Hudson Caravan 2011

[originalz]

Last weekend was Master Takahashi's all-night Caravan festival, being a fan of these games I decided to check it out. It was an 11 hour event allowing one to compete in one of 7 games (Star Force, Star Soldier, Hector, Blazing Lazers/Gunhed, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Soldier Blade) in 2 minute mode. I'm personally a big fan of R and asked Takahashi why it wasn't in the lineup, his reply was that it was never officially a caravan game. There were also several events throughout the night and some guest appearances. Unfortunately, my photographer ended up getting sick so he couldn't attend, the only pictures I got were from my cell phone which aren't worth uploading. Ah well, at least I took lots of notes!

I entered Soldier Blade and got 3rd place overall, the prize was a signed Hudson book published in the 80s talking about the history and current (for the time) work environment. The other prizes included some VHS tapes of things I didn't really recognize, along with other promotional materials. I was satisfied with the outcome, considering that I'm really out of practice. Heh, I'll definitely train harder when the 2012 festival comes up!

They had the world record holder for Soldier Blade and Star Soldier R there, that guy knows how to play. Didn't compete in the tournament but showed off his skills for exhibition. He also played a round of Final Soldier for fun, really impressive. He milked the boss perfectly and destroyed it just at the last second.

Master Takahashi seemed really concerned about the Konami buyout and constantly poked fun about it during the night. He says that he hopes that it doesn't effect his ability to keep running these events, apparently no one at Hudson really knows how this is going to change the company.

The scene was pretty cool, lots of hardcore shooting fans who have been playing since back in the day, even had returners who used to compete in the Caravans in the 80s. Got a good reaction out of everyone when I went up to do my run, I suppose being the only foreigner there will do that.

60 people competed. Hector was the most unpopular game there, with only a few people signing up. Takahashi mentioned at the end that he might get rid of it in the next tournament, but there was an outcry from the audience against it. The winner was some loud-mouthed girl that only signed up for the game because hardly anyone else did. She did know how to play the game and was pretty decent at it, although Takahashi kept making fun of her while she was playing (with her response being "shut up! I'm in 1st place!").

Someone brought an American NES copy of Star Force, which was published by Tecmo. The game is slightly different from the Japanese version, which people found interesting.

Someone created a homebrew Caravan-style shooter for the Famicon, entitled Blade Buster. Really impressive graphics and music, seemed to capture the spirit of a caravan game pretty well. The same maker also created a custom cart which had all of the NES caravan shooters put together (the special tournament versions with no normal game mode) to present to Takahashi. He was so impressed that he used the cart for the tournament.

Overall it was an awesome event!

[BIL]

Thanks for writing this up. I've always thought these live caravan events sound interesting.

[Skykid]

Really interesting read, many thanks.

[Dave_K.]

We need Lordstar to create a shmups forum t-shirt so members who go to events like this can properly represent.

Thanks for the update originalz!

[Shocky]

Thanks for the super-interesting report! And congrats for taking third place, very respectable effort for a gaijin =) But how did they compare different games to each other in the overall results? Where was this event held, and is it gonna happen again (when)?

[originalz]

Thanks for the super-interesting report! And congrats for taking third place, very respectable effort for a gaijin =) But how did they compare different games to each other in the overall results? Where was this event held, and is it gonna happen again (when)?

Everything was just based on score, with prizes for the top 3 in each game. You could only compete in one game, there wasn't any crossover in terms of accomplishments or overall rankings.

The event was held in Shinjuku at the club "Loft+1", they actually have game-related events on a somewhat regular basis. Hell, in a few weeks they're going to have a G-REV event.

This was the 6th "revival" Caravan since the 90s, with one being held each year since the mid-2000s. It's very likely that the tournaments will continue and Takahashi mentioned that he plans to continue holding them in the future, but he also said that he's not sure how the Konami buyout will affect his position and ability to hold the events.

[szycag]

I'd give anything to go to one of these, I'm a huge fan. I hope Hudson is still able to do them after the buyout... damned economy. Do you remember the score that got you third place in Soldier Blade? It'd be sweet to have a cart with all the special versions, especially if it included Blade Buster as well.

[originalz]

I'd give anything to go to one of these, I'm a huge fan. I hope Hudson is still able to do them after the buyout... damned economy. Do you remember the score that got you third place in Soldier Blade? It'd be sweet to have a cart with all the special versions, especially if it included Blade Buster as well.

The special cart actually did have Blade Buster which could be accessed from the main menu somehow, I think either a code or just scrolling past the other games. Not that it matters, since Takahashi is the only person that owns the cart as far as I can tell.

Apparently the caravan version of Soldier Blade has a different scoring system from the home version, which I wasn't really aware about, so it kind of makes comparing scores difficult! I got a certificate with my score written down, but I don't think it'll be of much use to people unless they're aware of caravan scoring. It was a bit below 50million or whatever the first few digits are. Nothing fantastic, but I messed up at the end which definitely hurt me. I think that I might have been able to get 2nd if I hadn't screwed that up, but only getting one shot to play doesn't lend itself to perfection, heh. Guess I should just be happy I didn't blow the pre-boss area too much.

I don't really remember the top scores, unfortunately. The best score for Final Soldier was around 77~ or so, that was easy to remember because it was set by the last person to go up.

[tinotormed]

Thanks, pare! My personal favorite is Blazing Lazers among all the caravan game modes. I even scored top place in the 5-minute mode on the scoreboards of this forum!