Toaplan releases thread

[MJR]

Yep, it can happen lol

Hahaha!!!~

Wow, had to watch that frame-by-frame...

...poor Jaimers I think maybe had 3-4 frames where he would be able to see that?

What Toaplan game should I play after Batsugun? I have to say, Batsugun is really such a super great game. Love it very much @_@"...

Now working on Batsugun Special 4-ALL (PB is 3-ALL)... seems this was the game needed to pull me away from Crimzon Clover for a little bit lol, I was starting to feel a little bit sad.

So far from what I see, Truxton seems like the next best?

It took me a long time. But I finally "'get" Toaplan now... there is just a certain special rhythm and style.

The pace, the music, everything, just comes together so beautifully.

My favourites are Out Zone, Truxton and Hell Fire for gameplay, music, gfx and atmosphere.

Then Twin Cobra / KK Tiger and Slap Fight.
Then any title, they are all solid in way or another

[LordHypnos]

As for what's next, I am in a V-V type of mood right now, so I'd do V-V. Not Grind Stormer and not V-V Bomber, just normal V-V. I think V-V is kind of overlooked, sadly, as I don't see many people talk about it, which is too bad because I think it's one of Toaplan's best games.

I remember liking V . V a lot, should really get back to it one of these days.

What Toaplan game should I play after Batsugun?

I only recently tried Out Zone, and that game rocks, don't overlook it!

Not that I'm any kind of Toaplan aficionado

[TransatlanticFoe]

Oh really, Outzone is doable with the 3 way? I can't for the life of me aim the regular shot but found a few spots where I assumed you were meant to swap to it.

Slap Fight question - how the hell do you fight the final boss without simply point blanking it with autofire? I was casually working through the Alcon revision on Evercade using save states and the missile weapon. Could not work out a way through that final boss, and Evercade's autofire isn't all that fast.

[Steven]

I remember liking V . V a lot, should really get back to it one of these days.

V-V is great. I honestly think it's still IKD's best game. The MD version is good for what it is, and a very ambitious conversion for the time and the hardware, but it really doesn't compare to the arcade version's awesomeness.

Oh really, Outzone is doable with the 3 way? I can't for the life of me aim the regular shot but found a few spots where I assumed you were meant to swap to it.

Whole game is doable with the 3-way, but you may have to bomb in a few spots. If you are playing for score this is probably much more practical than switching back and forth anyway because you don't have to go through the whole 8 Cs process, which can be very annoying, especially if you lose count like I always do if I die or switch unintentionally.

Slap Fight question - how the hell do you fight the final boss without simply point blanking it with autofire? I was casually working through the Alcon revision on Evercade using save states and the missile weapon. Could not work out a way through that final boss, and Evercade's autofire isn't all that fast.

I never play with autofire, but I am not sure how much this will help.

What I do is pointblank with shot equipped and one or two sets of wings (the big size ship but without the destructable wings, basically, or the big ship + one set of little wings) and no autofire, and I can kill the final boss this way before it shoots with just mashing; it's definitely possible. Get up in its face as it appears and mash until it explodes. Laser would be my second choice; it's pretty decent against most things, including the final two bosses. You can absolutely use missile against the last boss, but it's a terrible choice and literally anything else except maybe bomb would be better unless you are comfortable with getting close enough to get hits with bomb. If you are, bomb is still better than missile. If you go in with missile, sit on top of it for a moment and try to get as many hits in with both the missile and side shot as you can before it starts shooting. The final boss's point value is partially determined by how fast you kill it BTW.

Also don't hesitate to switch weapons or add wings; you get just over a second (it's closer to two seconds, but I have never timed it) of iframes after a weapon change/addition of wings, which is very useful for many things!

[davyK]

First try at Outzone courtesy of the Toaplan bitwave compilation on Switch. It's very enjoyable indeed. The collection includes a Hard version and a Beta version. Saves local high scores fpe each version unlike some other games in the compilation. Correctly tracks separate leaderboards too.

[Sumez]

Oh really, Outzone is doable with the 3 way? I can't for the life of me aim the regular shot but found a few spots where I assumed you were meant to swap to it.

Yeah there are parts with tight corridors or enemies coming from behind which definitely feel like they want you to use it. And at first I was routing the game to know where to switch - but after you know the game well enough to have a distinct plan for each of those sections, you also don't need the directional gun at all, because you can just focus on where enemies appear and rush through them. I can't remember for sure, but I think by the time i was consistently 2-ALL'ing the game I would never switch to the directional weapon at all.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Sweet, thanks both - will give it a go on my next Toaplan session! It's not like Toaplan to include useless weapons, oh no, not at all

[Faith]

Yes, thank you everyone for advice! I think I will play Truxton next!

Still a bit stuck with Batsugun Special lol, best can do is 3-ALL because Loop 4 being big headache @_@"...

...but biggest headache is zzz doing Loop 1 & 2 over and over... very very annoying!~

Will try for maybe another week, but also feel this week focus a bit worse than usual, so not really able to practice for very long.

Will also keep Out Zone at the side of my eye!~

[Sumez]

Out Zone and Tatsujin are both really fun 1CCs, good luck

I agree Batsugun Special gets a bit much when you're going for the loops, because of how easy the first loop is. I've never really spent time with OG Batsu, but I probably should give that one a go instead.

[Faith]

Thank you!!

Haha Batsugun Normal is a bit mean.

Start with 2 extends... and can only get 1 more from score >.<!~

And none drop... so you only get 3 to 1CC... I think this is the least of any STG I've played?

No shield like Batsugun Special either. So to be safe should have 1 or 2 extends for last boss depending bomba stock.

So really goal is to try no-miss until last boss lol.

[Lemnear]

Thank you!!

Haha Batsugun Normal is a bit mean.

Start with 2 extends... and can only get 1 more from score >.<!~

And none drop... so you only get 3 to 1CC... I think this is the least of any STG I've played?

No shield like Batsugun Special either. So to be safe should have 1 or 2 extends for last boss depending bomba stock.

So really goal is to try no-miss until last boss lol.

I thought 3 lives was the standard for SHMUPS. However, the thing I find most difficult between the normal and Special Batsugun is the fact that the bombs are less powerful and this changes the route for me.

[Steven]

Batsugun only gives you a single extend, so you only have 3 extra lives + the one you start with = 4 total. It kind of makes sense because the whole game is like 15 minutes long and doesn't loop.

Did they ever fix the audio on Bitwave Tatsujin or is it still super broken? Same question for Out Zone. Bitwave Out Zone's 16-way shot sound is so, so incredibly wrong as of the last time I played it, and so were all of Tatsujin's sound effects and the boss music, which is somehow missing its bass part entirely. It is exceedingly frustrating to me that now shitloads of people can play these amazing games for the first time but the audio on almost all of them is totally ruined, so they will have no idea what these games are supposed to sound like.

[Angry Hina]

Has only the Korean Version this little instruction booklet i see on some ebay offers (with a littleTatsujin 2 instruction as example)?

[porchka66]

Has only the Korean Version this little instruction booklet i see on some ebay offers (with a littleTatsujin 2 instruction as example)?

They are also available in Japan as preorder/first print bonuses.
Volume 1 comes with a nice slipcase for both volumes, volume 2 comes with the instruction booklet.

[Angry Hina]

Thanks

[davyK]

Batsugun only gives you a single extend, so you only have 3 extra lives + the one you start with = 4 total. It kind of makes sense because the whole game is like 15 minutes long and doesn't loop.

Did they ever fix the audio on Bitwave Tatsujin or is it still super broken? Same question for Out Zone. Bitwave Out Zone's 16-way shot sound is so, so incredibly wrong as of the last time I played it, and so were all of Tatsujin's sound effects and the boss music, which is somehow missing its bass part entirely. It is exceedingly frustrating to me that now shitloads of people can play these amazing games for the first time but the audio on almost all of them is totally ruined, so they will have no idea what these games are supposed to sound like.

The sound problem appears to be totally random - have experienced it across several of the games. Exiting the game, playing another and then returning to it will fix it. I have yet to experience sound issues in handheld mode. It's weird.

Has only the Korean Version this little instruction booklet i see on some ebay offers (with a littleTatsujin 2 instruction as example)?

I got Vol.1 off Amazon UK and there's a booklet in the game case with basic details of the games.

[Sumez]

Yeah I got both of the cheapo European releases, and both came with a booklet

[Angry Hina]

okeee Ive ordered more expensive japanese versions ... I hope I wont get less booklet in these

[Marc]

The sound thing is definitely weird, it's completely fucked on the very odd occasion, but simply exiting and restarting solves it every time. Bizarre.

[Jucksalbe]

At least Clear River Games has said that the sound issues will be fixed with the next patch (no date).

Are these two collections worth it when I already own the four Evercade collections?

[Marc]

At least Clear River Games has said that the sound issues will be fixed with the next patch (no date).

Are these two collections worth it when I already own the four Evercade collections?

Personally, yes, just for the regional variants. I was quite happy selling my Evercade stuff on after getting these.

[davyK]

I have several of the Steam equivalents (and a couple of the M2 ports) and I still found Vol.1 worth treble dipping for but I'm a bit weird when it comes to collecting. I've stuck vol.2 on my shopping list on amazon.

[Creamy Goodness]

Glad I wasn't the only one hearing sound issues. Was playing Batsugin and I couldn't hear the explosions for popcorn enemies at all. I mean it is pretty soft in FBNeo, but on the collection the sound is non-existent.

[Jonpachi]

I wish I had the proper testing set-up to do a teardown on Batsugun for Saturn vs City Connection vs Evercade vs Bitwave.

[Jonpachi]

Has anyone dialed in the autofire using these settings? I don't feel like I'm seeing anything change. The only game that feels ok by default is Batsugun, but I can't find a setting that works for games like Outzone or K Tiger.

[Jonpachi]

^ Can anyone confirm if these autofire settings work on PC? I've been messing around with them in several games now and I don't think they have much function on Switch. I can't get a reliable autofire unless I use an external solution like a joystick with built-in Turbo. Not the end of the world, but it makes the Flip-Grip play impossible unless you want to hammer tiny joycon buttons to keep your shot at a reasonable rate of fire.

[Steven]

On PC you choose 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, or 30Hz and it just works. No need to mess around with on/off frames because that option doesn't exist on PC. You still need external autofire to get optimal auto for everything except Tatsujin Ou (just use the internal auto. You can't exceed its rate of fire anyway), Dogyuun!! (I think just use 30Hz?), Vimana (30Hz ruins the game), and Out Zone (30Hz + non-autofire button for Super Ball/Burner/maybe sometimes 16-way), of course, since only allowing a single autofire rate in the emulator is stupid, but that's how it is.

Batsugun only gives you a single extend, so you only have 3 extra lives + the one you start with = 4 total. It kind of makes sense because the whole game is like 15 minutes long and doesn't loop.

Did they ever fix the audio on Bitwave Tatsujin or is it still super broken? Same question for Out Zone. Bitwave Out Zone's 16-way shot sound is so, so incredibly wrong as of the last time I played it, and so were all of Tatsujin's sound effects and the boss music, which is somehow missing its bass part entirely. It is exceedingly frustrating to me that now shitloads of people can play these amazing games for the first time but the audio on almost all of them is totally ruined, so they will have no idea what these games are supposed to sound like.

The sound problem appears to be totally random - have experienced it across several of the games. Exiting the game, playing another and then returning to it will fix it. I have yet to experience sound issues in handheld mode. It's weird.

So is it like super super broken when it's broken or is it just kinda broken? Do the SFX actually work properly when the games are being good? It's so sad that they couldn't even get the SFX to be correct on PC, let alone some of the music. Speaking of the music, does Against The Attack still have a bunch of audio noise in it that shouldn't be there? It does on PC, unfortunately.

[Jucksalbe]

One more question about the Evercade: Is anyone else having emulation problems playing the Toaplan games on their VS(-R)? On just about every one of them I randomly get these one or two seconds of crackling audio, as if it's sped up or something, and it's driving me crazy. I looked around, found nothing about this issue and in the few videos I found the games seemed to run fine, so I'm beginning to wonder if maybe it's my device acting up.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Nope, not had that happen at all on my regular VS. How long has it been since you ran a system update?

Does it happen on other carts too? If it's just the Toaplan carts, you could try running a forced update on them (should be an option somewhere in the settings menu).

Failing that, you could try a factory reset - recent system updates let you do a partial reset too. I think it's unlikely it's a hardware fault unless it happens across all carts.

[Jucksalbe]

I had just updated the system when I tried it again before I wrote the post. I've noticed it a while ago, so it's been consistent through several updates. But I don't use my VS all that often, so I'm not sure how much it happens with other games, I don't think I ever noticed it before I played the Toaplan games. I'd have to do some testing with other carts. But since it happens with all four Toaplan carts, I doubt it has anything to do with the carts.

I tried the partial reset today, didn't change anything. I tried different cables and power adapters before, didn't change anything. I tried changing the display settings (stuff like "dynamic rate control"), didn't help. But it's good to know this is not normal, so I'll probably test some other games and then contact the support about this. Thanks for your help!

How long does it usually take for the VS to boot, btw.? I couldn't find anything about this and mine always takes around 30 seconds to get to the main menu. Is that normal? Feels rather slow to me.