New Arcade Games At Amusement Expo 2024 (Including A New Atari Arcade Game)

Shaggy the Atarian · March 17

Here's a thread for the new arcade games that will be shown off this week in Las Vegas for the Amusement Expo International 2024 event. Seminar/education stuff starts tomorrow; The proper show floor opens up on Wednesday.

I will be sharing news, photos, & videos on my blog and YT channel but also can share some extra stuff here for anyone interested.

One reason this can be of particular interest to Atarians is that the first Atari Recharged cabinet will be at the show, alongside the Joust-like game, Avian Knights (Alan-1 booth). Which one of the Recharged games will it be? That announcement is coming on Tuesday. I've seen the cabinet (even got to do a little work on putting it together, although my contribution was minor) and I think that fans will be pleased.

A couple of other games that have been announced:

Eugene Jarvis' latest effort, Godzilla Kajiu Wars VR. Eugene will hold a seminar on Tuesday that discusses "How to make a great VR game," which will mainly focus on Godzilla. I played this back in November and the best way to describe it is Gunblade NY with giant monsters and in VR. For some reason, this trailer is silent:

Here's an off-road racing/combat game from LAI Games called Smash DX.

A new game for this Immersive Reality Game Room, QBIX, will debut at the show. It's called Chef Express and sounds like it might take a page from Burgertime. There's no trailer of it though, so here is what the system looks like with a zombie shooter game:

exA-Arcadia will be showing off the near-final build of Jitsu Squad, a beat 'em up that launched to consoles a couple of years ago. The arcade version is different in a few ways and will include an exclusive character from a 90s cartoon show (that character will be unveiled at the show; The build below did not have them yet):

Sega is probably not going to reveal a previously unknown game, as they tend to announce those before shows and they haven't said anything like that for this show. That said, the production version of their new racing game, Apex Rebels, will be there:

No clue at the moment what Bandai Namco will have - their IAAPA booth was disappointing. But, one potential game is Bike Dash Delivery, which just showed up at the Round1USA in Aurora, IL for testing. Think of Crazy Taxi meets Prop Cycle meets UberEats

I will have a full preview up on Tuesday and will also do a livestream on YT to talk about it. If you have a question for a dev, let me know and I'll see about getting it answered!

Shaggy the Atarian · March 19

In case you missed it in Atari General, the first of the Atari Recharged games to get the coin-op treatment will be Asteroids. I had the chance to see the cabinets this past Friday and even help a little on their construction.

More behind-the-scenes details and other aspects about it can be found here.

Shaggy the Atarian · March 19

Time for the full-blown preview!

https://arcadeheroes.com/2024/03/19/amusement-expo-2024-the-full-preview/

TampaBay · March 19

48 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Time for the full-blown preview!

https://arcadeheroes.com/2024/03/19/amusement-expo-2024-the-full-preview/

Awesome. Thanks for the walkthrough and all the info on everything else there too. Some really cool stuff.

I just dropped the 9 bucks for Asteroids Recharged (for Nintendo Switch) because I had to know what it was like. I know there will be variations for the arcade unit of course. I liked it! At first, it seemed almost TOO close to the original, but after getting a few power-ups and trying some of the "Challenge" stages, I enjoyed the console version and I'll definitely keep playing it. I'll probably try more of those challenge stages later.

Back to your link, that Drakons: Realm Keepers looks like something my son and I would ride over and over again. We like going on the Typhoon simulator at Elev8 (we usually ride that one multiple times per visit) so that Drakons looks fun as it is a cross between Typhoon, some of those motorcycle racing games, and a very informal and easy target shooter. I think it would be a blast. I couldn't tell if you were that enthralled with it, ha, perhaps just not your favorite style of ride? I can say that the Elev8 in Tampa has at least two Typhoons and there is always someone on it and sometimes people waiting. So I imagine that Drakons: Realm Keepers would do really well at a place like Evev8.

Thanks again for the update!

Shaggy the Atarian · March 19

2 hours ago, TampaBay said:

Awesome. Thanks for the walkthrough and all the info on everything else there too. Some really cool stuff.

I just dropped the 9 bucks for Asteroids Recharged (for Nintendo Switch) because I had to know what it was like. I know there will be variations for the arcade unit of course. I liked it! At first, it seemed almost TOO close to the original, but after getting a few power-ups and trying some of the "Challenge" stages, I enjoyed the console version and I'll definitely keep playing it. I'll probably try more of those challenge stages later.

Back to your link, that Drakons: Realm Keepers looks like something my son and I would ride over and over again. We like going on the Typhoon simulator at Elev8 (we usually ride that one multiple times per visit) so that Drakons looks fun as it is a cross between Typhoon, some of those motorcycle racing games, and a very informal and easy target shooter. I think it would be a blast. I couldn't tell if you were that enthralled with it, ha, perhaps just not your favorite style of ride? I can say that the Elev8 in Tampa has at least two Typhoons and there is always someone on it and sometimes people waiting. So I imagine that Drakons: Realm Keepers would do really well at a place like Evev8.

Thanks again for the update!

Yeah, Drakons is definitely aiming for that virtual roller coaster segment of the market. From what I've heard, it's been doing well out there...I just couldn't begin to think about affording one. ($35k~)

I do like Asteroids Recharged, but there are a few things it could do better. I think the music it has doesn't work as it reduces the tension of the original. I don't mind other types of UFOs, but the way they all work is a little weird and they feel like less of a threat. It's also strange how asteroids will move from one edge of the screen to the other - it's like they couldn't figure out how to wrap the screen around so they just spawn the rocks on the other side. It also would've been nice for them to include the OG game on the "Classic" mode instead of just changing it to give you lives - but I'm probably being too picky about it now

I do enjoy the challenges in particular and that there are so many of them; I also like the power-ups. But should be interesting to see what Alan-1 does to change it up

TampaBay · March 19

45 minutes ago, Shaggy the Atarian said:

Yeah, Drakons is definitely aiming for that virtual roller coaster segment of the market. From what I've heard, it's been doing well out there...I just couldn't begin to think about affording one. ($35k~)

I do like Asteroids Recharged, but there are a few things it could do better. I think the music it has doesn't work as it reduces the tension of the original. I don't mind other types of UFOs, but the way they all work is a little weird and they feel like less of a threat. It's also strange how asteroids will move from one edge of the screen to the other - it's like they couldn't figure out how to wrap the screen around so they just spawn the rocks on the other side. It also would've been nice for them to include the OG game on the "Classic" mode instead of just changing it to give you lives - but I'm probably being too picky about it now

I do enjoy the challenges in particular and that there are so many of them; I also like the power-ups. But should be interesting to see what Alan-1 does to change it up

Wow, yeah $35K for Drakons, I'd have to do some calculations, but man, that sure seems like a lot of rides customers would have to take to recoup that kind of investment.

As for Asteroids, I'll have to pay closer attention to the music when I play again later. The volume was on, but not loud enough to really hear it well. I didn't mind the UFOs, but they were GIGANTIC. I thought when I saw them, these things are huge! I've been playing arcade Asteroids Deluxe lately, and that game seems infinitely more difficult. Sometimes a little *too* difficult. Ha, yeah, when I put Recharged on Classic mode, I also expected to see the OG game. I think it's just the lives like you said, and if I'm not mistaken, I think there's no power-ups of any kind, just you and the asteroids and your single bullet. I'll check out all the variations later when I play again.