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

[BIL]

I dunno where I got the idea Baraduke II was a conventional hori STG, but I'm pleased to see it absolutely isn't. Much more accurate to call it a manual-scrolling hybrid ala Kaitei Daisensou. Some big honkin guns. The first game's jack-in-the-box containers return, holding either FRIENDOS or godawful monsters, which adds a nice finesse element when you're trying to hose down the swarming alien scum with said monster armaments, without whacking your buds, or indeed getting already-rescued ones whacked!

Firing rightward-only won't be for everyone, though it's pretty easy to improvise around with the orbital gun Options.

Super endearing style too, the logical progression of the first's chibi xenohorror. Paccun Oyaji-san is too cute. The Hard Corps-esque door-obliterating *BAKUNNNs* that kick off each round - and the similar detonation as a rather more intimidating Kissy Astartes her way into the next area - are great, as are the grimly cycling chambers and scorching plasma arcs on weaponry... but then you have a goddamn propeller on your helmet, and your murdertank is pedal-driven, and Oyaji makes it impossible to take anything seriously. Same endearingly eccentric clash of the cute and bluntly vicious.

Cool game, definitely worth a look. The original is already absolutely killer, so I'm not all that bummed at the genre shift tbh.

[Jeneki]

You get to play a crazy cat lady so all is well.

Also, Dick Stock alert on some of the bosses.

[Bloodreign]

Cadash eh, I have that in two flavors, the Genesis release, and the spicy Taito Memories release, the Japanese version is considered harder I think due to herbs costing more to purchase in shops, and the game having far fewer of them to just up and find, or something like that. Got a fair good bit of action, but also feels like an actual RPG for an arcade game. The soundtrack is haunting, and the enemies, they just never, ever stop coming.

Why Taito never put the damned thing on any of the Taito Legends release, outside of the X-Box and PC releases of Taito Legends 2, is beyond me.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Looks like there's a list of possible upcoming Taito releases. Night Striker, Space Invaders, Sky Destroyer and Gekirindan are among them.
https://nitter.net/TaitoASelection/stat ... 61776128#m

[hamfighterx]

Gekirindan are among them.

Hamster releasing an F3 game would be very exciting indeed.

[Sima Tuna]

Gekirindan is one of my favorite shmups actually. I'm probably alone in that, but I played it as part of the taito legends 2 collection and loved it.

[mojilove]

Looks like there's a list of possible upcoming Taito releases. Night Striker, Space Invaders, Sky Destroyer and Gekirindan are among them.
https://nitter.net/TaitoASelection/stat ... 61776128#m

sorry if you're already aware of this, but this is a list of what people predicted for the Aug 31 Taito release (which turned out to be Cadash) so this only indicates user sentiment rather than hamster's plans.

(btw i submitted my prediction for Cleopatra Fortune - both are long shots, but cleo and land maker 4eva!!11)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

The "Surprise" title has been revealed: Allumer's Mad Shark is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202308/09312694.html

[BIL]

Ha, nice. If you'd told me a decade ago that Kyuukyoku Tiger, Raiden, and Mad Shark would share a reference-standard platform, I'd have done a MAD SHART

[Sengoku Strider]

The "Surprise" title has been revealed: Allumer's Mad Shark is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/news/202308/09312694.html

Looking at video of that...wow, was the working development title Raiden SD remake? They weren't even subtle about it. And a Toaplan rip in the title to add another layer to the plagiarism lasagna.

The dev Allumer (pronounced most frenchly, as 'alumay')'s Wikipedia page is interesting...Hamster flat out bought their catalogue off a bankruptcy trustee earlier this year:

Rezon
Blandia
Zing Zing Zip
War of Aero -Project MEIOU-
SD Gundam Neo Battling
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam EX-REVUE
Mad Shark
Magical Speed
Kamen Rider Club Battle Racer

Licensed brand names aside, I've never heard of any of that. They had a publishing relationship with Taito so maybe some of you have. I did check out the hilariously named Blandia though, which is a C-tier weapons fighter that, armour-break gimmick aside, lived up to the title. But they were also basically Seta, which was started by one of their employees out of a corner of the Allumer office.

My favourite tidbit - they were an arcade board hardware manufacturer originally, but there was a memory leak or something in their sound driver so in practice the music was really limited compared to the specs. Apparently Seta's Twin Eagle was one of those games that suffered and the 16 voice sound hardware in that game could only use one voice. The driver was written by none other than Manabu Namiki, who said they hired him as a freelance graphic designer, then told him to write code for a 65C02 (CPU used in the Famicom/PC Engine architecture) driver, then fired him.

[AGermanArtist]

This'll be Arcade Archives 103 for me. £596.37. You're welcome Hamster, thank you for being cool.

[BIL]

This'll be Arcade Archives 103 for me. £596.37. You're welcome Hamster, thank you for being cool.

EDIT: Welcome aboard! Your post was in the approvals queue when I replied to Strider, earlier. I have to take a count of ACA stuff I've picked up, at some point; all I know is between Hamster and M2, and a handful of other good dudes, my PS4 has become my shock desert island machine.

For clarity:

The dev Allumer (pronounced most frenchly, as 'alumay')'s Wikipedia page is interesting...Hamster flat out bought their catalogue off a bankruptcy trustee earlier this year:

Allumer are quite infamous around here, the word used most advisedly. Nobody who encountered one of their games in past STGTs will ever forget it.

NYAHOOOO~ OH YEAHHHH CMO'WW JERREHBAYNE

Yeah Hamster own a few catalogues now. UPL and NMK are by far the most notable but Nichibutsu and Video System have some good stuff too. I just wish they'd get around to more of the latter's (where in God's name is Sonic Wings already? they have to be deliberately prickteasing on that one, with the sequels on ACA-NG since forever... even the cunningly-disguised Real Pachinko STG TURBOFAWRCE is here in all its 3P glory!

also WTB SPINAL BREAKERS feat Captain Waffle. They could do a back-to-back "gallery STG featuring angry blonde buzzcut dudes" with Tecmo-devved NMK-produced Riot!

also 'butsu's Ninja Emaki, that one looks badass)

If Mad Shark really is Moss, it seems more like a friendly dig at Seibu than a copycat of Toaplan tbh. Gotta say I facepalmed at the yellow bullets over yellow sand right out the gate, but eh. It's required by Japanese law for these games, including Raiden itself, to have at least one visibility howler in there. see also Trigon and Raiden III. Very likeable clone of a clone otherwise, though! But ffs, use that Banpresto connection to get GUNDHARA hooked up pls.

[CRP]

Wow! GSK droppin knowledge

Mad Shark, Allumer's Raiden clone to surpass all Raiden clones to be specific, this was an early game by MOSS, a studio formed by ex-Raiden/Seibu Kaihatsu devs that took over Raiden dev from Raiden III onwards, and it might as well be titled Raiden 1.5

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1689199599649685505

[charlie chong]

https://imgur.com/Y1x69Kd

[Sima Tuna]

Mad Shart fails on its face. Stage 1 music sounds like ass compared to Raiden's Gallantry.

[cfx]

.

[Skyknight]

My favourite tidbit - they were an arcade board hardware manufacturer originally, but there was a memory leak or something in their sound driver so in practice the music was really limited compared to the specs. Apparently Seta's Twin Eagle was one of those games that suffered and the 16 voice sound hardware in that game could only use one voice. The driver was written by none other than Manabu Namiki, who said they hired him as a freelance graphic designer, then told him to write code for a 65C02 (CPU used in the Famicom/PC Engine architecture) driver, then fired him.

The Moss personnel did well to extricate themselves from them, it sounds. Talk about disrepute. I think BIL posited yakuza influence in them? Treating Namiki shabbily like that adds credence to the hypothesis…

[Bassa-Bassa]

Wow! GSK droppin knowledge

Mad Shark, Allumer's Raiden clone to surpass all Raiden clones to be specific, this was an early game by MOSS, a studio formed by ex-Raiden/Seibu Kaihatsu devs that took over Raiden dev from Raiden III onwards, and it might as well be titled Raiden 1.5

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1689199599649685505

There's even a bit more than that in the previous page lol.

The Moss personnel did well to extricate themselves from them, it sounds. Talk about disrepute. I think BIL posited yakuza influence in them? Treating Namiki shabbily like that adds credence to the hypothesis…

Moss were never part of Allumer, if you mean that. They just found in the latter a good option to get their first title published whilst having a PCB to work with. As it was usual those years, the agreement involved not getting a mention in the whole game.

[BIL]

I think BIL posited yakuza influence in them?

tbh, now I half-wonder if Rezon and War of Aero involved ex-IREMs, ala Mad Shark's Seibu roots via Moss. Although that'd still leave Magical Speed, which all but CTRL+Vs scenery from ALTTP!

Nazo no Wanpaku Allumer: Were they

1) too tiny to be worth going after, judgment-proof?
2) populated entirely by ex-staffers who were homies with their old teams?
3) compelled to kill you if they showed you their shaweet full-body tat of a tiger tearing a dragon's head off?

Kidding haha, they were

Spoiler

4) in possession of a terrifying sonic weapon that would use the airwaves to turn the entire population of Japan into rage zombies, by blasting Rezon's OST 24/7

[hamfighterx]

Now taking bets for next week. Nichibutsu? UPL/NMK? Seibu Kaihatsu (I think at least Dynamite Duke is still off among non-shmups)? Jaleco? Tecmo? Konami? Other?

More Allumer weirdness (Rezon or Mad Shark)?

Yessssssssss, I am the Hamster whisperer!!!! Or, MAD SHARK whisperer? Sorry I initially forgot we already got Rezon, please don't torture me with its soundtrack.

Licensed brand names aside, I've never heard of any of that. They had a publishing relationship with Taito so maybe some of you have. I did check out the hilariously named Blandia though, which is a C-tier weapons fighter that, armour-break gimmick aside, lived up to the title.

I recently played a couple of Allumer developed/Taito published games on the Egret Mini II, which has the following on the add-on "Arcade Memories Vol. 1" card:

Great Swordsman (1984): 1-on-1 fighter, similar to Karate Champ. This was also on the Taito Memories II Gekan PS2 compilation.
Gladiator (1986): aka Ougon no Shiro (Golden Castle), side scroller where you play as a knight... who returns as one of the playable fighters in Blandia?!? This one is on the Taito Memories II Jokan comp.

[BrianC]

Now taking bets for next week. Nichibutsu? UPL/NMK? Seibu Kaihatsu (I think at least Dynamite Duke is still off among non-shmups)? Jaleco? Tecmo? Konami? Other?

More Allumer weirdness (Rezon or Mad Shark)?

Yessssssssss, I am the Hamster whisperer!!!! Or, MAD SHARK whisperer? Sorry I initially forgot we already got Rezon, please don't torture me with its soundtrack.

Licensed brand names aside, I've never heard of any of that. They had a publishing relationship with Taito so maybe some of you have. I did check out the hilariously named Blandia though, which is a C-tier weapons fighter that, armour-break gimmick aside, lived up to the title.

I recently played a couple of Allumer developed/Taito published games on the Egret Mini II, which has the following on the add-on "Arcade Memories Vol. 1" card:

Great Swordsman (1984): 1-on-1 fighter, similar to Karate Champ. This was also on the Taito Memories II Gekan PS2 compilation.
Gladiator (1986): aka Ougon no Shiro (Golden Castle), side scroller where you play as a knight... who returns as one of the playable fighters in Blandia?!? This one is on the Taito Memories II Jokan comp.

I'm under the impression Blandia is a sequel. IIRC, a few of the other fighters in the game (including Diokles, Gildus, and possibly Irriana) are also from Gladiator.

[AGermanArtist]

Have they had an issue with Konami?
Maybe they're just playing catch up with other publishers? I know Hamster went big on Konami at the start.
Last I remember was that Mikie was coming at some stage and it's been Namco/Taito/Unknown ever since.

[BIL]

Yeah, I do wish they'd address that. IIRC, the last Konami release was XEXEX? Hell of a sendoff, but then so were IREM (Kaitei Daisensou) and SNK's (Guevara)'s final entries to date.

I'm sure Namco catchup must contribute; it was very late in the day for such a household name to arrive, and right from the start, they've thrown in lots of relative obscurities (Mirai Ninja, Pistol Daimyou, last week's Baraduke II) amongst the mainstream darlings. Looking at ACA's almost decade-long catalogue, it'd be easy to assume the top three - Namco, Konami, and Taito - accrued over its course, when in fact the frontrunner and biggest name of all was parachuted in just a couple years back.

Ideally I'd love to see them come back with Violent Storm and other newer hardware in the bag, with these preceding couple years a shoring up/holding pattern of sorts. Namco+Taito+Tecmo/Banpresto/Arika is alright as far as those go But man, I loved seeing Konami, IREM and SNK stuff on the regular, especially with so many that never had accurate and/or quality home translations.

[AGermanArtist]

They keep us guessing, which I kind of like tbh. My thought is that is there are few available Konami games left since they put out so many already, so they're using the others to luxuriously pad out the ACA catalogue and we'll see those remaining Konami games over time. It's Iron Horse and Jail Break that I really want. Hamster say they have 800 more games coming which is amazing and my hope is we'll see those you mention too. Sony gave us Game Lists to deal with the folders issue on PS5 and I've nerded the fuck right out and created folders for each publisher that I have more than 5 of in my collection with a special NMK folder with their games from various publishers.

Had a few credits on Mad Shark this morning. Lots to love about that game. Immediately took to it having never played it before. I'd only ever seen once in an arcade in Ireland and mistakenly dodged it, likely because there was so many A listers to choose from and I'd no idea who Allumer were. I saw someone on Twitter call it Raiden Gaiden, which I get, but I get Trigon vibes. I'd have happily paid Shot Triggers money for this. Oof

[CRP]

Next week Konami

next week's Arcade Arcade release: Majuu no Oukoku/Devil World, a Gauntlet-y overhead action game from Konami (& the first ACA Konami release in a while) they've confirmed this release will contain the significantly different 3P NA version, Dark Adventure

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1689599617594462209

[AGermanArtist]

Good news, I'll take it. At least we know there hasn't been a falling out

[Udderdude]

Never liked Devil World, gonna take some serious convincing to get me to try it again. lol

[hamfighterx]

I'm sure Namco catchup must contribute; it was very late in the day for such a household name to arrive, and right from the start, they've thrown in lots of relative obscurities (Mirai Ninja, Pistol Daimyou, last week's Baraduke II) amongst the mainstream darlings. Looking at ACA's almost decade-long catalogue, it'd be easy to assume the top three - Namco, Konami, and Taito - accrued over its course, when in fact the frontrunner and biggest name of all was parachuted in just a couple years back.

Pretty wild how rapidly Namco and Taito were built up. It has been less than 2 years since the initial Namco AA releases (Pac Man and Xevious on September 23, 2021) and they're now up to 56 entries, meaning more than 50% of the AA lineup in that time has been Namco. Then again, it's Namco and Taito, OF COURSE they're gonna go heavy on those releases.

In case anyone is curious, here's the current AA tally by developer through today (so does not include announced future releases, which as of now are Devil World and Cadash)

Allumer - 3
Arika - 2
Banpresto - 1
Data East - 4
IREM - 11
Jaleco - 19
Konami - 33
Namco - 56
Nichibutsu - 15
Nintendo - 20
NMK - 6
Seibu Kaihatsu - 4
SNK - 10 (Arcade Archives only, not including the many SNK games in the ACA Neo Geo line)
Sunsoft - 7
Taito - 35
Technos - 6
Tecmo/Tekhan - 13
UPL - 15
Video System - 3

If you add the ACA Neo Geo series, then obviously SNK runs away with the lead:
ADK - 14
Data East - 5
Face - 3
Psikyo - 1
Saurus - 6
SNK - 72
Sunsoft - 2
Taito - 2
Video System - 3

Yeah Hamster own a few catalogues now. UPL and NMK are by far the most notable but Nichibutsu and Video System have some good stuff too. I just wish they'd get around to more of the latter's (where in God's name is Sonic Wings already? they have to be deliberately prickteasing on that one, with the sequels on ACA-NG since forever...

To emphasize this point... Sonic Wings is the ONLY GAME that was in Hamster's 19 game PS2 Oretachi Gesen Zoku series (somewhat of a precursor to Arcade Archives, and the first time I had ever heard of Hamster) that is still not on Arcade Archives. So, yeah... WHERE IS IT?

(it just so happens that Sonic Wings is the only disc from that series that I own, have had it for many years, but I sure would like to see it come to AA!)

even the cunningly-disguised Real Pachinko STG TURBOFAWRCE is here in all its 3P glory!

I recently went to a local shmupmeet (PNW represent!) and despite all the excellent games we had to play, TURBO FORCE ended up getting on the big screen and we played a 3P run of the entire first loop. I figured I would probably never again have the chance to be in the same room as two other people equally deranged enough to consider playing some multiplayer Turbo Force, so couldn't pass that up. I certainly wouldn't call it a good game, but that was quite a memorable time!

[BIL]

They keep us guessing, which I kind of like tbh. My thought is that is there are few available Konami games left since they put out so many already, so they're using the others to luxuriously pad out the ACA catalogue and we'll see those remaining Konami games over time. It's Iron Horse and Jail Break that I really want.

My mans Precisely the two I wanna see; that Green Beret sprite-to-screen ratio (and those Green Beret-gone-Haoh Shokoken flame blasts) ) instantly had me hooked. You'd think both would've been shoe-ins for FC/FDS ports back in the day. In hindsight, the NES-exclusive Lone Ranger's traincar sequences always struck me as possible Horse callbacks.

And what wonderful news re: Konami's return!

Next week Konami

next week's Arcade Arcade release: Majuu no Oukoku/Devil World, a Gauntlet-y overhead action game from Konami (& the first ACA Konami release in a while) they've confirmed this release will contain the significantly different 3P NA version, Dark Adventure

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1689599617594462209

Superb! I've never actually played this one, only know it from the charming Temple of Doom / Romancing The Stone poster. Randorama's customarily diligent review makes it sound a bit of a handful! The concise runtime is of immediate interest, I treasure those balls-hard 15minute gauntlets (bwaa!) now. I tend to get along pretty well with even very flawed later-80s Konami, and I've a particular fondness for stuff that never made it out arcades, so I'll almost certainly hop in.

Makes me think of Labyrinth Runner aka Trick Trap, another AC-only title with similar Gauntlet inflections. I mainly note it for that insane "Motorhead does Loony Toons" OST, though. Trap of Octopus a jam. Intro map is an instant classic:

PAPAYA-HIME WO TORIMODOSE (｀w´メ)

Here's hoping for many similar returns; doesn't matter how long it takes (between Hamster and M2's efforts, this is already the most arcade-strong home console era, as-is), as long as the great work persists

To emphasize this point... Sonic Wings is the ONLY GAME that was in Hamster's 19 game PS2 Oretachi Gesen Zoku series(somewhat of a precursor to Arcade Archives, and the first time I had ever heard of Hamster) that is still not on Arcade Archives. So, yeah... WHERE IS IT?

Holy cow, I'd never considered that Yeah, they're definitely either negotiating some unfathomable IP minefield, or just being their usual slow n' steady to the point of sadism selves.

I recently went to a local shmupmeet (PNW represent!) and despite all the excellent games we had to play, TURBO FORCE ended up getting on the big screen and we played a 3P run of the entire first loop. I figured I would probably never again have the chance to be in the same room as two other people equally deranged enough to consider playing some multiplayer Turbo Force, so couldn't pass that up. I certainly wouldn't call it a good game, but that was quite a memorable time!

That sounds amazing Less of a shooting game than a meditation on the vagaries of fate via fast cars, big guns, and tumbling dice. Who will survive?!

[AGermanArtist]

Just read your post after the Devil World review. Trick Trap doesn't look like much, but it's quite like a successor to the MSX's Knightmare with audio possibly from the same producer that did Jackal's sfx. It's got little sounds cribbed from it IIRC. It was one of the Konami games on the ill fated Game Room, on Xbox.