(Click on the thumbnails to enlarge)
I had mentioned in my ASI reports that I had the opportunity to meet up with Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report during the show and after discussing the show and the industry in general he mentioned that after
the show he would be heading down to California to check out one of the few Tekken 6 machines that have been imported into the US from Hong Kong. Now thanks to The Stinger Report we have a look at that machine as well as the popularity surrounding the machine at this particular location called the Super Arcade, which caters to hardcore players and features several games on-site that weren’t released in the US. All photos courtesy of The Stinger Report and are used with permission.
Even though Kevin visited the site on a Monday when people were heading back to school after Spring
Break, four players were sitting around the new sit-down Tekken 6 machine, hoarding what they could for themselves. The cabinet is called the A89, or International English cabinet and is incapable of connecting to the internet, thus forgoing the online player rankings and updates because the IC card systems are different. Yet the operator of the site acknowledged that the game was a “phenomenal player magnet” which was further indicated by the fact that players were lining up tokens to denote who was next in line to play (which is a practice that I’ve heard of being done in the early 80’s but not since).
In addition to the HD cabinet on-site the arcade was also selling T6 IC cards for $6 a unit(pictured), such cards being used for saving your own personal data. Super Arcade runs using tokens and charges 2 tokens
per play and as a testament to how much the game is being played the coin-mechs had to be cleared of an overflow jam as Kevin sat down to play the game. Again, this was on a Monday during the day – traditionally not a busy time for arcades anywhere.
So there you have it, for an arcade that can afford the game Tekken 6 is repeating the same success that the game is seeing in other parts of the world. Whether more arcades in the US will go through the trouble of importing the game remains to be seen but for those that do this is one game that has proven itself to draw in the players.
(Thanks to MarkMan for a few corrections)
Ha! My idea of using magnetic stripe cards, or chips to store (arcade) gamer data was not so far fetched after all. It’s only taken 16 years to implement. 🙂
Well, its time to frame those T5 cards.
hey, the actual machine was imported from the Philippines and is an Asian version A69. It does not have the capability to go online for rankings like Japan does.
The machines in HK, Aus, and Korea are all A69 and do not have this feature.
Thanks MarkMan – the information came from the operators, but I will update our Stinger coverage. The HK teams are running comments that they are on-line? Not sure if this is miss-understanding, or they may have different machines at different sites (look at the TEKKEN.Net and there is a HK and Aus ranker).
I looked at the back of the machine and to be honest I did not see the plug point for the on-line feature, that said it looked a Asian cabinet, and I was led to believe that Namco only made one style of Asian machine – it was the international system that did not have on-line capability? And what about the Canadian machines?
The Canadian machines are Japanese versions of the game. There are 2 in Toronto and 2 in Vancouver.
AFAIK, Tekkennet is Japan only.
Namco made two styles of Asian machines.
Korea has vs style setups (one player per control panel). Most places (Philippines and Australia) have two players per control panel.
MarkMan, just checked with the Japanese source – they claim that ALL versions of cabs can be upgraded to be connected – not a cabinet issue but a PS3-Arcade kit issue. They have not supplied any V69 units to be upgraded though, so it is a way to keep control.
Talk now of a V2.1 for non-connected T6 ‘s at JAMMA in September! Allow patches to be applied across the range.
Ha!! PS3 arcade kit…. cool……
I’m one of the players that play on a regular basis at Super Arcade.
And I’m here just to clear some things up. The machine was imported from Hong Kong (not Philippines, my bad I’ve stated it was. But I rechecked and “Lazy Suzan” was a player from HK not Philippines), and we are playing the International English Version which is A89. Int. Version never had online capabilities, only country that ever had it was Japan. It’s because our card systems are a bit different, Japan customizes characters on their phone or comp via tekken.net, while every other country customizes in-game instead.
Funny how this A89 and A69 information would be covered in the American installation documentation, but as US Namco dose not touch the system we have to do this for ourselves!
Thanks to all for the clarifications – the Stinger full feature on this and the Tekken6 international situation will run in a couple of weeks time.
Hello, can someone kindly tell me where the heck is super arcade. I keep hearing its out here in calf. but not told where? If it is close i will go down and play T6.
Super Arcade – 1 token / game
1211 Grand Ave
Walnut, CA
Game Galaxy Arcade
Hickory Hollow Mall
Antioch, TN
Plays on a Tekken 5 console/cabinet with controller plug-ins
Bring your own controller to really enjoy the game
.75 cents/game
-PLUS, check out the other games in the past years. They have BlazeBlue and Streetfighter 4 rigged on a console/cabinet.