After "Daytona USA Turbo" and "To the Maxx 2001", there's a new unofficial upgrade kit available for Daytona USA: Daytona GTX "2004 edition". The innovation is that after each race, the player earns points he can use to upgrade his car (motor, armor, tyres and turbo). By using a PIN code given at the Game Over screen, the player can restart with the number of points he got. This kit includes 2 EPROMs, a small IC featuring 2 other EPROMs and dipswitches as well as 2 stickers. Even if the kit can be purchased for a price ranging from 350 to 400 €, it seems that Highway sells it for 170 €! Pay attention if you have twins because you'll need one kit per seat. Click here to see a picture of the kit and some screenshots.

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After the departure of Dave Barron, previous sales director Paul Williams has been promoted to become the new CEO at Sega Amusements Europe. We wish him a lot of success with his new function!
Still Sega. Six months after its (japanese) arcade release, the home version of OutRun 2 is announced on X-box system even though Yu Suzuki declared that this game wouldn't see a home release because arcade sensations can't be recreated on home systems. Microsoft surely offered lots of dollars to convince him. However, it's an english studio external to Sega called Sumo Digital Ltd who's in charge of the conversion. we might think it's a suicidal move by Sega but it's clear that playing this game at the arcade has nothing common with the sitting-room TV! It's also obvious that the operators who invested in this jewel won't regret it, because if we trust what we heard so far, it's really the new Daytona USA and if there's only one driving game to have at one's location, it's absolutely this one! Arngrim reviewed this game for Neo-Arcadia, you can read it (it's in french) at www.neo-arcadia.com. One of the special features of OutRun 2 is to have an on-line world-wide ranking, you can check it at the official website of the game. You'll notice that world's best drivers are all japanese players, well, Paul Williams noticed it too so he calls all european players to show themselves and reminds you not to forget to enter your best times on the internet. If you want to try to beat the world-record or simply want to try the game out, you can play it at The Golden Gate which's these days in Genk. There, you'll be also able to play Virtua Cop 3, the third installment in this successful shooter series. The originality this time is that you have a pedal that activates bullet-time (slow-motion seen in Matrix), note you may come across some Shenmue characters in this game!
If you have these games (or others) at your location, thanks to notice us about it so we can keep this website up-to-date. You can contact us at mod@arcadebelgium.be.

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The fifth eurotechno coin-op industry conference will take place on Thursday may 6th at Le Meridien hotel in Brussels (facing the Central station). Among the topics discussed, let's note an in-depth vision of the future in technology and entertainment, the European legislation and taxation, the reprocessing of electronic components and the social responsability of the gaming industry.
Announced speakers are Oscar Nieboer, managing director of Virgin Games, Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and CEO of Uwink, Bob Cooney, vice-president of marketing at Ecast Inc, Luke Alvarez, CEO of Inspired Broadcast Networks, Peter Hannibal, electronic gaming director with Gala Group, Harmen Brenninkmeijer, CEO of Octavian International, Dominique Bé, deputy head of the European Commission's Employment and Social Affairs, Philippe Vlaemminck, senior lawyer and head of office at Vlaemminck & Partners, Adam Craig, international tax director with Deloitte & Touche and Jean Bergevin, head of the European Commission's Internal Market unit.
This year's event coincides with Euromat's 25th anniversary that will be celebrated at this occasion. Full delegation (2 people) registration fee is fixed to 550 € (excl. tax). For more info like the programme of the day, a full speakers list and registration, check the official webpage.

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Little report of the ATEI that took place like each year towards the end of january (27-29) at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. This edition was a real success with 294 exhibitors and 13 040 visitors (5,6% more than in 2003) representing a grand total of 119 different countries, 2004 is a record year in the history of this exhibition. That was for the statistics but that's the presented products that interest us, and on that side either we weren't disapointed! The different manufacturers are following the trend observed the last years; give the players the opportunity to play games they can't enjoy home in the same conditions, this means racing simulators and shooters principally... Read full article...

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Amusement Journal recently published the ranking of arcade games that provided the best income in year 2003 in Japan. Here it is:

Best Income Award 2003

Video Games:
1 Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution (Sega/AM2)
2 The King of Fighters 2002 (SNK Playmore)
3 Virtua Striker 2002 (Sega/AV)
4 Mobile Suit Gundam - Federation VS. Zeon DX (Capcom/Banpresto)
5 Virtua Tennis 2 (Sega/Hitmaker)
Read full article...

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Welcome to Arcade Belgium, the 100% arcade dedicated website for both amusement professionals and players. For professionals because it contains interesting articles (about new trends, best games, cost cuts, ...), a marketplace for second-hand machines, news about new products and the whole industry. It will interest players too thanks to the arcade location list (featuring a search engine) or "Where to play arcade games in Belgium?" and the "messages" section where everyone can express himself (the articles and the search engine will be added in the next days). We insist to the fact that this website is about the belgian arcade industry only and since the industry isn't up to the mark nowadays, we hope this initiative will be welcome.

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