Share your VO experience or history

Discuss the Virtual-On series.
Mkz717
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by Mkz717 »

jiakhang wrote:Location : Singapore
Home ground : Ang Mo Kio Funland (Closed)

Short story : I am big fan of VOOM and VOOT 5.2. I have created the first Singapore fan club and also the most comprehensive VOOT 5.2 guide in 1998 to 2000.

SiVOC - Singapore Virtual On Club
http://underworld.fortunecity.com/sinbad/796/

Unofficial VOOT 5.2 Guide
http://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/asteroids/700/

I started off with VOOM in 1997, playing mostly Temjin and Viper II (my favorite). Although I love Viper II for the "guess my next move" mind games (44 straight wins!!), Temjin emerged as the best all rounder because of all its nasty tricks (machine gunning, freeze cancels, moonwalks, wall piercing gliding ram, big 2, circular CC dance etc).

When VOOT came out, I switched to Cypher, Fei-yen and Specineff. I had built up a fan club of 40 players that last till the end of December 2000 when I decided to move on with my life. I got tourneys going, weekly games and such, ah all beautiful memories. That's too much to be listed here, and my interest was ignited when 5.66 is released for xbox360. (net game !!)

Currently I am trying to build my own sticks as I believe that this game is unique and playable only because of the sticks.
wow... you are a legend and your site was legend =) I remember when I saw your page.
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M k z 7 1 7 (VON.net's Alias: Markinhus)
jiakhang
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by jiakhang »

Mkz717 wrote: wow... you are a legend and your site was legend =) I remember when I saw your page.
Well it's history now. Hope you guys like it and found it useful then. When VOOT was released, there wasn't any source of information in English, so I decided to make one using my web 1.0 skills. I wished there was wiki then, or it would have been a lot easier.
Mkz717
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by Mkz717 »

Feel satisfied that was useful your page, it was interesting, and I was asking myself where you were obtaining these VR's's images =)
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M k z 7 1 7 (VON.net's Alias: Markinhus)
jiakhang
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by jiakhang »

Mkz717 wrote:Feel satisfied that was useful your page, it was interesting, and I was asking myself where you were obtaining these VR's's images =)
Many of my ex-club members contributed whatever they could find on the internet. One good friend of mine, "Natas", bought a japanese VOOT guide which I painfully tear it apart, scanned, croppped and added commentary before sharing them with the rest of the english voot fans.
Mkz717
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by Mkz717 »

Always quice to have a Japanese friend who might spend things to me as this
What pretty community was.



Equally this one is not the only one ... (oratan.com)

There is other one that still(yet) persists but has less and less integral assets

Those of Honk Kong's forum
Http://hkvofc.no-ip.org/forum/
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M k z 7 1 7 (VON.net's Alias: Markinhus)
SupidSeep
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by SupidSeep »

Hi, all!

Hey, Jiakiang, Chris, guess who am I?


I was among the 1st gen VOOTers in S'pore, started with Cypher (played in the first tourny organised by JK), moved on to Fei-Yen & Aph B (which became my primary).

I played mostly at Orchard Emerald and Cineleisure; I was never serious about enhancing my level so my skill levelled off early and I was relegated to the lower tier after the first year. I was still playing VOOT occasionally for fun until last year when the arcade holding the last good machine disappeared. :cry:

I'm focusing on studying for this year and don't have an X360 either so I won't be playing VOOT 5.66. Also, like JK, it's never quite the same after years on the twinstick.


The thing I miss most about VOOT is ... Dash CC. In the early weeks, Natas (S'pore CC Aph B maniac) showed me dash CC with his Aph B, and ironically became my first dash CC player kill in a fun match when he was kidding around and expecting anything but Cypher's energy sword energising in mid-dash to slice him up! Since then I relish every successful attempt in slicing up some poor sod in mid-dash, especially when it's the killing blow.

Apart from practising against the AI, I rarely "plan" dash CC attempts; my favourite dash CC player hit/kill memories are all "instinctive": in the heat of the match, you catch a glance of your opponent at close range and next moment your VR is ending the dash with a energy blade/arm extended and the opponent is down ... it's like you keep practising a technique until it becomes second nature and when the time is right, you just use it without thinking through the motion.
jiakhang
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by jiakhang »

SupidSeep wrote:Hi, all!

Hey, Jiakiang, Chris, guess who am I?

I was among the 1st gen VOOTers in S'pore, started with Cypher (played in the first tourny organised by JK), moved on to Fei-Yen & Aph B (which became my primary).

I played mostly at Orchard Emerald and Cineleisure; I was never serious about enhancing my level so my skill levelled off early and I was relegated to the lower tier after the first year. I was still playing VOOT occasionally for fun until last year when the arcade holding the last good machine disappeared. :cry:

I'm focusing on studying for this year and don't have an X360 either so I won't be playing VOOT 5.66. Also, like JK, it's never quite the same after years on the twinstick.

The thing I miss most about VOOT is ... Dash CC. In the early weeks, Natas (S'pore CC Aph B maniac) showed me dash CC with his Aph B, and ironically became my first dash CC player kill in a fun match when he was kidding around and expecting anything but Cypher's energy sword energising in mid-dash to slice him up! Since then I relish every successful attempt in slicing up some poor sod in mid-dash, especially when it's the killing blow.

Apart from practising against the AI, I rarely "plan" dash CC attempts; my favourite dash CC player hit/kill memories are all "instinctive": in the heat of the match, you catch a glance of your opponent at close range and next moment your VR is ending the dash with a energy blade/arm extended and the opponent is down ... it's like you keep practising a technique until it becomes second nature and when the time is right, you just use it without thinking through the motion.
People who I know who troll only Orchard Emerald will be Alwyn, Eugene and Yukiko. But Eugene is a Temjin player and Yukiko plays Fei-yen mainly, my guess that the mystery guy here is Alwyn.
SupidSeep
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by SupidSeep »

Oh, JK, you have such a terrible memory. I don't remember Alwyn by name (probably played with him though; I remember another Aph B at Emerald not counting the Japanese Aph B who was one of the rare non-machi Japanese players in S'pore) but I regularly played with X Tem & Fei Yuki (I was also closer to their skill levels so we have great games together). Most of you don't know my real name and used my VO callsign then.

C'mon, there aren't many 1st gen S'pore VOOTers who started with Cypher as primary. It was you, me, Alan Tan & possibly one other guy.

I am also a Virtua Fighter fan, another franchise from Sega that I'm hooked on (and another reason to get a X360). Unfortunately, I s*** much more at VF than at VO. At least in VOOT I could give the local top-tiers some light exercise; in VF5 I am little more than a punching bag who very rarely won by sheer luck or unpredictability.
feixaq
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by feixaq »

My first guess would have been Mark at Orchard Emerald, but the playing VF part throws me off.

BTW, are you playing VOOT online? If so, please add me to your friends list. We should meet up and play one of these days!
SupidSeep
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by SupidSeep »

No X360; I have the money but it's committed to my school fees - sorry Chris. I remember you were trying out Bal in the early days when you were back at S'pore at around JK's first tourny.

Mark was one of the 1st gen VOOMers in S'pore and I did have a couple of games of VOOM; I remember him hanging around in the early days of VOOT but I think he never went at it seriously.

Alan Tan was probably the only VF/VO guy who knew I played both series.
feixaq
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by feixaq »

Alan Tan was/is my good friend, classmate, and VF/VO buddy way back in the day. I've lost contact with him, but would be really happy to reconnect and maybe play VOOT online with him.

So, SupidSeep, you still haven't revealed who you are 8-)
jiakhang
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by jiakhang »

SupidSeep wrote:No X360; I have the money but it's committed to my school fees - sorry Chris. I remember you were trying out Bal in the early days when you were back at S'pore at around JK's first tourny.

Mark was one of the 1st gen VOOMers in S'pore and I did have a couple of games of VOOM; I remember him hanging around in the early days of VOOT but I think he never went at it seriously.

Alan Tan was probably the only VF/VO guy who knew I played both series.
I am buying a xbox360 today just to play this game and is in the process of building my own sticks. Can't wait to lay my hands on a pair of sticks.

SG's first generation of VOOM players whom I can remember Christopher, Hui Ping and Gerald. Those guys were the best until the second generation comes along.
SupidSeep
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by SupidSeep »

I am having some fun as the "unknown S'pore player". I don't expect Chris to remember me, but I am seriously sore at Jiakhang. How many primary Cypher players were there at your first tournament?

I don't remember names well, but was Youneng (?) the Temjin specialist then? He later moved on to be the pioneer Angelan player. Both you and me were leery of facing his Temjin because our Cyphers couldn't seem to escape from his Temjin very well then, and we were not looking forward to facing him in your first tournament.

By luck of the draw I ended up facing him in the 2nd round and narrowly, narrowly won. IIRC in your match summary you wrote something like: "Both players were very excited, and Youneng lost his usual cool, falling to quick strikes by (me). Youneng picked up the pace but it was too late."

We even bumped into each other recently!


Hui Ping was my VOOM mentor but let go of VO before VOOT arrived. I started with Fei-Yen and she advised me to try out Viper II. It was through her that I was introduced to Mark. Of the 1st gen S'pore VOOMers, I believe only Chris and Alan moved on to VOOT seriously.

BTW, Chris, I want to ask: do you still happen to have the collection of VOOM faqs at your cybertroopers.com? FYI, it was with those FAQs (especially your Fei-Yen FAQ) that I started off on the right foot with VOOM and ended up in a position to be one of the 1st gen VOOTers. I think that collection of FAQs should be placed on a more permanent website like gamefaqs (some people don't like it since its commerialisation but it is in a sense the game faqs webite) so the knowledge isn't lost. There is still some odd player trying out VOOM now and then and those faqs would make for good reading.

Final clue to my identity: I wrote one of the few english VOOT 5.2 faqs and dedicated it to our local CC Maniac. If this is not enough to guess my callsign, I don't know what to say.
feixaq
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by feixaq »

SupidSeep wrote:Hui Ping was my VOOM mentor but let go of VO before VOOT arrived. I started with Fei-Yen and she advised me to try out Viper II. It was through her that I was introduced to Mark. Of the 1st gen S'pore VOOMers, I believe only Chris and Alan moved on to VOOT seriously.
Well, I played a TON of OMG... VOOT I played less of, back in the day, because I was in college and then started working, so not much time to play. So you could say I'm having my second go round at learning VOOT :)
SupidSeep wrote:BTW, Chris, I want to ask: do you still happen to have the collection of VOOM faqs at your cybertroopers.com? FYI, it was with those FAQs (especially your Fei-Yen FAQ) that I started off on the right foot with VOOM and ended up in a position to be one of the 1st gen VOOTers. I think that collection of FAQs should be placed on a more permanent website like gamefaqs (some people don't like it since its commerialisation but it is in a sense the game faqs webite) so the knowledge isn't lost. There is still some odd player trying out VOOM now and then and those faqs would make for good reading.
I have it archived somewhere on my hard drive. I'll look it up this evening at home.
SupidSeep wrote:Final clue to my identity: I wrote one of the few english VOOT 5.2 faqs and dedicated it to our local CC Maniac. If this is not enough to guess my callsign, I don't know what to say.
Rolander :)
BTW, I used to play a lot of VF with Choon Eng; he was also a big Virtua Racing and/or Daytona racer back in the day.
friction
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by friction »

Wow, so many old school names showing up on here. I guess it's my turn.

Ok, I first played VOOM on a visit to Japan in 1995(!) but i was completely mystified. Later I found a machine in Seattle at some random arcade and used to go and try to figure it out. My pathetic Chicken Dorkas style was having success against the scrubs, but there was one mysterious girl who would come in and wipe the floor with me using Fei Yen. When I tried to find some tips online to beat this ace, all the info came from someone named Tirah Dragonfire... and figuring there couldn't possibly be two different females in the USA who kicked ass at VO, I struck up a conversation, and eventually a friendship.

I never got that great at VOOM. I do have a great memory of the 2nd tournament at Gameworks though, when the SoCal players came up. they had a much more active scene down there, and for the most part they were kicking our asses. But then, arriving late, came our saviour... Nobu, a Japanese kid studying temporarily in Seattle, and thus an honorary member of the Seattle crew. His Apharmd tore through everyone... moonwalk, yatsuhashi, i forget what else. Unbeatable. I loved his match against a good SoCal Raiden player whose name I forget. That's a very tough matchup for Aph but even when he was ahead and time was running low, he would keep on rushing in like a maniac, avoiding lasers at the last second, to win with honor and, more importantly, style.

I was way better at VOOT... I remember the excitement when the machine first showed up and Mark let us stay late at Gameworks to play it. Dordray was my best, then Cypher, AphB, and Bal. I was one of the top few players in the Seattle group (although i could never be confused with being the #1 player.) I even wrote a Dordray strategy guide, haha. (there's an old version of it on the web somewhere; I wouldn't follow it too closely if I were you.)

I've met some great people through the game... Tirah of course, and the old and new Seattle crews, the Japanese folks like Hiro and Usys, Johnson, the SoCal crew, HK folks, and a few others from around the world. And I must single out Quad, who was some hyperactive overenthusiastic kid (who made us sedate old-schoolers all want to strangle him) who grew up to be one of the best players & advocates in the U.S., not to mention a really cool person.

I got to pay several visits to the legendary Shinjuku Sportsland West. It was pretty amazing, even if I mostly got completely crushed. Turns out that being good in the states didn't mean much. More than once, I suffered a 100% perfect defeat... in 3 rounds straight! After some games I wished I had a QM that said "Did we start yet?" I'd never seen all the freeze cancels put to use, or the advanced CC techniques. As Dordray vs. Raiden or Fei, especially in 5.45, I had no chance. But it was a blast all the same.

I also met up with Hiro's Tokyo VO crew and had a good time with them. I still have some priceless custom VO pins, made by someone in the club.

I think I was also the first from our group to play Force in Japan. Getting info about it from Hiro had been really exciting. But when I played it, I found that it had nothing that I liked about the VO series. And then they never released any more VO games after that. (Please don't try to correct me.)

Now I live in NYC and I don't play any video games, except maybe every month or two, at a friend's place. But when I heard VOOT got released, I paid him to download it for the 360. He doesn't even have Live Gold so we played vs. CPU, and I tried to teach him how to play. Unfortunately I looked like a scrub myself, since I've never, ever used a controller, only twinsticks. And disappointingly, my friend found the game way too difficult to learn, like anyone with any common sense does ;)

It'd be fun to play some games against real people again. If I can get some practice in on the stupid controller, I'll spring for the Live Gold and maybe you'll see me... very rarely...

Anyway, I found I have a new perspective on the game, thinking about it and playing it after many years off. I could share more of my thoughts in another thread sometime. But in short...

I think the best things about Virtual On are: the incredible mobility, the integration of close and ranged fighting, the extremely varied yet well-balanced VRs, and the variety of strategies that can be employed.

The worst are: ridiculous learning curve for newbs, too many technical "tricks" needed for advanced play, too many bad/useless options available (like half of the possible attacks), mediocre stage design, and, worst of all, terrible music!

Regardless, it's amazing and it's pulled together a really interesting group of people. I doubt we'll ever see another game that comes close.

Oh, and Dash CC is the greatest thing ever.

friction
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MentholMoose
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by MentholMoose »

friction wrote:Oh, and Dash CC is the greatest thing ever.
Soooo, are you the Dordray player I played a few days ago that only did dash CC the entire match? :lol:
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friction
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by friction »

No! But how successful was he?!?
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by MentholMoose »

friction wrote:No! But how successful was he?!?
I played along with the dash CC only concept and won. His record was about 600 wins 900 losses. I don't know if he only used dash CC for 1500+ matches, but I kinda hope not! :lol:
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Norburyman
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by Norburyman »

Dash CC???
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MentholMoose
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Re: Share your VO experience or history

Post by MentholMoose »

Dashing Close Combat.
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