Ebten has just released a wonderful Official Gradius T-Shirt (I got it and it looks way better than in the photo). Damage = 4500 Yen
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via Modellismo HM - Between december and January 2010 Taito will release a new series of USB powered mini-appliances like an (unofficial) Dyson vacuum cleaner, a mug/van heater, an aromatherapy diffuser and a really cool Onigiri heater! These USB powered devices are UFO Catcher (arcade redemption machines) prizes but geeks not living in Japan (or with very bad crane game skills like me) should be able to buy em online.

If you are in Tokyo on 26th march you should head to Akiba UDX for the TAITO HAPPY STATION: a freeplay marathon organized for the 30th annyversary of Space Invaders! The event is co-hosted by Arino San from Game Center CX fame!

Madrigal just sent me this youtube video and made me think about the lisergic years when I was a techno producer and DJ at the beginning of the 90 techno revolution... natsukashi!! 
Anyway this track has been produced by Ken Ishii for the (official) SPACE INVADERS CD released 4 years ago in Japan to celebrate the Taito shooting masterpiece.

Sega Race TV is a fun old school racing game that runs on Lindbergh board. Right now the game is still in development but it seems already a pretty solid and fun racing game. It will be release early next year and I really hope this game will bring back back the Sega we loved in the 80s and 90s...

Update: a lots of videos from AM show has been posted on Youtube like Mamorukun ha noroware te shimatta! (GRev), Death Smiles (Cave) + Death Smiles Live, Tekken 6, Basara X, Quest of D: The battle Kingom, Chase HQ 2, Eternal Wheel, Pokemon Battrio, DragonBall  DataCardass game, etc...

Update: Arcade Renaissance.com posted some impressions from the game.
Update: Game Video posted a trailer of the game.


D1GP, from Taito,  is a arcade racing drifting simulator dedicated to the japanese D1 series.  The D1 Grand Prix was the vision of a Japanese car enthusiast and magazine publisher Daijiro Inada, founder of the Japanese auto tuning title, Option Magazine and the Tokyo Auto Salon (our friend, the japanese Idol, Amano Ai appeared as a Race Queen model in the august issue of Option Magazine).




CHASE HQ 2 is the next gen version of the legendary arcade game from the 80s...

Another new arcade game from Taito (owned by Square Enix since 2005) is Eternal Wheel (or "The wheel of Eternity"): a satellite card game developed by Square Enix. Satellite arcade games with touch sesitive panels are really popular in japanese game arcades (one example is Derby Owners Club) but the size and the cost of these machines limited the distribution to Japan (and sometimes Asian game centers). One of the most famous Satellite platform is Sega Chihiro. Eternal Wheel has been programmed on NESYS: a new PC-based Taito Type-X Arcade Board  which is a network-connected arcade machine that features a touch-sensitive panel. I think this release will stop the rumors about Square Enix working on a new hardware console that started spreading last year.
Akihiko Yoshida and  Amano Yoshitaka took care of illustrations and character design so the card will be really succesfull also among trading card fans.
Seems that Square Enix has been pretty busy with the release of  Crysis Core for PSP since Eternal Wheel has not even been listed on their homepage.