Arcade UFO

Full-size image: http://www.arcadeufo.com/images/webKeithApicary.jpg

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=259341454083536

Arcade UFO is proud to be hosting the final U.S. qualifier for Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition.  The tournament to determine the 2-man SBO team to represent the USA in Japan will take place Saturday, August 13th at Arcade UFO.  This is a team event, so you will need a teammate to register and enter.

Please visit http://tournament.arcadeufo.com/ for more details!  If you can’t make it, tune into the stream at 2:00PM Central Time on Saturday, August 13th at http://www.twitchtv.com/arcadeufo!

A little over a week ago, we made a new addition to UFO’s game collection -

Pac-Man Battle Royale!

I’m not going to lie–this is probably one of the coolest arcade cabinets we have ever purchased.  It’s designed like an oldschool cocktail-style cabinet, but the height is such that you stand up to play rather than sit down.  There are also convenient cup-holders for all 4 players (we do allow outside drinks so long as they are not alcoholic!).  Note that this is a stock photo of a prototype machine; our version (the final retail version) has a yellow finish instead of wood.

You don’t have to play with 4 players; you can play with any number, but it is definitely more fun when you have a full table.  For 2 tokens (.50 c) per player, you play best-of-5 rounds.  The winner of each round is the last one standing.  You can accomplish this by either eating other Pac-Men after eating a power pellet, or if your timing is good, you can actually bump your opponents into a ghost while not powered up!

This is the perfect game for both simple and advanced gamers, and is absolutely the most fun title to play with a group.  Check it out next time you’re around!

This past week, one of the most highly anticipated fighting games was released for the PS3 and 360 platforms: Marvel vs Capcom 3!

While we’re sad that Capcom is continuing it’s tradition of “console version first, arcade version later”, we do know that many UFO regulars are fans of this series, and so just as we did with Super Street Fighter 4, we’ve created an excellent head-to-head setup for MVC3 on high definition cabinets with precise Sanwa controls.

The setup works on a timer exactly like the console version of Super Street Fighter 4 did.  Insert tokens to increase the timer, and as long as each new challenger inserts at least one token, the timer shouldn’t run out in the middle of matches.  The timer is displayed clearly on a separate monitor above the game screen, as to not obscure the game itself.  When time runs out, the controls will be “disconnected” and the game will pause until more tokens are inserted.

Why should you play Marvel vs Capcom 3 at UFO if you are at all serious about the game?

First of all, UFO regulars are some of the highest-level players in the Texas fighting game community.  Among others, Adam Deats was one of the authors of the legendary Marvel vs Capcom 3 Official Strategy Guide, which is already considered by top players to be the best strategy guide ever written for a fighting game on U.S. soil.

Although it’s 2011, and the technology is there, Marvel vs Capcom 3 unfortunately has some of the worst fighting game netcode ever.  Online matches are as laggy as ever, and can’t really help you improve your game.

Despite being a small city, Austin’s arcade scene has fostered top players in many games including SF3: Third Strike, Soul Calibur 2&3 and Guilty Gear XX.  Most of all, we want Austin to remain on the map for consideration of exciting propositions such as Evo-seeded tournaments and player sponsorships.

We hope that UFO regulars will continue to recognize our support of the scene, and that new players who are interested can try their skills here and elevate their game to the next level!

Official SRK Thread: http://shoryuken.com/f7/**-arcade-ufos-next-event-stay-free-valentines-saturday-feb-5-a-261859/

Full-size Flyer: http://www.arcadeufo.com/images/stayfree.jpg

This is kind of what an Arcade UFO Token looks like.  “What?!  Arcade UFO doesn’t use tokens!”

I know that’s what you’re thinking–don’t freak out.  We can explain.

This is actually a change that has been in the planning stages for several months, and if you’re a regular, you probably knew about it already.  There are three main reasons we made the switch;

The dollar coin/quarter system, while it had its merits (the ability to carry fewer coins in your pocket), was very confusing to non-regular customers.  After a busy weekend, we would always discover quarters and/or dollar coins in the coin return slots of games that didn’t take them, so a lot of people were losing money for no reason.  Not cool, since a first-timer shouldn’t have to feel confused or cheated by a system that’s difficult to understand (not a ton of places used dollar coins, and most first-timers would exclaim that they’d never seen one!).

We get asked, all the time, if there’s any way we can make (insert your favorite game here) cheaper to play.  Well, with the old system there wasn’t any really way we could do that without hurting our business.  Making a popular 50 cent game 25 cents is a 50% cut, as is making a popular 1.00 game 50 cents.  What if we could give you a 10% discount though, just for being a regular?  Now we can:

.25c = 1 token
1.00 = 4 tokens
5.00 = 20 tokens
10.00 = 44 tokens (4 extra!)
20.00 = 92 tokens (12 extra!)

Now, if you purchase $10 or $20 worth of tokens, you receive a bonus. a $10 gives you an extra $1 worth, while a $20 gives you an extra $3 worth. Here’s what that breaks down to value wise:

$10 = 9% off all games
$20 = 13% off all games

So, if you visit us in any frequency, it really makes a lot of sense to purchase $10 or $20 in tokens. Furthermore, we carry a limited amount of change now, so if you need to exchange smaller bills for a larger bill, you can. You can break down larger bills to smaller bills as well, although I have no idea why you’d want to do that!

Right! I said there were three reasons. The third one probably affects you the least, but for us, it was the tipping point.

Our bank cut off our supply of dollar coins. They simply told us they would no longer be able to supply them like they had before, unless we were willing to pay exorbitant fees to have them shipped. Not cool, since the reason we actually switched to our current bank is because they assured us a steady supply of coins!

So, for the reasons above, we concluded that the timing is right and we have rung in the New Year with a system that finally rewards our loyal regulars and is less confusing for first-timers.

And, since it hasn’t been mentioned yet, R.I.P. Einstein’s Arcade. Three years went by awfully quick.

Visit the official thread on SRK for more detailed information:

http://shoryuken.com/f7/arcade-ufo-presents-ssf4-ranbat-series-season-2-0-live-streams-prizes-austin-tx-254976/

Official SRK Results Thread:

http://shoryuken.com/f6/arcade-ufo-austin-tx-ssf4-ranbat-season-2-0-results-255125/