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

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Looks like this week's not gonna be Namco or Taito.

Tecmo's Senjyo is the next entry on Arcade Archives. Good to see Tecmo back.
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202301/11289108.html

[BIL]

Rad. Forgot to mention a page back, Swimmer and Guzzler are good stuff, too; same ultra-smooth handling as their more celebrated mid-80s set. Besides Wild Fang, I hope Silkworm gets a look in at some point.

Ha, they loved that rainbow colour-cycling effect. Still looks great! I wonder if that influenced FC Ninja Gaiden II & III's slick colour-cycling, damage-reactive HUDS.

re Namco, I'd love to see Assault Plus. I'd happily pick up a separate release ala New Rally X, though I could imagine it appearing as a patch, ala Darius Extra, too. On Namco Museum Vol. 4, it's a hidden game. Doesn't sound all that different, but as with Metal Hawk, it's such a unique experience, I'd be down for more.

Playing the hell out of the OG, currently... the Type B / uni-tread controls are superb, but sacrificed too much of the game's identity and learning curve for my liking. Stuck with default Type A / dual-tread which, despite technically using 4-way inputs, controls with perfect sharpness on a DS4. Took a good couple days to get the muscle memo down, but god damn, it's satisfying once you do.

I gotta say, the tank's combo of a needledick main shot and gigantic hitbox can be trying, at first; it's wickedly easy to go for a head-on bullet cancel, only to miss by a pixel and have the bastard nick your flank. It's really obvious, though, that it's like that to balance the naturally dozier-than-average zako; if you had Metal Hawk's screen-raking firepower and lightning-fast movement, without its correspondingly hyperaggressive foes, it'd lose the marvelously heavy-metallic pressure. Where MH has you shredding through enemies and juke/jiving around flak like a bat out of hell, Assault's skirmishes have a deceptively elegant tenor; chunky machines rolling and swerving about to line up a decisive salvo. What a killer pair, these two.

I didn't realise the Half-Game option denies you the ending. Can clear both halves individually, going for 1CC/1LC now... at first I thought I'd just witnessed the most ridiculous ending ever; the congrats message is there for all of a second before you're kicked to the HS screen. Normally I wouldn't care, but I genuinely felt a little snubbed checking the instant replay just to read it.

[Udderdude]

Looks like this week's not gonna be Namco or Taito.

Tecmo's Senjyo is the next entry on Arcade Archives. Good to see Tecmo back.
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202301/11289108.html

I had to load this up again to remember what it was ..

"Oh yeah, this is the one where they send a kamikaze drone into your face at the start of every round #$%!"

Cool game, though.

[hamfighterx]

Never played Senjyo, I'll give it a spin. Heavy Battlezone vibes at first glance, similar first person turret/tank shooter concept, but with sprites instead of vector graphics.

[BIL]

"Oh yeah, this is the one where they send a kamikaze drone into your face at the start of every round #$%!"

Cool game, though.

I like how the ACA manual specifically warns you about that little fucker. Varmint has his own DIP setting, even.

Mad Bomb Jack vibes, with the enemies' monochrome armour and burning red visors (and Tecmo's favourite, the luscious rainbow-cycling HUD). tbh, if you told me the later game directly referenced them (ala several iconic Bubble Bobble enemies originating in Chack n' Pop), I could believe it. Maybe the camera would pan 180' to show a bleary-eyed, unshaven Bomb Jack with a cig dangling from his pursed lips glaring down the periscope.

Senjyou: The Ground Campaign of Bomb Jack

EDIT: Indeed, what a neat little game. Right off the bat, I liked the integral radar mechanic - big fan of hardcore 2D action games with those, ala Veigues, Ex-Ranza, and Leynos 2. It's a great way to transcend the limited FOV of scrolling action, without sacrificing the corresponding tight focus. The dynamic audio - three escalating tunes for each proximity, plus hearty *WOOPWOOPWOOP* and *WEEWEEWEE* for that bouncing kamikaze shitbird PANISH, and elusive, juicily multiplier-boosting DETECTOR, respectively - is another smooth touch.

The presentation is excellent, too; it's a handsome game, especially in tate, with the deep parallax, bold shading, and characterfully scrambling, hopping enemies (I love how tanks stop to peep over the ridges, so cute! and useful ). That stark black n' red Player Ready screen is hawt, too.

The swivel-turret concept is interesting, especially with its incentive to aggressively chase down kills (every fourth tank kill spawns the airborne DETECTOR). You can also beat a tactical retreat if things get out of hand, but being on a circular track, it's only ever a forestall. It's a surprisingly movement-intensive take on classical Gun Shooting. Actually... with your on-screen avatar, and aiming tied to its movement, this is really a bonafide Cabal antecedent; blasting enemies and evading fire in the same digital heartbeat via oldschool scoot/shoot.

The shooting itself is pleasingly straightforward, with just the right degrees of complication (you have to lead targets slightly, according to their speed and direction) and finesse (enemies yield progressively more points at closer range, and bullet-cancelling will spawn helpful BROWL, the ammo truck who'll take out all his pals if you nail him as he speeds across the SENJOU!). Enemy bullets are particularly well-done; they're big enough targets to tempt a counter-shot, rather than a safer strafe, and their mortar arc is finely-tailored for a single precise shot at the apex.

Scrambling to take down the elusive DETECTOR amidst the shitstorm is good fun, too. And each PANISH is worth a whopping 1500pts (base) at close range, another enticing risk. Not sure how milky the scoring is, but barring that, it seems like a neat package.

EDIT2: Oh rad - if you try to milk the last enemy's shots (100pts base), the game will eventually spawn a SUPER PANISH who'll PWN you with a homing dive-header. Nice. Instantly reminds of Rygar's infamous timeout nemesis.

(I like how the demo player's first move is an "Ayo fuck this" strafe as PANNY-KUN comes steaming in )

This is the kind of solid, distinctive lesser-known I don't get overly hyped-up for in isolation, but as part of a huge library, it's an excellent little gem to have onboard.

EDIT3: Damn, this is a great Caravan game. As are Star Force and Bomb Jack, figures!

[Steven]

Today by some coincidence I ran into Sato-san from Seibu Kaihatsu again. Last time he recommended Raiden IV, and this time I asked for another recommendation and he suggested that I play Zero Team.

I get home and find out that holy crap it's on ACA. I guess there is no reason for me to not try it!

[Jeneki]

You can tell Zero Team is a Seibu game because everyone and everything explodes into kibble when you punch them. Because reasons.

[BIL]

Good rec, that's one of the best beltscrollers there is. ala Crime Fighters 2/Vendetta (also on ACA), it's got a pitch-perfect balance of arcade toughness and console generosity; exceptionally smooth game. Likewise, good sense of humour! Make sure to steal all the enemies' TP!

You can tell Zero Team is a Seibu game because everyone and everything explodes into kibble when you punch them. Because reasons.

Spoiler

Interestingly, the ACA version is the first emulation (official or otherwise) of the original game; all the revs in MAME are its later New/USA/2000 revisions, which shuffled various things about, but amount to more or less the same experience. Bodes well for Raiden II/DX, should Hamster ever take those on.

Senjyou turned out to be a hell of a surprise hit for me, specifically its caravan mode. What a proto-Cabal rush! Seriously fine work. Makes me want to revisit Swimmer and Guzzler, two more early-years Tehkan/Tecmo ACA picks that I enjoyed from my brief credits; their usual super-smooth and precise handling immediately apparent (cute games, too). It's Silkworm and Wild Fang I'm really jonesing for, but they guys had an uncommon knack for finesse right from the get-go.

[Steven]

Well in that case I will definitely pick it up and give it a shot! I'm going to go to sleep first, though; super tired after running around all day today and stuff.

I don't have a lot of belt scrolling experience, though; somehow I never played Streets of Rage or anything despite growing up with a Genesis. I've always kind of been hesitant to play these types of games alone, as I've always thought they are better in multiplayer given my rather limited experience with them mostly being multiplayer, and unfortunately living alone in the middle of this coronavirus shit means that multiplayer happens like once or twice a year, sadly. Still, for ACA prices I might as well.

[Udderdude]

Make sure to steal all the enemies' TP!

10 points each .. D:

Interestingly, the ACA version is the first emulation (official or otherwise) of the original game; all the revs in MAME are its later New/USA/2000 revisions, which shuffled various things about, but amount to more or less the same experience. Bodes well for Raiden II/DX, should Hamster ever take those on.

I really have to wonder exactly how they pulled this off. Maybe help from the Seibu guys? Also, I read Zero Team 2000 removes extends from points. Ouch. New Zero Team only swaps some stages around, you start out in the desert stage.

[BIL]

Makes me think of ACA Contra, which was the game's first-ever accurate emulation; all previous official and unofficial efforts had inaccurate 3D stage behaviour, with the rolling mines beelining to the lower-right corner, instead of proceeding straight downward. Even M2's DS emulation had this error (the newer PS4 one doesn't). Haze noted that by the time it was fixed in MAME (like a year or two back), the game had been in the emulator for longer than it'd been released upon first being added.

It's a little thing, but it really made me respect how seriously Hamster take ACA releases. Also stuff like Omega Fighter, which had nerfed zako firing rates until shortly after the ACA version in 2018.

[Udderdude]

ACA, saving emulation since 2014.

[Steven]

It makes me very sad to know that every single one of these releases will eventually go away because they are digital-only and eventually the servers will die, consoles will die, and I don't trust console makers to actually have backwards compatibility; even PC has to rely on emulation for some stuff (DOSBox, etc.) and there are probably a decent amount of early/mid 2000s PC games that probably just don't run on modern operating systems. There is absolutely no way that there will be a physical release of these given that it would probably be licensing hell to do so, so I guess we should enjoy them while they are still obtainable.

[Udderdude]

Emulate the Switch versions .. lol.

[Steven]

Yeah, no choice. There are a few PS4 exclusives, I think. Forget which those are right now, though.

[BIL]

tbh I live in fear of the mountain of stuff I own going up in flames / getting eaten by silverfish as it is, so digital is kinda refreshing.

In all seriousness, I expect to need to fall back on archival copies at some point in the future anyway (guessing the floppies will be the first to cark it), so it doesn't bother me too much. I'm sure there'll be a "FULLSET_L00K" warez torrent from the usual suspects, those crazy autists who catalogue every serial number ever, bless their hearts.

There are a few PS4 exclusives, I think. Forget which those are right now, though.

It's just a handful at this point, IIRC Ark Area (UPL arena STG, pretty cool), Holy Warrior Amaterasu (Nichibutsu topdown run/gun, has slightly annoying AC Contra-style aim lag, but some cool vehicle jacking), and Wonder Boy (possibly in licensing hell given the IP).

[beer gas canister]

Emulate the Switch versions .. lol.

This is a positive side to the Switch as a low power console, it will likely see reliable emulation on more devices more quickly than PS4 or Xbox One.

[BrianC]

Makes me think of ACA Contra, which was the game's first-ever accurate emulation; all previous official and unofficial efforts had inaccurate 3D stage behaviour, with the rolling mines beelining to the lower-right corner, instead of proceeding straight downward. Even M2's DS emulation had this error (the newer PS4 one doesn't). Haze noted that by the time it was fixed in MAME (like a year or two back), the game had been in the emulator for longer than it'd been released upon first being added.

It's a little thing, but it really made me respect how seriously Hamster take ACA releases. Also stuff like Omega Fighter, which had nerfed zako firing rates until shortly after the ACA version in 2018.

Even the MiSTer implementation of Contra had the same inaccurate behavior for a while (thankfully the source of the error was found).

[Redfox]

It makes me very sad to know that every single one of these releases will eventually go away because they are digital-only and eventually the servers will die, consoles will die, and I don't trust console makers to actually have backwards compatibility; even PC has to rely on emulation for some stuff (DOSBox, etc.) and there are probably a decent amount of early/mid 2000s PC games that probably just don't run on modern operating systems. There is absolutely no way that there will be a physical release of these given that it would probably be licensing hell to do so, so I guess we should enjoy them while they are still obtainable.

It really doesn't matter if there's a physical release or not, all modern consoles post PS2 have suicide batteries and will require server communication to function, this is unavoidable. In the end, honest, the only way to play a given thing will be to have it hacked/jail broken/emulated there's no way around this. Someone said it after your post, switch emulation.........YES to preserve these ACA ports that's going to be the way to do it in the end, no question.

For the record I'm not singling you out or anything, I'm just so fed up with the forever physical crowd and their pompus attitudes against digital releases. In the end it's really no safer and everyone will be needing to jailbreak/hack/emulate to keep playing these releases in 30 years. Assuming we're not all gone in 30 years in nuclear holocaust of course!

FWIW I love ACA releases and hope to play em as long as I'm able one way or another, now where's my Nebulas Ray or Salamander 2 Dammit!

[BIL]

Workarounds to run ROMs/ISOs on hardware, like flashcarts and solid state drive replacements and firmware hacks, are what I'm anticipating. I have a bunch of that stuff already for my 80s through 00s consoles, despite them all working currently. Ultimately, real code (or at least imperceptibly altered code) on real hardware is the thing.

I'll be in this hobby until I fall off my chair, so stuff being OG or backup thirty years or so down the road doesn't really matter to me.

[cfx]

It really doesn't matter if there's a physical release or not, all modern consoles post PS2 have suicide batteries and will require server communication to function, this is unavoidable. In the end, honest, the only way to play a given thing will be to have it hacked/jail broken/emulated there's no way around this. Someone said it after your post, switch emulation.........YES to preserve these ACA ports that's going to be the way to do it in the end, no question.

For the record I'm not singling you out or anything, I'm just so fed up with the forever physical crowd and their pompus attitudes against digital releases. In the end it's really no safer and everyone will be needing to jailbreak/hack/emulate to keep playing these releases in 30 years. Assuming we're not all gone in 30 years in nuclear holocaust of course

If you're going to insult the forever physical crowd (me) get your facts straight. Sony updated firmware on PS4 where physical games will work just fine with a dead battery and no internet connection. PS4 digital games will not of course.

[pulsemod]

yes, I'm not sure where the idea comes from for the previous generation either; Wii, PS3, and all portables I know of certainly function fine without it, even for digitally owned games. of course it'll be impossible to buy or re-download stuff later on but luckily most things have been backed up for most consoles already anyways. still prefer to buy physical for many reasons but it's not like these machines become paperweights for digital either

edit: did a bit more research, didn't hear about the PS3 battery issue until now. good thing the system is reliably hackable these days!

[TransatlanticFoe]

Xbox 360, One and Series X all lack CMOS batteries to even suicide. They recently stripped out the requirement to download a compatibility patch to run One games on Series X, so they're all fine to run physical games in offline mode indefinitely (after the initial setup which requires a server check for One and Series X). Switch is also fine as long as you don't download an update to a game then delete it, then try to play without redownloading the update. Though its actual battery may eventually die, it can be replaced without consequence (with a bit of effort) or bypassed entirely (with considerably more effort).

It's similar to the "games don't run without a patch these days" which is complete nonsense - there's like two xbox games that contain an unplayable build on disc (due to bollocks global synchronised releases of stuff like Halo Infinite - the build on disc is intentionally gimped to require an authentication update to prevent people playing early) and stuff where a partial download is required, as stated on the packaging but no-one is defending that horseshit (some Switch games where they cheap out on cart sizes and the last few Call of Duty games which for some mad reason don't have just the campaign on disc). I don't think anything else is released so broken it's unplayable. Even the odd absolute casserole of an initial release like Assassin's Creed Unity tends to get later pressings with the patched version on disc.

[dojo_b]

Upgrading my Qix recommendation to the rarefied tier of games I've uninstalled out of self-preservation... watching work deadlines fly by; finding song lyrics about hard drugs come unbidden to mind as I toss in credit after credit---I'm gonna try for the kingdom if I can---that's that good shit!

I say this only because, just like your Tetris, Tetris Attack, or Pac-Man, the underlying gameplay has unimpeachable solidity and depth; just like a tiger, it fully deserves cautious admiration. No loot-box nonsense here. But it is a game where almost every territory-grabbing move is a calculated risk, and that seems to invite both thrills and a distinctive cognitive-emotional strain. With the added pressure from the Sparx, sometimes I picture the game as a casino where killer robots patrol the slot-machine area, punishing inactivity.

The ACA leaderboard remains quite sparse (barring some network error), so if you're looking for a game where a top-10 or -20 performance is still within reach, this could absolutely be your jam. There is a Sparx-capturing trick (illustrated here) that I haven't even messed with, but which can make things radically easier (possibly even breaking the game; I haven't investigated sufficiently to say).

[m.sniffles.esq]

The ACA leaderboard remains quite sparse (barring some network error), so if you're looking for a game where a top-10 or -20 performance is still within reach, this could absolutely be your jam.

Man, I remember the first time I played. I thought "well, I'm certainly fucking rusty. But I guess I did okay considering..."

Then I saw I was like number three on the leaderbaord

[Redfox]

It really doesn't matter if there's a physical release or not, all modern consoles post PS2 have suicide batteries and will require server communication to function, this is unavoidable. In the end, honest, the only way to play a given thing will be to have it hacked/jail broken/emulated there's no way around this. Someone said it after your post, switch emulation.........YES to preserve these ACA ports that's going to be the way to do it in the end, no question.

For the record I'm not singling you out or anything, I'm just so fed up with the forever physical crowd and their pompus attitudes against digital releases. In the end it's really no safer and everyone will be needing to jailbreak/hack/emulate to keep playing these releases in 30 years. Assuming we're not all gone in 30 years in nuclear holocaust of course

If you're going to insult the forever physical crowd (me) get your facts straight. Sony updated firmware on PS4 where physical games will work just fine with a dead battery and no internet connection. PS4 digital games will not of course.

Your facts are incomplete! The hdd in these systems like ps4 have a very finite lifespan. They die your system will not work. The optical drive will fail, your physical disk will be unplayable. Short term is not a problem for anyone. Long term (20-30 years) is a problem for EVERYONE (physical or digital).

Hell, where can i buy a new wells gardner crt right now? Do you see my point? The physical crowd is ridiculous. These systems are not robust like nes’s with rom cartridges. They don’t last decades (which was my valid point)

[Marc]

Relax man. My original PS1 and Xbox are still going strong, I'm sure by the time it gets to be an issue there'll be ways and means. I'm sure my Xbox is two decades old? My daughter is 18 and I'm sure I bought it before she was born.

[Aceskies]

Funny thing that my SNES, Mega drive, PS1, PS2, two Gamecubes, Xbox, N64... are still working fine, but current consoles will die in 2025. Yes, I had a Dreamcast and had to replace the disc laser, I know those things happen! happened as well with my Game gear. But you can figure out that if a console that sold 20 million can be repaired 25 years later, a PS4 that sold 100M will be repaireable as well.

[Sima Tuna]

I've had the worst luck with original xboxes, to the point that I just don't bother anymore. I have some og xbox games and I'll probably end up selling off the ones that aren't backwards-compatible. The OG xbox is built like shit. If the disc drive doesn't fail then something else does. You can replace it but then it'll fail again (which is what happened to me.) You can buy another og xbox off ebay but odds are good it'll fail too (which also happened to me.)

All my old systems are still (mostly) going strong except for my og xbox situation. I have my original ps2, ps1, snes, gba, gba sp, 3ds etc. I purchased most of these used and afaik they are still in working order. But the og xbox barely withstood a couple years of playing AFTER I replaced the disc drive. The replacement og xbox failed within five minutes. The OG xbox is a piece of shit.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Forgot to mention a page back, Swimmer and Guzzler are good stuff, too;

Guzzler is hands-down my favorite pac-like. It's seriously good. In some other thread I detailed my fruitless search for a Guzzler cab (one not only had bullet holes in it, and had "CUM" scrawled over "Centuri" in bright blue paint)

---

Anyway, I'll admit to being completely unfamiliar with Senjyo. Therefore, I was taken aback a bit by how completely great (and crazy sophisticated for 1983) it is.