Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

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CIT
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Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by CIT »

http://retro-bit.com/toaplan-shooters/

Personally, I think it looks a bit cheapo considering it’s 160$.
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pablumatic
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by pablumatic »

Those cartridge colors hurt my eyes. Getting Zero Wing in any case to have a translated western release.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by pegboy »

Those carts look like cheap Chinese bootlegs.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

It's not like these are especially pricey to pick up so the premium price point is a bit odd for such little in the way of extras. Maybe Americans will go nuts for the Engrish Zero Wing they never had?

Would rather see a compilation for modern consoles featuring the full range of MD Toaplan. I assume various publishing rights and such are why we don't see Twin Cobra, Twin Hawk, Slap Fight MD and Grind Stormer. I'm sure people would pay for a copy of Grind Stormer that won't melt.
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Retro-Bit
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Retro-Bit »

Hello everyone! I'm happy to help answer questions and address concerns as I am able/allowed to do so. Now then...
pablumatic wrote:Those cartridge colors hurt my eyes. Getting Zero Wing in any case to have a translated western release.
We wanted to make them each a distinct color. Also, they're actually transparent and not as bright as shown in the images. The actual carts aren't super bright and each internal PCB will have a solid similar color as well.

pegboy wrote:Those carts look like cheap Chinese bootlegs.
That isn't the look we're going for. The carts have a 5v chip and have beveled edges so as to not damage your consoles. We've spent a lot of time working on each collector's edition while working directly with the developers. We have also addressed the Hellfire audio issue as well as translated the JP version of Zero Wing (i.e. all the endings) but kept in the PAL translation for the opening sequence.

TransatlanticFoe wrote:It's not like these are especially pricey to pick up so the premium price point is a bit odd for such little in the way of extras. Maybe Americans will go nuts for the Engrish Zero Wing they never had?

Would rather see a compilation for modern consoles featuring the full range of MD Toaplan. I assume various publishing rights and such are why we don't see Twin Cobra, Twin Hawk, Slap Fight MD and Grind Stormer. I'm sure people would pay for a copy of Grind Stormer that won't melt.
Our main goal with our published titled is three-fold: bring back classic retro games to be experienced on the consoles they were made for, bring gamers of all ages and backgrounds a hidden gem to experience where they might have been priced out of collecting or unable to play (i.e. never released in a region), and finally to bring additional value at a fair price.

Depending on what you're looking for (loose, CIB, or new), each game has had a varied price range on auctions and listings from low double digits to well over $100 in the US. Publishing on modern consoles isn't something we have done just yet but perhaps it is in the future. It is our hope we can continue to work with Toaplan/Tatsujin on some more titles in the future.

EDIT: Fixed some "lack of sleep" typos.
Last edited by Retro-Bit on Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wilsoncqb1911
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Wilsoncqb1911 »

Retro-Bit wrote:Hello everyone! I'm happy to help answer questions and address concerns as I am able/allowed to do so. Now then...
pablumatic wrote:Those cartridge colors hurt my eyes. Getting Zero Wing in any case to have a translated western release.
We wanted to make them each a distinct color. Also, they're actually transparent and not as bright as shown in the images. The actual carts aren't super bright and each internal PCB will have a solid similar color as well.

pegboy wrote:Those carts look like cheap Chinese bootlegs.
That isn't the look we're going for. The carts have a 5v chip and have beveled edges so as to not damage your consoles. We've spent a lot of time working on each collector's edition while working directly with the developers. We have also addressed the Hellfire audio issue as well as translated the JP version of Zero Wing (i.e. all the endings) but kept in the PAL translation for the opening sequence.

TransatlanticFoe wrote:It's not like these are especially pricey to pick up so the premium price point is a bit odd for such little in the way of extras. Maybe Americans will go nuts for the Engrish Zero Wing they never had?

Would rather see a compilation for modern consoles featuring the full range of MD Toaplan. I assume various publishing rights and such are why we don't see Twin Cobra, Twin Hawk, Slap Fight MD and Grind Stormer. I'm sure people would pay for a copy of Grind Stormer that won't melt.
Our main goal with our published titled is three-fold: bring back classic retro games to be experiences on the consoles they were made for, bring gamers of all ages and backgrounds a hidden gem to experience where they might have been priced out of collecting or unable to play (i.e. never released in a region), and finally to bring additional value without at a fair price.

Depending on what you're looking for (loose, CIB, or new), each game has had a varied price range on auctions and listings from low double digits to well over $100 in the US. Publishing on modern consoles isn't something we have done just yet but perhaps it is in the future. It is our hope we can continue to work with Toaplan/Tatsujin on some more titles in the future.

I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I was on the fence on these. I had some of the same concerns others did as well as thinking that I have flash carts to play these games. I have to say though that I really appreciate your post and I will likely buy the set now when it becomes available. Thank you.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by XtraSmiley »

I think they look great and the price is about right (but of course I wish it was lower!) for what you're offering, especially since you've taken care to provide good game PCBs.

One thing though, please tell me you've found a way to fix the music in Truxton?
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Kiken »

XtraSmiley wrote:One thing though, please tell me you've found a way to fix the music in Truxton?
I think you mean HellFire.. which has the audio hardware glitch exploitation in the original model MD/Genesis.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by BIL »

He might well mean Truxton/Tatsujin. :wink: Per shmuplations:
—By the way, how involved were you in the music for the console ports?

Yuge: Overall I didn’t have much involvement. The port I was most involved with was the Megadrive port of Same! Same! Same!. You know, regarding the Megadrive, I have this one bad memory that I’ve always wanted to apologize for, and that’s the tempo being too fast in the Tatsujin port. We didn’t receive any instructions from Sega on the sound hardware until 2 weeks before the mastering deadline. So I was really rushing to program everything and get the data coded, and we didn’t have a lot of time to tweak things, and that fast tempo resulted.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Kiken »

BIL wrote:He might well mean Truxton/Tatsujin. :wink: Per shmuplations:
—By the way, how involved were you in the music for the console ports?

Yuge: Overall I didn’t have much involvement. The port I was most involved with was the Megadrive port of Same! Same! Same!. You know, regarding the Megadrive, I have this one bad memory that I’ve always wanted to apologize for, and that’s the tempo being too fast in the Tatsujin port. We didn’t receive any instructions from Sega on the sound hardware until 2 weeks before the mastering deadline. So I was really rushing to program everything and get the data coded, and we didn’t have a lot of time to tweak things, and that fast tempo resulted.
I'd completely forgotten about that. Then again, I prefer the higher tempo music in the MD port.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by chempop »

Vintage puffy sticker set :P
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Retro-Bit »

XtraSmiley wrote:I think they look great and the price is about right (but of course I wish it was lower!) for what you're offering, especially since you've taken care to provide good game PCBs.

One thing though, please tell me you've found a way to fix the music in Truxton?
We are not planning on changing anything in Truxton. We feel if we changed it to slow it down, there'd be more of an outcry against it since most users are used to the version that was ported to the home consoles.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by XtraSmiley »

Retro-Bit wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote:I think they look great and the price is about right (but of course I wish it was lower!) for what you're offering, especially since you've taken care to provide good game PCBs.

One thing though, please tell me you've found a way to fix the music in Truxton?
We are not planning on changing anything in Truxton. We feel if we changed it to slow it down, there'd be more of an outcry against it since most users are used to the version that was ported to the home consoles.
Well, I guess that's fair, but man, they coded it to be in sync with the PAL version as an error...

It's probably too late for this, but an option between correct and original wouldn't hurt...
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Retro-Bit »

chempop wrote:Vintage puffy sticker set :P
Haha, we wanted to bring back the '80s and that was one of the first things that stuck with us. They're actually quite nice! :D
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by EmperorIng »

So the Hellfire cart would play the music at a correct tempo even on Model 2/3 Genesis units? If so, that's a fine bit of work you or the port team were able to pull off. Nice looking set all around!
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by XtraSmiley »

EmperorIng wrote:So the Hellfire cart would play the music at a correct tempo even on Model 2/3 Genesis units? If so, that's a fine bit of work you or the port team were able to pull off. Nice looking set all around!
No, they haven't confirmed they fixed this, unless I missed it.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by lrem »

Hello, this question comes from someone on a different platform:

Image
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Strikers1945guy »

Do the genesis cases for the Toaplan games have the locks that hold the hanging tabs down ?
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by EmperorIng »

XtraSmiley wrote:
No, they haven't confirmed they fixed this, unless I missed it.
The man's post above:
Retro-Bit wrote:We have also addressed the Hellfire audio issue as well as translated the JP version of Zero Wing (i.e. all the endings) but kept in the PAL translation for the opening sequence.
Interested in clarification! always hated the slowed down music in Hellfire's genesis version.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by FRO »

I'm quite excited about these! Truxton is the only one I own complete, and I only have Fire Shark otherwise, so this is a good chance to get some good games at a cheaper price than the going rate for used copies, while also supporting the IP holder. I'll probably grab the whole set, as I quite like that compile logo effect thing, and that will look quite spiffy in my game room. I love that these games are getting a licensed re-print, because it means they're once again available at a fair price. Hopefully, we'll continue to see stuff like this, particularly for shmups, since those seem to be the most overpriced genre of classic games, in most instances.

Since someone from Retro-Bit is in the thread, I wanted to find out if someone might be willing to come on my podcast to talk about these releases. It's all shmup-themed, and we would do a "gaiden" episode dedicated to this 4 reissues. I tried to use the contact form on the website a few months back, to see about lining something up, but never got a response. If that's possible, we'd certainly appreciate the opportunity to talk about some classic shmups, and celebrate these forthcoming carts.

Podcast info here:
https://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by MintyTheCat »

Retro-Bit wrote:
XtraSmiley wrote:I think they look great and the price is about right (but of course I wish it was lower!) for what you're offering, especially since you've taken care to provide good game PCBs.

One thing though, please tell me you've found a way to fix the music in Truxton?
We are not planning on changing anything in Truxton. We feel if we changed it to slow it down, there'd be more of an outcry against it since most users are used to the version that was ported to the home consoles.
There is at least one decent ROM Hack with changed colours and such for the MD - worth looking into.

I quite like tatsujin on the MD but given that I own it as a Japanese cartridge I would not be so interested in buying it again. I'd love to see V5/Grindstormer up for sale on the MD though.
and I only have Fire Shark
Yes - great MD game and so is daisenpu - many happy an hour spent on these titles :)
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by OmegaFlareX »

A 2nd batch once the first sells out could be Slap Fight MD, Daisenpu, Kyukyoku Tiger, V-V. Just sayin'.

That might not be possible, though. I don't think Toaplan handled any of those ports themselves. Maybe Daisenpu?
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by BIL »

Daisenpu was in-house Toaplan, yep. Slap Fight MD was developed by M.N.M. Software and published by Tengen, who developed and published V-V. Kyuukyoku Tiger was published by Treco, can't recall its dev offhand. Possibly an enraged chimpanzee armed with the MSpaint crop tool, hence its serendipitous crash-zoomed 4:3 murderfest Image
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by BrianC »

OmegaFlareX wrote:A 2nd batch once the first sells out could be Slap Fight MD, Daisenpu, Kyukyoku Tiger, V-V. Just sayin'.

That might not be possible, though. I don't think Toaplan handled any of those ports themselves. Maybe Daisenpu?
Slap Fight MD was on the JP and Asian versions of the MD mini. MNM Software is awesome. They are currently known as Mindware. They were also responsible for the sound driver in some games Yuzo Kushiro was involved with.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by benstylus »

Preorders are open at Castlemania if anyone was waiting on this.

Still not available at LRG yet, but I'm sure they'll be updating soon as well.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Wilsoncqb1911 »

Got my boxed set today. I am happy with it so far. The plastic boxes and carts all seem really nice quality. Stickers look really nice. PCBs have beveled edges. All the extras are nice and I was looking forward to putting some of the stickers on my arcade stick, as lame as that sounds. I'm playing through Zero Wing currently.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by NAVVARR »

I own the originals except Fire shark - any advantage to buying this- is the gameplay any different?
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by Wilsoncqb1911 »

NAVVARR wrote:I own the originals except Fire shark - any advantage to buying this- is the gameplay any different?
There apparently are some differences. See above. Hellfire has some audio issue I'm not aware of fixed. Zero Wing is fully translated with all the endings. Might be more. I dunno.
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Re: Toaplan Shooters Collection coming from Retro-Bit

Post by BrianC »

Truxton and Fire Shark seem to be pretty much the same with their JP/EN differences intact. I noticed that all games have a new Retro-bit copyright with references to Sega removed (including the sega logo). I don't have a model 2 Genesis (and least not with me) to test, but the Retro-Bit Hellfire played the music at the correct speed with the YM3438 busy behavior box checked on the MegaSg. It played too slow when I tried it with the original cart. I have mixed feelings about the cart colors, but the artwork isn't bad and the labels are nice and glossy, something that couldn't be said of the original carts.
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