Here are the results from the October 3 Technika tourney at Sunnyvale Golfland.

Round One

Player	Here in the Moment	Divine Service	Jupiter Driving	Total
Chun	114012	109585	107432	331029
kay0ss	123001	113523	112423	348947
Fortunit	105772	97999	100460	304231
REV.V	122589	112946	106022	341557
NytStage	118049	113521	107978	339548
Robo	123257	113436	118164	354857
Spiritsnare	119471	113376	109296	342143
Jet Pack Johnny	103891	103158	106606	313655
FMF	115802	113513	113398	342713
Drayne O	121109	108361	102588	332058
>Judas	116611	113483	108934	339028
Beezee	115164	113485	118445	347094
Catalyst	116685	112270	106630	335585
Tsunderay	120993	111184	111796	343973

Round Two

Player	Love Mode	PDM	Fate	Total
Chun	88035	122226	95027	305288
Drayne O	86857	130899	96826	315772
Catalyst	86121	134596	101199	321916
Judas	85336	151788	96484	333608
NytStage	85833	142128	101638	329599
REV.V	88925	148677	101623	339599
Spiritsnare	79488	149690	101645	329225
FMF	88684	144668	100687	330823
Tsunderay	83534	130494	90995	305023
Beezee	87406	135463	97626	324301
Kay0ss	88926	157217	97626	343629
Robo	88482	152845	101373	342700

Round Three Left Swipe

Player	JBG	The Last Dance	Clear Blue Sky	Total
kay0ss	72197	146037	104573	322807
Robo	74600	147510	123235	345345
Rev.V	71755	148147	114786	334688
FMF	70523	142942	107322	320787
Judas	69930	151588	110384	331902
Spiritsnare	62942	127369	114546	304857
NytStage	69026	153700	110732	333458
Catalyst	63686	138068	107902	305686

(Beezee dropped out due to time issues; DJ Catalyst took his place.)

Round Four – Semi-finals (Core Sound)
Landscape – Coastal Tempo – Voyage – ??? on Reverse Swipe

Player	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Total
Judas	129114 Coastal Tempo	Failed Out	Failed Out	Failed Out	129114
NytStage	75741 Voyage	137539 Coastal Tempo	202083 Landscape	109146 Sin	524509
Rev.V	68267 Voyage	134522 Coastal Tempo	197602 Landscape	96863 Sin	497254
Robo	72438 Voyage	145946 Coastal Tempo	200096 Landscape	115258 Sin	533738

Finals (Heartbeat Set)
Remember – Stop – Blythe – ??? on Fade In, Blind

Player	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Total
Rev.V	199391 Remember	94913 Stop	176163 Blythe	195990 Colours of Sorrow	666457
Nytstage	199741 Remember	173938 Blythe	99484 Stop	79609 Colours of Sorrow - failout	552772
Robo	216745 Remember	105532 Stop	166346 Blythe	117991 Area 7	606614

Robo ended up getting Area 7; Corey and Robo ended up rematching because of it (because Area 7 has a much lower max score than CoS). Thus –

Sudden Death (Customizer)
Y – Shoreline – Sweet Shining Shooting Star – ??? on Random, Fade In, Blind

Player	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Total
Rev.V	213271 Y	225414 SSSS	120885 Shoreline	78302 Son of Sun - failout	637872
Robo	230623 SSSS	227115 Y	127969 Shoreline	185745 Sin	771452

Overall Rankings

Rank	Player Name	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Semis	Finals	Encore	Total
1	DJ CROOVE Robojosh	354857	342700	345345	533738	606614	771452	2954706
2	DJ REV.V Corey	341557	339599	334688	497254	666457	637872	2817427
3	DJ NYTSTAGE tehgenius	339548	329599	333458	524509	552772	-	2079886
4	DJ TOCCATA Miesteron	333608	331902	129114	-	-	-	1133652
5	DJ KKKKKKKK kay0ss	348947	343629	322877	-	-	-	1015453
6	DJ FMF gundamboi	342713	330820	320787	-	-	-	994320
7	DJ S.SNARE Spiritsnare	342143	329335	304857	-	-	-	976225
8	DJ CATALYST	335585	321916	309656	-	-	-	967157
9	DJ BEEZEE OMGTourettes	347094	324301	-	-	-	-	671395
10	DJ TSNDERAY gs68	343973	305023	-	-	-	-	648996
11	DJ DRAYNE Drayne O	332058	315772	-	-	-	-	647830
12	DJ CHUN Chun	331029	305388	-	-	-	-	636417
13	DJ JPJ JetPackJohnny	313665	-	-	-	-	-	313665
14	DJ FORTUNIT	304231	-	-	-	-	-	304231

Thanks to Robojosh for allowing me the use of his iPhone for liveblogging the event, and also congratulations to him for winning!

Oh, Golfland.

Even if you’re lying about the presence of laser tag and bumper cars, you still hold a place in my heart.

And speaking of In My Heart, hurry up and get Technika already. Thanks ♥

While chatting with Rome yesterday, he mentioned something about our blogs having not updated in a while. Not much has been going on in my life, other than the usual tedium of waking up, going to school, and going home, and perhaps hanging out with friends (sometimes referred to by my friend Tsubasa as “sociable nothing”) on the weekend. There are a handful of things that I can think of – none of which I can expand quite nicely upon.

This will be a post not unlike that of the Raymond Mar bullet-point variety: a collection of small (yet somewhat notable) things in my recent life.

• At Sunnyvale Golfland, beatmaniaIIDX 16 EMPRESS and GuitarFreaks&DrumMania V5 Rock to Infinity have been fully unlocked. On the IIDX front, Himiko (injoke aside) is, uh, a 12 on Hyper. Yes, I know that the song’s rated 11, but that’s called Konami Lying To Us. Also, Rock to Infinity (the song) is giving me a run for my money on Basic (88). And while I’m playing copious amounts of both, my time with pop’n music has suffered.
• Speaking of pop’n music, pop’n music 17 THE MOVIE officially released on March 4 after a small delay. The staff mention that the number of unlockables is to make up for the number of songs that were cut. Can I finally say hello to Water Stand songs on AC? Please?
• I recently got into Puerto Rico. It’s a pretty fun game. In fact, I’m considering whether or not I like it more than Die Siedler von Catan*.
• I started actually searching for and browsing stuff on pixiv, which is sorta like the Japanese equivalent of deviantART – the difference being that since I enjoy music game fanart and character fandom (it’s half the charm of pop’n music!), I get a lot more out of pixiv than I do out of deviantART. As an aside, I enjoy having 40 pages (registration required) of smooooch・∀・ parodies to look at, and I don’t know what kind of person that makes me.
• I’m still waiting for the full US release of DJ Max Technika. This week’s unveiling of the update at the Amusement Showcase International exposition in Las Vegas both kills me (I want to plaaaaaay~) and gives me hope for a prompt release of both the game and its online features (the update is scheduled to hit East Coast arcade hotspot 8 on the Break shortly after the show). In the meantime, I’ve found out that I can’t play a DJ Max Portable game anymore without thinking of Technika and how much more fun it would be tapping a screen as opposed to, essentially, DualShocking beatmania.
• I’ve started two JRPGs: one because one of its sequels is the hot thing of the moment, and one because I’ve been hearing hype about it and I’ve been meaning to try it out. Both are pretty fun.
• I watched one episode of White Album, which was interesting. I then rewatched half of Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! (I need to grab the other half from the aforementioned Tsubasa) and watched its OVA about three times. And, finally, an obligatory Clannad After Story update: I didn’t expect that, why’d they have to go there again?

* I like saying Die Siedler von Catan, as opposed to The Settlers of Catan…if only for my opinion that it sounds cooler.

DJ Max Technika, the arcade iteration of the successful Korean music game franchise, after successful location tests of the US version at two arcades in Southern California, has come up to Northern California as part of their second round, at Sunnyvale Golfland.

And damn is it fun.

The machine arrived on Monday, December 22, 2008, through the negotiation magic of Corey Prasek (Ver2), who arranged the location test with both Pentavision/PM Studios and SVGL. I arrived at SVGL at 1. Rushing into the arcade with Rome in tow, I found myself immediately stopped by Corey – “Not yet.” I resigned myself to several games of BlazBlue and beatmaniaIIDX.

Corey had some people help him tug the hefty machine into the arcade. It was more beautiful in person. After setting it up, I called my friend Mark to relay the message to the masses at Bemanistyle – it’s finally here!

By the end of the night, over 30 people had come to line up to play (or spectate) the game. The queue ranged anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours, depending on whether or not newcomers to the game underestimated the game’s difficulty (and failed on their first or second stage as a result). I had a chance to play about four games, not counting the attempt I made at the Customizer course (the hardest expert course in the game; I ‘passed’ Y as my first song, but failed the meet the quota – see below).

I originally planned for this post to be an introduction to Technika, but the post grew so big I sectioned it off into its own page! Take a look at the page here, and expect constant updates as I collect more info about the game.

I decided that perhaps some videos of early gameplay were in order. Here’s one, and you can find two more after the break.

1
magz v. Alt / Tsubasa v. Alt

2
Checkerpatch v. Alt / [Rachel] v. Alt

3
Ohsu/Renzo v. Alt / [Arakune] v. Alt