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

[Steven]

Hell yeah. I just got back from Mikado and it looks like they got rid of their Gun Frontier. I always wanted to play it but never did, so now I'm glad that Hamster is saving this game from companies like Shitty Connection.

[BIL]

NGL though, the far-off dream of ACA F3 emulation aside, it's F1 I really want to see

Lucky for you, F1 and F2 are the same board, just F2 is a two-board stack and F1 is an all-in-one board

Ha, I did wonder! Excellent to know.

If I had my pick of those games, narrowly beating the undersung Thunder Fox, it'd be Dead Connection. Looks like such a charming one-off, and it inexplicably avoided even the lukewarm Taito Memories JP discs. (I wonder if the cod-Brando, Costner and Garcia characters were a problem?) The only other game it reminds me of is Taito's own, earlier Tin Star, a really sad case of a quality game totally undercut by godawful bullet visibility.

Also that intro



SADNESS, AND REVENGE

When it came to VG Kinema, Taito Is Kings

[Sima Tuna]

Gun Frontier is another of the Taito Legends 2 games, which leads me to believe that we're likely to eventually see Elevator Action Returns. I've whined many times about its lack of availability and my desire to see ACA release it for modern consoles. Hopefully Gun Frontier coming out means we'll get all of the Taito Legends 2 games eventually. Growl and Metal Black would be nice for the Hamster preservation library too.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Metal Black (especially having recently been alerted by Prickly Angler of certain differences in VING's generally sound Saturn version),

Which differences are those?

NGL though, the far-off dream of ACA F3 emulation aside, it's F1 I really want to see

Lucky for you, F1 and F2 are the same board, just F2 is a two-board stack and F1 is an all-in-one board

Is F2's main PCB interchangeable a la CPS2 (i.e. were F2 game PCBs (also) sold without the main PCB by Taito?)?

[BIL]

Metal Black (especially having recently been alerted by Prickly Angler of certain differences in VING's generally sound Saturn version),

Which differences are those?

Here you go. I'm gonna update the guide to a multi-post format at some point, just dealing with some eye issues so I can't do as much ATM. Will definitely have a PCB vs Saturn section thanks to Prickly's info. EDIT: looking again he just mentioned Feeder's support enemies having less HP on Saturn, but that's a huge hint considering it's been regarded as effectively AC perfect around here forever.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Yeah, Ving is so well regarded. I wonder what else will be found in the future. Mizu-Baku, Bubble Symphony and EAR are considered perfect ports as well everywhere (though I read once that the F3-Saturn ports can't be *perfect* as F3 is 57.something hz). Their Viewpoint port for the Towns is not perfect but it just couldn't be any better.

These minute, solvable discrepancies, though, like those of Layer Section, makes you wonder why. Specially in the case of Metal Black, released as a homage many years later with the game already forgotten, ergo for actual fans only.

[Jonpachi]

ZOMG super hyped for Gun Frontier! This one never landed in my Saturn collection for some reason, and the awful Taito Memories port wasn't worth any real time investment.

I second the hope that we start getting more gems from the Taito motherload. I almost copped on an expensive copy of Elevator Action Returns earlier in the year, but I suppose I'll hold off for now!

[trap15]

Is F2's main PCB interchangeable a la CPS2 (i.e. were F2 game PCBs (also) sold without the main PCB by Taito?)?

I seem to recall that they're too customized to actually be exchanged other than between subsets, but I haven't tried in a long time.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I see, thanks. Game PCBs without the F2 main board were very usual in the second-hand market once, always wondered if Taito sold them like that too.

[BIL]

Whoa, Chack 'n Pop is a more novel affair than I was expecting. Screenshots suggest Bubble Bobble Zero, but it recalls Pac-Man and Bomberman just as much. Has BB's nefarious monsters (literally, Monsta and Mighta getting early appearances in) amidst Pac's dense mazes, the player armed with Bomberman's deliberately harrowing self-lethal explosives... the real twist is, it still plays like a side-viewed, gravity-bound platformer, and unlike the free-floating enemies, Mr. Chack'n (a flightless bird?) can't leave the ground.

So vertical movement relies on concerted use of his stork legs and uncanny ceiling walk ability. It might seem a little ungainly at first - I wonder if this was designed for four-way stick? - but wedging Chack'n onto ceilings is a surprisingly tactile and wiggle-friendly process, ultimately quite intuitive. This is the earliest I've seen 2D ceiling traversals, pretty smooth; particularly with the game's two buttons dedicated to [left bomb] and [right bomb].

Golden bird bro walking on ceilings like a veritable Alien Soldier

Spoiler

As expected of Taito, there's quite a bit of optional depth to proceedings, paired with the blood-simple primary objective of nuking those Heart Cages and RETURNING THE LOVE topside, then following suit and getting the hell out before the enemies either kill you on the spot, or seal the exit to bury you alive.

I don't want to see your sad face any more!
Ai wo Torimodose!!

Spoiler

The overall effect is a bit Lode Runner-esque; seeing the path to your target is one thing, getting there with your limited vertical movement quite another. Paired with the aggressive monsters and devastating, yet trickily time-delayed and player-lethal bombs, it's the sort of survival-geared realtime puzzle/action I find fiendishly compulsive, and a nice break from more purely reflexive, twitch-based action. Not a world away from the simmering single-screener intensity of Gain Ground.

It's slightly perturbing how, just like Pac, Chack'n can't stay still, always motoring his way along. He'll stop after a sharp drop, or hitting an impasse, but both leave plenty of scope for trouble. Fortunately, the sharp controls make keeping him in one spot a snap.

I'm impressed by how starkly divergent Chack'n, Real Baked Good Homicide Simulator The Fairyland Story, and Bubble Bobble all play; I used to assume the earlier two were simple run-ups to BB, but you could really spend a hundred hours on one without guessing a thing about the others. Don't want to bang my ragged "Where in the name of God and all that is holy is ACA Rainbow Islands" drum too hard, but having Chack'n in the lineup makes that difficult.

[BrianC]

I checked the PSN store and this week's game is Roller Jammer from Nichibutsu. Dig Dug is August 4th and Gun Frontier is coming August 12th.

[Udderdude]

They just finally got around to Dig Dug? lol.

[Jeneki]

Roller Jammer, I'm not sure why this bothers me but the generic 80s racing game track looks really out of place for roller derby. I love the road signs for other Nichibutsu games though. Also "Player vs Mean Bullies" made me laugh harder than it should've.

[EmperorIng]

I might pick up Chack'n Pop, first in the long line of Taito Pop games.

I will admit that sometimes these taito platformers with 700 levels are a little massive for me, even for games I like such as Fairyland Story.

[BIL]

Just glad they got Dug outta the way tbh I'll always pick up good releases of these staples, and these are some of the most convenient and highest-quality ever, so no hard feelings... I hope Galaga and Galaxian join Pac-Man, Xevious and Dig Dug too. But yeah, profoundly unsurprising.

I'd genuinely like to see ACA Pole Position, now that it's clear Hamster can do good analogue controls (Thunder Cepter). PS1 ver plays beautifully via neGcon, but fallbacks are always good to have.

I'd also like them to post up a big slate of upcoming releases for Q3/Q4, the way they did last year when XEXEX, Gunnail and Thunder Dragon 2 popped up. Outside of M2, it's not often I find myself looking forward to new home releases without a myriad of concerns re: input lag and other unacceptable bullshit. OTOH, Gun Frontier arriving in August well ahead of their traditional headliner Christmas release is a very promising sign.

RunArk for Dec 25th?

Click GIF for conspicuously MORRICONE BGM ♫♫♫ (■｀w´■)

Spoiler

I might pick up Chack'n Pop, first in the long line of Taito Pop games.

I will admit that sometimes these taito platformers with 700 levels are a little massive for me, even for games I like such as Fairyland Story.

I like to think of 'em as august old tomes for investigation at some far-off point, with the occasional doomed yet cheerful forays to round 10 or so in the meantime.

[Sima Tuna]

As much as I like Rollerball (the original '70s movie,) I can't see myself dropping money to play a weird mashup of roller derby with outrun.

I'm still waiting on elevator action returns, dammit.

[trap15]

Click GIF for conspicuously MORRICONE BGM ♫♫♫ (■｀w´■)

Spoiler

DROP DED U SCUUUUM
SHBROOM!

[Brian]

With all these Namco releases, where is Bosconian?

[BIL]

I wouldn't surprise me at all if by this time next year, they'd covered the whole PS1 Namco Musem Vol1-5 plus Encore set. They're already well on their way, and it's clear they like to have a consistent every-other-week publisher to draw from (a while back it was NMK, bit before it was Jaleco, and there was a long run of Taito obscurities too).

Namco, like Taito, are the sort of institution containing both interesting oddities, unloved gems and AAA icons, so I'll be pretty happy if they keep up the coverage for a while. I hope the evergreen Namco IPs are getting them some good returns, they've earned it after so many years of crowd-pleasing hardcore.

Normally wouldn't bother wondering, but given Koshiro is such an active chap, and with ACA Thunder Cepter including new BGM from its OG composer Norio Nakagata, I wonder if they'd consider an ACA Bosconian with the X68k OST? Hideya Nagata also worked on it, but I know at least Flash! Flash! Flash! has made it onto Koshiro's solo albums and comps.

One of game music's great unheralded treasures imo, it's like Gradius x Galaxy Force

[Redfox]

Only games I am wishing they finally release is Viewpoint for Neo Geo (which will never happen as Sega/Sammy isn't letting that one out of their grip) and Salamander 2 (the game Gradius IV should have been LOL).

I'm hoping they DO get Konami GX working, it's sorta not too different from Taito F3...............right? :p

A man can dream anyway...........................................

[Sima Tuna]

Even if Hamster could get Viewpoint, I believe they finished with their neo-geo porting some time ago.

I remain hopeful, with all of the taito releases we've seen, that we'll at least get the rest of the games packaged on Taito Legends 2.

[Redfox]

Ya think there's any hope for NebulasRay or Viper Phase 1?

But ya I'll gladly take gekirindan if they can swing it lol.

[BrianC]

Even if Hamster could get Viewpoint, I believe they finished with their neo-geo porting some time ago.

At least on consoles. They recently started porting the NeoGeo games to mobile platforms. Not sure how recent this started and, AFAIK, nothing new has been ported.

[Jeneki]

Dig Dug is now available. The old Bandai Namco release is also still around if someone wants to save a few bucks, although I never tried that version so no idea how it compares.

[BIL]

I had the old Arcade Game Series one forever - it's perfectly fine (pretty sure Gotch handled it, and I get the feeling they might be involved with the new ACA ones, going by a few options like showing the bootup sequences), but besides a slightly intrusive menu and border, it also takes up a fairly whopping 1GB (or something near it).

I ditched it and Pac-Man for their ACA versions to save space, though having said that, I wonder if that version of Pac-Man is different enough to keep around (compared to the rev used in ACA). Ah well, can always redownload.

[Skyknight]

On the subject of Taito, I still wait for Cadash. On the subject of Konami, I still wait for Metamorphic Force (same hardware quandary as Mystic Warriors?). On the subject of shmups in general, I still wait for Raiden II and D/X.

[BurlyHeart]

This is probably common knowledge, but I'm late to the game os please forgive me. Buying from the Japan PSN Store will still give English options? There's a sale on some Neo Geo games there - anything worth buying?

https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/cat ... ductGenres

[Jeneki]

Buying from the Japan PSN Store will still give English options?

Yes, I can confirm a Japanese Arcade Archives game will use English if your console settings are set to English.

[BurlyHeart]

Buying from the Japan PSN Store will still give English options?

Yes, I can confirm a Japanese Arcade Archives game will use English if your console settings are set to English.

Thank you, I appreciate it. The Korean Won to Dollar conversion is at a 10 year low. Buying from the Japan PSN seems a better option.

[BrianC]

I had the old Arcade Game Series one forever - it's perfectly fine (pretty sure Gotch handled it, and I get the feeling they might be involved with the new ACA ones, going by a few options like showing the bootup sequences), but besides a slightly intrusive menu and border, it also takes up a fairly whopping 1GB (or something near it).

I ditched it and Pac-Man for their ACA versions to save space, though having said that, I wonder if that version of Pac-Man is different enough to keep around (compared to the rev used in ACA). Ah well, can always redownload.

I'm guessing they are both based on the Puck-Man version. Both have the option to turn the level 256 glitch on or off, but only the AA version has the hidden dipswitch options like the alternate ghost names listed here.