New arrivals - A nice seibu pcb, and a cab and such

I've received a few things since I last posted. First was this samurai showdown IV cart in a rather fetching rental cart. That makes 75 / 148 MVS games I now own.


As I've said before, despite not being a fighter fan really I like the Samurai Showdown series. They have a great atmosphere and music. I'm happy to just listen and watch the backgrounds and sprites while I get a kicking from the CP :) I was a lot more interested in this game though! I'd been looking for one for a while. I eventually bought this one from France. Cross channel postage was pleasantly rapid!



The layout of stuff on this board is pretty wacky. The large black bits are insulated sub boards which are on legs which bend at 90 degrees. There are other chips underneath. The game is...

Seibu's proto raiden release Air Raid. This was released in 1987, three years before the first raiden game. The graphics are very cutesy (and awesome) but the gameplay reveals the family resemblance. It only arrived a couple of hours ago but so far I'm liking it. The design is great. The sound isn't really, especially the effects. Game play is pretty good. There are a few different power ups including a speed up and bubble shield which aren't in raiden. I'm not sure there's a vulcan weapon sadly. I haven't found one yet anyway. Kind of a shame.


And over the weekend I also collected this beautiful Jaleco Pony III 25. After christmas some time I'll move it to sit next to my other one. They'll make a beautiful couple. It's been repainted and converted to 240V but it's otherwise original. The convergence isn't amazing but it's good enough to not bother me during play. I love these little things. So, so pretty.

New arrivals and a trip to replay

I had a good weekend. I took the long train journey over to Blackpool to replay. I'd lent a couple of cabs too. Was great to catch up with some friends from arcade otaku and play a few games. There was a bunch of console stuff, masses of pinball cabs and a fair number of woody cabs but I mainly stuck around the candy cabs. Mostly playing games I own too. I was unable to resist the siren call of ibara, the greatest game ever made. I managed to beat my high score on it too! Just a shame it's not on my pcb so it's not on my score table. I'll have to top it on my own. There was a small but nice row of candys. There were due to be a binch more but one exhibitor pulled out at the last minute sadly. I'd have lent more had I known.


While I was there I picked up a couple of bits and bobs

Since it's my favourite game I decided to pick up an ibara kit to go with my bare pcb. I'd love an original poster too in theory but actually I just don't think the picture's all that good. It's a shame. Nearly every ther cave game has a better poster. I also grabbed a stakes winner cart. That brings me to 70 of 148 MVS games owned.

The AWSD panel I plan to get a repro overlay for. I'll patch the card reader hole and turn it into a 1L E2 panel. I'll hold ono my nice original 2L 8B panel too but it's pretty much a dedicated ibara ca so I may as well have a 1L panel in it. I'll perhaps use button 3 as the start button though to make it easier to centre the options.

The new buttons and ball top are for the pony. I swapped them in today. The colours match those in the light up header. I quite like the look.