A friend wrote a post looking at some of the history of Virtual On as well as what had taken influence from it. I like their coverage of games and thought folks here might too!
Yeah a local theatre was my first experience with it as well (and Sonic the Fighters next to it)! Far as I know all the cabs for it had the twin stick setup as that’s integral to the experience.
I was so frustrated the Masterpiece collection didn’t release outside of Japan, but at least it’s easy enough to get a copy of it, and it’s frequently on sale digitally. Just makes it harder to play with folks who aren’t already into it.