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Arcade1Up: Classic ¾-Sized Arcade Games For Your Home

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If you loved feeding coins into arcade machines from yesteryear and don’t want to spend big $$$$ on a 30+ year old machine, then Arcade1Up’s 3/4 scale classic arcade machines may be for you!

There are currently six arcade cabinets (see below), each cabinet housing multiple games. Before you get too excited, there will only be two cabinets available in Australia via EB Games (as at the time of this article) – Rampage and Street Fighter II Editions. Hopefully we’ll see the rest make their way to retails stores in Australia.

Release date (in Australia) is penned for October 11 with a retail price of $698. These aren’t exactly cheap, but they are cheaper than trying to find an original arcade cabinet which may require some TLC and parts to get it working.

With PAX Aus 2018 just around the corner, we wonder if EB Games could lend a few of these for our Classic Gaming Area…

Street Fighter II Edition with three brill Street Fighter II games

Rampage Edition: Rampage, Gauntlet, Joust & Defender 

Galaga Edition: Walmart exclusive only, housing Galaga and Galaxian!

Centipede Edition: Centipede, Crystal Castles, Missile Command & Millipede

Asteroids Edition: Asteroids, Tempest, Major Havoc & Lunar Lander

Final Fight Edition (coming in 2019): Final Fight, Ghosts’N Goblins, 1944 & Strider

Specs:

Recreate that arcade parlour from your childhood right in your living room!
image source: Arcade1Up

 

How to Win at Pac-Man

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Waka, waka, waka, wanna play Pac-Man like a champion? If you are sick of getting gobbled by Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde, then check out this ‘how to play’ vid, as it will get ya playing for hours instead of minutes!

This guide basically teaches you how to play two of Pac-Man’s maze patterns (there are three officially, but two are 99% the same as each other). So what are you waiting for, go and munch some dots like a champion.


source: stevepiers

 

Man Walks into a Bar and Sees a Pac-Man Machine

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Source: Steve Ringman/The Chronicle 1981

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

I recently walked into a hipster bar that I had never been in before. I immediately felt slightly old. Everyone there was in their early twenties; some of them didn’t look old enough to order a beer. As I made my way past the bustling, long bar, I noticed something in the back corner of the place that I hadn’t seen in a longtime.

A large group of twentysomethings were gathered around an original Pac-Man arcade machine. I hadn’t seen a Pac-Man machine since I was a little kid. It was a smack of nostalgia in a place I didn’t expect it.

Like the Rubik’s Cube or the DeLorean DMC-12, Pac-Man is an 80s icon. Seeing a vintage machine with a group of Millennials playing it, made me curious. I sat at a small booth near the Pac-Man machine and watched the young group feed the machine quarters. They were having such a blast trying to see who could reach the highest score with one quarter.

source: ausretrogamer

After a few craft beers, I wanted to try my hand at Pac-Man; but they had taken over the machine. It was entertaining watching them shriek and groan when they got devoured by a ghost. It may’ve been the first time any of them had ever played the arcade version of Pac-Man, but I still wanted my turn.

Pac-Man brings people together. From the time the game was released in arcades in October 1980, Pac-Man has been a unifier that you could play with friends. Pac-Man is cross-generational. It seems simple at first, but as you keep playing, the difficulty of each stage keeps you addicted to clear the maze.

When Pac-Man was released in 1980, movie theatre owners and movie moguls were worried that the game would hurt the film industry. Pac-Man was taking money away from Paramount and 20th Century Fox. Pac-Man’s enormous popularity was short-lived, but at its height, movie studio executives had to be worried about how long they would be competing with the bright yellow machines.

I never got to play the Pac-Man machine in that bar that night, but I enjoyed watching the twentysomethings play a game that this October will turn 38-years-old. Will there ever be another Pac-Man? I doubt it.

source: ausretrogamer

 

Highest-Grossing Arcade Machines of All Time

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Let’s reflect and gloat for one second – it was great to be alive during the Golden Age of Arcade video games and experience arcade joints first-hand; from the clean franchised ones to the decrepit dark and scary independent ones – we loved them all.

Oh yeah, we loved the games too, from coin dropping in Galaga, Bomb Jack, Pac-Man, Tron, Double Dragon, DragonNinja to Sega’s beasts like Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, OutRun, After Burner and Thunder Blade – we spent up big and loved every single second of it.

The 1990s started with us hammering coins into Atari’s Pit-Fighter, Capcom’s Final Fight and Street Fighter II. However, it was Sega’s Daytona USA that emptied our piggy bank of coins – we just could not get enough of it.

source: The Arcade Flyer Archive

Looking at the top 10 highest grossing arcade games (below), we can tell you that we played them all during their heyday and understand why the dot munching Pac-Man is perched right up top – the game was a breath of fresh air (for its time), as it wasn’t a derivative of the then plethora of space shoot’em ups. Pac-Man was truly a revolutionary title which had universal appeal, both male and female gamers loved chasing Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.

So what of Atari’s Pong then? Well, the 1972 game did very well for Atari, they sold somewhere between 8,500 to 19,000 units (1972 to 1973) grossing them around $11Million US dollars – not bad for 1973!

The revenues generated were quite staggering, reaffirming the Golden Age of Arcade video games period as the most prosperous of them all, with Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam flying the flag for the 1990s.

Source: Wikipedia, USGamer and Goliath

 

E3 News: My Arcade To Launch Two Classic BANDAI NAMCO Mini Players

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If Nintendo can do it with their ‘Minis’, then so can My Arcade and BANDAI NAMCO!

Day two of E3 got us excited with the announcement that My Arcade and BANDAI NAMCO have joined forces and to create two new gaming devices filled with Classic NAMCO games. The new machines further expand the line of products borne out of the partnership, which already includes a set of Micro Player Arcades featuring classic titles such as PAC-MAN™, GALAGA™, and DIG DUG™.

The NAMCO Museum Mini Player will be packed with 20 classic titles and features a large vertical-oriented screen for authentic arcade gameplay. It also features dual front facing speakers for optimal sound, a detachable joystick, and back-lit marquee and coin trap. All of the titles included on the device are the original arcade versions of the games, unless there was no original arcade version available. The Namco Museum Mini Player™ is slated to release in the Holiday 2018 season (between now and end of August).

The PAC-MAN Pocket Player is a brand new 16-bit handheld console designed by My Arcade that is compact, portable, ergonomically designed, and boasts a full colour screen. The Pocket Player™ will include three classic PAC-MAN titles, including original arcade favourite PAC-MAN, along with PAC-PANIC™ and PAC-MANIA™. The Pocket Player will be available starting July 2018 at retailers such as Walmart and Amazon.

We finally got to get excited about something at E3 2018! We can’t wait to get our hands on these units!

source: My Arcade®

 

Ah the 1980s, We Miss You So Much!

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Gotta share this video that was posted by video game history guy, John Anderson. Using John’s words, this is, “A 1981 TV news report by WMAQ-TV in Chicago about the makers of Defender (Williams Electronics) and inside the Midway factory assembling Pac-Man arcade cabinets (350 a day!)”.

Ah the 80s, we definitely miss you so much!

source: John Anderson via Twitter

 

The Incredible Arcade Warehouse in Japan

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Oh My Gosh! Micah Moore, the cool peep that explores the strange and wonderful as part of his Legend of Micah Facebook page has done exactly that – explored the strange, wonderful and incredible arcade in Kawasaki, Japan, modelled after the Kowloon Walled City – an infamous slum in Hong Kong. The Amusement Game Park Kawasaki (Anata No) Warehouse has narrow alleys, flickering lights and the sounds of an underground marketplace that create a maze filled with 80’s and 90’s arcade games.

Taishiro Hoshino, an art designer for kabuki theatre, painstakingly reproduced signs and posters from the real Kowloon Walled City, which was demolished in the early 90’s. This arcade is going on the bucket list immediately!

Big thanks to Skooota for letting us know about this one!


source: Legend of Micah – Facebook

 

PAC-MAN X ORLINSKI: Perfect Art

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Released in Japanese arcades on May 22 1980, Namco’s PAC-MAN has just celebrated his 37th anniversary!

When Toru Iwatani, creator of PAC-MAN, had pizza for lunch, he took one piece from the whole pizza and there it was – a circle with an open mouth!

The best ideas often come from the simplest life experiences. Mr. Iwatani didn’t know he would leave such a mark in the video game industry when he was eating his pizza. Yet, 37 years later, PAC-MAN is still one of the most archetypal characters in gaming. As well as changing the face of arcade games back in 1980, Namco also managed to create an icon in popular culture.

For PAC-MAN’s 37th anniversary, Neamedia has just unveiled a Kickstarter for a series of beautiful sculptures designed by Richard Orlinski with support and license from BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe.

The collection will be available in 3 versions. A yellow 25cm version, a golden chromed version of the same size, and an exclusive 1 metre version limited to 37 units. Added to that, different stretch goals will unlock special rewards such as a PAC-MAN metal figure, artwork of the original PAC-MAN sketches and a limited-edition art book.

If you want to grab yourself a piece of PAC-MAN history, then head to Kickstarter now!

source: Neamedia – PAC-MAN X ORLINSKI Kickstarter

 

NAMCO Mini Arcade Machine Collection

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namco_arcade_collectionHave you ever wanted to recreate an arcade parlour from the 80s? You know those dark dingy joints you used to visit and wow at the pew-pew sounds coming out of Galaga or the distinct wakka-wakka-wakka sound effects from a Pac-Man machine? Ah, those were the days.

Now, where were we? Ah, rather than look for a commercial property and hitting eBay to find arcade machines to recreate your dream 80s arcade parlour, these tiny NAMCO Arcade Machines will go a long way to fulfil your creation. There are five in the collection (Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Rally-X and Tank Battalion), and we truly hope more will be released. Oh yeah, you will have to supply your own well worn carpet with chewing gum for that authentic look and feel.

You can pre-order your NAMCO Arcade Machine Collection now!

A row of beauties!
namco_arcade_title

Recreating the beloved 80s arcade parlour
namco_arcade_parlour_80s

Going gaga over Galaga!
namco_galaga

Fire! Pew-pew!
namco_galaxian

The level of detail is mind-blowing!
namco_rally

A selfie with Pac-Man…… So cool!
namco_pacman

Anyone up for a tank battle?
namco_tankbattalion

source: Goodsmile & Kahotan’s Blog

 

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Is Coming!

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pacman-ce2-HDRPac-Man fever strikes back! Mark September 13 in your diary, as this will be the day that the yellow dot chomper digitally hits Steam®, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!

Taking cues from its past games in the series, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 features new eye-popping 3D graphics and funky visuals where players will be chomping and chasing ghosts through mazes to a whole new level of addictive fun gameplay!

Players will experience brand-new ways of playing Pac-Man with numerous new features such as the Time Attack and Adventure modes. Gather as many points as possible by herding ghosts into ghost trains in a specified time thanks to the Chain Eating feature, chase fast fleeing fruits, fight big bad bosses, experience ridiculous remixed rules and much more! Get your fast twitch skills ready, as Pac-Man fever will take its hold on you!


source: Bandai Namco Enterntainment Europe