ARCADE WATCH
Keeping an eye on the coin-op gaming scene
Game Air Zone Deluxe
Manufacturer Ace Amusements
The history of coin-operated gaming isn’t overburdened with cabinets that fuse physical objects with action rendered on a screen – partly because it makes the design process significantly more complex, but also because it massively increases the likelihood of hardware failure. Why run a machine needing consistent maintenance rather than something that can be relied upon to just sit in the corner dutifully eating coins all day? Baby Pac-Man, whose miniature physical pinball section works in parallel with a traditional video monitor displaying its maze, represented a false dawn when it arrived way back in 1982, but look into the haunted eyes of anyone who’s tried to keep the thing running and it becomes clear why it failed to blaze a trail. How refreshing, then, to see the emergence of Air Zone Deluxe, which presents you with essentially half of an air hockey table; knocking the puck in the time-honoured fashion sees it disappear into the aperture beneath a large screen on which the next stage of its journey is displayed. Twoplayer support and multipuck action mixes things up, although we’re not yet sure that it’ll have the staying power of the traditional face-to-face version, nipped fingers and all.