Newsbytes: Atari PONG Arcade Table Is Back; Pop’n Music US; Sonic The Hedghog Arcade1Up, More

Welcome to Newsbytes, a series of posts here on Arcade Heroes that rounds up byte-sized pieces of news from around the worlds of arcades and pinball. We don’t have a ton of stuff on pinball since most of that was soaked up by Pokémon, but there are several fun things going on in the wider arcade scene. Let’s check them out:

The Atari Pong Cocktail Returns

After bringing the Atari PONG Mechanical Coffee Table in time for Christmas last year, Alan-1 has announced that they are now bringing the commercial cocktail version of the game back too. The only difference between this and the model released several years ago is the artwork – functionally it plays the same as before. With four cupholders, this also is targeting the arcade bar & eatertainment market as a novelty. Their website says that they will ship out on March 1st and the MSRP is $5,999, and it will be at Amusement Expo. More on what Alan-1 will be doing there is found below.

Konami’s Pop’n Music High Cheers Releases To Round1USA

There were a couple of surprises that happened this week in regards to rhythm gaming – first that Konami suddenly dropped their new Pop’n Music High Cheers into the States at Round1USA,  and second that the first location to get it up and running was right in my backyard, so to speak. The Round1USA here in Utah recently made headlines in Japan due to the unusual interest they see as Japanese pop culture has grown here especially, so perhaps this is the reason for the arrival. I decided to go and check it out, where I was also not expecting to see two units there. I didn’t get a chance to play though, as it was well occupied the entire time I was around (as was Taito’s Music Diver, interestingly enough).

This new Pop’n version was confirmed to be one of the titles Konami offered to select independent US arcades, with places like Ikigai Arcade known to be getting one. But the shipping date on those seemingly keeps sliding back by a month, so who knows when they will actually come (and whether it will be part of a wider US sales grab) by this point. Either way, this is another title exclusive to Round1USA for now, but Konami’s feet dragging isn’t doing them any favors in the event that they really want to break into the market.

While I understand exclusive agreements, there is a point where it feels as though they don’t really want to make money. While working with Ikigai is a step in the right direction, not all operators take kindly to watching manufacturers play favorites while giving them the snub – and plenty of us have long memories. That can be set aside for the right game that makes good money, but without it, Konami is just making it harder for themselves if they really do want to have a presence in the West. The sensible thing would be to get distributors on-board and show up at an event like AEI, but so far it feels like they don’t want our money, so who knows when they’ll come to their senses.

Arcade1Up Unveils Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic The Hedgehog is getting a new ‘arcade cabinet’… but not exactly in the way anyone expected. As you may recall, Arcade1Up was bought out by competitor Basic Fun last year, and they had been silent on their future plans until the Toy Fair arrived in New York City yesterday, with this on hand at their booth. Aside from Sonic technically appearing in arcades first as a little toy in Sega’s Rad Mobile, he’s also had several of his own outings, from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive versions of Sonic 1 & 2 getting coin-op conversions, to the rare SegaSonic The Hedgehog and Sonic The Fighters, then more recently Sega & Sonic All-Stars Racing Arcade and the two Mario & Sonic At The Olympics Arcade titles (among a few other things) – but perhaps inevitably, none of these are on this machine.

This home product that Arcade1Up are doing simply takes the Genesis originals and puts them into a small cabinet. According to the news breaker, Elite Gaming News, the prototype includes “Sonic 1, 2, 3D Blast, and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine” (the last of those being the localization of Compile’s Puyo Puyo, a puzzle game Sega also released for arcades). Since it is aiming for a Fall release, they could put more on there like one of the coin-op versions, but I would be surprised if they bother. As for playing these games with a joystick, it’s understandable some bristling at the idea, but aside from the Mega-Tech/Mega-Play versions, the Genesis did have arcade sticks. I’m sure someone out there played them with those…

As another arcade aside, it has surprised me that Sega has never tried their own kind of arcade classics compilation, like Namco (and to a much lesser degree, Taito and Atari with the Arcade Legends) has famously done with their Pac-Man Anniversary/Party/Pixel Bash series. With tons of joystick controlled games from the 1970s up to now (thanks to the likes of APM3), they don’t have a shortage of those types of games to pick from. I’m guessing they felt it would never sell, and to be fair, it’s Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga that drive most of those classic sales. You don’t get as many people looking at the arcade for older Sonic games, since fewer know of its arcade past… let alone properly obscure games like Ixion or Quartet.

Silver Strike Bowling League Night Pre-Orders Open

I’m putting this here instead of headlines as we didn’t get a lot of time to focus on this game in the IAAPA news deluge. At that event, Incredible Technologies announced the return of their popular bowling series, with a new sequel that uses completely redesigned software and comes in a new, compact cabinet design.

In case you missed the new content and hardware that this game has packed into it, here’s a quick list:

• 55″ vertically oriented 4K screen
• Reworked bowling physics
• New venues to choose from, including Cosmic Bowling style places
• League play and online prize play
• Monthly online tournaments and challenges
• New game modes, including “Strike Derby and the high-stakes 300 Bounty”
• Licensed equipment and apparel
• Content updates throughout the year

While the game is still set for a release this Spring, they did announce that you can now place an order for one with your preferred IT distributor. I did not get the best footage of this game at IAAPA, unfortunately, so here’s the official game trailer.

Can Retro & Nostalgia Bring The Arcade Back?

In case anyone who reads the blog more hasn’t seen it already, here’s a video that recently went up on the AH YouTube channel in response to a couple of AI-written articles that were riddled with falsehoods and inherently flawed arguments about arcades. This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with it before, although the new angle as to whether they can be “revived” with retro games is new. I don’t think it is wise to be using that however, as retro only works in some very specific instances. With online spaces being flooded by pieces like these, it’s important to reinforce our real, genuinely informed perspectives up against them, even if it’s like talking to the slop wall sometimes…

Amusement Expo 2026

Let’s end things on some trade show talk, as there’s a little to discuss here. Dubai’s DEAL Expo recently came and went without making much of an impact on our end – we haven’t ever attended it in-person, but for a time, some companies would use it to show off new games. That hasn’t really been the case for a while now though; it also used to usually take place around April/May, however this year it happened early, where it’s been sandwiched in-between EAG and Amusement Expo – or AEI as I’ll call it from here on out – so the main distributors like ASI and Warehouse of Games exclusively had existing releases we’ve already seen.

On the other hand, AEI hasn’t always been filled to the brim with new games either (I have been on the fence about going in the past), but last year’s was strong with Maimai DX, Top Gun: Maverick, and Cyberpunk 2077: Turf Wars all debuting there. And from what I have been hearing behind the scenes, Amusement Expo 2026 is shaping up pretty good too. To do a early preview, they have not made this fully public as of yet, but site advertiser Blue Motion Games will be unveiling a new light-gun game at the show. It is still being kept under wraps for now, but I can say that it will be using a major licensed IP that has never been seen as a arcade video game before.

Fresh off being the cover stars of RePlay Magazine with their Butts On Things collaboration, fellow AH advertiser Alan-1 will have five new-new titles: the commercial Atari PONG table mentioned up top, three new Atari Recharged games (they’re mentioned in RePlay – Breakout, Caverns of Mars, and Yars’ Revenge), and a Butts On Things videmption game too. Note on the Recharged games that they are going to debut a new cabinet design that borrows a very rare variation on the “Pepper’s Ghost” effect – the only game I know with it is Taito’s Wyvern F-0 from 1985. They will also be holding their annual MLeS World Championship there instead of in Utah.

As well as that, exA-Arcadia were absent from the show last year, but they are back this time and will have all of the focus on their ARC-32 cabinets and some new games. They’ve been quiet with new game releases since December, however they will have much of what was seen at IAAPA, plus two new-new teases, one of which is once again tied to a major IP. Amusement Source International have also been open in stating that they are bringing several games which were at IAAPA 2025 to AEI, mostly being titles that were at the Ace Amusement booth like Crossbow Fishing and Dragon Kingdom, plus others like Wahlap’s Storm Racer 2 and Bravo’s Trick Pong.

Will big names like Raw Thrills, Bandai Namco, and Sega Amusements bring anything new though? So far they’ve been quiet on that front, however they always can have a surprise in store. We shall see in a month’s time, so stay tuned for a more in-depth preview of the show as we get closer. If you’re interested in any show events, RePlay has a mention of what those entail.

Headlines

The Latest RePlay Magazine Has A Nice Spread On The Recently Passed David Rosen – You’ll need the magazine to check it out though

Retro Ralph Was At The Stern Pinball Pokémon Media Event

Maimai DX Collaborates With Initial D The Arcade In Japan – Could the latter join the ‘washing machine game’ out West soon too?

UDC Posts A DEAL 2026 Highlight Reel

It’s Been A Year Since Wangan Midnight Speed Ignition Was Announced – It’s Still Coming Soon

Bandai Namco Has A New Doraemon Air Cannon Shooting Kidtainment Game Out In Japan

Raw Thrills Posts A Trailer Of F&F Arcade’s Attract Mode

Direct Capture Footage Of Gravitar: Recharged Arcade

A Quick Look At Wahlap’s Game Building Prowess

UNIS Held A Big Company Bash Back In December

New Trailer For Ace Amusement’s Hover Rush DX

Bay Tek Releases Nailed It! + Builds Perfect Pump + Unveils 1p ICEE Slush Rush

Arcooda Has A New Super High Res 4:3 LCD For Arcades

Unico USA Launches LT Series Metal Joystick Tops

Content Update #73 For StepManiaX

Footage Of A 1970s Japanese Arcade

Zero Latency Licenses Jumanji For Their VR Centers

Hero Zone VR Adds Monkey Madness To Their Selection

[Home Headlines]

“Father Of Sega Hardware” And Former CEO Hideki Sato Has Passed Away – This link is more about his history instead of the announcement of his passing. Sega Official did post about that. He did work on a few arcade games early on (e.g. Monaco GP, Star Jacker and Turbo), but his main legacy is all those Sega consoles you know and love. RIP.

Hamster Brings Rave Racer Home For The First Time With Arcade Archives 2 – They are doing their own sort of Nintendo Switch Online classic releases now too, with the Console Archives

Nintendo Partner Showcase Sizzle Reel From The Most Recent Nintendo Direct

Everything Announced At The Sony PlayStation State Of Play Event

Dreamcast Gets A Special Issue Of Japan’s Continue Magazine

New Minecraft Demo Can Be Ran On The Sega Saturn

Virtua Racer Deluxe For The 32X Has Been Decompiled

A Homebrewer Is Making Sonic The Hedgehog For The Atari Lynx

The Atari Falcon Is Getting A New Game

How Did They Make 3D Graphics Before Accelerators?

That’s it for this Newsbytes; which of the above stories (e.g. the Sonic Arcade1Up news) interests you most?

The post Newsbytes: Atari PONG Arcade Table Is Back; Pop’n Music US; Sonic The Hedghog Arcade1Up, More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.