This is it, guys! After patiently waiting three interminable months, THE cabinet is finally arrived right away from Japan by container, to the seller's place in the Netherlands. The time has come for me to bring back that Japanese lady from Netherlands into my game room in Belgium. Oh, should I really have to name it? I'm sure you all know what game I'm talking about... DARIUSBURST EX / AN OTHER CHRONICLE!

Back in 2011, I had a crush on that cabinet/game after seeing many videos of the game play, reading so many positive reviews ... and technically, what a piece of hardware : double 16/9 screen 'a la Galaxian Theater', massive bass speaker inside the seat, 4 players... and a cabinet shape that kills everything around! At least, something 'modern' and really exciting is catching my interest! ...oh, and of course... its name : DARIUS !!! What a license! Taito, by this game, truly made a beautiful tribute to the Darius franchise by creating this new iteration of the game : deep game play, various mode, scoring & competitive playing, biggest 'end of level boss sprites' ever seen in a video game, hypnotic soundtrack (by Zuntata) & awesome sound effects, this modern shoot'em up has everything I love!

I eventually had the opportunity to try it for the very first time during the Eurocade in September 2014, and as expected, it was love at first sight game! I also had to opportunity to buy that one during Eurocade, but it wasn't the right time for me.
And later, I got the opportunity to buy an other one, following an offer I couldn't resist. Deal done!

We are in September 2014... and all I've to do is to wait that beast to be imported from Japan by the seller.

it's now December 2014... it's Christmas time, and ... my long awaited gift has arrived!

19th of December 2014...5h30am, somewhere in South Belgium...

An other road trip to come. Usual 'basic stuff' to get on the road...

tools, straps and various protection stuff in there...

it's raining like hell this morning! I'm now waiting for my teammate of the day...

Here he is... SAM! Not sure to park your car on the grass is a good idea with a such rainy weather...

6H20 (yeah! my car is still set on 'summer time'). The truck rental agency office opens at 7h00am. We are on schedule so far.

On the way to luxemburg, which is my daily way to go to work by the way, but a wayyyy much exciting today :-)

Here is the truck I rented for this roadtrip! lifegate mandatory as you can guess!

...For my roadtrip statistics...

Go to the Netherlands! 400km to go... this is a "medium-size" one according my criteria :-)

One day I'll check what's behind this "18 Arcades" :-)

Dawn! I really shoud understand why my nav car system leads me in Liege downtown!
Is there no way to avoid this town? We are loosing times here...

...at last this give us the opportunity to see the "mothership" factory of the national belgium beer : the jupiler!

THe Netherlands border...we are extremely happy...Yeah yeah, the dariusburst, but also...

...THIS! Each time I go the netherlands, I have to eat such things!

So tasty! you can find them at "almost" all gas stations over here! miam maiam :-)

Speaking about food, Sam has not forgotten to bring a good provision of my farovite drink...

OK, here we are. Welcome to RKLOK "Japanese games & consoles"

The dariusburst is partially assembled, just enough to test it... which Sam is alreading doing it as you can see

The other Dariusburst parts... nothing is missing, perfect!

I'm extremly happy! The Dariusburst looks brand new and plays pefectly...hell yeah!

Loading the game with the lifegate is a piece of cake, but to secure all the parts with straps can takes a while...

And the Sam's Christmas gift : this SEGA Asto city!

All is there...it's time to leave

...but before to take the road to Belgium, let's eat...

... nice place...nice food, but we would have preferred to eat "frikakel" again, like the ones at the gas station...

Next step, going back to belgium, to the Sam's house.

Nothing special on the way back... except traffic jam, especially at liege downtown! Damn it!

And finally arrived at the Sam's house...

...where we are now unloading his new toy!

Arriving now at my place. It was supposed to be a quick road trip, but's already 8H30pm...Damn it!

Let's start to unload all the parts...

All the parts are now unloaded, except the major one ->

And what I feared happened ... the cabinet is too wide for my door I planned to use (V2 door)!
See how one of the monitors takes space on the back of the cabinet ->

Fortunatelly, removing the monitor is a piece of cake, but we just wanted to avoid doing this after a road trip, tired and potentially under the rain...

Removing this monitor cache is not enough...

...we have to remove the entire monitor assembly!

THIS IS IT! all the DariusBurst parts are now safe inside my game room!

This roadtrip is not totally done for us. The Sam's car is mired in the mud, ouch!

I had to push his car... and here's the result!

Should I have to use my brand new 'DariusBurst Towel' to wipe me? Naaaaaaa! :-)

OK guys, this road trip is officially over!

DISTANCE DRIVEN : 873 km
Roadtrip time : 15 hours 35 minutes
Countries visited : Belgium -> Luxembourg -> Belgium - > the Netherlands -> Belgium -> Luxembourg -> Belgium


NOW CHECK OUT THE DARIUSBURST ASSEMBLY