Darius (Genesis / Megadrive Mini)

[MameHaze]

> I was surprised M2 got Game no Kanzume Otoukyu working. The ROM has a hard time with some emulators and most flashcarts. There is a patch to get it working on the Everdrive V2/X7 from Sik on the sega-16 forums, who was also responsible for the awesome SGDK that Darius was programmed in.

you just have to treat the whole ROM as RAM, which makes sense if you think about it.

nothing special, and a lot less complex than many of the pirate carts.

[mojilove]

Those who know will probably already know, but you can enter the initials ZTT (for ZUNTATA, Taito's sound team) anywhere on the scoreboard to get a bonus sound test in the options menu (This is apparently the same as with Darius II on the Mega Drive).
You need to be the regular ship and not the one marked "Easy" for it to register a high score.

[it290]

Anyone know if there's a continue option in the game? Is it only available on easy mode or something?

[Klatrymadon]

I don't think there is one, but I'll test the Easy mode later.

I noticed one really big change from the original: no checkpoints and no power down at death. I'm definitely in full support of that.

Yeah! And yet so faithful in almost every other detail - even the behaviour of power-ups as they get stuck on walls is the same. I'm actually kind of interested in comparing it side-by-side with the PC Engine versions, since apart from the obvious stuff like the fact that the playfield fits the screen without any vertical scrolling now, I'm struck by a general feeling (at least when playing as Proco) that everything in the levels is significantly more aggressive. I haven't played the arcade or PC Engine ones in a few months and could just be imagining it, but I'm actually finding myself having to re-learn this game that looks like something I've played to death, which is fantastic and refreshing and feels like a real gift.

[Xyga]

The port's quality is indeed excellent, that's some dedicated work.
But I don't get why some people seem to think it is anything special technically-speaking.
I mean by MD's standards it's average, there are way more advanced games graphics and animation-wise on the platform, including several shmups, this Darius port could have been a thing by 1989.

[werk91]

Is there a chance this will get dumped into a proper rom one day? Would be curious to try it out, even though I don't really *need* to play it with the PC Engine version out there.

[Klatrymadon]

God, I hope so. Now that the hard work has been done, I want a cartridge.

For me the thrill is not so much in the technical achievement, but that a fellow giddy fan cared enough (in 2018-19!) to do it at all, in his spare time and by himself, and not only eventually got it out into the world but did so in an unusually big way.

[Xyga]

But is it hidecade's work or M2's ? I've read conflicting infos.

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah same here - I'm just assuming Hidecade's almost-finished work was picked up by M2, since the idea of them taking on the task of yet another from-scratch port (even using his as a model) in the middle of everything else seems too unlikely. I could be way off the mark, though, I suppose!

[BIL]

A neat parallel here, with M2 getting their start in the industry via their fan-made conversion of Gauntlet. Would be cool if Hidecade got a similar gig out of this.

[it290]

I don't think there is one, but I'll test the Easy mode later.

I noticed one really big change from the original: no checkpoints and no power down at death. I'm definitely in full support of that.

Yeah! And yet so faithful in almost every other detail - even the behaviour of power-ups as they get stuck on walls is the same. I'm actually kind of interested in comparing it side-by-side with the PC Engine versions, since apart from the obvious stuff like the fact that the playfield fits the screen without any vertical scrolling now, I'm struck by a general feeling (at least when playing as Proco) that everything in the levels is significantly more aggressive. I haven't played the arcade or PC Engine ones in a few months and could just be imagining it, but I'm actually finding myself having to re-learn this game that looks like something I've played to death, which is fantastic and refreshing and feels like a real gift.

I definitely agree on the aggressiveness thing. It feels frenetic in a way that Darius rarely does for me (and I love it).

Regarding the no power down at death thing — am I playing the same game as you guys? Because my ship definitely powers down when I die. Does the Mini's language/region setting have anything to do with it?

edit-never mind; it's the easy mode setting that preserves power after death (still no continues there, though)

But is it hidecade's work or M2's ? I've read conflicting infos.

I'm almost entirely sure it's Hidecade's. It has an attributions screen that credits SGDK which Hidecade definitely used.

[BrianC]

From what I have tried in MAME, the Tetris on the megadrive mini seems to be an accurate conversion. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I like that it has the ability to move a piece quickly without "tap, tap, tap", and how it introduces lock delay, but the rotation limitations can be frustrating. I hope M2 gets the rights to port Bloxeed again. Still has the same limitations, but introduces some fun power ups.

[it290]

The inability to rotate a piece before it enters the well kills it for me. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out why they went ahead and added a hard drop, but neglected to add the possibility of mapping said hard drop to Up. It's an improvement over the original MD Tetris, but I can't really see any reason (outside of curiosity) to play it unless you're just a fanatic who wants master every weird variant out there.

[BrianC]

The inability to rotate a piece before it enters the well kills it for me. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out why they went ahead and added a hard drop, but neglected to add the possibility of mapping said hard drop to Up. It's an improvement over the original MD Tetris, but I can't really see any reason (outside of curiosity) to play it unless you're just a fanatic who wants master every weird variant out there.

I'm a bit confused. I didn't realize that MD Mini Tetris port had a hard drop. The original MD Tetris has an odd hard drop that's nothing more than an automatic soft drop.

edit: There's a hard drop in the option menu for the MD Mini Tetris and a setting for "up key", as well as A, B, and C. I was able to set hard drop to up. I also set B to rotate right. It definitely plays better with two rotate buttons, though I like that they mimicked the odd three left rotate button setup of the arcade. The odd thing is that, unlike Darius, Tetris doesn't seem to save settings.

But is it hidecade's work or M2's ? I've read conflicting infos.

It was confirmed in an interview that it's Hidecade's.

[it290]

Hmm ok, I'll have to go back and check it out. When I was screwing around with it the other night the up option for hard drop wasn't working for me for some reason.

[BrianC]

I should do more comparing. I heard the AC Tetris is more responsive in controls, but it seemed very similar to the port when I tried it out. I'm a but mixed about the game itself. The odd choice for three left rotation buttons, limitations on rotation, and odd piece "randomization" are frustrating, but it also introduced lock delay and gets very fast. Good thing the Asia mini also has Columns and two and a half Puyo Puyo games.

[the androgyne]

But is it hidecade's work or M2's ? I've read conflicting infos.

Both! They did an interview together around release: https://www.4gamer.net/games/465/G046598/20190823058/
It's really interesting. The guy is a an obstetrician! And they talk about how they were going to use Hitoshi Sakimoto's sound driver, but space was a problem.

[GSK]

And they talk about how they were going to use Hitoshi Sakimoto's sound driver, but space was a problem.

Nah, you're confusing two different things--they were going to replace the driver but couldn't due to file size restraints with SGDK (or more accurately, they had an extremely short time to finish what hidecade made on his own and didn't have time to compress the existing material to make it fit), and separately to that, they lament not including any games that used Hitoshi Sakimoto's driver on the Mini.

(Gauntlet could have been that game, and they've implied it was extremely close to making it onto the Mini, as it happens.)

[the androgyne]

Thanks for the correction. I shouldn't trust Google so much!
Shame about Gauntlet missing the cut, though i've seen that the group attempting to hack it has actually found that rom on there. I'm not really interested in loading mine up with everything ever but if that could be restored easily I'd be ok with that. Have to wonder why they left it lying around in the first place ...

[Turrican]

Let's be honest though, part of the awesomeness of a gauntlet port is to see it run in 4 players mode. On a mini, It makes barely little more sense than seiken densetsu 2 did on the SNES mini...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I got one of those JPN region Megadrive Mini W with a pair of 6-button gamepads -- quite an impressive piece of hardware as it is. Is there option to enable scanlines with this partiuclar model?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[it290]

There's a scanlines option in the video options; you'll probably be able to find it more easily if you set the console to english (2nd item in the config menu if memory serves). I'm not a huge fan of the filter, but it's serviceable.

[BrianC]

Let's be honest though, part of the awesomeness of a gauntlet port is to see it run in 4 players mode. On a mini, It makes barely little more sense than seiken densetsu 2 did on the SNES mini...

4p mode is possible on the mini with a USB hub, though.

[it290]

Let's be honest though, part of the awesomeness of a gauntlet port is to see it run in 4 players mode. On a mini, It makes barely little more sense than seiken densetsu 2 did on the SNES mini...

4p mode is possible on the mini with a USB hub, though.

'Possible' but is this actually supported by the builtin emulator in any way? I would love to get some 4P Gauntlet action going on the Mini but it seems the default setup is built around two controllers max. Mega SG + Sega multitap seems like a more realistic option to get this going at present.

[BrianC]

Let's be honest though, part of the awesomeness of a gauntlet port is to see it run in 4 players mode. On a mini, It makes barely little more sense than seiken densetsu 2 did on the SNES mini...

4p mode is possible on the mini with a USB hub, though.

'Possible' but is this actually supported by the builtin emulator in any way? I would love to get some 4P Gauntlet action going on the Mini but it seems the default setup is built around two controllers max. Mega SG + Sega multitap seems like a more realistic option to get this going at present.

Why the skepticism? This has already been confirmed. M2 (or SEGA) mentioned that Yu Yu Hakusho was put on the JP mini for this very reason and the website for the JP MD mini even lists compatible USB hubs. 4p is definitely supported by the built in emulator, but I'm not sure which USB hubs are compatible aside from the Buffalo branded ones listed on the JP website. Here is a link to the Buffalo website showing compatible controllers and USB hubs. BTW, I rather play Gauntlet IV on mega sg or real hardware too, but I wanted to mention that the MD mini supports USB hubs (I was under the impression that this was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I couldn't find mention of it when looking through previous posts).

[it290]

Ah, didn't realize that was officially supported, very cool. Was skeptical because some of the Project Lunar posts I've been reading seemed to imply that only 'P1 Controller' and 'P2 Controller' were defined in the default config.

[Klatrymadon]

I took a chance on a repro cart of this (the only one I've seen so far), figuring it'll never see an official cartridge release, and am delighted to report it runs beautifully! If you've any interest in playing the port on the original hardware and a CRT screen, treat yourself!

Edit: sadly, the repro folks have had their Etsy shop closed.

[Flashman]

I took a chance on a repro cart of this (the only one I've seen so far), figuring it'll never see an official cartridge release, and am delighted to report it runs beautifully! If you've any interest in playing the port on the original hardware and a CRT screen, treat yourself!

Nice one, might pick that up at some point. Never overly liked the Daruis series, but recently got very into G-Darius on PS1 and it made me go back and give the SNES ones another go, which aren't bad at all.

I actually purchased a Genesis Mini to show support to Sega (I'm a big flash cart user so I always try and pick up official releases to give something back) but I gave it away as a gift, and I only gave Darius a fleeting go.

I'm always tempted to pick up Darius Burst on PS4, it looks amazing and I really like the music, but the £50 price tag is an obstacle for a digital game

[ACSeraph]

I'm always tempted to pick up Darius Burst on PS4, it looks amazing and I really like the music, but the £50 price tag is an obstacle for a digital game

DBCS really is worth the price just because of the sheer volume of content on offer. And if you got into G Darius, you would probably enjoy playing as Genesis in Burst.

[Gamer707b]

Just played this over the weekend and though, "how is this possible to run this good on Genesis?".
Simply amazing!! I would totally get a repro of this.