The Shmups that Defined the TurboGrafx-16

durias · Post by **durias** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:39 pm

This blog lists, among others, Air Zonk, Blazing Lazers, and Gates of Thunder as games that defined the TurboGrafx-16. Agree? Disagree? Others?

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:50 pm

Shooters that defined the PC Engine :

R Type

GunHead series

Gates of Thunder

IMO the three best shooters are:

Winds of Thunder (my fave game of all time! end off)

Sapphire

Soldier Blade

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 11:29 pm

More than anything else, Detana!! Twinbee, at least in the homeland.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 11:38 pm

Turrican wrote:Detana!! Twinbee

I've got two spare copies for sale if anyones interested!

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:01 am

It's Gate, dammit. Gate.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:27 am

R-Type is the shooter that not only defined the PC-Engine, it's also the one that sold the system.

Today the port has been surpassed though, and for the ultimate home-version one needs to get the R-Types compilation for Playstation.

The PC-Engine exclusive shooters that still stand out today imo are:

- Spriggan
- Nexzr
- Sapphire
- Gate of Thunder
- Winds of Thunder
- Magical Chase
- Gunhed
- Star Soldier series
- Sylphia

Asherdude · Post by **Asherdude** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:34 am

CIT wrote:R-Type is the shooter that not only defined the PC-Engine, it's also the one that sold the system.

Today the port has been surpassed though, and for the ultimate home-version one needs to get the R-Types compilation for Playstation.

The PC-Engine exclusive shooters that still stand out today imo are:

- Spriggan
- Nexzr
- Sapphire
- Gate of Thunder
- Winds of Thunder
- Magical Chase
- Gunhed
- Star Soldier series
- Sylphia

Yeah. What CIT said.

Sonic R · Post by **Sonic R** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:45 am

Pinnacle shooties on the Turbo Grafx-16/Duo:

Blazing Lazers
R-Type
Soldier Blade and Super Star Soldier
Raiden
Galaga '90
Cotton
Magical Chase
Gate of Thunder
Lords of Thunder
Syd Mead's Terraforming

Again, these are Turbo Grafx-16/Duo games.

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:10 am

Blazing Lazers - (Compile wins again)
AeroBlasters
Side arms
Psychosis
Galaga 90
Dead Moon
Air Zonk
Gates/Lords of Thunder
R-Type

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:59 am

No love for Star Parodier?

Post by **undamned** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:39 am

Seiously, Spec.

Star Parodier
Winds of Thunder
Gate of Thunder

-ud

Grant Windsor · Post by **Grant Windsor** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:49 am

I agree with CIT that the game which defined the system was R-Type (as released by Hudson in two parts).

However, I'm not a R-Type lover, so some of the later games which really stood out (to me) included:

Aero Blasters
Cotton (SCD)
Final Soldier
Gate of Thunder (SCD)
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (ACD)
GunHed
Magical Chase
Parodius-Da!
Psychic Storm (SCD)
Rayzanber II (CD)
Seirei Senshi Spriggan (CD)
Star Parodier (SCD)
Super Raiden (SCD)
Super Star Soldier
Winds of Thunder (SCD)

But...that's just some. There are several others I should've mentioned. It's a very worthwhile system to dabble with.

- Grant

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:31 am

Pretty much anything by Pack-In Video!

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:11 am

louisg wrote:Pretty much anything by Pack-In Video!

..will make you want to commit hara-kiri

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:22 am

CIT wrote:R-Type is the shooter that not only defined the PC-Engine, it's also the one that sold the system.

I don't see why R-Type should be so specially PCE bound. It was such a tremendous hit that in a matter of years it was available on pretty much everything, from MSX to the SMS. The PCD CD version came in 1991, not especially early, too.

More in general, Gradius or R-Type aren't good answers for these kind of topics... They were much more than platform-defining moments... They defined a whole era.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:01 am

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:20 am

Turrican wrote:I don't see why R-Type should be so specially PCE bound.

Because everyone was blown away by the quality of the conversion, the pc engine was right near the beginning of me getting into games and I remember everyone raving about this little white japanese 8bit console that had a port of R-Type that wiped the floor with 16bit computers such as the Amiga and Atari ST.

I like R-Type but its not one of my fave games for the engine but without a shadow of a doubt its was the killer app for the machine which sold it in japan and would be the one defining game.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:26 am

also same could be said for Street Fighter II and the Super Famicom

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:32 am

HardcoreOtaku wrote:
Turrican wrote:I don't see why R-Type should be so specially PCE bound.
Because everyone was blown away by the quality of the conversion, the pc engine was right near the beginning of me getting into games and I remember everyone raving about this little white japanese 8bit console that had a port of R-Type that wiped the floor with 16bit computers such as the Amiga and Atart ST.

I like R-Type but its not one of my fave games for the engine but without a shadow of a doubt its was the killer app for the machine which sold it in japan and would be the one defining game.

True.

However in retrospect (with the original now emulated perfectly) it can't be seen as the shmup defining the PCE. Therefore you'd have to look at something PCE exclusive, making it a console like no other...

PCE to me first and foremost means the Gunhed series.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:57 am

Super Laydock wrote:PCE to me first and foremost means the Gunhed series.

I remember at the same time as around the R-Type hype anyone who actually imported a machine was raving about GunHed saying things such as "the best graphics ever" and "the most amount of sprites I've ever seen on the screen at once" and "the clearest speech I've ever heard".
Even though I love GunHed those kind of comments now seem comical in 2007 particularly the speech one but for nostalgic reasons I guess that endears it to me even more.

to go back to my original comment (which had typos from rapid typing)

R-Type : the one true defining game

GunHed series : as package of four games were the best games on the HuCard

Gate of Thunder : the most popular CD shooter but IMO Winds was much better

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:12 am

HardcoreOtaku wrote:GunHed series : as package of four games were the best games on the HuCard

There is no GunHed series. there's just GunHed. Some group it with the Star Soldier series (Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier), but the games are not connected in any way.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:17 am

Herr Schatten wrote:
HardcoreOtaku wrote:GunHed series : as package of four games were the best games on the HuCard
There is no GunHed series. there's just GunHed. Some group it with the Star Soldier series (Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier), but the games are not connected in any way.

I suppose you're right, but ever since I even first heared about the games I remember people tying these games together somehow...

ROBOTRON · Post by **ROBOTRON** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:58 pm

Cybercore wasn't bad...the only thing I didn't care for is...the more powers ups you get, the fatter your ship becomes. Making you the easiest of targets.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:29 pm

Turrican wrote:
CIT wrote:R-Type is the shooter that not only defined the PC-Engine, it's also the one that sold the system.
I don't see why R-Type should be so specially PCE bound. It was such a tremendous hit that in a matter of years it was available on pretty much everything, from MSX to the SMS. The PCD CD version came in 1991, not especially early, too.

Well, the PCE HuCards (the game was spilt in two cards) came out in 1988.

It was the first home-port of the game (and the first shooter on PCE), and completely blew away any other port that followed, even Amiga.

This was the first instance where a console game looked really amazingly close to the arcade original, and this only a couple of months after the arcade game was released. You gotta remember that at this time there was no Megadrive and no Neo Geo yet, people in Japan were playing FC and MSX, and in Europe C64. Arcade graphics for a home system was absolutely unheard of. I'm really not exaggerating when I say this was the main reason people went out and bought a PC-Engine.

Maybe you didn't experience the PC-Engine R-Type hype first hand? The only other example I can think of where a launch game had such an amazing impact would be Ridge Racer for Playstation, which did the same for 3D gaming, as R-Type did for 2D.

More in general, Gradius or R-Type aren't good answers for these kind of topics... They were much more than platform-defining moments... They defined a whole era.

I don't see why one should exclude the other. You can define an era, and consequently also define a platform (which happens to be from the same era).

Post by **undamned** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:12 pm

Herr Schatten wrote:
HardcoreOtaku wrote:GunHed series : as package of four games were the best games on the HuCard
There is no GunHed series. there's just GunHed. Some group it with the Star Soldier series (Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier), but the games are not connected in any way.

Thank you.
-ud

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:30 pm

I always wondered how the "Split in 2 HuCards" worked.

You bought the game, and you'd get 2 HuCards, right? (I really hope they didn't made you buy 2 different HuCards). Then you play the first 4 levels, turn-off your PC-Engine and change the HuCards?

All info about your lives, what weapons you had and score is lost?

And you could, if you felt like, just cheat and start the game from the middle?

I think this was a pretty stupid idea if it works like that.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:32 pm

undamned wrote:
Herr Schatten wrote:
HardcoreOtaku wrote:GunHed series : as package of four games were the best games on the HuCard
There is no GunHed series. there's just GunHed. Some group it with the Star Soldier series (Super Star Soldier, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier), but the games are not connected in any way.
Thank you.
-ud

Yeh I know they're not officially related but for some reason they've been bunched together and for ease i did as well in this thread

When I first wrote above comments I thought to myself of writing that point you you raised in brackets next to them but thought not to bother I also thought of a couple of other points, but is there any point in going into that much detail for this thread??

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:39 pm

Shatterhand wrote:You bought the game, and you'd get 2 HuCards, right? (I really hope they didn't made you buy 2 different HuCards).

yep you bought two hucards! lol the second Hucard they named R-Type 2 (but was just the last 4 Levels of the game)

Shatterhand wrote:All info about your lives, what weapons you had and score is lost?

A password is given to the player at the end of the game to start R-Type II with all the weapons and powerups accumulated in the first part.
A second password, given at the end of the second game, can be entered in R-Type Part1 to access the second loop. The password menu can be accessed by pressing Select and Run on the title screen.

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:52 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I always wondered how the "Split in 2 HuCards" worked.

You bought the game, and you'd get 2 HuCards, right? (I really hope they didn't made you buy 2 different HuCards). Then you play the first 4 levels, turn-off your PC-Engine and change the HuCards?

All info about your lives, what weapons you had and score is lost?

And you could, if you felt like, just cheat and start the game from the middle?

I think this was a pretty stupid idea if it works like that.

You bought 2 different HuCards. One entitled "R-Type", the other entitled "R-Type II". Once completing R-Type (the first 4 levels of the arcade game), you were given a code. After switching HuCards, you could then enter that code and begin with your prior stats... or you could begin on level 5 with nothing.

The reason for the split was that the max HuCard size at the time was too small to contain the full game on one card. Later, when the game was released in the US, larger card sizes were available so the entire game was fit onto a single Turbo Chip.

This was later rectified in Japan with the release of R-Type Complete for CD-ROM^2.

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:27 pm

Which was an excellent port, by the way, and still worth checking out for a rabid R-Type fan even with the more accurate MAME and PS1 versions. You get a new boss (who's also in the Hu-Card version), a remixed soundtrack that's sometimes better and sometimes worse, and lots of odd-looking cinema scenes. It's weird to hear Dopkeratops talk (in Japanese, no less).

My favorite original Turbo-CD shooter is definitely Lords of Thunder. What's up with the Japanese title? Winds of Thunder sounds like a game involving a huge guy who ate a ton of beans.