i was supposed to write about fuji-q highland in the last week, and I'll get back there, but as my brain boots up after having people in town and doing two trips in three weeks (plus comiket in-between), let's talk atami
atami is an ocean-type vacation destination which seems a decade or two past its prime and, as of last weekend, was completely full of either much younger or much older tourists. we're talking like "it is a 20 minute walk to the hotel, but I took a shuttle back to beat the heat, and the shuttle took 50 minutes for the same route" crowded
anyway as you'd expect one of the reasons I was in atami to go to a tourist trap reconstruction of a castle that has a freeplay arcade in the basement, one of the only known locations of the love plus arcade game (possibly because atami was a "go on a real-time 2-day-1-night trip with your virtual girlfriend, optionally in real life if you wish" destination for the 3DS version of love plus)
what I didn't expect was for this arcade to also have many other weird, solid, and unexpected finds, including:
-
wacca (not uncommon but always great to play for free)
-
mirai dagakki (actually surprisingly cool when played with someone)
-
two different "throw the ballpit balls at the screen" type games (one of which being Block King, which I have extolled the "this is for kids, but" entertainment value of previously)
-
sdvx vivid wave (for some reason), with chair (for some reason)
-
a football throwing game instead of a basketball throwing game (only other time I've seen a football one was in saitama when I was hunting down a techno drive)
-
wild west shootout, a generic lightgun game I have never heard of in my life (the revolver's chamber and safety are both movable. neither seems to have any effect on the game)
-
sega world drivers championship (a sim-looking game with licensed tracks and super gt cars, but a disappointing handling model)
additional props to the billboard ad for the arcade outside of atami castle, which was taken long enough ago that every machine in the photo (police 911, non-iidx beatmania, l.a. machineguns, some form of basketball shooter, and harley davidson l.a. riders)
and I should also note that by sheer coincidence, the hotel I was staying in had, among koda kumi pachinko and gunbullet, a pocket racer (!) cab, the for-children version of ridge racer which has both beginner tracks from the first two ridge racers (!!) and all the bumping techno of the larger adult cab. the driving is very slow and simple in comparison (and the collisions surprisingly player-favoring), but what a hidden treat