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

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

Post by BrianC »

There was also an unofficial game based off Navarone for MD. Nava Barone
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

BrianC wrote:There was also an unofficial game based off Navarone for MD. Nava Barone
More like "What if Nichibutsu made Navarone?" The graphics are Cresta-esque and feels like if they made the game rather than a fan.
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BrianC
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BrianC »

I got more of a Xevious vibe from it, though Nichibutsu did use the same font.
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Marc
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Marc »

Liking Bonze Adventure. Reminds me of actual computer games in its execution, quite deliberate and slow.
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MOSQUITO FIGHTER
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

I've always really liked Jigoku Meguri. Probably the best Ghouls 'N Ghosts type game that isn't a GNG game.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

Dig Dug II coming April 13. Not sure yet what we’re getting next week.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

hamfighterx wrote:Dig Dug II coming April 13. Not sure yet what we’re getting next week.
That's the second Namco game of Hamster's "Namco-Surprise-Namco-Taito" pattern that I've mentioned in my reviews. The only thing left is to know what will Taito threw at us now?

BTW, I've picked Navarone and to be honest, their trophies were waaaay too easy to get.


UPDATE: April 1st, 2023.
Looks like Hamster broke the "pattern" that I've mentioned before.
Aside from April 6th, this is gonna be a "Namco month", with Dig Dug II leading April 13th. My best guesses would be Bosconian and Pole Position, but that's up to BNEI.
¿What are your predictions for the other two?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

Would be surprised if we don't see at least one of Bosconian and/or Pole Position.

Bosconian and Super Xevious are the only two games remaining from the Galaga hardware, and we'll inevitably get both. Super Xevious is awfully similar to the standard Xevious, but would be expected to see both versions on AA - similar to getting stuff like Sky Kid and Sky Kid Deluxe, or Rally-X and New Rally-X

It's past time for Pole Position to make an appearance, I'm hoping this is the month we correct that... as we work toward Final Lap ;)

Aside from those, I'll throw a few out there:
King and Balloon (1980, Galaxian hardware)
Marchen Maze (1988, System 1)
Splatterhouse (1988, System 1)
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BrianC »

I'm hoping one of the next games is Burning Force.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by cfx »

BrianC wrote:I'm hoping one of the next games is Burning Force.
Me too, and also Rolling Thunder 2.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Skyknight »

Still no announcements, so maybe Mazinger Z or Ganbare Ginkun is next up?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sima Tuna »

Mazinger Z has a chance of being localized?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

^ Yep! Was announced late last year, as the first Banpresto ACA title. I'm particularly excited, since NMK's incredible SDF Macross 2 now has a cat in hell's chance of a definitive home release, as opposed to a snowball in hell's chance. :cool:
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sima Tuna »

Usually these old mecha properties are hell to get localized. The people who own the licenses in the west tend to be massive dickheads, see also Harmony Gold.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

And this week’s release is Rezon, Hamster’s second game from Allumer. I don’t know a thing about this game, other than some quick research telling me it’s a poor R-Type ripoff. Neat, I’ll have to check it out!
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

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hamfighterx wrote:I don’t know a thing about this game, other than some quick research telling me it’s a poor R-Type ripoff. Neat, I’ll have to check it out!
My thoughts, to the letter :lol: Image

Perikles, a man with a truly moving love of R-Type and IREM in general, despises this one; but then he hates Saint Dragon / Tenseiryuu, and I quite enjoy it, so perhaps this'll prove similarly diverting. I'm guessing I'll have to follow a certain protocol, but it's all good. :mrgreen:
BIL <-- DATS ME ;3 ;3 ;3 wrote:Anytime a game has bad music (and often even if it doesn't!) I just blast this on loop :cool:
TBH I'm way behind, have put all my gaming time on GNG Resurrection the last three weeks. Good timing, with my reaching the TLB tonight/tomorrow. Perfect time to check out Jigoku Meguri.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Ghegs »

hamfighterx wrote:And this week’s release is Rezon, Hamster’s second game from Allumer. I don’t know a thing about this game, other than some quick research telling me it’s a poor R-Type ripoff. Neat, I’ll have to check it out!
Oh wow, awesome. I had the PCB some years ago and I 1CCed it then, never thought it'd be getting released in the modern age.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Ice Beam »

For a split second, seeing the image, I thought it was R-Type Leo.
Speaking of Irem, I wonder if Hamster is going to release Mr. Heli eventually?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Marc »

Kind of fun. The arms are interesting, but a bit too sensitive, though I can see that allowing them to be rotated at will would probably render the game much easier.
Let's be honest, it might rip R-Type 2, but it looks pretty cool.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by SavagePencil »

Impressed with the audacity more than anything. Barely had time to file off the serial numbers on this one. Looks competent, thankfully!
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

It will never not be hilarious to me that Kyuukyoku Tiger, Raiden, and very likely Mad Shark will all have reference-standard home versions on the same platform. :lol: Or ImageFight and War of Aero.

But I'm sad I can't say the same for R-Type and Rezon. Image Shame IREM's ACA momentum seemed to stall after a very decent runup to 2019, which saw four absolute killers (ImageFight, X-Multiply, Kaitei Daisensou, and Saigo no Nindou). Still, unlike IF, X-M, and KD, R-Types I & II were already very nearly perfect on PS1; so in a sense it worked out alright. I do hope we'll see more M72 and M92 titles, even if Saigo was my dearest wish by far.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Skyknight »

An interesting thought I had about the evident Namco-Miscellaneous-Namco-Taito cycle: Since the "Ban" in "Namco Bandai" is apparently Banpresto, would this mean Namco has the rights to Air Gallet? Not that I expect any particular rush for that, no matter how much I like Sakai Yoshitatsu's soundtrack for it.

Anyway, Dig Dug II is next week, so if the pattern yet holds, after that should be a Taito game. Dare I hope for Cadash finally...?
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Skyknight wrote:Dig Dug II is next week, so if the pattern yet holds, after that should be a Taito game. Dare I hope for Cadash finally...?
Hamster broke the mentioned cycle and its gonna concentrate the rest of the month on pure Namco. So I guess May would be a Taito month or something like that, but with their weird decisions, is hard to predict.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Steven »

I need to get Image Fight and X-Multiply. I always forget about those two for some reason. I did play X-Multiply on the MiSTer a while ago and it's pretty great. It would be nice if they got Mr. Heli and every R-Type game including Armed Police Unit Gallop on ACA, but...

At least there is R-Type Dimensions, which is imperfect but (probably) better than nothing.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by cfx »

I should try Image Fight; I've only ever played Image Fight II on PC-Engine CD.

I'd like Gallop too.

And OT, but Undercover Cops.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Klatrymadon »

The 5-second loops for a soundtrack might be unfortunate, but Rezon is a very solid game, IMO. In its dogged insistence on copying R-Type II's homework it stumbles upon a lot of nifty bits of stage design, as well as an irresistible visual style.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by BIL »

Yeah, was just coming to say I'm pleasantly surprised. :o Seems like a perfectly competent IREM covers act, going by the first three stages. The arms are a nice combo of X-Multiply's tactility and ImageFight's icy precision, and the second stage's claustrophobia has an interesting counterpoint, in so much of the scenery being destructible. Shame they couldn't spring for better BGM (the kind of thing that really rounds out this kind of epigone, cf Raiden's stomping melancholia), but then I can hardly stop myself from blasting my own tunes at the best of times. :cool: Some damn good Akioesque pixel shading, too. Nice n' chunky, with machinery having the vital balance of ugly and hyperfunctional.

If Pulstar reportedly offended, I wonder WTF this did, though! I like to imagine Allumer were just literal Yakuza or something. Like the CEO was this one-eyed brick shithouse motherfucker with a tattoo of a tiger killing a dragon on his back, or so they say, because if he takes his shirt off to show you it, you're about to get beaten with a boat oar. :lol:
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Marc »

It's R-Type but without the heavy memorisation. I've hit the 4th level after maybe 90 minutes, and you can squeak by on reactions and proper arm usage fir much of it. I'm really quite impressed.
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by hamfighterx »

Yeah, early impressions for me are that I'm liking the formula of "R-Type, but allows for a little more improvisation". I've just gotten familiar with stages 1-3 so far though, but will be happy to give this one some more time!

Rezon's open/close arm mechanic also gives it a different feel and identity than the classic R-Type use of the Force pod and charged beam. And even feels a bit different than most games where you have a similar mechanic of opening/closing the width of your shot pattern, since you can open the rotating gun arms until they go a full 180 degrees - i.e., your initially right/forward facing cannons are pointing directly behind your ship to the left (feels more common to me to see your shot angle stop at 90 degrees or less).
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Re: I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Hamster uploaded the promotional video of Arcade Archives: Dig Dug II.
https://youtu.be/eWPPKaCIEe4
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