Raiden Project speed question

[Spyke]

Ok, I'm sorry... yet another Raiden II question. I bet you're all sick to death of hearing about Raiden this, Raiden that, but please help me out!

I finally found a copy of Raiden Project (NTSC) which I'm playing on a chipped PAL Playstation 1 console. Now the thing is, when I had RP before it was a PAL version being played on a non-chipped PAL console - and it seemed a lot easier, if I'm remembering correctly.

The bullets in this new setup stream around so fast that it's like I've got the difficulty set on "Don't Even Bother Taking Off" level, instead of "normal".

Is this because of the NTSC/PAL interaction in the setup I've got, do you think... or am I just old and remembering things as easier than they actually were?

Thanks,

Ant

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For comparision, a real Seibu Kaihatsu Raiden II PCB vs. the PSX port of Raiden Project:

The bullets are a bit faster in the port compared to the PCB version.

Of course, the PCB version of R-II is the one to play/own.

Both are presented in low-res 15kHz format any way you look at it.

There are some Raiden II & Raiden DX PCBs with the back-up battery installed. There were rumors that this back-up battery was for saving high scores but it was rather for security reasons (against PCB bootleggers) but Seibu never implemented it.

Back in 1996 at the Circus Circus casino/hotel in Lake Tahoe, I came across a Dynamo cab with a USA region Raiden II conversion kit and it saved high scores and high scores upon being powered down for the night. The next morning, I went down to see it running and it still had the Top 10 scores from the previous day before. That was the only time that I had personally seen a Raiden II PCB save high scores (unless there was some fancy high score saving PCB inside the Dynamo cab just for that purpose alone). Quite intriguing with the Raiden II PCB with a backup battery installed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

Assuming your PAL PS1 is running the NTSC version of Raiden Project properly, it may just be the speed increase from the former television standard to the latter (50hz versus 60hz) that's throwing you off.

[Spyke]

Thanks for the very interesting replies. The demo sequence of the game seems to have slower bullets than in real time play...

I'll try setting the difficulty lower and see if that makes a difference. Yep 50khz to 60khz is an increas of 20% - that would be noticeable I suppose...

Ant

[stryc9]

Yeah I've played Raiden Project on speed heaps of times, it was great, there was a few hiccups with concentration as the peak died off but overall I found my performance seemed to increase. I actually found the RF soundtracks were more suitable in this situation.

Hope this helped, and happy scoring!

[DQuick]

I recently aquired Raiden Project NTSC so I could play it at the correct speed. I played the PAL and NTSC versions within minutes of each other just to compare.

The difference between 50 -> 60 hz isn't 'noticable', in a game that requires timing it's like getting hit in the face with a wet fish.
Some PAL games have had their speed optimised to try and reduce the difference between the NTSC and PAL versions, Raiden Project definitely has not.

[Spyke]

I found that setting difficulty to "easy" set the bullet speed to how I remember the PAL version. I'd be interested to hear what other effects this will have on the game as well as reducing bullet speed. So far there seem to be the same number of bullets, but they are more managable.

Thanks, Ant