OK, let me correct my previous post. I met up with Kevin tonight, and we played another game of Vs. Currently the machine is set at Max Vs. Level 100! This only gave 1:20 to finish a round. This is far too short.

Yeah, it's kind of lame when multiplayer matches end so very quickly. Even if the player maxed out the time limit on each round, 3 or 4 minutes per match would only give 12 minutes of play maximum which some people exceed on Master mode anyway.

Bill, would you be interested in meeting with me and whoever in Acme management is relevant to tournament interests? If they could get it advertised as an event, I had a few ideas...

Does anyone know if the present VS match setting is the factory standard setting?  I suspect it is.?  Not sure how to take that one, as the game is not taking in good coin as of yet.  (2nd to the lowest earners last week)

Kevin, As for a tournament, you have the freedom to carry it forward in whatever format you choose.  You see, my input would be useless as my knowledge of the gameplay is seriously lacking.  On past tournaments, I have learned time over time that the details and planning are best left to you guys that know the game and what the tournament players are likely to be happy with. 
With that said, you only need to come up with a proposed date we can run by Acme for final approval, at which time we will beg to get added to the events schedule.  It really is that easy!  :-)

I think a tournament will probably improve the amount of people who play the game frequently, so hopefully that problem will resolve itself. The people from Tetrisconcept are freaking out about the game not doing well and are working on posters and fliers with links to this thread, the TC thread, and strategy sites. We'll see how that goes, I guess. Maybe part of the problem is TGM's weird location. It's quite plausible that one could walk in the arcade and not see the game at all, since it's basically invisible from entrance. Maybe I was wrong with this one...I am sorry to have failed...

Still, the tournament will go on! A big meeting this weekend is happening too with players from Oregon, so that will be good for revenue.

My gut feeling is that the game will pick up momentum as time goes on.  Have seen that many times before with an import game.  People are still sniffing it out, and will discover the coolness.  So far, it is doing as we expected, so no surprises here.  But yes, the tournament will build interest I'm sure.  The casual people will take notice of the game when they see upcoming tournament advertisements hanging on it and will realise that it is something special.  That is also why it is in the middle of the room, so it does not get lost in a solid row of games.  But yes, it's still a bit hidden nonetheless. 
I will pop over to the Tetris site to see what is happening over there.  But it's painful as each page loads so slow on this computer for some reason.
Thanks for all your efforts and enthusiasm, Kevin!

I've been super busy and I haven't had a chance to play TGM3 yet but I will soon

when is blazblue coming?

Well, it appears that 100 is the default on TGM3, for some reason. However, the default on TGM2 was level 200 and 2:40 per round, and there was no time limit on TGM1. All the issues that I stated above still apply, and customers are certainly going to run into the time limit the way it's currently set up. I know I've been avoiding it so far because the time limit is too short. A max 4:00 minute game (3 rounds at 1:20 each) for two credits seems strange when a single player game can easily go to 7:00 minutes or more.

I was going to ask what the longest time is a game could last, but see you already answered my question.  Gotta chew on this one a bit.

Blazblue is supposed to be here late this week or early next week.  Add about 1 more week for us to get it in a cabinet.  Will have a 32" widescreen hi def, so should look awesome.  Kitting in to a Dynamo Showcase cabinet, so will look exactly like the SF 4's at Narrows.  Price will be 75 cents.  Hope people will like this one. 

Thank you for considering changing the Vs. Level option. Even just setting it to 200 or 300 would be a great improvement over the current setting; everyone I've spoken to has agreed that it's too short. I know that I for one would play a lot of Vs. if the time limit was longer. It's worth considering that 4:00 is the absolute longest time a game could go, and is not a usual scenario. If one player is faster than the other and wins two rounds due to timeout, it would only be a 2:40 game for two credits. Also, since most people are used to Vs. Tetris games being won by topping out the other player, this could be confusing and discouraging for people. In fact, a lot of casual players probably aren't able to play fast enough to finish a round in 1:20. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Bill,

I am just thinking of a date right now for the tournament. I'm asking around and gauging what dates would work best for some players who I think it is important to have show up. I'll get back to you on a good date in a day or two. The first meeting is this Friday evening, so I might even know by then what dates will work best for a tournament. Looks like the Sanwa sticks won't be installed by then though...bummer. Oh well! At least they are on their way!

Where are our Sanwa sticks?  I would have thought they would ahve showed up by now.  Hopefully soon.
Just shoot me your date proposal when you get it nailed down Kevin, and I will confirm and okay with Acme.

Reminder: Today is 20, November... so people should be goin to Acme to celebrate the holiday today.

I'm not, because I have to pickup my car from my parent's place tonight, but I'll be there in spirit.

Well, I went to Acme on Friday for the meeting. It was great, and everyone had a good time and played some ridiculously good games of TGM. Hopefully the income this week will be a little better.  We had about 7 or 8 players playing in a line continuously from something like 5pm until 11pm or maybe even later.

Pop'n was working very well. DM's hihat is dead again, but I don't know what can even be done about that. All DDR/ITG cabinets had really good pads as usual. The left coinslot on TGM3 is jammed. GF probably works, I didn't check though.

The players at the meeting came to the conclusion that TGM3 would probably do quite a bit better if it was swapped around with the photo booth thing that it is back to back with. The photo booth will still stick out even if it is behind TGM, and I think it would allow people to be amazed by TGM in the same way that DDR attracts people by letting them watch good players.

Agreed with the swapping of the machines.

I was very impressed last night with all of your skills. If there's another meetup and another camera is needed, I'll be there.

Is the DM hi hat working well now?

That photo machine may be leaving soon.  We need to shuffle some things around to fit Balzblue in there.  Which by the way, Blazblue has not shown up yet at our warehouse.

i want to play blue balls

I was there today while the repair guy was fixing the coin slot for TGM3, so it should be OK now.

I went to Acme today. The hihat on DM is much better, thanks Bill! Any idea still on when the Sanwas will arrive? It's taken surprisingly long...hopefully Akihabara Shop is not up to their old tricks of taking foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvver to ship stuff.

Tada, Matsuura, some other guy who I know from playing Pop'n a lot, and myself were playing some nonstop TGM. The coin slot is indeed working again; that right stick is still really sketchy though. It's pretty dead.

Max2's pads were great.

hey bill can you please turn off the timer on itg2 if it hasnt been done already? i havent been there since last saturday so i wouldnt know if someone already noticed it or not =P

Did you notice the VS level time increase on TGM?

So that outfit has a reputation of being slow to ship?  Just curious, as the half dozen Sanwa's have yet to get here.  We need two of them for the Blazblue as well, and may have to put that out with generic sticks until the Sanwa's get here.  Crap!

ITG keeps jumping program back to factory settings, which also turns the timer back 0n.  We need to figure out if you all want that IT cabinet upgraded to the hack ITG3?  I am cautious with that idea!

Well, I have had a few problems with Akiba Shop in ordering from them when something that should have arrived within a week took about 2 weeks to arrive. That being said, they are probably the best site to go to for Japanese arcade parts so I would not hesitate to order from them. That sucks about Blazblue though; hopefully they arrive soon!

Also, thanks so much for increasing the level on TGM! I assume this means the game in doing better? With the nonstop play I have witnessed in the recent weeks, I would be very surprised if it wasn't.

Do it! I know I would play more on that cabinet if it had some new material. I've seen other cabinets with the hack installed and they look wonderful. Being able to compete with others on more songs would be great.

ITG 3 is looking like a good possibility.
Thanks for the infor on that supplier, Kevin.  hopefully the sticks will show up soon. 
TGM3 is doing a bit better with each passing week. 

Kevin FYI,
You will be happy to hear that the sticks showed up today.  But could be a couple days until they get installed, but at least they are here.