Share your VO experience or history

[circuscommando]

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3920/raidenhbvbmp.png

just made that, pretty quick, but i'm getting better at PS.

[NGEFreek]

Makes me glad I kept a pair of Monsters vs Aliens 3D goggles around.

[circuscommando]

does it actually look better under 3d? i just made that to look neat.

[Long Shadow]

Hi all.

I'm new here, I like VO, here's my VO story.

Back in the day, I like many types of games, I was an arcade enthusiast I guess you could say. I didn't collect any arcade hardware or anything like that, I just enjoyed the arcade scene, it's games, their unique hardware, things like that. Anywans, at the time I enjoyed the Namco game called CyberSled. It also used Twin-sticks in a similar way, not too unlike Virtual On, though VO wasn't out at this point. The game was a one-on-one 3D battle game with these hover tank thingys (sleds) that battle each other in an arena with obstacles. The game wasn't bad, though it was a bit slowed paced. At this point in time I would have seen pictures on an upcoming arcade game called Cyber Troopers, and from the screen shots, I couldn't tell what the game was really like.

Now, one day I went to the arcades to see what's new and to play what ever I was into at the time, probably Virtua Fighter 2. I came across some fasted paced mech game. It was Virtual On. I was thinking this looks awesome. The mechs, the action, music, etc, I had to have a go. I was hooked from then on. It played so well, even though I wasn't a great player, but it felt perfect. I literally couldn't play cybersled from then on. Sled was just crap on all levels compared to VO.

I don't remember if I had a Saturn before VO came out, but I eventually got VO for that Saturn. I eventually got used to using the Saturn Controller, and it wasn't too bad, but it no Twin-Stick.
Later on, I got a Dreamcast, and I played VOOT in the arcades when I could, though it wasn't too common to find Sega Model 3 based games in Melbourne arcades. I eventually got the DC version of the game. For VOOT, the DC controller was a bit too hard to get used too, so I got myself some import DC Twin-Sticks (at this point in time they were hard to find online). That's the way to play. Now, I was thinking I wouldn't mind linking up my DC with a friends, but couldn't find a link cable.

Near the end of 2000, I went for a holiday to Japan for a few weeks. Loved it. While I was there, I picked up an official Sega link cable. I could easily find them there. I saw DC twin-sticks at a Toys-R-Us in Japan. I found that funny, that this hard to find thing (outside of Japan), twin-sticks, I struggled to find before, I just find in a Toys-R-Us.

Anyways, while in Japan, I went to SportsLand every few days to wind down the day. I remember they had this really good VO set up. 2 rows of 8 (back to back) with a TV at the end so people could sit and watch the matches. I remember them being 5.66 versions. I think this was the first time I saw 5.66. I had a go at it, against the CPU. The CPU just whipped me. It was a lot harder then any VOOT I'd played before. After that, I continued to play Fighting Vipers 2 there. I was the only place I've ever seen FV2 in the arcade.

Another interesting thing while I was in Japan, Sega Hi-Tech Land in Akihabara became Club Sega by the time I left Japan. The only reason I mentioned this is I bought a Fei-Yen VOOT figure there on the top floor in the gift shop, and was 50% off for some reason.

Back home.

Not too long after getting the DC Twin-Sticks, I got my hands on Saturn Twin-Sticks. Works great with Saturn VOOM (OMG). I eventually got an adapter for SS/PS controllers on DC. Called something like 4in1 connection or something, by blaze I think. It had a switch and it works with the Saturn Twin-Sticks. I eventually got a 2nd Dreamcast, 2 VGA Boxs, a second copy of VOOT.
I had 2 good (at the time) monitors on opposite sides on the table and the link cable. I had everything I need to proper 2 player VOOT. It was great.

I never played Virtual On Force, but I got MARZ, but didn' like it too much. I haven't played VOOT/VOOM much over the years, partly because I can't be bothered setting it up all the time, and partly because I don't have as much time to play games as I used to, and juggling time to play newer game, let alone older games like VOOT.

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming XBLA version of VOOT 5.66.

I'm not a great player, as I've never really had too much time to master the game, but I still love the VO series. Also, I did go to a few Virtual On meets in Melbourne, with the MelVOC VO club. I was out of my league against them, but again, was still a lot of fun.

On a side note, I also used the link cable with other linkable games, like Ferrari F355 Challenge, Aero Dancing F & I, and Sega Tetris.
Also, I used the Saturn Twin-Sticks with other TS supported games like Gun Griffin 2, and Gundam Side Story 2 & 3.

That's pretty much it, I guess. I did go on a bit, with some parts less relevant the others and I hope I didn't bore anyone with my story, but that was my VO experience/history.

[circuscommando]

welcome!

[MentholMoose]

Anyways, while in Japan, I went to SportsLand every few days to wind down the day. I remember they had this really good VO set up. 2 rows of 8 (back to back) with a TV at the end so people could sit and watch the matches. I remember them being 5.66 versions. I think this was the first time I saw 5.66. I had a go at it, against the CPU. The CPU just whipped me. It was a lot harder then any VOOT I'd played before. After that, I continued to play Fighting Vipers 2 there. I was the only place I've ever seen FV2 in the arcade.

Another interesting thing while I was in Japan, Sega Hi-Tech Land in Akihabara became Club Sega by the time I left Japan. The only reason I mentioned this is I bought a Fei-Yen VOOT figure there on the top floor in the gift shop, and was 50% off for some reason.

This brings back memories!! However, I was working (as a game tester ), so I couldn't leave Tokyo. I spent a lot of time at Shinjuku Sportsland #3. I must have been there around the same time as you (it was 2000, late September and into October). IIRC I bought an orange Sonic the Hedgehog T-Shirt at Club Sega.

SSL # 3

SSL # 3 basement 1

SSL # 3 basement 2

SSL # 3 basement 3

SSL # 3 basement 4

SSL # 3 basement 5

SSL # 3 basement 6

[Testament/Seven7]

Good god, so godly.....

*dies from dehidration due to drooling*

[MentholMoose]

Good god, so godly.....

*dies from dehidration due to drooling*

Yes, it was great for a VO fan. Sadly I didn't take more photos (a 64MB CF card was $100+ so I only had one and thus limited photo storage... plus one of the employees there told me not to use a camera). Behind those cabinets were trophies, photos, and other info related to various famous VOOT tournaments.

The best thing about SSL#3 was that they actually cared about their VOOT cabinets. I saw first hand how they handled a hardware issue... a VOOT player stopped playing and found the nearest employee. The employee left for about one minute, returned with a replacement part (IIRC a new stick handle) and tools, and fixed the problem within minutes. Plus they had EIGHT cabinets, 16 seats total, so one down isn't even a big problem!

This was just incredible, because in the US, if you actually ever found an arcade with a VOOT cabinet, it was typically in disrepair and with staff that couldn't care less. Even SHGL, with probably the most active VOOT scene in the US, never did much to improve their cabinet, although it was almost always at least usable. Some fellow Socal players even bought complete replacement OMG sticks to give to the arcade to install, but I don't believe they ever got installed. AI was worse with their VER.5.66 cabinet, though (I swear I should have just bought it when I had the chance... it was on eBay for $2500 and local to me before it showed up at AI).

[RVR - 42]

Good god, so godly.....

*dies from dehidration due to drooling*

Godly indeed...my gosh! I...I hate I missed the VO hype. And welcome Long Shadow. From Melbourne, you say? I have a friend in Melbourne, actually. I love how VO is seriously...like connecting people from all over the world. It's so awesome.

[Long Shadow]

Thanks for the welcomes.

Those photos do bring back memories. I think I was in Japan October/November (or maybe Sept/Oct) of 2000, for 3 weeks. 1 week Tokyo, 1 week Kyoto, and back to Tokyo for a week. I remember Christmas decorations going up around Tokyo while I was there.

My memory might be fuzzy, but I remember entrance to the area with the VOOT machines being on the left side of the first photo and downstairs? I know it was downstairs.
I thought there might me 2 VOOT monitors at the end, but I knew there was at least one.

The Sportsland place was interesting. The place seemed like it hosts a lot of tournaments. I remember seeing a table with sign ups for something. All the Guilty Gear X games were packed. I wanted to play it, but never got the chance. I settled for a Dreamcast Demo of the game though, which came with the Japanese Dreamcast magazine I bought the same time I bought Fei-Yen.
Another interesting thing there was a Fatal Fury (Fatal Fury Special?) game that had dip switches next to the joystick for players to muck around with. I've never seen something like this in an arcade.

Sorry if I'm off topic a bit, just those pics do bring back great memories. Melbourne arcades are nothing like that. Here you have the bigger arcades are okay, but can be expensive and they don't really care for maintaining games, and the smaller places that get newer games are like dingy druggie hangouts. Not all places are like that, but a lot are like that in the main city.

[VR-Eli]

Good god, so godly.....

*dies from dehidration due to drooling*

Seriously! I'd love to have one of those banners!!

[Davo87]

God damn it! I envy ppl who live in JP. Those photos give me back those tingly feelings.

Too bad ppl in the arcades r turning to gundam now, vo slowly became unheard. Tho those new Gundam cabinets r full on real cockpits, totally enclosed and with the gundam gears and joystick like the HAWX controller.

Longshadow: I was with Sydvoc back then. Its good to hear ur in Melb with 360. This is my gamertag: Specy87. See you soon when VOOT releases. There r actually some good Melb VO players still active with their DCs at home as I was told by my other fds.

[Long Shadow]

Sweet. My GamerTag is Totoro Ninja.

[Knoxximus]

Menthol, you are the man for having the presence of mind to take those photos and then have them archived. I WISH I would have taken pics of my arcade scene back home in Hawaii circa '91. I guess I thought arcades would always be, much like I thought that I would never leave Hawaii. Ah, so beautiful!

[somepunk]

*proceeds to strap bombs to VO setup, begins twitching on floor*

I have never seen anything like that before!! Ugh what I'd do for one of those posters.

Oh, and welcome, Long Shadow! Your just in time

[Testament/Seven7]

God damn it! I envy ppl who live in JP. Those photos give me back those tingly feelings.

Too bad ppl in the arcades r turning to gundam now, vo slowly became unheard. Tho those new Gundam cabinets r full on real cockpits, totally enclosed and with the gundam gears and joystick like the HAWX controller.

Longshadow: I was with Sydvoc back then. Its good to hear ur in Melb with 360. This is my gamertag: Specy87. See you soon when VOOT releases. There r actually some good Melb VO players still active with their DCs at home as I was told by my other fds.

Not to rub salt in a wound, but I think sega took a cue from those cabinets...

How?

Those rigs (4 game cockpits and a fifth monitoring machine), actually communicate with other rigs through japan. A team in Akihabara could play against a team in Osaka. I think it took the success of that to bring back the idea of internet play on VO. (it was in the japanese dreamcast version, I dunno how successful it was or wasn't)

[MentholMoose]

Thanks for the welcomes.

Those photos do bring back memories. I think I was in Japan October/November (or maybe Sept/Oct) of 2000, for 3 weeks. 1 week Tokyo, 1 week Kyoto, and back to Tokyo for a week. I remember Christmas decorations going up around Tokyo while I was there.

My memory might be fuzzy, but I remember entrance to the area with the VOOT machines being on the left side of the first photo and downstairs? I know it was downstairs.
I thought there might me 2 VOOT monitors at the end, but I knew there was at least one.

The Sportsland place was interesting. The place seemed like it hosts a lot of tournaments. I remember seeing a table with sign ups for something. All the Guilty Gear X games were packed. I wanted to play it, but never got the chance. I settled for a Dreamcast Demo of the game though, which came with the Japanese Dreamcast magazine I bought the same time I bought Fei-Yen.
Another interesting thing there was a Fatal Fury (Fatal Fury Special?) game that had dip switches next to the joystick for players to muck around with. I've never seen something like this in an arcade.

Yes, the stairs are on the left in the first photo. The photo is over-exposed so you can't see it, but the glowing white sign on the sidewalk on the left that sorta looks like an upside down "1" actually says "Virtual-On" on it! Regarding tournaments, IIRC they had weekly VOOT tournaments at the time (I didn't try to attend any since I only had one day off which I spent at TGS).

Sorry if I'm off topic a bit, just those pics do bring back great memories. Melbourne arcades are nothing like that. Here you have the bigger arcades are okay, but can be expensive and they don't really care for maintaining games, and the smaller places that get newer games are like dingy druggie hangouts. Not all places are like that, but a lot are like that in the main city.

I think this quality of arcade is unique to Japan.

Seriously! I'd love to have one of those banners!!

You're not the only one, I've seen them sell for over US $500 on Yahoo! Japan Auctions (they are exceedingly rare).

Not to rub salt in a wound, but I think sega took a cue from those cabinets...

How?

Those rigs (4 game cockpits and a fifth monitoring machine), actually communicate with other rigs through japan. A team in Akihabara could play against a team in Osaka. I think it took the success of that to bring back the idea of internet play on VO. (it was in the japanese dreamcast version, I dunno how successful it was or wasn't)

Some Sega arcade in Japan (obviously) actually had VER.5.2 in a custom cockpit-type cab, way back when.

[Henshin01]

Hi everyone!
I'm new to these forums and I guess i'll share some of my VO history. I tried joining a week ago but my work email kept blocking the account validation request lol. I'm a big Virtual-On: OT fan. The first time I played it was back in 2001 at my local arcade in melbourne. They had a 5.66 machine there and my best mate said he played it before and it was cool. So we started playing and I was like holy crap this game is AMAZING

Every time I went there I'd spend ages on the game trying to beat tangram and stuff. I tried playing as temjin in the beginning i think but quickly got a grasp of playing Angelan and since then she became my VR of choice, And I became pretty skillful using her and even had a chance to hook up with some skillful voot players from melVOC i think they were from, which was heaps cool. Or sydVOC... During my time playing I had some bad times when the twin sticks would always get damaged due to lil kids coming along and bang em around like crazy. And when buttons stopped working I was all like nooooooooo. The arcade doesn't have the machine anymore which is one of the worst moves it could ever have made.

But not long ago my best mate told me voot is coming to 360 so now im sooo excited about it all over again and we're both working on our own twin stick projects to use to bring back the good old days in the arcade. I'm really looking forward to the release of this awesome game and I'm also looking forward to getting to play some great matches with everyone:D

[Long Shadow]

Yeah, I remember some sort of sign like that in front.

And Welcome Henshin01, fellow VO lover, and fellow local.

[motormann]

So I got into VO back in college about '96 probably. I was big into Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 back then, and owned a Saturn when it first came out. One of the disks I got had a demo of VO:OMG on it (I should see if I can find that thing, it has to be pretty rare), and I played with that quite a bit. You could only play as Fei Yen and Temjin, and only for one match, then it reset. But the game play got me hooked and I got the full game. We played it quite a bit in the dorms. We only used the gamepads, and never even knew about the twin stick controller. I remember some pretty fun battles against my friend Alex, who was a great Apharmd player, those tongfers are deadly in OMG!! I usually used Temjin or Fei Yen.

I never had the chance to play VO in the arcades in any form, but when the DC version of VO:OT came out, I bought it immediately, along with the console and had it modded to play the japanese game, and I got a set of twin sticks. Problem was, nobody I knew was much into this type of game, and the friends from college who liked it had moved far away so I really only played against the computer.

I picked up quite a few VO toys and models, I have pretty much all the Kaiyodo figures, though some of them are broken unfortunately. I have a nice resin model of the original Fei Yen, which I never finished. I've also got some cool japanese books of the CG models from the game. I'm missing one of them though, it would be cool to find the other, I think there were 3 total. Several years back, when I was searching ebay for VO items, I started to see some listings for the Arcade machines. I started imagining putting together a VO club of my own, and talked myself into getting a VO:OT machine. The twin sticks on it were shot, but it was otherwise perfect. I scratch built some new twin sticks, and it was good as new. Unfortunately I never did get that club going

A couple years ago I built a new house and my VO machine got left behind because it was such a pain to move it. When I learned VO:OT was coming to 360 I got pretty excited again about VO. So I went back to check on my arcade machine, only to find it wasn't in the best shape any longer. It had boot up problems, and mice had gotten into it and chewed a lot of wires. The last few weeks I've spent quite a bit of time fixing it up, and getting it moved. It needed new power supplies to fix the boot up issues, and the wiring has been a chore to fix, but it's a relief to know that the machine is none the worse for the neglect, and works perfectly now.

I'm excited for VO on 360. I already had the console so that's a plus. Now hopefully I can play against some skilled players and actually get good at the game. I'm really hoping this game does well, and prompts Sega to take a new look at the series. I can only imagine what a true next gen VO would be like.