It looks like I'll be moving to Lyon, France sometime after TGS.
Anyone here live in that area or France in general?
FURANSU
It's my choice, man 
I just can't stand life in Japan anymore. I plan to spend maybe one or two months a year in Japan from now on, but I have found that the quality of life is much better in France in almost every conceivable way (weather, food, social life, cost of living). And I am an impartial judge because I am neither French nor Japanese...
I just can't stand life in Japan anymore. I plan to spend maybe one or two months a year in Japan from now on, but I have found that the quality of life is much better in France in almost every conceivable way (weather, food, social life, cost of living). And I am an impartial judge because I am neither French nor Japanese...
hi. weird. reading you, i figured you were french and were tripping in japan. France is calm.. in many ways.. but there's a dedicated site to shmups.. i figure you did know : www.shmup.com ! and Lyon is a place to be for sure... many arcade fans ! (there"s too a forum dedicated to some Lyon fans, even one has a Mushihime/Ibara set-up, but that costs a lot, there are not many billionaires around... and Arcades are nearly all dead, perhaps one real arcade in france only has shmups ! and not at top news even...) 
Well, it turns out that for me, arcades are not that important.
I don't even like arcades. You can't hear the soundtrack of the game you are playing, people smoking in your face, greasy joysticks.
Fuck that. I play games at home. At least until someone figures out how to make an arcade that is fit for human beings.
I don't even like arcades. You can't hear the soundtrack of the game you are playing, people smoking in your face, greasy joysticks.
Fuck that. I play games at home. At least until someone figures out how to make an arcade that is fit for human beings.
You'll have to lurk (if you arent already that is, start in the Bizutage announcement section) on forum.shmup.com if you're coming here 
I've been in Paris for a while now and it's been quite good for shmupping in large part to that forum. There's quite often shmupmeets organized around Paris including one large one maybe once or twice a year at the j-type store (japan-type.com). I think the last one I went to there had a good 9 systems out (inc Ketsui on the cab) and 30+ people. It was quite neat.
There's a few arcades around and they are *much* quiter than those in Japan. The really big one La Tete dans les Nuages normally has two or three shmup cabs out and they rotate em, right now IIRC they have out Viper Phase, Raiden Fighters 2, Strikers 1945 Plus. I know they have around Zero Gunner 2, Parodius and Raiden Fighters Jet 2. All on nice site down J-cabs with well looked after Seimitsu controls. There's some smaller arcades too with badly looked after hardware and some RF 1&2 going on.
There's lots of arcade gaming forums, plenty of import sites and dozens of shops and websites for import stuff (especially in Paris). All in all it's quite active.
As for Lyon, dunno but there's a Neo-Ayato (neoayato.com) and there does seem to be plenty of people around on the forums from there, shouldnt be hard to hook up. Finally, and perhaps this is just in Paris or coincidence in who I meet, but there seems to be a disturbingly high number of French people who speak Japanese (PC Engine influence in France maybe). That oughta give you something to talk about.
I've been in Paris for a while now and it's been quite good for shmupping in large part to that forum. There's quite often shmupmeets organized around Paris including one large one maybe once or twice a year at the j-type store (japan-type.com). I think the last one I went to there had a good 9 systems out (inc Ketsui on the cab) and 30+ people. It was quite neat.
There's a few arcades around and they are *much* quiter than those in Japan. The really big one La Tete dans les Nuages normally has two or three shmup cabs out and they rotate em, right now IIRC they have out Viper Phase, Raiden Fighters 2, Strikers 1945 Plus. I know they have around Zero Gunner 2, Parodius and Raiden Fighters Jet 2. All on nice site down J-cabs with well looked after Seimitsu controls. There's some smaller arcades too with badly looked after hardware and some RF 1&2 going on.
There's lots of arcade gaming forums, plenty of import sites and dozens of shops and websites for import stuff (especially in Paris). All in all it's quite active.
As for Lyon, dunno but there's a Neo-Ayato (neoayato.com) and there does seem to be plenty of people around on the forums from there, shouldnt be hard to hook up. Finally, and perhaps this is just in Paris or coincidence in who I meet, but there seems to be a disturbingly high number of French people who speak Japanese (PC Engine influence in France maybe). That oughta give you something to talk about.
Honestly I don't know all that much about it myself but from what I can gather, back in the PCE's heydey some company was importing PCE hardware and software directly from Japan to France.
The games were then released as-is (i.e. still in Japanese, no matter how much text was there) with just an instruction leaflet bundled in in french. These were sold (so i've been told) all over - in supermarkets, game stores etc. The hardware was modified for european TVs so that means RGB SCART and I guess they came with a 50hz 240v AC adapter to replace the original too.
There still appears to be plenty of PCE collectors in France and ebay.fr along with the retro/import game stores still carry plenty of related stuff too.
The games were then released as-is (i.e. still in Japanese, no matter how much text was there) with just an instruction leaflet bundled in in french. These were sold (so i've been told) all over - in supermarkets, game stores etc. The hardware was modified for european TVs so that means RGB SCART and I guess they came with a 50hz 240v AC adapter to replace the original too.
There still appears to be plenty of PCE collectors in France and ebay.fr along with the retro/import game stores still carry plenty of related stuff too.