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

[BIL]

Nice. This an existing hardware emulation-wise?

Yep, Mystic Warriors Hardware. Bodes well for Violent Storm and Gaiapolis later this year!

[hamfighterx]

Konami's Metamorphic Force (AKA Konami's Altered Beast) is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/21990

Whoaaaaaaaaaa! That's a pretty good reason for skipping Konami in September, and very exciting to see if more from the hardware comes soon.

Metamorphic Force was one of my most anticipated realistic "highlight" Arcade Archives releases. Expected, but still pretty exciting. Now let's see some Raiden 2/DX and Taito F3

[Sima Tuna]

Holy shit, they're finally doing it! More Konami beat em ups? I'm currently playing a game, but fuck that! I'll be buying this when it comes out.

At this point, every unreleased arcade beat em up is a dream/wishlist ACA title, and this was one of them. I just want all the arcade beat em ups out there on modern systems with solid emulation so people can experience them. Too many brawlers get ignored because they are not easy to find legally.

[NeoStrayCat]

Konami's Metamorphic Force (AKA Konami's Altered Beast) is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/21990

One step closer to Violent Storm, lol.

[Marc]

Macross confirmed for December:
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024 ... s-december

[hamfighterx]

Also confirmed to be a premium price, ¥1500 (like Mazinger Z before it). Not surprising given the license. https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/22101

But yeah this is awesome news. Hamster rarely disappoints with the big Christmas week release.

Waiting patiently for more Banpresto stuff. Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon would be an awesome present for Christmas 2025

[BIL]

Ohshi, it's the Eastenders STG! Get the spreadshot you SHTUPID SHTUPID CAO!

On one hand, I'm disappointed it's not Macross 2, the brilliant caravan hori also by NMK. But otoh: this means Macross 2 is no longer impossible.



(also, it'd be supremely out of character for Hamster to release a series out of order. how can you have yer Thunder Dragon 2, if you don't 'ave yer Thunder Dragon 1? )

I've never actually seen nor even read of the first game, but I'm still happy to hear it's inbound. I always get on with NMK.

Waiting patiently for more Banpresto stuff. Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon would be an awesome present for Christmas 2025

Helll yeah. I'd be just as happy with that one as Macross 2! I'm glad the Mazinger experiment seems to have proven viable, even at a premium they're an absolute steal.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That's awesome to hear Super Dimensional Fortress Macross be given the proper ACA treatment in late 2024...better later than never, right? With the proper IP rights and clearances taken care of, that would lead to SDF Macross II and Macross Plus as future ACA releases down the road indeed.

----------
However with Harmony Gold owning the copyrighted trademark to the Robotech IP namesake, there could a be possibility of SDF Macross not being released in the USA -- we'll see if that's the case here in upcoming December of 2024 in regards to Hamster & Harmony Gold (which is an interesting predicament/situation unto itself arising with the IPs of both Robotech and Macross in the USA). It's been said that Big West is responsible for selling official Macross products in the USA but I've yet to see it really happen/materialize.
----------

It was the American arcade game distributor, Fabtek, whom handled the sales and distribution of Banpresto's SDF Macross jamma pcb conversion kits to arcades and independent arcade owners/operators back in 1992 under the proper title of "Super SpaceFortress Macross." It was common to see SDF Macross hosted in those upright Dynamo cabs with a 19" Wells Gardener CRT monitor at the better well-stocked arcades, stateside, back in 1992-1998. Did not know that the Banpresto arcade game developer/publisher was a subsidiary of Bandai back in the 1990s.

The real question to ask is, will Hamster include both the original Japanese and American versions of SDF Macross rom versions for it's upcoming ACA release?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

What I wonder about PCEFX is if they can wangle a BBC tie-in.

hehe, some bint was in the cafe crying and behind her I kept seeing a ship with wide shot killing stuff..

[TransatlanticFoe]

Ohshi, it's the Eastenders STG! Get the spreadshot you SHTUPID SHTUPID CAO!

It's still in that cafe! Since 2007 and counting
viewtopic.php?t=14429&start=30

They've got one in Arcade Club waaaay up in Bury which I played for a bit around this time last year. Alas it wasn't in the side room with the rest of the shmups - it was in a banging CANDY QUAHOG MARSHMALLOW zone of crazy Asian sensory overload. I look forward to playing it without a migraine simulator!

[BIL]

It's still in that cafe! Since 2007 and counting
viewtopic.php?t=14429&start=30

Beautiful Warms my heart, those old threads. Surreal to think it's actually getting a home release after all this time.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

NMK's Riot is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/22732

[BIL]

NMK's Riot is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202410/22732

Fuckin rad! It's actually Tecmo's game, IIRC; NMK published it. At least I always recall trap saying that. Exudes that Ninja Gaiden / Wild Fang style of comical hardcore action. Never officially released, if I remember right. Altogether intriguing.

I wonder if Video System's fellow carnival shooter SPINAL BREAKERS will join it soon.

[Sima Tuna]

Looks like ACA are finally releasing the good stuff. Guess they got through the namco backlog.

[BIL]

Ahh yeah, OST by Tecmo (later Konami) stalwart Metal Yuhki, master of Fairlight-driven power metal.

The title logo instantly recalls Raiga, too. And the tone, yeah, mad as fuck straight from the Attract. The clever riff on an established genre - a Cabalesque with the player in the middle ground, enemy lanes on either side - is straight outta their 80s playbook, too. (actually, I'd credit Tecmo with one of the great early carnival STGs, Senjyo)



If it's not a swan song for Tecmo's arcade division, it could pass for one. I see why trap concluded it was theirs, with NMK publishing for a change, after Thunder Dragon and Saboten Bombers. This was around NMK's self-published Gunnail and Thunder Dragon 2, IIRC.

Seems I'd mis-remembered it being unreleased; it made it out, it's just one of those games with a punishingly low Japanese print run. Which, again, tracks with perpetual underdog heroes NMK handling distribution.

So cool.

EDIT: Oho, seems like Hamster's official line is that it was Tecmo-developed and published in Japan, with NMK handling the overseas distro. Makes a lot of sense.

[Marc]

Nice, not plated a decent Cabal-alike in ages. I really need to get on Wold Guns Reloaded properly as well.

[Some-Mist]

hell yeah, for some reason I thought this was an NMK game but it looks like that was only due to their involvement in publishing.

[Lander]

Eastenders STG, oh man Rite thassit, GET OFFA MA CAB RITE NAO!

[Marc]

First impressions are that the ftont/rear thing is a bit clunky.

[Jeneki]

Hmm. Rolling from cover piece to cover piece, to protect yourself from different directions, while stop and pop shooting those enemies from cover. What a Gears of War ripoff.

[hamfighterx]

Guess they got through the namco backlog.

Hahahahahaha. There is no eliminating the Namco backlog! But yeah, with 5 consecutive non-Namco releases, this IS the longest stretch between Namco games that we've ever seen in the 3+ years since their games started appearing on Arcade Archives (September 23, 2021).

I would bet Namco is up next though. Would finish this set of 4 games with Hamster's typical formula of one each, in no set order, from Namco, Taito, Konami, and "other". In a rare deviation, they skipped Konami in the previous set, going instead for 1 Taito (Crime City), 1 Namco (Blast Off), 1 Video System (Power Spikes), and 1 Nichibutsu (Moon Shuttle) - but that appears to have been a minor blip and now back to the usual lineup with Taito (Violence Fight), Konami (Metamorphic Force), Tecmo (Riot), and presumably something Namco next week...

Nice, not plated a decent Cabal-alike in ages. I really need to get on Wold Guns Reloaded properly as well.

Funny enough, I just picked up Operation Wolf Returns on Switch this past weekend. Walked into a Gamestop and saw it brand new for $9.99 USD, so had to bite at that price... I love the serendipity of stumbling into a mini rail shooter festival. Maybe I'll get some Dead Angle in the mix too, have wanted to give that one some more time.

Wouldn't mind Video System's Spinal Breakers making an AA appearance either - even though I find it a little sad to hear the enemy war elephants trumpeting as they explode into a pile of guts and elephant ribs after taking too much machine gun fire.

And what's up with Cabal anyway? Would have thought Taito had the rights to that due to their close relationship with the now defunct TAD Corporation, and Taito distributing the arcade game in Japan, but perhaps not. Not appearing on the Taito Memories compilations also struck me as odd.

[BrianC]

And what's up with Cabal anyway? Would have thought Taito had the rights to that due to their close relationship with the now defunct TAD Corporation, and Taito distributing the arcade game in Japan, but perhaps not. Not appearing on the Taito Memories compilations also struck me as odd.

Curious thing is most of the home ports were made in the west, even the NES version.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Did Taito have a close relationship with TAD? How so?

[hamfighterx]

Maybe I was inferring a bit too much, but at least there seems to have been a consistent relationship with Taito publishing several of their arcade titles as well as Cabal for FC, and TAD having distributed the Taito-developed Exzisus right around the time TAD Corporation was founded. It just seems odd that this would be a license to somehow fall through the cracks. Would be interesting to hear any details about who might still have the rights to Cabal (and yes, hoping somehow Hamster could facilitate getting a console release out, as this seems right up their alley).

[Sumez]

There was that Toki remake released a while back, so clearly someone was able to license TAD properties - I'm assuming the rights to Cabal are mostly likely a part of the same package deal.
Personally I'd be more interested in someone doing something with Blood Bros. though. It's basically Cabal but much better.

I've also never seen Heated Barrel anywhere, but that game looks really cool. If it's anywhere near as decent as Toki or Blood Bros. it'll be up my alley.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Unless things have changed recently, TAD IPs belong to its founder Tadashi Yokoyama, and that includes Cabal. That's how the Toki remake got published - he's not hard to reach. The main issue with TAD games on Arcade Archives is popularity, I think. Cabal's success was essentially a Western event, and the company focused on those markets afterwards.

[Sumez]

Hamster has no problem publishing games which aren't popular. And I wager Cabal must have been fairly popular in Japan as well, given the derivatives which do exist after all.

I think *all* of TAD's game perfectly fit the bill for Hamster's M.O.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Derivatives of Cabal are not that many comparatively, are they? And most were aimed at Western markets as well, anyway.

And anything fits the bill at this point, I'm not discarding them at all. Cabal, being a trackball game originally, doesn't seem to be too well positioned, though.

[Sumez]

Derivatives of Cabal are not that many comparatively, are they? And most were aimed at Western markets as well, anyway.

No, but they exist
Technically, there aren't really many derivatives of Contra either

[BIL]

IIRC, there's an official joystick revision of Cabal. I think Ghegs once mentioned owning it. EDIT: Yep, here we go. I imagine an ACA release would either use that rev, and/or implement analogue controls to approximate the trackball version.