MFGamers Doing Cool Shit

[Sly Reflex]

I have a story about that.

 

Back in the day me and my mates all had a few consoles each, but this specific mate had the XBOX along with me (I was one of the few rare ones that didn't have a PS2) so me and him used to trade games a lot and talk about titles that were exclusive to the XBOX.

 

Anyway one day he's saying to me "I'm taking the week off work because I'm expecting a parcel for something I ordered". I didn't really think much of it because this was back in the days where you'd order shit and the bitch'd take 6 weeks to arrive, but he was adamant that the thing was turning up that I just left him to it.

 

Later on that week and I get a text from him complaining about Royal Mail had fucked him by dropping a attempted delivery through his letter box and when he confronted the postie was informed it was too big for him to deliver so he'd have to go down to the depot. I was asked if the day after if I'd take him down there in the car and pick it up.

 

So the day after I finish my shift and go to his and pick him up. We go to the little window they have at the depot and hand the details in and the guy pisses off for like 10 minutes. We could see him walking around the back with the card in his hand looking for this parcel, in the mean time we're commenting on the big bastard that's right under the little window they normally pass shit through.

 

After a bit more time had passed, we're told to go around the back because the package was too big to be delivered, so we go to the original part in the back where they used to ask you to go before they put the little delivery window out front.

 

Said guy that we'd watched walk around for the last god knows how long says "We've got it, just need to go get the dolly for it" at which point I'm like how big is this bastard?

 

Anyway a few minutes later he wheels the huge box we saw right under the window we were talking about and I'm like "You have got to be fucking kidding?"

 

Seriously, it was on a pallet and it took pretty much all of it up. We threw it in the boot and took it back to his, cracked it open and set it all up. I'd seen this Steel Battalion game in magazines, but never really give it a thought outside of the mad controller. Playing it was really fun, but it was ruthlessly hard and a few times we managed to delete the save game by not ejecting in time.

 

Given the penetration sim racing has, I'm sort of surprised that nobody has attempted to revive the mech sim with all the bells and whistles. People have full rigs for flight sims and stuff like Elite Dangerous, so it's a bit odd how there's not a subgenre of set ups that revolve around those games.

[OCH]

It's part of the reason I think that the Mech genre is one of the most obscure in gaming. A steering wheel and pedals in Mario Kart is one thing. Pedals, joysticks and buttons to pilot a Mech is a little too out of the ordinary to hit the mainstream.

[Sly Reflex]

It's just an elaborate HOTAS set up though. Sure, I'm oversimplifying it a bit there, but it's not super out there. The inventions of touch screens as well can help to some degree as well as doubling up as something useful across games and outside of games.

[one-armed dwarf]

Mech sims don't have real life analogues like flight and driving sims, so its difficult for outsiders (like me) to conceptualise why the game might be interesting. Whereas you don't even need to be good at Gran Turismo to see what its appeal is probably like cause you've seen a car before.

 

That's why I didn't play these games until now anyway, until I literally saw someone write the sentence 'it's gran turismo with mechs'. Its not just stomping around for a few minutes, its spending a solid 40 minutes ahead of a 10 minute mission obsessing around generators and boosters, thinking how much weight your mech should have and how stable it is or how momentum will affect it. Building a gameplan thays based around the physics of the machines movement, power resources and requirements and the type of arsenal its compatible with. The amount of people going "is it like Dark Souls but with robots" shows the disconnect. Its ignored cause its just very foreign, weird and not good at explaining what it is to those who might be actually inclined to like it

[OCH]

Exactly that. 

Which is why when people have asked for genre recommendations in the past, as I am the nerd who loves all things robot. I suggest the more user friendly end of the spectrum IE SRPG's. Front Mission 3 or Ring of Red are still in the same sub genre. But not to the level of a sim. Even shmup's like Omega Boost, to a lesser extent. 

[Snaggletooth]

    Wasn't quite sure where best place for this Is, but going to stroud next sat with a group of friends to the cave then arcade archive.     been watching channel f or some time and wanted to visit so hopefully should be a good one. 

[shinymcshine]

15 minutes ago, Snaggletooth said:

    Wasn't quite sure where best place for this Is, but going to stroud next sat with a group of friends to the cave then arcade archive.     been watching channel f or some time and wanted to visit so hopefully should be a good one. 

 

I read about that place in RetroGamer recently and thought about going there myself sometime, as it's only about 1 hr away - so would be great to hear your thoughts please.

[DANGERMAN]

I still want to go to the big arcade place in Bury. I could literally jump on the tram to get there but it's never happened

[Jimboxy]

20 hours ago, DANGERMAN said:

I still want to go to the big arcade place in Bury. I could literally jump on the tram to get there but it's never happened

You should it's ace, apart from the broken Time Crisis machine

[Snaggletooth]

Went to the Retro Collective yesteray, the Cave and Arcade Archive.

 

Started out twith a nice early start from Brighton to get to the Stroud on time, getting an early start and a coffee stop myself and a group of 5 mates going back as far as our Infant School days arrived a bit ahead of time, and first thing that really stands out is just how nice the surrounding area is. Really rather idillic.

 

 

 

Anyway 10 rolls around and we mak our way up to the cave for the morning session and its much bigger than I anticipated, loads of space and hands on areas, from old computer and gaming mags, a retro 80's/90's video game

store

 

 

 

, exhibition displays, and most importantly loads of consoles and PC's to get your hands on. everything from the rare to the exotic and down right obscure.

 

Particular favorites of mine were the Sharp X6800 that is a really special machine, and the Vectrex, had seen video of it beforem but that machine is just captivating,

 

 

 

 

then just the nostalgia hit of anybody who remembers the sole BBC micro being wheeled into your classroom. with matching monitors, and thats one of the great things here, everything is original hardware, and running on CRT's they just look that much better.

 

 

 

Honestly 3  hours went far to quickly and kept discovering little bits tucked away, teh attention to detail really is great

 

1pm rolled around and an hour break darted to the local pub, for some luch before heading back for the afternoon at the Arcade Archive.

 

We were greeted by Alex the man behind the venue at the entrance, who welcomed us in with a breif introduction before letting us loose in the arcade, I havent got any pics at hand from the archive yet, so no more to bombard you with here but simarly to the Cave the Arcade is really well curated, and offers a real history of arcade gaming.

 

Some of it down right bisarre, not all of them were the greatest games to play, but some with really unique control schemes to the lost Nintendo Sky Skipper, which they manage to restore an old repurposed cab, and get an original copy of the board / game from Nintendo.

 

All the way through to early 90's stuff, but a real solid balance mainly of 80's nad 90's, yet another 3 hours flew by,

And pretty much all cabinets played, so many greats, Robocop remains one of the great 90's cabs along with plenty of capcom and SNK bits, but was such a Joy to get to play some of the 80's stuff I remember from my formulative gaming years.

 

Especially great to play on an original Starwars cabinet again.

Alex was on hand all the way through, is massively knowledgeable on all the machines he has and happy to share and talk to you about his favorites,and offer plenty of tips along the way. genuinely a great host.

 

At the end of the day, we left happy and full to the brim of nostalgia, and conversation, which carried through our evening meal and beers before checked into our rooms for the night.

 

Cant recomend this place enough if you are near the cotswolds its worth the trip, if not and you can make the trip, I would be surprsied if anybody was disappointed by it.
 

[spatular]

^ nice one that sounds ace! I agree with dangerman, live reasonably close to arcade club, should go more.

[DANGERMAN]

That looks a really nice picture place @Snaggletooth

[Snaggletooth]

Had a bit of aroad trip with some of my mates from the above post this weekend. 

 

Went to the Arcade Club in Bury. 

Fantastic evening out. Absolutely jammed with arcade machines old and new. 

 

6hrs in there wasnt enough to try it all out, guess might have to go back one day in the future. 

 

 

[spatular]

^ awesome!

[DANGERMAN]

On 01/10/2023 at 23:00, spatular said:

^ awesome!

We still need to go at some point 

[spatular]

^ yeah definitely

[Snaggletooth]

Its well worth the visit, would do it again.

We went on Friday night (no Kids) might not be a big deal to some, 6 hours was enough for 1 sitting but could have really spent another 6 there trying /revisiting out more of the old machines.

[spatular]

^ we did go to arcade club the other day, i thought it was great! Played loads of stuff - mission impossible, hotd, outrun 2, sega rally, initial d, beatmania, some sort of slide dancing game, crimzon clover, ketsui, tank tank tank, and loads of other stuff. The feedback from the chair on tank tank tank was nuts, im not sure that passes health and safety checks, when you fire the cannon it slams you back and forwards, i was finding gattling gun pickups to give my back a rest.

[Snaggletooth]

Nice, its a great place, would happily go again in future but a fair distance means not easy to get to. 

 

[spatular]

yeah i definitely want to go back too, it's not too far for me but also not really close either, was saying i'd like to go once a month, although that probably won't happen.