Espgaluda

Espgaluda (エスプガルーダ) released in 2003 by CAVE. It is the spiritual prequel to CAVE’s renowned ESP Ra.De. and was followed by Espgaluda II.

Espgaluda is widely considered to be the most accessible of CAVE’s shoot ’em up titles. The basic mechanics of the game are simple compared to other CAVE titles but still offers a challenge to any player aiming to score high.

A complete arcade PCB kit consists of game PCB, four PCB feet, instruction sheet, marquee, pop, instruction strip, 50 A5 sized flyers with inserts for Arcadia magazine/mobile games, a letter from CAVE and, of course, a box.

Box

Box inside

Game PCB

Pop

Arcadia flyer

Flyer and insert

Flyers and letter

Instruction front

Instruction back

Other releases

Espgaluda was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004. The PS2 version contains different playing modes; such as arcade, arrange and simulation; gallery, and a walkthrough DVD video featuring replays by Clover-TAC and KTL-NAL. In simulation mode the player can change different parameters of the game play. Arrange mode offers redesigned stages, new fighters and a remixed soundtrack.

In 2005 Espgaluda was ported to the i-mode mobile phones in Japan.

Related links

July 22, 2014August 5, 2015

G-net shmups

G-Net Psyvariar kit (picture by Eiko at Arcade Otaku)

I brought one of my G-net mobo’s to Monouchi’s Taito Station last weekend for firing up some shmups on one of his Egret II’s.

For having only 20+ titles available in total the G-net actually boasts quite a few shmup games. I’m still missing Ray Crisis but we played through the ones I have. I must say I enjoyed Psyvariar ~Revision~ the most. Interesting scoring mechanism and a great soundtrack! XII Stag is an odd gem with its horizontal firing system. Shikigami no Shiro delivers as usual.

Finally having gotten Space Invaders Anniversary I ran through a few of the versions in the game and it’s quite remarkable to back 30 some years to the birth of the shmup genre.

Shikigami no Shiro

XII Stag

Mono playing Mushihimesama Futari Black Label

Loading Psyvariar ~Revision~

Psyvariar Medium Unit

Of course we had to play some Cave titles as well for restoring the order 😉

March 19, 2014August 28, 2015

Deathsmiles update on the CAVE Database

New update over at the CAVE Database: Deathsmiles Xbox 360 releases. Got some merchandise to post as well in a near future!

February 14, 2014August 5, 2015

JAEPO 2014 (Namco Bandai)

Less than an hour left until JAEPO 2014 opens the doors and I’m going through some of the line ups already released. Today the turn has come to Namco Bandai.

Namco Bandai has a rather short line up but nonetheless a couple of notable news. First one up is a theater style shooter / rhythm action (!?) game featuring AKB48.

Sailor Zombie ~AKB48 Arcade Edition~ (セーラーゾンビ～ AKB48 アーケード・エディション～)

AKB48 is turning zombie in this odd mash up of shooting and rhythm action. The theater style cab looks interesting. I for one hope we get to see a few clips of this one in action!

Official site

Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme vs. Maxi Boost (機動戦士ガンダム EXTREME VS. MAXI BOOST)

The 11th release in the Gundam franchise brings us the MS110 aircraft and supposedly a mode where you can battle other players toons on-line. When playing your character/aircraft can be stored on-line and battled out by other players. The new opening song will be released at the venue.

Official site

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune (湾岸ミッドナイトマキシマムチューン５)

Also Wangan Midnight gets an update with new elements added to the competition racing. And like ID8 Infinity’s D coins, Wangan has its Maxi G that can be used in game to pimp out your ride even further.

Official site

Super Alpine Racer (スーパーアルペンレーサ)

Arcade skiing is back in this new version of Alpine Racer. The cabinet boasts vertical 55″ monitors and promises a whole new experience of the trill racing down the slopes. The games are networked and up to 8 players can go head to head in the same race.

Other games

Namco Bandai has a few more titles in the line up. Prize games, photo booth and medal games, for instance Super Sea Story in Okinawa 3 (海物語 IN 沖縄ウキウキバケーション); a medal game for all ages. An updated Dead Storm Pirates SP can be spotted in the line up but details remains unknown. A few more already released games will be available on the venue.

JAEPO 2014 (Sega)

We’re a week away from Japan Amusement Expo 2014 and the four big ones have already released most of their line ups for the show and while there’s not anything notably new one can just hope that at least one of them has a hidden ace up their sleeve.

First up is Sega

Sega will be showing off a couple of new games. New, in the sense that they’re not released yet. In another way not so new, since most of them are already on location tests and already known to the public.

As always most of them won’t be available anywhere near Europe, except for perhaps Dead or Alive – making its arcade comeback – and Guilty Gear Xrd. I’d love to try both the new Initial D and the super trippy mai mai GreeN music game (check the video clip further down!).

Events

SEGA Sound Unit, Beat Mario and Ozaki Junko will be performing songs from the upcoming mai mai GreeN PLUS.
The finals of the 1st ARCANA CUP official CODE OF JOKER tournament. This even will also be streamed live.
Appearances by Guilty Gear Xrd ~SIGN~ director; Daisuke Ishiwatari and the Initial D Arcade Stage producer; Kenji Arai.
and many others. See the related links at the bottom of the page for a link to the full event schedule.

Line up

Hero bank arcade (ヒーローバンクアーケード)

An arcade version of the Nintendo 3DS RPG with the same name. You play as Kaito Gosho, a young boy with serious money problems, forced to participate in a virtual fight tournament in order to repay his debts. The money you win can also be used to perform actions during the battles. Hero bank arcade is scheduled for release this summer.

Initial D ARCADE STAGE 8 Infinity (頭文字D ARCADE STAGE 8 インフィニティ)

The next installment of the Initial D franchise has the appropriate name Infinity. According to the press release it goes back to Shuichi Shigeno’s original world of the Initial D manga. You’re faced with a single player career mode where you race upgrade your ride. D coins can be used to purchase special parts. To save you progress you’ll need an ALL.Net IC card. Initial D ARCADE STAGE 8 Infinity is scheduled for operation sometime this year.

DEAD OR ALIVE 5 ULTIMATE ARCADE

It’s been 13 years since we last saw Dead or Alive in the arcades. DoA 5 Ultimate Arcade was released on 24/12/13 and features a new character named Marie Rose (voiced by Mai Aizawa). She’s a French maid and her fighting style is somewhat oddly systema, a Russian martial art focused on controlling the six body levers (elbows, neck, knees, waist, ankles, and shoulders) through pressure point application, striking, and weapon applications.

Marie Rose will be made available to the console versions of the game in an upcoming patch. DoA 5 Ultimate Arcade runs on Sega’s RingEdge 2 system with support for the ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Ver.2 system.

GUILTY GEAR Xrd ~SIGN~

Guilty Gear is back in full cel shaded 2D glory using Unreal Engine 3. According to rumors it will be released later this month for the arcades and sometime this year both for PlayStation 3 & 4.

Development is once again done by Arc System Works and the series creator, Daisuke Ishiwatari, is back in the director’s chair.

New in this version is the character Bedman.

Final location testing is currently ongoing and like it’s predecessor GGXrd will be released on Sega’s RingEdge 2 arcade board with support for the ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Ver.2 system.

Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX (電撃文庫 FIGHTING CLIMAX)

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is a 2D fighting game collaboration between Sega and Dengeki Bunko scheduled for release in March this year.

The game features characters from different light novel series under the Dengeki Bunko imprint. Each playable character has its own assist character that can be called into the fight to help in various ways.

All characters are voiced by their respective actors from the anime adaptations. Akria Yuki of Virtua Fighter is confirmed as one of the bosses.

Puyo Puyo! QUEST ARCADE (ぷよぷよ!!クエストアーケード)

Puyo Puyo! Quest Arcade is an RPG spin off of the populat Puyo Puyo! franchise. The game was released in November last year and seems to be getting a good deal of plays.

mai mai GreeN PLUS

mai mai GreeN is a fast paced crazy music game where you have to hit and swipe on a touch screen to the beat of the music. The updated version (mai mai GreeN PLUS) scheduled sometime this spring will be available for play on the expo. Level: ASIAN!

THE WORLD of THREE KINGDOMS

The World of Three Kingdoms is an epic scale real time battle game set in the Chinese Sangokushi era. You command your troops using buttons and touch screen.

You can battle out against the CPU or other players and as all other Sangokushi style battle games the cabinets are beautiful though in the case of TWOTK they’re combined four and four in a half circle with an integrated live monitor instead of rows of free standing cabs.

Trailers

Sega will be showing new trailers for Border Break scrambled (ボーダーブレイクスクランブル) Ver. 4.0 and Shining Force Cross Ecclesia (シャイニング・フォースクロスエクレシア) Version B.

Medal games

100 & medal GINGAAAN!! (100 & メダル GINGAAAN!!)
StarHorse 3 Season III CHASE THE WIND
Onimusha Soul Card Rush (鬼武者Soul　カードラッシュ)
Fist of the North Star BATTLE MEDAL (北斗の拳 BATTLE MEDAL)

Kids games

遊育右脳教室うのチャレ (educational game)
Take it! Anpanman Popcorn (それいけ！アンパンマンポップコ－ンこうじょう3)
Kids naughty village (キッズわんぱく村)
Single satiety Aquarium (シングルまんぷくすいぞくかん)

To all CAVE WORLD supporters

Oh, this is just sad. Does this mean CAVE is retreating entirely from the Western market for focusing on Japanese releases only? The latest iOs/Android title – Donpaccin – suggests the same. Only released to the domestic market.

January 12, 2014

Soul Calibur III Arcade Edition DVD cover inlay

Showing off your games is so much more fun than just storing them, right?

But how fun is it when they look like this?

Not at all. Really.

Luckily the dongles for Namco’s System 246 & 256 games uses the same cases as memory cards for PlayStation 2 games. Scavenging your nearest flea market for cheap PS2 games will provide you with cases for your games. Flea markets are usually better than second hand game stores if you want to find them cheap. I managed to pick up four (more or less) clean cases at $1 each on my last hunt.

Now, a PS2 case alone doesn’t go bling. You’ll of course need a nice inlay as well. I’ve created a template in Photoshop that I use as a base for all my inlays.

There’s a few sites that offer hi-res scans of inlays for a wide variety of games but if you wanna make it zing you’ll create your own.

An arcade game is not a console game.

An inlay measures 285 mm x 190 mm (approx. 11.2″ x 7.5″). Use scans, screen shots and game info from the web to assemble a unique inlay for your games.

Resources

Here’s a link to my template file and a couple of resources you can use for your covers. There’s tons more on the Intertubes. Good luck 😀

November 15, 2013

Akatsuki Blitzkampf Ausf. Achse

Akatsuki Blitzkampf (アカツキ電光戦記) is a Japanese dōjin 2D fighting game.

Originally developed by the dōjin circle SUBTLE STYLE for Microsoft Windows in April 2007. The title earned reputation both in Japan and elsewhere for its high-resolution sprites and older style gameplay.

Later on in 2007 Arcadia Magazine confirmed that the game would be launched for the arcade. The arcade version was called Akatsuki Blitzkampf Ausf. Achse and was released in February 2008 for the Sega NAOMI system.

Akatsuki Blitzkampf is set in a fictional future with many characters borrowing visual style from German soldiers of the World War II era. Many of the characters in Blitzkampf previously appeared in an earlier game, Akatsuki Shisei Ichigō, also by SUBTLE STYLE, released in 2003. In-game visuals supplement this sort of specific militaristic theme and environment, portrayed by the flat and somewhat cubist character portraits and story sequence images.

The game play is considered somewhat old-school in comparison to other dōjin fighter games of the time, relying more on parrying, space control and footwork than chaining combos and heavy aerial combat.

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – kit

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – Marquee

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – instruction strip

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – poster

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – cartridge

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – game PCB

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – manuals

Akatsuki Blitzkampf – BIOS & ROM

Links

Official web site

November 2, 2013August 5, 2015

Taito Type X²

The Taito Type X² was released in 2007 and is a PC/Windows XP based arcade system.

The game list is quite extensive and boasts a number of high profile titles from franchises like Street Fighter, Blazblue and King of Fighters. Since the system runs on Windows XP Embedded games are generally built on Direct X.

Basic specifications

CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E6400/Pentium 4 651/Celeron D 352
Chipset	Intel Q965 + ICH8
Memory	512 MB or 1 GB DDR2 667 MHz (upgradable to 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz)
GPU	PCI Express x16 based cards ATI Radeon X1600Pro/X1300LE nVidia GeForce 7900GS/7600GS/7300GS (also supports newer Radeon and GeForce cards)
Audio	Onboard HD audio codec support 7.1ch sound (also supports other sound cards)
LAN	Onboard 10/100/1000 BASE-T/TX
I/O ports	JVS, 4 x USB 2.0 (up to 8), parallel, serial, 2 x PS/2, 2 x SATA
Expansion slots	PCI Express x16 (used by graphic card) PCI Express x4, 2 x PCI
PSU	Built-in (input power 110/240V 50/60Hz)
OS	MS Windows XP Embedded SP2 (adapted by Taito)
Dimensions	309 mm x 296 mm x 130 mm 325 mm x 251 mm x 130 mm
Weight	Approx. 7 kg (15.4 lbs)

Hardware revisions

REV.00B
CPU	Pentium 4 3.4 GHz
Memory	512 MB PC2-5300U DDR
GPU	GeForce 7900GS
REV.01B
CPU	Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz
Memory	2 GB PC2-5300U DDR
GPU	GeForce 9800GT SP
TEM100-01B (satellite terminal)
CPU	Pentium 4 3.4 GHz
Memory	512 MB PC2-5300U DDR
GPU	ATI X1600Pro

My system is a model 208A. It has the Pentium 4 CPU, 512 MB RAM and a GeForce 7900GS (Elsa Gladiac 979 GS) GPU.

DIP switches

On the I/O board there are 5 DIP switches. Switches 1, 3 and 5 apparently doesn’t do anything.

DIP #2 controls the video output. Set to off enables 480p output for use with 31 kHz monitors. Set to on enables 720p output for higher resolution (LCD) monitors)
DIP #4 enables and disables the automatic update system. If set to on the unit will try to contact an update server over the network.

Error codes

203 HDD error. Probable solution is to connect the HDD to another Windows XP system and running chkdisk.
900: USB security dongle missing. Most games won’t start without the USB-dongle. A few games don’t use a dongle.
901: USB bus/security dongle error. Sadly this usually means that the USB dongle is corrupt. Not much can be done other than trying to find another dongle.