4/08/2005
Men Spend More On Video Games Than Music
Toyz for the boyz
By Wil Harris: Friday 08 April 2005, 09:43
NIELSEN, famed for its method of measuring TV audiences, have said that men spend more money on video games than music.
With games costing up to four times the cost of a CD, it's perhaps not surprising, but some of the statistics the firm puts forward make for interesting reading.
Gamers are getting older, with 25% now over the age of 40. 40% of all US households have some kind of gaming system. Gamers spend an average of 5 hours a week playing alone and 3 hours a week playing online. That trend is modified by age: over the age of 45, 79% of a gamer's time is spent playing alone, where as gamers in their teens play more socially.
The industry now has $10 billion a year in revenue, on par with the US box office takings each year. Games have been carrying film-style ratings systems for a while now: perhaps these latest financial figures will convince parents of the importance of not giving their kids games unsuitable for them, just as they wouldn't take their 10-year-old to an NC-17 movie.
By Wil Harris: Friday 08 April 2005, 09:43
NIELSEN, famed for its method of measuring TV audiences, have said that men spend more money on video games than music.
With games costing up to four times the cost of a CD, it's perhaps not surprising, but some of the statistics the firm puts forward make for interesting reading.
Gamers are getting older, with 25% now over the age of 40. 40% of all US households have some kind of gaming system. Gamers spend an average of 5 hours a week playing alone and 3 hours a week playing online. That trend is modified by age: over the age of 45, 79% of a gamer's time is spent playing alone, where as gamers in their teens play more socially.
The industry now has $10 billion a year in revenue, on par with the US box office takings each year. Games have been carrying film-style ratings systems for a while now: perhaps these latest financial figures will convince parents of the importance of not giving their kids games unsuitable for them, just as they wouldn't take their 10-year-old to an NC-17 movie.
Ping-Pong Champ Does It Again
CHRIS FERGUSSONStaff Writer
April 07, 2005
Basketball players playing pick-up games at the Rec Center Wednesday night shouted over the erratic pop of ping-pong balls being whizzed across the tables.
Twenty-four students strived for ping-pong supremacy on three blue Stiga ping-pong tables placed on a rec center basketball court during International Week's ping-pong tournament.
Ayumu Minegishi, Yokohama, Japan freshman, who won last semester's Intramural table tennis tournament, claimed the title with his final round win over India native Anantha Rama.
"I really had a fun time," Minegishi said. "I almost didn't win."
The cultural aim of the International Week tournament was not to showcase ping-pong as an ethic or cultural sport, but rather to use the game as a means to draw a diverse field of participants.
"Ping-pong is really popular in middle-eastern countries as well as eastern Asian countries, and I thought it would be a good idea to use this game to bring all these cultures together," said Khuzaima Haider, event organizer and Pakistani graduate student.
The competitors consisted of Middle Easterners, Eastern Asians and Americans, each bringing his or her particular style of play to the event. Tournament winner, Minegishi, brought his own Japanese styled paddle, which had broader grip and a square face instead of the traditional circle, as well as a distinct serve.
"Table tennis is much bigger in Japan than in the U.S.,: Minegishi said. "People don't just play at parties or other times like that. They play all the time."
Zack Lueth, Fort Worth Freshman, lost in an early round. Between matches, he and other eliminated players broke into casual conversation about the tournament and equipment.
Lueth, and Minegishi, carried on about their paddles and what differences the styles of paddles made, and looked as if they were becoming fast friends. All in the name of ping-pong ... or table tennis, as Minegishi calls it.
April 07, 2005
Basketball players playing pick-up games at the Rec Center Wednesday night shouted over the erratic pop of ping-pong balls being whizzed across the tables.
Twenty-four students strived for ping-pong supremacy on three blue Stiga ping-pong tables placed on a rec center basketball court during International Week's ping-pong tournament.
Ayumu Minegishi, Yokohama, Japan freshman, who won last semester's Intramural table tennis tournament, claimed the title with his final round win over India native Anantha Rama.
"I really had a fun time," Minegishi said. "I almost didn't win."
The cultural aim of the International Week tournament was not to showcase ping-pong as an ethic or cultural sport, but rather to use the game as a means to draw a diverse field of participants.
"Ping-pong is really popular in middle-eastern countries as well as eastern Asian countries, and I thought it would be a good idea to use this game to bring all these cultures together," said Khuzaima Haider, event organizer and Pakistani graduate student.
The competitors consisted of Middle Easterners, Eastern Asians and Americans, each bringing his or her particular style of play to the event. Tournament winner, Minegishi, brought his own Japanese styled paddle, which had broader grip and a square face instead of the traditional circle, as well as a distinct serve.
"Table tennis is much bigger in Japan than in the U.S.,: Minegishi said. "People don't just play at parties or other times like that. They play all the time."
Zack Lueth, Fort Worth Freshman, lost in an early round. Between matches, he and other eliminated players broke into casual conversation about the tournament and equipment.
Lueth, and Minegishi, carried on about their paddles and what differences the styles of paddles made, and looked as if they were becoming fast friends. All in the name of ping-pong ... or table tennis, as Minegishi calls it.
Namco's Wangan Midnight
Namco’s Wangan Midnight, Maximum Tune 2 ready to burn rubber
The two-player Maxi Tune 2 is linkable up to two units for four-player head-to-head competition. Maxi Tune 2 features player buy-in, the rewritable "Tuning Card" system, numerous courses and selectable cars. Players can buy-in at any time during the race. Whenever a player buys-in the game resets to the starting point making it an equal race for all players.
The "Tuning Card" data is updated after each game play. The rank, tuning status and number of rivals defeated in the Story Mode are recorded after each exhilarating match. Players have the ability to use their Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune "Tuning Cards" on the new Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 game!
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 will be hitting the streets in early May.
The two-player Maxi Tune 2 is linkable up to two units for four-player head-to-head competition. Maxi Tune 2 features player buy-in, the rewritable "Tuning Card" system, numerous courses and selectable cars. Players can buy-in at any time during the race. Whenever a player buys-in the game resets to the starting point making it an equal race for all players.
The "Tuning Card" data is updated after each game play. The rank, tuning status and number of rivals defeated in the Story Mode are recorded after each exhilarating match. Players have the ability to use their Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune "Tuning Cards" on the new Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 game!
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 will be hitting the streets in early May.
Pinball Is Music To Our Ears
Coming to you live on FM radio, Stern Pinball's The Sopranos(r) pinball machine! Chicago jock "Mancow" Muller is playing The Sopranos(r) pinball live on the air all this week on his immensely popular show, 'Mancow in the Morning', on Chicago's Q101.
Mancow has been praising the game each morning this week, as his radio buddies keep insisting that they are all buying one for their basements. All the while, listeners hear the ball bounce around the playfield, as the pinball machine's specially recorded speech of the characters from The Sopranos(r) television show fills the airwaves with classic wisecracks. Stern Pinball's very own Pat Powers was also on air this past Tuesday, fielding Mancow's questions and giving a full detail description of The Sopranos(r) game play for the listening audience. "This is a great pinball machine!" said Mancow emphatically to Pat.
Erich "Mancow" Muller is an institution in Chicago morning drive radio. His talk program, emanating from Emmis' modern rock WKQX-FM is a ratings powerhouse. But, he does it without the ribald sex talk and graphic language that has the FCC in an uproar. That's what attracted Talk Radio Network CEO Mark Masters to him. Masters recently signed Muller to a multi-year syndication deal for his new TRN-FM arm. Mancow has dabbled in syndication previously, but now with the power of one of the industry's most successful and aggressive syndication companies behind him, he is getting ready for a full-on assault on FM morning drive radio. To get your New Sopranos Pinball Call 1-800-966-9873 The Game Gallery.
Mancow's radio show is featured on Q101.1FM in Chicago; 93.5FM in Champaign, IL; 98.5FM is Warrensburg, MO; 99.7FM in Providence, RI; 97.3FM in Albany, GA; 97.1FM in Detroit, MI; 103.9FM in Phoenix, AZ; 95.9FM in Ocean City, MD; and 940AM in Webster, MA.
Mancow has been praising the game each morning this week, as his radio buddies keep insisting that they are all buying one for their basements. All the while, listeners hear the ball bounce around the playfield, as the pinball machine's specially recorded speech of the characters from The Sopranos(r) television show fills the airwaves with classic wisecracks. Stern Pinball's very own Pat Powers was also on air this past Tuesday, fielding Mancow's questions and giving a full detail description of The Sopranos(r) game play for the listening audience. "This is a great pinball machine!" said Mancow emphatically to Pat.
Erich "Mancow" Muller is an institution in Chicago morning drive radio. His talk program, emanating from Emmis' modern rock WKQX-FM is a ratings powerhouse. But, he does it without the ribald sex talk and graphic language that has the FCC in an uproar. That's what attracted Talk Radio Network CEO Mark Masters to him. Masters recently signed Muller to a multi-year syndication deal for his new TRN-FM arm. Mancow has dabbled in syndication previously, but now with the power of one of the industry's most successful and aggressive syndication companies behind him, he is getting ready for a full-on assault on FM morning drive radio. To get your New Sopranos Pinball Call 1-800-966-9873 The Game Gallery.
Mancow's radio show is featured on Q101.1FM in Chicago; 93.5FM in Champaign, IL; 98.5FM is Warrensburg, MO; 99.7FM in Providence, RI; 97.3FM in Albany, GA; 97.1FM in Detroit, MI; 103.9FM in Phoenix, AZ; 95.9FM in Ocean City, MD; and 940AM in Webster, MA.
Space Invaders Creator Descends on DS
Rising Star's new game based on the Taito classic will be overseen by gaming icon Tomohiro Nishikado.
Classic gamers remember the feeling of a fleet of pixelated enemies descending on them while droning music speeds up, indicating a you-or-them situation. The year was 1978, and the game was Space Invaders, one of the most notorious quarter-sucking arcade machines of all time.
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Game publisher Rising Star Games today announced that Tomohiro Nishikado, the brains behind the original arcade version of Space Invaders, is personally watching over the development of a DS revision of the Taito classic. Scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2005, Space Invaders Revolution is trying to stay close to the game's original concept.
"Since 1978, Space Invaders has gone through many iterations, some of which have lost the spirit of the original game," says Mr. Nishikado. "With Space Invaders Revolution, I wanted the team to take the game back to its roots, whilst at the same time adding features which would appeal to modern gamers. The result is a game which is as fresh as the original but which will equally [appeal] to those too young to remember the arcade game."
Rising Star also announced new details on the alien shooter. The game will feature a faithful rendition of the arcade version, as well as a modernized globe-trotting "new era" mode. New era adds different elements to the core gameplay, such as power-ups and stage-specific conditions. For example, when defending London's Big Ben, gamers will have to blast invaders in a certain order.
The game will feature 20 different global locations and 60 stages. New invaders, such as giant armored aliens, which must be destroyed piece by piece, and shadow invaders that use cloaking devices, bring the total types of enemies to 13.
Space Invaders Revolution is awaiting rating and pricing information. GameSpot will have more on the game as details are released.
By Tim Surette, GameSpot POSTED: 03/31/05 01:13 PM
The Who on Exhibit Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
The Who on Exhibit Rock & Roll Hall of Fame mounts huge "Tommy" show Tommy, the Who's 1969 rock opera, is the subject of the largest exhibit ever dedicated to a single work at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Tommy: The Amazing Journey, which opens today, fills two floors of the Cleveland museum with guitars, handwritten lyrics, poster art and concert footage. "You'll hear and feel this exhibit," says its designer, Matthew Smith. "It will rock and feel like a concert."
Pete Townshend conceived Tommy -- the story of an abused "deaf, dumb and blind kid" so good at pinball that people come to think he's a prophet -- as a cautionary tale about false idols. The album reached Number Four in the U.S. and stayed on the charts for nearly a year on the strength of songs like "Pinball Wizard," "I'm Free" and "We're Not Gonna Take It." The exhibit traces Tommy through its various incarnations as a movie, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, a London Orchestra production and even a ballet. "Tommy brought rock a kind of critical respect it had never received," says curator Howard Kramer.
Townshend lent the Hall of Fame revealing early manuscripts. A draft of the "Sally Simpson" lyrics shows that Townshend originally named the album's title character Danine. The exhibit also features excerpted recordings from an hours-long interview that Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner conducted with Townshend in 1968, when Tommy was still in the works. "Fans get to see the creative process at its earliest moments," says curator Craig Inciardi.
The Amazing Journey promises a visceral experience. The first floor is set up to resemble a pinball machine, with display cases in the shape of bumpers. A mock stage on the second floor displays the band's Tommy-era costumes and instruments, including the Gibson J-200 guitar Townshend used to write "Pinball Wizard"; above the stage, footage from the band's legendary 1970 Isle of Wight show will play on a twelve-foot screen.
Other highlights include correspondence from Townshend -- such as a letter sent to Tommy film director Ken Russell, suggesting that Lou Reed, Tiny Tim and Frank Zappa be cast -- and Keith Moon's silver Premier drum kit, played at Woodstock. Particularly rare is the Gibson SG guitar that Townshend played onstage in 1968. "In those days," says New York collector David Swartz, who donated it, "Pete broke most of them."
BILL WERDE(Posted Apr 07, 2005)
4/07/2005
The Game Gallery Proud To Distribute For ICE
Like a celebrated person whose exact birth date and time of arrival gets recorded inhistory books, the very first Chexx hockey table shipped out the door of ICE’s suburban Buffalo plant at 11:45PM on Feb. 3, 1983. This single event not only marked the entrance of a nonvideo sports game into a video-oriented business, but the beginnings of a brand new coin-op game factory that would stick around rather than simply dip its toe in the water and run like so many others in those times. Over these past 20 years, ICE would grow and go on to make and market one of the most important and diverse product lines in the history of the coin amusement business. From a machine roster that counted this one, single game in early 1983, the company today has nearly four dozen different machines in its active catalog…“active” meaning that if you want a new one, you can order and get it. The partners who launched that first production model of this “under-the-dome” ice hockey table, Ralph Coppola and Jack Willert, called their company Innovative Concepts in Entertainment, hence the acronym ICE.
Reminders
Remember we have plenty of great news articles in our archives off to the left of this page. If you have any news about anything in our industry don't hesitate to send it to us at andy@thegamegallery.com and we will post it here for all to see..
It's Spring time again and time to clean out the old and get some new. We at The Game Gallery are always looking for good trade ins this time of year. So if your looking for the latest and greatest for you game room call us and let's do some trading..
Also Summer is around the corner so start thinking of items you may want to keep the kids busy with their friends. It's always nice to have fun entertainment to keep them home and out of trouble.
4/06/2005
The Pinside Goes Live!
Hello there, pinball friends, and welcome to the Pinside! After months of hard work the first release of this website is 'stable enough' to be live on the net.
The content
The content
The pinside is a completely free resource for the pinball enthusiasts around the world. Enjoy the various article posts already made and also don't forget to check out your favourite machines and photos in the Pinside Archive.
Write articles!
For certain functionality, an user account is needed. When you sign up, you will first be issued a 'new user' account. With this account you can go ahead and write articles/news stories. Stories of 'new users' will first be read by Pinside editors for approval. If you have written a few good articles you will receive an 'editor' status with which you can directly post your articles without approval needed from us. The best articles will be awarded 'featured article' status, so don't forget to add a thumbnail to your article
New 'The Coin-Op Collector' Magazine
Story dated March 31, 2005
Hot on the heels of our report on a new pinball magazine for the UK comes details of another publication for fans of coin-op games.
The Coin-op Collector hails from Belgium and is printed in Dutch and French, although it is soon to be available in English too. It is the work of husband and wife team Aeneas and Nikky Verhe along with Carl Jacobs who organises the Collector Fantasies shows in Belgium.
They started the magazine to get more people into the coin-op hobby and to cover the type of games not covered in other media. But Nikky told Pinball News there was a another reason too. "We also wanted to reach the French part of Belgium because these people mostly only speak French - in some parts German - and as a Belgian mag we are able to provide this."
Nikky and Aeneas started collecting pinballs about six years ago and ran into the usual problem of having too many games and not enough space. Despite that, they continued collecting not only pinball but other coin-operated games and worked with the Dutch Pinball Association before starting their own website, www.flippers.be
They decided to create a printed magazine because not everyone has a computer and they found people still like to receive a physical product to read wherever is most convenient.
They aim to publish the magazine four times a year. The 21-page first issue is out now and features a report from the ATEI show, a review of The Sopranos, the story of the Outrun 2 racing game, in memoriam Ed Krynski, the story of pinball and the history of arcade games along with classified adverts.
The second is due to be released at the Collector Fantasy show in April and will include the story of Jurassic Park the video game, a review of Belgium's Stern and Sega importer, a review of a pinball and amusement game arcade in Holland and a couple of pinball contests.
So who is the publication aimed at? Nikky told us: "the Coin-op Collector is aimed at anyone who speaks dutch or french and loves any coin operated game... so if you're kinda nostalgic, crazy about silver balls, coins and so on, join us, write us, call us."
You can do that at the magazine's website or meet them at Collector Fantasies. See our Diary section for full details of that show.
Hot on the heels of our report on a new pinball magazine for the UK comes details of another publication for fans of coin-op games.
The Coin-op Collector hails from Belgium and is printed in Dutch and French, although it is soon to be available in English too. It is the work of husband and wife team Aeneas and Nikky Verhe along with Carl Jacobs who organises the Collector Fantasies shows in Belgium.
They started the magazine to get more people into the coin-op hobby and to cover the type of games not covered in other media. But Nikky told Pinball News there was a another reason too. "We also wanted to reach the French part of Belgium because these people mostly only speak French - in some parts German - and as a Belgian mag we are able to provide this."
Nikky and Aeneas started collecting pinballs about six years ago and ran into the usual problem of having too many games and not enough space. Despite that, they continued collecting not only pinball but other coin-operated games and worked with the Dutch Pinball Association before starting their own website, www.flippers.be
They decided to create a printed magazine because not everyone has a computer and they found people still like to receive a physical product to read wherever is most convenient.
They aim to publish the magazine four times a year. The 21-page first issue is out now and features a report from the ATEI show, a review of The Sopranos, the story of the Outrun 2 racing game, in memoriam Ed Krynski, the story of pinball and the history of arcade games along with classified adverts.
The second is due to be released at the Collector Fantasy show in April and will include the story of Jurassic Park the video game, a review of Belgium's Stern and Sega importer, a review of a pinball and amusement game arcade in Holland and a couple of pinball contests.
So who is the publication aimed at? Nikky told us: "the Coin-op Collector is aimed at anyone who speaks dutch or french and loves any coin operated game... so if you're kinda nostalgic, crazy about silver balls, coins and so on, join us, write us, call us."
You can do that at the magazine's website or meet them at Collector Fantasies. See our Diary section for full details of that show.
Nordman Returns to Stern Pinball
Story dated April 5, 2005 .
Gary Stern today cemented his claim to employ the best game designers in the industry by recruiting another famous name to create games for his company.
Dennis Nordman has joined the engineering department to design pinball games for the first time since he left Williams in 1996 after producing Scared Stiff.
Since then he has been designing slot machine bonus systems for IGT which have been used in titles such as Marilyn Monroe, Drew Carey, Frank Sinatra, and The Beverly Hillbillies. In addition he's designed a number of redemption games for SkeeBall and Bromley such as Demolition Zone, Beam Bat Back, Tower of Power, Mars Mission, Monster Truck and High Voltage.
But now with 22 years in the industry he returns to pinball as a Stern employee creating both pinball and redemption games. “I am thrilled (yes, really!)” Dennis says, “to be at Stern designing pin games again. I feel very fortunate that Gary Stern called me. I’m looking forward to starting in on my first game.”
He's got a formidable track record with the silver ball, designing the original Elvira & The Party Monsters as well as its sequel, Demolition Man, Whitewater, Party Zone all the way back to 1986 and his first design for Bally, Special Force.
He joined that company as a cabinet designer after gaining his qualification in industrial design and approaching them with a futuristic tapering pinball cabinet.
You can read more about Dennis and hear him talk about his work in this Pinball News report of a fireside chat he did at Pinball Expo 2003.
Dennis Nordman has joined the engineering department to design pinball games for the first time since he left Williams in 1996 after producing Scared Stiff.
Since then he has been designing slot machine bonus systems for IGT which have been used in titles such as Marilyn Monroe, Drew Carey, Frank Sinatra, and The Beverly Hillbillies. In addition he's designed a number of redemption games for SkeeBall and Bromley such as Demolition Zone, Beam Bat Back, Tower of Power, Mars Mission, Monster Truck and High Voltage.
But now with 22 years in the industry he returns to pinball as a Stern employee creating both pinball and redemption games. “I am thrilled (yes, really!)” Dennis says, “to be at Stern designing pin games again. I feel very fortunate that Gary Stern called me. I’m looking forward to starting in on my first game.”
He's got a formidable track record with the silver ball, designing the original Elvira & The Party Monsters as well as its sequel, Demolition Man, Whitewater, Party Zone all the way back to 1986 and his first design for Bally, Special Force.
He joined that company as a cabinet designer after gaining his qualification in industrial design and approaching them with a futuristic tapering pinball cabinet.
You can read more about Dennis and hear him talk about his work in this Pinball News report of a fireside chat he did at Pinball Expo 2003.
Upcoming Events
April 15-16 2005: Pinball at the 'Zoo' at Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This is the 6th annual show. Auction will be on April 16th at 1:00 pm. There will be multiple tournaments, inside vending booths with parts and machines for sale. All games will be set on free play. Free admission to anyone who brings a pinball machine that can either be used in the tournament, or left on free play. Vendors who bring three or more pinball machines that can be used in the tournament or left on free play, will get free booth rental. For more information visit the website, or contact Kevin Ketchum.
April 22-24, 2005: Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown at Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, Colorado, just outside of Denver. This is the only pinball show in the Rocky Mountain Region. Over 100 modern and electromechanical pinball machines set on free-play. Players can test their pinball skills in the multiple tournaments for all skill levels and ages. Pinball and video game vendors will be on hand to buy and sell pinball machines and parts. Free seminars will be held on buying a good pinball machine, making basic repairs to electromechanical and solid state pinball machines, and more. Visit the website, or send email.
April 23, 2005: Pinball Tournament at Mike and Christine Hanley's 'Church of the Silver Ball', 5359 Timberlea blvd, Unit 14, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, (just west of Toronto.) Doors open at noon for registration/practice. Qualifying starts at 1:00pm. 50-60 games from Baffle Ball to Simpsons Pinball Party, including World Cup Soccer, Tales of The Arabian Nights, Cirqus Voltaire, Theatre of Magic, Twilight Zone, El Dorado, Volley, Gypsy Queen, Majorettes, Tommy, and a rare Tommy prototype, Austin Powers, Southpark, Atlantis, Party Zone, Wizard, Elvira and The Party Monsters, Abra Ca Dabra, Dodge City, Oklahoma, Independence Day, 8 Ball, Lost World, Centaur, Last Action Hero, Mata Hari, Buckaroo, Kings and Queens, Bank A Ball, Crosstown, Nags, Roto Pool, Marble Queen, Star Wars Episode 1, Revenge From Mars, Stingray, Meteor, Banzai Run, and Strikes and Spares (Gottlieb) will be on-hand. Qualifying round is one game on each of 10 different machines. Match play to follow. Best of 3 match play. Lose and you are done. Win and keep advancing. $20 Cdn entry fee. First place is $100, second place is $50. Even if you don't win, you get 4+ hours of great pinball for $20. If you have questions, need directions or any other info, please contact Mike Hanley or visit the website for more details. Any food donation welcome. Pizza will be available for $2 per slice. Pop/Water and munchies provided. Tournaments are held monthly. Please let us know if you are planning to attend so we can gauge snacks.
April 28-May 1, 2005: Minneapolis State Championships at SS Billiards in Hopkins, Minnesota. Seeding rounds will be held Thursday from 6:00pm until midnight, and also all day Friday from 10:00am until midnight. Classes will include a Pinmasterdivision, and Open division, Doubles, and mini-tourneys as well. There will be plenty of amenities included over the course of the weekend, including food sales, shuttle service with stops at 2 hotels, a grocery store and S.S. Billiards. Everything should be wrapped up by 2:00pm Sunday. For more information and registration visit the website.
April 29, 30, and May 1, 2005: Pinball Wizard's Convention and Gameroom Show at Allentown Fairgrounds AgriPlex in Allentown, PA. A weekend of pinball fun. For more information visit the website.
May 13-15, 2005: Pin-A-Go-Go at the Dixon Fairgrounds in Dixon, California. This show will have many machines to play and for sale. Dealers will be present with parts and pinball stuff. Some other gameroom items will be there as well. For more information contact Mark Zahner: (916) 274-2904, Don Highley: (707) 447-0473, or visit the website.May 21-22, 2005: EPC European Pinball Championship 2005 at Silverstone in Zwanenburg, Netherlands. For details visit the website.
May 21, 2005: Game on! Fighting Cancer - 2nd. Annual at K&K Amusement Classic Arcade in Gobles, Michigan. There will be Pinball, Video Games, Air Hockey, Pool, Darts, Slot Cars, RC Car track outside, Dunk Tank, Moon Walk, Food and Booths, DJ and Band(s). All proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society. Call or email Kevin Ketchum 269-628-4628, Kim Marsh 269-628-526, or visit the website.
August, 11-14 2005: PAPA 8: World Pinball Championships, in Scott Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the leading competitive pinball event in the world. It suffered a serious blow right after PAPA 7 with the entire facility being flooded. It will be back with more than 172 machines. Players of all skill levels are welcome. There will be six divisions of play and a guaranteed prize package in excess of $33,000. The World Pinball Champion will receive a cash prize of $10,000. Pre-registration is encouraged. For more information and registration, visit the website or contact Kevin Martin.
October 1, 2005: Pinball Circus, at SS Billiards in Hopkins, Minnesota. Pinball from noon to midnight. Tournament starts at 8:00pm. Admission $10.00. Refreshments include pizza and beverages. For more information, see the website.
October 7-8, 2005: White Rose Gameroom Show in York, Pennsylvania. Two days of arcade fun with games set on free play. There will be pinballs, video arcades, jukes, slots, etc. There will be door prizes, an outdoor flea market, pinball and gameroom items on sale, kids and adults pinball tournaments, refreshments, and the chance to win a free pinball machine. $12 adults, $5 children ages 6-12, free for kids 5 and younger. All prices are per person, per day. For more information visit the website.
October 20-23, 2005: Pinball Expo 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. This is the big show every year and this will be the 21st annual show. This show puts emphasis on the collector and enthusiast and usually includes a factory tour, auction, designer/artist/author autograph session, seminars, parts, machines, and other pinball-related merchandise. This show has major manufacturer support. For more information write Pinball EXPO 2005, 2671 Youngstown Road S.E., Warren, OH 44484, call 1-800-323-FLIP, or visit the web site.
October 28-30, 2005: Texas Pinball Festival, in Irving, Texas. For more information call Craig at (214) 632-5537, visit the website, or send email.
April 22-24, 2005: Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown at Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, Colorado, just outside of Denver. This is the only pinball show in the Rocky Mountain Region. Over 100 modern and electromechanical pinball machines set on free-play. Players can test their pinball skills in the multiple tournaments for all skill levels and ages. Pinball and video game vendors will be on hand to buy and sell pinball machines and parts. Free seminars will be held on buying a good pinball machine, making basic repairs to electromechanical and solid state pinball machines, and more. Visit the website, or send email.
April 23, 2005: Pinball Tournament at Mike and Christine Hanley's 'Church of the Silver Ball', 5359 Timberlea blvd, Unit 14, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, (just west of Toronto.) Doors open at noon for registration/practice. Qualifying starts at 1:00pm. 50-60 games from Baffle Ball to Simpsons Pinball Party, including World Cup Soccer, Tales of The Arabian Nights, Cirqus Voltaire, Theatre of Magic, Twilight Zone, El Dorado, Volley, Gypsy Queen, Majorettes, Tommy, and a rare Tommy prototype, Austin Powers, Southpark, Atlantis, Party Zone, Wizard, Elvira and The Party Monsters, Abra Ca Dabra, Dodge City, Oklahoma, Independence Day, 8 Ball, Lost World, Centaur, Last Action Hero, Mata Hari, Buckaroo, Kings and Queens, Bank A Ball, Crosstown, Nags, Roto Pool, Marble Queen, Star Wars Episode 1, Revenge From Mars, Stingray, Meteor, Banzai Run, and Strikes and Spares (Gottlieb) will be on-hand. Qualifying round is one game on each of 10 different machines. Match play to follow. Best of 3 match play. Lose and you are done. Win and keep advancing. $20 Cdn entry fee. First place is $100, second place is $50. Even if you don't win, you get 4+ hours of great pinball for $20. If you have questions, need directions or any other info, please contact Mike Hanley or visit the website for more details. Any food donation welcome. Pizza will be available for $2 per slice. Pop/Water and munchies provided. Tournaments are held monthly. Please let us know if you are planning to attend so we can gauge snacks.
April 28-May 1, 2005: Minneapolis State Championships at SS Billiards in Hopkins, Minnesota. Seeding rounds will be held Thursday from 6:00pm until midnight, and also all day Friday from 10:00am until midnight. Classes will include a Pinmasterdivision, and Open division, Doubles, and mini-tourneys as well. There will be plenty of amenities included over the course of the weekend, including food sales, shuttle service with stops at 2 hotels, a grocery store and S.S. Billiards. Everything should be wrapped up by 2:00pm Sunday. For more information and registration visit the website.
April 29, 30, and May 1, 2005: Pinball Wizard's Convention and Gameroom Show at Allentown Fairgrounds AgriPlex in Allentown, PA. A weekend of pinball fun. For more information visit the website.
May 13-15, 2005: Pin-A-Go-Go at the Dixon Fairgrounds in Dixon, California. This show will have many machines to play and for sale. Dealers will be present with parts and pinball stuff. Some other gameroom items will be there as well. For more information contact Mark Zahner: (916) 274-2904, Don Highley: (707) 447-0473, or visit the website.May 21-22, 2005: EPC European Pinball Championship 2005 at Silverstone in Zwanenburg, Netherlands. For details visit the website.
May 21, 2005: Game on! Fighting Cancer - 2nd. Annual at K&K Amusement Classic Arcade in Gobles, Michigan. There will be Pinball, Video Games, Air Hockey, Pool, Darts, Slot Cars, RC Car track outside, Dunk Tank, Moon Walk, Food and Booths, DJ and Band(s). All proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society. Call or email Kevin Ketchum 269-628-4628, Kim Marsh 269-628-526, or visit the website.
August, 11-14 2005: PAPA 8: World Pinball Championships, in Scott Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the leading competitive pinball event in the world. It suffered a serious blow right after PAPA 7 with the entire facility being flooded. It will be back with more than 172 machines. Players of all skill levels are welcome. There will be six divisions of play and a guaranteed prize package in excess of $33,000. The World Pinball Champion will receive a cash prize of $10,000. Pre-registration is encouraged. For more information and registration, visit the website or contact Kevin Martin.
October 1, 2005: Pinball Circus, at SS Billiards in Hopkins, Minnesota. Pinball from noon to midnight. Tournament starts at 8:00pm. Admission $10.00. Refreshments include pizza and beverages. For more information, see the website.
October 7-8, 2005: White Rose Gameroom Show in York, Pennsylvania. Two days of arcade fun with games set on free play. There will be pinballs, video arcades, jukes, slots, etc. There will be door prizes, an outdoor flea market, pinball and gameroom items on sale, kids and adults pinball tournaments, refreshments, and the chance to win a free pinball machine. $12 adults, $5 children ages 6-12, free for kids 5 and younger. All prices are per person, per day. For more information visit the website.
October 20-23, 2005: Pinball Expo 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. This is the big show every year and this will be the 21st annual show. This show puts emphasis on the collector and enthusiast and usually includes a factory tour, auction, designer/artist/author autograph session, seminars, parts, machines, and other pinball-related merchandise. This show has major manufacturer support. For more information write Pinball EXPO 2005, 2671 Youngstown Road S.E., Warren, OH 44484, call 1-800-323-FLIP, or visit the web site.
October 28-30, 2005: Texas Pinball Festival, in Irving, Texas. For more information call Craig at (214) 632-5537, visit the website, or send email.
House Proud: The Family That Plays Together...
Robb Report Collection Magazine
Donna Paul 03/01/2002
Initially it was the height of the speakers in Bierman’s own Manhattan loft that caught their attention. Installed exactly at 48 inches off the floor, per the manufacturer’s specifications, they were the sign the couple had been looking for. And they were thrilled with Bierman’s design aesthetic, which also matched their own criteria: casual, comfortable, and no chintz in sight.With his training as an architect and a successful New York practice in interior design, Bierman has tackled many similar projects, but none where a fully stocked marble and mahogany ice-cream parlor and a 1,500-square-foot entertainment room complete with professional pinball machines were considered an important part of the design program. But he had an innate grasp of the technical issues that the job posed (“I’m the only designer I know who reads manufacturers’ manuals,”) and, working with Audio Etc., he created an environment that integrated the media equipment into the house. An indoor putting green and a fully stocked ice cream parlor are adjacent to the entertainment room, located on a lower level of the house.
"We (The Game Gallery) get these calls all the time about people wanting high end game rooms in their homes these days." We have customers that have been wanting that one machine they played as a kid, all the way to the customer that has the financial means to put the ultimate game room in their home. The biggest to date has been 70 games in a 2400 sq. ft. game room in a home.
4/05/2005
Golden Tee Golf Featured In New Exhibit
Golden Tee Golf, the popular coin-op video game from Incredible Technologies, is a major component in the U.S. debut of Game On: The History, Culture, and Future of Video Games, which recently opened at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In the "Making Of..." area of the exhibit, museum guests can experience the entire process of how Golden Tee is made from concept to production. A highlight of the section is a display of the four generations of Golden Tee spanning nearly 17 years of design and development.
"To be an important part of this prestigious exhibit - in one of the greatest museums in the world - is a validation of the many years of hard work, creativity and innovation of our employees," said Elaine Hodgson, CEO of Incredible Technologies. "We're very proud and privileged to be included. I encourage everyone in the industry to see this exhibit. It's a testament to all the pioneers whose vision we follow, as well as to the innovators who continue to bring our unique form of entertainment to millions everyday."
Game On is a major exhibition that explores the vibrant world of video games from 1962 to today and the impact that this popular form of entertainment has had on contemporary culture around the world. The exhibit investigates how geography and culture play a role in game development by examining games that have been created in Japan, the United States and Europe.
Museum guests attending the exhibit can play Golden Tee LIVE, the newest generation of Golden Tee, as well as over 100 other video games that illustrate the exhibit content.
Game On runs through September 5, 2005. The exhibit was developed by the Barbican Art Gallery, London, in collaboration with the National Museums of Scotland and has an additional fee of $5 per guest.
For more information, visit the museum’s Web site (www.msichicago.org).
For more information and to order your new Golden Tee Golf Video Game contact The Game Gallery at 1-800-966-9873
Global VR Brings Challenge To Golf Game
Are you ready for a challenge? EA SPORTS(tm) PGA TOUR(r) Golf Challenge Edition, that is. According to GLOBAL VR(r) coin-op Game Producer, Danny Pisano, "Many of the features and options of Challenge Edition have been implemented in response to player requests and operator preference.”
The homework that GLOBAL VR has done in researching and responding to its players and operators is most obvious in the resulting new play modes of Challenge Edition. Challenge Match, after which the game was titled, empowers video gamers to create player tournaments wherein they can specify all parameters, including the start and end dates, tournament size (up to 32 players), course, difficulty and conditions.
There are eight new, recognizable, real courses including the Black Course at Bethpage, Edgewood Golf Club, Pinehurst No.2, and Sherwood Country Club. This edition also includes six fantasy courses and brings back eight popular courses from EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Championship Edition III for a total of 22 courses. Players and operators will be pleased to see nine PGA TOUR golfers and six fantasy golfers in Challenge Edition. Global VR has included favorites like Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh, while adding new players like Rich Beem. .
The attractive, new cabinet design will feature updated graphics on a flat-screen, high-resolution monitor. Other new cabinet installations that add value and new opportunity for the operator are the on-cabinet card dispenser and the customizable marquee. The customizable marquee allows operators to insert and conveniently update promotional materials that feature their own events.
EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Golf Challenge Edition is on test now and set to ship this month with tournament availability in May. Dedicated cabinets will be available as well as upgrade kits for existing cabinets, and conversion kits for other video golf games
The homework that GLOBAL VR has done in researching and responding to its players and operators is most obvious in the resulting new play modes of Challenge Edition. Challenge Match, after which the game was titled, empowers video gamers to create player tournaments wherein they can specify all parameters, including the start and end dates, tournament size (up to 32 players), course, difficulty and conditions.
There are eight new, recognizable, real courses including the Black Course at Bethpage, Edgewood Golf Club, Pinehurst No.2, and Sherwood Country Club. This edition also includes six fantasy courses and brings back eight popular courses from EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Championship Edition III for a total of 22 courses. Players and operators will be pleased to see nine PGA TOUR golfers and six fantasy golfers in Challenge Edition. Global VR has included favorites like Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh, while adding new players like Rich Beem. .
The attractive, new cabinet design will feature updated graphics on a flat-screen, high-resolution monitor. Other new cabinet installations that add value and new opportunity for the operator are the on-cabinet card dispenser and the customizable marquee. The customizable marquee allows operators to insert and conveniently update promotional materials that feature their own events.
EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Golf Challenge Edition is on test now and set to ship this month with tournament availability in May. Dedicated cabinets will be available as well as upgrade kits for existing cabinets, and conversion kits for other video golf games
Pinball Superstar Designer Pat Lawlor
He doesn't hit home runs. He doesn't throw touchdown passes. He doesn't soar through the air and slam-dunk basketballs.
But Pat Lawlor is a superstar in his own right, one of the most acclaimed pinball designers left in the twilight years of a colorful game industry that got its start in the Great Depression.
Lawlor's most famous design was The Addam's Family game. Anyone who's ever dropped a quarter down a chute and used flippers to swat an elusive silver ball in the past quarter of a century has likely come across at least one of his creations.
His other notables include Monopoly, Twilight Zone, Whirlwind (the first pinball game to blow breezes on the player), Earthshaker (the first pinball game to replicate earthquake-like vibrations), Fun House (a game with a playing field that features a talking carnival barker with moving eyes and mouth), Safe Cracker, Rollercoaster Tycoon, No Good Gofers, Banzai Run, and Ripley's Believe It or Not!
His other notables include Monopoly, Twilight Zone, Whirlwind (the first pinball game to blow breezes on the player), Earthshaker (the first pinball game to replicate earthquake-like vibrations), Fun House (a game with a playing field that features a talking carnival barker with moving eyes and mouth), Safe Cracker, Rollercoaster Tycoon, No Good Gofers, Banzai Run, and Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Lawlor lives in the Chicago area, where the pinball industry was born and where almost all games were made. He was out of state and unavailable for comment this week. But in a past interview with a trade journal, he said he takes a serious view of his profession, knowing he could well be one of the last active pinball designers. He hopes pinball makes a comeback and that others will try to learn from him.
"Pinball will suffer if the really creative people are all gone and there is no one to teach what they know," he was quoted as saying in Pinball News.
Once scorned by conservative church leaders and politicians who likened games to gambling devices, pinball was banned in several major cities, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, from the early 1940s until the 1970s.
Once scorned by conservative church leaders and politicians who likened games to gambling devices, pinball was banned in several major cities, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, from the early 1940s until the 1970s.
No games were produced from 1941 to 1945, because factories were retooled to assist the military during World War II.
The industry had its ups and downs, but continued to thrive even after Pong - the world's first successful video game - was introduced in 1972. A generation of other video games for both homes and arcades followed, growing more sophisticated over the years. But pinball weathered the competition up until the end of the 1990s, going more high-tech itself. Then, it faced stiff competition from the advent of Internet games and the high-tech graphics of modern home video games.
In the fall of 1999, the industry crashed. The venerable Williams Electronics of Chicago pulled the plug on its pinball division, leaving Stern Pinball, Inc., as the world's only major manufacturer.
Stern has continued to produce games. But Williams Electronics had commanded 65 percent of the global market for new games as recently as 1998. In the eyes of industry observers, its announcement to pull out would be like General Motors abruptly getting out of the car business.
"I'm really happy that we could go back to doing pinball and help bring it back from the abyss," Lawlor said in PlayMeter Magazine, in reference to the number of employees from the Williams talent pool who wound up at Stern.
"I'm really happy that we could go back to doing pinball and help bring it back from the abyss," Lawlor said in PlayMeter Magazine, in reference to the number of employees from the Williams talent pool who wound up at Stern.
In that same interview, he held out optimism for a pinball comeback. "Our business is a cyclical industry. What is old becomes new again."
4/04/2005
In Court Golden Tee vs PGA Tour
Two golf video games fought all the way to a US court recently. Here's why.
A NATION that is crazy about cricket may not know that it was Vijay Singh who ended Tiger Woods's record streak of 264 weeks as the world's No. 1 golf player in September 2004.
Or, that Singh spent 26 weeks atop the rankings before Woods overtook him by winning the Ford Championship at Doral. Or that days ago, Singh got back the No.1 spot at the Bay Hill Invitational.
Singh is little known here, since he's from Fiji and if interested you can check http://cbs.sportsline.com, which also states as `Little-Known Fact' that "Vijay is the Hindi word for victory." Well, that we know.
The dead centre of middle age, as Franklin Pierce Adams said, occurs "when you are too young to take up golf and too old to rush up to the net."
But why talk about golf, you may wonder if, like Mark Twain, you think that golf is a good walk spoiled. After all, not everybody can become a Singh or Woods.
Yet, the case I'm going to walk you through is about two golf video games that fought all the way to a US court recently: Golden Tee versus PGA Tour Golf, or more correctly, Incredible Technologies vs Global VR (Virtual Technologies).
Golden Tee of Incredible Technologies has been popular as a coin-operated video golf game, one can learn from the text of the judgment of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit dated March 15.
"The game can be found in taverns all over America and in other countries as well." The ad spend runs to millions, and the game has been spinning good profits too. Incredible has been in the game since 1989 and has "several copyrights on various versions of the game".
There's also the Annual Golden Tee World Championship with lots of money for the winner.
How does Golden Tee work? The software projects images of players and golf courses on the screen and pumps out sounds through speakers "in a kiosk-like display cabinet".
The control panel in front of the screen has "a plastic white ball embedded on the gameboard" called `trackball' at the centre for operating the game.
"To play the game, the trackball is rolled back for the golfer-player's back swing and pushed forward to complete the swing." Because, if by the time you get to your ball, you don't know what to do with it, you should try another sport, as a Julius Boros's quote advises.
And, the virtual golfer can choose the club, and also consider factors such as "wind and hazards (indicated on the display screen) on the course".
Other games, such as Birdie King and Sega's Virtua Golf too, use trackballs, but Golden Tee claimed to be "the first to use both a backward and forward movement."
Meanwhile, competition was brewing. "Global VR determined to create a game that was similar enough to Golden Tee so that players of that game could switch to its new game with little difficulty."
So, it hired NuvoStudios (Nuvo) to develop a new game that could drop into a Golden Tee box "to work with its controls, which should correspond as closely as possible to Golden Tee, so that a Golden Tee player could play the new game with no appreciable learning curve." Nuvo worked from a computer golf game called Tiger Woods Golf and made modifications to convert it from PC platform to an arcade game, with a trackball and buttons.
"Nuvo essentially copied, with some stylistic changes, the layout of buttons and instructions found on the Golden Tee control panel."
The final product PGA Tour Golf was very similar to the Golden Tee, in terms of the size and shape of control panel, and the placement of trackball and buttons.
`Shot shaping' choices were depicted similarly, and so was their sequence. Though the software was dissimilar, both allowed a player "to simulate a straight shot, a fade, a slice, a draw, a hook, and so on, by the direction in which the trackball is rolled back and pushed forward."
The court, however, speaks of `significant differences' between Golden Tee and PGA. Golden Tee has courses that are `make-believe' and players take generic titles such as `Golfer 1', but the PGA game "uses depictions of real courses, such as Pebble Beach and TPC at Sawgrass, and permits a player to adopt the identity of certain professional golfers - Colin Montgomerie and Vijay Singh, to name a few."
Golden Tee has arrows to demonstrate its descriptions of the trackball system, while PGA doesn't. "Global VR names the shots in its shot-shaping diagrams; Golden Tee does not."
Global shows a golf bag to help the player choose a club, offers a `grid' map of the green as a guide for putting, while Golden has no such device.
"Also, the Global VR game has a helicopter that whirls overhead from time to time. Both games mimic condescending real television golf announcers, but the announcers use different phrases."
In addition, cabinets are somewhat different, "within the realm of what is possible in arcade game cabinets" and colour schemes are different.
Thus, when Incredible found that its party was incredibly threatened by the PGA game on the tavern scene, it went to court and alleged copyright violation of video game imagery presented on the display screen and the instructional guide presented on the control panel.
Also, that the PGA game's control panel infringes the Golden Tee's `trade dress', a phrase that means "the appearance of a product when that appearance is used to identify the producer".
But Incredible was appalled when the district court observed that the expressions on the control panel were not dictated by creativity, "but rather are simple explanations of the trackball system" and so the company could at best look for "protection only from virtually identical copying".
The court also said that the video displays contained many common aspects of the game of golf. A definition worth attention is that of `useful article' - "an article having an intrinsic utilitarian function that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey information." Functional features, such as the trackball system, are generally within the domain of the patent laws, explains the judgement. So, an item may be entirely original, "but if the novel elements are functional, the item cannot be copyrighted: although it might be eligible for patent protection."
In the current case, the court studied if "arrows pointing to the direction a golf ball will fly are sufficiently original to merit protection under the copyright laws".
Dismayed that the district court didn't grant it injunction against the rival game, Incredible argued before the Court of Appeals that one had to consider what happens in the marketplace. It said: "Bar and tavern patrons, often in dimly lit spaces, typically approach and play these video games while consuming alcohol; they are not consumers using high degrees of care in selecting, identifying, or differentiating the Golden Tee and PGA Tour games."
The Circuit court observed, "One wonders how different the control panels would have to be to avoid confusing such users," and affirmed the decision of the district court.
"Golf is very much like a love affair, if you don't take it seriously, it's no fun. If you do, it breaks your heart. Don't break your heart, but flirt with the possibility," said Louise Suggs as a guideline for golfers. Is this something for heartbroken Incredible to draw insight from?
Arcade Dance Machines Are Hot!
Video games build muscle when gym meets arcade
Personal digital trainer, joystick workout score points for fitness
By Brian D. Crecente, Scripps Howard News ServiceMarch 7, 2005
Weight loss was always a game to Tanya Jennsen -- really.
Jennsen, now 22, became a devotee of the dancing arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution" in 1999.
She spent hours a day hanging out in arcades twisting, spinning, dancing to the pulsing music of the video game, following glowing arrows on the floor and screen as she scored points and advanced to new levels.
Then she noticed her clothes didn't fit anymore and discovered she had lost 30 pounds.
Five years later and 100 pounds lighter, Jennsen is a video evangelist, preaching the fat-melting, muscle-building power of video games to generations who have grown up holding joysticks.
Jennsen is one of thousands who have found weight-loss salvation at the hands -- or the feet or even in the angry digital visage -- of a video game.
Giant steel joysticks, dance pads and virtual personal trainers seek to balance the payoff of exercise with the fun of gaming, giving a country of the unhealthy, disinterested and plain lazy a second chance at washboard abs and perfect pecs.
It's 6:30 Sunday morning and I already hate Maya.
"Hey there, did you know that morning workouts are a great way to jump-start your metabolism?" she asks in a perky voice.
I really shouldn't hate my personal trainer; she's nice, motivates without being too pushy and is a figment of my Xbox's imagination.
The digital trainer in the Xbox, PC and PlayStation 2 "game" "Yourself!Fitness" is a master of aerobics, step, yoga, Pilates and strength-training.
She has the voice of celebrity trainer Yumi Lee -- a personal instructor to stars like Brad Pitt and Demi Moore -- and the nonthreatening, nondescript looks of someone you can trust.
"Maya is totally made up based on consumer focus groups," said Phineas Barnes, co-founder of responDESIGN, creators of "Yourself!Fitness."
The first time you turn Maya on, she asks for your name, your weight, has you do some quick exercises and then asks for your pulse. After that you decide what your goals are and she designs a workout schedule around them.
Barnes said the idea of blending exercise with gaming came while he was on a break from training for a triathlon.
"I thought, games are addictive -- if only there were a way to make fitness addictive too."
Not all exercise gaming is as interactive, and annoyingly chipper, as Maya.
The Kilowatt is a 4-foot-tall bar of steel that uses jet fighter technology to sense the amount of muscle power you put into pushing it around. It then translates that information into the movements of a joystick.
You plug the device into your console or computer and start working out as you run the streets of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," blast aliens in "Halo 2" or tear around corners in "Burnout 3." The device works with any game on the market.
"Most flying and driving games and any first-person shooter are awesome workouts with the Kilowatt," said Greg Merril, CEO of Powergrid Fitness, which created the device. "On 20, which is the highest level, if you are a professional linebacker you will have a hard time moving the character on the screen."
Powergrid worked with the American College of Sports Training to design the equipment.
The device doesn't just provide a good workout, it makes games more immersive. When you are playing "Grand Theft Auto," you tire out just as quickly as the character does, since making him move means continually pushing the bar forward.
Merril showed the device at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, where it garnered an innovation award, and he ended up selling quite a few despite the $800 to $1,200 price tag.
The Kilowatt has been so successful that the company has sold out. "We are getting several thousand more at the end of March," he said.
The Kilowatt isn't the only exercise gaming device that may soon show up in health clubs and gyms. While Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" was first designed as an arcade game, the health benefits of the machine were never lost on the company.
The game was designed with the help of Konami's sports division.
"It was a physically interactive game that broke the mold from a traditional game where you are sitting down holding a controller in your hands," said Jason Enos, product manager for Konami Digital Entertainment America.
The game is played by watching for cues, flashing arrows that match with arrows on a large pad on the ground, and stepping in time to music.
When the home version was created, Konami decided to add a workout feature that tracked calories burned.
But Konami has always been careful not to tout the game as exercise equipment.
"I never wanted to take a game like 'Dance Dance Revolution' and pitch it out into the marketplace as the fun way to lose weight," he said. "The weight loss is sort of an added bonus, something they never expected from the product."
One of the first things a serious DDR fan buys after bringing home the game is a new dance pad that feels more like the arcade version and can withstand the constant abuse. Red Octane has developed a following among DDR diehards for manufacturing high-performance dance pads.
"Our goal is to show that this is a great way to have fun, but at the same time get a great workout," said Dean Ku, vice president of marketing for Red Octane.
Personal digital trainer, joystick workout score points for fitness
By Brian D. Crecente, Scripps Howard News ServiceMarch 7, 2005
Weight loss was always a game to Tanya Jennsen -- really.
Jennsen, now 22, became a devotee of the dancing arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution" in 1999.
She spent hours a day hanging out in arcades twisting, spinning, dancing to the pulsing music of the video game, following glowing arrows on the floor and screen as she scored points and advanced to new levels.
Then she noticed her clothes didn't fit anymore and discovered she had lost 30 pounds.
Five years later and 100 pounds lighter, Jennsen is a video evangelist, preaching the fat-melting, muscle-building power of video games to generations who have grown up holding joysticks.
Jennsen is one of thousands who have found weight-loss salvation at the hands -- or the feet or even in the angry digital visage -- of a video game.
Giant steel joysticks, dance pads and virtual personal trainers seek to balance the payoff of exercise with the fun of gaming, giving a country of the unhealthy, disinterested and plain lazy a second chance at washboard abs and perfect pecs.
It's 6:30 Sunday morning and I already hate Maya.
"Hey there, did you know that morning workouts are a great way to jump-start your metabolism?" she asks in a perky voice.
I really shouldn't hate my personal trainer; she's nice, motivates without being too pushy and is a figment of my Xbox's imagination.
The digital trainer in the Xbox, PC and PlayStation 2 "game" "Yourself!Fitness" is a master of aerobics, step, yoga, Pilates and strength-training.
She has the voice of celebrity trainer Yumi Lee -- a personal instructor to stars like Brad Pitt and Demi Moore -- and the nonthreatening, nondescript looks of someone you can trust.
"Maya is totally made up based on consumer focus groups," said Phineas Barnes, co-founder of responDESIGN, creators of "Yourself!Fitness."
The first time you turn Maya on, she asks for your name, your weight, has you do some quick exercises and then asks for your pulse. After that you decide what your goals are and she designs a workout schedule around them.
Barnes said the idea of blending exercise with gaming came while he was on a break from training for a triathlon.
"I thought, games are addictive -- if only there were a way to make fitness addictive too."
Not all exercise gaming is as interactive, and annoyingly chipper, as Maya.
The Kilowatt is a 4-foot-tall bar of steel that uses jet fighter technology to sense the amount of muscle power you put into pushing it around. It then translates that information into the movements of a joystick.
You plug the device into your console or computer and start working out as you run the streets of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," blast aliens in "Halo 2" or tear around corners in "Burnout 3." The device works with any game on the market.
"Most flying and driving games and any first-person shooter are awesome workouts with the Kilowatt," said Greg Merril, CEO of Powergrid Fitness, which created the device. "On 20, which is the highest level, if you are a professional linebacker you will have a hard time moving the character on the screen."
Powergrid worked with the American College of Sports Training to design the equipment.
The device doesn't just provide a good workout, it makes games more immersive. When you are playing "Grand Theft Auto," you tire out just as quickly as the character does, since making him move means continually pushing the bar forward.
Merril showed the device at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, where it garnered an innovation award, and he ended up selling quite a few despite the $800 to $1,200 price tag.
The Kilowatt has been so successful that the company has sold out. "We are getting several thousand more at the end of March," he said.
The Kilowatt isn't the only exercise gaming device that may soon show up in health clubs and gyms. While Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" was first designed as an arcade game, the health benefits of the machine were never lost on the company.
The game was designed with the help of Konami's sports division.
"It was a physically interactive game that broke the mold from a traditional game where you are sitting down holding a controller in your hands," said Jason Enos, product manager for Konami Digital Entertainment America.
The game is played by watching for cues, flashing arrows that match with arrows on a large pad on the ground, and stepping in time to music.
When the home version was created, Konami decided to add a workout feature that tracked calories burned.
But Konami has always been careful not to tout the game as exercise equipment.
"I never wanted to take a game like 'Dance Dance Revolution' and pitch it out into the marketplace as the fun way to lose weight," he said. "The weight loss is sort of an added bonus, something they never expected from the product."
One of the first things a serious DDR fan buys after bringing home the game is a new dance pad that feels more like the arcade version and can withstand the constant abuse. Red Octane has developed a following among DDR diehards for manufacturing high-performance dance pads.
"Our goal is to show that this is a great way to have fun, but at the same time get a great workout," said Dean Ku, vice president of marketing for Red Octane.
By the way we at The Game Gallery have sold tons of these to schools, colleges, fitness clubs, YMCA's, social clubs, even for the Ultimate Toy in peoples homes. Call 1-800-966-9873 to order yours today.
Once Spurned For Video Games, Foosball Is Alive And Kicking
BY J.J. JENSEN
The Seattle Times
(KRT) - Perhaps you're tops at your tavern. Maybe you're lord of the dorm or boss of the break room.
If that's the case, are you - apologies to Hank Williams Jr. - ready for some foosball?
Some serious table-soccer action usually isn't too hard to find.
Contestants there are pretty passionate about their foos, judging by the play on a recent Friday night at Dante's Steak & Grog's in Seattle's University District.
With more than $100 in prize money on the line, players and patrons ringed the bar's three foosball tables like a crowd gathering `round a schoolyard fight.
Action was fast and furious. Players, making lightning-quick passes and shots, gripped and slid the rods like line cooks with frying pans during a Saturday-morning rush. Comments of "ooh," "ahh" and "nice shot" came from onlookers.
"These guys are nuts," said Kyle Fletcher, 23, a newcomer to the Seattle foosball scene who once ran the table at his Willamette University fraternity. But he and his roommate have been getting a smackdown at Dante's.
"I thought we'd be OK because we play quite a bit, but these guys are seasoned."
While the casual player can be competitive in local leagues and small tournaments - players are assigned handicaps based on skill levels - they can expect to get their comeuppance at tournaments sanctioned by foosball's governing bodies, the North American Table Soccer Association and the Valley International Foosball Association.
"The recreational player will get destroyed (at larger tournaments)," said Rich Fosner, 42, of Bothell, Wash., a nationally ranked player who frequents Dante's. "Their egos shrink really quick."
If you want to hang with the big-time foos players you've got to practice and take your licks, said Steph Ohashi, 34, a regional champion from Woodinville, Wash., who along with Lynnwood Wash.'s Chad Kinner, 36, another regional champ, own about 40 tables at bars in Washington state and organize several leagues.
Ohashi said her foosball addiction delayed her graduation from Western Washington University by two years. On most nights, rather than hitting the books, she was playing foos.
"When I moved to Seattle, thinking I was all that, I started playing in weekly tournaments," she said. "It was a reality check."
While some may remember tables that featured ramped corners and one-man goalie rods, games today are usually played on Tornado tables, the industry standard for about 20 years, which feature a completely flat surface and three-man goalie rod.
Typically, local league nights feature three- or four-person teams that play a combination of games: doubles, singles, switching positions after goals, playing a match where the ball isn't allowed to stop moving. Sometimes there's a "beer round," where the losers of a three-on-three or four-on-four game have to buy the next pitcher of suds.
Games go to five. The best three of five games wins the match.
The numbers of players and tournaments today are a shadow of what the game used to draw during its heyday in the 1970s, say old-school players. Back then, the Pacific Northwest was a foosball hotbed.
According to Kathy Brainard, 52, a winner of numerous national tournaments and co-author of the 1980 book "The Complete Book of Foosball," one of the first big-money table soccer tournaments ($1,500) was organized by businessman Lee Peppard at his tavern in Missoula, Mont.
The next year, at a $5,000 tournament, Peppard introduced his own table, named "Tournament Soccer," which served as the industry standard through the decade.
Peppard moved his headquarters to Seattle and started the first pro foosball tour, the Tournament Soccer Quarter Million Dollar Tour. During the next few years, the tour was awarding upward of $1 million in prize money, and featured tournaments with Porsches and Corvettes as top prizes.
"Foosball was something new and interesting and everybody wanted to play," said Seattle's Rocky Willson, 49, a regional champ and longtime table vendor.
During the late '70s at Goldie's, on North 45th Street in Wallingford, Wash., he recalled, there were about 13 foosball tables, most occupied nightly. But by the early 1980s, Willson said, the tour had been overpromoted and bar patrons were more interested in a new fad: video games such as Space Invaders, Pacman, Centipede and Galaga. Foosball went on life support.
Interest finally peaked again, Brainard said, in the mid 1990s. Baby boomers wanted foos tables for their rec rooms, dot-commers liked having it in their break rooms and kids saw cast members on "Friends" playing it in their living room.
Some still find it kind of silly.
On a recent night at Goldie's, where there's now just one table, David Torvik, 25, played against his roommate. "God gave me a gift. I foos well," he gloated.
"I just like to go to bars and play for fun and meet people," he said. "I wouldn't want to play in a league where it's supercompetitive."
Meanwhile, some extremists would like to see table soccer, which was believed to be first patented in England in the 1890s and introduced to Americans during World War II, be in the Olympics. Table tennis, after all, made the cut.
Other foos fanatics are just happy it's still on society's radar.
"It's become a part of the fabric of the American lifestyle," Willson said.
"Almost everyone's played some foos in their life. It's not a fad and it's not a flash in the pan. People are playing it because they enjoy it."
(KRT) - Perhaps you're tops at your tavern. Maybe you're lord of the dorm or boss of the break room.
If that's the case, are you - apologies to Hank Williams Jr. - ready for some foosball?
Some serious table-soccer action usually isn't too hard to find.
Contestants there are pretty passionate about their foos, judging by the play on a recent Friday night at Dante's Steak & Grog's in Seattle's University District.
With more than $100 in prize money on the line, players and patrons ringed the bar's three foosball tables like a crowd gathering `round a schoolyard fight.
Action was fast and furious. Players, making lightning-quick passes and shots, gripped and slid the rods like line cooks with frying pans during a Saturday-morning rush. Comments of "ooh," "ahh" and "nice shot" came from onlookers.
"These guys are nuts," said Kyle Fletcher, 23, a newcomer to the Seattle foosball scene who once ran the table at his Willamette University fraternity. But he and his roommate have been getting a smackdown at Dante's.
"I thought we'd be OK because we play quite a bit, but these guys are seasoned."
While the casual player can be competitive in local leagues and small tournaments - players are assigned handicaps based on skill levels - they can expect to get their comeuppance at tournaments sanctioned by foosball's governing bodies, the North American Table Soccer Association and the Valley International Foosball Association.
"The recreational player will get destroyed (at larger tournaments)," said Rich Fosner, 42, of Bothell, Wash., a nationally ranked player who frequents Dante's. "Their egos shrink really quick."
If you want to hang with the big-time foos players you've got to practice and take your licks, said Steph Ohashi, 34, a regional champion from Woodinville, Wash., who along with Lynnwood Wash.'s Chad Kinner, 36, another regional champ, own about 40 tables at bars in Washington state and organize several leagues.
Ohashi said her foosball addiction delayed her graduation from Western Washington University by two years. On most nights, rather than hitting the books, she was playing foos.
"When I moved to Seattle, thinking I was all that, I started playing in weekly tournaments," she said. "It was a reality check."
While some may remember tables that featured ramped corners and one-man goalie rods, games today are usually played on Tornado tables, the industry standard for about 20 years, which feature a completely flat surface and three-man goalie rod.
Typically, local league nights feature three- or four-person teams that play a combination of games: doubles, singles, switching positions after goals, playing a match where the ball isn't allowed to stop moving. Sometimes there's a "beer round," where the losers of a three-on-three or four-on-four game have to buy the next pitcher of suds.
Games go to five. The best three of five games wins the match.
The numbers of players and tournaments today are a shadow of what the game used to draw during its heyday in the 1970s, say old-school players. Back then, the Pacific Northwest was a foosball hotbed.
According to Kathy Brainard, 52, a winner of numerous national tournaments and co-author of the 1980 book "The Complete Book of Foosball," one of the first big-money table soccer tournaments ($1,500) was organized by businessman Lee Peppard at his tavern in Missoula, Mont.
The next year, at a $5,000 tournament, Peppard introduced his own table, named "Tournament Soccer," which served as the industry standard through the decade.
Peppard moved his headquarters to Seattle and started the first pro foosball tour, the Tournament Soccer Quarter Million Dollar Tour. During the next few years, the tour was awarding upward of $1 million in prize money, and featured tournaments with Porsches and Corvettes as top prizes.
"Foosball was something new and interesting and everybody wanted to play," said Seattle's Rocky Willson, 49, a regional champ and longtime table vendor.
During the late '70s at Goldie's, on North 45th Street in Wallingford, Wash., he recalled, there were about 13 foosball tables, most occupied nightly. But by the early 1980s, Willson said, the tour had been overpromoted and bar patrons were more interested in a new fad: video games such as Space Invaders, Pacman, Centipede and Galaga. Foosball went on life support.
Interest finally peaked again, Brainard said, in the mid 1990s. Baby boomers wanted foos tables for their rec rooms, dot-commers liked having it in their break rooms and kids saw cast members on "Friends" playing it in their living room.
Some still find it kind of silly.
On a recent night at Goldie's, where there's now just one table, David Torvik, 25, played against his roommate. "God gave me a gift. I foos well," he gloated.
"I just like to go to bars and play for fun and meet people," he said. "I wouldn't want to play in a league where it's supercompetitive."
Meanwhile, some extremists would like to see table soccer, which was believed to be first patented in England in the 1890s and introduced to Americans during World War II, be in the Olympics. Table tennis, after all, made the cut.
Other foos fanatics are just happy it's still on society's radar.
"It's become a part of the fabric of the American lifestyle," Willson said.
"Almost everyone's played some foos in their life. It's not a fad and it's not a flash in the pan. People are playing it because they enjoy it."
Foosball Is Big Business
Foosball survives fads, other games; scores again
02:20 PM PST on Saturday, March 19, 2005
By J.J. JENSEN / The Seattle Times
Perhaps you're tops at your tavern. Maybe you're lord of the dorm or boss of the break room.
If that's the case, are you -- apologies to Hank Williams Jr. -- ready for some foosball?
Some serious table-soccer action usually isn't too hard to find.
Contestants there are pretty passionate about their foos, judging by the play on a recent Friday night at Dante's Steak & Grog's in Seattle's University District.
With more than $100 in prize money on the line, players and patrons ringed the bar's three foosball tables like a crowd gathering 'round a schoolyard fight.
Action was fast and furious. Players, making lightning-quick passes and shots, gripped and slid the rods like line cooks with frying pans during a Saturday-morning rush. Comments of "ooh," "ahh" and "nice shot" came from onlookers.
"These guys are nuts," said Kyle Fletcher, 23, a newcomer to the Seattle foosball scene who once ran the table at his Willamette University fraternity. But he and his roommate have been getting a smackdown at Dante's.
"I thought we'd be OK because we play quite a bit, but these guys are seasoned."
While the casual player can be competitive in local leagues and small tournaments -- players are assigned handicaps based on skill levels -- they can expect to get their comeuppance at tournaments sanctioned by foosball's governing bodies, the North American Table Soccer Association and the Valley International Foosball Association.
"The recreational player will get destroyed (at larger tournaments)," said Rich Fosner, 42, of Bothell, Wash., a nationally ranked player who frequents Dante's. "Their egos shrink really quick."
If you want to hang with the big-time foos players you've got to practice and take your licks, said Steph Ohashi, 34, a regional champion from Woodinville, Wash., who along with Lynnwood Wash.'s Chad Kinner, 36, another regional champ, own about 40 tables at bars in Washington state and organize several leagues.
Ohashi said her foosball addiction delayed her graduation from Western Washington University by two years. On most nights, rather than hitting the books, she was playing foos.
Foosball -- aka table soccer -- gets played at big-money tournaments as well as for fun at local clubs.
"When I moved to Seattle, thinking I was all that, I started playing in weekly tournaments," she said. "It was a reality check."
While some may remember tables that featured ramped corners and one-man goalie rods, games today are usually played on Tornado tables, the industry standard for about 20 years, which feature a completely flat surface and three-man goalie rod.
Typically, local league nights feature three- or four-person teams that play a combination of games: doubles, singles, switching positions after goals, playing a match where the ball isn't allowed to stop moving. Sometimes there's a "beer round," where the losers of a three-on-three or four-on-four game have to buy the next pitcher of suds.
Games go to five. The best three of five games wins the match.
The numbers of players and tournaments today are a shadow of what the game used to draw during its heyday in the 1970s, say old-school players. The Pacific Northwest was a foosball hotbed.
Kathy Brainard, 52, a winner of numerous national tournaments and co-author of the 1980 book "The Complete Book of Foosball," said one of the first big-money table soccer tournaments ($1,500) was organized by businessman Lee Peppard at his tavern in Missoula, Mont.
The next year, at a $5,000 tournament, Peppard introduced his own table, named "Tournament Soccer," which served as the industry standard through the decade.
Peppard moved his headquarters to Seattle and started the first pro foosball tour, the Tournament Soccer Quarter Million Dollar Tour. During the next few years, the tour was awarding upward of $1 million in prize money and featured tournaments with Porsches and Corvettes as top prizes.
"Foosball was something new and interesting and everybody wanted to play," said Seattle's Rocky Willson, 49, a regional champ and longtime table vendor.
During the late '70s at Goldie's in Wallingford, Wash., he recalled, there were about 13 foosball tables, most occupied nightly. But by the early 1980s, Willson said, the tour had been over promoted and bar patrons were more interested in a new fad: video games such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede and Galaga. Foosball went on life support.
Interest finally peaked again, Brainard said, in the mid-1990s. Baby boomers wanted foos tables for their rec rooms, dot-commers liked having it in their break rooms and kids saw cast members on "Friends" playing it in their living room.
02:20 PM PST on Saturday, March 19, 2005
By J.J. JENSEN / The Seattle Times
Perhaps you're tops at your tavern. Maybe you're lord of the dorm or boss of the break room.
If that's the case, are you -- apologies to Hank Williams Jr. -- ready for some foosball?
Some serious table-soccer action usually isn't too hard to find.
Contestants there are pretty passionate about their foos, judging by the play on a recent Friday night at Dante's Steak & Grog's in Seattle's University District.
With more than $100 in prize money on the line, players and patrons ringed the bar's three foosball tables like a crowd gathering 'round a schoolyard fight.
Action was fast and furious. Players, making lightning-quick passes and shots, gripped and slid the rods like line cooks with frying pans during a Saturday-morning rush. Comments of "ooh," "ahh" and "nice shot" came from onlookers.
"These guys are nuts," said Kyle Fletcher, 23, a newcomer to the Seattle foosball scene who once ran the table at his Willamette University fraternity. But he and his roommate have been getting a smackdown at Dante's.
"I thought we'd be OK because we play quite a bit, but these guys are seasoned."
While the casual player can be competitive in local leagues and small tournaments -- players are assigned handicaps based on skill levels -- they can expect to get their comeuppance at tournaments sanctioned by foosball's governing bodies, the North American Table Soccer Association and the Valley International Foosball Association.
"The recreational player will get destroyed (at larger tournaments)," said Rich Fosner, 42, of Bothell, Wash., a nationally ranked player who frequents Dante's. "Their egos shrink really quick."
If you want to hang with the big-time foos players you've got to practice and take your licks, said Steph Ohashi, 34, a regional champion from Woodinville, Wash., who along with Lynnwood Wash.'s Chad Kinner, 36, another regional champ, own about 40 tables at bars in Washington state and organize several leagues.
Ohashi said her foosball addiction delayed her graduation from Western Washington University by two years. On most nights, rather than hitting the books, she was playing foos.
Foosball -- aka table soccer -- gets played at big-money tournaments as well as for fun at local clubs.
"When I moved to Seattle, thinking I was all that, I started playing in weekly tournaments," she said. "It was a reality check."
While some may remember tables that featured ramped corners and one-man goalie rods, games today are usually played on Tornado tables, the industry standard for about 20 years, which feature a completely flat surface and three-man goalie rod.
Typically, local league nights feature three- or four-person teams that play a combination of games: doubles, singles, switching positions after goals, playing a match where the ball isn't allowed to stop moving. Sometimes there's a "beer round," where the losers of a three-on-three or four-on-four game have to buy the next pitcher of suds.
Games go to five. The best three of five games wins the match.
The numbers of players and tournaments today are a shadow of what the game used to draw during its heyday in the 1970s, say old-school players. The Pacific Northwest was a foosball hotbed.
Kathy Brainard, 52, a winner of numerous national tournaments and co-author of the 1980 book "The Complete Book of Foosball," said one of the first big-money table soccer tournaments ($1,500) was organized by businessman Lee Peppard at his tavern in Missoula, Mont.
The next year, at a $5,000 tournament, Peppard introduced his own table, named "Tournament Soccer," which served as the industry standard through the decade.
Peppard moved his headquarters to Seattle and started the first pro foosball tour, the Tournament Soccer Quarter Million Dollar Tour. During the next few years, the tour was awarding upward of $1 million in prize money and featured tournaments with Porsches and Corvettes as top prizes.
"Foosball was something new and interesting and everybody wanted to play," said Seattle's Rocky Willson, 49, a regional champ and longtime table vendor.
During the late '70s at Goldie's in Wallingford, Wash., he recalled, there were about 13 foosball tables, most occupied nightly. But by the early 1980s, Willson said, the tour had been over promoted and bar patrons were more interested in a new fad: video games such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Centipede and Galaga. Foosball went on life support.
Interest finally peaked again, Brainard said, in the mid-1990s. Baby boomers wanted foos tables for their rec rooms, dot-commers liked having it in their break rooms and kids saw cast members on "Friends" playing it in their living room.
The Game Gallery News
When you have time go back and check out our archives (to left of this page) of news, events and much more. There is a lot a interesting subjects and news we find from all over the world and post it here daily for your knowledge and entertainment..
The First "Video Games Live" Concert
"Video Games Live" Concert at Hollywood Bowl
Published on 04/04/2005 by Steven.
Video Games Live is the first major concert dedicated specifically to the celebration of video game music to tour the United States (that features music from more than one series, anyway). Their first concet is scheduled to take place on July 6th, 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Music will be included from game series such as Halo®, Metal Gear Solid®, Myst®, Sonic The Hedgehog®, HeadHunter®, and Beyond Good & Evil® among others. Tracks will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.In addition to the music, fans will be entertained by laser and light sequences, video clips, live characters, and a segment to the arcade classics of yesteryear. For more details on the event as well as ticket prices, check the Hollywood Bowl official site.
For more details on Video Games Live, check out the official site link.Video Games Live is owned by Mystical Stone Entertainment, LLC founded in 2002 by "top sound" and "music professionals" Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall.
Published on 04/04/2005 by Steven.
Video Games Live is the first major concert dedicated specifically to the celebration of video game music to tour the United States (that features music from more than one series, anyway). Their first concet is scheduled to take place on July 6th, 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Music will be included from game series such as Halo®, Metal Gear Solid®, Myst®, Sonic The Hedgehog®, HeadHunter®, and Beyond Good & Evil® among others. Tracks will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.In addition to the music, fans will be entertained by laser and light sequences, video clips, live characters, and a segment to the arcade classics of yesteryear. For more details on the event as well as ticket prices, check the Hollywood Bowl official site.
For more details on Video Games Live, check out the official site link.Video Games Live is owned by Mystical Stone Entertainment, LLC founded in 2002 by "top sound" and "music professionals" Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall.
Coin-Operated Game Info Links
Coin-Operated Game Info:
1930s to 1970s Penny Arcade GamesTons of information and pictures on EM arcade games, fortunetellers, driving games, diggers/cranes, gun games and sports games.
Penny Arcade PicturesPictures of old arcades. A step back in time!
Pitch & Bat Baseball, Manikin, Mechanical AnimationGames. Tons of information and pictures on Pitch & BatBaseball, Manikin and other mechanical animation sportsgames from the 1940s to present.
Bowling Alley & Shuffle Alley Games, 1949-1990s Tons of information and pictures on bowling gamesfrom 1949 to the 1990s.
Gottlieb Pinball Evolution 1947-1967Chronologic information, pictures & features of Gottliebflipper pinball games from their classic era.
Williams Game Evolution 1943-1960Chronologic information, pictures & features of Williamspinball and arcade games from their classic era.
Coin-Op Game Repair Guides:
Beginning Pinball RepairRead before working on a pinball or a pinball circuit board!
1977-1984 Williams System 3 to System 7 Repair GuideGames from Hot Tip to Star Light, including Black Knight, Firepower, Gorgar, Flash.
1990-1999 Williams/Bally WPC Repair GuideGames from Funhouse to Cactus Canyon.
1986-1990 Williams System 11 Repair GuideGames from High Speed to Dr.Dude.
1987-1995 DataEast/Sega Repair GuideGames from Laser War to Batman Forever.
1980-1989 Gottlieb System 80 Repair GuideGame such as Haunted House and Black Hole.
1977-1985 Bally/Stern Repair GuideClassic Bally games like Kiss, Xenon, and 8 Ball.
1985-1989 Bally 6803 Repair GuideBally games like Strange Science, Party Animal, etc.
1978-1985 Gameplan Repair GuideGame Plan games like Sharpshooter, etc.
1930s to 1978 EM (Electro-Mechanical) Repair GuideGuide for fixing electro-mechanical coin operated gamesof all types including pinballs, bowlers, pitch & bats, etcmade before 1978.
Williams Pinball 2000 Repair Guide Fixing the most advanced pinball system ever.
Capcom Pinball Repair GuideProblems and solutions for all Capcom pinballs.
Williams System 9 and Prior Repair (3.4meg)
Written by Williams, April 1986. In PDF format(Adobe Acrobat required).
Coin-Op Restoration Guides:
Pinball Restoration GuideIncludes touching up the backglass and playfield, and general tips on restoring a pinball game. Includes clear-coating a playfield with Varathane.
Clear Coating Playfields with Automotive ClearsAn extension of the above Restoration document.Describes "diamond plating" a playfield using Automotiveclears (opposed to Varathane, as described above).
Plastic Ramp Repair and ProtectionInstructions for fixing and protecting plastic ramps on late model games.
Vacuum Forming Plastic Game PartsInstructions for making your own game parts using ahome-made vacuum form. Great for older games wheregame-specific parts can not be found. Also shows howto make your own custom water-slide decals.
Gottlieb Roto-Target RestorationInstructions for re-facing your worn Gottlieb roto-targets.
1930s to 1970s Penny Arcade GamesTons of information and pictures on EM arcade games, fortunetellers, driving games, diggers/cranes, gun games and sports games.
Penny Arcade PicturesPictures of old arcades. A step back in time!
Pitch & Bat Baseball, Manikin, Mechanical AnimationGames. Tons of information and pictures on Pitch & BatBaseball, Manikin and other mechanical animation sportsgames from the 1940s to present.
Bowling Alley & Shuffle Alley Games, 1949-1990s Tons of information and pictures on bowling gamesfrom 1949 to the 1990s.
Gottlieb Pinball Evolution 1947-1967Chronologic information, pictures & features of Gottliebflipper pinball games from their classic era.
Williams Game Evolution 1943-1960Chronologic information, pictures & features of Williamspinball and arcade games from their classic era.
Coin-Op Game Repair Guides:
Beginning Pinball RepairRead before working on a pinball or a pinball circuit board!
1977-1984 Williams System 3 to System 7 Repair GuideGames from Hot Tip to Star Light, including Black Knight, Firepower, Gorgar, Flash.
1990-1999 Williams/Bally WPC Repair GuideGames from Funhouse to Cactus Canyon.
1986-1990 Williams System 11 Repair GuideGames from High Speed to Dr.Dude.
1987-1995 DataEast/Sega Repair GuideGames from Laser War to Batman Forever.
1980-1989 Gottlieb System 80 Repair GuideGame such as Haunted House and Black Hole.
1977-1985 Bally/Stern Repair GuideClassic Bally games like Kiss, Xenon, and 8 Ball.
1985-1989 Bally 6803 Repair GuideBally games like Strange Science, Party Animal, etc.
1978-1985 Gameplan Repair GuideGame Plan games like Sharpshooter, etc.
1930s to 1978 EM (Electro-Mechanical) Repair GuideGuide for fixing electro-mechanical coin operated gamesof all types including pinballs, bowlers, pitch & bats, etcmade before 1978.
Williams Pinball 2000 Repair Guide Fixing the most advanced pinball system ever.
Capcom Pinball Repair GuideProblems and solutions for all Capcom pinballs.
Williams System 9 and Prior Repair (3.4meg)
Written by Williams, April 1986. In PDF format(Adobe Acrobat required).
Coin-Op Restoration Guides:
Pinball Restoration GuideIncludes touching up the backglass and playfield, and general tips on restoring a pinball game. Includes clear-coating a playfield with Varathane.
Clear Coating Playfields with Automotive ClearsAn extension of the above Restoration document.Describes "diamond plating" a playfield using Automotiveclears (opposed to Varathane, as described above).
Plastic Ramp Repair and ProtectionInstructions for fixing and protecting plastic ramps on late model games.
Vacuum Forming Plastic Game PartsInstructions for making your own game parts using ahome-made vacuum form. Great for older games wheregame-specific parts can not be found. Also shows howto make your own custom water-slide decals.
Gottlieb Roto-Target RestorationInstructions for re-facing your worn Gottlieb roto-targets.
"Sopranos Pinball" Makes The News
"The Sopranos" makes a mean pinball game, too
By Peter Genovese
Newhouse News Service
There's a new pinball machine that has the makings of a hit.
Make that a mob hit.
"The Sopranos" pinball machine, a spinoff of the popular HBO drama, makes it debut this month amid enthusiasm from pinball dealers and distributors.
"I got an order from a guy in Germany who never heard of 'The Sopranos' but played the game at a trade show there and loved it," said Andy Kline, owner of Tampa, Fla.-based www.homegameroom.com . The machines retail for $4,495.
"We've had interest from customers in Croatia," said Gary Stern, owner of Melrose Park, Ill.-based Stern Pinball, the game's manufacturer. "They're going to put the machines in bars and restaurants over there."
The game, like the show, is colorful, comical, crazed and a little risqué. The back and side panels show off the cast — Tony, Carmela, Paulie Walnuts, Silvio, Uncle Junior, Chris and others.
The playing surface features signs for the Meadowlands, a replica Pulaski Skyway, two miniature go-go dancers from the Bada Bing, a talking fish (a detail from a Season Two episode involving Big Pussy), and a tractor-trailer marked CHASE (a reference to show creator David Chase).
Rack up points, advance up the family ladder — associate, soldier, acting capo, capo, consigliere, underboss. There's also a space labeled "RIP." Landing on that can't be a good thing.
Several of the show's stars, including Steve Van Zandt (Silvio), Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi), Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy), Edie Falco (Carmela) and Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) recorded lines from the show for the pinball machine. And, naturally, you hear the voice of Tony (James Gandolfini).
"For all of us who go into a 'Sopranos' withdrawal between seasons, the pinball machine is like having our own Dr. Melfi," said Tim Ferrante, publisher of GameRoom Magazine, devoted to home game-room enthusiasts.
By Peter Genovese
Newhouse News Service
There's a new pinball machine that has the makings of a hit.
Make that a mob hit.
"The Sopranos" pinball machine, a spinoff of the popular HBO drama, makes it debut this month amid enthusiasm from pinball dealers and distributors.
"I got an order from a guy in Germany who never heard of 'The Sopranos' but played the game at a trade show there and loved it," said Andy Kline, owner of Tampa, Fla.-based www.homegameroom.com . The machines retail for $4,495.
"We've had interest from customers in Croatia," said Gary Stern, owner of Melrose Park, Ill.-based Stern Pinball, the game's manufacturer. "They're going to put the machines in bars and restaurants over there."
The game, like the show, is colorful, comical, crazed and a little risqué. The back and side panels show off the cast — Tony, Carmela, Paulie Walnuts, Silvio, Uncle Junior, Chris and others.
The playing surface features signs for the Meadowlands, a replica Pulaski Skyway, two miniature go-go dancers from the Bada Bing, a talking fish (a detail from a Season Two episode involving Big Pussy), and a tractor-trailer marked CHASE (a reference to show creator David Chase).
Rack up points, advance up the family ladder — associate, soldier, acting capo, capo, consigliere, underboss. There's also a space labeled "RIP." Landing on that can't be a good thing.
Several of the show's stars, including Steve Van Zandt (Silvio), Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi), Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy), Edie Falco (Carmela) and Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior) recorded lines from the show for the pinball machine. And, naturally, you hear the voice of Tony (James Gandolfini).
"For all of us who go into a 'Sopranos' withdrawal between seasons, the pinball machine is like having our own Dr. Melfi," said Tim Ferrante, publisher of GameRoom Magazine, devoted to home game-room enthusiasts.
Kiss Of Life For Pinball Machine
By SIMON BEVILACQUA03
apr05
A PINBALL machine featuring a 1970s glam rock band is the centre of attention at an unusual sale today.The Kiss pinball machine is the main attraction at a Hobart warehouse sale.
The sale involves about 50 ancient video and parlour games, from the nostalgic Space Invaders to the exhilarating Burning Rubber video car race.
The Kiss pinball machine is expected to fetch between $8000 and $10,000.
"It's a piece of history," Automatic Music Company assistant Andrew Boot said.
Automatic Music supplies jukeboxes and parlour games to establishments around Hobart.
But as time moves on many of the older games have lost their attraction.
"They'd just be chucked in the warehouse to rot," Mr Boot said.
But now the dated machines have become collectors items.
Many collectors like nothing better than to have a table top Space Invaders game in the lounge room for amusement and as a talking point.
"A lot of people have rumpus rooms and the pinball machines are perfectly suited to that," he said.
The sale is on at Smith St in North Hobart with signs pointing to the warehouse.
apr05
A PINBALL machine featuring a 1970s glam rock band is the centre of attention at an unusual sale today.The Kiss pinball machine is the main attraction at a Hobart warehouse sale.
The sale involves about 50 ancient video and parlour games, from the nostalgic Space Invaders to the exhilarating Burning Rubber video car race.
The Kiss pinball machine is expected to fetch between $8000 and $10,000.
"It's a piece of history," Automatic Music Company assistant Andrew Boot said.
Automatic Music supplies jukeboxes and parlour games to establishments around Hobart.
But as time moves on many of the older games have lost their attraction.
"They'd just be chucked in the warehouse to rot," Mr Boot said.
But now the dated machines have become collectors items.
Many collectors like nothing better than to have a table top Space Invaders game in the lounge room for amusement and as a talking point.
"A lot of people have rumpus rooms and the pinball machines are perfectly suited to that," he said.
The sale is on at Smith St in North Hobart with signs pointing to the warehouse.
