As mentioned in the subject for this blog post, I sadly was not able to get anything of note done in this week.

When I said that I was "still recovering" in my last post, what I apparently meant was: "ramping up". The cold definitely got worse during the week, so I really wasn't able to get much done at all. However, I've now ACTUALLY recovered enough to the point where I will be able to get some stuff done.

So in the meantime, it might be cool to simply talk about what I got up to this week in general.

While I certainly wasn't feeling the best for creating anything, I was still well enough to get out and about. All the fresh air and walking I did definitely helped out with getting better. Something that I was very excited for was the opening of a new arcade in the city. Me and my brother had been keeping tabs on it as they were nearing opening, especially since they were going to have rhythm games that nobody else in Adelaide had (Beatmania and Sound Voltex).

While it was certainly fun to play Beatmania on actual hardware, I've had a hard time justifying going there a second time. First off, the cabinet was definitely worse for wear. While I usually wouldn't mind when something is beaten and battered, it becomes a bit of a problem when almost all of the decals on the cabinet were worn off. This meant that I wasn't able to know what any of the FX sliders on the cabinet do, which I was interested in fiddling with to a certain degree. The Voltex cabinet wasn't in any better shape either. While there were less decals to be erased by greasy gamer grabbers, the knobs were worn out and seemed to have an uncomfortable grip to them. I didn't bother playing Sound Voltex at all. Something that also was confusing was the fact that, according to one of my friends, none of the cabinets are actually running on official servers. This is because they are apparently unofficial imports, and Konami want arcade operators to get the most recent cabinet. I'm all for using whatever you can get, but what irked me about it was that there wasn't anything telling the average consumer that this is the case. The only way that I found out was from word of mouth from a friend. Because of this, scores from the cabinets wouldn't carry over at all, which might come as a shock to some people if they ever tried to play the game again on a cabinet somewhere that had official server connections. The rhythm game section of the arcade certainly felt rushed, as the arcade seems to be more interested in selling people on their VR stations. On top of all of this, I already have a "copy" of Beatmania on my computer, so there isn't particularly a reason for me to go back to the arcade again. And to be completely honest, I could probably have a more enjoyable experience at home anyway. Unlimited plays, an aesthetic that I actually enjoy (The version I have, 27, has a more unique style compared to 30, the one the arcade was running), and it simply being more affordable in the long run. While I certainly think that it's cool that Adelaide has these games when not many others do, I wish that there was a bit more thought put into them.

Another thing that I got to go to this week was Big Cheese 5! This is Adelaide's resident major FGC meetup, with tournaments running for all the major fighting games!

And Smash Bros.

I didn't compete in any games, but it was an absolute blast being able to hang out with some friends and check out some of the awesome stuff that was on offer. The Artist Alley was chock-a-block with amazing artists, and it was so cool seeing how many different fandoms and interests were being represented there!

I even got a few cool stickers!

One of the biggest highlights for me was the wide array of rhythm games that were on offer to play. I know that I said that a new arcade had recently opened, but this is a different situation. This was a private arcade, owned and operated by a single person. Which is......cool. I'm not a big fan of keeping so many games to a single group of people for 99% of a year but whatever. What I'm confused about is how they manage to afford all of them. In no particular order there was: Groove Coaster, Sound Voltex, Nostalgia and Wacca. The Nostalgia and Groove Coaster cabinets don't seem to be too expensive, with each being roughly $3000AUD, but the other games are a bit wild. Wacca costs about $6000AUD, which is quite a bit, even without the price of connecting to official servers. But the most egregious one was Sound Voltex. I believe it was the 120Hz model so that would have set this person back roughly $23 THOUSAND AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS. Where is this person getting that kind of money??!?!?!?!?! That certainly doesn't sound like the kind of cash a single person can spend on just rhythm games?!? Regardless of how I feel about the spending habits of unknown rhythm benefactors or the validity of party games as fighting games (and some miscellaneous stuff about cost, spectator etiquette), Big Cheese and everything there was so much fun. Meeting up with friends from interstate and friends I haven't seen in a while was great. Playing new rhythm games was also super cool (Gitadora seems to be right up my alley!), and I hope that next year's Gargantuan Cheddar 6 can be even better!

I didn't get much done this week in terms of animation or drawing, but I'm hoping I can show something cool next time I give an update!

Thank you and good-bye for today!