Insert Coin 09 - a rare day out for artificial construct.

I don't go out much. There's inevitably other people involved. The promise of 250 arcade cabinets with loads of hardcore Japanese beat'em-ups and shmups in one room, on freeplay no less, well, that could entice me. Insert Coin 09 promised just that, and so on Saturday 18th of May at 6am, I jumped into the FTO and headed south towards Northampton for a day of arcade mania!

Arriving at the Saints Rugby ground at just before 9am, I met my brother Ross who had been there since the previous day, helping to set up the vast array of candy cabs. He'd been up since 5, and there was a mild panic amongst the organisers as they were short on kick harnesses for the huge amount of Capcom fighting games that had been brought along. One qiuck crash course later, and I'm helping my bro put together the much needed harnesses. We got finished just before 10, which was lucky as the event was due to start.

I've never seen this many cabinets in one room before, outside of Japan at least. Egrets, Astros, NAOMIs were in plentiful supply, as well as some dedicated machines such as OutRun 2, Ghost Squad, House of the Dead 2, Inital D 3 and more! The candy cabs were lined up down the centre of the hall, back to back, in one long line, and it was quite a sight! One side was primarily fighters, with the other featuring shmups for the most part. There were eight Atomiswaves linked up for Street Fighter IV, which proved to be a massive draw all day, with some great competition on display. X-Men vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3, Marvel Super Heroes, Arcana Heart, Final Fight, King of Fighters variants, King of Dragons, Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike and plenty more filled out the fighting game side. Only one SF3 unfortunately, but I guess I CAN play it at home anytime I like, so nothing to cry about.

The other side of the divide featured puzzlers and shmups, with Cave games getting a strong showing in particular. Muchi Muchi Pork, Ketsui, etc were busy all day, but Death Smiles was the highlight for me. Very tempted to import a Japanese 360 just for this, it's a great hori shooter, which is something you don't get so much of these days. Puzzlers included Puzzle Bobble, Puzzle Fighter 2, and a quirky puzzler based on Mushihimesama, which I could make no sense of whatsoever... >_<

Dotted around the outside where the NAOMI set ups, featuring Border Down, Ikaruga, Project Justice, Zero Gunner 2 etc, and the dedicated cabs. It was an awe inspiring sight, but it wasn't long before they were ALL busy! Time to get stuck in!

With the guys from Radio Sega playing Sega tunes over a seriously loud sound system and every game blaring away, it soon got pretty loud, but at least it wasn't smokey like a real Jap arcade! I flitted around the hall, catching up with Ross, and watching other people play inbetween trying my hand at a few games myself. X-Men CotA, X-Men vs StreetFighter, Marvel Super Heroes, and Street Fighter IV were all as enjoyable as expected, and I enjoyed giving Ross a sound drubbing on them all. He did win ONE round on CotA, but that's only cos I forgot Psylocke's moves. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Puzzle Fighter 2, Rainbow Islands and OutRun 2 were all enjoyed over the course of the day, as well as an aborted attempt on DOA2 - the counter button just didn't seem to want to work, and I got thoroughly fucked off with it.

Death Smiles and UN Squadron were the only shooters I really messed with, as every other one was pretty packed throughout the entire event. Oh, I tried Ghost Squad in Radio Sega's competition, but I was utterly shit. No big deal though, it was nice just to hang with my bro and enjoy the atmosphere.

Definitely gonna go again next year, and the entire thing was good enough to convince me to lay down the cash on a Marvel vs Capcom 2 cart for my forthcoming NAOMI setup. Well, I won it on ebay, but Jodi paid. Early birthday present get! ^_^