For the international markets Ace offered a Spanish Dream Play product in Fiesta, a highly feature orientated game which fully exploits all the advantages of video presentation. Spanish operators were particularly impressed with the pace and graphical presentation of this new offering for the market.For Czech and Slovakia, there were five game compendiums that are performing extremely well in the markets and Comax, the Ace distributor in those markets, was on hand at the show to deal with enquiries. Astra Games – Part of the Novomatic Group of Companies – has pronounced Party Time Double Decker as its product of ATEI 2007. The new 50p / £35 Category C, purposely designed for the newly introduced stake and prizes, drew a resounding thumbs up from all corners of the industry. There was also a wealth of positive response for Party Slots, Astra Section 16-21 / Category B3 multi game. Barcrest showed its enhanced Horizon cabinet ready for the UK market and available for Europe later this year. Other highlights for Europe include the Silver Star series of games, Red Racer for Spain and Crown Jewels for Germany. Gold Lines is new for arcades in the Netherlands, while Magic Joker has been developed for the pub market. Eastern European games include Fairground – a Red Gaming machine for Czech and Extra Joker for Hungary. Bell-Fruit Games pulled off an amazing deal when it negotiated the Deal or No Deal licence and it has already delivered the two best-selling AWPs in the UK for over three years. ATEI saw the follow-up What’s In Your Box? The brand lends itself to products in every sector, therefore the AWP was joined by a Club edition and a Casino version, complete with unique top box. Bell-Fruit also showed an exciting range for several European markets. Games Media showcased its latest AWP and Club titles including Money Spider, Power Shots and Billy the Quid. Club highlights included Tuppenny Chance, Club Spinner and Saturday Night Beaver, a follow up to the hugely successful Beaver Las Vegas Club. In addition to content design and development, Games Media, in conjunction with sister company ‘The Global Draw’ announced it will develop and deliver a fully integrated ‘digital’ gaming and entertainment solution to market during 2007. Gamestec introduced the Video Eclipse at the ATEI show in its private room. The Eclipse is designed to bridge the gap between standard reel AWPs and the 5 Gaming video AWP cabinet from Gamestec which features a 23ins. portrait screen and futuristic design. Video Eclipse is currently on site test but is giving good results. Gamestec has a network of 7,000 SWP machines on site in the UK. Inspired Gaming Group chose ATEI as the official public launch of The Player video AWP. Inspired’s unique Open Server-Based Gaming platform allows operators to download content remotely, monitor incomes, fault and play data in real time and provide games adapted to customers, delivering a tailored player experience. In addition to The Player, Inspired also showcased a host of other terminals, including, THE Music, Itbox, Multi-Win Roulette, E-Lounge, Video AWP, FOBT and Slots. At ATEI, JPM presented three market variations of games housed in the Prestige arcade/street and casino cabinets. Eleven Czech and Slovak games were delivered under the banner of the ‘JPM’s Cyclone Games’ compendium. Meanwhile, the six games being initially launched for the Ukrainian casino market were delivered under the brand of ‘JPM’s Tornado Games’ compendium. JPM also launched a new game for the Dutch market in a Frontier cabinet. Win Spinner is a new six reel multi-stake AWP developed from JPM’s ‘Super Streak’ family of games. Mazooma showed a multitude of new video AWP games including Pink Panther, Monopoly and Poker displayed in the new twin-screen Video Eclipse cabinet. Heading up its reel-based games was Xtravaganza, a new three-player with a triple-screen top box offering the ultimate in game feature presentation. The base game employs Mazooma’s trusted formula where a special triple X combination gives access to the new top box feature. Casino Xtravaganza single player was also shown. Reflex Gaming had its most high profile stand at this year’s ATEI show. Among the machines on display were two UK AWPs that are causing a stir in the low-tech arena; Silver Spirit and Stardust. The Classic Thunderbirds AWP proves the value of a timeless licence, combined with gripping features. But for many, the show-stopper was the Thunderbirds three-player that Reflex redesigned since Preview to be even more eye-catching than before. Featuring stunning graphics and a supersonic 32 inch TFT screen, this arcade centrepiece has the wow factor at a fraction of the cost of other comparable products from other UK suppliers. Seeben showed a number of AWPs for the Belgian market, some of which have been developed in association with its partner Astra Games. The latest collaboration has resulted in Miami Dice, which is still awaiting homologation finalisation. “We have five machines on test and the results are very good,” said Seeben’s Urbain Thewissen at the show. Seeben also showed Party Game – an AWP/Bingo hybrid, which should fill the gap left by the famous Slots games in the Belgian pub market. Tecnoplay had a prominent position at the front of the ATEI show hall. The company’s Mauro Zaccaria said, “We are here with Italian product and to see our Italian customers. We think our presence at ATEI is good for our brand and our image. Our machines are not yet approved because of delays with the new law. We will have to stop selling old law machines in March and we are eager for our customers to see the new games.” Vegas Ltd. – Polish manufacturer of gambling machines – was one of the participants of ATEI 2007 in London. The company presented its leading products: Greyhound and Horse Racing system; double screen multigame machines Black Horse and Hot Slot II. Other well established products in portfolio of Vegas Ltd. are Hot Slot, Vegas Multigame and Happy Numbers machines, as well as GSM based remote monitoring system for gambling and amusement machines. Kiddie rides: Stuck in the newly created ATEI netherworld of the upstairs left of Earls Court, the majority of the kiddie ride manufacturers could have been happier. That’s not to say they were completely unsatisfied with the show, just that things might have been better: “Does ‘totally s**t’ make it clear enough for you?” asked one manufacturer of his opinion on the move upstairs. It seems that it was not just the somewhat uneven distribution of sectors that upset the kiddie rides people, but the time it took them to get their machines upstairs due to what was deemed as insufficient lift space. (This in fact was a complaint shared by pretty much everyone on the first floor.) Not only that, but many of the established Italian and Spanish makers soon found insult added to injury as they surveyed the show floor and found quite a few Eastern European companies were showing cheaper machines that, shall we say, bore a passing resemblance to their own product. Photo-Me, a company that has diversified recently (and is rumoured to be moving in the opposite direction currently), carried its products on a long, slender stand, set aside slightly from the throng and showed its line of Jolly Roger rides included the licensed Noddy and Rupert Bear machines alongside more generic, interactive rides including the Vending Bus and Fun Bus. Italian firm Zamperla had a couple of new products, the Zap rally Sport Car and Zap Sport Runner motorcycle ride alongside its Zap 50 Sport Car which won best new product at IAAPA a couple of years ago. Fellow Italian company El Tel showed its Giostrina Nemo and Giostrina Corousel three-seater rides, as well as its Trenino del Bosco train ride. Spanish manufacturer Falgas meanwhile showed an impressive range of rides, with the new Excavator attracting a few admiring glances from the youngsters who had managed to find their way to the show. Other new machines from Falgas included the Police Motorcycle, the Bigfoot quadbike and the two-seat Union Pacific Train. Welsh-based SB Machines managed to secure stand space on the busier side of the hall and showed its new Looney Tunes range, featuring popular characters from the cartoon fanchise, alongside other new rides such as the Bulldozer, Hot Air Ballon and Hovercraft. Another firm that managed to avoid showing in the quieter area upstairs was Amutec, which showed downstairs in the predominantly gaming section of the show on the stand of its new, exclusive distributor RLMS. Shown for the first time in the UK was Angel Carousel, together with the Ocean Carousel, the Balamory Bus, the interactive Police Car and Little Doodles from the Tweenies licensed range. Video games: After all the fuss and in-fighting that marred Clarion ATE’s attempts to modernise the show’s layout, one group that didn’t seem too bothered with the new floorplan was the major video game manufacturers. The upper tier of the show was bound to present something of a problem to the planners for the simple fact of the great big hole at its centre. In the days when ICE occupied the first floor, the huge gaming stands conspired to create a pretty seamless circle – a constant buzz, if you like. But this year the level was split into two parts, put quite simply the divide was between the really busy stands and the not so busy stands. On one side of the hole were the big video manufacturers (Sega, Namco, Konami, Taito, the top amusement distributors (CVA, UDC, PMT) touch screen firms (AmuSys, Funworld) and redemption (Harry Levy); meanwhile on the other side were the kiddie rides, spares, security and sports stands – all vitally important to the industry but, let’s face it, slightly less glamorous than their colleagues on the other side of the ‘pond’. (This of course was a situation mirrored downstairs with the extremely ugly and deeply unpopular ‘cyan curtain’ that divided the gaming section of the ATEI from the distinctly more upmarket ICE.) Back upstairs meanwhile, Sega, which – according to show organiser ATE Clarion – led the enforced exodus of non-gaming companies upstairs and took what could be considered the prime space on the upper tier (given the somewhat bizarre layout), had a stand brimming with product. While much of the product had been seen before, it was nonetheless an impressive range of machines with a number of centrepiece attractions to choose from. These included House of the Dead 4 Special Edition, OutRun2SP Deluxe and WCCF, all three of which attracted a good amount of attention during the show, despite having been around for a while. Backing up these pieces was the impressive new gun game Too Spicy, which uses two foot-pedals to add an extra dimension to this clever first person shooter. Players find themselves in one of various settings in a gun battle with an opponent (either computer generated or a ‘live’ player on a linked machine), and must use the pedals to move around the 3D environment. Alongside this were Virtua Tennis 3 in the new universal Lindbergh cabinet, After Burner Climax, Ford Racing Full Blown, Ghost Squad Evolution, Let’s Go Jungle, Extreme Hunting 2 and a very fun touch-screen whacking game call Manic Panic Ghost. For the younger player there was the full range of card battling games: Dinosaur King, MushiKing and Love and Berry. Over on the Brent/Namco (under the new banner of Bandai Namco Games) stand there was also a good deal of product with Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 the pick of the new products. In the game, Namco and Bandai characters from Pac-Man and Tamagotchi join the regular Mario characters, and the action is supplemented in-race commentary, player cams and the addition of an optional loyalty card system. Also on show were old favourites such as Namco’s Time Crisis 4 and Super Bikes, The Fast and the Furious and Big Buck Hunter Pro from Raw Thrills. On the Konami stand there was something of a revival of the firm’s Bemani range of music games. There was no sign of the popular dancing game franchise, instead a return for the other music games with Beatmania IIDX Gold, DrumMania V3 and Guitar Freaks V3. Alongside them were Pro Evolution Soccer Arcade Championship 2007 (with extra ports so players can use their console handsets) and Crazy Streets, a Thrill Drive sequel in a deluxe cab. Elsewhere Taito showed Chase HQ2, which was also present on the Electrocoin stand downstairs (together with the latest incarnations of the Incredible Technologies classics Golden Tee Live and Silver Strike Bowling 2007 Bowler’s (sic) Club) and Kings of the Jurassic, Taito’s answer to Dinosaur King and its ilk on the Sega stand. Global VR, exhibiting with Cosmic Video Amusements, carried some impressive product also, particularly the consumer platform-based Far Cry Instincts: Paradise Lost, a two-player sit-down shooting game which commands pretty simple, but enthralling, gameplay. Global also had an interesting video pinball game called Ultrapin, which comes in a pretty traditional video cabinet and is even creating talk among the old school pinball groupies. Need for Speed Underground, PGA Tour, Aliens Extermination, Kick It Pro and Dessert Gunner in the Vortek completed the video line up from CVA and Global. Family Games: Crown Direct had a fantastic show and one of the most innovative family entertainment games in the form of the X-Factor Experience from Eclipse. Former X-Factor Steve Brookstein was on hand to promote the machine, which features comments from the famously acid-tongued Simon Cowell. Singers are judged by the tone and pitch of their singing voices. “Significant orders have been taken at the show, this has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Eclipse’s Neil Lewis during the ATEI. Great to see an amusement piece causing such excitement. Also on the Crown stand was BayTek’s International Super Star, a classic redemption piece. The object is to stop the light next to the required star point. As the player progresses the lights get harder to hit. After a certain stage players are offered the option to carry on or take a chance on achieving a large prize. Harry Levy’s Racing Car themed Speed Catcher was also among the pick of the popular redemption machines on the Crown stand. Offering either prize or ticket option Speed Catcher appeals strongly to many different sectors of the market. Deith had a hit on its hands with Pile Up, a great new skill with gift machine. Players use a simple skill stop to "pile up" blocks on top of each other to win a minor prize, where they can choose to collect or play on for the major prize. According to Deith, even before the show, one operator, Caledonian Vending, had already put out over 30 units. The cash box performance is partly down to the prize selection, providing players with the desire to continue for the major prize. Most popular are quality branded hand held game devices, MP3 players, satellite navigation systems and camera phones. The Giant version made its European debut at ATEI, offering even greater scope for larger prizes to entice players. Deith’s Steve Bryant said "Traditionally this style of product has been operated on the coast and in family locations such as bowling centres, etc. Along with these sites, we now have a whole new sector opening up with the single site guys.” Game Concepts had its first ATEI showing the innovative pusher Galaxy 21, which made such a promising debut at the Preview show in 2006. Gordon Crompton’s magic touch in game design is evident in the machine, which also features the graphics expertise of Ben Wilson. “We are on a mission to inject fresh game ideas and innovative products into the coin-op sector and the response a the show has been amazing,” said Gordon Crompton at the show. Galaxy 21 is manufactured by Harry Levy, which had a huge stand upstairs. However, Gary Newman, sales director was not happy with the position. “We are hemmed in from all sides. I can’t say that we have taken any extra orders here that we wouldn’t have taken in any case. I am very disappointed,” he said. Visitors to the stand were not disappointed, however, with the huge array of amusements on offer. Among the new machines proving popular with visitors was Jungle Bob, a four-player with a revolving deck peppered with holes. The player must roll coins onto the playfield, which is marked with animals that have different win values.. Lucky Spin is a new roll-down moving belt game that offers a top prize of up to £5 in any one game. Coins landing on winning symbols give instant payouts to the players. If a coin lands on a spin symbol, it activates the reel spin feature, giving the player another way to win. The machine is fitted with coin changers and fast feed coin entrys. Lady Luck is a new three-player combining double-level pusher action with an innovative coin-shooting mechanism. Players must flip the coin to try and hit moving targets in a bid to outwit the machine in a game of tic-tac-toe. Magic 10 is the latest exciting single player pusher with an outstanding coin splash feature, offering a multi-jackpot up to £25. It follows in the successful footsteps of machines such as Casino Poker and has low-level coin entry for fast and easy play. Ticket Rush is the latest show-stopping three-player linked AWP-style machine with big ticket payouts. When 100 tickets plus are on the win meter you can transfer them to the play meter as credits to play the machine. Redemption product from Levy included Johnny Appleseed, a fast and furious ball-catch game. Players must move their buckets from left to right in order to catch the apples as they fall from the branches of a tree at increasing speed. Harry Levy also showed several new cranes at ATEI. These included Taxi – with a bright yellow cabinet based on the famous New York cabs. In addition, Shining World is the latest imported crane, offering amazing value and quality. On the Sega stand nobody could miss the Love and Berry promotion, featuring the personifications of the characters who travelled from Japan to help market the machine. Love and Berry is a dressing-up game for little girls, based on the same concept as the dinosaur-themed card collecting game previously released by Sega. It is hoped the concept will take off in a similar way as it has in Japan, where the title is so popular that in Tokyo alone, there are in excess of 30 dedicated Love and Berry retail outlets where players can buy the clothing range featured in the game. The revolution has gone a step further where the Sega R&D team responsible for Love and Berry are now in touch with Japanese fashion houses so the game can be updated regularly with new fashions as they hit the streets. Valiant Leisure is a new company that launched on the first day of the show. “Our strapline is courageous innovation,” said Simon LeJeune, head of commercial development. “Two years ago we started looking into the industry. Dave Columbine looked at the market gaps and we embarked on a process of internal and external research and development. We felt the entertainment for families had been neglected.” The resulting product is a “prize every time” concept disguising a vending machine as a classic game of skill. The child is encouraged by an animal character to use a hammer to hit a button in traditional strength/fairground style. Whatever the child’s actual strength, after a couple of attempts a jackpot is achieved and the child can pick a prize of a musical animal character vended in a special box. Operators can either buy the boxes only or the merchandise as well. “I see this as a machine that could be sited at the front of an arcade as I believe that if a child wins something right at the beginning then they don’t mind if they don’t win again. They will go away happy,” added LeJeune. VdW showed the DaVinci Mystery six-player pusher which has an entirely new design and includes new features ready to attract both player and operator . It is easily recognisable thanks to its very attractive modern shape. The DaVinci Mystery feautures an interactive three-dimensional bonus game with eye-catching payout system and has four coin chutes per deck allowing two players simultaneously on the same playfield. VdW has broadened its product range to include redemption games as well. The recently introduced Magic Safe proved last season to be a real money maker on several locations both in Belgium and abroad. Based on the concept of a vault’s code, the idea is to break the code in order to win high-value prizes. X-Line Ltd a new company from Poland showed Strong Man, a novel wrestling machine during ATEI. The machine was awarded a prize for innovation at the Warsaw show in September 2006. X-Line collaborated with a team of researchers from the Silesian Technical University in the design of the machine which is available in seven different languages and is offered with a full-year’s guarantee. Distributors are needed. Cash Handling: Alberici:“We are mainly here to target the Italian manufacturers,” said Alberici’s Guido Scarpetti. The company showed its range of electronic coin selectors and hoppers with excellent anti-fraud systems and Variant, its new line of sorters, which can cut down the distance between the sorter and the Hoppers, reducing the overall space taken by the unit. Cash handling specialist MEI unveiled the MEI GEO note acceptor on the Brent Electronic stand at ATEI. The GEO boasts superior reliability, coupled with a modest cost. Developed in collaboration with a partner firm, VTI, MEI is setting the standard for entry-level products in the stackerless amusement and mid-level gaming markets with the MEI GEO. The new note acceptor will be a private label development, drawing on MEI’s significant experience in algorithm development and international currency research. European Gaming Director, Mark Greenawalt said: “We are very excited to be launching the MEI GEO at ATEI 2007. We have drawn on our years of experience with note readers for the casino industry to provide the AWP market with a product which matches our high standards of reliability, and is also value for money.” Cash Handling Systems (CHS) launched a new note counter at the ATEI show. The 8650 is up to 20 per cent faster than comparable products and combines reliable feed with accuracy and speed. Manufactured by market-leading cash handling company De La Rue, the 8650 utilises patented Ultra Feed technology, which is capable of handling notes of all types of design, quality and condition. “Ultra Feed is the heartbeat of the 8650 and constantly feeds notes without causing damage while providing users with a tidy counted stack. The 8650 is ideal for gaming applications because it will accept notes in all types of conditions,” said CHS Managing Director Mike Wagstaff. The 8650 also benefits from De La Rue’s exclusive Mechanical Double Detection, which in test outperformed its rival Opacity Doubles Detect technology, used by competitors by more than 100 times. Comestero chose ATEI to present new products especially devised for both the entertainment and the casino industry. The proven electronic technology of RM5 CCTalk coin validator is now available with even higher coin speed selection. RM5 is provided with six measurements sensors, which guarantee an exceptional first-time acceptance of real coins only, whereas through the new five-way coin separator the coins can be sorted up to four different destinations (i.e hoppers) or rejected. Comestero was present on the upper level of Earls Court and showed the complete range of tools and accessories for RM5 coin validators, including the front plates F6, available in new smart colours. Also shown for the first time were the new versions of change machines, provided with remote system control and anti-theft device. By using GSM technology, the remote system control transmits in real time all necessary information on the state of the change machine, whereas the anti-theft device - through different sensors - can protect either change machines or AWPs and guard the place where they have been located. Finally, Comestero exhibited the SECI Twin electronic board, especially devised to distribute the coin credit in multiplayer gaming machines, and the whole range of coin counters/sorters. Of particular interest were the new coin counters 710/810, designed to help the user to count and sort big quantities of coins. Components: Baton Lock showed the all-new 5000 series patented high security camlock. A dimple style keyway is featured in both versions of this unique design. The mechanism is enclosed in a precision-machined brass body, with hardened steel inserts to prevent drilling. Manufactured to the NAMA high standards and will accept any NAMA standard double D cam bar. Also on show was the patented high security 12-pin radial pin tumbler lock available in U change versions. The lock is unique in its construction in as much as it is virtually unpickable. Camlock launched a range of BV90 locks at the show. A patent is pending on the new range. The BV90 offers fast, quarter-turn unlocking and locking, saving considerable time for busy operators. The new locks are machined from solid brass and incorporate Camlock’s ‘Octagon’ mechanism, which is designed to defeat unauthorized key duplication, and may be configured to operate with the same key. The Octagon system represents a major security upgrade for popular machines from Beaver, Northwestern (trademarks of Beaver Machine Corporation and Northwestern Corporation, respectively) and many other manufacturers. Camlock also showed a security belt for the AWP sector, designed to provide unobtrusive protection from thieves who use crowbars to lever the tops off machines. Forge Europa launched a range of standard and custom designed LED assemblies along with new product developments such as aLED high power LED lighting assemblies, high-intensity LEDs and long-life LED technology. These aLEDs consist of a high power LED mounted onto a thermally optimised substrate with a connector or solder pads, taking the headaches of thermal design away and gives an easy to use sub-assembly. Sega Total Solutions the new division of Sega Amusements Europe took pride of place on the Sega stand at the ATEI this year. Headed by the well-known industry figure Peter Murphy the business goes live on February 12th. From this point on it will be exclusively be supplying Sega spares and components to the amusement and leisure trade. Sega Total Solutions displayed a small selection of products and also showed a new higher security cash box door designed for the video market. Display Technology, working in partnership with Samsung as its only official UK representative, will offer gaming machine manufacturers the opportunity to work with a local supplier promoting not just UK designed and manufactured product, but technical and commercial benefits as well. This partnership offers gaming manufacturers, spares suppliers and value added resellers immediate availability to displays from 3.5” up to the world’s largest TFT in mass production at 82”. DT also showed its new selection of highly compact and powerful embedded PC gaming platforms for a whole range of applications including Video AWP, Casino Gaming, Retail, Multi-Media and other interactive applications. Also on show were open chassis gaming monitors from 5” up to 55” available with touchscreen options. The Suzo Happ group , as ever, had a stand on both the ATEI and the ICE. The ATEI booth was more UK-focused and ICE stand internationally focused. The products of the latest member to the group – Starpoint – was present on both stands. The ICE stand was shared with Suzo’s two major international partners – MEI and FutureLogic.. The new ELO touch screens were on display on both stands. The new series including monitor and touch together in one solution have created strong demand, combining excellent quality with integration simplicity. Suzo introduced the new stacker version of the Trilogy banknote acceptor at the ATEI. The Trilogy stacker has a lockable/removable stacker that holds up to 500 notes. The stacker version is truly European, accepting notes up to 85 mm, which is a must for the UK market. It offers the same benefits as the stackerless version, for example the protocols (pulse, parallel, cctalk, binary, USB). “The Trilogy stacker was one of the highlights on the Suzo Happ stand in London. Again we at Suzo focus on bringing innovations to the market. This is our strategic goal and makes us stand out in the market place”, commented Suzo’s MD, Marcel Oelen. Other products to be noted were the Evolution hopper, the Futurelogic ticket printer, featuring high quality Graphic Controls paper and a new set of eye-catching machine toppers – that link together with synchronised lights. Music: Almotech Ireland was positioned on the upper level at ATEI 2007 and showed the new-look upgraded Mystro digital/video jukebox. Vivian Dooley, MD of Almotech, believes he had incorporated all the correct design features into a slim and attractive, wall-mountable jukebox suitable for the European market. “With its customisable glass, multi language support and re-vamped user interface, the Mystro” drew attention not only from UK and European visitors but also from the Americas, North and South,” he said. Frank Ballouz vice-president of international sales at Merit and Rowe international also has plans for the Rowe product. “We are looking for international distributors for Rowe International products,” he told delegates at a distributor breakfast meeting during ATEI. Meanwhile, a great first show at ATEI, internet jukebox company JayBox reckon that it has a winning formula which is getting across to operators and pubcos in the UK.“Not only does the machine look great – it offers a number of features which make it really attractive to users and pub landlords alike.” said marketing director Richard Elsy. “Apart from the huge music repertoire and the 200 updates per week, the machine offers personal play lists and customer requests which encourage people to keep coming back for more. In the context of the impending smoking bans in England and Wales, these are features which will stimulate footfall and encourage customers to spend more time in the venues.” The interaction between the customer and the machine is crucial to establishing a loyalty. Similarly, the landlord is able to interact with the machine in a number of ways, including featuring promotions on screen, advertising services and, setting up play lists for DJ nights. DT Productions and Sound Leisure claim to have created the definitive digital jukebox featuring a massive selection of both audio and video tracks, combined with an unmatched search facility that allows customers to search for either video or audio tracks by date and view that week’s Top 40. The new Milestones is available with videos of every UK Top 10 hit since 1980 (of those songs that featured a video). This constitutes more than 5,000 videos – the most comprehensive archive of UK music video history available anywhere. Every two weeks, operators will receive the new Top 10 chart hit videos along with the current official audio chart. Sound Leisure also unveiled the first ever dedicated digital French jukebox in association with DT Productions. The French juke is a result of months of complicated negotiations with the major record labels in France, as well as a landmark copyright deal with the French collections agency, La Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCCP). Finally Sound is expecting great thing from its newly reconfigured Nostalgia digital boxes, which combine hand-crafted good looks with the latest digital technology. NSM Music Group Limited, had a fantastic response to it Icon, the new wall mount jukebox, which marks a strategic shift in engineering philosophy for the company. Built to be “lean, mean, affordable and reliable,” the Icon hits the mark, offering operators unprecedented ease of installation and all around efficiency. Looking like an iPod hanging on a wall, the NSM Icon features the new Ecast MoJO which delivers the broadband network and touchscreen interface. Featuring a 19-inch touchscreen interface and available in a variety of attractive colours, the Icon is only eight inches deep and weighs in at a mere 60 pounds. New dual 600-watt amplifiers provide true 1200-watt RMS power and are independently powered for enhanced reliability. The Icon is also the first jukebox to incorporate the new Mars combination bill accepter with credit card bezel. Excel Leisure launched three brand new custom-designed pool tables at ATEI. The three tables, the Arcadia, the Magna and the Panther have been designed and finished to suit specific locations. The Arcadia and the Magna are aimed at the amusement centre and bowling alley markets and have multi-coloured designs showing cues and pool balls. The Panther is designed for nightclubs or venues with mood lighting. All three tables offer location owners the opportunity to attract more play through branding. Sports Games: Medalist Marketing Corporation, the developer, manufacturer and distributor of the worlds best electronic soft-tip dartboards, the Dart Star 2000, Spectrum, and the all new Spectrum Elite was founded in 1982. And through the Medalist Dart league with its network of affiliated operators across the United States, Japan and Mexico has grown into the most prestigious soft-tip Dart League in the U.S. This was the first time the company had exhibited at ATEI but marketing director Paul Nicholson was impressed with the organisation and the turnout. “We are looking for distributors in Europe. We run worldwide tournaments and have a final in Las Vegas with over half a million dollars in prize money,” he said. Despite misgivings about the new format, ATEI proved highly successful for SAM. Strong interest in Air Hockey especially, produced serious orders for the Fast Soccer, in both four-player, and new two-player versions. Prototype Yukon models with under lighting and high attract mode caused quite a buzz generating orders in advance of actual production launch.The efforts to prepare the trade for the smoking ban also led to increased interest in outdoor pool tables, in particular the SAM Tempo all-weather table. Touchscreen: Funworld boasted a new stand. “We want to make a clear signal that we are the market leader,” said Marco Huter company CSO. Funworld showed its new software and hardware for the Spirit and the Smart. “We used an Austrian design agency and we were able to incorporate a note reader into the design of our countertop. We have made it easier and quicker for players to enter the game. We have also incorporated multiplayer ranking and made the parts the same for the Spirit/Smart and the Sportster which makes it easier for operators,” said Huter. “This is the fastest, easiest update,” said Frank Ballouz of the Ion platform at the distributor breakfast. “We have a new menu system. There is instant access to the games for the players. We are adding a 17ins screen to the range. We are introducing the MegaTouch Aurora at the show. It has the smallest ever bar footprint and is available in 17 or 19 ins. it takes the game outside the box. It has broadband diagnostics, head to head play capability and real-time tournaments.” TAB was to be found in the ICE part of the exhibition this year due to diversification which has led to the introduction of its new kiosk cabinet. This kiosk can be used either as a betting terminal, gambling or information terminal and features two 19inch touch screen displays. “The kiosk suits to the customer and not the other way round,” said Mr. Siegfried Dattl Jun., Managing Director of TAB-Austria who has his factory in full production after the company won its largest-ever order last year.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend