Where the Darius Love at?

[Klatrymadon]

I have the Columbus Circle cart - I'll have to do a bit of experimentation with it. (Sadly, I haven't spent enough time with it yet to know if it saves!)

[velo]

Which AC Sagaia? The two versions have different areas.

The first one. I didn't realize they were much different. I was playing on the final zones in training mode with the default weapon settings, which aren't fully upgraded (two bars short). The minibosses were timing out on me much more often than not.

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll stick to Darius 1 New until I can get through it (close-ish now).

[davyK]

Strictly Limited have emailed me asking what model of MD I am using. I'm wondering is this problem related to a particular hardware version or revision.

I get the impression that they are looking at the problem seriously and the tone of the email is good.

Fingers crossed - as I really , REALLY, like this port. It makes the Megadrive sing!!

[Rastan78]

Battle Garrega expert T3-Kamui has been playing a lot of Darius Gaiden lately. Instead of going for score she's using the M2 port training mode to set rank to max 255/255 at the first stage and going for survival runs.

Aggressive scoring runs in this game will end up playing the last stages at 255 rank anyway, but it makes a massive difference on the early stages. Its like if Darius Gaiden had a tough second loop. Cool to see that she's playing something besides Garegga for a change and with such a unique approach as well.

The channel:
https://youtube.com/user/20347450

Here's an example of a full Zone W run:
https://youtu.be/n-A3brk0ryo

[Samildanach]

So I have been spending a bit of time with Darius Force and generally failing to get any 1cc. Anyway, after the umpteenth death I notice that the damn ship moves near twice as fast diagonally as it does orthogonally. This explained my tendency to fly violently into a wall when avoiding bullets with no warning (well, and my shite skills). So I took it on myself to investigate the rest on the Cozmic Console Collection.

Goddammit ALL of them have different speeds depending on your direction of movement. Darius Twin is exactly the same as Force, but I hadn't originally noticed as there is far fewer walls to fly into (and a lot less bullets). Darius Plus, Alpha and even Super (on PC Engine Mini), seemed less egregious but still slightly faster diagonally. Sagaia SMS too. Checking other versions of the same games and I found the exact same, so this is certainly not an issue with M2's work, rather than that of the original developers.

Darius II MD/Sagaia MD is a weird one in that it is marginally faster diagonally than vertical movement but marginally SLOWER horizontally than vertical. Well, by my eye anyway. I changed the screen to full screen on my LCD, and it actually moved more evenly in speed horizontally and vertically, though diagonally was obviously still too fast. Not an acceptable solution as all the sprites were horribly stretched horizontally.

Darius R, same problem, though milder than the SNES games, as it is likely based on the PC Engine version..and is crap anyway, so let's move on.

Now that's the end of the dodgy stuff and onto the good.
Moving onto the Arcade Collection, Darius, Darius II and Gaiden all were perfect. Orthogonal and Diagonal all smoothly symmetrical speed, and that goes for their different versions too.

Unsurprisingly Darius MD which is based on the arcade version is also utterly perfect...and so damn good to play.

Super Darius 2 also seemed fine, though that has its own mild issues of being effectively too zoomed in for comfort.

Again G Darius and Dariusburst are both perfect too, as well as the diminutive Sagaia on the gameboy.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't all the correctly set games above made by Taito themselves, whereas all the others are by side teams or outside companies?

Apologies if those far more experienced than me have already discussed this, but I thought my not very scientific testing may be of interest. Unfortunately now I can't unsee this issue and am wondering whether to abandon my wretched attempts as 1ccing Darius Force before I lose my mind slamming into another wall.

[To Far Away Times]

Darius Force is just kinda like that. I 1CC'd it for completion's sake, but the movement is a little offputting. Diagonal movement being faster than the four cardinal directions is one of those amateur game design things and almost certainly not intended.

[The Coop]

Well, I'm feeling ignored now.

Two emails that never got a reply, and a post on their Facebook page that they apparently deleted (it's nowhere to be found). Let's see what happens with a DM on Facebook.

[Rastan78]

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't all the correctly set games above made by Taito themselves, whereas all the others are by side teams or outside companies?

I'm pretty sure the SNES games were done by Taito staff, but not the same ones that worked on the arcade games. And the PC Engine ones were done by Bits Laboratory/ NEC Avenue.

[davyK]

Strictly Limited have emailed me asking what model of MD I am using. I'm wondering is this problem related to a particular hardware version or revision.

I get the impression that they are looking at the problem seriously and the tone of the email is good.

Fingers crossed - as I really , REALLY, like this port. It makes the Megadrive sing!!

Strictly Limited are going to send me a new copy. They have asked me to return the faulty copy and will refund me the postage.

So far so good.

[The Coop]

That's nice of them.

Now if they'd just answer my simple fucking question...

[StudioMudprints]

Figured I'd pop in here for a quick sec: Wanna confirm (as per SLG) that data saving was not supposed to be a part of the Darius Extra Version cart, it's a leftover vestige from the Genesis/MegaDrive Mini.

Not confirmed but more than likely: Crashes are likely compatibility issues; I ran into near constant crashes on a Japanese Mega Drive 2, but nothing at all on a US Genesis 1. Still going to test US Genesis 2, US CDX and PAL Mega Drive II.

That's all I got.

[davyK]

Posted the return yesterday so it's on its way back to them.

The replacement is on its way to me - I have a tracking number. I gave them the model number of the console that they asked for so hopefully all will be fine. Mine is a PAL-I.

The saving is mentioned in the manual. I would have thought if it didn't save with the power off then the manual would have stated that. It isn't that big a deal to me really but it would have been nice.

Will see......

[OldSkoolShmuper]

Did I miss that Ver 2. arcade update for G-Darius HD, or has that not happened yet?

[JBueno MD]

So, does anyone know if Darius Cozmic Collection on Steam supports 4:3 aspect? Want to play on a VGA monitor forcing 240p display. For Gaiden and the console ports of course.

[The Coop]

So, does anyone know if Darius Cozmic Collection on Steam supports 4:3 aspect? Want to play on a VGA monitor forcing 240p display. For Gaiden and the console ports of course.

There are no Darius console ports on Steam. Just the arcade games (for the moment, at least).

As for the resolution, I don't think so. There are very few files in the Steam installation folder (game.exe, steam_api.dll, and a folder with two data files in it), and none of them are a config file to play with. The games themselves can be set to fill the screen as much as possible (which takes them out of pixel perfect mode), so Gaiden might be able to be tinkered with that way. God only knows how the game will handle having such a reduced resolution, though.

The only other files for the game I could find were in the game's AppData/Roaming folder, which is where the save states look to be kept.

[JBueno MD]

So, does anyone know if Darius Cozmic Collection on Steam supports 4:3 aspect? Want to play on a VGA monitor forcing 240p display. For Gaiden and the console ports of course.

There are no Darius console ports on Steam. Just the arcade games (for the moment, at least).

As for the resolution, I don't think so. There are very few files in the Steam installation folder (game.exe, steam_api.dll, and a folder with two data files in it), and none of them are a config file to play with. The games themselves can be set to fill the screen as much as possible (which takes them out of pixel perfect mode), so Gaiden might be able to be tinkered with that way. God only knows how the game will handle having such a reduced resolution, though.

The only other files for the game I could find were in the game's AppData/Roaming folder, which is where the save states look to be kept.

Bummer. I think it could be possible if Darius Cozmic natively supported 4:3 resolutions, as forcing 240p through the nvidia panel on the Cave ports on Steam (which support 4:3 aspect natively) works great.

[davyK]

Replacement Darius Extra Version cart arrived from strictly limited games.

Even worse than the first one. The game crashes in the demo. Think I might have to give up on this. Starting to think it's the console but it works with everything else I throw at it - PAL, US, JP and repro games. It just won't play with this game.

I'm not keen on paying for a 2nd console just to eliminate it.

[copy-paster]

Good news for "free" players: Extra MD now has been dumped by 4chan guys and it's available on the net (works on emulators as I tried on Kega Fusion). It's neat with autofire setup and Old/New/Extra modes, dunno if I prefer this or Super Darius right now ha.

[davyK]

Good news for "free" players: Extra MD now has been dumped by 4chan guys and it's available on the net (works on emulators as I tried on Kega Fusion). It's neat with autofire setup and Old/New/Extra modes, dunno if I prefer this or Super Darius right now ha.

Going by the 2 carts I have tried , neither of which work on my console, that may be the only way I'll get to play it.

[Mykaizer]

I need to beat Darius Gaiden in more of a appropriate manner. The first time I beat it was with the extended credits via using the 2nd player after losing all credits with the 1st and just bombing my way to victory... This is the worst way to play these games... at least for me it is. The 2nd time I beat it was when I used the rapid fire cheat code. I believe this particular rapid fire is more on the exploitation side rather than a balanced one. As for as I know using rapid fire with Gaiden seems to be considered the default way to play. I still want to try and beat it with everything at default settings(Sega Saturn port btw). Maybe I'll try fiddling with the turbo setting on the arcade stick to get what is considered the proper rate of rapid fire.

Anyways... Darius Gaiden definitely deserves more love and I intend to do just that. The music, colors, artwork, overall style and especially that gameplay balanced feedback loop exudes a masterpiece at hand and I could almost say the same thing for Darius 2.(which I also need to play more) ((would love to play the actual widescreen arcade cab))

[Steven]

Figured I'd pop in here for a quick sec: Wanna confirm (as per SLG) that data saving was not supposed to be a part of the Darius Extra Version cart, it's a leftover vestige from the Genesis/MegaDrive Mini.

Not confirmed but more than likely: Crashes are likely compatibility issues; I ran into near constant crashes on a Japanese Mega Drive 2, but nothing at all on a US Genesis 1. Still going to test US Genesis 2, US CDX and PAL Mega Drive II.

That's all I got.

I can make it weirder, if you want; I just credit fed my way to stage K using the Japanese version of the game on my Mega Jet and it works just fine. What VA number is your Mega Drive 2? I have a Japanese VA0 Mega Drive 2 that I can try it on in addition to the Mega Jet.

[davyK]

I have a model 1 PAL with region and 50/60Hz switches. Have had 2 carts and neither have worked. They crash in different ways. The first would play for a couple of minutes and then display an error screen. But the demo would run no probs and Boss Rush seemed OK.

The 2nd cart freezes at the attract/cut scene - just garbage on the screen. A couple of times it got past that and shows demo play - it shows an error screen after a few seconds. If I start a game it lasts about 20 secs and goes to an error screen.

Have tried every combo of region switch and 50/60Hz switch - same result.

It must be incompatibility - can't see it being 2 faulty carts. I use US,PAL,JP and repro carts with the console and have had no problems with any cart except this one.

[copy-paster]

I need to beat Darius Gaiden in more of a appropriate manner. The first time I beat it was with the extended credits via using the 2nd player after losing all credits with the 1st and just bombing my way to victory... This is the worst way to play these games... at least for me it is. The 2nd time I beat it was when I used the rapid fire cheat code. I believe this particular rapid fire is more on the exploitation side rather than a balanced one. As for as I know using rapid fire with Gaiden seems to be considered the default way to play. I still want to try and beat it with everything at default settings(Sega Saturn port btw). Maybe I'll try fiddling with the turbo setting on the arcade stick to get what is considered the proper rate of rapid fire.

Nothing's wrong playing them with autofire/rapid shots, most likely why the default shot is slow because Taito expect arcade owners to adjust rapid fire rate they like (attract mode actually uses 15hz rate, also most balanced way where Saturn's code is 30hz). It's still beatable with default rate, just needs some time and tight execution to do.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I have a model 1 PAL with region and 50/60Hz switches. Have had 2 carts and neither have worked. They crash in different ways. The first would play for a couple of minutes and then display an error screen. But the demo would run no probs and Boss Rush seemed OK.

The 2nd cart freezes at the attract/cut scene - just garbage on the screen. A couple of times it got past that and shows demo play - it shows an error screen after a few seconds. If I start a game it lasts about 20 secs and goes to an error screen.

Have tried every combo of region switch and 50/60Hz switch - same result.

It must be incompatibility - can't see it being 2 faulty carts. I use US,PAL,JP and repro carts with the console and have had no problems with any cart except this one.

I think one of the JP models does similar, Bullet Heaven showcased it in a recent video - goes to an "illegal instruction" crash screen a lot. It could be similar on certain PAL consoles or it could be the nature of the mod doing it. Either way it doesn't seem especially stable, perhaps from it being designed for emulation then back-ported to run physical hardware. Pretty awful if it's not been tested across all commercial models.

[davyK]

Such a pity because from what limited time I've been able to play it , it looks , sounds and plays great. Emulation is nice but nothing like playing on real hardware using my CRT with an RGB SCART cable.

Perhaps running on the mini is no guarantee of running on original hardware. I'm just going to see if I can get a refund.


EDIT: Found the ROM and tried it with the Fusion emulator. Works albeit with sound glitches and a frame rate stutter compared to the gorgeous original experience. Maybe other emulators work better? I haven't really done a lot of MD emulation.

[Rastan78]

I need to beat Darius Gaiden in more of a appropriate manner. The first time I beat it was with the extended credits via using the 2nd player after losing all credits with the 1st and just bombing my way to victory... This is the worst way to play these games... at least for me it is. The 2nd time I beat it was when I used the rapid fire cheat code. I believe this particular rapid fire is more on the exploitation side rather than a balanced one. As for as I know using rapid fire with Gaiden seems to be considered the default way to play. I still want to try and beat it with everything at default settings(Sega Saturn port btw). Maybe I'll try fiddling with the turbo setting on the arcade stick to get what is considered the proper rate of rapid fire.

Nothing's wrong playing them with autofire/rapid shots, most likely why the default shot is slow because Taito expect arcade owners to adjust rapid fire rate they like (attract mode actually uses 15hz rate, also most balanced way where Saturn's code is 30hz). It's still beatable with default rate, just needs some time and tight execution to do.

Just keep in mind the Saturn autofire code doesn't increase rank like auto does on Arcade/Switch/PS4. Combined with other factors that make rank lower on Saturn it's the easiest way to play DG.

Also WR tier scores rely on aggressive autofire rank boosting, which isn't possible with that cheat code.

[davyK]

Gaiden is probably best played on the Switch/PS4 now. I've 1CCed DG on Saturn and MAME with autofire and didn't notice much difference in difficulty (I took the easy path though). Maybe MAME has the same rank issue that the Saturn port has?

[Rastan78]

MAME should work the same as Arcade or Cozmic version. There are a bunch of factors that influence rank so whether you notice the difference between Saturn and arcade might vary.

Indications of higher rank are more enemy spawns, higher boss HP, faster and or larger bullets fired etc.

One thing that will make a bigger difference is if you go through Zone C and break off all the fins on King Fossil. On arcade there's a glitch (probably unntentional?) where each of these will cause a large rank boost not present on Saturn. Doing this is required to get max score on every route except Great Thing (which can't reach Zone C at all).

Another is survival time. The rank is always rising so a long boss fight (they can go up to 4 mins) lets the counter go up quite a bit. So even if auto does raise the rank, if you don't play for score and just quick kill bosses with auto, you still end up with pretty low rank. Supposedly the rank over time increase is slower on Saturn too, but I'm not sure how noticable that is.

So on the arcade version, it's the combo of using auto, destroying all the boss parts, especially King Fossil, and dragging out boss fights to milk that will really max out rank early.

[Mykaizer]

Just keep in mind the Saturn autofire code doesn't increase rank like auto does on Arcade/Switch/PS4. Combined with other factors that make rank lower on Saturn it's the easiest way to play DG.

Also WR tier scores rely on aggressive autofire rank boosting, which isn't possible with that cheat code.

What about if I use turbo-fire? Such as the one on the HSS-0136 Saturn stick.
What happens to this rank system if I put the Saturn version on the highest difficulty while using the default non auto-fire setting?

[Rastan78]

The way the rank increases on the arcade version is every time the shot button is pressed. So an autofire circuit will count as multiple button presses (up to 30 shots per second depending on the rate) with corresponding rank increase. Whereas holding default shot will count as only one press until you finally release and press it again. Mashing will increase rank too but not as fast as autofire.

The autofire cheat code in the Saturn version acts like the default autofire and only counts as one press while you hold it down. An external circuit like the one in a stick should behave like the arcade version with auto.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just play on MAME or PS4/Switch if you want to seriously compare scores and treat the Saturn version as its own unique game. There are other differences that alter scoring anyway.