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It was only in May that we covered We Dancing Online by IGS and we saw that the game had a huge following at GTI 2010. Since then a national competition was held for the game in China and they already have a We Dancing Online 2 ready to go (pictured above). As you can see from the pictures by going those posted links, the game draws in pretty large crowds. If you are unfamiliar with WDO, it’s like DDR but for the hands with four directional buttons to use. Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report has some questions he would like to throw out into the ether about the game and it not getting attention outside of China or Taiwan:

Industry Question – Why is no one thinking about making “We Dancing Online”?
- Would it be too difficult to translate… no
- Would it be too difficult to license… no
- Would it be too difficult to play… no

But for a US amusement distributor who is looking for a safe life it is too difficult to understand!

It also isn’t the price as the game was recently listed on a Wahlap pricing list at $4800 which puts the game far below any other music game I know of. There shouldn’t be any fear of an ASCAP reprisal either – that is something that has only affected games using music from American bands, with something like Guitar Hero. For example, DJ Max Technika is completely safe from the ASCAP problem because of the music used.  Obviously the name recognition for WDO outside of China and Taiwan is near zero so it wouldn’t draw such crowds anywhere else but if the game is really that good (and inexpensive) then it shouldn’t take long for it to start making fans.

The post We Dancing Online making waves in China & Taiwan as IGS preps We Dancing Online 2 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Taiwanese company IGS my not be well-known for their racers but they are working hard at changing that with their Speed Driver series. The game is geared more towards the China/Taiwan market, although it is offered for sale in other territories. Even there competition is fierce as it tries to compete for fans of games like Initial D, Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, and more recent technical racers like Crazy Speed and Road Fighters. Where Speed Driver is on it’s third installment it’s safe to say that there is a fanbase for the game but how large that is, we don’t know.

Flyer for Speed Driver 3

In terms of features, SD3 is taking a page from most of the racers mentioned above by adding an online mode to the mix. Players can save their data using an SD3 card, which is handy since they have 48 different cars to choose from along with 300 tuning parts for each car. Throw in a combat mode, 17 tracks and updated graphics you have another game ready to compete with the better known racers out there. The game is available now, although for what price we don’t know exactly – Wahlap Technology who is distributing the game internationally carries Speed Driver 2(which was released last year) in English and Chinese configurations for $5000 so it’s possible that SD3 will carry a similar price tag.

Thanks to editor, you can access the official Speed Driver 3 website here. Here is the official trailer for the game, thanks to Rick in the comments for finding this

The post IGS introduces Speed Driver 3: Crash Hour appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Back in early 2008, Taiwan-based IGS released a new hardware platform called the PGM2. It was a JAMMA machine with excellent 2D capabilities, 4-player support and it accepted cartridges. They released one game with the hardware, the superb Oriental Legend 2 but after that, very little else (a DoDonPachi game for the Taiwanese market and a version of KOF98UM and Knights of Valour; thanks for the corrections guys). One system I like to compare the PGM2 to, would be the Crystal System by Brezzasoft. It was a cart-system made for 2D games which also had a fun beat ‘em up as it’s “launch” title and very few games to speak of.

That will all begin to change for the PGM2 next month in December when a new game is released for the system called Ochaken Puzzle where the closest game I can compare it to would be Columns. The Ocha Ken are popular characters by Sega Toys and several handheld games have been released based upon these characters with this marking the first time the series will hit the arcade as a video-only title (thanks to Nomax’s info in the comments, there was a trading card arcade game based on these some years ago). Following that in 2011, a second game will be released for the platform called Jigsaw World Arena, a unique 1-4 player game where you control a small character who runs around a playfield, grabbing jigsaw puzzle pieces and placing them down in their proper place. Below is a video of both Ochaken Puzzle and JWA that were taken at this year’s AOU show. We don’t know how much of the games have changed since then but based upon these videos alone they seem fun and they will probably be fairly cheap. But is there an option for English? That’s the one thing that killed Oriental Legend 2 at my arcade – the game is straightforward enough to grasp with a little effort but not enough people were willing to give it that effort because of the Chinese text in the game (it has a little English on select parts). A third game is also in the works for the PGM2 but nothing is known about it at this point other than it will be an action oriented game of some sort.

Ochaken PuzzleJigsaw World ArenaAM-Net Blog has further details including more flyer scans.

The post PGM2 hardware gets some attention starting in December appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Brand new 2D brawling/beat ‘em up arcade games are a rarity in this day and age but they are not extinct. One company has been keeping the genre alive with an occasional release, and that company is IGS, an arcade game maker based in Taiwan. As recently as 2008 they released Oriental Legend 2, an outstanding 2D brawler with many characters to choose from, levels to play through and some RPG elements such as inventory and leveling up that players could enjoy. Today IGS unveiled a teaser site for a sequel to another beat ‘em up series that is a part of their game portfolio, Knights of Valour 3 or Sangoku Senki 3. So far very little is known about the title as the teaser page only features a song and a silhouette of the game characters standing together in a group. I imagine that this will still be done in 2D and perhaps for the PGM2 hardware but we’ll have to wait to find out. I also wouldn’t mind it if they did a version in English, but that’s unlikely. KoV3 will be released sometime later this year.

Knights of Valour 3 Teaser Site

To get an idea of what Knights of Valour is like, here’s a video from KoV2[Via Arcade Belgium]

The post IGS teases Knights of Valour 3 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

The GTI Asia Taipei Expo that took place this past week gave us some interesting news in terms of new games and now we have a few videos and some pictures to share of the show and a few of those new products.Included below the fold are videos of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 being played on an authentic arcade cab (along with news about a kit), Project X-Pher and Dido Kart 2 by InJoy Motion and a couple of videos showing various booths on the floor.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as seen at the show. It might be of some interest to know that Namco has announced a kit price for this in Japan. The kit is coming this November for 698,000 Yen which is about $8700. It’s sad and unfortunate to see the Capcom attitude creeping into other high-profile arcade fighter releases. No indication if that’s a 2p or 1p kit either. The full cabinet version will be released in Japan in September, pushing it back from mid-Summer release probably due to the quake in March.InJoy Motion has released a couple of trailers for both their new Project X-Pher and Dido Kart 2 arcade games:

Project X-Pher – It’s not in this video but in another video below you can see that this actually uses a yoke controller on both the single player and the driver’s side of the two player version.Dido Kart 2 – here is the lo-fi version of the video. The slightly higher resolution has no sound so I’ll avoid posting that until a fixed version pops upHere’s some walking around the floor from Youtube user Hawtian. We see some brief glimpses of various products there, including Speed Driver 3 and a new big rig truck racing game by IGS. You also get a glimpse at the new Beethoven music game by Game Plus. InJoy’s Project X-Pher can be seen towards the end of the second video. Other than that there are a number of slot, crane and other redemption games to be seen.From Music Game Fantasia, some photos:

Sega’s Project DIVA Arcade

Vibraphone First Movement Star Edition by IGS

We Dancing Online by IGS

Reflec Beat by Konami

More photos from this set can be found here

More photos from ExpoFrontier

The big rig trucking game by IGS

Speed Driver 3 by IGS

Namco’s Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Namco’s Dead Heat and a card game

Namco’s Nirin didn’t last very long in the US but it’s still popping up here and there

Barron Games’ unique Pirate King air hockey table

One side of the InJoy Motion booth during setup.

The post From the Floor of the GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2011 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Just a short time ago we found out about IGS’s new 2D beat ‘em up, Knights of Valour 3. IGS published a teaser site for the game and left it at that. Fortunately, a playable build of the game was at the GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2011 and as such, here is a video of it in action. There is a lot about it that reminds me of Oriental Legend 2 (which I have played), not just in art direction but in character movement and item selection. It has it’s own features that OL2 doesn’t have, such as a shop screen, level selection and it moves along at a faster pace. With the game 70% complete, the only other thing I would like to see from this new game is an English translation.

Via ArcadeBelgium

Speaking of new games seen at GTI, we have the first direct screenshots of InJoy Motion’s Project X-Pher here.

The post Knights of Valour 3 in action @ GTI Asia Taipei ’11 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

As promised, there was more that went on at the GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2012 then our first post covered, here is more of what was on hand.

At IAAPA 2011 in November of last year I got to try out IGS’s 3D racing game Speed Driver 3 for the first time. I walked away with a good impression of the title, it’s more of a technical racer trying to get into Wangan Maximum Tune or Initial D territory. IGS is seeking to expand on that with Speed Driver 4: World Fever. This has added online play features and the graphics, judging by the video below are pretty good. Depending upon the final price this game might serve as a decent alternative to the costly WMMT4 and ID6 or 7 cabinets some might look at importing. Also where they translated 3 into English, there is a chance the same could happen for 4. I’m sure that the resident racing fans here would enjoy this one as well.

While this video for it is not from the Expo, this game pictured above called MuziBox was there. The cabinet design as well as the controls are similar to a music game we saw a couple of years ago called Mozarc by Hypaa. At first I actually thought that this was a Hypaa game but I did some digging and found out that it was developed by IGS. The control scheme is very similar to Mozarc, which used a plexiglass panel with cuts at certain points in it so it worked likea  keyboard over the screen. This gets rid of the specially cut panel and instead has a plexi strip for each key. Also they seem to have grabbed a big name or two for music licensing so that is always a plus. You can find an official site for the game here: MuziBox website. This is being manufactured by a Taiwanese company called Saint Fun IGS, Saint Fun is acting as an agent for the game in Taiwan (thanks for the correction ExpoFrontier)

I personally can’t stand the song being played here, that “You had a bad day” one-hit wonder but there are plenty of other songs available for it.

Speaking of Saint Fun, they had a booth with a racing game called Fast Beat Loop Racer. Here’s a close up of the cabinet, a picture of the game at the booth can be seen here.

From Sega Amusement’s Facebook page, MaiMai. We are still waiting to find out when this will be coming to the States as we have heard, although I imagine that it will be tested out somewhere here first and the release will depend upon the test.

A blog by the name of Sloanwang has some pictures of the games mentioned above. They also mention that the queues for Namco’s Dark Escape 4D were very long and people wanted to play the game so bad, apparently some paid to get into the expo just to check this game out.

They also have a picture of a four-player light gun game that used mounted light-guns and thus it’s a huge control panel.

I am still expecting more from GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2012 but its a matter of waiting so keep checking in!

The post GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2012 Part 2 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

We have covered Taiwanese company IGS many times, they develop arcade games of varied styles and types that sometimes do end up out West. Last year at IAAPA they had some 3D games like Speed Driver 3 and Power Truck, the latter impressing many guests at the show. They had a game at IAAPA a few years back that I regretted missing out on, a submarine battle game called Ocean Force and they also were behind the English version of the new Crazy Climber, a game I also would love to try out one day. They have also developed some games not intended for the Western market as well, such as Oriental Legend 2.

IGS is currently testing out a new party game in Japan called Funny Table (to my own amusement, my 6 yr. old son asked me what this was, I told him the name and he said “It doesn’t look funny”). It is a cocktail cabinet that uses a design similar to Kung Fu Ball by Subsino, offering head-to-head play on opposite sides of the table and a large 47″ widescreen monitor. The controls use something interesting – a combination of a button in the center of a knob/rotary controller that can be spun around. They are spaced out far enough that up to four players can play if desired. There are four mini-games (Pinball, Brick Breaker, Bumper Car and Castle War), a couple of those use both buttons and the wheel for control.   Even though cocktail cabinets are not the most popular way to go in arcades anymore (Pac-Man Battle Royale being an exception), I think there is a good chance we could end up seeing this out West in limited quantities, through trade shows like IAAPA and some imports and I also base that partially upon the existence of an English mini-site that IGS has created to promote the game (where you can play the Bumper Car game with your mouse).  Two Japanese websites have more information on the location test, Mieya’s Attic and Small Room of Aries. Here is a demo video of the game in action, showing at least two of the mini-games.

The post Funny Table By IGS On Location Test In Tokyo appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Earlier this month an amusement/arcade trade show was held in China called the GTI Asia China Expo 2012. We have covered trade events like GTI in the past although it always proves difficult as data on exact games is often extremely limited. Even though this particular expo ended on the 18th, I haven’t been able to find much at all about what went on there until today. This event was supposed to take place earlier in the year but some sort of political situation in China caused a delay. Here I will break down as best I can what was at the show, from what I could find out at least.

Companies that had a booth there include many of those whose names we are familiar with already – Namco, UNIS, Wahlap, IGS, and Sealy. Sega’s presence there seems to have been through Wahlap.  A number of games that we have seen before were there, which you can catch a quick glimpse of in the videos below.

By checking out Youku.com, I was able to find these videos which have some content from the show. There is a little bit more but it’s mostly un-synchronized dance groups on a stage in front of some games.

Intro video showing the opening ceremony, various booth shots, kiddie rides, Infinity Blade in Chinese, Operation GHOST and Initial D7; 1:23 a cowboy shooting game with a moving horse seat but no video of the game; 1:33 a motorcycle racing game

Here is a video of someone walking around a booth that shows a number of games. There is something at 1:32 that says it’s a 4D game that also reminds me of Konami’s CastleVania Arcade game that they released a few years ago. Not sure if it actually is something like that or not.

This video isn’t bad and shows a bit more, such as Chinese Infinity Blade meets Kinect, Konami’s DanceEvolution, Sealy with some sort of touchscreen multi-game unit and a kids racer called Toy Speed. The chaingun Vulcan-M game is seen at about1:57; followed by Wahlap’s Dance Core and then a golf simulator.

This video shows some games we recognize as seen from further away. There is a glimpse of the Namco booth with Deadstorm Pirates 4D+, Dark Escape 4D, Tekken Tag 2, Animal Kaiser; Also of Super Speed and 3D TopSpeed City by Golden Dragon; There are other booths seen by companies like UNIS and Wahlap but for the most part it is hard to tell what they have there.

That’s all I could dig up for now but if anything interesting comes along, I will be sure to share.

The post GTI Asia China Expo 2012 News appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Among fans of unique arcade-specific hardware, some despair over the trend where most game companies these days find it easier and more economical to use PC machine builds tied to some sort of specialized I/O board. But there are still a few companies that builds something completely different from the ground up, one of those few would be IGS which is based out of Taiwan. They have been behind some games we have seen recently such as Speed Driver 4 or Power Truck. A few years back they released their PGM2 hardware which was used for a small number of 2D games the company made, one of them I decided to get for my own arcade, Oriental Legend 2. I had hoped that more content was going to find its way to the board but it certainly was not the second coming of the NeoGeo MVS by any means. Still, it wasn’t bad hardware and the 2D games released for it looked good even though they were not HD games by how that is defined. It is too bad really that the PGM2 didn’t catch fire but whatever becomes the next MVS will most likely be some sort of online download system, like NESiCA or ALL.NET+ Multi. Or who knows, perhaps this will get more support:

This is IGS’ new PGM3 hardware that has just recently come to the market. So far it appears that they only have one game for it, Knights of Valour 3 HD, KOV3 being a beat ‘em up title in the vein that IGS likes to do(a BrawleRPG or BRPG). As hinted at by the game name, the PGM3 is meant to push HD in some fashion and there are pictures to be found on the Arcade Otaku Forum that shows some close up pics of the board, where it includes outputs for either VGA or DVI. While the hardware has been designed with LCDs in mind, it also has connectors for JAMMA and even ports for JVS I/O. I also find the LAN port interesting as perhaps there could be an online component with it as well (or it could just be for local connections as its name suggests). The white connector on the left looks to be the same as I have seen inside of NAOMI cabinets.

Excellent Arcade Online Shop has these for sale with KOV3HD at $990 currently (Chinese language software however), we will have to wait and see if IGS will support it with more software than they did with PGM2. Since it has been designed for the LCD cabinets out there I would say that is more likely, although I’m sure releases will be localized to various Asian territories as opposed to Western ones but at the very least those who like to import have something to look forward to.

[Via Arcade Otaku]

Update: This is supposed to be a video of KOV3HD running on PGM3. Not the best example I suppose but better than nothing. The game is very much like Oriental Legend 2 from what I see here, better graphics of course and I’m sure there are a few other features that set it apart in its own way.

The post IGS Launches PGM3 Hardware appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Yesterday marked the beginning of another amusement/arcade industry trade show, this time the annual GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2013, being held at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taiwan. I’m not sure how much total information we can expect to glean from it but I imagine another post and perhaps it can hit a post trilogy by the time its all said and done. Then again, one initial report said that it was

So far from what I have gathered, it looks to be similar to the GAGA2013 show held in China last month. Naturally Taiwanese manufacturers have a stronger presence here than at other shows so we can expect to hear more along those lines. InJoy Motion is launching a new game to use their Air Series technology which you can find below and Sealy was going to be showing off the Crazy Motor game that was covered in the GAGA2013 post. At the time of this writing only a few pictures and no videos have been obtained from the show, so we’ll skip using tabs for now.

Pictures via Rico Shen of Music Game Fantasia -

Among the pictures received, this is the only new-new product shown so far, Allied Tank Attack by Taiwanese game maker InJoy Motion. It’s hard to determine how it plays exactly just by a single picture although I can see that it uses a yoke control for the left player to drive the tank and the right side uses InJoy’s unique mounted gun. They used this idea of the driver/shooter combo when they first unveiled Project X-Pher but they later scrapped that design in favor of doing a straight light-gun shooter. The seat does use their new Air Series motion tech, which employs various air bladders to move the seat around instead of mechanical arms or hydraulics. I am going to guess that this game is more of an evolution of something like Panzer Elite Action which the company also sells. I’m sure there will be videos of this in action before too long. Also, this will be a worldwide release as InJoy does with all of their games so it will likely be available for Western locations before the end of the year.

Next is a pic from the IGS booth. IGS is also a Taiwanese company that has made waves before and they have been expanding their reach of 3D games. Here is Speed Driver 4, a game made to compete with the likes of Namco’s Maximum Tune 4 series. SD4 was at IAAPA2012 through Wahlap (here is a video I shot of it at the show along with Wahlap’s Storm Racer). No comment on how it compares to Initial D6 or 7 or MaxiTune 4 since I have not played those yet. Also after the pic is the official trailer for the game released last year. The official site for the game (English) can be found here. The game to the right is IGS’ kids game, Hero of Robots.

Namco is there and their booth looks not unlike their booths at US trade shows like IAAPA2012 and Amusement Expo 2013 – excepting the addition of Wangan Mindnight Maximum Tune 4 of course.

I am guessing that this is Wahlap’s booth, judging by another picture below. Sega’s Dream Raider’s next to Wahlap’s Dance Core.

I found the following pictures on Instagram after doing a Twitter search, by user Idben who was at the show.

I’m not sure what the game is up-front here but what I find more interesting in this particular photo is a game behind them, over to the left. That just so happens to be Under Defeat:The Ride which is a sit-down version of Under Defeat.

In case you are wondering, this is apparently designed by Tong Li Animation. How legit it is, I’m not sure. It’s not Under Defeat HD+, just the original game that had been released to arcades several years ago.

And in another shot I find the background games more interesting than the principal point of the photo. That is not Super Bikes 2 but Wahlap’s new Storm Racer MT we spoke of the other day. And right next to that – Sega’s still unreleased K.O. Drive but in the original prototype cabinet that Sega had only shown off a couple of times before going in a completely different direction with it.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for more as there will certainly be more information trickling out of the show soon!

The post First Look From GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2013 – Allied Tank Attack Unveiled + More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

It took a few extra days but here are more pictures of the arcade games found at last week’s GameTime International (GTI) Asia Taipei Expo 2013. For previous coverage of the GTI Asia Taipei event, click here. Keep in mind, while all of these games are certainly destined to stay out East, some will be available worldwide as well (not just through grey imports).

A bulk of the pictures come via David Hiu who has done a lot of work cataloging various trade shows in the past. You can view the album here but where it is loaded with a lot of casino games and other booths that aren’t particularly interesting to look at. So what you find below has been whittled down to the arcade content. A few pictures not from this album will be given the proper credit; there are also some videos from games at the event which were uploaded by Highway Entertainment.

Due to the amount of content, here are tabs to split the content up. Just click on the tab to view the categorized content; click on any images for a full view.

Aside from this, I imagine there might be a few more videos in store, we’ll have to wait and see.

The post GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2013 Arcade Bonanza appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

It was curious that out of the different Game Time International expos that have been held over the past few years that is seemed like 2013 wasn’t getting much attention in the way of videos. But all it took was some waiting and here we are. These come from Highway Entertainment.

Allied Tank Attack (Injoy Motion)

The newest tank game on the market will be available worldwide, although I’m not sure of all the languages it will support (Chinese and English are certain). Judging by the brief video here, it looks like a heavily updated version of Panzer Elite Action, one of InJoy’s first games. The added co-op element of a pilot and gunner adds appeal to it but we’ll have to wait and see for some hands on time to see if its the next BattleZone or not.  No idea when this will be available for purchase, except for this year sometime.

UPDATE: Injoy has posted a collection of pictures of their booth to their Facebook page. It includes more shots of this game as well as their new 4D motion cabinets for Top Gunner and Project X-Pher, both of which are available now, worldwide.

UPDATE: I had seen this video of Top Gunner at the show but I didn’t realize at first it was inside of their new 4D motion cabinet

Overtake (IGS)

IGS seemed particularly excited about their new street racing game, Overtake, as it had dancers and a full unveiling event. Unfortunately this video is so short that we don’t see how the game plays. It looks like it’s trying to do NFS Carbon (which was released to arcades about five years ago and it happened to have a yellow/black themed cabinet too)

Swimming Winner (IGS)

This is a videmption game that blurs the line on gambling which is too bad as the concept being slightly modified could work as a Track & Field, Toobin‘ or Steeplechase type of game. All players do is bet on who they think will win and the correct bet gets the most tickets. This could be modified with a couple of buttons per player and then you can actually try and control your swimmer. Include some obstacles and you could have an entertaining amusement-only multiplayer title on your hands too.

Muzibox (IGS)

This is not the first time we’ve mentioned Muzibox but this is the closest I’ve seen the game in action. It’s a lot like Mozarc although I think that Mozarc’s cabinet look was cleaner than this.

Percussion Master 3 (IGS)

Drum away in the 3rd iteration of IGS’s Percussion Master. I have seen some PM machines in the US before, perhaps some of these will also find their way overseas.

Funny Table (IGS)

This is a competitive game we have covered before, it’s a mini-game compilation for up to four players.

Fish Lagoon (IGS)

This is an answer to Harpoon Lagoon, which was recently brought over to the US by ICE. HL has been a hit at the two trade shows I’ve seen it at. This is pretty much the same thing, except they use a knob controller for aiming, which if properly calibrated should work better than a joystick

Dance Core (Wahlap)

This is China’s answer to DDR, seems unlikely it will be coming out West anytime soon.

Under Defeat: The Ride

This sitdown creation for the vertical shooter Under Defeat may not have a moving seat, but it does grab your attention. Still uncertain about the legality of these.

That pretty much covers what was at GTI, although if there are any other substantial revelations stay tuned to Arcade Heroes for more.

The post Extra GTI Asia Taipei 2013 Videos – Allied Tank Attack, Overtake, Muzibox, More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

New game news has been spotty for a while and this story will not take exception to the larger stream of news we’ve had coming from regions like Japan, Taiwan and China for the past month. At the recent GTI Asia Taipei Expo 2013 event in Taiwan, Taiwanese company IGS made a big deal about a new racing game called Overtake. Just judging by the pictures it looked like an answer to Western driving games like Dead Heat but now we have video of the game in action to clarify.

What I take from the videos is a blending between the more realistic graphics of games like Dead Heat and Speed Driver 4, with unrealistic action movie style elements in the environments like you find with The Fast and The Furious driving series. At the moment it appears that they are marketing this for the Chinese and Taiwanese markets but often IGS likes to offer up an English version too for anyone that wants to import one. They don’t seem to make a big marketing push on those games elsewhere however so I think they get overlooked. Of course pushing a driving game onto the Western market is easier said than done when there is a lot of existing competition to deal with by various big name companies with their own racing games that they are pushing.

Here’s the Overtake game being played on the cabinet. I like the screen and the control panel. The LED lighting in the panel makes it look much more interesting than you typically see although in some ways I am reminded of H2Overdrive’s backlit tachometers. Graphically it looks excellent, well-above FnF Super Cars and Dead Heat, although the way it plays reminds me much more of Super Cars. One extra feature found here unique to the game however is the Slow Motion event that occurs 3:26 in. It kind of looks like a QTE although you just pick a path and watch what happens in slo-mo.

Here’s a CG movie kind of trailer to get the player pumped up to find an Overtake cabinet at a game center near them

And finally for some direct footage from the game, here you go:

The post IGS Shows Off Overtake appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

The IAAPA 2013 trade show is now over and with that, time to sum up what we have learned and seen from the event.

So far most attention on the site this week was from the announcement of Mario Kart Arcade GP DX coming to Western Arcades. It is good news of course, although there is still work to do on spreading the word around. Many other games apart from Mario Kart have been announced this week, so its unfortunate that everything else gets overlooked.

In fact I think it should be noted that the number of games unveiled this week rival the launch line-ups of new game consoles such as the PlayStation 4 (21 games) and Xbox One (19). The number of new arcade games as listed here for US release – 43. 25 titles in the video category (including two from the pinball side) and 18 from the video redemption side(redemption is often optional on these games if desired so they can work as video-only). I’m not including other titles such as air hockey, basketball games, foosball, mechanical ticket redemption, etc Of course home consoles will have greater numbers of releases on a per year basis, the point is that a lot of attention is given to launch line-ups and there is no reason to exclude arcade releases which are just as much video games as anything you can get at home. Looking below you can see why its a disservice to focus on just one title.  This is also not the first batch of games to be announced in many years – the industry has been churning out new games every year since 1971.

UPDATE: I received some more video footage via email so here’s a video montage that includes some of the games below.

So here is a look at every new game we have learned about this week thanks to IAAPA 2013, listing the games in alphabetical order. Obviously companies would not spend millions of dollars on developing and manufacturing these games if there was no market for them.

Use the tabs to sort between Video Games and Video Redemption games (Videmption) which have the ticket redemption option or component to them.

The post IAAPA 2013 Summary: Plenty Of New Games For Western Arcades Going Into 2014 appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

It has been a relatively slow week for arcade news but I have been able to scrap together a little bit to start the weekend off.

First off is a new location opening; I was trying to get more information on it but for the moment I have come up short. The UK-based Retro Games Party is a group of classic game collectors where some in the group are big into arcades and have come together to get a new location. The space will have about 2000 sq. ft. for the game floor and about 60 classic games, opening soon. Here is the announcement video which is a little long but shows the space as a work-in-progress and explains further details. RGP Facebook is here for any interested.

Taiwan-based IGS continues to expand on their portfolio of higher-quality games, one of the more recent titles they created for sale in the US is the driving game Overtake. They have a brand new light-gun game in the works that looks like it is going to capitalize on the upcoming Godzilla reboot called Monster Eye. Billed as a “shocking 5D dynamic theater”, it looks like they are aiming to compete with the likes of Bandai Namco’s Dark Escape 4D. As a reminder, anything above 3D is just marketing for whatever the parent company wants it to mean, there is no industry standard for what 4D/5D/6D is. The game is currently on test at the “Tang Muxiong Jin Wannian Taipei store” in Taipei, Taiwan where it has drawn some crowds and apparently people playing the game until after the location was supposed to close. They describe the game as: “First motion-sensing guns, match the motion Chair and Jet, meet your five senses to experience, feel the sea world adventure game!” I’m not sure what they mean by first motion-sensing guns but apparently they are doing some professional voice acting and working with a movie director on the motion capture in the game so they are putting some money into the production for it. Here’s the teaser trailer that was released last week.

Since we’re on about videos, here is Part 2 of my Arcade Games of 2011 montage. I captured some footage of Aliens Armageddon earlier in the week and I will soon have some to share for Transformers: Human Alliance. I will be putting these together as reviews soon. I also will try and do a part 2 to 2013 and a 2014 montage as I collect footage.

I also have uploaded a bunch of direct screenshots from various arcade games to the AH Facebook page. I will add more as I find them. I’m trying to find high-rez shots, unfortunately such is not always available in the arcade space.

Finally in regards to my book released almost a year ago, The Arcade Experience. The digital Kindle version is not up to the best of standards as it should have been, which I sincerely apologize for. I feel embarrassed to have let it linger in this form for so long. I have finally got around to taking a look at how to fix all of that, modifying the file that controls the formatting and I also am taking the opportunity to correct some typos in the text and adding hyperlinks to the many online sources I quote. Thanks to those who have pointed out some errors in the text. It would have rolled out earlier in the week but Amazon kept having issues with converting the file, so I was struggling to figure out what was wrong. It worked right after I ran this post. The update will roll out within the next 12 hours or so to everyone who purchased the book on Kindle. The update is free so there is nothing you have to do other than open it up after the updated files are in the cloud.  My thanks again to anyone that bought the Kindle version and stuck with it. If there are any issues you catch on the new version, by all means please let me know!

The post Quick Bites: RGP Opening Classic Arcade In The UK; IGS’ Monster Eye; Book Update appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

Taiwanese developer IGS is busy working on a new enclosed light-gun cabinet (or a theater cabinet if you prefer) called Monster Eye and today they released a new trailer showing direct footage from the game in action.

Note that there is English voice acting in the video and on the Youtube page they have text in English to mention that the game is coming soon. I would say this is a good confirmation that IGS plans on an international release for Monster Eye but which manufacturer or distributor that will carry it is unknown at the moment. Their most recent game to be picked up by a Western manufacturing firm would be ICE who will be selling the racing game Overtake in the US.

Being that it is a theater cabinet, the game itself fits into the same genre of light-gun games like Let’s Go Jungle/Island, Deadstorm Pirates or Dark Escape 4D. IGS is actually billing this as a 5D game, aiming it to compete with the likes of Dark Escape 4D although I’m not 100% sure which features make it 5D since that can mean pretty much anything. As you can see on the last pic below it shows that it has an air blower and moving seat which should be enough but I’m not sure what two of the five symbols mean. It does have a 55″ screen but I’m not sure if its a stereoscopic 3D screen or not since you can’t see the “3D echoes” in the images below. The game has been on test in Taiwan, where you can see that it has been popular so far:

I’ve gone ahead and added this game to all sectors of the worldwide release list for now and I’ll keep my eyes out for more news on this getting an international release.

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This has been a slow month for arcade news, which is somewhat expected after several different trade shows threw their appropriate celebrations. But things are picking up today so here’s hoping that keeps up.

Here is a little bit of news from Taiwan and a little bit from Japan.

First off I just wanted to mention that with InJoy Motion’s Allied Tank Attack, there is a big graphics update coming soon for that which will get the look running at a consistent 60FPS. They say it looks amazing and I will have a chance to fill you in on it when it comes along. In my experience so far, both Barron and InJoy have been very responsive to feedback on the game and improving things from the build I played at Amusement Expo. I’ll wait to do a video review on it until then; speaking of that I need to finish up my edit on Transformers Human Alliance and next week I will have a pinball unboxing to share on the site. So stay tuned

Next up also comes to us from Taiwan, an update about IGS’s Monster Eye co-op light-gun game. As mentioned previously, I believe they intend on selling this overseas, which should be confirmed with the second video below which is all in English and it fits the bill for something Western audiences might play. The game is looking to compete with the likes of Deadstorm Pirates/Let’s Go Island/After Dark. The first trailer shows the cabinets in more detail, particularly what makes the theater version reach the 5D level. That includes a FullHD 55″ screen, 5.1 surround sound, air blowers, motion capture and a shaking seat. They also show some behind-the-scenes footage of the motion capture, which is something of a rarity for us to see in arcade development. I don’t know what kind of budget this game has but I’ve not seen IGS promote any of their games like this before. There is no release date listed yet, just “Coming Soon” but I have to imagine they want to release it close to the new Godzilla movie, despite not using a Godzilla license.

Here is the all English trailer, it only repeats the first two minutes of what you see above and cuts out the cabinet data and behind-the-scenes stuff. I wonder who is going to work with IGS on Western distribution for this one; ICE was supposed to carry their recent Overtake racing game although I’ve not heard any updates on that situation since IAAPA13.

Now for something that will be sticking comfortably to Japan and eschewing the West like it was a former tween pop-star trying to make their comeback. Although I’m sure like every other arcade fighting game on the market, a console version will be along after a short wait. That Shining Force-themed fighting game by Sega called Shining BLADE ARCUS is scheduled for some location testing two weeks from now. It was unveiled back in February for JAEPO 2014. [Source: Famitsu]

Also for Japanese arcade gamers, Konami will hold a public location test a week from now for a new version of Reflec Beat that they are calling Reflec Beat Groovin’!!. Unlike fighting games this will not be getting a home release, it will just stick close to Eastern markets with perhaps an import or two here and there. Although I’m not even sure if Round 1 USA has brought over any of the Reflec Beat titles.

The post News For Allied Tank Attack; Monster Eye; Shining BLADE ARCUS & Reflec Beat Groovin’ appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

(Thanks to Rico Shen of Music Fantasia for the pics)

It’s the time of year for GTI Taipei, which is a trade show for manufacturers and distributors in Taiwan to strut their latest arcade games and related-products. Unfortunately the name is shared with some car models, which makes finding media for the event a little more difficult than other trade shows. Thanks to the website Music Game Fantasia, which is dedicated primarily to covering music games in Southeast Asia. They have a write-up about the music games at GTI2014 but they have shared some extra photos that they did not publish with us.

IGS – Most of the media from the trade show has to be from IGS, who showcased several new video games. The main event is probably the Monster Eye game which they have been promoting for a little while as reported here on AH but they have some other titles to promote as well. There is their driving game Overtake, which is supposed to have a US release through manufacturer ICE, although since that partnership deal was announced at IAAPA13 I have not heard anything about it since. They also have a game reminiscent of Konami’s Dance Evolution Arcade called Danz Base. This makes at least two games using a Kinect-like sensor for games by IGS, the other being Monster Eye. If they keep up this pace there will be more arcade games using Kinect than one can find on the Xbox One!

Monster Eye – The video below starts off with the trailer as we have already seen but about 2 min in it shows people playing it. It is labeled as a GTI video although it wasn’t filmed there; this picture is from the GTI booth however.

Danz Base

Overtake – IGS has also posted a video of two kids giving this game a spin at GTI2014

Go Go Pony – It’s for kids but it looks higher quality than some other games in this class that I have seen before.

Taito’s Groove Coaster Arcade. I expected this to show up with the Rythmvaders name but perhaps that will take place later. Not sure as that is supposed to be handled by Sega outside of Japan.

Bandai Namco Amusements - Most of what they have we have seen in great detail since IAAPA2013 but there is one piece that previously I had only seen in Japan. I can’t recall what it is called in Japanese but here it is Ace Angler. This of this as an advanced Harpoon Lagoon as it has two screens, supports 8 players and it uses a fishing rod controller (something we haven’t seen in quite a long time, one of Sega’s Bass Fishing games from the late 90′s/early 00′s would be the last time I know of). I don’t know if it works exactly like Harpoon Lagoon does, which is like an interactive attract mode. Given how popular HL has been in the US, I am surprised that Bandai Namco hasn’t given AA a spin here.

Saint Fun – This is a Taiwanese company whose products I have not seen show up in the West yet so we don’t hear from them too often. Here are their newest video games, the motorcycle racing game Battle Rider and Fast Beat

Sega – If Sega had more to show at GTI it isn’t in the pictures. Just a lone Transformers Deluxe as promotion.

That’s all for now – nothing earth shattering really, only Monster Eye is one that seems to be getting the angle for an international release. Of course with Namco’s push towards dome screen technology I bet its only a matter of time before we see some of their rivals from this region begin to dabble in something similar.

The post Arcade Pics/Video From The 2014 GTI Taipei Trade Show appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

We are slowly inching our way to IAAPA 2014, which is when we expect more news about new games to share. I actually am sitting on the stories of two brand new games as I know the names and some very minor details about them but I don’t have any media on them or enough details to go to town. I also am still waiting on some footage to launch my “Coming Soon” trailer. Patience…patience

Today we do have three new videos to share. First is something that was unexpected – a follow up to Power Truck by IGS called Power Truck Special. The original Power Truck showed up out of the blue at IAAPA 2011 as one of the feature games to grace the Wahlap booth. It was a cool game – the cabinet (shown below) was rather large and it featured an 18-wheeler style steering wheel and clutch. The sound system in the cabinet was amazing, it was step-up from most of the current racers on the market. Given how it produced sound driven force feedback in the seat, it reminded me of the sound system in San Fransisco Rush 2049.  The main issue was the price but where most games are headed towards FEC style and pricing, perhaps the time is ripe for it once again. In this trailer it shows that there are a variety of new vehicles joining the game, such as a double decker bus; the transforming aspect of when you get a power-up was present in the original. Because of the filter used in the video it is difficult to tell if this will be any different from the original game graphically and it is not stated whether or not this will be available as a kit to upgrade the few existing Power Truck cabinets out there.

The first cabinet for Power Truck. It is unknown what the Power Truck S cabinet will look like at this time.

Next up from the new rhythm arcade game that was launched earlier this year, NEON FM by US company Unit-e Technologies. They have rolled out support for multiplayer functionality on the game, which they had mentioned as being possible when I first heard about NEON FM. They have been keeping the existing units up-to-date with consistent song additions since they launched back in March. Here is a multiplayer demo of the game setup at Save Point in Westminster, MD. It is always impressive to watch rhythm games being played like this when the players have equivalent skill at the game. Although I doubt that synchronized rhythm gaming will become an Olympic sport anytime soon.

Up next is something familiar from Bandai Namco on a game we found out about sometime ago, Lost Land Adventure. The difference in this trailer from the Japanese one posted not long ago is that it is translated into English and they show it using a PIN pad save system as opposed to the Banapassport Online system. Otherwise all of the cheesiness from that previous trailer remains intact.

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