It's small, easy to configure and does everything I need. It doesn't have number buttons, but I don't use those. I'm pretty sure most universal remotes should still work with these older TVs though.
It makes the service mode far more accessible, in the past I had to keep looking it up on my phone each time!
R79 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 25, 2025 5:43 pmGradius Gaiden of course was exclusive to the system for many years (not sure if still is).
It's on the PSP Gradius Collection (which was even released in the west).
davyK wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 10:10 pm
One feature the Saturn ports has that the M2 collection doesn't (at least as far as I can see) is a slowdown toggle. You can disable it on the Saturn ports - but I've no idea how well that actually works.
It works very well! I mean, it makes the games more difficult, for sure. One could always bump the difficulty setting back a notch or two to compensate.
It's small, easy to configure and does everything I need. It doesn't have number buttons, but I don't use those. I'm pretty sure most universal remotes should still work with these older TVs though.
It makes the service mode far more accessible, in the past I had to keep looking it up on my phone each time!
Great, thanks! Seems to have too few buttons, but I'd rather try this than something untested for Sony CRTs.
davyK wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 10:10 pm
One feature the Saturn ports has that the M2 collection doesn't (at least as far as I can see) is a slowdown toggle. You can disable it on the Saturn ports - but I've no idea how well that actually works.
Yes exactly. I was surprised they didn't include this feature in the latest collection.
davyK wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 10:10 pm
One feature the Saturn ports has that the M2 collection doesn't (at least as far as I can see) is a slowdown toggle. You can disable it on the Saturn ports - but I've no idea how well that actually works.
Yes exactly. I was surprised they didn't include this feature in the latest collection.
I believe the reason is same why they dont save scores locally - M2 seem to be very keen on accuracy
davyK wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 10:10 pm
One feature the Saturn ports has that the M2 collection doesn't (at least as far as I can see) is a slowdown toggle. You can disable it on the Saturn ports - but I've no idea how well that actually works.
Yes exactly. I was surprised they didn't include this feature in the latest collection.
I believe the reason is same why they dont save scores locally - M2 seem to be very keen on accuracy
They have fixed some of the sprite flicker though. The stage 3 boss in Salamander can even cause the score panel to disappear on the PCB.
Even though I'm sure no-one will miss it, I was kind of surprised that there isn't an option to restore it, given M2's devotion to accuracy.
They could still have built that into the game if they wanted to, but they didn't. Just like all the other emulated games didn't when they came out.
I always found it a bit weird that it's considered bad form to have "save anywhere" on a new game, but if it's of a certain age (ie. now ported running in an emulator) it's suddenly *expected* and really bad when it's not there.
How about a compromise and have a decent training mode in *both*, with extra options like stage/area select, rank adjustment etc., which is also the only place where saving or rewinding works?
I remember when Shin Megami Tensei IV released everybody complained that its save everywhere ability was bad and actively ruining the game because saving should be limited to save points. Then when Shin Megami Tensei V (not Vengeance) came out everybody complained that you had to go to a save thing to save instead of being able to save everywhere/anywhere. Lol the duality of man indeed.
The training features on this collection kind of suck, sadly. I've only tried them for G1 and G2, but unless there is something that I am missing, either you can practice with no options or max options, what determines whether you have options or not is your starting weapon (???) instead of having a significantly more logical OPTIONS 0/4 selector thing, and you can't choose how many item pickup things you have. If I want to use the training mode to practice with only two options and my weapon as normal shot with the option to immediately take laser without having to pick up any items, I can't. That's how it should be, but it isn't. I mean I guess it's better than Battle Garegga, which has literally nothing despite maybe being the game that would benefit from it the most, but it's still kind of disappointing.
I wish M2 would look more closely at the training options in CAVE games and basically copy those exactly; even PS2 Daioujou, which is like 20 years old or whatever, has an insanely detailed training mode that is far better than most or possibly all of M2's, except for maybe, and interestingly, PS4/Switch Daioujou's, which I've never used because Black Label doesn't have a training mode for some arbitrary reason. Does M2 Ketsui have a training mode? I honestly have no idea. Anyway, PS2 Daioujou, X360 Saidaioujou, and I think PC Daifukkatsu (can't remember but I think it's the same) have excellent training modes.
Steven wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 7:24 am
Then when Shin Megami Tensei V (not Vengeance) came out everybody complained that you had to go to a save thing to save instead of being able to save everywhere/anywhere.
I didn't complain about that!
The problem is, people who complain are always more vocal than people who are satisfied. Only designing and balancing games around complaints is a sure-fire way to end up with terrible products.
blog - scores - collection Don't worry about it. You can travel from the Milky Way to Andromeda and back 1500 times before the sun explodes.
Well, almost everyone lol. I didn't mind because you can teleport to a save thing literally any time you're not in battle after you get the item, which is very early in the game. Then of course Vengeance added a save anywhere function anyway and now everybody's happy. When I did my last playthrough of Vengeance I kept track (very roughly) of how often I saved and I estimated that on average I saved about once every three to five minutes, which is completely insane, especially considering the game is 40~50 hours long. Yeah, I saved A LOT.
Coincidentally, I've been talking about game balance with Uemura-san recently, and he's made me realize that satisfying everyone is 100% completely impossible anyway, and trying to do that is a massive waste of time. Best thing to do is to satisfy yourself. Maybe it's because I tend to view games as products for mass consumption, so I often consider them in terms of like financial stuff and making sure they sell well and all of that, but I don't typically consider the perspectives of the developers that much, especially when it feels like so many modern games are just copy/paste the code and assets from the previous game that sold a trillion copies and call it good because companies are not willing to take financial risks by deviating from what's established. This is an exaggeration of course, but I think you get the idea.
The problem with save-anywhere is that it removes tension from the game since you almost literally can't lose anything. Unfortunately I also felt it was necessary in Vengeance on the hardest difficulty since trial and error seemed to be unavoidable there sometimes.
Steven wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 10:56 ammaking sure they sell well and all of that
I used to think about how to make a shmup that can be popular. If I were to develop one these days I would just make it hard by default and not bother because there's already more than enough developers doing those kinds of games. Making a game I wouldn't play myself sounds like such a waste of time these days. So I hard agree with the developer you talked to.
Last edited by ryu on Thu Sep 04, 2025 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
blog - scores - collection Don't worry about it. You can travel from the Milky Way to Andromeda and back 1500 times before the sun explodes.
Yeah, I have been thinking about making my own game for a while too. I was always going to make it for me, but if I make it now, it's REALLY going to be for me. I have a 4.25 page long design document already typed and all of that. I doubt it will happen, especially given the ambition of the project, but it would be nice.
Anyway, I'm going to go check out the stage select thing on Salamander III. I've never used it as far as I can remember, so I'm not sure exactly how it works. I think the one in Haunted Castle Revisited starts you at the chosen level and then you play the game normally from that point. I imagine the same is true here. A well-designed training mode, like in those CAVE games that I mentioned, is way better than save states because you can finely manipulate almost every variable to your liking, which you can't do with save states, but save states are way better than poorly designed training modes like what Andro Dunos II has. I doubt this is much of a training mode, but given how straightforward Salamander III is, it's probably going to be better than Andro Dunos II's training mode and it's certainly better than not having anything at all.
Yep, it just starts you at the beginning of the stage you choose and you play as normal from that point. Nothing surprising and you can't choose to start at the boss or whatever for training, but better than nothing.
Really? I don't really like that game, so I've only played it like twice and never looked its training mode, but maybe I'll go check it out. It's so disappointing that M2 can do so many things right and then do things as frustrating as just not having a training mode for some games, and apparently regressing in the ability to make training modes is super disappointing unless they really had to rush to get stuff out. Even then, the thought of M2 just not having a training mode for Daioujou Black Label, whether due to rushing or not, is just so odd to me.
I did check out PC Daifukkatsu's training mode a few minutes ago and it's pretty comprehensive. The training mode menu itself is super awkwardly designed, but the options it gives are pretty great. I've definitely never used it before because I'd probably remember it for being a complete travesty in terms of UI/UX stuff lol. It took a minute or two just to figure out WTF I was even looking at. Well, what's more important is that it works and works very well once you figure it out.
To be fair to M2 once you have save states you don't really need a traditional training mode with stage select etc.
The new style of M2 training mode is really like a teaching mode but it suits people who haven't played many shmups before. For more advanced players a trad training/practice would be more welcome I suppose.
The Futari training mode is pretty comprehensive but that game came out before save states remember. You can select stage/boss/mid-boss + character / rank /power ups/ bombs/ gem counters etc.
Can't believe you don't like Futari!!!
What I would like see more of is a level based score attack mode that keeps best scores for each stage/difficulty level - The Raiden III port had that.
Last edited by davyK on Thu Sep 04, 2025 5:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
EmperorIng wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 2:38 pm
Finally installed this the other night.
God I hate stage 4 in salamander. Just a confusing mess.
A few days later (and a few days ago), I finally 1all'd the game, hurray. Been wanting to notch this one off for a while. The game feels like it's barely-held together! I also unintentionally exploited the st4 boss glitch in which restarting a credit disables his attacks, lol. Only made it into 2-1 though.
I haven't explored enough of the rest of the collection (none of the Gradius games yet, only Salamanders!) but Salamander's sound emulation seems highly unstable and buggy. Sometimes music tracks will not trigger or play at all (this happens most frequently - but not exclusively - when using the rewind feature). There's a nasty bug in the moments before Zelos where it seems like firing missiles or shots during that time bugs the sound and it plays an ear-piercing screech until Zelos appears(?) or something like that. It's an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise sterling package.
Looking forward to diving into Salamander 2 next. I have to remember how get the setup to kill Golem and get the gold ship, because why not?
So no one else has noticed that Salamander 3 has stage and loop select when you press start+fire? I find it very useful for practising. I find that loop 2 is almost a different game with all new enemy waves and attacks, so I am very much looking to play it more.
True, game is messy and it counterbalances by giving you a shit ton of extra lives, but I have to admit that I am starting to like it.
davyK wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 4:58 pm
To be fair to M2 once you have save states you don't really need a traditional training mode with stage select etc.
The new style of M2 training mode is really like a teaching mode but it suits people who haven't played many shmups before. For more advanced players a trad training/practice would be more welcome I suppose.
The Futari training mode is pretty comprehensive but that game came out before save states remember. You can select stage/boss/mid-boss + character / rank /power ups/ bombs/ gem counters etc.
I think way more can be done with a super comprehensive training mode than with save states, but those types of training modes are pretty rare. I wish more would be like this. Bitwave did a pretty decent job with some of their Toaplan training mode options. Others are not so great. Tatsujin has you select which number boss you want to spawn at and then choose to spawn at the beginning of the area or the boss, so you have to know what number each boss is instead of choosing a stage. Tatsujin Ou makes you choose checkpoints, not bosses or stages, so if you don't memorize what number checkpoint you want to start at, you have to test random checkpoint numbers to find the right one, and there isn't a map or something to help. Kyuukyoku Tiger is a little better. No map, but it does let you adjust more variables than the ShotTriggers Toaplan training modes do.
Bitwave Zero Wing's training mode lets you play loop 256... enemy shots seem to not check for collision on every frame and are so fast that they pass through solid objects to hit you, which is absolutely hilarious. Zero Wing, secretly the hardest game in the genre if you can get far enough... amazing.
davyK wrote: ↑Thu Sep 04, 2025 4:58 pmCan't believe you don't like Futari!!!
Well... this one's pretty easy to explain. I don't like any of the ships/shot types. All of them are either too fast/too slow/too weak/too weird. Or something like that. I guess it means that they are all extremely well balanced because I dislike them all equally. It's frustrating because I want to play the game but don't like any of the options for actually doing so. I might go check out the training stuff when I get a chance.
Always gracious and not mental and needlessly antagonistic at all. Enjoy your prize. Sharply worded e-mails to every single fucking resource online to follow.
So after 20 years I'm playing a new Gradius game. Wow.
Considering I could 1CC Haunted Castle Revisited by twerking on the controller, I went into Salamander III a little worried it was going to be too easy. Then, after making a mistake on stage 2 and losing most of my lives in rapid succession, I asked... is it too hard? No, just the recoveries are brutal. It's my biggest criticism.
Partly this is personal taste... there's a spectrum for how difficult a game is (i.e. the likelihood of forcing a mistake) as well as for how unforgiving it is (i.e. the likelihood of recovering from a mistake). I want shmups to be quite hard but also very forgiving. This is part of why I prefer Gradius IV over II, and Salamander 2 over 1. Salamander 2 is certainly the hardest of its little subseries, but when you do die your ship zooms right back in with a lengthy invincibility period indicated by a visible field. Salamander III, like 1, takes forever to relaunch you, only grants invincibility briefly, and has no visual indicator for when time's up. I'd gladly change the frivolous extend rate to nothing if I could get better recoveries on the trade.
Of course, this becomes less an issue once you've got some runs in and the game's out of surprises. Now I know when I want cyclone laser, when I want ripple laser, when I want snake options. To my delight, sometimes I do want snake options! They always got me in trouble in Gradius III. I've 1CC'd the first loop as Lord British. Vic Viper seems identical. Gray Layer's round laser is super satisfying on destructible terrain and snake options give you a way of flinging them onto bosses without your paths intersecting. Bizarre they didn't simply call it Jade Knight for some easy brownie points. And I've stepped though loop 2 courtesy of stage select. Stage 1 got me excited with how different it is, but the rest lack such creative changes.
It's funny how Komani's Gradius dogma is arcade first, arcade last, arcade always. They'll push trivially different board revisions before acknowledging any of the fan favorite console and computer releases. Yet creators who love Gradius don't segregate. In Salamander III, the ruins stage comes from Gradius II PCE, Zelos Force has his snake guard from Salamander NES, and the common artificial sphere stage has a gravity motif unseen since Nemesis 3.
RegalSin wrote:You can't even drive across the country Naked anymore
So I hard agree with the developer you talked to.
I ended up buying it before I got a 360!
