Yuzo Koshiro is making new MD shmup.

[DietSoap]

https://x.com/AncientGames_JP/status/19 ... 9239948488

Patch incoming to address some visibility and other issues.

[Stevens]

That would be welcome indeed.

[Necronom]

Does this alternative opening intro "bonus point scoring" trick apply to the Steam, MD and Exa versions of Earthion?

Probably all of them. Btw, Steam = MD.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

In the Earthion universe, within the 14th Aerospace Regiment, there is a Special Operations Group of which the Vajranda Platoon belongs to, there's Unit 1 of the fightercraft "YK-11A" that's deployed as part of "Operation: Reclaim" (a space military joint effort of Earth forces trying to take back the Earth from the alien invaders) that is the main star/attraction (aside from pilot "Asuza Takanashi" being inside the YK-11A) -- all this takes place in the year of 265 S.C (Sol Calendar) timeline.

In her freetime/downtime, Asuza likes to ride her beloved racing bike down the expressway to pass the time -- even to go as far as racing her "rice rocket" against other YK-11A based fightercraft down the landing strip (a subtle nod/tribute towards the classic TopGun movie scene with Tom Cruise racing on his motorcycle against an F-14 Tomcat taking off at a military aerial base). How cool is that?

----------
It'd sure be awesome if such a scaled or non-scaled plastic model kit of an Earthion YK-11A fightercraft was created and sold to the general public -- there's definitely an audience for that type of dedicated modelling hobby spectrum indeed (or perhaps an entirely hand-built from the ground up, a YK-11A being taxied down the runway before it's initial departure diorama setup). Or even say, a 1/12th scale figurine of Asuza in her flight-suit garb or out of it, dressed up in her "rice rocket" racing garb could work equally as well. The plastic modelling possibilities of depicting Earthion are endless.

A scratch-built YK-11A fightercraft built entirely from Lego parts & upgraded with internal LED lighting is doable also.
----------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Jackoz]

Looks like Exa version gets the M2-treatment:

-Better sound quality, especially voices
-Better visibility
-No slowdown
-Hypermode
-A bezel around the gamescreen that has lots of actually useful info

I gladly supported the Steam release and am really enjoying it but damn...the original MD version and therefore all the other home versions are vastly inferior

Mate let’s be honest. This is the eXA treatment. They have been going well beyond M2 for years now. People may not like them but give credit where it is due.

[CIT]

Got the 1CC on Normal. I stand by my opinion: an audiovisually extraordinary shooter, held back from entering the ranks of the greatest by some questionable (euroshmuppy) game design choices. I think my favorite things about the game are the big variety of stages and enemies and the soundtrack. I give it an 8/10

[AGermanArtist]

Bought the Steam version and later stuck the rom on my phone where it looks amazing on a small OLED screen.

[Skykid]

The game is growing on me. Got 1-last boss on normal and flunked out, but it's like my fourth attempt so I'm getting it.

I disagree it's Euroshmuppy at all, I actually think it's very well-designed in numerous ways. Graphically I forget it's a Mega Drive game, and I have no idea how it's moving quite that much on screen without more flicker or slowdown. I love the fact it's got a new enemy every 5 seconds; it has the largest variety in any shmup I can remember. It's like Thunder Force, but not like Thunder Force. It's like R-Type but not like R-Type. It's got a lot of variety in there, and the adaptation pod and its flexibility is a neat touch. I like the little things like purging the booster on stage 8 to skip a mid-boss, and the way different weapons can be experimented with. Bosses are solid and inventive, and it's just the right length, with a climactic final third. Perhaps a tad easy on defaults, but the fact that the password is there is a really smart way of making the game accessible to noobs who don't Mega Drive in 2025. It's pretty dynamic in that respect and the planning is smart, especially considering its rather bullet-heavy for a Mega Drive title.

[EmperorIng]

I agree, there's a lot going for the game. I will say it's a little hard to tell what's hurting me so far (in terms of terrain and some debris) but the game is a pretty enjoyable romp in dadshmup land and avoids some of the worse excesses of euroshmup-dom.

I only made it to the volcano stage boss the other night, and apparently there are a handful of secrets throughout the game (something you can get extra points in the cockpit scene at the start, though I am not sure how lol). So I like that there is stuff to do and to experiment with, which is a natural extension of what a usual 16bit shmup would offer.

[FunktionJCB]

apparently there are a handful of secrets throughout the game (something you can get extra points in the cockpit scene at the start, though I am not sure how lol).

Like I mentioned earlier:

It seems the game may have a few hidden things.

One of them is a slightly alternate, interactive intro sequence, that may grant some extra points.

When selecting the difficulty, press and hold the normal shoot button (on my Xbox One controller, it's X), until the countdown numbers appear.

Here's a video someone posted demonstrating it:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gqdGLFnAMQ4

[Serge.EXE]

2.0.1 Patch just hit. Bullets are indeed more visible, even on Stage 2. Still not perfect, as evidenced by seeing the screenshot of the Exa version that Jaimers posted on Twitter, but a big improvement.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

2.0.1 Patch just hit. Bullets are indeed more visible, even on Stage 2. Still not perfect, as evidenced by seeing the screenshot of the Exa version that Jaimers posted on Twitter, but a big improvement.

https://x.com/JaimersSTG?ref_src=twsrc% ... r%5Eauthor

What updates does this 2.0.1 patch do with Earthion? It was originally at version 1.0 on it's initial debut launch indeed.

There's still time to improve the MD/Genesis port of Earthion so that it can be at it's best when finally released physically.

On the 2nd stage, a whopping 7 layers of parallax scrolling is at your disposal -- how cool is that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[FunktionJCB]

2.0.1 Patch just hit. Bullets are indeed more visible, even on Stage 2. Still not perfect, as evidenced by seeing the screenshot of the Exa version that Jaimers posted on Twitter, but a big improvement.

https://x.com/JaimersSTG?ref_src=twsrc% ... r%5Eauthor

What updates does this 2.0.1 patch do with Earthion? It was originally at version 1.0 on it's initial debut launch indeed.

There's still time to improve the MD/Genesis port of Earthion so that it can be at it's best when finally released physically.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

2025/8/4 Patch Notes

Updated Earthion game to Version 2.0.1 (which fixes in-game bugs)

Fixed Windows icon on program

Fixed Steam Language detection

Fixed crash when using integer screen scale and reducing window size below 100%

Input system selection (Steam Input/Raw Input) setting is now preserved

Keyboard configuration has been refined

Fixed Difficulty Achievements not being triggered

Fixed numerous audio issues



Earthion Version 2.0.1 Patch Notes

Fixed issue of subweapons becoming unusable

Fixed issue of subweapons occasionally not displaying correctly

Fixed issue of game freezing after inputting password

Fixed issue of sound effects not playing after selecting Continue

Adjusted enemy bullets to be more easily visible

Adjusted three pixels in the second half of Stage 2

Start can now be pressed when selecting Continue

Can skip Countdown by pressing Start (Only in Automatic Mode)

Added 2 more Challenge Modes

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Wow, quite a bit of improvements made to the Steam port of Earthion indeed. There's still some room to improve upon it even it doesn't match with what is offered with the Earthion Exa version currently being the "gold standard/definitive" version to play/own.

Does the Earthion Exa version support 4:3 arcade CRT monitors?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[it290]

Adjusted three pixels in the second half of Stage 2

Which three? I demand answers!

[Necronom]

Adjusted three pixels in the second half of Stage 2

Which three? I demand answers!

The blinking ones that when shot at the right time would unlock the Exa version!...rumour says

[Air Master Burst]

Dumped it from steam and have been rocking it on my Trinitron through the Genesis. Great stuff! Granted, it's definitely aimed more at the general nostalgia market than the hardcore shmup crowd, but that's understandable given the economic realities. Of course it's absolutely gorgeous (and the steam screenshots don't really do it justice compared to a proper CRT) and the soundtrack slaps as much as expected.

Only spent a few hours on hard so far and just missed the clear. Ship speed is a little slow and it's all just a little more Euro than I usually go for, but it's a lot of fun! Some of the subweapons seem like total garbage, but I haven't had time to experiment with enemy weaknesses yet. Hitboxes feel a bit iffy at times, but the lack of good "you've been hit by something" feedback could be to blame for this. Sometimes I swear I got hit by something only to be unscathed, and other times I will have absolutely no idea what actually hit me. Sometimes it also gets pretty hard to tell which background details flying at you will actually hurt you and which are purely aesthetic.

I have to put more time in to say for sure, but ZPF is probably still leading my GOTY chart. Earthion is a prettier and more polished game, but ZPF feels better in actual moment-to-moment gameplay. Interestingly enough, projectile visibility is probably the biggest issue with both games.

Buy it. Buy it now. It's worth the 20 bucks just to support this kind of thing.

ETA: As far as secrets go, does anyone know what the significance of the hidden gem you can pick up next to the statue of liberty is? It gives you a little spinning shield looking thing around your ship for a few seconds but I can't tell that it actually does anything special.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Dumped it from steam and have been rocking it on my Trinitron through the Genesis. Great stuff! Granted, it's definitely aimed more at the general nostalgia market than the hardcore shmup crowd, but that's understandable given the economic realities. Of course it's absolutely gorgeous (and the steam screenshots don't really do it justice compared to a proper CRT) and the soundtrack slaps as much as expected.

Only spent a few hours on hard so far and just missed the clear. Ship speed is a little slow and it's all just a little more Euro than I usually go for, but it's a lot of fun! Some of the subweapons seem like total garbage, but I haven't had time to experiment with enemy weaknesses yet. Hitboxes feel a bit iffy at times, but the lack of good "you've been hit by something" feedback could be to blame for this. Sometimes I swear I got hit by something only to be unscathed, and other times I will have absolutely no idea what actually hit me. Sometimes it also gets pretty hard to tell which background details flying at you will actually hurt you and which are purely aesthetic.

I have to put more time in to say for sure, but ZPF is probably still leading my GOTY chart. Earthion is a prettier and more polished game, but ZPF feels better in actual moment-to-moment gameplay. Interestingly enough, projectile visibility is probably the biggest issue with both games.

Buy it. Buy it now. It's worth the 20 bucks just to support this kind of thing.

ETA: As far as secrets go, does anyone know what the significance of the hidden gem you can pick up next to the statue of liberty is? It gives you a little spinning shield looking thing around your ship for a few seconds but I can't tell that it actually does anything special.

If Earthion was more catered to the "hard-core stg crowd," it'd have a different set of gameplay & game mechanics indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MommysBestGames]

Genesis is my favorite console and I'm really excited about Earthion.

Wondering if the god of biomechanics will let me into heaven if I wait to buy it on PS5 in September instead of right now on Steam.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Genesis is my favorite console and I'm really excited about Earthion.

Wondering if the god of biomechanics will let me into heaven if I wait to buy it on PS5 in September instead of right now on Steam.

Why yes, the god of biomechanics will let you into heaven "right now" if you buy the Steam port of Earthion. It wouldn't hurt to double-dip and pay the initial asking fee of a mere $19.99 (that's a penny short of 40 quarters altogether) for the Steam version of Earthion and still be able to get it for the PS5 next month at whatever suggested MSRP that it'll be listed at.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[SuperDeadite]

At start of Stage 6 hold A+C and push Start to switch the music to an unused track from Actraiser.
https://x.com/kommander_hzk/status/1952 ... ygGPw&s=19

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There sure are plenty of cool hidden secrets within Earthion indeed. What "other hidden tricks up Earthion's sleeves" are waiting to be discovered/unlocked?

----------
It seems that "there's more than meets the eye" with Earthion and it's trove of hidden "Easter Eggs" galore!
----------

Here's the Super Deluxe Games NSW LE set of Earthion up for pre-order with a 10/30/2025 release date with a 7,980 yen pricetag ($54.05 usd): https://superdeluxegames.jp/en/products ... arthion-de

and the PS5 LE set with a 7,980 yen pricetag ($54.05 usd): https://superdeluxegames.jp/en/collecti ... arthion-de

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MintyTheCat]

Alright folks,

I really, really wish that LRG were not involved in the releasing this game for the Megadrive as a physical release.

However, I got a copy on Steam, decrypted the ROM then played it using the Ares Emulator on the Sunday.

Then on the Monday I looked at the ROM a bit more, padded it out then loaded it using the UMDK [1].
It is much nicer to play the game on the real hardware.
I tried first of all a Megadrive 2 and it did not work, but a Megadrive 1 - one of the early revisions worked fine.
I don't have all my Megadrives where I live as much is still in storage, but fortunately it worked on the second machine that I tried.

I began playing on Hard mode, and it's a pretty fiendish Shmup to play from level 2 onwards - really good fun.

I hope to God that it will be possible to buy a physical copy without the usual LRG bullshit.

Due to a fuck-up I haven't received my copy of ZPF as yet nor my P47II-MD.

I do support all decent Megadrive releases but I draw the line at LRG.

I also managed to find what appears to be a bug when running on the real hardware. I'll run a trace on the machine as the game is running and try to work out if it is a bug or some kind of setting.

Really a good time to be alive with all these new Megadrive games and re-releases

Apparently, yuzo will work on a sequel to Earthion - fingers crossed.

[1] https://hackaday.io/project/1507-usb-megadrive-devkit

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Alright folks,

I really, really wish that LRG were not involved in the releasing this game for the Megadrive as a physical release.

However, I got a copy on Steam, decrypted the ROM then played it using the Ares Emulator on the Sunday.

Then on the Monday I looked at the ROM a bit more, padded it out then loaded it using the UMDK [1].
It is much nicer to play the game on the real hardware.
I tried first of all a Megadrive 2 and it did not work, but a Megadrive 1 - one of the early revisions worked fine.
I don't have all my Megadrives where I live as much is still in storage, but fortunately it worked on the second machine that I tried.

I began playing on Hard mode, and it's a pretty fiendish Shmup to play from level 2 onwards - really good fun.

I hope to God that it will be possible to buy a physical copy without the usual LRG bullshit.

Due to a fuck-up I haven't received my copy of ZPF as yet nor my P47II-MD.

I do support all decent Megadrive releases but I draw the line at LRG.

I also managed to find what appears to be a bug when running on the real hardware. I'll run a trace on the machine as the game is running and try to work out if it is a bug or some kind of setting.

Really a good time to be alive with all these new Megadrive games and re-releases

Apparently, yuzo will work on a sequel to Earthion - fingers crossed.

[1] https://hackaday.io/project/1507-usb-megadrive-devkit

Sounds like doing a "deep dive" with Earthion with a "usb MD devkit pcb" is impressive, MintyTheCat. Would you be able to modify the code if a bug is, indeed, found? I'm sure Ancient would like know more about this peculiar problem/situation with the MD Earthion game itself.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[MintyTheCat]

Alright folks,

I really, really wish that LRG were not involved in the releasing this game for the Megadrive as a physical release.

However, I got a copy on Steam, decrypted the ROM then played it using the Ares Emulator on the Sunday.

Then on the Monday I looked at the ROM a bit more, padded it out then loaded it using the UMDK [1].
It is much nicer to play the game on the real hardware.
I tried first of all a Megadrive 2 and it did not work, but a Megadrive 1 - one of the early revisions worked fine.
I don't have all my Megadrives where I live as much is still in storage, but fortunately it worked on the second machine that I tried.

I began playing on Hard mode, and it's a pretty fiendish Shmup to play from level 2 onwards - really good fun.

I hope to God that it will be possible to buy a physical copy without the usual LRG bullshit.

Due to a fuck-up I haven't received my copy of ZPF as yet nor my P47II-MD.

I do support all decent Megadrive releases but I draw the line at LRG.

I also managed to find what appears to be a bug when running on the real hardware. I'll run a trace on the machine as the game is running and try to work out if it is a bug or some kind of setting.

Really a good time to be alive with all these new Megadrive games and re-releases

Apparently, yuzo will work on a sequel to Earthion - fingers crossed.

[1] https://hackaday.io/project/1507-usb-megadrive-devkit

Sounds like doing a "deep dive" with Earthion with a MD devkit is impressive, MintyTheCat. Would you be able to modify the code if a bug is, indeed, found? I'm sure Ancient would like know about this peculiar problem with the MD Earthion game itself.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Certainly.

I spent lots of time fiddling around on the Megadrive.

I really haven't done anything other than load it and play it - it's really good fun.

Code: Select all

$ file 'Earthion (World) (En) (Aftermarket).md' 
Earthion (World) (En) (Aftermarket).md: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis ROM image: "EARTHION        " (GM 00000000-00, (C)ANCIENT 2025 )

$ sha256sum 'Earthion (World) (En) (Aftermarket).md' 
f2c17365e5a9a80e8c1696f0468447cb76b1b3d38b0a10cebe60f6079fa41d5b  Earthion (World) (En) (Aftermarket).md

To pad the ROM - important to use on the real hardware:

From: 0077d740 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
To: 0077fff0    : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
the ROM is filled with zeros, however, you will need to pad to the end from 0x0077FFF0 to 0x007FFFFF with zeros to pad the to a power of 2 to equal 0x00800000.

I got an address error which was picked up by the UMDK Debug Monitor if something falls through.

The padded version of the original should give this SHA256sum :

dea227c3f3c7e2adb72b9f3d3e77519bcf47b4fae1185cb6a76a3732dd75653c

Keep in mind that they might update the version of the ROM found in the Steam release though.

I'll find some time to retry what could be a bug:

get to the continue screen at level 2, select [YES], press A, then hold START : it will take out some of the audio channels - no gunfire nor explosions after that even after a soft-reset.

I'll try to recreate the bug first and then add in some breakpoints and run a GDB session when I have some time perhaps at the weekend.

[spmbx]

Looks like Exa version gets the M2-treatment:

-Better sound quality, especially voices

Not possible on megadrive. I would also argue this takes away from the authenticity so for me this is actually a negative

-Better visibility

Already being addressed

-No slowdown

Probably not possible on megadrive either, but i'm just guessing here

-Hypermode

This is exa's main extra, i can't say i'm too bothered by them adding their own mode. I don't feel like i'm missing out either way.

-A bezel around the gamescreen that has lots of actually useful info

Also not possible on megadrive

I gladly supported the Steam release and am really enjoying it but damn...the original MD version and therefore all the other home versions are vastly inferior

The original MD version is still the way to play imho, i mean i'm not always too enthusiastic about what Exa does but in this case i really don't see how the Exa version would make the megadrive experience "vastly inferior". I still prefer it.

[Restart_Point]

Who's responsibility was the implementation of encryption / protection on the Steam release; Bitwave, LRG, Ancient or Steam? If it was Bitwave, did they use some 'known' method they've used before and that is why it was cracked so quickly? Obviously it was going to happen some time but in one day?

[MintyTheCat]

Really, the question over encryption is a question of time : how long?

Anyone growing up in the Amiga days will recall how quickly things were cracked.

In my case, I do have a legal copy of the Steam license, but I wish to play it as God intended : on the Megadrive itself.

Given the total lack of standards wrt LRG, I did not wish to chance anything on them and to give them money.

I hope that Ancient and yuzo koshiro partner up with a better company who could produce physical Megadrive cartridges such as Retrobit.

I never had any real qualms over how Retrobit handled their releases and things were well communicated, of good quality, etc.
Even the recent license issue over one Toaplan title and how it impacted the release schedule was well communicated and it didn't leave people wondering and asking what was going on.

Now compare that to how LRG handle their actual customers.

In hard times especially folks value their money more so, and LRG simply need to exit the sector or dramatically improve themselves, otherwise, folks such as me and many others will not give them any money.

Just for the record : I haven't personally distributed any ROMs to anyone myself outside of a few security/IT professionals and people involved in Megadrive development - we did the same with Paprium which was another "company nightmare" and that bastard Fonzie I hope burns in hell and is sued to end of his natural life.

But, the efforts of the MD community ensured that eventually the ROM set was extracted and could be used in an Emulator to allow folks to play Paprium.

Earthion deserves a good chance commercially : again, no issues with how yuzo and Ancient have handled the release and the media and they have the fans in mind - their customers.

I think it is fair and just to pay for a license and I hope that Ancient and yuzo receive the payment that they are owed - the product is fine and made many of us happy to see such a Shmup on the Megadrive.

[Restart_Point]

In my case, I do have a legal copy of the Steam license, but I wish to play it as God intended : on the Megadrive itself.
Given the total lack of standards wrt LRG, I did not wish to chance anything on them and to give them money.

I'm waiting to begrudgingly pay LRG for the cartridge before I play it (avoiding all video spoilers) and I wasn't going to spend anything till then, but I have actually bought it on Steam now as a token gesture to support Yuzo after this super-fast cracking fiasco. Ironically, I have now supported who ever it was that fumbled the security (and LRG), along with Yuzo. I just hope Ancient got most of my money. I guess another way to support Yuzo is to buy the soundtrack on Bandcamp. Hopefully he's getting a larger share for that.

I hope that Yuzo has retained rights to publish Earthion again with someone else down the line, and that any more games he makes don't go anywhere near LRG in the future!

[Stevens]

Hey I heard the patch dropped. I haven't had a chance to play it yet - how is the visibility?