Arcade Cabinet for iPad
Posted on April 04, 2011It’s been a year since ThinkGeek announced the iPad Arcade Cabinet — the iCADE — on April Fool’s Day. Â Since then, they’ve partnered with ION, and the product has become real. It’s a bluetooth controller and iPad stand in one, with arcade-style buttons and joystick. It’s expected to be available in early June, 2011.
Pocket-lint.com has a list of other April Fool’s pranks that came true.
Sega’s Vector Game “Eliminator”
Posted on August 30, 2010Here’s a look at an Asteroids cousin in the arcade: Sega/Gremlin’s Eliminator, released in 1981. The 4-person cocktail game has the distinction of being the only 4-player vector game ever created. It was also released as a 2-player upright and cocktail game.
A summary on M.A.R.S. (Mark’s Arcade Retro Site) says:
In Eliminator, your object is to 1) Destroy any threats (opposing players or drones) by forcing them into a large floating asteroid (known as the Eliminator Base) using your energy bolts, which “push” ships, and 2) Fire an energy bolt down a narrow opening in the Eliminator Base, thus destroying it. Of course, you will have to survive an onslaught by your opponents, drones, and the Eliminator itself (a deadly ship that comes out of the Eliminator Base, lauches fireballs and destroys opponents on contact).
For more information, visit Andy’s Arcade and Wikipedia. Or Google it.
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: How To Play Asteroids
Posted on August 15, 2010We just came across this old post on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. They were stuck at work on the Friday before Labor Day, playing Asteroids, and decided to write about it. Includes video of one of their games.
Recon: Super Bear Arcade [CLOSED]
Posted on February 05, 200940755 Village Drive
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 (map)
Phone: 909-866-8620
Super Bear Arcade is a small arcade on the main street of this Southern California mountain resort town. It’s packed with classic games including Frogger, Super Mario Brothers, several forms of Donkey Kong, Tron, and Discs of Tron (sit-down). It also has skeeball with cheap plastic prizes.
Their Asteroids (1979) is set to fast mode, and starts with 4 ships — good for getting a high score quickly, if you’re full of sugar from the ice cream places in town. One drawback is that the screen has a lot of glare from the overhead lights.
[UPDATE] — Super Bear Arcade is CLOSED! Â See the comment below.
Recon: Santa Cruz Boardwalk
Posted on January 28, 2009Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
400 Beach Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (map)
Phone: 831-423-5590
website: http://beachboardwalk.com/02_casino_arcade.html
This is a fun place, with a roller coaster on the beach outside, an excellent two-story pirate mini-golf course inside, and a respectable collection of older (not antique) pinball machines.
There are two Asteroids consoles and one Asteroids Deluxe. The Casino Arcade building has a small room with a dozen or so very early arcade games, including several other vector games (Tempest, Battlezone, Star Wars). This is where Asteroids Deluxe lives. This console has a weak monitor, and the image breaks up at the edges.
One 1979 Asteroids game is near the vintage game room, right by the shooting gallery. This one is in OK shape, except that the hyperspace button only works half the time. The contact probably needs to be cleaned.
The other Asteroids console is in a arcade room next door in Neptune’s Kingdom (mini-golf). This one is surrounded by more modern games, and the whole place is a bit loud for serious asteroid destruction. I don’t remember much about the machine itself because I was so distracted.