Share your VO experience or history

[Rav3nlock]

Let's see... I started playing the original arcade version in the mid 90's, I was around eight or so--the local laser tag place had just opened and brought it in, and I was instantly hooked the moment I chose to deposit my quarters into the Virtual On machine while everyone else from my group was standing around Police Trainer. They don't know what they're missing out on. I'd always had a fascination for robots and currently am a robotics major in college, so it all works out in the scheme of things.

That place didn't last long, and I didn't get to play it often at first anyways, but whenever I saw it in an arcade all my money suddenly disappeared... I was happy to be getting on the high scores list locally, on trips to Reno and then later a trip to Vegas (where I was excited by seeing the giant Temjin looming over the Luxor arcade...). Of course that was back in the day where I thought those high scores lasted forever and I was therefore a legendary preteen--and those were good days.

Beyond that, I ended up being able to track down toys, models, all that and built myself a collection during the dry spell where no arcade I knew within my area had the game. By this time, the Saturn was out and the Dreamcast was new, but family opted for Nintendo products much to my dismay. I eventually got a Saturn used, but it's a clunker, I'm still not sure what's wrong with it though I've taken it apart many times. Anyways, eventually during my highschool years, a local arcade got in a VOOM cabinet and some friends of mine would gather up for little tournaments, but despite following sites like SydVOC and all those original websites out there for Virtual On, I never got out to any large tournaments and what not, and I became a VO introvert when I snagged a PC copy of Cybertroopers ($3 in a bargain bin!)

And then... Marz.

I don't think, necessarily, that Marz is a bad game--it was the second playable Virtual On game I actually owned, and to its credit, it kept me current with the series. I liked having the story, and I liked the new concept of putting the VRs to new use, but... it just wasn't right, how it was done. Mostly, I had some beef with the fact that Raiden was horrid (and purple, I believe), which was a problem as Raiden was my go-to machine. I knew there was a problem when I was using a Temjin model (The 747HII) over my favorite VR...

Throughout all my college years I haven't been able to play much despite brother eventually getting a used Dreamcast and VOOT, but that brings us to now, with the XBox release. I'm getting back in the groove after spending some Dreamcast time, and while I'm most used to VOOM style play, I'm trying to incorporate some of VOOT's expanded moves into my play. I'm happy to have a version of the game I can really get into (and see how people around the world play), and I hope to keep up with the game and not just the story this time. It's been a long, bumpy road with me and this series, but I enjoy it so.

[Gasaraki]

My only real experience is playing VOOM and sometimes VOOT randomly in the arcades with friends, and always beating them. I never really knew any of the hardcore stuff so I'm looking forward to getting good in this.

It was ALWAYS my favorite arcade game though.

[Fei Yuki]

Hey =)
I'm an old time VO player in Singapore. I started when I saw an Oratan machine at the local arcade that I often frequent sometime in 1998 and the rest became history ^^. I started on Oratan, got used to the system and found it hard to go back OM . I'm very used to the twin sticks (too used in fact!) so I had a lot of trouble playing on the Dreamcast and Xbox =\

I've played most of the VO games: OM, OT (5.2, 5.45 & 5.66) and Marz. Force isn't avaliable in Singapore and they removed the last VO machine in Singapore sometime last year.

[Rav3nlock]

Removed them all? That's harsh...

[MentholMoose]

Fei Yuki, welcome!!

[Jumbo]

Finally have a little more free time to post this.

My VO experience started from Moongate. I was an employee at the Seattle Washington GameWorks and after hitting too many glass ceilings with Street Fighter 3, was thinking it was time to put vs. games like this behind me. That is when another one of my co-workers started talking and playing VOOM. He explained the basics and one night when we actually had a couple other area players in the building I walked by a couple times to check things out.

I'd seen the Saturn Version at a friends place but was entirely unimpressed. The arcade cabinet with the lights and sounds and seeing all the people lined up to play was probably what tipped me into giving it a shot. I started out with Fei-Yen, quickly learning how to chicken opponents with her. Fortunately, the Seattle VO scene at the time was pretty hot and also willing to teach as well. We also had some pretty good teachers up there, including the author of one of the better early VOOM guides around in English. I learned all the basic tricks there and what the Seattle "play-style" was all about. (Mainly that CC is a good thing and using temjin/apharmds crouch bombs in CC was not.) ^_-

We had quite the range of players, Viper II, Fei-Yen, a rowing maniac Bal Bas Bow (I swear he probably had huge arms from all that rowing!) Raiden's, and the usual Temjin/Apharmd players.

Things had kind of peaked for us and while we were still having fun, it was starting to feel like we'd topped out.

That was when Nobu came to town. (I'm hoping his name was Nobu anyways, it's been so long I may have forgotten.) He was a Japanese exchange student who just so happened to be pretty skilled in VOOM. I swear his Apahrmd was a blazing blur of CC that made any of the SF games in turbo speed modes look slow!

Nobu basically re-wrote VOOM for everyone up here. before long we were all moonwalking and big 4-ing and everyone's levels went up a notch.

We even held a big West Coast tournament at Gameworks so the SoCal players would have an excuse to come up and try to take on Nobu. (He won the tournament) It was great. We had the VOOM OST blasting through the speakers, a whole upper level area to ourselves and a full evening of VOOM entertainment. It was a lot of fun.

Of course as soon as they announced a sequel, we were all up in arms to get our hands on one. There are so many rumors about how Seattle landed the first VOOT cabinet on US shores (and I'll leave that up to everyone else to discuss w/o going into details here) but in the end we landed a 5.2b (pretty sure it was b...) system and it took off from there. We broke the sticks in less than a week, had our techs retro-fit it with spare VOOM sticks as getting replacement parts wasn't a option. (I'll leave that to the rumor mill as well.) and also quickly discovered that there was still a lot of work left to be done in balancing the virtualoids. (Specineff players quickly earned dirty looks...C/RTCW was it? among others...) ^_-

None the less, we did do league night play (I still have the score cards and questionnaire) and still managed to have quite a bit of fun, regardless of never being able to land a 5.4 upgrade. Once the Dreamcast Ver. released we all loaded up on twinsticks and set up times and places to spend a good afternoon playing through the DC link cable that our resident Japanese correspondent and Bal player would grace us with. (That and all kinds of incredible Japanese VO goods as well!)

Due to the lack of support from higher ups and Sega's reluctance to support any OT in the states, it was pretty much Dreamcast from there on. We got together with the Auburn group and held link cable vs. matches in the GameWorks party rooms. Lots of good times. We did end up with a 5.4 at Illusionz (Is that place even still around? I doubt it.) but by then it was still more about the DC than the arcade simply for convenience and price. (Topped with broken sticks there as well)

I also came down to SoCal with a friend to hook up with some of the VOOM players that came up to Seattle. (Yes menthol, I've met and played your Gryz as well. In fact, I might even have a few replays from our little get together on a VMU laying around too!) ^_-

Once I left GameWorks (by then the place was turning into a redemption game paradise...) I continued to play here and there with the Auburn crew during capitol hill play sessions and pretty much faded out from there.

I spent a year in Japan studying the language in Tokyo but was not only too busy with school (Even though I was only 30 min. away from Sportsland 3) but by then, Force was "all the rage." (I'll take OT style of play over Force any day.)

Having grown up on twinsticks, I could never get into Marz or playing on a pad. I've given ~serious~ thought to modding one of my 2 sets of DC twinsticks for XBLA VOOT but not only are they broken (Those stupid yellow hollow caps that gave everyone fits when the sticks first came out) but I also would have to break down and buy an Xbox360. ^^;

In a sense, I guess I'm okay with keeping the doors on my VOOT playing history shut, though if I could find good replacement parts for the DC stick or if Sega does release an official twinstick or what have you, I could easily see myself being pushed back into playing again, as rusty as I am. (3~4 years + w/ no VOOT at all.)

If nothing else Kirk, thanks for the forum and a trip back down memory lane. Who knows where all the people I've met playing this game in WA and CA are at now but hopefully they're all doing good.

[Rav3nlock]

Man, I think I really missed out on something--I've never been a long trip away from Seattle or Auburn until college, though it seems I was a bit too young to attend most of these events in their heyday anyways--parents sure weren't going to take me anywhere to play a video game.

[Kuren]

I feel old. I think I started VO back in 1997?...95? A long time ago. The first time I played it was in Calgary on a trip, as I'm from Vancouver, Canada. Those who know the area would know that VOOT NEVER appeared here; only VOOM. So my days were pretty much spent playing VOOM in the Score arcade (which now no longer exists). Then I started playing VOOM in the arcade (I think it was CHQ) at Metrotown. Around that time back at Score was when I played a lil bit competitively, and even considered going down to Seattle for the tournies that seemed to happen often then. I would say my first real mentor was Chris Tan who basically wrote the NA guide to vectoring, CC (close combat), and the nuances on VOOM. I read everything he had to write on it. Next thing I knew, I probably had spent easily a thousand dollars popping loonies (basically a one dollar coin for those who don't know), and several years of my life just playing VOOM.

Then VOOT came out for Dreamcast. About 500 or 600 dollars later, I had an JP Dreamcast, a set of twinsticks and the import version of VOOT. I played a bit of 5.2 on it but I spent my days on 5.45. I had a couple of friends back in the day who were into VO but for the most part, I didn't have any real human competition. It was pretty bleak, so I guess the best way to exude my joy of playing VO for so many years was me building the Virtual On Fan site, and hanging out on the Sydvoc forums. Yes, VO was so scarce in North America that I had to go to a website that belonged to a buncha guys on the other side of the planet in order to fit in. Anyways, I put up tons of replays, tried to compile as many strategies as possible, made a complete listing of VRs (at the time), and really tried to put as much fan stuff and quench the thirst of VO players around the planet. Although, around this time was when I really needed to find work, so I ended up creating a mod for Starcraft called Gundam Century. During those 8 or 9 months, I pretty much disappeared from what I remember.

I got into coloring comics for the late Dreamwave and Dreamengine, and now I'm a concept artist at Threewave Software. Now after so long, 5.66 has FINALLY been released on a home console. All those years of waiting to play Steinvok, 10/80 and Aph C (well, Aph C not so much) have finally brought fruits of patience. Freaking hell!

So, I've played VOOM, VOOT 5.2, 5.45, and now 5.66, Marz, but I've never played Force unfortunately.

Ah...good ol' Virtual On. Btw, I'm listening to the VOOT and as much as a VO fan as I am, I can't help but think that this music is really out of place except for a select few songs. I always thought that the music was wayyyyy too happy. I think that's one of the many reasons I hated Marz; it's overly happy music and the Temjin fetish the game was presenting.

[Rav3nlock]

I feel you on the Temjin thing for Marz. That, and the array of Vox VRs, without a lot of love elsewhere, was quite a letdown. Which I found extremely disheartening given how much I enjoyed the series when it started, I almost thought the series could only be helped by going to the PS2. I never minded the music so much until Marz though, since the music in the arenas for VOOM didn't feel so weird but in making Marz a single player adventure-ish game, it felt like it should've taken a more serious tone even if it breaks with series tradition. Couple that with the voice acting (not Sega's strong suit, having suffered through Sonic and Phantasy Star Universe)... and much more, I guess.

Anyways, always liked VO Fan, I'm pretty sure I still have the Wassup parody saved to my other PC somewhere.

[somepunk]

Man, I think I really missed out on something--I've never been a long trip away from Seattle or Auburn until college, though it seems I was a bit too young to attend most of these events in their heyday anyways--parents sure weren't going to take me anywhere to play a video game.

Hey Rav3nlock, I'm actually located in sumner! We missed out on a huge VO scene back in the day...

[Knoxximus]

Anyways, always liked VO Fan, I'm pretty sure I still have the Wassup parody saved to my other PC somewhere.

Dude, you gotta post that.

[Rav3nlock]

Hey Rav3nlock, I'm actually located in sumner! We missed out on a huge VO scene back in the day...

Sumner, eh? When I'm not pretending to learn things at WSU, I'm actually in Puyallup Indeed, we weren't far from the action...

[Kuren]

I feel you on the Temjin thing for Marz. That, and the array of Vox VRs, without a lot of love elsewhere, was quite a letdown. Which I found extremely disheartening given how much I enjoyed the series when it started, I almost thought the series could only be helped by going to the PS2. I never minded the music so much until Marz though, since the music in the arenas for VOOM didn't feel so weird but in making Marz a single player adventure-ish game, it felt like it should've taken a more serious tone even if it breaks with series tradition. Couple that with the voice acting (not Sega's strong suit, having suffered through Sonic and Phantasy Star Universe)... and much more, I guess.

Anyways, always liked VO Fan, I'm pretty sure I still have the Wassup parody saved to my other PC somewhere.

Yeah...Sega just kept going ahead and being Sega...bad voice acting, and it's overly cheesy melodrama...i.e. House of the Dead, PSO, Marz, Sonic, Burning Rangers, so on and so forth, blah blah...I like video game cheesiness and when it doesn't take itself seriously, but when you do it in such a way where it alienates even the hardcore fans...you got a problem.

Anyways, glad you liked VO Fan. And for everybody convenience...

VO Wassup parody!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d7HgrKVCo0

[somepunk]

I lived in edgewood and puyallup my whole life! I went to college at pierce,! Damn small world! I've been playing VO since the late 90s. There was a decent sized scene right here in washington, headed by auburn VO, that I totally missed out on, I didn't really start hunting the internet for the VO scenes till last year, it woulda been awesome if we'd bumped into each other on the forums a few months back, we had an awesome VO meet in Kent with a bunch of different, highly skilled players!

Good to know I got someone else this damn close!


P.s. I remember that WASSUP! video from years back, good to see it resurface! haha

[Rav3nlock]

Heh, well, close in about a week. Finals are all next week here, and it's going to drive me crazy having to miss out on a week of VO play so early in its release...

[Myke]

Myke from SydVOC, reporting for duty!

I was part of the SydVOC group way back in the VOOM days. Don't remember the exact year I joined the group, but it was pre-2000 that's for sure.

As some of you may know, my game of choice happens to be Virtua Fighter. At the time, VF3 was in our arcades and our local VF scene would meet there every Friday night to play. It so happened that at the same arcade, a rather large number of people would gather to play VOOM at the same time as well.

As time went on, our VF3 arcade scene eventually diminished to nothing, largely due to some Japanese players returning back to Japan. I think the Dreamcast release of VF3 also had a hand in this as well. Anyway, I would still frequent the arcade for the odd random challenge on VF3, but would grow more and more interested in what was happening behind the crowd gathered at the VOOM seats.

I'm really sketchy on my proper introduction to SydVOC, but it was pretty much a baptism by fire. I picked up Temjin as my first VR, and, week after week it was pretty much the same thing - I would get trashed! I remember the more experienced vets would just play around and toy with me, then when they decided they'd had enough, they'd finish me in no time. It was frustrating that I couldn't be competitive, but I wasn't deterred. Coming from VF, I was no stranger to steep learning curves, precise inputs, character matchups, etc, so I was determined to improve and there was no better way to do this than by simply playing. And that's what I did, every week, and the hard work eventually began to pay off.

I became more involved with the SydVOC community by being one of the co-admins of the site with John, and later, James. I'd regularly maintain the site, as well as frequent the forums and I see a lot of names on here that I remember from back then!

Eventually, my Temjin was good enough to be competitive against the well established vets, and I was managing to place high and win a tournament here and there. I could single frame cancel and big four rather consistently, and I relished any CC opportunities. In terms of my gaming focus, I was eating, breathing and sleeping VOOM and I was **** loving it!

SydVOC enjoyed a great number of years with a strong and healthy scene, but when VOOT eventually came to our arcade the local scene started to dwindle. For some, they didn't like the direction VOOT went in (FWIW, I loved it!) and I've seen this happen when VF3 was released, which left a lot of VF2 players unhappy. The younger breed (high schoolers) were still playing VOOM because it was cheaper than VOOT. And others quit playing for personal reasons, but there was no denying the scene just wasn't the same, and unfortunately only got worse.

IIRC, we only had one tournament on VOOT, and I think I never saw the scene gather again after that. I had an imported Dreamcast with twinsticks, so it did give me an upper hand over those who didn't and I suspect some people resented me for it. There were a couple of other guys who imported the game + sticks as well, and with those I would occasionally gather for a system link session. That was fun for the short while it lasted.

Just as the last embers were dying on a once vibrant scene, VF4 (my first love!) debuted in our arcades and I pretty much stopped playing VOOT altogether after that.

And just when I thought that my VO playing days were long buried, SEGA go and release VOOT for XBLA!

It feels great to be back!

p.s. anyone know if the old SydVOC forum is archived anywhere? I'd love to get a hand on some of those old posts.

[ranmafan]

I started with VOOM when it first came out (I saw the trailer video of Temjin vs. Z-Gradt and was hooked), and played the Raiden. I never looked back after that.

Once VOOT came out, I continued using Raiden, and introduced a friend (Fei Yuki from Singapore) to it, and she got hooked too. xD She even became reigning Fei-Yen/Angelan champion for a while.

Eventually the machines in Singapore all disappeared, so we had no way of playing VOOT anymore (since Fei Yuki's DC broke down anyway. ><)

Yep, that's my history in a nutshell.

I still want twinsticks for the XBox VOOT though. I can't use my Raiden for nuts without them. ><

[Henshin1]

I had kind of a weird experience when I was playing last night. I was playing a Fei Yen Kn user in an online player match. I was using Angelan. I was doing pretty well against her and was able to dodge all she threw at me. Perhaps the fei yen was new to the game since I am not very skilled myself. But it seems when Fei Yen went into her hyper mode, she just had too much of an edge on me and I couldnt dodge all her attacks. So I was wondering how I could deal with it I came up with a funny idea. I'm not sure if this is rather morally correct or not and i'm sure it's been done before. But after that I started to deal heavy damage at the start and when i got the Fei-Yen somewhere between 50-60% armour I would stop attacking and just spend the rest of the round dashing and dodging to prevent Fei-Yen from entering hyper mode. So I continued to have the advantage where I could dodge the attacks she shot at me. Maybe in the last 10 seconds or so I would fire some projectiles which would put her in hyper mode if they hit, but not leave enough time to damage me.

The funny thing is it worked like a charm. The next 3 rounds I did the same thing and won. It was rather funny but I didn't think it's fun for the opponent if I was always running away. I don't like it when people run away from me too. So I thought it would be more sportsman like if I played it properlly. It was a funny trick in the end so I thought I would tell you guys for a laugh. Maybe it might work for someone else too

[Flyer]

I had kind of a weird experience when I was playing last night. I was playing a Fei Yen Kn user in an online player match. I was using Angelan. I was doing pretty well against her and was able to dodge all she threw at me. Perhaps the fei yen was new to the game since I am not very skilled myself. But it seems when Fei Yen went into her hyper mode, she just had too much of an edge on me and I couldnt dodge all her attacks. So I was wondering how I could deal with it I came up with a funny idea. I'm not sure if this is rather morally correct or not and i'm sure it's been done before. But after that I started to deal heavy damage at the start and when i got the Fei-Yen somewhere between 50-60% armour I would stop attacking and just spend the rest of the round dashing and dodging to prevent Fei-Yen from entering hyper mode. So I continued to have the advantage where I could dodge the attacks she shot at me. Maybe in the last 10 seconds or so I would fire some projectiles which would put her in hyper mode, but not leave enough time to damage me.

The funny thing is it worked like a charm. The next 3 rounds I did the same thing and won. It was rather funny but I didn't think it's fun for the opponent if I was always running away. I don't like it when people run away from me too. So I thought it would be more sportsman like if I played it properlly. It was a funny trick in the end so I thought I would tell you guys for a laugh. Maybe it might work for someone else too

You know they can manually enter Hyper-Mode, right?

[Henshin1]

I do know that. But she didn't do it.
I think there's an armour penalty for activating it, And the player must not have wanted to risk that.