Beat Machine pt. 5 - Beginning of Life
2016-06-13 21:06
I replaced the bootleg artwork on my IIDX machine with something way cooler. The previous owner had a reproduction PENDUAL How To Play panel and a reproduction PENDUAL marquee print taped over a legit Resort Anthem marquee. It was a pretty good print, but the paper sagged forward with no front acrylic to hold it, and if I had any spotlight bulbs you’d be able to see the RA marquee behind the print.
Since tricoro, IIDX marquees have been bare paper designed to be interchanged into a two-piece acrylic holder. Older marquees came embedded in the acrylic and you would swap out the entire plastic piece every time. I did manage to get my hands on a legit set of PENDUAL artwork and a friend offered to cut me a marquee holder at a very reasonable price, but I ran across a IIDX 1st Style artwork set for sale and decided to go full retro instead. Not only does it match my machine’s original configuration but I like how it is version-agnostic.
The 1st Style marquee has a transparent bottom half that really makes my machine’s missing spotlights noticeable, so that will probably be one of the next things on the fix list. It’s pretty cute how the marquee says “beatmania II™DX” since at the time they also made a non-DX version more the size of a 5key beatmania machine.
The 1st Style instruction card is very basic, just going over things like the button positions, how to time, and how the life bar works which is all still applicable to the newer versions. Its centered Konami and IIDX logos look really good.
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A Japanese B1 size arcade poster came along in the set but I need to get a frame before I can hang that up.