New Arrival – Namco Noir Blue V2 ‘Fated Retribution’

About The Cab 

It’s been a while since I’ve had a new arrival in the games room.  A couple of months ago it was my 40^th birthday, and I thought I’d treat myself to something a bit different!  I’ve been tempted with a HD cab for a long time, with the Lindbergh, Noir and Vewlix C being the most appealing.  However there just didn’t seem enough to interest me gaming wise, and I couldn’t justify it.  This all changed with exA-Arcadia, whose mission statement is to revitalize the arcade industry and bring videogames back to the arcade.  The system has some very exciting games already released and in development. 

 

In the end I decided on a Namco Noir.  The cab was delivered by Martin.  Excited! 

I love the aesthetics.  It’s extremely sleek, and the blue speaker grills and led strip lights really set it off and look fantastic in the games room. 

There have been a few models of this cabinet.  This is a blue version 2 model, featuring a 1080p screen and led strip lights, which are interactive to the game and flash.  By comparison the red version 1 has a 720p screen, and the version 3 features a dual led topper, with the marquee permanently illuminated. 

Control panel buttons have seemingly failed at the hands of overzealous Japanese arcade goers and replaced with random colours.  I intend to put them back to stock. 

The blue Noirs were heavily used for Gundam Extreme games as seen in this pic I took in Playland Las Vegas, Ikebukuro. 

The stickers on the coin door indicate that it’s from the Adores Japanese arcade chain. 

Manufacturer’s stickers on the back. 

The rough plan for my games room set up from the start was to have Japanese candy cabs along one side of the room, Western cabs along the other, and the Aero Table somewhere between them.  As I’ve become more into Western cabs, the room has lost some of its Japanese arcade feel.  I think the Noir not only addresses this, but brings with it a whole new modern Japanese arcade dynamic. 

As mentioned above, I’m planning on picking up an exA-Arcadia system at some point.  The lineup looks awesome, with a very strong selection of shooters.  DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou and Vritra Hexa are at the top of my list.  More info about the games and upcoming releases can be found here. 

 

https://exa.ac/en/?v=0f177369a3b7 

 

In the meantime I’m really enjoying Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. 

The game runs on Namco System ES3 hardware. 

Here is a short video of the game in action. 

The Good 

-The cab looks stunning, extremely solid and well built. 

-It’s in great condition with only a few minor marks.  It just required a light clean and a hoover inside for it to be games room ready, despite spending its life in a Japanese arcade. 

-The 32” screen is Full HD 1080p and looks and sounds incredible. 

-I like that the control panel is the same height as my other candy cabs. 

-The marquee and interactive led strip lights look fantastic. 

-Although the cab is very heavy, it has a good set of castor wheels and good ground clearance, so it can be moved around relatively easily. 

-I miss my old Cyber Lead, and it’s great to have another Namco cab back in the candy lineup. 

 

The Not So Good 

-Some of the locks and keys are missing. 

-The led light panels under the control panel instruction strip space aren’t currently working.  Edit – For some reason it was unplugged.  I plugged it back in, and it’s working fine. 

 

A massive thanks to John / Japanarama for this awesome cab. 

Recent Pick Ups

These are my pick ups from the last few months.  As much as I’ve tried to resist buying games for current gen systems, I find myself caving in more in more, especially with these cool limited editions.  First up is this really nice collection of Switch games, plus a new Megadrive game.  They are all from Japan, except for Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection. 

The Capcom Belt Action Collection is the e-Capcom Limited Edition.  I love my scrolling fighters, and this is an awesome collection of some of the best ever.  The package includes postcards of the original arcade instructions, B2 posters for each title and player select screen cards.  The CP System II kit box contains a hardback book featuring artwork from the games, plus CD soundtracks.  I passed on this collection at first as I own most of the titles on other formats.  However it really is fantastic, beautifully presented and is a must for Capcom fans.  The only slight grumble is the absence of one of my all time favourites, Alien vs. Predator.  I’m guessing it wasn’t included due to licensing issues. 

Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection is from Limited Run Games. 

I wanted this as it includes Samurai Shodown V Perfect, the ‘lost’ version of Samurai Shodown V Special, which only had a very brief location test in Japan.  The story goes that SNK Playmore was never informed about this new version until the day it was on location test.  It had only been on test for a couple of hours until people from the company arrived and seized the game.  It comes in a nice reproduction MVS box under the slip cover. 

 

The rest of the titles are all shooters!  We have the following: 

 

Aleste Collection Game Gear Micro Edition – this is an awesome compilation of Sega 8-bit Aleste titles, featuring Aleste / Power Strike, GG Aleste, GG Aleste 2 / Power Strike II, Power Strike II (SMS) and perhaps most interesting of all, GG Aleste 3.  This is a brand new shooter created by M2, along with some former Compile staff, developed for the specs of the Game Gear.  Also included in this limited edition package is a white Game Gear Micro, featuring all the games in the compilation, a Big Window screen magnifier and an Aleste history book.   

 

Darius Cozmic Revelation Special Edition ‘Beep Store’ – another awesome Darius compilation, packaged in a Taito FX-1 reproduction kit box, so cool! 

 

Cotton Reboot Limited Edition ‘Beep Store’ – I’ve enjoyed the Cotton games on the Super Famicom, PS1 as well as the original arcade release.  I picked up the board on a Raid a couple of years ago, which was an awesome surprise as I’d never seen the game in the arcades over here.  The package includes a teacup featuring illustration by Hideki Tamura, soundtrack CD and a reprint of the 1991 PCB arts, pop and instructions, which is pretty cool. 

 

Darius Extra Version - a brand new Megadrive game and an awesome conversion of the arcade classic. 

 

Next up we have even more shooters!   

I’m really pleased to get Ibara again after slimming down the collection and selling it a couple of years ago.  I already have the PCB, but its absence left a gaping hole in my Cave PS2 collection.   

 

I’m also looking forward to playing Raiden IV x Mikado Remix Limited Edition.  I’m a big fan of the early Raiden games as well as the later Raiden Fighters series.  Somehow Raiden IV passed me by completely.  It’s the Mikado connection which really piqued my interest, with a new soundtrack produced by Game Centre Mikado.  One of the bands that features on the new soundtrack is Heavy Metal Raiden.  The band performs heavy metal covers of Raiden tunes and was formed by Ikeda, the manager of Mikado.  The limited addition includes additional game box inserts and a soundtrack CD.  If the illustrations look familiar it’s because they’re drawn by Rensuke Ohikiri, of High Score Girl fame. 

 

The glass and coasters are from a Cave event held at Tokyo Video Gamers Bar in Akihabara. 

Now for something which you certainly don’t see very often.  Here we have a Sunset Riders shelf display.   

I love Sunset Riders.  The Megadrive conversion was never released in Japan, and it was one of the main reasons I started picking up Pal games.  This would have been sent out to video game stores back in the day and maybe Woolies to promote the Megadrive game.  The seller says that these were a surprise warehouse find when he was sorting through some vintage magazine stock.  They have never been used, and I think he found three. 

 

My next pick up is from my local retro game shop in Norwich, Last Level Games.  It’s a fantastic little shop and great to visit again following the easing of government restrictions. 

Here are some pics of the shop. 

I grabbed this lovely blue Game Gear, complete with McWill LCD.   

The screen looks so good.  Normally I’m all about keeping things original, but this upgrade makes it so much better to play.  I never had one back in the day, so it’s a brand new console for me.  In fact the only handheld I had was the Neo Geo Pocket, which I should never have parted with, but that’s another story!  I’ve wanted one of these for a while and seeing as it was my birthday, I thought I’d treat myself.  I also picked up several loose carts, including Alien^3, Klax, Super Space Invaders and Wonder Boy.  I think I’m going to stick to boxed Japanese GG games (I already had Mappy and OutRun) and loose UK carts.