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

[Skyknight]

A certain sound effect in st3 was cracking us up though, no prizes for guessing which.

It probably doesn't help that the worms also tend to look like they have a psychotic grin. "FOOD! SCREAM LOUD WHILE ME MUNCH YOU!"

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Interview with the president of Hamster. Says they have 800 titles in the pipeline.

https://www.timeextension.com/features/ ... OJ4hOA7zc8

[BEAMLORD]

Cleared loop 1 of Strato Fighter, made it to 2-4. 2nd loop seems really fun with a notable crank in pressure. Given the leniency of your ship's strength at max power, especially in the first loop, seems much fairer to the loop itself second time around

First I'd heard of this game was Hamster's announcement this week. Doesn't come with a of stardust on it, no real memorable moments. But it's a fun play where it counts. Power-down is brutal and it can crush you fast. I like the end of stage graphic, seeing the smouldering zone you've just annihilated. Shout out to Bareknuckle Roo, your guide and replay were informative

[Sima Tuna]

Interview with the president of Hamster. Says they have 800 titles in the pipeline.

https://www.timeextension.com/features/ ... OJ4hOA7zc8

I hope one of them is Elevator Action Returns, dammit.

Golden Axe: Return of Death Adder would be a nice get too, although I'm not holding my breath for that one.

[cfx]

.

[Skyknight]

He said there were 800 titles they'd like to release, and only 370 so far have been deployed. So I think he meant Hamster had about 800 targets at start, and of those, about 430 are still on the list, with probably more added as time went on.

[BIL]

I remember a very similar interview some four years ago (2019), with a similarly impressive target number. That was well over a hundred releases ago, at this point. Just how they roll, I guess - big plans done one step at a time. As seen in the recent XEXEX ninja patch-up, they're a rare dev who demonstrate that "no frills" and "high quality" are complementary goals, not conflicting ones.

Speaking of quality, and the future; it's been a marvelous bit of good fortune, having M2 and Hamster working full-steam in their respective boutique & budget niches, these last several years. I maintain faith in M2 Prez and his beast wood for Boogie Wings & Ed Randy, but I wonder if Hamster will eventually get around to more of those DECO titles G-Mode hold the rights to. ACA Wolf Fang pls~ (ACA Thunder Zone resides in the same "alright, show's over, never gonna top that" tier as ACA Macross 2 )

[Jonpachi]

Hit 7th overall in High Score Mode on Strato Fighter. I was in 2-5, died, and got stuck with a low-powered Vertical weapon or else I'd have gone farther. Next time!

Final Score: 1,250,220

[BIL]

Holy cow, King & Balloon is one busy scoot n' shoot I always remembered liking it back on PS1, but never had even the limited frame of reference for gallery STGs I do today.

I particularly like the progressive approach to death... ala OutRun et al, getting blown away isn't fatal in itself, it's the respawn wait that kills. Even then, your ballistrade bois get back on their feet in a snap here. Balanced against the raining shitstorm, and the perpetual risk of the abucted King getting hopelessly obscured by a sea of intercepting zako, it creates a superbly rollicking tug-of-war effect.

Feels a bit gauche to say, but I wish it didn't recycle Galaxian's SFX quite so obviously; the familiar death-thrum and crisp reports are bit reductive to its goofy little medieval world. Still, vanishingly minimal complaint. Being a perennial noob at this stuff, I find it more instantly-arresting than a lot of its more famous peers. Being a fan of SNK's Sasuke vs Commander, it's also nice to see another early attempt at the "character STG." The King is an endearing old assclown.



This is a day full of good gaming!

[Atariboy]

Pole Position is indeed a bit rarer these days compared to Pole Position II, but only because so many operators back in the day invested in the conversion kit to refresh their Pole Position cabinets into Pole Position II machines. Most PPII cabs started out their life as Pole Position.

Much like how Track-Pak equipped Super Off-Roads are so much more commonplace, it's only because the original was a big money maker and most were upgraded to help keep the quarters flowing in.

As for the number of games in Hamster's pipeline or their wishlist of what they'd like to release, they may not be all arcade games. Didn't we learn of a Hamster trademark filing for "Console Archives" last year? And I share the wish for more of those Data East DECO games. Especially Lock 'n' Chase.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Gameplay of King & Balloon at 1:19:46, Despite the low volume, we can confirm the voice samples are from the Japanese ROM rather than Game Plan's localization.
https://youtu.be/Vo7Z2zyU9uo

Runark/Growl's next week. So we can only expect another Namco title after that. Bosconian? Pole Position II? we've might get a hint the next week.

[Udderdude]

I would expect the Japanese version of K&B, honestly.

[hamfighterx]

The King is an endearing old assclown.

If there is anything we can do to get Hamster to hire BIL to write a tagline for each of these releases, I'm in. That's a Kickstarter I could get behind.

[BIL]

I endeavour to serve! Namco Present: The King of Assclowns 1980: BYEBYE NEVER ENDS

[Jeneki]

Snes Yoshi's Island finally makes sense; you're carrying the king.

[Koa Zo]

Runark/Growl's next week. So we can only expect another Namco title after that. Bosconian? Pole Position II? we've might get a hint the next week.

Namco indeed.
Baraduke II, another game I never knew existed.

The first Baraduke is a game I knew of but never paid attention to as it doesn't appeal to me at first glace.
As with so many other games here, thanks to Bill's enthusiasm I gave it a try and came to appreciate or recognize its charms. Looking forward to playing, seeing and hearing what Namco put together for the 1988 sequel.

edit:
or... maybe not Gets a pretty bad review there, and reportedly performed poorly in arcades.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

King & Balloon, neat! I remember first hearing about it seeing a video from the forum's own SPM, a really impressive 10 loop clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_VZZP3JpDE With all the Space Invaders clones that hit the market, it's really interesting seeing games that introduced neat mechanics to spice up the formula.

Shout out to Bareknuckle Roo, your guide and replay were informative

Aw, thanks, it's nice to hear people are enjoying it. I always thought it was a really fun game. I really dig O'Neill Cylinders as a spaceship design too, so seeing one in stage 5 was cool.

[EmperorIng]

or... maybe not Gets a pretty bad review there, and reportedly performed poorly in arcades.

This sounds like typical whining from the no-skill writers at HG101. If it's not a Genesis game set to "easy", everything is "too hard" and "designed to munch quarters" so take their review with an extreme grain of salt, and probably with a cocktail in hand.

[m.sniffles.esq]

This sounds like typical whining from the no-skill writers at HG101.

In all fairness, it's not like HG101 has staff writers, all articles/reviews are reader submissions. So if you're unhappy with the content they provide...

[Fingolfin]

A certain sound effect in st3 was cracking us up though, no prizes for guessing which.

It probably doesn't help that the worms also tend to look like they have a psychotic grin. "FOOD! SCREAM LOUD WHILE ME MUNCH YOU!"

The worms’ “growls” sound like cows mooing to my ears.

“Better…better get a bucket!”

More than a bit odd given the aesthetics for Raiga: Strato Fighter as a whole but a most memorable and entertaining sound effect.

Really enjoying Strato Fighter all the more having never seen it/played it before. Appreciate the insights from all here. Thanks BareKnuckleRoo and BIL et al!

Got Milk?

[BIL]

Barring some inherent crossover - we tend to discuss similar games - HG101's audience and this community aren't the same audience. That's the most diplomatic way to put it.

a cheat mode where you can slow down the game, play it in Japanese, make Arthur invulnerable (you will be amazed at how difficult the game is even then), or select which level to begin at. Given that the game is essentially impossible without these cheats, this is easily the best version of the game and arguably the best platformer on the console.

Damn! Always knew the MD cart was legit, but now, it's better than arcade-perfect CONFIRMED

Baraduke II, another game I never knew existed.

Yeah, I'm ambivalent on that one as well. Only learned of its existence very late (shortly after the first game's ACA release) - it seems to have little presence even in Japan. And while obscurity is OFC never a crime, something I've found over the years is that some games are obscure for a reason.

(related: Youkai Club may be a dishwater FC action/platformer, but god damn, listen to Yone2008's stomping VRC6 arrangement! Dracula Densetsu on beast roids!)

Trading away the first game's Heavily Armed Astronaut™ roaming STG for conventional shooting is a bit dispiriting from the off. This'll be one of the exceedingly rare ACA Namco titles I have to give a try-b4-u-buy in MAME. (previous being Hopping Mappy - quality, but I couldn't get along with the incessant hopping - and Wonder Momo - jury's still out, could be a great time for all I know, I just dislike that game's entire concept )

Also, another thing I learned is that even when cheap and shipping+space-efficient, buying lame games still stings! It's about MUH H@RDCOR3 GAYMER PRIDE (｀w´メ) naw mean? RIP ACA Athena, can't stand the sight of that thing even on my PS4 dashboard!

A certain sound effect in st3 was cracking us up though, no prizes for guessing which.

It probably doesn't help that the worms also tend to look like they have a psychotic grin. "FOOD! SCREAM LOUD WHILE ME MUNCH YOU!"

The worms’ “growls” sound like cows mooing to my ears.

“Better…better get a bucket!”

Had me thinking of the angry skelten bro from this DMC3 mocap classic "BAROOO" Kinda cute, like angry sockpuppets :3

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The ST3 worms always sounded like sheep or goat noises to me. Straddles that fine line between creepy and hilarious!

[Sumez]

Barring some inherent crossover - we tend to discuss similar games - HG101's audience and this community aren't the same audience. That's the most diplomatic way to put it.

I don't think that's entirely true. HG101 tends to generally focus on either really good or at least super interesting games that are almost always interesting to read about for my interests. And I think most of the people who contributed to the selection being covered there has an overall really good taste in games. I've learned of quite a few obscure games through their articles, and I do enjoy a lot of their content.
I don't trust any of their takes on pure game design and difficulty levels of arcade games especially - you are a master at pointing out why those takes should always be taken at a grain of salt - but I probably wouldn't deny that I'm still a part of that site's audience. No matter how much stuff there is to poke fun of, the internet badly lacks more sites with in-depth coverage of cool-ass games with the dedication demonstrated by HG101.

[m.sniffles.esq]

I can't say I look at HG101 every day (or week, or month), but it covers a lot of stuff that get little to no coverage elsewhere, it's thorough, has standards, and even though it relies of reader contributions for content, Kurt actually--*gasp*--pays the contributors. So it's okay in my book.

If you don't like a write-up on something and your pitch was rejected--okay--you got a beef. If you don't like a don't like a write-up on something and your pitch was never made... Well...

[BIL]

Barring some inherent crossover - we tend to discuss similar games - HG101's audience and this community aren't the same audience. That's the most diplomatic way to put it.

I don't think that's entirely true. HG101 tends to generally focus on either really good or at least super interesting games that are almost always interesting to read about for my interests.

Absolutely! The selection is consistently sound. It's just the playing of said selection, as you say. Their Taromaru review, for instance... you'd come away thinking it was the archetypal all show/no go trophy piece:

feels like it was designed to be an arcade game, you can forget about it being properly balanced, because enemies attack in huge numbers and the bosses litter the screen with tiny projectiles.

This is objective illiteracy. For these challenges, the game has a whole button for turning enemies into screen-wiping bombs, and another for an unlimited-use shield that obviates literally everything. It's not an especially hard game even by console standards, let alone arcade ones, provided you're actually engaging with the tools the designers provided. I hear SMB1 is a real bitch if you never press the [jump] button.

I think most of us here play arcade-styled games, and probably action games in general, to be challenged, pressed. It's ok to die, it's just a game! I always think of that awesome bit early in Gladiator, where Maximus and his fellow prisoners are waiting for God knows what to emerge from the arena gate, and he says "Whatever's coming, we've more chance of surviving it if we work together." How can I survive - and ideally dominate - this harsh scenario, with the tools and resources available to me? "We've got a bomb button, and an invincible shield, and fuck it there's enemies everywhere and I'm getting shot all the time!"

That's where our commonalities break down, and MD Dai becomes a must-have not for its masterful translation of Fujiwara's immortal action/platformer, but because it gives you an invincibility cheat.

It's nothing to get mad about, they just tend to write for a different crowd interested in largely the same games. If someone, like their FC Ikari III reviewer, genuinely believes a game is "impossible," they're more than welcome to register here for the 1337 TIPZ

[Koa Zo]

or... maybe not Gets a pretty bad review there, and reportedly performed poorly in arcades.

This sounds like typical whining from the no-skill writers at HG101. If it's not a Genesis game set to "easy", everything is "too hard" and "designed to munch quarters" so take their review with an extreme grain of salt, and probably with a cocktail in hand.

Cheers. Thanks for the caution on the review. I'm not much familiar with the content of HG101 overall. Doing a brief search for Baraduke II, I skimmed the first couple results - that review I linked was the least superficial and does present some knowledge of the series and gameplay elements at least.
I love "discovering" some of these ACA releases with little or no prior knowledge and then being delighted and hooked. UPL's Black Heart, Taito's Time Tunnel, and Nichibutsu's Kid's Horehore Daisakusen come to mind. Kid's Horehore Daisakusen is one I bought simply because I have a thing for Nichibutsu games and had never heard of this one - I ended up getting addicted like I hadn't been to a game in a looong time. It now stands as one of my all time favorites.

I was hoping Baraduke II would be one of those instances, as Namco was up to great things in that late 80s era. The fact that it is a relatively unknown Namco game from that era is why I did do a little searching on it - seems suspect.
It really does come down to a cocktail. Do I want to spend that $8 on Baraduke II or get a nice stiff drink instead?

Baraduke II, another game I never knew existed.

Yeah, I'm ambivalent on that one as well. Only learned of its existence very late (shortly after the first game's ACA release) - it seems to have little presence even in Japan. And while obscurity is OFC never a crime, something I've found over the years is that some games are obscure for a reason.

(related: Youkai Club may be a dishwater FC action/platformer, but god damn, listen to Yone2008's stomping VRC6 arrangement! Dracula Densetsu on beast roids!)

Trading away the first game's Heavily Armed Astronaut™ roaming STG for conventional shooting is a bit dispiriting from the off. This'll be one of the exceedingly rare ACA Namco titles I have to give a try-b4-u-buy in MAME. (previous being Hopping Mappy - quality, but I couldn't get along with the incessant hopping - and Wonder Momo - jury's still out, could be a great time for all I know, I just dislike that game's entire concept )

Also, another thing I learned is that even when cheap and shipping+space-efficient, buying lame games still stings! It's about MUH H@RDCOR3 GAYMER PRIDE (｀w´メ) naw mean? RIP ACA Athena, can't stand the sight of that thing even on my PS4 dashboard!

I too have a soft spot for Jaleco tunes.

I'm also thinking I'll hold off and do a little more "research" before committing on Baraduke II. Does seems it may be an instance where obscurity was earned.

So far I only have one serious turd in my dashboard - Vasara Collection - had already sold the physical copy I had, but rebought it digitally on sale for $1.99, everytime I see it it's like someone farted in the room, I really should just delete it. Zanki Zero is the only game I've deleted so far. Fuck that game.

[BIL]

I too have a soft spot for Jaleco tunes.

EDF is one classy OST st2 BGM is supremely chill, goes great with the night city skyline. st3, out of nowhere, recalls SFC Dracula IV's melancholy turbulence. My favourite is ARMED SATELLITE, rivalling Sega's SST band for frontline bass guitar attack... around the ACA release, composer Tsukasa Tawada posted this beautiful piano rendition.

They had some good stuff, Jaleco. EDF, Rod Land, and Soldam are all rock-solid genre efforts, and Cybattler is outright killer. I've never put serious time on Game Tengoku, but I know a lot of trusted peeps here respect that one too.

A lot of the other games of theirs I like were subcontracted - cf NMK's hyperagressive Star Force x Xevious Argus, and Aicom's The Astyanax, whose English name I've warmed up to (a Grecian word, if I recall, meaning "King of Kings," hence the JP ver's "The Lord of King).

They also published NMK's topdown tanker Valtric, which I wish would get an ACA release already! I wonder if there's some holdup... Hamster went on a spirited run of NMK games a year or so back, can't complain with Thunder Dragon 2 in the bag, plus Gunnail and Hachamecha Fighter, and my personal favourite / still-busted-in-MAME, the Xevious-gone-Toaplan of Task Force Harrier. But all my favourite people say Valtric is the GOAT topdown tanker and that subgenre is a big favourite of mine. There's Grobda, of course, but Grobda is not to be approached lightly, that's topdown tanking science right there.

Taito's Time Tunnel, and Nichibutsu's Kid's Horehore Daisakusen come to mind.

Two I'm always meaning to revisit. I'm an action/platformer and run/gun sort, at heart... I have a blind spot when it comes to anything outside that paradigm, one I'm only recently starting to overcome. Time Tunnel's the sort of thing I'd have pass on years ago, but you and a whole bunch of other shumps bros consistently mention it, so I know I'm missing something. Kid's Horehore, I just love that pixel artwork (see also Terra Force and Crazy Climber 2, just very cute games). Concept reminds of that old GB game starring Asmik-kun aka Boomer, not a great memory but then again, Asmik-kun appears on some pretty rad stuff. (speaking of cybernetically- aggressive basslines)

EDIT: Actually, balls... wasn't Kid's Horehore Daisakusen a spiritual followup to Heiankyo Alien? There's another I always hear about. Was this close to picking up the SFC incarnation once, but must've gotten sidetracked. As ever, if it doesn't involve rampant scrolling massacre, I quickly tune out - it's a weakness

[Skyknight]

So we have nominated two suspects for the game after Growl so far--Finest Hour (well, just my own suspect) and Baraduke II. I'd think the first Tekken, but that might be outside of Hamster's current publication time range goal. It's also a matter of how they are at 3D emulation, if that differs markedly from 2D.

{goes to check Wikipedia's index of Namco games}

Hmmm, Bosconian hasn't been taken up yet, so that's already a prime suspect. Also Burning Force. If they really want to go obscure-ish (and 1995 is indeed in their current goal), then The Outfoxies...

[hamfighterx]

This sounds like typical whining from the no-skill writers at HG101. If it's not a Genesis game set to "easy", everything is "too hard" and "designed to munch quarters" so take their review with an extreme grain of salt, and probably with a cocktail in hand.

Big caveat that I'm very unfamiliar with Baraduke II, don't think I ever even played it (though after getting really into the Arcade Archives release of Baraduke, I'm excited to give it a try). But reading that HG101 article, the author is mentioning difficulty in connection with the game giving you only one life and your character dying in a single hit unless you get an extend (and inserting a new coin meaning needing to restart the stage). Which, I mean... does sound kinda rough, so on it's face doesn't strike me as an exceptionally unreasonable position?

Agreed that it's probably worth taking with a grain of salt though, since I understand you will also survive if you get the gun power up and take a hit (which costs you the power-up?) - which does seem like a mechanic you can use to negate some of the initial seemingly harsh conditions. Kind of like how Sonic the Hedgehog dies if you have no rings, but like... get some rings, yo - that's the point! Though I assume the Baraduke power ups are much less frequently encountered.

Anyway, on an overall balance I do love HG101 existing. Some of the articles by random contributors certainly vary in quality, but I've always liked Kurt Kalata's writing and generally reasonable takes, and the site is consistently one of the better internet resources for comparing various ports of the same game (my most frequent reason for consulting it). There are certainly flaws - for example, I just recently saw Kurt updated the Ray' series page to discuss the 2023 M2 compilation, and noticed an error that he mentioned the City Connection S-Tribute port (which he does accurately note is inferior to M2's version) includes Rayforce and Raystorm (not true, it just includes the regional variants of the first game's Saturn port, JP Layer Section and NA Galactic Attack). But there are only so many sites that give the same level of care and attention to stuff like the sometimes niche Japanese 80s-90s games that are HG101's bread and butter. Not a ton of sites covering Konami beat-em-ups, the complicated history of series like Wonder Boy or Dragon Slayer, arcade STGs, etc. at the level of detail HG101 goes into. Definitely not worthy of too much scorn, even if there's the occasional mediocre article or weird position on a specific title by a contributor.

So we have nominated two suspects for the game after Growl so far--Finest Hour (well, just my own suspect) and Baraduke II.

If it wasn't sufficiently clear from Koa Zo's post, Baraduke II is confirmed, not speculation. https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1682000424751202304

[BIL]

Growl confirmed July 27th says Time Extension.

Was the version used on the Egret Mini the original ROM, or the crappy censored one used in Taito Legends?

I'm assuming if it uses the censored one then that may be what Taito provided to Hamster for the ACA release as well.

Good news! I just saw a man's asshole explode like a bag full of raw meat, so it seems we're on the full-fat, full-caf VIOLENCE MOOD

Click GIF for conspicuously MORRICONESQUE BGM ♫♫♫ (■｀w´■)

Spoiler

SHBROOM will soon SHAKE TEH ROOM (surprised they didn't get an ESRB rap for the broad's battyriding Combat Skirt! she is clearly very well-trained, wearing a short leather skirt while tossing potato-mashers! I'm sure someone will complain somewhere ;3)