Donkey Kong 3 high score #1

I have been practicing after work for the past two nights and tonight I played for about an hour and a half, setting my first high score. It's a stellar game and really a lot of fun when you get the hang of it. It's very fast paced and requires some deft maneuvering and platforming skills. It feels like some sort of bastard child of a caravan title and Donkey Kong and it is quite possibly my favorite DK title.


I set this high score pretty quickly after starting this evening. It was the first time I had passed 350k and I just kept storming though to end up at 463,500. I'm not really sure how long it took and since I need to be able to marathon this for an hour, I definitely have to start timing myself.

New PCB: Progear - Cave/Capcom 2001

After getting Dave's PCB which had decided to have a melt down, I started to hunger for Progear. It didn't help that the few weeks leading up to me actually getting his Astro City and Progear board, I wantched the CKDF superplay and the Futobishi superplay numerous times. I also read through the high score boards on shmups and Cave-STG. I got seriously stoked.

I looked through a lot of sales posts on shmups to no avail, but also seriously considered trying to get a Phoenixed edition of the board as I really didn't want to have happen to my PCB at some future date what happened to Dave's board. The idea of having a ticking time bomb in the closet, ready to go off and kill a fantastic game is a little unnerving.


Luckily, I did find a Phoenixed board that I ended up with in trade, along with the Daimakaimura and I'm pretty stoked to say the least. It's an excellent looking board and one I actually feel safe with.

The game is one of only three Cave horizontals, the other two being 2007's Deathsmiles and 2011's Akai Katana. It was made for Capcom on their CPS2 hardware and was Cave's only foray into that hardware.

The graphics are done by none only than Joker Jun, who worked on such classic STG titles as Dogyuun, Batsugun, Dodonpachi, ESPrade and Guwange. His art style here looks excellent - kind of a steam punk meets more of a manga style akin to Batsugun rather than Dodonpachi. The sprites do have a look all their own, as Jun seems keen to make sure he isn't retreading what's he's drawn previously.

The soundtrack is beyond awesome, especially the stage 1,2 and 5 tracks and it ranks as one of my all-time Cave favorties. The gameplay is also very fluid and enjoyable, though the jeweling combo mechanic is pretty different. When you get it to work, it's great amounts of fun watching bullets turn into diamonds.

Speaking of bullets, the bullet spreads are super-organic, right up there with Ketsui. There are so many amazing bullet patterns and massive bullet spread moments that it can be a bit unnerving at first and then super-satisfying later dodging them.

I haven't been able to get any time in on this, save for a credit or two to test it out, but I am still very stoked to play this. I may move my cab at home horizontal for the time being so I can catch up on these great PCB's!

It's been a busy month with new acquisitions, with the DK3 cab and the Astro City cab, the Progear and Daimakaimura pcb's. I also have another horizontal platformer PCB on its way from Canada I am very excited about and a long road trip to make on Saturday to Minneapolis, MN, 8-hours away from me in Chicago to grab a cab I have been waiting for since I started buying full size arcade games back in 1996...

New PCB: Daimakaimura - Capcom 1988

If you have been following my blog these past few months, you know how much time I have sunk into Ghosts 'N Goblins. I dig it. It's hard, but enjoyable and Capcom mostly seems to hit it out of the park with their arcade platformers. So, after getting Dave's cab and keeping it as a horizontal cab, I decided to try and scrounge up a few good hori games.

I got this in a good trade with a fellow shmups member who ended up taking the Deathsmiles kit in trade for this and another new board on my list. Daimakaimura is the sequel to GnG and is a fantastic platformer - way easier and more fun than the original. The music is as haunting as the first with a good fantasy theme and just gets stuck in your head instantly.

The graphics are also of supreme quality, with very detailed sprites and backgrounds. There is so much good enemy sprite and background interaction that it lends a depth to the game you might not even notice at first, as ghouls pop out from behind trees in the background and red devils sit on piles of skulls.


I have found myself enjoying the hell out of this, wishing I had more time after work this week to enjoy it. Last night, I got a chance to get a few games in before I had to roll home and later, after I was out with friends for a weekly get together, I almost drove back to work to play for a while, but I knew I would have been there waaaaay to late into the morning to do me any good the next day.

New cab: Donkey Kong 3 - Nintendo - 1983

Long time coming. This is a cab I have wanted to add for a while and everytime I had one on the line, it got away, either by being crappy or by me just plain missing out.

Not this one. I found this on the local craigslist and secured a sweet deal on it. The side art is immaculate on both sides, the CP looks brand new, the marquee is in stellar shape as well. It also plays amazingly well - sticks, buttoms, all crisp and clean, like the Perrier of arcade controls.

The inside of this thing is immaculate, almost no dust. I think you could operate off it. The bottom, which tend to get destroyed after a while on Nintendo cabs, is almost brand new looking. It's creepy how clean this thing is.

It does have a small monitor issue with the horizontal coil, but I have a coil adjustment tool on its way. The t-molding is also cracked in a few places, so I'll order some of that as well at some point.

I bought this for two reasons: 1) I will be competing in the CAGDC Tournament at Richie Knucklez's arcade in NJ in September and choose this as one of the titles I can vote in and 2) I love this game.

It's like a weird combination of Galaga and a platformer and once you get the hang of it, it plays super fluid and its very rewarding. It's a very fast paced game and really enjoyable, especially for shmups fans.

It also has nothing to do with the general DK story lineas this game stars Stanley, a gardner and not Mario. Strange choice by Nintendo, but really, who cares who is in the game - its still awesome.

I have knocked off a few games of around 300K and I hope to be able to marathon this for an hour for the tourney and feel pretty good at being able to do that.

Deathsmiles high score #2

Now I am starting to get a better idea of what's going on. You do get bored with keeping rank low - without suicide bullets, the game is pretty easy. I didn't care enough to beat it on low rank, but now, I am playing on lvl 3 rank for each stage and the suicide bullets make it a lot more fun and challenging.

I have only played a dozen or so credits of this recently, but I can get to the final stage almost everytime. I am hoping for 100 mil + scores soon as I can see a lot of places where I am missing out on big scoring opportunities. The clear should be right around the corner without the EX stage. Haven't even tried that bad boy yet. I think there may be a great opportunity to score well there, but I haven't looked into it.

I did have a Rosa All Clear superplay on my harddrive for a while and it has since dissapeared - if anyone has it, let me know! I'm also hoping to hunt down the DVD and see what's up. It'd be nice to see what I am missing.

SRAM arcade, Deathsmiles high score #1

The Ghosts 'N Goblins needed some company, so I brought the vs. cab in. Shortly after that, my buddy Dave decided to get out of his cab and pcb's. I decided to pick his cab up and had it shipped from Cali. It arrived safe and sound, along with Out Zone, Deathsmiles and Progear. I set it up last night, played one credit of Deathsmiles and died on Tyranosatan at the end of 4-2 while the cleaning guy was asking me where I get all these games.


I managed 53,384,272 before I died, which doesn't seem too crappy for having no idea what I am doing scoring wise. I also didn't rank up to Lvl 3 until it made me. I'll have to try it with the rank on high soon.


The bad news is that Dave's Progear's battery decided to explode at some point during the last year or so as it was sitting and coated a corner of the board in some caustic acid and melted away a number of traces and chip legs. I'm gonna clean it off and send it out and see what the possibility of getting it working again are. I know that the board has now suicided, but I have no idea what the costs of resurrection might be. Damn.

I do feel blessed to have a job where after work, we have a beer fridge stocked with super good free beer, a nice stereo, tons of Nerf guns (mostly modded) and now three arcades. This is one of the many reasons I love my job and love working here at SRAM.

Ghosts 'N Goblins (ARC) - high score #4

I basically took two weeks off from playing this game, having two different trips back to back keeping me out of town. I just started in on it again tonight and blew away my old high score, but more importantly, I got the the end of stage 6 two different credits in a row. Once I get some solid patterns down for the dual Satans at the end of 6, I should be good for the loop - which I am absolutely dying to pass.

I honestly cannot believe how much time I have devoted to this game, but I am psyched at getting as far as I have. It's an excellent game, one of Capcom's best. Hopefully, I will be reaching the end of the first loop soon!