When I was a boy, the #1 game arcade I went to in Glendale, AZ was Bag-A-Tel in Valley West Mall. My #1 go-to game was, of course, Atari’s Star Wars sit-down cabinet. Released in 1983, this game came out the same year as Return of the Jedi, yet it involved the first Star Wars movie. I remember playing Atari’s Red Baron, a similar vector graphics shooter cabinet, before Star Was was released. The Return of the Jedi game by Atari came out in ’84, featuring an isometric view that I really could not get the hang of. Then in ’85 the first game was modified to play the Empire Strikes Back vector graphics game, which was not as good.
If Star Wars was occupied, my #2 choice was the Namco’s Pole Position II (released by Atari in the US) sit-down cabinet, which was located next to Star Wars. (This animated gif is actually of the first Pole Position game though.)
I have very fond memories of Bag-A-Tel. I loved that place. Whenever we’d catch a movie at the dollar theater, we’d be sure to stop by that arcade. Valley West Mall was eventually closed down, then later re-opened as Manistee Town Center. Eventually that mall went goodbye as well, and the mall was used for filming the movie Eight-Legged Freaks starring David Arquette and featuring a very young Scarlett Johannsson. The mall was demolished for that movie.
Hyper Dyne Side Arms (Capcom, Arcade 1986) This game blew me away as a kid when I first saw it. That two mecha could transform into starfighters and form one big robot was too cool. At the time, I was unable to get enough powerups to make that happen.
If I recall correctly, it was a drugstore called Skagg’s that had this game. Mom would ask me to go and I would be excited to go so that I could look at this game. After my quarter was gone, I’d still just love to watch the screen. It was so great how stores and convenience stores would have arcade games by the entrance. I miss those days.
When I bought my PC Engine in Osaka in 2001, Side Arms was one of the first games I bought for that system. Neat stuff.
Sailor Moon (Banpresto, Arcade 1995) I played the Super Famicom Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R brawler games by Bandai quite a lot, but it wasn’t until much later that I learned of this arcade game by Banpresto much letter. The gameplay is pretty solid and I love the screen-clearing magic attacks, but it lacks the standard projectile attacks that the SFC games featured, done by holding the attack button and charging it for a moment. It would have made this arcade game better IMHO.
In 1996, the video game scene in the USA was heavily focused on 3D-rendered graphics and I was disappointed. I was not opposed to 3D, but I much preferred 2D pixel graphics. I had finally bought a SNES with my high school graduation money in the summer of ’94. But now it was two years later, and by then nearly everything seemed to be 3D.
I went to a place called Laser Quest with my friend Nathan, which is a Laser Tag type of place. In the lobby were several arcade machines. Two that stood out to me was Gunbird and Power Instinct 2. I was fearing that shmups were a dead genre, as everything on the dominant Playstation seemed to be focused on 3D gameplay. Power Instinct 2 was a Street Fighter-style fighting game, but with quirky characters and a Sailor Moon-style girl character that transforms into a chick on rollerblades.
Gunbird’s publisher was Jaleco and Power Instinct 2’s publisher was Atlus. I managed to track down an email for Jaleco and asked them if they could release the game on a home console. A Jaleco rep responded to me, who happened to be an import gamer. He told me that Gunbird did get a home port on the Sega Saturn, although it was through Atlus. This Jaleco rep was the first to tell me about how incredibly awesome the Saturn was for 2D gaming, and how there is a treasure trove of such games that was not being released for the domestic US Saturn, particularly 2D shmups. It was then that I knew I had to get a Saturn.
Atlus released both Gunbird and Power Instinct 2 in Japan for home consoles, however the latter was released for the Playstation rather than the Saturn. This is disappointing, because the Playstation could not handle the game like I am sure the Saturn could. Load times are atrocious for this game’s home port. Power Instinct 3, aka Groove on Fight, was released for the Saturn, but it just didn’t have the same charm, I thought.
I got these on AliExpress.com. I didn’t notice the size of these stickers. I was hoping to put the RetroPie sticker on my Raspberry Pi case, but it’s way too big for it!
Here is the link to the sales page for these stickers. You have to choose which ones you want. They also have a Konami sticker, but it’s the newer logo and not the classic logo, unfortunately. So, I passed. I do want to buy a smaller RetroPie sticker now.
Since I’ve shown lots of cool Sega swag from Shimamura stores, I thought I’d share these images I found on my Flickr account. I bought the Saturn pajamas, but I wish I had gone into debt and bought the Megadrive and Dreamcast pajamas too. Drat.
I found these on Pinterest. I always preferred Capcom’s Aliens vs. Predator arcade game over Konami’s Aliens game. I played the Konami game in the arcades on occasion, but it never impressed me much. I’ve lately come to appreciate it more recently via Final Burn Alpha on RetroPie.
Oh my freaking gosh. CD Romance has released an ENGLISH-PATCHED image of Princess Crown for the Sega Saturn! I bought this game nearly 20 years ago. About 10 years ago I played up to the point where I slayed the dragon, but didn’t get further than that as I lost track of it. Now it is in ENGLISH! With my Japanese level, I was able to make sense of the game, but I didn’t catch the part of how Gradriel’s older sister is ill (which would explain why she was crowned queen instead of her sister).I don’t care for the font choice, but this is super-duper neat-o!
This game is the predecessor to Vanillaware’s Odin Sphere. I like how you can have the little girl pick up the kitty instead of the book.
I don’t care for the font choice, but this is super-duper neat-o!
It’s not a proper 1.0 version yet. Some text is still in Japanese, such as the labels to the doors. This will make it difficult for those who can’t read the moon runes. Plus it has some wonky text issues. Still, this is GREAT!
As a retro gamer, I really do not see the point in repurchasing games I already own. Unless it’s something expanded upon and improved, like R-Type Dimensions which lets you switch between updated graphics and sound and the original sprite and chip-generated sound on the fly, I typically do not want to buy games I have in my collection and can easily play through an emulator if I so desire. I just don’t have the money for that and would rather spend it on other stuff.
I bought the Valis games for the PC Engine when I first bought my Turbo Duo console in Osaka’s Den Den Town in October 2001. Except for the first game, I probably only paid about 1,000 yen each for these games. I don’t have a Switch, but for those who missed out on the getting the original Valis series, this might be a good way to go. As far as I know though, there is nothing new to this other than playing the games on an HDMI TV (which is something I could do with my Raspberry Pi).
The original Valis came came out on the PC-88 and the Famicom, but those were pretty much kuso-ge (“crappy games”). It wasn’t until the Valis games were ported to the Megadrive and PC Engine that they were decent to play. They are still a bit clunky and suffer from lackluster gameplay, but the charm is playing as a bikini armor-clad girl swinging a sword. On the PC Engine, Valis 2-4 were released on the CD-ROM2 format, then later the first Valis game was released as a Super CD ROM format with much improved gameplay, introducing a slide kick and such. This game was never released in English for the Turbografix 16, while Valis 2 and 3 were. (Valis 4 was released on the SNES as “Super Valis,” which did not include any cutscenes and only one of the two playable characters are available to play.)
The first Mugen Senshi Valis game is so very obviously heavily inspired by the anime movie, Genmu Senki Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko. Even the titles are extremely similar: 幻夢戦記レダ and 夢幻戦士ヴァリス. Leda’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yohko and Valis’s protagonist is a high school girl named Yuuko (even their names sound similar). They are both transported to a fantasy world where they are given a magical sword, and clad in bikini armor they must defeat a handsome, blue-skinned overlord who threatens to conquer the fantasy realm. Yohko has red hair and Yuuko has blue hair. The big difference is that in Valis, Yuuko discovers that her classmate has also been transported to the fantasy realm, and has been manipulated into serving the evil overlord. Yuuko must fight her friend to the death, which is pretty heart-wrenching.
I did not know this, but the limited edition version of the Valis Collection 2 for the Switch comes with a re-issue of Kaiyodo’s 1:8 sofubi figure garage kit of Yuuko Asou, the protagonist of the Valis games. While I was searching through Kaiyodo sofubi kits on YAJ, this showed up in my search and it floored me. I’m a fan of the Valis games, despite the generally lackluster gameplay, and I never knew that this kit existed. I saw a resin kit of Yuuko at a Summer Wonder Festival event many years ago, but the sculpting wasn’t so good, so I passed on it despite the low price. I saw this sofubi kit, bid on it, and won it with only minimal competition.
So of course, this kit is soft vinyl, and comes with a resin sword.
With that hairstyle, this is unmistakably Yuuko. Very nice sculpt.
Yuuko’s arms are pretty much straight down to their sides. Not very optimal, especially when viewed from behind.
Ugh. Look at how her arms just melt into the sides of her torso. The detail is very soft here. I will have to really cut into that and recreate the detail of her arms and her sides with putty to make this look good. Still, this is very cool and I am up for the challenge! I really had no idea that there was such a sofubi figure kit from Valis, and made by Kaiyodo no less.
I just find it peculiar that they sold a Nintendo Switch LE game with a sofubi kit, considering how the popularity of sofubi kits has waned over the years and how too many gamers don’t even build models anymore (unless it’s something lazy like Gunpla). You’d think that they might have included a pre-painted figure instead. I assume the seller didn’t care for the sofubi figure and just wanted the game after all. Mine did not come with any instructions, but it is so simple that I do not need instructions.
I took a photo of my nerd cave late at night, two years ago. I have a better camera this time. I also have added more stuff since then, like my light-up Starship Enterprise atop my monitor. This is a better view of the iron bead pixel art on the wall.
A closer look at my Pac-Man light. It’s actually LEDs, made to look like a neon sign.
My Pac-Man lamps, with a Dragon Quest Slime in between, atop my Megadrive game collection.
My blue paper lantern now lights up the far corner of the nerd cave.
My Aliens and Empire Strikes Back posters, and to the left side are my Record of Lodoss War action figures.
My video gaming pillow collection: Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast cushions, pillows and tissue covers, as well as Pac-Man pillows. Ulan likes to plop on these pillows and chill out. I’ve shown the Sega stuff from Shimamura previously on this blog.
