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

[velo]

I believe the Daioh AA release works the same way. It makes sense they'd make two high score boards if there's significant scoring or gameplay differences between each regional release.

Ninja Gaiden and Sunset Riders have only one scoreboard, but Donkey Kong has two. I suppose they do two scoreboards if there are significant gameplay changes, but not for straightforward difficulty differences. I think NG is the only game I've noticed where the non-JP rom is used.

[Despatche]

I heard that arcade Ninja Gaiden was originally released outside of Japan, at least a few months before. It was in some old book about arcade games. Who knows, though it'd kinda make sense to be used in ACA if that were the case. Maybe the devs reached out to Hamster about it like the Daioh devs did about the rank system. Similarly, I'm still pretty sure that Grind Stormer is the original version and V V is a weird update/"complete" version. Of course, I was totally wrong about Horror Story, apparently... sure would like to see that big Toaplan documentary right about now.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Similarly, I'm still pretty sure that Grind Stormer is the original version and V V is a weird update/"complete" version.

I've always wondered about NES Shatterhand vs Tokkyuu Shirei: Solbrain. The release dates don't make it clear which one predates the other, or if they were both released together, and if so, why one level was entirely changed. Weird stuff.

[SeafoamGaming]

Oooh yay! I love the Famicom warpman, very cute game. Eager to play the Arcade original for comparison.

[BrianC]

Similarly, I'm still pretty sure that Grind Stormer is the original version and V V is a weird update/"complete" version.

I've always wondered about NES Shatterhand vs Tokkyuu Shirei: Solbrain. The release dates don't make it clear which one predates the other, or if they were both released together, and if so, why one level was entirely changed. Weird stuff.

Dream Factory Doki Doki Panic comes to mind. It was originally thought to be completely unrelated to Mario, but a prototype with Mario predated it. It was turned in to a non-Mario game because of a deal with Fuji TV. While SMB 2 US/SMB USA came later, there were ads with the Doki Doki Panic characters being compared to their Mario counterparts.

[BIL]

I noticed that for Orius/Xexex, there are actually two high score modes, one for the JP version and one for the EU version. Does any other AA game work like that?

Yeah, I recall quite a few offhand, in addition to the ones you mention; a recent major example is Dark Adventure, where you can choose between that, or the JP Majuu no Oukoko. (or was it EU Devil World? JP and EU are identical beyond their title screens, AFAIK)

This is good, as Dark Adventure is unplayable imo. OTOH, fellow recent Konami arrivial Shao-Lin's road uses Kicker for its Hi Score and Caravan modes; plays identically AFAIK.

ACA HS/Caravan has always been a bit ad hoc - witness Metal Slugs 4 and 5 enforcing censorship and cropped res 3; - but as with ACA overall, they've developed it a bit in recent years. There's a few Caravans that include different starting stages, too, like Trigon's. Pretty sure that release lets you choose between Trigon and Lightning Fighters; a running theme with Konami properties. See also the ACA release of its fellow 1990 Toaplanesque, Raiden.

I heard that arcade Ninja Gaiden was originally released outside of Japan, at least a few months before.

Yeah, IIRC their title screens show an earlier copyright year on Ninja Gaiden, vs Ninja Ryukenden. I could be wrong there, but I've definitely always heard the Western release was first.

EDIT: this was bugging me so I went to check. :3 lmao, I forgot even the STRONG TEAM opening graphic is 1988 in Ninja Gaiden, vs 1989 in Ninja Ryukenden. <333 STRONG TEAM

Recently heard from JP twitter that Cadash actually just missed the 80s in Japan, arriving in early 1990. This was of grave concern while sorting my august R2R_80s and R2R_On folders!

Similarly, I'm still pretty sure that Grind Stormer is the original version and V V is a weird update/"complete" version.

I've always wondered about NES Shatterhand vs Tokkyuu Shirei: Solbrain. The release dates don't make it clear which one predates the other, or if they were both released together, and if so, why one level was entirely changed. Weird stuff.

Strictly offhand, I get the impression Solbrain is the earlier rev; Shatterhand isn't just different, so much as mildly expanded upon. The Submarine stage has an exclusive sludge floor mechanic, which also appears in the wallclinger boss arena. and the twin bosses gain an entirely new second form. tbh I dislike the sludge, gimme the JP's straight-ahead Carnival flatland; and this game's bosses are made for stomping on, few survive long if you're doing well )

OTOH, Shatterhand is unsurprisingly the headliner moving forward, as per Taniguchi-san's ripplingly manful artwork.

STAY HUNGREH (｀w´メ)

^ genuinely can't imagine the Solbrain dude looking that mountainously ripped, he'd look like Bane.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Ahh, thanks for that BIL, makes sense. I'm not surprised Shatterhand would be the feature in future artwork; it'd probably take too much to license Solbrain (it's actually a Japanese TV show so Shatterhand is a case of releasing the game after editing out the television license elements).

[Despatche]

Dream Factory Doki Doki Panic comes to mind. It was originally thought to be completely unrelated to Mario, but a prototype with Mario predated it. It was turned in to a non-Mario game because of a deal with Fuji TV. While SMB 2 US/SMB USA came later, there were ads with the Doki Doki Panic characters being compared to their Mario counterparts.

I have never heard or seen such things. Sounds too much like when people try to claim that SMB2 (the real one) isn't a "real" sequel somehow. The story goes that the Mario team had to get involved because the original plan for the project was difficult to work with and didn't really run well on hardware (and I've never heard anything about it having Mario characters, not that it would really matter if it did), and the final verdict would be to make something more like Mario. That game was only ever tangentially related to Mario at best (the original DDP didn't even have running), and if it weren't for the Mario localization we likely never would have seen or heard anything about the game ever again.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Recently heard from JP twitter that Cadash actually just missed the 80s in Japan, arriving in early 1990. This was of grave concern while sorting my august R2R_80s and R2R_On folders!

Actually the year of 1990 is a part of the 1980s decade just like the year of 1980 was a part of the 1970s decade. January 1st, 1991 was the beginning of the 1990s and likewise with January 1st, 1981, was the beginning of the 1980s. It's been mentioned that January 1st, 2001 was the start of the 21st century (many a mistaken folks thought it was January 1st, 2000 was the start of a new century but it was, truly, the start of the very last year of the 20th century in retrospect) with the much hyped-up infamous Y2K scare (especially with all those Y2K preparedness kits sold prior to the big day -- a waste of $$$ and nothing to show for it).

Arcade PCB Factoid: On the the Atari Games' jamma pcb of classic arcade puzzler Klax (with a February 1990 release date), it has a tagline, " It's the Nineties and there's time to play...Klax." So Atari Games was wrong by just one year (as 1990 is still a part of the 1980s) -- by 1/1/1991, the same tagline, finally, was "period correct" from 1/1/1991 until 12/31/2000. True story. I suppose a revised and corrected Klax pcb tagline would be, "It's still the Eighties and there's time to play...Klax" (but then it'd be "period correct" just for one year rather than going into a brand new decade...the 1990s era as it was meant to be played/enjoyed in).

So yes, Cadash was released in the last year of the 1980s decade indeed, BIL.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

I have to reconsider my entire life to this point PCEFX!

[SavagePencil]

I’m sorry but I distinctly remember us shouting “IT IS THE EIGHTIES AND THERE IS TIME FOR QIX!” as the Challenger exploded

[Steven]

Went to Akiba today to find a copy of Bare Knuckle II for Yuzo to sign tomorrow, but there were sadly none in the entire town, so I guess it's just going to be Slap Fight MD.

This made me sad, so I went to Taito Hey and found that they put Daioh in there, so I finally tried it. This game is pretty cool, but the oyaji system scares me and I spent my one credit messing around to see how everything works. I think I'm definitely going to get on ACA eventually now.

Got a patch for Darius II a few hours ago. Not sure what it does and the patch notes don't say anything useful, but the game is better in some way now.

https://twitter.com/ohfivepro/status/17 ... 6890634407 Looks pretty minor.

The lack of a missile+bomb button was one of the biggest flaws of the original release, so I'm very pleased that they added that functionality.

[parodius]

Went to Akiba today to find a copy of Bare Knuckle II for Yuzo to sign tomorrow, but there were sadly none in the entire town, so I guess it's just going to be Slap Fight MD.

Seriously, even at Mandarake? The hordes of foreign tourists must have stripped the shelves bare then, they were pretty well stocked in June iirc.

[Steven]

Went to Akiba today to find a copy of Bare Knuckle II for Yuzo to sign tomorrow, but there were sadly none in the entire town, so I guess it's just going to be Slap Fight MD.

Seriously, even at Mandarake? The hordes of foreign tourists must have stripped the shelves bare then, they were pretty well stocked in June iirc.

Yep, even at Mandarake. The foreigners cleaned the entire town out earlier this year. Didn't get to check Friends because it was closed, but that place has the worst MD selection in town anyway. Oh well. Slap Fight MD is what I really want him to sign anyway. I'm running out of room for people to even sign the front of that damn game; he'll be the fifth and most likely last person to sign it. Anyone else that I meet that worked on it (not likely) is going to have to get relegated to signing the back at this point.

I did find something ultra-cool, though: The Ooze. Yeah, nobody cares about this game, but it is supposedly the single most rare Japanese Mega Drive game and yet it's not nearly as expensive as some other things like Snow Bros, Comix Zone, or Eliminate Down. I'd never seen it before, so seeing it today was really great.

[BIL]

Slap Fight MD is what I really want him to sign anyway. I'm running out of room for people to even sign the front of that damn game

Goddamn, nice.

I did find something ultra-cool, though: The Ooze. Yeah, nobody cares about this game, but it is supposedly the single most rare Japanese Mega Drive game

I never played that BITD, but I always thought the NTSCJ cover was charmingly germane. Some of those reverse-import ultra-rares' sleeves make me laugh, Maximum Carnage, Virtual Bart, and WWF RAW especially... if they had JP interpretations ala Comix Zone, or something avant-garde like The Ooze's industrial warning, I might be swayed from my battered old rental copies! Assuming any of them are at least mediocre. Can't remember tbh. Now I type that, I remember Maximum Carnage having some advocates here. Might be hallucinating that. >_>

(acquired Robocop VS Terminator long ago, in a fit of babylonian decadence - only due to it having actual (and pretty nice!) coverart, compared to the Genesis one's abject non-effort. A very mediocre game - but when the only notable qualities are aesthetic, a good box is essential! that sounds rude! )

SUB-TERRANIA, now there's a fuckin occidental champion. Absolute hardcore! Inertia done RITE! Only MD heavy machinery action I ilke more is Ex-Ranza. No JP release though! At least IIRC, man it's been a while.

[Koa Zo]

SUB-TERRANIA, now there's a fuckin occidental champion. Absolute hardcore! Inertia done RITE! Only MD heavy machinery action I ilke more is Ex-Ranza. No JP release though! At least IIRC, man it's been a while.

Yep, curiously neither Sub-Terrainia nor Red Zone were ever published in Japan.
Have to wonder what was up with Scavenger during that time. They reportedly did some of the strongest work on 32x, none of which saw release, and then their highly anticipated Saturn releases seemed to fall flat. Scorcher was published by Acclaim, and seems to be very rare. And Koei published AMOK, which seemed odd considering their typical strategy/historical game fare. Neither of those Saturn releases saw revised or original artwork for the JP market unfortunately.
Would have loved to have seen a proper Sub-Terrainia Mega Drive cover!

[Steven]

Slap Fight MD is what I really want him to sign anyway. I'm running out of room for people to even sign the front of that damn game

Goddamn, nice.

Unfortunately I didn't get him to sign my Slap Fight. There was a massive line to meet him, so he decided to not sign games today. Got Tamayo to sign my RayForce vinyl record (the one that came with Ray'z that I can't play because I don't have a record player) and Hayashi Miho to sign my Zero Wing PCB, Zero Fire, and the Horror Story art she did for Zero Fire and then I went home.

I did find something ultra-cool, though: The Ooze. Yeah, nobody cares about this game, but it is supposedly the single most rare Japanese Mega Drive game

I never played that BITD, but I always thought the NTSCJ cover was charmingly germane. Some of those reverse-import ultra-rares' sleeves make me laugh, Maximum Carnage, Virtual Bart, and WWF RAW especially... if they had JP interpretations ala Comix Zone, or something avant-garde like The Ooze's industrial warning, I might be swayed from my battered old rental copies! Assuming any of them are at least mediocre. Can't remember tbh. Now I type that, I remember Maximum Carnage having some advocates here. Might be hallucinating that. >_>

(acquired Robocop VS Terminator long ago, in a fit of babylonian decadence - only due to it having actual (and pretty nice!) coverart, compared to the Genesis one's abject non-effort. A very mediocre game - but when the only notable qualities are aesthetic, a good box is essential! that sounds rude! )

SUB-TERRANIA, now there's a fuckin occidental champion. Absolute hardcore! Inertia done RITE! Only MD heavy machinery action I ilke more is Ex-Ranza. No JP release though! At least IIRC, man it's been a while.

Yeah, that Japanese box art for The Ooze really made it stand out, which was how I found it. It was sitting there in between two other ultra-expensive games (Twinkle Tale and Vampire Killer, both an incredible 90,000 yen!), but it really stood out sandwiched between them because of the art.

Japanese MD still has the best box art of any system ever, even now... or perhaps especially now, as modern box art kind of sucks while Japanese MD does box art properly. Visual Shock, Speed Shock, Sound Shock, Box Art Shock; that's how Japanese Mega Drive lives its life.

[SavagePencil]

I had to go look it up and wow you aren’t kidding!

https://segaretro.org/The_Ooze#Physical_scans

Can you translate the cover? And all the text on the cart label? And explain why there’s a bunny lady and a Cho Aniki muscleman in the manual?

[BIL]

SUB-TERRANIA, now there's a fuckin occidental champion. Absolute hardcore! Inertia done RITE! Only MD heavy machinery action I ilke more is Ex-Ranza. No JP release though! At least IIRC, man it's been a while.

Yep, curiously neither Sub-Terrainia nor Red Zone were ever published in Japan.

Ah, I thought so. I discovered S-T quite late - became one of my few NTSCUs that's not Japan-developed, unlike say Kick Master / Ninja Cop. I never did follow up on Red Zone, this is the perfect inspiration to.

Have to wonder what was up with Scavenger during that time. They reportedly did some of the strongest work on 32x, none of which saw release, and then their highly anticipated Saturn releases seemed to fall flat. Scorcher was published by Acclaim, and seems to be very rare. And Koei published AMOK, which seemed odd considering their typical strategy/historical game fare. Neither of those Saturn releases saw revised or original artwork for the JP market unfortunately.
Would have loved to have seen a proper Sub-Terrainia Mega Drive cover!

Definitely sounds like they were let down by the chaos reigning at Sega in the mid-90s. 3;

Yeah, S-T's kaiju-esque boss monstrosities are a perfect fit for JP! EDIT: my dream would be a Yuji Kaida sleeve ala Whip Rush.

Unfortunately I didn't get him to sign my Slap Fight. There was a massive line to meet him, so he decided to not sign games today. Got Tamayo to sign my RayForce vinyl record (the one that came with Ray'z that I can't play because I don't have a record player) and Hayashi Miho to sign my Zero Wing PCB, Zero Fire, and the Horror Story art she did for Zero Fire and then I went home.

If it's any consolation, I'm even more impressed by Tamayo's autograph, especially on RF vinyl. As talismanically synonymous with masterpiece STGs as composers get.

[Atariboy]

I wonder if TX-1 is on Hamster's radar. Would love to see it get a release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRQwe4l ... =hirudov2d

Not well remembered in the west, but it's a great game. Those that do know of it remember the triple screens and it being a spiritual successor to Pole Position II (helped no doubt due to the Namco/Atari publishing connection), but it also has some other novel features like the hillsides and the road splits with multiple stages (several years before OutRun).

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I do remember seeing TX-1 at Marriott 's Great America (now known as Six Flag's Great America) amusement park in Santa Clara, CA back in 1984. It had the Atari brand name on the outer arcade cabinetry. Am surprised that Tatsumi licensed it to Namco (who then licensed it to Atari for distribution/for sale in the USA). The actual TX-1 cab certainly does take up some serious real estate space-wise (is quite a spectacular sight to behold when all three 4:3 monitors are up & running indeed). Yes, TX-1 was released under the proper arcade title of "Town and Country" under the Namco arcade brand name in Japan circa 1983 (as listed in the arcade archive list found within the PSX Namco Musuem collection but never released/playable for home gaming console use).

It'd be ace for Hamster to release T&C/TX-1 on the Switch with the ultrawide 12:3 aspect screen setup intact as it was meant to be played. Got the rare chance to try it out at a local arcade joint back in 1990.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Got the rare chance to try it out at a local arcade joint back in 1990.

Man I envy you, that must've been a hell of an experience for a kid back in the day! The hillsides look great, I always love sprite scaler racing games and seeing how they've evolved.

[Steven]

If it's any consolation, I'm even more impressed by Tamayo's autograph, especially on RF vinyl. As talismanically synonymous with masterpiece STGs as composers get.

Yeah, she's great; Geometric City is one of my favourite stage 1 STG BGMs so far. Why? I don't know. I just like it. She signed my Ray'z a while ago when I first met her. I do absolutely want to listen to that record, but with no record player, it's kind of useless right now. I only have the record because I wanted a limited edition Ray'z and I also wanted R-Gear, and the set with the record was the only option for that.

Speaking of R-Gear, I just now realized that I completely forgot to ask her about the music in that! Damn. Well, I'll ask her next time.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm looking at going for a Kaitei Daisensou ALL, but it's definitely a hard game and it kicks my ass every time I play it. More practice required for sure. I went to Taito Hey the other day and they put the game in. Some guy started playing it and although I left before he finished, he was really good and I'm pretty confident that he got the ALL after I left. It seemed to me that he took his time to go through instead of rushing through it, but I also need to play around with weapons some more, as I am not entirely sure about when to use each weapon.

[velo]

Borrowed from the shmup deal thread, here's what's on sale now.

Hamster's up with some 50% off sales, at least on Switch, at least in the US:

• Super Volleyball
• Task Force Harrier
• Frisky Tom
• Thunder Dragon
• Penguin Kun Wars
• KoF 2001
• Real Bout 2
• Top Player's Golf
• Zed Blade
• Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad

The other Shock Troopers, the other NeoGeo golf game, the other Thunder Dragon...

[BrianC]

Borrowed from the shmup deal thread, here's what's on sale now.

Hamster's up with some 50% off sales, at least on Switch, at least in the US:

• Super Volleyball
• Task Force Harrier
• Frisky Tom
• Thunder Dragon
• Penguin Kun Wars
• KoF 2001
• Real Bout 2
• Top Player's Golf
• Zed Blade
• Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad

The other Shock Troopers, the other NeoGeo golf game, the other Thunder Dragon...

Any reason to play Super Volleyball over its sequels and follow ups (Power Spikes 2 is also on Arcade Archives (but sadly not on discount) and has modes with human and cyborg players)?

[Sima Tuna]

Real Bout 2 is Real good. It's not a shmup but it's probably the best game in the sales list.

[BIL]

Definitely recommend Task Force Harrier over Thunder Dragon, if anyone's looking to pick up a lesser-feted NMK STG. Thunder Dragon is alright, but it's comprehensively outmoded by TD2 aka Big Bang, which does everything bigger and bangier (yet concisier! with a definitive nails-hard 1ALL). Harrier's quite different from NMK's bomb-happier titles, a more conservative affair taking after Xevious and Hishouzame. It's also currently busted in MAME, always a decent USP, imo. (the ship's speed is meant to increase with CPU load, as a slowdown offset; MAME doesn't emulate this, so it's game-breakingly lightning-fast)

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Taito's Scramble Formation/Tokio is this week's game.
https://www.gamer.ne.jp/news/202311290048/

[AGermanArtist]

Yesssss. Another big one for me.

[Marc]

Didn't make much of an impression with me on the Egret Mini.
I'll give it another spin tonight.

Does seem likely everything from that machine will end up ported. Which is bad news for Rainbow Islands.