Newsbytes: Demon Slayer US Test; LAZON Discovery; Golden Tee 2027; Namco Trafford Centre Opens; Headlines
Welcome to our first Newsbytes for Fall 2026. This is the series of posts where we curate the smaller bits and bytes of news that perhaps don’t warrant a full-blown post on the main page. We don’t have a ton to share for this edition, as most arcade happenings outside the trade shows have slowed back down to a trickle, but as always we have cobbled some stories together so that we could have at least one for this month. Onto the news:
Demon Slayer Nichirin Battle Slash Reaches US For Testing
While I was in the middle of discussing IAAPA Expo Europe, news came along that the Demon Slayer arcade game that Konami recently launched in Japan had popped up on test here in the US. Temporarily located at the Round1USA Puente Hills Mall location, this was not quite expected after anecdotal reports said that the game was not performing well in Japan. Granted, from what I’ve seen of it, it’s rather simplified like a videmption game, so perhaps it will do better here. There is certainly an audience for it, given how well the most recent Demon Slayer movie did in theaters.
According to site friend and contributor Jdevy who got to play it today, there are three game modes, one of which (“Ult”) ended quite fast, whereas the Team Battle Mode was more satisfying. Per JDevy on how that played: “You assemble a team with your dispensed cards. You attack by stopping a slot machine style wheel with the katana joystick and get attack damage against the team based on what you land in. When the enemy attacks, you parry by swinging the joystick at attack symbols that go into your crosshair symbols.”
JDevy also said: “The modular size is really nice for smaller locations. The space it was in was where a smaller four player chibi crane was at. I can see this doing well at R1 and locations with a focus on otaku culture/Japanese games. Simple gameplay alongside gacha elements.”
Perhaps we’ll see this one at IAAPA when we find out what Konami’s US plans are for 2027. We’ll have to wait and see.
CED Arcade Game Discovery – LAZON
It has been a while since we had an unreleased game to discuss, and this flew under my radar until now as this video was posted to YouTube nine months ago. Aside from the video, there is little known about it, as South Gate is not a company I’d ever heard of, and there are no arcade games under their name. So, if anyone knows anything, comment below; whoever did this had some money to burn to capture all of these scenes, which would have involved a lot of helicopter flight work, but that is likely why this went unreleased.
Not only did they have to develop all of that for the game, then they’d need to create the hardware and the cabinet, then get that out into distribution at a time where the market was collapsing. The game itself reminds me of Mylstar’s Us Vs. Them, as there’s a similar premise of the Earth being under attack, although this lacks all of the character actors and scenes that UvT had which made it interesting with a personality.
Note that this is just the raw footage from the disc and doesn’t have the overlays that would have been produced by the computer that would have been powering the game side of things. As another aside, this used a CED, which was a variation on the LaserDisc, but used a needle instead of a laser. I’m really not sure why RCA ever thought it was worth making public, having a limited lifespan (something like 2,000 plays per disc), but it was even crazier than anyone ever considered using tech like that in arcades (like Midway did with NFL Football).
Speaking of unreleased games, the never finished Ms. Gorf is now playable in a browser. This was reconstructed by MikeDX after analyzing some surviving footage of the game, plus the use of some digital scraps recovered from the project. It’s essentially Robotron 2084 with some Gorf-like characters and explosions, although there are some new things thrown in there, and the voice samples are far clearer than what the tech of the early ’80s could have achieved. That’s fine IMHO though, as this brings a game to life that otherwise never would have seen the light of day. Now for someone to put it into their Gorf cabinet…
Golden Tee PGA Tour 2027 Now Available
Fans of Golden Tee can rejoice, as the newest edition of the world’s best golfing video game is now available for locations to grab. The question with these annual updates for buyers of course is: “What’s new?” The cabinet is the same as it has been since they introduced the PGA Tour models, although they have the Deluxe and Showcase Pro options available (I don’t remember seeing the Showcase Pro much if at all until recently, but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention). It also is available as a paid upgrade for existing models.
2027 also has “the best-looking graphics the game has ever seen” with some unnamed improvements; ten new courses, (five are new, two are remastered, three are “re-teed”); improvements to how the “Money $hot” prize system works, and a new Vegas Golf mode, which integrates poker cards and certain rules into the game and works for either Casual or Online modes.
I’m not sure what the price is on the kits & dedicated cabinets, but GT should still be one of the more affordable games available (well under $10,000 for the Deluxe, unless they’ve jacked the price up).
Namco Trafford Showcase Evening
We do have a Location Watch in development to finish off the month, but until that is ready, here’s a little tease from it. Recently, the original Namco name and branding has made a comeback in the UK as part of the remodel of their flagship Namco Funscape Trafford Centre location. This branding was never put into use by itself for locations outside of Asia until today, with the Namco Wonder Park, Station and latterly Funscape names previously being used over in Europe instead for a number of reasons. That all changes with this though, with a full refurbishment of the Trafford Centre location to boot.
Now just branded as Namco Trafford Centre, this brings a familiar logo back to the scene, but with a completely renovated facility that stars the latest games, centered on those that Bandai Namco distribute in Europe from Raw Thrills, including Fast & Furious Arcade, Top Gun: Maverick, and Halo: Fireteam Raven. The Future from Superwin is also there, though we still haven’t seen them promote that one since it last appeared at IAAPA 2025. Changes to the location itself include the loss of its elaborate ‘ancient ruins’ facade it had since originally opening in 1998, making way for a cleaner looking set of honeycomb archways and LED screens, plus a redesigned Gashapon area.
The soft opening “showcase” event was quite well attended, and I imagine that all being well, the new branding will be rolled out to the other Funscape locations soon. A few more photos from the event have additionally been shared on LinkedIn.
Xevious Commercial Unearthed
We’re in a little bit of a retrospective mood today, but it feels relevant to me as I continue working on my arcade history book (which is now well over 100,000 words). In fact, I have been working on another edit of the Atari chapter when both of the videos below came up. Time Extension has a story on the Xevious commercial, which was found buried during the recording of a 1983 Phillies vs. Mets baseball game. Not sure why the user didn’t upload to their own YouTube channel, instead putting it on social media or Archive.org, so here I’ve added it as an unlisted video:
They tout it as “the Atari game you can’t play at home”, which was throwing a small bone to operators who had had it with companies like Atari in porting everything to home consoles before their $3000~ arcade machines even had a chance to show up on location. Saturation was a much more massive problem for the market than most seem to give it credit for, and porting almost everything to consoles contributed to that issue. I’ve got a whole chapter about that and the real causes of the early ’80s game market crash, which I can hopefully have completed by this Christmas. You can get a sample chapter for cheap from here though on Saving Pinball if you’re so inclined.
Speaking of Namco (since Xevious is their baby), I also recently stumbled across this redesign of their 1991 arcade piece Starblade, reimagined as a vector game. I’m not sure if the code could work on a color vector monitor, but if so, that’d be mighty impressive if it could. Even without that, this is pretty rad.
Eugene Jarvis Sits Down With Onion Software
Raw Thrills CEO Eugene Jarvis recently sat down for an interview with Onion Software, a noted Japanese arcade historian who focuses on retro gaming content over there. You may want to turn off the auto-dubbing that YouTube throws on this though, especially as it also dubs over Eugene’s voice, which is more than a little weird. The interview comes in two parts; the first can be found below, and the second is viewable here.
IAAPA Expo Europe 2026 Tease
We are hard at work putting together the showcase of what was at IAAPA Expo Europe this past week, but in case you have a bit of time on your hands and you want to see it all, there are these Main Hall tour videos from PinballNews.com. This one is over an hour long but does show Bandai Namco Amusement Europe, among others. Hang tight for details, as some things may need some context.
GlobalVR Gets A New Parts Site
Finally, this almost feels like a “Somehow, Palpatine returned” story, but you may be surprised to learn that GlobalVR still exists. Let me surprise you further by the fact that they are still selling some games too, all on their revamped GlobalVR parts site. Now, if you aren’t familiar with them, it probably means you’re new to the modern arcade industry, although I would be surprised if you haven’t come across some title of theirs out there, be it NASCAR, Aliens: Extermination, one of the older Need For Speed games, Frightfearland, etc. Their last new game release, and the last time I’d seen them at a trade show, was in 2014 with Redline Rampage: Gas Guzzlers. Oddly enough despite their name, they basically went away right as VR had become a big deal in our industry (they did pioneer some arcade VR tech in the late ’90s/early ’00s, such as with their Vortek V3 system).
Over the years, they have maintained that aforementioned parts site, to help techs with GVR games continue to service them. I had forgot about it until I recently, when I had an issue with my Blazing Angels arcade machine and needed help. In reaching out to Elaine Shirley about it, she pointed me to the site as well as to their service manager Mark, who did help me figure the issue out(big thanks to both Elaine and Mark for that). That’s where I was rather surprised to see the new look, plus the fact that they are still selling both games and conversion kits.
Per the site, they are still selling new cabinets for Blazing Angels and Redline Rampage, while they have some kits available for Redline as well as Shh…Welcome To Frightfearland and The Swarm. I do imagine that quantities are limited and no idea what the price is for any of them, but if anything there fits your fancy, then you can reach out.
There is no indication that they are planning on a comeback, but it is nice that they’re still around to support their existing games. Although it makes me wonder if they were to start making games again, how they might do so. Perhaps something like a remastered Blazing Angels or Madden would be in order; between stuff like Oblivion and certain Zelda games getting remasters, I’ve thought about which arcade games could use such a treatment and something like Blazing Angels would be neat. The game still does well given that it’s almost 20 years old, but give it a fresh new look and polish a few other things (like changing out that awful Comic Sans font), and I imagine it could get a nice new lease on life.
Headlines
Sid Seattle Launches Season Zero Of The AACES 10-Week Scoring Tournament on Antstream Arcade – All involving licensed coin-op arcade classics. The top three will get their own Walter Day x A.C.E. S. “CHASE” trading card.
If Pac-Man Were A Modern AAA Game – This is both funny & sad, because it’s true. The gaming industry at large needs to stop trying to make every game a Marvel movie for babies, and respect their audience.
Mobile Arcade JSK RVcade Is Developing Their Own Line-up Of Arcade Games – I’ve been thinking lately that I need to do a few things like this to stand out.
New Maimai DX Version ‘Maimai DX Magical’ Releases In Japan
Konami’s Beatmania IIDX Has Received Its 34th Edition, Zinrai
New Rival Bingo Event For Maximum Tune 5DX+ Running Until October 31st
Initial D The Arcade’s Fourth Streets Strongest Showdown Tournament
Promo Video For TouchMagix’s Knock-A-Duck Redemption Game
Arcooda Introduces New Metal Holsters For ’90s Gun Arcade Games
Jersey Jack Pinball Updates Sonic the Hedgehog With v.940 Code, Adding Knuckles & More
Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons Gets Code Update V1.10 – New Accessories Also Announced
Production Update For Tales Of The Arabian Nights
Star Force, A Spiritual Sequel To InJoy Motion’s Project X-Pher? – Kinda looks like it, although this trailer has WAY too much shaky cam
Yuto Also Has Star Core, A VR Gun Game – Not sure if this is Star Force or not, this is where it gets confusing with the Chinese companies
Superwin’s Flash Racer Max DX Has A Drifting Motion Seat – Still haven’t had any sign of this one or Flash Rider out West though
Crazy Football Promo Trailer – I’m sure we’ll be seeing this one over here before too long
An Enhanced Version Of Atari’s Tetris, Which Makes The Scoring More Competitive – This is random, but I wonder if anyone has ever done a ROM hack on Double Dragon to fix the slowdown
Help Me Save My Arcade – Every Dollar Helps!
[Home Headlines]
The NeoGeo AES+ Has Been Delayed – Yuzo Koshiro Is Interested In Bringing Earthion To The System
More Cuts Come To Xbox & Its Studios
Konami Launches The Castlevania 40th Anniversary
Namco’s Xevious 3D/G Comes To Arcade Archives
The Long-Standing Relationship Between Sega & nVidia
Roguecraft DX Now Available On Steam – I grabbed this and am enjoying it. It was originally made for the Commodore Amiga, so that’s why it looks like a ’90s game
NES Version Of Data East’s Karate Champ Comes To Console Archives
Songbird Productions Is Making Great Progress On Ultravore For The Atari Lynx – This was an unfinished, unreleased 1v1 fighter for the system which ended up in a very different form on the Jaguar in 1995
AI Being Used To Port Resident Evil To The Atari Jaguar – Not sure to what extent the port is being done with AI versus human coding
New, Original, Non-AI Jaguar Game, Shape Shooter 2000 Will Be Released At PRGE Next Month
Sega’s Star Wars Trilogy Arcade Is Getting A Fan Port To The Dreamcast
The Sega Master System Gets A New Shoot ‘Em Up
The Nintendo64 Is Now 30 Years Old – Thus making you feel even older
That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of today’s stories interests you the most?
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