The Recharged games are gonna be ported to Arcades!

[Shaggy the Atarian]

5 hours ago, TampaBay said:

 

Thanks so much for sharing the videos.  Super insightful.

 

I wasn't familiar with Galloping Ghost until you mentioned it above, but yes, the Retro arcades by me use that business model.  My favorite arcade is Replay Museum in Tarpon Springs, FL, and all the games are on Free Play and it's a $14 entry fee for all day.

 

The difference in what's local to me and what's in your videos is that each arcade here is all in on *either* retro or modern games, but not both.  So that makes a comparison to your experiences a little apples to oranges.  For example, pretty much every single game in Replay is from the 1980s, except a few such at the Mortal Kombat series, and even that is the 90's.  So their clientele is strictly people who love and have great enthusiam for 1980s arcade cabinets.  Every person who walks in the door has specifically driven to that location to play Out Run, TRON, Galaga, Star Wars, Tempest, etc.  A more modern game would be completely out of place there.

 

On the other end of the spectrum is a place that we have called Elev8.  That's similar to a Dave & Buster's type place / family fun center.  They have all modern games like the ones you listed in the Top 5 in your videos.  I can't recall seeing a single game that isn't of the very recent modern era.  Their "throwback" games are like what I mentioned in my previous post, those giant wall-size Pac-Man games, but even with those, there's maybe three or four out of the countless modern games, racing games, and simulators.

 

Both of the types of places above seem to do well, though I obviously have no idea how well (or not) they do financially.  The retro arcade has been around for a while, so hopefully it's doing well and continues to stick around for a while.  I absolutely love going there.  The modern arcade is packed all the time, so I imagine they must be doing well, but without knowing their costs, it's impossibe to say.

 

If I come across the Recharged games, it will most certainly only be in the modern arcade.  I'll be curious to see if people are playing those games should the games ever make it to Elev8.  I will certainly give them a try!

 

You may have already seen my post on here with a mini-review of my local retro arcade, but if not, here it is:

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/361230-discovered-this-80s-arcade-near-me-and-i-love-hanging-out-there/

 

Yeah, a vast majority of retro arcades do the Galloping Ghost model now - it really seems to be the only way to make retro truly work. But it's always weird in that they'll mix it in with expensive new pinball machines and skeeball. Most places that have both of those though will charge for those games, since upkeep on them sucks. 

 

Funny you mention Elev8. I know the CEO and I've been to the one in Sanford. I've done a little bit of contract work for them, although most of the stuff I've done is for a company that supplies their arcade machines. Either way, the Sanford location does have a large retro arcade space downstairs the last time I was there, but I also am not sure how it is faring. Online reviews there seem rather negative, and I guess the Seminole Mall was just shut down? Tampa on the other hand (which I haven't visited) seems to be garnering positive reviews though.

 

When it comes to those big Family Entertainment Centers, retro is just filler for old guys. It sucks, but unfortunately kids/teens just don't play those enough to make it worthwhile, at least in that pay-per-play type situation. That's where I think that the graphical presentation needs to look modern to help draw them in.  It's anathema to say "graphics matter," but in the modern arcade, they do if you want people to drop a coin or swipe a card.  

 

On another note, I was sent a couple of pics of the first Recharged game cabinet (a 2p and 4p model). It's only the cab and the artwork but they are looking really nice. I probably won't be able to post them after I visit tomorrow(embargo until the Amusement Expo show), but I should be able to speak generally about what I see. Anyone want to guess as to which Recharged game will be the first?  

 

[TampaBay]

12 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Yeah, a vast majority of retro arcades do the Galloping Ghost model now - it really seems to be the only way to make retro truly work. But it's always weird in that they'll mix it in with expensive new pinball machines and skeeball. Most places that have both of those though will charge for those games, since upkeep on them sucks. 

 

Funny you mention Elev8. I know the CEO and I've been to the one in Sanford. I've done a little bit of contract work for them, although most of the stuff I've done is for a company that supplies their arcade machines. Either way, the Sanford location does have a large retro arcade space downstairs the last time I was there, but I also am not sure how it is faring. Online reviews there seem rather negative, and I guess the Seminole Mall was just shut down? Tampa on the other hand (which I haven't visited) seems to be garnering positive reviews though.

 

When it comes to those big Family Entertainment Centers, retro is just filler for old guys. It sucks, but unfortunately kids/teens just don't play those enough to make it worthwhile, at least in that pay-per-play type situation. That's where I think that the graphical presentation needs to look modern to help draw them in.  It's anathema to say "graphics matter," but in the modern arcade, they do if you want people to drop a coin or swipe a card.  

 

On another note, I was sent a couple of pics of the first Recharged game cabinet (a 2p and 4p model). It's only the cab and the artwork but they are looking really nice. I probably won't be able to post them after I visit tomorrow(embargo until the Amusement Expo show), but I should be able to speak generally about what I see. Anyone want to guess as to which Recharged game will be the first?  

 

 

That's so interesting that you know of Elev8 and the CEO.  Very cool.  Yeah I've only been to the Elev8 in Tampa, it's literally just down the road a couple of minutes from me, so I'm not sure what the Sanford one or any other locations are like.  The one by me is brand new.  It's positively massive.  They took a two-level Sears department store and completely gutted it and built a brand new space from scratch.  They must have learned their lesson from the Sanford location regarding the lack of popularity of the retro games, because there is not a single one in the Tampa location.  They do have a full-size bowling alley and the entire upper level is a go-cart track.  It's pretty unbelievable what they did in that space.

 

As for the Recharged cabinet, that's very cool!  Awesome.  I'm not sure what they wound up picking, but if it were me choosing to get the biggest hype from the crowd, I would certainly go with one of the most recognizable titles, like Asteroids, Centipede, or Missile Command.  2nd tier would be Gravitar, Berzerk, and Yars' Revenge.

 

 

[zzip]

8 hours ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Anyone want to guess as to which Recharged game will be the first?

I'll go for a long shot:  Caverns of Mars?

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Just got back from the Alan-1 facility and saw the game. The software wasn't installed yet since the cabs for the trade show next week were under construction. After being given a tour, I helped install some T-molding and some sound wiring on the Recharged cabinets; Also installed some buttons into the two player model CP. The cabs are looking really sharp; The art on the control panel looks excellent. 

 

The artwork on these machines not only looks good aesthetically, it's some of the highest quality prints I've seen. The art has texture to it and they can print additional layers on top of what has already been printed. This is the new Avian Knights cab (2p)

 

 

They've got a seriously heavy duty commercial quality printer that prints the artwork direct to the surface of the cut MDF pieces instead of it being vinyl applied by hand.

 

 

They also also working with Tim Lapentino on art approvals(Alan-1s people have done the art, Tim gives thumbs up/down, makes suggestions). 

 

The official announcement for the first game is coming on Tuesday so hang tight for that. I was already told about some significant changes to the game from the console version. It will be interesting to see how people react to it (particularly arcade operators who play it on Wednesday)

[+Stephen]

That's impressive!

[Shaggy the Atarian]

3 hours ago, Stephen said:

That's impressive!

Just standing next to the printer made me feel dirt poor 😅 🤑

[Jimmy Wicker]

Thanks Adam and everyone for the encouraging words of support.  I hope you had fun out at Area 52 (the name we've light-heartedly given our factory) yesterday!

It was great to finally meet you.

 

I'm glad to hear that so many of you are excited about what we're doing with Atari. My understanding is that Atari owns own AtariAge.com now, so it makes sense that we use this forum to keep all of you up to date on what we're doing, share ideas, and collaborate around these new and exciting arcade games.

 

We were given the source code for Atari's recharged games about 3 weeks ago and have permission to modify them to play well in an arcade cabinet.  We have selected which game we'll release first.  That will be announced on Tuesday.  But I promise you we've already eliminated the "Press SPACEBAR to start" 🙂

 

An alpha prototype of the title will be running in a 2-player cabinet and a larger 3-player cabinet for visitors of the Amusement Expo show next week in Las Vegas to try.  With only three weeks of dev time, we felt it would be best to show what we have so far.  Only about 10% of our planned updates have made it into the game to date, but enough to be playable on a cabinet and feel like an arcade game.  We hope to gather as much feedback from all playing to validate and iterate more until we all make the game as great as it should be (note: our friends at Atari will always have the final say of changes that are allowed.) 

 

We want these new Atari arcade cabinet games to be yours as much as they are ours.  The game will be released to distributors for sale in Q3 of 2024. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17 by Jimmy Wicker

[Giles N]

13 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

I'm glad to hear that so many of you are excited about what we're doing with Atari. My understanding is that Atari owns own AtariAge.com now, so it makes sense that we use this forum to keep all of you up to date on what we're doing, share ideas, and collaborate around these new and exciting arcade games.

 

We were given the source code for Atari's recharged games about 3 weeks ago and have permission to modify them to play well in an arcade cabinet.  We have selected which game we'll release first.  That will be announced on Tuesday.

Thanks for informing us here!

AtariAge became Atari’s in September ‘23.

 

It will be interesting to hear and see the which Recharged gsmes get Arcadified, - how many, which titles in which chronology … and how much these ports from home-to-Arcade, will differ from the originals.

 

May I ask who or what company or game-developers made/makes (if its still in production) ‘Avian Knights’…? Do you have your own arcade-software/game section, or do you (usually) collaborate making cabinets, letting other companies program and design the game-software…?

[Giles N]

On 3/16/2024 at 3:02 AM, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Avian Knights

…looks sharp @Jimmy Wicker, congrats on that part! 

 

So does the game as presented in the official Trailer.

Also the music there (Trailer1) sounds really nice.

 

- - -

Saw a preview of this for the VCS, where someone complained it was too complex to handle.

I hope all Alan-1 projects will turn out to be easy to learn, and - at least - challenging to become master of…

 

I mean, any arcade - old or new - ought to have pick-up and play standards.

 

Really liked the graphics. 
 

- - -

 

Wonder what a ‘Warlords’ game given this treatment could end up being…?

 

At least I suspect it could look and sound really sharp… 

… and if 8 players couid scrap-it out with each others , - it could be epic! 
 

   (…only in my dreams…?)

 

Anyway, cool to see this happening!

Edited March 18 by Giles N

[Shaggy the Atarian]

12 hours ago, Giles N said:

It will be interesting to hear and see the which Recharged games get Arcadified, - how many, which titles in which chronology … and how much these ports from home-to-Arcade, will differ from the originals.

Per the press release they said they have the rights to all ten Recharged releases, although I imagine if they release them all will depend on how this first one and subsequent ones do. It will also take some creative thinking to make some like Gravitar and Quantum palpable for today's very casual arcade audiences, who often don't want to have more required of them than just swiping a card at the right time or throwing a ball at a screen.

 

I think the first game they are doing is the most sensible pick, but of course, how the market will take to it will depend on various factors. The few changes I've heard about so far are in that "right direction" but more will certainly come along after the game pops up at an arcade trade show here on Wednesday, and they get feedback from that particular, picky audience (who generally just cares more about how much money the game makes per week instead of how good/bad it plays. Surprisingly the latter doesn't always affect how a game earns.)

 

Quote

May I ask who or what company or game-developers made/makes (if its still in production) ‘Avian Knights’…? Do you have your own arcade-software/game section, or do you (usually) collaborate making cabinets, letting other companies program and design the game-software…?

That is Alan-1 themselves. They have the VCS & PC version out; The arcade version is coming in the next few months (before the first Recharged release)

 

Alan-1 also sells repro arcade parts for things like Atari's vector monitors, repro Star Wars yokes. When I asked, they said those had been selling well. 

[Giles N]

25 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

I think the first game they are doing is the most sensible pick,

..they like to set difficulty to ‘hard’ deliberately …in real life also ?

 

25 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

That is Alan-1 themselves. They have the VCS & PC version out

..looks good. Hope Atari hires them for some game (as mentioned, perhaps a new Warlords or something in that direction…)

Hope, if they can make games that play good too … (I hope it will)

Edited March 18 by Giles N

[Shaggy the Atarian]

4 minutes ago, Giles N said:

..they like to set difficulty to ‘hard’ deliberately …in real life also ?

Not sure what you mean by that but if you're referring to how today's arcade-going audience tends to move, it's more towards super easy, super dumb stuff like claw machines, ball toss, and coin pusher games, while ignoring anything that requires a small effort on their part. For video games, that's why driving and light-gun games rule the day, as everyone knows what to do. But even those have become dumbed down, often times there's no brake on the car and the gas goes by itself; Gun games often don't require any reloading anymore, it's just spray and pray.

 

Difficult games tend to bomb, and when you're spending $15k, $25k, $50k on a game, you probably can't afford to lose that kind of money, unless you're making a fortune elsewhere.

 

Quote

Hope Atari hires them for some game (as mentioned, perhaps a new Warlords or something in that direction…)

Hope, if they can make games that play good too … (I hope it will)

It's certainly possible, James at Alan-1 mentioned some other ideas he has for some Atari games, but I imagine it'll be a while. Of course if this first game is a big success, then perhaps those will happen sooner rather than later.

[Giles N]

15 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Not sure what you mean by that

That the pick is sensible.

 

Perhaps I misunderstood, but if that implies there’s a real risk as to whether or not it’ll be liked, shouldn’t they’ve picked something that at least would stand a good chance of being liked, like uncontroversial pick…?

 

If I misunderstood, then I’d be curious to what the ‘sensible’ factor here refers to. 

[Shaggy the Atarian]

51 minutes ago, Giles N said:

That the pick is sensible.

 

Perhaps I misunderstood, but if that implies there’s a real risk as to whether or not it’ll be liked, shouldn’t they’ve picked something that at least would stand a good chance of being liked, like uncontroversial pick…?

 

If I misunderstood, then I’d be curious to what the ‘sensible’ factor here refers to. 

Ah gotcha. Controversial would probably be something like Gravitar or Quantum, just due to how obscure and difficult those games are; Sensible is a well-known IP like Yars' Revenge, Berzerk, Asteroids, Centipede, Breakout, etc. 

 

It'll be nice that I can just say what it is tomorrow, lol. But I can't imagine that anyone will find an issue with it being the first one.

Edited March 18 by Shaggy the Atarian

[Giles N]

36 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Ah gotcha

Sorry, my translation-gene or my brain, or a combination of the two, just didn’t bother to work properly today… not a sensitive decision, a sensible decision, 

 

I actually seem to remember scratching my head back in mid-90ies reading about a game called ‘Sensible Soccer’ with pictures appearing in my head of bad-ass soccer players breaking off the match offended at a strong word shouted, or not getting the correct odor for their perfumed deodorant in the break…

 

Well, hope my mind actually gets it by now…

Edited March 18 by Giles N

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Atari let the cat out of the bag sooner than expected so here you go. The first of the bunch is Asteroids.

 

Atari's Asteroids Recharged Is Coming To Amusement Expo 2024

[moycon]

I lived in Pittsburgh for about a year and every week we would hit the local Dave & Busters.

They had a few retro inspired games. Including that awesome two-player sit-down version of Space Invaders, a GIANT PacMan and Galaga, as well as a few variations of standalone Pac-Man type games.  (6 player, clear a ticket earlning version, etc...)  These new Atari games would fit right into the Dave & Busters arcades. I'd play em. 

[TampaBay]

36 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Atari let the cat out of the bag sooner than expected so here you go. The first of the bunch is Asteroids.

 

Atari's Asteroids Recharged Is Coming To Amusement Expo 2024

 

Thanks for the update!  Definitely a good choice.

[Jimmy Wicker]

On 3/17/2024 at 10:44 PM, Giles N said:

Thanks for informing us here!

AtariAge became Atari’s in September ‘23.

 

It will be interesting to hear and see the which Recharged gsmes get Arcadified, - how many, which titles in which chronology … and how much these ports from home-to-Arcade, will differ from the originals.

 

May I ask who or what company or game-developers made/makes (if its still in production) ‘Avian Knights’…? Do you have your own arcade-software/game section, or do you (usually) collaborate making cabinets, letting other companies program and design the game-software…?

 

Hi Giles!  It's great meeting you.

 

Yes like what Adam said, we are a game developer studio and released Avian Knights on the VCS.  We own and operate Flynn's Retrocade in Roy Utah.  So collecting arcade cabinets and making arcade games is our real love.  We have a warehouse next to our factory where we're making these games with over 600 classics.  Our plan is to turn it into an arcade by the end of 2024.  It will be called "Flynns Retrocade 2  |  Alan-1 HQ".  (All of the games you see listed on videogames.org are in our collection.  All of the images are from our collection too.  I think we're only on games that start with "O" on that list.  But we're making progress!) 

 

We hired a former Atari engineer to lead our team that built our Video Arcade System® which is the heart of our arcade cabinet strategy.  I'll post more on that in the future.

 

Are you a game developer?  We are happy to partner with folks who make fun games that would make great arcade cabinets too.  Feel free to send any of those ideas and connections my way 🙂

 

 

[Jimmy Wicker]

Thanks guys for your interest in this thread.

We can announce the first game is Asteroids Recharged. Our guys are on the road heading to Vegas for the Amusement Expo right now with new Avian Knights and Asteroids prototype cabinets in the trailer. We'll bring them to CAX too.

We removed the strange "grid" that was overlayed on the stars. We've already fixed some of the game mechanics that were missing from the console / steam release of the game, including introducing "interesting game choices" when powerups appear. They no longer come to you automatically. You have to go get it (which means you have to leave the center of the screen and explore the edges to get the reward of the powerup and anyone who has played Asteroids knows that you are safer in the center of the screen just rotating left and right--it's more fun now.) We fixed the ship thrust and slow down so it feels like the original. We've changed the asteroids so they are more random, etc. We still have more to do though so the game plays better in an arcade cabinet.

We have plans to add waves that are matched to galaxies to tap into the "endowed progress effect" that is missing from Asteroids. We're also adding a starting screen like tempest, star wars, major havoc, return of the jedi, etc to allow more advanced players to start at higher waves with a bonus.

We're including the major league esports tournaments we created for Avian Knights in Asteroids Recharged. It's not in there yet, but it will be before we release it. It allows every game that you're playing to earn you "league points" based on your scores. At the end of the season, the best 10 players in the major league esports with the highest league points will be invited to compete in a live tournament like we did last year for Avian Knights.

We've added virtual pinball effects when you blow up the larger asteroids pinball knockers go off (like how q-bert did it). When you thrust your ship, a fan blows on your hand and the more you thrust, the more it blows. When you blow up a flying saucer a small shaker motor goes off, etc. That's already in the code now.

We've created a 2-player and a 3-player versions. We're using the same button configuration that was used on the original. Our buttons are optical, not leaf but feel like leaf--there are no microswitches in there. It's more fun to play on an arcade cabinet than at home for sure.

I'd like to invite all Atari fans who love arcade games to help us make arcade games. We can't do this alone and don't want to do it alone. If you'd like to have fun being a game designer, I invite you to please buy Asteroids Recharged on the VCS play it, and post comments that you think we should change to improve it here in this thread. Help us make it the best it can be.

As long as we break even, we'll make as many games as we can for years to come. We are having fun.  We are grateful for the Atari partnership.  Nolan is from my hometown and went to the University of Utah, they have a lot of great IP that can be used to make some really fun modern arcade games--so why not? It's just as fun making new stuff as it is playing the old. Join us!

[Lord Mushroom]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

Feel free to send any of those ideas and connections my way 🙂

Be careful what you wish for. You can very easily get flooded with bad ideas and stupid questions here, and then find yourself spending hours every day replying. Wade Rosen doesn´t have an official account here, and that is very wise, as we would have kept him busy 24/7.

[Jimmy Wicker]

19 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

Be careful what you wish for. You can very easily get flooded with bad ideas and stupid questions here, and then find yourself spending hours every day replying. Wade Rosen doesn´t have an official account here, and that is very wise, as we would have kept him busy 24/7.

That's ok.  If it's a bad idea, we won't implement it but I believe that I can learn something from everyone.  We believe in the creativtiy inc. method to design.  In the end, it will be Atari's decision if an idea is incorporated or not and our team's decision as to whether or not we bring it to them.  But no harm in having fun dreaming up solutions.  Brainstorm away 🙂

[Shaggy the Atarian]

In case anyone is curious as to what the Hangar looks like...it's crazy full of arcade historical goodness. When I was there on Friday, I got to play a round of Solvalou, Hercules pinball, and Atari's Space Lords. I don't envy the task they have in getting this place going for the public though...

 

 

[Giles N]

5 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

Hi Giles!  It's great meeting you.

Thanks 😁

 

5 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

Yes like what Adam said, we are a game developer studio and released Avian Knights on the VCS.  We own and operate Flynn's Retrocade in Roy Utah.  So collecting arcade cabinets and making arcade games is our real love. 

…sounds like a dream-job…

 

5 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

Are you a game developer? 

No, just a gamer/retro-game enthusiast.

I’ve tried my hand at simplified game dev.-tools like GameGuru and Struckd (ios), and there’s a lot to like, but also many turn-offs with simplified tools.

I and my brother tried to make homebrews for the Amiga500 back in the 90ies.

After playing Scrapyard Dog for the Atari 7800, and hearing many felt it was in and by itself a ok og good (albeit ridiculously tough) game, but lacked a charismatic hero, some atari-ager and I made a double hack with (in my view) improved hero-graphics and the hacker giving it a overall improved palette. Hence the ‘ever-walking dog’ as my profile picture.

But it says quite a lot about ‘where I come from’ as to retrogaming.
So much cool there, and so many things that could been really something - a new strong game or franchise - if the developers had gone just one more round with paying clise attention to detail and quality.

 

5 hours ago, Jimmy Wicker said:

But we're making progress!

Please do! 
 

 

Cheers, 

Glles

Edited March 19 by Giles N