EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

[trap15]

or more realistically, for somebody to crack it so the data can run on conventional PCs.

I would appreciate you not asking for pirated versions of my work in front of me, thanks.

[shmupsrocks]

How anyone can think that exA is anything but good for arcade gaming is mind boggling.

[cave hermit]

*snip*

[Sumez]

The closest public exA to me is across three country border lines, and I'm not expecting that to change any time within the next decade.

I've never been advocating piracy, and in terms of the deals that are on the table now, and the companies that are involved, I definitely don't wish for the software to be cracked right now to a point where it will affect their business. That said, I'm not seeing that happening either - even if the games are cracked.
It will probably happen eventually, and to a lot of people that will be the only way they'll ever be able to realistically play the game. ExA made that clear when they decided on the business model, so they shouldn't be surprised by the consequences.

[zak]

However my local Round 1 is not going to be getting them, and cave is not going to be porting it to conventional PCs. The only legit way I would be able to play it would be to plunk down over $4000. For a machine with a i3 and a budget geforce GPU. For comparison I just built a top of the line PC with a Ryzen 3900x and a RTX 3080 for about $2200.

You can't compare bespoke arcade Hardware with off the shelf components. Sure, it's underpowered when compared with a top of the line gaming rig (and the PS5/Neo Geo marketing hyperbole probably didn't help here), but you also don't have to pay middlemen, staff to put it together, testing, after sales support etc. Not to mention the backplane for 4 carts is unique.

[Udderdude]

Rage against the arcade machine. We must stop the business model menace.

[Zeether]

Does SDOJ Exa rule out any chance of SDOJ being ported elsewhere without the Exa modes? I assume it doesn't.

[zak]

Does SDOJ Exa rule out any chance of SDOJ being ported elsewhere without the Exa modes? I assume it doesn't.

I don't think Exa have exclusive rights to "original" mode (I could be wrong). However, I doubt CAVE are interested in porting this again. There was an interesting interview with the Tanoshimasu CEO which explained why home and mobile ports don't make much money:

There will be no Steam version of Aka to Blue, and the reason is that it probably wouldn’t make many sales. When you look at shooting games on Steam, the ones that really sold are Astebreed and Sine Mora, but the rest have not sold that much.

I think even DoDonPachi Resurrection and Ikaruga did not sell more than thirty thousand units. If you look at the business model that you have on Steam and Android – on both of these platforms, you can ask for a refund [within a certain time period after purchase]. Then you look at shooting games – you can beat them in thirty minutes. So we then have many gamers who buy the game, beat it, and ask for a refund, which makes it very hard to justify releasing a game on that platform. For Aka to Blue on Android a lot of people refunded the game, you would be quite surprised by the numbers.

https://shmupemall.com/interviews/inter ... 18015.html

[KAI]

so refunds killed shmups?

[OmegaFlareX]

Lack of checkpoints killed shmups. People credit feeding until the ending, then saying they "beat" it.

This might be more appropriate for the Hot Takes thread.

[Zeether]

So basically there's 0 chance of Aka to Blue having a port ever. Cool, real nice.

[Ms. Tea]

I feel like we keep having the same conversations about Exa over and over again and I don't know that it's ever going to get anywhere.

Maybe it's an issue with social media that we're all seeing Exa's marketing, because it's definitely not aimed at 99% of the people who read this forum. For their customers (arcades) and business partners (game developers) their pitch is fine - exclusivity is a good protection against competition for their customers, and some of their devs seem fine with that being their only market too. Obviously for most people on this board, we don't have access to arcades that will carry these games and we don't have the money to buy the setups for ourselves - it's not hard to feel frustrated at the pitch of "the selling point of this product is that you will never get to play it". But I really don't see how having the same arguments about them over and over and over again is doing anything at all.

[Nate123]

We have had the same conversations sense cv1k emulation hit mame. The I want free shit because that will save us vs the hard cores who buy PCB and make super guns. This will never end.

[Sumez]

I feel like we keep having the same conversations about Exa over and over again and I don't know that it's ever going to get anywhere.

It's never getting anywhere anyway But yes, it's getting trite.

That said,

the selling point of this product is that you will never get to play it

I think this quote nailed it amusingly well.

[Arcatech]

Just wanted to stop by and mention that Vritra Hexa is now in a arcade location in Ogden Utah. The operator just got it in today so if anybody on here is in that area definitely stop by and check this new shmup out. He also has Aka and Blue for Exa. The guy just tried opening a new location in my hometown. Just doing my best to support a really nice arcade.

Here is a link to his website, if anybody is interested in playing this.
https://arcadegalactic.com

This is the operator's youtube channel with some gameplay of Vritra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lv1opLPjc4&t=198s

[CStarFlare]

From what I can tell from Japanese Twitter, people seemed to enjoy the loctest a lot. It got me to buy the game on Steam (not played it yet though!).

Looking forward to seeing footage of the Exa game. Sounds promising.

[MrJBRPG]

Apparently, the Exa Arcadia's own JVS IO boards are officially revealed and in development:
https://kvc.jp/2020/12/17/%E8%87%AA%E5% ... %E5%B7%BB/




This is very exciting indeed!

Spotted that from Arcade Otaku.

Also, it seems that Exa Arcadia and SDOJ Exa Label are selling like hotcakes in Japan:

https://twitter.com/exaarcadiaceo/statu ... 47008?s=21
https://twitter.com/beep_shop/status/13 ... 34147?s=21

From counting those boxes, it seems that around 42 Exa units and 30 SDOJ Exa Label units are being shipped to multiple customers, including Beep.

[MrJBRPG]

https://exa.ac/product/exa-arcadia-io-b ... 177369a3b7

Looks like EXA Arcadia's very own JVS to JAMMA IO board is now available worldwide and is a lot more affordable compared to second hand prices of the competitors' predecessors.

From their description, there doesn't need to be daisy chaining for 4 players, which the IO board currently reads as two 2 player machines.

The next question would be how to support 8 players locally by daisy chaining two of those EXA IO boards?

It will be the first accessory I will likely buy only because it's low price. Other parts will wait.

Edit 1: The motherboard actually has video and audio cables to give it output, by DVI or HDMI.

To build an arcade cabinet to include this is quite a feat as it involves lots of parts, which makes me hesitant from spending money to build one as of this moment.

[shmupsrocks]

Are there other EXA accessories?

[Sumez]

Kind of crazy to not have video and audio inputs on that. Shouldn't it be trivial compared to the controls?

[StarCreator]

Kind of crazy to not have video and audio inputs on that. Shouldn't it be trivial compared to the controls?

I mean, given it's designed for the exA, there isn't really any direct means of implementing it that wouldn't need a slew of hardware to do it without having the user invest in their own video conversion hardware; the exA has no non-digital video output of any kind, and even with a converter on hand you'll only get the equivalent to 31KHz at best. To actually support JAMMA video (which is typically 15KHz) they'd need a DAC, downscaler, and amplifier to make it work, which easily would have more than doubled the BOM; a tall order when most 31KHz supporting setups don't even use JAMMA A/V in the first place.

[headlesshobbs]

I wonder if there would be any games that work well for a 480p 4:3 setting with an hdmi to vga adapter?

[parodius]

Yep.
Games are designed so that 640x480 is supported.
I use a Tendak HDMI to VGA converter to run it on my CRT cabs.

[MrJBRPG]

Looks like the following games are now available for purchase and pre-order:

Purchase now
Psyvariar Delta AC (Shooting Game) 2P cooperative
Gimmick! Exact Mix (Platformer) 1P
https://arcadeheroes.com/2020/12/24/the ... c-exa-i-o/

Pre-order
Nippon marathon Turbo Hyper Running (Party Race) 4P competitive
Blazing Chrome AC (Run and Gun) 2P cooperative
https://arcadeheroes.com/2020/12/29/pre ... chrome-ac/

Other news Exa Arcadia related:
Raiden IV Mikado Mix arcade version is under crowdfunding.
https://arcadeheroes.com/2020/12/21/rai ... a-arcadia/
If anybody can bother to translate the page beyond machine translation would be great.
https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/3537 ... oming_soon

According to the machine translation, the new revised arcade version (make new arcade revision from previous arcade release [hahaha]) will be all or nothing crowdfunding. Based on little interest from the Japanese arcade fans as Mikado's target audience, it seems that the Raiden IV Mikado Mix arcade dream may be shot down and be restricted to only Nintendo Switch.

[Sumez]

I mean, given it's designed for the exA, there isn't really any direct means of implementing it that wouldn't need a slew of hardware to do it without having the user invest in their own video conversion hardware;

I get that, of course. But what's even the point of a JAMMA connector, if you only got the controls on there?

[BIL]

According to the machine translation, the new revised arcade version (make new arcade revision from previous arcade release [hahaha]) will be all or nothing crowdfunding. Based on little interest from the Japanese arcade fans as Mikado's target audience, it seems that the Raiden IV Mikado Mix arcade dream may be shot down and be restricted to only Nintendo Switch.

That's a shame. Better on Switch than nothing at all, ofc.

[caldwert]

Been waiting until everything was setup finally once again, but you can play Exa at Two Plumbers Brewery + Arcade in St. Charles, MO if you're in the St. Louis, MO area. I have 2 Vewlix Diamond Black's in there right now. One vertical, one horizontal. Vertical is Aka to Blue, Akyrios, and SDOJ. Horizontal is Infinos, Vritra, Super Battle Princess Madelyn. I have it set to 50 cents a credit and default settings. They all have the most recent updates as well. So have at em!

[Sumez]

I played Super Battle Princess Madelyn on Switch, and I can't even imagine how much you'd need to fix to make that game play well as an arcade game. If they managed to do it, that's actually impressive.

[CRP]

exA-Arcadia Announces P-47 Aces Mk. II,
https://arcadeheroes.com/2021/04/25/exa ... r-arcades/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjhtb3c2VtU&t=6276s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dtWnn7PBHM

[headlesshobbs]

So how is the US side of things coming as far as releases goes?