I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Rastan78]

Nice! I was just thinking man, it'd be nice if this or Raiden game out by the holidays.

Now with Gradius III, Image Fight, and Detana!! Twinbee masochists looking for some of the most brutal games of all time are totally set on ACA.

[BIL]

M2's Tatsujin Ou is inbound as well, and Same Same 1P Ver + ACA Parodius Da & Raiden II are by no means longshots. This gen's consoles are turning into quite the consolidated STG hellraisers.





This guy knows how 2 dodge

[CRP]

ACA: Gradius III

they've adding a custom mode that'll let you change various as-yet-unspecified settings & adds a stage select

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1340239990484168704

[Rastan78]

This guy knows how 2 dodge

Man, that ain't nothin.




https://youtu.be/gHv4RWlUweQ

[BIL]

Out now. GET ON THE READY LINE GET HOT GOD DAMMIT

Oh wait, it's just the placeholder display image. Ah well. Sorry about that! Give it a few hours.

Trailer is up though. Looking and sounding bang-on as usual, with a whole raft of killers in the playtesting department. TZW-ART, now there's a name I like to see.

[EmperorIng]

I've seen some screenshots of the options menu and it's already getting me rock hard. Like a PS2 port+, with extra bells, whistles (Bells n' Whistles?), and online leaderboards.

This is looking to be Hamster's best port, suitable for going FROM LEGEND TO MYTH.

[BIL]

Hatred ~ I've Waited A Long Time For This Day ♫

---

Gentlemen, I am pleased to report that based on preliminary findings, this is the mahfuckin jam.

Old Japan, New Japan and Asian regions included. Fooled around with Custom mode a bit - feels like a utilitarian but extensive practice mode, with the opening menu presenting a stage select, down to individual checkpoints ala Gradius V's. Max Power and Hitbox Display on a button apiece, the latter toggleable in real time. One press puts hitboxes on everything - press again to remove those on your own shots, and again to disable entirely. Pretty nice touch, given how much traffic your own boxed fire can put onscreen.

More like AQUA CONTUSION mirite 3;

Spoiler

The "adjusted" Wait setting still chugs under heavy loads, but it's much smoother than the unaltered, PCB-modelled slowdown that's staggeringly heavy one instant, flinging you away the next, just like the real buckin' bronco deal.

Should be absolutely invaluable for ironing out bottlenecks and chokepoints, of which Gradius III's are legion. Also for just enjoying the smoothed-out Wait, and trying out novel strategies. There's also a hefty page+ of toggles for other emulation tweaks, the biggest I've seen of any ACA release (typically it's just a handful).



Oof! Right in me box! :O

Input response seems razor-sharp, as per ACA standard. As with Trigon, Gemini Wing, and every other release I've tried, no complaints there.

Tried the Konami Code at the title screen for a laugh, hoping for a shoutout to Gotch's Gradius I, II and other Konami ACA releases. Wasn't disappointed.

[dmk1198]

That video looks like super hydorah lol

Sent from my Redmi Note 8T using Tapatalk

[BIL]

Yeah! Locomalito knows his sacred VG iconography.

[Rastan78]

Wait hit box display!? That's amazing. Hamster has really been stepping it up. Wonder when it'll hit the NA eshop.

[BIL]

Next week (Dec 31st), it looks like. It's beautiful work - honestly, I'd be happy with just the arcade modes, but the Custom mode makes this a landmark. So cool being able to hop around various checkpoints with any powerup config you like, trying out the most batshit stunts. I've left this one hanging at the cusp of a 1-ALL for many years now, this makes me want to try for a 2-ALL.

[Rastan78]

The custom training mode really fixes one of the only big problems with ACA releases compared to M2, which is the funky save state set up Hamster uses. Honestly I prefer a full fledged practice mode to save states. I always use this on Darius Cozmic. That way you don't have to play through and be thinking about save stating during a good run just to set it up. You can just dive in wherever you want.

But even Cozmic collection only lets you start at the beginning of a level. Having specific checkpoint practice in a game like Gradius III is huge bc you can start with no powerups and figure out recovery from there.

Dec 31st WTF why!? I can't wait that long.

[Zach Keene]

Wonder when it'll hit the NA eshop.

It's up now.

[BIL]

I'm delighted to have been wrong on that

[Rastan78]

Nice! Thanks for the heads up

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

I feel like the PS2 port had some cooler stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDjXbDk4yOs Look! Thundercross style and Swirling options! E-Laser!

You had to beat the game a couple of times to unlock stage select and extra edit but that's fine, PS2 vers. had an actual easy mode with altered enemy patterns (most memorably you would get those homing zaku dropping powerups before the boss rush instead of the star shaped bullet spewing things you get normally). There was also the option to play with no slowdown whatsoever (good luck against Big Core MkIII though).

I only have pal ps2 though so a new port optimised for me big telly is welcome. Funny setting your hitbox to a single dot, as is watching all 8 free shields coming on screen at once.

[BIL]

Gradius III & IV aka Gradius Deluxe Pack 2 will forever be indispensable simply for DEM CHOONZ (and dem CGs!).

>GRAND YOUTH 2000 muh feels, that was last week innit?!

DUCK YOU DUCKERS

Spoiler

VTOL BARREL ROLL > BLUE DEATHFROOTLOOPS

Spoiler

[Zach Keene]

So it seems Rapid Fire Type 30 doesn't get along very well with high slowdown situations (at least on Switch). I've was having non-laser weapons (like the normal shot or Ripple) fire one shot at a time and my missiles stop firing entirely until I took my finger off the button... or better still, switched to Type 20.

Amazingly, the bubbles are much easier to manage (relatively) when your weapons are actually firing.

[Sengoku Strider]

The custom training mode really fixes one of the only big problems with ACA releases compared to M2, which is the funky save state set up Hamster uses.

I hate it. It wipes your local scores unless you use an interrupt save on the title screen every single time. Do not like.

[trap15]

So it seems Rapid Fire Type 30 doesn't get along very well with high slowdown situations (at least on Switch). I've was having non-laser weapons (like the normal shot or Ripple) fire one shot at a time and my missiles stop firing entirely until I took my finger off the button... or better still, switched to Type 20.

Amazingly, the bubbles are much easier to manage (relatively) when your weapons are actually firing.

Yup, it'll do the same thing if you use 30hz auto-fire on the real PCB too. Hamster's too effective at recreating original conditions
For this reason, as you've already noticed, it's useful to have various autofire rates.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

This guy knows how 2 dodge

Would guarantee one of Hamster's advertisement posts is more interesting and useful to society than literally his entire Twitter posting history combined.

You had to beat the game a couple of times to unlock stage select and extra edit but that's fine,

I actually really want to see a Parodius game with a Weapon Edit mode where literally you can just use anyone's weapons/shield on any character (with weapon selection obviously locked depending on if you're using Multiple or Grade Up weapon types). I thought the weapon edit in Gradius V was one of the most fun things to play with.

[BIL]

So it seems Rapid Fire Type 30 doesn't get along very well with high slowdown situations (at least on Switch). I've was having non-laser weapons (like the normal shot or Ripple) fire one shot at a time and my missiles stop firing entirely until I took my finger off the button... or better still, switched to Type 20.

Amazingly, the bubbles are much easier to manage (relatively) when your weapons are actually firing.

Yup, it'll do the same thing if you use 30hz auto-fire on the real PCB too. Hamster's too effective at recreating original conditions
For this reason, as you've already noticed, it's useful to have various autofire rates.

They even added a little blurb to ACA Image Fight's button config screen, warning that 30hz autofire is gonna produce slowdown FO FREE I went to see if ACA Gradius III had the same warning, then remembered: it's fuckin Gradius III. (I'd forgotten how certain stages become turn-based strategies at max power )

This guy knows how 2 dodge

Would guarantee one of Hamster's advertisement posts is more interesting and useful to society than literally his entire Twitter posting history combined.

Was briefly tempted to steal his face for my AV and become his twitter BFF >:3 Then I remembered the iron rule of Internet Nutjob Watching: DONT TOUCH THE POOP

[Rastan78]

Yeah the thing where 30 hz autofire becomes too fast during slowdown will happen on pretty much any game with heavy slowdown. In a lot of cases its not noticeable bc the autofire might be skipping a beat here or there but its still pretty damn fast. Having a slower rate available totally fixes the problem, so its nice to see Hamster is no longer just applying 30 hz to every game without the option to change it.

I think what's happening is that when you get a shot rate that is going too fast for the framerate there isn't a chance for the game to register a frame where the button isn't being pressed. The end result is similar to holding down the non auto shot button.

Since 30 hz autofire doesn't work on Metal Slug it always had me wondering if the game just runs at 30 hz instead of 60 so they could get more out of the hardware?

Yeah holding down auto shot and bomb on the entire bubble stage in Gradius III is the way to go Slow the game to a crawl and just enjoy the scenery. Then try not to slam into the ceiling at the end of the stage when the slowdown suddenly lets up lol.

I heard someone hacked Gradius III SNES emulation to run at locked 60 and it makes the bubble stage absolutely brutal even on the easy console version. So they must have been balancing difficulty with the slowdown in mind.

[OmegaFlareX]

I heard someone hacked Gradius III SNES emulation to run at locked 60 and it makes the bubble stage absolutely brutal even on the easy console version. So they must have been balancing difficulty with the slowdown in mind.

Yeah, it's cool how they did it. The ROM was reprogrammed to utilize a SA-1 enhancement chip, which is basically a full additional CPU that's nearly triple the speed of the stock SFC, and other enhancements related to memory access, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S ... _chips#SA1

I wasn't aware that Contra 3 and SMW also got similar treatments. I'm not entirely sure but I think I've seen a patch for Super Ghouls N Ghosts too.

[trap15]

Since 30 hz autofire doesn't work on Metal Slug it always had me wondering if the game just runs at 30 hz instead of 60 so they could get more out of the hardware?

Yeah, all the Metal Slug games (on NeoGeo anyways) run at 30 fps.

[Rastan78]

Loving ACA Gradius III so far.

Now whenever I hear the bubbles popping on stage 2 I just hear the sound of mice. I will never be able to unhear this.

[Marc]

Loving ACA Gradius III so far.

Now whenever I hear the bubbles popping on stage 2 I just hear the sound of mice. I will never be able to unhear this.

Too much for me, there's sadistic, then there's this
Managed a 1CC on the SNES version the year before last, can't see myself persevering with this.

[Rastan78]

The difficulty jump starting at stage 3 is almost comical. Its like there was a glitch that warps you right to the 2nd loop version of the stage lol. Gradius III might secretly be the first real danmaku game.

You basically have no choice but to equip the force field. Grab enough powerups so that you are sitting at your next force field and pop it as soon as you lose the active one. Sometimes it's hard to tell when the shield will take that last hit and you get clipped by 2 bullets real quick before you can even hit the power up button. Thereby dying with a shield sitting in reserve.

Its almost tempting to have an autofire button assigned to power up so that you can hold it down and cause another forcefield to trigger immediately on losing it. Hmmm

I dig the attention to detail in the port. They cleaned up a lot of glitches and even the English translations on the ship select screen. They even cleaned up the garbled screen transitions in the game's attract mode. But they give you the option to individually dial everything back to arcade perfect for the purists out there. It's kind of nice to be able to play with nomal shot, repple laser and shiled equipped as per arcade original.

[Rastan78]

ACA Rod Land is out. Im still wondering where Raiden will come in on the lineup. I really hope it gets the custom mode that Gradius III got. Maybe this won't just be a one time thing?

[Knightmare]

I'm a huge Gradius fan, but somehow the ACA release of III was totally off my radar until I read this page. I am thrilled to hear how good this port is. Hamster really seems to be stepping it up.