2nd Annual Taito HEY Akihabara Tokyo meetup in Dec 2023

[minion]

Steven said:

Last year we ended up going to Mikado as well. I haven't been to either arcade for several months, but I can go get a list of games from both. Mikado cycles games in and out semi-regularly, so there is a pretty decent chance that they'll change something, but Taito Hey usually doesn't make as many changes. Still super disappointed that they got rid of 1941 Counter Attack, though.

I suspect Saturday or Sunday to be the easiest day to arrange, so drop your availability here in the thread. Saturday the 8th is already no good. Near the end of the month may be easiest?

[Steven]

I talked to Uemura-san about it today and he said that it got moved to an unknown date next year, probably February. I'll probably have work on the 9th, though. Sunday, Monday, and Wednesdays are my off days, so those are the best.

[minion]

I've also got Sundays off. Let's give folks a couple weeks to chime in and then lock down a Sunday that works for the most of us.

[Steven]

That should work for me. I wonder if anyone will show up. Might as well post a partial game list for Taito Hey. This is from memory, so I may have forgotten some stuff and they may have changed some stuff, but last time I was there they had

shooting:
Thunder Dragon II
R-Type
R-Type II
R-Type Leo (Japanese 1-button version with checkpoints)
Daioujou Black Label
Ibara (Kuro, I think)
Muchi Muchi Pork! (not 100% sure)
Soukyuugurentai
Radiant Silvergun
Deathsmiles
Deathsmiles II
Tatsujin Ou
Batsugun Special
FixEight
Gradius
Gradius IV
Darius (yep, triple screen)
Darius II (double screen version)
Darius Gaiden
Dariusburst AC (two cabinets)
RayForce
RayStorm
RayCrisis
Grid Seeker
Area 88 (I think)
Saidaioujou (CV-1000)
Saidaioujou (EXA)
Battle Garegga
Crimzon Clover (NESiCA)
Ikaruga (NESiCA)
Senjin Aleste
Cotton Rock 'n' Roll (not 100% sure)
Mushihimesama Futari
Raiden (Japanese version with checkpoints. Cabinet is configured so that 1P side is actually 2P side)
Raiden DX
Wangan Sensou
Night Striker

non-shooting:
Crazy Taxi
Teki-Paki
Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-dama
Tetris The Grand Master
various Neo Geo KOF games
various Metal Slugs
Operation Thunderbolt (well, I guess it's a shooter, but you know what I mean)
Dino Rex lol
Super Locomotive

There are more games, but I don't remember all of them and they might have changed stuff since the last time I was there. They used to have V-V, Dogyuun!!, 1941 Counter Attack, and Bakuretsu Breaker, but those are gone now.

Bring headphones with good isolation; it's super loud in there and you won't be able to hear anything without headphones. They have headphone jacks on most of the cabinets, although some of them are broken, like the one on the Soukyuugurentai/Radiant Silvergun cabinet. It might be worth bringing them just to protect your ears from the noise even when you are not playing.

[minion]

Well if no one else shows up, at least those of us who do won't have to compete as much for cabinets I'll likely spend most of my time on R-Type trying to get past stage 7 checkpoint 2 if no one else is playing it.

[Steven]

It's all games that I like but suck at miserably lol. I could probably do R-Type 1-ALL or Leo ALL by then if I practiced enough.

I'll eventually go check out what is at Mikado as well since we did end up going there last time. Mikado has these games permanently installed in the Takadanobaba location:

Kyuukyoku Tiger
Tatsujin Ou (left side speaker not functional)
Battle Garegga
Armed Police Batrider B version
Raiden
Raiden II
Raiden DX
Thunder Dragon 2
Gradius
Gradius II
Gradius III
Salamander 2
Starblade
Metal Hawk
Viper Phase 1
After Burner Climax
R-Type (the colors on the monitor are kind of messed up)
Garou Densetsu Special
Darius Old (which is very rare to see in modern arcades, from what I understand)
The Ninja Warriors
Daioujou
Saidaioujou (EXA)
P-47 Aces Kai (EXA)
Senjin Aleste
Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-dama
various Neo Geo and Hyper Neo Geo 64 games including Buriki One
Street Fighter II
OutRun 2 (broken and out of service, last I checked. Hopefully they fixed it.)
Daytona USA
Dariusburst AC
OutRunners
Scud Race (2P side not functional, I think)
Power Drift
physical Pong table thing
various mahjong games

The last time I was there, they also had these:

Ketsui
Moonwalker
Mizubaku Daibouken
Twin Tiger Shark
Batsugun Special
Metal Slug X
some Espgaluda. Forgot which one it was.
Teki-Paki
Hellfire 2P
Elevator Action Returns
Druaga no Tou
Tetris The Grand Master
ESP Ra.De.

I think Darius Gaiden is also in there, but I don't remember.

Some of these, like Twin Tiger Shark and Teki-Paki, are probably gone by now because they rotate games in and out fairly regularly. It was really cool to finally see Hellfire in an arcade, but that's probably gone by now too. I know the owner is a big Toaplan guy and has every Toa shooter except for Hellfire 1P and maybe FixEight, so various Toa games may or may not show up. I've seen every Toaplan shooter at Takadanobaba at some point aside from FixEight, Tiger-Heli, Zero Wing, and Vimana. Hishouzame hasn't shown up there, but it is permanently over in Ikebukuro.

I don't go to Ikebukuro because it's a bit too far from my house, but it has or at least used to have

Hishouzame
Druaga no Tou
RayForce
VS. Super Mario Bros.
Darius Gaiden
Battle Garegga
Teki-Paki
Kaitei Daisensou
Big Tournament Golf
some Metal Slug (X, I think)
Progear no Arashi
After Burner Climax
Space Harrier (the boring small cabinet, not the cool big one)
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Sega Rally Championship (some pretty noticeable burn in on the monitor, sadly. Game over yeah~!)
F-Zero AX

[minion]

Alright, what dates work for you? I'm still pretty flexible for Dec at this point.

[Steven]

Any Sunday/Monday/Wednesday is fine unless something comes up at work, which is possible. My company will be closed for the end of the year starting on the 27th, so I won't have anything to do for a while after that.

[minion]

Mine is also closed near the end of the year - want to shoot for the 27th? That's a Wednesday?

[EngineerSTG]

Spent a lot of time on the Batsugun special cab when I was there the week of October 8. Really really wish I could attend this!

[daskrabs]

If you guys get together at HEY between Xmas and NYE, I'd be down to meet up.

[Steven]

27th should be good for me. I will probably have nothing to do for a week starting on that day.

[minion]

Sounds like the 27th is a good fit for you too, then; let's see what Steven says when they come back to the thread

[daskrabs]

I can meet you guys at HEY on 12/27 if you don't mind.

[minion]

Cool well let's pick a time and if Steven can make it, then that's fabulous, but if not we can meet at that time regardless. Maybe mid-afternoon? 2 PM? 3? We should probably pick a particular cabinet to meet at or something so we can at least say hi before we start playing haha

[minion]

I'll be over by the R-Type cab (assuming it's still there) at 3 PM on Wednesday. Hope some of you can make it.
I'll be the white guy wearing a blue-green Parks Project beanie.

[Steven]

Yeah, I'll be there. I asked a few people if they wanted to come, but everyone's busy.

I stopped by Taito Hey when I was in Akiba a few weeks ago for some reason that I forgot and they put Kaitei Daisensou in there, so that should probably still be there.

[daskrabs]

I'll be there but not sure exactly when. I'll PM when I get there if I can't find you.

[minion]

Thanks to the couple folks who made it out. Let's do it again next year!