R-Gear: the lost Rayforce chapter

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:53 am

Dear all,

i am pleased to introduce to one long, lost secret of shmups:

R-Gear. As you can see, it's a short video about a mysterious (and 2D) sequel to Rayforce, including an r-gray 02 vehicle with the "travelling laser" to be found in Raystorm. I can't say if it's an hoax or not (but it would surprising), nor i can give you more informations about it.

Is there anyone who knows more?

EDIT 24-07

Thanks to Godai on youtube for uncovering this gem, i apologize for forgetting this btw.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:03 am

Holy shit.

If this is real, then Taito must be keeping their prototypes under wraps.

If not, this would make a sweet doujin game.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:20 am

This video has been around for a while now, although I still haven't found out where it came from. There are several huge threads about it on 2ch but right now I can't be fucked to sift through all the shit there to find out more.
Apparently it really is an unfinished game from Taito though, and not some doujin creation.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:23 am

Yes, this was uploaded to hameko ages ago. I highly doubt it's a mockup, you can clearly hear Kawamoto did the music. I'd love to know more about this...

Post by **system11** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:30 am

Of course, impossible to really ever say, but when I watch that video, looks to me like something running (or designed to run) on F3 hardware, which would actually fit perfectly in the timeline.

So - someone needs to break into the Taito offices, and steal all the F3 carts and boards.

D · Post by D » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:44 am

Wow this must be the holy grail of shmups.
Let's scatter through all Taito offices with flashlights guns and dogs.
We will let the dogs snif F3 hardware and the Rayforce boards and say: "go get". wow, any interviews floating around somewhere on the net that adress this matter? I think it is what RayForce became, they swicthed to 3D halfway in development, maybe?

PooshhMao · Post by **PooshhMao** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:36 pm

Imagine that appearing on eBay

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 12:58 pm

From what I know, cobbled together from info around the net:

- This is a real prototype designed on F3 hardware.

- For some reason, they scrapped development of 'R-Gear' quite early on, presumably to start developing the sequel on 3D-based hardware (which everyone knows as Raystorm).

- The video that is on YouTube was released a while back on Hameko by an unknown person, but the video itself was created by prominent Japanese player BGR. I don't know how BGR got a hold of the prototype though.

Higher quality video here:
http://g002.garon.jp/gdb/GN/0D/3J/ZX/XM ... P/Lyh5.wmv

- Yes that is the R-Gray 02 in the proto, along with the R-Gray 1.

- I heard rumors that there was only 1 stage completed, possibly 2 (last time I checked 2ch).

A (small) discussion here:
http://bbs001.garon.jp/test/read.php/game/1125569670/

Maybe someone can dig up the threads on 2ch, as I can't find them at the moment.

Thats all I know. I first heard of R-Gear a long time ago, searching for Raystorm/Rayforce info for MAME. I could have sworn I saw the name in MAME's gamelist as an unemulated driver, but the devteam don't seem to be releasing the gamelist document now so I can't confirm that.

Perhaps someone can email BGR and ask what the deal is?

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 3:36 pm

Oh my god, this looks awesome. I wonder why it didn't come out! I'd be interested to know if they carried over the same weapon mechanics and such from RayForce or if it's closer to Storm/Crisis.

On another note-- don't you guys think the top down sort of sprite-scaling 3d has aged better than the sort of jittery/warpy PSX/Saturn style?

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:33 pm

louisg wrote:Oh my god, this looks awesome. I wonder why it didn't come out! I'd be interested to know if they carried over the same weapon mechanics and such from RayForce or if it's closer to Storm/Crisis.

If you pay attention to the very beginning (the first chain), you can see R-gray 02's travelling laser (as i pointed out in my first post, btw).

On another note-- don't you guys think the top down sort of sprite-scaling 3d has aged better than the sort of jittery/warpy PSX/Saturn style?

You're not on topic, can you avoid this on serious threads? I'll come for help if it's about a silly thread, but let's keep it "rayforce" thanks.

Post by **undamned** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:12 pm

From the looks of the video, it was probably a promotional VHS tape that got limited distribution. As to whether they did location tests, who knows.
-ud

jp · Post by jp » Mon Jul 24, 2006 6:05 pm

That looks amazing. I'd find it hard to believe that it would be a hoax (someone would have to be damn talented to pull that off).

Man... I would've so rather have gotten that than Raystorm though.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:12 pm

zinger wrote:Yes, this was uploaded to hameko ages ago. I highly doubt it's a mockup, you can clearly hear Kawamoto did the music. I'd love to know more about this...

Yeah, because the theme music playing during this video is clearly a take on the 1st level music of Rayforce/Layer Section. I think it looks awesome, & would certainly love to play it if it ever came available (emulation or otherwise) since I'm a big fan of the original. Granted, I also enjoy Raystorm, but I do prefer the original slightly, so having a direct sequel would be cool.

AAA · Post by **AAA** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:13 pm

IMHO the music is too good and consistent for this to be a fake.

i want this game now.

should it be a fake - what a fine job!

Post by **undamned** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:18 pm

I'm not a huge "Ray" series fan, but being as it has psuedo F3 involvement, I did some snooping around

According to 2 sources (source 1, source 2), at the Tokyo Game Show (year?) you could purchase Ray Storm and Ray Tracers (a racing game, FYI) at the same time under the name "Ray Ray Collection." Along with this was a bonus CD-ROM that contained an R-Gear beginning movie, BMP wallpaper for your personal computer, the sound test, the polygon model test, and other development materials.

There's some other discussion here about how development began on F3 and then moved to FX-1 (G-Darius hardware, FYI) for PS compatability reasons.
-ud

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 8:20 pm

I would've liked to see this come out instead of RayStorm. It looks great. Hopefully this will join Recalhorn and Twin Qix soon in the bevy of unreleased prototypes that have turned up.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:22 pm

So that's what Raystorm would have looked like if it had used Layer Section's visuals. Great stuff. Come on, Taito. Release a Ray series comp and throw this on here.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 9:56 pm

It seems less interesting than Raystorm/Crisis to me -- you can't daisy-chain enemies with the lightning laser while it's out, for one, and there seems to be no "power attack" for concentrating all your locks on one target.

mirkvid · Post by **mirkvid** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 10:38 pm

mabey if we ask real nice, we can get it on taito legends 3.

well we can wish can't we?!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:14 pm

Isn't this the same video that was posted at Hameko in October 2005.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:19 pm

Dylan1CC wrote:So that's what Raystorm would have looked like if it had used Layer Section's visuals. Great stuff. Come on, Taito. Release a Ray series comp and throw this on here.

They already did; there's a PS1 double pack of Raycrisis and Raystorm, import only, for the PS1.

And who knows if there'll even be a Taito Legends III. As much as I hate to say it, if they wanted to finish it by now, they would've done so. Too bad there's no PS1 evquilvalent to Songbird Productions.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:22 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Isn't this the same video that was posted at Hameko in October 2005.

It should be, as far as i know.

MadGunner · Post by **MadGunner** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:39 am

Ho boy.

Real or not, I'm gonna test it.

(BTW, been seeing you a long time, but this is my first time on the forum.)

D · Post by D » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:50 am

I wonder is there even is a pcb for this game.
Probably just code sitting on some harddisc locked away in the basement somewhere. Who's gonna infiltrate Taito?
What can we do?
I started a list
-Buy shares of Taito
-Bride employees
I want to know if it is possible that the incomplete game was ever made onto a pcb or just code on a pc?
If it has a pcb, I guess this board needs to come together and all pay up $100 and just get the damn thing. Two full levels?

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:16 pm

How great is that!?!

While i am perfectly happy that we got Raystorm i am excited to learn about this lost gem. It's early-buildness is quite apparent in watching the vid though, even through the crummy visual quality.

Explosions and the lock on lasers seem quite clunky, even when compared to Rayforce.

Still, amazing! I'd love to see that emulated someday. I wonder if this was intended for release on the 'Cybercore' console.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:23 pm

I wonder what the guys at G.Rev would have to say about this. I bet they still got the incomplete material on their harddrives.

UD: Thanks for the enlightenment.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 4:25 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Isn't this the same video that was posted at Hameko in October 2005.

Yeah, shame that almost nobody here caught the year-old news.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 9:49 am

I had to go back and play through 'Gunlock' tonight because of this thread. I forgot how balls-hard it was! Raystorm is a piece of cake compared to the original.