Arcade Mania: A holiday in Japan

[gyruss]

A couple of days ago my girlfriend and I came back from a three week trip to Japan.
It has been a great holiday with good weather, beautiful surroundings, great food, nice people and of course lot's of arcade games
I know some of you guys don't like modern stuff or candy's but we also came across some real classic cabs, which I'm sure you are going to like.
So fasten your seatbelt and let me take you to the mecca of video games Japan.
 
During our trip we visited the following city's: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara and Kuki City.




PART 1: TOKYO

After a twelve hour during flight we arrived in Shinjuku, Tokyo





After dropping off our luggage at our hotel it was time to look for some arcades.
We didn't have to search long, 5 minutes of walking and we came across this:  



Tekken 6



Some really strange cabinets, Dragonball



and something else



Pro Evolution Soccer, the arcade game.



Tokyo Street Racer or something, I believe I have played an earlier version on xbox



A music game



And a big row of candy cabinets with fighting games, which are still very big in Japan



There was a poster outside with information about tournaments that are being held in this arcade.



Time to get something to eat



And play some more games  



On our second day we decided to go to Electric Town, Akihabara







Taito Hey, the place to be when you are into shmups



Cave shooters



They are a little bit too hectic for me but it's still fun to see the Japanese players play, they got some insane skills.



Night Striker





Darius on a very big screen



More candy for ckong







Darius but this time with 3 screens!!





3 screen Ninja Warriors



Top Lander





Gundam, very big in Japan and quite expensive



A weird shooter, don't like this one very much



Aliens, love the big guns, the gameplay isn't that special



After Burner 2, played it and don't like it. The pixels are too big, time to get mine running again  



Music games





Another strange game, you have to throw the table as hard as possible after that you watch some replays and that's it



Time to go outside, it's getting dark.





They freaks come out at night



Let's visit some shops



Looks at those Nintendo's  





Sega Saturn



Famicom games



GI JOE! Used to love those



Some really cool Pepsi bottle caps



Next stop: SEGA



Racers











F-Zero, love this one!



Gundam card game





Want something to drink? This will look great in a game room.



More Cabs





Airline pilots





Star Wars



Shooters











Giant Tetris



Pokemon?



Typing of the dead



And lot's of Ufo catchers





Who wants some star wars figures?



Photo-boots, Japanese girls love taking photo's of each other



There are more arcades outside, but they carry almost the same games.



Wow looks great, more on that later.





The next day it was time for some more old school games, i read in the book Arcade Mania about a place called GAME.

On the way to Game we had to cross one of the busiest street in Tokyo.



And there is the Arcade



Let's go inside



More candy's  



But this time with some classics  



Girlfriend playing R-Type



One of my favorites



Again, lot's of classic shmups, this must be heaven voor Ckong





They also had some cool machines upstairs









This were the first three days so stay tuned for part 2 and 3. The best has yet to come

[DarthNuno]

Wow! What a blast! I hope your girlfriend can understand your 'Arcade Life Style' appetite, even during the Holidays

I'm still happy to see our favorites games like AB2 or Space Harrier 



...even if it's not in their original dedicated cabinet... sure, it would be 10x thousands times better, but I use to think it helps to keeps these oldies 'alive' ...in a certain way 

I hope you tried the triple screen Darius! A rare opportunity to see a such game... and working in addition!

Regarding the DragonBall cab' 



...what kind of game is it? Fighting game? Strange controls 

And all these shops in Japan! I'm jealous  So many things overthere  Many thanks for sharing these pictures with us ... and of course... I'm waiting for the BIG thing to come 

 

[liquidx]

Very cool.

How was the atmosphere in these places? I see ashtrays everywhere

[funkycochise]

Wow! What a blast! I hope your girlfriend can understand your 'Arcade Life Style' appetite, even during the Holidays

I'm still happy to see our favorites games like AB2 or Space Harrier  

In fact, in japan you can find lots of old game still playing, even at hey in akiba.
I remember rtype and even double dragon there. And people are still playing on it.

Regarding the DragonBall cab'  



...what kind of game is it? Fighting game? Strange controls  

It seemed to be some kind of card playing game for kids.
Card game are huge also over there. There are plenty of cabs with their magnetic table.
Quite difficult to understand for us...  
Just like the horse racing cab that usually fills a complete floor in the game center.

Very cool.
How was the atmosphere in these places? I see ashtrays everywhere

I remember that it doesn't really disturnb, imho. In fact they don't smoke that much.
Ashtrays are usually empty.
maybe Gyruss will have a different point of view.  

More disturbing is the noise. Game center are often very Noisy, especially At Hey, shoot'em up level.

[Belike]

Amazing tour, congrats!

[ckong]

I'm not jealous, really, I'm not! 

You had a great holiday, the photo's are the evidence. Thanks for the nice photo's of the candy cab rows, with SHMUP's on them. They are GREAT. I need to go there myself one day.

Let's bring on part 2 and part 3.

Oh , and thanks for the yen coins, now I don't have to set the games in my candy cabs on freeplay any longer. Throwing in coins is the real thing. 

[Ronald Reagan]

nice story and pics.

I like the Japanese Namco hand 'tissues' for not getting your hands dirty from the player who previously played the cabinet

[Superully]

thx for the great report and the tons of pics so far - looking forward to the rest! however, the more i see / learn about the japanese gaming "culture", the less i like it - it's simply not my kind of game / style. too loud, too chaotic, too modern .

[joeks]

Thank you! Enjoyed the pics of candy's

[gyruss]

yeah, she is really cool about the lifestyle. She used to play Streetfighter 2 in the arcade when she was younger so she understands the hobby. I'm very lucky to have her  

Regarding the DragonBall cab, funkycochise is right, it's some kind of kids game, didn't play it.

When I have got the time I'll post part 2. Don't worry, there will be some true classics like the one below:

[baritonomarchetto]

Waiting for parts 2 and 3!! Password: CLASSICS  (and girls, if you have taken some picture of! )

[level42]

 

Love the pics and story !!!!!

And I see a little Luigi in some of the pics, and I know that Gyruss brought me a little something from Japan !! 

[ElPancho]

Sweet, sweet candy :drool:

Thank you for sharing this.

to quote Marty Mcfly, in regard to Japanese electronics .......... "are you kidding, that's where all the cool stuff comes from............." ;-)

[Etienne MacGyver]

Looks like you had a blast !

thanx for sharing the pics, now im waiting for the classics 

[Ghost Soldier]

Looks like a excellent trip to Japan.  Anxiously awaiting part 2 and 3.