Share your VO experience or history

[rvr67michael]

I guess I'd better stop lurking too.

I started out with VOOM on the Saturn, a safe distance away from any arcades, but I was friends with Jumbo/Mark here so I'd play at GameWorks in Seattle whenever I had the chance, especially once VOOT came out. Eventually I ended up with a pair of Saturn sticks and of course when VOOT hit the Dreamcast, everyone in the Seattle group was in on that and I'd come play whenever I had the chance. Even with an actual cabinet over there, the preferred thing to do was take over one of the party rooms and play the DC version in linked mode.

Later I had a nearly year-long exchange in Matsue, in Japan, where I played VOOT every chance I had, and became a "member" of the local group (supposedly they are playing on 360 now but I can never seem to catch anyone online!)

So now I'm on the 360, gamertag Gsilverfish if anyone likes.

Dordray is my preferred OT character, Dorkas for OMG.

[max99]

hi everyone, i'm new here too. my Voot story isnt very exciting like some of the others but here goes.

i've been a massive sega fan since the saturn days and while i never really got into the saturn port of VO i do remember being intrigued by the game in the arcades. back then it was all about virtua fighter 2 and sega rally and the excellent saturn conversions.

roll on several years and i, like every other sega fan, picked up a japanese dreamcast (eventually modded to play all territories) and like everyone else i picked up the excellent port of Voot. i loved the game but for me the lack of online was like a missing grail that capped the enjoyment of the this version....the trouble was i didnt have local people to play, so most of my time was taken with virtua fighter 3tb simply because i had friends to play it with

fast forward to a few days ago! i download the 360 xbla version and online play has made this classic so much more appealing. it's fair to say i'm a born again VOOt fan.

loving all the online games ive played so far and thirsting for more. i especially like the party lobby system, such a great idea. if only you could spectate other friends games it would be perfection!

please add me if you want some games!

[MentholMoose]

Later I had a nearly year-long exchange in Matsue, in Japan, where I played VOOT every chance I had, and became a "member" of the local group (supposedly they are playing on 360 now but I can never seem to catch anyone online!)

I remember you now. What a cool experience that must have been! Regarding your friends in Japan, probably all those guys have jobs now, and will be online after work, so about 2AM PST. This is when I've seen some of the hard-core players I used to keep in touch with way back when (such as Kalxath).

[rvr67michael]

I remember you, too

They had jobs back then too, but they lined up better with my class schedule, of course. I actually managed to catch someone right after I posted that!

I kind of wonder who I've been playing against online, because I've been playing in the evenings here, but it's late morning/early afternoon over there. Anyone who was playing the game in the arcades should probably be at work or school? If they're new to Virtual On they're still awfully good!

[Cacophanus]

Well, I started out by playing Virtual On on the Saturn (someone else's copy in fact). After a while I ventured into London and found an arcade that had the cabinet and got practicing, as the Saturn version was far more immediate in regards to the freeze at the end of dashes so the arcade version was more tactical. Shortly after that I set up the London Virtual On Club (LonVOC) with the suitably enthusiastic Johnson Or. This was at the former Namco Wonderpark in Picadilly Circus and we ended up getting quite a large number of members, many of which I'm still good friends with.

Due to LonVOC's success, the arcade owners managed to get Virtual On Oratario Tangram (M.S.B.S. 5.2) for the club. It was the only Oratan machine in the UK and the club gained even more members as a consequence. We also had a few visits from Japanese and Singaporean players, all of which were wonderfully skilled. Shortly after the Dreamcast version was released the arcade moved to another location, which partially killed it off. Not long after that they sold off the Virtual On machines, purely because the newer arcade was under different management and they wanted to turn it into more of a bar surrounded by more casual arcade games.

I then went to University and forced the student union to bag a Virtual On cabinet. Unfortunately, it wasn't really used that much (except by me) and it shortly got sold off. It was around this time I visited Japan on holiday and managed to play the Virtual On Force location test (courtesy of Johnson Or's investigative skills). It was pretty underwhelming but on the upside I finally got to play 5.66 a bit (this was when I met Mike I think, who was a very experienced Sportsland player at this point).

After University, I lived in Japan for 2 years. I frequented the semi-local arcades quite a bit (in Mie-ken and Nagoya) and played some fairly decent opponents on 5.66. Though, the members at LonVOC were arguably more skilled. After a while I ended up travelling to Tokyo fairly regularly and to Sportsland's epic Virtual On setup. I got better against the Japanese players and just loved the buzz the game generated with people.

Shortly after this I won a tournament in Nagoya and the other finalist and I (a lady Cypher player) ended up teaming up on Force.

In the background to all this, I ended up getting to know some of the Japanese team for Oratan quite well (I interviewed Watari twice). When I bought my own Virtual On cabinet recently, the story reached them and they were suitably chuffed. My only regrets were that I never visited Tangerine Spur nor played the force feedback version of Oratan in Osaka.

[MentholMoose]

Very cool! Welcome to the forum!

[Jumbo]

Jumbo, are you Mark the Dordray player? I think we met a few times, e.g. when you and Tirah visited Socal (I think we played some cable versus at my house), and when I visited Washington for the Sakuracon tournament (and maybe also an Illusionz tournament, but I'm not sure).

No, that would be my buddy Michael, (I see he's stopped lurking!) ^_- he spent a year in Japan as well, though he spent it actually ~playing~ the game (As this was when 5.66 was still fresh and new) with friends. We did both go to a VOOT tourney in Hiroshima though. Was quite a bit of fun, my first round battles were close but I just have a harder time with the more distanced long range style of play that most Japanese tournaments are rife with. Our bouts with the Seattle crew were always quite CC based and hot blooded... Usually quick affairs. ^^;;;

But you did get the name right! I came down with Tirah that one time and yes we had some good matches at your place! It was a lot of fun and it was cool to get a chance to check out Golfland and some other places with machines down there as well as meet everyone. (some of them meet again!)

I didn't participate in the VOOT tourney at Sakuracon that year for some reason or another... I can't remember why... But Yeah, Michael's the Dor/Helldray player and also quite cool. I know he's talked with me about playing the XBLA ver. I actually don't recall the Illusionz tourney. Might have been once I moved away from Seattle... I left when things were still pretty hot with the Auburn crew anyways.

I'm mainly a Temjin guy, though depending on how serious/fun things are, I enjoy a round of Specineff as well.

[Oolong]

These are my favorite kinds of threads!

I'm from SoCal, and being a college kid in the late 90s, there was never a shortage of arcades or quality competition. I'm primarily a Street Fighter player, having lived at shgl for a number of years. I used to travel with that crew to Alpha 3 tournaments, and it was always a blast. That was the heydey. Fond memories.

That said, I was never a part of the VO scene. At shgl, it was always that game that I really wanted to excel in. I'd pass by it as I entered, and see a thriving scene Friday/Saturday nights. Sure, I'd play on occasion, but those busy nights were better served working the A3 machines. I'd jump onto VOOT every so often, and promptly lose. My buddy would try to explain the complexities, and I'd reply, "Yeah, but uh, how do you combo?"

After college, I found an old VOOM machine in Long Beach, had a great time slaughtering my girlfriend at it, and decided to do some research. I jumped online and figured out what it would take to play it on my DC. A copy of VOOT, a boot disc, and a pair of craig's list-purchased DC Twin Sticks later, and I was in business.

I didn't hear about the XBLA version until a week prior. After they wiped my STHD record from the servers, I was kind of over SF. I heard about VOOT and I was stoked! I just jumped right into the fire, and rattled off 5 straight losses. This was great! With Street Fighter, I expected to win every match. The sense of discovery is what makes this a blast for me.

I'm still green, so it's great to find a community that supports such a great, underrated game. Hit me up on XBL!

Gamertag: Gekirou

[Schooly D]

After they wiped my STHD record from the servers,

What's all this then?

[Oolong]

After they wiped my STHD record from the servers,

What's all this then?

Street Fighter HD leaderboards were reset to zero back in March.

[Henshin1]

I had some cool games last night on voot. I was playing with some guy from japan and after a while it turned into CC only matches. I was using Angelan and he was using Apharmd C. The coolest match was on the level where you start on opposite sides of a building. On that stage we'd both jump on top of that building and use it sort of like a CC ring. Whoever fell off had to jump back on again and continue the fight

It was pretty fun

[Davo87]

Had similar experience. One guy is willing to practice CC mainly with me. Which was fun. With CC, I trouble guarding when I want. Quickstepping alone cannot be cancelled in guard. But quickstepping attack can. The thing is if I guard my opponent's quickstep attack, I cannot guard the nxt reversal attack bcos my guard is released. Any ideas from someone?

[MentholMoose]

Quickstepping alone cannot be cancelled in guard. But quickstepping attack can.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Q-steps definitely can be guard-canceled. That is, if you do a q-step, you can cancel it by guarding. The CC experts can do several guard-canceled q-steps in a second.

The thing is if I guard my opponent's quickstep attack, I cannot guard the nxt reversal attack bcos my guard is released. Any ideas from someone?

I'm not sure what you mean by "next reversal". If your guard registers against the opponent's attack, you can do a guard reversal, but the opponent cannot. They are able to guard your reversal, and do their own reversal. Is this what you're talking about? You can still guard their reversal, too. I don't you can just hold guard the entire time, though. After you guard their attack, and do your guard reversal, let go of guard. If they block and do their reversal, watch for it and then input guard at the right time.

[Davo87]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Q-steps definitely can be guard-canceled. That is, if you do a q-step, you can cancel it by guarding. The CC experts can do several guard-canceled q-steps in a second.

I thought so too at first. But I just simply cannot guard in between of the quick step animation. Put it this way, I quick step, my opponent does quickstep attack. I can see the opponent's quickstep attack by a mile away, so I obviously can guard in time. But I couldnt guard cancel for some reason. its got nothing to do with the connection bcos I can cancel freely with quickstep + attack. Altho I find the timing of the quickstep + attack cancel to be strict, its like I couldnt cancel it in the early frames.

I'm not sure what you mean by "next reversal". If your guard registers against the opponent's attack, you can do a guard reversal, but the opponent cannot. They are able to guard your reversal, and do their own reversal. Is this what you're talking about? You can still guard their reversal, too.

Sorry Ill rephrase. My opponent quickstep attack and cancelled into reversal attack. The first hit registered, but the recovery frames was cancelled hence the second hit is uninterruptable.

I don't you can just hold guard the entire time, though. After you guard their attack, and do your guard reversal, let go of guard. If they block and do their reversal, watch for it and then input guard at the right time.

One thing I needed correction is if my opponent does quickstep attack and I hold guard, I tend to lose my guard bcos I lose my double lockon for a brief period. In this situation when do I time my next guard? Cos if I cant guard or quickstep attack cancel before I lose sight of them, I better of side SLD away.

[MentholMoose]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Q-steps definitely can be guard-canceled. That is, if you do a q-step, you can cancel it by guarding. The CC experts can do several guard-canceled q-steps in a second.

I thought so too at first. But I just simply cannot guard in between of the quick step animation. Put it this way, I quick step, my opponent does quickstep attack. I can see the opponent's quickstep attack by a mile away, so I obviously can guard in time. But I couldnt guard cancel for some reason. its got nothing to do with the connection bcos I can cancel freely with quickstep + attack.

You can guard-cancel a plain q-step, but you do have to be in CC range for the guard to work. If you initiate a q-step and go outside of CC range, you won't be able to guard-cancel it.

Altho I find the timing of the quickstep + attack cancel to be strict, its like I couldnt cancel it in the early frames.

I'm not sure what the minimum amount of time is before you can cancel the q-step attack. It's pretty small and probably people will hit the physical limit first. The timing for guard-canceling q-step attacks seems the same as a q-step, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by "next reversal". If your guard registers against the opponent's attack, you can do a guard reversal, but the opponent cannot. They are able to guard your reversal, and do their own reversal. Is this what you're talking about? You can still guard their reversal, too.

Sorry Ill rephrase. My opponent quickstep attack and cancelled into reversal attack. The first hit registered, but the recovery frames was cancelled hence the second hit is uninterruptable.

If you guarded the first hit, and they are still in CC range, I think the guard should still work. I can't really test this solo, but if the guard can't stick for both attacks, then let go of guard after the first guarded attack, then input guard again for the second one.

I don't you can just hold guard the entire time, though. After you guard their attack, and do your guard reversal, let go of guard. If they block and do their reversal, watch for it and then input guard at the right time.

One thing I needed correction is if my opponent does quickstep attack and I hold guard, I tend to lose my guard bcos I lose my double lockon for a brief period. In this situation when do I time my next guard? Cos if I cant guard or quickstep attack cancel before I lose sight of them, I better of side SLD away.

Part of the benefit of the q-step attack is that your opponent's guard will be broken, so they can't just stand there holding guard indefinitely. If someone does a q-step attack, their opponent should input guard as close to the time that the hit registers as possible.

[DZef]

Hi all, I am new here. I am not Japanese but I do read 2ch, and this board was mentioned in one of the VOOT threads

My first encounter with VO:OMG was the Christmas/New Year of 1995. I happened to be in Tokyo, and I saw it in the Ikebukuro Sega. I was in the arcade playing OMG when the arcade staff did the New Year count down Of course I bought the Sega Saturn version and played a lot of that too.

I was drooling over what I was reading about the upcoming Oratorio Tangram in the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine. I bought a Japanese DC shortly after its release, and I got OT together with a Twin Stick as soon as it came out. I played against the CPU mainly, so I had pretty much zero practical experience against human players until the XBLA version came out. Back in the DC days, I could only read with envy about the network play over KDDI, and how they could exchange replays over email on the DC. Legends of massive phone bills from the KDDI charge was not something to envy though

Anyhow, I have been stuffing tons of discussions in my head over the past decade, and I would like to share those with the members of this forum. The game is complex, with very little documentation, and some advanced techniques looks like bug exploitations no matter how you look at it. This is a nice wiki in Japanese which I only discovered before the XBLA release:

http://ot.virtual-on.com/

There are some really heavy data, such as this site which lists the deviation of total HP of each VR in all match-up combinations, with blue and red high-lighting differences of 5.66 vs 5.4:

http://oratanners.hp.infoseek.co.jp/life.html

Anyhow, 4649!

[MentholMoose]

Welcome!!!

[JohnxII]

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.

That would be the guestbook they put there for VR pilots to sign and comment etc. I still remember writing some simple stuff with my elementary Japanese... shame they're all gone now. Last time I checked the Akiba club was still there, some half a year ago?

[JohnxII]

I remember saying something like: I feel a bit VO-positive. Maybe you should drive.

Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full of what looked like small airplanes, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, and a voice was screaming: Holy Jesus. What are these goddamn virtuaroids?

What? No. We can't stop here. This is cypher country.

Great stuff... shows how addicted you are! When I was so addicted I talked VO on the street with a fellow pilot too!

I remember you FTB, either from GameFAQ or VOnet. Were you in Seattle when I visited? Good times!

[JohnxII]

Hey Myke mate, I remember you from the forum!

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.

I think Scott might have.