The Oregon Amusement & Music Operators Assn. held a membership meeting on Dec. 11 in Portland, where the group celebrated its 50th anniversary. According to AMOA, lunch was provided by TouchTunes and AMI, and raffle items were provided by both of those companies and Embed as well. OAMOA also announced its 2020 Annual Membership Meeting and Golf Outing will take place May 20 at Langdon Farms in Portland. In other association news, the Amusement Machine Owners Assn. of Florida held its annual membership meeting on Nov. 22 during this year’s IAAPA Expo in Orlando. During the gathering, members discussed issues from…
Author: Matt Harding
A feel-good story out of Lubbock, Texas… High school student Gus Coolbaugh has been working on a senior project of sorts – playing arcade games to give all of his prizes away to kids in foster care at CASA of the South Plains. According to KCBD, he’s spent four months playing games at Main Event, Adventure Park and other local arcades, racking up thousands of tickets (mainly from Bay Tek’s Flappy Bird game). He normally sells the prizes – like headphones, game controllers and the like – for a profit, but decided to donate them instead this holiday season. For…
LAI Games’ new game Toy Frenzy is now in stock and shipping from the company’s Dallas, Texas, warehouse. It’s a family-friendly shooting gallery style game that lets up to three players compete or collaborate “to free suspended toys by shooting their ropes using oversized blaster cannons.” The company says the game’s simple gameplay is perfect for a “young, energetic” audience, but deeper layers of strategy that unlock bigger rewards give the game mass appeal. LAI also boasts that the combination of familiar characters, vibrant/hi-definition graphics and intuitive gameplay gives Toy Frenzy “major curb appeal.” To learn more about the game and see…
Incredible Technologies just announced that the Golden Tee World Championship will be returning to The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for the third year in a row. It will be held there June 12-14. The three-day event will be showcased in the 800-seat showroom in the venue. All tournament action will be open to the public “as the best Golden Tee players around the world compete for the game’s most coveted title and biggest prize pool,” I.T. reports. “Each year, this weekend has grown in size and scope,” said Adam Kramer, newly-appointed vice president of the amusement division…
A crew of ATM thieves has struck at least 11 times in New York City in the past three months. According to the New York Police Department, the brazen thieves struck twice in a single night. As police noted, two ATMs were stolen on the night of Dec. 6 from two Little Italy eateries in Lower Manhattan. The crew, which seems to have started their crime spree in September, uses construction tools to make off with the machines and appear to favor small grocery stores and restaurants through Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Retail giant Target opened a pop-up store for the Christmas season in Manhattan, which just so happens to include a Marvel Adventure Lab photo booth from Apple Industries. Called Target Wonderland!, the Chelsea neighborhood venue featured some of the hottest items hoped to be found under the tree this year, including displays by LEGO, Nintendo, Disney and Star Wars. According to Apple’s Francois De Freitas, the booth has proved a hit at the temporary store with young and old lining up to have their photo taken. It’s averaged some 100 photos a day. The venue opened Dec. 13 and is…
FEC chain D&B recently shared its third quarter 2019 financial results, showing the company achieved a 6.1 percent revenue growth from Q3 2018. Revenues increased to $299.4 million from $282.1 million, and the number of stores increased 13.6 percent – from 118 locations to 134 in the last year. Dave & Buster’s CEO Brian Jenkins attributed the success to “strong new store performance” and noted, “We aresuccessfully executing our plan to drive growth and position the company for long-term success despite comp sales headwinds from increased competition. We will continue to manage the pace of new store growth to maximize…
Located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, next door to Planet Hollywood, Family Entertainment Group recently installed Vegas VR & Ropes, an indoor attraction featuring a custom, three-story Sky Trail Ropes Course and a variety of cutting-edge virtual reality attractions. The ropes course is the tallest in Vegas, and is designed with 17 elements to “challenge agility, balance and strength, including a dramatic ‘swing out’ experience on levels 2 and 3.” VR attractions include VRsenal’s Beat Saber, LAI Games’ Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride, Rilix VR roller coaster simulators and more. For more information, visit www.fegllc.com.
A proposed transaction between Player One Amusement Group’s parent company Cineplex and Cineworld Group would make the latter company one of the world’s largest cinema companies with more than 11,200 screens, according to a recent press release. The agreement includes a “go-shop” period, which allows Cineplex to actively “solicit, evaluate and enter into negotiations with parties that make alternative acquisition proposals through Feb. 2, 2020.” Insiders say that for Player One Amusement Group, it will be “business as usual with a possible upside being increased business opportunities within the movie theater industry.” Noted Cineplex’s executive director of communications Sarah Van…
Matthew Deith will be Bay Tek Entertainment’s new director of sales. He’ll replace Rick Rochetti, who is retiring in April. Deith was most recently the managing director at Harry Levy Group in the U.K., where he managed global sales. He’s been in the amusement industry for more than 25 years, and has experience in route operations, FECs and other game venues “I’m thrilled to have Matthew on board,” Rochetti said. “I’ve known him for many years and appreciate what his experience and expertise can bring to Bay Tek. He will serve our internal teams and our customers well.” “We’re looking…