Cannot wait! A Personal Holy Grail STG is on its way to me!

[OSG86]

I wanted to post this as early this AM I FINALLY got the word that it will be out in the mail carrier's hands shortly and on its way to me!

On the 1st of the month, I paid for my 1st real/legitimate STG PCB for my "new" Nova Blast Jamma candy cabinet. I am a big fan of "classic" STG's as well as Danmaku's and most everything inbetween that is a legitimate STG..."8 way movement, scrolling stages, bullets and bullet patterns, popcprn Zako's, mini bosses and bosses....all that good stuff.

I lucked upon a Battle Bakraid Unlimited PCB for sale and after talking to the seller it was mine! I currently only have a PGM and Conversions of Espgaluda, Ketsui, and DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label which aee fantastic as well.
I PAID on the first and have been waiting till finally today I got tracking so hallelujah !

I wanted to post an image of the PCB, however there is no way I can see in which to do so. No selection for inserting/uploading images anywhere so .

The PCB was listed as Hong Kong version but was confirmed to be China. Ill update for sure but it only released in Japan, US, China from my research.

Its my favorite of the "Bat" series and I love that its loaded with content.
My goal is going to be to 1CC every mode and the Special Course before I even consider getting deep into it. Thats also why I love it....beside the Cave-esque bullets and such.

I know its a "Black Sheep" of the Trilogy but that personally draws me to it even more. Its honestly yhe most balanced which is a huge positivity imho. And no, Suiciding doesnt matter to me if it becomes necessary which may never happen if I cant get through(1CC) all the modes with more than 1 ship either as I mainly play STG's for fun and for the personal 1CC challenge mostly.

I know users here arenpretty divided, but I am a big fan of Toaplan, COMPILE, Raizing, Cave, Takumi, Capcom, Taito, Irem, Psikyo among many many other fantastic STG development companies.

Anyways, wanted to share my excitement as while I would like for this stroke of luck to be a sign of things to come....I am not holding my breath there.

Anyone else here a fan of Battle Bakraid/Battle Bakraid Unlimited?

[BulletMagnet]

Anyone else here a fan of Battle Bakraid/Battle Bakraid Unlimited?

Really generic presentation, but lots of fun otherwise. Shame it's never been ported.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For OSG86,

How is the Unico Blast candy cab?

Congrats on scoring the Raizing/8ing Battle Bakraid pcb. You might want to see about getting the legendary "Armed Police Batrider" jamma pcb as well. The Korea version of APB pcb is presented entirely in English.

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Getting any of the classic Cave jamma pcbs such as Donpachi, DoDonpachi, the real genuine single layer PGM-based DoDonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou pcb (with both White Label & Black Label versions via an eprom swap upgrade circa 2014), DoDonpachi Dai-Fukkatsu v1.5 and it's counterpart of DoDonpachi Dai-Fukkatsu Black Label and lastly, the much desired & lusted after 2012 released Cave CV-1000D based jamma pcb of Dodonpachi Sai-Dai-Ou-Jou are all worthy of your time to slowly acquire them -- plenty of patience and some good ol' fashioned "lady luck" as well not mention some very deep monetary pockets nowadays indeed.

There exists a special "Debugging Version" variant DDP-SDOJ pcb also -- only one known to exist in the world. Not to mention the uber-rare "DoDonpachi Campaign Version" jamma pcb as well -- there's talk about DDP-CV being released as an exclusive Exa-Arcadia stg in the nearby future (considering it's never been released to the general public and is quite a valuable unreleased Cave stg IP as it is).
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Welcome to this board; I'm sure you'll find plenty of fans of Yagawa's games to talk to.
The PGM Cave games are a fantastic start to a great collection; DDPDOJ and Ketsui are absolute bangers.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For OSG86,

Yagawa also did both Cave CV-1000 jamma pcbs of Ibara and Ibara Kuro (Black). Back in 2006-2007, it was possible to buy a full complete kit of Ibara for a mere $350.00 usd (of course, those days are long gone of scoring one on the cheap).

For it's premiere initial debut with the Cave CV-1000 based arcade platform, Cave used a CR2450 based coin-type lithium battery for RTC (Real Time Clock) functionality purposes with it's Ibara jamma pcb release -- how cool is that? On a certain stage, the huge clock shown in the "Rose Garden" background scenery does, indeed, show the correct time as well during demo runs and in actual "in-game" play sessions as well.

I see that you're missing out on the amazing treasure trove of classic PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 stgs -- there are 113 different ones to try out with a Krikzz Turbo Everdrive Pro flash cart setup (including the classic Gunhed/Blazing Lazers circa 1989 from developer Compile, Super Star Soldier & Soldier Blade both from famed dev Compile also, Magical Chase in both it's original Japanese & uber-rare American TurboGrafx-16 release interations courtesy of TTI (Turbo Technologies Incorporated), the Super CD-Rom2 stgs of Gate of Thunder & Winds of Thunder/Lords of Thunder and even the sole PC Engine Arcade CD-Rom2 stg release of "Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire" are all worthy of your time. No need to buy an NEC manufactured PC Engine CD-Rom 2 Interface Unit add-on, the optional NEC manufactured PC Engine Super CD-Rom2 Interface Unit add-on nor a TurboGrafx CD add-on unit either, just a barebones PC Engine or TG-16 gaming console & a TE-P flash cart and you're good to go (or just buy a brand new "Analogue Duo" console and you're all set).

For the 35th anniversary celebration of the PC Engine back in 2022 since it's initial debut back in 1987, PCE Works released an unknown prototype PCE stg title by the name of "Dino Force" making it the very last official PCE game to be released in the 21st century era -- it's playable with either a Turbo Everdrive v2.5 or Turbo Everdrive Pro setup as usual (just d/l the Dino Force game rom off of the PCE Works site as it's provided "free of charge").

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What's awesome about hooking up a dedicated gaming console to a candy cab setup is, you get the best of both arcade & dedicated console gaming worlds -- go with an Arthimus manufactured "JammaIZER v2.0" pcb to hook up your favorite gaming consoles via Euro Scart interface cables and you're all set in that particular department. Why settle for using a candy cab just solely for arcade jamma pcbs when making it dual-purpose with both arcade & console gaming at their best. It doesn't get any better than that, OSG86.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[OSG86]

For OSG86,

How is the Unico Blast candy cab?

Congrats on scoring the Raizing/8ing Battle Bakraid pcb. You might want to see about getting the legendary "Armed Police Batrider" jamma pcb as well. The Korea version of APB pcb is presented entirely in English.

----------
Getting any of the classic Cave jamma pcbs such as Donpachi, DoDonpachi, the real genuine single layer PGM-based DoDonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou pcb (with both White Label & Black Label versions via an eprom swap upgrade circa 2014), DoDonpachi Dai-Fukkatsu v1.5 and it's counterpart of DoDonpachi Dai-Fukkatsu Black Label and lastly, the much desired & lusted after 2012 released Cave CV-1000D based jamma pcb of Dodonpachi Sai-Dai-Ou-Jou are all worthy of your time to slowly acquire them -- plenty of patience and some good ol' fashioned "lady luck" as well not mention some very deep monetary pockets nowadays indeed.

There exists a special "Debugging Version" variant DDP-SDOJ pcb also -- only one known to exist in the world. Not to mention the uber-rare "DoDonpachi Campaign Version" jamma pcb as well -- there's talk about DDP-CV being released as an exclusive Exa-Arcadia stg in the nearby future (considering it's never been released to the general public and is quite a valuable unreleased Cave stg IP as it is).
----------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Heya man!

Honestly it really comes down to your mindset and expectations that are going to determine how you feel about the Nova Blast.
I personally am a huge fan of the idea and its something Ive wanted to see especially available to people in the US/UK for a VERY long time. I will say personally I am thrilled with it for what it is and what it does once its working. I also am able to look past many flaws and things that really irk/irritate most people.
I could duscuss the Nova Blast for hours and dats straight but I will try to keep it somewhere within tge realm of reason.

My experience has been very poor and there are realistically no excuses for many of the issues, but at the same time I could do no better as I struggled to afford this and simply see it for WHAT it is, and I love it for that reason. Also, I absolutely love and have also wanted for a very long time a bartop Candy Cabinet as not everyone has open floor space and I am currently using mine ontop of a dresser. BAM! Perfecto!
I ordered and got the U2 model of it for multiple reasons especially for the fact it most reminds me of a true Candy Cabinet in its looks/shape namely the Astro City which is a personal favorite.

First off, I want to say Unicos Customer Service is beyond deplorable and I truely want to see this thing successful and a long term supported unit whos idea etc can be "copied" by other companies and executed in their versions bringing more Versitle Candy Cabinet's to the US/UK for sensible costs as thats another major factor that made me want thus as badly as I did and get it at any means which I also did.

The monitor on this is of very low quality...it heats up good and I worry is going to be a major factor in the long term. Quite a few people have already needed them replaced due to failure/breaking down and these are the ONLY current 4:3 LCD arcade cabinet monitors that have been made to support HDMI/VGA/RGB device inputs so its a very worrying aspect. While it is a 1440×1080 resolution, it seems to have issues with some types of games...I want to say The quality is low-mid overall as far as the monitor is concerned. Its useable but very cheap with no distinguishing features and very plain presentation.

Overall id say the cabs worth getting but it all depends on what you can put up with and what your expectations are. Such as, it says it uses an arcade power supply, however when you see it theres no arcade switching power supply just a genericish one with an extra plug outlet inside on the PSU and its just 5V or thereabouts as some in the discord have tested it and its simply like Around 5.16 or so on the multimeter iirc. I dont have one so cant say on my own terms.

I have lots of damage as when I got mine for example the back security door was loose and it broke the monitor power cable almost snapped it in half on the male end into the monitor, the wooden shelf was loose and chipped in multiple areas, the "hinges" for the security doors tabs are bent inwards broken off the welding in the far right/left corners, and the Bezel is broken ofcourse but I have all 4 corners broken off and a big crack in the lower left side that extends not quite fully into the clear area.
Thats the worst if it.

It took until the end of march to get me a replacement cable and they lied as they tend to do(like I said Customer Service is abhorrent and it takes forever to get anything). However it came with 20 silver unique "Nova Blast" "Unico" tokens so I thought thats a nice touch as they dont/cant sell them due to Chinese gambling laws.

I still need a new Bezel but I glued on my 4 broken corner pieces and its "good enough" until I finally do. They havn't released the "Phoenix Pro" monitor for sale yet as they stated and I think I know why. So there is no monitor you can BUY to replace if needed yet, however the Arcooda is being worked on supposedly to become compatible with the Nova Blast. All the monitors they are getting go to replacing busted ones. They NEED to do things differently for this to succeed, but they obviously have 0 intention of it.

I use mine daily and sometimes leave it on overnight as I love the attract screen playing on games running via my ROG ALLY X handheld gaming PC & FBNeo.

I am a big CAVE and STG fan(read my intro). I know about everything you have mentioned and more. I love it all as well. I want to get atleast an ESPRaDe PCB and if thats the only one I get of Caves thats fine with me.

As of this writing, I am told I am waiting for UPS to get ahold of the package though im starting to get impatient. I wish I had a PCE and Krikkz or TerraOnion ODE Everdrive as its my Favorite 16 bit console followed by Mega Drive. I do atleast have a Saturn and Fenrir-Kai+VCD Card, however Brook Wingman SDs arent made/sold anymore and idk what else to look for to get to connect my Saturn Controller Port(s) to a USB to use my cabinets CP.

I also want to eventually get Seimitsu Sticks atleast as the Sanwa JLF's are just a bit tooo loosey goosey for me. Buttons are good enough. The CP on the Nova Blast has both whatever the input is as well as uses X-input or whatnot so it can be used with most anything as it uses that GP2040 or whatever encoder.

I currently only have a PGM and the 3 Cave Conversion games as real Jamma games so I am VERY antsy awaiting this PCB but the wait will be worth it. Its from Sheep on AP so I KNOW I will get it eventually its just a matter of WHEN.

I plan to over the next 8 months or so aquire a SEGA STV, Taito F3, and Capcom CPS2 A board and get the Darksoft multi's for each one. Those are while very expensive very reasonable overall and worth the cost to have access to many fantastic STG's perfectly arcade accurate.
I also eventually want a Capcom I/O and SEGA Naomi 1 Netdimm/Piforce setup but when im ready for that Ill need to find it fully assembled as I have no knowledge nor interest in assembling it all piece by piece.

And I laugh at the Cave Bootlegs/repros and Multi being sold as these idiots are trying to use the fact the legit games are super costly as a reason to sell them wayyy over the cost of parts+work done to assemble/crete them. So I will have none of it as I dont play those games. I am only trying to assemble a reasonable set of multis and possibly a few select legitimate single game PCBs to play so in less than a few years time I will have enough to simply casually play while getting the legit experience as well as to really practice/try to 1CC select games from the multi's or single game PCBs.

Personally, the only games by Cave I would WANT to own in legit form would in total be either Death Smiles, EspRaDe, Donpachi, Mushihimesama, Progear(but ima have that from the multi thankfully), any one of Pink Sweet/Muchi Pork/Ibara, or Dai-Fukkatsu tbh. Just 2-3 of them max would make me happy. Until then I can only play the PGM w/ graphical issues and the Atlus 68000 games emulated.
I will get DDP 2: Bee Storm eventually as I enjoy it and accept its no Cave game.
I also plan on a MiSTer of some sort someday for close to perfect "classic" consoles and supported Arcade PCBs/hardware as well.

I gotta be careful however as some have mentioned issues with select types of PCBs with display and needing special parts/hardware etc to run given the cheap build/parts etc of the cab+monitor.

So thats my plan/goal with the Nova Blast.

I love my Unico/SNK Neo Geo MVSX I downgraded and put Hylox on. Until I am ready its fine enough as-is but eventually im putting a real 1 slot and 161 in 1 multi in it to get perfect accuracy as stated also on my intro.

Im not new to gaming or whatever just the board itself.

I would dig a PCE or a Turbo mini for the time being but last I saw they way too over priced. Same with Mega Drive mini that can run Sega CD.

I want to get my Jailbroken PS3 set up to run some stuff like PCE+MD but all that's currently over my head etc. So I am just gonna put PSX+PS2 games on it. Id also like a 360 perhaps simply for running them Cave+other STG ports.
Aside from select hardware and Arcade games, I no longer despite owning nada basically now, have 0 interest in getting games themselves anymore as its all been overtly ruinined for me and I dont support paying for downloads you cant trade/swap towards other games in the future if you have enough of them and want something new.

I have very little $ honestly and simply just want access to Arcade games I have a strong passion for myself as to me Arcade gaming is perfection. Blissful Death is a
fantastic way imho to describe the feeling playing Arcade gaming/STGs etc. I value accuracy very highly but also accept reality so my overall goal i expect to hit and be more than satisfied with playing for the rest of my days. I wont be able to get anything once I leave where I am currently either, so it is what it is. Ive never been reserved before but im both happy and disgusted/disappointed and feel many people have disrespected the true essence of gaming especially "Classic" gaming so I can only deal as best as I can.

As I have never used PC's for gaming/emulation until literally just now(well a little back in 95-97/98 but stopped then), I have quite a bit of no cost Doujin Arcade style STGs to discover and I look forward to playing/experiencing some if them with ChoRenSha and another that begins with a B(blue I think )and has Blade at the end that uses jets and says its got a Dodonpachi-like system to it im looking forward to as my first 2.
I know theres a lot though and I have a loooong way go with learning/understanding how to use this handheld PC but I know its gonna be well worth the headache/frustration once I get more than just FBNeo working.

I also am loving my Egret II mini despite it only having 8-10 total built in games of any interest. The MVSX had more that interested me and that had 0 STGs haha, but its beautiful in every other respect/aspect.
I really now want and hope to get the Astro City mini and especially Astro City Mini V despite the bad/poor/incorrect aspect ratio screen among other things.

Thanks for the suggestions and reply and such. The enthusiasm/passion for these is whats up and is strong in ya and I'm happy to see that shit.

[OSG86]

@PC ENGINE FAN X....

I also wanted to let you know and add that the Nova Blast also has trouble with Medium Resolution Games (24khz) which have issues. They need a scaler to display properly for whatever reason. That has been found to be another issue among many such as LOW volume for HDMI/VGA/RGB connected devices, and a louder but with crackling sound issue with Jamma sourced games.

I am not sure if any of the Jamma PCBs I am after are higher than 15khz(CPS2, Taito F3, SEGA STV) but if so, I will need a compatible converter for sure.
I am trying to put as little into the cabinet as possible for now as my main focus is getting what I consoder to be a fair selection of games playable via Jamma. And yes, while I wont be needing it as I dont play fighters and am keeping the screen in TATE MODE until I get my first multi...the cabinet did come with CPS board harness's and a Seimitsu stick joystick plate.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

@PC ENGINE FAN X....

I also wanted to let you know and add that the Nova Blast also has trouble with Medium Resolution Games (24khz) which have issues. They need a scaler to display properly for whatever reason. That has been found to be another issue among many such as LOW volume for HDMI/VGA/RGB connected devices, and a louder but with crackling sound issue with Jamma sourced games.

I am not sure if any of the Jamma PCBs I am after are higher than 15khz(CPS2, Taito F3, SEGA STV) but if so, I will need a compatible converter for sure.
I am trying to put as little into the cabinet as possible for now as my main focus is getting what I consoder to be a fair selection of games playable via Jamma. And yes, while I wont be needing it as I dont play fighters and am keeping the screen in TATE MODE until I get my first multi...the cabinet did come with CPS board harness's and a Seimitsu stick joystick plate.

For OSG86,

The arcade platforms of Capcom CPS2, Taito F3 and Sega Titan STV are all 15.7kHz low-res to begin with, so no need to buy a downscaler. Thank you for your very detailed observations and fascinating insights with your Unico Blast Nova candy cab bartop -- I'm thinking about getting one. The Sega Naomi 1 does output in both 15.7hHz (320 x 240 res) and 31kHz (640 x 480 res) formats indeed.

Yes, the Konami released PC Engine/Core Grafx/TurboGrafx-16 Mini consoles are awesome to own/play, especially with "save states" for all games provided including the legendary Arcade CD-Rom2 stg of Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire. The 2.4ghz wireless 8bitdo PCE gamepad setup is great in that "Look Ma, no pesky gamepad controller wires to have to deal/contend with" is ace in my book.

Plus with the 3rd-party released "Game Controller Adapter" for use on a real PCE or TG-16 console, the 8bitdo wireless PCE/TG-16 gamepads work like a charm as well (something that the rare & expensive official 1st-party NEC released wireless PCE gamepad requires "direct line of sight with" the RF receiver to work properly -- you really don't need to point an 8bitdo PCE wireless gamepad directly at the 2.4gHz wireless usb receiver dongle anyways which really brings true wireless gameplay functionality nowadays is simply awesome and very well done).

Of course, game console manufacturers only had the current "state-of-the-art" RF technology in dealing with wireless gamepads and arcade sticks back in the 1980s and into the early 1990s -- that was the way how it was back in those days (the 3rd-party Acclaim manufactured "Double Play" RF-based wireless gamepads + RF receiver for the NES gaming console comes to mind with four "AAA" batteries needed per controller for everything to work properly as intended).

Nowadays, with the advent of 2.4ghz wireless and Bluetooth protocols (BT 5.0 is the latest spec), wireless gamepads are truly a technological marvel in the 21st century let alone applied to classic retro gaming consoles such as the Sega MD/Genesis & NEC PCE/TG-16. We are truly living in the "Golden Age of Retro Gaming Revival" and the modern day upgrades that accompany them. So be it.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~