tatsujin/truxton appreciation thread.

[EmperorIng]

I honestly am not crazy about those modes on PC Engine shmups; Image Fight has a similar setting and it just kind of squishes the screen. But if it makes you play better then good.

I prefer Toaplan's "Giant Status Bar Sidescreen" approach, a la Fire Shark and Tatsujin MD.

[OmegaFlareX]

I prefer Toaplan's "Giant Status Bar Sidescreen" approach, a la Fire Shark and Tatsujin MD.

Same, they did a good job of porting their games to that particular constraint.

PCE "arcade" modes do not alter the gameplay in any way, nor increase the available playfield, it's just a resolution change or something. Star Parodia and Soldier Blade both have that mode as well.

[Zombi 6]

I prefer Toaplan's "Giant Status Bar Sidescreen" approach, a la Fire Shark and Tatsujin MD.

Same, they did a good job of porting their games to that particular constraint.

PCE "arcade" modes do not alter the gameplay in any way, nor increase the available playfield, it's just a resolution change or something. Star Parodia and Soldier Blade both have that mode as well.

That's strange because even though as you say it doesn't really change anything I have been playing for roughly 2 hours today and made it all times (no continues) to stage 4 beginnings which I couldn't do at all when not in arcade mode. Couldn't get past stage 2 boss in the normal ratio. Weird huh and also wow didnt know image fight had an option either care to share any light how to acces the menu ? Although I have no problem with the play field on the pce of image fight. Nevermind just did a quick Google also found out a that there is a Mr heli mode! !sweet! . Also off topic I know but Mr heli is an underated gem

[Mills]

Unable to download any screen recording apps but discovered by accident that I already have a game recording features via Google Play Games.

Just need to experiment with the playback recordings in 720 or 480 before uploading a full 1CC run.

[6t8k]

Just found this gem: Truxton II / Tatsujin-Oh In A Nutshell

[digitron]

Just found this gem: Truxton II / Tatsujin-Oh In A Nutshell

rofl, literally the best video I've ever seen, ty for sharing.

[Mills]

What I don't understand is how little action was going on until he got that enemy bullet up his ar*e. All those enemy ships he was taking out with the Lazer shot, I expected at least one sniper bullet to get through.

[OmegaFlareX]

Might have been playing on export region (Truxton II) and Easy dipswitch. Which I guess is the equivalent of loop -1. From my own experience, you don't need to move at all for the first part of stage 2 if you're running the blue weapon.

[Ajora]

I've played through the Genesis port of the game, but only on the easiest difficulty setting. I remember it being a little too cramped, and with far too many enemies sneaking up directly behind me for my liking. It's a good game, but I don't think it's any sort of a classic, especially when you consider that it is on what is quite possibly the greatest console for shooters.

And then there's the PC Engine port. Jeez, that thing. It's no exaggeration for me to call it a strong contender for the single most difficult game I've ever played in my life. It's also a strong contender for having the greatest box art for any video game. I wish I could say more, but I haven't gotten very far. I might one day take a serious crack at it though.

[Flobeamer1922]

Some recent happenings around here inspired me to talk about why exactly I enjoy Truxton. This is near verbatim what I recently posted in the Shmups Discord.

I'm partial to space aesthetics, but I really like the way the game looks. I enjoy its music, the sound effects are satisfying, the skull bomb is just plain awesome, the three weapon types are all pretty cool and useful in their own ways, your starting weapon isn't half bad (which is way more than can be said for its sequel), and it's just really rewarding learning all the enemy spawns and behaviors. One of the highlights for me is having the fully powered blue weapon in stage 4, and having that triumphant-sounding music going while all the popcorn runs into your lasers and instantly explodes. That's the life right there. It makes you feel powerful.

[Mills]

WTF! Just seen someone post 41million online score on Truxton F2P Very Hard difficulty. Damn.

Player Tomuo19XX must have a way of reaching very high scoring for each loop when the reference score is usually 1.5mill 1CC.

I am currently getting 1.7million with intentional suicide at special checkpoints at the beginning of Stage1 and Stage5.

I can only assume Tomuo is using max firepower buy option and use suicide at specific checkpoints to rack up 3-4million per loop

[MJR]

My Truxton/Tatsujin board has been repaired! I also asked them to change the jumper into Truxton version, as I wanted to see if there was any difference, and because its the version I grew up with.

[Flashman]

I may have to put some more time into this again, I did a while ago (Genesis version) but couldn't really get into it properly - the music is great, but I found my craft to be way too bulky for the size of the screen, this combined with enemies that just home in on you for a kamikaze attack, didn't make for a fun time in the later levels. If you survive till level 3 without dying, the rank really seems to go crazy, there seems to be sections where I just had to die, because the larger mid level bosses will just magnetise right to me - they do a less aggressive pattern after death, but once left with the pee shooter I found that was game over anyway.

Down to lack of skill of course than anything wrong with the game, but maybe the arcade version is the one to go for.

[Flobeamer1922]

My Truxton/Tatsujin board has been repaired! I also asked them to change the jumper into Truxton version, as I wanted to see if there was any difference, and because its the version I grew up with.

Very nice! From playing and looping both versions, I did notice two minor differences. In Tatsujin, I had to slightly change up my strat for the stage 1 boss since the timing isn't exactly the same, and the glass tube midbosses don't fire at the same times that they do in Truxton. Overall, however, the two are nearly the same. I didn't notice any real difficulty increases in Tatsujin compared to Truxton.

[Turrican]

I prefer Toaplan's "Giant Status Bar Sidescreen" approach, a la Fire Shark and Tatsujin MD.

Same, they did a good job of porting their games to that particular constraint.

PCE "arcade" modes do not alter the gameplay in any way, nor increase the available playfield, it's just a resolution change or something. Star Parodia and Soldier Blade both have that mode as well.

Has anyone counted how many pixels are the MD status bars wide? I suppose it's safe to bet they're all exactly 64 pixel wide, right?

[Flobeamer1922]

WTN recently uploaded one of his old Tatsujin Oh replays where he scores 10 million points. This is definitely a very useful resource, and something I've been studying a bit today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDjhUaTP2nk

[mice]

Has anyone counted how many pixels are the MD status bars wide? I suppose it's safe to bet they're all exactly 64 pixel wide, right?

Looks like it's 80 pixels. Ten chars, each eight pixels wide.

[Turrican]

Has anyone counted how many pixels are the MD status bars wide? I suppose it's safe to bet they're all exactly 64 pixel wide, right?

Looks like it's 80 pixels. Ten chars, each eight pixels wide.

I had thought this to be a similar case to Devil Crush MD, where the side bar is conveniently placed in order to do a 1:1 porting of the 256 wide PCE graphics... Then again I suppose not, since Tatsujin must have been developed straight from the arcade.

[Fudoh]

Then again I suppose not, since Tatsujin must have been developed straight from the arcade.

the argument is still valid, since you're going from a vertical resolution (something like 240px wide in the arcade) to a horizontal port, so narrowing down the MD's res from 320p to something like 240p still allows you to port over the sprites nearly in 1:1 resolution.

[MJR]

My Truxton/Tatsujin board has been repaired! I also asked them to change the jumper into Truxton version, as I wanted to see if there was any difference, and because its the version I grew up with.

Very nice! From playing and looping both versions, I did notice two minor differences. In Tatsujin, I had to slightly change up my strat for the stage 1 boss since the timing isn't exactly the same, and the glass tube midbosses don't fire at the same times that they do in Truxton. Overall, however, the two are nearly the same. I didn't notice any real difficulty increases in Tatsujin compared to Truxton.

After investigating this during the last few days, I have noticed one clear difference between Tatsujin/Truxton versions. In Truxton, bigger bosses have significantly less health, and I can kill them about 30-40% faster. This makes a big difference with my old grievance, the third boss who used to take way too long to take down, as the larger turret groups always managed to snipe me. Now I can just bomb away the first turret group, stay in the middle, tear down the boss, and ignore turrets in the far left and right, and the boss will be destroyed before I reach the second turret group. Also, I think the bullets fly do fly little bit slower. I had to recheck the dip switch settings to ensure that the guy who repaired the board for me had not switched the game into easier mode, but no, it was still on normal. And no, I dont think that I have somehow magically upped my skills while the PCB was on repairs - I used to play the PCB as Tatsujin regularly for many years.

I wonder if this should be reflected on the hiscore thread.

[Mills]

Tatsujin is definitely harder than Truxton. Tatsujin Oh is significantly harder than Truxton 2.

Would love to have played the test version of Tatsujin which used Red lightning lasers before changing to Blue.

[MintyTheCat]

I always forget who decent the graphics and designs are in tatsujin-ou. I NEED to get my PCB fixed...

[Flobeamer1922]

So in the afternoon of May 30th, 2020, after having discovered the game in early 2019 and started seriously playing it and learning it late into the year, I cleared one loop of Truxton II. It’s been one hell of an experience for me; between the memes, the recent cheating controversies, the grinding and practicing of the latter half of the game, the thrill of getting just a little bit farther in, the frustration of having total collapses at certain difficult checkpoints, the huge enjoyment of the graphics and music and cool ideas, the huge disappointment at the game’s considerable lack of polish, and the excitement of finally beating that last boss for the first time in a full attempt. That was an experience like no other.

[BIL]

Thanks to your posts (and certain less happy events ), I've gone from ambivalent at the upcoming PS4 version to decidedly happy it's in the first four with Out Zone, Hishouzame and Kyuukyoku Tiger. Sounding pretty quintessential.

[Flobeamer1922]

It's quite the game for sure! I'm very curious to see what all M2's going to do with their port of it. Definitely something I'll have to purchase if I ever get around to owning a PS4.

[Prales]

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[6t8k]

My Truxton/Tatsujin board has been repaired! I also asked them to change the jumper into Truxton version, as I wanted to see if there was any difference, and because its the version I grew up with.

Nice to see your board alive and kicking again.

I soldered a tiny toggle switch in place of J7 for this purpose, making it trivial to switch between Truxton and Tatsujin at discretion. Maybe that's a useful idea for somebody else too.

[MrJBRPG]

There is a recent video that talks about the Toaplan Games, and discuss some thoughts on Tatsujin / Truxton in the later middle fo the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GqlnjWiP3I

[Flobeamer1922]

I got a 2-ALL on Tatsujin near the beginning of last month! It's a great game. I always have a good time with this one. I'm hoping to get back into it soon and go for a 3-ALL next. 10 million will eventually be mine.

Nice to see your board alive and kicking again.

I soldered a tiny toggle switch in place of J7 for this purpose, making it trivial to switch between Truxton and Tatsujin at discretion. Maybe that's a useful idea for somebody else too.

Cool little addition, 6t8k! I wonder if something similar can be done with a Truxton II board to swap between it and Tatsujin Oh.

[6t8k]

Flobeamer1922: indeed it can!

There are various jumper configurations. For example, below is a cutout of an unmodified Japanese board:


(image source)

JP1-JP4 are bridged, which means that it'll boot into Tatsujin Oh. In the specific case of Tatsujin Oh/Truxton II, it would amount to the same if JP1-JP4 were non-bridged.

If MAME is to be believed, (aside from various jumper configurations for other Asian regions) there are 3 different configurations for US boards, which in turn lead to Truxton II being loaded, and one for Europe, for which the same is true (and I think the "European Truxton II" should not differ from the "US one", but I'm actually not 100% sure on that).

So to make it simple, with the following method you'll arrive at a board that's switchable between Tatsujin Oh and Truxton II, regardless of what jumper configuration you start with:

- Desolder any existing bridges at JP1-JP4
- Solder a switch at JP1

(switches between US and JPN regions)