IAAPA 2023 offered a broad look at the arcade, redemption, pinball, racing and immersive-entertainment products expected to shape the market in 2024. This Australian-focused recap gathers the notable games and attractions shown across the exhibition.
The list below identifies products described as new show debuts in italics. Several releases were still awaiting final dates, distributors or confirmed commercial availability.
Show highlights and sponsors
The event’s headline exhibitors demonstrated how varied the modern amusement floor has become, from licensed video games and pinball to cranes, sports challenges and free-roam VR.
Raw Thrills
- Big Buck Hunter Reloaded 2023 Update, featuring The Walking Dead
- Fast & Furious Arcade Deluxe
- Fast & Furious Arcade Standard
- Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR
- Halo: Fireteam Raven Assault Model
- King Kong of Skull Island II
- Minecraft Dungeons Arcade Series 2
- MotoGP VR
TouchMagix
- Crazy Prize
- Carnival Cups and Carnival Cups Crane
- Drift ‘N Thrift
- Mega Blaster
- Pop It!
- SpaceWarp 66
Wahlap and Gesture Art & Design
Many Wahlap products were being carried by Amusement Source International.
- Alley Oop Blitz
- Asphalt Moto Blitz DX, sold through LAI Games
- Karate Chop, Prize Popper, Puzzle Monsters, Skip Time
- Thunderbolt Shot and Wawa Show crane
Gesture Art & Design’s Food Flight won second place in IAAPA’s Brass Ring Best New Product category. Two major industry players were expected to test it soon.
VR 360 Action
This footage shows the raffle for the $30,000 OMG Simulator.
New arcade games and machines
Ace Amusement
Ace displayed Legends of Spark, the four-player version of Galaxy Rangers, and several other sports and redemption games whose names were not recorded.
Adrenaline Amusements
- Drakons: Realm Keepers
- Hot Wheels: King of the Road 4p
- Hungry Hungry Hippos
- NFS Heat Takedown DX
- Rabbids Hollywood 65″
- Tomb Raider 65″
American Pinball
The small booth near LBX Collective and Retro Arcade Remakes featured Legends of Valhalla and Galactic Tank Force.
Amusement Source International
- Basketball Dunk, Clutch Shoot, Fantastic Train, Furry Dunk
- Go! Hero of Robots, Junkyard Rumble and Magic Drop
- Parkour Motor 2, Racing Car NOS, Shake ‘Em Up and Sky Riders DX
- Sniper Strike 2, Soccer Dunk, Space Travel, Space Warriors and Super Air Blaster
- Ticket Champ, WinSpin and Zombie Crisis
Andamiro USA
The booth included Bobblehead Baseball VS., Crazy Toy Crane, Guardians of the Galaxy Ticket Coaster, Pump It Up 2023 Phoenix, a Spider-Man coin pusher, SpongeBob VR Bubble Coaster, Super Star 2 and Tic Shaq Toe.
Bandai Namco Amusements
- Dead Heat Unleashed and Jukebox Bowl-O-Rama
- Mallet Mayhem and Pac-Man air hockey
- Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship DX, Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash, Pac-Man Power Pellets, Pac-Man Slider, Pac-Man Roller and Pac-Man Baller
- Tom & Jerry Kitchen Chaos, Looney Tunes Red Zone and Tata Island, a coin pusher due for a name change
Products from Adrenaline and Raw Thrills are excluded from this Bandai Namco list. GoldStorm Pirates was not being promoted yet; it might appear at Amusement Expo or IAAPA 2024.
Bay Tek Entertainment
- Axe Master, Big Bass Wheel LED Model and Connect4Hoops
- Goats ‘N Ropes, Hot Shot Free Throw Fury and Rock The Rim
- SpongeBob SquarePants Dynamic Duo VR
- Ticket Monster, Toilet Bowl Toss and Tundra Toss
Chicago Gaming, Coastal Amusements and Elaut USA
Chicago Gaming concentrated on Play Mechanix’s Pulp Fiction pinball, with several Cactus Canyon machines also present.
- Bullseye Crack Shot, Dinosaur Era three-player non-water and four-player water versions
- Hot Shots Fire Rescue and Showtime cranes
- Surf League, Wild Things three-player non-water and four-player water versions
Elaut’s new products included BGI Boxer, Funky Beats Hockey, Punch The Number Kickboxer, a Smurfs crane, Superman Worlds United, VRX Arcade and Wizard of Oz Emerald City Edition.
ExA-Arcadia, ICE, IGPM/Kalkomat and Jersey Jack Pinball
- Arcana Heart 3 Xtend and Jitsu Squad
- Omen of Sorrow: Arising Chaos, Phantom Breaker Omnia and Touhou Scarlet Diabolique Fantastica
ICE’s display closely resembled IAAPA 2022, without pieces such as RaceCraft, and showed no previously unseen new products. IGPM displayed numerous boxers, including MMA Boxer, a development of Kalkomat’s Hit The Green.
JET Games and Komuse USA
- Big Shot, Cannonball Drop, Jet Darts and kiddie rides
- Mega Shot, Quick Shot and Quick Toss
Komuse USA presented One Shot Wonder, a renamed and re-skinned variation of Ultimate Shot, along with the previously shown Air Slide DX.
LAI Games
- Air Strike (January 2024), Angry Birds Coin Crash and Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade Premium, DX and VR
- Asphalt Moto Blitz DX (January 2024), Cosmic Spire (January 2024) and Dragon’s Bane (January 2024)
- Hyper Pitch, Hyper Shoot, Pearl Fishery, Rick & Morty Blitz ‘N Chitz, Slam ‘N Jam Ultra and Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride Ultra HD
PLAYMIND and other exhibitors
PLAYMIND showed an enhanced PLAYBOX ball-toss game and a more arcade-oriented one- or two-player version planned for spring 2024. The company was also expanding into its own locations.
Really Big Crane Company displayed no confirmed new product, although a new crane may have been positioned near Zombie Jam. Retro Arcade LLC showed new versions of its Atari Warlords cocktail cabinet and was developing Atari-licensed content with Slackerz Inc.; availability was expected around early 2024 but was not confirmed.
S&B Toy/St. Louis Game Co. presented cranes alongside the video redemption titles Amazing Race and child-sized Street Racing.
Sega Amusements
- 501 Darts, Allstars Air hockey, Allstars Basketball and Apex Rebels
- Ballzania, Bop It! Battle, Capto Crane series, Drone Racing Genesis and Hyper Cross
- Men In Black, Pirate’s Captain, Polar Slide, Power Roll, Skill Fall Revolution and Sync Pong
- VR Agent and Zombies! Ready, Deady, Go!
Smart Industries, Step Revolution and Stern Pinball
Smart Industries displayed JJ Bot – The Avatar, an interactive crane expected to launch “soon”. Indicative quotes were near $50,000, with the final figure potentially varying by distributor. Step Revolution showed two standard and two deluxe StepManiaX machines running the latest software, with a classic Christmas song planned for the next content update.
Team Play, TrioTech, Unico and UNIS
Team Play brought Carnival Wheel, FunSpot Photo Booth and Photo Motion kiddie ride, although neighbouring booth walls reduced visibility. TrioTech displayed an XD Dark Ride, QUBE and open-design Super Blaster for family entertainment centres.
Unico debuted the Nova Blast City desktop cabinet for home use.
- Bigfoot Crush, Bigfoot Mayhem, Ducky Splash 3, Dynamic Orbs and Emoji Frenzy / Party / Roller
- Fantastic Prize cranes, Godzilla Vs. Kong, Lane Master Xtreme, Power Puck Fever and Raccoon Rampage
- Sailor’s Quest VR, Time Out, Toy Box Cranes, Space Raiders, Wicked Tuna and Work Zone
Valley-Dynamo showed air hockey, including the new Black Thunder table, foosball, Pro Cat, ZD-12 and ZD-12X pool tables, shuffleboard, Jet Hoops and a non-coin version of Jet Pong. Newcomer Zooom Studios presented a varied range of redemption and merchandising games.
AR, mixed reality, VR and simulators
IAAPA’s immersive-entertainment section remained substantial, while several companies were also adding non-VR products or broadening their portfolios across different price points.
Attractions and simulator providers
- Amega Entertainment showed an E-Racing Container: a modified shipping container with four 2DOF moving VR Rally simulators, monitoring screens, a cafe-bar and seating.
- Amusement Products LLC presented VEX Solutions Free-Roam VR, including Adventure and Arena systems, plus kart and bumper-car systems.
- Arcade Arena used LiDAR sensors and projection mapping in a multi-game room system. Barron Games International displayed Birdly World VR and a new Koliseum VR Foosball overhead gantry.
- CXC Simulations presented a large motion-platform car with increasing VR integration. Creative Works showed Limitless VR, VAR Box and Lucky Putt.
- DOF Robotics displayed Grave Digger VR with a new skin and Hurricane 360 VR, and announced future Angry Birds and Transformers rides through collaborations with Rovio and Hasbro.
- Hero Zone’s free-roam VR arena demonstrated a layout intended for venues without 5,000 square feet of spare space.
Hologate demonstrated the non-VR Hyper Golf and later announced HTC tracking integration for its arenas. Immersive Gamebox was not visited, so system upgrades could not be assessed.
INOWIZE, Rilix, Subsoccer and VRLeo
INOWIZE’s QBIX was playable at the show, alongside a press conference. Rilix displayed its VR system with an impressive roller-coaster-track prop, but no clearly new product was identified.
Subsoccer made its industry debut at the PrimeTime Amusements booth. The football game was considered an appealing concept, though the commercial cabinet appeared to need a more substantial visual design and a larger scoreboard, or integration with its attached screen. The cabinet was stated to withstand 500 lb.
SPREE Interactive, Talon Simulations, Valo Motion, Virtuix and VRCave were missed during the visit. VRLeo, shown at the AVS Companies booth, described itself as the world’s first self-service VR arcade. Its retractable cable protects the headset, while UV-C light sanitises it.
VRsenal displayed Synth Riders and Zombieland VR beside a large cube believed to be a Zombieland-based holographic system. Access required an invitation, so its exact function could not be confirmed.
Overall view
IAAPA 2023 was expansive and sometimes difficult to cover in full, but the strongest themes were clear: licensed experiences remained important, redemption operators had plenty of new formats to consider, and VR companies were looking beyond headsets alone.
With an unlimited budget, the standout choices would have been:
- Best racing game: Apex Rebels from Sega
- Best light-gun game: Mega Shot from JET Games
- Best joystick game: Omen of Sorrow: Arising Chaos from exA-Arcadia
- Best pinball: Elton John from Jersey Jack Pinball
- Best video redemption game: Zombies! Ready, Deady, Go! from Sega
- Best VR game: Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR from Raw Thrills
Bobblehead Baseball VS. was a close second for video redemption, while Asphalt Moto Blitz DX narrowly missed the racing award. Mega Shot made the strongest overall impression, although no featured product inspired an outright negative reaction. Amusement Expo 2024 in Las Vegas was the next opportunity to revisit games that were missed.
For readers comparing formats for a home or commercial venue, RETROCADE’s arcade-machine buying guide, racing arcades and virtual pinball machines provide useful starting points. More industry coverage is available in the arcade blog.
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