Developer Cave has churned out some amazing shmups. Amazingly hard and amazingly great. Have a gander at MUSHIHIME SAMA FUTARI and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou. Truly stuff for the utterly devoted. People who are so into Cave shmups that they'd pay ¥44,500 (US $430) for a cardboard box! This isn't just any old cardboard box, but a Cave cardboard box which has Cave's Muromachi era shooter Guwange written on the outside. It also has DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou handwritten on it as well. Meaning? This cardboard box was used to send out a Guwange arcade board in 1999 and then presumably a DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou one in 2002. It's not just cardboard! It's Cave cardboard, dammit! Not sure I'd pay four large for it, but I do understand. When I met Cave's resident genius Tsuneki Ikeda, I asked for his autograph, and I never do that.

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