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

[Ice Beam]

I wonder if it was possibly the earliest Japanese videogame to adopt that particularly O'Bannon/Giger vision of space horror?

It never struck me as O'Bannon/Giger space horror (at least when I played it as Alien Sector). The enemies and locations were brightly colored, and I don't remember anything that could be called bio-mechanical.

EDIT: Yukio Takahashi says Baraduke was influenced by Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.

https://shmuplations.com/yukiotakahashi/

[BIL]

That interview was actually the one that really connected Alien and Baraduke in my mind.

—For its time, Baraduke featured a stunning level of graphical detail, and the grotesque enemies were also very impressive...

Takahashi: Thanks to the expanded colors we could depict things like skin more realistically... when we first got access to this new hardware, we spent some time trying to figure out how best to utilize it. The idea we hit upon was to try and create sprites with smooth, glistening skin—and those experiments led us to Baraduke.

—So you also worked on the graphic design for Baraduke, not just the planning.

Takahashi: Yes. Besides the planning, I did the pixel art, the level design… actually most everything besides the programming. For the names of enemies and characters, too, I looked at picture books of marine life and crustaceans and took inspiration from the academic names of various creatures in their larval states.

It's not so much the biomechanical, as the expansion of biological horrors that exist in real nature.

The inhabitants of our planet directly inspired “Alien” screenwriter Dan O'Bannon and director Ridley Scott. O'Bannon in part looked to horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and previous works of science fiction. But he also plumbed the depths of nature, patterning “the Alien’s life cycle on real-life parasites,” as he said in his 2003 essay “Something Perfectly Disgusting.”

“Parasitic wasps treat caterpillars in an altogether revolting manner,” O'Bannon said, “the study of which I commend to anyone who is tired of having good dreams.” (In brief, female wasps lay their eggs inside still-living grubs. When the young parasites hatch, they eat their way out.) Also occasionally cited as inspiration is a saltwater crustacean named Phromina. This parasite hollows out giant plankton, then floats around in the zombie barrel while raising its offspring.

Perhaps not a direct influence, more a shared aesthetic. Outer space as less a realm of unearthly wonder, than the ultimate jungle; full of lurking terrors, and explored by a new-on-the-block humanity at extreme peril. Featuring a dead-eyed, shark-mouthed, relentlessly-pursuing predator, one a spaceman might think resembled Pac-Man, as it ate a trail of bloody horror through his fleeing crewmates.

blackoak IIRC also has a Contra: Hard Corps interview with Nobuya Nakazato, where he talks about sending the art team to a museum to study various IRL parasitic horrors - which is kinda funny, given Contra was aping Aliens from Day 1. A good argument for Scott's film possessing a unique horror Cameron's sequel lost, maybe.

I suppose anyone looking to create authentically body-horrific things will look to nature, eventually. Much of which tends towards the eerily mechanical as-is, now I think about it... I remember hearing that the sea urchin's mouth is regarded as a perfectly efficient model for an industrial rock crusher. Then there's dragonfly dicks, never mind wings.

[BrianC]

Baraduke was also known as Alien Sector outside of Japan.

[Redfox]

You know,

Normally, I can't stand Cutemups; I don't like balloons, don't like stupid animal enemies, I HATE INSTAGE POWER UP STOREFRONTS and on and on.....

That said, I got Ordyne today on a dare and OMG what a great game! This might be one of my top 10. I don't know what it is, I should despise it, but I love it, what a nice surprise this week.

I can honestly say that if I were to ever bother collecting PCB's I'd track one of this game's down, I like it that much!

[JJHLH]

You know,

Normally, I can't stand Cutemups; I don't like balloons, don't like stupid animal enemies, I HATE INSTAGE POWER UP STOREFRONTS and on and on.....

That said, I got Ordyne today on a dare and OMG what a great game! This might be one of my top 10. I don't know what it is, I should despise it, but I love it, what a nice surprise this week.

I can honestly say that if I were to ever bother collecting PCB's I'd track one of this game's down, I like it that much!

Great to know! I’m looking forward to trying it.

[SavagePencil]

I never understood why Ordyne got the side-eye. I had only played the PC Engine version (which I always enjoyed). Now getting to play the arcade version I am impressed with how rotation is used in gameplay. A fun game!

[Skyknight]

It seems like Nichibutsu’s Itazura Tenshi is next up?

[Sturmvogel Prime]

It is indeed.
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202211/02281421.html

[Skyknight]

After seeing this in action, I’d have expected this in August, for Tanabata.

[SavagePencil]

Is there something to Itazura Tench that I'm missing? Looks like a bland Time Pilot navigation plus collect all the dots in a section to clear it.

[Super Joe]

Are Hamster running on empty ? A good few Konami games, Jackal, Jailbreak, Iron Horse etc seem to be missing in action.

[BrianC]

Are Hamster running on empty ? A good few Konami games, Jackal, Jailbreak, Iron Horse etc seem to be missing in action.

No, this game is Missing in Action.

Running on empty after just releasing Angel Eyes from Tecmo, Champion Wrestler from Taito, and Assault from Namco? Not sure what's up with them not releasing a Konami game in a while, but it could just be down to the fact that the current Konami sucks.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Not just Konami's missing, IREM is also lost too. The Gunforce series deserve an Arcade Archives release.

[Skyknight]

…You didn’t forget that Hamster’s about BOTH the famous and the nigh-forgotten, did you?

[SavagePencil]

History and maintaining the nigh-forgotten is important but $8 for a bad game isn't good value.

[Skyknight]

I think they’ve been flat $8 for everything from the onset, regardless of popularity.

[SavagePencil]

Right. That means that's bad value.

[BrianC]

One obscure game that nobody played comes out and suddenly everyone forgets about the other games recently released. Not to mention Baraduke coming next week and something from Taito coming the week after. Video System finally started coming out after a long wait, so there's still hope for Konami and Irem, but it's not like the recent output from Namco and Taito sucks.

[Udderdude]

Obsessive MAME explorers unite! I love obscure shit! Give me more wierd stuff nobody's ever heard of!

[Skyknight]

Never mind that UPL/NMK is pretty obscure, so there’d likely be enough people (particularly those with no interest in shmups) who raised an eyebrow at things like Thunder Dragon 2 and Gun Nail being $8 per. What do you expect them to do, scale prices according to each game’s highest earning place within six months of arcade release? I don’t think this project is variable-price-friendly, particularly depending on what licensing costs might be.

[SavagePencil]

Nobody's arguing variable-pricing. Don't be obtuse. There's been a string of quality titles and this week's a stinker. There's more than enough QUALITY unreleased Nichibutsu titles that they could have chosen over this one.

[hamfighterx]

Right. That means that's bad value.

Don't buy a release if you don't want to? Count me in the group that appreciates Hamster including lower profile stuff as well. I'm down for a Nichibutsu game I've never heard of. Fine with them standardizing the price at $7.99 too.

The huge number of quality Namco titles Hamster has been cranking out since late 2021 is just incredible. Namco has obviously been more of their focus lately, with a decent amount of Taito stuff mixed in (just like in the past we've gone on runs of games by Konami, Nintendo, and the obvious huge SNK/ACA Neo Geo era). Can't really understand complaints about that, and I don't mind sprinkling in a handful of Nichibutsu oddities to mix it up.

Question though: what's up with Switch NA release for Itazura Tenshi? I'm not seeing it on the eshop yet for the usual Thursday update. Did it show up on other platforms/regions yet?

[Super Joe]

My previous post certainly wasn’t a complaint, Hamster do sterling work for our Arcade fix. Just questioning the glaring omissions, would be interested to know what kind of agreements they have with the likes of Irem, Taito etc. The biggest surprise was the Nintendo coin ops.

[BrianC]

It doesn't help that some websites provided a literal translation of SNK's Datsugoku (aka P.O.W.) as Jailbreak.

[Jeneki]

Obscure stuff? Please don't ask me about my Ben Bero Beh addiction.

[Koa Zo]

(sorry, going back a few pages)

I’m gunning for that #1 spot on both (Assault) lists.

Go for it!

Thanks for the encouragement!
...I went for it

(...) Assault (...) brain-bending dual-stick STG.

that's where I ended up. Brain melted.
Holy hell I tortured myself a good bit.
Was nipping at the top 3 but haven't been able to get back at it.
Went through an array of controllers before deciding on the Hori Pad Mini as providing the best results. Then had to add some foam pads to the analog sticks to help secure my thumbs from slipping when play got extra frenetic. (now the foam pads heat up and the adhesive gives way - so still haven't found a good controller solution - bought some rubber slip-on covers too, but didn't like those)
Twin sticks are the obvious choice. I purchased a pair of inexpensive surprisingly decent molded grip type controllers from ebay and an old PS3/PS4 joystick to mod, then I realized that there is no way around needing that Dualshock4 touch pad. The easy but pricey thing to do would be to use a PS4 joystick as the foundation to mod from, but I don't want to spend that money. Thought I could use a Hori Pad mini as the base; and I'm sure I can, but figuring out the connections is a bit beyond my knowledge. Eventually I hope to put the time into figuring it out, or find a PS4 joystick for cheap.

Anyhow, it's been punishing having to learn the muscle memory of using dual analog thumb-sticks. I know the game and know what I can score, but mistakes with my thumbs and the sticks have caused 100x resets.
I know I can score upwards of 760k-780k, and always thought an 800k game is possible. Last I checked the PS4 high score was just shy of 760k. I haven't even broken 700k yet on PS4.
(Are there different high-score tables for the PS4 and Switch Arcade Archives releases?)

The fact that most all of the Japanese players use auto-fire got me thinking - the original Japanese Namco arcade cabinet had bat-type sticks with a single button on the top, where you have to use your thumb - I once played a cabinet with these controls and found it very difficult to shoot rapidly and work the directional sticks simultaneously. The North American Atari cabinet has tank grips with trigger buttons and a button on top of the grip. I learned to play using all 4 fire buttons: both trigger fingers going to town and both thumbs poised ready to tap-off precise shots when needed.
There can be a lot of rhythm to playing Assault which is lost to me when using auto-fire. I'm wondering if Japanese arcades had those original cabinets modified to have auto-fire, and that's what Japanese players were always accustomed to?

So yeah, I think I can at least get back in the top 3 for High Score mode. But top 3 for Caravan Mode will require a heck of a lot of reworking my approach. In any case, its going to be on the back burner for awhile.

Obscure stuff? Please don't ask me about my Ben Bero Beh addiction.

...nor my Kid's Horehore Daisakusen addiction.

And I know you all are sleeping on Time Tunnel!

[Jeneki]

Itazura Tenshi now up. You know you're digging deep when you search the name on youtube, and the only hits you get are the usual TAS channels. Searching the Japanese title 悪戯天使 gets some decent plays though.

[hamfighterx]

Itazura Tenshi now up.

It's up now on PS4 in North America, but not Switch. The NA Switch eshop had a page added today with coming soon, and "Estimated Release Date: 11/9/2002". Can also see it on their web shop at: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products ... hi-switch/

Seems likely this is due to some sort of error in the eshop submission/approval process that caused a delay, and it will show up next week. Nov. 9 is a Wednesday, so that's also a bit weird since AA releases are normally part of the big weekly Thursday NA eshop updates (and occasionally Friday releases, like with the Nintendo developed AA titles). No indication that this will impact the scheduled release of Baraduke on November 10.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Earlier this year Empire City: 1931 was supposed to release on March 24 (it did release on PS4 on the 24th, and I think it also released on the 24th as planned on Switch in Japan), but was delayed a week on Switch in NA and Hamster had two AA releases on March 31 with Empire City and Wonder Momo both arriving on the same day.

It is notable though, since Hamster has generally released at least one AA (or ACA Neo Geo) game every week since the Switch system launched in March 2017. This is only the third week of the Switch's life that Hamster has missed a release, all happened in 2022:

1) Week of March 24, 2022: As noted above, NA eshop error with Empire City: 1931 meant no game that week, but that was corrected by releasing it the following week (as one of two AA games on March 31, alongside Wonder Momo).
2) Week of June 23, 2022: No Switch AA release, and no later double-up. Not sure what happened here.
3) Week of November 3, 2022: Apparent NA eshop issue with Itazura Tenshi, and it appears they intend to correct that by doing a late release next week.

[Jeneki]

Sorry I should have looked closer. The Hamster website is missing the usual BUY button on the switch listing: http://www.hamster.co.jp/american_hamst ... Tenshi.htm

[JJHLH]

And I know you all are sleeping on Time Tunnel!

Time Tunnel is pure greatness!

I’m surprised there aren’t more train video games.