Akihabara's Arcades - A Video Tour:

[JAPJAC]

Part 1/2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1u9R0ipxUo

Part 2/2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJCkkPmjGpc

Games featured are:

Street Fighter II' Turbo.
Dai Makai-Mura/Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
Progear No Arashi.
Monkey Ball.
Spikeout - Final Edition.
Yakyuu Kakutou League-Man/Ninja Baseball Bat Man.
The Punisher.
Street Fighter Zero 3.
Ketsui.
Miscellaneous Cave Maniac Shoot 'em-ups.
The Outfoxies.

Ultimate Ecology.
Alien vs. Predator.
Final Fight.
RayForce.
R-Type.
The Ninja Warriors.
Poly Stars - Tobe!
Splatter House.
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper.
Moonwalker.
Captain Commando.
Tenchi o Kurau II.
Wonder 3/The Three Wonders (Roosters/Midnight Wanderers).
Wonders 3/The Three Wonders (Chariot).
Darius Burst-Another Chronicle.
Star Wars Trilogy Arcade.
Sega Rally 3.
Daytona 2-Power Edition.
Darius II.
Parodius Da!
Hishou Same/Flying Shark.
Tatsujin Ou.
Gradius/Nemesis.
Nebulasray.
Viewpoint.
Miracle Adventure/Spin Masters.
Assault.
Robocop.

Enjoy.

Cheers.

[DEL]

Thanks Mr English speaking expert.
Good to see Poly Stars, Darius Burst and Star Wars Trilogy arcade.

[Skykid]

Dunno why the opening music is so sombre, but no complaints about the rest of the content. Good to see Assault, haven't played that in 20 years.

[Leandro]

wow at the record on the final fight machine

[Pointman]

I don't get it. I just watched 20 minutes of demo screens, I could have turned on MAME to see alot of them. Without having a visual reference these could have been taken anywhere. It would have been nice to know what arcade each game was in.

[greg]

I don't get it. I just watched 20 minutes of demo screens, I could have turned on MAME to see alot of them. Without having a visual reference these could have been taken anywhere. It would have been nice to know what arcade each game was in.

Oh, come on. They weren't all demo screens. These were great videos.

On my next trip, I want to take some videos of lesser-known game centers. I did a walkthrough of Hey last summer, but next I want to do some coverage of other arcades in Nakano or Shimokitazawa. Everyone always thinks of Akihabara, but there are some other great places to do some gaming too.

[Ruldra]

It's amazing to see so many old (but great) games there. Plenty of them are impossible to see in the arcades around here. We're stuck with endless cabs of Metal Slug, King of Fighters and Dance Dance Revolution. Only shmup you might see - if you're lucky - is Strikers 1945+.

Robocop brings back memories I was like 5 years old when I last saw that game running in an arcade.

[JAPJAC]

I'm glad you enjoyed my videos.

They were quite labour intensive to make as filming in Akihabara's arcades is strictly forbidden.

I had to be well sneaky I tell thee or just simply ignore the annoying autonomous staff. I think the results were worth the effort even if I say so myself.

There is and always has been countless of stills of inside Japanese arcades on the internet but not so many actual videos of this quality probably for the reason above (if not so, I would love to see you Tube Tube links please).

Definitely for those that like to see their PCB stuff as if they were looking at the real RGB screen themselves (complete with all the background noise for full effect) as opposed to through some video capture card via an emulator. Not every one has been lucky enough to visit a Tokyo game centre and so those are the people I made my videos for this time.

Cheers.

[GaijinPunch]

They were quite labour intensive to make as filming in Akihabara's arcades is strictly forbidden.

Japan's fear of cameras is one of the most annoying things about living here.

[Skykid]

Japan's fear of cameras is one of the most annoying things about living here.

Japan has a fear of cameras?

That explains why they're the most snap happy tourists I've ever seen in my life. Freedom to photograph!

[Pointman]

Oh, come on. They weren't all demo screens. These were great videos.

Nah I don't buy it sorry. There is nothing to stop me from filming some demo screens on my cab and editing them together to make them appear to be in an arcade. A friend of mine filmed some nice footage of a walkthrough of HEY and I myself filmed a walkthrough of Mikado a year or so back. Each one took in the ambience of each place and gave a good idea of what a Japanese game centre looks like. While I can appreciate that filming in an arcade can be difficult (certainly to get a nicely filmed shot) but there was no visual reference in there to differentiate filming a cab to being in an arcade. It would have been nice if you'd have panned back to get a look at each arcade.

Kudos to you for the effort, but it just seemed a little soulless to me.

[greg]

Well, I believe JAPJAC was focusing on the actual games themselves, not just the arcade itself. He's showing what types of great games that can be found. Good luck finding League Man in an arcade in the US or UK, or most other countries, for that matter.

BTW, share your videos of Hey! Here's a playlist of the videos I took last year: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 74A69D0162 I was stopped once from filming some of the UFO Catchers. I should've just put that bit into one of the vids anyway, though.

[Pointman]

Thanks for the Youtube links Greg.

Now those videos explain exactly what I mean, you had a brilliant approach to showing an arcade and had pretty much the same content as JAPJAC's (albeit without mood setting music) A person who hadn't been to a Japanese game centre would get much more from that than just looking at demo screens. From the title of the thread (and from the mouth of the man himself) it's pretty revealing that he wanted to show off the arcades rather than just the games.

I'll have to see if I can dig out my arcade vids, they are no doubt hidden on a disc someplace

[greg]

Well, my vids and JAPJAC's vids are two different approaches. His videos are more of a showcase of the actual games themselves, so essentially his videos show off the games themselves and not so much the actual arcades. I like both ways, and actually I did a sort of compromise of both for a local Japanese-style game center where I live here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 1B0BA2809F

JAPJAC's videos were rather informative, I thought. The only unnecessary part was showing Akihabara with the video technique to make it look like the footage was taken during the 1930s. That was kinda pointless, but the vids were great anyway.

But anyway, it would be nice if you could post your video footage up on Youtube, if you have an account. Or if you wanna do a fileshare, I could put it up on my channel and I'd give you credit for it.

[Drachenherz]

Loved the videos. Good to know that there still is a place on earth where all those games can still live in their natural habitat, the arcade.

And I almost feinted as I saw how many blast cities were there... You know, I just grow so fond of this kind of candy cab... :awe:

[Bloodreign]

I enjoy seeing arcade games in their natural habitat, brings me back to my youth. I've had a chance to play SF 3 Third Strike in one of those Blast City's, takes a bit getting used to the sticks on the thing.

I'd love to see some of the Bubble Bobble series titles played in an arcade cab, but I've never seen one in these kind of videos.

[GaijinPunch]

That explains why they're the most snap happy tourists I've ever seen in my life. Freedom to photograph!

You might as well be asking to finger someone in the ass if you're trying to take a picture of their product.

[JAPJAC]

Pointman-I would love to see some of your videos featuring Japanese arcades.

greg-Nice videos, I am a subscriber of yours after all.

Pointman & greg-My latest two videos were intended to actually concentrate on the games this time obviously BUT to be fair, I have done others; a) In the style that greg prefers and b) In the style that Pointman does. I believe I have done my best to try and please all viewers, for free, for fun and to simply share with others our mutual passion. My ugly boat ain't in these vids.

JAPJAC's Mikado Tokyo Arcade Vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwBBDyqx4FU

This was the first (and only?) walkabout vid of the new Mikado on You Tube.

JAPJAC's Nebulasray Attract And Try Amusement Tower Vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUmRtQyvQPU

This was also the first walkabout vid of the new Try Amusement Tower on You Tube.

Pointman-I hope these are more to your liking.

Taito Hey! vids are two a penny so I've never really needed to do a walkabout one but I might do so in the future as well as one for the fantastic new Club Sega in Akihabara.

Cheers.

[greg]

Again, awesome videos! I thought I'd subscribed to your channel already, but apparently I hadn't. I guess I only connected with you on Twitter. Subbed now!

I went to Try with Eight One back in '04 and watched him play the one-of-a-kind Dodon Pachi black label or whatever it was called, with the updated graphics that were on par with DOJ. S@Y is also another great game center in Akihabara with a good selection of classics.

I haven't been to the Mikado in Takadanobaba. Very unassuming front, with a great selection inside! The first second or so of the video I can hear the train platform melody for Takadanobaba. I have that melody as my cell phone ringtone for when my wife calls me. That's gotta be right next to the train station.

There are some great game centers in Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa, and I'm sure so many others I don't yet know about. My wife will be visiting Japan for three months starting next month, if everything goes as planned. I'll go crazy if I can't go myself, so I will try to manage my money and time in order to go too, at least for a week and a half. And stay at least four nights in Tokyo by myself, too.

[GaijinPunch]

There are some great game centers in Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa, and I'm sure so many others I don't yet know about.

"Were" would be the operative word here. Shibuya literally has one that's good. Definitely not great. The 50 yen price tag makes it worth going to. It used to have many. Ikebukuro had one a while back but I've not been in years. Shimo's has gone tits as well (unless there's one hidden somewhere in it's many nooks & crannies).

[greg]

I was going through some old photographs and I found a pic of that one-of-a-kind Dodonpachi campaign version game. I took this pic when it was on display in Try Amusement Tower with Eight One back in '04.

[greg]

Shibuya literally has one that's good. Definitely not great. The 50 yen price tag makes it worth going to.

Hey GP, I forgot to ask. You're talking about Adores in Shibuya, right?