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