shmuplations.com - 12/1 Zanac

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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Thanks for these, very interesting to read. It made me happy to know Espgaluda's composer liked Stage 3's theme best as it's also my favorite. Definitely a fantastic soundtrack all-around.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by emphatic »

BareKnuckleRoo wrote:Thanks for these, very interesting to read. It made me happy to know Espgaluda's composer liked Stage 3's theme best as it's also my favorite. Definitely a fantastic soundtrack all-around.
Also explains why many consider ESPGALUDA's boss theme subpar.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by Dave_K. »

I wish more could have been said about Espgaluda Arrange mode. I recently starting playing this again, and its hard as nails, quite the contrast to the original game. Only 4 people have cleared it on this forum.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by BPzeBanshee »

emphatic wrote:
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:Thanks for these, very interesting to read. It made me happy to know Espgaluda's composer liked Stage 3's theme best as it's also my favorite. Definitely a fantastic soundtrack all-around.
Also explains why many consider ESPGALUDA's boss theme subpar.
Couldnt've said this better on all fronts. Very interesting read blackoak!
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by CStarFlare »

Thanks for these new translations blackoak. I always end up going down the rabbit hole and reading half a dozen instead of the new ones I came to read. This time I came across this little bit from RAM in the Ibara DVD interviews:
RAM: Well, I want to leave my Ibara Kuro experience on a high note, but I’m actually planning to make a STG game, so I’ll leave the rest to you!
Anyone know if anything ever came of this?
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by adversity1 »

RAM was actually the programmer on Pink Sweets & Muchi Pork Arrange, as well as DFK Arrange B. He also helped design Lei in Deathsmiles 2.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by CStarFlare »

Well, that's certainly something. He went from an Ibara BL superplayer to programming on some arrange modes of Yagawa's games. Seems appropriate.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by BulletMagnet »

Seems some new content, including Ketsui stuff, went up recently.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by emphatic »

BulletMagnet wrote:Seems some new content, including Ketsui stuff, went up recently.
Thanks for the heads up. Always interesting to read about how Ketsui came about.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 8/27 Stunfest 2014, Espgaluda

Post by blackoak »

Thanks for the bump BulletMagnet. Yeah, I think Ketsui is the only bonafide new shmup translation in the last month (although Assault Suits Valken will appeal to many here, and the CPS-1 interview does have some brief notes on Capcom shmups). Right now I'm working on some excellent Xevious interviews with Masanobu Endou--lots of new info in there, I believe. Look for that next week, hehe...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by blackoak »

Just a bump for the new STG translations this month: Ketsui as mentioned above, and Xevious, which was originally a "Vietnam War" game... ?! hehe
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Re: shmuplations.com opens! SDOJ, Under Defeat, Kamui interv

Post by xxx1993 »

Rupert H wrote:Image

I love the expression on Ikeda's face here. He thinking to himself: "You see the kind of shit I have to put up with in order to sell a shmup these days?"

Oh, and massive thanks as usual blackoak. This site is an incredible resource.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by Necronom »

blackoak wrote:Just a bump for the new STG translations this month: Ketsui as mentioned above, and Xevious, which was originally a "Vietnam War" game... ?! hehe
Always a good and interesting read. Thanks a lot!
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Re: shmuplations.com opens! SDOJ, Under Defeat, Kamui interv

Post by KAI »

xxx1993 wrote:Are those two holding the dolls supposed to be Aya Hirano and Aoi Yuuki? I never knew Aoi Yuuki was blonde.
Nope, they are Zwei.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by EmperorIng »

blackoak wrote:Xevious, which was originally a "Vietnam War" game... ?! hehe
Great set of interviews. Looking at the game itself, the Vietnam angle sort of makes sense, with bombing targets and a largely jungle setting. I don't know if the game would have been so timeless without its "endless assault of geometric shapes" theme!

Still, it's great to see some insight into Xevious and the amount of creative spirit that went into making it (lol at Endo putting in rallyX flags because he liked the game, and telling the higher ups that Sol towers were just bugs). The set made me appreciate the game just a tiny bit more... though I wouldn't be able to play anything other than the arrange modes on Xevious 3d/G... if only for the music changes. :twisted:

There's a 6-hour counterstop Xevious video floating around on youtube; I don't think it could be the same one mentioned in the interview, but that'd be cool.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by Pasokon Deacon »

I find it humorous that the director of Alundra, Yasuhiro Ohori, sent in that 6-hour counterstop tape for Xevious and then got to make a strategy guide so anyone could reach that goal.
xxx1993

Re: shmuplations.com opens! SDOJ, Under Defeat, Kamui interv

Post by xxx1993 »

KAI wrote:
xxx1993 wrote:Are those two holding the dolls supposed to be Aya Hirano and Aoi Yuuki? I never knew Aoi Yuuki was blonde.
Nope, they are Zwei.
Oh, right, the guys that did the ending theme "Heading for Tomorrow".
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by BulletMagnet »

Twinkle Star Sprites up earlier this week - be sure to check out the Super Mario World one too!
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Re: shmuplations.com - 11/12 Xevious, Ketsui

Post by copy-paster »

Wow, I didn't know blackoak already open a voting for upcoming interview.

Interesting though, everything that includes Gradiuses should be voted here. :twisted:
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Re: shmuplations.com - 1/5 Treasure, Twinkle Star Sprites

Post by blackoak »

Thanks for the Twinkle Star Sprites bump, BulletMagnet! I just added an interview with Treasure founder/president Masato Maegawa also. He mainly talks about Ikaruga, but there's interesting comments about the genre generally, the economic realities of developing a shmup, Sin and Punishment, Bangai-O, and Radiant Silvergun.

The Ikaruga stuff seems timely given the top 25 is around the corner... hehe
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Re: shmuplations.com - 1/5 Treasure, Twinkle Star Sprites

Post by blackoak »

quick question: does anyone own hardcopies of the 19XX capcom secret files? The arcade flyers archive has some scans up, but they're kind of lo-res. Was hoping to get some higher resolution images of the concept art so I could translate the little artist notes at the bottom, for this 19XX interview feature I'm working on atm...
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by blackoak »

A few STG updates of note this month: a 1997 interview from Gamest with Ikeda and Kouyama about Dodonpachi (mainly about scoring and its reception in the arcades), a cool 19XX developer diary and associated interviews, and a 1987 interview about the obscure Irem 3D STG Battle Bird.

No matter how many Nintendo interviews I have to translate for hits (haha), I shall never forsake shmupdom! :mrgreen: (glances at that big Zanac interview I mention every single month...)
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by CStarFlare »

On the DDP interview, I think the scores are missing a few zeros - scores would have been in the 600 million range, not 600 thousand. :)

Interesting stuff from that interview though - Hibachi is small for sprite limitation reasons, Cave could only get 400 mil with invincibility mode - I guess maybe the game wasn't designed around being (almost) entirely chainable?
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by chempop »

Great read, as always. Thank you blackoak! I especially liked the interview about 19XX OST, one of my all time favorite soundtracks and a game which deserved a spot in my small collection of PCBs.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by emphatic »

Thank you sooo much!
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by EmperorIng »

I just wanted to bump and say some of the most interesting interviews I've read on the site were from the ultra-early eras of gaming - like the Kasco and Epoch interviews. Top-notch stuff; probably because it's a period of time so rarely talked about, and it has the novelty of showing off some fanciful material (e.g. the mechanical machines made by Kasco).

It's great that the site gives exposure to little-talked-about (here at least) dimensions of the entertainment industry, on top of all the fun interviews with more recognizable subjects.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/15 Dodonpachi, 19XX, Battle Bird

Post by IHaveJustOneQuestion »

qmish wrote:How's things? No activity since march 2017 (https://twitter.com/shmuplations/status ... 5809047552). Is everything okay?
Hello, i was wondering the same and registered an account just to ask, since i suspected people here would know him.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/1 Cave STG 15th Anniversary Intervi

Post by blackoak »

hey guys, as announced elsewhere, shmuplations is back! For the first interview, I thought it made the most sense to "return to the beginning" with this lengthy Cave STG 15th Anniversary interview. Many thanks to qmish for providing the scans.

Lots of cool stuff in there from Ikeda... I especially enjoyed the comments connecting Cave's early work to Toaplan. There's also a game-by-game commentary section at the end, which goes up to Deathsmiles II, I believe.

I'm happy to be back, and for near-future stg stuff I'll be doing the Battle Garegga interviews from M2s awesome release, and a long overdue interview with the creator of Zanac.
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Re: shmuplations.com - 3/1 Cave STG 15th Anniversary Intervi

Post by qmish »

Thanks to whoever made those scans first! (i dont know original scanner) I just handover them to ya :oops:

Oh, and happy to see you back to translations!
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