US release of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Sakura Taisen 5) features Japanese language!!

2 Comments »

Because I’m a bit of a random individual, I just had a thought – any word if the upcoming US release of Sakura Taisen 5 (Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love) on the Playstation 2 and Wii by NIS had confirmed the dubbing options? And lo and behold, a quick look on one of my fave video gaming blogs Siliconera had all the info (see: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love Sold As A Two Disc Box Set; and Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love Slips Into Next Year), as well as an updated release date for the Playstation 2 release (Wii, too) – early 2010.

This is a startling moment of clarity, and a wonderful surprise for fans of the series and the world in general (I exaggerate not). I’ve been playing Sakura Taisen since the Saturn days and absolutely love the games (the anime releases, with the possible exception of the TV series, are also extremely good), but was always frustrated that I had to use my rubbish understanding of the Japanese language when playing through any of the games Well, I normally had a FAQ sitting next to me, but still, translated text would have been super-awesome I blame Bernie Stolar for not bringing it over to the West in the mid-90s, even though it would have arguably been financial suicide (though it’s not like the Saturn was a particularly successful business venture in the West tbh – great machine though, still my favourite system).

Anywho, the news of there finally being an English translation of this game being brought into the West was pretty huge in and of itself, but the fact that they’re doing a 2-disc release in order to preserve the original Japanese voices and please the ignorant masses with a dubbed release (seriously – it’s a foreign language, it’s just like watching a movie subtitled, because English dubs for movies should also be banned – deal with it), which ultimately creates a harmonious solution. I know there are additional costs going down this path for developers, I just wish it happened more often where there isn’t enough space to make a release bilingual on a single disc.

Considering the quality of the Japanese cast, this is such an awesome thumbs-up from NIS (and Sony and Nintendo for letting it pass through their gates). To release this in English only would be like taking a classic movie where the cast really shines (let’s restrict it to animation – so Shrek or Monsters Inc?), and replace all the awesome cast members with underpaid actors and comparatively inexperienced directors without anywhere near the kind of experience/talent/qualities/budget the original had, and you’d lose a great deal of charm that made the original movie so awesome. It’s kinda like taking Bruce Lee out of Enter The Dragon, Roberto Benigni from La Vita è Bella or Samuel L. Jackson out of Pulp Fiction – remove the actors that add charm/awesomeness/etc, and you remove part of the soul of the experience. And yes, I know that’s an odd set of movies to use as an example, but I thought that since Sakura Taisen fans are generally very eccentric, I’d write appropriately

… erm, I got sidetracked. So, to re-cap – Sakura Taisen 5 is getting an English language, is preserving the original Japanese dialogue on its own, separate disc, and will be released in early 2010 by NIS. Oh, and anything Sakura Taisen is awesome. The end.

Jeremy “Junglist” Ray axed from Good Game, the plot thickens…

1 Comment »

Good Game on ABC2 has really come a long way since its awkward inception several years ago – what started as a bit of a dud-with-potential has gradually evolved over the years into a good weekly dose of TV, and huge props go out to the team for working so hard on it over the years.

Which makes the recent event of co-host from day 1, Jeremy “Junglist” Ray, being axed from the show with little in the way of explanation or warning so disappointing.

Now before I jump any further, I don’t want to start on all the unnecessary hate being directed towards Bajo’s new co-host Hex, as I think she did a great job on Monday and is, I believe, a good addition to the team. My issue is with the sudden axing of Junglist and the evidence that ABC’s Management is meddling with a successful program and has the potential to mess up all the excellent work the GG team have done over the years.

The frustrating part is that Junglist is busy letting people know the truth of what’s been said behind closed doors, but due to confidentiality agreements, the GG crew can only respond so far. There may well be bad blood on both sides, but we can’t know for sure because nobody is talking.

The whole move does smack of unnecessary managerial tampering/micromanagement, particularly as Junglist has shared that the higher-ups aren’t fussed with knocking out their core audience (their bread and butter, if you will), as they’re hoping to mix things up to increase the show’s appeal to a larger audience. While this may make inroads in the short-term, the problem with ABC Management is that is fails to take into account how difficult it will be to hold the attention of the masses during ebbs and flows of interest in gaming – by keeping their core audience satisfied, it ensures there is a continual flow of interest in the show. For the distributors and developers of the games as well, it’s a mixed move – their games may get broader exposure to different market segments, but it means their missing the opportunity to market or present their games to their core audience, something particularly important when you have close, competitive releases (e.g. Forza 3, the new NFS title and DiRT 2 released close together) and want to try and sway the core buyers towards your product. Dilute the viewership, and you reduce the chance to sell the finer details about your creation to the audience that appreciates them the most. It’s like a HiFi speaker manufacturer like VAF trying to market and sell their speakers (and price tag) to consumers who shop exclusively at K-Mart based on their awesome audio fidelity, when the consumers for that market will be driven more on low prices than the quality of the end-product (and for the record, VAF make amazing loudspeakers).

If you’re curious about getting some neat summaries of the situation and lending your support for gibing Jung a fair go, check out Save Junglist (www.savejunglist.com) for some summaries of the forum posts on the GG forums, links to social networking sites, posters and more info on sending your thoughts the upper channels at the ABC, the article on TV Tonight’s blog ‘Game on: Former ABC host slams axing as “a lie”’ (www.tvtonight.com.au/2009/10/game-on-former-abc-host-slams-axing-as-a-lie.html), and there’s also an online petition ‘Keep Jeremy “Junglist” Ray In Abc’s Good Game!’ (www.gopetition.com/online/31631.html) available too.

Again, just to reiterate – I love the show, Hex and Bajo and the crew and producer are all awesome, I’d just like to see Jung get a fair go in this, as the cloak-and-dagger stuff is completely unnecessary.

Finishing up the annual viewing of Retro Core

No Comments »

For some bizarre reason, once a year following a few episodes of a retro cartoon I may be watching (going through the Thundercats box sets are the usual triggers!) I get the compulsion to watch all the way through the excellent Retro Core series available over at Segagaga Domain. I first came across the independant retro gaming show a few months prior to getting broadband connected up at home, but didn’t think much of it because I couldn’t justify downloading it on dialup, especially since there were quota limits even on that here in Australia. Then in 2006 I stumbled across the Segagaga Domain website when looking up Saturn gear, and realised this Retro Core thing was what I’d been looking at a while back! I promptly downloaded Yakumo’s awesome shakycam footage of a trip to Akihabara, then started from episode 1 and caught up to the show. After that, I made a habit of downloading the show each month and loved every minute of it!

For those unaware, Retro Core is produced by British ex-pat Japanese resident (and forum regular over at the Assembler Games) Yakumo. The guy’s huge fan of Japanese gaming, particularly retro games. Each episode features footage of him playing through games across all different platforms – Saturn, PC Engine, N64, MSX, Sharp x68000, NES, Master System, Game Gear, SNES, etc – and over the top of the audio it features commentary on what’s happening on-screen. Now, depending on how you sit with an opinionated British accent you’ll either love it or hate it – personally, I think it’s awesome

The cool thing about the show is the huge variety of games, many often released only in Japan. I have a considerably large pile of games in my collection I’ve tracked down after watching his show, and it also showcased systems I’d never had much experience with, like the PC Engine, MSX and Sharp x68000. The man also has a crazy passion for his Saturn and Dreamcast, which is something I can relate to.

In addition to that, he’s also gone on the move taking footage while out shopping at awesome Japanese video game stores and districts (like the aforementioned trip to Akihabara), independant and chain game centres (arcades to us Westerners), and has gotten kicked out of more locations than I can count off the top of my head for persevering with videotaping stuff

So anyways, a few months back he released a special summer 2009 edition of Retro Core which I downloaded as soon as I saw it, and before I knew it, I’d gone back to the first episode to watch them all the way through! Last night before going to bed I finished up the final episode of the second series, and as always, it was an awesome ride. I would highly recommend you check it out – the website’s linked throughout this post, but just to make it even more obvious, the URL is: http://www.segagagadomain.com/.

In addition to Retro Core, he also has a huge range of hosted, streaming videos of games across various platforms, all with excellent video quality and in stereo to boot! With the big Sega focus in Segagaga Domain’s main resources, it’s a slice of awesome and a site I make sure to check out regularly.

But yes, Retro Core – it’s awesome, and while I understand time commitments mean that it can’t be a regular thing these days anymore, I just wanted to put it out there that I think it’s an awesome show, and essential viewing if you’re into retro games or Japanese games in general.

Marvel vs Capcom CPS2 B-Board :)

No Comments »

This one arrived in the post this week It’s a phoenixed version of Capcom’s awesome 2D brawler Marvel vs Capcom, and isn’t it a beauty? Haven’t had a chance to give it a whirl as yet since the cab’s got the monitor sitting vertically, so whenever I get around to rotating it back to a horizontal position, I’ll look forward to giving it a go

Changing the arcade cab’s joysticks – 4-way, 8-way, 2-way

No Comments »

So I’d read quite a while ago about changing the gate or plate on your arcade cab’s joysticks and never really “got” it… I mean, I only remember using standard 8-way joysticks when gaming, but I think I’ve finally worked it all out

It all happened as a result of getting the 48-in-1 installed in the machine – when Wifey and I sat down for some retro gamage, we found that in some cases it just wasn’t controlling that well… Pac-man in particular was problematic! So afterwards I popped open the control panel to see how it worked:

So, by default my cab was setup for 8-way control (i.e. what most modern games use for control), which for the standard rectangle gate on the Sanwa is in the middle:

The shape in the rectangle controls the freedom of movement the base of the joystick shaft has when it sits in the control panel. So, by changing the configuration of the rectangle gate, you can control the joystick’s degree of movement, restricting it to 8-way, 4-way or 2-way (horizontally or vertically).

To get started, remove the screws holding it in place:

From here, you’ve got the rectangle plate itself:

On the left is the 4-way template, in the middle is the 8-way template, and on the far right is the 2-way template, which you can set for vertical or horizontal. I can’t think of too many vertical 2-way controlled games you’d play with a joystick (I mean, Pong can be setup for vertical play, but you’d normally use a spinner instead of joysticks), but still, I’ll show how you set it up

4-way:

2-way, vertical:

I thought I took a snap of it in the horizontal position, but mustn’t have… go me Anywho, you pretty much grab the rectangle as per the above image, and swing it around 90° clockwise, then screw it in again.

Anywho, I’ve currently got the two Sanwa sticks locked into 4-way mode at the moment, which means that, in theory, I should now do much better at Pac-man, right?

Oh well, I’d better get back to practicing

… because I am so, so bad at that game!!!!!!

Anywho, there are a handful of extra pics on page two of the Arcade Stuff – Cabinets gallery, so feel free to check it out (and remember, there’s full blah-blah commentary when you click on any of the thumbnails).

Massive cartridge cleaning session

No Comments »

A few months back I decided to sit down and go through all of my carts and thoroughly clean the contacts on all of them. Despite being a bit finicky over my nerd collection, the reason I actually went and did this was because I’d grab a game off the shelf to play and would end up having to clean the contacts to get it working on whatever system I was playing it on.

So, I hit the windex, grabbed some cotton tips and got cleaning. I didn’t have anywhere near enough cotton tips to spare two per cart, so by the end of the session the cotton tips were absolutely knackered

But hopefully with all that done, it means I won’t have to do it for a long time Nowadays whenever I grab an old game that uses a connector (i.e. cart or arcade PCB), I always clean the contact before I get started, saves me doing it down the road I guess

If you’re keen on a few more pics, check out the Collections – Miscellaneous gallery.

Rotating the monitor on my Sega Astro City

No Comments »

Finally got around to rotating the monitor on my cabinet on the weekend – my father-in-law was staying with us for a few days, and since he was keen to give Galaxian and Galaga a go (and those are on the 48-in-1 I picked up a while ago, along with plenty of other classics!), it wasn’t too hard to convince him to give me a hand rotating the monitor since I’m not strong enough to do it on my own

Anywho, it wasn’t too tricky – simply take off the shroud by flipping open the control panel, remove the screws holding the plastic housing down, unhook the connection to the speakers (mine was easy to disconnect with a handy molex connector), remove the screws and two plates on the back of the cab (the top panel hides the fluro tube and the speakers, the next one down hides the access to the monitor chassis), then slowly lift the shroud off. Next up, I disconnected the cabling between the RGB lines from the JAMMA connector from the chassis, then tested the AC line to the chassis (plenty of give) and removed the screw that were bolting the cab to the frame. Next up, lift and turn the monitor clockwise or anti-clockwise (erm, I can’t remember which… ) and re-sit it on the bolts and wind them up again. If you’d like me and the image is upside down, don’t panic – I unplugged the yoke connector on its existing socket on the chassis and plugged it into the other one – fixed it right up (though don’t forget to disconnect the power between these tests!!). Once all that was done and it survived the smoking tests, I wound the voltage on the PSU back to +5v flat without a JAMMA board connected, plugged in the 48-in-1, wound it up to +5v on the mark, tested it up, and bam, worked fine! Mind, the monitor needs a really thorough degaussing, so I’ve added a degaussing wand to my “to-get” list to fix that up.

Anywho, on Sunday I jumped in and started messing with the DIP switches, and have it all nicely configured. Also started messing around with the gate on my Sanwa sticks, but that’s something to discuss in another post

The important bit, though, is that it was awesome fun to play through the classic games My top pick at this stage is either Space Invaders or Shao-Lin’s Road

If you want more pictures of the cabinet and rotating it, you can view them in the new arcade stuff – cabinets gallery.