got back from 3 weeks in tokyo with my partner a couple of days ago. we spent a lot of time at arcades playing iidx. i am too tall so i look like a maniac when i play:
we mostly played on lightning cabs, which are newer versions of the machine that come with 120fps monitors and some other little niceties. they felt amazing! i was instantly able to read notes a lot better and i improved a lot while i was there. my partner described playing on them as getting to play on a really nice instrument.
during the trip i hit 9th dan, which i had been working towards intensely for months. i was tearing up at the arcade! three more ranks to go until i’m at the top — i’m hoping to get the next one this year.
other arcade highlights: getting on the leaderboard in outrun 2 sp, getting to try 5-key beatmania (eh) and keyboardmania (kinda cool), seeing how good and deeply strategic my partner is at ufo catchers, playing ketsui and ddp doj on big lovely tate crts (awesome and revitalized my dream to 1cc those games), playing densha de go arcade with the huge cab (felt like i had just gotten a new job), getting to play the newest version of the initial d arcade game (super different from when i was a local legend at idasv3 in my early teenage years; younger me would have loved the newer one but i still prefer the ps2-ness of the older naomi-based games)
we mostly played iidx though and it fucking rocked, around 100 credits each over those three weeks. we love that game!
here’s the card i got celebrating achieving 9dan (the course i had to pass is here for anyone curious):
so stoked that despite being born in the “arcades are dead” era, i’ve been going to arcades my whole life. it was a life-changing moment for me the first time i walked into an arcade with ddr in 5th grade and saw people who were really good playing. i wanted that to be me! and now it is. every now and then when i’m playing iidx at the local arcade, some kid will walk by and stand there watching me play for a minute and i feel like it has all come full circle. very cool.