What are differences/alike of Raiden II & Raiden DX PCBs

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I just recently got a Fabtek USA Bios region version of Raiden II PCB and would like some fellow shmuppers opinions on the similarities & differences between the Raiden II and Raiden DX Jamma PCBs (meaning gameplay-wise, mechanics, scoring, etc.)

My local arcades never got the Raiden DX PCB and so only just the Raiden II PCB were avaible to play back in the mid 1990's. I suppose if I had requested, my local arcade of "Nickel Play" could've gotten a PCB in for the shmupper fans to play...but it sadly closed it's doors forever in early March/April of 1998 due to losing it's lease.

Hmmm, a nice traditional arcade stocked with some classic retro 1980's and 1990's arcade games + pinball machines today would be perfect for the Modesto, CA area...the very last traditional arcade to close it's doors forever would be the Regency Game Palace in June/July of 1994. Today, there are no "traditional" arcades to be found in California. It did not have the usual prize redemption games nor games that spit out tickets to redeem for prizes, it was a real "traditional" arcade joint with the largest selection of pinball games in the Central Valley of California (at that time). Ten to twelve pinball tables was considered the norm back in the early to mid 1990's at my local Regency Game Palace.

--------------------------------------
Some of the arcade shmup titles found at my Regency Game Palace (back in the day):

McRiver Service Co.'s Turbo Force (3-player version...appeared under the name of "Hyper Force" due to USA copyright name infringement later on)

Banpresto's Super Dimensional Fortress Macross

Capcom's 3 Wonders -- Midnight Wanderers: Adventure across the Sky shmup

Seibu Kaihatsu/Fabtek"s Raiden II

Sammy's Neo-Geo MVS Viewpoint

Data East's Vapor Trail

Capcom's U.N. Squadron

Namco's Star Blade -- full deluxe cabinet setup
-------------------------------------

Nowdays, it's more like one or two new pinball tables every year from Stern/Gottlieb (the very last pinball manufacture in existence located in the USA). Pinball isn't dead but it's on "life support". Ever since Williams closed it's pinball division in 2000 after producing it's last two "Pinball 2000" series of pinball games (Star Wars: Episode I & Revenge of Mars), pinball hasn't recovered since then. I recall that Williams demoed two Star Wars: Episode I pinballs (set on "Free Play" for everyone to try out) that were for sale at a special price of $4,400 USD at the 1999 California Extreme show.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Vexorg]

See my reply to your thread in the Hardware board for some of the stuff you're looking for. As far as I can tell, the hardware used on Raiden 2 and Raiden DX is identical, with the only difference being some changed ROMs for the DX board.

There's a very good and thorough thread on Raiden DX over in the strategy forum that should answer most of your questions about gameplay similarities and differences.