Insert Coin 09 Live Feed

[Retro_Boy_G]

Theres a live feed up of the insert coin expo in Northampton. http://www.blogtv.com/People/insertcoin-09

[neorichieb1971]

Cool. I will be there tomorrow if all goes well.

Are they selling tickets at the door since my mate didn't get any when he said he would?

[Ex_Mosquito]

ah nifty, I'll be there tomorrow. I hope the Tetris Grand Master cab is set up right with the stick set to 4-way *hint*

[system11]

Totally forgot this was on this weekend. I assume it's possible to just pay at the door? Might drive up there, I'm a stone's throw away, compared to most events. It's the UK Pinball Expo next weekend too.

[DEL]

Good event. It seems that they were making use of a huge cab order - all machines at the event were already sold(ish). So the likelyhood of another similar sized event next year is low I guess. Technology is moving on too, and such cabs will be dying out.

I await to be corrected

Couldn't make it to the 2nd day, but from the looks of the youtube videos, many games were switched overnight, which is good.

[RGC]

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[neorichieb1971]

I went to Northampton today to pay my respects. I met one person I met before but nobody I knew from here.

I thought the show was ok. There were many things that could have been improved.

1) The competitions should have been the highlight of the show with the lights out and the projector screen displaying the matches. I stayed 3 hours or so and never witnessed anything like that.

2) The cabinets were not cleaned up before being played on. Considering the cabs were paid for by members of many forums it would have been nice to see them shine a bit more. On one gradius cabinet I wiped my finger across the screen and it had so much dust on it I couldn't see my finger.

3) I played on one or two cabinets that had buttons that were not operational.

4) Sega Rally 3 was listed as a show stopper, but was not at the event, really disappointed me that did.

It would have been nice if there were meeting points for each forum. So I could have just seen a table with shmups members sipping a beer or something and joined in some chat and found who was who. I didn't feel like asking every single person there who they were etc. Maybe if there is another show we can have a mobile to text so we can gather together quite easily without show hosts help.

Apart from that, it was nice to see alot of cabs on display. Many of them for the first time. I spoke with Grant and Alan for 5 minutes each and they seemed like really nice people. I hope the show was a success and that many shows follow, even if its just a mega Candy cab meet, it can only improve.

[theevilfunkster]

2) The cabinets were not cleaned up before being played on. Considering the cabs were paid for by members of many forums it would have been nice to see them shine a bit more. On one gradius cabinet I wiped my finger across the screen and it had so much dust on it I couldn't see my finger.

Given the time frame we had, this just wasn't possible. A lot of the cabinets arrived in their shipping containers the night before the show, and one at 6am on the Saturday. So it was a mad dash just to get all of the cabinets on and working. Given more time, cleaning, more testing of the controls, assigning the right types of sticks to the right games etc, would have been possible. Something to learn from for next years show which I imagine will be even bigger and better

4) Sega Rally 3 was listed as a show stopper, but was not at the event, really disappointed me that did.

Shit happens! Tekken 6 was supposed to be there too, well it was there in the store room, the fucker wouldn't work

[Icarus]

Great first day, absolutely packed. I think I spent most of my time taking to people which is fine, as I got to catch up with some old faces - DEL, Smraedis, Skykid, Skykid's bro, yosai, charlie chong, markedkiller, spadgy, mulletgeezer, RGC and others, so many to mention that I've forgotten some of them (sorry if I have!). Good to chat with CHI for the first time, and to put names to other faces. Got to play Daifukkatsu 1.5 for the first time too, nice game.

Second day was fun. A bit quieter, so you could get more cab time. Made up for my poor, nervy performance in Saturday's tournament by putting up much better scores for Sunday's - 1.7mil in Feveron TT, 57mil in Ketsui, and a st11 run in Batrider Special for 3.2mil. Put in more time with Ketsui since I'll probably not get to play it again for a while, and was getting 60mil+ to 1-5 on almost every credit, quite happy. Great chatting with everyone who stayed for both days or who popped in for Sunday.

Minor gripes were that some of the sticks were a little too loose, and some of the buttons were sticky (a pain playing Feveron TT on Sunday having to hard-mash to drop Bombs). But they are minor gripes since most of the stuff had arrived only a few hours before the show. First time is always the most difficult with organisation.

Thanks to all the event organisers for setting it up. I owe you a drink, Skykid. ^_-

Here's to next year...?

[Taylor]

It was an awesome weekend, I had a great time. Loads of people there, lots of cabinets and games - more shmups than fighters by my count, too. No great achievements on my part though... 1cc'd both Deathsmiles and Progear and hit the Daifukkatsu loop twice. But I played Espgaluda 2 for the first time (Cave's best looking game?), had a proper play on Ketsui, got kicked in the face by daioujou, etc. Lots of 2 player and credit feeding going on, but what can you do?

I thought the show was ok. There were many things that could have been improved.

Good heavens.

[charlie chong]

it was deffo a good weekend and everything seemed to run smooth despite the cabs arriving so late.. thanks to all the organizers/lifters/fixers especially alan and grant !

i was mad tired all weekend (still am)after failing at sleeping sitting up on the 8 hr night train and going straight to the show with no shower

met loads of folks from here and ao and mainly spent my time on daifukkatsu(this machine was hard to get on!!),ketsui and pork.

big shouts to cools ,icarus,geist,spadgy,rgc,smraedis,chi-ryu,del ,kernow and his mate,the guy in the puffa jacket who entered the tournament on the second day (not sure if i caught your name) and everyone else i spoke to or played some games with!also special thanks to markedkiller for putting me up at the hotel and lending me pink sweets!

somehow i managed to miss both shooter tournies

also it was easy to spot people off here.. just look for the people doing funny scoring who didn't credit feed.. i've got a pic of the worst offender and i will shame him later!

[msm]

I had a great time too - thanks to all the organisers and people lending games/cabs

was great to play DFK again, and see some experts in action, saw someone get ~60+ million on Ketsui which was cool (might have been Icarus i guess?) and saw someone do some scoring tricks on espgaluda 2 which i tried to copy and died horribly.

only complaint i would have is the outrun cab nearly defened me!

i was a bit shy and avoided talking to anyone despite it being quite obvious who the people from here were did briefly talk to Spadgy about the tournament on saturday, which i did pretty crap in.

looking forward to the next one

[Bluce_Ree]

good event.

[Rupert H]

Yeah, truly and fantastic weekend. I don't think I've ever seen that many shmup cabs lined up in a row -- even in Japan. As Spadgy put it: "an Evel Knieval-jumps length of shmups".

I got to put some time into Dai-Fukkatsu which was shockingly easy and seems designed to make you feel like a hero even if you're not. That didn't stop it being outrageously fun though. Got a personal best of reaching 1-5 on Ketsui, which given my dire performance on that game in the tournament, I was quite chuffed with.

It was great to meet and greet the fellow members of Casino Royale. A shame you missed out on the official team photo Ravid. Thanks to Spadgy and Smraedis for the floor space (and Lordstar for the offer), Spadgy once again for organising the tournament which went rather smoothly, and Skykid for the many boards, organising skills and configuring KoF XII with the best and only button layout -- Neo Geo-style. An overall thanks must go to the whole arcade community who were a great bunch of folks and made it a real pleasure to hang out in a drizzly Northampton for two days.

IC09 exceeded my expectations. The range of games on offer was just about perfect (I would have liked to see ESP Ra.De. and Futari, but hey) and the hall was relatively spacious and well air conditioned. If it goes ahead next year I will definitely be involving myself, and if all goes well, maybe leaving with a cab.

[MX7]

Personally, I thought the event was absolutely amazing. The amount of organisation that must have gone in was mind blowing. I had too many highlights to list, but I'll try anyway

DoDonpachi Daifukatsu was brilliant, but much too easy. The wait to get on the cab was just crazy (my girlfriend thought I had gone insane, queuing for so long ). While queuing for my second credit, I got to to chat to forum member Ravid a bit, which was cool. But then on my second credit, I managed to get halfway through stage 5! Which is crazy long. I thought I had just defeated the final boss, but it turned out to be a mid-boss In fact, I was on it so long that I felt guilty for the queue behind me. I think when this gets ported, it'll be a firm favourite, but autobombing, optional or not doesn't really have a place in arcade games.

I played 3 credits of Deathsmiles Mega Black Label too (as it was less popular than 'vanilla' Deathsmiles). My third run took me up to the final boss, or just before, which sucks. Again, very easy, but I rank 1'd the whole thing, so I'm not moaning too much. This game convinced me to get an Xbox 360, frankly. The bi-directional shooting works just great

Guwange was fun to play, I sucked more than usual, but managed to scrape to stage 5. It looked gorgeous on a big screen.

Ketsui failed to wow me this time. It seemed a bit staid and boring, which is odd because I really liked it when it was at Casino.

I swear the B button didn't work for me on Muchi Muchi Pork, but the dude after me had no problems. I wanted to spend a bit more time with this one, after loving it so much at Casino, but I was too frustrated to play again.

Battle Bakraid was set to 3 lives default for some reason. Made for an interesting play. I should have played more Raizing games really

My girlfriend managed to thrash this dude 4 times in a row on Battle Phantasia: he stood up and left without saying a word after his final defeat, looking shamed, arf arf.

We played loads of fighters, but my girlfriend trounced me on all of them. Battle Phantasia and Blaze Blue Further convinced me of my need to swipe an Xbox 360

The Capcom Mini Cute was awesome! A shame it was missing the kick buttons for Street Fighter 2, but I wanted it so badly...

I bought a cool shirt off DJ Lordstar. Felt a bit dorky saying 'lolz i am em ex seven' but he gave me a discount, so no worries. Sound guy.

I found the cosplayers morally offensive.

I saw the shmups crowd from afar... but didn't say hi, because I'm a miserable git. Shame I didn't join in the Royale Team Photo, sounds like the whole gang was there!

The DJs were pretty cool. The music was a bit ear-bleedy, high gain, couldn't hear/see too well on the train back.

I made good use of the bar, and we ended up drinking our way home, which was a nice way to spend a potentially sad journey. God knows how, but I wasn't even hung over the next day. Fate truly smiled on me.

[Taylor]

DFK and Deathsmiles MBL are as easy, or hard, as you want them to be.

Boo, I end up in "and everyone else" on both lists.

[Icarus]

... and see some experts in action, saw someone get ~60+ million on Ketsui which was cool (might have been Icarus i guess?)...

Might have been, I had a 57mil and several 60mil+ runs on Sunday. You should have said hello. ^_-

Boo, I end up in "and everyone else" on both lists.

You should have said hello too. ^_-

[charlie chong]

first pic i found after googling had me on ketsui and the credit feeder guy on muchipork !



im the speccy twat not the long haired cunt

[RGC]

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[cools]

The event was superb Thanks to everyone that turned up.

I was the first to play DFK - at some stupid time in the morning before the third container showed up. Not being massively familiar with Cave output post-DDP I just picked C type and strong, and my first comment was "you what?" as my starting firepower filled the entire screen Very, very pretty, but L3 boss on my first life was a bit daft. The queue was long because it simply loves giving long games.

Would've loved to have gone round and put fresh sticks and buttons in all the cabs but we had no chance in the timeframe we were dealt. That sodding E2 with P1 B2 completely mashed was a real problem - if you saw some guy getting royally pissed off trying to bomb in Psyvariar - that was me. Same with cleaning them up, there was literally no time free.

The Cute did have a kick harness, but it was for CPS2. It wasn't meant for play, hence being tucked away from the other cabs

Esprade didn't make it in due to the lack of freeplay - there were only so many cabs Skykid could shove a credit wire in while sorting everything else. Didn't see a Futari board.

The Outrun cab did get turned down after not very long. Frighteningly loud.

Again, thanks to everyone - the atmosphere from start to finish was superb and I'd happily be a part of it again.

[cools]

Oh, and I forgot to add - thanks to everyone who put some scores on my Psyvariar Revision cart after I stupidly wiped everything trying to turn demo sound on at silly o'clock in the morning. It's nice to not have a screen full of CLS anymore.

[neorichieb1971]

I took a 3 minute video as I did a lap of the cabinets, if anyone is interested I could megaupload it.

Let me know.

[CHI]

what a great event that has been on the first day... shame me and DEL couldn't stay for the next day
it was great hanging out with Spadgy, Smraedis, Taylor, RGC, Rupert H...
had a chance to meet other shmup forum members: Icarus, Lordster, Skykid, Charlie Chong, MSM...
wasn't expecting much on the day but all went good, well balanced with the good and the bad, didn't really play much though: MMP, Ketsui, DDP2, DDP DOJ, mainly DS MBL...
took plenty of pictures and recording gameplay (uploading now so watch this space )...

a big thanks to the people who organized the 'Insert Coin '09'... will be looking forward to the next event

edit: also met MulletGeezer...
EDIT: and Nikism...

[DEL]

Did I win a cab

[cools]

Don't know - I know that SuperPang won the Cyberlead, and whoever won the Cute sold it to penrhos. The Astro, no idea. Could have been you

[DEL]

Ok Cheers Mr Green Shirt

[Lordstar]

Ok Cheers Mr Green Shirt

Yeah that shirt usre was green.

[MX7]

I took a 3 minute video as I did a lap of the cabinets, if anyone is interested I could megaupload it.

Let me know.

Yes please!

I totally forgot to do this

[neorichieb1971]

I am uploading this now. However, its AVC 720p HD resolution and lasts about 4.5 minutes at 348mb.

At least its an alternative to low res youtubes in the other thread, which is where I will put the megaupload link.


Richie.

[Smraedis]

Hey, I really enjoyed it more than lots!
Rushed onto DFK straight away, I like the scoring in it... I got 750 million and then 3.9 billion on the play after!
I played it again right at the end, was really on my way to clear the first loop, and then they turned all the power off just before the stage 5 boss!

Death Smiles seemed forever occupied, but I thought it was quite a good game.

Played a few credits on Bakraid, got a X million score which was quite nice. Cleared Batrider normal course without trying at the end of Saturday too
Had a bit of fun on Psyvariar Revision, the stick wasn't good enough though, and down went down-left a lot of the time. CHI's video of Spadgy and myself on Psyvariar is too great, my hand is moving way too fast.
Oh DDP2 is a fun game, like that some... the Radiant Silvergun 2 button version was disappointing though.

The shmups tournaments were nice, grats to DEL and Icarus on that, I like how the 4 namakoteam members took the top two places in each day. I never thought I would have made it through Ketsui, as I have no clue on the game.

I tried to talk to everyone, and it was great to see some new people, thanks for the nice comments too!