The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by lgolem » Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:54 pm

I will take the FFV and Seiken Densetsu 3, pmd about it :D

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by RyogAkari » Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:50 pm

pmd you back

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by RyogAkari » Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:07 pm

lots of updates.

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by chocobojoe » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:19 am

protip to merk: the stuff newegg has on the 24-hour sale isn't all that great anyway, talk to me sometime and I can piece together the PC of your dreams for a highly affordable price

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by MonMotha » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:49 am

If you want to get a PC REALLY cheap (and sometimes quite good for the price), just watch the Fry's sales flyers. They regularly have loss leaders in there. I've seen mobo CPU combos (and not on crap, in this case it was a Core i7) for $50 less than the CPU alone on Newegg + the mobo was >$120 online, too! You'll just have to piece your system together over several weeks as you catch all the deals. Just about every week, there's at least one item in the "PC components" category that's being sold darn near or below cost it seems.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Ho » Wed Feb 17, 2010 9:48 am

Merk wrote:Yep, it was a Konami DM controller. Never again.
I could have let you borrow mine...permanently. That thing is junk and I don't think I'd have cared if I ever got it back. :P

I think I first played DrumMania when a group of us went to Blasters in Michigan on Labor Day, 2001, and then again for the MAXBlast trip the next year. I really enjoyed the game and wanted to play more of it, so I got one of those controllers. My memories of playing on the machine colored my experience initially. But I quickly realized that the fun I remembered just wasn't present on the home controller. The mechanics were quite different and I tended to hear the sound of the plastic sticks on the plastic controller more than the game itself. My disappointment was delayed but profound.

Later, I found out about the DTXpress. After a lot of searching, I was able to find one for a substantial discount from retail (a story I've already told). That definitely brought the fun back to DrumMania. I actually like playing on it more than a cabinet...for the action of a real bass pedal and the ability to arrange the pads however I want them. However, the cabinet has better monitor positioning, nice sound, the durability of an arcade machine, and the all-important (to me, anyway) flashing lights.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by RyogAkari » Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:47 pm

Ho wrote:flashing lights.

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Merk » Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:07 pm

I have literally never heard of this Blasters place until today. That place looked like a music game goldmine for 2002. Are they still around or did they close like Dance Beat Arcade?

Damn shame I never got to go to DBA before they closed their doors. I totally blame Chad for not making any effort to take me.

What's the story behind your second trip to Blasters that you posted? How did you go about getting a bus and picking everyone up. I see good ol' Brent Werling from Ft. Wayne in that album, that's kinda funny, didn't know he was into music games enough to go somewhere other than Putt-Putt to play.

You see, now nothing like that could ever happen today. You'd never be able to get a busload of people and do a weekend trip to some arcade. Again, damn shame that those days are gone. The novelty and freshness of the genre has died out. Hell you can't even get a van full of dedicated ITG players to go to Evansville.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Riot » Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:12 pm

It's weird to think that I've been posting on this website for just about 1/3 of my frail little nerd life.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Ho » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:35 am

My impression was that the owner of Blasters was kind of a distributor. He seemed to get a lot of import games. Blasters was kind of a playable warehouse. He kept his stock there and ran it like an arcade. That's why there were often several duplicate machines as well as a pretty good variety.

My DDR machine came from there. I wheeled the machine right off the floor of Blasters and into the truck I drove up in. The look on the faces of some of the kids in the arcade that day was pretty priceless. :P As I was wheeling the machine away one kid asked me, "What are you doing?" I replied, "I'm buying this." His jaw kind of dropped. It seems like privately owned machines are getting almost common at this point, but in 2003 it was definitely still an exotic idea.

The MAXBlast trip was actually something I organized. Outside of DDR-A-Thons, it was probably the single largest event I've ever planned--certainly the largest I've planned all on my own. IndyDDR was a bustling community at that time, but most people had only ever seen or played DDR. There was a lot of interest in going somewhere where we could play other games in the Bemani series. DDRMAX also had just released (hence the name: MAXBlast).

I got as many people as I could to help defray costs and chartered a bus to make the trip up. I worked out a token deal for everyone with Blasters. I arranged for us all to meet (at Block Party, of all places). I cleared it with the (awesome) management there so that we could occupy a corner of their parking lot and made up parking passes for everyone so they wouldn't get towed or anything. I even had permission slips for the under 18 crowd and waivers for everyone else (I probably still have them all in a folder somewhere). It was good times, for sure!

You're right about the current state of the music game community (at least around here). As I recall, I tried to organize another trip the next year and it went absolutely nowhere. (My memory is fuzzy on this. I don't remember the exact timeframe or even where I was planning the trip to go...maybe to DBA.) A grand total of one person actually confirmed for the trip and I ended up having to give him his money back since no one else responded before the deadline.

P.S. - I never got to go to DBA either. I was actually there...in the parking lot, but it was closed. Jon, Allen, and I stopped there on our way back from Anime Weekend Atlanta in 2004. However, they had taken many of their games to AWA for the game room there and weren't back yet. So we got to play some of their games...just not there.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Riot » Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:14 pm

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I feel like this whenever Ho tells stories. He is good at taking people on whimsical reminiscent trips back to purer days.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Merk » Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:27 pm

I agree. Ho has the best stories and I'd like to hear more.

Looking back my DDR days were pretty standard. I just sorta went to Tokens 'n' Tickets on Sundays and played for a few hours. Nothing wacky or out of the ordinary. It was a boring and drama-less life other than getting kicked out of Putt-Putt but that story has been told plenty of times.

I did go to Anderson twice to play Max2, that's honestly about it. The opportunity to go on video game adventures passed me by and I didn't take them.

That picture of DBA looks so sad. This thread has become something wonderful.
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by RyogAkari » Thu Feb 18, 2010 10:05 pm

My turn for story time!
Ho wrote:It seems like privately owned machines are getting almost common at this point, but in 2003 it was definitely still an exotic idea.
I can honestly say I never had the idea to purchase an DDR machine let alone ANY arcade machine until I visited Brian's house. I can't remember what was the first time I visited. I think I actually stayed over at his house which for me was unique being that I actually didn't know him that well at that time.

I became inspired not only to get my own DDR Arcade, but to get it for everyone. I began a massive campaign to convince the University of Louisville to let me place a DDR machine at the school. This evolved into forming a student organization as well as a non-profit business. This all happened well before I was able to get a machine. I requested loans from lots of banks but was ultimately defeated, mostly because I hadn't developed any sort of credit line.

An opportunity opened up for me to buy a Solo 2000 machine on ebay. However, the only way I could pay for it would be to max out a credit card. My school time job barely allowed for me to pay the minimum but I was sure that the machine would do well.

I remember getting started with my arcade. The IRS actually called me and made sure that they understood it right that I had made a non-profit business for running arcade machines. I had to spend an hour on the phone giving them the story of what was up with my business. They seemed to understand and so I was well on my way to achieving my dream.

The Solo 2000 ran as well as I had expected it to. It was upgraded to Solo 4th plus at about 3 months when interest petered out and eventually ran 5th through extreme (except for Max which I never could get to boot). My machine broke down about 10 months in to owning it which caused me to have to sell it. At that point it was either pay off what I owed or buy another arcade machine. Solo machines were higher then when I had bought my machine which made it difficult to buy another one of those. There was, however, a doubles machine locally selling for less than it should have been. Again, no one would give me a loan so I was kinda stuck and about to trade in and end the community before it had even really begun.

Then, a ray of shinning light came to my rescue. Like the mysterious white rider coming when you need them the most, Brian Ho helped me because he believed in what I was doing as well. He said I was one of many who said they'd do what I did, but was the only one who actually did it.

I went on to run the arcade machine publicly for 3 years, selling a game at 25 cents less than the competitors along with having multiple seasonal tournaments and free play days during study time before finals and free play during club time. Some others followed along the trail I blazed getting arcade machines at their respective schools.

Later, I would go on to buy and do work trades for all sorts of arcades:

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And what I am currently working for:

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So thank you, Mr. Ho, for you are truly the trailblazer, and what a great trail it's been to follow.

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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by Ho » Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:47 am

Riot wrote:Image
I SOOO want those kids to be sitting in a circle on carpet squares.

I'm glad y'all like my stories. Pull up your carpet squares...I've got plenty more. :)
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Re: The "I'm going to be a dad!" sale

Post by RyogAkari » Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:15 pm

All items are now up on ebay. Check them out in the first post!

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