Yeah the sticks are l33t, but it’s shame that it’s only XX. What about the updates for the game? About a year ago, that machine always had people on it, but now I only see about 3 or 4 people on it. That’s why I didn’t include it in the list. Not knocking the game, because I think it’s quite decent.
If the wait for 3s really is 20-30 min then just tell them to install another board, I’m sure they still have a few in stock. They should do that before looking into getting new games people might not play…
I have a serious question for you guys who regularly play SF3.3s at Troc - what the hell are all y’all going to do WHEN the SF3.3s board dies of Capcom Suicide ? ? (and it really is “when” and not “if” because with the “Technicians” at Troc 
they wouldn’t know how to prevent it) there isn’t exactly an abundance of SF3.3s kits available and this year is year 6 of a 5 year lifespan on the lithium batterys. Hate to break it to you but your all on borrowed time with this game unless action is taken pretty soon and the battery is changed, and capcom aren’t round to re-initialse or repair non japanese carts anymore
I just wanted one thing clarified… is Chunkis’ role with the Troc people to find out what the Fighting game/SRK community want from the arcade, or just to generally make the whole place better/more profitable? Cos I don’t think that the general public has the same appetite for an arcade filled with VS cabinet fighters as we do… I’m all for CVS2, FT, more 3S cabs, NGBC etc, but i don’t for one moment think that this will reverse the fortunes of the whole operation… as has been pointed out, downscaling the arcades, getting rid of the defunct machines andmaybe a bit more promoting is the best way to sort the place out.
One more question: Chunkis, has it been confirmed that the Troc WON’T close in 2006? What happened to the plans to make it a hotel?
Trocadero has told me that the arcade isn`t going to close.
They seem to be investing in a lot of new machines upstairs and have opened a new bar recently and I don`t think they would be taking time out to talk to me if the arcade was closing.
My job is to advise trocadero on what needs to be done to make the arcade better.
Once the battery dies can`t we just fix it then?
I dont know much about replacing the batteries inside the boards, If the battery dies is that it dead cant we just fix it or replace it?
Ive read about replacing or fixing them online, but does this have to be done before it goes dead?
anyway, thats the least of our worries, trocadero have 4 3rd strike boards in the storage room.
Thanks for the heads up lol.
chunkis - the suicide batterys with CPS3 is worse than with CPS2, with CPS2 you can either have the data re-burned to the eeproms by Razoola or change the batterys before they die, with CPS2 you can change the battery with the kits out of the machine and you have approx 1 hour to fit a new battery once the old one has been removed as CPS2 eeproms do hold a residual charge so the data is “kinda” safe for a short time, however with CPS3 its a whole different ballgame, to change the CPS3 batterys the game has to be switched on and running on either a cabinet or a supergun, if you remove the battery from a CPS3 cartridge while the kit is switched off then you instantly kill the cart, CPS3 doesn’t hold any residual charge in the eeproms whatsoever !
also the fact that there are a few spare kits still doesn’t solve the issue, the lithium batterys have a shelf life of around 5 years regardless of if they are getting used or not the batterys will lose all charge at some point, once the battery loses its charge the data stored on the eeproms insdide the CPS3 cartridge instantly vanishes, only Capcom can fix the carts and Capcom Japan (to my knowledge) will only fix japanese cartridges, so in essence no you cant repair or replace a battery once its died because doing so doesn’t replace the lost eeprom data.
if troc have 4 kits, then thats 4 batterys that are due to die very soon, after all, 3rd Strike is 6 year old this year and I know of a few dead 3s kits allready !
Originally I was against the idea of having 2 3s cabs as I felt it was a waste but I realised that we only have 1 version of it.
So I was thinking that maybe Troc could get the version of 3s where the unblockables work and stick it alongside the current version that we are playing now.
It means that there will be 2 3s cabs lessening the wait for a turn and it means people can choose which version they want to play because I’m sure not everyone likes unblockables (assumption), kills two birds with one stone.
The thing is that everyone is more or less playing the version with the unblockables enabled. You’d be hardpressed to see a 3s in Japan without unblockables, and was the biggest complaint about the DC version until the ps2 and xbox versions came out.
I really can’t see why you guys should be playing on a version without unblockables unless you can’t help it at all.
if im not mistaken the japanese 3s on arcades has to versions
Version A
Version B
i think the japs use version A if im not mistaken
but ya should get version the japs use.
If a lot of you are complaining that it stinks, the I think cleaning up the place is definatly a good idea. I’m not talking full redecorations or anything, but cleaning carpets will get rid of most of that stinkyness.
ADVERTISE
Even flyers outside the door let people know what’s up. Especially if there’s free play for a hour on a specific machine print it out and post it up.
Big ups for getting rid of the air hockey machine?
Indeed, progress already it seems! Now they just need to bin those slot machines.
Zero 3 was even working yesterday for change, shame the sticks are so very worn.
We dont need 2 3s machines, thats a waste of money imho, just get more games.
Nah I think 2 3s cabs is a good idea, lots of people play it, it deffo wont be a waste of money.
Air conditioning, the odour in that place is enough to kill a man.
Area:
The corner where the hardcore/VS city games are is hot, and very small. We need to allocate a larger space to the machines.
I recommend moving the VS City machines to the 2nd floor of the other side of Funland where they used to be. That area is very big.
I know that place used to be REALLY hot, but it seems they’ve installed a brand new air conditioning system, that place is now the coolest place in the whole troc!!!
Shame the current VS City corner hasn’t benefitted from the new aircon yet.
Staff/Management
Some of the staff are still very rude, although a lot of them are ok.
They were also a bit stupid, banning drinks and telling ppl off for having them, when they themselves put a coke/drinks vending machine just a few metres away. But now it’s ok, I haven’t seen anyone told off for drinking recently, only eating and smoking.
But yeah they need to allow filming and they need to allow tournaments/ranking battles.
They also need to fix/maintain joysticks and buttons. It is a REAL shame about their inefficiency/unwillingness to repair the machines quickly, they usually take more than a day to even acknowledge the problem, whereas we need stuff fixed on the spot so we can continue playing.
I mean, we’re even willing to buy our own sanwa buttons just so troc can install them.
They need to let us take these gaming events seriously.
We’re the most regular and dedicated customers they have, so it makes sense to look after us.
As for tournaments and ranking battles, we the players can organise andrun these events ourselves. All we REALLY need from trocadero staff/management is to make sure the actual machines and games are there and working properly. And sufficient space to hold a reasonable number of gamers, depending on the event.
Games/Machines:
I’ve heard all this talk about getting new games and board etc etc.
While it’s all good, it doesn’t mean ANYTHING if the machines stay in the current state of disrepair, we need to get the existing machines working first!
For Tekken 5 in particular:
The current machine is horrible. Ideally we want new sticks, and pad ports.
But a decent solution for the moment is to swap the upstairs tekken 5 machine, which is on a Naomi cabinet (but hardly anyone goes into that area). Unless of course we move the VS City machines upstairs as mentioned before, shifting the gathering of the hardcore players.
Also the price needs to be changed. 1 per go just isn’t justifiable anymore (the game has been out for months), and it’s seriously hurting the profitability, all of us tekken players complain about it, and I for one usually end up playing Street Fighter in troc instead for 50p, and leaving tekken to PS2 play only.
As for pad ports, they only released them in North America, they couldn’t be bothered to release them in Europe. However, you should be able to buy them separately in USA, and I’m pretty sure they will work on the European board, which has the slots for them.
No need to buy a whole new USA machine, but if you CAN buy a whole new USA machine, it’s all good. There is already an arcade in Newcastle with the USA T5 machine, complete with pad ports! perhaps it’s a good idea to try to buy it off them, as there doesn’t seem to be much of a tekken scene there to take advantage of it.
As for SF3: 3rd Strike and other games already on the VS City machine:
These games are fine for the most part. The ONLY real problem is that the sticks and buttons are not repaired/replaced often enough, and players usually have to wait a while for them to get fixed, very frustrating.
GGXX needs to be upgraded to GGXX: Slash when that comes out(no need for #Reload when Slash is on the way)
VF4:Evo needs to be upgraded to either FT in the near future or VF5 when that comes out later.
3s might need to get “downgraded” to version A. A few people have complained about the lack of unblockables, but I dunno if ppl feel strongly enough about this. I know most of the top 3s heads prefer arcade and don’t like playing on console (2d players always seem to hate console, usually cause most 2d console conversions in the past have been poor), so it’s worth fixing it.
SFA3 is fine… be VERY glad that UK has never seen A3 Upper!
Other games that may bring in heads are: Capcom vs SNK 2, Capcom Fighting Jam, The King of Fighters 98/2002. Maybe Super SF2 Turbo or Hyper SF2.
The most popular games right now by far are Tekken 5 and SF3: 3rd Strike, so these have to stay, cannot get replaced.
I don’t think any game needs more than one machine right now. If anything did, it would be Tekken 5. But I think we should wait a while before considering more than 1 cabinet of any single game.
3s popularity is getting decent. It’s not THAT big just yet (nowhere near as big as Tekken 5), but we’ll see if hopefully the Ranking Battles can bring in new players .
The other games can get replaced as necessary if there aren’t the necessary heads to support it. Ideally we want some sort of tournaments for all these games.
But forget about these games until you can get the current games in fit and working order!
I hope Trocadero management take notice of this, or chunkis passes this information on to them. If anyone from there does, thank you for reading and willing to listen to what your most loyal customers want… If you need any further clarification, feel free to email me at rehan1@hotmail.com
Where abouts in newcastle is this arcade? Has it got any other decent games? Honestly, the arcades up here, even on the coast suck balls big time. Bandits, bandits and more bandits.
I can’t believe I just clocked on to this thread just now. Anyway I can’t be bothered to read it all. But IMO I think more machines wouldnt go a miss and more help from technitions in maintanance would make it good for me. All fighters on Sanwa sticks would be cool (check out crap sticks on ST).
I want CVS2 on a vs cab man, another 3s would be good. Any tourny would rock and if you need any input from me chunkis then just let me know. P