I would say KOF13, but I don’t think the arcade version of that comes out until fall.
Loctest reports are speaking positive of it so far.
The days of 25+ people showing up on friday nights playing third strike and marvel are OVER! How many times does this same subject have to come up, what is wrong with scandia? When asked to get the machines fixed up into showcase cabs, it was ignored for over a year. numbers started dieing. It got hot again when the machines were moved to the back, but that ended quickly after the first tourney, the one I helped setup, but could not get done without the help of Frank and Wen. The machines had problems, and people even left notes after the tourney, but nothing got fixed, and once the console games started getting hot, it was a wrap. How many of the old school sonoma county scene still play, hell still show up at scandia?
Gosh I remember those tournies fondly. Dan, remember when I landed Chun’s SA2 against Joe’s makoto, then used UOH and linked it into another SA2, then taunted while trying to follow up with lightning legs? HAHA! Everyone was so hype and then they just could not stop laughing. Good times.
I don’t go to Scandia at all anymore. What’s the point? I have my own joysticks and I have some competition through GGPO or whatnot. It’s not worth it to drive to Scandia to play old games with broken stuff. End of story. Especially since 3rd Strike and CvS2 became so jacked up.
kof13 will have nowhere near the popularity capcom titles have. it’s not going to save an arcade that is for sure.
Sad but true. SNK games were always the core of my love for 2D fighters.
I think Scandia is fine as an Arcade, mostly because it’s not all that is offered.
I’m sure they make more off of Crane Games, DDR, Group Games, Batting Cages, Miniature Golf and so forth, than with the Arcade.
The question really is, what can Scandia do to HELP the North Bay Fighting Game Scene.
Ultimately, the most disappointing thing was that Scandia had some awesome games, but they didn’t care to maintain them very well. We would play Marvel, CvS2, Guilty Gear, Hokuto No Ken, and 3S ALL NIGHT. No joke, I would go to Scandia from 6 until closing on Fridays and sometimes Saturdays. 90% of the time, though, one of the games that I would play was broken.
Marvel had a bad side, I believe it was 2p that would get locked on the down position, so whenever you were on the ground, you were crouching. That sucked.
CvS2 had sticky buttons. c.LK was part of my offense as Akuma, but the thing about c.LK is you would chain a few of them and then follow up. Chaining is really tough to do when one button press locks you down. That sucked.
3S was sometimes the worst of them all. When the game worked right, it was awesome, but sometimes we would get false inputs (Like I would hit right on the joystick and jab would come out) or we would get extra inputs (Press jab once and get two or three.) It seems like such minor stuff, but overall it took so much away from the game, especially when we could just go to Nick’s, play for free, and have stuff that worked.
Scandia was closer, and the environment was sweet, plus they had Windjammers. I just couldn’t get used to playing all the time on the glitchy machines.
Then the management wasn’t very supportive of our tournies. They let us have tournaments, which is cool, and they set the 3S machine to vs. so one credit got both players in, but whenever we had tournies, the machines were often still glitchy. It ultimately showed no willingness to foster any sort of community. Then it looks like the OG guys got sick of trying, and this new community grew up in Novato and part of Santa Rosa, and they found other places to take their game.
Scandia missed out, and now that they’re actually listening to the players, it looks like they realized they made a mistake and are trying to make amends, but it also looks like they’re trying to capitalize off of the community. Most of the original gamers left. Some of our best players, A_Rival and N3ss started playing in SF State and Keystone, which had strong communities with good support. Nick was going to Keystone sometimes last I heard, and I don’t know what else he does now, and Shake kind of fell off the face of the planet. I haven’t heard from or about that guy in a while. Then there was Daniel, Joe, Jamie (or was it Jaime?) Do Something Ray, Luther, Niko, and Kris, and that was only our 3rd Strike crew. We had a mini community, but we all grew mutually tired of trying to make things work, and we started doing our own thing. That’s when the scene waned.
SF4 came around and some of the Novato guys who were part of the Scandia crew picked up the baton, and got some new guys into the scene. All the while, Scandia refused to shell out the cash for SF4, even though they could charge $1 a game for SF4 and make back their $20,000 in a couple weeks. They refused to though. They got Blazblu. I was actually really excited about that game, but it died as fast as it came. The DDR otaku loved it I’m sure, but none of them were very hardcore at fighters, and I don’t think anyone gave it the time of day. Scandia could have gotten some console cabs. They could have gotten SF4 at that time and fostered to the community since the beginning of the console SF4 era, but they lost all that business to Starbase, or heck, a Donut shop got more SF action than they did.
Ultimately, I attribute this whole thing to Scandia’s lack of support, partly due to stubbornness and partly due to budget. WE as a community made requests as to what we wanted to see, then they got new stuff, but it was never what we asked for, so we left. Once we left, the things they did spend money on didn’t go over as well as they could have. It was like “We want to see SF4, it’s expensive, but we’ll make it profitable anyway.” Then Scandia spent a few grand on Blazblu. “Here guys, we don’t think SF4 will be as profitable as you think, so here’s something else. Can you make this profitable instead?” And we didn’t. Why would we? If we wanted Blazblu, we would have asked for Blazblu. Now Super is coming out, and Scandia most likely won’t upgrade, because they just bought a Vanilla SF4 machine.
t l;dr Scandia lost us because they never cared about us. They cared about money, and because of it, they suffered as a business. We went to the places that wanted us, not the places that just put up with us.
Ps - Starbase will have a console setup for super hooked up to a sanwa cab
Salt in my Scandia shaped wounds.
Spanky, well said. I haven’t lived in NorCal as long as you guys, but I remember first coming to Scandia when all the fighters were in that small aisle. Lots of great players dropping on Fridays/Saturdays.
Hell, I remember playing you in CVS2 when Scandia still had that setup at my first NorCal tourney.
When things got moved to a bigger space in Scandia, as Dan said, it started to get better and things were looking great. Then as Dan mentioned, after the tourney he, Wen and I ran, started to go downhill. I think both Dan and Spanky hit on why Scandia’s disrespect for the fighting game scene and it’s customers forced everyone find “fights” elsewhere.
Many of our top players went searching for more reliable machines and better competition (I know both Rival and Dark Symphony “Nick”, got tired of Scandia’s B.S). Dan, Randall, Tony, Fu and I all started to go to MGL every Wednesday (regardless of our work hours) to get in games with the South Bay folk. That’s right 4+ hours of driving back and forth all because the arcade we poured so much time and money into that was 10-30 minutes from all of us spat in our faces.
As I commented on another local tech, being a tech doesn’t make you in touch with the fighting game community, nor does it dictate your knowledge for what your community wants.
Look at all the other techs in the area, most of them frequently post here on SRK and make sure they are listening to what their community wants.
CPSIV looks after MGL on and off
OCE takes care of all the machines at SJSU
SFSU has posters that update on machine fixes and so forth
What’s the Scandia tech do? Lurk the boards and then randomly PM me calling me out. Sorry dude, I called you out on your shitty job running an Arcade. I’m not the only one here who thinks the same.
Also all places keep machines that everyone plays up and running to the best of their ability, address problems, and bring games in everyone actually plays.
Hokuto No Ken is a game I love, but who out here plays it other than some of the folks from Sunnyvale? When you bring a game like that into a place like Scandia, you lose the ability of familiarity. Randoms might try it out because it looks different but once they see someone who knows how to play, their quarters go off of the machine and back into their pockets.
First time I found out Hokuto No Ken was at Scandia, I went down to play it (Dan was there). Lots of people were trying it out and seemed to really like how completely absurd it was. The minute I played Tony and did one of Raoh’s infinites, everyone behind me left and no one wanted to play anymore. I took away the “jump in and play” sort of familiarity games like KOF, Street Fighter and so forth have. You can’t expect to make money off of completely random games in a general sort of family arcade like Scandia. It’s different if it’s a place like Denjin or UFO, but those scenes are completely different and those arcades cater to a completely different audience.
I could go on forever. Could I run an Arcade better? Probably. All of us here could. Why? Because we are members of the fighting game community. We see what works, we see what doesn’t. We dictate what we want on need and on logic.
At this point there are ideas to help Scandia, but Scandia is past helping us, let’s be honest. The North Bay got sick and tired of complaining for fixes. The North Bay got tired of the scene dying. It’s now revived, pushing more solid players than ever before, merging new and old North Bay crew and stronger than ever. All without Scandia. We got tired of the BS and created our own places to play or found others in other places in the Bay who were welcoming to us.
Also concerning the Scandia SFIV cab…OWNED?
http://forums.shoryuken.com/content.php?r=530-Arcade-LIVES-Super-Street-Fighter-4-Confirmed
Spanky, Frankie and everyone else who commented bout Scandia made all great points. I didnt get into the scene back in the day to have any inputs, but I do regret not playing sooner. It wasnt until I finally got myself a stick was when i realize that i want to play and try to progress my game to the next level. But the only matches I was getting was just with only a few friends and XBOX live, (wow like that is social). I expected the group from Scandia to play but soon realized there are no arcades so whats the point. But after hooking up with Marteje, he showed me the starbase crew and that was it for me. So why not try to get sessions going if there are folkz interested still. That is why I welcome anyone from the community to come and play at the Donut Dojo on fridays. I welcome any setupz and any fighting games if people are willing to get down, so just HOLLA.
I’ve only had time for GGPO as of late, but with the release of Super, I’m thinking I may get back into that game. I fully support the Donut Dojo, because it just represents pure awesomeness. I’ll try to get down there with you guys at some point, it sounds like a good time.
In the mean time, we should get a GGPO tourney.
edit: Frankie, do you remember how our CvS2 match ended? I think I was down to my Akuma vs. your last character. I was playing C-groove, and the entire time that guy Joe Powell was yelling “RAGING DEMON!” I think I actually landed it and he fell over and went crazy.
Gosh we were all so bad back then. haha, all in the name of progress.
Spanky, if you want to brush up on SF4 we need to meet up at somepoint.
I don’t think you hit me with Raging Demon, it has been a while though haha. I have a feeling you might have busted out Demon on an earlier match or what not.
I remember N-Hibiki zoning the fuck out of Akuma with her godlike normals though 
Think I remember playing you twice in the CVS2 tourney. I was in Winner’s until Wen knocked me out and then we played a second time while I was battling through Loser’s.
I could be thinking of a different tourney then. Haha, I love CvS2, too bad I caught it at the end of its hay day.
@Viparas: I’d be down for that. I’m kind of busy this week, but after next Monday, my schedule frees up immensely.
hey makara is there donut shopaz going down this friday? i might be coming to SR this weekend.
Mos Definitely.
ATTENTION all fairfield, suisun, vacaville, davis, dixon, sac, and surrouding areas
Me and my manager got a deal with pepperbellys for every monday is game night starting at 6pm. They have all kinds of games all on 360 including street fighter. The place is 21 and over so they serve alcohol and food as well.
Today was opening day and it was pretty cool, mainly played MW2 and guitar hero and rock band. I played SF4 with some people. There is no cover charge to get in so that is a plus. Im trying to get this place poppin with alot of people playing alot of different games.
Im a SF4 guy so ill be focused on that but I play the other games as well. Place is cool the owner is a good guy and its a nice spot to kick it and chill with friends and drink. As far as tournaments go we had one MW2 tournament, no cash prizes yet but if more and more people come it will begin. The winners this time won free comedy tickets.
Im posting this message to get the word out there and hopefully get this place going, so remember every monday at 6pm until whenever.
Oh yea and in case you dont know pepperbellys is a comedy club/bar/regular club located in fairfield ca.
Anyone interested? let me knowIs anybody here thinking of going to EVO? Just wondering if some kind of carpool situation would be possible.
Still time 2 get some practice in before SSFIV, so Donut Dojo this Friday n maybe 4 the rest of the month.