We all loved King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters for its David and Goliath story and its peek into the hardcore geek life of competitive arcade gaming. Whether it was completely accurate or not (it was NOT, by the way), it was something that gamers and non-gamers were able to enjoy and have fun with. I’m not sure who is making this, and I’m not sure when it will be out, but Bangback: The Pinball Movie looks to be providing a similar experience. Rather than a David and Goliath story, however, this one focuses on the return of the man who used to rule competitive play in pinball tournaments. The former #1 player simply disappeared from competition roughly ten years ago, but now he’s ready to come back. Check out the trailer below.
Oh, excuse me, but I was just informed that I should not be calling it a comeback.
And as an added bonus, quite possibly the greatest music video of all time.
Hey, it’s a start, right? Steve Wiebe is now the world record holder of Donkey Kong Jr., after taking down the record score back on April 24th, Steve now has his focus on besting Billy Mitchell’s current record for Donkey Kong at E3 this year. The official announcement for Steve’s record-breaking DK Jr. score can be found at Twin Galaxies. Here’s a copy of the release, courtesy of Twin Galaxies:
Steve Wiebe Takes Donkey Kong Junior World Record With Score of 1,139,800
Live Nationally Televised Shot At Original Donkey Kong Airing From E3 on June 2
With Twin Galaxies and the G4 Network preparing for Steve Wiebe’s arrival at E3 in Los Angeles, CA in early June, Steve has been doing some preparing of his own.
While Steve hopes he can regain the Donkey Kong World Record on live national television on June 2, he is able to lay claim to recent success on another classic Donkey Kong title.
On April 24, Twin Galaxies announced that Steve Wiebe has officially taken the Donkey Kong Junior World Record.
The new World Record mark was accomplished on March 14 and verified by Twin Galaxies Chief Referee David Nelson. Steve’s new World Record mark of 1,139,800 points takes the Donkey Kong Junior crown from fellow Washington state native Ike Hall, who was crowned the DKJ World Champ in August 2008 with a score of 1,033,000, taking the crown that Billy Mitchell had held on the game since 1985.
Sources within Twin Galaxies have learned that Ike Hall does plan to make a run at regaining his record, even as Steve prepares for a live nationally televised run at regaining the original Donkey Kong’s World Record, airing on the G4 Network at the annual E3 event in Los Angeles on June 2, with several Twin Galaxies officials there to witness and verify the attempt.
Twin Galaxies hopes to have a word with Steve and possibly with current and former World Record holders on both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior as this televised attempt approaches.
I will be at E3 checking in periodically on Steve’s run at E3. I guess if he takes the crown he’d be the undisputed King of Kong, owning both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. records. With G4 at the event and plenty of hype surrounding Steve’s attempt, it should make for some fun times. Good luck, Steve.
I’ve been searching around, bidding on auctions, watching local classifieds like a hawk (a chicken hawk, to be precise), and even sent out countless emails to old contacts trying to track down a Punch-Out!! arcade cabinet. Most of the time I was either outbid on eBay, was just a little too late with the local classifieds, or sellers just wanted too much for what they had to offer. Earlier this week I finally found a great deal on a working Punch-Out!! that didn’t have any structural or electronic issues, so I jumped right on the opportunity to get the game. Now, this thing is going to need some work to get it just how I want it, but I’m ready for some restoration work out in the garage before I move the game into the arcade room. I picked up a few restoration supplies at Home Depot yesterday, and I have some parts on order that should be here by the end of the week. Below are some of the pictures as the machine looks right now.
As you can see from the pictures, the machine is completely missing its sideart and the paint job is a little scuffed up in places. The upper monitor needs to have a cap kit done on it, the bezel needs to be replaced, and the control panel overlay is torn up in places. I already have a new CPO on its way, new sideart stickers, and two new orange buttons. The marquee is fine, but the bulb needs a new starter, and the marquee brackets actually need fixing.
Here is the fix list (not necessarily in order):
Fix marquee brackets
Install a new starter into the marquee bulb assembly
Strip down the cabinet, sand it down, fill in the holes/chips, repaint the sides, back, top, front
Apply new sideart and control panel overlay
Replace the bezel
Build and paint a new cabinet base (it’s currently missing one)
Install new casters onto the bottom of the cab
Install a cap kit on the upper monitor
Install new t-molding
Remove the coin doors, strip the paint, and repaint them
Install a cap kit on the sound board
Put the whole dang thing back together and pray I didn’t ruin anything in the process
Move the thing into the arcade room!
I’ll try and remember to take work in progress pictures as I go, but I’ll definitely post pictures of the completed project before I move it out of the garage so we can have some good before/after comparisons. This is the last of the “must have” games, so I’m pretty happy to have this one home. I also have my eye on a handful of other games that I found locally that need some restore work, but I’d most likely just get them back to 100% and flip them to other collectors.
Okay, so this is like the third time I’ve made a video of the arcade, but it’s made some significant changes since the last time. All in all, there are ten cabs in the room, and it looks like I just have enough room to squeeze in a Punch-Out!! when I find it. Check out the video below.
Yeah, so I’m a total geek and I have decided to dedicate a room in my house to a bunch of games that are older than most of my readers.
Note: You can see a higher quality version of this video by clicking on the HD button once you’ve started playing the video.
Most people use their garages for stuff like cars, lawnmowers, bicycles, and for a little bit of extra storage. For arcade collectors, however, they can often be used as workshops or even fully fledged game rooms. Here’s a gallery of images that I’ve collected from around the Internet that shows off a bunch of garages that are being used by arcade collectors. Some of these garages look like disorganized messes, while others look like swank lounges complete with bars, comfortable seating, and interesting decorations. If you have pictures that you would like to contribute, email them to me at jar155 [at] gmail.com and I’ll add them to the slideshow.
Note: You can maximize the slideshow to see the images in full screen.
I’m a huge arcade nut, so seeing arcade games coming to the Virtual Console service is something that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The first four titles to release are Star Force (Tecmo), Mappy (Namco), Gaplus (Namco), and The Tower of Druaga (Namco) .
There are literally thousands of worthwhile arcade games that can be released on the Virtual Console. This could be a great source of revenue for struggling studios that have a strong arcade legacy, like Midway. I’m hoping that Nintendo decides to open up the stream of releases a little bit, because the well of arcade classics is pretty deep.
Today my wife (who is 8 months pregnant), my dog, and I headed up to Nampa, Idaho (about 15 minutes east of Boise) to pick up an APB arcade game from a fellow KLOV/BYOAC member, FrizzleFried. Boise is about a 5 hour drive from here, so we got started early. The little adventure wasn’t without its complications, as you’ll see by checking out the pictures and descriptions below, but it was 100% successful and we had a great time. We’re back home, very tired, but happy to have our new game. It’s still in the garage, but we’ll get it moved down into the game room early next week after I do a little bit of extra cleaning on the machine (it’s already pretty darn clean). I usually don’t like splitting posts with a jump, but since this one is a little lengthy I’m going to do so in order to save the front page from being abnormally long.
At times I try to convince myself that I’m actually pretty good at Street Fighter. I mean, I probably gave local gas stations and arcades every quarter I owned from the moment Street Fighter II hit the US up until the late ’90s. As Street Fighter IV has caused a lot of hype and attention, I have noticed that many popular message boards are filling up with newcomers asking why the series is so difficult. There are also quite a few old-timers that walked away from the game around the time that Capcom started focusing in on the Alpha series. Well, I’m hoping that our Street Fighter IV guide will be useful to both of those groups, as well as the longtime casual player that’s never really been able to delve into the deeper bits of the battle system.
A link to the guide is also available just below the site header. Please feel free to email me anything that you think would improve the guide at jar155 [at] gmail.com. I also welcome any and all criticism about my strategies or conclusions about the game. Thanks for reading!
This guy has to have some sort of supernatural power to do what he does in the video below. Seriously. I have Marble Madness at home, with the trackball, and I’ve only ever completed the game once. When I did, I think I had like 9-10 seconds to spare and I felt like the greatest gamer ever. Now this video comes along and humbles me beyond description. Check out the video guys, even if you’ve never played Marble Madness in the arcade, you’ll have to appreciate what this guy manages to pull off.
In the arcade collector’s community, a game that is very rare or hard to come by is considered a “grail”, and people get fanatical about finding and owning them. Games like Major Havoc are classic grails, and can sell for $2,000 (or higher) at auction or on the private market, depending on their condition and how many original parts are full intact. Now, it seems like Street Fighter IV is going to be mighty scarce here in the United States, as Capcom hasn’t officially released the game here, and getting one is a major runaround. Stephen Totilo of MTV Games’ Multiplayer blog did some digging and found that in order to get one, you gotta have a lot of cash and even more determination and patience. From his article he says…
…the average gamer probably could” get one — if they can navigate the following hurdles:
1) Spend A Lot Of Money: Capcom won’t divulge the price. All I could find out is that the 2,349,400 Yen cost I found on a website from March is a re-seller’s price. Capcom is selling for less. But considering that re-seller price amounts to $21,802, I guess we’re talking about an actual price that is still greater than what I usually spend on a PS3, a year’s supply of socks or a honeymoon.
2) Buy In Bulk: Want a “Street Fighter IV” arcade cabinet? Too bad, you can’t get one. You have to get four of them. So be ready to write a really big check. Capcom won’t take orders for single units. The company requires a purchase of four units of “Street Fighter IV.” I wonder how many “Street Fighter V” units they’ll require when that game comes out? (Apparently Bungie Studios inquired about buying one — but do even they have money for four?)
3) Live In Japan: Capcom isn’t selling “SFIV” arcade cabinets in the U.S. yet. So how is the game already in some American arcades? It appears that U.S. arcade-owners have imported their units, in some cases just having imported the boards and stuck them into non-”SFIV” cabinets. The units in the U.S. now are gray-market and not approved by Capcom.
4) Wait: Capcom U.S. pr man Chris Kramer tells me that there’s no official date for when the “”SFIV” cabinets will ship to the U.S. But the company wants to make it happen. “We’re still talking with a few people here, but the arcade business outside of Japan is tough,” he told me today. “There are at least two companies seriously interested in purchasing ‘SFIV’ machines from us, but no done deals at the moment.”
It sounds like if these beauties make it over here in any sort of significant number (doubtful) that the operators are going to be reluctant to take them off their routes any time soon. In order to recoup their costs, they’re going to need the game to eat up quarters for quite some time. And when these games finally do start making their way into the private collections across the country, they are going to be extremely costly as demand will most definitely outpace supply on a permanent basis. At least we know the game will be coming to the 360 and PS3 at a reasonable and affordable price…
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