London Casino Crew meets (RIP the Arcade)

[Mills]

dan76 wrote;

I looked in Casino today. One of the guys who used to work there was all suited up, didn't recognise him. I think he said he was the only member of staff who stayed on.

Anyhow, there's nothing downstairs or upstairs in the pool room. Apparently they haven't renovated downstairs except for about a metre in - the old carpet is still there. There are no plans to do anything with the basement (or upstairs) so they could've kept the it the same! The old staff asked "Crystal Casino" if they could keep a few of the machines down there but they weren't having it. Bit of a waste.

It's just sitting there not being used. Maybe if HoG wants another location...

Thanks for the update.
Only one member of staff made the transition . Dammit.
I'll have a look myself from mid July onwards.

TheOldMills wrote;

Is that when you hope to be down? Wish i had the funds to checkout HOG at least once, ah well.

Yup, mid July to early August.
& Yikes! Are there no jobs at all?
PM on the way.

There are plenty of jobs but there are PLENTY, PLENTY MORE PEOPLE after the same jobs. It's like tossing a piece of bread into a flock of pigeons, they all want but only a few will get when the opportunity arises which is often few and far between.
Hey Chi, where is DARIUS now that CASINO is closed?

[DEL]

TheOldMills wrote;

There are plenty of jobs but there are PLENTY, PLENTY MORE PEOPLE after the same jobs. It's like tossing a piece of bread into a flock of pigeons, they all want but only a few will get when the opportunity arises which is often few and far between.

If you look at what you're saying, it means that there are few jobs. Far too few jobs to meet the demand.

Its not so bad over here in EuroDisney. I managed to land a couple of jobs very rapidly when I looked for them. The situation in the UK was already pretty bad when I decided to leave three years ago. There was nothing financially keeping me in London.
Friends-wise - that's another matter of course.

[Blinge]

Yup, I'll be forcing Starkey to install Border Down for a couple of weeks next month.

Taking this as a recommendation, I went there yesterday and beat you to it =] the game is pretty damn cool I must say.
The HoG have more or less everything on the Naomi system, it seems.

I'd definitely be up for monthly meetings there, it'd probably encourage them to get more cabs fixed.

[DEL]

Blinge wrote;

I went there yesterday and beat you to it =] the game is pretty damn cool I must say.

Hey thanks Blinge. Yeah, its a very underplayed classic due to it being on the Naomi and DC only.

[Mills]

Just been checking out this live stream link at HOG. http://www.twitch.tv/thewonderpark

[CHI]

Landlord died last Friday of a massive heart attack...

27th May early afternoon, Richard had a sudden heart attack at home...
(it was a bad week for me, another beat-em up player jumped off a bridge the next day, a mates grandfather passed away the day after that and a close family cat needs to be put down that weekend)
I thought it was a joke so i called him (mobile) and one of her sisters answered, crying while explaining to me the whole situation
9th June early morning, met up with a few heads from the NeoEmpire fighting scene to pay our final respects...
R.I.P landlord

Only one member of staff made the transition

No, they're still working there, switching locations on random days

Hey Chi, where is DARIUS now that CASINO is closed?

Back to Japan me thinks I need to pop down Namco one day

Do you guys still meet up on a regular basis?

It's come to my intention that we need to keep this genre/thread going

Who's up for a monthly meet

@TheHeartOfGaming @myplace @yourplace @anyfuckingplace
This playing-consoles-on-your-jacksjones-at-home-being-anti-social is freaking killing me
Not that i do that anyways but i do miss the whole social thing with the boys... lol, that may sound funny... i mean hang out with the Casino crew
Your ideas and suggestions are welcome

Regs,
CHI

[CHI]

Just dedicating my 2cents to the man himself Landlord...

Landlord would always alternate his time between shoot'em ups and the fruit machines. He liked Ketsui and Pork a lot.

And not forgetting the beat'em ups
He'd also liked DDP, i believed he'd had some unfinished business with this game

Ketsui


Muchi Muchi Pork
Some really good scoring techniques with Momo @brendz
Enojoy...
Stage1: http://youtu.be/1PyLbC0VEhI
Stage2: http://youtu.be/f4eFPG8qJ_c
Stage3: http://youtu.be/IcrG6Nnv1Vk
Stage4 pt1: http://youtu.be/pFpH4ngq3BE
Stage4 pt2: http://youtu.be/UsBAiFiil8I
Stage5: http://youtu.be/-hb8r89piMQ

[DEL]

CHI wrote;

it was a bad week for me, another beat-em up player jumped off a bridge the next day

Who?
We know most of them.

No, they're still working there, switching locations on random days

Now that's good news.
Means that we can use the place as a stop off and cane-area for some sweeps.

[CHI]

Who?
We know most of them.

Not the online ones we don't!
Some guy from North, plays Third Strike... that's all i know.

Means that we can use the place as a stop off and cane-area for some sweeps.

You and your supermarket sweeps

You have PM coming...

[spadgy]

Hi everyone. After a bit if an forced abstinence from the forum (work shit and a holiday for quite a while in Turkey for a mate's wedding) I'm back.

Firstly, though I didn't know him as well as some of you guys, that's terrible news about Landlord. I'll always remember him as friendly and cheerful in his own quiet way. He was certainly part of what made Casino the special place it was.

Next, as CHI says it's really important we keep our little crew and our beloved genre alive in London!

Monthly meets would be great. I'd be happy to host at mine; it's not massive but big enough for us lot; everyone's welcome, and I've at least got a tonne of games, a PVM and a flatscreen, and I'm happy for you lot to make plenty of noise, and stay over until late. And I know Keira would love to see you guys at our place.

There's also HoG, and Loading Cafe in central London is going from strength to strength. And if any of you guys want to host something like Rupert H's wonderful DDP:SDOJ party, then go for it. And we can always meet just for drinks and such in town. I miss hanging out with you guys and talking arcade shit, so lets do what we do best and get hanging out !

So, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to re-word the opening post and title of this thread right now. I'm going to email everyone from the Casino I know that way and encourage some posting here, and I'm going to work out a date soon when I can host.

And, of course, all this is open to newcomers to the Casino crew too. The more the merrier!

Keep posting, and see you soon suckers!

[Illyrian]

Hey all,

Spadgy I agree with the sentiments above. I've not been around for various important reasons but I'm basically moving to Putney in a few weeks and that will put me much nearer to you guys over there in central. I'm moving by 19/07 so from that point onwards I would be game. Because of how my life is right now it would need to be at the weekend for me really.

I absolutely agree with the concept of a monthly meetup at the weekend, I think that's an awesome idea.

I want to show off my complete lack of SDOJ skills in front of you guys for sure!

Theo, do you still have the amazing camden hipster pad?

[Rupert H]

Here here!

I'm up for a Spadgy party and I'm more than willing to provide so-bad-its-good 1080p Italian horror.

[hzt]

Also up for spadgy meet, and

Theo, do you still have the amazing camden hipster pad?

yes I'm still there and it's still cool to do stuff there, but I still have no game stuff really or decent monitors.

P.S. I took these for you guys:

[dan76]

Let's make it happen people. Shmups and Italian horror go together so well - who knew?

Still think we should find a pub we can whack CHI's cab in

[Jonst]

I'm a newcomer to this forum,but I'd love to attend a shmup meet!!

[spadgy]

Great loads of you are up for it (and welcome jonst - always nice to have new faces join us).

In terms of a meet around my place, how does either Saturday, July 20th or Saturday, August 3rd sound?

My flat ain't massive (experiments prove a 25 person house party trashes the place, but I reckon 6 to 8 of us would be comfortable with room to shoot shit on two screens).

Or, if we were going get everybody along, we could all meet to go down HoG (arcade in West London) one of those dates?

And CHI, as per your suggestion I've renamed the thread. Casino Arcade may be RIP, but the Casino vibe ain't!

Also, CHI asked on the texts about Loading Cafe. It's a small cafe in Soho (Rupert Street) that has long existed as MADD (bright yellow out the front). Now it's been reworked to incorporate Loading Cafe, which first set-up over in Exeter as a gaming cafe. Loading Cafe is also known as 'Drink, Relax, Play'. In London the cafe now incorporates a few consoles, some cocktail cabs, three shitty MAME cabs in the basement (play DoDonPachi and other shmups stretched badly to fit a hori screen!), board games, some old skool consoles and games on a couple of the tables. Gamers hangout there; a handful of games industry types (journos and indie devs) use it as an improvised office in the day time, skanking the wi-fi, usually on Thursdays. I went there Thursday alone and ended up with about seven people from the games business; I'll let people know if I'm ever 'hotdesking' there as it's nice to work with mates about. Actually, lovely Andrew Smith from Spilt Milk studio is sometimes in there with his in-development shmup and always up for input. Oh, and they do game themed cocktails and such.

It's also used by the industry big boys for game preview events and stuff.

Some of the Casino crew went to the launch of the cafe. As is often the case with its big events, it was a bit too rammed. But on a normal day it's lovely and both the MADD and Loading Cafe guys are up for input and bettering the place. It's certainly got better over time as the two venues integrate. It hear its doing fairly well financially too, so it seems here to stay and grow.

It's not all it could be yet, but the spirit is there and it's a decent place to hang-out on a gaming tip day or night.

See you soon suckers!

Lets go soon.

[Jonst]

Thanks for the welcome! this would be ultra cool for me as I don't have many excuses to go to London and no one where I live even knows what a 'shmup' is.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

Thanks for the welcome! this would be ultra cool for me as I don't have many excuses to go to London and no one where I live even knows what a 'shmup' is.

The only people I know who know what a shmup is are the friends who I've specifically explained it to, which has proven difficult.

"I like shmups, they are badass."
"What is a shmup?"
"You know, a shooter."
"Like call of duty?"
"No not a first person shooter. You know, those games where you control a ship and you shoot at enemies while dodging their bullets while moving around on a scrolling two dimensional plane."
"...."

Would be nice to meet you guys and watch you play

[Jonst]

Yup,I know exactly what you mean...I gave up and just accepted that modern gamers had no idea what I was talking about or just thought it sounded like boring crap.

Yeah,it would be cool to meet up and play decent games!

[Blinge]

(play DoDonPachi and other shmups stretched badly to fit a hori screen!),

ahh.. just like home =']


oh hang on you mean actually stretched, or is it letterboxed?

[Mills]

Need to get a shump meet here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSAUiQxfmJU

[DEL]

^Daym! Bare cabs.
How did Starkey get so many ?
I'll be round HOG soon. Hopefully I can put a couple of weeks work in the Border Down Naomi and a Pork X360 setup.

[JDE]

In terms of a meet around my place, how does either Saturday, July 20th or Saturday, August 3rd sound?

July 20th sounds perfect, because that's the first day of my holiday (free until the end of the month after that) and I'll be back in London.
It'll be great to catch up with everyone and maybe meet some new faces as well!

[hzt]

I can't stay too late on the 20th but otherwise it's ok and I can't come at all on the 3rd.

[spadgy]

oh hang on you mean actually stretched, or is it letterboxed?

I'm pretty sure it's actually stretched... I mean, it really is awful!

I'll be round HOG soon.

Wicked. It would be great for some of us to visit you at HoG then!

And so this coming Saturday, August the 20th is sounding good! If CHI, Dan76, MX7 and co don't get on here soon I'll chase them via email.

[DEL]

Mister spadgy - I'm arriving on the 20th but due to family meets on Sunday, I won't be allowed out of the booby hatch until Monday 22nd. But from then on, I will be around for a couple of weeks. HoG for sure and that Loading Cafe at Rupert St will be checked out as well. Definitely HoG.
I'll be letting you know.

[Blinge]

Aha, that's me playing Ikaruga in the video.
maybe i'll conquer that machine one day...

[dan76]

Either Saturday sounds good to me. Haven't played much SDOJ since Ruperts.

[Skykid]

Wow...! HOG is massive!

Just saw the tour and watched Starkey and Simeon interviews. I was a little skeptical about location, but the actual venue looks mint. Kind of like an afterschool club filled with nothing but arcade and various videogames. I thoroughly approve. Will be dropping in when back in London for sure.

[spadgy]

Right - let's do the 20th - this week!

I'll send a PM tonight. Keira is disappointed as she's away all day and evening, and thus won't be able to lurk in the background taking the piss out of us all; something she wa really looking forward to!

So we could still do August 3rd as well, when my better half will be there in full affect to make the gather more rock 'n' roll/alcohol infused.