What happened to Cave?

[Squire Grooktook]

So there are no chances to see an Ibara Kuro HD or something?? Or a Ketsui 2??
I can't believe it. I still believe that eventually and once earned the money Cave will launch another shmup.
By the way does anybody knows where is Asada now?? Maybe he has joined MS japanese game studios

Ketsui Zero because it has to be a prequel if they rode off into their deaths in the original.

I thought the pilots survived in the loop 2 ending? At least that's just what I was told, never seen a translation.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

I'm pretty sure that the story was that even if they defeated the end boss, they would have no way of returning home alive, and once in an interview Ikeda was asked about a sequel and he said he didn't know how it could be done since the characters died.

[Squire Grooktook]

I'm pretty sure that the story was that even if they defeated the end boss, they would have no way of returning home alive, and once in an interview Ikeda was asked about a sequel and he said he didn't know how it could be done since the characters died.

Well, what I was told was that they die in the first loop ending, but in the second loop ending they survive and take on a different identities. Also I thought Ikeda just said he couldn't continue it because "the story ended", but I'm not sure. Never been able to find a translation of the endings lol.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Yeah you might be right.

[Formless God]

he didn't know how it could be done since the characters
he couldn't continue it because "the story

If this is true, if I ever see him in person I'm gonna make sure he gets a nice, clean slap across the face.
We just got denied an entire game because of some STORY bullshit? Wow. Where is the aesthetics defense force when we need them?

[trap15]

I'd reply with why it makes sense and such, but I just don't have the will-power to try to drill it through your head (and most likely fail because I doubt you'd be convinced regardless of what I said).

[nasty_wolverine]

(and most likely fail because I doubt you'd be convinced regardless of what I said).

and add loli characters all over the place.

[GaijinPunch]

Well, what I was told was that they die in the first loop ending, but in the second loop ending they survive and take on a different identities. Also I thought Ikeda just said he couldn't continue it because "the story ended", but I'm not sure. Never been able to find a translation of the endings lol.

Ikeda has stated many times that he doesn't like sequels. His bosses like money though, hence, they started doing sequels.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I see your very good point. But how much worse would it get... is all I'm saying.

If anything the practice of 'patch, patch, patch, patch' comes (at least in the sense of games) from Arcades in the first place, look at offerings from companies like Williams, Midway and Capcom to see who is to blame there.. there were always less arcades than there were people with home systems, so making patches (in the form of new roms) available to arcade ops wasn't really an issue, whereas home software tended to be sold once and couldn't really be 'patched' (especially not if sold on cartridge / cd / copy protected, non-installable disks etc.)

Also the infrastructure required for it is a drop in the ocean compared to what xbox live, steam etc. require and use, remember arcades are a tiny, tiny almost invisible part of the industry these days.

Nesica is evil for many reasons, it strips away ownership, prevents collectors from buying the games they want, even prevents ops from actually operating the revisions they want (I'm reliably informed that to this day it's an OLDER revision of Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike that is preferred for tournament use because many players consider the most recent one to be more broken) again NESICA strips away that possibility, with these online distribution schemes you always get the version the company want you to get, so they can rebalance the game in undesirable ways or cut features and you have no choice to seek out the older version. Furthermore typically the games only exist for the life of the service and the arcade operating life of the machine in question, they have no future, they're doomed to become distant memories and nothing more once the plug is pulled.

It's also evil because it's a massive drain on the arcades. While it is claimed that such systems will save you (as an operator) money it also means you're tied to those systems, you have nothing you can sell later, it also means there are less modern games you can pick up for cheap as used, so it's actually further strangling an already struggling industry. The game developers / publishers think they need more money to survive, so they end up leeching off an already very limited supply of money elsewhere, the costs of that then get transferred onto customers who already see the price they're being asked to pay for a few minutes of gameplay too high...

Anyway, all that is a bit off-topic, but I found your initial comments suggesting this patch mentality in arcades as something new to be rather strange considering how much history there is with games being patched in arcades, heaven forbid we talk about arcade casino / gambling games where you can have 100+ revisions of something where the operators would have to check BBS sites daily to see if there were patches due to people finding new ways to exploit bugs in games for profit (although I wonder how you have that many bugs in the first place for such simple systems!)

The American arcade industry is still around...it really doesn't cater to the niche arcade shmuppers though these days like myself. It's either pay through the nose buy such a arcade shmup PCB kit on day one of release (to the tune of $2,400+ USD & up for the recent Cave SDOJ PCB kit back in May of 2012) or wait for it to drop in price, hence becoming more affordable to acquire and properly play on a candy cab as it should be.

Honestly, the local arcade hangouts in my area just don't carry the classic arcade shmup titles with the special exception of being able to play Psikyo's Gunbird 2 placed inside a generic Dynamo upright cab at the local McHenry Bowl alley in Modesto, CA, of all places (and it's set to take 50 cents per initial credit and another 25 cents to continue). Had to break down and get the International Version variant PCB of GB2 to play in my own private arcade, but it's nice to know that another GB2 PCB is around in a public venue these days. At the very least, it's earning money and mine isn't. What's interesting about the GB2 setup at the local bowling alley is, that it sports a super mint & original Psikyo produced all-English language GB2 instruction strip placed behind a monitor bezel setup (which isn't something you hardly see anymore nowadays). And it's easy to revert back to the original Japanese language setup if it needed be as both Japanese and English text are available with both the JPN & International variant GB2 PCBs.

Cave Co. Ltd. used to produce both the orignal JPN & International variant PCBs of DP, DDP, ESP.ra.de., and Fever On before deciding to stick to JPN region PCBs with the Guwange PCB release and future Cave PCB releases from that point forward. I'm surprised that Atlus USA never properly distributed DoDonpachi PCB kits stateside despite Cave selling it's International DDP PCB kits worldwide in 1997-1998 (of course, Atlus USA was the one whom distributed Donpachi PCB kits with a full-sized DP marquee to American arcade distros/operators back in 1995). So yes, I was quite familiar with DP at my local Electric Underground arcade hangout back in 1995 and into 1996 (the EU arcade owner was into arcade shmups and stocking DP was cool to take out for a spin back in the day).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mastermx]

So what happens now? Who will reign and take over. Is this the end of modern shmups? So many questions, so much fear. This is not a good time to be a shmupper. Goddamit cave you were the only ones... now everyone is dead.