London Casino Crew meets (RIP the Arcade)

[Skykid]

Merry Christmas friends, Romans, countrymen!

[JDE]

Yes, merry Christmas to all the Casino Crew!
And well done on your Bullets & Toothpicks article for EG Skykid, great read!

[Skykid]

Thanks James, glad you liked it!

Hope you all had a happy boxing day, I spent mine eating Pizza Hut and revelling in the fact Chinese cinema movies have subtitles.

[JDE]

2014 has arrived (happy belated New Year!), and I'm thinking of scrapping weekly meets on weekdays in favour of fortnightly meets on weekends: A lot of the Casino Crew, not to mention guests, are understandably busy during the week so I think we'll get better turnouts this way. Any objections or suggestions?

Also, I have a spare copy of Portal on Steam to gift to someone. First person to PM me gets it!

[CHI]

A Happy belated New Year boys

Any objections or suggestions?

Every 1st and 3rd saturday of the month... or whatever

[spadgy]

Yep - belated Happy New Year from me (and as we're still in the 12 days of Christmas, Happy Christmas!). After being lost in family madness for Christmas, me, Mrs spadgy and some mates went on a five day New Year vacation in the West Country with almost no internet, so here I am in the biggest forum and email catch up in some time. Good to be back here.

For my holiday we actually rented a whole National Trust manor house for really cheap. Would any of you let me stay in this place? It was packed to the rafters with Tudor antiques and furniture. I wouldn't let me stay there. Look at it. We had the house, gardens, the works.



Anyway, when are we next meeting at Loading? It would be great to catch up, and I'd love to hear about CHI's Garegga-based Christmas in Japan.

[JDE]

We actually rented a whole National Trust manor house for really cheap. Would any of you let me stay in this place?

Definitely not! Seriously though, that sounds like an amazing holiday!

When are we next meeting at Loading? It would be great to catch up, and I'd love to hear about CHI's Garegga-based Christmas in Japan.

The 11th or 12th, assuming there are no objections?

[hzt]

Can't make it this weekend but don't take that as an objection. Weekend meets sounds good, are there any plans for people's house meets too or just Loading?

[JDE]

Are there any plans for people's house meets too or just Loading?

As long as people are willing to host them, yes.

[spadgy]

I'm always happy to have people over. Alas, this weekend I fear I'm busy all the way through.

[JDE]

Casino Crew Mini Meet #11

Date: Saturday 18th January
Start Time: 6:30 PM
Venue: Loading Bar, 53 Rupert Street, Soho (inside MADD)
Website: http://loadingonline.co.uk/
Nearest Tube Station: Piccadilly Circus

The Casino Crew's regular meets in Loading Bar are now going to be held every fortnight on the first and third Saturday of the month, rebranded as Mini Meets.
Join us for shmups and other arcade games, drinks and discussion. Mini Meet #11 is the very first one of 2014 - be there!

[Illyrian]

Hey all.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I'll be there on the 18th, acts of god permitting.

[spadgy]

The 18th!? I can make that! Aces!

And good to see you here Illyrian!

[Mills]

Not sure what work schedule is next weekend but will try and organize the day off work.

[DEL]

Hey TheOldMills,
Have you sorted some work out?

Anyway, I'll be over for a week from Feb 22nd.

[JWS]

Hey chaps, James of the Blinge Trio here. Finally back online and in control of my sys 11 account.

Just wanted to say thanks for the last meet hzt. I had a sweet time, nice to meet another cycling enthusiast too. I was feeling really unwell that evening, hope I didn't pass my lurgies on.
Who was in charge of the play list that night? The music was really awesome, and I'd like to hear some of it again.

Sorry I missed the Christmas meet, JDE I missed yet another chance to get my hands on those animations. I am a tool.
Work is getting pretty busy, we're so short staffed. But at least Blinge has convinced me to start practicing shmups again. Perhaps I'll get my first 1cc this year, if I stick to anything that is and stop trying to climb the peaks of Dragon Blaze.
Is Pskiyo a bad company to start with? I bought a bunch more of their games for PS2 this crimbo.

Speaking of which, I hope you all had a nice one, and a happy new year.
Personally I saw Its a Wonderful Life 3 times, and spent new years getting drenched on Brighton beach.

Skykid, that train game looks godly. Wish I could play it. Thanks for sharing the pictures. How did New Year out there go down?

The 18th sounds great count me in.

ps : I hope you guys don't mind if me and Blinge represen' the (Post) Casino Crew in the team competition that's occurring right now over in the scoring section of this board.

LOVE AND PEACE

JWS

[hzt]

Just wanted to say thanks for the last meet hzt. I had a sweet time, nice to meet another cycling enthusiast too. I was feeling really unwell that evening, hope I didn't pass my lurgies on.
Who was in charge of the play list that night? The music was really awesome, and I'd like to hear some of it again.

No worries. I don't think you gave anyone lurgies but I've still got your scarf, I can bring it on Saturday if you want to be reunited at last.
As far as I remember it was me in charge of music but the only thing I actually remember playing is some legitimate neo nazi music that Dan made me change before everyone else arrived, I guess later I put on some old jpop or something tho?

[DEL]

JWS wrote;

Perhaps I'll get my first 1cc this year, if I stick to anything that is and stop trying to climb the peaks of Dragon Blaze.
Is Pskiyo a bad company to start with? I bought a bunch more of their games for PS2 this crimbo.

Psikyo games are an acquired taste, and are often a taste that some people will never acquire.
Not easy for first 1CCs either.
At Stunfest in Rennes last year, Plasmo and I met a French player who had 1CC'd both loops of Dragon Blaze. We thought this was quite impressive.
For easy 1CC's you might want to start with the two games that are being competed on at the moment :- Nemesis/Gradius and Salamander.

[JDE]

Just wanted to say thanks for the last meet hzt... Who was in charge of the play list that night? The music was really awesome, and I'd like to hear some of it again.

Hzt was DJ for the evening, I'm pretty sure the playlist was mainly Okada Yukiko and Yamada Nobuko (as in REBECCA). Also I requested Tamura Eriko but I can't remember if that got played or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJyJFyRuR1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x-togieu00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cug2Xe5p-Xo

Sorry I missed the Christmas meet, JDE I missed yet another chance to get my hands on those animations.

No worries dude, I'll bring them to the Mini Meet at Loading on Saturday for you.

[spadgy]

I should really wait before I post, because I've only had a very up in the air conversation, but I've got into an email chat with the team at Las Vegas arcade about getting a JAMMA cab (or two!) in their Soho venue dedicated to shmups, that we could loan our PCBs to, plus they may have a few in their vaults. And they seem keen!

More to come, but how do you lot fancy returning to the glory days of having a central London arcade with a shmup-devoted cab that we could have some control over the games in? Frankly, I fucking love the idea!

I just need to liaise more with Las Vegas and convince them it's a great idea, which it is. Surely they'd love to host things like the big shmupmeets of the old days, and us each week!

[JDE]

How do you lot fancy returning to the glory days of having a central London arcade with a shmup-devoted cab that we could have some control over the games in?

Sounds ace! But will this make financial sense for Family Leisure? I certainly hope so, because I miss playing shmups in a real arcade on proper hardware.

[spadgy]

It's a good point, but they just employed a new social media/community guy, as part of what seems like a drive to establish Las Vegas as London's final gamers arcade 'proper'. They're doing more events, cosplay stuff, scoring contests etc, so we could be one part of their new plan, rather than something they rely on (perhaps Casino's problem?).

And as the chap I'm speaking to said, what we need only takes up the space of one or two cabs.

I just think it would be great as we might start playing games properly again (which doesn't really happen at LoadingCafe, as much as I love the place and the team there).

[Jonst]

That sounds awesome! I'd definitely,make extra effort to go to something like that! I still havn't managed to attend a meet yet but I will this year,should have put it in my shmup goals list!

[MX7]

I thought the Las Vegas arcade closed down? Or at least got rid of its games? This plan sounds cool if it pans out. Would be great to get some shooters installed in central London.

Also, looking forward to this Saturday! Are there any crazy plans?

[DEL]

That would be cool if you could make it happen spadgy

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Hey folks,

After seeing Spadgy's post about meets in the 2014 shmup goals thread I thought I might get a little more involved in the UK scene and try and get to some. As luck would have it I'll be in London this weekend, so I wondered if you'd mind a newcomer at Loading on Saturday? I'm polite and friendly and I don't usually smell too bad, honest.

[JDE]

I wondered if you'd mind a newcomer at Loading on Saturday? I'm polite and friendly and I don't usually smell too bad, honest.

The main reason I moved meets at Loading to Saturdays was so that more people could come along - it'd be great if you could make it! We'll be at a table with an Xbox 360, playing shmups of course, so it won't be hard to find us.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Okay then I'll pop down. Look forward to meeting you all!

[dan76]

Sounds excellent Spadgy. It seems your influence spreads far and wide... I've certainly backed off playing Shmups this last 6 months, but an arcade proper would sort it all aaat.

It's the girlfriends birthday on sat so I'm not sure I can make it. I will try though.

[Illyrian]

Just bring her with you Dan!