Hey Bill - I noticed one of the SFIV cabinets was gone last time I was there.    Are the cabinets in the process of being redone for the upgrades and does this mean we'll see Super SFIV Arcade at ACME soon?

The cabinet that is missing had a video card puke.  And yes, the upgrades will be here in a couple weeks, will have Super AE for the northwest.

I stopped by at acme for the first time, today, for a few hours.  And I just had a few comments/thoughts/questions.  

Pads: Pretty good.  I am by no means an expert on pad sensitivity/accuracy/pad misses.  But these pads are definitely above average, and are quite sensitive.
 
Mods: Lacking.  Its pretty standard among hacked machines to have speed mods in increments of .25.  I was moderately disappointed when I wasn't able to use 3.25x, 3.75x, or 4.25x.  At the very least these mods should be in.  Maybe I'm just spoiled though.

Custom songs: Sort of lacking (for a hacked machine).  I'm probably just spoiled, but ITG 1,2,3, rebirth, flash exclusives, and some randoms isn't all that much (especially if you've played itg 1 and 2 to death).  Its especially lacking in the stamina song department.  Some suggestions for song packs: Tachyon alpha/beta, mudkips minipack, legends of zim, TEAM DRAGONFORCE, maybe the D.O.W.N.S. tourney pack.  

Also, I haven't tried yet, but do usb custom songs work on the machine?  Are the usb ports in working order (they seemed like they would be as they looked pretty modified/upgraded)?  Do you need an old flash drive to get it working (I know, normally, newer flash drives tend to not work, but maybe with the upgrade you guys solved this problem)?  Also, if you use a usb custom song will it count as 2 rounds always, or based on length (some machines do it always)?

Overall rating: 7/10      

My rating scale
A 1 is an old ddr machine, with suck pads (this describes most ddr machines).  A 5 is an unmodified ITG 2 machine/pump pro machine (or something else with equivalently good pads.)  And a 10 is a hacked ITG machine with 8+ gigabytes of songs, all speed mods, very sensitive modified pads, set permanently on free play (machines that I'm used to).

More rating explanation.
6 points are given for pads (0 if machine is broken, 6 if they are modified itg pads.)
2 points are given for custom songs/mods/software
2 points are given for price reductions (0 points for dollar/3 songs, no free 2 player/doubles, charging more for longs songs.  1 point for free 2 player and not charging extra/counting as 2 for long songs. And 2 points for free play.)

I gave this machine 6 points for pads, 1 point for custom songs, and 0 for price

You're very funny stale.

I know what you mean man, I hate it when arcades don't put their machines on free play

Yes.

Bill charges for his games because that is how he feeds his family.  This is also why many arcade owners (Bill included) cut the length of playable customs; more sets = more money = more food.

As for customs, we do have a thread for requests, and although as an old-school DDR player who prefers no-bar I think Dragonforce more or less single-handedly destroyed the fun of dance games and the community surrounding them, I'm sure enough people want to play those charts that they'll end up on the machine eventually if you request them. 

"I know what you mean man, I hate it when arcades don't put their machines on free play"


Lol people don't have get mad or anything.  I'm not attacking Bill (arcade owner?) or anyone else for charging for their machine.  Its his machine, he can do what he wants with it.  I was just pointing out that price is something that I take into consideration when deciding whether I should drive 40 minutes to get somewhere, or stay at home and play on my homepad where I can play as much as I want for free.  This is still probably the best dance machine near the seattle area (unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of really great machines to choose from, though).

Yep...too bad we don't have more custom ITG2 cabinets in the area. *snicker*

Stale are going to sakura-con this year?

I'm planning to get a lot more sims on the acme machine during the con because that's when it'll be easiest.
I'm looking to put on a lot of stuff from AIJ to give more variety than just flash's charts.

Request packs in the song request thread and we'll get them on there.

Nah, I'll be at school in Pittsburg during that time period.  Its good to hear that your puttings more songs from AIJ on the machine; people there post some pretty good charts. 

hey there  

I'll be going to ACME tomorrow (saturday) to run some songs (maybe not 11's 12's bc i just had whole lower body personal training = mad sore, but it depends how my legs work). My car was in the shop all day today and i just got out.

I'm off work at 6 or 7:30, either way, im going to ACME for agood 7-10 sets

Good to see a new face, Stale.

To address the first 2 paragraphs, you can put mods and custom songs on your USB and they work just fine. I use different arrow modifiers on my card and lots of custom songs. And it's 3-6min for 2 songs, 6-10min for marathon, and nothing over 10min is currently allowed for play. At Sakuracon this 10min limit is usually lifted and the machine is on Free Play.


To address the USB issue, if you are planning on using a USB card at Acme, you should restart the machine (or ask if others are there to see if it has been restarted). The machine will load USBs within a reasonable amount of time within about 3 hours of a machine restart. There is a switch on the back on the left side (facing the front of the machine).

Also the following bugs should be noted with the USB interface - The USB drives are currently upside down, so don't be weirded out about that (just happened a few months ago when the drives were replaced).

Also, in most cases, if your card has not loaded by itself for a set (so either you by yourself or with another person who doesnt have a card in) after a restart, it won't load on the 2p side with another person's card in and it will display "No Profile Data" and 0 songs played.

If you attempt to load your card and it says "0 songs played" and has "No Profile Data" in the corner (or attempt to load your card on the 2p side with a USB user on the 1p side without having played a set with your card only), you should remove your card for that set or it will be wiped when scores are saved after your last song, which has caused much heartache for people.

It's also not atypical for the machine to not load quite all of your songs the first time it loads your profile after a restart, but this tends to vary by USB. It may also take an extra 2-3 minutes after fully booting up to load USBs on the right side, but this also tends to vary by card.

Sometimes the coin slot also seems to eat quarters. While this thing does eat lots of quarters, it will not be as many as you think. If you get a quarter stuck, push in the coin return and generally it will either then count the quarter or spit it back out. If this doesn't work, pull on the coin input thing slightly (it will come about 1/2 cm out; it's locked of course but there is a slight give to it) and give it a single whack on the coin slot that went awry and generally this knocks it loose. Obviously don't repeatedly hit it or try to break the thing; if it doesn't work after 1 try and your quarter's that important to you, the Acme staff is very good about giving refunds.


I hope this addresses any questions with how to troubleshoot the Acme machine. I know it seems buggy but usually these are no big deal. I generally get to Acme, restart the machine while I grab some water and a rag to wipe down the pad, and play my first set with only my USB in, and everything else works great from there! Glad to have you with us. I'll be at Acme today about 3-6pm if anyone wants to play.

Yeah, it's a real shame.  *snicker snicker*

Yeah guys, I could only wish for something like that to be near me *snicker snicker snicker*

I'll be coming through later today to run my last practice before the tournament I hope to be there between 3-4 to begin.

........

I swear, the first thing that I'm doing once I graduate from college in 2 years and have a job is going to be to buy a dedicab for 5k and plop it down below the third place books, set permanently to free play. 

I would then vote for you in anything you run for good sir, be that the case

Anyhow, my practice today was tough going off 1 hour of sleep, so im going again tomorrow (thursday) to have an authentic practice run before the tourney. I'll update the post on what time I'd be there. Most likely afternoon/evning.

ITS CRUNCH TIME

And I'll be at Acme for a marathon day today (Thursday) from 2ish until maybe 6ish and tomorrow early afternoonish for timing stuff. Anyone who wants to join would be more than welcome! Looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday!

Is there gonna be a day when no body is not there? I don't want to ruin anybodies session with a screaming baby in the corner.

Weekday mornings are your best bet. Work keeps most people over 20 out until 6pm and youthful sleeping-in keeps the others out until usually noon or later.

Btw, welcome to the forums.

Thank you Suko. I joined this site 4 years ago but never got onto it lol.

ATTN Bill: Hey I just left ACME. The coin feed (on the left slot) is again not working. I came after a group of players left and after playing 1 set I reset the machine so the card would read. Unfortunately (after 3-5 restarts) each time it would eat the quarters like a charm each time. It was a little frustrating having that happen after many others play and I reset after 1 set, hoping to practice a last night before the tourney.

Anyhow, I hope this is fixed soon. no hard feelings

This is off topic but does anyone know if there are any dancing games at chuckie chesses in Kent? I have a bday party there tommrow but I dont want to go if there are no dancing games lol

Went again today, and Moses, and I believe Ancsik was there too (csik was the player name) and the quarter problem seemed alot better, when i had my usb drive in it though, that's when it would eat, and moses and the other player had an eat one or two (don't know if this was when they had their usb's in also). Anyhow, seems to be all good now, for the most part

As for chuckie cheese's personally I have no idea, though I doubt it, defintely let us know if chuck-e has it, though the machine's condition could be poor.