One of my all time favorite games is Sega's The Typing of the Dead. I originally discovered this on Dreamcast, it's lots of fun. If you're unfamiliar with this game Sega basically took House of the Dead 2 and then replaced the light guns with computer keyboards, word bubble appear above the enemies and you kill them by typing the word or phrase. each correct letter typed acts as a bullet hit and typos make a ricochet sound as if you missed. Type the word correctly and really fast and it will act like a head-shot.
The words they have you type (at least in the English Dreamcast release) is entertaining because they have you type stuff like "Underpants Bandit" or "Banana Manager" combined with the horrible total B-Move voice acting in the game it's a lot of fun especially with 2 players. Just like in House of the dead they rate your speed an accuracy and you can essentially steal kills from your partner just like in the light gun version.
here's some gameplay of the Dreamcast version:
The good phrases start at the first boss fight around the 4 minute mark.
Anyway I only learned of the existence of the arcade version a few years back and I've wanted one since then. I only knew of 2 in the USA (I'm sure there are at least a couple more), one was owned by a private collector and the other was at Japan Arcade in LA. When Japan Arcade closed the machine went up for auction, I wasn't able to bid but another KLOVer (caffeine) won the auction.
Since the machine is based on a Net City Upright candy cab I debated trying to find the pieces to make my own. I managed to find a cartridge, a marquee and a service manual and I kept my eyes peeled for the control panel on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I regretfully passed up auctions for panels from Lupin The 3rd The Typing and La Keyboard (the two other Typing games that Sega made).
several months ago that same member who had one the Japan Arcade Typing of the Dead clued me in to an arcade importer/dealer in LA who had a Virtual On Oratorio Tangram machine (since he knew I was looking for one). I ended up passing on the VOOT machine but on a lark asked him if he had Typing of the Dead.. he didn't but he did have a Lupin the 3rd The Typing for a really good price so I bought it figuring I might not have another opportunity to get another one of these machines.
Here's the machine I got, it's complete except for the topper:
I had no hope of ever finding the Typing of the Dead artwork when I ordered this thing but to my surprise I found that one of bezel stickers was pealing:
^that's typing of the dead art underneath... also on the control panel you can faintly see the "AGENT 2" text under the Lupin control panel art (contrast adjusted to make it easier to see):
Assuming I can get all of the Lupin artwork off of the machine without damaging the art below it seems the only thing I'm missing is the Typing of the dead cardboard pops.
For those interested in the keyboards they're regular old Dreamcast keyboards as you can see from the pic above. they plug into a pair of ports inside the control panel which just pass through to the Maple buss connectors on the NAOMI Mitsurugi-w sells Dreamcast controller adapters if you don't have any already or you can just cut up a pair of extension cables.
here's a pic of the actual port in the control panel.
here's a pic from the manual to show how the keyboards are attached to the panel:
The panel itself is just a big block of MDF that bolts intop of a normal Net City control panel housing as can be seen in some of the above pics.
The words they have you type (at least in the English Dreamcast release) is entertaining because they have you type stuff like "Underpants Bandit" or "Banana Manager" combined with the horrible total B-Move voice acting in the game it's a lot of fun especially with 2 players. Just like in House of the dead they rate your speed an accuracy and you can essentially steal kills from your partner just like in the light gun version.
here's some gameplay of the Dreamcast version:
Anyway I only learned of the existence of the arcade version a few years back and I've wanted one since then. I only knew of 2 in the USA (I'm sure there are at least a couple more), one was owned by a private collector and the other was at Japan Arcade in LA. When Japan Arcade closed the machine went up for auction, I wasn't able to bid but another KLOVer (caffeine) won the auction.
Since the machine is based on a Net City Upright candy cab I debated trying to find the pieces to make my own. I managed to find a cartridge, a marquee and a service manual and I kept my eyes peeled for the control panel on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I regretfully passed up auctions for panels from Lupin The 3rd The Typing and La Keyboard (the two other Typing games that Sega made).
several months ago that same member who had one the Japan Arcade Typing of the Dead clued me in to an arcade importer/dealer in LA who had a Virtual On Oratorio Tangram machine (since he knew I was looking for one). I ended up passing on the VOOT machine but on a lark asked him if he had Typing of the Dead.. he didn't but he did have a Lupin the 3rd The Typing for a really good price so I bought it figuring I might not have another opportunity to get another one of these machines.
Here's the machine I got, it's complete except for the topper:
I had no hope of ever finding the Typing of the Dead artwork when I ordered this thing but to my surprise I found that one of bezel stickers was pealing:
^that's typing of the dead art underneath... also on the control panel you can faintly see the "AGENT 2" text under the Lupin control panel art (contrast adjusted to make it easier to see):
Assuming I can get all of the Lupin artwork off of the machine without damaging the art below it seems the only thing I'm missing is the Typing of the dead cardboard pops.
For those interested in the keyboards they're regular old Dreamcast keyboards as you can see from the pic above. they plug into a pair of ports inside the control panel which just pass through to the Maple buss connectors on the NAOMI Mitsurugi-w sells Dreamcast controller adapters if you don't have any already or you can just cut up a pair of extension cables.
here's a pic of the actual port in the control panel.
here's a pic from the manual to show how the keyboards are attached to the panel:
The panel itself is just a big block of MDF that bolts intop of a normal Net City control panel housing as can be seen in some of the above pics.
