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The LBX Show #33 - Ultra Accessibility, Cocktail Arcade Cabinets, and more!
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Sponsored by Intercard!
On this week's LBX Show BW talks about his trip to Morgan's Wonderland, celebrating 15 years as the first truly inclusive theme park where everyone can play. We then dive into arcade gaming trends with the return of cocktail cabinets through Food Fight Frenzy and more!
• Morgan's Wonderland features ultra-accessible attractions including wheelchair-compatible 4D theaters
• The park's "Wonder Squad" superheroes represent different abilities, helping children see themselves as powerful
• Their water park uses pneumatic-powered wheelchairs for full participation in splash pads
• Food Fight Frenzy revives the classic cocktail cabinet format with four-player competitive gameplay
• Sega's Alpha Ops VR Strike and Gold Storm Pirates face delays until August
• Chuck DeMonte breaks down the marketing basics: awareness ads, email marketing, and content creation
• Consistency in marketing matters more than perfection or immediate ROI
• Golf simulation lounges and racing experiences continue expanding across different markets
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Father's Day Introduction
Speaker 1All right . Well , welcome everybody to the LBX show for June 15th 2025 . And you know , happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there . I'm super excited this is obviously running on Father's Day , but I've been spending the last couple of days up in Northern Arizona hanging out with my kids . I have two amazing , wonderful kids that are getting freaking old . So my son just turned 18 and my daughter's going to turn 16 this year . So it's kind of nuts , but anyway , life just keeps moving on . But happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there and keep doing what you're doing . So it's awesome , all right .
Speaker 1So we have a great show lined up . We've got a pretty standard thing . We'll kick things off with News . You Should Know I've actually got quite a bit . I had to trim some stuff down from what I actually was going to talk about . So News you Should Know , and then Open and Shut with Kevin Williams . We're going to learn about the latest openings and closings and normally I join Kevin for Open and Shut .
Speaker 1And I was stuck at the airport , unfortunately , coming back from San Antonio in my time at Morgan's Wonderland , which we'll touch on just a little bit , and the Wi-Fi was terrible , like I couldn't get it on my hotspot , on my phone and the Wi-Fi in the airport was terrible , so you know , anyway , I ended up dropping off and I just fell off from the thing and I just like just let Kevin just keep going .
Speaker 1So he did , so he finished up the segment without me , but it's good , you know , because I didn't add all my commentary in there . And then we're going to hear from Adam Pratt on Arcade Corner , where he's going to talk about the rebooted Food Fight Frenzy in a cocktail cabinet and some of his nostalgia around cocktail cabinets , and then also some of the delays for the latest games , et cetera . And then , lastly , we're going to round out the show with a promo pro tip , chuck DeMonte , and he's going to break down the basics of marketing , basically the why , the what and the how . So we'll get into it , all right . All that being said , let's dive into some news you should know .
Morgan's Wonderland: Ultra Accessible Theme Park
Speaker 1All right . Well , first of all , I guess we'll say before I dive into that , there's going to be no LBX show next week . So it actually be the first I think maybe the first week we haven't done an LBX show since we switched over to this weekly format , and it's because I'm traveling to Eugene for the Northwest Regionals for Regatta . I'm racing Friday , saturday and Sunday of the multiple races , multiple heats , and and then we got warm ups on Thursdayursday . So anyway , just given the timing of the week normally I record this on friday and , uh , you know , everybody else contributes along the week just not going to happen this week . So there's not going to be a an lbx show . We'll be back in and , you know , full on next week or , you know , the week after , but just keep in mind the uh , you know , on june 22nd there's not going to be an lbx show . So , all right . That being said , I've got a chance to check out Morgan's Wonderland with IAPA , and this was on Tuesday in San Antonio , and it is actually their 15th anniversary this year , which is kind of cool . So they've done some really amazing things . But we had , you know , they had some speakers in the morning , they had a panel , they had Gordon , who was the founder of it . His daughter is Morgan , who has some neurodiverse things that she's working , you know , dealing with , and this is one of the reasons why he was inspired to . You know , he's inspired to create Morgan's Wonderland .
Speaker 1It is a park that is ultra accessible , focused on inclusion as well , so not just accessible for those with disabilities physical disabilities but it's inclusive for , you know , all sorts of people . And one of the things I really like their tagline is and I'm going to bring this up here their tagline is I think there we go All right , the first theme park where everyone can play , and I really like that . I think that's pretty cool . And you know , we just have a little video roll . So if you're listening , you know , if you're listening to this , not watching it , you can go and visit morganswonderlandorg . They are a nonprofit and you can check out their park . They've really done a great job . This is not the first time I've been there , but it was nice to be able to walk around and see all the .
Speaker 1They've got a 4D theater from Cimex that is , you know , cimex iWorks that you can actually , you know , two wheelchairs can roll onto it . They can strap the wheelchairs down and then the wheelchair still gets some degrees of motion , degrees of freedom on that 4D theater as well . So that was a pretty cool addition that they had added since the last time I was there . They also added this thing that you're seeing right there that little sky ride . It's their first real thrill ride there . They also added this thing that you're seeing right there , that little sky ride . It's their first real thrill ride and they , you know , you can basically , you know , haul across on a big giant zip line and , again , like , they've got special harnesses and everything else , so that literally anybody with any sort of disability can go on pretty much all of their rides and and all of their different attractions . So it is something it was pretty amazing to see . You know both .
Speaker 1We got a chance to walk around when it wasn't open then and get a full tour , but then also when it was open , and see all the guests interacting and everything else . The staff is amazing there as well , and they have a water park and that was probably one of the coolest things to see is their water park is also fully inclusive and fully ultra accessible . They have special wheelchairs that you know that you can transfer over to so that you can , that are fully powered , but they're powered with pneumatics , so with air instead of electricity , so that you can actually take them into the water and have the water dump on you from the big bucket overhead and the splash pads and you know again , really pretty cool stuff that they've done . And yeah , so that's Morgan's Wonderland . Had a great time there with a number of different people , had a chance to as well . Let's see , here We've got oh yeah , there's me on the .
Speaker 1They have a train that goes around the whole park and then this lake . They have a boat that goes around . The boat was definitely our favorite because it was hot , the boat was in the shade and it was really relaxing and it was really relaxing just riding on this boat , really smooth . It's actually the same boats that go down the san antonio riverwalk and uh , and so that was a lot of fun . And , um , I was pretty small . Let me see if I can make this bigger here . Um , well , it's not that much bigger , all right , anyway , there's me and uh , adria with uh , adria gibbs . She's a good friend and we were taking a picture with the wonder squad and the wonder squad is also something new since the last time that I was there , I think most .
Speaker 1I think they just introduced them the last year or so and they are basically their characters . So they've developed . You know , there's there's images of them all throughout . They're really beginning to infuse these characters into their you know , into everything . But every single one of them has , you know , like the I don't know all the names , but the guy in the green that you can see here in the picture , he's blind and he's not . He's not really blind in the thing , but he's blind in the . You know that that is his character . You have , I think , this rocket is the guy in the wheelchair in front , and then you have , I think the one of the pink is , you know , has has some crutches on her arms , and then I think the one in the yellow is Morgan , and so that is the Wonder Squad . And then you have Ivy , who is their butterfly on their logo . So that is the Wonder Squad .
Speaker 1And again , they could have just introduced all these other characters , but they wanted to have characters that are the superheroes that people could connect with and really feel like , hey , that is me , I see me in these Wonder Squad and I can be super and powerful and wonderful as well . So anyway , great job , morgan's Wonderland , and keep doing what you're doing . It's pretty cool . All right , that was my trip to San Antonio . Oh , I guess I caught a fish . So there's me . It's kind of cool . You can fish over this little dock that they have out there , and kids were losing their minds when they would catch a fish because then also they'd catch it and then they'd toss it in the air and throw it back in and you know they're having lots of fun . The kids had a lot of fun with that .
Speaker 1This was at a reception afterwards and uh , and Sam Rhodes , a friend of mine and also , you know , key guy at Doff Robotics , and we got a chance to walk around the park before it opened and check it out . Fiesta , six Flags , fiesta Texas , if you've never been , is by far one of the best , certainly the best Six Flags park that from a theming standpoint and from just overall feel . It just feels really nice . They're very well run , and there's me and Sam in front of the Six Flags Fiesta
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Speaker 1Texas sign . So anyway , that was just a cool little thing to be able to tag on before heading back . So anyway , thanks Sam for the opportunity and thank you , robert , for taking us around .
Speaker 1Six Flags Fiesta , texas , all right , so wanted to talk quickly about uh , we don't need to talk about buckies , but I fell in love with buckies . It's my first time ever visiting a bucky , so , uh , anyway , here we go . All right , I want to talk about meow wolf uh , coming alive phenomenally . Phenomenal , mom , what is it ? Phenomenomaly , phenomenomaly . There we go . Phenomenomaly got it . Um , they've obviously blended two words together an anomaly and phenomena together to get phenomenomaly . Sounds like a muppet song , phenomenon , you know , anyway . Uh , so june 21st through august 6th is a meow wolf .
Speaker 1They have this whole thing that they they say is coming alive and it's a brand new interactive performance layer that they're adding on and they say , running in a continuous loop inside of two of their locations their Las Vegas Omega Mart location and then their Denver Conversion Station locations . And again , it's running from June 21st to August 9th , and they say that the immersive performance blends live theater , dance , puppetry and interactive moments into the fabric of the multiverse . So guests are going to encounter a bunch of different experiences throughout the loop . There are otherworldly characters , they say , unexpected rituals , moments of intimate magic and a dizzying crescendo that spills into the luminous parade of massive puppets , strange instruments and shimmering creatures called flicker worms . Raid of massive puppets , strange instruments and shimmering creatures called Flicker Worms . The fate of these glowing beings , the Flicker Worms , which are imagined to migrate across dimensions , depends on the collective play and participation of the guests . Each performance runs for about 90 minutes on a repeating timed loop and are layered throughout all of Meow Wolf's surreal environments . There's about 15 performers in each location , which is pretty impressive . It includes dancers , puppeteers and clowns , scary , plus a rotating roster of local guest artists that debut each week , so that they want to basically say that no , phenomenonally , shows are ever the same .
Speaker 1Meow Wolf , they collaborated with a team of national creatives as well as a bunch of , again , local community artists . You can see the full listing of all the different artists that are going to be on the Denver and Las Vegas Phenomenomaly websites and they're actually only select dates . So I know it says June 21st through August 9th , but I guess there's only select dates that they're actually running this and make sense to all the live performers , and it will run from 3 to 7 in Denver and from two to 6 PM in Vegas . And , uh , you know , there's no additional costs , the same cost of the ticket price . So if you're in Denver during this time block or if you're in Las Vegas during this time block , definitely go and check out Phenomenomaly .
Speaker 1I do love that they're adding in a live component to this and so , you know , we'll just see where . Uh , we'll see how this goes . I'm sure this is an experiment , obviously , and because we're just doing it in two locations , but it is a pretty cool experiment and and I like where they're going with this , I think this adds another layer of like repeat visitation that I think meow wolf's locations have really struggled with and I think adding in this , especially if no two shows are going to be the same and if this is something that runs every summer or runs every , you know , every quarter or quarter or twice a year or whatever , and the show's update , then that's an opportunity to really leverage the space that they have and tie into the storyline and again just drive that repeat visitation for those that really like that live performance aspect . So great job to those guys over at Meow Wolf for thinking through that . All right .
Speaker 1Also , now is the time to start planning , obviously for Halloween . That All right . Also , now's the time to start planning , obviously for Halloween and you know you've got a fun world , you know . So IAPA's their their publication , fun world recently had a great article about what's hot for Halloween attractions coming out , and so you can , you know , if you , if you want to just go to IAPA's website , go to the fun world section and then look up their Halloween what's hot for Halloween attractions . This is an article that just came out this week , because this is now the time to start thinking about your Halloween .
Speaker 1If you're going to decorate , if you're going to do anything for Halloween , like for the fall , like these things start in August , right ? So people start to run their stuff in August or in September , running through October to really get a good part of that season before you shift to the holiday season , you know , the Christmas holiday season or whatever , and so you know . Anyway , there's the article speaks about a lot of the larger parks . Obviously , you know and this is you know we're talking primarily about location based entertainment , but there's no reason why a smaller venue can't go and put in some theming , right ? So update decorations , bring in some spookiness into your venue , put up some cobwebs and maybe even have like a little scare night or do some activities around pumpkins and you know painting pumpkins . You don't have to do pumpkin carving , but you can do painting pumpkins and I know a lot of you guys already are doing this stuff .
Speaker 1But this is now the time to start thinking through that . You just start planning logistically everything else , figuring out what you're going to buy , what you need , if you're going to bring in live actors or whatever you're going to do . Are they going to create a haunt situation ? Now's the time to start thinking about that , and then about late July , august , then it's the time to start thinking about the holiday season . So this is the time . Definitely go , maybe get some inspiration from reading that article . There's a lot of great photos as well there that are included in that article . So just again , stuff to get you inspired . All right , last thing we're going to talk about here on News you Should Know , is Dave and Buster's , and you don't have anything bad to say about Dave and Buster's this time , surprisingly so well . I mean , they had a really shit . You know we'll talk about that on SoundOff , but they had a really rough yeah really rough quarterly results , and so we won't talk about that .
Speaker 1We're going to talk about some of the cool stuff they're doing here , because , again , it's about inspiration . Just , you got to know what they're doing too , because if you have a Dave and Buster's around the corner , you got to know their competition . So what are they doing ? They've got a new leaderboard that they've just introduced , so the Dave and Buster's leaderboard , and it is the first ever , their first ever nationwide leaderboard , and they say it's a new tech powered experience that basically let guests go head to head with players across the country for epic prizes and even bigger bragging rights . Yes , we've had leaderboards in the past . Yes , there are certain things like Big Buck Hunter , and I always forget the name of the fucking golf one , but the golf , the ball , Jesus , anyway . Okay , I mean I just cursed seven times right there , all right . But the built-in collaboration with leading arcade innovator Play Mechanics and the new system uses proprietary , custom-developed technology to track scores across select games and sync them in both in-store and national leaderboards . So each connected game is obviously connected , is equipped with this technology to track their scores , and then the leaderboards are displayed on in-store large format screens . There are , you know , 18 locations actually have a halo marquee display for enhanced experience and the players can view rankings by store location and nationally . They can view them online .
Speaker 1And then the summer's competition . This summer competition launches with a set of five racing games . So it's going to be a racing competition hot wheels victory lap obviously they're going to they're going to do that one because that's an exclusive game that they've got right now the summer nascar pit stop , top gun , maverick Cruise and Blast and Super Bikes 3 . And game rotations will evolve over time and they'll expand to include more fan favorites , while they will keep the leaderboard running year-round . They are kicking things off this summer with the Summer Leaderboard Challenge and it's a limited-time competition , again featuring those , those racing games and they say next level prizes . So each month players at each participating location can battle it out on their games and the local first place winners for each game will take home exclusive prizes d , d and b branded racing jackets and premium display racing helmets . And then they said that's just a warm-up . At the end of the summer the top national players across each game will be crowned . I don't know what crowned means , but the prices , I guess , get really big . So they're talking , it looks like they're doing VIP trips to official NASCAR races and the chance to take home the actual arcade game you conquered , which is pretty cool , and then even a fucking car . So they're really going all in on this leaderboard .
Speaker 1And again , you know what is this ? What is this about ? It's about driving , repeat visitation , getting people back in the door . If you're the top and then all of a sudden you drop down because somebody beats you , what are you going to do ? You're going to come back in and you're going to rank yourself back up , because if you have the opportunity to get the actual arcade game or win a car or go to a NASCAR race or something else , you're going to . And if you're good enough to be at the top of one of these games , you're going to keep coming back in and ranking up , spending more money . And if you're in there playing those games , you're probably buying food and beverage as well .
Speaker 1So , anyway , I really like what they're doing here and there's no reason why . You know we can't figure out how to do this in our own venue . So , all right , good job , dave Busters . And that wraps up our News . You Should Know . All right , coming up after the quick break , we'll have Open and Shut with Kevin Williams and a little bit of me . They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years . Cashless systems 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 4Hey , hello to the latest open and shots .
Speaker 1I'm still in London and you are stuck in an airport , so there we go .
Speaker 4It is what it is . Still quite a lot to go through here , so we will zip straight into the continuing openings and closings that seem to be part of our sector and so , as always , just uh , pause at the right point if you want to catch all the ones that I'm zipping through . We have another five irons uh golf facility opening up . This is an 8 000 square , so this is more of the conventional size , uh of a facility with its golf bays . Nothing unusual other than shuffleboard being added to the mix . It's interesting to see that they're opening both their mixed venue entertainment sites as well as their conventional sites , and it goes back to what we were saying previously how many golf lounges we were seeing opening up Moving on through .
Speaker 4And we have an interesting one here , what I would call an exer-gaining facility in the Netherlands . This is NextFit , and this uses virtual reality in fitness as well as in active entertainment . The facility also includes some e-sports elements to it . So a little bit of fitness , a little bit of competition . This is an unusual one . We're going to be touching upon ExaGaming and how it's risen again from the ashes in the coming sound off , but again , is this the beginning of a trend for people to roll out fitness VR experience facilities rather than the traditional fitness sites . We will have to wait and see .
Speaker 4I don't know about that one .
Speaker 1For me this is . I mean , I played Beat Saber on my son's VR a couple of years ago . I haven't done it in a while , and just by playing Beat Saber I got super sweaty . The thing was hanging off my face , it was like pouring , and the last thing that I want to do is go and have a heavy workout , heavy cardio workout and wearing a VR goggles . I just don't see the need or why . This is even relevant . Exogaming , sure , or like entertainment we've talked about that but throwing VR goggles on while doing exercise like that , I just do not understand how this is going to be a thing .
Speaker 4Well , there's a number of companies that have banked upon this as a concept . They're building off of the popularity of the fitness apps that you can get on the MetaQuest series of platforms . Again , I agree with you . How this fits into the fitness genre against doing this at home in the sweatiness of your own privacy is going to be a question about the success of these venues Moving on , and we are now charting the explosion of the CLAW venues . So we have here CLAW City , which has already four facilities open . It is both an amusement facility , but predominantly a crane and merch collection facility , and kind of tells us where these sites are going and where they're populating the market . They're going into malls , they're going into retail units and they're pulling along the amusement market with them retail units and they're pulling along the amusement market with them . Then we have the racing lounges . So we've gone from the golf simulation lounges now to the Formula One and racing lounges . We have Full Send , which is a new UK operation , actually launched by a well-known F4 racing driver who's put some of his money into this concept to roll out this chain of what I would call race simulation centers . It doesn't be as much of a hospitality environment as well as a racing environment , compared to what we've seen with F1 Arcade .
Speaker 4We have then the second approach . We've talked about our friends at Racing Unleashed . Before the Swiss-based company . They have a number of facilities out there . They have about seven chains or seven venues based upon their chain . They've just opened up under franchise a brand new one in Italy , again offering a racing simulation e-sports environment , but being able to be parachuted into an existing racing environment . This particular locality is famous for allowing people to hire cars and go for a race . They've now added a simulation component to their mix . Then we have another golf simulator , the Tip Golf Florida . You would think Florida would be full of these venues , going by the list that we had in the previous open and shut 3,000 square , which is the average size that you see for one of these layouts . Very much heavy on the beak , the bar , club , lounge , private bay kind of approach , Much more heading towards the clays and the traditional X-Golf approach . It's what we're seeing with some of the other venues , but again a mix that some operators feel is profitable in this current market .
Speaker 1Was the TIPS on that list ? I don't think so . Was it Because there's not a multiple ?
Speaker 4chain . No , this is the first of their operations , so this is a single site , but from reading the information , it looks like they're going to try and push it as a chain . I don't know what their USP is going to be compared to the petition that they're going to be going up against .
Speaker 4Another interesting one here is the hotel and resort entertainment facility market . We've touched upon this before . I float the idea of hotel attainment , but I think that was shot down very hard . But we are looking at resorts returning to the idea of having a dedicated amusement space in their facility . This one's an interesting one . These two are an interesting one as they are profit sharing or revenue sharing operations . Actually , our friends at Player One Amusement have gone in there , deposited the machines , come up with the operation and then they're working with Marriott Operation towards rolling these out . So we have this first one in Florida and then we have this second one in California , both part of Marriott Hotel chains , both offering an entertainment amusement mix . This last one is also interesting because it not alone with the arcade . It also has its own swing suite , simulation , golf simulation components to it . So again we're seeing the continuing rise of the golf simulation bay alongside the amusement operation .
Speaker 4Moving on , we have Palladium . Now this we have to be careful here . This isn't the Palladium that you'd be familiar with that we've seen in Canada . This is a new Palladium that is opening up a facility in India . They have a 16,000 square facility . It is a wide mix of amusement , some attractions , some VR , bumper cars , that type of thing , f&b but again a continuation of the investment that we're seeing people are putting into the Indian market , very popular at the moment , to open some kind of entertainment site within the space . This one's in Sri Lanka , so this is aiming for Sri Lanka tourist operation but it is run by an Indian entertainment entrepreneur . And again another claw facility . We have the continuation of claw machines constantly now being part of the markets . That seems to be populating every empty retail unit .
Speaker 4This one in Indiana is part of a chain of three facilities a retail unit , some amusement , but predominantly crane machines . It is what it is . It is an aspect of our market that we need to keep an eye on because I think this could in the next couple of months , represent quite a considerable component of our game . Dealing with the shops and the sales . And Borlero closed down their Hazard facility in New Jersey . Interest on that . It was a quick close . We didn't get much warning about this . I get the feeling that this is going to be part of a sale , but again we will know more about that once we get more details . This facility has been there for a couple of years and it's now being closed down and put up for sale . Then we have the announcement that quite a well-known park has been going for about 23 years .
Speaker 4In Greece there's not that many licenses being given over to amusement parks . Greece the Greek government there is very tight on entertainment licensing . Tourism is a very important part of their country's economy and so it is very tightly controlled . The owners of Aloha claim that they've been trying to get a new license to reopen the facility , and they've come across government pushback against giving them the license , and now they've decided that they can't go on any further without this , and so they're going to close down the operation due to the hostility of the local government to their operation . This seems to be a politically motivated brewing fight , and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some more swings and arrows being thrown out regarding this one . But we will know more in the coming weeks regarding if this park will reopen or if it's going to stay permanently closed .
Speaker 4And again , I mentioned before but another hospitality entertainment show that is feeling the pain following its bankruptcy . We see another 30 30 Huta restaurants close , compared to the 40 that were charted when they first announced their financial return Of their 200 US chain out there . This will have an impact on local economies as these venues closed , but also these are now venues that will be looked upon entrepreneurs as possible competitive , socializing entertainment venue opportunities that they can parachute into . Anyway , for the latest information on the sector , I always point you to our two newsletters . If you have any questions , you know how to get in contact with me . Anyway , that's it from me wishing you a good one .
Speaker 2If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors , check out Radius . They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out . Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base . Plus , they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow Curious , visit Radiusco and ask about your free market analysis . That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-Sco .
Speaker 1All right . Well , next up , we've got oh my gosh , we've got Arcade Corner with Adam Pratt . Let's roll .
Food Fight Frenzy and Arcade Updates
Speaker 3Let's roll . Greetings everyone and happy Father's Day to any fathers who are out there . I guess just a coincidence that the podcast ended up on this day , but I've got your latest arcade news to go over here . There's not a ton to talk about this week . It's after we covered Harry Potter last week . That was definitely the biggest piece of news to come along in the within the past month or so , I would say .
Speaker 3But there are other games out there and I don't have any pinball to discuss today , although although let me correct myself already on that there is Predator Pinball , which is supposed to be revealed here by Pinball Brothers , and that has quite a story behind it , because it was about over 10 years ago where some company or a couple of guys out of I think it was Michigan called Skip B Pinball , was trying to do a or they created a Predator pinball prototype , but against what they claimed . They claimed that they had a license from Fox . Turned out after about a year of promises and no delivering that they actually did not have any license with Fox on that and so that whole thing fell apart and kind of poisoned the well as far as crowdfunding goes for pinball machines and kind of arcades in general . But anyways , for what you see on your screen here , this is a game that was unveiled last year at an event called Midwest Gaming Classic . It's Food Fight Frenzy . The cocktail-style cabinet was patterned after the old Atari Warlords cocktail cabinet , which was released way back in 1980 , before my time , and I used to have an Atari Warlords cocktail cabinet . They were very , very rare and it did terribly at my arcade , but it was one of the most fun classic game experiences that you could come across . But I sold it a few years back just because it's like making 75 cents a week isn't a good business decision , although in some ways I do kind of regret not just taking it home . But anyhow , if you are into Atari games , then this will certainly appeal to you . For those who are just listening again , it's a cocktail style cabineted after that Warlords cocktail cabinet , but larger .
Speaker 3This is coming to us from Retro Arcade Remakes . They would be best known so far for their production of the Taito Ice Cold Beer remakes , which have been on sale , I want to say , since 2023 . And they've been working on a Zeke's Peak remake as well , which , if you're not familiar with that one , it's the same thing as Taito Ice Cold Beer , just without any alcohol . The theme is instead a mountain climber and such . So that was designed way back and I think it was either 82 or 83 by Taito for locations that were not arcade bars back in the day , but Ice Cold Beer worked out for bars pretty well . Anyways , food fight frenzy , with the software itself , was designed by a company called slackers Inc , and they would be an indie game developer who has previously created an art indie arcade title called galactic battleground , which is a lot like a multiplayer Galaga with some Asteroids elements to it . And Food Fight Frenzy is their first licensed design that I'm aware of , where they did go to Atari and they got a license on this .
Speaker 3And Food Fight if you're not familiar with that one , that was originally created by Atari back in 1983 . And that was a poor year to be releasing new games . But that was a game where you control a kid named Charlie Chuck and you're in a room , a black room , with a blue outline , and there's all these holes everywhere that some chefs will pop out of , as well as piles of food , and you , as Charlie Chuck , your goal is to grab the food , use it as a weapon against the chefs who are trying to prevent you from reaching the ice cream cone on the other side of the screen and it sounds weird when you describe the gameplay , but it was a fun game . When you described the gameplay , but it was a fun game . And it also came in a really nice cabinet that even had the wood cut around the ice cream artwork and such , and so it was one of the more elaborate cabinets of the 80s . Unfortunately , it was after that where , to save on costs , a lot of developers stopped being creative with their designs and just kind of put them more into boxes with quick side art slapped on the side .
Speaker 3But Food Fight itself had not gotten a lot of love on the home console circuit . It was available for the Atari 7800 game console , which came out in 86 . And it was a fun game there , a good port of it . But other than that the atari had pretty much ignored the ip over the years , although in recent times , with the new owners of atari trying to bring things back in a better way , they did come up with a new modern 3d food fight game . But this food fight game , but this food fight frenzy , is actually patterned after the 1983 original , like graphically this looks like it could have been released in 1983 . The main difference is that it now supports up to four players simultaneously and you're having a battle , a food fight , battle against each other . And in that sense it's like Namco's Pac-Man Battle Royale where you know , just a competitive game for , essentially , arcade bars , retro arcades , and they will be looking at producing conversion kits so that you can update this to something else down the road . Initially , when Retro Arcade Remakes showed off this cabinet , they were showing it with Atari's Warlords , but as far as I'm aware , that still hasn't been released . I'm guessing they've just decided to hold off on it and focus instead on this food fight frenzy . But it is available now .
Speaker 3If you do want to order one , you'd contact IndieArcadeWave at gmailcom . That's IndieArcadeWave at gmailcom . So they're not set up with distributors or anything . They're just selling it essentially direct through email , and the first 10 units will be at a slightly lower price . If I'm recalling correctly , it was $5,100 , maybe 52 . I can't remember for certain , but then the might be as high as 55 . I don't want to get in trouble there and promise a lower price and then that's , it might be 5,500 . And then if , if I'm recalling correctly , after 10 units have sold , then it'll be $5,800 . But double-check with Joe at Indie Arcade Wave to be absolutely certain about that . Whatever he says , that's the gospel on the pricing , not what I just said .
Speaker 3But that's not the only new game news Now . Kevin Williams , who is a part of the LBX Collective here , had recently mentioned to me that both Sega Amusements' Alpha Ops VR Strike and Bad Dynamico Amusements' Gold Storm Pirates are now delayed till August . When last I had spoken with both companies they were saying July , but I haven't been able to get a hold of anybody since then or since I heard this news from Kevin Now , as I record this , it was earlier this week that apparently a trade deal has been worked out with China that has much different tariff rates than what had previously been discussed and it sounds like the markets responded relatively well to that . But now things are disrupted with other wars going on in the Middle East and such . But all that aside , it looks like things are going to be stabilizing here with China here now , and so , again , a lot of these delays have been due to the uncertainty that's been hanging over the air and that'll take a little bit of time to work out , but assuming that everything's stable at what was in the news or what was recorded . Well , soon then we'll be back to more regular scheduling .
Speaker 3But anyways , thanks to the developers of alpha ops vr strike three mind wave they're based out of hong kong they sent me a bunch of screenshots and videos of their game and I was able to post the full game up onto youtube , onto onto my channel , arcade Heroes , so if you're interested in seeing footage of it , you can check it out there . But for those watching , these screenshots here are from Alpha Ops VR Strike . Now , how it works , since it's a VR arcade game , is that these particular shots , which are squares I think this would be a one-to-one aspect ratio they are what the PC displays on the TVs that the players sit in front of . Now they sent me some separate media that was captured through the VR headsets , and so there's really three feeds what's what you see here , which is on the PC screen , and then each individual feed through the VR headset . But this is the first look that we got at stage three . As far as I know , there's only three stages that are coming with this .
Speaker 3Perhaps if the game sells really well , then they could add more content down the road , but they're not promising anything like that , unlike , let's say , with raw thrills , where , when they released godzilla , kaiju wars and king kong , they were all promising additional chapters at some point in the future . Just they didn't say when , and I think they those were also offered for free , except for king k 2 , which was more of a paid upgrade . But Alpha Ops , vr Strike , three Mind Way , were the guys who created the highly influential hardware idea of fusing the VR headset to the back of a light gun , and that was used in VR Agent , and now most of the vr arcade games that are out there use this design . Now not everybody does , but it's certainly influential in china , where a lot of these developments come from , and so the alpha ops vr strike uses an , a evolved version of that design that they originally created and from what I played at IAAPA . So if you did attend IAAPA 2024 and visited the Sega Amusements booth , then you should have seen this game . Likewise with Amusement Expo they had it there .
Speaker 3But I felt that the gun design that they came up with was improved over VR Agent , and perhaps that was just due to how they are partially the mold of the gun , but also just part of how it hangs from the top , an overhead gantry .
Speaker 3It makes it better , more comfortable , with only three levels , two that aren't super , super long . It also prevents you from getting too tired . You know , holding it like that but I also . The other thing that I think alpha ops has over vr agent is the one annoyance that I found with vr agent was that you had to stand , and moving around really fast oftentimes meant that my focus was going out of whack with the gun . Because since you have to keep the VR headset pretty centered with Alpha Ops VR Strike , where you sit down the entire time , that made it a lot easier to manage and I wasn't coming across that same sort of problem . But again this July or August around there . You can order it now from your preferred distributor through Sega Amusements , and I don't know what the price is on that one , but of course you can ask your distributor that one . That's the Arcade News for this week . Thanks for watching and we'll catch you next time .
Speaker 1All right , awesome . Well , thanks Adam for that . And yeah , man , I would love , love , love to have a cocktail cabinet . We've got a perfect little spot here in the office . I could drop it in there . But yeah , one of those , one of those cocktail game cabinets and the food fight frenzy would be a great one . I mean , obviously I love a Ms Pac-Man , but I'd take food fight frenzy , I'd take anything . Give me a . If anybody's looking for a , you know , for a father's day gift cocktail cabinet , there we go , all right . Next up , we've got Chuck DeMonte with Promo Pro Tips . Let's roll into it .
Marketing Basics: Why, What, How
Speaker 2Hello , welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte . That is me , and today I want to discuss something that's been coming up a lot in conversations I've been having with FEC owners , and that is really just doing the basics of marketing the why , the what and the how . Okay , so I cannot tell you how many people I've been speaking to lately and they're not doing as good as they would like to do , and I asked them what are you doing for marketing ? And it's like really nothing . And they give me all these excuses as to why they're not doing them . And I tried this and that didn't work . And I did this and not emails , and people don't open them , and it's like it's so mind blowing to me that you know you're not doing it .
Speaker 2You know , marketing can range from the basic to the very complex , without a doubt , right , but as a local business any local business , in particular family entertainment centers there are a lot of basic things that you could and should be doing or your business will probably not succeed , right , and so I want to cover some of those things , right ? So you know , why do the basics ? I honestly don't care what you're doing in life . If you are consistent , if you want to succeed at something and you are consistent day in and day out and doing it over and over and over and over again , you will increase the likelihood of success multiple times over . Undoubtedly right , and any successful business owner or anybody that's had any sort of success in something in their life knows that right . It takes practice , it takes doing things over and over , and over and over and over again . Right . And if you're like that's not for me and I don't want to do that , and you know , then you shouldn't own a business or you shouldn't , you know , be running the business or an operator or a GM or whatever , right . So pick something else . Let's assume you're happy with what you do . You want to be doing marketing basics , right , and even if you don't think they're working in one of my other segments for this I told people to stop worrying so much about ROI .
Speaker 2You cannot associate ROI with every single marketing thing you do . It just does not work . You're doing , let's say , making posts on Instagram , facebook , TikTok . How do you know who saw that ? Who then came into your location ? You don't right . So you cannot attach ROI to every single thing . But I'm telling you and I said in that video too , doing something is better than doing nothing , and doing something consistently right is super important , okay . So that is the why you know sending out emails , posting content every day , you know , or you know , five times a week , and sending out emails a few times a month . And you know , potentially running Facebook ads or Google ads , even if you don't know how to run them . That well , right , I promise you it's better than nothing , okay . So that is the why .
Speaker 2Why should you do this ? Because you need to get in front of people . You need to create local awareness . It is the most important thing , right ? If people don't know about you , how are they going to do business with you ? Right ? And so , again , while you might not understand the ROI or think it's not getting in front of people , I promise you it's getting in front of people . So keep on doing it .
Speaker 2So what would I do if I had to choose some strategies , right , that would help me out the most ? Okay , I would do , first and foremost , either meta or TikTok awareness ads . Okay , first and foremost , either meta or TikTok awareness ads . Ok , it is the easiest and least complicated ads to run on social media channels . So , typically , on on on meta or TikTok you're primarily going to . You know , choose an objective is how you run these ads . You can say I want more link clicks , I want more video views , I want more reach , which would be awareness Right , I want more conversions OK , all those can get a little bit more complex , especially the conversion ones . You got to implement conversion tracking and do all those things right .
Speaker 2If you're doing awareness ads , it is the simplest form of ads You're saying here's an asset , here's a video , here's an image , put it in front of as many people as possible . And this target and these zip codes in this , you know , 10 mile radius , right , it doesn't get any easier than that . And you could spend two $300 a month and get in front of a ton of people , a ton tens of thousands , right , for that much money . And you go . You know how do I know if I'm spending it ? Where can you ? You know , how do you know if it's working ? Where can you spend $300 to get that much of your brand name in front ?
Speaker 2First and foremost , I'd be doing , you know , some sort of paid social awareness ads , right , you can keep them at a low budget if you'd like . Right , and don't get worried about the ROI . You need to get your name out in front of people . Okay , next , I would make sure I was doing email marketing . Okay , now , again , this is to help to repeat clients . It helps with , you know , even getting potential new clients .
Speaker 2If you're doing , you know ways to get you know people's data in there , right , and you know some of you don't have waivers or or or you know ways to collect people's information . You know , try and do whatever you can to get people's email and phone number . Ok , so you can contact them . So you know , be doing email marketing , it's super important , ok , so you have paid social . You have email marketing . Right , staying in front of people . Send one , two emails a month . They could be the easiest emails , just , you know .
Speaker 2Here's what's happening in our location . Here's a promo we're doing . If people don't use the promo , who cares ? You got in front of them . If they delete the email , who cares ? Your brand name is in front of them . When they are ready to purchase , they will think of you .
Speaker 2When Think of you , ok , you need to stay in front of them . This will , over time , it's a snowball , right , more and more people will know about you , and it just it's . You know , rome wasn't built in a day , right , so you're not going to be building this massive FEC empire in a day . So , over time , building up the audience , building up your followers , all that other stuff , ok . And then the last thing I would be doing is content marketing Right , posting on TikTok , posting on Facebook , posting on Instagram . It's so easy , right , go in and snap some pictures , have an employee , snap some pictures , whatever , ok , and just get them posted . They don't need to be this unbelievable , amazing content , right , it gets out in front of people . People will start following you .
Speaker 2It's like , again , just consistency , over and over and over again . Now you can get creative as you want in these strategies , right , and so , if you're not doing much , it's like here's where you could start . Now , obviously , you can get very complex into email automations and conversions and all that other stuff , and I do think you should be there , undoubtedly , for if you want to have really big success , those are the types of strategies you should be running , right , but you do not need to be doing them right away . You need to be doing something , right , and those are the things I would suggest that you do . But again , doing something is better than nothing , and those are three easy strategies that if you're not doing them , it's honestly it's crazy that if you're not doing those three basic things and I do think eventually in the long run , you're going to have a tough time having a successful business how are people going to know about you ? How are you going to remind them to come in ? So again , why you need to be doing marketing , even if you can't attach an ROI to it . People need to know about you .
Speaker 2What paid social awareness , email content OK . And then how Right you get you could get you know Email marketing . You create a MailChimp account . Right . If you don't have a CRM or POS , you know MailChimp , constant Contact . They're super easy , right , they're drag and drop .
Speaker 2Okay , it's , you know , you have an image and it's just so easy nowadays . All the tools that are out there ChatGPT , canva to create images . It's so unbelievably easy to create an email okay . Content marketing the same thing . Use Canva . Go in and snap photos right .
Speaker 2We use a tool called Planable which schedules into these different platforms . It's about $20 a month , maybe schedules all the platforms to go out . It would take you , I don't know , all of two hours to go around your park , snap some photos and upload them , okay . Again , these things aren't too time-consuming , okay . Obviously , you can get into complexity , like I said , and there could be a little more time between , but let's just talk about the basics . So that's you know how to do email . That's how to do content . Right , you have a phone , take pictures , upload them . You could also upload them directly to , if you're doing , you know , meta , instagram and Facebook . You could meta business . You could schedule them through there as well .
Speaker 2Okay , but with that tool Planable , you could schedule it on multiple different platforms , okay , and and then lastly , ads , meta ads . Google it on . You know , pull up a YouTube video . How do I do a meta ? Create a meta ads account , ads manager you basically get in the ads manager . You're going to have a video again , that or something that you took at your location . Put it in there , write a caption here's my daily budget , here's the location , right Run the ad . So it's really really easy . Those things are strategy , not rocket science by any means , but they will help if you do them consistently , day in and day out . Okay , so hopefully that helps start doing some marketing .
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Speaker 1We got SoundOff number 78 with Kevin Williams on Tuesday June 17th . I'm also still in the airport for that one , but it was a better Wi-Fi , it was a little bit better situation there , so I didn't drop off so I was able to really have a good engaging discussion with him on SoundOff . And also , if you subscribe to our newsletter so if you get those every week oh , it's not every week , it's like kind of every other week or you get the Stinger Report then you're definitely going to get our latest two-part virtual arena that Kevin Williams has recently written . Those are going to coming out next week as well . So definitely , if you want those really discusses and dives into virtual reality , augmented reality , xr , mixed reality , et cetera , and the latest trends that are happening there . If you want to get some of that information , then definitely make sure to go to our website , lbxcollectivecom and subscribe , and you'll be able to get all those publications . All right , so that's a wrap for this week's LBX show . This is Brandon Wiley signing off . Stay tuned and keep kicking out .
