ExA-Arcadia

The exA-Arcadia (Japanese: エクサ・アルカディア, Hepburn: ekusaarukadia), stylized as exA-Arcadia and also known as exA, is a ROM cartridge-based arcade system board released on November 27, 2019, by the Japanese game company of the same name, exA-Arcadia.
The exA-Arcadia originally launched as a JVS conversion kit for existing coin-operated arcade cabinets. With its games stored on self-contained solid state media cartridges, a game cabinet can easily be changed to a different game title by swapping the game's cartridge and cabinet artwork. The exA-Arcadia offers owners the ability to put up to four different cartridges into a single cabinet. This unique feature was a key economic consideration for operators with limited floorspace, as well as saving money long term by only needing to buy a new game kit rather than a whole new game cabinet.
The exA-Arcadia was marketed as the most powerful modular arcade system upon its release compared to contemporary rival arcade systems such as Taito's TypeX series and Sega's RingEdge 2. For single threaded processing under Unity's benchmark testing, it has achieved higher performance than Sony's PlayStation 5 console.
exA-Arcadia was developed with the concept of bringing traditional joystick based arcade video games back to arcades of any size on a global scale, providing game content solely for arcade locations to drive foot traffic & sales and solving the Japanese business model issues surrounding overseas game availability of Japanese arcade titles and purchasing expensive new game cabinets while also enforcing high network revenue share fees imposed on Japanese game centers. Until the introduction of exA-Arcadia, outside of Japan, new arcade game releases focused on deluxe sized arcade cabinets in the gun shooting and racing genres with retail prices starting over US$12,000 and they could not be converted to other titles while traditional joystick arcade games were no longer sold by any arcade manufacturers. In the last decade of Japanese arcade releases, traditional arcade games have mostly been inferior ports from console first titles such as Capcom's Street Fighter V releasing 3 years after the console version with additional input latency and performance issues and Bandai Namco's Tekken 7 which is missing the console version guest character, Negan from The Walking Dead. exA-Arcadia aims to eliminate these market problems by providing industry relative affordable and definitive versions of games targeted for commercial usage in arcades.
In an effort to increase profitability on sales of arcade product, Japanese arcade manufacturers started to implement a fixed revenue share charge per play regardless of the initial cost of play in addition to the cost of purchasing a given arcade machine. Arcades are required to sign a leasing contract with the Japanese manufacturer in order to operate a given game. Thus, limiting the products to primarily arcades in Japan and Japanese corporations.
Starting with Sega's Initial D and Virtua Fighter 4 in 2001, the manufacturer charged 5 yen + consumption tax per play as a fee for arcades to connect to each game's online infrastructure such as VF.net.
Sega would continue this business model with the introduction of Virtua Fighter 5 in 2006 and charged for the arcade cabinet, arcade board, networking equipment, networking provider and increase the revenue share charge from 30 yen + consumption tax per play. Capitalizing on this trend with their NesicaxLive arcade platform in 2010, Taito implemented the same business model as Virtua Fighter 5 and increased the revenue share charge from 25 to 35 yen + consumption tax per play depending upon the title being played. In 2011, Bandai Namco implemented the same business model as Sega and Taito with the introduction of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 at 30 yen + consumption tax. However, unlike Tekken 6 and previous arcade fighting game titles where 1 arcade board could be linked with 2 arcade cabinets, in order to increase sales revenue, Bandai Namco required the purchase of 2 arcade boards for 2 player play which became an industry standard practice in Japan. Taito implemented the same business model with the introduction of their NesicaxLive 2 arcade platform.
On April 18, 2019, Sega started operation of their ALL.Net P-ras MULTI (APM3) arcade platform which charged for the arcade cabinet, arcade board, networking equipment, networking provider and increased the revenue share charge to 65 yen + consumption tax per play. Sega would later reduce the revenue share charge to 45 yen + consumption tax per play during the COVID-19 pandemic and due to the delay in the arcade release of Guilty Gear Strive which released after the console version.
The introduction of manufacturer revenue share for each play and the requirement of buying an additional arcade board for 2 players greatly increased operational costs for traditional arcade games, reducing their viability and profitability in Japan. This business model is not seen outside of Asia except for at Round 1 USA whom has moved machines from Japan and operate them as is. exA-Arcadia addresses these 2 issues by not charging any revenue share and allowing multi player play with 1 arcade board.
Development of the exA-Arcadia hardware was started in Fall 2017 and debuted at the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2018 show held in Makuhari Messe, Japan on February 9, 2018. The system's first title, Aka & Blue Type-R, which was developed by ex-Cave Interactive staff and the first shoot'em up to be sold in the arcade market since Dodonpachi True Death in 2012. Partnering with Microsoft, exA-Arcadia created a custom operating system which is based on a heavily modified version of Microsoft Windows similar to the Xbox line of consoles. It removes numerous pieces of the operating system to optimize game performance and input latency beyond the off the shelf versions of Microsoft Windows. Content partners announced at the show included newcomers: Tanoshimasu and Picorinne Soft as well as veteran arcade developers: G.rev, M2 and Seibu Kaihatsu. Then, at the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2019 show held in Makuhari Messe, Japan on January 25, 2019, the Japanese release date of Summer 2019 and distribution by Kyowa Corporation and Safari Games were announced. New content partners: Kadokawa, Sunsoft, NatsumeAtari, Tatsujin (Toaplan), RS34 (Milestone), City Connection (Jaleco/Psikyo/Success), Degica and others were also announced with 20 playable titles exhibited on the show floor. However, the release date was later delayed to November 27, 2019. At the show, it was announced that via Kadokawa, the 2D Fighter Maker 2nd engine has been exclusively licensed to exA-Arcadia and the first title from this partnership on the platform was announced to be Axel City 2. exA-Arcadia rebuilt the 2D Fighter Maker 2nd engine to use hardware graphics rendering and added new features such as 0.3 frames input latency. Pre-orders for the conversion kit were first made available to the Japanese market on September 4th, 2019. Pre-orders for the rest to the world opened up on November 2nd, 2019.
In March 2020, Cave Interactive joined exA-Arcadia as a content partner and the first title on the platform was announced to be Dodonpachi True Death EXA Label, it is also the first title in the EXA Label series. In Japan, distribution started to be handled by the prize manufacturer, Eikoh, while retail partners, Beep and KVClab, starting carrying exA-Arcadia product in their brick & mortar stores in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan from September 2020.
However, due to cancellation of events stemming from the widespread pandemic, the US trade show debut of exA-Arcadia was at Amusement Expo International (AEI) 2021 held in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 30, 2021. A deluxe sized American style cabinet with a 55" 4K display debuted at this event along with 24 games on exhibition. In April 2021, Team Arcana joined exA-Arcadia as a content partner and the first title on the platform was announced to be an updated version of Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars!!!!!! Xtend. In August 2021, SNK Corporation joined exA-Arcadia as a content partner and the first title on the platform was announced to be an uncensored version of Samurai Shodown V Perfect. In September 2021, Success Corporation joined exA-Arcadia as a content partner and the first title on the platform was announced to be Cotton Rock 'n' Roll which is the first arcade cross platform release on exA-Arcadia and Sega's ALL.Net P-ras MULTI Version 3 (APM3). Dave & Buster's and Round 1 USA would begin to operate exA-Arcadia conversion kits at a number of locations nationwide from the Fall of 2021. In September 2021, the first ever official Team Shanghai Alice licensed Touhou Project arcade game, Touhou Perfect Sakura Fantastica, would be released on exA-Arcadia in 2022.
At Shooters Fes 2022 held in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan on April 2, 2022, exA-Arcadia announced that over 1,000 games were in operation throughout the world and that through the creation of the new JVS' (JVS Dash) standard, they have improved input latency performance on the system to 1 frame or 16.6 milliseconds even on engines such as Unity. exA-Arcadia planned to roll out updates to existing game releases to take advantage of this breakthrough. At IAAPA Expo 2022 held in Orlando, Florida on November 15, 2022, exA-Arcadia debuted their new ARC-1 cabinet in 1, 2 & 4 player configurations and announced expanding their American distribution channels to nationwide distributors: AVS Companies and Shaffer Distributing. 32 games were exhibited on the show floor with a number of new in-development titles also available for play. In December 2022, Tatsujin, the current IP holders of Toaplan titles, announced that the first title on the platform would be Batsugun EXA Label, it is also the fourth title in the EXA Label series.
At the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) 2023 show held in Makuhari Messe, Japan on February 10, 2023, exA-Arcadia announced that they had improved input latency performance on the platform to 0.3 frames or 5 milliseconds – the fastest input response time of any modern console or PC. In Japan, GM Corporation (Japanese: 株式会社ジーエム商事) started distribution of exA-Arcadia product while Genda GiGO Entertainment who acquired all of the Club Sega locations began operation of exA-Arcadia conversion kits throughout Japan. In the US, distribution channels were further increased by major nationwide distributors: Player One Amusement Group (Cineplex Entertainment) and Moss Distributing. In India, CSML Group also began distribution of exA-Arcadia product. In Indonesia, PT Megaindo Gemilang Lestari also began distribution of exA-Arcadia product.
At Amusement Expo International (AEI) 2024 held in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 20, 2024, exA-Arcadia announced Tatsunoko Production joining as a content partner and a Samurai Pizza Cats collaboration in the game, Jitsu Squad. At Shooters Fes 2024 held in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan on April 6, 2024, exA-Arcadia announced that over 2,000 games were in operation throughout the world and that they had acquired the rights to Gazelle's games. The first Gazelle title to be released on the platform was announced to be Airgallet EXA Label with the original staff, Junya "Joker Jun" Inoue, returning to work on this remaster. Also announced, the second title from content partner Tatsujin who owns the Toaplan game rights is FixEight EXA Label with the original staff, Nanpei Kaneko, returning to work on this remaster. At EVO Japan 2024 held in Ariake GYM-EX, Japan on April 27, 2024, exA-Arcadia announced their new Japanese style sitdown cabinet dubbed the ARC-32 and 10 new fighting games which garnered over 3.5 million views on social media platform X, second highest of all announcements behind Capcom's Street Fighter 6 Akuma announcement at 5 million views. As of July 2024, exA-Arcadia is the only remaining Japanese arcade manufacturer whom still releases traditional joystick arcade games. At EVO 2024 on July 19, 2024, exA-Arcadia announced a partnership with Riot Games to produce arcade cabinets for their new fighting game, 2XKO. Announced on the Government of Japan's website on July 8, 2024, exA-Arcadia has solely acquired the rights to Vanguard Princess via a ruling made by the Government of Japan's Agency of Cultural Affairs. In July 2024, exA-Arcadia became the first foreign arcade company in history to be accepted as a member by the Japanese Amusement Industry Association (JAIA (Japanese: 一般社団法人 日本アミューズメント産業協会)).
exA-Arcadia has developed an extension of the JVS (JAMMA Video Standard) called JVS' (pronounced JVS Dash) which increases the communication speed of JVS to allow for dramatically more responsive controls in exA-Arcadia games and the fastest input latency of all modern consoles and PCs at 0.3 frames or 5 milliseconds. Even with modern game engines such as Unity, 1 frame input latency has been achieved with exA-Arcadia titles such as Aka & Blue Type-R.
The JAMMA Video Standard (JAMMA VIDEO規格, JVS) is a newer JAMMA connector standard also known as JAMMA2. The standard specifies a communication protocol based on RS-485 and physical interfaces for peripheral devices using commonly-available USB connectors and cables. Even though a USB Type-A to USB Type-B interface cable is often used, JVS is incompatible with USB devices because it does not use the USB signaling standard and protocol. JVS' requires I/O boards which can transmit at higher speeds
The JVS standard was originally established by JAMMA (Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association (Japanese: 一般社団法人日本アミュ一ズメントマシン協会, Hepburn: Ippan Shadanhōjin Nihon Amyūzumento Mashin Kyōkai) (formerly the Japan Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association (社団法人日本アミューズメントマシン工業協会, Shadanhōjin Nihon Amyūzumento Mashin Kōgyō Kyōkai), abbreviated JAMMA) and is currently maintained by the Japanese Amusement Industry Association (JAIA (Japanese: 一般社団法人 日本アミューズメント産業協会)) which was formed by the merging of JAMMA and the Amusement Machine Operators' Union (AOU (Japanese: 一般社団法人 全日本アミューズメント施設営業者協会連合会)) on April 1, 2018.
The first JVS' compatible I/O boards were released by exA-Arcadia and Thomas Daede in July 2022 coinciding with the release of Touhou Perfect Sakura Fantastica. Since then, the IONA series of JVS I/O boards (MP07 and MP12 series) are now also JVS' compliant. exA-Arcadia game titles released before JVS' was established require an update to be compliant with the new standard. Not all exA-Arcadia games have been retroactively updated for compatibility.
exA-Arcadia has developed 3 different cabinet styles since the system's introduction in 2019.
This cabinet model is the first cabinet produced in-house by exA-Arcadia in their American facility.
This cabinet model was produced with the US based Fun Company as a limited release in 2021 before being discontinued in 2022 and replaced with the more compact and economical ARC-1 cabinet.
exA-Arcadia titles are developed by in-house teams, 2nd party co-developments and 3rd parties. Early on, almost all titles were developed by 3rd parties. However, in recent years, the majority of game development has shifted to 1st party teams as exA-Arcadia expanded in-house development to 8 teams.
As of December 2024, there are 42 exA-Arcadia titles released.
The EXA LABEL series are shoot'em up or shmups titles of existing arcade games ported by exA-Arcadia in-house development teams aiming to be the definitive version of a given title. Titles in this series feature lower input lag than the original arcade version and subsequent console ports. Besides the original existing game modes, an EXA LABEL arranged game mode with significantly different gameplay and new arranged music are always included in each release. Japanese players have highly lauded these releases and continue to play these titles while submitting scores to the Japan High Score Association (JHA (Japanese: 日本ハイスコア協会)) on a monthly basis.
The Touhou Fantastica series are the first Team Shanghai Alice officially licensed Touhou Project shoot'em up or shmups titles for the arcade market and are supervised by the series creator, Zun. Each title in the series is co-developed with Team Touhou FDF and feature significant enhancements over the original doujin releases. All titles in the series to date have featured new voice acting and arranged soundtracks composed by Keishi Yonao.
Hawt Pink Club is an exA-Arcadia compatible arcade board focusing on adult arcade games and is developed by the Dutch company, Hawt Pink Club BV. This system made its debut at AVN Expo 2020 in January 2020. After this exhibition, no news would be announced until April 2021 in Japan where the company, Hacker Global, announced that it would start distribution of this product line. In July 2021 at Amusement Expo International, the system and games were exhibited in a private location.