Raw Thrills

History

Raw Thrills was founded in 2001 by Eugene Jarvis, Deepak Deo, and Andrew Eloff. Early on, the staff also consisted largely of other former Midway Games employees.

Raw Thrills' first independent coin-op game was Target: Terror, a light-gun shooter game 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.

The company's second game was The Fast and the Furious, 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: Big Buck Hunter Pro, developed by Play Mechanix; and The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes. In 2007 Raw Thrills released an update to The Fast and the Furious titled The Fast and the Furious: Drift. They also released a continuation of the successful Big Buck series, Big Buck Safari in three different configurations which included a standard 27" cabinet, a 42" LCD version 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 in 2009.

After the success of their The Fast and the Furious: Drift racing title, the company set their sights on kart-style racing with Nicktoons Nitro. 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. Raw Thrills engineered the game while Konami and Activision were involved to cover patenting and licensing issues respectively. The game was a solid success selling over 2000 units in just three months.

In January 2009, Raw Thrills and Specular Interactive co-produced a spiritual successor to the Midway arcade racer Hydro Thunder with a game entitled H2Overdrive. Specular Interactive was made up of several ex-Midway employees who had worked on Hydro Thunder. It also received high praise from critics. A motion-based version was also produced in November 2009 that was handled by Namco Bandai Games and UNIS. UNIS also holds the rights to distribute the game in China.

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. The game received early praise from arcade operators as it exceeded earnings expectations during testing.

On June 16, 2021, Raw Thrills announced a port for its arcade game Cruis'n Blast, the latest installment in Nintendo's Cruis'n video game series (whom Jarvis created before founding Raw Thrills) for the Nintendo Switch system. It marks the company's first console game, and its first port to a home system.

Games

• Target: Terror (2004)
• Target: Terror GOLD (2004)
• The Fast and the Furious (2004)
• Big Buck Hunter Pro (2006)
• The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes (2006)
• The Fast and the Furious: Drift (2007)
• Big Buck Safari (2008)
• Nicktoons Nitro (2008)
• Big Buck Hunter Pro: Open Season (2009)
• Guitar Hero Arcade (2009)
• H2Overdrive (2009)
• Terminator Salvation (arcade game) (2010)
• Wheel of Fortune (2010)
• Super Bikes 2 (2010)
• Fast & Furious: SuperCars (2010)
• Frogger (2010) (Redemption Game)
• Big Buck World (2010)
• Dirty Drivin' (2011)
• Big Buck HD (2012)
• Cars (arcade game) (2012)
• Doodle Jump Arcade (2012)
• Winter X Games SnoCross (2012)
• Batman (2013)
• Pac-Man Chomp Mania (2013)
• Aliens Armageddon (2014)
• Barrel Of Monkeys (2014) (redemption game)
• Super Alpine Racer (2014)
• Jurassic Park Arcade (2015)
• MotoGP (2015)
• World's Largest Pac-Man (2016)
• Galaga Assault (2016)
• Cruis'n Blast (2017)
• Alien: Covenant (arcade game) (2017)
• Space Invaders Frenzy (2017) (redemption game)
• The Walking Dead (2017)
• X Games Snowboarder (2017)
• Injustice Arcade (2017) (based on software developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by WB Games)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2017)
• Slither.io (2018)
• Halo: Fireteam Raven (2018)
• Marvel Contest of Champions (2019)
• Super Bikes 3 (2019)
• Nerf Arcade (2019)
• Nitro Trucks (2020)
• King Kong of Skull Island VR (2020)
• Bust-A-Move Frenzy (2020)
• Fast & Furious Arcade (2022)
• Moto GP VR (2023)
• Angry Birds Boom! (2024)
• Godzilla Kaiju Wars VR (2024)
• NBA Superstars™(2024)
• Top Gun: Maverick (2025)

References

References

1. (May 11, 2023). "Industry Icon Eugene Jarvis Takes Hall of Fame Spot – RePlay Magazine".
2. (October 14, 2011). "About Us". Raw Thrills.
3. (October 14, 2011). "The Fast & The Furious". Rawthrills.
4. (October 14, 2011). "Games". Raw Thrills, Inc..
5. Shaggy. (January 14, 2009). "New products from Betson includes Big Buck Safari Deluxe". Arcade Heroes.
6. Shaggy. (September 17, 2009). "Raw Thrills'/Play Mechanix unveil Big Buck Hunter: Open Season". Arcade Heroes.
7. (October 14, 2011). "Games | Raw Thrills, Inc". Rawthrills.com.
8. (October 14, 2011). "Games | Raw Thrills, Inc". Rawthrills.com.
9. "RUMOR: Guitar Hero "Arcade" a Little Less Rumory".
10. Shaggy. (June 10, 2009). "Betson: 2000 Guitar Hero units have been sold in three months". Arcade Heroes.
11. 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.
12. "Archived copy".
13. Leone, Matt. (January 23, 2009). "H2Overdrive Preview for ARC from". 1UP.com.
14. (January 23, 2009). "First details on H2Overdrive, the spiritual successor to Hydro Thunder". Destructoid.
15. (November 9, 2009). "Waves of orders make H2Overdrive product of Preview". Coinoptoday.com.
16. (March 5, 2010). "Operator bowled over by H2Overdrive". Coinoptoday.com.
17. Shaggy. (March 13, 2010). "Amusement Expo 2010: Raw Thrills/Betson, TrioTech booth". Arcade Heroes.
18. 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.
19. (December 9, 2009). "Universal Space to Offer H2Overdrive in Asia". Coinoptoday.com.
20. 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.
21. (March 25, 2010). "The results are in Terminator Salvation™ is the Total Package!". Coinoptoday.com.
22. Sarkar, Samit. (2021-06-15). "Racing series Cruis'n arrives on Nintendo Switch this fall".