Dodonpachi Campaign Ver. [rom hack]

[Lander]

The only truth is that we've been spoiled in the last 10 years thanks to high quality arcade ports and MAME (and the whole emulation scene) to the point were it's unthinkable for most people to have arcade exclusives in 2024.

Put differently: The market has adapted during the last few decades of growth, and broadly come to terms with the nonviability of arcade as a scalable profit model. In turn, so has its - trained - audience.

So the answer - setting aside the extra context of legal finagling for a moment - is to accept that arcades aren't coming back, but also sit down and shut up when presented with something desirable that can't be had without them?
That's not how supply and demand is supposed to work. The practical reality is indeed to sit and wait patiently - just as we've been doing the whole time - but reserving the right to criticise the manner of supply in the meantime is not an unreasonable thing.

And much as I'd prefer the hobby wasn't segmented off into various walled gardens, it's fine to sell a thing you made yourself in your own store. There's a sliding scale of arguments to be made for some Exa stuff, like that nifty Gimmick remaster they commissioned, but an ultra-rare relic of someone else's classic STG house lies well outside that overton window. It's plain as day that they'd be a godawful bullish licensor after that MAME business, and that's separable from the generalized exclusivity can of worms that your rant is predicated on.

I personally think it's a very sad state of affairs because it shows how selfish and infantile gamers have become nowada...
Here's a wake up call for all those guys: the world doesn't revolve around you. It never has and despite how web2.0 has changed social interactions, it still doesn't.

A shame, then, that none of them are here to hear these words of wisdom, that they might repent and show contrition through the medium of +1 Sad Face Emoji.
Why not do us the service of addressing the discussion directly, rather than waste words ripping on the same old tired Social Media Gamer homonculus?

*Like*

Must be nice, not having to do your own critical thinking

[donluca]

Well, what can I say... other than that I'm happy to see that people here do not feel like they belong the the category of gamers I've described in my previous post and no one here is mad that they won't be able to play certain games because of their exclusivity to certain platforms.

I must have misread several posts in this thread, which I'm rather happy about, especially because my post was not directed at anyone in particular (but, ironically, some of you felt that it was somehow directed at them – it wasn't. If you look at the context, I was simply replying to a question made by emphatic here), but wanted to address a broader picture of how some people (who seem to be definitely not in this thread) feel about having arcade exclusive games in 2024.

Good vibes all around then, I guess?

[emphatic]

I must have misread several posts in this thread, which I'm rather happy about, especially because my post was not directed at anyone in particular (but, ironically, some of you felt that it was somehow directed at them – it wasn't. If you look at the context, I was simply replying to a question made by emphatic here), but wanted to address a broader picture of how some people (who seem to be definitely not in this thread) feel about having arcade exclusive games in 2024.

I hope my endorsement of your wording does not reflect poorly on you. This topic is a mine field, apparently.

[DMC]

The absolutely worst thing with the potential EXA release is that we can't play it with save states!

[ratikal]

The absolutely worst thing with the potential EXA release is that we can't play it with save states!

Or a shit port by people who never played the original. I hope it's M2.

[Meriscan]

I must have misread several posts in this thread, which I'm rather happy about, especially because my post was not directed at anyone in particular (but, ironically, some of you felt that it was somehow directed at them – it wasn't. If you look at the context, I was simply replying to a question made by emphatic here), but wanted to address a broader picture of how some people (who seem to be definitely not in this thread) feel about having arcade exclusive games in 2024.

Good vibes all around then, I guess?

Sorry if I overreacted a bit. Because the stereotype of the 'entitled gamer' is definitely not fictional. And I interpreted your post as saying that anyone who dislikes Exa falls under that stereotype. If the blue label ends up on their system, I would've just ignored it like you said.

[DMC]

Or a shit port by people who never played the original. I hope it's M2.

Dodonpachi Champagne Version by Micronics.

Spoiler

[SuperPang]

Coming to Johnny Turbo’s arcade on Switch with 9 frames of lag. Thank goodness Exa didn’t get their hands on it.

[emphatic]

Coming to Johnny Turbo’s arcade on Switch with 9 frames of lag. Thank goodness Exa didn’t get their hands on it.

But with save states and practice modes, just like the original arcade experience!

[SuperPang]

But with save states and practice modes, just like the original arcade experience!

Don’t forget the fishbowl CRT filter for that authentic composite video experience!

[spmbx]

Mate, we (actually i'll speak for myself) just want to kick back on a lazy sunday and give this a spin. I really fail to see how it is so difficult to understand how disappointing it would be to see it finally turn up but made unaccessible. I don't think anyone would have a problem with a blue label EXA mode and plain jane blue label on the peasantsystems.

[DMC]

Coming to Johnny Turbo’s arcade on Switch with 9 frames of lag. Thank goodness Exa didn’t get their hands on it.

But with save states and practice modes, just like the original arcade experience!

The absolutely best thing with an EXA release is that we get to see the collectors with Radiant Silvergun shirts-- who don't know that pointblanking is a thing and boasts about not using autofire--flail around the DDP champagne version and get a game over by stage 2.

(saw the video mentioned by CPS, and nothing against the Guru ofc!)

[SuperPang]

Ah, the ole shmup-incel mentality.

[SuperPang]

Mate, we (actually i'll speak for myself) just want to kick back on a lazy sunday and give this a spin. I really fail to see how it is so difficult to understand how disappointing it would be to see it finally turn up but made unaccessible. I don't think anyone would have a problem with a blue label EXA mode and plain jane blue label on the peasantsystems.

I don't find that difficult to understand at all. What I find difficult to understand is how somebody could get their knickers in such a twist over it that they'd choose to spend Christmas day digging up old tweets to troll Shou on an internet forum.

[Meriscan]

The absolutely best thing with an EXA release is that we get to see the collectors with Radiant Silvergun shirts-- who don't know that pointblanking is a thing and boasts about not using autofire--flail around the DDP champagne version and get a game over by stage 2.

One of the clips of all time. Although to be fair I don't think this guy (not Guru) would make it much further even if he had auto installed.

[DMC]

This is off-topic, but I wanted to comment seriously about the arcade experience/spoiled/save states comments, if anyone cares.

Ah, the ole shmup-incel mentality.

Coming to Johnny Turbo’s arcade on Switch with 9 frames of lag. Thank goodness Exa didn’t get their hands on it.

But with save states and practice modes, just like the original arcade experience!

The absolutely best thing with an EXA release is that we get to see the collectors with Radiant Silvergun shirts-- who don't know that pointblanking is a thing and boasts about not using autofire--flail around the DDP champagne version and get a game over by stage 2.

(saw the video mentioned by CPS, and nothing against the Guru ofc!)

I know Emph was just joking around and likely you as well, but for me the essence of the "arcade experience" is going to a big center filled with people playing (not owning) the games. You would have all kinds, including the casuals and the regulars who knew the games really well and who had crowds behind their shoulders watching how they play, even taking literal notes sometimes, sharing knowledge and strategies with each other--creating a meaningful social environment. You would have some friendly competition, people trying to get on top of the cabinet's scoreboard, and in general people learning and enjoying the games--without even owning them. From the Japanese arcade scene emerged world class players who got world records long before save states and practice modes were a thing, many of which remains world records today despite those "new" tools. These players tend to emphasize how much they love the games and that key ingredient to doing well is to play them a lot. Passion and common knowledge.

So the arcade centers are dead, it's sad. With that in mind, what is closer to "the arcade experience" today?
I would say that events where people play the games together. Aktane's blind kumite's, Ultramania, STGT, Calice Cup, Shmup Slams, Stunfest, but also twitch streams where you can watch other people play and interact with them. For example, a bunch of people watching a passionate player like Jaimers streaming Radiant Silvergun from Steam is to me actually quite close to the arcade experience. People were socializing in the chat, cheering him on, talking about various game-related stuff, studying his strategies, etc. I took some notes of some sections he dealt with, I also watched and learned from videos of Emperoring, Mark_MSX, and Ben Shinobi*--players ranging from survival play to world class scoring--learned enough to beat it on a Switch within 20 hours (I hope those are not incel numbers!).

Each to their own, but I think those experiences are closer to the arcades than some basement being turned into an single person's arcade room that seems to be closed most of the time. The popular "Post a photo of your latest purchase threads" or "post a photo of your cab" have always struck me as quite ironic in that regard. Like it's more about materialism, owning these games, rather than playing them when originally arcade players enjoyed them without even owning them. Taito and SEGA cabinets are beautiful though, so I feel a little bit of both when I see those posts.

Then, about save states practicing and practice modes being cheating. A decade or two ago it was a sensible discussion. The good example from the 2012 fair competition thread here--is of one Japanese player getting a specialized Ketsui board with which he could practice Doom endlessly, while the other players didn't have that access. That's an example of unfair competition and his score was supposedly taken down. So when mame emulation became a thing and mame players got a suddent advantage over those playing in arcades or owning the games and who were active. Yeah, then it was a sensible discussion.

But technology and community evolve. People who play for score probably do that because they like learning the games (that is, improving the scores) so it makes sense that as technology and the scene changes, people will adapt and use new learning tools. Developers have realized this since long time ago, so standard well-made ports today typically have practice modes and similar tools. And whether you like it or not, since the arcade purists apparently seldom contribute scores, the current scoreboards are filled with mostly port and mame scores. So, the active shmup community today (those who participate in live events, streams, engage in game discussion threads, submit to scoreboards) are mostly people playing ports and mame, which is reasonable because arcades have been dead for about two decades in the west. Yet, people who contribute virtually nothing to these events come in here every once in a while and call these players "spoiled", "cheaters", "incels", etc. This thread is only missing the autism jokes. Maybe my long post will be used as the setup for that particular joke, but I'll take the risk.

Edit: *NOT Shapiro!

[SuperPang]

for me the essence of the "arcade experience" is going to a big center filled with people playing (not owning) the games. You would have all kinds, including the casuals and the regulars who knew the games really well and who had crowds behind their shoulders watching how they play, even taking literal notes sometimes, sharing knowledge and strategies with each other--creating a meaningful social environment. You would have some friendly competition, people trying to get on top of the cabinet's scoreboard, and in general people learning and enjoying the games--without even owning them. From the Japanese arcade scene emerged world class players who got world records long before save states and practice modes were a thing, many of which remains world records today despite those "new" tools. These players tend to emphasize how much they love the games and that key ingredient to doing well is to play them a lot. Passion and common knowledge.

So the arcade centers are dead, it's sad.

I agree. The irony here is that Exa Arcadia's primary aim was to rekindle this, in Japan at least. The west is largely a lost cause but they're certainly putting in the effort there too. Given the growth of the collectors market over the last decade or so, they would be mad not to cater to that as well.

My "shmup-incel" comment was provocative, but that's honestly what it feels like at times. I've called it arcade communism before as well.

Some people seem to have the attitude that others aren't worthy of owning an expensive videogame because they would play it more or could get a better score, and they seem to get genuinely angry about it. It's pathetic.

I've been buying the occasional new arcade release for almost 20 years now so I've seen my fair share of it, and I don't spam the web with pictures of my collection. First of all I was crazy for spending $2000 on a CAVE kit, now that they've actually gone up in value I'm crazy for not selling, or there seems to be this attitude that I'm hoarding it for some reason, or that there's some sort of investment agenda like it's fucking bitcoin. All the while I'm getting accused of being a shelf queen because I'm not playing the damn thing every day or breaking world records. What do these people want exactly? For me to lend it out for free? I'm certainly not going to invite these people round to play because I don't get the impression they're much fun at parties.

And just to reiterate, there's a fair chance this DDP business has nothing to do with Exa, but certain people had to preemptively hop aboard the trollbus just in case.

[emphatic]

Ben Shapiro

"shmup-incel"

Many such cases.

I guess you meant to write Ben Shinobi, it was just too funny coincidence with these two posts in a row not to point it out.

I will never use save states, because I'm a grumpy old man.

[DMC]

Ben Shapiro

"shmup-incel"

Many such cases.

I guess you meant to write Ben Shinobi, it was just too funny coincidence with these two posts in a row not to point it out.

I will never use save states, because I'm a grumpy old man.

Haha, oops! It must have been titled "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS feminist Radiant SIlvergun". I actually much prefer the label arcade communist, if I may choose.

All fair points, SuperPang.

Now that every city has a big shopping mall, I wonder if arcade centers would not sort of work there.

Edit: I can also add that one thing the arcade-focused community did much better than the shmups community, at least in Sweden, was to arrange quite a lot of social gatherings/meetings.
It would have been cool if this forum had some more organized annual meeting or so, but in the last decade the community has been perhaps too spread out in different discord servers and such.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The irony here is that Exa Arcadia's primary aim was to rekindle this, in Japan at least. The west is largely a lost cause but they're certainly putting in the effort there too.

I understand the frustration of hearing about a special, exclusive version of a game you love but will never get to play, only to suddenly hear it might be available soon... as an arcade exclusive you'd still have trouble finding and playing. I suspect as some others have suggested that we're perhaps spoiled by the widespread availability offered by MAME emulation. But Exa is doing their best to offer something to keep arcades relevant, and their core arcade market is likely in Japan, so I can't really fault them for how they operate (though I really would like to see a Vritra Hexa home port someday!).

A resurgence of arcades in the West would be nice but I wonder if it'll happen... North America is a lot less dense in terms of population, and I suspect population density in Asian countries makes arcades generally more viable to operate. However, I think the West has kinda shot itself in the foot at times; the Senjin Aleste leak in particular was lapped up quickly, and that's had to sting for the developers of a brand new game. We didn't even really give them a chance to offer a home port.

[Steven]

Very few people actually seem to use the Exa cabinets or even the far more plentiful NESiCA cabinets. Doesn't matter if it's at Taito Hey or Mikado; people are more interested in whatever the newest Tekken is, various 90s fighting games, and Memodama, which is a really cool game despite its sadistic difficulty. The NESiCA and Exa cabinets are usually empty.

Senjin Aleste is a cool game, but I have never seen anyone other than me actually play it. I have seen like one or two people play Exa Saidaioujou, but that's all. I'm not in the arcades very often anymore, especially after literally half of my company got the coronavirus simultaneously last summer, but this is what I have witnessed.

[spmbx]

Ultimately dodonpachi campaign or whatever other game released in arcades will need to earn else these releases will not continue. If noone plays them in the arcade the sales will have to be from the home-collectorsmarket where i'm guessing most sales actually happen. Without turning this into the exa topic, i'll conclude with a little self-reflection, maybe the language could be turned down a notch or two. I still think it doesn't help when a company has a ceo that makes the most ludicrous claims that can be googled in about 30 seconds which are laughably incorrect.
Been playing a little dodonpachi the past few days when i had time, i won't be ready for any campaign release anytime soon.

[donluca]

A resurgence of arcades in the West would be nice but I wonder if it'll happen...

I fully agree, it would amazing to have those centers full of people queueing up to play their favorite games and challenge other people, but I think that the fundamental issue resides not in population density or availability of arcade centers, but rather how society has progressed and what gamers/people value more nowadays.

One thing that reigns supreme is convenience and let's not fool ourselves: getting our arse out of the house, walk/drive to the nearest center, put our own cash in the machines, hopefully without waiting too much for the guy that it's doing a killer run of whatever shmup he's playing (that often takes ~30 mins for a full clear run), is the opposite of what we today consider "convenient".

Now you open Steam/Epic Games Store/MAME/etc., browse your library, click on the game and boom, you're playing your favorite game.

Hell, MAME has been getting flak for ages for not having a convenient UI to quickly browse the user's own collection and find a game he like, would you really think that this kind of guy would actually go to an arcade and play a game?

Let's not kid ourselves, we are the sole responsible for the death of the arcade scene.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The arcades/family entertainment centers in the USA are quite different nowadays compared to how it was back in the 1980s and into the 1990s. Sure, you've got Round 1 USA, Boomer's, Putt Putt Golf's Gameworks, Dave and Busters, John's Incredible Pizza, Chuck E. Cheese Pizza, Sega Gameworks, Ten Pin Alley, etc. all still in the arcade game scene but stocked with the usual prize ticket redemption games dispensing e-tickets saved to your gamer debit card for posterity, the occasional lone pinball game or a few strewn around to sate the "old-school" pinball purists, arcade racing titles and not much else. Reload your gamer debit card with your hard-earned money and watch it drain in no time flat (especially if said arcade game takes multiple credits just for a single game to start).

It used to be the "gold standard" of crediting up an arcade cab with real quarters or tokens but have given way to using the high-tech gaming debit card interfaces (as it's a lot less general upkeep and maintenance compared to the old-school way of relying on electro-mechanical/digital coin counters & physically counting quarters/tokens by hand, emptying the coin boxes by hand, refilling the money changer with quarters/tokens would take it's toll on the lowly minimum-wage paid arcade game attendant/employee -- do this enough times and it's the same ol' shit day in and day out type of work environment/situation). Same situation applies with the indie arcade operators/owners out on the "street locations" with arcade games and pinball games at the local pizza parlors, etc.

Of course, it's going to be a "slim-to-none" chance that such arcade establishments are going have a lone arcade shmup title out on the "arcade floor" for the general public to play. Sad but true -- it is what it is nowadays. Yes, there are barcades and the occasional indie arcade to patronize but they're scattered out there "far 'n' wide" in the wilds of America -- you'd have go out of your way to "pay a visit/check 'em out".

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MJR]

The arcades/family entertainment centers in the USA are quite different nowadays compared to how it was back in the 1980s and into the 1990s. Sure, you've got Round 1 USA, Boomer's, Putt Putt Golf's Gameworks, Dave and Busters, John's Incredible Pizza, Chuck E. Cheese Pizza, Sega Gameworks, Ten Pin Alley, etc. all still in the arcade game scene but stocked with the usual prize ticket redemption games dispensing e-tickets saved to your gamer debit card for posterity, the occasional lone pinball game or a few strewn around to sate the "old-school" pinball purists, arcade racing titles and not much else. Reload your gamer debit card with your hard-earned money and watch it drain in no time flat (especially if said arcade game takes multiple credits just for a single game to start).

It used to be the "gold standard" of crediting up an arcade cab with real quarters or tokens but have given way to using the high-tech gaming debit card interfaces (as it's a lot less general upkeep and maintenance compared to the old-school way of relying on electro-mechanical/digital coin counters & physically counting quarters/tokens by hand, emptying the coin boxes by hand, refilling the money changer with quarters/tokens would take it's toll on the lowly minimum-wage paid arcade game attendant/employee -- do this enough times and it's the same ol' shit day in and day out type of work environment/situation). Same situation applies with the indie arcade operators/owners out on the "street locations" with arcade games and pinball games at the local pizza parlors, etc.

Of course, it's going to be a "slim-to-none" chance that such arcade establishments are going have a lone arcade shmup title out on the "arcade floor" for the general public to play. Sad but true -- it is what it is nowadays. Yes, there are barcades and the occasional indie arcade to patronize but they're scattered out there "far 'n' wide" in the wilds of America -- you'd have go out of your way to "pay a visit/check 'em out".

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I actually worked on one of those modern arcade machines few years back, that use the gamer credit card. At least I can boast that hey "I worked on arcade game".. although it's not the same thing really as coin-op.

Anyway, now that I got some income on my way this spring, I started to look again for DDP a jamma PCB board. No such luck. It's a complete no-show everywhere. For some reason, Ebay is full of DaiOuJou boards, but I don't care about those.

[eksratu]

Very few people actually seem to use the Exa cabinets or even the far more plentiful NESiCA cabinets. Doesn't matter if it's at Taito Hey or Mikado; people are more interested in whatever the newest Tekken is, various 90s fighting games, and Memodama, which is a really cool game despite its sadistic difficulty. The NESiCA and Exa cabinets are usually empty.

Senjin Aleste is a cool game, but I have never seen anyone other than me actually play it. I have seen like one or two people play Exa Saidaioujou, but that's all. I'm not in the arcades very often anymore, especially after literally half of my company got the coronavirus simultaneously last summer, but this is what I have witnessed.

I was just at HEY a few weeks ago while visiting Tokyo! And I was indeed the lone shmupper playing SenJin Aleste on one of the exa cabinets (got my 1cc of regular mode). I figured it was just a slow day.

I'll be back in the near future--on the off chance you see some guy with no left hand using his stump arm to operate the joystick, say hi!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The arcades/family entertainment centers in the USA are quite different nowadays compared to how it was back in the 1980s and into the 1990s. Sure, you've got Round 1 USA, Boomer's, Putt Putt Golf's Gameworks, Dave and Busters, John's Incredible Pizza, Chuck E. Cheese Pizza, Sega Gameworks, Ten Pin Alley, etc. all still in the arcade game scene but stocked with the usual prize ticket redemption games dispensing e-tickets saved to your gamer debit card for posterity, the occasional lone pinball game or a few strewn around to sate the "old-school" pinball purists, arcade racing titles and not much else. Reload your gamer debit card with your hard-earned money and watch it drain in no time flat (especially if said arcade game takes multiple credits just for a single game to start).

It used to be the "gold standard" of crediting up an arcade cab with real quarters or tokens but have given way to using the high-tech gaming debit card interfaces (as it's a lot less general upkeep and maintenance compared to the old-school way of relying on electro-mechanical/digital coin counters & physically counting quarters/tokens by hand, emptying the coin boxes by hand, refilling the money changer with quarters/tokens would take it's toll on the lowly minimum-wage paid arcade game attendant/employee -- do this enough times and it's the same ol' shit day in and day out type of work environment/situation). Same situation applies with the indie arcade operators/owners out on the "street locations" with arcade games and pinball games at the local pizza parlors, etc.

Of course, it's going to be a "slim-to-none" chance that such arcade establishments are going have a lone arcade shmup title out on the "arcade floor" for the general public to play. Sad but true -- it is what it is nowadays. Yes, there are barcades and the occasional indie arcade to patronize but they're scattered out there "far 'n' wide" in the wilds of America -- you'd have go out of your way to "pay a visit/check 'em out".

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I actually worked on one of those modern arcade machines few years back, that use the gamer credit card. At least I can boast that hey "I worked on arcade game".. although it's not the same thing really as coin-op.

Anyway, now that I got some income on my way this spring, I started to look again for DDP a jamma PCB board. No such luck. It's a complete no-show everywhere. For some reason, Ebay is full of DaiOuJou boards, but I don't care about those.

For MJR,

You can place a "Want to buy" a DDP jamma pcb in the Wanted section of the Trading Station. You never know if an offer will appear in your PM inbox. Back in 2002-2003, the going rate for a barebones DDP pcb was in the ballpark of $220.00-$280.00 usd range on eBay which was the norm -- of course, those days of snagging one at those cheap-ass prices are long gone.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Tops currently has a DDP pcb for sale... for 5000 USD. They're a reputable seller though, and I've gotten some crazy good deals from them on other games. They know CAVE games are a hot seller and a rarity so there's a serious markup on them.

I'll be back in the near future--on the off chance you see some guy with no left hand using his stump arm to operate the joystick, say hi!

I'm actually going to Japan later this year, hoping to get some serious arcade time in! Do you wear a glove/sleeve over the arm that helps fit/grip the ball of the stick and get more friction?

[eksratu]

Tops currently has a DDP pcb for sale... for 5000 USD. They're a reputable seller though, and I've gotten some crazy good deals from them on other games. They know CAVE games are a hot seller and a rarity so there's a serious markup on them.

I'll be back in the near future--on the off chance you see some guy with no left hand using his stump arm to operate the joystick, say hi!

I'm actually going to Japan later this year, hoping to get some serious arcade time in! Do you wear a glove/sleeve over the arm that helps fit/grip the ball of the stick and get more friction?

I do not--I normally play on gamepads. I don't really have any grip issues with arcade sticks, but a glove would be a pretty good idea.

[Steven]

Very few people actually seem to use the Exa cabinets or even the far more plentiful NESiCA cabinets. Doesn't matter if it's at Taito Hey or Mikado; people are more interested in whatever the newest Tekken is, various 90s fighting games, and Memodama, which is a really cool game despite its sadistic difficulty. The NESiCA and Exa cabinets are usually empty.

Senjin Aleste is a cool game, but I have never seen anyone other than me actually play it. I have seen like one or two people play Exa Saidaioujou, but that's all. I'm not in the arcades very often anymore, especially after literally half of my company got the coronavirus simultaneously last summer, but this is what I have witnessed.

I was just at HEY a few weeks ago while visiting Tokyo! And I was indeed the lone shmupper playing SenJin Aleste on one of the exa cabinets (got my 1cc of regular mode). I figured it was just a slow day.

I'll be back in the near future--on the off chance you see some guy with no left hand using his stump arm to operate the joystick, say hi!

You should have told me because I would have been there! Senjin Aleste is on the NESiCA, though. I think they might only have a single Exa, which is the one right next to Night Striker, the NAOMI running Crazy Taxi, and the other NAOMI running Triggerheart Exelica, which is relatively new.

Let me guess how it was when you were there, with one of the two following scenarios being the most likely.

1. Entire place was mostly empty
2. Lots of people playing Tekken on 3F. Some amount of people playing shooters on 2F, but less people in total on 2F than on 3F

Those are the ones that are the most common.

I'm actually going to Japan later this year, hoping to get some serious arcade time in!

If you are going to be in Tokyo, let me know because I'll be here and I'm always looking for an excuse to go to game centers.