John Stergides' prayers for sunshine might not have been answered by the Greek Gods on Wednesday but it didn't stop the UK coin-op industry coming out in force for the Park Avenue Open Day hosted at the premises of Electrocoin and UDC.
Among fights to get to the BBQ there was much talk of the new stakes and prizes for UK Category C product (£1/£70) with manufacturers such as Gamesoft presenting their latest offerings for this change in legislation.
Speaking at the Open Day, Robert Higgins of Gamesoft told InterGame: "Our latest game Caribbean Cruise is ready for the new stakes and prizes and can presented as a single, double or triple player game. It is down to all of us to make the new stakes and prizes work, operators need to talk to their customers and consider what else is available in the market - identify your player base."
There was plenty of redemption and video arcade product on show from Harry Levy, Namco, Konami and Taito to name a few, reflecting current demands of the UK market.
Sega Prize Europe also presented Tease-Tec for its UFO Catcher, a new process allowing the operator to choose whether to run the machine as a skill game or a Category D machine.
Sega’s Aaron Gilbey told InterGame: "We’re also trying to do something a bit different with the merchandise that goes inside the UFO Catcher and the unique grab mechanism means boxes can be picked up, opening up the possibilities to include clothing, accessories and so on."
At the UDC offices the new novelty game Marathon Runner from Italian manufacturer MP Group was on show alongside Winner’s Cube from Andamiro and the Showtime crane, which features a memory card allowing promotional photos and videos to be uploaded and presented via a built-in screen.
