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

[BIL]

Before Cotton and Psyvariar there was...Othello.
Success Othello is this week's title.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202502/34118

Hey you edited :O I think OZERO is a Cool Romaji™. Uncharitable souls might say this week is a big fat "O," a "ZERO!" ;3

"Next week is a new Success pick" "Rad!" "Well..."

Fond nostalgia of this one's NES release always being ready and available at The Tape Club™, typically alongside famous RARE kusoge Taboo. Making uncultured young me say "Dammit!" at the ongoing absence of HAWT gradeschooler faves Blaster Master and Simon's Quest! Metafight's a much better game than Dracula II, don't misunderstand me there. Still significantly flawed but you can just knock the burnt bits off.

Having never looked into Othello or its history, its Japanese roots are quite an interesting read, imo. That explains that!

Englishmen Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett both claim to have invented the game of reversi in 1883, each denouncing the other as a fraud.

Hasegawa initially explained that Othello was an improvement on reversi, but from around 2000, he began to claim that he invented it in Mito regardless of reversi.

Damn, I'm getting visions of all these hot-blooded gamesmen meeting up in the afterlife to bust a fuckin cap! :O

[BEAMLORD]

My #1 Hawt TD1 Tip of the day is figuring out where the loop is Just Fucking With You Bro™ and learning to love the bomb. (Star items spawn bombs, don't sleep on 'em)

Link appears broken there, BIL. Indeed, though, bombs seem frequent and plentiful. Taking out the large blue ships that often appear in pairs is also a must for further drops.

[BIL]

My #1 Hawt TD1 Tip of the day is figuring out where the loop is Just Fucking With You Bro™ and learning to love the bomb. (Star items spawn bombs, don't sleep on 'em)

Link appears broken there, BIL. Indeed, though, bombs seem frequent and plentiful. Taking out the large blue ships that often appear in pairs is also a must for further drops.

Crumbs! I got OZEROED Cheers bud, fixed

Loop stage practice; had no idea Stars = Bombs at the time, hence not going after them as aggressively as I should've. Even then, got a pretty good crop. This aggressive "Equivalent Exchange" bombing is something Macross and TD2 maintained with their respective Medal/Armor and Blue Medal mechanics, even if neither's quite as abusive as TD1. Well, Macross kinda compresses it all into Stage 7, as you know...

[BEAMLORD]

Loop stage practice; had no idea Stars = Bombs at the time, hence not going after them as aggressively as I should've. Even then, got a pretty good crop. This aggressive "Equivalent Exchange" bombing is something Macross and TD2 maintained with their respective Medal/Armor and Blue Medal mechanics, even if neither's quite as abusive as TD1. Well, Macross kinda compresses it all into Stage 7, as you know...

The old one in, one out maxim certainly seems key here!

[Marc]

Thunder Fox seems cool, but not sure about the vehicle bits - reminds me of the similarly superfluous bits of Sly Spy.

The Isometric thing is intriguing, that reminds me very much if an old Amiga game. Bosses are tedious though.

[Sumez]

The game everyone was waiting for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN5q7ZlcvC4

[BIL]

Now that the ancient ~Table Game no Noroi~ has returned to haunt us once more, are the Shanghai games any good? I'm sometimes tempted by their nice pixel art, but inevitably back off like a little weenenheimer.

This is probably divine punishment for not writing up Riot prior to next week's other carnival STG home premiere. 3;

Thunder Fox seems cool, but not sure about the vehicle bits - reminds me of the similarly superfluous bits of Sly Spy.

They're both pretty soundly-designed, with no damage bonuses for both, and 100% shootdown possible on st2. (I think you inevitably miss at least one frogman in st3, due to the way the heli moves)

Stage 2's can be a motherfucker at first though, with all the bummers attacking from the left. A critical bit of info is that those guys won't shoot at you, or at least shoot much later than the rest, so you can safely maneuver around them while dodging oncomers' fire.

Actually now I look at it, I think Taito did the old ROM-saving trick of giving the same sprite to three distinct enemies. The vertical attackers seem to fire later than oncomers, too, who do the classic move of chasing their own bullets into the fray.

[jehu]

The game everyone was waiting for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN5q7ZlcvC4

It’s called Othello because some of the circles are black.

[BIL]

The game everyone was waiting for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN5q7ZlcvC4

It’s called Othello because some of the circles are black.

Even Japan loves Black History Month

[Atariboy]

I love Othello, but this doesn't look very good. I'm not a fan of the music or the lack of an English translation.

I'll put up with Japanese menus and voicework for something special like a good shooter that never came over here, but not for a very average looking videogame adaptation of Othello/Reversi.

[Kino]

Spoiler

I know it's slim pickings w/r/t pre-1991 Success arcade offerings, but... man. Can a brotha get a Ryu Kyu up in this bitch?

[BIL]

Can a brotha get a Ryu Kyu up in this bitch?

I'd forgotten they did that! Would love to see it. I went into a random superplay hoping it was a badass Hishoesque, forgotten in Cotton's sparkly wake. But after the initial disappointment, was quickly intrigued. EDIT: Actually, now I type this, I think it was a PCB capture by Cotton badman Yeti... yep, here we go.

EDIT2: Hm. Apparently Ryukyu II is a thing. Maybe an ACA release of the original isn't out of the question.

The Arcade Archiver episode was interesting. Pretty in-depth look back at Success's earlier days with President Yoshinari, including costly adventures in mechanical games. ;w;7 Still not really sold on Othello itself, but I get its place in JP arcade history, rather than the random Simple 1500 entry it appeared.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Friendly Reminder: If you're aiming to assemble a Taito Milestones 3 on your PlayStation 4|5 or try one of the titles without buying the whole bunch, Arcade Archives: Dead Connection is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202502/34854

Now, with Taito Milestones 3's games released as standalones, we can only guess what's coming next for March.

[BIL]

Eager to find out if Dead Connection has the English version. Bummed that the Taito collection had JP only.

I think you may be in luck, Hamster uploaded JP and EN language versions for today's trailers. I'd guess it's either a multi-region release, or there's a language toggle.

EDIT: Shamone muhfucka! It do indeed be dual region.

INTERNATIONALLY FAMOUS Taito Film Presents (■｀w´■)

Got that Preference Option niceness too, adds an ammo display for SPECIAL WEAPONZ

Idle speculation: I wonder if ACA Cleopatra Fortune might be in the cards this year. Asuka's twitter occasionally posts stuff related to ACA, and Cleo was conspicuous as one that's not on there yet. Pilot F3 title, maybe? I wonder if Grid Seeker and Gekirindan will pop up on her account.

[BEAMLORD]

Hmm. Browsing amongst the JP PSN store new releases for Dead Connection, and right there next to it is ACA Neo Geo King of Fighters '98. I thought this was already released, but couldn't say for sure, not being a big player of tournament fighters.

Priced at ¥1100, screenshots indicate "Network Mode". Could this be Hamster's promised Arcade Archives: The Next Generation?

[BIL]

Oh yeah that's out too! Totally forgot.

[SavagePencil]

fuckers got me coming AND going with the English double-dip

[hamfighterx]

KOF'98 is the first upgraded "ACA2 NEOGEO" release we've seen. If you own the original ACA version, you can upgrade for a lower price ($2.99 for the US)

Hamster has a new site detailing the "special features" in the ACA2 versions: https://www.arcadearchives.com/en/aca2n ... roduction/

I was a little surprised to see more extensive changes than the online multiplayer that was their primary focused when they revealed ACA2 was gonna be a thing. Includes stuff like:
* Better save states - 4 save slots, plus 1 quick save slot that can be mapped to a button
* Rewind function
* Revamped options menu - they show a screenshot with better move lists for KOF'98, for instance
* Better TATE functionality
* Three new screen filters: (1) "CRT TV" that they say curves the screen, (2) "Brightness" which "recreates the brightness of an old CRT", and (3) "Screen Noise" which "mimics screen flickering". I'm quite interested to see if the Brightness filter has clean scanlines without forcing a mandatory smoothing filter like the original ACA Neo Geo.
* Better controller configuration settings
* Better refresh rate if using a VRR-capable display (this is pretty interesting!)

Playstation 5 (notably, NOT PS4 like the original ACA NEOGEO series) and Xbox Series only, at this point. I'm curious to see if they end up rolling out ACA2 to Switch 2 as well (feels likely to me).

[Jonpachi]

They had me at SAVE STATES

[pablumatic]

PS5 only? No PS4? Ouch.

This stuff should be a free patch to the original games anyway.

[Randorama]

Shameless plug-in: A somewhat detailed squib by yours truly. Please feel free to ask ST-style questions about the game, too.

[BIL]

What an absolute novelty Dead Connection is, in the better sense of the word. Among its day's major-label action/shooting releases, it feels genuinely experimental, on par with crazy stuff like SEGA's The Last Survivor. Looks like an arena STG, but really plays more like a belt-view Gain Ground; each scene an open-ended puzzlebox to map out, missions never less fraught for rehearsal. Even the best-advised places to battle from make for riveting contests!

There's a really nice concession to fortune and improv, in the whapping melee attack... in a bad spot? Buddy ran up on you at the worst time? Consider twatting the rude fucker.

They undeniably bit off a little more than they could chew with the autoaim, which can get into almost oldschool DOOM conundrums. You know that "WTF? Fuck!" feeling of inexplicable stop and annoyed realisation, when you're running through lava and an unseen Caco a mile up cockblocks you? Similar experience attempting speedkill a balcony sniper, only for the autoaim to prioritise the knife guy hiding behind the bar. Solution: next time, run behind the bar where the sniper can't hit you and pistol-whip the knifer into next Christmas. Some charity needed, though if you dig GG, Ikari, and other more methodical action titles, it might pay off memorably.

I'm a little sad it's not the twitchy Tin Star redux hinted at by stage 1, but happy to finally see it given home translation all the same. Not often I get such a satisfying sense of one-off from major labels.

All this ignoring the absolutely commendable Woo-style panache. As with Elevator Action Returns, each magnum round and shotgun shell a wonderland of rueful possibilities. Didn't even notice that poor shotgunned bastard doing a header into the window, shattering it with his dome to reveal a stirring view of the lower East Side, or the other prick who tried to shoot me in the back, only to hit a candelabra and set himself and his buddy alight as they took off in opposite directions. As with EAR, it's remarkably chipper; little ill intent and certainly no edgelording, just riotously bloodening derring-do in the line of duty. The kinds of games, ala Metal Slug, where a hundred GIFFable little things will happen every run.

Shameless plug-in: A somewhat detailed squib by yours truly. Please feel free to ask ST-style questions about the game, too.

Will enjoy as always. ^__^

[hamfighterx]

This stuff should be a free patch to the original games anyway.

Yeah at the very least, I'd like to see the save states and scanlines show up in normal Arcade Archives stuff...

It's Hamster, I have no problem with them trying to get some money to keep up the good work. And if they're gonna charge for new network play versions, OK fine whatever.
I'm not personally all that excited about network play for fighting games that will have nobody playing them, and remains to be seen how the netcode even performs, but I do think it would be kinda cool to get stuff like playing through Sunset Riders with an online friend.

But that standard system stuff feels like it really should get rolled out to other releases. Kinda doubt that will happen just due to needing to patch 450+ games across ACA Neogeo and Arcade Archives, but that doesn't make it less annoying that they DID manage to fix probably the two things I find the most lacking (save states and good scanlines), and improve latency, and that isn't just a patch. Speaking of which, would be curious to hear from anyone who grabs KOF '98 whether the new screen filters are actually good. Specifically, if the Brightness mode has nice crisp scanlines WITHOUT the smoothing filter (unlike normal ACA NEOGEO releases).


On an unrelated note, I did play the last couple of not so popular releases:
Othello looks kinda basic and I damn near skipped it, but decided to give it a shot and I've actually had some fun with it. However, the CPU is an absolute BEAST and destroys me, even on the lowest difficulty level. I'm kind of drawn back to it to attempt to get some wins, and learn a bit from the two-per-match CPU suggested moves. I think the addiction is just due to trying to overcome the brutal competition though.

Kitten Kaboodle freaking rocks, all the haters get outta here. The jump button really adds a lot to the Bomberman/Pengo style gameplay, and the cats are cute. I dig this one a lot and will be returning to it. Didn't know a thing about it until this AA release.

[Steven]

This ACA2 KOF '98 is an almost impossible sell when UMFE exists and is just barely more expensive. I don't really see a reason to choose this over UMFE. This release is completely pointless unless you somehow can't afford the minuscule price increase for UMFE.

Does it at least have proper scaling this time?

[hamfighterx]

This ACA2 KOF '98 is an almost impossible sell when UMFE exists and is just barely more expensive. I don't really see a reason to choose this over UMFE. This release is completely pointless unless you somehow can't afford the minuscule price increase for UMFE.

Yeah I kind of thought this was a particularly terrible choice for the first game in the new line because of that. Online play as your focal point is completely at odds with launching this particular game when there is a well-regarded modern upgrade in UMFE where all of the competitive online play already happens.

[Steven]

Yeah, it's an uncharacteristically strange move by Hamster, especially because UMFE, in addition to the huge amount of other stuff it has, has Neo Geo mode, so you can play the original version of the game in UMFE anyway. It's also on PS4, unlike this, which does not help. I guess it makes sense for Xbox Series people, but I wonder how many Xboxers that play old KOF online don't have a PC or PS4 and KOF '98 UMFE already. Maybe they should have opened with a different KOF that isn't '98 or 2002, or maybe something like Real Bout 1/Special/2 or even Waku Waku 7. Online multiplayer for Shock Troopers and Metal Slug would be amazing.

I REALLY hope they give this treatment to a shooter like Raiden or Viper Phase 1 or some other game that benefits heavily from save state practice.

[velo]

I've always had a suspicion that Hamster purposely gimped certain features like save states as part of a long term plan to re-sell the same games, and to get a sales bump from them being "new releases" again. I don't see how it would be much more work for them to allow a hundred save slots for each game.

Yeah, it's an uncharacteristically strange move by Hamster,

I think it's characteristic of Hamster to steadily trudge along at their own pace and give the masses what they've been begging whenever they get around to it. Honestly, I was expecting the first game to be something like the original Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, etc... some relatively early game that isn't played competitively at all. I thought they'd more or less start at the beginning and go down the list. Opening with Garou or something isn't their style.

[Some-Mist]

Hadn’t ever played dead connection prior to the release, but man this game is so cool

[hamfighterx]

I think it's characteristic of Hamster to steadily trudge along at their own pace and give the masses what they've been begging whenever they get around to it. Honestly, I was expecting the first game to be something like the original Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, etc... some relatively early game that isn't played competitively at all. I thought they'd more or less start at the beginning and go down the list. Opening with Garou or something isn't their style.

Typically Hamster does seem to be the type of company that marches to the beat of their own drum. That being said, they did launch the ACA Neo Geo series on Switch with a bang, with 6 games at system launch: KOF'98, Metal Slug 3, Nam 1975, Shock Troopers, Waku Waku 7, World Heroes Perfect.

Neo Turf Masters was just a couple weeks later... I'm hoping it also shows up fairly early for ACA NEOGEO2, I'll gladly pay the upgrade fee for that game and check out the new features.

[dmk1198]

Upgraded neo turf masters?? Me too!!