Share your VO experience or history

[MentholMoose]

I don't recognize anyone else from the old days, but by now I know most of the current players.

With a few exceptions, people from the old days played "a little bit", if at all. Of the SHGL regulars, Mitch and Thomas played for a month or two after it came out (I helped Thomas mod Saturn sticks on the launch day, and Mitch modded his own). I think they quit because their preference for CC didn't work out online. Torin played periodically... we teamed up to win a team tournament back when there was enough interest to hold such events. Natt (Kagema) never played. I don't recall hearing from other SHGL players. Various people from the old forums played to some extent. I think the most active was Schooly D who successfully organized several tournaments and rounded up new players. I think he is back to focusing on Halo now.

I am still on the forums but rarely play. I modded Twin Sticks before even owning an Xbox 360, and I bought an Xbox 360 specifically for VOOT. I played a lot of VOOT at first but eventually tired of it. Getting to play online against a huge number of highly skilled opponents was a fantastic experience, but I already had played quite a lot of VOOT back when it was a new game, which is mainly why I'm not still playing.

[Porcupine]

I'd been asking about Mitch and company, but no one seemed to be very familiar with them by now. Kind of sad but I guess that is how things go. Who knows though, I feel like they may show up again some day. I encountered "new" players from the USA regularly in the last two months, one or two already at a really high level. Unfortunately, the majority of "new" players can't compete with the hardcore skill of the online regulars and are deterred from continuing on.

Schooly D still seems to play often. I don't remember him from the old days, but I don't remember much from the old days in general. After ten years I literally forgot everything. When I first saw the Temjin surfing ram again, I had no recollection of the move. I never got to play with everyone as much as I would have liked to all those years back, so this is my first taste of regular competition and I'll try to make the most of it.

[MentholMoose]

I'd been asking about Mitch and company, but no one seemed to be very familiar with them by now.

Well Thomas and Mitch were not active very long so I'd expect few if any new players to know them. Thomas' Gamertag is Jinsai Toda and Mitch is Mamemochi01 if you want to try to reach them. Torin used to play regularly (maybe he still does) and his Gamertag is StarPlatinum87. I don't know if Charlie, Eddie, Natt, Koichi, or other SHGL players are on XBL.

Schooly D still seems to play often. I don't remember him from the old days, but I don't remember much from the old days in general.

His old handle was evenpar123. But yeah it's been a long time.

[Porcupine]

Hrm it's been so long I don't remember everyone anymore. I remember Mitch, Naomi, Koichi, Thomas, and Natt. The other ones, I may or may not remember but probably have gotten names/faces/etc mixed up by now. Well, I only met everyone a handful of times anyway.

I've played Torin/StarPlatinum87 online once already. I thought his name sounded familiar, but I don't recall ever meeting him at SHGL? Shucks I can't remember anything.

[null1024]

Only started playing VO within the last year.

Today was the first time I saw an actual Virtual On cabinet ever [over at Arcade Odyssey in Kendall/Miami].

I first started playing when I bought my Dreamcast a couple months ago, and got VO:OT with it, which I thought was tons of fun.
Shortly after, I got a Saturn [and an import cart, but that's not relevant], and got the original VO for it, which I had then preferred over VO:OT for a while because I really didn't get how VO:OT worked, until I learned about 1: how V-Armor worked, 2: turbo attacks, and 3: watari dashing.

One of my friends got Force on his 360 somehow, but I didn't like it at all, it felt slower than Saturn VO and awfully clunky. Never played Marz, but if it's worse than that, then I never will.

I do have the Sega Ages PS2 version of VO, but I oddly prefer the Saturn version over it [probably the control, I know the PS2 version supports Saturn version's setup with the PS2 Saturn controller, but those are expensive]. I do love all the little options it has though.
Playing the Model 2 version at the arcade is the best though [and I want twinsticks now], and it looks gorgeous, really crisp and nice. Probably because it was on a proper medium-res arcade monitor than my cheapy Panasonic CRT, but hey.

I'm not particularly good, but I at least got all my other buddies interested in VO now. Was thinking of picking up a Saturn Netlink modem [they are like, $15 after adding shipping] or two and playing that against one of my friends who has a Saturn. I'd love to play VO:OT 5.66 on the 360, but no split screen [why], and I don't have a 360 of my own. So, I bring my DC and play 5.45 against my buddies.

[MentholMoose]

Welcome to the forum!! Xbox 360 will soon has all three VO arcade games, so maybe it is worth buying one. Watch for Black Friday deals next week.

[MentholMoose]

Since all three games will be on Xbox 360 (hopefully along with any new VO game), buying or building Xbox 360 Twin Sticks is more worthwhile. Buying the Hori TSEX is a very expensive option, so many people (including myself) went the DIY route. Modding Saturn or DC Twin Sticks is the most obvious solution, but there are some lower-cost options as well. Check out the Custom Twin Sticks roundup thread, if you haven't already. It has links to most of the mods done by forum members.

[Fredo]

Last week end I travelled 500km to Paris to go to a small event called the Mecha Game Convention. Despite being focused on a 5 vs 5 LAN of Steel Batallion, there is also a spot to play VOOT.

The previous editions used to be played on the Dreamcast version using Saturn TwinSticks with Dreamcast adapters, they never heard about the Special Button

So I decided to come and bring my Xbox with my two modded TwinSticks so we could play the 5.66 version in HD !


Most of the players already played VOOT but very casually, so I won all my matches, but I took the time to explain them some basic strategy, and most players progressed a lot during the week end of the event ! It was a great pleasure to play VOOT Live, and to teach it to other players, lots of them realized how great and deep the gameplay can be ! some players even told me they were interested in modding their SS TwinStick and play online !

That made me come back a little bit on VOOT, trying to improve myself.

And by the way, this is me playing Steel Batallion, wich is also a great game, but far less nervous

[MentholMoose]

Looks like a great event!

[Fredo]

It was in fact very small, with around 20 players, and most of them only came for Steel Batallion.

But they were really open-minded since they knew I travelled 500km to come and play VOOT: they watched me play, challenged me, asked me fo tips etc. And they did the same for me as I had never played Steel Batallion before, they took the time to teach me and I had great fun with them, eventhough it was the first time we ever met !

[neoKEN]

It was in fact very small, with around 20 players, and most of them only came for Steel Batallion.

But they were really open-minded since they knew I travelled 500km to come and play VOOT: they watched me play, challenged me, asked me fo tips etc. And they did the same for me as I had never played Steel Batallion before, they took the time to teach me and I had great fun with them, eventhough it was the first time we ever met !

It is great that you can convert new players to VOOT. If they become better at VOOT, hopefully in the future, they will be able to convert more people. Maybe in the future, I will do a tutorial video that explains the basics very clearly.

[Fredo]

Maybe in the future, I will do a tutorial video that explains the basics very clearly.

Well, after doing my best teaching VOOT to these guys, I realized that all the basics are explained in the rolling demo tutorials of the game (moving, jump cancel, attack, turbo attack, V-armor, CQC etc), so basically, a montage of those tutorials makes quite a good explaination of the game's mechanics, and you will hardly make it clearer than that. Too bad people just don't take the time to look at them...

[Ezara]

Hello!

I saw that VOOT is coming to ps3 and wanted more info and this board showed up.

My VO experience was when Kevin(Raiden), Eddie(Dorkas) and I(Eddie also playing Fei Yen). Went to Camelot in Anaheim, CA to play Street Fighter Alpha 1 in 1995. They had Cyber Troopers: Virtual On(I didnt know it was called VOOMG) We all sucked, but would play it when we got bored of SFA. Kevin met Thomas and we started playing more with him. Thomas introduced us to Mitch(Temjin/Raiden), Naomi(Fei Yen), Hiro(Viper), Koichi(Fei Yen) and I forgot his name(He went back to Japan after a year. Play Belgdor). We met more people(Sorry I don't remember many of you) and migrated to SHGL cause Camelot never fixed the machine and all of us got tired of wasting money. Also SHGL had the VOOMG machine, but had VOOT in it.

I remember going to Seattle to play in a tournament. It was the first time I ever left California. Had tons of fun, met a lot of people and got my ass handed to me by Nobu. Seriously he looked like he gliding the whole match. Never stopped moving. I remember someone saying it was weird that it didn't rain at all when the socal people came.

VOOT came out on DC and I got a modded system, import game. Later on Mitch helped me get two sets of twin sticks. We did a meet up once at his place in torrance. Later on I bought a second system and US VOOT. Then found a JP import VOOT.

I remember Kirk cause of the wall of napalm and missiles that would come at me. That and when I tried to do close combat he would flip me like a table, then hulk smash me while I am on the ground.

Never played at AI. I do remember Tommy saying he was going and meeting up with everyone. I was working near j-town a while back and went to Yohan on 3rd to check out the arcade on the third floor. They had a VOOT in a VOOMG, but it was so broken I just walked away.

Sort of stopped playing, but still fired up my DC to play some VOOT every so often. Get bored quickly cause single player is boring. I still have some replays on my vmus. (Kirk vs Mitch, Me vs Naomi, Other eddie vs Kevin)

Played VOOMG on saturn. Played and owned VOOT on DC. Played VOOMG on pc. Never played force or marz. Just found out that 360 got VOOT when I found this site. Burned through 2 360s cause of the rrod. Gave up after the second one. I owned a ps3, ps vita, pc. I might get an xbox just for voot....

Checked out a few replays on youtube and have a few questions.

I am assuming why sometimes the VR disappears(still shows lock on) is cause of lag, right?

Do people still jump, shoot and turn in midair as Fei Yen? o.O

I saw Kirk gave the reason why Mitch and Tommy don't play, but I have no idea what it ment.

How hard is it to mod my dc twin sticks for 360? I saw the instructions and I got lost. I don't feel like dropping $400.00 for twin sticks.

Do people still play?

[neoKEN]

Hello!
Checked out a few replays on youtube and have a few questions.

I am assuming why sometimes the VR disappears(still shows lock on) is cause of lag, right?

When someone gets up, they are invincible and flicker on and off. The game is 60fps, but youtube is 30fps. During the invicibility period, I think the flicker off is loss in the 30 fps conversion. They don't disappear in my 60 FPS videos

Do people still jump, shoot and turn in midair as Fei Yen? o.O

I don't understand what you mean.

How hard is it to mod my dc twin sticks for 360? I saw the instructions and I got lost. I don't feel like dropping $400.00 for twin sticks.

I haven not modded DC twin sticks, but modded normal joysticks. Modding joysticks isn't that hard. If you don't feel comfortable with a soldering iron, pay someone else to do it.

Do people still play?

YES!

[Ezara]

Hello!
Checked out a few replays on youtube and have a few questions.

I am assuming why sometimes the VR disappears(still shows lock on) is cause of lag, right?

When someone gets up, they are invincible and flicker on and off. The game is 60fps, but youtube is 30fps. During the invicibility period, I think the flicker off is loss in the 30 fps conversion. They don't disappear in my 60 FPS videos

Ah I see. I saw another video where the guy got knocked down/took damage, but never got hit. Oh...the video is from 3 years ago. Most likely fixed by now.

Do people still jump, shoot and turn in midair as Fei Yen? o.O

I don't understand what you mean.

At start one player double jumps straight up, LW and turns left to right quickly. Then land and get owned...ah another 3 year old video.

How hard is it to mod my dc twin sticks for 360? I saw the instructions and I got lost. I don't feel like dropping $400.00 for twin sticks.

I haven not modded DC twin sticks, but modded normal joysticks. Modding joysticks isn't that hard. If you don't feel comfortable with a soldering iron, pay someone else to do it.

Yeah, I don't feel comfortable with that sort of modding. Do you recommend anyone? I got a dc twinstick and can pick up a used wired pad from gamestop. What would be a reasonable offer for this sort of work?

Do people still play?
YES!

That is great to hear! Now I just need to find an xbox 360 for under 100 and someone to mod my twin sticks or sell me theirs. I can't wait to get my ass kicked online. Thank you neoKEN for answering my questions.

[MentholMoose]

Hey Eddie, welcome to the forum. It's great to see another familiar face. Here's a photo from SHGL in December 2000 to refresh your memory. Are you on the far left, or is my memory failing me?

[Porcupine]

VOOT isn't coming to PS3, is it? You must mean VOOM?

Nice picture, I recognize most of the people in it, but not everyone. Some of the names and faces are fuzzy or mismatched to me. I clearly recognize MentholMoose, Naomi, Mitch, Thomas, Nat, and an Eddie (which one, I'm not sure). Who is above Mitch? I feel I should know him but I'm all mixed up. And who are the two guys way in the background aside from Thomas? I forgot their names. Was the guy on the left named Jim?

Thomas is making a funny face. There's something about it that reminds me of ET.

[MentholMoose]

IIRC - Left to right, kneeling: Charlie, Naomi, Mitch. Standing: Eddie, me, Mark (from WA, Jumbo on this forum), Jim, Tirah (from WA), Torin (Starplatinum87), Thomas, Koichi, Natt.

[Ezara]

Hey Eddie, welcome to the forum. It's great to see another familiar face. Here's a photo from SHGL in December 2000 to refresh your memory. Are you on the far left, or is my memory failing me?

Hey! Yes, that is me! Great to see your still playing. Gonna steal that picture. Man I miss everyone. That was when the Seattle people came down right? If you got anymore pictures, I would love to get a copy.

VOOT isn't coming to PS3, is it? You must mean VOOM?

Nice picture, I recognize most of the people in it, but not everyone. Some of the names and faces are fuzzy or mismatched to me. I clearly recognize MentholMoose, Naomi, Mitch, Thomas, Nat, and an Eddie (which one, I'm not sure). Who is above Mitch? I feel I should know him but I'm all mixed up. And who are the two guys way in the background aside from Thomas? I forgot their names. Was the guy on the left named Jim?

Thomas is making a funny face. There's something about it that reminds me of ET.

Anyway, if any of you new/returning players want to play online, my gamertag is Porcupine SC4. I'm trying to play as often as possible but not really succeeding due to me being in a weird time zone.

Sorry, but who were you? I am so bad at remembering people. You might have to tell me who you played and how you played. There was two Eddies. Me the asian one that played Fei Yen and the other person was an African American that played dordray. Mitch in that picture would be front row right side with the glasses in the red jacket. He mostly played Temjin and Raiden and did a lot of CC. The one standing behind Mitch is Koichi a Fei Yen and Angelan player.

Yeah I thought all of the VOs would be coming to PS3. I saw a gameplay on marz and not really interested.

So my xbox live account got hijacked and they bought a bunch of stuff on it.... I got it back today since it was linked to my hotmail account. Which was wiped clean and used to spam people in both Xbox live and emails. >.>

A friend might loan me a xbox 360 slim and another just gave me a 1 year gold sub card they don't need. If I can find someone to mod my dc ts or sell me a pair I am good. Are the controls on the pad just as bad as on the dreamcast?

[Porcupine]

I was in a different part of California so I only played with the Camelot/SHGL crew a few times. I might never have met you. Or I might have only met you once back in the VOOM days, because I don't recall any Fei Yen player in VOOT other than myself. I knew Koichi, but mainly in VOOM days, and I wasn't sure that was him in the picture.

I have a feeling that there was a Bal player in the Camelot crew? If my imagination didn't play tricks on me, who was it?

I don't think I ever met Torin. That might explain why I had no idea about him, some posts back. Who did he use? Or it could be that he was another player that I only met in VOOM.

There is a tremendous improvement on the pad for Xbox 360 over the Dreamcast, mainly because using the analog stick for turning works totally different. The big problem on Dreamcast was that the way they programmed the stick was weird and it was really picky about how precisely you moved it, in order to rotate. If you didn't do it in the perfect direction, you might not rotate at all, or worse it might count as Up/Down and activate your Hyper Mode, wasting your HP. And since it was in a weird spot, you could not really rotate and walk at the same time, or move your finger to it quickly.

The Xbox controller fixes these issues. Although, I hear many serious players will set LB/RB to rotate anyway, in place of the right analog stick. I haven't bothered doing that myself (yet) even though I do wish I could access rotation more immediately. If I use my index fingers for LB/RB, I imagine I might have to use my middle finger for LT/RT and that feels weird to me. I wonder if that's what the other players do?

In regards to the Up/Down/Left/Right direction pad, I find the Xbox's controller to be imprecise. I have a hard time getting out diagonals or certain directions, getting them mixed up, although this depends on the individual controller. If you are lucky, you will have a properly working pad. Some other players get around this by using the left analog stick to move, instead of the direction pad. The left analog stick works perfectly, but I don't like its placement, and it is farther away from the right analog stick which I don't like. I like being able to access the right analog stick with either my left or right hand as quickly as possible for various kinds of turning.