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[Yes Boss!]

Mushi 1.5 and the two Deathsmiles games are excellent for somebody getting back into the genre. I was in the same spot as you four years ago (having not played shooters since the 16-bit days). DFK and Akai Katana, a bit challenging.

That PDP controller does not look that great...at least not much more of an improvement over the regular pad. Plenty of "pro" sticks out there that routinely hover at the $100 level. At the very least, you can get a Mad Catz mini stick and throw in a Seimitsu stick for well less than $100. Good investment since you already invested in some games.

 

[sixteen-bit]

What's Kuru?

 

[StarCreator]

What's Kuru?

Boss's consistent misspelling of Kuro (black). =p

 

[Yes Boss!]

Boss's consistent misspelling of Kuro (black). =p

Sorry, don't speak japanese!

In any case, I'm likely getting rid of either Kuro or Vanilla as having two just does not make sense and I'd like to get a Raizing PCB instead. Posted pics at shumps trading.

 

[ys45]

Mushi 1.5 and the two Deathsmiles games are excellent for somebody getting back into the genre. I was in the same spot as you four years ago (having not played shooters since the 16-bit days). DFK and Alai Katana, a bit challenging.

That PDP controller does not look that great...at least not much more of an improvement over the regular pad. Plenty of "pro" sticks out there that routinely hover at the $100 level. At the very least, you can get a Mad Catz mini stick and throw in a Seimitsu stick for well less than $100. Good investment since you already invested in some games.

Okay I'm totally newbie when it comes to arcade stick, i know you can mod them and all but if i were to get one without having to mod anything is there a model that you would recommend me ?

Or is there a controller with a good D-pad for Xbox available ?

 

[Yes Boss!]

Hori's cool $30 six-button controller is PS3 only, sadly.

I've never modded a stick (or dropped another in) but everything online spells ease and plug-n-play.

All the Sanwa sticks are great. A little more loosey-goosey than the Seimitsu but just as good. No out-of-the box Seimitsu solutions currently at less that $180.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Sorry, don't speak japanese!

In any case, I'm likely getting rid of either Kuro or Vanilla as having two just does not make sense and I'd like to get a Raizing PCB instead. Posted pics at shumps trading.

ooh nice, any idea what you want? Bakraid and Batrider look so good.

 

[Yes Boss!]

ooh nice, any idea what you want? Bakraid and Batrider look so good.

Those are the two I want, or that very first game of theirs. I'm plenty fine with the Saturn port of Garregga, no need for that. I've also wanted an R-Type Leo for some time. I think even Plain Jane Ibara should be enough to cover the cost.

 

[ys45]

Is this any good ?

http://www.amazon.ca/Xbox-360-Real-Arcade-Pro/dp/B008DDBMSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369145517&sr=8-1&keywords=Xbox+360+Real+Arcade+Pro+VX+SA+%22KAI%22

 

[danmaku]

It's full Sanwa, excellent stick. If you prefer d-pads, Madcatz fightpads are good too.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Can't go wrong with a Real Arcade Pro

 

[BOTEC]

For a beginner, I'd actually recommend Hori's Fighting Stick line. They use imitation parts which try to find a common middle ground between Sanwa and Seimitsu (the preferred part manufacturer for shooters). And since they're imitations, they're cheap. Sadly they don't seem to be in stock anywhere any more. Also, Deathsmiles is a great beginner game. You can choose a difficulty level before starting each stage. Very forgiving.

Edit: I guess Hori is trying to phase out the old Fighting Sticks and make the Mini the only low end option. Now, I checked the internetz, and it does use microswithes for the stick and buttons, but I've never used one, and I can't think it would simulate the full size stick experience accurately. In light of this I'd have to recommend getting a cheap MadCatz stick, and modding it with a Seimitsu LS-32. It's quite simple, just flip the connector upside down.

 

[Jockel]

Sorry, don't speak japanese!

In any case, I'm likely getting rid of either Kuro or Vanilla as having two just does not make sense and I'd like to get a Raizing PCB instead. Posted pics at shumps trading.

Well, I want to get rid of my Japanese Garegga... but I already have vanilla Ibara. Got anything else cave-y? That is, if you're even interested in Garegga in the first place.

 

[Risette]

Or is there a controller with a good D-pad for Xbox available ?

you can get Saturn->360 converters made

I have one

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Is this any good ?

http://www.amazon.ca/Xbox-360-Real-Arcade-Pro/dp/B008DDBMSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369145517&sr=8-1&keywords=Xbox+360+Real+Arcade+Pro+VX+SA+%22KAI%22

I have a Hori RAP VX-SA (Xbox 360) Its the best Arcade stick i have ever played with very good, Nice and big.

 

[CaseyTappy]

Sorry, don't speak japanese!

In any case, I'm likely getting rid of either Kuro or Vanilla as having two just does not make sense and I'd like to get a Raizing PCB instead. Posted pics at shumps trading.

Welcome to violent city !

 

[ys45]

Thanks guys for your input, think i will go with the RAP VX-SA stick .
This will work for PC also ?

 

[Alfred Saxon]

Thanks guys for your input, think i will go with the RAP VX-SA stick .
This will work for PC also ?

I think so i dont have a pc. The lead is usb i think try google if no one answers.

Also i dont the kai stick i have the white one.

 

[Mikhal]

The stick will work on PC. My suggestion would be to wait to buy during the weekend during UFGT (fighting game tournament). Madcatz will most likely have some promo codes to get some cheaper sticks. This is what they had last week for ECT, so expect something similar.

http://www.madcatz.com/throw-down-with-mad-catz-at-ect-v/

Edit: Now that I actually look at the deals, they might still be active as it says today is the last day.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Thanks guys for your input, think i will go with the RAP VX-SA stick .
This will work for PC also ?

That Kai stick is ace. Way better than previous models (no slouches either!). I've been using one for the last few weeks for Caladrius.

Well, I want to get rid of my Japanese Garegga... but I already have vanilla Ibara. Got anything else cave-y? That is, if you're even interested in Garegga in the first place.

Not really looking for a Garegga as I'm trying to get something that I don't already have on normal systems and something that has not been ported yet. And I don't have anything else Cave-y...just Kuro and normal Ibara. I took a good hard look at my collection last night and it just seems silly to have two Ibaras when I can be enjoying something from another developer. Got my heart set on something from Raizing or Irem.

 

[BOTEC]

That Kai stick is ace. Way better than previous models (no slouches either!). I've been using one for the last few weeks for Caladrius.

...

Me too. Bro fist!

I did find some programs have a tricky time recognizing it properly. Yatagarasu doesn't like the joystick, and constantly thinks I'm jumping backwards (up and to the right). The buttons work fine, go figure. DotEmu's IREM Arcade Classics doesn’t like it at all, but with joy2key it still can't get the buttons right. The Raiden Legacy collection works great though. I also tried a Neo Geo CD emulator, and couldn't get button D to work properly. It's kind of all over the map.

 

[adversesolutions]

Not really looking for a Garegga as I'm trying to get something that I don't already have on normal systems and something that has not been ported yet. And I don't have anything else Cave-y...just Kuro and normal Ibara. I took a good hard look at my collection last night and it just seems silly to have two Ibaras when I can be enjoying something from another developer. Got my heart set on something from Raizing or Irem.

You want Batrider (the best Raizing game).

 

[elbourreau]

You want Batrider (the best Raizing game).

Man, I'm so in love with this post!!

Totally agree, Batrider is so awesome!

 

[Yes Boss!]

You want Batrider (the best Raizing game).

Yeah,

That is the one I should be going for, I'm thinking. God, it looks great!

Based on your experience, you think if I got rid of Kuro then regular Ibara would be enough? Have not really played the standard Ibara. Or hang on to Kuro and ditch the standard? Both have held their value well and I would be able to get back either the $850 I spent on Kuro or the $400 on Ibara.

 

[japtor]

Guys sorry if this is a little off-topic, i decided to get back into Shooting games.

I got myself a few Cave titles (Deathsmiles 1&2 Dodonpachi Daifukatsu, Akai Katana,Mushihimesama ver. 1.5)

First question : which of these titles is the best for someone who had a 10 years break in shooting games ?

Mushi cause the different modes plus relative straightforwardness in gameplay compared to the others at least.

Second question: I played some DDP and damn i suck, but i also realize that i am having issue with xbox controller it feels imprecise, i end up doing some wrong move i would not do with a ps3/ps2 controller.

I don't feel like getting an arcade stick unless there is a good one for shmups under 100$.

I was thinking of getting this : http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Versus-Controller/dp/B0051MQJWU

Some input/advice would be greatly appreciated !

There's PS2 to 360 adapters if you want to use a PS2 pad, there's one or two particular ones that are supposed to be good (Etokki and a similar looking black one), I think they're around $20.

Stick wise, other than the nicer Hori ones you can get some cheaper easily moddable stick and put in better parts. Like I got some MadCatz SF4 stick for $35 or so way back and stuck in spare parts from my old arcade panel*. I think they have some WWE themed one in the same hardware these days (hope you like pro wrestlers!).

*Of course I've barely played the ones on 360 so I'm gonna buy some stuff to hook it up to my cab so I actually sit down and play the games seriously...plus it'd be cheaper than spending the few thousand or so to get the PCBs of those games.

Based on your experience, you think if I got rid of Kuro then regular Ibara would be enough? Have not really played the standard Ibara. Or hang on to Kuro and ditch the standard? Both have held their value well and I would be able to get back either the $850 I spent on Kuro or the $400 on Ibara.

Play the standard Ibara to be sure. I don't know the specifics of the changes in that one so maybe look it up and see if the changes would bug you and just play it to see if you notice them. Just cause you like the black label doesn't mean you'd necessarily like the original game as much.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Play the standard Ibara to be sure. I don't know the specifics of the changes in that one so maybe look it up and see if the changes would bug you and just play it to see if you notice them. Just cause you like the black label doesn't mean you'd necessarily like the original game as much.

Yeah, I decided to keep Ibara and get rid of Kuro. Black Label is definitely a different beast...in the sense that it is easier to grasp because of the sucking power. Willing to give normal Ibara a good effort.

To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of the games...just really love, LOVE the art style, music and look, and how it is so different from the other Cave games.

Here is to hoping Ibara/Kuro gets ported next gen! Not expecting it. Plus I've got the Ps2 port which apparently has a pretty good Arrange mode similar-ish to Kuro.

 

[Slermy]

Okay I'm totally newbie when it comes to arcade stick, i know you can mod them and all but if i were to get one without having to mod anything is there a model that you would recommend me ?

Or is there a controller with a good D-pad for Xbox available ?

This one has a pretty decent D-pad. Not as good as a Sega D-pad, but still much improved over the stock 360 pad:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LT9PXQ/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Be forewarned though, that on my particular unit, the "up" direction started flaking out. Didn't hear of others with the same issue though. Oh, and the analog sticks are crap, but that's not why you'd be buying it.

 

[LeadenStride]

Saidaioujou got reviewed by Famitsu and got a score of 33/40 (9/8/8/8). Sounds good, iirc cave games hardly get rated much higher than that.

 

[Brobzoid]

Saidaioujou got reviewed by Famitsu and got a score of 33/40 (9/8/8/8). Sounds good, iirc cave games hardly get rated much higher than that.

Cave's marketing budget probably doesn't allow for a higher score.

 

[BOTEC]

Saidaioujou got reviewed by Famitsu and got a score of 33/40 (9/8/8/8). Sounds good, iirc cave games hardly get rated much higher than that.

Ironically, they praised the conversations during Xbox Mode and the stuff you can buy in the shop, like auto ship movement or AI player 2. I think this bodes well for casual audience acceptance, if anyone is crazy enough to try this "let's release a shmup in the West" thing again. You'd probably have to dub it though.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I assume it's region-free because they couldn't find a publisher

 

[BOTEC]

Probably

 

[japtor]

Yeah, I decided to keep Ibara and get rid of Kuro. Black Label is definitely a different beast...in the sense that it is easier to grasp because of the sucking power. Willing to give normal Ibara a good effort.

To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of the games...just really love, LOVE the art style, music and look, and how it is so different from the other Cave games.

Here is to hoping Ibara/Kuro gets ported next gen! Not expecting it. Plus I've got the Ps2 port which apparently has a pretty good Arrange mode similar-ish to Kuro.

If you were selling Ibara I might've considered it, BL will probably way out of what I'd want to pay. Course I'd have to go into it relatively blind since I've never played Ibara...and never really liked most of Raizing's stuff (except maybe Batrider) so I'd be taking a big chance on it, basically for the style and hoping I'd get to liking the gameplay.

Speaking of style vs gameplay, I sold DOJ last week*, mostly cause the style made the game kind of meh for me. Love stage 5 and the hypers, but everything else, eh. Doesn't help that I hate DDP's chaining system on top of that. Sold it for about how much I got it for around nine years ago now, I'll be putting that money towards this thing to hook up my 360 to my cab, so I'll actually play those 360 ports for more than a few minutes for once (TV and a stick just ain't the same for me).

*Fixed the battery issue of course, cleaned the crap up and just cut the battery off entirely. Did the same with Espgaluda and Ketsui to prevent it ever happening to them, although the latter has this annoying bug, but at least it's a simple fix.

Cave's marketing budget probably doesn't allow for a higher score.

Supposedly most shooters generally don't break 30 so that's a pretty good score (even if the reasons are ones that most shooter fans probably don't care about).

 

[CaseyTappy]

Yeah,

That is the one I should be going for, I'm thinking. God, it looks great!

Based on your experience, you think if I got rid of Kuro then regular Ibara would be enough? Have not really played the standard Ibara. Or hang on to Kuro and ditch the standard? Both have held their value well and I would be able to get back either the $850 I spent on Kuro or the $400 on Ibara.

I'm sure you can get $ 1000,- or more for Ibara Kuro if it's a full kit .

Then you need to find this :

 

[Yes Boss!]

I'm sure you can get $ 1000,- or more for Ibara Kuro if it's a full kit .

Then you need to find this :

Yeah, want that one. I don't need a kit or anything, just the PCB. What is the version to go for, Japan Version B?

 

[CaseyTappy]

You want the B-Version or pay less for the normal version and get some B-Version roms .

 

[hongcha]

There's a new blog post by Cave's producer, Makoto Asada:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2013/05/post-4fa5.html

He says "At present, I think Saidaioujou will be our last release on home consoles." So it doesn't look like they're going to develop stuff on next gen systems. To further punctuate this point, he is shutting down his blog at the end of June (it's been active since late 2008, opened during Deathsmiles' port development). There will be a few more blog posts before he shuts it down.

The end is here.

 

[Yes Boss!]

So, no Ibara.

That said, if one of the next gen systems takes off and they are still in business they will port/make a title.

I still think PS360 is going to go for another three years, though, for these types of games.

 

[japtor]

Obviously he means they'll be doing PC and phone ports.

Spoiler

(hahahah yeah right...wait I just made myself sad)

 

[danmaku]

ouch :-/

Well, there would be no point in jumping to next gen consoles, they don't need the extra horsepower, and they ran out of games to port. IIRC they said they were going to support the Nesica system, so as long as they're still making arcade games, there's hope.

 

[elbourreau]

Direct from tokyo! One of my best friends took a trip to japan. Found me a Dreamcast stick for 16€, Ibara for 75€ and muchi / pink for 25.....

I'm Soooo glad finding Ibara that price (found it but 150/200€ on ebay!!)

 

[SOME-MIST]

not going to believe it. can't count how many times asada/cave has said "this will be the last home port". Not that I'd be surprised if it actually is, but likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if "Saidaioujou sold enough to warrant a port of ibara/ibara kuro or the <insert new arcade title name here>".

 

[hongcha]

not going to believe it. can't count how many times asada/cave has said "this will be the last home port". Not that I'd be surprised if it actually is, but likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if "Saidaioujou sold enough to warrant a port of ibara/ibara kuro or the <insert new arcade title name here>".

Did you see the part about him shutting down his blog next month? His five year old blog devoted to talking about the development of their home console releases.

 

[SOME-MIST]

yes - I did see the part about him shutting down his blog. I know what that's implying and it does seem more likely, but that doesn't mean CAVE is shutting their doors for good, does it? Did he say "I think Saidaioujou will be the last port" or "Saidaioujou will be the last port"?
Maybe him closing the blog down means that he's stepping down and someone else will be taking charge - could that possibly be one of his last blog posts?

I'm just saying... I always take what CAVE says with a grain of salt as it can go either way. Espgaluda II was the last region-free title? DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu was the last 360 port?

 

[Beckx]

There's a new blog post by Cave's producer, Makoto Asada:

http://cave-game.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2013/05/post-4fa5.html

He says "At present, I think Saidaioujou will be our last release on home consoles." So it doesn't look like they're going to develop stuff on next gen systems. To further punctuate this point, he is shutting down his blog at the end of June (it's been active since late 2008, opened during Deathsmiles' port development). There will be a few more blog posts before he shuts it down.

The end is here.

Wow.

 

[depths20XX]

Getting all the great Cave ports on one system has really been awesome. At the start of this gen I never would have expected it to be honest.

It's sad it may be the last time we see a console with a lot of great shmups for a while with this dying genre.

 

[dinopoke]

Aww man.

I really want to support Cave now. What is the best place to preorder Saidaioujou which ships to Australia?

I really wish I got the Cave Collection before it sold out too.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Does kinda bum me out about no backwards compatibilty on the new system. Just make it more challenging to preserve/play all the older releases.

But 360 is right up there with the Saturn for me as shooting consoles go. So, I'll always be grateful for that. And they will always be there.

 

[LeadenStride]

Hmm, it sure sucks but on the other hand I might not need to buy a next gen console now and go handheld only.

But, like Some-Mist, I wouldn't count on that 'last' either...

 

[oneida]

Is there an up-to-date compiled list of all CAVE games released on 360, and which of those are playable on a NA 360? I think I've got 'em all except Espgaluda 2 and Deathsmiles 2.