Arcade Project 08: Sit Down and Fight

Arcade Project 08: Sit Down and Fight

Remember when I talked about these?  In THIS post?  I also talked about not minding the "non-Japanese" construction of the X-Arcade sticks in my Upright MAME Cabinet post, or that the computer in it need not be powerful.  Well that's because I was planning on having another DIY arcade in the room the whole time.  This one is to be modern and versatile compared to the upright, and it is not meant to invoke a nostalgia memory, its made to game with.  So the lench pin of this design is again with our friends at Recroommasters
and it is their sit down pedestal Xtension cabinet for $325

The flat table front to this thing is great, and I will not be using the TV mount, even though you might like it.  I want to be able to push this against the wall when not used, and the TV used for it will be mounted and double as the entertainment room's normal television for watching whatever.  The flat top table will actually accommodate the X-arcade stick from the MAME Upright I already have out, but it will also let people bring their own arcade sticks if they wish to play.

Those are single player X-arcade sticks and they're $78 each.  I know I said the upright arcade's set up can be used on the flat table, but there are several reasons why I will be getting 2 of these.  First, if people are playing the MAME upright, then I don't expect it to be available for use on the Sit Down.  Second, I like to rock 4 player beat'em ups like Turtles in Time or Castle Crashers.  This will allow us to take the Dual-stick and have it on the Sit Down, and then 2 additional players can be using the single sticks off to the side somewhere. ($160 for 2)

When it comes to the television, there is no telling at what point you are looking at this.  Prices change weekly, and you can get some good deals just looking for warranty refurbished televisions.  I think that in the very least you should be able to get a great and wonderfully usable television for $500.  At the time of this writing, I can get a 3 HDMI port, 120hz, 47 inch big brand TV with a full return warranty for just under $500.

My choice to run the inside of this thing is going to be based on using a console.  For me, the console with the best selection of fighting games, new and old, and also a lot of indie beat'em up support is the Playstation 3.  This gives us Street Fighter 4, Blaz Blu, Tekken of all types, and also access to older versions of these games as well.  Why not a PS4?  The game offerings on PSN for the PS4 is not yet as extensive as the PS3 at the point of when this was written.  Our PS3 is clocking in at $270.  My other option was to create a $550 gaming PC, but going over the parts for that is ridiculous because 6 months from now, all my advice would be obsolete.  Our arcade sticks are totally compatible with all console options.

Add in some speakers like in the Upright, and we're approaching $1300 for the Sit Down unit.  You can easily reduce that by skimping on the TV and the extra fight sticks, but we're not doing that.

EDIT:  We need to add something to this.  It is not worth an entire post, but essentially it will be used with this arcade stand, so I'm going to add the Logitech G27 Racing wheel here.  It is the highest rated in a lot of computer magazines and is about $200, which is not that bad compared to what racing wheels in the past used to cost.

Iterations or Street Fighter Syndrome

The world of video game journalism thrives on the ability for the "journalists" to be snarky and inject humor into their journalism, that's just the state of things.  One of the ongoing and longest running jokes is about Street Fighter and its numerous editions over the years.  Its an easy joke, and somehow gives the journalist "cred" to say it, with bonus points if they actually think they are the first to make the joke.  

I feel like I have to explain why it makes sense to have updates and iterations to Street Fighter, and indeed other fighting games.  Also maybe even delve into why this is not "Madden-nomics".

A Crowd of Competitors

From the the word "Fight!" Street Fighter was about drawing a crowd of people together to play against one another.  Sure there are CPU controlled opponents and a half baked story in there, but the game is made to be played competitively against humans.  Now, if you have Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III, and Street Fighter IV all done within the span of 3 years, and all of them play different, then you have split your talent pool.  There simply will not be enough people in either to keep it going, and having to keep up with 3 different games just to ensure you have someone to play against is a little nuts.  Let's not forget that if your old version is still popular, you're going to compete against yourself and cannibalize your fans.  Smaller updates means people have no real reason to stay with the past version.  It is close enough that it is painless to move on.  So reason: Iterations don't Split your Fanbase.

Time to Train

Looking at the select screen in Street Fighter IV's later iterations can be daunting, look at the pure number of fighters.  Old players like me had the benefit of learning new characters as they were created.  Instead of learning 50 characters, we got to learn the first 8 in 1991.  Then every couple of years 4 new characters came.  While technique, timing and game change, the way to play each of these characters have stayed consistent.  Still, this is unfair for new players to be expected to know how they all work.  The #1 way to be better at fighting games is to know your opponent, know what to expect from the character.  Because Street Fighter IV came out in 2008, we have had 6+ years to get better at it.  If you spent a few months getting better at it in 2008, it'll only take a little time in 2014 to get your bearings.  So reason: Iterations give you time to learn.

Madden'nomics

Madden will have you pay $60 a year to get updated rosters and some superfluous game modes.  Looking at Street Fighter IV, you might have payed $60 for the original, but to update the previous to the current will cost you $15 bucks each step up... for a month or so, then drop to $10.  Looking at Call of Duty, another annual series, you actually do not have iterations in the same way.  Call of Duty actually has 2, and now 3 developers creating their games and staggering their release.  It is actually 3 years before the next iteration of that "style" of Call of Duty comes out, and so by then there's enough forgetfulness and new features added that it doesn't feel like an iteration.  So another reason:  smaller alterations means smaller budget, means cheaper updates.

Hell is other People

So what about the genre as a whole, why doesn't everyone else do this?  Let me tell you a little secret:  Unless its a once in a life time game like Killer Instinct, they DO.  Look at what is considered high in competitive circles.  Blaze Blue, Guilty Gear; looks like there are a million of those games, there's really only about 2 of each, the rest were iterations.  King of Fighters?  There's about 3 of those, but for a while every year there was an update.  That doesn't matter, they really only redid the game and made new artwork about 3 times.  What of Mortal Kombat?  Ok, here's our dirty little secret: some games are slightly large iterations even if they are numbered different.  Mortal Kombat 1-3, Tekken 1-3, 5-6, Soul Calibur, these games keep the same core game with updated visuals.  I know they add bells and whistles, and I'm not saying anything bad about them; I love ALL those games I mentioned, but its true still.  Are you good at Tekken 2?  Bet you'll kick ass at Tekken 5.  (3 images of Mortal Kombat, 3 different games... believe it or not)

Its just a simple truth that creating a brand new fighting experience every year, or even every other year, just is not good business for fighting game developers.  It would also suck pretty badly for the players as well.  So yea, its an easy jab to make, being snarky and "clever" making the "I'll wait for Street Fighter Omega Awesome Dash update 12", but you're really just showing idiocy, a small mind, and the lack of knowledge in your field to create original and even topical humor.