Alan-1 Booth at IAAPA 2025 With New Atari Recharged Arcade Games

Indie Arcade Wave·video·16m 48s·analyzed·Dec 10, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Alan-1 showcases Atari Recharged arcade games and proprietary esports platform at IAAPA 2025.

Summary

James Anderson, owner of Alan-1, presents the company's booth at IAAPA 2025, showcasing arcade games including newly released Atari Recharged titles (Missile Command Recharged, Gravitar Recharged), a mechanical Pong table, Liquid Death/Dr. Pepper Soda Slam, Butts on Things crane game, and Cosmic Spin. Alan-1 emphasizes haptic feedback integration, a proprietary Major League Esports competitive platform with prize tournaments, and support for indie developers through hardware and software solutions.

Key Claims

Alan-1 has been in business for 7 years, starting as an arcade operator with Flynn's Retrocade in Royal, Utah
high confidence · James Anderson, CEO of Alan-1, speaking at IAAPA 2025 booth
Missile Command Recharged features all 50 US states as defensive zones, with the first state determined by player location zip code
high confidence · James Anderson demonstrating gameplay mechanics at booth
Alan-1 spent approximately $300K developing their custom haptic feedback board (Alan-1 800 IOP)
high confidence · James Anderson discussing custom hardware development
Mechanical Pong table by Alan-1 has 250 units ready for Christmas 2025 delivery at $3,000 MSRP
high confidence · James Anderson presenting Pong table specifications
Major League Esports tournament runs January 1 to December 31, with top 8 players invited to Las Vegas in March at Amusement Expo, competing for $5,000 grand prize
high confidence · James Anderson explaining tournament structure and prizes
Aven Nights esports game is launching on Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox right before Christmas in Q4
high confidence · James Anderson discussing Aven Nights console releases
Butts on Things crane game by Brian Cook has over 250,000 Instagram followers and has been in development for 10 years
high confidence · James Anderson introducing Butts on Things product and creator credentials
Alan-1 manufactures games at their own facility in Twilla (or Tooele), Utah
high confidence · James Anderson discussing manufacturing capabilities

Notable Quotes

“Our motto is having fun building fun. Every game counts.”
James Anderson@ 1:54 — Core company philosophy emphasizing entertainment value and inclusivity
“We fight for the users. We ripped off Tron, but it is what it is.”
James Anderson@ 1:57 — Company name origin (Alan-1 from Tron) and customer-first positioning
“Don't destroy those Vectors. Just put one of our guys in. Very affordable. They'll last forever. The bulletproof.”
James Anderson@ 1:01 — Marketing pitch for transistor upgrade kits for classic vector arcade games
“These aren't the same console versions that Atari made, these are updated. They gave us the Unity code. They allow us to do whatever we need to make it so it fits in an arcade game, feels like an arcade game, modify the game.”
James Anderson@ 2:21 — Explains Alan-1's approach to Atari Recharged games and creative freedom from Atari
“The more you play, the more league points you earn. It's not just about the high score.”
James Anderson@ 9:54 — Describes Major League Esports engagement mechanics, prioritizing consistent play over single achievements
“I just set an ice cube over there to throw off his timing and make it harder for him.”
James Anderson@ 11:34 — Demonstrates competitive gameplay mechanics in Liquid Death

Entities

James AndersonpersonAlan-1companyFlynn's RetrocadevenueAtaricompanyBrian CookpersonMissile Command RechargedproductGravitar RechargedproductPong Mechanical TableproductLiquid DeathproductDr. Pepper Soda Slam

Signals

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product_launch: Missile Command Recharged and Gravitar Recharged released at IAAPA 2025 as Atari Recharged titles with arcade-specific mechanics and haptic feedback
high · James Anderson: 'Our current games that were released at the show are Missile Command Recharged and Gravitar Recharged.'
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product_launch: Pong mechanical table by Alan-1 for Atari, 250 units ready for Christmas 2025 delivery at $3,000 MSRP with Black Friday bundle promotion
high · James Anderson: 'We've got 250 of these ready to rock and roll for Christmas to be shipped before Christmas Day. MSRP is $3,000.'
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technology_signal: Alan-1 developed custom Alan-1 800 IOP board with extensive haptic integration (shaker motors, LED controls, trackball/button support) and is offering SDK to indie developers at no monthly fee
high · James Anderson: 'We spent about 300K developing that. You don't have to do that. We'll just sell you for whatever the boards are and you can incorporate... SDK is available.'
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design_innovation: Major League Esports platform integrates QR code player identity, daily/monthly tournaments, league point system (reset yearly), and live tournament broadcast at Las Vegas Amusement Expo with prize pool ($5,000 first place)
high · James Anderson: 'Every time you play a game, we have daily tournaments and monthly tournaments... top eight players with the most league points are invited to our headquarters... Ground prize is $5,000.'
?
business_signal: Alan-1 secured Atari Recharged licensing deal giving creative freedom to modify Unity-based games for arcade experience; Atari approached Alan-1 about 18 months ago for mechanical Pong revival

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02

All right, we're here at IAPA. Um, we've got James Anderson, the owner of Allen One. He's going to walk us through his booth and kind of tell us what's going on. Hey, thanks Joe. Thanks a lot for your Hey, thanks Joe. Thanks a lot for your interest and your friendship. Love the work you do. Admire your work. Uh, keep up the great work. Thanks for helping us out. So, you know, we've been in business for 7 years. We got our start as an operator. We have an arcade called Flynn's Retrocade in Royal, Utah. Uh, a bunch of games. My wife said, "What are you going to do with these games?" honey, can we start an arcade? We did, but immediately our our our Star Wars went out, our gravitar went out. You know, the deflection boards go out. We hired an engineer to help us fix all that problem. And and all one was born to really solve an operator's dilemma to keep classic vector games vector games so they don't turn into LCD screens. I guess that's the worst, right? And our our our transistor upgrade kit solve that problem like rock solid. It works for the Wells Gunner 6100 and of course for the uh we have a G08 version for all the Sega cockpits out there. Don't destroy those Vectors. Just put one of our guys in. Very affordable. They'll last forever. The bulletproof. But that led to Allen One and that led to making games and we love Atari. So our very first games were licensed from Atari. We'll start over here. Um contacted Cassandra, all the guys over there. We made we don't we don't have it here at the show but we made Asteroids Recharge as our very first Atari game. Um we made all the hardware though out of our first IP uh uh inspired by Jou called Avi Knights. We also made a major league esports system built into Aven Nights. We first released it on the Atari VCS. It's now going to come out on Switch and PlayStation 5 and Xbox right before Christmas in quarter 4. But this led to that and to this and to all of that. And I'll explain those details, but we're just having a lot of fun. Our motto is having fun building fun. Every game counts. And then another one Every game counts. And then another one is we fight for the users. We ripped off Tron, but it is what it is. Our name Allen one even comes from the movie Tron. That's the password to get to the outside world. Our little disc. And you know, we're geeks at heart. We have fun and uh we'll keep we'll keep building and uh we'll keep we'll keep building fun. So, um, our current games that were released at the show are Missile Command Recharged and Gravitar Recharged. These aren't the same console versions that Atari made, these are updated. They gave us the Unity code. They allow us to do whatever we need to make it so it fits in an arcade game, feels like an arcade game, modify the game. In Missile Command, we changed it so that you actually defend all 50 states. And depending on where your location is, the very first state will always be the zip code of that. So we're based in Utah. It's set up for Utah. This is Utah. You can see it's defending Utah. Then next state is whatever that is. I think that might be Oklahoma, Nebraska. Those are randomized. But after you clear after you defend all 50 states, there's five [snorts] waves per state. You you defend Washington DC. And then you you and once you clear the game, you're on the Hall of Champions. You may have heard a pinball knocker just go off. There's a fan that blows here. Whenever a city blows up, that the haptic effect starts. We have shaker motors that go off, large and small. Um, all of our games have haptic feedback. We were inspired by virtual pinball. I built a virtual pinball machine. I thought, "This is so cool. Wouldn't it be great to put virtual pinball effects inside of an arcade machine using Unity and an SDK and Unreal Engine and make it work." And that's what we did. Let me show you how we built it. We built a [clears throat] this custom board called this custom board called We'll get the sound to stop in a minute. We'll get the sound to stop in a minute. This custom board called the Allen one This custom board called the Allen one uh 800 IOP. All of our machines have this. So overengineered, but we like it that way. It can control 64 different controllers, eight different track balls, eight different spinners, um 64 different buttons, LED lights galore, all over the place. Enjoy. And um all of our games have that. We And um all of our games have that. We also offer that for any indie developers. If you want to incorporate haptic [music] feedback into your games, um just we absolutely can can sell you that. It's not on our website, but reach out to Joe. Joe will reach out to us. We want to help the community. We spend about 300K developing that. You don't have to do that. We'll just sell you for whatever the boards are and you can incorporate, we'll give you the SDK you can incorporate into your game. Um, and part of that is we also have something called Major League Essports that we invented that all of our games have. We'd love to have you put it in your game, too. Um, there's an app called Major League Esports. I'll show you that. And when a game starts, players can scan in to Major League Ess if they don't if they've never downloaded the app, it'll ask them to download the app. But once they download the app and create an account using their Google account or Apple account, then it's it's uh you know, you see all of our games are listed here and you see leaderboards for all of our games. But more importantly, every time you play a game, we have daily tournaments and monthly tournaments and special event tournaments. You scan in using and we'll demo that in a minute. You scan in using your camera and it knows who you are. It knows how many times you played, how many tournaments you've won. And every time you win a tournament or play in a tournament, because there's daily tournaments, you'll get a you'll get a ping at the end of the day saying, "You rank this high at the end of the daily tournament or at the end of the month because we have monthly tournaments. you rank this high at the end of the month or when we have special event tournaments, you rank this high at the beauty is when someone beats your high score, you'll get a ping on your phone a week later saying, "Hey, somebody just beat your high score. Go back to Indy's arcade and play Missile Command Recharged again and beat it back before the tournament ends." Um, so it's a it's it brings competitive nature and competitive fun into retro gaming, into the classic indie scene. We're happy to help all the indie developers. If you want to incorporate this into your stuff, reach out to us. It's it's an open platform. We want more and more users to play it. We want more and more users to see it. And we're happy to help you, too, with your projects. We even manufacture at our own facility in Twilla, Utah. So, if you want us to make a one-off or a prototype, one or two, just work with us. We'll help you. We want to see the this this indie scene thrive. You know, there's a lot of good ideas out there. With Unity, it's never been easier to make games. we can help you with the hardware part. So, um Joe, what other questions do you have before I before I talk about liquid death and and butts on things and and uh a pong? Do you have any questions about what I've said? No, I think you've covered everything No, I think you've covered everything pretty well. I'm just interested in seeing some more games and what you guys have to offer. Sweet. after we were done, you know, Sweet. after we were done, you know, with with our our relationship with Atari grew so well and they they they approached approached us about a year and a half ago and said, "We'd really like to bring back this classic Pong mechanical table that was released um three or four years ago and we want a new version. We want you to make it." And so you see this is now made by Allen One. We we added some new art. We added a little bit, but we the g the tables improved, too. But here it is, just in time for Christmas. We've got 250 of these ready to rock and We've got 250 of these ready to rock and roll for Christmas to be shipped before Christmas Day. MSRP is $3,000. The stools are $330 for a pair. Um, Atari.com, I think, is going to do a Black Friday special where you get the stools for free bundled for the price of the game of 3,000 bucks. So order that'll go between Friday and Monday. Log on and and get it. We'd love to have you have serial number one, two, or three. We sold the one off the floor. This is serial number one. But welcome to the family. Welcome back, Atari. We're glad to be a part of the journey, too. So that's that. Um here we've got Um here we've got uh Command Recharge again. Our newest Gravitar Recharged, our second our newest two released here at the show. Um so fun. Uh there's a it's it's you know a a finesse game. Fans of the original will be fans of this. Like I said earlier, it's not the same game that you can buy on Xbox for nine bucks. It's not. Atari trusts us to modify it, to make it better, to make it more like what an arcade experience ought to be. Can't wait to have this at your locations. Give it a try. Liquid Death is one of our our newest game here that's one of our our newest game here that's for an FEC. Um it's a pouring game, a timing game. Um it's a pouring game, a timing game. Let me show you how the Major League esports works and how this game works. Luke, would you mind giving me a shot? So, of course, you're just you're So, of course, you're just you're filling up. You're you're trying to make things work. And I'm going to show you how the Major League Esports works. So, I join in and there's always a QR code. I can use my camera or my app. Luke's going to join into. I just scan into the MLES. Boom. It just takes a few seconds. Um, it logs me in. It finds me from the web. It doesn't have to be connected to Bluetooth, but here we are. That's me. I played in 123 tournaments. I've won 40 of them. Luke, you've only won four. You're not work. I don't play. work. I don't play. Oh, you're working. Don't play. Oh, you're working. Don't play. So, the league points change each year. So, the league points change each year. They're reset to zero every single year. The league runs the the league the season runs from January 1st to December 31st. And the guy and the top eight players with the most league points are invited to our headquarters. We we fly them in. All expenses paid. A room and board paid, airflight paid. Come out and compete to win a prize. Ground prize is $5,000. Second place is is 2,000. Uh third place is $1,000. This year it's going to be in Las Vegas in March at the Amusement Expo. It'll be live there, broadcasting live there. Uh the top eight players right now, if the season were to end today, you can find it on the app, are these eight players from all over the country. Um go compete. Go earn league points. The more you play, the more league points you earn. It's not just about the high score. Like, if I just play one time and get the world record, I may earn 20,000 league points for that or 100,000. I don't know what it is. That's doesn't matter. But if I'm playing every single day, I'm earning 10,000 league points, 4,000 league points, 3,000 league depending on where I'm ranking. And the more league points I earn, the higher I am on the league. So, the top eight players, the highest league points, not necessarily the best scores, but the most engaged players usually have to have high scores to become engaged. And it's like a chicken and the egg. The more engaged you are, the better you are. These probably are our best players. But anyone can join, anyone can play. And every year, the league points are set to zero. So, it's a fresh start. Um, the top eight players in the end of the year get to have fun. Again, any developers incorporate this into your games. They'd love to open it up to you. Our SDK is available for uh Unity and for Unreal Engine. There's no monthly fee for this. It's all it's all hosted on our servers. We're just trying to help people have fun, you know, competing with with one another and make every game count. All right, so Liquid Death, Luke, let's All right, so Liquid Death, Luke, let's give it a shot.

11:05

So in Liquid Death, now we're logged in and the game is, you know, it's just it's you try to time it at the very top. The you try to time it at the very top. The game actually is competitive. And so right here in the middle, you see, hey, Luke, let me win. Let me win. Well, just Okay. All right. Well, Luke's Well, just Okay. All right. Well, Luke's leading right now, and I'm not doing that hot, but you see he's loading up ice. Whenever he gets three perfect pores, he can send ice towards me. I can send ice to him. And you kind of compete. Like I just set And you kind of compete. Like I just set an ice cube over there to throw off his timing and make it to throw off his timing and make it harder for him. You still got a perfect core anyway. You still got a perfect core anyway. And you beat me. Nice job. So close to that bonus. So close to that bonus. Way to go, stud. Hey, boom. Take it Way to go, stud. Hey, boom. Take it away. That's liquid death. Uh, we also have the same game in a different skin called Dr. Pepper Soda Slam. It's over there at the ABS booth, not our VU booth. All of these games are th sold through distributors uh all over the world. Uh we have, I think, a a crate of these going down to uh uh Abu Dhabi. Uh, a guy came by and like, I want them. I want nine. So, we're having fun with Liquid Death. Having fun with Dr. Pepper. That's Soda Slam. All right. We've got some more games like this on the docket. These aren't really indie games. The these, you know, these these guys sell all decked out sell for $6,000 without without the LED lights. We we've got the price down to $5,000. So, it's in the indie price range. And if you buy multiple games together and contact us, we can work out other other prices to make it more affordable for you, too. We want to help the bar arcade scene and make it all work. So, I think you buy it through Joe. There's an affiliated link. You click on that, you go to our website, and then Joe, you support Joe and all the work he's doing, too. He'll get a piece of it, too. So, that's part of how we're going to help everybody. So, here we are. All right. Over here is our newest IP. You know, we figure kids like to have fun. They play around. Um, who likes they all laugh with fart jokes and things? This is called Butts on Things. 10 years ago, it was invented by a guy named Brian Cook. He's just a a fun guy. He's got millions He's just a a fun guy. He's got millions of millions of likes uh all over Instagram. 250,000 followers. He's at ComicCon. He's all over the place. People wait in line to come see him. And we said, you know what? This would be a perfect crane game. Rubber ducky cranes there. You can only have so many types of rubber duckies and jeeps. It's like, what is it? Why don't you do something else? Let's make a little taco with a butt on it or dice with a butt on it. Can you grab some of these, Luke? Can you actually see some of them? So, what do you think of this guy? What So, what do you think of this guy? What you want? Grab what? What did you say? Grab what? What did you say? They're fun, right? You can have it. They're fun, right? You can have it. Yeah. Rubber ducky butts on things. The Yeah. Rubber ducky butts on things. The kids love it. Everybody smiles. We're trying to bring joy, right? I mean, I mean, everything has a rubber. everything has a rubber. Yeah. Everything has a butt. That's what Yeah. Everything has a butt. That's what everybody Let me get you another one, too. So, here you go. Another butt on things. Yeah. Right taco. Yeah. Right taco. A butt taco. Every 6 months, we'll A butt taco. Every 6 months, we'll release six more. Um, you can see all he's made over the last 10 years, he's made hundreds of butts on things, and we're going to make sure we keep people smiling. If if you want your own logo, for instance, if you buy one of these and you want your own logo for your arcade, just reach out to us. Brian will doodle it for you. He'll make something fun. He's a great guy. He was here at the show. But that's butts on things. We have we have three different types of cranes. A 24-in crane, a 24-in crane that's a little bit bigger, and then a 31in crane. These these butts these butts will be 6 in. We haven't developed those yet. They'll be they'll be released in March in time for the show at the amusement expo. But we've got a bunch of socks that we can fill these up with, and it's just a lot of fun. So, that's our that's our bus on things. And our final product, prototype, just released is called Cosmic Spin. It's thememed space right now. What you do is you just you just take a spin, you throw a ball and once you hit a ball, once you hit a ball, it goes into one of the spots and and then you win a prize. It's just a self- redemption game. Really simple, really easy. Our plan is to put this on test here, brand new. We just we just got it off the boat and um and and see how how well it does. We also are going to do another version that skin butts on things because it attracts players and we'll see how well it does. So, you know, out of all we're so proud about our Atari stuff. We're so glad that we got the mechanical version back. This it's a coffee table for home. You know, this isn't coin operated. It's just it even has a USB charger. Can use as a juke box like it'll charge up to four four phones at a time. We're so proud of our our Liquid Death and our Soda Slam, our Dr. Pepper version and the licences we have. Um, you know, we're so happy for Butts on Thought. You just saw that little kid smile that wasn't staged. He just showed up and you saw his smile. Like that's what we're trying to do. I think that's what everyone's trying to do in the industry is make people smile, make people happy. We can make kids happy and we make adults happy. And thanks again, Joe. Appreciate what you do. Everyone watch, keep listening to Joe's channel. Um, grateful for your interest in Allen One. We'll keep helping you. Uh, we're Allen one. Allen1.com. Thanks a lot.