Oh I'm well aware of that.  But my point still stands-upgrade that DM to 9 or 10, and you're losing a ton of musical variety.  So, therefore, any upgrade would have to be to V or after to retain a proportion of musical variety, is what I'm saying.  Compound this with the fact that obtaining V or higher is financially prohibitive/ass expensive, and I guess you could say I'm quite against upgrading that DM8 for the time being.

i forgot i even started this conversation :]

i actually like playing session though i have only did it once.  I play GF at home but lack of GF KOC makes it a bit hard and GH controllers suck

If Bill has the money to buy a new GF, maybe we should use it to have just a well-upgraded DM instead?  I'd imagine upgrading DM would be cheaper than buying any GF cabinet, and a lot of us prefer DM to GF in different degrees.  Plus I'm sure a lot of us would rather have something newer; we've been able to play DM8 since Narrows got it long ago (pretty shortly after it came out).

@Tada: Well, foregoing a GF11/DM10 at ACME in favor of a lone DMV there is another option.  However I thought a few pages back in this thread it was stated that mixes V and after require session play to operate?  It seemed like that view was being contested but I don't know if there was a firm concensus on it.  Personally I've never seen a GFV/DMV or after without some kind of session connection, but that all sounds poppycock to me.  

Anyhow, if that is a nonissue getting a DMV or afterwards for the DM8 set instead of getting another GF11/DM10 setup at ACME may be a good idea.  It will definitely make the DM10 at Narrows obsolete because DMV has all the DM10 songs (except Super Shomin Car I believe).  I have to admit it would rip away more of my determination to go and support Bill's arcade at Narrows; however ACME wouldn't have session so I'd still want to go to Narrows occasionally.  Gah!

if we got our hands on DMV i wouldnt play any other bemani for weeks

Must be just a myth.  *looks for the BUSTED tag*

Bill said he is looking to get a GF to put at Acme, but if he has that kind of money to spend, I think we would all prefer to upgrade DM to V2 or V3 instead (those kits cost as much as V, anyway, and have even greater songlists).  Upgrading DM to a current version would be cheaper than a new GF, anyway.

DistadaeD: what we really need to do is just expand the community... now that we know there are actually people out there, we should be putting our efforts towards that
DistadaeD: that way we won't have to debate upgrades anymore
DistadaeD: and getting new Bemani won't be like some gay RTS game

I think this quote describes the situation we're in perfectly.

DMV is very confirmed to not need session.  After that we don't know, but it'd be pretty... expected of Konami to do something like that.

As for GF vs DMV+ at Acme... I'm not sure how the price difference would work out on that (ebay and channelbeat have no info, I'm too lazy to keep searching).  V/V2 will be cheaper than V3 by a little, but hardware upgrades are hardware upgrades.  From a financial standpoint, sessioning a GF is the way to go, since both games would draw random players and DM seems to get lots of play (as in, almost no downtime, hence almost no gain in profit) at times when the Bemani community is actually there (and newer versions mean nothing to random players).

I guess what it boils down to for me (for whether we should get a session or a DMV+) is how long it would take to get the session upgraded to something relatively new (V+).  If it's going to take a span of several years like IIDX to get a decently upgraded session, then I'd rather just have the DM upgraded.  However, if the session would only take on the order of months to get upgraded, I'd be all for it.

someone care to explain what V and session is or w/e. Is it like DM+GF? or just a newer version of DM

should we have a PNW video thread?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwLmr0CEXX4

Mykl AIRRRRRRRR

Patrick-
V is a "mix" of Guitarfreaks and Drummania.

Order for the mixes goes like this:
Guitarfreaks
Guitarfreaks 2nd
Drummania
Guitarfreaks 3rd/Drummania 2nd (from this mix onward, they are sessionable and share most of the same songs)
Guitarfreaks 4th/Drummania 3rd
and so on up to
Guitarfreaks 11th/Drummania 10th
After this the series mix names change to V so next is
Guitarfreaks V/Drummania V
Guitarfreaks V2/Drummania V2
and the most recent arcade mix to be released in Japan is
Guitarfreaks V3/Drummania V3

"Session" is just a term for cooperative linked play possible between connected machines, meaning a drummer and 2 guitarists can play the same songs at the same time, like a band, if you will.  It's a fun feature and really adds to the play experience, since you can involve yourself and up to two other friends.  All guitarfreaks/drummanias from guitarfreaks3rd/drummania2nd and up support this feature of play.

Also, PNW video thread sounds good; it might need to go in the accomplishments forum perhaps?  Judging from your video example, which was of a tatsujin performance (meaning a skilled individual), I'd say they would be the best forum for it.  But wait and see what some others think.

yeah they don't need to be sessioned.

i just want to play endless cruisin and funky sonic world u_u

yes to funky sonic world...  Is the full version available as a bonus stage on any of the mixes?

no

The problem, as Tony said, is that if we had a newer DM, it would probably only make marginally more money than it does now, which is not good in the long run.  However, it may help the community grow, which may mean more income in that way (especially if we also go on the non-peak days... I know I would start doing that again) which may get us a GF and therefore a session, eventually.

A sessioned GF/DM would most likely be outdated, which we despise.  However, it would most likely make a lot more money from commoners (from what I hear, they contribute almost nothing to any music game except DDR/ITG), and that might help it eventually get it upgraded, and keep it upgraded, which would be better in the long run.

So what it comes down to is whether we want to hope that the community grows, or hope that common players will put money into a session.  Also, short-term versus long-term.  Normally I'm a long-term person myself, but time is of the essence in a situation like this.  I'm personally with upgrading the DM, since at least if that path fails, we have something decent to play.

See what I mean when I said this is like a stupid RTS?

Yo Bill,
so tomorrow between noon to 1 you'll be at ACME right?  We were supposed to confirm that this evening but I had an interview in Seattle that occupied me.  Anyhow, as it stands I will plan on being there with the codes tomorrow inbetween those times!  Let me know if anything changes!

-Chris

As for Funky Sonic World long version?  All I have to say is...ouch...and.....I'm exhausted just thinking about that.

Chris, yes, I will be there between 12:30-1:00 P.M today.  See ya there.

I passed a simfile (DTXmania simfile) for a long version of Funky sonic world... same charts but looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.  Not hard to pass though

Pantsu-Srsly?  Was this the extreme version or...?  I can't even dependably pass the EXT version of Funky Sonic on DM, so I just think a long version would be scary...

Bill-Thanks for showing up to ACME today!  I know it's not your usual route and all.  I guess you slipped out while I was playing DM; sorry I didn't get to say goodbye.

Everyone-THe DM8 now has Out of Breath, Daikenkai, Koi no Regret, Happy Man, Voiiiid, and Yellow Panic Time unlocked (again)!  Play them before the mix mysteriously eats them again!

hahaha i didnt know VOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID was on 8th. i have been playing the GF chart quite a bit cause it is funny.

Funky sonic world+ is pretty much just hi hat and snare the whole song and it is fast.. i tried the ext just a couple of minutes ago and it is not passable by me hahhaah.  the advanced ~75 difficulty is passable though cause i did it

Somebody update the first post; SN is not a dollar!

It would be tight if the arcade threads were like wikis where the first post could be edited by anyone and have a revision history.

Davyn, Cynic was working on getting a wiki we could use, but it'll probably be like a normal wiki. Anyways, there should be something up shortly.

You know, I've been wanting to throw this out there for awhile, and it seems semi-on topic, so here goes:

Has anyone ever brought up the idea of the community itself raising money for upgrades? It's not in any way economical for Bill to upgrade most machines, as he will never see the profits. But if we as players care enough to want newer versions, why the heck don't we just think about all chipping in to pay for them?

Me and Kevin have talked about this, and both of us would be willing to donate some decent amounts of money to make this happen.  But even split between all of us, that's on the order of hundreds of dollars, maybe even over $1,000 a head.  Not all of us have that kind of money to donate, or have more essential expenses to take care of.  Not to mention, everyone would have to contribute, or the people who did put in money would feel gypped, especially if it were only a few of us funding it.