EAG Trade Show: January 2023

February 05, 2023

I thought I’d share a few pictures this week of a recent visit I made to an amusement trade show here in the UK.

EAG (Entertainment, Attractions & Gaming International Expo) has been around for a few years now, since 2009 in fact, and is the first in a year-long calendar of similar events across Europe.

I visited back in 2020 and Covid disrupted the last two years – but if you want to check out what was new back then, click here.

EAG covers a wide variety of amusement attractions, so not everything was of interest to me, but a good bunch of new video game and pinball released caught my eye on the show’s floor:

Racing games were all the rage this year. This garish twin cabinet pit players against each other in the Fast & Furious franchise

A take on the Need for Speed franchise here.

Dead Heat Unleashed was probably the pic of the bunch. Up to four players can race against each other. Camera technology allowed the player’s image to feature in the game

The MotoGP franchise marches on (does it ever end?) this time with the addition of VR. The effect was incredible to be fair. I always wonder how long those headsets would last in an arcade….

This game was popular amongst attendees. Sega’s ATV Slam puts you on a quadbike racing against AI opponents.

Another bike sim. Storm Rider is a futuristic two-wheeled racer. The neon effects on the cabinet were pretty cool

Good on Sega for exploring new ideas. Drone Racing Genesis allows players to experience the thrill of racing drones against each other. I didn’t get a chance to play it, but from what I saw it looks like a lot of fun.

I mentioned that 2020’s show was full of VR cabinets. It was the new kid on the block and looked to be the future for arcade games. VR Agent is a next gen VR game that really does put the player into the heart of the action

VR Agent’s control system was an innovative design that had the headset mounted to the gun itself. The effect was impressive

But it wasn’t all new stuff. There was still a nod to the classics. Pac-Man of course continues to endure, and Namco were on hand still delivering the goods here with Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash – a multicade of sorts

A sequel here to the original Pac-Man Battle Royale – Chompionship. Namco’s marketing department clearly came up with this title after a long Friday lunch

Designed by MC-G Games, Hole In One is clearly a modern day version of ice Cold Beer – Taito’s electro mechanical hit from the 80s. It played pretty well too

Players control a vertical bar to guide a ball bearing up through the playfield to drop the ball into specific holes

Not a videogame obviously, but interesting that manufacturers see fit to attach a licence from the 80s to draw players in. In this case Mr Do & the Space Rocks

Let’s talk pinball: Electrocoin came armed with the latest Stern pinball releases, offering showgoers the opportunity to rent tables rather than buy them outright