ATTENTION ALL CALI PLAYERS IF YOU WANT VF4 EVO....

ATTENTION ALL CALI PLAYERS IF YOU WANT VF4 EVOLUTION... please come here. There is only one arcade in California that might be willing to get Vf4 Evolution and Im not talking about just the game... Im also talking about the VF.net card system. So what i need for ALL Vf4 players and especially those in Cali is to visit this Arcades website and flood there messageboard so that they can see that there are alot of people that want to play this game. Make multiple screen names if possible. Show your love and if everything works out we will be playing VF4 Evolution this August. Thank you.
The website link is... http://pub39.ezboard.com/farcadeinfinity94448frm6

 

Posted there today. Let's see more action with this write-in campaign. VF4 Evolution plus vf.net cards... too cool.

 

I posted also. I hope they get it. Our 3 posts are the most coherent on the entire board. /versus/images/icons/tongue.gif

Anyway, they have a lot of cool stuff on the AI home page. If you wanted to buy some cool Japanese cabinets from them, they seem to have a whole bunch of them for decent prices.

Personally, I'd love to get a Versus City or a New Astro City cabinet. /versus/images/icons/smile.gif

 

Actually, they usually put them up for sale on eBay and they sell fast i.e. within a week. I have bought some boards and other hardware from them in the past. So if you want something, better be quick. =) E-mailing them would be better than those boards, I think. Their forum seems populated with some of the more ermm.... "loud" AI regulars I remember from the past.

 

i will email them, but i want to have more posts on that thread so they can see that it would be worth getting

 

Common guys post like there is NO TOMORROW!!!!! Only a little over a month left till Evolution is released

 

Ok, this ended up being a little longer than I had originally intended. Feel free to ignore this post /versus/images/icons/wink.gif

Sorry Brisal, but I'm in agreement with the ScottIND guy. I used to go to AI (not for VF since they didn't have VF4 at the time) for months up until the VF4 release date. Their most popular games were the Konami -mania games and KOF (usually surrounded by the err... for lack of a better off-hand term... "FOB"s). When CVS2 came out in AI, it did not do well at all even though they acquired it (albeit, Jap. version) *before* SHGL did. Yes, I'm sure everyone here would go play a newer version of VF4 or VF4Evo. However, try to enumerate everyone here and multiply that by an outrageous number of games and hours of potential play and tell me if this would be true or not: "a paltry handful of [your] friends won't cover the expenses of getting the game to [AI]." (quoted from the aforementioned ScottIND's post and modified)

The people who don't follow VF4 hardcore wouldn't know there WERE differences in versions, how many versions existed, and which one was in AI or not. If the versions were explained to them, they most likely would not care. Those are the people who would bring in the needed cashflow to warrant occupying a cabinet in an arcade. Virtua Fighter games have always seemed to lose out in terms of casual player draw to the Capcom games and sometimes the Namco Tekken games. Tekken 4 AND VF4 are/were not doing well in AI. If you don't know already, AI can get a game and if the owners see it not do well, they get rid of it within DAYS. I've seen that arcade physically rearranged from week to week so fast, I wonder if they get any help moving all those cabinets around. As much as I like VF, I really can't forsee AI getting Evo. Even if the owners bought it, they'd probably only tolerate it for a week before ditching it for another game. And even then, I imagine it'd be difficult for them to find a potential customer for it. [On a side note, they had this one funky (Japanese version) dancing game-wannabe for 2 days and somehow sold it. I wonder who bought it?]

My disclaimer is that I am a chronic pessimist. I am not saying straight out to not post on their board, but I just want to try and bring an aspect of reality into this. Just think: all what... 10-15 socal players+visitors get together maybe once every couple of months and maybe mm... 5-8 socal players get together to play once every week or two weeks tops. It's nice to see announcements like Evo's release, but I'm just pretty happy that VF4 came out for the PS2. I'll start playing it again (now that I finally own a PS2) once I am done with FFX.

 

I understand what your saying VF4 isn't doing well at AI...and it is true Tekken 4 left fast. But for some reason VF4 is still there. Here are the problems with VF4 at AI.
1.) Version B... They lost out because VersionC came out a month or so after they got Version B
2.) no VF.net Card System

The reason I am asking AI to get Evolution is that they are the only possible arcade in the country that would be able to get it.
If it doesn't do well Im sure they would have no problem selling the game to us.

 

Ok. The "problems" with VF at AI are more problems for hardcore players. Again, casual players won't care about that.

If you say they would have no problem selling it to "us," then why doesn't someone just buy it? If it's location, I doubt that would be an issue since so many gatherings have been taking place at people's homes already. If it's finding the routes to go through to hook up with a distributor, then you can always ask arcade owners (AI's, SHGL's, etc.) if they could help out. I forget who exactly bought his own VF3/VF4 cabinets in the past, but I know a few have done so. If it's acceptance into this card system, then I have no comment on it since I know little about its internal workings. At worst, bring the money to buy the system with and go to the owners and negotiate. Show them you have the money to pay for the system and since it would be their precious floor space the cabinet would be sitting on, negotiate its maintenance (i.e. they keep all the money the cabinet makes or what have you...)

I, for one, would not be willing to foot the bill for the system; especially not while the PS2 port is out. So, I'll just sign off with "good luck!" If you are willing to stick with this and buy the entire setup yourself, then you have my admiration. /versus/images/icons/ooo.gif

 

Pessimism

I agree that being realistic (and pessimistic) is valid, but why exercise these viewpoints here? If the sole purpose of your detraction is to keep the owners of AI from possibly losing money by purchasing Evo, I think it's good that you're looking out for their financial concerns. I feel that's a commendable, unselfish view. I think you would be honest to substantiate your position. Other than that, I can't think of a reason to deter people from supporting Brisal73's call to action.

Please don't let your pessimism influence the fence sitters to your viewpoint just because you think "it'll never happen anyway, why try?" Don't you think it would at least be microscopically somewhat cool to play Evo without having to fly to Japan? Why try to kill the possibility just because it's unlikely? I know it's your right to do so and you're not the only one who thinks the way you do. But I think more people than not on this board would like to play Evo (I know they have minds of their own and are free to post) and I feel it would be unfortunate if your general outlook quelled their enthusiasm.

Maybe SHGL has more locals who would play Evo. Maybe AI doesn't have that kind of crowd. These are all plausible, but I don't think anyone really knows. Maybe the release of VF4 on PS2 has created new enthusiasts who might just go to AI.

I'm not suggesting people pad the message boards if they don't plan to go and play. But if you're considering going to AI to play and you'll tell your friends who are interested, I hope you'll express your desires to play Evo on the AI board.

 

while I've been trying post in the AI board from my GF's computer with no success, until then here are my thoughts:

First, there are a few key things no one's mentioning:

SOA released VF4 ver. B in the US in November, while the Japanese version released in August (as Evo will). That left a short 3 months before the Japanese version of the game was available for home play on the PS2. I have a "feeling" that VF4 Evo for the PS2 is running on a similar schedule (we can expect the Jap version sometime next year). That leaves at least 6 months before everyone on the West Coast who wants to play Evo (with NoCal and Oregon, which both have bigger scenes than SoCal) will be able to play anywhere else. So while on a day-to-day basis, the machine probably won't do stellar, there will be big spurts of people visiting to play, and dropping all the money time and their wallets will allow. Most of the arcades in LA proper actually have a VF4 machine, imagine how much more money AI would have done if we had all had to play at AI since day one.

There were days where I sat and spent $40-60 AT UCLA just playing the CPU, then playing with andy for a few hours... Jhky, you remember how I used to sit at SHGL and play by myself, right? When VF4 first came out, I was doing that about 3 days a week at various places. Most of us didn't even find out about AI until just a couple weeks before the PS2 version hit; but last time I was there, there were about 15 of us around the machine (some of those people I don't even know).

Basically, their window in which to make money off the game is over double the time. And as you yourself have pointed out, they're fast to cut loose games that are floundering, so why is VF4 still there if it's so clearly not worth their time?

Are they unwilling to get rid of it because they don't want to give up on the big investment they made on it (which isn't that much, considering they only bought the board from SOA; I can only IMAGINE how much it cost to buy the initial D machine and have it shipped from japan)? I think it's because while games like crackin' DJ and Samurai Showdown 64 are good for a slow, constant trickle, the VF4 machine was good for a few $80-100 nights. And guess what, they can continue to capitalize on their investment, just change the GD rom and they're ready to go.

While we have entertained the idea of buying the game ourselves, there's 2 problems:

the first is that we need a Naomi 2 board. At the beginning of it's release, the whole shebang with card readers, software, and about 100 cards (no cabinet) would set you back about $5000 from Japan. SOA was selling the board only for just under 3 grand. If you have an N2 already, you can get the GD rom for about $2300. We need that and the N2. AI already has the board.

second, most of the SoCal guys have no job to speak of, sad but true. While I don't think we'd be able to come up with enough dough to get the thing ourselves, I think we'd be able to come up with enough to make it attractive to someone who has the board, and could collect tokens after the fact as well, namely AI.

The last thing I want to touch on is that while only hardcore fans can tell the difference between versions A,B, and C, Evo is a major upgrade. All the existing characters have been given new moves, many of the animations have been changed, all the stages have been spruced up (in some cases completely re-done), and there are 2 totally new characters and stages. VF4 on the PS2 greatly broadened the game's audience (you included by your own account), don't you think some of those new players will want to play Evo? Since Sega Enterprises isn't bringing Evo to the US arcades, AI will be the only arcade that has it in CA as far as I can tell, maybe even the country (the import arcades that we have here in CA like Cyber Zone, Yaohan Plaza and AI just don't exist in the rest of the US). There's good money to be made if they have the exclusive on it, especially if we chip in to off-set the cost. And as far as I can tell, the SoCal players are meeting more and more frequently, sometimes twice a week. With no jobs, I know David, Mike and Paul will be at AI at least 3 days a week /versus/images/icons/wink.gif.

that's what I think anyway, but I'm an optimist by nature.

Spotlite

 

Well I am happy to say that Im no longer unemployed /versus/images/icons/grin.gif , meaning if AI gets VF Evolution I will be there 4-5 days a week since Ill have the money to support my VF addiction.

 

Hey Bryan, good shit. I think you should definitely post what you just did on the AI board too. Heck, I'd take your word up if I were a gameroom operator. About me going to LA at least 3 times a week to play vf though...make that everyday. /versus/images/icons/wink.gif