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

[BIL]

And no, Omega Fighter never made it to either the Mega Drive nor the PC-Engine!

First I'd heard of that! Makes sense if it was in the works, with UPL having a fair few ports for both machines. I guess Atomic Robokid had that mascot cred, haha. Shame, really; I could see both consoles doing great with OF's artfully compact, detail-packed sprites. ala Ninja-kun 2 - another it'd have been great to see, ignoring Micronics' FC attempt - it's got a winningly economic combo of little sprites and FOOKIN MASSIVE presence, with an all-time classic premise in its game-long Huge Battleship raid. Those times when you demolish a critical structure, a screenload of gunmetal shearing off to reveal the rushing cosmos beneath as the battle rages on, feel as epic as any setpiece from latter years.

And OF being an authentic STG From The Future - Galuda time manipulation, Shikigami bullet buzzing, face-shredding RENSHA - it deserved more eyes on it. Better late than never on ACA, though.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The first time I'd ever heard of this series was Electronic Gaming Monthly's Quartermann mentioning a SUPER MIGHTY BOMB JACK in the Gaming Gossip column of EGM #4, November 1989.



But I had no idea because my attention was all on Ghouls 'N Ghosts for Genesis which graced that issue's cover


And no, Omega Fighter never made it to either the Mega Drive nor the PC-Engine!

The QuarterMann's article about the upcoming mystery Atari 16-bit game console was supposed to be the Panther with the ability to play Atari Lynx games without the need for a special adapter in addition to the dedicated Panther 16-bit game carts. Sadly, a prototype Panther board was made but it was cancelled by Atari Corp and replaced with the upcoming 64-bit powered Jaguar gaming console in November of 1993 grand debut.

Interesting to see the "Toaplan" namesake misspelled in the very same QuarterMann article -- it is what it is, hmmm?

That mysterious stereo surround sound peripheral for the NES seems like that it'd be referring to the Hudson Soft produced "Joycard Sansui SSS" controller, right? It's this one listed here with simulated stereo surround sound being routed though the built-in headphone jack on the joypad controller itself -- it has PC Engine-like auto-fire settings as well (which is a novelity unto itself): https://www.ebay.com/itm/177283207764?_ ... R67UiO73Zg

----------
At least Quartermann was right about the upcoming NEC TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit being sold through United Amusements (as of September of 1989) and it was finally axed in March of 1990 due to NEC having to handle both the home consumer console division of the TurboGrafx-16 and the arcade TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kits (it got to be too much for the understaffed folks working at the NECHE headquarters in Illinois so the arcade division of the TG-16 jamma pcb kits were dropped entirely in March of 1990 with United Amusements getting shafted "big time" by NEC themselves -- even though NEC of Japan had United Amusements initially develop and sell the TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit prior to it's intial launch in the USA which would be September of 1989). The February 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment has an article about the arcade version of the TurboGrafx-16 kit. I had the rare chance to try out Blazing Lazers running on a TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit installed in an upright Dynamo cab back in March of 1990 at the "Game Station Arcade" local arcade -- it was quite cool for it's time but never saw it again since then.

What's interesting about the United Amusement's TG-16 jamma pcb is, it can play both Japanese Hu-Cards & American Turbo Chip carts without the need for a Hu-Card convertor -- how cool is that?
----------

Very few Tengen Tetris copies were sold at retail and the remaining unsold copies sent back to Tengen themselves. I recall seeing the latest NES pricing guides for a complete Tengen Tetris selling for $80.00-$90.00 back in the early 1990s through Funcoland -- although I've never seen a loose or complete set for sale back in those days of lore.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[OldSkoolShmuper]

The QuarterMann's article about the upcoming mystery Atari 16-bit game console was supposed to be the Panther with the ability to play Atari Lynx games without the need for a special adapter in addition to the dedicated Panther 16-bit game carts. Sadly, a prototype Panther board was made but it was cancelled by Atari Corp and replaced with the upcoming 64-bit powered Jaguar gaming console in November of 1993 grand debut.

Yup, right on PC Engine Fan. Also, from that same issue, is this capsule on the Atari 16-bit console.

That mysterious stereo surround sound peripheral for the NES seems like that it'd be referring to the Hudson Soft produced "Joycard Sansui SSS" controller, right? It's this one listed here with simulated stereo surround sound being routed though the built-in headphone jack on the joypad controller itself -- it has PC Engine-like auto-fire settings as well (which is a novelity unto itself): https://www.ebay.com/itm/177283207764?_ ... R67UiO73Zg

Oh I'm sure of it. Who could forget this ad:



And:

----------
At least Quartermann was right about the upcoming NEC TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit being sold through United Amusements (as of September of 1989) and it was finally axed in March of 1990 due to NEC having to handle both the home consumer console division of the TurboGrafx-16 and the arcade TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kits (it got to be too much for the understaffed folks working at the NECHE headquarters in Illinois so the arcade division of the TG-16 jamma pcb kits were dropped entirely in March of 1990 with United Amusements getting shafted "big time" by NEC themselves -- even though NEC of Japan had United Amusements initially develop and sell the TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit prior to it's intial launch in the USA which would be September of 1989). The February 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment has an article about the arcade version of the TurboGrafx-16 kit. I had the rare chance to try out Blazing Lazers running on a TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit installed in an upright Dynamo cab back in March of 1990 at the "Game Station Arcade" local arcade -- it was quite cool for it's time but never saw it again since then.

What's interesting about the United Amusement's TG-16 jamma pcb is, it can play both Japanese Hu-Cards & American Turbo Chip carts without the need for a Hu-Card convertor -- how cool is that?
----------

Very few Tengen Tetris copies were sold at retail and the remaining unsold copies sent back to Tengen themselves. I recall seeing the latest NES pricing guides for a complete Tengen Tetris selling for $80.00-$90.00 back in the early 1990s through Funcoland -- although I've never seen a loose or complete set for sale back in those days of lore.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I remember reading that article in VG&CE anpit the TurboGrafx-16 Jamma kit.

Also, I don't know when it was, maybe late 90s/early 2000s, I found out that Bloody Wolf had an arcade version, and if it used the TG-16 arcade board, or if it was its own hardware.

But a quick google query brough this up from wikipedia

The arcade version of Bloody Wolf ran on a custom version of the PC Engine. The arcade hardware is missing the second 16-bit graphic chip, the HuC6260 (鉄観音 - "TETSU") video color encoder, that is in the PC Engine. This means the VDC directly accesses palette RAM and builds out the display signals/timing. A rare Capcom quiz-type arcade game also ran on a modified version of the SuperGrafx hardware, which used two VDCs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Soft_HuC6270

[hamfighterx]

Excellent! Didn't know it was an NMK game though.

I also didn't know until now that it was one of Manabu Namiki's first soundtracks.

[Bassa-Bassa]

It makes perfect sense actually.
When you're playing 240p arcade games on a modern system via Arcade Archives, you're also not getting a 240p image sent to your TV. It's also being upscaled. So the situation is the same.


Outfoxies will "downscale" its own graphics when it zooms out the view of the scene, but since the arcade hardware is designed to output *actual* 240p video, it loses a lot of detail when it does that. An emulator doesn't have to do that because it actually has a much larger native resolution to work with. In my example, that was a 480p resolution which would already be a massive improvement, but something like Arcade Archives could do it even smoother.


Did you play Outfoxies? Maybe it makes more sense to you if you've tried the game. But I really think this concept should be extremely simple to understand

So do you mean setting the graphics at the original no-zoom frame (i.e. the graphics at their native res.) as the new "zoomed-out" resolution so that the graphics don't ever lose any definition ("detail") with the zoom? Not a complex concept but pretty poorly explained if you ask me for using this:



as that's not what you get on the original hardware, it'd be more like this:



Anyway, you then introduce "native" upscaling into the equation for the close-up situations (since you didn't want to enlarge the viewport). This upscaling implies "pixelation" which wouldn't be disguised by the CRT filters. Moreover, which CRT filters would be fine for this retooling, given that you're multiplying the original displayed resolution? I mean, I know many people don't mind pixelation on their 2D games, but for many others, it'd be going against the arcade games they love.

Haven't tried Outfoxies on Arcade Archives, though. Maybe the original downscaling gets a bit too nasty on these versions, depending on the scaling and filter options available, but then what you should ask for is better CRT emulation, as the scan lines can help a lot there. The original on an RGB CRT wasn't that bad, but it's been long now.

[it290]

That's not what he's saying at all. Take a look at the bsnes-hd emulator, which renders the SNES's Mode 7 in higher resolution than original hardware. Sumez is suggesting something similar here. The theoretical emulator would replace the scaling functions from the original hardware (which are probably implemented on one of the custom chips in this case) with ones that output at a higher resolution, so that you'd be able to retain as much pixel-level detail when zoomed out as your display is capable of.

[Bassa-Bassa]

If you mean this stuff:



that's made with graphic filters (for the textures). I suggested him something of the like:

I can think of more feasible solutions (though still not really valid for a series about archiving) to get the sprites more discernible (like using proper downsampling/antialising when zooming out, as the sprites have their native resolution at max. zoom in, i.e. no zoom), but in the end it's an aspect tightly tied to the visual filters enabled by the user, isn't it.

(underlined typo fixed)

and he even said no to redrawing by hand, so that can't be it.

[valziman]

If you mean this stuff:

Filters are totally different from what was described.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Whether you call that filters or not doesn't matter much - they all involve brand new pixels not made by hand.

[it290]

Whether you call that filters or not doesn't matter much - they all involve brand new pixels not made by hand.

It's not necessary to create new pixels, because the data for the pixels already exists with the normal, non zoomed-out artwork. Think of it this way, you're rendering a 4:3 box on a 1080p monitor, so 1440x1080 pixels. Outfoxies uses a weird resolution, 288x224, so we'll stretch that a bit to the standard 320x240 to keep the math cleaner. This part does require interpolation, but you could also do the same thing with integer scaling, you'd just end up with a smaller box on screen and the aspect ratio would be off because the game was designed for non-square pixels.

That means you have 4.5 times the number of pixels availble to render on your screen than what you need to actually display the game. When the game is fully zoomed in, you scale up like you would with any game that doesn't have this hardware scaling feature, by duplicating virtual 'in-game pixels' into real ones on the screen. However, when zooming out, instead of throwing away pixels immediately like the arcade game does, you don't have to discard any until you hit 22% of the original size. I don't think the game ever shrinks that small, but even if it does you'd still have a much cleaner and sharper image to work with if you need to zoom out further.

[Bassa-Bassa]

That is pretty much what I described conceptually in my first post today - set the graphics at their native resolution as the new "zoomed-out" frame, so you don't lose definition in the process. And, as I mentioned, that implies the new "no-zoom"/close-up frame (now, "zoomed-in") uses the graphics upscaled - good luck finding a CRT filter which works for both situations (not to mention everything in between, but that's a given). And this is in the ideal case of using the graphics at their native res. when "zooming-out", which, as your numbers dictate, would not be the actuality. But yeah, solves a wrong with a new wrong but it would be an approach if this were not an Archive, I guess.

[it290]

What do CRT filters have to do with it? Those are almost always just an overlay or additional shader effect applied on top of the existing scaling and interpolation. Sure, if you're using scanlines those won't always align with the underlying pixels at various zoom levels, but that's already this case for this game with its existing scaling which just throws away pixels.

[Bassa-Bassa]

The CRT filter could help to mitigate the effects of the original downscaling process, but they won't do much with those of the upscaling ("pixelation"/"blocky" graphics). Not a world of differences in the end, mind, but retooling the whole graphics for so little gain (as there is a loss as well) doesn't sound too exciting, does it.

[it290]

The CRT filter could help to mitigate the effects of the original downscaling process, but they won't do much with those of the upscaling ("pixelation"/"blocky" graphics). Not a world of differences in the end, mind, but retooling the whole graphics for so little gain (as there is a loss as well) doesn't sound too exciting, does it.

The graphics are already upscaled from their original resolution to 1080P. Nothing that has been described would impact the way a CRT filter works in any way. When zoomed in, the game would look exactly the same as the ACA release does today. When zoomed out to any degree, it would look much sharper, regardless of whether a CRT filter is applied or not. Not sure why this is so difficult to understand.

[it290]

To further drive the point home, here's an example of what I mean. The two images on the left are both the same — 320x200 images upscaled using nearest neighbor by 200% so that they're not miniscule on your screen and with a (crude) CRT filter applied. The top right image is using the same pixels, but scaled down to 25% and then back up to 100% so that it takes up the same physical space/number of pixels. This represents how the zoomed out view in Outfoxies works: it only has so many physical pixels to display, so in order to zoom out it has to throw out information.

The bottom right image, instead of taking this approach, instead just fills in the wider view using the extra pixels already present in the original art, using their original resolution. We don't have to throw away pixels because we're displaying a low res game on a high res monitor. And as you can see, rather than becoming blocky or pixelated, it ends up looking much LESS pixelated than the approach the original game takes, and the game looks exactly the same in the zoomed in state regardless of a CRT filter being applied.

[Sumez]

There's some sort of miscommunication going on, because it should be pretty straight forward

I have never played Outfoxies on emulation, and aren't talking about CRT filters, upscaling, resampling, or creating any pixels that didnt't exist in the data.
I have only ever played Outfoxies on my own arcade PCB on a really high quality large CRT (New Astro City), and on that screen zooming out still looks awful because a lot of detail is just straight up lost when the hardware renders its own downscaled stages in its native240p.

What would be nice would be something exactly like that Mode7 hack on bsnes that it290 brought up. In the case of SNES emulation I actually don't think the solution is necessarily a strict improvement, because a lot of mode7 games are designed with the hardware scaling in mind, and when composited alongside sprites which aren't being scales it looks a bit off. For Outfoxies though, it would be an indesputable win.
Enough about this I guess. Hamster didn't do it, but it would have been cool if they did.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Looks like we have a Konami release this time: Labyrinth Runner.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202601/63750

[AGermanArtist]

Trick Trap - nice. It's like an arcade Knightmare sequel.

[Jeneki]

Labyrinth Runner is very Konami, just listening to the sound and looking at the explosions.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Did Konami's Labyrinth Runner receive a proper USA jamma pcb conversion kit? I don't ever recall seeing it at my local arcades back in 1987-1988.

On the other hand, Konami's A-Jax did receive a proper USA jamma pcb release back in 1987 with it's awesome "state-of-the-art" 2D sprite scaling & rotational effects for it's time -- my local arcade hangout of "Cals-R-Cade" had A-Jax up & running in an upright cab back in 1987 but it didn't have enough room/space to include a necessary three button scheme/layout for both players 1 & 2 (thus making it solely a two-button affair at best).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[SavagePencil]

This looks awesome! It has some Gain Ground-esque vibes, with little dudes and deliberate player choices.

[Gamer707b]

The first time I'd ever heard of this series was Electronic Gaming Monthly's Quartermann mentioning a SUPER MIGHTY BOMB JACK in the Gaming Gossip column of EGM #4, November 1989.



But I had no idea because my attention was all on Ghouls 'N Ghosts for Genesis which graced that issue's cover


And no, Omega Fighter never made it to either the Mega Drive nor the PC-Engine!

The QuarterMann's article about the upcoming mystery Atari 16-bit game console was supposed to be the Panther with the ability to play Atari Lynx games without the need for a special adapter in addition to the dedicated Panther 16-bit game carts. Sadly, a prototype Panther board was made but it was cancelled by Atari Corp and replaced with the upcoming 64-bit powered Jaguar gaming console in November of 1993 grand debut.

Interesting to see the "Toaplan" namesake misspelled in the very same QuarterMann article -- it is what it is, hmmm?

That mysterious stereo surround sound peripheral for the NES seems like that it'd be referring to the Hudson Soft produced "Joycard Sansui SSS" controller, right? It's this one listed here with simulated stereo surround sound being routed though the built-in headphone jack on the joypad controller itself -- it has PC Engine-like auto-fire settings as well (which is a novelity unto itself): https://www.ebay.com/itm/177283207764?_ ... R67UiO73Zg

----------
At least Quartermann was right about the upcoming NEC TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit being sold through United Amusements (as of September of 1989) and it was finally axed in March of 1990 due to NEC having to handle both the home consumer console division of the TurboGrafx-16 and the arcade TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kits (it got to be too much for the understaffed folks working at the NECHE headquarters in Illinois so the arcade division of the TG-16 jamma pcb kits were dropped entirely in March of 1990 with United Amusements getting shafted "big time" by NEC themselves -- even though NEC of Japan had United Amusements initially develop and sell the TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit prior to it's intial launch in the USA which would be September of 1989). The February 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment has an article about the arcade version of the TurboGrafx-16 kit. I had the rare chance to try out Blazing Lazers running on a TurboGrafx-16 jamma pcb kit installed in an upright Dynamo cab back in March of 1990 at the "Game Station Arcade" local arcade -- it was quite cool for it's time but never saw it again since then.

What's interesting about the United Amusement's TG-16 jamma pcb is, it can play both Japanese Hu-Cards & American Turbo Chip carts without the need for a Hu-Card convertor -- how cool is that?
----------

Very few Tengen Tetris copies were sold at retail and the remaining unsold copies sent back to Tengen themselves. I recall seeing the latest NES pricing guides for a complete Tengen Tetris selling for $80.00-$90.00 back in the early 1990s through Funcoland -- although I've never seen a loose or complete set for sale back in those days of lore.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Man, growing up this was my favorite magazine. I would also get a few of the other ones at time, but EGM was my go to. I trusted their opinions and reviews. Still have some of my issues. I clearly remember The Quarterman's rumor section too. What ever happened to their digital subscription? Are they still doing that? I also don't remember this particular issue about the Quarterman talking about the Turbo-Grafix 16 jamma board. This is news to me. I'm sure I read it back then, just don't recall. Anyway guys, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[hamfighterx]

Looks like we have a Konami release this time: Labyrinth Runner.

Hmm, the start of the year felt a little odd with the two straight Space Invaders weeks (last 2025 release + the first of 2026) followed by random SNK and NMK releases... but as the clouds lift with these announcements, the more things stay the same in January with what appears to be Hamster's most commonly used formula. So far in January we've seen Taito, SNK, NMK, and now Konami, so I'm assuming Namco is up for the final monthly slot on Jan 29.

Final 2025 breakdown:
* Similar to 2024, the most common monthly pattern continued to be one game from each of Namco/Taito/Konami, then any other weeks being wild cards. That happened in 8 of 12 months in 2025: Jan, Feb, Apr, Jun, Jul, Sep, Oct, Dec
* May was a special Namco festival explicitly marketed as such, with three Namco releases accompanied by a Konami game and a Success game
* August was just the weird month (oddball festival!), with 1 Namco, 1 SNK, 1 Technos, 1 Jaleco
* April and November were Taito no-shows. April had Namco/Konami/Nichibutsu/Tecmo, November was Namco x2, Konami, Video System

2025 totals by original publisher:
Namco - 15 (appearing at least once every month in 2025)
Konami - 11 (only skipped August)
Taito - 8
Seibu Kaihatsu - 3 (no Raiden II among those... come on 2026, let's make it happen!)
SNK - 3
Nichibutsu - 2
Success - 2
Tecmo - 2
Video System - 2
Athena - 1
Banpresto - 1
Jaleco - 1
Technos - 1

[BrianC]

Interesting that ACA got Majū no Ōkoku/Devil World first since it's a follow up and even has a character named after Labyrinth Runner (Labryna).

[Jonpachi]

Interesting that ACA got Majū no Ōkoku/Devil World first since it's a follow up and even has a character named after Labyrinth Runner (Labryna).

Oof, clearly no native English speakers in the room the day they came up with that one. It's like a portmanteau of labia and rhino.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Interesting that ACA got Majū no Ōkoku/Devil World first since it's a follow up and even has a character named after Labyrinth Runner (Labryna).

Labyrinth Runner is indeed a later release than Majuu no Oukoku. They don't even share staffers nor the stories and characters are similar, so don't buy that.

I love Majuu no Oukoku (not so much Dark Adventure, though), but I reckon L. Runner is likely a better game as it at least didn't get the stupid RNG shit and the jump feature the former did. Both are great stuff anyway.

[BIL]

Oh, rad. Been curious about this one forever, ever since encountering its OST on an OG compilation with Gradius II and AC Dracula circa 2005. Roll on Gyruss and Iron Horse. EDIT: and M.I.A. and Gaiapolis and DEVASTATORS and a million others I forget. Man it's nice having Konami back. Nice balance of PS1 reduxes and home debuts. (home other than that 360 series that nobody likes) Almost makes me forget to say where is my mahfuckin ACA Search And Rescue

Looks like a nicely compact n' rampant credit. Gave KUROBUTA-sama's customarily superb Caravan run a look, thinking "Gonna finally hear TRAP OF OCTOPUS in context!" and ...yep. Not much of a fuckin trap, Tako-san! Run up get done up! Killer tune, like Motorhead doin' Loony Toons.

Didn't realise it was quite so diehard a topdown run/gun, may have to fire up the index for an update.

[NightBeast]

Has anyone tried Labyrinth Runner yet?

[BIL]

Has anyone tried Labyrinth Runner yet?

Yes! (RAISIN MUH HAN)

Decided to write some Devil muhfuckas one-way tickets to Flavor Town while I had a moment. Wow, the newer ACA frontend's pretty snazzy. Been a few months since I fired up muh PS quadruple aka L'Ultime Arcade Bucket List Suitcase Nuke. A decade-plus of HamHams n' M2 got it monstrous! Hefty! Strong and enduring just rike wood!

At this point I don't call it Contra Aim Lag. It's Konami Arcade Aim Lag ca 198X, co-starring Nichibutsu. Labyrinth Runner has a fairly mild instance of it, though it's not quite as vanishingly slight as Majuu no Oukoku's. Fuck! I wish they'd done a 110% balls to the wall topdown run/gun with that engine! It's good honest, well mostly ;3 ;3 ;3 Just avoid earlier incarnation Dark Adventure (US), it blows! Or try it out, so you too can say OHH HELL NAWWW

LR too largely gets away with it; the BOMB weapon's potato masher grenade arc feels like a credible wrinkle, as opposed to arrant Super Contra fuckery that makes half the weapons not worth the trouble.

I've long accepted it as a legitimate design ethos, albeit one I'm not an advocate of. Diehard action/shooting games where evasion compromises accuracy. Can't spin on a dime and return fire in the same frame, sonny! Playing Manhattan 24 like it's pin-sharp Shock Troopers will get you buttfucked clean outta town. You need to time both attack and evasion around that heaving lag. To the designers' credit, it works! CRAZY COP perhaps the apotheosis of this ornery style, with game-long ROCK SMUGGLIN a truly stuntin' escapade.

I like grappling with these games now and then, but it's very much a grapple, and I soon return to twitch-friendlier stuff. Like Konami icon Dracula himself said, there's a lot of good stuff to enjoy out there, and time's not plentiful for men made of meat. Still glad to see this epoch in reference standard, mind.

Strong point is pacing and stage design, holy balls it's brisk! Decidedly takes after the two AC Contras. Once a route is down pat it's absolutely rampant. The rail chase stage is one of the more likeable attempts at Salamander/Gradius II HIGH SPEED DEMENSION, with half of the fatal dead ends being destructible, the others being sight-reactable, and the backshotting buggerers being handily improv-friendly.

Love the main dude's sprite. He jogs along with his shooter raised behind his shield like a medieval HUNK. No wasted movement y'hear?! Super rad death animation, too. The juxtaposition of Gradius/Contraesque interface and weaponry with a dark fantasy aesthetic does indeed recall Majuu, even if they're otherwise starkly differing affairs.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Entering the 2026's as usual.

Namco's Quester is part of a complete breakfast, I mean, this week's title and first 2026 title of this company.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202601/64428