Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

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FunktionJCB
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Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by FunktionJCB »

Bitwave Games (recently acquired by the Embracer Group) is bringing a series of Toaplan games to PC (Steam and GOG).

The first wave of titles includes Zero Wing, and Out Zone, whose Steam pages are now up:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2011900/Zero_Wing/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022920/Out_Zone/


Truxton and Twin Cobra are also part of this first wave, coming later this year.


Here's a video with their announcement, showing gameplay footage (and a small interview with Masahiro Yuge):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0w9v2-DpxY
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pablumatic
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by pablumatic »

I'll be picking them all up as they release.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Jeneki »

The Zero Wing steam page confuses me. The video shows the arcade title screen, but the description keeps bringing up the memes that aren't in the arcade version.
Typos caused by cat on keyboard.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

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PLAY OUT ZONE
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by CRP »

One of the devs at bitwave were involved in the shark emulator from back in the day, thats great !
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0w9v2-DpxY'

web: https://www.bitwavegames.com/news/toapl ... ming-to-pc
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by BurlyHeart »

I assume this means the M2 x Toaplan games won't be coming to PC :(

Still, good ports with low input lag and save state options is all we really need.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by MaXXX »

Batsugun would have been nice

AND THE REST OF THE CAVE LIBRARY
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by BrianC »

Jeneki wrote:The Zero Wing steam page confuses me. The video shows the arcade title screen, but the description keeps bringing up the memes that aren't in the arcade version.
At least they didn't do it for the PCE-CD version, which doesn't even mention CATS, though he does appear to be in the background in one of the cutscenes with no spoken dialog.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by OmegaFlareX »

CRP wrote:One of the devs at bitwave were involved in the shark emulator from back in the day, thats great !
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0w9v2-DpxY'
Something interesting I noticed here: at 1:28 there's some footage of Twin Cobra, but the playfield is greatly expanded, possibly to include everything that would normally be horizontally panned in tate mode. I'll be curious to hear some more details about that.

Hopefully there's an option in Zero Wing to disable the red flash every time you destroy something. I'm mildly photosensitive and I cannot play the AC original because of it. I'm also curious whether they'll be including the MD version or updating the original to include those cutscenes. You know, since they're using AYB as marketing. Better put it in there.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Necronom »

Nice! After years of bootleg cartridges and roms I'll gladly support them on Steam 8)
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Carl-Henrik »

OmegaFlareX wrote:
CRP wrote:One of the devs at bitwave were involved in the shark emulator from back in the day, thats great !
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0w9v2-DpxY'
Something interesting I noticed here: at 1:28 there's some footage of Twin Cobra, but the playfield is greatly expanded, possibly to include everything that would normally be horizontally panned in tate mode. I'll be curious to hear some more details about that.

Hopefully there's an option in Zero Wing to disable the red flash every time you destroy something. I'm mildly photosensitive and I cannot play the AC original because of it. I'm also curious whether they'll be including the MD version or updating the original to include those cutscenes. You know, since they're using AYB as marketing. Better put it in there.
The wide mode of Twin Cobra is a hack I made for the Shark emulator and I wasn't exactly planning to reveal it already since it needs more testing and approval, I had left some recorded video of that with the other video files and it made it into the annoucement! I'm having a bit of a challenge to figure out how to properly render it with CRT scanlines enabled :)

The red flash will be replaced by a pulse which is how it should look on a proper arcade screen, I hope it won't need to be disabled!
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

I can't believe I forgot to ask before, but what version(s) of Out Zone are you using? There are like 5 or 6 different versions of the game, including the dreaded Zero Wing conversion.

Same question for Hellfire, actually, once you get to that game, as MAME and MiSTer have I think 2 different versions of both the 1P and 2P versions, but I'm mostly interested in the 2 1P versions. I don't know if there is a difference between those versions other than the ship changing color when you change weapons, though.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by PerishedFraud ឵឵ »

Oh yeah. Out Zone Outrageously Hard Ultra Omega Flying Fuck Special Edition is a thing. Hopefully we get one of the better versions (you don't really miss out on anything, it just makes the first loop more sane)
Last edited by PerishedFraud ឵឵ on Sat Aug 20, 2022 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

Yeah, the Zero Wing conversion is... something. It would be mildly interesting to have the Zero Wing conversion as an option along with the regular not ridiculous version, although I'd be extremely surprised if the Zero Wing conversion aligns with the original intended difficulty in any way at all. I wonder how M2 is going to do it, as well.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by guildenstern »

Cool. It doesnt seen to be shoddy low effort port at least according to the features listed. I hope it comes for the switch or series x as well (the two consoles I own). I will probably get on steam though.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Carl-Henrik »

Steven wrote:I can't believe I forgot to ask before, but what version(s) of Out Zone are you using? There are like 5 or 6 different versions of the game, including the dreaded Zero Wing conversion.

Same question for Hellfire, actually, once you get to that game, as MAME and MiSTer have I think 2 different versions of both the 1P and 2P versions, but I'm mostly interested in the 2 1P versions. I don't know if there is a difference between those versions other than the ship changing color when you change weapons, though.
I have the version we used in Shark and I am researching which other version(s) to include.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

Carl-Henrik wrote:
Steven wrote:I can't believe I forgot to ask before, but what version(s) of Out Zone are you using? There are like 5 or 6 different versions of the game, including the dreaded Zero Wing conversion.

Same question for Hellfire, actually, once you get to that game, as MAME and MiSTer have I think 2 different versions of both the 1P and 2P versions, but I'm mostly interested in the 2 1P versions. I don't know if there is a difference between those versions other than the ship changing color when you change weapons, though.
I have the version we used in Shark and I am researching which other version(s) to include.
Excellent, thanks. That Zero Wing conversion is way harder than the rest of them. Might be interesting to release the Zero Wing conversion as a super hard variant of the game for experienced players or something. I haven't been able to find a lot of documentation about it other than that it exists and that it was apparently done by Toaplan. MAME has a few different versions listed, and I'm not sure which one is the version of the game that Uemura-san intended. The variant that has no descriptors in MAME (old, older, hard, harder, etc.) seems to be the one people around here tend to play. Despatche is probably going to go insane figuring out the Out Zone scoreboard after this new release, now that I think about it...

I don't know if anyone actually likes playing the Zero Wing conversion, but I do find it to be a very interesting version of the game and there is not a lot of documentation about it that I have seen.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by PerishedFraud ឵឵ »

Despatche is probably going to go insane figuring out the Out Zone scoreboard after this new release
You can counterstop the game no matter what :lol:
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

PerishedFraud ឵឵ wrote:
Despatche is probably going to go insane figuring out the Out Zone scoreboard after this new release
You can counterstop the game no matter what :lol:
A true statement! Either way, inb4 Punished "Venom" Despatche~
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by OmegaFlareX »

Carl-Henrik wrote:The wide mode of Twin Cobra is a hack I made for the Shark emulator and I wasn't exactly planning to reveal it already since it needs more testing and approval, I had left some recorded video of that with the other video files and it made it into the annoucement! I'm having a bit of a challenge to figure out how to properly render it with CRT scanlines enabled :)
Cool! On the one hand, there is less chance to get sniped by a tank hiding just off-screen, on the other you can't scroll enemies off-screen to disable them. The non-panning variants of SameSame worked out ok, so this might too.

As far as scanlines... maybe leave the scanlines out of that mode, since it wouldn't be possible at all with a standard CRT's pixel density? Would the scanlines be horizontal or vertical here? Horizontal would make the game look very strange, I imagine, even in that mode. The footage of that mode isn't 4:3 either, it's closer to a perfect square. Like 7:6 or something. Did square CRTs ever even exist? I'm asking this because there seems little point in doing extra work for realism if the mode isn't realistic anyway.
The red flash will be replaced by a pulse which is how it should look on a proper arcade screen, I hope it won't need to be disabled!
Hm ok. I still might not be able to play it. Will have to see some 60fps footage of it first, once you get it in.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Carl-Henrik »

OmegaFlareX wrote:
Carl-Henrik wrote:The wide mode of Twin Cobra is a hack I made for the Shark emulator and I wasn't exactly planning to reveal it already since it needs more testing and approval, I had left some recorded video of that with the other video files and it made it into the annoucement! I'm having a bit of a challenge to figure out how to properly render it with CRT scanlines enabled :)
Cool! On the one hand, there is less chance to get sniped by a tank hiding just off-screen, on the other you can't scroll enemies off-screen to disable them. The non-panning variants of SameSame worked out ok, so this might too.

As far as scanlines... maybe leave the scanlines out of that mode, since it wouldn't be possible at all with a standard CRT's pixel density? Would the scanlines be horizontal or vertical here? Horizontal would make the game look very strange, I imagine, even in that mode. The footage of that mode isn't 4:3 either, it's closer to a perfect square. Like 7:6 or something. Did square CRTs ever even exist? I'm asking this because there seems little point in doing extra work for realism if the mode isn't realistic anyway.
The red flash will be replaced by a pulse which is how it should look on a proper arcade screen, I hope it won't need to be disabled!
Hm ok. I still might not be able to play it. Will have to see some 60fps footage of it first, once you get it in.
I don't know, might be simple to just support an odd sized CRT, it can still be disabled :)

Ok, let me try to fix the red flash and check with people if it is ok to share a video of the fix and then you can tell me if I should add an option to disable it entirely.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Lethe »

Steven wrote:I don't know if anyone actually likes playing the Zero Wing conversion
I do. First loop's much too boring otherwise. It's still pretty easy, just more engaging than the "normal" revision where half the enemies don't shoot at you.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

Oh, yes, one more thing that I thought of: probably no way in hell this will happen, but it would be really REALLY REALLY damn awesome if it does: online multiplayer. I see both Zero Wing and Out Zone have remote play as an option listed on Steam, and I've never used that, but I've heard that remote play can be problematic and I think it would be nice to have an actual online multiplayer thing, although I have absolutely no idea how it would be implemented or if it's even possible. Basically I am thinking of how Fightcade has online multiplayer for its games, although I've never used that either...

And also DIP switch access, or at least the choice of which region. I'm just looking at the video on the Out Zone Steam page and it doesn't look like the intro in the Japanese version, which is the only one I've played, so I'm not sure what version that is from. Most Toaplan games have differences between regions, sometimes massive differences like Kyuukyoku Tiger and Twin Cobra and of course 1P Same! Same! Same!, Fire Shark, and 2P Same! Same! Same!, the latter 2 of which are practically different games, so...
Lethe wrote:
Steven wrote:I don't know if anyone actually likes playing the Zero Wing conversion
I do. First loop's much too boring otherwise. It's still pretty easy, just more engaging than the "normal" revision where half the enemies don't shoot at you.
I guess there is at least one person who probably wants the Zero Wing conversion. Maybe I'll mess around with the difficulty settings on regular Out Zone to see how much of a difference that makes.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Carl-Henrik »

Steven wrote:Oh, yes, one more thing that I thought of: probably no way in hell this will happen, but it would be really REALLY REALLY damn awesome if it does: online multiplayer. I see both Zero Wing and Out Zone have remote play as an option listed on Steam, and I've never used that, but I've heard that remote play can be problematic and I think it would be nice to have an actual online multiplayer thing, although I have absolutely no idea how it would be implemented or if it's even possible. Basically I am thinking of how Fightcade has online multiplayer for its games, although I've never used that either...

And also DIP switch access, or at least the choice of which region. I'm just looking at the video on the Out Zone Steam page and it doesn't look like the intro in the Japanese version, which is the only one I've played, so I'm not sure what version that is from. Most Toaplan games have differences between regions, sometimes massive differences like Kyuukyoku Tiger and Twin Cobra and of course 1P Same! Same! Same!, Fire Shark, and 2P Same! Same! Same!, the latter 2 of which are practically different games, so...
Lethe wrote:
Steven wrote:I don't know if anyone actually likes playing the Zero Wing conversion
I do. First loop's much too boring otherwise. It's still pretty easy, just more engaging than the "normal" revision where half the enemies don't shoot at you.
I guess there is at least one person who probably wants the Zero Wing conversion. Maybe I'll mess around with the difficulty settings on regular Out Zone to see how much of a difference that makes.
Remote play is a steam feature that lets one player play locally and the other remotes in to that game so you get one happy player with very little lag and one player with connecting to the other player lag. We will give this a test at some point when Steam Input is not being so difficult :) I hope it will at least be enjoyable!

I'm planning to add all supported regions to all versions of the games so it is easy to find! I want to say I've set Out Zone to Korean right now. And everything I can add from dip settings that makes sense, but I think input test and dip settings screen doesn't make much sense and planning to add a shortcut directly to sound test.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

Carl-Henrik wrote:Remote play is a steam feature that lets one player play locally and the other remotes in to that game so you get one happy player with very little lag and one player with connecting to the other player lag. We will give this a test at some point when Steam Input is not being so difficult :) I hope it will at least be enjoyable!

I'm planning to add all supported regions to all versions of the games so it is easy to find! I want to say I've set Out Zone to Korean right now. And everything I can add from dip settings that makes sense, but I think input test and dip settings screen doesn't make much sense and planning to add a shortcut directly to sound test.
Alright, thanks a lot. I just realized that I'm not sure if GOG has anything like Steam's remote play...

Yeah, I think most of the stuff in the DIP switches isn't really all that useful for most players (test functionality and stuff), but maybe some stuff might be. I have accidentally inserted a new credit and started a new game a few times on the M2 PS4 versions and lost a few high scores on that version since it prioritizes killing your score and replay over recording them for some reason, so I disabled continues using the DIP switch settings on all of my Toaplan games to prevent myself from doing stupid things.

Good to hear about the sound test! That reminds me of something else, actually: once you guys get to Tatsujin Ou, please implement the stereo soundtrack! I have the soundtrack CD for that game (well, about half of the Toaplan soundtrack CDs, actually... need to get the rest soon!), so I've heard the stereo version of the Tatsujin Ou soundtrack and it's REALLY good. The only place you can hear it outside of the soundtrack is the Astro City Mini V, where they did implement it as an option, but I think that's the only way to play the game in stereo as of right now. I'm hoping M2 will implement it on their release, but I might as well ask you guys for it if you're doing Tatsujin Ou!
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by OmegaFlareX »

Steven wrote:I have the soundtrack CD for that game (well, about half of the Toaplan soundtrack CDs, actually... need to get the rest soon!), so I've heard the stereo version of the Tatsujin Ou soundtrack and it's REALLY good.
Are you referring to the Scitron OST that was out when the game was current, or the Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection volumes that were released a few years back?
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

OmegaFlareX wrote:
Steven wrote:I have the soundtrack CD for that game (well, about half of the Toaplan soundtrack CDs, actually... need to get the rest soon!), so I've heard the stereo version of the Tatsujin Ou soundtrack and it's REALLY good.
Are you referring to the Scitron OST that was out when the game was current, or the Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection volumes that were released a few years back?
Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection. I only have about half of them, though: 3, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by OmegaFlareX »

Ah, I have the first 2 of those myself. They're ok. Seems like pretty much just a simple capture of the PCB chips. But they're mixed incredibly loud (probably the loudest things in my entire digital library, which is saying something because I like rock music) and I tend to like reverb added to game OSTs, which these lack. So I haven't been very interested in importing the whole set.

I have the Scitron Tatsujin Ou OST from '92 and while it has some nice reverb like I'm fond of, it's not in stereo per se - it's mono doubled to both speakers. There is a jazzy arranged version of Heavy Long as the opener, though.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by Steven »

OmegaFlareX wrote:Ah, I have the first 2 of those myself. They're ok. Seems like pretty much just a simple capture of the PCB chips. But they're mixed incredibly loud (probably the loudest things in my entire digital library, which is saying something because I like rock music) and I tend to like reverb added to game OSTs, which these lack. So I haven't been very interested in importing the whole set.

I have the Scitron Tatsujin Ou OST from '92 and while it has some nice reverb like I'm fond of, it's not in stereo per se - it's mono doubled to both speakers. There is a jazzy arranged version of Heavy Long as the opener, though.
Yeah, apparently the game actually has the stereo soundtrack encoded into it specifically because they wanted to release a stereo soundtrack, but it goes unused in the game itself. I'm guessing Sega used that to implement the stereo soundtrack on the Astro City Mini V. It's actually in true stereo on the Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection, though. They are definitely simple PCB captures, and they are very loud, but the Tatsujin Ou stereo soundtrack actually seems to have normal volume levels, which is good.

Volume 11 is fucking incredible, though; it has Fire Shark Distortion!!!, which will basically light you on fire. Worth getting just for that, but it also has the old arranged versions of a few tracks from the Citron releases, including that Heavy Long, and most importantly, the U-Brand arrange versions of Tsugaru and Break a Leg! along with U-Brand's Zerowing 2014 and Hellfire 2015. It's the closest thing there is to a U-Brand CD. I told Uemura-san to release an actual CD since he has a lot more than just what's on volume 11 and he laughed and said "We'll see!", but I don't think it's going to happen.

If you haven't seen his 60th birthday live stream, you should, as there's some really good stuff in there, notably including Tatsujin wo Koete Ou to Nare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oyqo4_qk4
He messes up a few times, but that's how live performances go.
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Re: Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

Post by emphatic »

Carl-Henrik: If you need content, please consider an arrange mode around the following conditions (from the "Your dream game hackz" thread):
emphatic wrote: How about:

Danmaku mode:

* Slower but increased amount of enemy bullets
* Smaller hitbox

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* 15kHz full auto
* Bosses doesn't time out (or stop firing)
* Dying powers you down three steps maximum and one step minimum (if you've only taken one power-up before dying)
* Red heli is slightly more powerful using red shot (0.5x)
* Blue heli is slightly faster and is slightly more powerful (0.5x) using green shot
* Yellow shot is 2X as powerful as in the original game
* Looping the game gives you 500,000 pts + 1 extend
* Score extends at 200K, then every 600K
* No miss bonus - 50K for each stage
* Every new loop = double enemy shot speed
* Hold A button + start to play as blue heli - both players can play as blue or red

:)
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