Shaggy the Atarian

Fortunately there are several companies out there who have been making content for modern arcades and they've been successful at it - Raw Thrills, Sega Amusements, Bandai Namco, many others. Raw Thrills is run by Eugene Jarvis, which is a name most around here would be familiar with, and the guy who is the head of Bandai Namco's US arcade division did work at Atari Games early in his career. Social gaming has always been an ace up the arcades' sleeve, whether that's linking multiple cabs together or offering 4,8, or 10 players. But as I'll get into below, how they play is different now than 40 years ago as today's arcade audiences don't like games that are hard, endless, or control with joysticks. This is the tough part. The software development side of things tends to cost a few million $$$, that's NOT counting manufacturing/production of the cabinets. The popular Jurassic Park Arcade game cost $4m to develop; Sega hinted that the recent Daytona USA remake they did was about $3m. But that was all before inflation kicked into high gear so the numbers are probably higher now. There are ways to develop a game for less, such as the exA-Arcadia platform, which is kind of like the old Neo Geo MVS; There's also the Polycade which is done by one of Nolan Bushnell's son (Atari has licensed software out to it). Either of those would be the most economical route since you don't have to deal with cabinet production, but I don't think that Polycade exists in very many locations. ExA doesn't either but it is in more. I'm not 100% sure how much it costs to produce an arcade cabinet in terms of manufacturing but I do know that if you go that route, you have to purchase everything up-front - the wood, every bolt, the art, the monitor, PC, power supply, I/O board, controller molds and parts, etc. and labor. You also have to have a minimum production order, usually Raw Thrills does 100 units; So if you guess at what their cost is, say, $8000 a cab, multiply that by 100 and you know how much money it takes just for that element. It's a huge, expensive risk, which is why if a game doesn't test well like Asteroids, they won't move forward on it. Like I said though, if Atari hired a good team that really knows the business, they could make it work. They wouldn't have to setup their own cabinetry shop - there are a few different places out there who specializes in building cabinets for clients. But they'd have to create a few games that are just making bank out on location to tell them that it would be worth that kind of investment. It's just that most likely, the least risky and expensive way for them to get back into arcades is to continue to license existing IP out to places like Play Mechanix, where they have to take those financial risks. Cabinet design is one major aspect of arcades but I think it ultimately comes down to what the game is like. I did a video about that, asking different arcade developers how they approach it: A cabinet, the screen, and the graphics are all important in a modern arcade as that does help draw attention to it. The problem or challenge with that is that designing AAA-grade graphics is very expensive. You also have to be sure that the concept is sound enough to draw people in and draw them back over and over again. Redemption games earn well because they're fast and they give you a casino-like dopamine hit to play for tickets. Non-ticket games have a deeper challenge to create something that makes hundreds or thousands of dollars a week on location. Everyone these days does create games with big screens - sometimes two. Here's the Super Deluxe model for Halo: Fireteam Raven that was released by Raw Thrills back in 2018: More crazy than that is the new Fast & Furious Arcade, which has 2x 65" 4K screens per cabinet. This one is $25k per seat: Or you've got Sega doing Mission: Impossible with 2x 55" screens in a different way. These SDX cabs have been popular for chains like Dave & Busters or Round1USA to grab. The issue is that they are a bit difficult for a small arcade op like me to have - in part due to space but mainly due to price. That model of Halo cost around $32k; Mission: Impossible costs around $28k. That's without going super crazy and also supporting things like raytracing in the graphics. I've asked and that would probably raise the cost of a machine $2~4000, depending (as it's not just the graphics card but the work in paying the artists during game development). Still, I agree with your sentiment. One thing that's cool about arcades is that you can do things with displays, controls and cabinets that you can't do at home. The game is stupid, but Ice Man has done really well in many places out there since you shoot water at the screen. There are some ball toss video games here and there too. Or, with micro LED panels, you can create displays in uncommon shapes and sizes. Here's an upcoming game called Drakons which uses a perfect square screen, all with those LEDs: I do like the idea of cross-site play and player accounts. Unfortunately, where that's been tried, success is limited. Raw Thrills' MotoGP as well as Big Buck Hunter allows for cross-location play but it doesn't get used much. Big Buck does have player accounts and it is successful with that, but it's seen as it's own kind of thing, as it's more of a bar game. Stern Pinball recently launched their Insider Connected platform which does have player accounts, achievements and some other cool features. I really like the idea but unfortunately it hasn't taken off for me yet (very, very few people know about it and use it, so I've seen no difference in game earnings since installing it on a couple of machines). I will be posting some new signage to help promote it but it's still a tough order that only appeals to the super fan so far. The biggest challenge there is that different companies don't want to help their competitors by having an all-encompassing player account system. Japan has them, but it's usually you need one for Sega games, another for Konami games, etc. I'd still prefer it if companies tried though, so if Atari really did jump into the arcade space again, developing a system like that could be a great way to stand out.

There was one attempt at this in 2018 with Cosmotrons - it's pretty much a Gravitar sequel. I did own one for a few years but it was a dud for me - worked best in a bar or all-retro arcade. One thing I've learned from years of operating an arcade is that here, graphics do matter. Every time I place a game that looks old, even if it's brand new, it flops. Perhaps it's just my venue - I've got brand new stuff mingled with 80s games. So a new retro game gets overlooked...perhaps it's the player thinking "that looks old but I've never heard of it - OH HEY, THEY HAVE MS. PAC-MAN!" and play that instead. The one thing that is breaking away from that is the new Enter The Gungeon arcade game. It kind of looks like a 90s game but it has effects that are more modern. It's an interesting mix but it's also a light-gun game, so that's an easy sell. Building something from scratch though, the possibilities are quite broad. If you want to make something that would be an easy sell to today's industry, I'd say go with a light-gun game or a racer. The industry is saturated with those kinds of games but with the right concept/hook, you can stand out. One way to possibly do that would be to use the Outlaw theme and expand on it into a rail shooter or just create some new kind of Western shooter. There's only been one of those on the market in recent times (see below), while there's no shortage of games involving zombies, aliens, robots or pirates. But to think that this recent one is the only way to do a Western shooter...well, I don't agree with that strawman thought In the thought of a racer, most will probably read that and say "SF Rush!!!!" but that IP is owned by Warner and it would take someone with super deep pockets to make that a reality. That wouldn't stop you from making your own new kind of SF Rush-style racer though...these days most games play more like Cruis'n USA, involving Point A-to-B racing instead of circuit courses. But it's not like San Francisco is the only city that would be fun to do some crazy racing in. I'd say take the kernel of SF Rush and combine it with the leveling/stats/parts system found in Bandai Namco's Maximum Tune series. This is consistently in my top 3 games every month as it has a very loyal player base who comes back to it over and over again. There is InitialD by Sega, but they only support that in Japan these days To reach out on a limb, I think the modern arcade biz is in need of a good sports title. Whether that's football or soccer, it's been over 20 years since we had an NFL Blitz game; Recently a Chinese company tried to do a soccer game but it wasn't very good. If you resurrected Pele Soccer but did it in the style of SNK's Ultimate 11, then I think that could be a hit; If you couldn't do an NFL game with the violence that Blitz had, then just make your own thing. As long as it's fun, it could stand a chance. I love space games but they are a tough sell these days to modern arcade audiences. That'd require some creative thinking to figure out as there was an attempt last year to resurrect Asteroids up to 8-players but from what I was told, it earned poorly so they ended up shelving it 😕 Cosmotrons as mentioned performed terribly at my arcade. It was a very fun game but the concept of gravity plus graphics that didn't stand out as new made for something that most players overlooked.

Being an arcade guy, I have to agree with many of the Oldest School Atarians that the heart of Atari was in arcades and them getting back into that would be a better way to resurrect some of the IP, or create new ones. I think part of the problem the company has stumbled for so long is that they haven't had people there who really understands that market, as it is a different beast than consoles. I'd argue that most Atari 2600 games are "arcade" in nature, even aside from ports, which is also where it's been a challenge for them to revive in an exciting, memorable way. Atari hasn't been completely absent from the arcade scene though. I'm not sure how many Atari fans know this but there have been a few Atari arcade licenses in recent memory Centipede Chaos was created by a company out of Chicago called Play Mechanix (manufactured by a company called ICE). PM was founded by George Petro (Terminator 2 arcade, also did stuff for NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat) and is made up of several ex-Midway employees. They somewhat recently tested out an 8-player version of Asteroids but it apparently failed and was canned. If you've seen the Atari PONG electromechanical games out there, that was designed by a French company then mass produced by a Chinese company called UNIS. A while back, an American company called Coastal Amusements redesigned Breakout on the iPad and released it as a video ticket redemption game. A lot more could be done, but developing and manufacturing arcade machines is not an easy endeavor and is very different from making consoles/carts/digital downloads. The way that the games play is also different, particularly if you want them to be successful. They'd need to put together a team that has some deep understanding of how that all works - which would be cool, but I don't know if that's in their wheelhouse. All that aside, I've enjoyed the Recharged games all right but I think that some IPs could go beyond that, in the same sense that Bentley's Crystal Quest shook things up or what it looks like they are doing with Lunar Lander. I've got a couple of very early designs that I'm slowly working on in this regard but I'd prefer to develop them fully before starting to look for help on the coding side. Ultimately though, they do need to continue to look at new IP, like they've done with Days of Doom or Pixel Ripper. Nostalgia shouldn't be forgotten but it can't be the only thing that a game company is built upon.

I have thought about that before...perhaps there's something I can figure out as a database sort of thing...

I've not played VR on the 32X but not even WTR came close to it (despite being a vast improvement over CF)? On another note, and shooting off on more of a tangent, Super Burnout is arcade-quality, I'm surprised it isn't compared to say Suzuka 8 Hours more often. SB could've used the biker sprite-work that S8H had but otherwise had you dropped SB into an arcade in '95, it would've done well.

I won that Atari Pong Jr. unit that was done with the help of ARcade 1up a few years back - they were asking $129 for that piece of crap (all it does is play Pong) so in comparison, the 2600+ is a much better deal Too bad they don't have a mini-7800 case option for this though. Guess it'd be time to talk to someone I know with a nice 3D printer

Too bad they don't include a few 7800 games with the 10-in-1 cart (make it a 20-in-1, why not) or have some other 7800 multicart but otherwise I do find this tempting. It'll make capturing games easier than I currently do using an HDMI convertor.

I'm kicking myself for not placing my pre-order for this one the day it was announced. But still can't wait for the regular edition to come along (As a note to what you mentioned above Carl, I had finished the original game BITD but level 4 almost made me quit the game too)

I recently got my hands on this. Been doing all right so far, although one of the guns just crapped out on me 😕 Here's a full playthrough:

Unboxing Donut Dodo Do! - I still need to do a direct capture for this one. It's a lot of fun in two player mode:

Thanks, wasn't aware of that version - although it's changed a lot from that old port to the point that you can still call it exclusive (as this new one isn't coming to consoles - same thing goes with Axel City 2)

I guess Atari forgot to use her in the Pixel Ripped game they just released(I'm not sure, I haven't played that one)?

Time for another mascot discussion thread, but I'll back it up with an almost 40 minute long video I put together Includes some rare pics of the bizarre "Oswald" mascot that Atari was cooking up in the 90s. Of course I know some think of non-Atari characters like Pac-Man or Pitfall Harry as Atari's mascot but those can't ever realistically - or legally - count

I had a childhood friend who had an NES and BM so it should have stuck out more to me. If EXO had portions where you left the craft, then it would definitely jump out as a BM-type game. There was a Blaster Master 2 on the Genesis but that's one I've never played. It has some nice music from what I've heard online though.

Blaster Master did cross my mind right before I recorded but for some reason I still blurted out Metroid BM is definitely a closer fit

Grabbed a digital copy, here are some briefish thoughts

I had no idea that it had been deactivated in the first place ...although it's only been recently that I've been getting into using my DF again. Thanks!

Derp on my part, that worked! Thanks!

I was wanting to grab the digital version of EXO and decided to make sure it would work on my DF cart, but the latest release candidate - as well as two older versions of the game - just display garbled colored lines. I've updated the DF to 1.09 and get the same result. I also discovered that most of the title screen for Tower Toppler does the same thing, but if I run it with the original cart, it looks just fine. I would guess that means it's something with my DF cart but not sure. Thoughts?

The exA-Arcadia now has a 100% exclusive in Dynamite Bomb!!, a 2D fighting game made from scratch for the system, thus only existing for arcades. Gamers looking for a fighter that focuses on skill & combos will enjoy this one: https://arcadeheroes.com/2023/07/01/2d-arcade-exclusive-fighter-dynamite-bomb-now-available-for-pre-order/

Been too long but Batsugun EXA LABEL is out now. It features new game modes (plus the original JAMMA game), numerous bug fixes, new content and is exclusive to the exA BTW, Donut Dodo Do! is supposed to be shipping any time now - it's available in Japan but I ordered one and am still waiting

I also thought it was weird although in doing a little research (and remembering old news), they sold pieces of the company off here and there over the years - Accolade at one point was called Infogrames North America. Driver they sold off to Ubisoft back in 2006, per this old forum post. Kind of irritating that they don't include the full games list with these PRs. Looking over the Accolade game's list though, there are quite a few Atari ST and some Atari XE/XL games on there (Fight Night, Mean 18). I'm wondering if they could be planning on adding some of these Atari versions to the Atari 50th collection at some point, either via update or DLC (that would please those wanting some Atari ST games on the compilation)

Dang, I always knew that the game ran a little sluggish but it didn't feel like 10fps, to me anyways We'll take all the extra frames we can get!

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind, glad my dire mistake could entertain!