Japan shooting scene

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Ord
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Post by Ord »

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote: I'm off to go and mount a blue ashtray on my X-Arcade right now...gotta run!
:lol: I was very tempted to pinch one of those!
Ikaruga review now up in PLASMA BLOSSOM
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landshark
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Post by landshark »

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:Awesome pics man!!! You totally made my day now.

I'm off to go and mount a blue ashtray on my X-Arcade right now...gotta run!

Hey, am I just a freak, or do all those storefront lights/signs look like GIANT Spine Cards!!!??? :o
(second pic, to the left. Looks like I side profile of a giant import Dreamcast game) The arcade itself, looks like a shelf housing at least 5 PC-Engine cd's.
They do look like spine cards. And when I look at those places, it just screams fun.

I miss the old days back in Wisconsin Dells walking down the strip as a kid and seeing the big lit-up fronts of the arcades - no doors, it was just open from the street, lots of lights, lots of sounds, lots of fun.
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TWITCHDOCTOR
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Post by TWITCHDOCTOR »

I remember the Wisconsin Dells "strip"!
I too was there when I was a child...the thing I remember the most was that awseome "wax museum". This was back in the mid 70's though...so it probably isn't there today.

I want to move to Japan and live across the street from that arcade.
Heh, I could play guitar on the street corner for spare change...in quarters of course, uh, I mean Yen, or something.
Anyone wanna "roomate" with me over there?
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landshark
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Post by landshark »

My family (entire family) had a farm on the outskirts of town where we used to go for vacation. We sold it off 10 years ago, split up the land, and it's now hunting land ;)

But I used to go up to the Dells all the time. In all that time, I had only been to the wax museum once. I remember, every morning we'd eat across the street from "Haunted Dungeon" or something like that.

I'm gonna take a trip up there next month or so when it gets nicer so i can see what's happened to the place.

I'm quite fearful at how the land has developed. I've heard through the grapevine that houses have sprung up everywhere and may be intruding on the seclusion I so loved up there. It was nice being able to shoot and not have to worry about where the bullet was going because there was nobody for miles.
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dave4shmups
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Post by dave4shmups »

Great pictures man; thanks for sharing!

Oh how I wish there was an arcade culture like that here in the states! :( Seriously, it's been 8 years since I was in an honest-to-goodness arcade! (I'm not counting mostly virtual reality joints like Dave & Busters.) And that was one on my college campus that was removed after my freshman year ('96-'97). :(
"Farewell to false pretension
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Farewell, tomorrow burns"
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IlMrm
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Post by IlMrm »

Thanks for the pics!

HEY! is heaven on Earth. The skills of the players there are mind-boggling.

I see the ground's wet. It was raining pretty much everyday when I was there back in October. I had to endure typhoon 22 and 23, which was quite an experience.
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Dave_K.
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Post by Dave_K. »

Why is it that pictures I see of japanese arcades seem mostly empty? How can they stay in business with that many machines and nobody playing them?
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Ord
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Post by Ord »

Dave_K. wrote:Why is it that pictures I see of japanese arcades seem mostly empty? How can they stay in business with that many machines and nobody playing them?
It's weird because they actually wern't that empty, contrary to what the photo's show. There was a crowd of about 14 people watching a big screen that had a guy playing Mushihimesama on ultra.
VERY blurry pic -
Image
You have to remember that these arcades have 4 or 5 floors. On the 3rd floor at HEY! it's beat em ups or tournament fighters, 4th floor racing games/light gun games etc.
Ikaruga review now up in PLASMA BLOSSOM
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landshark
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Post by landshark »

Ord wrote: You have to remember that these arcades have 4 or 5 floors. On the 3rd floor at HEY! it's beat em ups or tournament fighters, 4th floor racing games/light gun games etc.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:(
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zimeon
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Post by zimeon »

Dave_K. wrote:Why is it that pictures I see of japanese arcades seem mostly empty? How can they stay in business with that many machines and nobody playing them?
Everybody who's gone to Japan wonders why the country can kep going with the prices they have. Sometimes you and a friend go into a restaurant at a good hour, you're the only customer, and there are three people waiting on you... you stay for 2 hours, pay your bill for, say $50 och $60... I mean, it's not even enough to pay the waiters fee!

And two years later, the place is still running!

Or, as given above, you enter this huge arcade hall... and on the shmup floor there is basically nobody.

I don't know how they do it. But they do. One thing I like with Japan is that sometimes it seems they're more prone to give good service than to maximize profit every second. Meaning you can actually have a not-so-popular arcade machine standing in a corner, when it probably would be more profitable exchanging it for another Pop'n'music or something. When I entered arcade halls to find Mushihime-sama, virtually nobody was sitting by the shmup machines. Maybe they come in hordes at some specific times...
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