Today I'm posting an article I wrote about my experiences getting into the world of Speed Running with They Bleed Pixels but this time I'm not posting it on the blog, I'm posting it on a website called Kinda Awesome.
While not primarily a gaming site, there is a lot of gaming stuff on there but their writers cover all sorts of topics. Recently they have very kindly invited me to do some guest writing for me, so this little article on Speed Running is my first post for them.
I don't want anyone to worry that I'm giving up on Identity Gaming because they have very kindly said that they have no problem with me doing my own thing and writing for them on the side. So once you've read my article, go and have a click around their site, they are cool people who write some good stuff so give it a look.
So here begins a hopefully long and healthy partnership with the guys at Kinda Awesome! Here are the links to their site and my article
Well, it's done! Another game done and with it, another £5 to the charity! The rest of the pack will get done but so that I don't burn out on Keen, something else will be done first.
Although at this point I'm not sure what so if you have any requests or suggestions, leave a comment, send a mail or message me somehow, I'll do any game if you back it up with the promise of a donation!
I'm the kind of person who occasionally likes to go down to a pub and have a drink or two with a few buddies when I get the chance, I think that's great. That said, I'm not the kind of person who is into things like football (English football) or anything like that, I'm not all that much of a sportsman really.
So sometimes when I go down to the pub, nothing spoils it for me more than football being played so loud on a big projector with people yelling so loud that it's impossible to have a conversation. That said though I'm not the kind of twat who complains, I get that people like to do that but it just spoils the whole pub thing for me.
So in London, some absolute genius had the idea of setting up a gaming bar. It's basically like a pub but with computers in it and they show stuff like Starcraft 2 instead of football. This is great because if people are yelling over Starcraft and I can't have a conversation, at least I have something that I'm interested in to look at.
The other nice thing about this bar is that its very existence sort of dispels the myth of all people who enjoy games being anti social uber nerds which while not as widespread a view as it used to be, still exists, and that's sad.
It's not the only one too, off the top of my head I think there is one in Manchester (UK) called the Kyoto Lounge, but on account of not being in Manchester for a long long time, I've not been to it so I don't know if it's quite the same thing as the Meltdown bar, but I've heard about them showing Starcraft tournaments, so that's cool.
So if you live in London or Manchester, or if you have something similar in your area, had down and wet your whistle and support this shit. It's a great idea and it would be a damn shame if these efforts went under.
There are two countries that come to my mind when I think of silly laws when it comes to video games and they are Australia and Germany.
Big news story of the moment is coming out of Australia this time with yet another game being refused classification and therefore being made unavailable within the country. However this time, people have a reason to be slightly more pissed off than usual.
Ya' see, this isn't the first time games have been censored or banned in Australia. Things that pop into my head are Manhunt being banned and Left4Dead 2 being censored in the Australian version. But from January 1st of this year, a new age rating was introduced of R18+ for the purpose of being able to give violent video games a proper classification. This has worked for certain games like Ninja Gaiden 3, but not for this one.
So what's the problem with Saints Row 4? Well apparently the classification board doesn't like all the drug use flying around the game. This, coupled with all the rampant sex and violence means that the classification board have deemed it far too bad for Australian consumption and therefore it can not be sold.
So first of all, what is the point if having the R18+ classification if it doesn't cover this shit? Why bother going to the trouble of introducing that thing in January if you're just going to ignore it's existence a couple of months down the line. I'm pretty sure a rating of 18+ covers the games content just fine, it's not so bad that even adults shouldn't be allowed to see it, I'm sure the developers aren't that depraved.
The other thing is that if someone is going to take drugs after playing Saints Row, I'm pretty sure it's because they were on drugs anyway. It's not like someone is going to come away after a session and think "you know what! I really need to go do some meth!". I'm pretty sure the Australian people aren't that easily swayed into illegal activities.
I'm not Australian and I don't even like Saints Row all that much, but this is just stupid. The Australian ratings board needs to sort their life out and they should stop being so sensitive over tongue in cheek open world GTA clones for fucks sake. It's adults buying these games after all, and if kids do get a hold of it then you have a problem with shit parents, not violent video games, idiots.
Well hot damn, Steam managed to give me another awesome indie game for basically no money!
Anyway, The Bleed Pixels is an indie platformer created by Spooky Squid Games with strong lovecraftian themes but instead of a dark atmosphere and gritty tales of people going mad, they went for a game about a little girl killing the shit out of monsters in her dreams.
The story is very thin on the ground and is told through a couple of still images in between each chapter and contains absolutely no text or spoken dialogue. From what one can tell in the first couple of screens, the story follows a young girl as she arrives at Lafcadio Acadamy for Troubled Young Ladies and she finds some kind of book that gives her nightmares.
The game play is very simple, with a sort of mix between Super Meat Boy and Devil May Cry if you boiled the game play down to one button combat on a 2D plane. Half of the game you spend navigating platforms and desperately trying not to fall into massive spike death pits, and the other half of the game you spend comboing the levels monsters to earn enough blood gauge so you can drop down another checkpoint.
It's quite short with a prologue, an epilogue and 3 chapters with 3 levels each, but the later stages can be extremely challenging so don't expect things to be a walk in the park. There are also so bonus stages and a staggering 126 in game goals to complete so it's not like you don't get your money's worth.
So check out They Bleed Pixels on Steam. I like it so much maybe I'll do a playthrough!
This was something I was supposed to talk about a long time ago but I got side tracked.
So Call of Duty: Ghosts got quite a bit of flak from people with taste after E3. They made a big deal about this stupid dog and how you will connect with it on an emotional level or some such nonsense and then proceeded to show absolutely no game play at the major press conferences, at least none that I remember.
Then during E3 I found a game play clip that pretty much sealed the fact I'm never going to buy this game, and I'll show it to you.
Are people actually serious about this goddamn game? There are so many problems with that trailer it boggles my mind. How does a dog do that? How does one dog freak out a room full of trained soldiers to the point where the break the bloody door down and allow themselves to be shot in the back of the head.
The people who think these kind of scenes are cool are either idiots or just underage. It's been the same with pretty much every Call of Duty where all the set pieces are just either designed to shock the user or to imitate popular action flims.
I personally got sick of CoD a long long time ago, but this bit of footage really shows just how stupid the series has got. It's probably still a ton of fun to play for the people who like these games, and I bet the multiplayer is a blast but I'm not going anywhere near this game upon release.
Guess that means I better stream every single one of them!
That's right! I'm starting up my stream again with a bit of a Final Fantasy marathon, starting with FF1 and working my way through the series (even the shit ones)
So come join me in my journey through one of the most famous RPG series ever at
Also while I'm doing it I'll try and think up some incentives for people to donate. These might be things like naming characters or telling me to beat certain sections with certain party members. I've already set up some stuff on the page so you can go check that out for more information. Hope to see you on
We finally have our first blog post that comes with a theme song
Well, maybe only the chorus.
ANYWAY! News is that Microsoft have pulled the biggest backpedalling 180 degree turn and basically removed their DRM plans from the Xbox One.
So from what I can figure out by looking at various news sites, they have got rid of the 24 hour internet connection things and the limitations on game sharing and used games.
What they have said about the 24 hour connecting thing is that when you first set the console up, you will have to do a online set up thing and after that you can play it on or offline as much as you like. The first time set up thing still sounds like a pain in the arse for me because those things never go smoothly, but it'll probably be fine for most people.
They have also said that games will work the same way that they do today. There won't be any of this install the game to the system and then never need a disc again bullshit. You throw the disc in the tray and play the goddamn game. When you are done playing the goddamn game, you can trade it in or lend it to a friend or do whatever the fuck you want with it, and that's great. Also games that you download will be playable offline but you will not be able to share them, but we weren't able to do that with the 360 so it's not so bad.
Finally they got rid of that stupid fucking region lock thing. Originally they were planning to only allow the console to work in something like 21 countries, but now that they got rid of that 24 hour connecting thing they don't have to do that, so now the Xbox One will work wherever the fuck you are. However I don't think it means that imported games will work, I think region locking on games is still the same.
So well done game fans, you did a good thing! All the rage that came from E3 caused Microsoft to take a step back and realise that they can't just abuse consumers like this. Maybe this outcry will also send a message to publishers that we won't stand for bullshit season pass stuff too!
Of course, the Xbox One is far from perfect and there are still plenty of questions to be answered, but at least this news is a step in the right direction. Within the space of a couple of news articles I think Microsoft got a lot of people to at least consider buying the thing now.
I hear a lot of bad things about Gamestop, but after doing a bit of shopping in my local Stockholm branch, I'm not seeing any of the terrible service stories that I hear so much about online, that must be an American thing.
There is one thing that really pisses me off though and that is the stupid little extras they try and offer you when you purchase a game. Yesterday I found that they were having a sale, so I was picking up a cheap game and as I'm paying the person says "Do you want to protect it for a little extra?"
Not only was I not told how much extra it would be, but I don't even know what the fuck that means. What can they possibly do to my game to "protect" it? Do they mean there are going to give me some kind of insurance so that if I fuck it all up I can replace it?
I've been gaming since I was 4 years old and NEVER have I personally fucked up a disc to the point where it wont work. I don't know anyone who would treat their games so badly that they disc would stop working and I don't think anyone on earth in their right mind would do that, so this game "protection" thing just seems like a massive fucking con.
I fucking hate retail, the amount of trouble and bullshit I've had with shops like GAME and Gamestation in the UK makes me seriously hope that the company goes under. Since Gamestop is also into conning people I think they should piss off too. Digital downloads or online shopping is the best way to go, you don't get pricks offering you useless bullshit or acting unprofessionally.
Maybe I'll share some GAME horror stories one day...
What's funny about Antichamber is that a few days ago I showed my friend the infamous dog clip from the new Call of Duty, and in a moment of despair he said to me "Find me a modern game that won't make you stupid" Then it's as if the heavens opened and gave me Antichamber in a Steam sale.
Antichamber is a puzzle game like no other made by one dude who spent a good amount of time and effort creating something that will completely fuck with your brain. Now don't get me wrong, I have not spoiled anything for you by telling you that Antichamber is going to fuck with your brain because even if you know what kind of game it is going in, it's still going to mind fuck you sideways.
There is no story, no opening cut scene or anything like that, you are just plonked in a small room with an options menu, a map, a mostly blank wall and a window staring at an exit. It is then up to you to explore, solve puzzles and just generally figure out what the hell you are supposed to do.
Puzzles in Antichamber are extremely clever and basically come in two flavours. One is bog standard logic puzzles where you use a gun type thing to manipulate cubes to do certain things like open doors or call elevators. Then there are these strange lateral thinking puzzles that require you to do all sorts of weird thinking outside the box shit that you never usually have to do with a video game. A lot of the time the block puzzles will be combined with these lateral thinking puzzles to create something truly fiendish.
On top of solving puzzles you also have to deal with navigating your way round the maze of non euclidean space which may have you backtracking round certain areas without you even realising it.
Now I'm going to stop talking about this game here because it would be a damn shame if my gushing ruined the experience for someone. I'm just going to finish by saying that Antichamber is a truly brilliant little game that you absolutely must experience for yourself. It's pretty cheap on steam so you don't have to break the bank to play one of the best games of 2013 so far.
I've not played an MMO for a long long time. I tried something that I forgot the name of when I first started this blog but I lost interest in that game pretty much the moment after I made the post about it, so here I am giving MMOs another chance with Tera: Rising.
Tera used to be a pay to play MMO that went free to play because monthly subscriptions on MMO games seem to only work for World of Warcraft now and any other game that tries that shit tends to die pretty quickly. That said, after giving a brief look over Tera's free to play features, they don't seem too limiting and it looks like you can still have a good time without spending a penny.
Anyway, first thing first I made my dude. There seems to be a lot you can do with the character creator, but there is this weird bug that people are getting at the time of writing where if you take too long it crashes, but I don't care anyway so I just went with some presets.
So after making some fat demon thing with an axe I took my first steps into Terra. I was glad the game actually had a functional and fairly easy to use interface from the get go. I have played a lot of free MMOs where the UI just flat out doesn't work or it's so confusing that it takes you 10s of minutes to work out how to do basic things.
So the combat is all in real time and it's a bit action gamey which is really cool, but as far as I know this isn't a new thing anymore, but either way it's pretty fun and seems like it'll be interesting once I get some skills for my Berserker.
I've not played it enough to really comment on what it's like but right from the get go there is one thing I really really like.
When you are swapping out new gear, it tells you what the thing you currently have equipped is like compared to the thing you are looking to equip. There are so many games, both single and massively multiplayer that DON'T do this and it really fucks me off, so one step in Tera's favour is that it has this feature.
So far, smooth combat, nice graphics that run well on my piece of shit laptop, voice acted cutscenes and all sorts of other cool shit mean that Tera is gearing up to be quite fun. Finally the cash shop looks like it's all cosmetic stuff rather than Pay2Win dogshit, but I've not had a good look round it yet so maybe I'm wrong. Either way, fun little game, I'll keep everyone posted!
So everyone is flipping their shit over Xbox One not supporting used games and needing to phone home every 24 hours and other shit like that. At the same time Cliff Bleszinski, the games industries uber twat, went on twitter and said that it's basically impossible for used games to exist with development costs being so high.
But then I went and found an article on Polygon. This was an interview with Reggie from Nintendo and he basically said that if developers are worried about used game sales, then they should make better games.
I fucking love that Reggie stood up and said that. I'm no Ninendo fanboy but Reggie absolutely hit the nail on the head here. The reason games are getting traded in so often and people are buying shit used is because the "AAA" games that get pumped out nowadays are all fucking garbage. Six hour cover based corridor shooters with tacked on multiplayer is not something your average person wants to keep in their collection for any longer than they have to.
There are probably shit tons of used Nintedo games flying around. In fact, there were so many Wii games being traded in at my local game stores that about 90% of my Wii games were used. But what's nice to see is that Nintendo is saying that if there is a problem with used games, it's because they are producing shit games, rather than just blaming the gamers or retail or lying about production costs. Hell, you could probably cut costs by just taking your time and producing something of quality rather than breaking the bank on advertising for your shitty game.
So well done Reggie, well done for taking responsibility for the shit you produce. I hope other people start to think like he does and not just start blaming customers when your shit game doesn't do very well.
Yet another post regarding the Xbox One blunder train. It's like Microsoft really hate money
The story is that Microsoft have released a list of countries that Xbox Live is supported in upon the launch of the Xbox One and that list isn't exactly very big. In fact, part of the reason that the list is so small is because Microsoft have said that Xbox One won't work in Asia AT ALL at launch.
However, they have said that the Xbox One will be getting supported in Asia some time in late 2014, but Japan hasn't been mentioned at all for a release. So that one billion lifetime unit sales seems like a bit of an insane pipe dream now that you just cut half the world out of buying your console.
But this affects me personally, allow me to explain.
Right now I'm in Sweden, and I'm getting married to a Japanese person in a few months time. Then, if everything goes to plan, I'll be in the UK for two years before moving back to Japan with my wife and settling down there.
So, if I buy an Xbox One (which I won't now but hypothetically speaking) I would be locked out of my game collection upon my move to Japan because Xbox Live isn't supported there and I wouldn't be able to verify my games.
What the actual fuck Microsoft, what the fuck is your goddamn problem. I get why they are doing it, it's not like the Xbox 360 did very well in Japan but to just deny the entire country access to it AT ALL is just dumb when your shooting for such massive lifetime sales figures. What's even worse is that if you are like me, and you live in a supported country but then move to a non supported one for some reason, Microsoft will not let you play the games that you fucking paid for.
The worst thing about this whole situation is that it could have been completely avoided if you just didn't have that fucking stupid 24 hour verification thing. Sure, I might have not been able to play online in a region not supported by XBL but at least I would have been able to PLAY MY FUCKING GAMES.
I hadn't cut the possibility of getting an Xbox One completely out of my life because I wanted Crimson Dragon and Dead Rising 3, but after hearing this, Xbox One can officially go fuck itself. Evidently Microsoft don't want my money, fucking morons.
BONUS KICK TO THE DICK! Here is what Don Mattrick thinks about people who can't get stable connections
I feel like I'm offering myself up for gruesome sacrifice with this one, but it annoys me so much it felt good to get it off my chest. It's all in a video this time, I was upset and it was 2am when I filmed it, so I might write something more coherent on the same topic later, but for now, enjoy!
Don't freak your shit! I'm not against used games or anything like that, in fact I'm super happy the PS4 is supporting used games, in fact I was happy with pretty much all of those announcements they made at that press conference.
But the reaction to that news struck a nerve with me and while it was good news the crowd reaction to it made me a little upset.
Think about it, used games have been a thing since gaming was a thing, people sharing their collections and enjoying games together or trading in old titles to play the latest ones, it was great. But it has now gotten to a point where companies have gotten so greedy that they don't want us to do that anymore and they are willing to force any amount of bullshit on us to make us shell out top dollar just to play their games.
The PS4 supporting used games shouldn't have been applauded because it's fucking STANDARD and it's a shame that the industry has got to the point where something as normal as used games has become big news. You don't see the movie industry desperately trying to stop used DVDs like the games industry tries to stop used games and it's sad.
So good job Sony, not doing this whole used game DRM dogshit, and hopefully the reaction at E3 painted a good picture to the rest of the industry of how that crap will not fly. Looks like the WiiU, PS4 and PC are the ways to go for this coming generation.
I managed to stay up long enough to watch all the conferences but for some strange reason the Internet has completely died in the apartment. Hopefully it will start working soon and I can upload the last 2 E3 videos...
Microsoft gave it their all on that stage out there today, and to be honest I think they did a good job! Check out the video to hear my thoughts on what went down
Tomorrow is the start of the E3 press conferences!
Tomorrow Sony, Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft are going to hit the stage and deliver some press conferences before the main event kicks off officially on the 11th.
It's going to be an extremely interesting show as Microsoft have to clean up the mess they made with the Xbox One reveal and Sony still have to prove that they are not quite as stupid as Microsoft when it comes to design decisions for their system.
EA and Ubisoft I don't really care all that much about, in the past I've never been hyped for their conferences and I've always been a little bored and disappointed when I end up watching them, but that won't stop me from watching them this year and hopefully we'll get some good games out of them.
So you can expect to see little podcasty vlog type things like I did with the One reveal for each conference and I'll do them as soon as I can once I've watched them. The problem is that I do have a chance of missing the start of the Microsoft one since I'm getting on a cruise ship today and I don't know if I'll be back for the start, but so far everything seems good for me catching the whole thing. If I do miss it, I'll make sure to get myself up to speed by finding a recording before I go commenting on it.
So let's all get hype and break out the coffee and energy drinks because I know I'm going to be up until 5am to watch all the conferences tomorrow.
Well I heard Sonic: Generations was pretty good but I've not played that so whatever...
Anyway! Sonic Dash was a game I downloaded on my iPod Touch in a moment of boredom simply because it was a free application and it had a character I recognised. What I was expecting was another shitty Sonic game, just because he gets a game on mobile systems doesn't mean that will save him from shittyness.
What I got was something that was actually pretty fun to swipe away for short bursts while doing things like taking a dump or waiting for the bus, so it was a pleasant surprise. It's not like this games success is all its own though, since it's basically a rip off of the massively popular Temple Run app but it does a couple things differently enough to differentiate itself.
Basically you swipe the screen to move, collect rings for upgrades and just try to build a high score. You can then share your scores with your friends, most of which probably don't care, but the option is there in case you have a group of sonic lovers in your facebook friends list.
There are plenty of games on the app store that go around ripping off Temple Run but that game is pretty fun so I'll take a Sonic themed version of that over most of the garbage Sonic games that get released for big proper consoles.
Sonic fans can rejoice as Sonic Dash marks the second recent Sonic game that doesn't make people want to throw up and smash things in a fit of rage, but as fun as this is, mobile gaming is still a load of absolute bollocks so it's not like Sonic Dash will be remembered after a year or two.
So we have heard about everything we could want to hear about the upcoming Xbox One, and everything we have heard so far has been fucking awful.
With E3 round the corner you think this would be a good chance for Microsoft to clear the air, justify their decisions, talk to the fans and sort this mess out. So what do they decide to do? Cancel their post-press conference meeting with gaming media at E3.
Now I'm no PR expert and I'm more than willing to admit I'm wrong about this if I am, but to me this seems like a fucking TERRIBLE idea. Part of the problem with this big shit storm is that people aren't really getting solid facts, just this sort of vague stream of information that we don't like.
Recently I've been hearing stuff like you can share your game library with your Xbox "Family" which can only include 10 people or some such nonsense and it's not like that makes the whole thing any better.
So everyone is getting upset about the vague, crap information that we currently have, and the post-show round table seems like a great time to talk to the gaming press and get some good hard facts out there to maybe make your system not seem like a complete waste of time. So WHY THE FUCK would you just run away from that? What the hell is wrong with you?
My guess is that they realised how bad they fucked up on this one and facing the press must look like suicide at this point. I've been hearing all sorts of rumours about rushed production and games not being ready but sources for that are unreliable at best, but if it IS true then it makes sense why they don't want to talk to anybody, it'll just make them look even worse.
Also there are a number of people on the internet saying stuff like "Well the PS4 has been pretty tight lipped about similar issues" and while you may be right, that is the key difference here. PS4 has been talking about games while Xbox has just had TV and sports with a little bit of doom and gloom.
Maybe I'll be just as outraged about the PS4 after E3, maybe some miracle will happen and the Xbox One will look great after E3, but right now, the Xbox looks like shit and Microsoft look like idiots.
This is something that popped up on Steam recently, and while I don't see the point, I fucking love it.
Steam Trading Cards is a feature that hit sometime last month I think and from what I can tell it's a feature where you can earn things like chat emoticons and other features for your steam profile.
The system is very simple, certain games have card drops attached to them and by playing these games you get the cards. Every game has a card drop limit of 3 or 4 but there are 8 cards in a set, so to get the full set of cards you must trade or use the steam marketplace in order to get the badge. When you get the badge you unlock a load of stuff to use on your profile so you can customise your shit with a load of themed virtual goodies.
I personally think this whole thing is a load of shit and don't see the point, but that said all the cards are steam marketable, so I have no problem selling them off for a little bit of spare change to go towards my next game purchase, so there is some good that comes out of this whole thing even for those who don't really care.
Also if you have a Steam account above level 10 you can get foil card drops, but the only purpose I've seen for these is selling for insane amounts of dosh on the Steam market. Still, I think they did a great job here of providing a fun and free little extra then benefits everybody, it'll be interesting to see what direction this thing takes when it comes out of beta.
Usually I stay well the fuck away from facebook games. These things don't really seem like games, just gem matching time wasters for people to whittle away hours on and then brag about their not really high scores.
But then Plants Vs Zombies Adventures came along and piqued my interest. The original Plants Vs Zombies was something I picked up on Steam during a sale a long long time ago and I was pleasantly surprised with how fun that ended up being. So when I heard there was a PvZ game on Facebook I felt compelled to give it a try.
Well if you were a fan of the Original this game is a lot more similar to classic tower defence games. You have a path that the zombies walk down and you place your plants along those paths to take them out. If they reach your RV/House then you lose and if you kill them all you win. The good thing is the games adventure mode seems to have a metric fuckton of levels despite only being in Beta and I can only assume more stuff will be added at a later date.
The other key feature of this game is the whole home garden thing.
You see, unlike the original PVZ you can't just unlock the plant and then use it. You must first grow and stockpile an army of plants to use in the levels on this home screen. Planting plants isn't free though, so you hae to spend coins that you earn from the houses that you build, but building houses costs zombucks which you can earn from fighting zombies. Luckily the game starts you off with a nice amount of coins and zombucks so you won't find yourself struggling for resources. There are also diamonds which is this games micro transaction but it's used mainly for speeding things up and you don't need to pay to actually do well at the levels.
All things considered it's actually a pretty fun game. You can add your friends as neighbours and help them out or send a horde of zombies to their gardens to mess them up so they did a good job of making the social element fun rather than crap and obnoxious although I've not really used it much.
So if you're like me and you have reservations with facebook games, then throw them aside and give this a go, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Well, here begins a new playthrough! My friend was willing to donate £5 per Commander Keen game that I beat in the Commander Keen Complete Pack on steam, so here I am.
Also that same friend made me that cool little image for the playthroughs, so expect to be seeing that more often.
Well, I don't really need to go on and on like usual, I'll just provide the video.
Think of this post as part 2 of things I found inside Swedish arcades.
So if you remember a long long time ago, I made a post talking about stat cards in Japan. I used a picture of my old E-Amusement pass as the image and it looked like this.
Just so those who didn't read that post last summer don't have to dig through the archive, these cards are used for certain games inside Japanese arcades for tracking your play records and unlocking new things within the games.
Now if you look back to the first picture, you may notice there is a card reader strapped to that crazy taxi machine, but it's not for stat cards. Sweden, unlike Japan or the UK doesn't have this nice convenient coin that you can just drop in like a £1 or 100 yen. If my memory serves me correctly, the standard price for 1 credit in the arcade was something really awkward like 16 Kroner or some such nonsense so you have to swipe some kind of credit card in the machine in order to get a credit.
At least I think that's how it works, I don't know any Swedish and the one Swedish guy I do know doesn't know anything about games. Still, the awkward pricing of arcade games out here just makes me yearn for a good Japanese game centre or even just a simple Time Crisis cabinet in a British cinema that takes a single fucking coin.
