shmups.system11.org

Yeah, I got lucky and happened across one on YAJ that I bought for ¥1500. Unopened, apparently.
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h540697146
It's in transit at the moment and should arrive next week. I need to track down some decent quality footage of the arcade version in preparation, but it should be an interesting comparison at least. (I'm expecting it to be terrible though.)

I've also been revising my routes for Lambda, and through save state practice have improved my score to nearly 27mil.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachment ... height=523
I think I can push a little bit more, but Lambda is the lowest-scoring route in the game, so I'd have to learn Zone Nu or Zone Omicron if I want to go above 30mil.

Nice catch, and a great score! I haven't had much time to put into this port yet, but never having played it on a cab before, I've been slightly taken aback by the way the slowdown works. It's not a million miles from the Taito Memories/Legends version a lot of the time, which is interesting because that port is considered so hilariously inaccurate/sped-up. Whereas everything in the TL2 port is moving pretty consistently at 100mph, though, this one often seems to catapult you right out of a comfortable amount of slowdown at the most hectic moments. It's been funny finding out that all the bosses that seemed obviously "too fast" on the PS2 really are that fast. I'm absolutely loving it, but it's going to take some serious re-learning.

https://twitter.com/nineverything/statu ... 22916?s=21

ALERT
G.DARIUS VER.2 is planned to come in the next update of the Cozmic Revelation!
M2, the heroes we deserve!

https://youtu.be/IE_Mmxi_JEk

Here's an announcement video for the G-Darius Ver.2, nothing much interesting in it however. If you know Ver.2 you know all of this. This is however first time the version is released outside of arcades I believe, so it might be an interesting little twist for old players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL04gwIlCq4

Still no set release date on the download version of the game however outside of Japan. They make it sound like it would already be out, but there's at least nothing at European Switch store yet.

EDIT: Oops, didn't quite notice the video was there on the post above too. Oh well!

Fuuuck yeah. Superlative as always.

That's cool. Ver 2 is sort of the black sheep of the Darius family, but it's nice to see it coming. M2 always goes the distance. Wouldn't be surprised to see additional gadgets and/or training mode at some point. One gadget they didn't do for G Darius that would actually be pretty helpful would be seeing your captured enemy HP. There are places where getting the best score possible turns into sort of a keep the midboss alive escort mission minigame. On Gaiden they did allow you to see when the midboss capture would time out (not based on HP in that game) as well as an onscreen reminder of the SF style input commands needed for each one. If they do add something that would be my prediction along with boss HP. It's M2, how can they resist putting something else down in those barren bottom corners.

Edit: Ok I'm an idiot. Actually bothered to watch the video and they already confirmed they're adding gagdets lol.

Incredibly exciting news - can't wait for this! In the little promo video they say they can't give it as much attention as the main game, and I hope that doesn't mean the port will be all over the place, but even if it runs like the PS1 game I'll be as happy as a pig in shit, tbh.

Says they are trying to release the update by summer while also saying before next winter (wasn't sure if we should take that second comment as a joke)
Makes me wonder about the Strictly Limited Games release - don't they try to wait until all major updates can be published in their version?

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised to see the Strictly Limited one get pushed back as a result of this. I think it's slated for May/June at the moment, so unlikely to be a huge delay if they do go for it. Maybe there'll be time to get GB Sagaia on the PS4 version.

Something odd about these few announcements from Taito is that Taito is again trying their luck with Steam and porting Bubble Bobble 4 Friends there.

While Taito has been a bit "shy" with Steam and abandoned some of their older ports due to issues there (Groove Coaster had quite bad sync and other issues for example), this could mean that Darius Cozmic Collection and Revelation could have a small (And I mean small) chance of appearing on Steam as well if BB4F does well on Steam and works well on PC. Time will tell.

So I had the Japanese Revelation, but I ended up selling it to get the SLG version with the Game Boy game. Now I have to wait FOREVER. Oh well. Waiting for Space Invaders from them anyway.

So has anyone figured out a way to enter the cheat codes on the SNES games? For some reason, the SNES versions don't map the buttons that have no functionality in game, and this cannot be changed. Which is fine, except for entering cheat codes. I have the collection on Switch, where the Switch minus button is hard coded to bring up the collection menu. Start is hardcoded to Start/ Pause/ Run. The other buttons can all be changed. Here are some images showing the mapping. I never knew that the SNES and SFC versions of Darius Twin used different mapping. SFC used X and A and SNES changed it to Y and B. The SNES manual actually points to the SFC button locations in the picture of the controller! The Cozmic versions just use both mappings for the JPN and ENG versions.

Anyone anticipate any downsides to getting the Strictly Limited version, other than having to wait? And i guess it not being as cool as a Japanese import? Went with it because it has Sagaia GB (not that i necessarily care about that) and because I have the SLG Cozmic Arcade. Just trying to make sure there’s not something I’m overlooking, like not getting the DLC or something.

The whole collection is a bit unclear business at the moment, at least digitally. I doubt the collection will be any cheaper when it eventually is released digitally. I've understood the games (G-Darius HD and Dariusburst ACEX+) are sold as separate products in Japan digitally, so at worst they'll do that and they won't sell the whole collection digitally and probably ask 40$ for each game (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they asked 60$ for each game). G-Darius Ver2 will be a free update I think?

But yeah, I think Strictly Limited version should be a good deal, always quite neat to have the game physically on the shelf. I would think at least that the physical version will have all the same updates as digital version - including G-Darius Ver2. When will it ship (And the digital version is released) is quite a crapshoot however.

I generally always try to get the original Japanese releases, as that seems like the best way to show support for the genre. It's hard to imagine that the devs are seeing much return from these limited western releases coming many months later, and I also struggle to want to support these scalper companies.

So the games wouldn’t otherwise reach western audiences with localization but the companies that do this for us are scalper companies? Ok.

Generally, yes. There are also legit scammers such as Dispatch. (No relation, dohoho.)

Please always remember that these games are not ever meant for the west, and that Japanese developers are repeatedly bewildered by any input whatsoever from westerners. It is almost entirely due to the shady stunts pulled by these localizers that these western releases get funded. That is not a good thing.

From what I gather, right now Strictly Limited is the only one of these shops that doesn't seem like they're trying to screw people somehow, and that can easily change overnight.

That's a great point Despatche. I'm also a little lost on wanting "full translation" in a shmup. Most of these releases have English menus or the option to change to english, and even then all you really need to know is where the button and screen config menus are and you're good to go. "Holding out" for a western release just means less money for the developers and LESS chance that these games get such a release. Supporting the original release is the best way to make sure we keep getting these games.

That’s an interesting take. For me, I just feel like the Japanese releases are cooler. Like it’s rad to have a rack of imported shmups. I’m curious how collectors will value low-print company games in the future—they’re rarer, but they also feel less authentic somehow. Less so that a normal US release, I mean. I wish I had bought all of mine Japanese for coolness reasons because i’m a big stinkin nerd, but these Taito games are a little strange. For example, I just ordered the western release of Space Invaders Invincible, because it comes with all the LE games. Not interested in spending $200 or whatever to get some extra titles, but it feels annoying to not have them. Similarly, I think the Darius Cozmic Console ver will remain popular because that’s the only way to get those games other than pay for the big special edition, which is now impossible to find.

But yeah, never gonna order from Dispatch. I have Psyvariar, but that came through Amazon. In the future I’m gonna order the J version whenever there’s no niggling extenuating circumstance where the US version is preferable. I don’t hold out for the US releases of shmups ever, not really a point. Sometimes the menus in M2 games drive me bonkers, I guess.

With the strictly limited edition I believe some of the extras like the book are translated for the western release.

Also I think supporting western releases of shmups gives them another market to get income from. So they can partner with companies that can give their release more of an audience overseas than just the hardcore import crowd. If people don't support the western releases no one will bother localizing the game and they completely lose out on other markets.

For smaller releases that seem doubtful to have a western release yeah support the Japanese version but if it's planned to have a western release I think it's good to show them its worth it.

The Japanese LE's Darius Odyssey ~Cozmic Voyager~ book is already in both Japanese and English, if that makes a difference to anyone. SLG published it.

Edit: excuse the quality, but here's a random page from my copy. All of the articles in the book are presented like this, with the Japanese on one side and the English on the other. I'm almost certain this will be the same book SLG customers will get, as the ~Cozmic Archives~ book in the international Cozmic Collection was presented the same way.

Thanks for the info and scan. I had seen bit of the book before and saw Japanese so I thought it was just Japanese. Plus SLG advertised the English the book as being localized in the English collection. Though I guess it's not inaccurate if the published the book used in the Japanese collection.

There's a blu ray that comes with the collections. Does that work in any blu ray player?

I'm guessing which version you get them mostly depends on preference or availability.

Looks like G Darius updated on my Switch. Nothing obvious is different so far. Maybe just some bug fixes?

IIRC G-Darius had a bug that prevented scores over... 20 million? 30 million? from being uploaded onto the leaderboards/replays. So it's very possible you never noticed a problem

So that's why my new world record didn't upload. Just kidding. There are definitely scores over 20 and 30 million that have been on the leaderboards for a while. But now that you mention it they haven't changed much. The top score on Switch isn't even a clear and it's in the low 30s for omicron route where over 50 is possible. Maybe we'll some new 'uge scores going up now.

I did finally get to the top 10 on Switch in Gaiden which took me months to do. That leaderboard has always been absolutely stacked. So either there really was something wrong with G Darius or Gaiden is just way more popular in Japan to this day.

Does anyone know has the scoring changed at all in Dariusburst ACEX+ compared just to ACEX? Mostly thinking is ACEX+ compatible with ACEX scores, so max multipliers, multiplier increase rates, score values of enemies/bosses and end of stage/game bonuses must not have changed. Don't know how balanced the new ship is compared to others, but that shouldn't be much of a problem in the end, scores for that ship could be split into another section if necessary.

That particular dvd superplay is locked to region 2.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I think I am going to jump ship and order the Japanese set; I don't want to see this delayed for another few months.

Does anyone have experience canceling orders with SLG? Is it something you gotta do through your bank?

I've had no problem cancelling orders with them. Just request the cancellation via email to them: support@strictlylimitedgames.com

Thanks for the help! The order was canceled and I went for one of the playasia special editions still in stock. Can't wait!