July 18, 2017
I’ve been thinking lately of all the amazing arcades in Akiharaba. Watching far too many videos of all the amazing arcades there has made me think, if money or space were not an issue, which arcade machines would I like to own?
So, welcome to my arcade!
The first machine we come to is,
Raiden
Produced in 1990 by Seibu Kaihatsu, Raiden is one of my all time favourite shooters. The game has a fantastic difficulty level mixed with extremely responsive controls and memorable stages. It’s not the most intense shooter ever, but it’s one I always come back to again and again. Later tries in the series sped up the gameplay and introduced some new weapon powers. Although I still prefer the simplicity of the original.
It doesn’t seem like there’s many of these machines left for sale. I’ve found one in Australia for about $700. It looks like a more likely possibility would be to get a newer Raiden IV arcade cabinet released in 2007 which are widely available for around the same price.
Next up in the arcade we have,
Planet Harriers
The 2000 sequel to Space Harrier.
This game was created by Sega and was never ported to any home consoles. If the dreamcast was around a bit longer we may have seen a port to the console but thanks to it’s untimely demise, this game stays an arcade exclusive, and as such is slowly being forgotten to the hands of time.
I’ve played the game once, many years ago and ti really left an impression on me. I love the on rails shooting style of games like Starfox and Panzer Dragoon so to have one of the best examples of this style game in my arcade would be fantastic! Check out some gameplay of it here
You’ll want to bring some headphones for the third and fourth games in my arcade, they are,
Project Diva Arcade and Groove Coaster!
First up is
Project Diva Arcade.
I’m a huge fan of all the PSP and Vita versions of Project Diva. (Less so on the PS3 and 4 due to the inherent lag when playing on an LCD TV) From what I’ve played of the arcade version in the past there isn’t any noticeable lag. I presume SEGA used very low latency panels for the arcade cabinets. The game is slightly different to the usual Project Diva games too, with a sliding bar and the ability to hold down notes longer for a pants boost.
It might be a bit of a challenge to get this working back in the UK though as I’ve read it needs to be connected to the sega network on a Japanese server to be able to play any of the songs. There is surely a way around though so that’s why it’s still on my wish list!
Looking around online, this one seems to be quite expensive! The best I’ve found for a machine that can be shipped to the UK is around £3500!
The other game we’re looking at here in the music section is Taito’s latest entry in the arcades, and seemed to be a huge hit in Akihabara,
Groove Coaster.
A fairly simple rhythm game compared to Project Diva, with only one main button. The draw to this game is the amazing cabinet it pays in which rumbles to the beat and has flashing lights and a huge bright screen to play on. The game it’s self, plays sort of like a musical roller coaster, as the name might suggest…
It looks like a Groove Coaster arcade cab will currently set you back about £1509. not too bad!
As always, thanks for reading. Let me know in the comments or on my twitter @nicktendowii what your most wanted / favourite arcade machines are!
Till next time.