Namco Station – Tamworth

With the unfortunate closure of Nottingham Namco (which actually had a really decent selection of games, including Ez2dancer and Street Fighter Alpha 3), I decided to investigate what Tamworth Namco station had to offer. It surprised me that it was only a 30 minute drive from Warwick.

Games? Hmmm, to be honest, I was hoping to expect a reasonably sized Arcade complex with the title ‘Namco station’, and to be honest, even Leamington Spa TenPin has a larger selection of games… nethertheless, here are the ones that stood out:

Dancing Stage Eurotrash 2 (ahem, Euromix 2)
Yeah, I’m fed up of seeing this version everywhere… and yes, Steps 5678 and Stomp get reeeeeeeeeally tedious to hear every 20 minutes.
The handle bars are very insecure too.

Price: £1/credit

Time Crisis 4
Nice large DX cabinets, pretty good condition.

Price: £1/credit

Aliens: Extermination
Price: £1/credit

Basket Ball Hoops ^_
Price: (didn’t check)

Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2
HOLY S**T! ... Yeah, this is the second machine I’ve seen in the West Midlands… it’s not 2-player… but a 4-player cabinet. Being the only racer in the Arcade, this game gets played A LOT. I’m guessing, because it’s possible for anyone to intrude an existing race (like a 2 or 3 player game) and join in, removing complications of starting multiplayer games (unless of course, they select the “Refuse VS” option).

Oh, and whoever comes first in a race gets to stay on the machine. So I found myself playing this game for very long periods, on a single credit , and even managed to get a rank up on my card :D

(below, some random 4-player clip of the game from youtube)

Price: £1/credit – £1/data card

It disappoints me to see places like Leamington Spa TenPin utilizing so much space for really rubbish, unrealistic and UNPLAYED racing games (like Ford ‘Extreme’ Racing, and Fast and Furious). Personally I would like to see another Maximum Tune 2 cabinet where the Ford racing game is, and hook the existing one for a 4-player setup. Now that would bring in the profits…

: 20 May 2007 01:39 |  Tags: 4 Arcades Crisis Ddr Entertainment Maximum Midnight Time Tune Wangan |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Things that piss me off #4

Normally, I don’t mind compliments … unless you put it into a context like this:

Vince jumps off the DDR machine after doing Max300 on Expert Doubles

Dude 1: “Oi yah…. yah got teh game at home?”

Vince: “Nah, I only play in the Arcade”

Dude 1: “Rahhhhh…. how cum ur so good at eeeet?!? Do ya play dis every day or sumthing?”

Vince: “No … ? ¬_¬” (really I don’t .... )

Dude 2: “Nahh man, you can only practice at home innit?”

Vince: ” .......... ¬_¬* “

: 18 May 2007 22:27 |  Tags: Arcade Ddr Games Music |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

JT is a massacre chaser, he can deny it all he wants

There goes Jack Thompson again, ranting off in the media that the V-Tech killer Cho-Seung-Hui was a Counter Strike addict, therefore believing that computer games caused him to go apeshit.

Out of the 2.5 million Counter Strike players, how many actually go out and kill people?

As part of my MA research, I’m asking gamers and especially non-gamers to take part in a recorded talk via SkyPE (download from http://www.skype.com) about the violent game controversy. Whether you believe it’s right or wrong for JT to start attacking the video games issue almost immediately after the tragedy, I would like to hear your voiced opinions. All I ask for is a confirmed disclaimer agreement sent via email.

Details are on http://rakurai-media.livejournal.com

: 23 Apr 2007 20:04 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Where does Jack Thompson get his information from?

According to Thompson, “Many parents think that stores won’t sell an M-rated game to someone under 17. We know that’s not true, and, in fact, kids roughly 50 percent of that time, all the studies show, are able to walk into any store and get any game regardless of the rating, no questions asked.

-Cooper, Anderson. Anderson Cooper 360. CNN, October 8, 2005.

Parental Involvement in Game Purchases
Parents are involved when games are purchased, with players under the age of 18 saying their parents were present at the point-of-sale 89 percent of the time.

http://www.theesa.com/facts/parents_games.php

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/vsx2.htm

Thompson dismisses statistics showing that while the popularity of video games has gone up, violent crime has gone down.
Though the FBI reports that the number of teenagers arrested for violent crimes fell by half between 1994 and 2004, Thompson attributes it not to reduced violence but reduced reportage.
“The experts I talk to in fact indicate that assaults, violent incidents in schools, are up, and they’re being handled in-house as opposed to going to the local law enforcement officials because schools don’t want to have that stigma,” Thompson said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2722827&page=3

The total nonfatal victimization rate for young people declined between 1993 and 1998. The percentage of students being victimized at school also declined over the last few years. Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 8 percent (Indicator 3). This decline was due in part to a decline for students in grades 7 through 9. Between 1995 and 1999, the prevalence of reported vic-timization dropped from 11 percent to 8 percent for 7th graders, from 11 percent to 8 percent for 8th graders, and from 12 percent to 9 percent for 9th graders.
... While overall school crime rates have declined, violence, gangs, and drugs are still evident in some schools, indicating that more work needs to be done.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/crime2000/

So errr, I’d be interested to know where or who exactly Mr. Thompson seeks his evidence from. It only took me a few minutes to hunt down a few counter facts against his argument.

: 28 Feb 2007 11:22 |  Tags: Game Jack Thompson Video Violence |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Here comes a new challenger…

Follow-up to Maximum Tune 2 Progress from Vince's Blog of Rubbish

Yikes…. just went on my weekly habit of jumping into TenPin on a Friday night. Some guy bearing the card display name “CRAIG” challenged me to a race.

Apparantly he wasn’t using his real car, and he nearly banged me up with an 800HP/DG Lancer Evolution.

Although I flukely managed to beat him 3 races in a row (2 – 10 metre differences hehehe), I think I’ve found a new rival…
Hopefully if he returns next Friday night, he’ll bring his card with his real car, which then he’ll probably kick my ass

On a side note, about 2 girls who know me as a regular in TenPin paid for 2 credits so they can see me play on DDR doubles…. weeeeeee :-)

: 08 Dec 2006 22:11 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Maximum Tune 2 Progress

Well, well…. it’s kinda hard to believe I’ve been a bit of a “Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2” addict (or WMMT2) for quite a long time. Normally I’m no arcade racing addict, but if there’s a game that is taking arcade punters by storm, I need to see what the fuss is about :)

After nearly a year of £1 coins going into the machine (to an amount I’d rather not imagine), I’ve finally achieved something like this (my current card is the yellow one)
Right now, I’m on Stage 40 (the final stage of the 2nd cycle). The game is so hard, all you need is one serious bump on the wall, and you don’t have a hope in hell in catching up with the Devil Z car ….

The other 2 cards are the ones I’ve previously used, and are now ‘discarded vehicles’. Which doesn’t mean they’re dead cards (although they’re at the at it’s peak life expectancy), but they allow new cards to be created with a head-start, with your own name.

: 24 Nov 2006 15:48 |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The ultimate NTL saga from hell….

Writing about web page /fongv/entry/ntl_customer_services_1/

Writing about an entry you don't have permission to view

It all started from August 2006. My 1MB broadband connection was getting intermittent cut offs…

... today, I’m on my 3rd compensation package … and I’ve been without Internet connectivity for at least 3 weeks…

The FULL log is coming to a blog near you …

: 22 Sep 2006 09:27 |  Tags: Customer Ntl Services |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Shingles …. the revenge

Follow-up to Infection saga … the end from Vince's Blog of Rubbish

The past few days I've started to develop early symptoms of shingles again :(

This time, it's starting to affect the right side of my face….

… Noooooooooooooooooooo …. back to the doctor, and NHS's stupid appointment booking system…

: 25 Aug 2006 09:11 |  Tags: Chickenpox Illness Infection Shingles |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

MS Photo Editor sucks

My work PC decided to default all JPG files to open in MS Photo Editor… pfft.

This is what I get from trying to open a 4.04MB JPEG with a resolution of 4256×2848.

'Too many bytes' …. LMAO!

: 05 Jul 2006 16:12 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Funky lights

I was bored, so I took a few random piccys of my PC.

The blue pulsating light reacts to heavy bass. Add a dance mat to this room, and you'd have a perfect disco setting for DDR ^_ … too bad my room is a tad too small :-/

… but good enough for Beatmania :-) , especially in Music Clip Mode in BM IIDX 6th Style!

: 24 Apr 2006 23:17 |  Tags: Beatmania Colours Light Neon |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem