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

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

Post by EmperorIng »

I've always really liked Genpei Toumaden even if I never cleared it. It comes from that bizarre Namco era where their games were so huge and ambitious, something that could only happen with the hubris of jillions of PacMan bux.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by OmegaFlareX »

Sima Tuna wrote:Aero Fighters feels a lot like a jankier Psikyo.
It basically is Psikyo, which was started by former Video System employees. Specifically the ones who made AF1.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Hamster tweeted a really cool interview with Genpei devs - it's the game's 35th anniversary, guess that encouraged the ACA release. :mrgreen: Also talks about Dragon Buster (never really got into DB), and Baraduke (BD owns, I hope that one shows up).

Of stuff that's never so much as seen Museum release, I'd love to Finest Hour to show up. Heavy mecha sidescroller that seems obscure even by arcade catalogue standards. Major Assault Suits Valken vibes, earliest game I've seen in that arcade/sim style. (Jaleco's Formation Z doesn't count, great concepts but it sucks to play :sad:)

Otherwise, I hope the relatively recent Switch additions to the venerable old PS1 Museum Roster, like Splatterhouse and Rolling Thunder 2, make it over. Late 80s / early 90s Namco never got the coverage it deserved BITD, though NM Encore's Dragon Saber was appreciated.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Klatrymadon »

Can't let the Genpei news pass without posting what is hands-down the best piece of videogame promotional material ever produced. It's also the most black metal, being similar aesthetically and conceptually to the video for Blashyrkh: a mad lad runs through his native countryside pulling faces.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Helll yeah :cool: Got that rustic Tales Of Beatrix Potter vibe Image

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

Post by DenimDemon »

A few of the ACA are on sale for half the price on Switch. Their Puzzle Bobble 2, Legend of Kage, The Tin Star, Kiki Kaikai and Water Ski.

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

Post by Sima Tuna »

I grabbed KiKi KaiKai. My impression of the game is it's really mean. :D Great visuals and design but some very mean-spirited traps and fast homing enemies.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BrianC »

Puzzle Bobble 2 is the NeoGeo version. Not sure which version is preferred.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Marc »

Kage is one I've always wanted to play the orignal, but was put off at full-price as the home conversions sucked. Bought for that price.
Sima Tuna wrote:I grabbed KiKi KaiKai. My impression of the game is it's really mean. :D Great visuals and design but some very mean-spirited traps and fast homing enemies.
I found the first few levels weren't overly strict in how you approach them, though it was getting trickier before I got distracted by whatever else I bought that week.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by DenimDemon »

Rally - X this week.
Not something super exciting for me... specially after hearing about the bombs dropping sometime in the future.

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

Post by BulletMagnet »

Apparently Hamster recently trademarked "Console Archives", so we'll see what comes of that...
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Any idea when Xexex may come out?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BrianC »

DenimDemon wrote:Rally - X this week.
Not something super exciting for me... specially after hearing about the bombs dropping sometime in the future.

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Apparently, it doesn't include New Rally-X?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

^ Yeah, it's just Rally-X aka "Old Rally-X." I noticed some JP accounts musing about the New ver being included in a future update, ala Darius Extra. Or less charitably, suggesting that they went with Old first, because nobody would buy it with New available. :lol: I did see some remark that Old was a harder game to find in arcades, BITD, which I thought was neat.

Like many of us I'm sure, I've had both versions (and Pac-Man, Xevious, and Genpei) ported forever via PS1 Namco Museum. But ala the Konami Deluxe Packs, Arcade Gears, etc, I like having the option of straight high-quality emulation for console. Addictive little game... I like the smokescreen and radar amenities, pretty CHARANGING despite those.

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

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I own Rally-X/New Rally-X/Rally-X Arrangement on my Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 PCB. Admittedly it's my least played of the games, partly because Pac-Man Arrangement/Dig-Dug Arrangement are super fun in multiplayer with folks over, and partly because I have a hard time getting into Rally-X. It feels like I'm spending a lot of time looking at the minimap indicator vs the actual screen itself. Are there any resources out there to help get into Rally-X more?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by velo »

Last week was Mappy, next one is Sky Kid. That's another one already available in Namco Museum. So 6 of the last 7 have been Namco, which is good, but somehow they're not picking the things I wish they would.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Gotta say I was hoping they'd bust out Splatterhouse (or even Yokai Dokuchi) for Halloween, oh well. :mrgreen: Maybe Genpei was the spooky pick? Hopefully it wasn't Pac-Man.

I guess they're playing it safe... definitely hoping they'll be a bit more adventurous going forward, but in the short term I'm not bothered. I'm not a diehard fan of any of these games, but they're the kind of foundational works I like seeing treated well, and having around for a quick credit whenever I feel like trying my hand at 'em.

Speaking of, this has the same ultra-smooth horizontal scrolling as Genpei - nice! There's also the "PCB speed" option that most of the prior Namco ACAs have, which gets a little chop as expected (IIRC, the boards run at slightly over 60hz - ACA Super Cobra has a similar toggle). Controls are sharp, as expected of ACA.

I wonder if they'll spring for Sky Kid Arrangement at some point. Rare and expensive board, from what I recall.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by velo »

BIL wrote:Gotta say I was hoping they'd bust out Splatterhouse (or even Yokai Dokuchi) for Halloween, oh well. :mrgreen: Maybe Genpei was the spooky pick? Hopefully it wasn't Pac-Man.

I guess they're playing it safe... definitely hoping they'll be a bit more adventurous going forward, but in the short term I'm not bothered. I'm not a diehard fan of any of these games, but they're the kind of foundational works I like seeing treated well, and having around for a quick credit whenever I feel like trying my hand at 'em.

Speaking of, this has the same ultra-smooth horizontal scrolling as Genpei - nice! There's also the "PCB speed" option that most of the prior Namco ACAs have, which gets a little chop as expected (IIRC, the boards run at slightly over 60hz - ACA Super Cobra has a similar toggle). Controls are sharp, as expected of ACA.

I wonder if they'll spring for Sky Kid Arrangement at some point. Rare and expensive board, from what I recall.
I think the ones I want most are the arcade versions of the NES games in the Namco Archives, e.g. Dragon Spirit etc. They did Mappy so maybe there's hope. Also, Ms. Pac-man, but I won't get my hopes up for that one...

Is the Neo Geo archives line officially 100% done? They haven't added to that in a long, long time
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

velo wrote:
BIL wrote:Is the Neo Geo archives line officially 100% done? They haven't added to that in a long, long time
Almost definitely. Hamster had an absolutely amazing Switch run though, releasing a game every single week from system launch in March 2017 all the way into January 2019. Then 5 last stragglers spaced out in Feb-Apr 2019. Hamster was able to keep releasing a game a week on Switch though, after 'switching' to the Arcade Archives (non-Neo Geo ACA) line that was initially less consistent, but have been weekly releases since the end of the Neo Geo run.

I went through the entire official Neo Geo catalog and identified that there are only like a little more than 30 official AES/MVS games that were not released. That number doesn't include unlicensed stuff (e.g. NGDEV's games) or Neo CD exclusives (Crossed Swords 2, Ironclad/Chotetsu Brikinger - which amazingly DID get released on Wii VC). The vast majority of these have apparent licensing issues that explain the omissions.

The only stuff that didn't show up:

1) Visco titles (10 games): The biggest chunk of missing games, including Andro Dunos, Battle Flip Shot, Breakers, Breakers Revenge, Captain Tomaday, Ganryu, Goal! Goal! Goal!, Neo Drift Out, Neo Mr. Do!, and Pop'n Bounce. Hamster has never released anything from them, so it stands to reason that they never got the license. Interestingly, Visco does seem to have licensed their IP to small companies for things like the DC Breakers and Ganryu releases, Andro Dunos 2, sorta sketchy AES releases of Breakers Revenge and Ganryu from what seems to be a French former repro maker, etc.

2) Hudson Soft (3 games) - two Bomberman titles and Kabuki Klash (aka Tengai Makyou/Far East of Eden). For Bomberman at least, those should be currently owned by Konami who have licensed other non Neo Geo stuff to Hamster - so would not have been a total shocker to see Hamster get those but it never happened. I suspect Kabuki Klash may have its own separate licensing issues.

3) Technos (3 games) - Double Dragon, Super Dodgeball, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. Gowcaizer likely has its own separate licensing issues from character IP owners. Like Konami/Hudson, Hamster has done other non-Neo Geo Technos games, though it's unclear whether these Neo titles are currently owned by Arc System Works so wouldn't be surprising if the licensing rights are a bit more complicated or hard to acquire.

4) A couple of SNK releases with obvious licensing issues: SVC Chaos (Capcom involvement), and Eightman (whoever owns the manga license). Shame about these two, but not shocking.

5) A few Taito-published games: Puzzle De Pon & Puzzle De Pon R, and Pochi & Nyaa (developed by Compile!). Thought these could happen, with Hamster securing the license for Puzzle Bobble 1&2 and releasing those very late in the ACA Neo Geo series, but guess that wasn't the case.

5) A handful of games from publishers that had a single Neo Geo title:
- Fight Fever (Korean SNK publisher Viccom) - had some SNK involvement in worldwide publishing, but probably license issues there as well
- Legend of Success Joe (Wave)
- Matrimelee - super convoluted licensing history. No idea who owns it now - Atlus/Sega perhaps?
- Nightmare in the Dark (Eleven/Gavaking) - their only ever published game. SNK had some co-publishing relationship for the Neo MVS release, but that was also in 2000 during the really crazy time right before SNK Corporation closed and Playmore was founded, so that's another complication and I suspect that's another one in licensing limbo.
- Tecmo World Soccer '96 (Tecmo) - really, THAT'S the only game they could be bothered to release on Neo Geo? Yep.
- Viewpoint (Sammy) - maybe currently owned by Sega? One of the more notable omissions from the ACA Neo Geo series, IMO.

6) A handful of Japan-only quiz, mahjong, and shogi games (no big loss)

7) Windjammers was Data East, and all of their other Neo Games did get released by Hamster. However, this one is now controlled by DotEmu (booo). Some trivia, this was also the only Neo Geo game ever delisted from the Wii Virtual Console, when DotEmu got control of it.

8 ) Rage of the Dragons - this is a weird one too. Published by Playmore in 2002, developed by now-defunct Mexican developer Evoga with cooperation from Noise Factory and Brezzasoft. From what I can tell, it seems this may have been owned by Evoga and in licensing limbo with their demise. Interesting news though, apparently Piko Interactive acquired the IP in 2020 (well after Hamster stopped releasing Neo Geo ACA games) and is interesting in getting it re-published in some form. This is my last AES cart, couldn't bear to sell it with most of my collection. But probably will soon, cause it's worth some $$$$$$.

9) The Irritating Maze - Saurus/SNK game that SNK likely still has the rights to, but seems obvious that this one wasn't published due to reliance on a dedicated cabinet with a trackball.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Atariboy »

hamfighterx wrote:Visco titles (10 games): The biggest chunk of missing games, including Andro Dunos, Battle Flip Shot, Breakers, Breakers Revenge, Captain Tomaday, Ganryu, Goal! Goal! Goal!, Neo Drift Out, Neo Mr. Do!, and Pop'n Bounce. Hamster has never released anything from them, so it stands to reason that they never got the license. Interestingly, Visco does seem to have licensed their IP to small companies for things like the DC Breakers and Ganryu releases, Andro Dunos 2, sorta sketchy AES releases of Breakers Revenge and Ganryu from what seems to be a French former repro maker, etc.
AtGames seems to also have secured a licensing arrangement. Neo Drift Out for one has appeared in several of their products like the Legends Core plug and play.

Leaves me sad that Hamster couldn't work out a deal, since Visco are obviously amicable to licensing out this library.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

hamfighterx wrote:I went through the entire official Neo Geo catalog and identified that there are only like a little more than 30 official AES/MVS games that were not released. That number doesn't include unlicensed stuff (e.g. NGDEV's games) or Neo CD exclusives (Crossed Swords 2, Ironclad/Chotetsu Brikinger - which amazingly DID get released on Wii VC). The vast majority of these have apparent licensing issues that explain the omissions.
Great post. :smile: Damn shame Viewpoint never made it.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Atariboy wrote:Leaves me sad that Hamster couldn't work out a deal, since Visco are obviously amicable to licensing out this library.
The worst is how Vasara ended up. An awful port that regularly went for pennies until Nintendo set a price floor on the eShop (I'm sure it's still cheap). It would have been much better off on all fronts in Hamster's capable hands.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by velo »

hamfighterx wrote:
velo wrote:
BIL wrote:Is the Neo Geo archives line officially 100% done? They haven't added to that in a long, long time
Almost definitely. Hamster had an absolutely amazing Switch run though, releasing a game every single week from system launch in March 2017 all the way into January 2019. Then 5 last stragglers spaced out in Feb-Apr 2019. Hamster was able to keep releasing a game a week on Switch though, after 'switching' to the Arcade Archives (non-Neo Geo ACA) line that was initially less consistent, but have been weekly releases since the end of the Neo Geo run.

I went through the entire official Neo Geo catalog and identified that there are only like a little more than 30 official AES/MVS games that were not released. That number doesn't include unlicensed stuff (e.g. NGDEV's games) or Neo CD exclusives (Crossed Swords 2, Ironclad/Chotetsu Brikinger - which amazingly DID get released on Wii VC). The vast majority of these have apparent licensing issues that explain the omissions.

The only stuff that didn't show up:

1) Visco titles (10 games): The biggest chunk of missing games, including Andro Dunos, Battle Flip Shot, Breakers, Breakers Revenge, Captain Tomaday, Ganryu, Goal! Goal! Goal!, Neo Drift Out, Neo Mr. Do!, and Pop'n Bounce. Hamster has never released anything from them, so it stands to reason that they never got the license. Interestingly, Visco does seem to have licensed their IP to small companies for things like the DC Breakers and Ganryu releases, Andro Dunos 2, sorta sketchy AES releases of Breakers Revenge and Ganryu from what seems to be a French former repro maker, etc.

2) Hudson Soft (3 games) - two Bomberman titles and Kabuki Klash (aka Tengai Makyou/Far East of Eden). For Bomberman at least, those should be currently owned by Konami who have licensed other non Neo Geo stuff to Hamster - so would not have been a total shocker to see Hamster get those but it never happened. I suspect Kabuki Klash may have its own separate licensing issues.

3) Technos (3 games) - Double Dragon, Super Dodgeball, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer. Gowcaizer likely has its own separate licensing issues from character IP owners. Like Konami/Hudson, Hamster has done other non-Neo Geo Technos games, though it's unclear whether these Neo titles are currently owned by Arc System Works so wouldn't be surprising if the licensing rights are a bit more complicated or hard to acquire.

4) A couple of SNK releases with obvious licensing issues: SVC Chaos (Capcom involvement), and Eightman (whoever owns the manga license). Shame about these two, but not shocking.

5) A few Taito-published games: Puzzle De Pon & Puzzle De Pon R, and Pochi & Nyaa (developed by Compile!). Thought these could happen, with Hamster securing the license for Puzzle Bobble 1&2 and releasing those very late in the ACA Neo Geo series, but guess that wasn't the case.

5) A handful of games from publishers that had a single Neo Geo title:
- Fight Fever (Korean SNK publisher Viccom) - had some SNK involvement in worldwide publishing, but probably license issues there as well
- Legend of Success Joe (Wave)
- Matrimelee - super convoluted licensing history. No idea who owns it now - Atlus/Sega perhaps?
- Nightmare in the Dark (Eleven/Gavaking) - their only ever published game. SNK had some co-publishing relationship for the Neo MVS release, but that was also in 2000 during the really crazy time right before SNK Corporation closed and Playmore was founded, so that's another complication and I suspect that's another one in licensing limbo.
- Tecmo World Soccer '96 (Tecmo) - really, THAT'S the only game they could be bothered to release on Neo Geo? Yep.
- Viewpoint (Sammy) - maybe currently owned by Sega? One of the more notable omissions from the ACA Neo Geo series, IMO.

6) A handful of Japan-only quiz, mahjong, and shogi games (no big loss)

7) Windjammers was Data East, and all of their other Neo Games did get released by Hamster. However, this one is now controlled by DotEmu (booo). Some trivia, this was also the only Neo Geo game ever delisted from the Wii Virtual Console, when DotEmu got control of it.

8 ) Rage of the Dragons - this is a weird one too. Published by Playmore in 2002, developed by now-defunct Mexican developer Evoga with cooperation from Noise Factory and Brezzasoft. From what I can tell, it seems this may have been owned by Evoga and in licensing limbo with their demise. Interesting news though, apparently Piko Interactive acquired the IP in 2020 (well after Hamster stopped releasing Neo Geo ACA games) and is interesting in getting it re-published in some form. This is my last AES cart, couldn't bear to sell it with most of my collection. But probably will soon, cause it's worth some $$$$$$.

9) The Irritating Maze - Saurus/SNK game that SNK likely still has the rights to, but seems obvious that this one wasn't published due to reliance on a dedicated cabinet with a trackball.
Thanks for the info. I always did wonder why Stakes Winner made the cut and Nightmare in the Dark didn't.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Hm, ACA Skykid has 6hz autofire. Neato. :o Even for an autofire-loving shitbird like myself, 15hz feels like cheating. :lol: Pullups EZ like ur homies just outta frame haulin you over the bar :cool:

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

Post by hamfighterx »

hamfighterx wrote:8 ) Rage of the Dragons - this is a weird one too. Published by Playmore in 2002, developed by now-defunct Mexican developer Evoga with cooperation from Noise Factory and Brezzasoft. From what I can tell, it seems this may have been owned by Evoga and in licensing limbo with their demise. Interesting news though, apparently Piko Interactive acquired the IP in 2020 (well after Hamster stopped releasing Neo Geo ACA games) and is interesting in getting it re-published in some form. This is my last AES cart, couldn't bear to sell it with most of my collection. But probably will soon, cause it's worth some $$$$$$.
Holy crap, less than 24 hours after the above post... announcement that QUByte Interactive is publishing Rage of the Dragons on PS4/Xbox/Switch. That's freaky.

QUByte seems to have partnered with Piko Interactive, a Texas company who has been putting together an an IP portfolio of old games that they're actively trying to license and get published. They have a bunch of stuff already on Steam.

QUByte is also publishing the Breakers/Breakers Revenge collection for consoles and PC in 2022 (originally was scheduled for 2021) - so while they aren't coming from Hamster, that's three of the more notable games from the above list of Neo Geo titles that didn't make it to the ACA Neo Geo line!
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by trap15 »

hamfighterx wrote:1) Visco titles (10 games): The biggest chunk of missing games, including Andro Dunos, Battle Flip Shot, Breakers, Breakers Revenge, Captain Tomaday, Ganryu, Goal! Goal! Goal!, Neo Drift Out, Neo Mr. Do!, and Pop'n Bounce. Hamster has never released anything from them, so it stands to reason that they never got the license. Interestingly, Visco does seem to have licensed their IP to small companies for things like the DC Breakers and Ganryu releases, Andro Dunos 2, sorta sketchy AES releases of Breakers Revenge and Ganryu from what seems to be a French former repro maker, etc.
I believe said sketchy French company (Joshprod, or whatever their name is now) actually owns all the Visco game rights now, and actively pursued getting those licensed works done.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

Yeah, it looks like "Pixel Heart" is either related or partnering with JoshProd for the current releases of Visco stuff. Pixel Heart's website shows that Breakers Revenge has been "Licensed by Pixelheart since 2020". I didn't realize they have AES cart releases of other Visco games - besides a new run of Breakers Revenge, they have Neo Drift out and Andro Dunos (see, this post is totally about STGs!) shown on their site now.

I bought an "officially licensed from Visco" Breakers Revenge AES cart released in like... 2015 or so. Neo Ayato store from France sold em, maybe related to the current "JoshProd"/Pixel Heart crew. I remember they did Ganryu shortly after that. There was some drama on Neo-geo.com boards, where they tend to hate "conversion carts" where cheaper MVS roms are used with a "sacrifice" cheap AES cart to make an AES version of the game. Apparently that's what happened with Breakers Revenge, but they had Visco's blessing. It's a very well done cart at least, but I knew what I was getting.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Not my first NMK pick, nor my first dragon-riding hori pick (where is Dragon Breed), but a fellow home release no-hoper that's welcome nonetheless: Black Heart out tonight/tomorrow. :cool: Always liked this one's eccentric Makai Densetsu-esque tone, and NMK is an instant point of interest. I'm in it for HIDE-KAZ' war bass tbh Image

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

Post by Sima Tuna »

Is there a reason they've been porting mostly weird shit? I want Thunder Dragon 2, P-47 Aces and the arcade beat em ups they haven't ported yet. At $8 a pop, I'm not buying an ACA release unless it's an excellent game. Black Heart is cool for being NMK, but get me Gunnail already.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Sima Tuna wrote:Is there a reason they've been porting mostly weird shit?
I got a laugh out of that, cheers Image :mrgreen: Image

Well, they have the rights to four catalogues: Nichibutsu, Video System, UPL, and NMK. They also seem pretty cosy with whoever owns Jaleco (City Connection?). Weird shit abounds... FO FREE Image

So those are their ballast libraries, kinda. I wish (again, where muh DRAGON BREED 3;) they'd just go on a historic tear through all the raddest, baddest, ain't-never-haddest (on console) stuff from Konami, Irem, Taito etc (where the fuck is Rainbow Islands :shock:), but it's just never been their style. Even years back, you had ACA Bubble Bobble making its epoch-defining landfall next to Kids HoreHore Daisakusen and Holy Warrior Amaterasu.

75% weird shit, 25% rabidly in-demand debuts. :cool:
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