One of the coolest aspects of arcade games is the artwork that companies commissioned to be made to decorate each cabinet. The better the artwork was, the more attractive the cabinet became. This was especially prominent with companies like Atari and Cinematronics who would hire comic book artists to draw the art, making it that much more detailed and eye-catching. The problem is that if you collect some of these old games, it can be a little difficult to come across a game with pristine artwork. Of all the games I own, four have significant artwork on the sides and each one has scratches, smudges, tears, etc. that the games have received over the years. If you are in this situation, you may wonder how you can get the artwork replaced - it is possible but it will take some work. And if you’re lucky, someone has already reproduced the artwork for you.

Rotheblog has a couple of articles detailing on how one can go about reproducing side art for their classic game. The article is for the “potential future collector”  and walks them through the steps of getting the artwork reproduced. As I mentioned, it will probably take some work but if you can replace some beloved artwork that has been damaged from wear and tear over the years, then it is worth it.

via arcade heroes.

It’s a couple of months old but if you haven’t seen it, it’s rather funny. There is some violence in it so depending on how your workplace looks at such things, you might want to keep that in mind.

via arcade heroes.

It doesn’t seem to me that lowering the barrier of the move complexity is changing the strategy too much, because really, you’re just using the right move at the right time; it’s all about timing and strategy rather than complexity of input, right?

DS: That’s right. There’s still a lot of nuances of timing. One developer I worked with during the project, at one point said, that Cammy’s Dragon Punch move — call it a thrust kick or cannon spike depending on who you ask — is too good and has too high a priority. That was the claim.

I was playing as Cammy at the time, and he was playing as Fei Long, and later we switched characters so I was playing as Fei Long, and he said that Fei Long’s Flame Kick has too much priority, it’s like his Dragon Punch.

The thing is, the priority on these moves is actually about the same; I don’t have the frame stats off the top of my head, but I have a feeling that both of them are invulnerable for a certain amount of time, and both of them become vulnerable later.

It’s really about, did you do yours a little bit before mine or a little bit after? It’s all about those nuances in timing, and we’ll deliver there just as much as ever.

The whole article is here.

I don’t know what I’d think if I walked in on this. If Pac-Man were giving the sermon they’d definitely have my attention. Should the Church want to gain attendance they should make more games like Billy Graham’s Bible Blaster (my high score is 1100) instead of dreck like Left Behind: Eternal Forces.

“At the start, they were all a bit surprised,” he said. “But then they stopped playing and helped to prepare an altar and volunteered to read bits of the Gospel. Everyone paid attention throughout the holy mass.”

”I hit upon this idea thinking about the fact that so many young people are distancing themselves from the church and choosing to hang out together in different ways and in different places, whether they be discos and games arcades, away from parents with whom they don’t feel at ease,” he said.

via arcade heroes