Akai Katana Shin for Nesica X Live

Ha, take that, stupid catastrophic judgment rumors of last year that were happening in May and October last year! It looked like nothing catastrophic happened in either months. In late May last year, there was an Xbox 360 version of Akai Katana as Akai Katana Shin. Originally an arcade version of the game two years ago, the Xbox 360 version is in full HD and widescreen. The backgrounds are no longer pixelated compared to other Cave shmup games as the game itself is in 16:9 just like Deathsmiles II and Otomedius G. In the Xbox 360 version, there’s also an exclusive level in addition to the additional modes. The Shin mode is quite deadly to me as you get to launch the deadly swords at the strong enemies. That looks pretty badass like causing lots of bloods from the boss characters.

This year, there will be the international release of Akai Katana Shin by Rising Star Games and the names of the game modes are changed in English language and the tutorial in English makes more sense for non-Japanese players. For me, I still don’t have this game as the only way to play this will be Games on Demand or the arcades. In addition, there will be Nesica X Live version which is based on Xbox 360 version but if there are bound to be Cave shmup games on Nesica X Live, there will be signs of pixelated graphics for sure in addition to the hi-res ones. Even the non-pixelated backgrounds don’t use full color for sure and for slowdowns, they have to be re-adjusted to fit the Taito Type X2 system specs. This is all taken from Arcadia magazine. Right now, there’s no release date for the Nesica X Live version but in the meantime, you can try the Xbox 360 version and especially for the international release in May this year.

Dreamy Theater Extend

Wow, looks like Sega AM2 must be more freaking busy than ever. After various concerts in March, they now have games to work on like Project Diva F for Playstation Vita, Dreamy Theater F for Playstation 3 and Dreamy Theater Extend for Playstation 3. Well, it is no surprise that Sega AM2 is announcing Dreamy Theater Extend for Playstation 3 that allows songs from Project Diva Extend to be played. From what we know, certain things from Project Diva Extend are not likely to be imported to Dreamy Theater 2nd as it doesn’t work that way. Instead, there’s upcoming Dreamy Theater Extend in which Dreamy Theater 2nd is already an expansion to the first in terms of number of songs as a bonus so you can play the songs from the first in addition to the second. If Dreamy Theater Extend unlocks the songs from both 1st and 2nd, that will be the good extension you can get to save costs unlike Project Diva Extend on the PSP whose expansion power lies with save data and game collection. There is nothing else to extend on but if there’s a Link Disc feature, that would the best way Project Diva Extend could extend in the first place like linking Project Diva Extend with 2nd for additional songs.

So far, two of the songs from Project Diva Extend were already done in HD in Project Diva Arcade but it seems that the best songs from the series will be put in the arcade version for sure.

Dodonpachi Saidaioujou OST CD Update

It seemed that the last Cave online shop in late May had the extra copies of Dodonpachi Saidaioujou OST CD in addition to other stuffs that were tributes to other Cave games. According to the tweets on Twitter, the release date of the soundtrack CD was likely to be May 26th which was late May but someone already had a copy of this soundtrack CD earlier and then posted the video of the Image Song to the video sharing site. Unfortunately from what I heard, this image song is like lazily written in lyrics or something as if this image song is not as good as Dodonpachi Dai-Ondo which is somewhat the best Cave Image Song. Another one other people might have heard of was Muchi Muchi Pork Image Song as well as the Image Song of Pink Sweets Ibara.

Now that we’re entering June quite soon which there will be some global shit going on after this.

Project Diva F for PSV and PS3 Update

Two more songs coming in and they are Secret Police and Melancholic. Well, Secret Police, whose concert is taking place in prison? Who can mind in teaching the prisoners the various dances to Vocaloid songs, lol? That wasn’t the first time they were taught the respective dances that were the famous internet memes. But having this idea to happen in real life can cause certain prisoners to complain like that not because Vocaloid is something unusual in terms of virtual singing compared to real music artists. Sure it’s technical if you ask but I don’t know if there will be a concert like that displayed on the projector inside the prison, lol? Next song is the song that was already in Project Mirai but the dance and costume things for that song can be seen in AR mode compared to the gameplay and PV modes whose song is obviously using the music video using the original music video.

Other updates include the Technical Zone Bonus which is something like Challenge Bonus or whatever as well as the actual title of the game. Perhaps F stands for Final, Finale or something.

The release date for Project Diva F will be in August 30th for Playstation Vita and next year for Playstation 3. Who knows how the next title for PS3 version will be called?

Blast Processing on PC Bootup

The Lenovo PCs have the ability to boot up damn quick and they are damn fast without the need of using the SSD but they can be super fast with the use of SSD. However, any faster and you won’t be able to interrupt the boot-up on time with the F2 or F8 key in case you have some technical problems. Well then, this still has to be explained here just in case. Also, the interruption is somewhat needed for BIOS configuration.

For computers using SSD with UEFI BIOS, this can be a serious problem in trying to strike F8 key. So with Windows 8, the problem can be solved by adding the BIOS configuration as part of the Windows 8 boot menu which can be useful for tablet devices as well in case you have some technical trouble where maintenance is needed but keeping both Windows 7 and 8 on the tablet is like a no-no.

In case you have a problem booting up Windows 8, the automatic failover behavior will take you directly to the boot options menu. This even includes cases where it appears that the boot has succeeded but the PC is actually unstable. An example includes the faulty driver installation that causes the login screen to go blank. If that is a better solution for tablet devices, so be it. The boot options menu is also taking place inside the Windows RE.

You can also to choose to configure certain things from the Advanced Startup. Go to PC Settings from the Charms bar and then proceed to General command. Move down to Advanced Startup and tap Restart Now to restart your computer and this time, it will display the additional boot options. There will also be Shift+Restart option because the boot options need to be available even when no one has signed in to the PC. It may help to save time in striking that freaking F8 key upon restarting.

Windows 8 for multiple monitors

Today’s PCs with multiple monitors obviously have the same desktop background and the boot-up system takes place on the primary monitor of your computer.

With the upcoming Windows 8, there will be goals in embracing the multi-monitor support.

1. Different wallpapers on different monitors – You can use different wallpapers or perhaps the panoramic wallpapers. Plus there will be different desktop slideshows on different monitors. In addition, there are multiple options for configuring the taskbar for different monitors such as having duplicate taskbars on all the monitors. But then, how the heck are we supposed to know which monitor do we want to use one of the specific tasks on?
2. Different types of apps on different monitors – Well, how the hell can we get the Metro interaction like that, lol? Sure you can run Metro app on one of the monitors in addition to running the desktop app on the other but the Metro interactivity between monitors will not be an easy thing as you end up moving the mouse between them and who knows if this is a perfect support? How about multi-monitors with touch screen support? Holy cow, that will be freaking cool like that with the Metro interactivity around but this is not quite easy for desktop and laptops like that for developers of the operating system.

And that looks like it and the Release Preview will be rumored to be out in June 1st.

Creating new Windows user experience

The freaking new Metro UI is somewhat optimized for Windows tablet devices but for the dual-screen touch screen notebooks, who the hell needs that? At least you can get the around the problem while using Windows 7 like that anyway when I stumbled upon the Acer dual-screen notebook that is the combination of the notebook and tablet. We had already seen the concept of dual-screen device Microsoft was doing but too bad they cancelled it. It’s sort of like the HD version of Nintendo DS but both screens are touch enabled and they have multiple touch points. The new UI is fast and simple but confusing at times on which ones to tap and which ones not to tap. The button size may be large enough to tap and the text is already sharp enough to see but that doesn’t mean the UI can be simplified a lot into one simple colored stuff. The worse thing is that the standard buttons are looking prototyp-ish as if they have no idea what the new interface will be in the future of technology. If Windows 8 tablets allow USB mouse support, that’s the good thing in addition to allowing USB Windows Keyboard support for any PC and tablet but if not, what’s the freaking point anyway? You call that beautiful? That’s a son of an ass to me as I’m already going for futuristic UI which can be abstract/digital/cyber looking UI which is when taking place inside the device which already looks futuristic from the inside or perhaps the Sci-Fi looking UI which is damn difficult for me to illustrate with as there are randomized patterns of lines that represent the Sci-Fi mechanism. For Abstract UI, the futuristic UI may be simple like that such as simple interface with glows and futuristic fonts as well as the grid background. Now let’s head back to the past of Windows.

Windows 1.0

The computers running Windows 1.0 were looking like some 16-bit computers and like other 16-bit computers, there wasn’t nothing special about the GUI. The bottom part of the screen had the buttons which were later used for Windows 7 superbar. Sure for Windows 8 CP, the Start button is gone but the superbar buttons are not positioned all the way to the left as there’s still spacing whatsoever. Nowadays, the mouse is one of the required components of computing in addition to keyboard.

Windows 3.0

The interface was finally senseful and this was the first Windows OS to run on 32-bit computers onwards. The windows can be moved but compared to today’s Windows OSes, the buttons on the menu bar and the title bar were different. The down arrow is to minimize the window while the up button maximizes it. The up and down button un-maximizes the window to its original size. To close the program, you might have to use the top left button and then select Close. You can also double-click on it but having to close the program with the top left button was no easy feat. In addition, the Program Manager was the main point of Windows like you could use it to restart, shutdown, or log off from the computer or arrange the windows in respective ways. You could also use the Program Manager to see the help or About Windows in addition to using its pre-Start Menu portion to open programs. The File Manager was the pre-Windows Explorer and folder structure started from the disk you were on as the top level compared to Windows Explorer today where the Desktop system folder is at the top level. The toolbar had the drive letter buttons for you to select but that was the past.

Windows 95

The taskbar is the popular thing where you can select the taskbar applications buttons to switch the programs you’re wanting to use. There’s also the Start Button which is popular but on Linux operating systems, the main taskbar button opens up the menu of different menus and commands but the Start menu is somewhat common. There’s also the notification area which is the third popular feature in computer technology. However, the internet surfing in the past was damn sensitive so was the performance of DOS based Windows OSes as well as the freaking PC components of the past. Also, setting up internet devices wasn’t the easy thing as well as the whole internet relied on slow sensitive modems that required the telephones as well. Worst of all, there might be signs of interruption or disconnection when someone picked up the phone but for DSL and ADSL connections, that is not as worse as the modem connection in the past. The modem connection also had networking feature similar to using the damn DSL and ADSL broadband connections which have the WAN, router and switch all embedded inside. Also in the past, the networking was obviously done with LAN or something as the wireless networking standard was still quite slow. For media player, there was a serious file format limitation compared to media player software today. There wasn’t a support for digital cameras or portable MP3 players since neither of them existed in the early 90s. Unlike Windows 3.0 and below, the startup process was improved.

Windows XP

A major evolution of the GUI to catch up with the rival operating systems. This is one of the OSes people are currently using today and many features were apparently evolved. You get many modern computing features but as time went on, there were various updates to allow support for newer features and devices.

Windows Vista

A true catch up with the rival operating systems with the use of Aero interface and this GUI seems to be best for me. However, it took up lots of resources that many people criticized it despite the interface looking damn good. There were also unnecessary, sensitive and failed features that were eventually taken out in Windows 7 for performance improvement.

Windows 7

This is what Windows Vista should have been and we are also using it today. The features from Windows Vista are somewhat identical, if not, even better. It is the first Windows OS to introduce multi-touch support but even then, it is touch un-friendly like that on the tablet devices. To get around the problem, you may as well get the stylus to do the touching.

Windows 8

If the performance improvement in Windows 7 isn’t perfect enough, it seems that they’ve decided to simplify everything while adding other common modern features needed for additional improvements. However, the Metro UI is the serious downside to the people and not all people are going to use this OS or the interface itself. For me, it is starting to look confusing at times.

So here are the trends they noted that influenced the design of modern computer user experience and features:

1. Nowadays, we’re connected everyday and it seems that the business companies have been doing this ever since the past perhaps to extend the industry around multiple countries as well as the easy communication in between the buildings. Of course, there may be networking environment everywhere for easy transfer. However, we can’t be personally connected 24/7 and especially for our homes.
2. We surely have things to do or the whole life can be boring like that. With the use of online computer technology, news on certain media, posters, etc, we can check out on what’s going on and what’s going to happen in the future and we should embrace them on how are we going to do as the opportunity.
3. Today, there will be cloud technology which is the next level of networking and internet combined for next level of network transfer of data. It is easier like that and I’ve been using this technology to transfer my stuffs between my computers and my cloud storages. It is more secure that way like trying to ditch off the USB storage devices for data transfer as having to plug in those devices can simply infect our computers for sure. The core of cloud technology takes place in the companies that servers, network devices and data centers are somewhat required. There should also be computers in the companies perhaps for other technological purposes such as inventing new programs, new updates and other IT managements needed.

So what the goals for Windows in the future?

1. Fast speed and touch friendly UI are the next things for Windows 8 tablet devices and they seem to be promising but it can’t be same when there’s a Desktop app sitting on the Start screen which is still not touch friendly even if the interface is simplified. At least the UI animations are nice but the interface is somewhat confusing at times on which ones to tap and like those rectangular things that don’t look like buttons on some pages. They don’t seem to look like tiles like that and that’s one of the mistakes. In fact, the interaction in Windows 8 for tablets is somewhat not easy to learn such as dragging the top of the screen all the way to close the app for instance. Another confusing thing will be tapping the bottom left part of the screen to open the Start screen and that should be taken out.
2. Today, the laptop PC batteries don’t seem to last even longer but with tablet devices, their batteries can obviously last even long regardless of the UI. Having to simplify the UI with Metro language like that is unnecessary for this or speeding up the performance.
3. Like smartphones, the Metro apps are the additional apps on the computer for us to try out as if we can keep them besides keeping the desktop apps but then, they are actually optimized for tablet devices and that is a must. Unlike desktop apps, Metro apps run in the local sandbox called AppContainer but even then, they are kind of messed with by the desktop apps that allow you to modify the Windows 8 metro features like I already have those tools. The tablets can’t be messed with thanks to using the Metro apps as long as there is no support of running desktop apps like there should be tablet edition of the OS. So even with the sandbox for Metro Apps, your computer can still be messed with with the security vulnerability.
4. The live tiles can display on what’s notifying you on what’s going to happen and you can check out the notifications like that by simply tapping on them. The improvement is that once we’re not using the Metro Apps without closing them, they are suspended to gain back the memory so that you can use one of those apps again at any time. Like smartphones, you can pin and unpin certain stuffs to the Start screen.
5. The new way to logon to the Windows 8 PC will be the use of the Microsoft account. You can use your Windows Live ID as well or perhaps any email address you currently own. Unfortunately when I’m using Windows 8, not all things are synchronized so the Start screen between my computers are not exactly common. For some reason, the apps are likely to be taking up the disk space but that doesn’t mean the metro apps can’t be commonly installed. The metro apps can be synchronized between devices, not the desktop apps as I already think of.
6. For tablet devices running Windows 8, they are likely to be on par with rival tablet devices in terms of required component behaviors such as pressing the power button instantly puts the tablet device on standby and when you press any button, the tablet device goes back to where you left off. But, how the hell are you supposed to shut down the tablet devices running Windows 8? Usually, using the Charm bar to go to Settings and then tapping the Power menu will do but where’s the shortcut for shutting down the device in two steps, damn it? This is done through four freaking steps instead of two freaking steps and that’s another flaw. For expert customization, the Desktop Control Panel, Group Policy Editor and PowerShell are in stores for you.

In the past of tablet PCs, there was a stylus and they were obviously used for business purposes. They are more expensive than laptops although they are actually the shape of the laptop with turnable monitor and touch screen support. The tablet features consisted of on-screen keyboard and on-screen handwriting. You could also draw with the stylus as well but the number of touch points was only one. For Windows 8, the touch screen feature is going to be improved for tablets, making it on par with rival tablet devices. In fact, there are also Windows powered devices with modern touch screen support.

The desktop section is still going to be there in Windows 8 but that should apply to laptop and desktop computers without touch screen support. For devices with touch screen support, only Metro section by the way but for the Acer dual-screen notebook as I already saw, there can be both Desktop and Metro sections for truly combined experience. Hopefully, Acer will get Windows 8 support for that notebook. Furthermore, there will be Hyper-V Client edition which succeeds Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7.

So let’s move forward, the computers that could be seen in the past were mostly desktops and they were like unmovable computer environments and the laptops were like rare or something. Today, we see lots of computing devices like desktops, notebooks, ultra-books, net-books, net-tops, modern tablet devices, smartphones and so on. The tablet devices and smartphones may be the best for you to move to other rooms wherever you go as if you can take notes of what you’re doing in various ways.

Windows Media Center in Windows 8

Now, about this title. Playing videos like that in Windows 8 can be an insane thing on tablet devices because I can assume that you can hook up the USB external Blu-Ray drive or DVD drive to do the watching. But, another assumption is that the performance can be kind of worse when watching Blu-Ray videos as the resolution is way too large. There will be retina display for Windows 8 devices so that you can get the exact pixels or even sharper visuals when watching Blu-Ray videos. And Windows Media Center for Xbox 360 has input delays when I use it, WTF? At least, I can stream videos and music easily on my Xbox 360 from my computer using the Metro style apps on the console but for Windows Media Center on Xbox 360, it was not an easy setup if you anyhow configure things on your computer.

In fact, Windows Media Player on Windows 8 will not have DVD playback support and there will be the successor of Windows Anytime Upgrade called Add Features to Windows 8. Hmm, the meaning of Add Features to Windows 8 is quite different than Turn Windows features on or off as all the features you can turn on or off are available on the source installed somewhere on your partition. For Add Features to Windows 8, you can notice that the lower the edition of Windows, the lesser the number of features on the source.

By getting Media Center Pack or Pro Pack, you can get Windows Media Center but that will likely happen in the final version of Windows 8 as the Release Preview is likely to use the highest edition but be warned, these packs are priced so are the prices of Windows 8 when the product is finalized.

You know what else was lazy? The DVD playback would not be included in Windows Vista Business and Enterprise editions and that was one lazy flaw although I can assume that Windows Media Center is there in those two editions. In Home Basic and below, there won’t be DVD playback so that they can be optimized for low-end computers. It’s the same for Windows 7 but for Windows 7, you get more freedom like that as Home Premium edition and above allow DVD playback. When upgrading to Windows 8, you’re going to need the Media Center Pack or Pro Pack in order to play DVD. Well that sounds kind of bullshit to price these packs for desktop and laptop users. What about using DVD related drive to install desktop applications for desktop and laptop users? Sure you can watch YouTube videos on TV via game consoles, computers hooked to TV or perhaps the TV with internet access but computers hooked to TV doesn’t count. For Pro Pack, it includes Media Center Pack in addition to upgrading to Windows 8 Pro where you can get Windows Media Center as well as DVD playback.

Windows Live Reimagined

Looks like Windows Live brand is going to be discontinued in the future and Windows Live accounts are going to be migrated to Microsoft account which is overall at the top level just like Apple ID, Google account, etc. Microsoft Account is the new identity service for individuals who use Microsoft products and services. In Windows 8, you can choose to login locally or by your Windows Live/Hotmail account. From there, you can check your billing for services like Xbox Live, Zune and Windows store. In fact, our Microsoft account is connected to Xbox Live Gamertag so you can track high scores and games in various ways. First way will be the Xbox Companion app for smartphone and tablet devices including Windows 8. Second will be your console and third is the website. Regardless of which way to track high scores and games, certain games are for other Xbox Live platforms such as Windows 8 Metro games and Windows Phone 7 games. It may be the same for Games for Windows Live. In next several months across the Microsoft product line, your Windows Live ID will be migrated to Microsoft account. That also includes other Microsoft services you’ve used that will be merged in the migration process.

Accessing your Microsoft account is like accessing Hotmail account where you can manage your contacts, calendar, inbox and cloud storage. With Windows 8 and Windows Phone along with certain desktop apps for Windows, they connect to your mail account as well. With Microsoft account, your devices are shared across all Microsoft products and services.

When you logon to Windows 8 for the first time using the Microsoft account, it uses cloud services to roam settings across computers running Windows 8. Along with the account, you get the Skydrive where your cloud data is stored. Also, you can use the Camera app to take photos and videos and then store them to your Skydrive. For Office documents, they are accessed via Office Web Apps or Office client applications. Man, there should be Metro version of Office, not the desktop one. How the heck can that app be used properly on the tablets?

Speaking of Social Networking, you can get contacts from your respective Social Networking accounts in your Hotmail contact list which was already way before Windows 8 existed in prototype form. With your Hotmail account connected to your Social networking accounts, you can mail or instant message your contacts that way from your device.

As Windows 8 is designed to be cloud-powered and similar to smartphone devices, it comes with Metro style apps for communication, sharing, scheduling, photos, videos and other stuffs. They are powered by cloud services which is thankful so that when you log on to your Microsoft account on multiple devices, your stuff stored on those apps will be the same on multiple devices as they are stored on the cloud. It may be similar to using Windows Live Mail and Messenger where your mails, tasks, contacts and calendar are stored in the cloud. For Windows 7 users, you’ll still be using the Windows Live Essentials applications.

Note: Unfortunately, additional apps like Movie Maker and Photo Gallery are not available in the Consumer Preview but it may be useful for me to explore the Metro version of Movie Maker to see if I can use that a lot.

Skydrive update

Looks like there are more account updates coming in. Starting today, the public work of mine will be shared on Google Drive and the new Skydrive in addition to my DropBox storage. As we already know, it is already accessible through mobile apps and HTML5 as well as Office and 3rd party apps. Last time, there was already Windows Live Mesh in which I’m already using to store my gaming related development works. However, that storage is as private as un-sharable to the public and it can be synchronized between the program’s separate Skydrive storage and my computers.

Today, there are newer features for Skydrive as of this year such as new storage options just like other cloud services, apps that connect your devices to Skydrive similar to other cloud services and the desktop app for the computer similar to other cloud services’ desktop apps. There’s also the Metro app for Skydrive but there’s no way the automatic synchronization can happen between your Skydrive cloud storage and your device. If there’s one, it can be on par but then this is Metro version so things are different. Imagine trying to synchronize your music, photos and videos from your phone’s storage to the cloud automatically through some app, that should be what Metro Skydrive can be. It may be great like that for Windows 8 like there may be some data installed for hidden desktop operation but what about other platforms then? At least, you can store your data to the cloud and depending on the location and device, you can retrieve your corresponding data from there and start working on.

• Skydrive Desktop Client – Just like DropBox, you can automatically synchronize data between devices and the cloud and manage your data on the devices you’re using.
• Fetching data – I bet that easy retrieval and access to data from your Skydrive cloud can be suitable to computers having the desktop app, non-desktop app or both. Moreover, there’s also the online Office app that you can easily open the office documents online through Skydrive or email without having the obtain the Skydrive app.
• Skydrive storage updates – As I’m the existing user, I already upgraded to 25GB for free as they are increasing the limit to 7GB. This is similar to other cloud services but higher the storage size can mean the higher the cost.
• Skydrive for other devices – More platforms will soon have Skydrive for sure for better management features and sharing options.

You can get the Skydrive desktop app like I already did and it’s compatible for Windows Vista and above.

Three months ago, they announced the Metro version for Windows 8, the desktop version and the feature called ‘fetch’ that allows you to remotely access data from a connected computer. Just like Windows Live Mesh, as long as your computer with Skydrive desktop app installed is turned on and connected, the data from that computer can be remotely accessed. The data on Skydrive mounted drive which is the mounted cloud drive on your computer can be done online and offline. When you’re connected, the service will check to see if the data is modified and then synchronize the updated data. If the data is removed on your computer, so is the one from your cloud.

In Windows 7 and 8, you can add the folders from Skydrive to the corresponding libraries but if you’re offline, I can assume that your Skydrive data is inaccessible, leaving the local data accessible.

You can also change the location on where your Skydrive data will be stored on your computer but that is during the setup and you can’t change the location after that. This is one mistake that makes Skydrive on par with other cloud services like DropBox but more will be implemented, pretty soon.

In order to do some fetching however, you will have to provide a second factor of authentication beyond your account password. You’ll need to enter the code that is sent on your mobile phone or alternate email address if you’re already signed in to your Microsoft account.

Today, the limit will be changed to 7GB but if you’re already an existing Skydrive user and I am, you can increase to 25GB for free like I just did. However, there are other storage plans you can use but they costly just like other cloud services. Also, as a Windows Phone or IOS user, with the latest update, you can delete, rename and move data on the Skydrive but is there a reason not to include the Copy feature?

Overall, I’m already using Skydrive desktop app in addition to Live Mesh so I’ll try to make today’s public work available on my Skydrive cloud storage as well.

Cave Goods Corner, their future sales in June

Looks like there’s one more Cave Festival before the closure of the online shop at the end of this month happens for real. This is indeed a sad month but the farewell actually applies to the Cave Festival as their future shop will be held somewhere in Kotobukiya which their shop will be opened there in June. That can be where you can buy stuffs from there. Certain examples you can buy are soundtrack CDs, home accessories that are tribute to the popular Cave games out there, bags and the list goes on. Their future shop will be located on first floor but you can take a look at the other categories that are tributes to other stuffs as well usually other games and animes and the shop contains multiple floors where you can find more of these there. What’s more, you can even see the display showcasing the promotion videos related to their corresponding products. Be it the existing games that are available for the arcades or consoles or the animes in OVA or TV series format that can be watched on TV channels or perhaps Blu-Ray and DVD. That depends on the promotion video but also take note that you have to know the dates of how things are likely to happen to the products. Let’s say that the game was recently released this year for the arcade, you have to know when it was released so that you can catch the opportunity to play it after the day of the release. Otherwise, perhaps the soundtrack CD of the game is something you may want to listen to instead after you’ve found out the game’s release date.

Now this may be a future opportunity to buy certain Cave accessories with simple cash but who knows if the soundtrack CD of Dodonpachi Maximum and Saidaioujou will be available again in June. The company does but then you can explore the area of soundtrack CDs related to respective Cave shmup games. I don’t know if they will be on sale again next month but still, we have to focus on what’s going on this month.

Project Diva Arcade May Update

Oh well, I guess that the April vacation was the last for me to enjoy as sometime between May and June, some sort of guessed catastrophe will arrive to burn the shit out of everything in the globe. In the meantime, the update will be released in mid May.

This update seems to be another interesting one ever since the February update. It consists of two songs from Project Diva Extend along with the new one exclusive to the arcades. Hopefully, those songs exclusively to the arcades will make it to the next Project Diva game on Vita and Playstation 3 but then the exclusive songs of this year make use of FMV sequences so porting those them to consoles will take up a lot of resources and it’s not an easy future to do that. The first song in this update from Project Diva Extend will be Ura Omote Lovers and holy shit, this song is not easy to clear in Extreme Mode next to Singing Passion of H****** M***. The same kind of problem in clearing such songs like this on the PSP version also applies to the arcade version. What’s not exactly the same though will be the beatmap and the gameplay system between the arcade and the PSP version. However, the good news is that you’ll be able to see the HD visuals of those songs from Project Diva Extend.

Cave shop will be closing at the end of May

It’s kind of regrettable to say the least but it seems that the Cave online shop website will be closed down at the end of this month. What’s the reason for this, I don’t know? I guess that the items representing their games are sold out of something. However, there will be future plans to add in additional items to the shop and they surely have one more game to be released this month for Xbox 360.

The title of the closure message says that it is a farewell to Cave festival and Cave Shop will be closing down. What games will they be working on next after Mushihimesama Xbox 360 port? Well, who knows? At Cave festivals, you can see the games that are on action including the accessories that are the tributes to the respective games. There are also CDs and other stuffs in which you can buy from as well. Also, the event already started late last month and the first item would have to be Dodonpachi Saidaioujou and Maximum OST CD. This on-going event will be over in May 6th at 11:59PM which is next Sunday.

By then, it looks like the ultimate catastrophic ending is likely to be coming closer with the shop being closed down at this upcoming future. But who knows if the shop will be opened again with newer additional items including those that are tributes to the recent games released this year? Will they develop more shmup games in the future starting from this month?

Next Project Diva Update

I thought that you might need to tap on the star symbols to the beat but I was wrong. You’re supposed to rub the screen to the beat and that is the new part of the gameplay mechanics. Now how the heck can this make sense like that? Can’t you slide on the screen up and down as if you’re acting like a DJ or something?

At Nico Nico Douga, someone took the videos and posted them as live footages to Nico Nico Douga of this game that is currently in development. So far, there are like two songs but the interface is starting to be changed as if this new Project Diva game will be like Project Diva 3rd or something. Other than rubbing the screen to the beat which is the new part of the gameplay, the gameplay still remains identical but then the bonus scoring mechanics are likely to be worked on. Hopefully, the songs in this sequel will be backported to previous Project Diva games but the new parts of the gameplay mechanics will be missing by then. If the songs from this sequel are in Project Diva Arcade, chances are that there will be graphical changes and the gameplay in the arcade version will be nothing new by then. At this rate, there’s no way the graphics engine can be changed like that. I can imagine that in the future or something, there will be a sequel to Project Diva Arcade with newer interface, newer interactivity and newer graphics engine that is comparable to this upcoming sequel for Playstation Vita and 3.