Secef and I just got back from the grand opening of the Great X-Scape arcade located in the College Mall in Bloomington. The sole music game they have at the moment is a brand new PIU Exceed 2 machine. The price is 4 tokens per credit with roughly 4 tokens per dollar. The quality of the pads is excellent since I believe Secef and I were the first people to play on the machine. The volume is satisfactory. The atmosphere of the place is a bit dark, there are black lights everywhere, but most arcade goers are used to that sort of thing.
The owner of the place was extremely friendly and talked with Kyler and I pretty much the whole time we were there. He said he was highly interested in buying more music games. At the moment there isn't much of a selection at the arcade, but he said that he planned on expanding heavily next month.
Overall it's a nice place, it's pretty much the first arcade in Bloomington that owns the machines themselves. It's nice to have more variety in Bloomington other than DDR.
Brand New Pump It Up Exceed 2 machine in Bloomington
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Well, bear in mind that most of those arcades were hastily thrown together outfits placed at the end of the mall with L.S. Ayres where there's really not a lot of mall traffic. This one is right across from Radio Shack and GNC, and within eyeshot of Target shoppers and people going to and from the pricey clothing stores. Its location seems to give it an upperhand in succeeding. I mean, it IS where Aladdin's Castle used to be, I believe, so that spot HAS worked to some extent before.malictus wrote:Hey, this is great news!!! Of course, the number of arcades that have opened and then subsequently closed within a few months in College Mall is unfortunately very highMaybe this one will last...
Also, this guy seems to have a lot of experience in the arcade business. He's pretty knowledgable... although he seems to have this idea that there's a new DDR arcade version coming out next year, which is uhh... pretty false. Unless he means something like Dancing Stage Fusion or some such from crazy ol' Euro land... but anyway, the guy's pretty damn nice. I approve 110% A++ seller would buy from again.
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Fluffyumpkins
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chocobojoe
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chocobojoe
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Fluffyumpkins
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He's apparently pretty well off, so the idea of getting more music games may not be out of the question. I'm pretty sure given the choice, the Bloomington folks would rather see IIDX than ITG2.
Does anyone know anything about battle mode? I mean sure the game tells you, and sure I played a round against Merk, and even won that round, but I have no idea what was going on.
Does anyone know anything about battle mode? I mean sure the game tells you, and sure I played a round against Merk, and even won that round, but I have no idea what was going on.
I know that I'm really good at it :)
Basically, in item battle mode (which is what you were probably playing), it works kinda like Pop'n Music's battle mode. You collect items that do things, work up an attack level (the bar in the middle of the screen, which basically means how many items you're going to throw at your opponent at once), then hit an action icon when it scrolls by.
Most of the items do something to make the screen harder to read: high speed, flashing, dimming, the equiv of DDR's boost mod, hidden/sudden, etc. There's also mines, of which hitting one will immediately remove a life from the player (the hearts at the top of the screen). Mines appear as dimmed steps (combined with the dim mod, this is almost a sure fire way to win battle mode against anyone who hasn't played it a bunch). You also lose lives by missing more than a couple step s in a row.
The winner is the player with the most lives remaining at the end. If both players have the same amount of lives, the winner is declared based on score.
Minesweeper works like item battle, but the only items available are mines and mine related items (cancel mines, things like that). Hyper velocity mode is the same thing but with only speed mods (be prepared to read everything from 0.25x to 8x).
Hybrid step mode is just plain strange. It seems designed to do everything it can to make the weaker player win. You both start out playing the hard difficulty steps for that remix. Then, the person who is scoring better has to start playing more and more of the crazy chart. Near the end, it starts throwing REALLY HARD (and I mean insane, things like hiding freezes, but still scoring them, making the screen freeze up and having you read down the screen with no scroll, etc.) mods at the more apt player in an attempt to get them to mess up and lose lives. Scoring works the same as other modes.
Basically, in item battle mode (which is what you were probably playing), it works kinda like Pop'n Music's battle mode. You collect items that do things, work up an attack level (the bar in the middle of the screen, which basically means how many items you're going to throw at your opponent at once), then hit an action icon when it scrolls by.
Most of the items do something to make the screen harder to read: high speed, flashing, dimming, the equiv of DDR's boost mod, hidden/sudden, etc. There's also mines, of which hitting one will immediately remove a life from the player (the hearts at the top of the screen). Mines appear as dimmed steps (combined with the dim mod, this is almost a sure fire way to win battle mode against anyone who hasn't played it a bunch). You also lose lives by missing more than a couple step s in a row.
The winner is the player with the most lives remaining at the end. If both players have the same amount of lives, the winner is declared based on score.
Minesweeper works like item battle, but the only items available are mines and mine related items (cancel mines, things like that). Hyper velocity mode is the same thing but with only speed mods (be prepared to read everything from 0.25x to 8x).
Hybrid step mode is just plain strange. It seems designed to do everything it can to make the weaker player win. You both start out playing the hard difficulty steps for that remix. Then, the person who is scoring better has to start playing more and more of the crazy chart. Near the end, it starts throwing REALLY HARD (and I mean insane, things like hiding freezes, but still scoring them, making the screen freeze up and having you read down the screen with no scroll, etc.) mods at the more apt player in an attempt to get them to mess up and lose lives. Scoring works the same as other modes.
A normality test:
+++ATH
If you are no longer connected to the internet, you need to apply more wax to your modem: it'll make it go faster.
If you find this funny, you're a nerd.
If neither of the above apply, you are normal. Congratulations.
+++ATH
If you are no longer connected to the internet, you need to apply more wax to your modem: it'll make it go faster.
If you find this funny, you're a nerd.
If neither of the above apply, you are normal. Congratulations.
Be a little wary of the left side for a while. I went and played tonight, and the DL arrow wasn't registering and sticking (it was doing both, yes) toward the end of my play session. I told the nice manager guy and he got right on it, planning to fix it immediately, but I left afterwards. Dunno how well it'll work after fixing, but yeah, I'd just be wary because I failed something kinda easy ridiculously fast because of it.
Also, I'd take advantage of the 20 buck deal they have if any of you intend to play there often. 20 bucks for 92 tokens, which is 3 free games. I think that makes it about $0.87 per game instead of $1.00. Not much, but hey, that's 13 cents I'm not paying per game that I normally would. >_>
Also, I'd take advantage of the 20 buck deal they have if any of you intend to play there often. 20 bucks for 92 tokens, which is 3 free games. I think that makes it about $0.87 per game instead of $1.00. Not much, but hey, that's 13 cents I'm not paying per game that I normally would. >_>
Pump machines seem to get sticky arrows when they're brand new (ITG dedicated cabinets, which I'm guessing are built similarly since they're made by Andamiro also, do the same). Playing on them makes it better. In the mean time, you can try opening up the arrow and reseating the guilty sensor or just plain disconnecting it for the time being (the X-Site machine still has two disconnected sensors, nobody seems to notice).
It seems that the sensors have to get broken in a bit. Also make sure there's no foreign marterial around. We had a paint chip between the panel and the angle bracket that seemed to cause problems.
You guys are going to have to be careful. I may have to come down and post a high score or two on your machine...
It seems that the sensors have to get broken in a bit. Also make sure there's no foreign marterial around. We had a paint chip between the panel and the angle bracket that seemed to cause problems.
You guys are going to have to be careful. I may have to come down and post a high score or two on your machine...
A normality test:
+++ATH
If you are no longer connected to the internet, you need to apply more wax to your modem: it'll make it go faster.
If you find this funny, you're a nerd.
If neither of the above apply, you are normal. Congratulations.
+++ATH
If you are no longer connected to the internet, you need to apply more wax to your modem: it'll make it go faster.
If you find this funny, you're a nerd.
If neither of the above apply, you are normal. Congratulations.
Hmm I played 3 games at lunch time and it wasn't sticking at all then. In fact, I was a little surprised at how GOOD it was working; several times I would just barely touch the side of a pad (I was playing lots of doubles and I don't quite have the feel of it yet), and I'd still get it counted as a perfect.Secef wrote:Be a little wary of the left side for a while. I went and played tonight, and the DL arrow wasn't registering and sticking (it was doing both, yes) toward the end of my play session. I told the nice manager guy and he got right on it, planning to fix it immediately, but I left afterwards. Dunno how well it'll work after fixing, but yeah, I'd just be wary because I failed something kinda easy ridiculously fast because of it.
Also, I'd take advantage of the 20 buck deal they have if any of you intend to play there often. 20 bucks for 92 tokens, which is 3 free games. I think that makes it about $0.87 per game instead of $1.00. Not much, but hey, that's 13 cents I'm not paying per game that I normally would. >_>
So I hope the pad difficulties you experienced were temporary...
I LOOOVE it that doubles cost the same as singles
