Award-Winning
Break the Plate
Breaks the Mold
Break the Plate is the latest game from Coastal Amusements and operators have been taking notice. At the recent Amusement Expo, the company took home a coveted AMOA Innovator Award and reported overwhelmingly positive feedback on the show floor.
“The award is really great for recognition,” said Mike Dean, Coastal’s director of international sales. “It gets the name of the game out there and helps create more sales. It’s good not just for us, but our distributors as well.”
The new carnival-themed game combines mechanics and video. When players toss a ball at the three video monitors and hit one of the virtual plates, that plate disappears on the display and actual plastic plate pieces are instantly tossed upward, simulating the look and sound of breaking a real plate.
“Development was pretty straightforward,” Dean said. “There are three pockets on each of the three monitors where the chips are. Mechanically, it’s a pretty simple game.”
Break the Plate is built with three interactive 37” monitors, a multiple infrared frame that reads the scoring of the balls and nine separate compartments that toss actual plate pieces upward.
Coastal Amusements initially had an idea to do a virtual ball-throwing game and then added the mechanical element to it, Dean noted. The idea was formulated pre-Covid and the machine would have been released as early as IAAPA Expo 2020 if not for the pandemic.
Instead, it went on test with Dave & Buster’s in December 2021 and made its official debut at Amusement Expo 2022. D&B has ordered them for every store, Dean said, adding, “They’re going to be the first ones to have the game.”
Coastal took a lot of orders prior to, during and since Amusement Expo. Older orders are shipping now, while newer orders should be ready by this fall.
Currently only the multiplayer redemption model is available, but an amusement model is in the works, in which players will compete for a high score. A high-score screen will also be added to encourage repeat play.
If you haven’t played it yourself, you can give Break the Plate a try at Bowl Expo (June 29-30) where it will be in booth #1424 with Player One Amusement Group, at IAAPA Expo Europe (Sept. 12-15) or IAAPA Expo in Orlando (Nov. 15-18).
In the meantime, learn more at www.coastalamusements.com/game/break-the-plate.
Mike Dean (second from left) of Coastal Amusements with the coveted AMOA Innovator Award the company won for their new midway game Break the Plate. Mike’s pictured with Nick Sunday, Tim Turnquist and outgoing AMOA President Sam Westgate during the award presentation.
