New PCB: Guwange (Cave, 1999 - orig. and Blue Label)

Finally! After years of thinking about getting one and one aborted attempt (seller changed his mind) I finally scored one of Cave's most moody and striking - not to mention difficult - games. 

It's like an intense version of Out Zone with forced scrolling, a Shmup, but with your character walking on the ground and with actual physical obstacles to contend with. 

To be completely honest, I never really clicked with it until I got the PCB and even now, I'm not so sure. I definitely like it - the art and soundtrack are stellar and the game play is very demanding and enjoyable. The feeling of carrying a chain through a few levels is great, the feeling of losing it, terrible. And maybe that's why it's such a hard game to jell with. Small mistakes can have harsh punishments and that fun, visceral interactiveness turns to bitterness very quickly. That being said, it's still crazy good. 

Blue Label is pretty easy and I immediately put the original roms back in. It's very cool to be able to play a Blue Label version of a Cave game, but it just didn't grab me. It actually turned me off of the game for a bit, making me go back to Thunder Dragon 2 for a while until I started driving myself crazy trying to learn  stages 6 and 7. 

So, I popped this back in with the original roms and went for it. Few days in and I'm scoring in the 2 mil range, but progression is basically stalled at stage 4, so I have a lot of learning to do there!

Thunder Dragon 2/Big Bang high score #5

Well, I didn't get far with my new pcb before I picked this up again and cannot get it out of the cab. Progress is coming fast, with stage 4 and 5 going down easy. Didn't lose a life until the stage 6 boss and then tanked both extra lives trying to learn the bullet patterns - where I should have just bombed instead. Seems like there are few bosses in this game that you can actually dodge their shots.

Not a huge push past my old high score, but notable if only for the fact that after two days of having it in the cab, I started to break the 2mil mark - a feat which I considered monumental last time I played.

I have really come around on this game - I consider it an essential part of my collection - very old school, great BGM/OST, super fun and one I would absolutely love to 1cc - but that final boss is b-ru-t-a-l.

Battle Garegga - and getting down and dirty with my shmupping

It's not like I haven't played any games in the past year - in fact, I played through Persona 4 and Shin Megami Tensei - Digital Devil Saga (Parts 1 and I'm right at the very end of 2) - but really, that stuff has always been more casual for me.

After moving here to Colorado Springs, I decided for the first time in 17 years, to put a band together. I had been playing guitar on and off and was supposed to start a band with a good friend of mine in Chicago, Shane (guitarist in Murmur and Guzzlemug) and the night of our first practice together, I found out I got the job in COS and was moving in a few weeks - which kind of put a damper on the band thing.

So, I had to scratch the itch and get somethign started here. I got on CL and found a bassist into the stoner metal x early black metal x sludge thing I was thinking of in my head (think Sleep meets Celtic Frost meets Autopsy) and we started to jam and it came together realy fast. We got a drummer pretty quick too and before I knew it, we had a good 3-4 songs with another riffs for about 5 more (all stuff I was pretty impressed with) befpore they started talking of touring, quitting their jobs and trying to make it as a band. Now, I have been down that road and even had a good amount of time living in my car to try and make it happen and I wasn't interested in trying that again, especially as I have friends in major label signed bands who have to work as dishwashers and carpenters and kitchen help when not on tour so they can eat. There's no money in music anymore, really.

We split amicably - I took the music and name and they went off to try to find another guiarist. It was a lot of fun to play again, but really, I just wanted to get loud and prove to myself I could still write good songs - which I did. I may upload some of the recorded video of us riffing at some point. Some good stuff in there.

It took me a while to get my monitor fixed, as it didn't survive the move as well as I would have hoped, but here I am, playing the shit out of Garegga again and hoping to sink my teeth into a new PCB in the stable shortly...

It's good to be back.

Chicagoland Carnival series and life update

First off, I got a new position within the company I work for and I will be moving to Colorado Springs, CO in mid-September, so I will no longer be holding the Carnival series shmup meets here in Chicago. For those of you that have been coming to the meets for the past few years, thanks. They have been a ton of fun for me to hold and having the last two at Logan Hardware were seriously awesome. I'll miss hanging and playing with you all.

I'm also getting married at the end of August and finishing up preperations for that as the month goes on. The candy cabs are packed away, the pcb's are packed away, so there will probably not be a significant gaming update until I get moved into my new place. I'll try and drop a video of something as the month continues.

It's kind of an end of an era for me as I prepare to move. I have been in Chicago for the last 22 years and a lot of my teenage years. I'm looking forward to my new life in COS very much and excited to get back to some beautiful mountains, like in Seattle where I grew up.

New PCB's: Pyros (Toaplan, 1987) and Eggs (Technos 1983)

After the Carnival, I'm always a bit blown out gaming wise, but this time, I snagged two pcb's which kinda forced me back into the madness - Pyros, an awesome platformer/RPG and Eggs, an obscure and strange kinda maze game.

Pyros is one of Toaplan's better non-shmup games and its like a Castlevania style platformer with RPG elements and a decent level of difficulty. It had been on my list for a while to get and finally I found a copy super cheap on KLOV and snagged it. It's super fun and will definitely give me a good title to play when I go horizontal on my cab.

Eggs is one of those games which I am hoping turn out like Beastie Feastie - a fantastic hidden gem, but truthfully, I haven't played it yet as I am waiting on an adapter for my jamma cab. Both pcb's were from the same seller and ran me $55 shipped total, which was a smoking deal.

Now I just need to get my cabs back from Zespy and get playing!

Chicagoland Spring Carnival 2013 at Logan Hardware, May31-June 1st recap

 

After attending Maryland Deathfest the week before, I was a bit worn out getting ready for CSC 2013 and after clearing out and setting up the room for the event, I was so exhausted, I wasn't sure if I would even be able to enjoy what I was putting so much work into. Boy, was I wrong.

For those of you who haven't made one, the CSC is a shmupmeet first started in my apartment and now is held at Logan Hardware record store and arcade in Chicago, IL. Lots of shmups, lots of dedicated classic arcades and lots of pinball.

Friday, I came over to Logan early to finish setting up and work with Zespy's crew on getting the pinballs and cabs all squared away. By 3 or so, the Canadian super duo of brentz and jonny5 showed up, fresh off a plane from Toronto and a few hours later, the party was in full swing.

People brought in all their gear Friday, with a crazy selection of pcb's. For the event, Zespy emptied a shelf in his office to keep pcb's on and even bringing 15 or so pcb's myself, we had half the shelf left. So many people showed up with pcb's that we took up most of the floor, the rest of the shelf and required some serious organixational skills to keep everything seperate. The list of good games that showed up included but wasn't limited to Gun Frontier, Ninja Emaki, Ketsui, Battle Garegga, Donpachi, Dangun Feveron, Dodonpachi, Thunder Dragon, Thunder Dragon 2, Black Heart, Out Zone and Twinkle Star Sprites, a perennial favorite. Zespy also busted out some games from his personal stacsh including a bitchin' Ninja Warriors dedicated and Major Havoc.

Saturday started off as usual, a bit sleepy and slow, but by 2, in full effect. This year, the score competition was Donpachi - JP version in honor of Cave's 'restructuring' that may never output another arcade shmup title. Compeition was intense, with Zerst taking the title and stuminator and drunkninja24 taking second and third respectively. Logan Hardware was kind enough to furnish the winner with a $25 gift certificate and second place with $10 and thanks to tOyrobo, 1st, 2nd and 3rd all received an amazing poster made for the event. Saturday continued late into the night and though I had quite a bot of running around to do, I got a chance to really enjoy a bunch of great games and some serious pinball competition against caldwert on Grand Lizard. I also set a new Ketsui high score for myself, but only bested my old score by like 200K, so I'm not gonna bother with an update.



One of the highlights of the weekend was watching drunkninja24's amazing Ketsui runs. The video is the first time I have ever witnessed Ketsui second loop play live and its pretty intense to say the least!

A huge thanks to Zespy and the staff of Logan Hardware for letting us take over their back room for two days, tOyrobo for the amazing poster, caldwert for bringing out 2 NEC XM29's, gunbird18 for bringing out his Aero City and all attendees for making this such a great event.

 

Chicagoland Spring Carnival 2013 - May 31st-June 1st at Logan Hardware

It's that time again - although this Carnival is so late in the Winter its now spring! Like last year, this will be held at Logan Hardware in Chicago, IL over two days of shmups, classic arcades and pinball, for when you get sick of bullet dodging.

See the following thread on shmups for information - it is an 'invite only' event, but to garner an invite, reply to the thread on shmups. For any more information on the event, pm me on shmups - user drboom.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=39543

I look forward to seeing you all!