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LBX Collective
The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.
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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #11 - Main Event promotion innovation, Disney Cabins for sale, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Discover the secrets behind the entertainment industry's latest trends and innovations as Brandon Willey takes you on a journey to London and New Orleans. From the EAG Show and the Social Immersive Entertainment Expo to the IAAPA FEC Summit, get a firsthand account of the myriad product launches and panel discussions shaping the future of entertainment. Main Event's bowling pin hunt in Montclair, California is sparking creativity and community engagement, proving there's more to fun than meets the eye.
Unlock the magic of Disney with a chance to own one of their exclusive themed cabins, a limited offer that adds a touch of enchantment to your living space. With only 25 out of the initial 100 available, these cabins are a unique investment for fans and collectors alike. And don't miss insights from industry expert Kevin Williams of Open and Shut, as he shares the latest news on venue openings and closings, keeping you up-to-date on dynamic shifts within the sector.
From golfing simulators in Amsterdam and Minnesota to the epic rise and fall of the Paramount London resort project, this episode covers the spectrum of entertainment. Explore the future of arcade gaming with Adam Pratt as he gives previews of exciting new titles and remastered classics. Plus, delve into the nitty-gritty of kitchen design for entertainment venues with Dave Wallace, where vented vs. ventless kitchens could mean the difference between profit and loss. Whether you're an industry insider or an enthusiastic observer, this episode promises to inform and inspire.
All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX show number 11 for January 12th. So we've got a great show for you today and I'm super excited for we've got Kevin Williams covering open and shut. It's all of the latest openings and all the latest closings. We also have Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner and then we also have Dave Wallace doing some chow time today. So, with that being said, let's kick things off with some news. You should know, all right. Well, so for news, you should know, first of all, we're going to kick things off with a little bit of LBX Galaxy. So, if you remember, we launched the LBX Galaxy just before IAPA Expo and if you scan that QR code, if you're watching this, that'll take you to a form to go and fill out. But we've got the conversation really is beginning to kick up and there's people posting in there, questions going in, discussions happening, and so you definitely want to get into the LBX Galaxy and check that out. All right, I'm also excited because I am flying out. Actually, as you're listening to this, I am on my way. If you're listening to this, sunday evening, when it comes out, I'm on my way to London to basically go to the EAG show and the Social Immersive Entertainment Expo. So, very excited about that. I'll be speaking on one of the panels as well on Wednesday, and then you're going to see walk the floor with Kevin Williams and see a few other people and just see what's new and what's going on out there in Europe, and I thought it was pretty cool as well. So basically, the expo is going to have 100 stands. So stands 100 exhibitors from 100 stands, 96 exhibitors, I guess. And they're also not only co-locating with the Social Immersive Entertainment Expo that Kevin Williams put together, but they're co-locating with the London Casino and Gaming Show. So those are going to both sit alongside the EAG.
Speaker 2:And then this is kind of blowing my mind and this is what I really want to check out they are saying that apparently, um, they're gonna there's gonna be like in excess of a thousand product launches happening at this show, like this is. This is the thing that has got me a little bit confused. If there's only 96 exhibitors, I say only, it's fine, it's like you know, it's like amusement expo, right. So there's 96 exhibitors, but there's gonna be a thousand product launches. So it means every single one of those exhibitors is going to be doing 10 product launches on average. So, anyway, we'll see if that plays out, but that is the apparent research that they've done and that's what they're excited to talk about.
Speaker 2:But you know, whatever, all right, well then I get back from London at EAG and I immediately, you know, within like a day, like laundry, whatever shower, et cetera I hop on another plane and go over to New Orleans for the IAAPA FEC Summit and you still have time to register. You can register even at the door if you want to come in there. I mean, it's not ideal but you could do that. So there is still time to register. You can go to IAAPAorg, i-a-a-p-aorg, and you can go ahead and get registered there. So it's going to be a good time. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, but looking forward to it, all right.
Speaker 2:A couple of other things we got going on here. So Main Event has a unique competition that has just launched for one of their new excuse me, one of their new facilities, all right. So Main Event in Montclair California. I didn't actually look up where Montclair California is, but it's got to be somewhere at least busy enough to support a main event. But they are opening January 22nd in 2025. So this year, so just in a couple of weeks. But this is what I thought was pretty cool. This is a unique competition that I don't think they've ever done before any main event. I've certainly never heard of it and I don't know really if anybody has done this kind of thing before, but it's pretty freaking cool and that's why I wanted to share it, because I thought this could be something that, if you're thinking about opening a venue or a second or third or fourth location or whatever, it's a really unique way to do it.
Speaker 2:And so, basically, they're a 51,000 square foot facility. They are going to have typical stuff, so they're going to have your bowling, your games. They're going to have food and beverage, billiards. They're going to do gel blaster as well as laser tag, so they are including gel blaster. The gel blaster is blowing up, everybody's taking on gel blaster.
Speaker 2:But they're going to be releasing clues each day. They've already started this, so it's January 7th through January 16th, with the first person to find a pin. So basically, what happened is they lost a shipment of the final shipment of bowling pins that were lost in transit, and so they're going to be releasing clues about each pin and so the first person to find each pin. A bowling pin will be awarded, an invitation for four to the venue's exclusive VIP event and then free games for a year. So the person who finds the golden pin will win free main event for life. I think that that means literally free main event, like free laser tag, free everything Probably not F&B, I'm guessing, but at least all the attractions. And so you know, the general manager, michelle Hughes, said we're so devastated about missing, missing shipment of bowling pins and we need the Montclair communities help tracking them down. We're gearing up for an epic grand opening weekend and those pins are the final missing piece to the puzzle. So anyway, just thought that it was pretty cool idea and you know something that probably could and you know something that probably could do, you know, replicate in other areas and other event you know in other communities. So anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.
Speaker 2:All right, the last thing I want to talk about so I don't know if you know this, but Disney's Fort Wilderness campground. They recently did a whole refresh and the decades old cabins they were replaced. And there was a guy, james Robert Morrison he's the owner of MIMS, based Florida manufactured home sales acquired a hundred of the old cabins last year directly from Disney. So I didn't really know that you could do that, but apparently he you know he did so. Back then, like back in the spring of last year, florida Today wrote an article about the cabins being available for purchase. And then Morrison just said things got totally nuts and crazy and so here we'll pull up one of the cabins here and maybe we'll make it a little bit bigger here for you guys.
Speaker 2:All right, actually, I don't know if that's big or not, I don't know which one looks better. What do you guys think? All right, anyway. Okay, so I thought this was interesting. So he basically said it's a 25 cabin. They have 25 cabins remaining of the 100. So you actually still can buy these things and you basically just have to put down a deposit. He's selling the cabins for $60,000 each and some of them have been resold for a higher price, but Morrison is sticking to his price of $60,000. And the cost includes delivery up to 100 miles. Additional fees are applied if you want to transport it further.
Speaker 2:So you know, if I wanted to get one here in Phoenix, then I would need to obviously pay a little bit more for it. But basically they were, you know, given a contract, and they're one bedroom, one bathroom cabins. So you can see, here I'm going to make this a little bigger here. Uh, all right, there we go.
Speaker 2:Uh, so you can see here it is a single bedroom, kind of like a sweet studio style. There is a kitchen. It comes fully furnished. Uh, it comes with a mattress, that's queen size bed, twin bunk beds, you get the kitchen table, you get the like the rustic looking chairs. You basically get everything that comes with the cabin, including the stove and the refrigerator.
Speaker 2:And then there's still lots of little Disney touches to things. So here's the bunk beds and the queen bed, obviously crammed into a single bedroom, but that's fine because it's a cabin, but basically the front doors still have a spot to place a magic band. There are Disney-themed toiletry bottles attached to the bathtub wall. There's a sign inside the closet that's addressed to Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests with safety information. And then there's your other typical stuff. You even get a Bible in the bedside drawer, which is funny. So he even kept the Bibles in there.
Speaker 2:So if you're interested in getting one, you can call Morrison and his number is 47-509-8262. So you can call Morrison at 407-509-8262 if you actually do want to get one of these cabins. Hey look, you can have a piece of Disney history and it can be a cool little place to stay for your family, if you've got a place to drop it. So, anyway, um, or a little escape for, uh, you know, a place to put your in-laws, or something like that. So, anyway, I thought that was pretty cool, pretty fun, and, uh, you know, that's it. That is the news you should know.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so now we're going to hear from Kevin Williams, with Open and Shut, listening about all of the latest openings and closings that you could possibly imagine. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless system from Intercard increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and, if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon.
Speaker 3:Hey, big hello to everyone. In this latest open and shut, a crowded couple of days following on from the festivities. We're really being dropped into the middle of all of the entertainment openings Some interesting ones. So let's jump straight in, and I suppose the first one that I really need to point out is the explosion in golf sim facilities, a trend but a way of life. It feels that a lot of venues are opening that are including either their sim golf system as a core component of their entertainment offering or as a companion, and so we have our friends here with rough. I quite like the name of the facility amsterdam. Again, I'm not sure how big a golfing community it is, but again, that may be an immaterial statement, because it seems that these systems are appealing to both the amateur uh, the specialist, as well as just the uh inquisitive golfer. Facilities being opened in a shopping center. So it is a unit. It is also supporting a miniature golf, components to it, so we have miniature golf, the golfing simulators, all in a competitive socializing environment. Then we jump over to Minnesota, and Minnesota gets a brand new five irons, interesting one one here, uh that they are going. You know, it's a smaller sized uh operation, it's actually going into uh, an acquired space that has been refurbished and redeveloped and turned fully into uh, a five irons. It's going to have six of these bays as well as their, their putting green, which is, you, is a kind of physical attraction, but, as we've been talking about previously, this one will also include some secondary entertainment a pool table, shuffleboard not major secondary spend elements, but still showing that the golf is being given support, as it were. This is 30 facilities and you know our friends at Five Irons are in the news also regarding some of the investments that they've been making in support of the Tech Golf League that we mentioned in a couple of sound offs back in a couple of sound offs back. They really are positioning themselves, as I think many golf simulator facilities are, to be supportive of the spend that we will see behind the TGL. It's going to be interesting to see how this market evolves and we have another one throwing its hat in the ring, this time in Smallville no-transcript original name in their new venture Again, golf simulators, again aiming for a competitive, socializing environment, moving on and we see the conversion of a department store space into an entertainment space.
Speaker 3:Zap Zone XL in Michigan will be opening its doors. It's quite a large facility, you know, 158,000 square, and it's going to be a mixture of entertainment facility, a little bit of competitive socializing, a little bit of F&B and some active entertainment. We're seeing this as a $15 million investment, so it's quite a large facility rollout. I get you know, the ZAP Zone is a chain of facilities. They do both trampoline as well as entertainment. This is one of the first of the ZAP Zone XLs and it will be including a bowling component, it will be including adult entertainment, it will be including a wider entertainment mix, as it were. Again, one to keep an eye on, and we think that this will be followed up by another announcement in a couple of months' time. So watch this space.
Speaker 3:Our friends at Seattle have just seen the opening of Electric Castle's Wonderland 30,000 square foot, so one of the largest. Now, from the information I have, this is the fifth of the facilities of this particular chain and I have the information that they have opened the doors, though the website still says coming soon. So I may be a couple of days early on the opening of this facility, but you know it's got the go-kart, it's got the laser tech, it's got the amusement a very interesting mix attack. It's got the amusement. A very interesting mix. Jumping back to the UK and London, and electric shuffle already has one facility in Canary Wharf and they've just revealed they'll be opening up another venue in the city, this one in King's Cross near the train station, as it were, the major hub. They're really beginning to gain momentum in the rollout of this gamified shuffleboard system. I've had the pleasure of keeping a very close eye on the electric shuffle rollout over the years as they are kind of a bellwether of how this kind of entertainment approach is going to work. If you look at electric shuffle in comparison to, say, something like Flight Club, you'll understand that there are variances and differences in their approach which are worth keeping an eye on. But you know, internationally the company has eight venues in operation and this latest addition to the mix carries on their stylization and their entertainment mix Parkies interesting name. This one is going to be opening up in New Jersey another large venue, 200,000 square foot. It is a complete entertainment mix go-karts, track in there, bar axe throwing amusement. They managed to get some pictures from their mood document showing how they intend the site to look. You know they are planning this to be opened at the end of the year, but the full details has now become available and I've included this. So be prepared to see parkies appear again in December's open and shut.
Speaker 3:An interesting one here, an Itsy Bitsy facility, itsy-bit arcade in Texas, texas, again. A very bijou, very small entertainment hub, a bit of retro, a bit of console, even a little bit of food, I'm led to believe from the information. But anyway, this is more of a family operation, mom and pops as we would call them, and it's, you know, offering a nice craft entertainment environment, very unique, you know, a little bit of, shall we say, bootstrap entertainment, to find a better word. We wish them a lot of luck with the opening of their facility and they're also going to be including a lot of local artists' work into the mix. This is a nice one to see appearing into the marketplace.
Speaker 3:Iowa gets Dog Bowl Interesting again. I've only got the renderings. Iowa gets a dog bowl Interesting Again. I've only got the renderings for this. I haven't got the roll-out pictures, but it's going to have darts. I'm not sure if it's going to be AR darts. It's going to have pool tables. It's axe throwing amusement, you know, along with the 20 lanes of bowling amusement, uh, you know, along with the 20 lanes of bowling, uh and um. You know, this kind of uh operation is, uh, really uh, hoping to pivot itself into a space or a territory that hasn't got a this kind of entertainment in its catchment. And we're hoping to get a little bit more idea of what the mix is in the stylization. But, you know, the Bulldogs bowling brand looks pretty interesting and we hope to get a lot more idea of what they're going to be rolling out with their mix in the next couple of days.
Speaker 3:Flight Adventure Park is part of a chain, 2000 Square going into Charleston. I'm interested about this one because it's a redevelopment. The facility has already existed but what they've done is they've put some investment into making it much more flight orientated. They've also dropped in some new attractions into the space, you know, with what they call a lunar park component. They have eight sites part of the flight chain. I've been looking at them and most of them are active entertainment and their stylization. But it seems that this latest investment is to allow them to have a broader entertainment mix to their offering. And then Pickleball, oh dear, oh, dear, oh dear.
Speaker 3:Well, we have Box Pickleball. Box Pickleball Interesting one, new York, and their tagline they want to be the Box Pickleball is like Topgolf for Picklers. Yeah, okay, I couldn't find any gamification here. All I could find was indoor courts with some F&B components. You know, nice layout, interesting mix, but with no gamification. I can't really call them a top golf takeover. But you know, we wish them the best with their nine courts. We would like to see how this survives in a very crowded market in New York for entertainment dollar. Our friends at Amusement Entertainment Management have been working with our friends at Thrill Factory and they've opened in Wisconsin their first site, 50,000 Square, the Thrill Factory chain. I've tried to do some research here and they have a number of facilities out in the sector. As far as I understand. I hope that they're all under the same Thrill Factory. This isn't an outlier, but anyway, this is a very large facility, 50,000 square, not as large as some of the ones I've been talking about, but still quite a large utilization. Amusement bowling, f&b you know the standard formats, though something about this you know, the guys at AEM really are putting in the effort to try and make this its own effort. And if you look at the pictures on the website and on their Facebook you can see that they've really gone for a high stylized presentation of the venue. Looking forward to actually getting a chance to walk around that site soon.
Speaker 3:Funhub Canada Interesting. It's got about 120 amusement pieces in it. It's got a very heavy VR component to it, a VR zone component, and it is part of a group of entertainment venues that are run by a VR entrepreneur. So this is an interesting addition to the Canadian mix, the Montreal mix, as it were. Again, it feels like it is amusement with VR being used as an attraction and hopefully now the doors are open on the facility, we'll be able to get a little bit more detail on how the mix works. Dave Buster's taking a lot of time here. You know we've already covered the changing in their management structure. Alabama Mobile gets its first Dave Buster's 30,000 square. This facility is interesting that it also includes the Social Bay component and is, you know, quite a flash new branding of the Dave Buster's rollout.
Speaker 3:You know it is the flagship facility in that particular territory, so they're going all out. You know this is 168 Dave Buster's out there, you know, ranging from Puerto Rico to America, to Canada and India. Talking about India, of course the Bangalore facility has thrown its doors open, has thrown its doors open. It has gone for the reappropriation of key elements of the Dave and Buster's mix, but given an Indian spin. I was looking at the video walk around of this site and it has its interpretation of the social base added to the mix, though all I could see was the darts. I didn't actually see the arena or the shuffleboard in the the video walk around and this is being developed. Uh, malapai group in india is working with dave and buster's india and they've already announced that they've got their uh location aimed for spring. So a couple of months, I think two months time rollout. So again, dave Buster's is really plowing its furrow very deeply here and also with the partnership allows it to start quite a competitive rollout. Partnership allows it to start quite a competitive rollout, remembering that the Indian diaspora has quite a large FEC presence already, with a number of chains successful in that territory. Another Indian one here. Pokido Junior is part of the Pokido Trampoline Chain and they've just announced the opening of a Mumbai facility for them. This is quite a large family but children-focused entertainment space 11,000 square foot, ball pit, arcade a bit of everything here. Again. How many of these will roll out in comparison to the trampoline site? We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 3:And then Saudi Arabia, safar Freeland I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly Again, quite a large mixed-use leisure entertainment. It's got an ice rink, it's got a drop tower, it's got a roller coaster. So quite a large venueuse leisure entertainment. It's got an ice rink, it's got a drop tower, it's got a roller coaster, so quite a large venue, including an amusement component and part of a chain of facilities in that territory. Now to wind down with the shots and anyone that's driven to Las Vegas from Los Angeles will have driven past Whiskey Pete's, which sat on the California-Nevada border, as it were, on your way to Las Vegas Well, a couple of months ago they closed down. So a couple of years ago they closed down their amusement park component and now it's been announced that the whole of the Whiskey Pete's casino resort facility and amusement component will be shutting permanently. I wouldn't be surprised if the property is purchased by a developer and turned into another entertainment chain. But again, we'll have to wait and see how the cards fly.
Speaker 3:On that one, crystal Bees in Connecticut closed its doors. It had been going since 2016, and in the local news reports the owners were citing that they could no longer survive due to the economic conditions. It wasn't clear if the economic conditions were number of audience or the price that they had to pay for their operation, but sorry to see that go. And again we'll have to wait and see if that particular bowling facility is taken over by a new ownership. And then you know, finally a nail is put into the coffin. The final nail is put into the coffin of what was London Resorts and, previous to that, what was London.
Speaker 3:Paramount's aspirations of opening the facility proposal has been going for 14 years now. You know it was a $3.5 billion project that was going to open a theme park, what some people called the UK's Disneyland. The project has gone through turmoil, confusion and even had to deal with finding of a rare spider species, spider species that saw the Friends of the Earth and all of the other natural bodies protesting the proposal to build the facility. Anyway, paramount, who had given their name to the property and project and had come back a second time after pulling out, had gone to the high courts for unpaid license fees and capital, and the courts have ruled that the operation is to be wound down, or wound up, as it were, and the debts to be reallocated. So the chances of the London resort ever seeing the light of day have now been kiboshed. It's a bit of a sad one for me, because that was a project that I had started on the origination of the concept of Paramount London, but the cards were not right for that one either.
Speaker 3:Anyway, that's the end of this particular open and shut. Any questions or any corrections please hit me up at the LBX Galaxy or on the email. But anyway, wishing you a good one all right, try that again.
Speaker 2:Thanks a lot for that, kevin. So I what I thought. One of the things I thought it was interesting is he talked a little bit about just golf simulators and how that's really beginning to pick up, and I do agree, I think that golf simulators and just sports simulators in general are are definitely going to pick up, and I really loved the Ruff logo, the Ruff concept. You know they had mini golf as well as sim golf simulators. So I think, combining those two, I think with the TGL the Technology Golf League, you know coming out and with their first they just had their first week and then I think there's another week and then the third week, you know they're going to work out their kinks. There's some things that weren't quite right about this first week, but anyway, I think, with the TGL and really going and people are going to want to come into these golf simulators, and so Five Iron is also one of those brands that's really moving forward very quickly and actually there was one of the latest videos on our partner friends, fun Across America. So if you haven't been to the YouTube channel Fun Across America or funacrossamericacom, they recently had a video where they went and visited a Five Iron Golf and so definitely would recommend going and checking out funacrossamericacom and seeing that latest Five Iron Golf video. It's about eight minutes long. Nate walks around and talks you know talks about it and you know plays a little bit and so you get a chance to see some of the five iron golf experience. But I definitely agree that golf simulators are coming down the line.
Speaker 2:I also thought it was interesting. Well, I don't actually know, it wasn't interesting. Let me just be clear box pickleball Okay. First. Box Pickleball Okay, first of all, I'm not going to get on my Pickleball rant here, but I will say I'm going to pull up their website here because, first of all, if you're going to go and do Pickleball, especially if you're going to go and call yourself the top golf for picklers, then actually be the top golf for picklers and go and do that. So they are about as far from top golf for picklers as I can possibly imagine.
Speaker 2:I think where you start to get to some of that is like in the uh, you know, in the uh, what would I like? What's one of them? Electric pickle or chicken and pickle or camp pickle, like? At least there's a theme to it and yeah, there's some cool graffiti and stuff on the walls here. But then when I then what was like really terrible to me is I went I was like, okay, I'm going to check out their food, you know, cause they're a container bar and kitchen and all right, maybe their food is good, but this menu is fucking terrible. So, this menu is fucking terrible. So pull up here.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to zoom in a little bit here, but basically their menu is like first of all it's Comic Sans so I don't know who still uses Comic Sans for anything but then it's not Comic Sans, and then it is Comic Sans, and then it's red, and then it's 1.5 spacing, and then it's one spacing and it's 2.5 spacing. And then, wait, what? Why spacing? And then it's one spacing and it's 2.5 spacing. And then, wait, what? Why do we have times, new Roman down here, and then a different font size entirely as well, like down here for beverages. So anyway, this was so terribly done and I just would have taken almost no time at all to go and work up a decent looking menu before you go and you launch your, launch your website so, and and launch your entire thing. I hope that's not what they're actually printing out and delivering there.
Speaker 2:So please, please, please, pay attention to the little things. If you want to do a pickleball venue and you want to have a bar and a kitchen, okay, fine, go and do a pickleball venue, but don't do it in a shitty executed way, because that was what will drive people away. They're not going to come just because you happen to have a pickleball venue. It isn't build it and they will come. So maybe I am ranting a little bit here, but please, it's the little things. And having a menu that at least looks like a menu and not like you just quickly typed it up on Microsoft Word and then had a monkey type it up in Comic Sans, isn't going to actually help you drive food and beverage sales or give any confidence whatsoever to your guests as they walk in the door. All right, that's enough on that rant, but hopefully you're able to take something away from it. Coming up after this quick break, we'll have Adam Pratt with Arcade Corner walking us through the latest in the arcade and amusements world.
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Speaker 5:It's adam with arcade heroes, forade Corner, and welcome to the latest edition of this segment. Last time I talked about the games that have been released in 2024, and today I'm going to take a look at the arcade and pinball releases for 2025. We actually already have two games that have been released that are available shipping now, although not sure how quickly you might get them it depends on the manufacturer and such. And then, of course, next week we do have EAG over in London, where there's going to be a lot of releases announced, although that will be focused on Europe and not North America. What I'm going to mainly focus on right now is North America. Usually there's a lot of overlap between North America and Europe, although in recent years we've been seeing some releases, particularly some redemption games, that are only available in Europe, or at least they're available in Europe first, and then eventually they find their way over to North American shores. But for the most part, the two lists are fairly equal. So, checking out our tracking page for that, the two of the games that have already been released the first is Avian Nights by Alan One. So this game was at Alan One's booth at iapa 2024.
Speaker 5:You can think of it as a spiritual successor to joust. It's not just a joust clone where it's just doing joust. It has new elements to it 256 waves, backgrounds, music you can attack with your bird once your knight's been knocked off. I mean, the basic gameplay is like joust in that you know you're flying giant birds and attacking each other. There's also a weapon system, which joust never had, and you can update your weapons and such, and so that one is available now in both two and four player designs and and as far as I know, this one will ship out very quickly.
Speaker 5:I I do have to say that the artwork on this one is really, really good. If you didn't see it at IAPA, it's one of the best visual treats of an arcade machine that I've seen. It's really really well done, but they have a professional comic book artist that does all of their artwork for them. In that regard, the other game that was announced just right after new years or I think it was announced before new years but unveiled right after was dungeons and dragons the eye of the tyrant, which almost sounds like the eye of the tiger right, but uh, by stern pinball. And this is at ces 2025, which unfortunately I'm not at myself. I wouldn't mind checking out from what I hear. Godzilla, kaiju wars vr is there at the dpbr booth and there might be a few other arcade related things, including dungeons and dragons eye of the tyrant, if you wanted to check that out.
Speaker 5:But this employs a bunch of dnd elements into a pinball machine. Now, this isn't the first time that dnd has been done as in pinball. Well, the only other time that I can recall was bally midway did um, I did this back in 1987. But this one right here is far more advanced, far more complex. It has a bunch of cool elements where every single week, it will reset the virtual dungeon that you can explore within the game. It has items that you can collect, characters that you can level up and, of course, using stern's insider connected, it's able to save your progress, and so I like that idea behind it, and the story was also designed by stern themselves, and so if you're into dnd at all, then this is probably going to be a machine that grabs your attention, although I'm not sure which models are already out there or not. Generally speaking, it does take a little bit of time, and stern's also been changing things about when they ship stuff out. I think the last game that they did, the Uncanny X-Men they started shipping out the limited editions first and then the premiums and then the pros or something along those lines. But they're constantly changing that strategy Now for coming soon.
Speaker 5:There's quite a few games that are up on here that we can go over really quick and now it's always possible that some of these might be delayed into 2026. There's, like this one right here, alien Field 3671. I need to double check and see if that's even still in development, because I think this has been on my list for a few years already and it just keeps showing up on the next list but it doesn't get released for the X Arcadia. But X Arcadia they do fill up a lot of this list and that's the advantage of their platform is where they sell cartridges that you can install into their system and it holds up to four cartridges like the old Neo Geo MVS. That's allowed them to release a lot of content. But of course it is changed from what might exist out there as far as an early JAMA version from the 90s, like this first one Air Gallet's ExaLabel. Now that takes a somewhat obscure scrolling shoot-em-up kind of like Raiden, and they're updating it, giving it a director's cut, and so these little symbols that I put here AE for Arcade Exclusive, aec would be Arcade Exclusive Content, although I think with this game it would probably be proper to just call it Arcade Exclusive.
Speaker 5:Alpha Ops VR Strike by 3MindWave and Sega Amusements is coming to us in April and May. That was at IAAPA, although the build that was there was about 70% complete, from what they had told me at 3Mindwave that there was going to be some significant changes made to the cabinet so that it was going to look a lot different. And I know that some of the Sega reps were also wanting to change the marquee because apparently it was very difficult for them to install, so they didn't want to have to spend some hours working on that. Angry Birds Fury Road. I'm not sure when this one is going to be shipping. This was at IAAPA over at the DOF Robotics booth and their first arcade game. This was at IAPA over at the DOF Robotics booth and their first arcade game. But I should be finding out next week sometime when this will be shipping. I assume it'll be within the first quarter, but if I don't know, I'll just put TBA to be announced. Asuka 120% Burning Feet. Excellent for XR Arcadia, also TBA.
Speaker 5:This is a one-on-one fighting game, a two-dimensional fighting. It had been released on the sega saturn way back in the 90s, but this version is again pretty much with everything that the x arcadia does. It's a director's cut, thus enhancing the game from what might have existed before, correcting bugs, sometimes adding more content, definitely speeding things up so that it responds properly and quickly. Atari Recharge titles by Alan1. There's a few. I do know what they are personally because I've been doing some work with Alan1. As a disclaimer, I guess I should have said that earlier with Avian Knights, but until they're announced I can't say what they are. But there's going to be a lot of content coming from Alan1 here pretty soon.
Speaker 5:Another one-on-one fighter for the Ex Arcadia is Axel City 2, the Final Storm. This game already exists for their platform, but this Final Storm is a major, major content update adding more characters and such. You can kind of think of it as Street Fighter 2 as far as how it plays and to some degree how it looks as well, and I know from reports in Japan this has been earning very, very well. Bigfoot Smash just got an email this morning saying that they're taking pre-orders for it now and it's shipping out in March. I should say most of these were at IAPA, including Bigfoot Smash, and so this is the third in their Bigfoot series that they've done. But it puts all the action on one screen and handles up to three players. I did find it interesting how they would narrow the other players who weren't active, like a cpu player, down to a smaller screen.
Speaker 5:For you, bunny bomber blast is kind of like dig dug meets bomber man for the xr acadia. It's very retro style and it should be one of the cheaper games, somewhere around five to seven hundred dollars for the cartridge. Um, carnival shot by unis. This was a redemption uh shoot them up game where you're shooting at the screen with a light gun, but kind of carnival style, shooting at different targets and such. But I was very impressed with the graphics. It also has a capsule, or they showed the capsule module model at iapa. But they also have a ticket redemption version.
Speaker 5:Uh, chaos code, nemesis experiment. That's a sequel to the first chaos code that was on x arcadia. Kind of looks like marvel versus capcom to some degree, but probably closer to a. If you're not into fighters, some of these names won't make sense to you but blaze blue or guilty gear is kind of what that's close to now. Chef it up. This was a very innovative indie game that was at iapa, had a small booth they were right behind jersey jack pinball, but very innovative where you're running a kitchen and each station with a screen on of the four was a different station within the kitchen and having up to four players. Each person had a different responsibility, different controls. A lot of fun.
Speaker 5:Cotton rock and Roll 2 is the scrolling shoot-em-up that's coming to Exarcadia. Cyberblocker R is kind of like Arkanoid for the Exa and it also will use their trackball controller that they unveiled last year. Demon Bride X again is a director's cut of a one-on-one fighter that had only really been available in Japan prior, called called demon bride. Daybreak slam is another one-on-one fighter, but this one's all 3d and I got to play this at amusement expo 2024. Looked really really good, um, and was easy for people who are really aren't into fighters to get into. Demon front exo label this is a remaster of a metal slug like game called demon front, which has mainly been available in asia, but this was many years ago. I think 20 years ago was when it was first released. So they're remastering it, bringing it in HD.
Speaker 5:Dino Storm by Unus Not sure yet when this one's going to be shipping, but that was a lot of fun. The rowing game that they had at their booth and dinosaurs on it, kind of like Rapid River by Namco Dojo Masters on it, kind of like rapid river by namco dojo max masters, ex another one-on-one fighting game, a very simplified game. It also looks very retro, earthy. On exa label, also a game that's being developed for the sega genesis, but also in conjunction with that they're doing the uh, an exa arcadia version, and so it looks like a sega genesis game because of that reason. Um ex arcadia does have a couple of games that they've told me about, but they haven't been announced yet so I can't unveil what they are. Yet a food fight frenzy this is by retro arcade remakes, the guys who did the ice cold beer game, I. This was supposed to ship out in december but they missed that launch window, so when I asked them they said quarter one is most likely. So staying tuned for that.
Speaker 5:On bandai namco's gold storm pirates, the sequel to dead storm pirates that was at iapa and looking great uh, it's going to come out sometime within the next few months. I've also been trying to find out exactly when on that one jam, jam and jelly, excellente, uh, scrolling, shoot them up. Beautiful'em Up looks like a cartoon that was also at IAPA. A lot of fun to play, but you have to be into Shoot'em Ups to really enjoy it. You know, lai's sort of answer to godzilla, but without the vr headsets and goggles and such neon rush. Is, uh, unis's answer to super bikes 3 with the two screens.
Speaker 5:Beautiful looking game, perfect, poor by dsm arcade. Uh, this is technically shipping out in february but it's already out there at a couple bar arcades. And this is an indie game. And this is actually the game that inspired icy slush rush that this had been developed prior to that. And, uh, it is different as the core concept of the game is the same, where you're pouring drinks really quick, but, um, that perfect pour has some additional stuff to it that makes it a deeper game. A rage.
Speaker 5:Dragons w is a remaster of an old one-on-one fighter for the EXA. Sailor's Quest 2 VR. The sequel to Sailor's Quest with a VR game, super Drill, will be available here within the next week or two from Amusement Source International. This was at the Ace Amusement booth, kind of like a Dig Dug game where you're drilling down into the ground. I thought it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5:The Fallen Angels Revenge this is one of those games that's been on my list for many, many years and so still, as far as I know, it's coming, but I just don't know if it really will ship out this year. It's one-on-one fighting game and same with vanguard princess r it's one-on-one fighting game. This was announced last year but, uh, somewhat obscure. Uh lai games. In the replay of for iapa it mentioned that there was going to be, uh, this, this kind of mixed reality shooter at IAPA, but it wasn't there and it'll be at amusement expo. But I was told it's not mixed reality, it's more VR.
Speaker 5:Uh, the warlords remake, also by retro arcade. Remakes will be um, also shipping out soonish, uh, just don't know when. And then wild guns raw hide. And then Wild Guns Rawhide, which is a remastered director's cut of Wild Guns that was a popular game on the SNES. It'll come to X Arcadia. So those are the games that are coming this year to arcades. Which one of these do you think would do great in your venue? And of course, we'll know of a lot more once IAPA rolls around. Particularly, there's one interesting one you'll want to know about with Perfect Pour come February. It will be announced very soon, but it'll include licensing is what I can say, and so that'll be very interesting. But thanks for watching. We'll see you guys around the next segment. Bye.
Speaker 2:God damn it. Sorry guys, I was on mute again, All right. So thanks a lot, Adam for that. Sorry for anybody who was listening and just wondering why it was so dead silent and there's this guy just rambling on screen.
Speaker 2:Anyway, super excited about Avian Nights coming out. I totally agree with Adam about the fact that the artwork and the gameplay are phenomenal and it is a little bit you know the concept is like Joust, but obviously they couldn't I shouldn't say obviously they couldn't get the Joust brand as part of an old arrangement that Atari had done and so they couldn't get that as part of the Atari Reimagined series. But I am really excited about the next three Atari Recharged titles coming out over the next few months. And you know, because I love the Asteroids, I think what they did with Asteroids was excellent and I love the asteroids, I think what they did with asteroids was excellent, and so really excited to see where they go with the next couple of things. So anyway, that is on the avian nights, and you can also check out all the latest release updates on arcadeheroescom. So if you want to learn a little bit more and just stay in touch with what Adam is doing out there, arcadeheroescom will be a good place to check that out.
Speaker 4:All right, Now let's hear from Dave Wallace and Chow Time. Hey, welcome back to Chow Time. Today I wanted to dig into the details of if you're looking to get in the kitchen uh, getting a food. Do you want a vent, vented or ventless kitchen? Essentially, what that means is do you want air fryers and and, um, you know opportunities where you don't have to have a hood and you don't have to have an in-ground grease trap and go in at a lower cost opportunity than a vented kitchen where you have to have a hood and you have to have a grease trap? These are questions I get asked regularly and it really depends when you start looking at who do you want to be. First question I know how many seats are you expecting to have and you know what kind of food do you want to offer. I can tell you the four top food items in the industry is chicken tenders, burgers, pizzas and wings. Now how you cook them. You can do all that in a ventless kitchen, but you can also do it much easier in a vented kitchen. And when you start looking at opportunity costs you know if I'm building or looking to add it I would tell you that it's much easier production-wise to go vented, having a hood, but the cost is about double. So I can generally go in and put, outfit a ventless kitchen all in for about $110,000. But when I start building out a vented kitchen with the hood and the grease trap and some other equipment, I'm about 220 to 250. Sizable difference.
Speaker 4:But when I start looking at getting the food out during your peak time and peak time generally is Friday to 5 to Sunday to 5, that's where it will represent 70 to 85% of your volume, depending on who you are and what market you're in, but that's generally it. You want to make sure that you can get that food out quickly. So, for instance, an air fryer a lot of people like air fryers, it's not a mess. Sixteen-year-olds can operate them and what have you. What they don't realize is it takes about seven minutes to cook an item and it's only one item that can be cooked. Well, that one item if I have 10 tickets they all come in during my peak time it's going to take it seven minutes one item. And if every one of them have one item and I had 10 tickets you're 70 minutes to get to that last one through. So it's probably not an effective path if you're looking to drive food sales and not get people upset and start yelping like crazy about how long it took to get your food.
Speaker 4:And again, everything matters in entertainment and food and beverage is a critical part of that matters. And entertainment and food and beverage is a critical part of that. In some of our locations we're seeing food and beverage exceeding 70% of our total revenue. Now, every property is different. You could be a kid's place, you could be a skating rink, you could be bowling-based entertainment center, topgolf-type concepts, you could be a little bit of everything. But the critical factors is production. Can I get it out quick enough within that 15 minute window, which is a comfort zone? And if I during my peak time? And if I can't, then you know you're going to unfortunately possibly suffer consequences of people being upset.
Speaker 4:I would also look at how many seats you're going to have in your dining room. I could tell you whether it's a dining room, whether you're putting the seating around in an arcade, on the bowling lanes. I can put six people on each lane. All of those matter Because when that food comes in, you know on a Saturday, if I have 220 seats and all that food comes in during my peak time and keeps coming over and over again. I got to be able to get that food out. If I have a hood or a vent, I have fryers. Everyone knows what fryers are but I can drop food in bulk and pull those up. They usually have two baskets per fryer and if I have four fryers I can cook eight different things at the same time and it takes three to five minutes to cook those items and I can dump them and drop them again.
Speaker 4:So why I say this is, you know, looking at moving into this space, make sure that you understand that that upfront cost, even though it might be a little bit more expensive in some cases a lot more expensive understand the consequences of the action. So you know, we've done a lot of kitchens where it's as big as a closet and I just have a pizza oven, a three-shelf pizza oven, a make table, a three-compartment sink and a refrigerated unit and that's all I need, because you don't need a lot of food in a small place. But if I'm going to do a outfit, a place where I have full service everywhere, our average kitchens run about 2000 square feet. So but you know I got properties that are doing three million in food and beverage. I actually have one property doing six million in food and beverage. So I need a large outfit, I need to have the right staff and I need to have the right equipment to do that. And looking at staffing opportunities, you know you can go in with a small kitchen and have a. I would at least have a supervisor out of that kitchen that's going to do your schedule, do your ordering, make the food. When they're not busy they can be a kitchen employee. But when you go into a full kitchen, you got to understand that. You know shrinkage can happen pretty quickly. Stuff can walk out the back door, they can over prep items, they can over order items, they can under order items. So having a kitchen manager that is fully salaried position that can do all those things for you is critical.
Speaker 4:And in our world, you know we're very, a very niche in our industry and we're very fragmented. From a skating rink to Disney, little bit of everything. A restaurant world if you drop a pin where you are right now and go out about 10 miles, there's probably a thousand restaurants that you know. A thousand restaurants are eateries of some sort. It could be a burger king, it could be be anything um, a diner, a full service restaurant. Why I say that is there's a lot of information that can help you when you're building out your kitchen. That's online, as well as the food distributors that can actually make the food for you. Help create your menu, help design your menu, your menu, help design your menu and give you a lot of information that you need to be successful.
Speaker 4:Some pitfalls I would say is, if you're going to go down this path is do not hire a kitchen designer to design your kitchen. They've never worked in a kitchen. They're designers, they're engineers, they're architects. So, and then a lot of traps you get caught into is they'll say we'll design your kitchen, you just have to buy the kitchen equipment from us Red flag. That kitchen equipment can cost three to four hundred percent more than if you use a group like katom or proctor that can help design your kitchen for a fee, which is usually about five thousand. They'll give you all mechanical, electrical and plumbing that you need for the city, for your construction docs, for that $5,000 fee, and they understand that the food and beverage. And then you can always hit us up. I have a full culinary department and bar services department on staff, no charge.
Speaker 4:You can say what do you think about this? Just hit my email and request a, a consultation for free, and I can look at it and kind of give you my two cents what it's worth as another set of eyes to understand if you're on the right track or not. And again, this isn't coming from a point of ignorance, but you don't know what you don't know and there's many people that can take advantage of that. You don't know what you don't know and there's many people that can take advantage of that. So make sure that you're on the right track and understanding you know who I want to be in this world of food service and find the right path to get there. Otherwise it could be very profitable or it could be very painful. So make sure you choose wisely. Well, I appreciate it. That's it for this session. I'll be back with you more digging into more details today with the mute button, all right?
Speaker 2:So I need somebody to sit there and remind me, or something like that, I don't know. All right, well, anyway, thank you Dave Wallace for that, and if you did want to learn more about what to do and kitchen design, that kind of stuff, like he said, you can definitely reach out to him and his website is turfwayentertainmentcom. You saw the little logo on a shirt of his Turfway Entertainment Group and you can go to turfwayentertainmentcom to get connected with Dave Wallace and his team. All right, well, that wraps up our show here in just a moment, but stay tuned for next week. I'm really excited about next week's episode.
Speaker 2:We are going to be doing an EAG review, so very similar to what we did with IAPA Expo review. So Kevin and myself and we'll see who else we get on to the show we're going to go basically do and say, hey, what did we see from the EAG show, what did we think, what do we like about it, all that kind of stuff. So we're going to do a special EAG review next week. So stay tuned and have a phenomenal time. And this is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass. Bye.
