Alan-1 Looks Back At 2024

A new year is upon us, but 2024 held many significant milestones for everyone at Alan-1. Let’s take this opportunity to look back at the events of the year and what they meant for the future of arcade gaming.

The MLeS World Championship 2024

The year began with our first major tournament event, powered by Major League eSports (MLeS). Eight of the best Avian Knights players were flown into Utah, where we held the event at Flynn’s Retrocade in Roy.

After two days of intense avian battles, “Retroman21” came out on top and with $10,000 in his pocket. “Mockduck” nailed second place, winning $5,000 and “The Director” won $2,500 for getting third place. Take note that the 2025 MLeS World Championship is coming up fast, where it will be held in Utah on January 24th-25th (stay tuned for details).

For those interested in more videos and interviews from the tournament, check out this playlist on YouTube.

Bringing Atari Back To Arcades

One of the most significant events in Alan-1’s history was the Atari Recharged deal that was inked at the beginning of the year. In an astounding achievement, it only took six weeks for Alan-1 to redesign Asteroids Recharged and put it into not one, but two different styles of arcade cabinets. This was also documented by local Utah influencer Arcade Heroes, showing these initial cabinets as they were under construction prior to heading to Amusement Expo 2024 in Las Vegas for the game’s debut.

Video game legend & Raw Thrills CEO Eugene Jarvis (right) poses with Alan-1 CEO, James Anderson (left)

After much polishing and testing, we released Asteroids Recharged to the arcade market in November 2024. The game is been found in many locations across the United States, and its just the beginning of the Atari games that will returning in force to arcades.

We are both honored and excited to bring the legendary Atari name back to the scene it essentially founded. Atari revolutionized the coin-op entertainment industry with the release of PONG back in 1972, which created both the video game and arcade markets as they exist today.

Building A Brain Trust

In the fantastic book Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull revealed one of the key strategies that resulted in PIXAR’s incredible success: the Brain Trust. The Brain Trust encapsulates Alan-1’s Core Values, bringing together various experts across a number of fields, all of them with a passion and understanding of what it is that makes arcade games great and compelling.

The Brain Trust meets weekly to discuss Alan-1’s upcoming developments, which included Asteroids Recharged as that was polished and crafted throughout the year. The Trust shares and debates the merits of various ideas, seeing what best fits with the game and the desires of the consumer. They all have experience in one way or another in the arcade & amusement industry, and also share a love of retro games as well as innovation, creativity, and fun.

Brain Trust members currently include Owen Rubin, formerly of Atari (Sky Diver, Space Duel, Major Havoc and others), Bally Sente, Apple and more; Scott Barrett of iHQ & Cinemotion; Brent Bushnell, one of the son’s of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and recently of Two Bit Circus; Kris Gack; Clint Wilder; Warren Stanek; Brett Pulliam; Greg Olson; Jon Koolpe; Patrick Davis; Adam Pratt; and Johnny Gallegos.

Area 52 & A Growing Team

Alan-1 is a bigger family going into 2025 than it was at the beginning of the year prior. Part of this comes from the growth at our very own factory facility in Tooele, UT. With the arrival of Trevor Thornton and a few of his colleagues, they put their manufacturing expertise to work at “Area 52.” Named partially after the infamous Nevada military base, but also alluding to UFO sightings that are frequently seen near Utah desert bases, this facility is where Trevor and his team build all of Alan-1’s games by hand.

Area 52 itself has also seen a lot of change over the course of the year, Trevor leading a remodeling effort while Bella & McKinley have organized the inventory. Are you interested in visiting Area 52? Contact us about a tour!

Trade Shows Galore

Alan-1 was quite busy in attending a variety of trade shows all over the country throughout the year. Most of these events featured both Asteroids Recharged and Avian Knights, although there were a couple of exceptions.

Our first show of the year was Amusement Expo 2024 show in Las Vegas. This was our second visit to this particular show, which also showcased a brand new upright cabinet design that took into account suggested changes from the cabinets we had shown at the prior Expo event. Both games garnered a lot of attention, with Asteroids being a strong focus after it was made ready after only six weeks of development (the final game would take several months to complete, but having a game from nothing to show ready in that time is an achievement we’re proud to share).

Next up was California Extreme 2024 in July. Retro gaming is near and dear to our hearts, and at the world’s premier collector’s event, what better place to debut our games to likeminded people than at “CAX?” With four Asteroids Recharged 2-player cabinets and a single 4-player Avian Knights cabinet, and the addition of Jason Polanski of Atari, we experienced an incredible event. Alan-1 also participated in a panel where the deal between us and Atari was discussed at length.

At the end of the show, we even gave away an Asteroids Recharged arcade cabinet to the winner of our special MLeS show tournament!

Not long after that, we attended another retro event, but one closer to home. The Utah Retro GameXpo was hosted by Minus World Games, bringing together fans of classic video games and ’80s/’90s pop culture. Here we worked with Flynn’s Retrocade to help build out a great retro arcade on site, where we also brought three Asteroids Recharged cabinets.

Next up was a visit to Chicago, where we set up a booth for Pinball Expo 2024. Our focus here was on Asteroids Recharged. We were joined by one of our premiere distributors, AVS Companies, in showcasing the game, and running a raffle where some lucky players won some real Asteroids Recharged marquees.

Last but certainly not the least out of these shows was our first exhibit at IAAPA Expo 2024 in Orlando, FL. Held the week before Thanksgiving, this is the “Superbowl” of the arcade & amusement industry, where everyone who’s anyone in this business goes to show off their latest products. AVS Companies once again joined Alan-1 in promoting Asteroids Recharged to the industry, while the Alan-1 booth also included Avian Knights and out great comic books:

Launching A New Website

Last but not least on this list is the launching of a new website. While the old site had served our purposes in the past, this new site, designed by Luke and Ashish, truly captures the Alan-1 spirit as we move into 2025. We hope that your visit to our site is always fun!

Speaking of 2025, what is in store for this year? We’re just getting started with the above, so stay tuned for an amazing ride, as we hold the next MLeS World Championship in Utah on Jan. 24th-25th, and we bring a marvelous line-up of innovative games and experiences to arcades. Join us in having fun while we’re building fun!