunch them up by type, you can find a Jurassic Park next to a Milk Jug Toss and a Super Bikes 3 quad set & Nitro Trucks pair next to a SpongeBob Soccer Stars. It’s a very impressive setup, check it out:

The Game Box (Arnhem, The Netherlands)

I’ve mentioned the parent company for this one before, which I believe is called Gamestate (if I’m wrong about that, lmk), with The Game Box being more family oriented then adult – if I’m understanding their setup correctly. This marks the 7th Game Box store in the chain, with this location offering more than 50 games to play including Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, SpaceWarp 66, Step ManiaX and more – which also includes a few pinball machines. The page for this precise location can be found here.

Asia/Middle East/Oceania

Timezone Opens Two – Timezone’s growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down as they’ve opened two new locations (note that this article is a little older and talks about them opening soon but as of this post’s publishing, they are operational), one at the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre in Brisbane and the other in Parramatta (South Wales Australia). This brings the total number of TZs in Australia to 53, per the article; Here’s the Parramatta location:

Sparky’s Bowling (Jizan, Saudi Arabia)

I had not heard of this chain before but they appear to be a somewhat large chain of bowling centers in Saudi Arabia and they are growing with a new one opening in Jizan(which is a port city on the Red Sea, close to Yemen). They also have one over in Sudan, with more locations opening later this year. I couldn’t find any info on what kind of arcade setup they have although I would assume that it’s a modern mix. I’ve been hearing from different manufacturers lately that the Middle East market has really been heating up

Coming Soon

Bally’s Bringing A Big Arcade To Vegas This Fall 

OWENS Entertainment Opening In Hastings, UK This Summer – Main site

Round1USA Headed to Glendale, AZ

Pinball Long Island Coming To Patchogue, NY This Fall

FEC Coming To Antigua

Andretti’s Coming To Arizona Next Summer

Bowl Central #3 Headed To Reading, UK

And there we have it for now, wrapping up July. If you have a location that just opened, or opening soon, please let me know where it’s at, what it’s called and anything about the games you don’t mind sharing.

The post Location Watch July 2022: New Arcades Open Across The World appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

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.

Dave & Busters has been a leader in the arcade industry for a long time, and now they are upping their game with a format they are calling the “Store of the Future.” This was prototyped at their Friendswood, TX location last year, so after finding success there, they will be rolling it out to other select locations, starting with Dallas, on February 9th.

Aside from revamping their food menu, they have also changed up their sports viewing areas to be more interactive and they have new “social bay” gaming areas which includes activities such as darts & shuffleboard. I believe that the darts system used here is the SMARTS Darts system that is sold through Sega Amusements; At least from this picture on the right, it looks just like that one does.

The newest concept of the bunch however is The Arena, which sounds sort of like Inowize’s QBIX, but perhaps its a free roam VR experience. I’m not sure as the release below doesn’t mention VR as a part of that, and there is no picture of it in action. This does mark an exclusive experience to be found at D&B however, so it should be interesting to see more when the location opens.

The release does not mention which precise locations will get this makeover, although I imagine that if your local D&B closes for “renovations,” then that’s a pretty good sign they are converting it over. For the grand re-opening of this one though, if you live in the area you’ll want to get in the door as soon as is possible – they are giving the first 200 customers an entire year of free game play. That alone would be worth the visit.

Here’s the release but what do you think about this “store of the future?” Do you hope to see this concept hit your local D&B?

Dave & Buster’s Launches Reimagined Store in Dallas on February 9 Just in Time for Big Game Weekend

The First 200 People in Line at the Grand Opening to Receive Free Games for a Year

DALLAS (Jan. 23, 2024) – Just in time for the most exciting sports weekend of the year, Dave & Buster’s opens its completely reimagined location in Dallas, Texas, at 9450 North Central Expressway on February 9. The Future of Play is Here! Literally. The newly updated location takes everything the community loves about Dave & Buster’s and catapults it into tomorrow with innovative gaming activities and groundbreaking ways for crews to play such as The Arena, interactive Social Bays, and an immersive watch experience.

The first 200 people in line at Dave & Buster’s grand opening on February 9 will receive free games for a year! Doors open at 11 a.m. but people will be lining up early to win. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to game all year! Terms & conditions apply.

Dave & Buster’s Dallas will be the place to be all big-game weekend long beginning with the Dallas Mavericks Mascot Champ and their street team giving away prizes during the ribbon cutting on Friday, February 9. There will be captivating drone shows lighting up the sky on Friday, February 9 and Saturday, February 10 starting at 6:30 p.m. Dave & Buster’s has also partnered with fan-favorite brand True Brvnd releasing exclusive D&B Upside Down Dallas hats available in the WIN Circle for redemption all weekend long while supplies last.

Dave & Buster’s was a pioneer in the entertainment industry when it opened its first store in Dallas over 40 years ago and now is once again setting the benchmark for innovation with its completely reimagined Dave & Buster’s Dallas. First-of-its-kind innovation keeps guests excited to return again and again letting crews connect in new, innovative experiential ways.

Get ready for entertainment like never before. Here’s what you can expect:

• The Arena: As leaders in the entertainment industry and always keeping a pulse on experiential gaming trends, The Arena was created exclusively for Dave & Busters and offers revolutionary gameplay technology identified by Dave & Busters. Guests will have a multitude of ways to connect and compete with friends in a captivating wall-to-wall, gaming environment. For a limited time only, the experience will be available at only $5 per person, per session. With its fully transparent exterior, The Arena allows up to eight players to participate and the highly versatile gaming unit features intuitive and invisible tracking technologies, along with fully immersive media, audio, and tactile solutions to deliver futuristic gaming experiences that tests players both mentally and physically.
• Interactive Social Bays – Brace yourself for new experiences with high-tech interactive gaming in our Social Darts Bays & Social Shuffleboard Bays. Hang with friends in a private, reservable Social Bay in impressive private suites for two to six players. Darts and Shuffleboard have been re-invented with mind-blowing digital interactivity for the coolest, most innovative, tech-savvy versions of darts and shuffleboard ever!
• Immersive Watch – The All-New Dave & Buster’s Watch Experience brings you all your favorite sporting games and events like never before. More Screens. More Party. You name the game – Dave & Buster’s will broadcast it! With a 40-foot screen, every seat is the best in the house. Immerse yourself in the action with top-notch surround sound, dozens of additional oversized HDTVs surrounding the bar, and a VIP Watch Room for that exclusive “bottle service” vibe. Dave & Buster’s offers the ultimate experience to watch the big game.
• Self-Serve Beer Wall – Get ready to pour on the FUN with Dave & Buster’s new self-serve beer wall! Head to the TapZone located in the midway and pour your own local craft beer from over 20 local and specialty craft beers on tap. TapZone is located inside the midway.
• Evolved Menu – Ready for an epic culinary adventure?! Dave & Buster’s craft kitchen has never been better! Grab your crew and get ready to feast on the revamped chef-crafted menu, packed with mouthwatering new and improved options for every taste and lifestyle. Enjoy these shareable delights because food this good is meant to be enjoyed together!
• Sleek New Store Design Inside & Out – Step into a tech-forward entertainment destination with a bright, energetic atmosphere that provides the perfect, Eat, Drink, Play, and Watch destination at the all-new Dave & Buster’s Dallas!
• Midway & Prizes – Of course, Dave & Buster’s still has its iconic Midway! Over 120 games, mind-blowing VR experiences, and epic prizes await! For elevated group experiences, social bays and the VIP Watch Room are available to be booked for private events.

Dave & Buster’s has embarked on an innovation journey that brings industry-leading entertainment to its guests. Dave & Buster’s Dallas resets the entertainment bar and additional innovation will continue coming to it and other locations within the Dave & Buster’s system so crews across the country can connect for a next-level night out.

“We can’t wait to reveal this Dave & Buster’s as a Dallas entertainment destination during the big game weekend,” says General Manager Garrett Chimarys. “We’re thrilled for our neighbors to experience this incredible transformation for themselves. Join us for epic watch parties on our giant 40-foot WOW Wall and state-of-the-art activities with the immersive gaming environment The Arena and all-new Social Dart Bays & Social Shuffleboard Bays. Guests are going to have to see it to truly understand Dave & Buster’s Dallas is like nothing they’ve ever seen.”

In celebration of Big Game 58, Dave & Buster’s will be offering an incredible promotion on Sunday, February 11 to guests that includes $58 unlimited Game Play plus food, as well as prize giveaways throughout the big game.

Year-round specials include the $5 Happy Hour (Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.), where guests can enjoy $5 drink specials including the new Tres Tequila Rita, 22 oz Domestic Drafts, wine, Backwoods Blueberry Lemonade, and D&B Long Island Iced Tea.

As a token of appreciation to members of the military and first responders, Dave & Buster’s provides a discount of 15% off food & non-alcoholic beverages with valid I.D. in honor of our local heroes and frontline workers.

Dave & Buster’s Dallas is located at 9450 North Central Expressway. Hours of operation are Sunday from 10 a.m. – midnight, Monday through Tuesday from 11 a.m. – midnight, Wednesday – Friday from 11 a.m. – 1 a.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2 a.m. For more information on Dave & Buster’s, please visit www.daveandbusters.com.

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About Dave & Buster’s

Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Coppell, Texas, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc., is the owner and operator of 220 venues in North America that offer premier entertainment and dining experiences to guests through two distinct brands: Dave & Buster’s and Main Event. The Company has 162 Dave & Buster’s branded stores in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada and offers guests the opportunity to “Eat Drink Play and Watch,” all in one location. Each store offers a full menu of entrées and appetizers, a complete selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and an extensive assortment of entertainment attractions centered around playing games and watching live sports and other televised events. The Company also operates 58 Main Event branded stores in 20 states across the country, and offers state-of-the-art bowling, laser tag, hundreds of arcade games and virtual reality, making it the perfect place for families to connect and make memories. For more information about each brand, visit daveandbusters.com and mainevent.com.

The post Dave & Busters To Launch Their ‘Store of the Future’ Format In Dallas This February appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Location Watch, our regular series of posts covering recently-launched venues across the world. What new arcade businesses have opened up lately? That question is what these reports are all about. For many years now here at AH, we’ve strived to report on all of the recent grand openings for out-of-home entertainment establishments such as arcades, bar/arcades, retrocades, Family Entertainment Centers (FECs), route arcades and so on.

This particular edition of LW has been in the works for a little while, as it was supposed to come out sometime before Amusement Expo. But news seemed slightly sluggish and the usual boring sidetracks happened. Nevermind – it’s here now, and we have plenty of fresh amusement facilities to talk about.

The last Location Watch from January can be found here; thanks as always to everyone who has reached out to us with news of some of these arcades, including Nsm, Project, S1ckH4nds and Ted on the AH Discord, Michael L. on Facebook, plus the regular updates from the likes of RePlay and InterGame. Once again, if you know of any new openings that you’d like us to cover, please drop the site a line and we’ll try to update this post or feature them in the next one.

And of course, if any of these locations are near you, then do more than just follow them on social media – go out and give them a chance to earn your business!

North America

Perhaps it’s a reflection of it being a safer business model these days, but there’s a lot of admission-based freeplay joints here.

The Dugout Arcade (Baltimore, MD)

First up, a new freeplay location added on to the pre-existing Peabody Heights Brewery bar in Baltimore at the start of March. The Dugout Arcade‘s cabinets come courtesy of Save Point, who of course already have a physical location of their own over in Union Bridge alongside all of their ongoing convention arcade efforts. As a result it stretches across all eras, with a big focus on current rhythm games but also many classics. The full games list can be found at their Instagram and Facebook pages; you have to admit it’s a brilliantly curated bunch.

Pixels Arcade Taproom (San Rafael, CA)

One venue opening as a bar/arcade from the start is this new San Rafael-based example, launched just today as this article goes to press. Pixels are a much more retro-focused proposition, though like The Dugout do also have an additional selection of pinballs, e.g. Star Wars and Ghostbusters Pro from Stern. Check out their official homepage and Facebook here and here.

YESTERCades #4 (Metuchen, NJ)

Though we haven’t covered them on the site for a while, small retro chain YESTERCades in New Jersey have been operating their three existing locations for a while now, and this new one in Metcuhen can now be added to them. Like the others, it operates on time based freeplay charges. For those interested in a full view of its lineup, S1ckH4nds did one of his tours of it:

Balboa Fun Zone Arcade (Newport Beach, CA)

Back to California, and a more traditional location has been refreshed in the Balboa Fun Zone family destination area. Much smaller than all of the above examples and more in the mold of a small game room attraction, it now features a slew of standard redemption machines, plus some recent video pieces including JET’s Big Shot and Adrenaline’s NFS Takedown.

Arcade Replay (Stockton, CA)

Here’s a new spot that opened up in central California, where they have Raw Thrills titles alongside Japanese titles like Initial D Arcade Stage 3, Tekken 7 and several other Vewlix cabs. As you can see from the photos on Facebook, that section of fighting games already has a following.

Game On Pinball (San Jose, CA)

When your pinball obsession reaches a certain point, you look to generate some income from it by opening a location. This appears to be part repair shop, part public play, and they also hold private events. The selection appears to change regularly – as I write this, several titles are mentioned as leaving after tomorrow. Whether its old, new, or rare, it looks like they cover various bases.

Tin Pin Game Bar (Marietta, GA)

Nestled inside of a Tex-Mex restaurant in Marietta is a new spot to enjoy some arcade gaming. Tin Pin boasts the presence of several new pinball machines, including Deadpool, James Bond 007, TMNT, Venom & more (all Stern), while along the opposing wall they have some retro games like Donkey Kong, Galaga, a Street Fighter II and a “multi-Williams” (which came with several Williams classics like Defender on it).

Crowbar Arcade Bar (Binghamton, NY)

For players in the Binghamton area, there’s now a place to eat and play some retro games. Crowbar Arcade has a strong focus on classics (Centipede, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Phoenix, Space Invaders, etc.) but they also have some slightly newer titles too (After Burner Climax, Crazy Taxi, DDR, Time Crisis 4, etc.). I suppose that stuff like Crazy Taxi would be considered a classic now… although that still feels weird to me. They are using a card system as opposed to the common freeplay model that a lot of game bars use. Visit their Facebook page, here.

FEC Openings & Updates

Dave & Busters Reopen A Former GameWorks In Schaumburg, IL – as already covered on here in a recent Newsbytes. Note that despite not housing a location test game – yet – this location does break from the D&B norm and has a selection of pinballs (which makes sense with Stern nearby)

Velocity eSports Also Open In Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg – interestingly Velocity have reopened a couple of old GameWorks too, but in this case have had to settle for a smaller location in the very same mall… wonder if there was a bit of a battle for the GW lease between them and D&B

Round1US Launches At Danbury Fair, CT – for a video tour of this one, S1ckH4nds filmed another

The Cove Bar & Arcade Opens At The Treasure Island Casino In Vegas – Over 7300 sq. ft.

Lucky Strike Comes To Miami, FL – from photos, this is one of those first locations with Godzilla

New Rush Funplex For Shawnee, KS

Spy Ninjas HQ Opens In Las Vegas

New CEC For Culiacan, Mexico

CEC Also Surveying On “Retro Stores”

The Rise Of Adult-Focused FECs

Family Arcade Opens In Glimer, TX – but be warned, Arcade1Ups rear their ugly head again here… these are key words of advice for those who try to place them in a commercial setting, as always.

Europe

Lots of UK action this month, perhaps slightly surprising with how the economy seems to be going there. Less from other countries though – unless we’ve missed anything.

YuMe World #2 (Durham, UK)

Sega Amusements have been front and center with new openings for Europe throughout the last few Location Watch posts, and as they expand their operations empire on the continent further still, this first example is no different. Alongside partnering with the likes of Superbowl UK and Gravity, they also supply YuMe World, who up to now had just the one location in Newcastle since 2019. That’s changed now as they’ve recently opened their second. As well as a selection of SAI’s most recent titles (and a few others), this location also houses a desserts bar.

Arcade Warehouse #4 (Doncaster, UK)

Another small chain of freeplay arcades that has been growing slowly over the past few years. It’s not quite a country-wide takeover yet as Arcade Warehouse’s new opening in Doncaster is only the fourth location of theirs, but nice to see more growth for the little guys. As for the game lineup, it seems an unusual grab-bag – original 90s cabinets (Daytona, Virtua Racing), affordable 2010s releases (Sega Rally 3, MotoGP), and perhaps in the absence of much else easily available on the market, a whole host of Chinese product from more recent years?

Merrivale Model Village (Great Yarmouth, UK)

For those looking for a completely retro affair, this unique location fills that niche. It’s not every day that an arcade opens as part of a miniature village attraction, but this is what a couple of people who own one have done thanks to a big investment made, positioning it as a nice contrast to the more traditional redemption-focused seaside arcades found elsewhere in places like Great Yarmouth. And in an interesting change to the usual articles linked, original reportage of this one comes courtesy of the BBC – nice to see some mainstream media picking them up.

Jod Park Games (Agrinio, Greece)

Here’s a small arcade that opened up in a place that doesn’t frequently pop-up on our radar (Greece). That’s partly due to a certain early 2000s law that effectively banned them from operation and decimated the industry there… though it’s been recovering in more recent years. Among the redemption and sports games, they have several video titles out of China – Zombie Crisis, Speed Track, and Pirate Adventure. Unfortunately there is a common theme of piracy running through some of these; note the discrepancy between the game screens and cabinets on that latter two. They also have an upstairs room with some ping pong tables.

FEC Openings & Updates

Harbour Lights Amusements Closes After 40 Years In Operation – again, we don’t like to focus on closures here, but this and another long-standing family-ran spot on the periphery of this UK location are sadly pretty notable

New Tenpin Location For Chester, UK

Arcade Added To Golf Fang, Sheffield, UK

S’pace Bowling Alley Opens In Malmedy, Belgium – this one was briefly mentioned in a Newsbytes last month in relation to its StepManiaX cabinet

Highscore Kijkduin Opens In Kijkduin, The Netherlands 

Asia/Oceania/Middle East

Less than usual out of these parts of the world too – again, though, it’s possible some have been missed out with the distance involved.

Game Center Betty (Nanao, Japan)

So this one is not a new opening, more a reopening, but they have attracted a lot of attention and I know some will be very pleased to see this.

For those who don’t know, Game Center Betty is a well-known independent location in Japan, just as famous for its family of cats that hang around the place as its varied selection of rhythm games. Tragically, they were hit hard by the New Years earthquakes over in Japan, leading to an outpouring of support from fans all over the world. Although the cats were safe, between the numerous ceiling leakages and damages caused to cabinets it wasn’t fully certain whether they would open sooner than later. But it appears that all the goodwill has helped them to be nearly fully operational again just under three months on from the disaster. Lovely to see:

TimeZone (Quezon City, Las Piñas, Philippines)

Via InterGame, TimeZone are marching on with their expansion as ever. This time, we have a couple of new locations in the Philippines to speak of; specifically SM Southmall, Las Piñas, and SM North EDSA, Quezon City.

FEC Openings & Updates

Round1JP Has Rolled Out Card-Only Payment At A Few Locations – have to wonder whether this concept will take in Japan, it’s been brought over before to no avail there

Bandai Namco Opening Another Taiko-Themed Cross Store

A Brand New Gachapon And Pokemon Card Game Facility Concept

New Sports Bar/Bowling With 50 Arcade Games In Perth, Australia

More Ninja-Themed FEC News… This Time Over In New Zealand

Unsure What It’s Called Or Where In China It Is… But Some Video Games

Youzi #6 Opens In China, With Lots And Lots Of Those Neon Crane Games

A Place Opened Up In Guizhou, China, That Is Also All About Them Cranes

Are any of these locations near you? Then be sure to go out and visit them! Doors can’t stay open on the basis of likes and hashtags.

Coming Soon

F1 Arcade Coming Soon To Boston & Washington D.C.

Up-Down #7 Opening Later This Year In Birmingham, Alabama

AAMA 2024 FEC Of The Year Winner Elev8 Fun Is Coming To Miami

Superbowl UK Finally Opening In Bishop Auckland With A Sega Prize Zone

Another Funbox Arcade And Gravity Max For London In Westfield, Stratford

Butlins Bognor Regis Developing Multi-Million Pound Immersive Entertainment

Funstation Coming To Belfast, Northern Ireland This Summer

Galaxy Park #2 Opening In Malaga, Spain Around Mid-May

New Plaza Capcom Location Coming To Oyabe City, Japan

Futuristic Paradigm Zone Arcade For Adelaide, Australia

TimeZone Opening New Australia FEC Next Month

The post Location Watch March 2024: New Arcades Open Up All Around The World appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

By the time you are reading this, chances are you heard about it already, as the news has made national headlines. But, we can still discuss it from an operator perspective – Dave & Busters is going to allow their loyalty members to place small bets on the outcomes of different games.

Dave & Busters Goes Betting

The story was published this morning by CNBC, and its made the rounds enough that even political comedy shows are bringing it up. To quote the gist of it from the article:

Customers can soon make a friendly $5 wager on a Hot Shots basketball game, a bet on a Skee-Ball competition or on another arcade game. The betting function, expected to launch in the next few months, will work through the company’s app.

The story notes that there are five million loyalty members, but that it will be available in “44 states” – likely excluding the six US states where gambling is illegal. The company helping D&B pull this off is called Lucra; the story also gets into the massive amounts of money that sports betting generates.

Considering the angles

Reactions that I’ve seen on this so far, at least from within the arcade community, have been mostly negative – I haven’t ventured into gambling circles though to see what they think about it. I imagine if its a success, then we’ll see other grown-up chains adopt their own things, or an app to allow independent arcades to take a crack at it. If that happens though, it seems to me that we’ll be entering into a little bit of a minefield though – I’m not sure that the term “Family Entertainment Center” can really apply to a place that promotes an activity reserved for adults. Then again, many FECs also serve alcohol, so maybe I’m overthinking it.

I recall there was some hype on skill-based casino games, where you could get regular video games at a casino, they just feature some betting options. A quick search seems to indicate that those have been a moderate success, although they haven’t completely replaced your typical luck-based options.

One thing that comes to mind is I know a few people in the industry who get rather upset if anyone uses the term “kiddie casinos” when referring to arcades. Although it is only used to refer to places with redemption, given that 98% of the arcades out there have some redemption of some kind in place, it does tend to lump in the super minority too.

In that regard, could this end up backfiring in a litigious way? I recall efforts to sue Chuck E. Cheeses in places like California over their redemption, levying the “kiddie casino” accusation against them. That’s never held water, but when you have a major chain actively promoting gambling, perhaps it suddenly could. I don’t imagine that we’ll be seeing CECs embrace this though, unless they decide to see if the grown-ups want to start betting on how a kids game of skeeball goes.

That would be a really bad idea though, given how often adults already start getting into mass brawls over tickets already. Would we see that at D&Bs? Probably not. The issue at CEC probably stems from emotions running high because kids are in the mix and people get hyper-defensive whenever they are slighted in that kind of situation.

What do you think? Could this be a good or a bad thing for our industry? Could I be overthinking it and we won’t see much of a change, or any negative worries I have are unfounded? If its successful, will more arcade developers start including betting modes in the games?

The post Dave & Busters To Test Out Betting On Arcade Games appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Newsbytes, our regular series of posts at AH that round up quick bites of news from around the world of arcades and pinball. Up until the Genda/NEN acquisition report the other day, it was a slow one for major news last week, but we do have several stories that have built up since the last one to cover here. These range from NBA Superstars’ timed exclusive rollout, to some new pieces of arcade media out of Japan. Let’s get on to the news:

NBA Superstars At Dave & Busters

Though not out to the wider industry just yet, NBA Superstars is now available to try at any Dave & Busters location that has received it thanks to their timed exclusivity deal with Raw Thrills. These have been rolling out since the end of May, so most should have it fully set up by now. Plenty of people have already visited their local D&B store or made a trip to the nearest one to get a first play of the game, including some of our readers; I would be one of those, but I have not had time to hit up mine to check it out. Jdevy sent us this photo of his (feat. LeBron James) in the AH Discord server:

And for a closer look, this video from Retro Ralph has you covered:

Bowl Expo in a few weeks time will offer a chance to get more hands-on with NBA Superstars, where it will make its full-scale launch to the industry on RT/Betson’s booth. Until then, here’s some impressions on how it plays from DaiAndOh. It should additionally be noted that as D&B own Main Event, cabinets are rolling out to those locations too.

Rhythm Game Updates

As we slide into Summer, the main rhythm game developers in the arcade industry look set to put out new content to keep their players engaged over the holidays. Reflecting that, there are a couple of new versions of these out of Japan to speak of here. One that has just been announced over there is Chunithm Luminous Plus, the latest edition of Sega’s second major arcade rhythm game. This series has of course been officially available elsewhere in Asia since the start of the 2020s, so if the Maimai DX location test at Round1USA is a success, we could maybe soon see it reaching their locations as well?

The initial announcement of this one was already mentioned in the last Newsbytes, but Konami have also now released Dance Dance Revolution World, the biggest new version for DDR in quite some time, to Japan, most of Asia, and R1USA (no D&B anymore – their cabinets seem to be staying on the older A20+ version until the end of time…). It came a lot sooner than expected by the sounds of things, unusually receiving no accompanying pre-launch location test to iron things out. Perhaps they just didn’t think there was any need, with DDR being such a long-running franchise? Check the stream below for footage:

Andamiro USA have also finally posted about Pump It Up Phoenix 2024, though that one has been pushed to cabinets for a couple of weeks by now.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Pinball

Connoisseurs of pinball might recall that several years ago, a company by the name of Zidware was in the process of making some original pinball machines. The whole thing with those designs ended up becoming a fiasco, but fortunately, some have taken those unreleased designs and given them some new life. One was a game based upon Lewis Carrol’s classic Alice In Wonderland book. Now, that game is getting fixed up and released by a new division of Dutch Pinball (Dutch Pinball Exclusives) that is focused entirely on limited “boutique” releases – not really stuff for locations, but for collectors who are willing to spend some cash to add a unique game to their collection.

More details on this upcoming game can be found over at PinballNews.com, where the news broke. I do hope that a lot of the art remains intact, as the demo stuff looked fantastic. What do you think about it? It does surprise me as I wasn’t aware of Dutch Pinball doing anything other than “boutique” (the pinball world’s word for “indie”) releases as it was, but I don’t follow some of these developments in the pinball world as closely as some others.

What It’s Like To Work At A Japanese Arcade

Continuing the Japan focus, this fun video recently released. Having operated an arcade for 16 years as of last Saturday, I really enjoyed this “day in the life” look. Granted, certain operational aspects are different (as a single location, I don’t do anything like plot sales goals – I just try and come up with creative new ways of marketing on social media and try and watch for certain local events that might bring people into the mall where I’m at), but for anyone who has worked at an arcade before, I’m sure you can find something to relate to:

Space Invaders Gigamax R Invades Round1USA

We did previously run a post about this game when it hit its first US location a few months ago, but now that it is rolling out to more, let’s touch on Space Invaders Gigamax R once again here. This is a new arcade version of the giant Space Invaders Gigamax game that Taito have brought out to events from time to time, exclusive to Round1USA. It sounds like select locations should be getting it within the coming weeks (AH reader ArcadeZ passed on this photo of one being set up in Greendale, WI), but some won’t due to size/space issues:

May Arcade Releases

NBA Superstars’ timed exclusivity release wasn’t the only arcade launch last month; several new games have shipped to the whole industry. In case you are curious about what has released up to this point in the year and what is coming soon, be sure to visit our releases tracking page:

Arcade Heroes At Trade Shows

July will see some arcade related events, and I (ArcadeHero), will be attending a couple of them. I’d really like to see other AH contributors here for something like IAAPA, but we’ll have to see how that goes. Anyways, the International Bowl Expo is coming up at the very end of this month, with the trade show portion happening on July 1st & 2nd. A few companies have been posting that they’ll be there, although aside from NBA Superstars, I don’t know what else – if anything – might make an “industry debut” at the event. While Bandai Namco had revealed new Pac-Man content like Pixel Bash at the show in the past, they are not on the exhibitors list for this year. Amusement Source International is, however, and it seems like they always have something new for each show – perhaps something that they grabbed at the recent AAA Expo.

Later in the month, I’ve been invited to CAX 2024 to speak at a panel for Alan-1 Inc. They are the creators of the upcoming Asteroids Recharged and Avian Knights titles. I’ll also be around at their booth and checking out the show in general to play some of the awesome rarities that you don’t  usually come across. Just a note – because of my consultancy role that I’ve recently taken on with Alan-1, coverage surrounding them on the blog here will be handled by  another writer and not myself. I want to remain as impartial as is possible in the coverage; although in the case of videos, I’ll still be doing those, they’ll just be specially sponsored vids.

Aside from these, I don’t have any other plans for shows over the rest of the year apart from IAAPA, but you never know what might happen.

Speaking of sponsorships, be sure to check out the LBX Collective, which AH is also working with on their LBX Daily Show podcasts with the Arcade Corner every Wednesday:

What Is The Deal With Arcade-To-Console Ports These Days?

Again on the topic of NBA Superstars, its announcement generated a lot of somewhat misinformed comments from people who believe there isn’t an arcade industry for games like it to release to. Some even think that it should simply be put out on consoles from the off (or at least, as soon as possible)! While the complaints from those who aren’t likely to see a cabinet of it nearby are understandable, off the back of this discourse our official YouTube channel now has a video explaining in detail why that isn’t really ideal:

Headlines

New Corporate Video For Sega Japan – Spot the arcade nods, both old and new…

Content Update #51 From StepManiaX

Read Japanese Arcade History In Coin Journal 1993

“Developer’s Day” Discussion With The Guys Who Created Gottlieb’s KRULL

Taito’s Chairman Was Nearly Kidnapped By His Employees In ’85

Super Sprint Reproduction Cab Goes On The High Seas

New QBIX Game Bubble Smasher Teaser Trailer

Sega Amusements Holds Their Annual Kick-Off Meeting

Trio-Tech Honors D-Day With A Really Awesome Simulator

Trio-Tech Also Celebrates Their 3000th Typhoon Installation

The X-Files Pinball Gets Colorful – So Does Viper Night Drivin’

Official Accessories For JAWS Pinball

A Different Take On The Unico LCD From An Arcade Monitor Tech

Idolmaster Tours Gets Its Second Location Test Period From June 26th

Unused Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 6 Track Released By Yuzo Koshiro

Tokyo Joypolis Holds Sonic’s 33rd Birthday Party With Some Special Sega Guests

Park Avenue Open Day 2024 Hosted By UDC, Electrocoin And Others In The UK – Not much new of interest in video for us though

Laserforce Adds Fitness Tracking To Their Laser Tag System – I’m surprised this feature has taken so long to implement

St. Louis Game Company Rolls Out Thermal Ticket Printers For Cranes – Crane fans will have to explain to me how this is “groundbreaking”

[Console Headlines]

Street Fighter 6 Adds M. Bison, Elena, And Fatal Fury Characters – Will be available on Type Arcade in the future too

IGS Classic Arcade Collection Up For Asia Import Preorder

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Gets A New Retro-Style Beat’Em Up

Four Hour Sega Rally Saturn Documentary From Pandamonium Premieres

John Carmack Knew The Meta Quest Pro Would Be A Flop, But Lost The Internal Battle To Stop It

Sony Cedes, Will Allow PSVR2 Play On PC – There are a bunch of restrictions for it though, Kevin Williams surmises that this is an out for Sony on their VR plans

Taiko Frenzy Comes To VR – Perhaps this is the next Beat Saber?

Atari’s Metroidvania, Yars’ Rising, Gets A PC Demo

The Goofy Squirrel With A Gun Gets An August Release Date

IKEA Is Hiring 10 Virtual Employees For Their Virtual Roblox Store

That’s all for this week. For any fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day! Which of these news items (e.g. NBA Superstars rolling out) interested you most?

The post Newsbytes: NBA Superstars At Dave & Busters, Rhythm Game Updates, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Pinball, More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Newsbytes, our series of posts at AH that curates some quick news stories from around the world of arcades & pinball. News output continues to be a little slow; these have tended to be only once monthly of late, where we usually try to get two or three out, but given enough time, we accumulate sufficient stories for a new post. Read on for details on a new cabinet for Mission Impossible, Dave & Busters introducing bets, Taiko No Tatsujin USA, and much more…

Mission Impossible Sitdown Spotted

Sega Amusements’ Mission: Impossible Arcade has already been out in stand-up SDLX and DLX forms since 2021/22, and now it looks like the game will be also sold in a sit-down, closed booth ‘environmental’ version similar to other shooters. This was spotted at a couple of UK locations recently (thanks to Ted on the heads up), but has not been officially announced, so this photo posted by the official Facebook page of one of those places will have to suffice here. Though not a full shot, from this it can already gleaned that the base design of Transformers Shadows Rising (coincidentally seen in the background) is being used… would be nice to think that may mean it will be offered as a conversion kit, despite their rarity nowadays.

This version might still disappear too – we have conversely seen interesting stand-up iterations of both the aforementioned Transformers sequel and HOTD Scarlet Dawn pop up on test, then drop off the radar. So SAI may yet decide against giving this a wider release. In the case that it does make it to market, this would also mean three cabinet options available for Mission Impossible. Though good to have more choice on one game, it’d be even better to see those two titles and others receive that benefit as well, even if belatedly… either way, we will likely find out on whether this will be going to other locations at one or two of the upcoming Fall trade shows (e.g. IAAPA). Stay tuned for posts about those coming soon on the site.

Japan Arcade Updates

Every so often we check back in on what is happening over in the land of the rising sun’s arcades, and with the recent heightened interest in them via recent US tests for the likes of Maimai DX, now is as good a time as ever to do so. In terms of rhythm games, Konami’s long-running Pop’n Music series continues on over there, with its 28th instalment, Jam & Fizz, recently announced to be launching soon. Though it is not quite one of their flagship BEMANI titles these days (Round1USA still don’t have newer cabinets, for instance), its longevity is clearly pretty decent thanks to the dedicated fans in Japan. The initial teaser for this one did additionally throw off some people who thought it would be Las Vegas-themed…

For other new game updates there this month, Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade (which is available via R1USA) added Vega to its character roster, whilst Bandai Namco’s Mobile Suit Gundam card battler Arsenal Base has entered its fourth season with UNITRIBE. That one has caused a little controversy though… at the last minute, it got postponed after a discovery that a sub-contracted artist had plagarized another piece in their card artwork. Operators subsequently had to refuse new card shipments, which some weren’t too happy about from the sounds of things. At least the game remains one of Japan’s bigger earners in video… although Marvelous’ new Pokemon Frienda seems to be doing very well now too.

Lastly, we have mentioned these before, but elsewhere in trading card games there has been some further recent location test action for Bandai Namco’s Idolmaster Tours and Dragon Ball Super Divers, as well as Konami’s Monster Retsuden Oreca Battle 2. The interest in them seems fairly strong from a cursory glance at posts online, so expect those to be Japan’s next major arcade releases.

Dave & Busters Bets On Playce It

After all that pushback regarding Dave & Busters’ plan to roll out betting on arcade games, things grew so quiet on the subject that I’d seen comments wondering if D&B was going to move forward with the plan. Well, wonder no longer as the company has launched “Playce It” for locations in Texas, Georgia, Missouri, & California. I’m surprised that Nevada isn’t on that list, but I’m no expert on gambling laws and the hurdles one has to overcome to launch a service like this. I’m quite sure it’ll never fly in my home state (Utah, which bans all forms of gambling including the lottery), but depending on how it goes in these first locations and additional legal issues, you might see it become available in other parts of the country here soon.

Blue Brothers Pinball

Homepin, creators of the Thunderbirds & This Is Spinal Tap pinball machines are prepping their next game for release, Blues Brothers. First nonchalantly announced on their Facebook page in July, this is a “budget release” that is based upon the film of the same name. It will have some licensed music, but due to budget restrictions, only three songs from the original soundtrack will be included with each game. Oddly enough, Homepin doesn’t keep their website updated very well, so it looks like the best place to get information for now is their Facebook page, or a distributor. Knapp Arcade also has a piece. Here’s a look at the prototype:

More On Taiko No Tatsujin USA

Yes, this is now the second consecutive Newsbytes with a piece about Taiko No Tatsujin’s USA release… but with all the strong interest and further media coverage, it’s hard not to acknowledge it somewhere. Bandai Namco Amusement America have been mostly quiet again since the launch announcement back in July, but their superiors in the East have been busy getting some good press off its back.

For that, this report saw it praised by American college students in Japan… and then, the arcade version’s producer Katsunori Kimizu was interviewed by ITmedia on its upcoming launch over here. The interview has only been put out in Japanese, but translating it reveals interesting insight on the experiences they have had in bringing TNT over (e.g. despite their rising popularity being a reason for them in the first place, apparently even BNA were surprised by how many anime and J-Pop songs were played on the tests…).

However, the most notable point raised by the interview is that Bandai Namco plan to bring Taiko up to 10,000 cabinets around the world via this expansion here and potentially elsewhere. There are at least 4.7k already running in Japan, and a further 900 across the rest of Asia and Oceania, but another 5.5k is still a highly ambitious aim. That can be both a good and bad thing – it’s cool that Bandai Namco still have that energy, and Taiko is a very strong title to focus it onto… but despite it possibly being a chance to turn things around, they may want to temper expectations somewhat, considering the harsh reality of the below topic:

Talking Business – When Things Get Tough

I get into full detail with this video, but there is no getting around the fact that, for me and many of my fellow arcade operators, business is down – and it has been for a while. I discuss that and some potential ways to help things in this video below, which I hope will aid at least one or two who watch it. But I would also love to do a more involved livestream about this in the next week. Perhaps if we can find a good time and some other operators out there want to get together on a livestream call, we could have a proper in-depth group discussion about what you’ve been seeing; what has helped business, and what hasn’t.

Headlines

Golden Tee 2025 Revealed To Launch Next Month – This brings its regular yearly updates back to where they usually used to be, before they were disrupted for one reason or another. Will have to get a bigger post about it up closer to launch on the 9th, lots of course previews have already been posted by Incredible Technologies on YT and some details are out there on other additions

Barron Games Lives On Via Zooom Studios – Barron’s supposed closure back in Spring went under the radar on AH, as the situation was fluid, with certain parties bidding for their products & parts. Now, that has been settled by the newcomers Zooom Studios giving them a new lease of life. New employees have been hired and a new air hockey table called Open Ice is coming to IAAPA 2024

Stop Giving Pinball Start-Ups Money – Strong language, but a good rant about a serious problem that is plaguing pinball. One part of it is collectors who apparently don’t care about throwing money away, but in doing so, that incentivizes the problem. If a start-up can’t raise capital through traditional means to build their games, then they possibly shouldn’t be in business in the first place

Retro Ralph Mods His John Wick – This is another problem with pinball – modders shouldn’t really have to put stuff into the game that should be there by default given the license theme. John Wick without guns is like JAWS without a shark. Stern have at least been doing some new things with the latter though, as…

Stern Updates JAWS, New Retro-Inspired Game Mode Added – The original movie was more ’70s of course (and even featured early Sega electro-mechanical game Killer Shark in one scene), so 8-bit style graphics are not the most fitting addition, but still nice to see that added effort from them on this one.

Konami To Distribute Minecraft Dungeons Arcade In Japan – This is a bit of a curveball, as alongside it being the Wahlap-manufactured edition, only Taito and Bandai Namco tended to sell RT product over there… until now. Konami have of course got history with them too though, just in the States instead

Toho And Bandai Namco Enter Multi-Billion Yen Capital Alliance

Sonic And Pac-Man Also Collaborate… On A New T-Shirt Design

Insert Coin: The Midway Arcade Revolution Museum Exhibition

Straight Out Of Mainland China… Clone Racing Genesis!

A Hololive Collaboration Is Coming To Round1USA

Mr. Do! Gets A Fan Encyclopaedia Book

StepManiaX Content Update #53

The 2024 Air Hockey World Championships Have Crowned New Winners

Sega Prize International Releases Official Tetris Plush Toy Range

Taito Releases Promotional Video For Godzilla Kaiju Drop Pusher

Sega Japan Testing Out Their Newest Monopoly Pusher Again

[Console Headlines]

Atari Announces The Atari 7800+ Revival Console – Plays original Atari 2600 & 7800 cartridges, but they are also releasing some new games for it

Egret II Mini: Arcade Memories Vol. 3 Coming On Dec. 19th

Under Defeat Headed To Consoles Again This December

A Sixteen Player LAN of Game Boys Running Faceball 2000 Will Be At The Portland Retro Gaming Expo

Genki Reveals New Tokyo Xtreme Racer Game For Steam

Brits Getting Another ZX Spectrum Remake In November

Game Informer Bids Farewell

The Evercade EXP-R Has Been Delayed

Sega Arcade Legends Spotted At Gamescom

Meta’s Apple Vision Pro Killer Gets The Axe – Meanwhile, The AVP Is “Stuck in neutral” – I have to laugh at this last one, given how many posts I saw claiming that the AVP would replace laptops and all that jazz

That’s all for this Newsbytes. If you have any arcades near to you, be sure to support them! Which story covered here (e.g. Mission Impossible sit-down, D&B betting, Taiko US) interested you most?

The post Newsbytes: Mission Impossible Sitdown Spotted, D&B Bets On Playce It, More On Taiko US, Headlines appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Welcome to Location Watch, a series here on Arcade Heroes that endeavors to track and report on new arcade location openings from all around the world. This will be our final look at new locations for 2024, while also giving us a preview of some locations that are new and fresh for 2025. Our last Location Watch was at the end of October; H/T to various users on our Discord server channel (#arcade-locations) and social media pages who share news on these locations, as well as RePlay Magazine and InterGame Online; if you have any new arcades we’ve missed, be sure to let us know and they will be added.

We’ll get into this more in the upcoming end-of-year post, but all in all this year has been a bumpy ride for the industry. Openings were slow in November, only to pick up in December. But that’s then been slightly offset by strife on the indie/fighting game community side of things, where there has sadly been a few high-profile closures just announced this month that players have been reeling from. However, use it or lose it does unfortunately apply, and these posts are all about giving the next generation of locations exposure for a reason. Let’s get fully caught up with all the new arcade openings for late 2024…

New Arcade Finders

Just before we get to those, I want to quickly highlight two new arcade locators that have recently begun operations online. The first is the Insert Coin App, which does work find on a desktop browser (it was also mainly made for iOS and Android devices). It looks to offer up all arcades out there around the world, but is lacking a lot of venues as it needs user input for all that; the second is more niche with Retro Arcade Hunter. Not sure if they require only retro games and what the cut-off date for “retro” is (everyone seems to have their own arbitrary date in mind), but it’s a safe bet to assume anywhere focused on the 80s.

North America

Varcade PVP Arena (Detroit, MI)

Our friends at No Cash Value LLC have been busy, now opening a venue at the Oakland Mall that features the VARBOX VR system, and a few Blast City cabinets running some older arcade titles, uniting two generations of compact video amusement into one place. I’ve seen the VARBOX at IAAPA a few times, but never have seen a location that has one. Check them out on Facebook or their website.

Max Funland (Brooklyn, NY)

This new opening for Brooklyn has its arcade attached to an adventure playground. This oddly has various Asian imports, with Japanese ones including Chunithm, Ongeki, Wacca, and Initial D Arcade Stage 8 (offline). Their Zenius-i-vanisher.com listing can be found here. Hopefully this can take out some of the sting from the upcoming closure of Brooklyn Games & Arcade (scroll down for more on that).

Party Time (Brooklyn, NY)

Another new Brooklyn opening here, this one being an example of what arcades there can do that others can’t by opening for 24 hours round the clock. Party Time offers a modern mix of what looks to be all Chinese games, mixing prize, redemption, and video games into a bright family environment. The motion version of Deadstorm Pirates and the non-US version of Dinosaur Era are the only games I recognize at a glance though. I’m guessing this is in a Chinatown area of the city, but someone who knows the area this is at will have to fill me in if that’s incorrect.

Mana Pinball (Ontario, Canada)

Starting off as a pinball servicing and rental shop, Mana has switched over to also operating them as an arcade. They operate using a free play model, and sounds like they have a wide selection of games that get rotated out on a regular basis. Find them here.

Gary’s Place #2 (Seattle, WA)

Seattle is getting more arcade love from this company as they have just opened their second location, now in West Seattle. Gary’s Place is dedicated to Gary Cichi, an arcade operator who was a fixture of the scene in the region. This arcade is co-operated by one of Gary’s sons, Matt. If you’re in the area, you’ll find an ecclectic mix of old and new games, from beloved classics (Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man) to a row of pinball machines to newer video stuff – including some exA-Arcadia ARC-32 cabs.

Fun Spot Arcade (Salem, NH)

Fun Spot continues their expansion, now opening a spot at The Mall At Rockingham Park. You can’t see much from the low resolution photo on that linked page, aside from several prize games and what looks to be a Pump It Up… I have to assume that have more video goodness than that to be found inside.

Sip ‘N Flip Arcade (Windsor, CO)

Hopping over to Colorado is a new bar/arcade (includes adult beverages as well as soda), with thirteen pinball machines (a few from the ’90s with several newer Sterns) and a bunch of video classics. Most of those are from the ’80s, however, I notice on their list that they mention the just-released Asteroids Recharged by Alan-1. I did imagine that it would find its way into more retrocades/ arcade bars than your typical modern title. As for pinball, I see more and more arcade bars using these set ups, but I do wonder how it pans out on the cost benefit (i.e., will pinball earn more this way to make it worth the expense?). It certainly makes for an impressive scene:

MallRats (Worcester, MA)

This location references the classic 90s film with both an arcade and a used retro game store. For the arcade, there’s Dig-Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Jr., The Simpsons, and Tekken 3, which all came from a previous location opened by one of its owners, as mentioned in this local news report which goes into the location’s backstory. Find them at their official website.

The Tokyo Club (Columbia, MO)

This one has a et up I’ve never heard of before – a cyberpunk-themed pinball venue and comedy club. That’s quite a combo. They are located in a new business area called “The Arcade District”, which is not exclusive to arcade venues (often the word is used for ‘arcade’ as in architecture, however, this particular district does seem to lead into the video arcade as well, as there is another arcade in the area). Tokyo has around 25 machines, mostly newer Sterns, but they have a few classics like The X-Files and Arabian Nights. Find them on Facebook.

Purple Quarters (St Louis, MO)

St Louis gets a bar arcade in the form of Purple Quarters, opened last month. Their simple but effective lineup includes Skeeball, NBA Jam, a few pinballs, a twin Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, foosball, Galaga Assault, and a basketball. Find them on Facebook here. 

Castlecade Southridge Mall (Greendale, WI)

Castlecade continues to grow across Wisconsin, opening their latest location at the Southridge Mall. This looks like a similar size to their other locations, then with a game mix that focuses on merchandisers and redemption first, supported by a few video games. Those currently include a Big Buck Hunter Reloaded, an exA-Arcadia running Chaos Code, an Injustice Arcade, a pair of Mario Kart Arcade GP 2’s, a Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship, and a Step ManiaX. Find them on Facebook.

In The Game (Las Vegas, NV)

After wallowing in development hell for twenty years (with many different businesses saying to be coming there, only to never materialize), Family Entertainment Group finally decided to turn this location on Fremont Street into an arcade. It looks to be heavy on redemption, although Jdevy noticed a Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR in one of the linked tweets about it.

FEC Openings & Updates

Dave & Busters CEO Resigns; Same Store Sales Fall – Conflicting to hear that even D&B have been seeing a decline in recent months, although given what myself and many other small ops have seen throughout most of 2024, it isn’t much of a surprise. In a strange way, it’s actually relief that it hasn’t just been the little guys experiencing rough waters in the economy over the past year. But perhaps with them it has less to do with the arcade side and more their F&B business… as recently observed by Kevin Williams in the latest edition of his Sound Off podcast, their food does have the reputation it does for a reason.

Dave & Busters Opens A Location In Clarksville, TN – D&B are also still opening new locations, despite their management woes; including a site in India soon.

Round1USA Opens In Mission Viejo, CA

Bowlero Rebrands As Lucky Strike Entertainment

Lucky Strike Entertainment Opens Location In Beverly Hills, CA

Another Lucky Strike Opens In CA, This Time Orange County

Rush Maxx FEC Opens In San Antonio, TX

Henry Dorrbaker’s Pub & Play Opens In Beloit, WI

A New Mr. Gatti’s Pizza Opens In Ft. Worth, TX

Winner’s Circle Opens In Longmont, CO

A Peek At The New GATCHA Arcade Venue In Edison, NJ – H/T to S1ckh4nds for the video

A Denny’s In Alhambra, CA Opens A Game Room

21+ Adult Redemption Arcade Swingers Opens In Las Vegas

810 Billiards Opens A New Venue In Panama City Beach, FL

Gametime Lanes & Entertainment Opens With A Large Arcade In Peabody, MA

New Playdium Store Opens In Toronto

Strike & Spares Opens Sixth Location, This One In KY

Hudz Family Fun Zone Opens In Paxton, IL

CA Arcade Op Storms Homeless Camp Who Raided His Arcade – Sounds like fiction, but this was a crazy, real story

RIP To Brooklyn Games & Arcade – I remember when we reported on them opening back in the Summer of 2021, really sad to hear this.

Europe

England’s entries come courtesy of UK-based AH co-contributor Ted, who notes that the last three of them are all oddly around the West Midlands – not that long away from him, but also not very near either…

Gravity Arcade (Dartford & Reading, England)

Having previously opened Funbox arcades as part of their larger Gravity MAX centers, Gravity and their arcade partners Urban Fun now seem to be on the warpath with opening arcades where their smaller trampoline park-focused UK locations are too. One in Dartford’s Bluewater shopping center has just opened as a standalone venue nearby its trampoline park, and another is opening over near the company’s existing Reading venue. Owing to their association with Sega Amusements, both have a lot of their recent big releases (Mission: Impossible Arcade, Apex Rebels).

Lucky Claw (Birmingham, England)

The Asian-inspired crane arcade concept is spreading, with locations such as the USA’s Gatcha and Australia’s Paradigm Zone mentioned in recent LWs, and this looks to be the first of the bunch to land in the UK. While those ‘new wave’ neon cranes are largely the order of the day here, there is also some multigame cabinets, videmption, and one thing in particular that makes this location stand out from others… an imported Taiko No Tatsujin (albeit also a poorer quality unofficial Chinese one). Interesting that they would jump the gun on a possible European release…

The Retro Realm (Walsall, England)

The Retro Realm in Walsall flies the flag for freeplay retro arcades here. They purport to be the only one of those in Midlands, although Ted disputes that (The Arcade Warehouse in Lincoln can apparently lay claim there). What’s for sure is that as suggested by their name, the game selection here couldn’t be more different than Lucky Claw, offering arcade-goers in and around Birmingham more choice as it is not too far. Highlights among their lineup from the looks of some photos include Sega Race TV, Dariusburst EX, and a rare twin deluxe After Burner Climax setup.

Star Pins (Coventry, England)

Making what Ted says is a West Midlands hat-trick, this new location also recently opened in Coventry there. Coming from the same company that opened the King Pins locations that have been mentioned before in these posts, this one justifies the name change with different games – where those had a selection of retro cabinets, Star Pins goes for more standard FEC fare, though there’s a healthy smattering of recent video releases too. It hasn’t been announced anywhere as of yet but it’s likely Sega Amusements also furnished this location – a lot of their titles seen at the Gravity locations mentioned above are here too, including a couple you don’t see as often (Drone Racing Genesis, Men In Black).

Level Up (Rodez, France)

Not the most original name for this new French bar arcade, but it can serve for some representation outside of the UK here. There’s no photos of this one out there yet besides one of the exterior added by the location to their Google profile though, so what games they are mostly a mystery. At the very least InterGame reports that they have a few obvious classics in Mortal Kombat, Pac-Man and Street Fighter 2, as well as some quiz-themed rooms.

FEC Openings & Updates

Hollywood Bowl Reports Record Revenue – Ted compared these to the “D&B of the UK” in the AH Discord, in that they have locations all across the country and some very redemption/Raw Thrills-heavy arcades

Bandai Namco Amusement Europe Installs A Game Room At Topgolf Watford (UK) – Sounds like they’re open to StepManiaX tournaments

Archie’s Atomic (A UK Burger Brand) Opens A Roller Rink FEC In Manchester, UK – Yet another new location stocked by Sega Amusements

Arcade Club UK Celebrates 10 Years

Immersive Baseball Concept For London

Nikito Domus, Rosny-sous-Bois, France

Italy’s Biggest Game Museum Has Cabs

Kooglana Opens 3rd Location In Croatia

Gamestate Acquires Legendary Arcade Venue Circus Zandvoort In The Netherlands – It will close down in April, then re-open Summer 2025

Asia/Oceania/Middle East

Whilst growth is broadly strong across Asia, it’s hard not to ignore the impending loss of the famous Kyoto fighting game mecca A-Cho this time. That location has been much loved by fighting gamers both in Japan and overseas, particularly for their early adoption of using the Internet to send out videos of their titles (many over here got their first look at various obscure Japanese fighters in action this way). Sadder still is how there aren’t really any new openings of its type to replace it – just more established chains expanding further with largely crane-focused locations, despite some interesting new developments with their concepts here and there. Hopefully things change in Japan someday though…

GiGO Tateishi (Tokyo, Japan)

Over a year ago now, GiGO had to make another unfortunate closure of one of the old Sega locations, High-Tech Land Sega Tateishi. This one was not business-related as it was forced on them by council redevelopment plans; it has taken some time to do so, but they have now finally opened a new center in that area to take its place. All the charming colorful décor it had (you can see some of it in these photos by Arcade Tokyo) sadly hasn’t made it over, but those thinking this brings only UFO Catchers with it would be wrong, as its upper floor houses all the major Japanese rhythm, racing and network games, as well as a few Taito NESiCAXLive2 and Sega APM3 cabinets (no exA though…).

In other Genda GiGO news, they have now integrated their karaoke business with locations proper after hoovering up a company in that side of things a while ago, and made so many announcements of other new acquisitions and how their business is going well that it’s getting hard to keep up

Feedy Diner & Arcade (Osaka, Japan)

‘Eatertainment’ is something that hasn’t really taken hold for arcades in Japan, with no real Dave & Busters equivalent, but that could be about to change. As well as a recent renovation to Namco’s flagship Tokyo location to accommodate more food and drink, and a new nightclub with a crane game zone at the Grand Hammer food and leisure complex in Shinbashi, Aeon Mall (known for their family-focused Molly Fantasy centers) has just launched a new concept in Ibaraki, Osaka – Feedy Diner & Arcade. This fuses a retro American diner with a big arcade, comprising cranes, medal games, and a selection of titles more of interest to AH readers (Maimai DX, Initial D, BEMANI games etc).

If this place and Aeon Mall’s other arcade locations interest you, stay tuned to AH for an upcoming special report focused on them from one of our best overseas contributors…

Namco / Joypolis Sports + Sonic Stadium (Kai Tak Mall, Hong Kong)

Namco and Sega’s rivalry is the stuff of legend, and though it doesn’t quite play out in the same way nowadays it can still happen in places. The latest example of that is two new locations from overseas Hong Kong affiliates (Namco Enterprises Asia and CA Sega Joypolis) opening right next to each other in the very same mall. Namco’s location (pictured below) is more a traditional family-oriented arcade, whilst the Joypolis Sports concept is marking its first location outside of Japan with a flagship ‘sportainment’ offering of a ninja zone (featuring Sega’s interesting Ninja Trainer Arcade), dynamic themed bar, and a Sonic Stadium with a kids play area and Joypolis attractions like Sonic Atheltics.

Space Arcade PH (Pasay City, Philippines)

If you’re in the Philippines and are looking for a gamer’s arcade, this place looks like it has got you covered. With a futuristic, stylish look, they have the biggest and best versions of several brand new video games, along with some Chinese VR systems that I am not super familiar with, besides a couple of them being the VR Agent ripoffs we saw pop up after its release. Some of the video games include 4x Asphalt Moto Blitz DX, Halo: Fireteam Raven 4P, 4x NFS Heat Takedown (Wahlap model), and more. Most interesting of the rest, this “Star Wars” shooter by an unknown Chinese company that we previously saw at the GTI Asia China Expo in September – lawsuit bait of the highest order…

FEC Openings & Updates

Round1JP Abandons Pre-Paid Card Experiments Already – This didn’t last long. Despite attempts, it seems that the concept just won’t take in Japan…

GiGO Arcade Cafe Osaka Adds More Retro Game Offerings – Another one for the ‘GiGO’ and ‘eatertainment’ files. We mentioned this one a few months ago, but all it had in the retro area were several tabletop cabinets. That’s now changed with neat original machine selections (Harley Davidson King of the Road, Punch Out, Lucky & Wild)…

Bandai Namco Unveils Themed Areas For Taiko No Tatsujin & Fishing Spirits At Namco Wonder City Minami-Kumamoto

Apina Minokamo In Gifu Has The Prefecture’s Largest No. Of Crane Games, But Also GoldStorm Pirates & Minecraft Dungeons Arcade

Saitama Leisureland Omiya Opens With 200 Of The Latest Cranes, 50 Video, Music And Driving Games

Masti Zone FEC Opens In Dwarka, New Delhi, India

Timezone Opens At The Lucky Chinatown Mall With 70+ Games

Timezone Opens A Store At Ayala Malls Vermosa In The Philippines 

Timezone Opens At The SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City, Philippines – Space Arcade up above has a little competition to start

Dave & Busters Opening A Location In Bengaluru, India

Funworld Frenzy Opens In Jakarta, Indonesia

Neo Akedo Opens In Malaysia

Are any of these new arcades near you? Then be sure to go out and visit them! Doors can’t stay open on the basis of likes and hashtags.

Coming In 2025

More New D&Bs Planned For California

Quarter Drop Arcade Opening Jan. 25th In Cottage Grove, OR

Downtown Flavortown Coming To Myrtle Beach, SC

Barcade Opening Their 10th Location Spring 2025

Andretti Karting & Games Expanding Across The US Through 2026

New Lounge, Bar And Arcade Planned In Northampton, UK

Next Hollywood Bowl Under Construction For Preston, UK

The post Location Watch December 2024: New Arcades Open For 2025 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Dave & Busters is gearing up for a busy summer, and as a part of that, here’s one exclusive game that has rolled out, UFC Challenge. This has been developed in conjunction with four different companies (Rider, IGPM Group, Adrenaline Amusements, & Betson). We’re a little bit behind on the original press release, but UFC themselves did just promote it last week, and better late than never. Let’s see what it’s all about:

UFC Challenge

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC for short, has become the premier mixed martial arts fighting event. Perhaps it’s been the popularity of the sport that has helped fuel arcade items like boxing games, which is what this new UFC Challenge game ties into.

You might recall that back in 2022, a Polish company by the name of Kalkomat, brought a game called Hit The Green to IAAPA that year. That concept soon evolved into the more polished MMA Boxer, which kept the premise the same, but enhanced the back portion of the cabinet, giving it an LED dot matrix marquee and a flashier look overall. Note that those products are officially represented by IGPM Group in North America.

UFC Challenge is the evolution of all that, resulting in what looks to be the ultimate boxing game experience.

As you can see from that image, they’ve turned it into a huge FEC-style game, with large LCD monitors, UFC branding, and a cage that looks like it’s from one of the UFC arenas. One surprise is that this also has involvement from Adrenaline Amusements (who also recently prepared testing for a new Hot Wheels arcade racer at D&B, where it seems to be another title rolling out there soon). Per the press release below, there are two game modes:

Single-player mode: Test your stamina over three action-packed rounds to rack up as many points as possible. Score over 200 points? Consider yourself a UFC champion.

Two-player mode: Engage in a head-to-head battle where points shift in real-time. Land more accurate hits than your opponent to gain points, while missed targets could cost you. Drop to zero, and you’re knocked out!

The release also points out that the game isn’t just about punching, but knee strikes as well to the padded base.

This game has already been out since last month, where we regret missing it due to AEI coverage. I had hoped to check it out at my local D&B, but I just haven’t had the free time to make it there, since it isn’t exactly convenient to visit most of the while. If that changes however, I’ll be sure to provide an update. That said, if you can’t make it to a D&B either and are curious about the game, then this footage of Kalkomat/IGPM’s MMA Boxer should provide a proper idea:

Press Release

New game debuts at all Dave & Buster’s locations, delivering an immersive UFC experience for fans

DALLAS, March 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Dave & Buster’s, the ultimate destination to eat, drink, play, and watch sporting events, is taking its partnership with UFC to the next level with the launch of the UFC Challenge game. Available now at Dave & Buster’s locations nationwide, this high-energy interactive game is set to amplify the fight-night experience, further establishing Dave & Buster’s as a premier destination to watch every UFC fight.

Dave & Buster’s, the ultimate destination to eat, drink, play, and watch sporting events, is taking its partnership with UFC to the next level with the launch of the UFC Challenge game. Available now at Dave & Buster’s locations nationwide, this high-energy interactive game is set to amplify the fight-night experience, further establishing Dave & Buster’s as a premier destination to watch every UFC fight. For more information, visit www.daveandbusters.com.

Dave & Buster’s, the ultimate destination to eat, drink, play, and watch sporting events, is taking its partnership with UFC to the next level with the launch of the UFC Challenge game. Available now at Dave & Buster’s locations nationwide, this high-energy interactive game is set to amplify the fight-night experience, further establishing Dave & Buster’s as a premier destination to watch every UFC fight. For more information, visit www.daveandbusters.com.

Building on a partnership first announced in 2022, Dave & Buster’s has become the go-to venue for UFC fans looking to catch every strike, submission, and knockout on over 30 HD TVs, featuring immersive audio and massive 40-foot WOW Walls. Now, fans can step into the action themselves with the UFC Challenge game, delivering a competitive, high-impact, and physically engaging experience inspired by the world-famous Octagon®.

The UFC Challenge Game: A Knockout Experience

The UFC Challenge game has been over a year in development and was inspired by competitive arcade gameplay. Designed by Dave & Buster’s and developed with Rider & IGPM Distribution, Adrenaline Amusements, and Betson, this massive, 11-foot-wide, 12-foot-tall, 1,700-pound game is the ultimate test of speed, accuracy, and endurance.

Single-player mode: Test your stamina over three action-packed rounds to rack up as many points as possible. Score over 200 points? Consider yourself a UFC champion.

Two-player mode: Engage in a head-to-head battle where points shift in real-time. Land more accurate hits than your opponent to gain points, while missed targets could cost you. Drop to zero, and you’re knocked out!

Immersive UFC experience: Featuring authentic UFC-branded visuals, iconic Venum Fusion fight kits, UFC gloves, and the legendary “Face the Pain” by STEMM playing in the background, this game puts players in the heart of the fight.

Strategic gameplay: It’s not just about punches! Incorporating knee strikes is key to maximizing points and securing victory.

Available nationwide this month, fans can plan to play during Spring Break; guests should check availability for their select locations.

Your Ultimate UFC Viewing Destination

Dave & Buster’s isn’t just about playing the game – it’s about experiencing every UFC fight like never before. Fans can catch every UFC Pay-Per-View event and Fight Night at any location, including upcoming major events:

March 22 – UFC Fight Night (O2 Arena, London, UK)

April 12 – UFC 314 (Kaseya Center, Miami, FL)

May 10 – UFC 315 (Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada)

With state-of-the-art screens, immersive sound, and an unmatched atmosphere, Dave & Buster’s ensures that every seat is the best seat in the house. Plus, fans can fuel up and play with the all-new Eat & Play Combo, starting at $19.99. It is the perfect all-in-one deal that allows you to watch, play, eat, and drink for a great low price. The combo includes a $10 Power Card, your choice of an entrée, plus a fountain drink. Plus, for a limited time, guests can now upgrade their combo to get Unlimited Game Play, making it the perfect way to experience the all-new games including UFC Challenge. Entrée options include Smokehouse BBQ Ribs, Creamy Chicken Pasta, All-American Smash Burger, Boneless Wings, a Crispy Chicken Sandwich, and more.

“Watching UFC at Dave & Buster’s has always been an electrifying experience, and now we’re bringing fans even closer to the action,” said Simon Murray, Senior Vice President, Dave & Buster’s. “The UFC Challenge game is a perfect way for fans to test their skills before watching the best fighters in the world go head-to-head on our massive screens.”

“We’re thrilled to expand on our partnership with Dave & Buster’s and enhance the UFC fan experience in a way that has never been done before,” said Meghan Mernin, Vice President, Licensing for UFC. “Our team worked hand-in-hand with Dave & Busters, in true partnership, to develop this ideal extension for the brand, providing an immersive, authentic, and exciting UFC experience for fans of all ages. From this innovative new game to an unbeatable vantage point to watch every fight, Dave & Buster’s truly delivers an unparalleled UFC experience.”

For more information on Dave & Buster’s, the UFC Challenge game, and upcoming events, visit www.daveandbusters.com.

About Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc.

Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Coppell, Texas, Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc., is the owner and operator of 232 venues in North America that offer premier entertainment and dining experiences to guests through two distinct brands: Dave & Buster’s and Main Event. The Company has 171 Dave & Buster’s branded stores in 43 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada and offers guests the opportunity to “Eat Drink Play and Watch,” all in one location. Each store offers a full menu of entrées and appetizers, a complete selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and an extensive assortment of entertainment attractions centered around playing games and watching live sports and other televised events. The Company also operates 61 Main Event branded stores in 22 states across the country, and offers state-of-the-art bowling, laser tag, hundreds of arcade games and virtual reality, making it the perfect place for families to connect and make memories. For more information about each brand, visit daveandbusters.com and mainevent.com.

About UFC®

UFC® is the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization (MMA), with more than 700 million fans and approximately 300 million social media followers. The organization produces more than 40 live events annually in some of the most prestigious arenas around the world while broadcasting to over 950 million households across more than 170 countries. UFC’s athlete roster features the world’s best MMA athletes representing more than 70 countries. The organization’s digital offerings include UFC FIGHT PASS®, one of the world’s leading streaming services for combat sports. UFC is part of TKO Group Holdings (NYSE: TKO) and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC and @UFC on X, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok: @UFC.

The post Taking A Look At Dave & Busters’ New Exclusive UFC Challenge Boxer appeared first on Arcade Heroes.