Latest Arcadia News (Akai Katana Shin NESSiCA Live + more)

[adversity1]

Announced in the July issue of Arcadia.

Akai katana shin for Nessica live.

Currently in development. No release date listed.

Article mentions a collaboration between CAVE and another company to be announced in the next issue of Arcadia.

Other news: SDOJ at #6 on Arcade popularity rankings. Proving that (along with the second board printing), it's a hit. AFAIK, Daifukkatsu topped out on 6 at this list when initially released.

No SDOJ scores in the back makes NTSC-J a sad panda. Arcadia has however started tracking NESSiCA scores with this issue.

[Cuilan]

Took them long enough. They should have moved on to the Type-X/X2 ages ago.

[brentsg]

I can certainly see why they'd move to the platform, but AK Shin... really?

[AntiFritz]

I can certainly see why they'd move to the platform, but AK Shin... really?

It's probably something they can produce quickly and cheaply as a test run.

[matrigs]

I can certainly see why they'd move to the platform, but AK Shin... really?

what would be your choice ?

[Cuilan]

what would be your choice ?

Deathsmiles 2X might have been a better choice. Though the original arcade release of Akai Katana probably didn't turn as much profit as Cave would have liked, so I can understand why they'd pick it.

[brentsg]

I can certainly see why they'd move to the platform, but AK Shin... really?

what would be your choice ?

It's not about a different choice so much as not making a bold new move with a re-re-retread.

It's apparently about releasing on a new platform with a game that has already underperformed in the arcade, had an LE PCB release, and finally an Xbox release. Wouldn't you think that anyone who wanted to play AKS already has? How do you measure the success of this experiment?

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Futari 1.5 Red Label.

Muchi Pork Sausage Matsuri Purple Headed Donkey Lover Label Ver 1.7.9.3 with cheese. Doesn't matter because nobody can play it anyway outside of Japanese game centers.

[matrigs]

what would be your choice ?

Deathsmiles 2X might have been a better choice. Though the original arcade release of Akai Katana probably didn't turn as much profit as Cave would have liked, so I can understand why they'd pick it.

afaiu nessica is just something you plug into your existing cabinet which you then upload your games. similar to the naomi ethernet adapter.
so as there are much more low-res cabs and deathsmiles is 31khz only (and actually deathsmiles 2x is 16:9) this is a rather bad decision.

in this case akai katana seems like a natural choice as it is their latest "casual" game and wasn't really that popular and this way it might get a second chance.
i deliberately used "casual" as sdoj is imho by far more oriented to hardcore players and people might be afraid that it won't pay.

[moozooh]

Akai Katana Shin is a clear choice in my opinion:

— it has a complete set of gorgeous HD graphic assets, unlike all of their other 2D games;
— it has more stuff happening on the screen than CV1000 could ever handle;
— it has less retarded slowdown than AK Arcade, and as a result is shorter despite the additional stage;
— it's not as easy as Espg2 BL or as obnoxiously long as DFK Arrange A;
— it hasn't been reprinted, so of all the more ambitious direct-to-console releases (like Espg2 BL), less people have had the chance to play it, even among the arcadegoers who have the x360.

[Cuilan]

afaiu nessica is just something you plug into your existing cabinet which you then upload your games. similar to the naomi ethernet adapter.
so as there are much more low-res cabs and deathsmiles is 31khz only (and actually deathsmiles 2x is 16:9) this is a rather bad decision.

From what I understand, Nesica Live is a service that runs via Type-X2 hardware. Since both the Type-X2 and Cave's Deathsmiles 2 hardware are PC based, shouldn't there be a way to get it to output to 15khz displays?

And I was thinking of something more along the lines of Deathsmiles 2 but with the extras and gameplay mechanics of 2X. Or maybe even an "all-new" mode that combines features of the original arcade version, 2X, and the arrange mode. I could see a black-label-ish re-release of Deathsmiles 2 being pretty popular.

[Tokyo-J]

Akai Katana Shin is superior to the Original version.

Also think about this. The Nesica X Live has a built in user base already. All Cave has to do is develop the software and deliver to Taito. No overhead on producing boards / artwork and then shipping them out. Seems like a good business model as long as they maintain the hardware and support it.

[moozooh]

Btw, if that enables Cave to deliver patches without significant hassle, more power to them. If they can't release games without critical bugs, balance issues, or something like that, this really seems like the step they should've taken long ago.

[Cuilan]

Btw, if that enables Cave to deliver patches without significant hassle, more power to them. If they can't release games without critical bugs, balance issues, or something like that, this really seems like the step they should've taken long ago.

I think this was the main idea behind the Deathsmiles 2 hardware. But what I don't get is why Cave insisted on making their own hardware instead of using something that already existed (Type-X/X2). Maybe they really really really didn't want to pay licensing fees or something. Deathsmiles 2 could have turned out so much better if Cave had been willing to swallow their pride...

[Tokyo-J]

Btw, if that enables Cave to deliver patches without significant hassle, more power to them. If they can't release games without critical bugs, balance issues, or something like that, this really seems like the step they should've taken long ago.

I think this was the main idea behind the Deathsmiles 2 hardware. But what I don't get is why Cave insisted on making their own hardware instead of using something that already existed (Type-X/X2). Maybe they really really really didn't want to pay licensing fees or something. Deathsmiles 2 could have turned out so much better if Cave had been willing to swallow their pride...

Agreed.

[sven666]

Deathsmiles 2X might have been a better choice.

since its pretty much a guaranteed 1CC on every credit for every player i doubt it, not without some serious difficulty modifications atleast.

I hope AKS is a sucess and they port all their HD upgrades to it, however i dont want it to be their next development platform as it would mean an end to my home arcade growing i dont really see myself buying another taito PC-based hardware again either..

[brentsg]

Deathsmiles 2X might have been a better choice.

since its pretty much a guaranteed 1CC on every credit for every player i doubt it, not without some serious difficulty modifications atleast.

I hope AKS is a sucess and they port all their HD upgrades to it, however i dont want it to be their next development platform as it would mean an end to my home arcade growing i dont really see myself buying another taito PC-based hardware again either..

I'm not even sure that you could.. Isn't this platform pretty much based on automatic micropayments? I certainly don't have all the answers, but do the operators "buy" and own the game? I need to do some digging on this. I was under the impression that even if you could handle the IP via VPN that it wouldn't be feasible.

I can certainly see why they are using AKS, from the existing crop. But I can't help but believe this is an interim or sidebar solution to their platform problem to further milk their Xbox work. Hopefully we'll see some additional announcements soon.

[Cuilan]

since its pretty much a guaranteed 1CC on every credit for every player...

Not for those who are playing for score. But if that's still not hard enough, they could just add Level 999. One of the reasons I think Deathsmiles 2 would be a good choice is because it's Cave's 2nd most popular shooter. Still, Akai Katana is an equally good choice, more or less.

[MR_Soren]

Maybe they could whip together a DeathSmiles II Mega Black Label for this service if the AKS experiment goes well. Improve the graphics a bit, add some bonus shit, make a bunch of money, cash in with console DLC.

Eh, probably not.

[Strider77]

Please... no more games that look like Death Smiles 2.

[Op Intensify]

Maybe they could whip together a DeathSmiles II Mega Black Label for this service if the AKS experiment goes well. Improve the graphics a bit, add some bonus shit, make a bunch of money, cash in with console DLC.

I remember reading a long time ago that Cave stated they were done with Deathsmiles II after IIX and would never be releasing any updates or DLC for the game.

[Cuilan]

Please... no more games that look like Death Smiles 2.

I'm confident that it would have looked a lot better if it had been designed for the Type-X2 from the ground up. The DS2 hardware is graphically much weaker than the Type-X2.

I remember reading a long time ago that Cave stated they were done with Deathsmiles II after IIX and would never be releasing any updates or DLC for the game.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

[nZero]

I'm confident that it would have looked a lot better if it had been designed for the Type-X2 from the ground up. The DS2 hardware is graphically much weaker than the Type-X2.

I'm not so sure, it seemed like the arcade division was having lots of trouble with the shift in the development environment and Deathsmiles 2 suffered as a result. I just don't think they really had the budget or the talent available to do any better than Skonec or Takumi at the 2.5D/3D game. I wouldn't be surprised if the collaboration they're talking about is with G.Rev, just to outsource the engine and development tools for future 3D development on Type-X/NESiCAxLive.

[Cuilan]

I'm not so sure, it seemed like the arcade division was having lots of trouble with the shift in the development environment and Deathsmiles 2 suffered as a result. I just don't think they really had the budget or the talent available to do any better than Skonec or Takumi at the 2.5D/3D game. I wouldn't be surprised if the collaboration they're talking about is with G.Rev, just to outsource the engine and development tools for future 3D development on Type-X/NESiCAxLive.

I think the hardware they picked for Deathsmiles 2 was partially responsible for the issues they experienced. Many of Cave's previous games make extensive use of pre-rendered 3D models (some of which had fairly elaborate animations), which demonstrates to me that they already had quite a bit of experience working with 3D graphics and animation. Remember that the Deathsmiles 2 hardware was a cheap PC using integrated graphics, while the Type-X2 has a dedicated video card. I'm pretty sure this is an important difference with regards to running games with full 3D graphics rendered in real time. Of course, pre-renders allow for nearly-unlimited polygon counts, but a decent video card can provide a fairly smooth look while maintaining a good framerate. At the very least, it would have looked as good as the 360 port's 2X mode, in my opinion.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they license G.rev's engine. It's what they should have done for Deathsmiles 2. Actually, they should have outsourced all of the graphics work to G.rev, but oh well what's done is done.

[Cagar]

Other news: SDOJ at #6 on Arcade popularity rankings. Proving that (along with the second board printing), it's a hit.

Full list avaible somewhere?

[Tokyo-J]

Other news: SDOJ at #6 on Arcade popularity rankings. Proving that (along with the second board printing), it's a hit.

Full list avaible somewhere?

Arcadia Magazine

[Bee Cool]

I hope they don't blow it by having AK Shin do poorly and then think that Nessica and hence arcades in general are totally non-viable, when in actuality it's that few people want to play Akai Katana again.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

I hope they don't blow it by having AK Shin do poorly and then think that Nessica and hence arcades in general are totally non-viable, when in actuality it's that few people want to play Akai Katana again.

Or rather that the idea of Cave coming out with a new arcade game without a kit to sell sits about as well in the stomach as an improper cement mixer chased with piss.

[Bee Cool]

I'm certainly not a fan of that either, despite not owning any PCBs. But I feel that for there to be any chance of them releasing kits, they will need to use Nessica for a while to generate income. If they are successful I could imagine them making physical releases on some version of Type X.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

Can't those just be day-1 warezed though? I'd much rather see them use real arcade hardware instead of another PC but any kit is better than no kit.