RaidenDX all ports should aim to this level of customization

[Turrican]

Well, I just got Raiden DX today. I've played raiden in the arcades and via emulation, but this is the first time I buy one.

I haven't taken more than a bite of the game so far, but I'm already impressed by the completeness of this package (the many options are all in english, luckily).

screen - it has four different zoom options for the vertical mode, tate mode and tateyoko. But what impressed me is the possibility to adjust the in-game menu's position, in order to avoid to have them too on the edge (crucial for playing on a Eur TV). I remember seeing this feature only in R-Types before.

Controls - completely customizable: you can even choose the rate at which rapidfire button shoots. (!)

replays - from what I see, you can save a replay of your best play, although this is gonna cost you some serious space on the memory card.

extras: I can already choose between two different soundtracks, and I've read there's another (Viper Phase 1's) to unlock.

In short, I have never seen a vertical ported with the same amount of care. This is especially impressive for a Playstation 1997 game. In my (admittedly limited) vertical experience, only recent titles like Ikaruga or Psyvariar CE do come near in terms of customization. Does it get any better than these?

I'll post my thoughts on the game when I'm a bit deeper into it. ^_^

[NoboruWataya]

I remember seeing this feature only in R-Types before.

Iky has that option.

[Rob]

Does it get any better than these?

DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou / ESP Galuda.

[Turrican]

Newest Cave stuff, eh? Makes me so interested in modding my PS2...

Why these Cave shmups don't get a PAL release just like Psyvariar? Perhaps rights cost too much?

Anyway, just completed the "training" stage (score 793390). Training my butt. If this is "training" I am scared by the rest of the game.

Oh, well, at least now I have another OST to choose from! Yay!

(edit: huh, no, I talked too early. No Viper score for me just a "master of raiden" thing, I suppose it's a super play video... damn)

[Zhon]

If it doesn't even get a US NTSC release, it won't get a PAL - the former is much less expensive, and arguably has a larger market.

[landshark]

I'm not sure if it's after you finish the Advanced course or the Training course - but go check your special menu. There will be a new option to watch "Master of Raiden."

They go through the training course and get more points than you knew existed.

I'd still like to know what all the bonuses and shit are in the score tally screen after you die/win.

But yes, a great game. Which is making me want the RF series even more.

[Turrican]

Yeah.. I watched that "master of Raiden" guy... he does around six millions points, uncanny! I'm lucky that I survived the last boss, actually: I had only a pair of cluster bombs with me.

And I even got the Viper Phase score: apparently it didn't unlock until I tried the novice & expert courses.

Yeah... It's a cool game. the closest I have played to this game is some toaplan stuff (Twin Hawk for MD) and Strikers 1945 II (which apparently took the "get the shiny medal" idea from here)...

I liked a lot the "hidden stuff" in training mode's background: it's like this game paying a big homage to its Xevious ancestor. Are those hidden things even in the expert course? I haven't found any.

My only gripe with this game is the fixed ship's speed. it's a bit slow for my tastes. A review in turn to / vertical websites mention speed-up power ups but I haven't found them.

If it doesn't even get a US NTSC release, it won't get a PAL - the former is much less expensive, and arguably has a larger market.

Well, some shmups packages were released here but not in the US, iirc. However, why these Cave games, arguably the most sought after from modern shmuppers, don't get an US NTSC release in first stance? It's a shame Working Designs doesn't go anymore with its Spaz label...

[Randorama]

There's an high score thread (in the high score section) once a great Raiden player will give me the infos, i'll open an ST in the Strategy section and, last but not least, me and Malc are doing the review.

Aspetto il tuo punteggio con impazienza, btw

[raiden]

sorry it´s Japanese, but for RaidenDX info I´ve always consulted this site:
http://www2c.biglobe.ne.jp/~abfuku/
Don´t have time to do a translation right now, maybe in a few weeks if no one else did by then.

[Randorama]

I should write the ST in the next days ( i think), or better: when DEL passes the infos written by Mills. In case you have time, we can also check the two versions

[Turrican]

There's an high score thread (in the high score section) once a great Raiden player will give me the infos, i'll open an ST in the Strategy section and, last but not least, me and Malc are doing the review.

Aspetto il tuo punteggio con impazienza, btw

Yes, I saw that. Your scores are pretty high, I doubt I can seriously compete... I think I have some skills but lack in endurance. If I'll make something noteworthy (read: at least over the million points), I'll send that to you.

P.S. mi immagino che freddo a L'Aquila in questi giorni... Ci sono stato l'estate scorsa, splendida città.

[Guardians Knight]

do you know how to change the width of the screen in tate mode? For some reason the screen is far too wide for my tv and so i lose about a 1 and half ships width worth of screen, which is very dodgy for seeing enemies and bullets early. It says in the in game menu that the display mode is 'wide 2' but i cant change it, maybe im just being a fool. can someone help?

[highlandcattle]

If it doesn't even get a US NTSC release, it won't get a PAL - the former is much less expensive, and arguably has a larger market.

WTF? More shmups are released in the pal regio then in the USA
Just out off my head:
Psyvariar Complete
Shienryu Double explosion (or whatever it's called)
XIIstag

[Ghegs]

If it doesn't even get a US NTSC release, it won't get a PAL - the former is much less expensive, and arguably has a larger market.

WTF? More shmups are released in the pal regio then in the USA
Just out off my head:
Psyvariar Complete
Shienryu Double explosion (or whatever it's called)
XIIstag

Plus Gunbird Special Edition (though Gunbird did get released for PSX and GB2 for DC)

That said, there are also shmups released in US but not in PAL regions - Thunder Force V, Einhander, Shikigami No Shiro II...

I wouldn't say either "side" gets any more shmups than the other. We're both pretty screwed in the big picture.

[landshark]

I liked a lot the "hidden stuff" in training mode's background: it's like this game paying a big homage to its Xevious ancestor. Are those hidden things even in the expert course? I haven't found any.

I think there's hidden stuff in the regular game too.

In level 1, when the volcano-looking area shows up on the screen, hover your ship over the cone and one of those crystal-things will appear for you to destroy. It gives you 200k. I think there are those little hidden silos too, though I don't remember.

And those little blue guys that pop up instead of medals: wait until they stop moving. And then the INSTANT they start moving again, grab them and they give you 50,000 points instead of 10,000.

[OmegaFlareX]

do you know how to change the width of the screen in tate mode? For some reason the screen is far too wide for my tv and so i lose about a 1 and half ships width worth of screen, which is very dodgy for seeing enemies and bullets early.

If none of the in-game options will work, you'll need to manually adjust the picture settings on your TV/monitor. TVs typically have them, but they're usually not as easy as pushing a few buttons on the remote. In the most extreme cases, you'll need to take the casing off and poke around inside for service controls (NOT reccomended unless you really know what you're doing).

My tated monitor is a commodore RGB, and most of the lower-res shmups overscan quite a bit, so I had to turn the vertical size control all the way down to accomodate everything.

I really really wish someone would publish DDPDOJ and Galuda here (they look AWESOME from the vids I've seen), but it just won't happen unless they're released as either a bundle or budget-priced stand-alones. Reason? They're 2D. SCEA won't have it unless either of those conditions are met.

[Guardians Knight]

dude, just get your ps2 modded, you'll not look back once you have it done.

i dragged my heels on getting it done, but the 50quid it cost was/is 50quid well spent!!

[MJR]

Raiden DX for ps1 is an awesome port, it is very identical to the original
in terms of playability (I used to play arcade version every day for years)

for the secrets; There are secrets in alpha and bravo mission but not in charlie. However, it seems that in ps1 version, there is also in charlie.

You get 'secret' scores by uncovering pyramids (by flying over them), and uncovering and destroying crystals (by flying over a bed of 'flowers' on a certain position)

In alpha mission, crystals can be destroyed either in a small or big explosion.
Getting bigger explosion and better score may require uncovering smaller pyramids first in a certain order, and no misses in uncovering previous pyramids/crystals.

When bigger explosions are triggered, the game will throw harder enemies at you.

I havent been able to find out how to trigger bigger explosion for the fourth crystal in the alpha mission (The one under motorway), if anyone knows, info is very much appreciated.

I will definitely post some highscores for the ps1 version once I get some time to play the game. Funny memory for the arcade version was, I was never able to complete charlie(advanced) mission with single credit. I only got as far as final crystal boss on stage 1-8 and I gave up. Then, year later, I found out that the board was set on 'hard' difficulty at the time I was playing it. Doh!

But it was the single most adrenaline-filled moment in my life. I grabbed the joystick so hard that the whole cabinet was tilting left and right!

[landshark]

I havent been able to find out how to trigger bigger explosion for the fourth crystal in the alpha mission (The one under motorway), if anyone knows, info is very much appreciated.

I'm not sure if this is the one you are talking about ... But there is one just after the 2 tanks that shoot almost-constant streams of bullets at you where if you dodge in between the streams you get 5000 points per dodge.

It's in a desert area. After you kill the 2 tanks, there are 4 little pyramids to raise just left of the center of the screen.

Then you will come to an overhead bridge/road with 6 tanks that shoot shootable bullets. Kill the 2 red race cars that drive out then back off to about a ship or 2 length behind the bridge in the center of hte screen and you will uncover a crystal. 200k if you destroy it.

I cannot get the 2nd crystal to give me the 200k bonus. There are 3 pyramids just after the first forest all in a horizontal line. I uncover them right to left and then take out the middle one and back down 2 ship lengths and uncover the crystal. But it always dies quickly.

I've never gotten the one at the end where there is a giant ciircle of pyramids, destroy them - and then 4 more pop up around the crystal. I think you may have to destroy them without touching the inner crystal at all.

There's another section that has 4 pyramids like so:
x
x x
x

Don't shoot any of them, then wait in the center and 1 will pop up and the others will fall down. Shoot the center one and they all explode. Not sure if it's worth a bonus.

[nZero]

Then you will come to an overhead bridge/road with 6 tanks that shoot shootable bullets. Kill the 2 red race cars that drive out then back off to about a ship or 2 length behind the bridge in the center of hte screen and you will uncover a crystal. 200k if you destroy it.

For me, it's always located where the 4 white pyramids "point" to, just a tile below the bridge's shadow. Maybe that's a figment of my imagination.

I cannot get the 2nd crystal to give me the 200k bonus. There are 3 pyramids just after the first forest all in a horizontal line. I uncover them right to left and then take out the middle one and back down 2 ship lengths and uncover the crystal. But it always dies quickly.

Don't destroy any of the pyramids before uncovering the crystal.

I've never gotten the one at the end where there is a giant ciircle of pyramids, destroy them - and then 4 more pop up around the crystal. I think you may have to destroy them without touching the inner crystal at all.

Can never get this one to act consistently. Something I'm missing, although I can usually get the gold crystal (high value, 200k pts.) sometimes I'll get the red (lowest value). Never seen the silver at that location, though, so at least it's something I'm either doing or not doing, and nothing I'm doing half-assed.

[MJR]

Hey, thanks!!

If you are talking about the 4 pyramids on an island, like this:
x
x x
x

It's been some time, but I think you had to first have to raise the 4 outer pyramids, counter clock-wise, then when the crystal comes up, sink them again.. then you can shoot the crystal..I think this was required to make it go off big time...but I can't remember the exact order of things very well..

This could be of course checked easily from the replay video if you got the ps1 version.. the video unlocks once you complete alpha mission on a single credit..it's not that hard..

EDIT: Whohops, you were already talking about it, but you had whole another thing going on there.

well, if you mean the one on the platform, I dont remember any other trick..

I think I'd better shut up until I have played the game again. Thanks for the tip anyway, 4th was the only I was missing so far.. I will get back to this in the next few days

[landshark]

I need to load this game up in an emulator and grab some screenshots - that'll make it easier to talk about. Plus it'll make for a nice start of a strategy section

[Turrican]

This game is beating me so hard. I still have to complete the novice mode, and I sure didn't switch to "arcade" difficulty... Normal is sadist enough for me. Btw, what's the meaning of "arcade" difficulty? I mean, the pcb already had difficulty settings, or am I wrong?

I've read on the hiscore board that the 2P ship kicks ass. I see now why the "master of Raiden" guy went with that. Being able to fly faster horizontally is a great for dodging bullets.

Anyway, I'm in an un-tateable tv set for now, so I stick to original 2... But needless to say, I'm not happy with this.

Do you Raiden fans feel confident seeing Taito handling Raiden III, after all these years? Or are you afraid they could make a shmup unworthy of the Raiden brand?

[MJR]

Rather Taito than some western developer, I think.

The pcb board has difficulty settings for easy, normal and hard. The 'arcade' mode in ps1 was, in my mind, equivalent of 'hard' mode in the arcade.

The only thing that ticks off in hard mode is that it is too easy to get shot in the back. But I havent played ps1 version too much yet (lucky thing is, I got my playstation now connected to jamma cabinet, so it should be much easier to compare)

My friend sent me this raiden DX tip link, translated through babelfish.
So while it still is open to quite a LOT of interpretation, it does give some info, and it even has some nice pictures!

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfis ... rf2_4.html

Oh, one more thing for those who didn't know: it is possible, at least in the arcade version, to get an extra life in the charlie (advanced/profesonial) mission. you will have to play to level 1-4 without losing any lives, and 1-up will appear. But it is VERY tough to do so, at least in hard/arcade mode, so I usually have to cheat by launching 2-player game JUST before the container box appears, as it allows the 1-up to appear whether I have lost a life or not.

It also perfectly acceptable, at least in my mind, to stack up your lives in the settings as much as possible. Do not even dream completing charlie on arcade/hard setting with any less than 5 lives (if you can do that I salute you)

[Turrican]

It also perfectly acceptable, at least in my mind, to stack up your lives in the settings as much as possible. Do not even dream completing charlie on arcade/hard setting with any less than 5 lives (if you can do that I salute you)

Perfectly acceptable for you, but not for Seibu Kaihatsu I'm afraid. The fact is, when I put five lives and five bombs in the option, I cannot enter my name in the highscores! Has anyone noticed this too? Wow, now this is some extreme hardcore measure...

[Guardians Knight]

well if you're going for a 1cc or playing for score, the only way to do it is on full arcade defaults. At least in the majority opinion anyways

[MJR]

I was mainly talking about playing the pcb, where I used 4 lives; as getting anywhere with 3 on a charlie mission was just too hard.

This highscore saving prevention is very interesting thing..