The LBX Show #73 - Disney makes LBE moves, Point Blank as a warning, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!

On this week's show we track the week’s biggest moves across location-based entertainment, from Scorbit’s cash-prize arcade tournaments to Disney testing pop-up retail experiences that lean into immersive storytelling. We also unpack openings, closures, and new arcade products that signal where competitive socializing and the arcade business are heading next. 

• Amusement Expo 2027 call for speakers with priority topics like AI, staffing, cybersecurity, XR, finance, tariffs 
• Kevin Williams' roundtable on competitive socializing at London Experience Week 
• Scorbit adding real money arcade tournaments, operator controls, and connected leaderboards 
• Disney Store Limited-Time pop-ups as a first step toward experiential retail and LBE 
• Open And Shut updates on new openings, franchise performance questions, and VR venue trends 
• Cinetainment growth plus the need for clear differentiation and stronger F&B models 
• Point Blank insolvency as a competitive socializing warning sign around freshness, pricing, and single-activity reliance 
• Fire Betty’s closing briefly to expand arcade bar elements and increase per-cap potential 
• Arcade Corner: Stranger Things sightings, Disney Speedstorm details, Ski Hero, Neo Geo AES Plus original-hardware remake 

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Turning you in now to the LBX show. With your host, Brandon Wyoming. What do you buy the LBX collective?

A Quick Personal Birthday Note

Amusement Expo Speaker Proposals Open

London Experience Week Preview

Scorbit Brings Real Money Tournaments

Disney Tests Experiential Pop-Up Stores

Season Five Suggestions Request

SPEAKER_04 0:21

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for April 19th, 2026. We have a concise show for you lined up today. And um, you know what? Basically, we're gonna dive into news you should know. Uh, then we'll roll right into an open and chat with Kevin Williams, obviously discussing all the latest openings and closings and the trends from last week. And then we're gonna round out with Adam Pratt at Arcade Corner. He's gonna cover Stranger Things, Rumors, Disney Speedstorm, Ski Hero from Eunice, and much more. And so with that, we're gonna dive into some news you should know. All right, well, today is April 19th, as I mentioned, and today is my son's golden birthday today. So this little guy you're seeing right here on the screen with Goldenrod, right? So that's why I picked the this picture, is uh now 19. He's filming some short films this weekend for school, and uh then again next weekend as well. So he's just been uh super busy, loving uh his uh his his film school and everything else. But uh yeah, they grow up quickly. But uh, you know, happy birthday to my son, and uh hope you have a great 19th birthday. All right, so next we've got what do we have here? We've got Amusement Expo and uh 2027, the call for speakers is now open. So organizers are seeking operators, route professionals, manufacturers, tech leaders, and innovators from all segments of our amusement and attractions and LBE industry to deliver practical and future-focused content. So they're really looking for things like what are you looking forward? They want field tests and strategies and lessons learned from uh, you know, as well as the new industry insights, and they want to hear you know, everybody, your voice. So they want to hear you. Uh so uh you can, you know, what some topics that they're definitely looking for are uh AI for operators, staffing and Gen Z talents, cybersecurity, revenue strategies, XR and immersive tech, uh, finance, tariffs, a bunch of stuff. So the deadline for submitting a proposal this year is July 1st. Those selected will be nominated or will be notified by September 1st. So you've got some time still, but uh you definitely want to try to get in and start thinking about what you might do, who you might collaborate with, uh if it's gonna be a panel or a round table or something like that. Uh next year's education program is March 15th to 16th, obviously 2027. And the trade show will immediately follow, which is March 17th and 18th. So if you're going to submit something, go ahead and start thinking about getting that in. You know, your deadline is July 1st, but that's gonna come up really quickly. It is April 19th already. This year is flying by. So make sure you get that in there and submit for a sub presentation. So, speaking of speaking, Kevin Williams will be speaking this week on competitive socializing. This is a little bit of a surprise for him, and he's excited to be a part of this. Uh, you know, he'll talk a little bit more about it in uh sound off in just two days. Uh, but uh he'll be talking about you know competitive socializing for London Experience Week. This is put on by the World Experience Organization or WXO, and uh they you can get tickets at LondonExperience Week.com. Uh so again, you know, that's LondonExperienceweek.com. They are pricey and it is an in-person thing. So uh WXO does put on a bunch of different things like campfires and other things like that that are remote. Uh, but London Experience Week is an in-person physical experience. So if you're in London or planning to travel to London this week and you want to swing by, they sell day passes as well as full weekly passes. And again, you can get that at LondonExperienceWeek.com. So that is uh yeah, that is that. And all right, so this one is really interesting because these guys just launched in October of 25. This is Scorbit. And they recently put out uh just this isn't new news, like this is came out a couple of weeks ago. They announced that they um have now added real money arcade tournaments to its connected gaming platform. Uh, and their whole goal of Scorebit is uh try to bring classic and modern arcade games online. And so they you know figure that they basically described this launch as a major step forward in transforming physical gameplay into connected, competitive, and monetized experiences. Uh the real money arcade tournaments, they feature, you know, basically enables players to enter competitions, they can step into live tournaments, they can compete on demand and win cash prizes. So, you know, you think about like arcade games or pinball or whatever, like you know, they've always been competitive. Like you go in, you have the leaderboards on the individual games, or obviously on the pinball, um, but they've never been connected in like an online, uh, you know, really, really interconnected way. And uh, so they they feel like you know, the the founder, uh co-founder of Scorebit, Jay Adelson says like adding tournaments with real money prizes raises the stakes and gives people a reason to keep coming back. And so obviously it's about repeat visitation and play. Um, they yeah, operators are actually able to control the structure of their tournaments. They can set uh higher stakes jackpots, they can allocate a portion of entry fees to the prize pool so they can really drive and control these tournaments in their own way for operators. Uh but to launch this feature, Scorbit's gonna be hosting tournaments across 13 locations with a four uh you know, with$4,000 in total jackpot winnings available. Uh they like as I mentioned, they did launch in October of 2025. They're uh now in live in 15 locations across California, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Colorado. So like they haven't really consolidated or focused on any one particular place, but you know, they are um they are expanding and they have plans to expand to more than 30 locations by the end of April. So, you know, just a couple of weeks, we'll see them expand into all of you know 30, you know, 30 locations, which is awesome. So the way that these guys work is you know, there's a little device that goes into the game or to the pinball machine um and uh basically connects them to uh connects that game to their online leaderboard. And you can actually have you know what they call their Scorbit vision, which is real-time scores and leaderboards um that basically uh give you know the game the arcade, you know, full arcade feel. So anyway, that is Scorbit and they are uh they're they're you know new new tech platform making their way and and growing. And so it's good to see this type of innovation coming into uh our space. Obviously, I am a uh you know big fan of gamifying existing facilities and venues in ways that can drive that repeat visitation, and these guys are doing a great job on that front. All right, and then next up, we've got uh kind of excited about this one because one of my 2026 predictions is taking its first step to becoming a reality. And I will say it's a minor step, but it is definitely uh definitely signaling that this one is going to ultimately happen. So one of my little medium uh predictions, this is my 50-50 predictions, said Disney will finally announce plans for their move into location-based entertainment. And that is happening. So uh, at least initially, so this is Disney Store Limited Time. So Disney Store is expanding its retail offerings in new pop-up shopping spaces. Uh, and these are the first one is launching in May. So they're collaborating with Go Retail Group and Disney's stores, uh limited retail destinations, they say we'll bring Disney storytelling to life through in-person shopping experiences. So this is these like camp style experiences. I had mentioned, you know, they uh Disney has a long-standing relationship with camp, and they a lot of their brands and IP, camp has developed entire retail experiences around it. Um, my uh one of my my like big swing predictions in 2025 was that Disney would acquire Camp. I still think that's a phenomenal idea. Disney's really struggled with making their way into the location-based entertainment space. They have a great retail experience, you know, just from a straight retail standpoint, but they really have struggled to like create other micro location-based entertainment experiences in the same way that uh Sony has tried, um, but that like Netflix has done, for example, uh, and Paramount has done. And so these are uh, so this is, I think, their first step in this direction. So the Pittsburgh location uh will open on the 23rd of May, and then the New Jersey location will debut in autumn of this year. So, you know, again, they're making their way in this direction. Are they gonna be full-blown LBE this year? I don't know. It's why I made it a medium probability prediction. But, you know, this is the first step, I think. These new pop stores are gonna sell authentic Disney merchandise and as well as just places to celebrate Disney fans and fandom. And they say, quote unquote, on their blog post that Disney uh they will be filled with authentic Disney merchandise, unforgettable experiences, and a space to celebrate the fandom and wonder of Disney. These stores will carry on Disney store's mission to meet the fans where they're at in an environment that reflects Disney store's creativity, storytelling, and quality. Uh, they say there'll be signature Disney store touches and experiences, there'll be opening ceremonies and most immersive in-store designs and exclusive products. And, you know, I think this is really interesting as well that uh, you know, Arik Lubkin, you know, that he's a VP of experience design at camp. You know, he says experiential retail and immersive experiences have evolved to the point that they get to be their own thing now. And this is the thing I've been waiting for Disney to finally figure out and do. And it looks like they're finally making this move in this direction. It'd be really interesting to go, if I can, and see the Pittsburgh or New Jersey locations once they open, just to get a sense for how closely are these aligned with camp style experiences, or is there uh, you know, or is this really something new, or is this really just like a retail location that just happens to have some basic like little experience? I don't know. So this is what we're waiting to see. Um obviously they're just putting out their basic word right now, and we will learn more in the future. All right. Last thing we've got on News You Should Know. I first announced this last week, but we have season five coming up in August. It kicks off season five of LBX Collective and LBX show. Uh season five is sound off as well. And so we're looking, I'm looking for suggestions. We are looking for suggestions on how to change up and improve the LBX show. We will be making some format changes. There is no question about that. I'm very excited about some of those already in the works, but would love to hear from you. So please do what you can to scan this QR code if you're here and you're watching this, or if you're listening to it, you can go to LBXers. So LBX E R S dot com slash season five with the number five. So lbxers.com slash season five, and you can submit your suggestions. And I'll take you know any of them. Like love to hear from you and and any of these suggestions that you might possibly have. So all right, coming up after the quick break, we are going to dive right into open and shut with Kevin Williams. Let's do it. Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed, and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the USB industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. If you are already part of a global family of customers, they hope you will become one too.

Openings And Investment Momentum

SPEAKER_05 11:59

Hey, a big hello to the latest open and shut. I hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

Yeah, doing well. Doing well up here uh up north again, and so uh just enjoying the enjoying the forest and the elf.

SPEAKER_05 12:13

Bit envious of that. It must be nice.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Absolutely. Well, should we dive in? We got a lot to cover.

SPEAKER_05 12:20

Yes, let's jump straight in. And so you can see that we have a continuation, a little, a little down on maybe last week, but still a continuation of investment uh into the sector, no stopping. We were talking about our friends at Game Face a little bit more in sound off in a couple of days' time, but uh fundamentally this is the entrance of one of the known uh competitive socializing manufacturers into the space of developing their own facilities. Um it comprises a number of unusual attractions alongside some familiar um augmented uh darts and uh gamified shuffleboards. It's an interesting location. I will go into a little bit more about that when we uh speak more.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Yeah, looking forward to talking about the Sun Sound Off. Uh I've been to the Printworks area uh in Manchester, and um, this is gonna be a great, I mean, it was really an up-and-coming, interesting space uh or interesting place in Manchester. So it'd be uh fun to talk about, looking forward to it. And um very excited about uh uh to see where Game Face goes. Um it has uh you know obviously has a very game vault-ish feel to it, obviously, given it's created by Conductor. But uh yeah, looking forward to that discussion.

SPEAKER_05 13:43

Our friends at Sandbox hit an interesting milestone, 35 facilities, uh according to them. My numbers vary by two, but uh again, uh they are motoring along with their franchise um and they're dropping their trousers a little bit and giving us information about their historical situation. They're stating that they have$300 million generated in historic ticket sales since the creation of the operation. Um, and my calculator tells me that that is low compared to what we would be uh expecting from over 80 facilities uh over this period of time. I am sure there's a lot more nuance to the data, and hopefully we'll get uh Steve and the team there to give us a breakdown when we have a chat with them in a couple of uh weeks' time.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Yeah, I mean, look, even if uh you know, even if you take into account the fact that the 85 locations haven't been open, you know, all at the same time, and you know, you can't take the 300 million and divide it across 85 locations, obviously. Um, but even taking into account the scale up that they've had, the per the revenue per location, uh, at least uh you know, from some back of Napkin math, does not look uh super alluring. It certainly doesn't look like you could support many of the places where they're dropped in um from a from a lease and retail, like from a lease standpoint, from a location cost standpoint. So I don't know. I'm not sure it's a number I'd be touting. Um but uh you know certainly they're they're they're growing the franchise, they continue to grow the franchise, but you're very interested to understand you know which ones are the outliers and which ones are just complete, uh completely falling uh falling down.

VR Location Trends And Museum Fit

SPEAKER_05 15:31

The variables uh are are the issue. Uh locality, they place themselves in high uh expensive uh high foot traffic locations. They are under a franchise model, they have to pay licensing fees for the use of uh the Netflix and other properties. They have quite high staffage uh because of uh the way that the facilities are operated, and not all of them have secondary sales options, i.e., you're not just going in there to buy the game, but uh buy the merch or even buy a cocktail. So there's a lot of variables that need to be answered so we can work out even if this is a mean or an average uh 300 uh million. But giving a number like that without any context can can bite you in the butt sometimes. One one thing people ask me about uh a lot is the Japanese market and why they're so into VR. And uh we'll touch upon it's gonna become the catchphrase. We'll touch upon this in sound sound off later on, but we uh turn towards um operations such as XR Center Games Space, who are an up-and-coming uh developer of uh virtual reality entertainment. And they've just jumped in bed with uh excuse me, uh, with our friends at uh Typhon uh develop content, which we will talk about uh for their facilities, but also they've been updating uh the content that's going into the facility. And one of the Typhon sites uh has added a sit-down motion seat, old school, as I would call it, VR experience, to their mix to appeal to their audience. At the same time, that kind of gives us a rundown on uh where their audience is coming from and how they're positioning themselves in the market. But you know, again, we we can delve a little deeper later on. The VR virtual adventure, uh the warehouse scale, the human scale, whatever you want to call it, it is motoring along, and our friends in Turkey at uh Mervus Yeah, Merv's uh Musivus, Musevers, I think would be the best way. Um they have relocated from their original temporary site to a more permanent site. They're in the uh they're in the museum district uh in this part of uh the region, and they are really pushing their experiential approach to this. Uh again, we will be talking in the sound off a coming sound off episode about exactly where these virtual adventure systems fit and the possible implications that they have for large audience entertainment retention, which used to be filled by 4D theatres in the cinema sector, and now are being turned towards a more active or interactive immersive experience approach.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Oh man. So look, I uh I struggle with this for a few reasons. Um, you know, one, I think that VR has a lot of really great potential for museum um educational type experiences. We'll call it that. Things that you would, you know, as add-ons into existing museums, as an actual place you go and visit to go visit a virtual museum. I think that's where I really struggle, partly because we've talked about length of time wearing the VR headsets. And when you go and visit a museum, typically your dwell time at a museum is certainly more than 45 minutes, which is I think the max that I would uh that I personally would, you know, would want to wear one of these and also would recommend somebody wearing one of these at the at any given time. And so if you want your dwell time to be that of a museum and give people those types of experiences, then uh this is probably not the right approach. Secondly, I get, and we all know any of us who have dealt with VR, understand why the symbols have to exist on the walls and everything else and on the flooring. Um, but there are also other ways to make this more aesthetically appealing when you're not wearing the uh the goggles, make it look more like an educational institution or like a museum, um, bring in some real physical aspects. So, anyway, I just really struggle with this approach as a standalone opportunity. At least they have a shop, a museum shop to uh to sell some merchandise. And I do wish more facilities would actually have merchandise for sale. It's a great way to add per cap uh to increase your per cap. But um, but yeah, that is uh I'm not sure about this one.

Cinertainment Growth And Differentiation

SPEAKER_05 20:21

We'll we'll talk about the nuances a little bit later. Uh and another uh another deployment, it is the popular thing to do, this time in Brazil, uh again uh with a much more focused uh application towards uh the museum side rather than the adventure side. Uh and I think you know, when we speak in sound off, you'll understand a little bit more of why it may be popular for investors to look at this kind of application of immersive for technology rather than the more traditional VR arcade setup that we saw a couple of cycles ago. Moving along, and in the age of CinemarCon, we are recording this just as CinemaCon is coming to an end. And uh the Cinertainment banner was uh unfurled very heavily during that conference, and we are now beginning to hear of a lot more of the cinertainment kind of uh approach towards uh the cinema operation. Hookie, we've talked about them before. Uh the Texas-based uh chain uh that has put a lot of its energies into developing its unique brand of amusement, entertainment, F and B, and cinema uh all in one package. They're up to 10 facilities. That sh shocked me how quickly that they've jumped to 10 sites now, but they are promoting that they have 10 operational facilities. And this latest one in Nashville Yard in Texas. uh is a 50,000 square facility. And there's no slouch really on the femaleity as well as the presentation.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Yeah, I mean their F and B looks fantastic, a really great menu, their uh their aesthetic is is excellent. They're they've got a great brand, their website is on is on point. It's just do we need another do we need another Cenotainment um you know Centertainment model? I don't know. I mean there's uh certainly need welcome the competition and and you know obviously they're doing something right at 10 locations and continue to expand. But uh this is you know I feel like we're we're a dime a dozen especially coming out of the tech Texas ecosystem the Cenotainment ecosystem. So um you know really don't you don't see the differentiator I guess is my point other than their brand, their aesthetic and look and feel and their F and B is slightly elevated over some of the other F that you would find at like a Santico's or Synergy or Fat Cats.

Closures Plus A Barcade Pivot

SPEAKER_05 23:00

You're right the differentiator is king here. I am concerned that too many of these entertainment facilities have followed the model of have cinema super glue a mediocre F and B mediocre FEC and then put in the middle of that a reasonable hot dog nachto selection where I would argue that this is much higher approach to the theme and the super gluing of an arcade onto this has not really elevated anything to be more defined than the competition. And there is a strong possibility that if you're not following a model where your facility stands out and you can stand in the middle of your facility and say ah I am inside a X, Y, or Z, then you're going to get run over by the horde. And there's this jumping off the bridge fallacy which is just because everybody's doing it, you know you've got to do it as well. So there's a lot of things to touch upon really on where Cinnatment is going even though the cinema industry now admits that it is an opportunity for future survival. Our friends at launch they are really getting into their stride regarding their launch family entertainment variant. This is pushing the uh the the facility beyond their trampoline and active entertainment and going for a full uh mixed entertainment model they have the bowling they have the amusement they have the uh the mini golf but they still have trampoline so they still uh offer that uh as a component but as you can see by the branding and the push they are focusing more on the entertainment than they are uh on the active entertainment one of the big developments in the competitive socializing sector was the first mainland European uh appearance of F1 arcade this is following uh the you know the high level agreement that the operation made with their franchisee uh in Italy sorry in Spain I do apologize and we saw how the franchisees taking their model uh and rolling with it for the uh uh for the Spanish uh and Italian and the European market we will again touch upon this in more detail in sound off but I would just like to say here I was interested at seeing the little changes that the franchisee sorry franchise er had encouraged the franchisee to make but uh building on the lessons that they've learned with their North American openings and their uh uh UK openings uh there is devil in the detail that we we should take a look at because it may be pointing uh to a better understanding of where competitive socializing on this level is going yeah I hope so I mean I'm looking forward to this discussion and sound off uh you know having visited now uh actually visited an F1 arcade uh it'd be interesting to see which uh you know what what what learnings they're taking in deploying you know in the EU sector as well as hopefully some of their other future North American locations. Agreed jumping down and we exit the openings and enter the turbulent world of the shuts and the rebrandings we've only got two really main uh statements to deal with and the big one was the loss of quite a prominent uh competitive socializing operation in the UK uh right at the beginning of the trend of competitive socializing a number of entrepreneurs had uh rammed their flag into the ground and made decisions to enter the market and developed their own unique branding. Those brandings and styles were emulated by the competition and a lot of the the features and fundamentals that we see from other operations can be charted back to these early uh iterations. One of those early iterations was point blank they started off with uh uh facilities in let's get this right uh they had in Scotland uh uh and the the north of uh the country uh they put a lot of effort into offering a semi-shooting gallery realistic experience so not a claze not a sports shooting but more a shooting gallery they used uh pneumatic uh firing weapons which were quite realistic uh they had a very strong bar and cocktail component they went for the booth model uh and then uh we hear that uh the company had uh fallen into difficult times the momentum of their audience traction the stickiness of their experience uh was finding itself and then suddenly we were put in uh you know put up with information that the operation had found it difficult to match its uh payments for a particular venue that venue decided to just take the keys away from the operation that caused an awful situation where the staff couldn't actually communicate with people who had made bookings because they were totally locked out of their systems and this then uh cascaded and the whole of the point blank operation uh fell into uh insolvency and has closed down that's three facilities gone from the market the t-shirt says we will be talking more about this on sound off uh but fundamentally I wanted to touch upon this as quite uh uh important line in the sand uh regarding competitive socializing it it points to the three uh three three areas that we keep on going on about which is can you survive on just having one type of uh experience in the market number two can you hope that one type of flavor and I don't just mean the experiences but I mean also the femaleity the decor the operation and all of that uh can survive for this period of time uh nearly 10 years without change uh this sorry uh the five years without change excuse me um and and the big one which is it may have been successful at the beginning but was that a flash in the pan and maybe did you need to go back and reevaluate what your audience was getting out of it and there's also another mix into that which I I won't touch upon now too much but there's also the price is you are you correctly priced are you value for money yeah I was gonna say I would just hold off my my comments to uh till sound off I mean yeah I have my issues of point blank as a as a venue itself um you know versus the clays or other shooting venues but uh but yeah the you you some of the broader issues you've already talked about um definitely looking forward to that discussion with sound off this is one giant tease for the coming sound off exactly um a closure but for a good reason uh our friends uh in Florida Fire Betty's I always want to call them fire bellies but anyway fire bettes um they are a live music uh uh sports bar well no no no bar uh and uh entertainment environment they're taking uh a couple of weeks off they're gonna close the facility at this point and they're going to add or expand upon their uh amusement uh entertainment components they are really pivoting towards being an actual bar uh uh with an arcade bar rather than just being a bar bar they're gonna I'm led to believe from the write up they're going to continue to have the live music element but they are really doubling down on utilising their space uh as an arcade bar unusual time to to to pause this is the type of thing you do during winter um uh why you do this now many reasons maybe space is available to them they didn't have the time or as I personally feel is that they're seeing what the competition around them is doing and the writing's on the wall literally and they have uh decided to bite the bullet now and get it over and done with so they can then benefit uh from the increased revenue they would expect from this it is interesting when you start to see companies pivoting towards this approach how much this market is uh influencing the bottom line for operations yeah I mean this is interesting I mean given Firebeddies is uh looks like more like a concert venue or just an event venue in general I mean they have comedians and and others and so yeah they're I mean why not if they've got the extra square footage like go ahead and optimize that square footage for revenue producing that we all know that arcades can do if they're run properly and given the fact that they're probably doing just fine as an event venue then why not just scoop up that extra per capit?

SPEAKER_03 32:23

And if you do the due diligence the Tallahousy sector has just had a couple of new entertainment venues pop up uh so uh the writing was on the wall that they needed to uh ship up or shape out that's a quick overview the usual uh TNCs apply here hit us up on LinkedIn with corrections and uh new information we have uh new singer reports coming out we have uh also uh uh a virtual arena in the works coming out and if you have any direct questions there's my email perfect yeah very fairly uh you know fairly concise open and shut today uh but uh looking forward to the next one but also looking forward to really expanding on some of the discussions that we just barely touched on here uh in sound off in just a few days have a good one if 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.

Arcade News Slows After Expo

Stranger Things Cabinet Arrives Quietly

Disney Speedstorm Arcade Details

Ski Hero Revives Skiing Games

Neo Geo AES Plus Recreated Hardware

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Curious visit radius.co and ask about your free market analysis that's raydius all right well that was a great open and shut with Kevin Williams and right now we've got Adam Pratt with arcade corner coming up with arcade heroes and welcome to arcade corner here at the LBX Collective unfortunately there's not a whole lot to talk about this week as often happens after a trade show uh news dries up for a while as it takes time to hit production uh Sega was uh hoping to have certain games like Daytona Championship USA Motion edition shipping by now but when I reached out to them this week they um said that uh the boats had been delayed and so now they're expecting first week of May is when those would be available and shipping out uh but you could still place an order for that or any of the other games that you saw. And uh once we get into May we should start having a bit more news as we'll have things like John Wick will be released to Dave and Busters. And I guess speaking of that I've already heard reports of the Stranger Things arcade which Roth Rills recently teased as already being installed into certain Dave and Busters although it's a little odd to me I don't know why they're not really promoting but so far there's been no promotion other than a teaser that like Dave and Busters hasn't been doing a promotion and Roth Rills hasn't Netflix hasn't and so I don't really know why they're being so secretive about this. It's not like these are nuclear code secrets or something but uh it is a ball toss game but it's a giant piece and so there's actually videos already popping up all over the internet of people that have already come across a couple of these installed ones uh I think my mainly on TikTok is uh where I saw one but as more and more show up out there one that I heard is being installed right or was being installed this weekend or should be ready this weekend is at uh Dave and Busters in Ontario. But as we uh also speaking of things coming in May as you see on this screen here Adrenaline Amusements did create a page for their Disney speedstorm out arcade although I I don't know if it's technically just supposed to be speedstorm at least when you go hover over their products bar it just says speedstorm arcade but that might be to just shorten it so that it doesn't make the menu explode or anything. But uh they this should be shipping out next month and there's been a lot of hype about it as far as the videos that I filmed at Amusement Expo it's one of the most viewed as far as specific products go. Oftentimes the videos that I do of the booth tours tend to get a lot more views than anything else but the specific product videos it just depends on what it is. And so Disney being a name that grabs attention from people as well as bots online through search engines that are uh crawling over the internet they pick up on the Disney thing. But uh this is we believe I believe we discussed in the past it's based on a free-to-play game that's available for both mobile and console platforms like it's on the Switch and things of that nature but this one is obviously been adapted for arcade use it has the card system cards are not necessary to for the game to operate as like with say Raw Thrills their games will stop working if they run out of cards in this instance it that will not happen. And the amount of cards that are available in boxes is a lot smaller than some other companies there's only 200 per box they haven't finalized pricing on them yet but again since it's not absolutely necessary for the game to work it's not as big a deal if you run out of stock but if you want customers to enjoy the game fully then you do want to have cards there because that is what will allow them to unlock characters. Now there will be a certain number of characters available by default I was told that what is what was available at uh Amusement Expo which I think was just uh Mickey Mouse and Donald if I'm recalling correctly unless you had a card to scan then uh you would uh those were the defaults but that's not necessarily what the defaults will be for the production model they adrenaline said they're still deciding on what that will be but those are big 75 inch screens and portrait mode and motion seats and nine different tracks to race so definitely something that will draw attention and we should be hopefully hearing more about the other opponent in the kids racer arena here soon the Nicktoon's uh cart racers arcade by Andamiro USA but I haven't seen anything on that uh also speaking of racers of a sort now this was supposed to be at Amusement Expo but due to a problem with shipping it did not appear and this is called Ski Hero and the first skiing game that we've seen in this industry I think since um uh what was that uh Super Alpine Racer by Roth Rills and uh Bandy Namco which was something like 2014 15 or 16 somewhere around there been uh over a decade or more since that was being sold and so Ski Hero is a skiing arcade video game a skiing simulator the foot controller it's maybe but at least from what I've seen of the videos it's maybe a little bit more like a uh a like we can watch the video here but it's more like a snowboard of a sort but let's take a look this was also I think supposed to be at IAPA but it also didn't make it to IAPA so as far as trade shows goes it's been uh having some bad luck there as I've wanted to give it a try because you know it's a video game and I like to try all the video games that I can but I guess it's not a snowboard in the sense that it's not fully you know it's not one board like that it's wider than your typical snowboard so you don't have to stand on it sideways. You still stand on it like skis but like with Super Alpine Racer uh the foot uh part pieces I'm not sure what you would call them uh they had there were their own independent swivel type controllers uh on top of a platform and so that's where it's a little bit different than that and then of course this the game itself different courses and characters and graphics and all that stuff uh aren't available with uh the competing skiing games out there but you can also link units together it also has ticket redemption built into it and this is available now just uh not sure when I'll get a chance to see one and that pretty much wraps up the news that we have although there is something that's kind of arcade adjacent like if you're really into video games or whatnot this is probably be more interesting for you but when back when I was a kid and I was thumbing through GamePro magazines I remember coming across reviews uh for the Neo Geo AES and different games and they looked amazing to me in like 1991 1992 just blew my mind how they looked and I didn't realize it was based on an arcade system which was the Neo Geo MVS which if you've been in this industry for a long time then you know what that is but the Neo Geo AES or Advanced Entertainment System was essentially a home version of the MVS. It could only handle one cartridge but it was the exact same hardware as the arcade now one thing that always shocked me when I looked in Game Pro is they would post the prices for the system as well as the games and it was astronomical it was something like$700 for the system$200$250 per each game cartridge and again this was early 1990s dollars uh not today and uh it's like oh man that's so cool but I thought I'd never see one and I almost never did I've seen one in more recent years that's like a uh a classic game store with everything there was still pretty pricey and so that's never changed with it but now it's been announced that uh this company playon replay or I noticed they spell that with AI at the end has worked with SNK to design a new release of the Neo Geo AES the AES plus but what is very impressive about this because I mean this is not the first time that we've seen a game console come along and returning uh something that was available in the past and updated for today the main difference between this and all the other consoles out there console remakes out there is uh 99% of them run off of an emulator or they might run off of something called an FPGA where it's essentially emulating either via software or emulating hardware as to what the platform is. But this is the first time that I've heard of Where they've actually recreated the original hardware. And so it's not running off an FPGA or, like I said, an emulator. And so this not only allows you to plug in old AES cartridges if you have them, as well as accessories, but they've they're doing these new cartridge re-releases. I already saw one company that's uh looking into producing their own games uh onto new cartridges, and so that'd be original software for it. Um, but uh again, this is very adjacent, more home focused out there. But uh, if you're into Neo Geo at all because of the MVS and whatnot, uh, this is available. Now I've seen uh, or it's available for for pre-order. I've seen some people complaining about the price, funny enough, but it's like, do you not understand how much uh this cost back in the day? It's like even at 250 bucks, which isn't I'm not saying that's not a change. And so uh in in that regard, it's like and I'm also very sort of surprised. Again, we've never seen anybody doing one of these system recreations, like Nintendo's done that, and Sony's done that, and Atari's done that, and uh some others have too, and television and whatnot. And so there's not really been a shortage of finding these game console remakes from the past. However, uh, just again, they've usually been emulator boxes, and so the the cost of what it would take to recreate original hardware, even though it is ancient hardware, so to speak, um, that's not cheap. It costs a lot of money to spool up the uh all the equipment for creating microchips and things of that nature, especially something that's not going to be like produced in the millions. And this was using the old Motorola 68,000 uh processor, which was in a ton of arcade machines and computers and um and consoles and such, like the Sega Genesis and the Atari Jaguar both used that. But uh still uh to see that it's uh very impressive, and just that for that alone kind of makes me want to support it if I had the money. Um, but uh that is uh not as uh easy to come by these days on the cash side. But anyways, that really covers our arcade stuff for now. I guess we were able to fill out our time, but uh thanks for watching, and we'll catch you next week where hopefully we have more to talk about.

Final Notes And What’s Next

SPEAKER_04 46:43

All right, well, that was awesome. Loved hearing about the new Neo Geo. Well, it's not new, right? It's obviously a recreation of the original Neo Geo um system. And um, yeah, I was a big fan of it back in the day, never had one, but had some friends that had some. So anyway, got a chance to play those and uh yeah, it brings back some good memories from uh the childhood. So anyway, that is uh nearly a wrap here. We've got sound off number 118 with Kevin Williams coming out on Tuesday, April 21st. And remember, the we are looking for season five suggestions. So if you have any suggestions, go to lbxrews.com slash season five. That's number five, or scan this QR code if you are watching and give us suggestions for season five coming up and starting in August. We are definitely gonna re be remaking the show uh to keep it more lively and interesting as always. So, anyway, season five suggestions. And that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking.