London Casino Crew meets (RIP the Arcade)

[golden.bee]

Is this "Agora"? (google-fu)
Sounds an interesting way to go about it, though I cant say id find that approach very appealing as a customer, unless it was rammed with great games. (the pay to get in, not open a sick cafe and stick in some cave/ capcom cabs)

Anyway, i'll stop de-railing the thread now, hopefully Il get an opportunity to come down in the summer and school some of you shmuppers on 3rd strike for a few days

[dan76]

I think you could make money with an arcade. Combine it with a cafe / internet cafe / retro game shop, stick tons of cool looking flyers in nearby colleges so that people come an "hang out" in there. Have weekly competitions for different games - maybe the winner gets free coffee for a week or something. Put a console or two in the corner with SSIV / Black Ops running (you know, for the kids). You could also have a paid membership, where once a month the place stays open until late - that kind of thing.

This almost happened in my home town of sunny Gt Yarmouth but the fella who had the arcade was so precious with his collection he wouldn't sell anything! Or let anyone in. The place went under after 6 months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM9Uh-n_u6A

Stupidly a lot of the stock was put into storage and the bill wasn't paid so somewhere in norfolk there's a tabletop Stargate and an original Tron cab. The horror.

Good luck with it. I'd love for Casino to gets it's ass in gear and do something.

[DEL]

golden.bee wrote;

Anyway, i'll stop de-railing the thread now, hopefully Il get an opportunity to come down in the summer and school some of you shmuppers on 3rd strike for a few days

^You're not derailing the thread at all . I applaud your intentions. But hzt is right, even the fruit machines aren't making money for John Sterges during this depression. We've brought in bundles of our own boards over the years (for installing free), but nothing changes the general publics' migration away from arcades and skill based games.
You could do a combo - cafe/call of duty PCs/a limited amount of candy cabs.
Taylor has been looking at it for a long time also but I've always advised him that the games have to be an also-ran....tagged onto the premises.
Its worth looking into the UK Govt's joystick tax that was the death knell for the thousands of newsagents that used to have game cabs in them. This tax seems to have killed our fun overnight back in the early 90s.

[golden.bee]

Dan76: that place looked crazy, was the stock just the guys entire personal collection or something!?
I'd sure take the stargate, defender and TMNT machines for my place, what a shame they're not getting public love. You mean he lost them due to not paying the storage bill? That's hella stupid if so. Also, what would you like casino to (get it's ass in gear and) do?

Del: I've tried to find some further info on the joystick tax you mentioned, could you point me in the direction of some? I also read the legislation on amusement machine licencing and the upcoming machine gaming duty and am wondering; games of skill that offer no prize (like shmup and fighter cabs for example) are exempt from needing such a licence, right? I'm not sure I'm missing some draconian law that would make setting up an arcade (with no gambling) even more ridiculously difficult to do successfully! Also, you mean you took your pcb's to casino so they were free to play or free for the owner to use? Wasn't quite sure on that one!

Like I said before, any pertinent info or laws someone attempting this should be aware of would be greatfully received, thanks all for your thoughts and views so far!

[golden.bee]

Aaaaaand, just read a few pages back and am thoroughly glad to see the Street fighter love (espesh 3rd strike- my fave game ever) from the casino attending shmup board members. Really wish I lived close by and could take regular part in all these shenanigans!

[DEL]

golden.bee - The joystick tax must still be out there, although I don't know how to find info on it. Cabs have not made any reappearances since this law came into force, so I can only assume it still exists.

With reference to the many boards we've had installed in Casino Arcade from our personal collections. We basically lend them to the arcade for free, then take them back after a few months. Ketsui twice, Batrider, Strikers 1999, Xexex, Pork, Sweets, IBARA....the list is endless.
It virtually never brings in new players off the street though. We do it for ourselves.
Even the NeoEmpire crew have mostly deserted the arcade. They don't tend to be arcade-loyal, just new game loyal.

[dan76]

@golden.bee - Unfortunately all that stuff has gone... who knows where. Every time I head up to Yarmouth I always meet up with the fella, we share a drink and commiserate what happened.

As for Casino... well it would be nice if the sticks and buttons worked, and I can't really complain about the screens anymore because the engineer worked wonders and actually fixed most of them. I don't know, the place is drab and stinks really bad, but to change it would be to lose it's charm I suppose. They have pool room upstairs that's always empty. With a bit of vision that place could be somewhere people would want to go, not just us nerds. You should take it over!

Anyhow - should be down tonight from 5 onwards.

[MX7]

At the very least the Casino should shove a sign downstairs saying LOADS MORE POOL TABLES UP-UPSTAIRS. I'm sure 99% of people who cram around the downstairs pool table have no idea of the blissful space that awaits them on the first floor.

On the bus on the way to the arcade, listening to Yellow Magic Orchestra and literally cascading with sweat. Not looking forward to finding out how fuggy the basement is tonight.

[golden.bee]

TBF yeah it does stink. Although the first couple of times i came down i cant say i noticed! All i registered was the cabs. I think the second time i came down i saw Red earth, possibly the only way il ever get to to play it (being a mac user exempt from cps3 emu) and thought; this is my kind of place, not to mention Espgaluda (2?) DDP (2/3?! cant keep up with all this Jap subtitle shiz) and the massive row of 3rd strike, MVC2. SFA2, SFA3 and SF4 and SSF2TX on the other side. My girl was half a mix of; oh god geeksville, and half; oh god yes I get to go shopping for as looooong as I want, after shed beat me soundly with Makoto and refused a rematch. I love that woman

Wish Id have been there for Ketsui though! And all the latest CAVE stuff such as Ibara, Pink Sweets, Mushishashime (spelling?) etc. Being a non 360 owner Ive never even touched any of those, barely even seen anything of them in fact. And no doubt by the time I finally get me a jap 360 they'll all be (if not already) crazy expensive for console games. Feel free to mail me a 360 and said games (to borrow, at my expense) all you Casino philanthropists!

Id happily come down and solder in some new sticks/ buttons for nothing, if anyone would give me access to the insides of the cabs. Theyd have to keep this miracle tech tho as I know nothing bout arcade monitors. Maybe Electrocoin would hire a new manager and I could spin my dreams with the casino basement?

[CHI]

spudgy: any chance you could update the OP
Donpachi replacing BeeStorm

I'll be down tomorrow after work around 6pm, who's down

[hzt]

I'll be down to hear all your exciting stag party stories that are too risqué to post on a public forum. I hope.

[JDE]

I'll be down this evening as well, going to be concentrating on R-Type Leo now that the screen's been adjusted properly.

[banjoted]

Chaps - I've got a like new PlayStation Vita for sale. Includes Rayman Origins (boxed) and an 8GB memory card. As always, the delicious spadgy will be happy to deliver to your very fine arcade.

My sale thread is here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 01#p802401.

[JDE]

Can't make it down tonight, but I'll be around on Thursday evening from 6 onwards - what better way to enjoy the heat wave than in a fuggy basement?

[hzt]

I'm down tonight but then I'm out of town for at least a couple of weeks. Going somewhere less hot...

[MX7]

Currently HERE

[dan76]

I'll be down tonight at some point - anyone about?

[spadgy]

Hi. I'm spadgy. I used to post round here a while back.

In all seriousness, now I'm back from Sweden, a work deadline from hell and only playing Metal Torrent, I'll be about again.

I'm not off to E3 this year, but will be working late Monday and Tuesday covering the news, which probably means I'll be down Thursday.

CHISUS-H-CHRIST: I'll update the OP now.

JDE - glad to hear Leo is fixed. I'd love to give that a good go two-player again now!

The rest of y'all - see you there soon!

[CHI]

CHISUS-H-CHRIST: I'll update the OP now.

Ahem

Also... What stage is this



Now me brother's wedding is over, i should be down everyday after work this week

[spadgy]

CHISUS-H-CHRIST: I'll update the OP now.

Ahem

I may of got distracted. It's done now!

[CHI]

A quick question: is everyone done with DeathSmiles
Me and Dan76 is thinking replacing it with R-Type Leo

[Illyrian]

You could put progear into the derpsmiles cab. Although maybe if the progear cab is fixed then we don't need to.

[CHI]

Progear is fine where it is, monitor has been fixed
Only give feedback if you're playing these games, if you're not... don't bother replying

Regs,
CHI

[dan76]

I'll be in at some point today and thursday (for chips).

[JDE]

Is everyone done with Deathsmiles? Dan76 and I are thinking of replacing it with R-Type Leo!

Sounds good to me, I'm definitely finished with Deathsmiles for the moment.
Also I'll be down Casino this evening from about 5:30 onwards, and Thursday as well - mainly to discuss the madness at E3.

[spadgy]

I'm certainly done with Deathsmiles, and really up for getting into Leo.

And Progear in its currently place is lovely now...

EDIT: And I'm still on for Thursday PM.

[Illyrian]

Progear is fine where it is, monitor has been fixed
Only give feedback if you're playing these games, if you're not... don't bother replying

Regs,
CHI

I've put more than my fair share of credits into that progear cab!

Anyway, I'm down on thursday as well from the normal time.

[Skykid]

Was down yesterday w/Andrew. Played a little SFIV against some dude.

Also... What stage is this

Last boss 1st form iirc.

A quick question: is everyone done with DeathSmiles
Me and Dan76 is thinking replacing it with R-Type Leo

Why do you even need a Q&A for this, I leant you the board so it could get played, not have its life sucked out on a shitty monitor. I'd rather you switched it off if it's not going to get moved!

ALSO

That box of Casino freebie junk is MAGIC.
My Famicom sense was tingling for some reason and I dived in their with great gusto, sifting through floppy drives and C64 tape decks until I discovered this bad boy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-HORELEC-GA ... 500wt_1182

A Horeleg MKII NES Gamekey... $60!

It's an adaptor that allows any region cart to play on any region NES. Best thing ever! That means I can play all my bro's NES games on my FC, and he can play all my Famicom collection on his NES. I'm stoked.

And...

I found what looks like a factory designed autofire circuit for a DB-15 Neo Geo style pad/stick input, which is exactly what I have on my Vogatek supergun. It sits between the console and the stick/pad and has optional Turbo (with a switch that may adjust rate), a 'slow' switch and an off setting.

Looks neat, going to try to test on Friday.

[spadgy]

in the future, would anybody be interested in seeing Psyvariar, XII Stag or Castle Shikigami go in in the coming months?

I'm seriously tempted by a deal on all three. I'd love to see Psyvariar go in. That game has got so many hidded scoring techniques, and so much capacity for individual flair/strategy/game-paths.

Interested?

[dan76]

I'd hate to see Mushi or Esprade make way for any of them...

Had some new/returning people in yesterday - good to meet new faces.