Four arcade shmups at California Extreme '05 show...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you attended the 8th annual California Extreme show at the Parkside Hall inside the San Jose Convention Center on August 6th & 7th 2005, and as a shmupper, I only saw four arcade shmups (five if you count William's 1983 Blaster 1st person shmup arcade upright...so blazingly fast and smooth -- I recall that Blaster runs at a whopping 1 Mhz for the hand-drawn sprites to zoom at you in first-person perspective view).

I remember going to my local 7-11 store in early 1983 or 1984 that had a rare William's Robotron 2085: Blaster arcade cabinet with some Robotron enemies thrown in (when you played the "Robot Grid" sections...you come across the familiar Robotron Grunts, Brains, and other assorted Robotron enemies from the original Robotron 2084 arcade game). I never seen the Robotron 2085: Blaster arcade upright again after that one local sighting in the early 1980's. I'd have to say that perhaps only a handful of the original Robotron 2085: Blaster cabinets were ever made.

I saw a Neo-Geo 6 Slot dedicated MVS cabinet (haven't seen one of those rare babies in a long time) loaded with Metal Slug 3 and Aero Fighters 2 MVS carts.

There was a very cool 1998 Namco's Tenkomori Variety Shooting arcade shmup housed in a traditional USA arcade cabinet. I recall ever seen two barebones Tenkomori Variety Shooting PCBs for sale on eBay in the last few years...doesn't come by very often on eBay these days.

I saw a Seibu Kaihatsu SP1 setup running Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive that was for sale at $450.00 USD. The arcade monitor needed some adjustments (or perhaps a new "cap" kit and you're back in business "arcade monitor" wise).

I also got to try out the rare 1983 Funai produced Laserdisc shmup arcade upright of Interstellar...I remember trying out a sit-down enviromental version of Interstellar arcade cabinet at my local Chuck E. Cheese's in 1984 at 50 cents per credit -- very cool Laserdisc arcade shmup for it's time.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~