EXAーARCADIA [New Arcade Platform/Publisher]

[legolas119]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

Don't get them mixed up. A lot of games on EXA have new exclusive modes that are only on EXA. It would be lame otherwise to release an indie game on a new arcade hardware that had already been on Steam for years.

Some people just buy them if they want an exclusive that's only on EXA so far and if they are sure they want to dedicate a lot of time to that version. For instance, someone told me he bought it for that EXA exclusive version of Akai Katana because he really likes the game and will put hundreds or thousands of hours into it and play nothing else, so for him it's worth it.
Btw also from what I've heard, IIRC, what some people do is they only get the mobo and then you can hack it and get all games for free basically, illegally. Only the mobo by itself is still expensive though.

I wonder what will be new about Air Gallet!

thanks. I hope Axel City 2 will be released on different system...

[Arino]

hi, i just discovered ex-Arcadia games. Some of them it seems that aren't available on others systems...so the only way to play them is to buy the expensive arcade board and then the expensive games? I don't have a cabinet so i canìt play them in any case. For example Axel City 2, is it available on different system?
thanks

Don't get them mixed up. A lot of games on EXA have new exclusive modes that are only on EXA. It would be lame otherwise to release an indie game on a new arcade hardware that had already been on Steam for years.

Some people just buy them if they want an exclusive that's only on EXA so far and if they are sure they want to dedicate a lot of time to that version. For instance, someone told me he bought it for that EXA exclusive version of Akai Katana because he really likes the game and will put hundreds or thousands of hours into it and play nothing else, so for him it's worth it.
Btw also from what I've heard, IIRC, what some people do is they only get the mobo and then you can hack it and get all games for free basically, illegally. Only the mobo by itself is still expensive though.

I wonder what will be new about Air Gallet!

thanks. I hope Axel City 2 will be released on different system...

There is definitely a chance I guess However there are already a million other great fighting games so I'd just play something else in the meantime

[Nomax]

English/French live stream about the exA-Arcadia today at 21:00 CET (20:00 UK time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbua-2_UqU0

Featuring: Gemu Oni (Life is a Video Game), Adam Pratt (Arcade Heroes) and Mackie (exA-Arcadia).

[Air Master Burst]

Is there still no easy way to actually find an arcade that has one of these things? I'm just about stupid enough to drop the money on Batsugun (and possibly Air Gallet) if the new mode(s) are good, but I'm not stupid enough to do it without trying it for myself first.

[Steven]

There are several arcades I know of in Tokyo that have exa shit, but I have a better idea: buy Batsugun on GOG (or crappy Steam, if you prefer) for $8 and pretend it's the same thing.

[Air Master Burst]

There are several arcades I know of in Tokyo that have exa shit, but I have a better idea: buy Batsugun on GOG (or crappy Steam, if you prefer) for $8 and pretend it's the same thing.

I already did that, but Batsugun is my favorite shmup that's likely to get any sort of modern update (then again, they're doing Air Gallet, so who knows?). I've been strongly considering an actual PCB setup for years now.

That said, if exa is losing money I certainly don't mind waiting for them to get desperate enough to start porting their versions. Is that likely given the people involved?

[Nomax]

Is there still no easy way to actually find an arcade that has one of these things? I'm just about stupid enough to drop the money on Batsugun (and possibly Air Gallet) if the new mode(s) are good, but I'm not stupid enough to do it without trying it for myself first.

You can find a map and list of public locations having exA-Arcadia games in operation here, this might help you (just look on the page for "Batsugun"): https://exa.arcadebelgium.be/

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There are several arcades I know of in Tokyo that have exa shit, but I have a better idea: buy Batsugun on GOG (or crappy Steam, if you prefer) for $8 and pretend it's the same thing.

I already did that, but Batsugun is my favorite shmup that's likely to get any sort of modern update (then again, they're doing Air Gallet, so who knows?). I've been strongly considering an actual PCB setup for years now.

That said, if exa is losing money I certainly don't mind waiting for them to get desperate enough to start porting their versions. Is that likely given the people involved?

Take the initial plunge with a Exa-Arcadia setup, Air Master Burst. You don't even need a Supergun or even a dedicated candy cab setup with one if you use an Iona adapter pcb to use various console gamepads and arcade sticks to play the various Exa offerings and hook up the Exa's HD output to an 1080p or 4K gaming monitor. Add an external HD Scan Line Generator device for obligatory scanlines with some Exa based stg titles for that retro "old-school" look visually. Easy as pie.

Exa won't port their existing games to Steam, GOG or the various home gaming consoles as that isn't their intention in the first place, it's designed exclusively for the international arcade game market (hence the high prices for a single Exa game bundled set -- buy an Exa motherboard + four Exa games in one shot and you're easily spending over $10,000+ usd which doesn't include shipping as that's extra on top of what is purchased altogether -- that isn't exactly chump change nowadays but it is what it is).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Air Master Burst]

Exa won't port their existing games to Steam, GOG or the various home gaming consoles as that isn't their intention in the first place, it's designed exclusively for the international arcade game market (hence the high prices for a single Exa game bundled set -- buy an Exa motherboard + four Exa games in one shot and you're easily spending over $10,000+ usd which doesn't include shipping as that's extra -- that isn't exactly chmup change nowadays but it is what it is).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

If their business model is currently sustainable that's fine, but at some point they'll be leaving money on the table by not doing ports. Whether it's five, ten, or twenty years from now; at some point the exa won't be a profitable platform anymore. How likely are they to do ports whenever that time eventually comes?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Exa won't port their existing games to Steam, GOG or the various home gaming consoles as that isn't their intention in the first place, it's designed exclusively for the international arcade game market (hence the high prices for a single Exa game bundled set -- buy an Exa motherboard + four Exa games in one shot and you're easily spending over $10,000+ usd which doesn't include shipping as that's extra -- that isn't exactly chump change nowadays but it is what it is).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

If their business model is currently sustainable that's fine, but at some point they'll be leaving money on the table by not doing ports. Whether it's five, ten, or twenty years from now; at some point the exa won't be a profitable platform anymore. How likely are they to do ports whenever that time eventually comes?

That'd be up to Shou and company to make that call/ultimate decision if their Exa business model isn't bringing in the income/profits like it once used to, down the road.

If you look at the current arcade games and prize redemption games being sold today to the various Family Entertainment Centers (FEC), indie arcades, barcades and franchised arcades such as Boomers!, Dave and Buster's & Round1, they aren't cheap to begin with -- it's very unlikely that whatever is bought will truly pay for themselves down the road as profit margins are "extremely razor thin" (and call it "at a loss at the end of the day") -- this is the sad but true reality that the American arcade entertainment industry faces nowadays. So be it.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[spmbx]

Exa won't port their existing games to Steam, GOG or the various home gaming consoles as that isn't their intention in the first place, it's designed exclusively for the international arcade game market (hence the high prices for a single Exa game bundled set -- buy an Exa motherboard + four Exa games in one shot and you're easily spending over $10,000+ usd which doesn't include shipping as that's extra -- that isn't exactly chmup change nowadays but it is what it is).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

If their business model is currently sustainable that's fine, but at some point they'll be leaving money on the table by not doing ports. Whether it's five, ten, or twenty years from now; at some point the exa won't be a profitable platform anymore. How likely are they to do ports whenever that time eventually comes?

What kind of sales figures are you expecting from a Batsugun exa PC port in the year 2040 ?

[Air Master Burst]

What kind of sales figures are you expecting from a Batsugun exa PC port in the year 2040 ?

Probably at least as many as the two seperate Batsugun ports that came out within the last year?

City Connection is selling the S-Tribute version for $40 USD. If that makes sense in 2024, an actual decent port with new content in 2040 or so seems perfectly reasonable.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I see Exarcadia dying before having them turned into a home publisher, given the people behind it. And all of their original titles (as in, made internally) are reboots of old games which belong to other companies, so they'd need to make new agreements to get these ported elsewhere in that unlikely future anyway.

[Andrey Aritonov]

exA-Arcadia
I hold 2 units (up to four) around here. For reason 1980-2030, in authenticy.

[Andrey Aritonov]

Suppose "Megadeth" - next year!

[Sumez]

Please never stop posting, Andrey

[Andrey Aritonov]

I'll try, but I can't. As usual

[spmbx]

Please never stop posting, Andrey

rip

[jehu]

I heard the loctest for Cambria Sword AC is supposed to happen by the end of summer. If anyone catches wind of a stream, would you drop a link here? I'll do the same.

Love Vagues, excited to see how the project turned out.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

So I'll be in tokyo next week, and would like to play aka to blue - I'm sure it was mentioned in this thread, but could one of you tell me which arcade(s) in tokyo have it?

[mojilove]

You can search for アカとブルー on this page: https://exa.ac/ja/設置店舗/
(Failing that, you should see it at Hey and Mikado)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm pretty sure the Exa cab at Hirose Entertainment Yard has it. I seem to remember it from when I was there not long ago.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Cheers fellas.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Fuck me, it's great, but brutal. Haven't yet gotten past the second boss
Mikado also has Touhou exa (boring, looks meh, don't understand why anybody would play rhis when they could be playing aka to blue or ddpsdj) and this other top down exa shmup with the yokai and the souls sucking or whatever (even more boring than that touhou nonsense and despite individual illustrations looking decent, ugly as hell in motion). Super princess madelyn was nice, so was Donut dodo do.
I'm going back as soon as I find the time and see how far I can get in aka to blue before my money runs out

[Lemnear]

It's a real shame that many of these games (if not all of them, considering the re-releases/re-arrangements) are confined to the Arcade... Vritra, Infinos and Aka to Blue Type-R are very interesting.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's an arcade platform so to make money they're banking on releasing arcade exclusive versions. Many of the games, including the three you mentioned, were previously released on other platforms. Nothing new, here.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I've played aka to blu on my cellphone a bit, and it's quite a different game. Joystick and buttons is very different from touchscreen controls, and it feels like the game was finetuned a lot and made a lot more brutal as well.
Super Princess Madelyn seems like a very different game as well.

[Lemnear]

It's an arcade platform so to make money they're banking on releasing arcade exclusive versions. Many of the games, including the three you mentioned, were previously released on other platforms. Nothing new, here.

I just found out, Infinos Gaiden looks identical to the standard Exa "Arcade" version.
It's a shame that Vritra only has the graphics update on EXA, it looked really interesting.
Oh well, i think i'll start playing SHMUPS on PC too , the controllers work everywhere anyway.

I've never looked at their catalog, strange how they focused on SHMUPS so much, much more than other current arcade distributors, which almost all have fighting games and the occasional SHMUPS, but so far i've only looked at Taito and SEGA (NESiCAxLive and All.Net), but together they have exactly just 10-12 SHMUPS (while Exa has 21 )
Also strange how EXA commissions new arrangements, but they don't have any proprietary games, usually those who produce cabinets are also developers.
Their selection is also very interesting.

[system11]

I'm hoping to have the funds to buy Cambria Sword for my birthday in some months, I wasn't sold on the art style at first but watching videos it's grown on me. I see Air Gallet is available to order now. I used to own the PCB, it's not one I'd re-buy even at 2010 prices so I'll pass on that.