Alright, who's bringing Ketsui in an Astro City to CAX?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Wow, Skyline, I would've liked to have watched your first loop All on strong setting on the DDP-DFK 1.5. Yeah, I saw some pretty cool DFK score runs with one player scoring over 5 billion+ easily on early Sunday morning & another player scoring over 3 billion+ later during Sunday afternoon.

I asked the guy whom scored the 5 billion+ points if he was familiar with the 360 version of DDP-DFK 1.5 and he said that he could score about 20 billion playing the iPhone/iPad version of DFK! He also said that this was the very first time that he was able to try out the genuine DFK 1.5 PCB version and was interested in getting the 360 version of DFK in the future.

It was a pleasure to finally to be able to meet Low.Blow, mike haggar, skyline and a few other fellow shmupper over the both days. Saw the famous Dave K. again on Sunday's CAX show watching him with his impressive Ketsui score runs on Low.Blow's Ketsui running on an Astro city Cab setup. He dominated the top 4 or 5 ranked spots easily.

A very big thanks to Gibbous for hosting both my Mushihime-tama & DDP-DFK 1.5 PCBs. I asked him what kind of arcade shmup PCB titles that he'd like to show for next year's upcoming 2012 CAX show and he said to bring some PCBs that most folks can't play at home and get a wider exposure of the arcade shmup genre. I agree. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Kiselgof]

It was nice to see some Japanese influence at CAX although it's understandable that most classic gamers would not see these games the same way as most shmuppers do. I was laughing at Dave K's twitter posts of button mashers trying to play Ketsui.

[Low.Blow]

So cool to meet PC Engine Fan X! and Dave K however briefly. Watched a few different shmuppers play. Ungodly skills you guys possess. My Ketsui pcb saw more points scored this weekend than it ever has since i've owned it - or ever probably will again. I saw someone on twin bee every time I walked by to make sure it was running right. never expected it to get that much attention. Scramble got a lot of play as well. Was really neat to see more candy cabs lined up than in years past. Thanks to the others who brought them too. I had never seen DFK before. Actually never seen shooters played at that high a level in real life before. Amazing! I plan to bring games again next year. I don't have the pcb collection that most of you guys have, but will try to bring something interesting. Was thinking maybe boogie wings or in the hunt in the egret(take out the rotary sticks of course), maybe rotate the yoko astro and do ikaruga(since it's high rez) or don't rotate and do progear, and maybe guwange in the tate astro? Next year maybe I could buy you gentlemen a beer?

[NOAH]

Agreed with all, this year was a lot more shmup-friendly than last year. Hopefully next year there'll be even more. I'm considering bringing my own stuff and taking the weekend off to go both days next year. My only suggestion for those that have brought their boards/cabs in would be to turn the volume up a little bit. Surrounding games were more audible than the game you're playing on.

[Low.Blow]

My only suggestion for those that have brought their boards/cabs in would be to turn the volume up a little bit. Surrounding games were more audible than the game you're playing on.

Point taken. The volume was too low on my cabs for sure. I did intend to adjust that on all my games, but I spent saturday morning/afternoon trying to get my crossbow cab running. Once I got that working, the rest kind of slipped my mind. I adjusted volume before the show in my garage and it seemed loud. I hadn't considered the noiser environment.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For NOAH,

Yes, I'll remember to adjust the volume on my PCBs to compensate for the fact of the super noisy arcade enviroment -- (this was typical of an arcade back in the 1980s-1990s).

There's plently of time to think about what to bring in regards of the arcade danmaku genre or even the classic late '80s-early '90s type of shmup PCBs.

Shmupper Gibbous did have a USA region version of Capcom's Hyperdyne Sidearms up and running prior to my bringing in Mushihime-tama PCB in his Sega Swing cab. When I removed it on Sunday evening and he re-installed it back in, I gave the ol' Sidearms PCB a spin...it was like ol' times of reliving my youth in the arcades when arcades were fond of showing off the latest PCB conversion kits from the likes of Capcom/Romstar, Taito of America, etc. Definitely a blast from the past. It played like a charm with the usual Seimitsu joysticks in place to give it that super cool ultra responsiveness -- much better than the Wico arcade layout that was commonplace back in the mid-1980s on those Dynamo woodie cab uprights.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Low.Blow]

I really wanted to hang out and watch you play that one. Unfortunately, we had to call it a night. Didn't get home til 1am.

Shmupper Gibbous did have a USA region version of Capcom's Hyperdyne Sidearms up and running prior to my bringing in Mushihime-tama PCB in his Sega Swing cab. When I removed it on Sunday evening and he re-installed it back in, I gave the ol' Sidearms PCB a spin...it was like ol' times of reliving my youth in the arcades when arcades were fond of showing off the latest PCB conversion kits from the likes of Capcom/Romstar, Taito of America, etc. Definitely a blast from the past. It played like a charm with the usual Seimitsu joysticks in place to give it that super cool ultra responsiveness -- much better than the Wico arcade layout that was commonplace back in the mid-1980s on those Dynamo woodie cab uprights.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skyline]

I was a little taken aback by the amount of lives on Twinbee Yahoo. Was that intentional, to give people a longer taste of the game?

[gs68]

I only went on Saturday. I pretty much fell on my knees when I saw the row of candycabs

Managed to pull a good 61m on Ketsui, getting to Stage 5. Props to Dave K. for not only 1-ALL'ing the game the next day (which I couldn't attend), but also beating my score by about 20 million!

Also had some other fun times--playing Billy Bowl with a couple friends, spending some time on IIDX, and playing Magical Truck Adventure and Panic Park with Kitaru.

And, IHOP for our dinner spot on Saturday. We are making this happen again next year. CINN-A-STACK <3

I'll write a more full report soon.

[Low.Blow]

I was a little taken aback by the amount of lives on Twinbee Yahoo. Was that intentional, to give people a longer taste of the game?

Just an oversight on my part. My niece is young, I had the lives set that way for her. I remembered to change the number of lives on dragon blaze, but forgot twin bee.

[gibbous]

Here's a pic from I believe Friday night:


We will have to work on getting all the shmups together in one spot during the Friday night setup. The Dragon Blaze and Twin Bee were a blast to play! Thanks for bringing those, Low.Blow. And thanks again for the credit button advice. Those looked very clean.

I'd also love to see more candy cab variety out there, although I know the Astro's are probably the most common by far. I also have a Megalo 410 and a Jaleco Pony mk.iii I am thinking about bringing....

[caldwert]

Next year I need to attend this. The pix I've seen on KLOV are outstanding. My only gripe would be that its only 2 days.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It used to be that you could attend on Friday nights and play the arcade games & pinball games at past CAX shows but nowdays, that's only for those whom are bringing in cabs and/or pins Friday night prior to the big CAX weekend show.

It was a blast to try out both Stern's Tron Legacy and James Cameron's Avatar pinball machines set on Free Play at the 2011 CAX show. There was a pair of JBL speakers hooked up to the TL pin + a fancy camera hooked up to a HD TV monitor showing the entire playfield & LED scoreboard -- awesome setup indeed. Wasn't sure how much it costed though but I did see a MSRP of $4,600 USD for a spanking brand new Avatar pin (courtesy of Marco Specialities based out of Lexington, SC).

So in all, the 2011 CAX show showcased the following arcade shmup PCB titles:

Carrier Airwing dedicated cab

Forgotten Worlds dedicated cab

Heavy Barrel in an Taito Egret 29 candy cab

Ketsui in an Astro City candy cab

Dodonpachi Dai Fukkatsu version 1.5 in an Astro City candy cab

USA region Hyper Dyne Sidearms in a Sega Swing candy cab (after having Mushihime-tama PCB removed from it)

Hot Dog Storm in a Astro City cab (after having DDP-DFK 1.5 removed from it)

Blazing Star MVS cartridge on a consolized MVS system running on an widescreen LCD TV monitor setup

Dragon Blaze on a custom made mini upright cab

Yahoo Twinbee! on a custom made mini upright cab

I was originally planning on bringing in a Japanese region Progear No Arashi (to show in Gibbous' Sega Swing cab) but the sound/BGM tunes weren't working properly in mono sound output format, so I substituted an SH-3 powered Mushihime-tama puzzler PCB instead.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Low.Blow]

It was cool to meet you too, gibbous. You have some beautiful machines. The sega swing is yours too, right? I really like that cab. It really would be nice to see more and different candies at the show.

[Dave_K.]

Props to Dave K. for not only 1-ALL'ing the game the next day (which I couldn't attend), but also beating my score by about 20 million!

Wasn't a 1-ALL, just got a little more than half way into stage 5 before dying (just before the backwards part). I've got all the boss milking down, so that's why my score was higher. I've never really practiced stage 5, as I don't typically make it there too often.

So funny that low.blow was also the owner of Dragon Blaze and Twinbee Yahoo...those mini cabs were awesome! I also played Crossbow on Sunday (one my my fave's growing up), so thanks for fixing that!

As always, great to see PCEFX in person, as well as surprised to see Mike Hagger there (from socal). Great meeting skyline and low.blow briefly, mdl and a couple of his x68k buddies were roaming around, as well as hanging with kitaru playing some rapid fire pins was great fun on Sunday.

[gibbous]

It was cool to meet you too, gibbous. You have some beautiful machines. The sega swing is yours too, right? I really like that cab. It really would be nice to see more and different candies at the show.

Yeah, the Swing was mine too. I also had a dedicated Forgotten Worlds and a dedicated Ikari Warriors at the show.

I have a little Jaleco Pony Mk.III project I was thinking of selling, but now I'm thinking about fixing it up and bringing it next year!

[hedorah]

It was cool to meet you too, gibbous. You have some beautiful machines. The sega swing is yours too, right? I really like that cab. It really would be nice to see more and different candies at the show.

Yeah, the Swing was mine too. I also had a dedicated Forgotten Worlds and a dedicated Ikari Warriors at the show.

I have a little Jaleco Pony Mk.III project I was thinking of selling, but now I'm thinking about fixing it up and bringing it next year!

Sell it! I will buy it

[Kiselgof]

I will pay to go to your home arcade and play that beautiful Forgotten Worlds again

Or I'll just pay for the cab. LOL

[NOAH]

It was cool to meet you too, gibbous. You have some beautiful machines. The sega swing is yours too, right? I really like that cab. It really would be nice to see more and different candies at the show.

I also had a dedicated Forgotten Worlds and a dedicated Ikari Warriors at the show.

I was wondering whose Forgotten Worlds that was. That thing was NICE!

[gibbous]

Thanks! I love Forgotten Worlds. It's one of the first games I looked for when I started collecting. I think it was the 3rd game I ever bought. I just lucked into finding one at an auction. I played it so much back in the day. This one is a pretty decent example. Probably one of my keepers. Someone else brought one last year and I think sold it at the show. There's another one for sale in like Wisconsin right now.

As long as they keep having me, I'll keep bringing it to CAX if I can. I get a kick out of seeing other people play my games.









One of these days I'll also have a droid-like gathering at my garagearcade. Got a lot to fix up though, and hardly any time to do it.

[Kiselgof]

Another shmups/classic meetup in the Bay Area would be sweet!

[NOAH]

Another shmups/classic meetup in the Bay Area would be sweet!

I might host one later this year depending on the progress of some projects. My pad's not the most accomodating for large groups, but there should be plenty of games to go around. I will say that I won't have more than 2 cabs set vertical, but there could be a horizontal scroller or two in the mix.