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Those who have frequented bars since the ‘80s might already be familiar with the specific game we’ll be talking about today; Ice Cold Beer. Originally developed and released in 1983 by Taito USA, Ice Cold Beer was designed to be the quintessential “bar game”, with relatively simplistic mechanical gameplay that has a nice blend of difficulty and entertainment factor. This made it awesome for gathering around the machine with a few buds and sharing some nice games, probably with some liquor involved in the mix.
Ice Cold Beer is a simple game, easy to learn but difficult to master: The cabinet itself is shaped like any other arcade cabinet, only instead of having a monitor in the expected location, it has an amber-colored panel made to resemble beer, and the paneling itself is filled with holes meant to look like bubbles rising from a mug of beer. The objective of the game is to carefully guide a metal ball into the lit holes, using a tilt bar. The challenge here being the fact that there are many holes that you’ll have to avoid on the way to the target – fall into an unlit hole and you lose a life, needing to try again.
Underneath the screen the controls are quite straightforward: You have two joysticks that control the height of the ends of the aforementioned metal bar. The key here is to carefully control the bar to maneuver the ball into the target hole, after which the player is awarded points and both the ball and the bar reset to the bottom of the panel for the next user to play their turn.
Such a simple concept surely wouldn’t benefit from a remake, right? Well the folks at Retro Arcade Remake don’t seem to think so, as they’re the ones in charge of this modern-day rendition of the classic title. The game was announced early in 2022, after which a period of silence that lasted until now ensued, when the team at Retro Arcade Remake formally announced the release and shipping date for February 20th along with sharing a few details about the upcoming game.
It’s important to point out here that, in contrast to other remakes that might seek to change up the gameplay by modernizing it and adding quality-of-life features, the remake of Ice Cold Beer is meant to be by and large a recreation of the original, but with modern components and technology. As such, the game will play exactly as the original, but have state-of-the-art tech to guarantee the best gameplay and durability. And on top of that, the game also comes WiFi and bluetooth enabled for diagnostics and configuration by the operators, as well as for hooking up multiple machines for competition play.
According to the Arcade Hero in their article covering this release, the Ice Cold Beer remake distribution is being handled by various companies, with an MSRP of around $5,500. Check out PrimeTime’s listing for the game here. The article also mentioned that this release would be followed by Zeke’s Peak shortly after, which is the family-friendly version of Ice Cold Beer.
Thanks for reading! Here at PrimeTime Amusements, we like to keep ahead of the curve in arcade game rental and sales and pride ourselves in providing the best service in the country. If you’re looking for a game in particular, or have a few questions about the industry, feel free to give us a call at 1.800.550.0090 or to swing by at 5300 Powerline Rd. Suite 210, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, 33309.
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