Exile`90

Guys at Insomnia.ca did a little write up about the upcoming Initial D game.

Read more at: http://insomnia.ac/japan/initial_d_arcade_stage_4/

Also check out their videos:

(videos removed)

Here’s a newish video from Initial D Arcade Stage 4:

Akagi Downhill Wet against Kenta (video removed)

2 ‘new’ videos:

Akina Lake (3rd person view) (video removed)

Akina Lake

Big thanks to whoever uploaded them to YouTube.

babylon from initial-d.com forums found this picture somewhere:

Another daily (?) update on IDAS4?

wow.. Just WOW.. (thanks to Hitokiri_Sephiroth for the link at initial-d.com forums)

Prepare 10 drinks.. Drink up every time Misako winks.. If you miss any (ie. you’re left with drinks after the PV is over) you have to start over again.. ;p

10 winks:

0:32

01:09

01:11

01:14

01:16 (ok, not too sure about this one but lets say it’s a wink) ;p

01:31

01:49

01:53 (another ‘maybe’ wink) ;p

02:37

02:46

How you feeling now? ;p

Rush_Evo7 from initial-d.com forums got a chance to play IDAS4 so here are his comments (reproduced with his permission):

• *The Card*
  -The second line, the one with “Club Sega,” appears to be exactly what I thought it would be. It’s the location you got your card at. Club Sega is a chain of video arcades in Japan.
• -The portrait there is YOU. It would appear that when you purchase a card you are give two random portraits. One male, one female. There may be a way to cycle through other faces, but I didn’t see it. Anyway, your portrait is shown in battle like the opponents in Ver. 3.
• *The Physics*
  -Really weird. It seems that when you put your foot back down after taking it off in the corner, you generate massive oversteer. But so the poor nooblets don’t have too hard a time the force feedback seems to flip, so your hands kind off instincively countersteer. Did that make any sense?
• -My biggest problem is that the brake doesn’t seem that important, though this could just be because everyone sucks so much right now that it’s hard to tell if were taking the corners right.
• *The Tuning*
  -I don’t quite know how one gets to the tuning garage, it seems to be random after your play, but I love it. You can choose to upgrade specific parts. As Kel posted earlier, the three categories are engine, handling, and body kit. The engine must be done in stages, but there are different parts to the engine that you can tune seperately, like transmission, exhaust, and muffler. I don’t know about handling, but I suspect it’s like the engine. However, the body kit is different. With that you can just choose whatever parts you want.
• -Points are given out like candy. I think I saw one guy get 105,000 points from one of the later races. No tuning happens automatically though. You have to select things to tune.
• *The Graphics*
  -I love them. Everything looks amazing. I don’t know what to add.
• *The Machine*
  -The buttons above start and view change arebasically used for selecting things, like the letters in your name, or which course you’ll race on.
• -I didn’t pay attention to the pedals, except when I noticed the barke seemed to have very little resistance when I stepped on it. I think they were like the old ID pedals.
• -I like where they put the shifter. It takes some getting used to, but it’s great there.
• -The wheel is nice. Very nice.

And the 2nd post by him:

On another note, due to “test service” being printed on the back of the card as well as in red on the front, I think this is just the test card. But note, only four courses on the test machines, but six spaces in the place that appears to have the area clear information. Perhaps they plan on updateing the betas before they’re done testing?

Ooo. I just thought of something I forgot. The online play. Not much to say here actually. It was just like good old versus battle, except that my opponents where in another part of Tokyo. I didn’t notice any lag. For the record, I’m 2-0.

3rd post:

Ah! Another thing popped into my head.

Currently it seems that only two modes are available.
-Legend of the Streets
-Internet Battle

Note that there are some grayed out options that I didn’t pay much attention to. I think there were two or three such modes. Next time I’m there I’ll try and see what they are.

Anyway, when you choose Interent Battle, it scans for opponents for like 20 seconds, and then if you don’t find any, it takes you to LotS where you can play while waiting to be challenged. Though I think it’s a fake LotS, because I swear I cleared Lake Akina but it doesn’t say so on my card.

Sounds interesting..

It seems like the test machines showed up at GIGO in Ikebukuro and at Club Sega in Shinjuku already.

Here’s a run down based on the following japanese sites: link1 and link2 (check the first link for pictures)

• Completly new cabinet with 16:9 LCD screen (as expected since Lindberg boards support HD resolutions).
• Location of the shifter, card reader and the coin mechanism moved.
• New buttons next to the Start and Change View buttons.
• Standard ID shifter, no clutch.
• Online play enabled.
• New cards. So far no option to transfer V1/2/3 cards. (as epected cause Sega doesn’t have any rights to the card reader used in the previous versions).
• Ability to change names and selection of the sex of the driver.
• New track: Akina Lake (basic track, easier than Myogi)
• Can change the color of the Buntamobile to blue (like in the 4th Stage anime?)
• Track selection seems to be based on the Project D arc. Posibility of all the tracks from the 4th Stage anime?
• FD upgrade to the new 4th Stage look?
• Ability to select what to upgrade with your points: engline, handling, body kit?
• No ‘eraser’ or ‘TST’
• New songs
• Other than the ability to change the color of the Impreza there are no new cars yet.
• Tracks in the test locations: Akina Lake, Akagi, Akina, Irohazaka
• Cars in the test locations: AE86 Trueno, AE86 Levin, AE85 Levin, FD3S, FC3S, S14, EVOIII, EVOIV, Buntamobile

There is probably more info on those pages but.. I don’t feel like going though the ditionaries to get the kanjis i don’t understand.. ;p

(if anyone is better than me in japanese feel free to translate it) ;p

Maybe I should reschedule my trip to Japan from April next year to maybe late Oct or Nov.. Just to hit some test locations to play around.. Just like I got a chance to play V3JP before it got imported to this side of the Pacific.. ;p

From The Magic Box:

Sega confirmed the company is working on a new version of its hit arcade racing game Initial D: Arcade Stage, the game will run on the Lindbergh board and it will be revealed later this year.

w00t, w00t, w00t!!

Thanks to hyt for the news!

And I guess I can make my ‘Project Myogi’ page public now.. (project retired)

It’s probably all out of date since I haven’t touched it since late April.

One of the guys I’ve known from various MoMusu related forums has passed away. :’(

My deepest condolences to his sister, his family and all his friends.

Thank you marimari for everything!