Cave's Akai Katana now available for home arcades

Allow us to dispel any casual thought of picking up an arcade cabinet and populating it with new games. Cave has put the circuit board for its latest arcade release, Akai Katana, up for sale on its international online shop. The price? 220,000 yen, or $2,597.73. Rather a lot of money for a single game -- one that requires you to already have a JAMMA-compatible cabinet, and one that's already been announced for a much cheaper home release.

However, there are some important mitigating factors to consider: for that $2,600, you also get a poster and a screwdriver shaped like a red sword (or ... akai katana, in Japanese), for use with the volume adjustment setting on the board.

The board available through the website is a special version of the game, intended for home use. It only supports free play, so owners can't charge quarters or tokens, and it has balance tweaks and an optional higher difficulty level, which weren't found in the arcade version.