can osaka's arcades do better than this?

[krispyfi]

after months of putting up with 100 en change air blades and the occasional strikers 1945 (no diss intended), i finally found one of the godlike arcades i had been promised before coming here. 3 floors, one wall is all shooters. the current line-up:

mushihimesama
ketsui
esprade
espgaluda
ibara
raiden 3
dodonpachi
senko no ronde (with vcr and big-screen tv hooked up)
gradius 4
a parodius (forgot which one)
radiant silvergun

all 50 en.

its called ababa. go to namba station, across the street from the takamaya, find the horai 511, from there you can see a matsuya, opposite is the arcade.

so i ask you, have i found the best one? are there any others than even approach this level? c'mon, at least one of you must be living (or have lived) in osaka-shi or along the gakkentoshi line.

any other info (like good video game stores, ive find 2) or any body that wants to meet up in osaka, please let me know.

lets keep the dream alive.

[GaijinPunch]

They will likely not get much better than that. There's a 50 yen place in Shibuya (a few actually) w/ about half of that many shooters, and a shitload of old 2D fighting games, and of course some new stuff. Not bad at all, but not fantastic.

[SAM]

The best acrade around where I live have only the following...

espgaluda
ibara
mushihimesama
raiden 3
sms2
Progear
senko no ronde

US$0.26 to 0.39 a game, usually set at the default difficulty. Not bad I guess.

But the bad new is I have to get across the sea, and then take a trip on a train to reach that acrade... Being an islander is just like that.

[Cthulhu]

so i ask you, have i found the best one? are there any others than even approach this level? c'mon, at least one of you must be living (or have lived) in osaka-shi or along the gakkentoshi line.

any other info (like good video game stores, ive find 2) or any body that wants to meet up in osaka, please let me know.

Yeah, you won't do much better than that arcade-wise in Osaka. Most arcades there are pretty small and lacking in older games.

If you want some good game stores, go to Den Den Town. Take the Sakaisuji-sen subway line to Ebisu-chou and look for the signs that say Den Den Town. Tons of game stores there. Back when I was living in Osaka I went there at least twice a month. Bring money. LOTS of money.

[GaijinPunch]

But the bad new is I have to get across the sea, and then take a trip on a train to reach that acrade... Being an islander is just like that.

I live on an island, and the arcades SUCK!

[pixelcorps]

good god, I hate you all... *sob*

can't wait to get my ass back to japan!

anyone know anything about korean arcades??

[DC906270]

after months of putting up with 100 en change air blades and the occasional strikers 1945 (no diss intended), i finally found one of the godlike arcades i had been promised before coming here. 3 floors, one wall is all shooters. the current line-up:

mushihimesama
ketsui
esprade
espgaluda
ibara
raiden 3
dodonpachi
senko no ronde (with vcr and big-screen tv hooked up)
gradius 4
a parodius (forgot which one)

I am going to Osaka in October, staying somewhere near Namba station (i think?) hopefully i will find this arcade - is it easy to spot? looks awesome

[Icarus]

The best arcade I found in Kyoto last year was a first-and-second floor arcade called O-Cha (or was it A-Cho?), that was inside the covered shopping street at Teramachi-dori. It had 'Galuda, Daioujou, Ketsui, Progear, Garegga, Strikers 1999 and Shikigami 2, among others. All the others - including the Namco Tower - had a very small and limited selection, usually with Galuda and one other retro one.

Although I did find a small one at the north end of Kyoto which had a Daioujou Black Label

I didn't spend much time in Osaka when I was there, just passed through on the way to and from Kansai Int. Airport (wanting to get to Kyoto as quickly as possible), so I totally missed all the good stuff there .

[lmn4096]

I know another one in Osaka, with many good shmup aswell and a lot at 50Yens.

It's "QT" near den den town, I played Mushi this newyear over there.

I discovered this place from the Blog of Banana (a Japanese girl who finish Garrega, 2loop Progear and also Ketsui )

here is the link to some picture of this arcade place :
http://banana.chu.jp/repo/oosaka1.htm

[professor ganson]

mushihimesama
ketsui
esprade
espgaluda
ibara
raiden 3
dodonpachi
senko no ronde (with vcr and big-screen tv hooked up)
gradius 4
a parodius (forgot which one)
radiant silvergun

all 50 en.

its called ababa.

Maybe this is the greatest arcade in the world.

[Platypus[gEc]]

Maybe this is the greatest arcade in the world.

No maybe about it. Every arcade i know where i live have 0 schmups in them... driving and shooting games and that's it.

[D]

Well, In the Netherlands............
Arcades are very uncommon. there used to be lots. in the first half of the 90's. Then they dissappeared, because there is more to be made with gambling machines. It's just as plain as that.

Now in Amsterdam there is not one arcade. Not one gambling place which might just have one game. Not one. OK I know the Netherlands is a small country, but Amsterdam has like 800.000 inhabitants. Is that not enough for one arcade?

Rotterdam, Utrecht, etc. does have arcades.

Very sad.

I guess the best arcade in the netherlands is in Scheveningen a touristy beach city.

Meka for Sega fanboys, but few new games.
Virtua Cop 3 was sighted in Zandvoort the most famous touristy beach city.

Probably not one shoot 'em up in operation in the whole Netherlands I guess.

[DC906270]

Arcades are very uncommon. there used to be lots. in the first half of the 90's. Then they dissappeared, because there is more to be made with gambling machines. It's just as plain as that.

I know what you mean... i live in a town in north-east england called 'Redcar', i don't suupose anyone on here will have heard of it - anyway, it is a touristy beach town, and along the sea front there are a lot of 'amusement arcades', which, back in the 80's to mid 90's, were home to probably just about every arcade game available (good old jamma cabinets) at one time or another. This was the true 'golden age' of video games, and i spent many a saturday as a youth down there. being blown away by the games like Ghouls n Ghosts and Strider (i was a Capcom fanboy in those days). nowadays, the arcades are pretty much game free zones, particularly shmups, although they do still have a few gun games, such as Warzaid and Virtua Cop 3.

I believe that if i hadnt grown up in this town, then i probably wouldnt have got into arcade games at all, and would probably have been an x-box halo goon

[ThirdStrike]

You guys are lucky to have shooters at your arcades. At my arcade we have a Raiden, And A Neo Geo 4 slot with Blazing star and Strikers 1945 Plus. Pathetic IMO

[DEL]

krispyfi - Yes I guess your "ababa" arcade is the winner! It has the latest and greatest.

D - Its a shame to hear that arcades have disappeared from Amsterdam. I used to play Tatsujin Oh there in the early 90's when I stayed in Zandvoort to study in Haarlem Business School. Slot/Fruit machines have done the same kind of damage to the UK arcades too.

My local (Casino Arcade) has:

Mushihimesama
Progear
Strikers 1999
Strikers 1945
Raiden Fighters
Raiden Fighters Jet
Strikers 1945 Plus
Night Raid
& Multis with Gemini Wing/Prehistoric Isle I
+ most any single Board from my collection - as the Engineer allows me to put 1 PCB of my choice in, when I ask


Regs, DEL

[Tychom]

There's one by Shinjuku station (can't remember the name) which has as best I can recall:

Ketsui
Mushihime Sama
ESP Galuda
Trizeal
Parodius
P47 Aces
Radiant Silvergun
Strikers 1945 II
Progear

At 50/100 yen. I think I'm missing games there too.

[professor ganson]

You guys are lucky to have shooters at your arcades. At my arcade we have a Raiden, And A Neo Geo 4 slot with Blazing star and Strikers 1945 Plus. Pathetic IMO

Pathetic, yes, but not as bad as around here. There used to be a Strikers Plus, and now there's nothing but Centipede and Space Invaders.

[BrianC]

The closest thing to a shmup in the local arcades here is Galaga.

[Fighter17]

I don't have a arcade in my town at all!!!

[BulletMagnet]

The closest decent arcade out here in Wherever is a 45-minute drive from me...I haven't been there in some time, but I don't recall seeing a single shmup in there, mostly fighters and gun games and whatnot.

[chtimi-CLA]

Slot/Fruit machines have done the same kind of damage to the UK arcades too.

here the nemesis (ho ho ho) is touchscreen games. i posted about traditional french arcades in off-topic, guess what they're gone too. also once i found a blazing star in some amsterdam coffeshop, but that was a few years ago. wasn't there a big arcade in amsterdam, i can't find the english word for that but you could see from outside (une vitrine).

[Zweihander]

you're all lucky.. i live in the worst possible country for shmups in arcades. can yoU gueSs whAt country i live in?

only machines i know of are Galaga and Zaxxon at the local mall. :/

[Smraedis]

No shooters around here. well not that I know of...

[russ]

Another USA hermit here. The only arcade close by is a Gameworks, which is packed full with every fucking racing game on land and water that you can imagine. There is a Galaxian machine shoved in the back by some bathrooms upstairs I believe though, but I think it's like 75 cents for a credit. Though if I were willing to do the drive, about 30 miles away there's this "free-play arcade" that happens to have a Mars Matrix in the corner, sheathed by gun games and racing machines.

Though some grocery stores and restaraunts have machines in them sometimes, but the only shooter I've found is Strikers 1945 Plus - two of them! Also, there's a Metal Slug 4 machine at this Fuddruckers restaraunt, but the control panel is wasted from kids banging on it relentlessly with their greasy claws.

[Imhotep]

there's an arcade in Zurich called "Gametown" that has Border Down, Raiden Fighters, Raiden II and some Metal Slugs.

pretty decent actually, but the Raiden cabs are in really bad shape. keepers around here do not feel the urge to maintain their machines.

[Acid King]

you're all lucky.. i live in the worst possible country for shmups in arcades. can yoU gueSs whAt country i live in?

only machines i know of are Galaga and Zaxxon at the local mall. :/

Every arcade I've seen around, which is always in a mall, has driving and light gun games, plus Soul Calibur 2 and the newest Tekken. i almost shat my pants when I saw a Guilty Gear XX machine in the mall where I lived until six months ago... then they got rid of it to get Tekken 4... and held on to Soul Calibur 2 which had been there since it was released. I was happy when I saw that there was an arcade near where I'm moving in central New York, but was severely disappointed. All light gun and driving games, a Tekken 3 machine, no 2d fighters or a Neo Geo to be seen and on top of that, they have some retro combo cabs with Ms Pac Man/Galaga and Centipede/Millipede/Missile command... THAT THEY CHARGE 50 CENTS A CREDIT FOR!!!! Highwayfuckinrobbery....

The best thing I have is a Neo in an import store nearby. The owner recently put in Blazing Star. I should pressure him to rotate the screen in his Killer Instinct cab and let me put in Battle Bakraid.

[Tychom]

In Paris there's two arcades I know of with shooters, one has Raiden Fighters 1 & 2 from what I recall, possibly some others on the multi-game cabs. Problem is the shooters are on run-down cabs with awful sticks & buttons. The other arcade has all-japanese cabs and they swap their shooters around but they generally have 3 out at a time, what I've seen there in total are: Zero Gunner 2, Raiden Fighters 1, 2 & Jet, Viper Phase 1 (new version), Strikers 1945 Plus, Parodius.

[ResOGlas]

There's an arcade in Yokohama called "Seven Islands" that has that lineup minus the paradious. One more thing....they have Black Label.



All .50 except Ibara, which is 1.00.

[gamingjustin]

Yeah, how come the US has so many crappy arcades. Honestly, the best arcades I've ever been to were not arcades at all. One was an old movie theater in Lexington, KY... It had a Strikers 1945 arcade machine. The other was in the basement area of a hotel in Old Forge, NY. It had 1943 with the number "1943" burned into the screen. It was still fun.

And that's it... seriously.

[IlMrm]

In San Francisco, I've found Strikers 1945, Strikers 1945 Plus, Raiden Fighters Jet, Dimahoo, Daioh scattered around. In the college campuses around San Francisco I am sure there are a few shooters. Most of the machines are in dire condition though. Tragic.

When I was in Osaka last year I went to a bunch of arcade game places, but it was a blur. I do remembered Osaka having some very hot girls.

HEY in Akihabara still takes the crown from me. Shooters and hentai on the same building.