Raw Thrills

Raw Thrills, Inc. is an arcade video game entertainment company based in Skokie, Illinois. It is best known for developing arcade games based on films.

Raw Thrills, Inc
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
Founded2001
HeadquartersSkokie, Illinois, U.S.
Websiterawthrills.com

History

Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. The staff also consists of other former Midway Games employees.

Early on, the company made games for IGT including Super Times Pay Poker, Multi-Play Blackjack, and Turbo Reelette with later games involving modifications of the Super Times Pay engine.

Raw Thrills' first independent coin-op game was Target: Terror, a light-gun shooter game[1] which was later upgraded to Target: Terror Gold (also known as Target: Force) featuring bonus levels, end-of-round awards, and other performance enhancements. Target: Terror was the first gun game designed under the direction of Eugene Jarvis.

Cruis 'n Blast arcade cabinets, released by Raw Thrills in 2017

The company's second game was The Fast and the Furious,[1] a racing game based on the Universal Studios movie of the same name. Tsunami Visual Technologies later made a motion version of the game for large family entertainment centers.

In 2006, Raw Thrills published two titles:[1] Big Buck Hunter PRO, developed by Play Mechanix; and The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes. Raw Thrills released in 2007 a sequel to The Fast and the Furious titled The Fast and the Furious: Drift.[2] They also released a continuation of the successful Big Buck series, Big Buck Safari[3] in three different configurations which included a standard 27" cabinet, a 42" LCD version[4] and an 8'x6' projected screen Theater version. They would also release a new update to Big Buck Hunter Pro with Big Buck Hunter Pro: Open Season[5] in 2009.

After the success of their Fast and Furious DRIFT racing title, the company set their sights on kart-style racing with Nicktoons Nitro.[6] The game featured licensed characters from various Nickelodeon Nicktoons including SpongeBob SquarePants, Timmy Turner from The Fairly OddParents, Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Invader Zim, Jimmy Neutron, and Danny Phantom.

Also in 2009, Raw Thrills teamed up with Konami and Activision to produce Guitar Hero Arcade.[7] Raw Thrills engineered the game while Konami and Activision were involved to cover patenting and licensing issues respectively.[8] The game was a solid success selling over 2000 units in just three months.[9]

In January 2009, it was revealed that Raw Thrills and Specular Interactive came together to produce a spiritual successor to the Midway arcade racer Hydro Thunder with a game entitled H2Overdrive.[10] Specular Interactive was made up of several ex-Midway employees who had worked on Hydro Thunder and this led to H2Overdrive maintaining many of the ideas that Hydro Thunder had in place while adding in some new elements such as achievements, a leveling up system and improved physics. It also received high praise from critics.[11][12][13][14][15] The original version of H2Overdrive came in a cabinet sporting a 42" LCD HD monitor and in March 2010 they produced a 32" version for smaller venues.[16] A motion-based version was also produced in November 2009 that was being handled by Namco Bandai Games and UNIS.[17] UNIS also holds the rights to distribute the game in China.[18]

In March 2010, Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix released Terminator Salvation, a deluxe light-gun shooter based upon the film of the same name that was released to theaters in May 2009.[19] The game received early praise from arcade operators as it exceeded earnings expectations during testing.[20]

On June 16, 2021, Raw Thrills announced a port for its arcade game Cruis'n Blast, the latest instalment in the Cruis'n video game series for the Nintendo Switch system. It marks the company's first console game, and its first port to a home system as well as the first game since Target: Terror to be ported to a gaming console.[21]

Games

References
  1. "About Us". Rawthrills. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on January 31, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  2. "The Fast & The Furious". Rawthrills. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on April 18, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  3. "Games". Raw Thrills, Inc. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on April 25, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  4. Shaggy. "New products from Betson includes Big Buck Safari Deluxe". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  5. Shaggy (September 17, 2009). "Raw Thrills'/Play Mechanix unveil Big Buck Hunter: Open Season". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  6. "Games | Raw Thrills, Inc". Rawthrills.com. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on December 12, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  7. "Games | Raw Thrills, Inc". Rawthrills.com. October 14, 2011. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  8. "RUMOR: Guitar Hero "Arcade" a Little Less Rumory". Archived from the original on July 3, 2009. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  9. Shaggy (June 10, 2009). "Betson: 2000 Guitar Hero units have been sold in three months". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  10. Shaggy (January 22, 2009). "New boat racing game by Raw Thrills and the Hydro Thunder team to be at ATEI (UPDATED w/ SCREENS & CONTROL INFO)". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 28, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. Leone, Matt (January 23, 2009). "H2Overdrive Preview for ARC from". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  13. "First details on H2Overdrive, the spiritual successor to Hydro Thunder". Destructoid. January 23, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  14. "Waves of orders make H2Overdrive product of Preview". Coinoptoday.com. November 9, 2009. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  15. "Operator bowled over by H2Overdrive". Coinoptoday.com. March 5, 2010. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  16. Shaggy (March 13, 2010). "Amusement Expo 2010: Raw Thrills/Betson, TrioTech booth". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  17. Shaggy (November 23, 2009). "IAAPA 2009 videos – Dead Storm Pirates, UNIS booth (w. Cooking Mama & H2Overdrive motion), Big Buck Hunter Open Season, Textminator". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  18. "Universal Space to Offer H2Overdrive in Asia". Coinoptoday.com. December 9, 2009. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  19. Shaggy (March 20, 2010). "Reminders for releases this month: Terminator Salvation, Tank! Tank! Tank!, Pump It Up Pro 2 & Fiesta, Sega Racing Classic". Arcade Heroes. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  20. "The results are in Terminator Salvation™ is the Total Package!". Coinoptoday.com. March 25, 2010. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  21. Sarkar, Samit (June 15, 2021). "Racing series Cruis'n arrives on Nintendo Switch this fall". Polygon. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
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