Welcome to another edition of Newsbytes, a collection of brief news items from the world of arcades & pinball. I didn’t find much this week again…but some manufacturers are coming to life again, so perhaps we’ll see a little more as the month continues to march along.
New From The Namco Museum Of Art: Genpei Toumaden
The latest episode from the Namco Museum of Art covers a game that is fairly unknown outside of Japan, due to the game’s JP-only release there: Genpei Toumaden. I imagine that Namco decided against releasing this one worldwide at the time because it’s steeped in ancient Japanese history, religion & culture. Still, it was an innovative game for 1986, featuring three different game styles wrapped into one. This brief history on it is all in Japanese, but if you don’t understand that, you can still appreciate the visuals:

Also in Namco Japan-related news, they’ve posted some videos to promote where you can play their Sword Art Online Arcade game while showing off the game & its features (also Japanese only).
Genda Sega Snags Crane Record From Taito
That record didn’t last very long…back in August, Taito set a record for the most crane machines in one venue. With Sega arcade locations now under the new management of GENDA, they’ve rolled out their new brand and look by snagging Taito’s crane record. Per Kevin Williams, this location is the SEGA Shinjuku Kabukicho location in Tokyo and features 477 cranes in the same building.
One question though is how Tokyo’s new emergency order, which has put the region in lockdown again as they try and get COVID under control, will affect this location among others. A source there tells me that they don’t see how arcades there will survive this round, as there is zero relief being offered to such businesses since they

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