r/shmups • u/tenebrae420 • 7h ago

EXA Blues

Post image

This picture was taken when my EXA was running fine, sadly for the second time in its life it has to go back to EXA to have some work. Service is always excellent and hopefully after this return it will be good for years to come. I also have a special edition red Akai Katana EXA unit as well, I’m waiting on the color matched upgrade to become available for that. Still glad I got into the system and appreciate the high quality games.

61 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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5

u/homme_icide 5h ago

I have aka to blue on my phone. I have been playing shmups since I was around 7, I am now 43. I have never got past level one in that goddamn game. TBF, using my finger is probably the WORST way to play it lol.

1

u/solarized_dark 4h ago

You can kind of cheese it with autobomb if you just want to clear -- find a high density of bullets while holding a bomb and directly ram into them. The autobomb will clear enough bullets to recharge your autobomb again, so your downtime is only a second or two.

3

u/Sh00tTheCore 6h ago

My Exa unit has needed to go in for servicing once after the internal clock battery died. I'm glad that they've moved the clock battery to be externally mounted now on the updated units.

2

u/tenebrae420 6h ago

Yeah, that’s a good move, nice to be able to manage that ourselves.

1

u/NinpouKageBunshin 6h ago

That's a pretty brutal game to have a dedicated cabinet for, imo. You surely have greater skill than I!

Your having recently gotten service done on this machine has given me great curiosity in EXA. I had no idea it was a currently supported format

3

u/tenebrae420 5h ago

I also have Dodonpachi Saidaioujo EXA Label, so when the EXA is installed I have two games installed in the total of four slots. I guess you could say that’s two brutal games to dedicate a machine to. Having said that, right now it’s the Taito multi in an X2, once again I’m trying to beat level two of Crimson Clover in Arcade mode.

2

u/Loltoheaven7777 5h ago

this game deserved a switch port or something

1

u/glenjamin1616 4h ago

Sick setup, I'm personally hoping to buy an exa sometime after I've finished school. I've played a good amount of exa shmups at arcades and they're definitely some of the best shmup releases of all time. Low lag and actually great arrange modes (sorry M2). So far Akai Katana, SDOJ, and Fixeight are my favorites if what I've gotten to try but I really want to play Vritra Hexa and Cambria Sword AC

1

u/reflexson226 3h ago

How is aka? Is there an arrange mode? Brutally hard? I’m so tempted to get the same sdoj and aka combo. Also akai katana….basically exactly what you have hahaha.

2

u/monkeyDjim 2h ago

Beautiful stuff! Akai katana, aka to blue, and batsugun exa label are the 3 exa games I want to play the most. It’s too bad exa cabs are not as common here in the states at local arcades (at least the ones by me)