Next year’s Amusement Expo (co-owned by AAMA and AMOA) will take place in Dallas in March, but there are some more details to be decided before the big event happens. AMOA’s Hesch scholarship fund committee, responsible for conducting the fundraising raffle and more at the annual Expo, has decided to return to the tradition of offering a car for the raffle’s grand prize: 2017’s big winner will leave the trade show in a brand new Jeep Wrangler Sport! Raffle tickets are already on sale at one for $25 or five for $100. The current fundraising cycle will continue throughout the…

On June 1, American Vending Sales (AVS) announced that vending veteran Dan Ehlen joined its team as the new Director of Sales/Vending for the northern territory. Dan will handle sales in North/South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. “Dan has an extreme passion for the vending industry with a reputation and work ethic that is second to none,” said Tom Vogt, AVS VP of Vending. “I am confident our customers will find him to be a valuable resource and someone they can rely on to help build their business.” Ehlen has an impressive history of vending experience, including 28 years with…

In other AVS news, the company says it has signed a deal with the company 365 Retail Market to represent their line of micro market kiosks. AVS says the addition of 365’s extensive products will allow its customers to order turnkey micro market packages to get their locations up and running. “365 Retail Markets sets the highest standards in quality, innovation and earnings in the micro market industry,” said Tom Vogt. “With their micro market solutions and AirVend technology for traditional vending operators, they have something for all of our customers.” 365 Retail Markets are manufactured in house at their…

Ctrl V, a virtual reality arcade based in Waterloo, Canada, opened its doors to the public on May 30. CEO Ryan Brooks said it was the first of its kind to open in Canada, and highlighted the hundreds of people that had attended the arcade’s previous soft opening. The arcade features 16 gaming stations, each of which can be reserved for $20 an hour and has a selection of 10 games. Ctrl V’s owners are hoping to entice students at the University of Waterloo to create more content for the arcade, tapping into a growing interest in developing for VR…

After two months of big changes, industry vet Tony Orozco was proud to announce the birth of his first two grandchildren: Camila Rose and Ethan Raymond. Orozco’s daughter Stephanie gave birth to the baby girl Camila on April 19, and a month later Orozco’s daughter-in-law gave birth to Ethan, a baby boy, on May 27. Tony currently works in sales for Mike McWilliams’ Specialty Coin dealership. Before that, he was the West Coast rep for Benchmark Games. But, his longer career was spent at the now-shuttered Los Angeles distributor C.A. Robinson & Co., again in sales. While at C.A., he…

Fun & Biz Africa 2016 is the name of the games show scheduled for August 5-7 at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Besides coin-op attractions, this event will offer products and services for parks, party-givers and other entertainment trades. Among expected attendees will be Mr. Tubbies Fun Fair, The Lion Park & Ushaka Marine World. The Africa show will be produced by Grandeur Exhibition Services which also puts on the China Games & Amusement Fair, scheduled this year for the Zhongshan Convention Center, Oct. 13-15.

It’s vacation season and as lots of coin-op travelers to Europe and other offshore destinations are noticing, a load of equipment on location is really old, but still functioning. RePlay’s Eddie Adlum recently visited the Portuguese city of Porto and found this Wurlitzer 1015 (converted years back to play 45s) and a warhorse of a cigarette machine both still functioning at an outdoor restaurant on the Duoro River called the Café’ Capielo. That’s Eddie at left with Sr. Capielo (who doesn’t look all that happy to have his picture taken by Yankee tourists). But, he was a sweet guy, nonetheless.

Three Uruguayan friends have spent the last two years working to reinvent the arcade classic: Pong. The crew has successfully recreated the pixelated game into a tangible, air hockey-like experience that utilizes magnets and blocks to simulate the gameplay on a physical playfield. According to an article here the three friends simply worked on the project in their spare time, and since none of them had much electronics or manufacturing experience, they perused Google, YouTube and many forums until they found answers to any problems they came across. See more by checking out the article linked above.  

Last Wednesday (05/25) around 15 operators from Virginia met at the Holiday Inn in Charlottesville for the AMOV’s annual meeting. The group discussed the future of their state association, strategies for increasing membership and elected new officers for two-year terms. “As far as the agenda of this year, we’re really just trying to get ready for our annual membership drive for 2017,” said Jeff Gregson, AMOV’s main contact. “Hopefully some of our distributor friends will be helpful and find some potential new members from their customer base.” The group elected Bruce Duncan (Future Targets Inc., Charlottesville, Va.) as their new…

An amazing story ­– found in full here – depicts the story of The Fun Ship, a failed, family-oriented pleasure barge that hoped to take its passengers out to sea with pool tables, arcade games, carousels and more to keep them entertained. However, the boat never left its docks, and slowly rotted away with its cargo still inside. However, U.K. collectors, after many years of red tape, were able to rescue many of the classic, rare arcade games kept in the ship’s hull. Over years, the derelict ship had rusted and fallen apart, but the cargo inside was kept relatively safe.…