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

[BIL]

Based on the background, is one loop in Finalizer considered one loop of the Earth?

Sounds good. Got a laugh outta CUBA and FLORIDA scrolling up, the latter looking decidedly straightened-out.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

After a long hiatus, Seibu Kaihatsu is back on Arcade Archives with the Gangbuster Lead Angle.
Hope we can see Dynamite Duke and Raiden II soon.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202409/16625

[BIL]

Oho, fascinating... An Empire City 1931 sequel / Dynamite Duke prequel, it seems? GEORGE PHOENIX, now there's a moniker.

I like that they've given some spotlight to Seibu's more obscure cuts. Had flat-out never heard of Wiz, either. Cool paleo run/gun with some genuinely novel weapon mechanics. (also Miclus's debut! set him on your foes, DISPATCH THEM 2 THA GRAVE ) Only knew Empire City via Magnum Kiki Ippatsu, its odd FC version. World-first Zero Team emulation was nice too, maybe portends well for Raiden II+DX.

[SavagePencil]

I guess the overseas version was DEAD Angle (vs. LEAD Angle). I only ever played this on the Master System. Might be fun!

[Jeneki]

Lead Angle has a nice ring to it. Eat lead mofos!

[Daytime Waitress]

Lead Angle has a nice ring to it. Eat lead mofos!

Nah, the katakana on the original poster indicates that you gotta lead your shots to get an angle on these goons, capiche?

Only the vaguest memories of a one time rental on the SMS after the box and its RUN THIS GUY OVER AND SHOOT TF OUT OF HIM artwork captured a young Waitress' attention several weeks in a row at the local video rental place...

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Nah, the katakana on the original poster indicates that you gotta lead your shots to get an angle on these goons, capiche?

Reminds me of the confusion in Mega Man 2 where the weapon Bubble Lead's pronunciation is ambiguous in-game. The color Mega Man uses and the weapon's shots are grey, like the liquid metal element, so I always assumed it was that as a kid, but apparently the katakana makes it clear it's lead as in to lead the pack or to lead a group, probably based on the fact the bubbles will travel ahead along the ground and downwards until they hit a vertical wall.

There's also apparently a thing in engineering called a lead angle but I don't think it has anything to do with these!

[Skyknight]

Might be a reference to how your vulnerability works in-game. Enemies have to be in front of you to harm you when they shoot (danger is indicated by your profile turning red), and enemy grenades have to explode on your profile to deal damage. Your targeting reticule, however, can be aimed outside of your profile. So the idea is that you essentially lead your reticule onto enemies when possible to shoot them from an angle.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Floating torso simulator!

While Dynamite Duke more sensibly sticks to a single plane, what he lacks in levitation he more than makes up for in transparency. I guess most developers opted for straight light gun shooters after the success of Operation Wolf, rather than going for the Cabal-style approach. It doesn't feel like there are many games like this - and Seibu came out with 3 of them - funny how some things just don't catch on. Never saw any of them in arcades. Might seek out the SMS version, it looks solid (if a little choppy, standard) but the screenshots (literally all a gamer had to go on back then) were too weird for an impulse buy back in the day.

[Jeneki]

you gotta lead your shots to get an angle on these goons, capiche?

Oh now I get it, it's a fishing game. Thanks!

[OldSkoolShmuper]

I guess the overseas version was DEAD Angle (vs. LEAD Angle). I only ever played this on the Master System. Might be fun!

I remember EGM had a big spread for Dead Angle on the Master System.

https://ibb.co/c1h1pMm https://ibb.co/Cs4FpSj

[hamfighterx]

Huh, SNK is jumping on the Taito Milestones bandwagon and releasing ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol.1 and Vol.2 in Japan on December 12, for ¥5940. 10 Arcade Archives games per volume (probably minus the Caravan mode, like the Taito compilations), and a somewhat puzzling selection of games. https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/official/acaneogeoselection/

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 1
Alpha Mission II
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Metal Slug X
Riding Hero
Samurai Shodown V
Savage Reign
Shock Troopers
The King of Fighters ’94
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy
Top Player’s Golf

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 2
Baseball Stars Professional
Fatal Fury 2
Ghost Pilots
Metal Slug 4
Mutation Nation
Neo Turf Masters
Samurai Shodown
Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
Stakes Winner 2
The King of Fighters ’95

Volume 1 looked like the winner to me from initial scan, with Garou and Metal Slug X as marquee names... but then you realize awwww it's Samsho V instead of Special, and Top Player's Golf instead of Neo Turf Masters (easily the highlight of volume 2). And it's so hard to remember which games are on which volumes when they just vomit them out randomly like this. I don't understand these releases lol.

Note some incorrect reporting from Gematsu, who accidentally swapped the game lists in each volume (and were promptly repeated by other sites). The above list is what is shown on the official SNK site.

[Sengoku Strider]

Floating torso simulator!

While Dynamite Duke more sensibly sticks to a single plane, what he lacks in levitation he more than makes up for in transparency. I guess most developers opted for straight light gun shooters after the success of Operation Wolf, rather than going for the Cabal-style approach. It doesn't feel like there are many games like this - and Seibu came out with 3 of them - funny how some things just don't catch on. Never saw any of them in arcades. Might seek out the SMS version, it looks solid (if a little choppy, standard) but the screenshots (literally all a gamer had to go on back then) were too weird for an impulse buy back in the day.

The story goes that Seibu invested heavily in Duke, expecting it to be a hit. It wasn't, and they pushed out a Toaplan clone in Raiden to raise some quick cash to save the company - which of course turned out to be a worldwide smash. Personally at the time I thought Duke's over the top nature was hilarious and awesome and always sunk a couple of quarters into it when I went the arcade near my school at lunch. Meanwhile I like Raiden fine, but I've never understood what it was that caused the masses to pick that one out amongst a sea of other shooters. The original only had two weapons and didn't even have the signature toothpaste laser. Between the two I understand why Seibu expected more out of Duke than Raiden.

[Steven]

20 games saved from the unholy damnation of a digital only release. Now we need the other 411 ACA games and all of the unreleased ones we'll be good.

Meanwhile I like Raiden fine, but I've never understood what it was that caused the masses to pick that one out amongst a sea of other shooters.

You aren't alone.

[Daytime Waitress]

you gotta lead your shots to get an angle on these goons, capiche?

Oh now I get it, it's a fishing game. Thanks!

A wiseguy, ey? Keep that up and you'll be sleeping with the fishes!

I don't understand these releases lol.

10 ACANG titles come to nearly 9000 yen, but this is just shy of 6000, so you've got value for money at the expense of a choice?
But even then, Shin Nihon Kaliphate titles tend to get knocked down to half price way more often than other HamHam stuff, so it's hard to justify that point, too.

I can really only see it being attractive to physical whales, or those who point blank refuse to buy anything that is digital only.

And coming so soon between the announcement and debut of ACANG2, the one that promises online functionality, it really is just a bizarre mishmash of Who Is This For?

[Lemnear]

Huh, SNK is jumping on the Taito Milestones bandwagon and releasing ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol.1 and Vol.2 in Japan on December 12, for ¥5940. 10 Arcade Archives games per volume (probably minus the Caravan mode, like the Taito compilations), and a somewhat puzzling selection of games. https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/official/acaneogeoselection/

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 1
Alpha Mission II
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Metal Slug X
Riding Hero
Samurai Shodown V
Savage Reign
Shock Troopers
The King of Fighters ’94
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy
Top Player’s Golf

ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 2
Baseball Stars Professional
Fatal Fury 2
Ghost Pilots
Metal Slug 4
Mutation Nation
Neo Turf Masters
Samurai Shodown
Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
Stakes Winner 2
The King of Fighters ’95

Volume 1 looked like the winner to me from initial scan, with Garou and Metal Slug X as marquee names... but then you realize awwww it's Samsho V instead of Special, and Top Player's Golf instead of Neo Turf Masters (easily the highlight of volume 2). And it's so hard to remember which games are on which volumes when they just vomit them out randomly like this. I don't understand these releases lol.

Note some incorrect reporting from Gematsu, who accidentally swapped the game lists in each volume (and were promptly repeated by other sites). The above list is what is shown on the official SNK site.

It seems so random, the fact that they started with KOF94 and then 95 does that mean there will be more? With KoF96 etc.?
If not then why didn't they put The Last Blade 1 & 2 instead?
Why is there Samurai Shodown V and then in the other the I?
Not one but TWO golf games? really?
But above all why Metal Slug 4 !?!?
It seems they were randomly selected by a lottery...

[Skyknight]

Meanwhile I like Raiden fine, but I've never understood what it was that caused the masses to pick that one out amongst a sea of other shooters. The original only had two weapons and didn't even have the signature toothpaste laser.

Technically four weapons--vulcan/incendiary, vulcan/homing, laser/incendiary, laser/homing. >>;;;

But I've also heard that Raiden basically fine-tuned Twin Cobra et al. into something markedly better than the inspirations. So winning not so much for innovation as for overall design, both for your ship's capabilities and for stage design.

[BIL]

Studious epigone of the best vertical STG craftsmen of the era, plus killer distro. Much like the crims GEORGE PHOENIX writes all over with his TYPEWRITER DEL MUERTE, Fabtek knew how to MOVE SOMETHIN

How do you turn down THE FLYING GAME EVER? (■｀w´■)

Never mind THE EVEN FLYER GAME EVER? (◎w◎;)

[Steven]

But I've also heard that Raiden basically fine-tuned Twin Cobra et al. into something markedly better than the inspirations.

LOL

Twin Cobra maybe, but absolutely not Kyuukyoku Tiger. Kyuukyoku Tiger takes a massive dump on... pretty much everything, if I'm being honest, which I am.

[Lethe]

Irrespective of Stevenisms, Raiden 1's design is simplistic and IMO pretty easy, up until the advent of Crab Hell ~ Indiscernible Barrage in stage 7. (If I ever make an STG, I swear to God I'll make sure the hardest part revolves around crabs hanging on pipes. Truly a timeless motif.)

Boring explanations for success like graphics, marketing, and price/availability of the hardware are more sensible.

[Sengoku Strider]

So winning not so much for innovation as for overall design, both for your ship's capabilities and for stage design.

Not sure I'm on board with it having such innovative stage design in a (multiple years) post Life Force, post R-Type world, but even if I accept that It still doesn't explain it to me. I don't think the bowling alley crowd had design sensitivities that refined, but Raiden was everywhere.

Boring explanations for success like graphics, marketing, and price/availability of the hardware are more sensible.

I don't even think the graphics were that impressive at a time when Final Fight, Golden Axe and Ninja Turtles were the marquee games. If the hardware was just cheap enough as a conversion kit to turn a consistent profit that would make more sense, but still.

[Lemnear]

Stevenisms

I like this term, can we add it to the glossary?

I don't even think the graphics were that impressive at a time when Final Fight, Golden Axe and Ninja Turtles were the marquee games. If the hardware was just cheap enough as a conversion kit to turn a consistent profit that would make more sense, but still.

The attention to detail is very high for a 1990 game, but compared to Out Zone it looks bad even in that (every game before 90 looks bad compared to Out Zone, and even some that came out after).
Maybe it was just advertised more and better at the time, then the various conversions on every existing platform have certainly helped...for the series "one in a million clones makes it"

[Bassa-Bassa]

(every game before 90 looks bad compared to Out Zone, and even some that came out after).

This only can come from somebody who entirely missed what Capcom (or even Irem) was putting out already by the late 80s, but anyway, Raiden predates Out Zone by 4 months. Still, Raiden is younger than 1941, which beats Raiden in basically every regard (by far, if you ask me) yet it didn't sell so well, so it had to be something else beyond quality and distribution which evades us.

[BIL]

It's just a mainstream-friendly workhorse that arrived at the right time, and with good distribution. Its mundanity is a potential source of consternation amongst STG aficionados, who will all have their own favourites, but it has precisely the opposite effect on punters.

Probably wouldn't have made the foothold it did for Seibu, had it launched after the FTG boom really took off a few years later. Nobody remembers Mad Shark in the West, outside places like this. Why? I'm guessing because it's Raiden 1.5, and Raiden II was already (as Fabtek confirmed) The Flying Game Ever. Owned!

By comparison, 1990 also saw Konami's Trigon, or rather Lightning Fighters, which is arguably a far more distinctive Toaplanesque on several counts. Nobody remembers Lightning Fighters in the West, outside places like this. Why? I'm guessing it's the nails-hard implacable difficulty. Not for noobs at all. Raiden is bracing by mainstream standards, but it's not cruel from the outset.

1990 also has Senba's Taito-published Gun Frontier, or rather Gun & Frontier, which is arguably the most influential STG of the 90s and possibly beyond. Directly inspired Yagawa to make Garegga, which directly inspired Ikeda and co to ramp up DDP's bullet count, etc etc. Nobody remembers G&F in the West, outside of places like this. John Q. Mario ain't got time for that kind of STG arcana, back then or now; that's the preserve of the late 70s/early 80s and that LIFE magazine spread, when STGs were truly the big swingin' dick of the scene. Also the ship speed is genuinely a handful. Not for noobs at all!

And yeah, Fabtek were the bomb. I had possibly the least contemporary arcade experience of any regular here, growing up in a small church parish in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, British West Indies. I suppose "buttfuck" is a bad choice of words lmao! The two cabs at our post office were the inescapable SFII:CE, and yes: The Prelude To The Flying Game Ever.

I didn't know shit about anything, but I thought it was comfy AF. I later exclaimed "Wait WTF, is this a Flying Game?" at NES Twin Cobra, which the tape club had. Now that's sacrilege, sorry Uemura-san. Or maybe it's revenge on Micronics? I'm gonna call it even.

TLDR: What's "meh" to you is often "FAWWWK YEAAAAA" to the punters. Tale old as time.

Irrespective of Stevenisms, Raiden 1's design is simplistic and IMO pretty easy, up until the advent of Crab Hell ~ Indiscernible Barrage in stage 7. (If I ever make an STG, I swear to God I'll make sure the hardest part revolves around crabs hanging on pipes. Truly a timeless motif.)

And don't forget the obligatory Red Leader I Can't See Shit Out Here What The Fuck ~ Yellow Bullet On White Floor ! It's a good job Stage 7 is so far in the back.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I wonder if the flying game catchphrase is forced over the Japanese shooting game, which would have come off too hard for Americans, maybe?


Truth be told, to this day there's no proof that Mad Shak was ever distributed officially out of Japan, so it surprises me that some people here even in this forum "remember" it. Even there in Japan it wasn't exactly widespread. But yeah, 1941 has some singularities against the spartan Raiden, though being the prequel to 1942 and 1943 you'd never say it'd lose the fight.

[BIL]

Ha, good point on Mad Shark... I actually encountered it in a UK arcade circa 2010, though ofc it could've been imported from anywhere.

[Lemnear]

(every game before 90 looks bad compared to Out Zone, and even some that came out after).

This only can come from somebody who entirely missed what Capcom (or even Irem) was putting out already by the late 80s, but anyway, Raiden predates Out Zone by 4 months. Still, Raiden is younger than 1941, which beats Raiden in basically every regard (by far, if you ask me) yet it didn't sell so well, so it had to be something else beyond quality and distribution which evades us.

I recovered (almost) everything from Irem, not from Capcom (unless it's in C.A.S. 1/2..).
I don't know, Out Zone seems full of minutiae and pixel art details practically everywhere, it's certainly less technologically advanced than the others, but it seems much "richer" to look at, everything is full, there's practically no surface without a drawn detail.
I don't know what is considered "jawbreaker" for 1989/1990 as a year.
Image Fight was certainly well above the average of 1988 though, but Air Carrier Wing also gave me a good impression (1990), especially the first stage, then it seems to go down a lot.

I wonder if the flying game catchphrase is forced over the Japanese shooting game, which would have come off too hard for Americans, maybe?


Truth be told, to this day there's no proof that Mad Shak was ever distributed officially out of Japan, so it surprises me that some people here even in this forum "remember" it. Even there in Japan it wasn't exactly widespread. But yeah, 1941 has some singularities against the spartan Raiden, though being the prequel to 1942 and 1943 you'd never say it'd lose the fight.

I played it a few months ago, and i liked it more than Raiden, there's something magical in those graphics that are clearly a poor clone (same for NMK/UPL/etc.)
Then it has a yellow enemy...yellow, i thought about it a bit and i can't think of other games where there's a YELLOW enemy! (not golden or yellow ochre/mustard).

[Acid]

What is the best ACA/AA baseball game?

[Sengoku Strider]

Raiden is bracing by mainstream standards, but it's not cruel from the outset.

I dunno. This line of conversation sent me down a rabbit hole of a handful of retro dad YouTubers saying "I love this game! I'm so hardcore!" and then getting wiped out by the 2nd wave of enemies. Shmup Junkie was the only reviewer who seemed to know how to actually play it and reach stage 3. I can't imagine your average arcade goer got more than 30 seconds of entertainment out of it. The argument's academic because obviously it did do well, but I don't ever recall crowds around the machine, or even consistent traffic for that matter compared to like Smash TV or something. It was just so ubiquitous that everybody remembers seeing it.

And yeah, Fabtek were the bomb.

Looking at their wiki page:

Fabtek's name was derived from the initials of its founder Frank Ballouz (F.A.B.-tek), a former Atari and Nintendo of America executive who later also founded Irem America.

My head canon is now that Frankie Ballouz was an epic carpetbagging salesman who travelled the Americas making this thing happen through all manner of chicanery.

What is the best ACA/AA baseball game?

Probably Baseball Stars Professional 2.

[Bassa-Bassa]

I recovered (almost) everything from Irem, not from Capcom (unless it's in C.A.S. 1/2..).
I don't know, Out Zone seems full of minutiae and pixel art details practically everywhere, it's certainly less technologically advanced than the others, but it seems much "richer" to look at, everything is full, there's practically no surface without a drawn detail.
I don't know what is considered "jawbreaker" for 1989/1990 as a year.
Image Fight was certainly well above the average of 1988 though, but Air Carrier Wing also gave me a good impression (1990), especially the first stage, then it seems to go down a lot.

Out Zone's pixel art is stellar, wisely building up from Tatsujin's unique doing, it got easily the most elaborated bosses one could find then, though admittedly the design of the players' sprites could be easily improved and terrain textures are a bit lacking. Capcom got established its well-loved style with that astonishing usage of colors and finely-designed sprites already with Strider (though Daimakaimura was its own thing even a bit before, and some Lost Worlds scenes had just no precedent as well). Their bigger sprites may not be as intrincately detailed as Out Zone's, but their backgrounds, character design and sprite shading had no rival already in 1988 save for some very few instances. A friend of mine says that just Willow's graphics were way more influential in European artists than Shadow of the Beast's. Stuff like Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Dragon Breed o R-Type II from before 1990 caused quite an impact as well. 1990 brought us many gorgeous pieces to name here.