What's The Best Emulation For G-Darius?

[Mordecai Walfish]

These are the criteria (in order from most important to least):

1.PC playable

2.Arcade Version

3.Fully Intact (Music present, Accurate emulation, etc..)

4.Minimum introduced input lag


I'm asking because this is one of my favorite SHMUPs and I've been playing it more often lately, but both versions I play are not good.

First one is the PC version which plays great, but is based on the PSX version thus making it very inferior to the original. Also the music has a tendency to cut out at odd times (could be caused by mounting the game from my HD instead of playing from a actual disc) and sound in general is pretty muddy.

The second one, and the version I play 99% of the time, is the MAME version.. which plays like a dream. Great responsiveness and visually excellent as well.. but the music (which is missing altogether) and sound effects (incorrect balancing, some effects completely missing) leave a lot to be desired here. I usually just queue up the OST to this game and go at it, but it's just not the same.


I've heard the Taito Legends 2 PS2 version is pretty good.. but has anyone played it with PCSX2? Taito Memories Gekan I've heard has the same exact version and it's based on the arcade as well.. I would very much like to hear any experiences people have had with either of these, emulated or on the PS2. I've heard mixed things from people reading random threads in this forum but have seen no definitive answer.

I've bought multiple copies of this game, and am now realizing that I have no actual good version of the game on my current setup, which has me kind of upset now that I really want to get back into it.


So the question stands: How can we best emulate the arcade original G-Darius on PC in 2012?


Thanks!
-Mordecai

p.s. - Please keep any pent up snark to yourself and stay on topic.

[Moniker]

Taito Legends 2 is accepted as the best, since it's based on the arcade version. I played it once and it seemed fine, but I'm too lazy to rearrange my input cables to use my ps2 regularly. I'm more than happy with the PSX version, though. Music & SFX are good, and no lag that I can detect (I run it on my psp). MAME never ran it well for me. Or any other PC-emulation for that matter. But I have an old laptop, so YMMV.

[lawnspic]

Funny that you ask. I was just experimenting with this game in great detail. Honestly the best version i would say is either the original PCB or the PS1 version running on a CRT (forget about modern TV). I recently purchased G Darius from the Jp PSN store and its pretty bad. Poor emulation and laggy control, not good at all. The Ps2 version on Taito Legends 2 is running on Ps1 level hardware. Taito just stripped out the original PSX features and threw in start and coin to look like the arcade game, it's not though. Best emulation IMO is running it on Epsxe. It runs almost flawless except its a little fast. You can get it to the same timing as PSX version by using the frame limiter but the sound speed suffers. It does run exactly the same speed as the PSN release just without the lag. Check out Epsxe and run it in HD (1280x720) using openGl2 or D3D plugins, looks incredible.

[BIL]

The Ps2 version on Taito Legends 2 is running on Ps1 level hardware. Taito just stripped out the original PSX features and threw in start and coin to look like the arcade game, it's not though.

The "PS1 level hardware" you're talking about is the Taito FX-1B system. IE, the original arcade hardware. TL2's G-Darius and Raystorm aren't the PS1 versions with features "stripped out," they're ports of the arcade games that lacked those features to begin with.

[Raytrace]

is this running perfect on ePSXe now? - last time I checked I thought some of the parallaxy background layers didnt seem to draw right - I must give it another go...

[Nasirosuchus]

Another vote for ePSXe.

Runs the game with near perfection. The MAME version is okay but it lacks music.

[lawnspic]

Taken from Empire Interactive forum

Apologies guys,

Honestly it wasn't an attempt to rip anyone off. The explanation is somewhat complex but I'll try and lay it out below.

Taito Japan produced Taito Memories for the Japanese market only and hence only developed it on PS2 - it was released in Japan a bit before Taito Legends 1 was released by Empire in EU/US (on PC/PS2/XBox). It didn't include Bubble Symphony. Some of the later games are beyond the power of the PS2 to emulate (Eg. G Darius/Raystorm which use PS1 level hardware), however Taito still had the source code for these and so made proper ports of them, they also spent some time getting the F3 system games running on PS2 which involved removing the F3 sound CPU and replacing sound generation with very long pre-canned sound streams.

[BIL]

Taken from Empire Interactive forum

Yeah, I saw EI's statement when they first posted it years ago, and have linked to it on this forum more than once in the past. Again, the "PS1 level hardware" they referred to G-Darius and Raystorm running on is obviously the Taito FX-1B. It's a souped-up PS1, like the Taito G-Net, Capcom ZN-1 and Namco System 11. The PS1 has several ports from those systems, generally accurate but compromised in some way due to the step down in hardware (Strider 2's missing frames, G-Darius's slowdown, Night Raid and Raycrisis being 1P only, etc...). If they meant a literal PlayStation, they would've said so.

That quote also rules out the TL2/TMG ports being chopped-down PS1 versions, as it explicitly refers to Taito porting them from source code. Again, that's why they don't have the PS1 bonus features.

[lawnspic]

Yeah i knew about Namco system 11 just did not know FX-1B was similar, thanks for the info. This game has always been a bitch to emulate, at least at the correct speed. Epsxe makes it look real pretty but i need the correct timing. I have not messed with Mame in a while so i cant comment. Honestly, keep your Ps1/2 if you want to play for score and emulate for casual fun.

[Zaarock]

Epsxe makes it look real pretty but i need the correct timing. I have not messed with Mame in a while so i cant comment. Honestly, keep your Ps1/2 if you want to play for score and emulate for casual fun.

Doesn't the ps2 port have no slowdown? If so PSX on emu should be just as inaccurate as PS2 ver in regards to slowdown but with extra features (which at least spawned something as awesome as this). Few people play the game for score though so not surprised there isnt much debating over accuracy and most people seem fine with no slowdown.

[Mordecai Walfish]

Thanks for the responses & suggestions guys.

There was a bit of focus on the PS1 version in the comments and I just wanted to make it clear that I am referring exclusively to the original arcade version.

If you don't know the differences in the two I urge you to give it a try through MAME on a system that can carry the full 60FPS. (I run it on a quad core phenom 2 @ 3.5ghz with a self-compiled build of MAME 64 v0.145)

Having played the arcade original extensively back in the day I just wanted to find a way to re-create that entire package on modern PC's. MAME runs the game perfectly game-play wise (as long as your system can give it a full 60FPS) but the wonderful audio portion of this game is poor in MAME.

I'd like to try the Taito Legends 2 version, because it is, in fact, a direct port from the arcade version. (Taito Memories Genkan in Japan has this same version too)

I don't have a PS2 and won't buy another one. (had 5 die over the years.. thats enough.) For this reason I would like to hear experiences emulating either of those in PCSX2 if anyone on these forums has experience doing that. I cannot seem to find either game easily myself.

Someone mentioned playing the PSX version on PSP as well, and for this purpose the PSX version is invaluable.. it plays great on the PSP. (I don't expect to ever see a proper arcade port of G-Darius on PSP, but on Vita it does seem very likely)



Any other options you guys can think of? Sorry for being so nit-picky, but if you play the original arcade version (or MAME emulated @ 60fps), I'm sure you'll understand what makes that version so much better than the PS1 port. Attack patterns and bullets/movement are different, the game has half the framerate, resulting in a slower-paced experience as well. Playing the PS1 version feels like I'm playing with training wheels on compared to the original (even on 8 difficulty)

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond! I'll get this sorted out eventually ^_^

[Ed Oscuro]

Epsxe makes it look real pretty but i need the correct timing.

Did you try pSX 1.13?

http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

[lawnspic]

Yeah i tried it. It's a good emu but uses a soft video and no hardware accelerated plugins. The timing on that emu is the same since i have tested it. I should maybe play it tin Mame, i have a core i5 should run it smooth.

[Zaarock]

I'd like to try the Taito Legends 2 version, because it is, in fact, a direct port from the arcade version. (Taito Memories Genkan in Japan has this same version too)

That port has no slowdown though (the arcade version had some) and afaik if you emulate the psx version it won't have slowdown either, at least on epsxe.

[null1024]

pSX has strange issues with G-Darius, it would randomly decide "hey, let's stop doing things", and the game would freeze for 20 seconds or so, even with the alternate timing option.
ePSXe doesn't have those issues.

As for the arcade version, have you tried using Zinc to emulate it?

[Mordecai Walfish]

As for the arcade version, have you tried using Zinc to emulate it?

I saw a couple videos on youtube like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25Rh8IJPy4

which seem to confirm that there is no music in the Zinc emulation either.

That port has no slowdown though (the arcade version had some) and afaik if you emulate the psx version it won't have slowdown either, at least on epsxe.

If it doesn't have the slowdown of the original arcade version that's not such a deal-breaker for me, I'd actually like to try it more, knowing that.





If anyone is looking to play the PSX version, just get the Windows port (Japanese) its the same thing and does run decently.

[Observer]

I have the PC version of G-Darius. The game is also a redbook audio disc so for the music to work you need to place it in the tray or else you won't get music. This version also has no loading times, like the RayCrisis and RayStorm PC ports as well, although the latter has a gross sound problem that makes the music sound too low and the SFX too loud.

In case you are trying a non-sancto copy of the game, see if you can get a full iso image with the redbook audio included, mount and run the image. Else, make sure you have the disc around so the game can play the music off it. The music tracks start with a 00:25 song.

[Mordecai Walfish]

SOLVED:

I found a solution to the lack of proper emulation for G-Darius while playing around with the new version of PCSX2 this weekend. The guide on how to set it all up is here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42521

[Raytrace]

I will try the steps in the link,

Has anyone tried using 'ZiNC' ? - that's the PSX chipset based arcade hardware emulator I think. The only thing I ever played on it was that mad thing where you try and stop a businessman from comitting suicide or something...

[BIL]

Zinc worked pretty smoothly for me with G-Darius and Raystorm a few years back, but there was no music emulation. Otherwise quite playable.

[Mordecai Walfish]

Zinc worked pretty smoothly for me with G-Darius and Raystorm a few years back, but there was no music emulation. Otherwise quite playable.

Yeah MAME emulates it the same, with no music.

The guide I posted helps retain the original in all it's arcade glory as much as possible, meaning the original Zuntata soundtrack is still very much intact, and does not suffer the cut-outs in the music from the PSX/PC ports. It's also more challenging than even the arcade original, because the PS2 port being emulated does not have the infrequent framerate slowdowns that were present even in the arcade original.

[PooshhMao]

While it's not a direct answer to your question, I feel compelled to tell you about my personal favourite way to play G-Darius. PSP's are capable of running PSOne games absolutely perfectly, and it's real easy to enable them to play homebrew nowadays. There's a tool out there capable of converting PSOne ISO's to PSP eboots.

[ProcoTaito]

While it's not a direct answer to your question, I feel compelled to tell you about my personal favourite way to play G-Darius. PSP's are capable of running PSOne games absolutely perfectly, and it's real easy to enable them to play homebrew nowadays. There's a tool out there capable of converting PSOne ISO's to PSP eboots.

Yeah, I've done that before. It's really good emulation actually, and it runs super smooth!
That being said, I'm still interested in this HD G-Darius through emulation that I'm hearing about now. Looks real good from the screenshots!

[Mordecai Walfish]

While it's not a direct answer to your question, I feel compelled to tell you about my personal favourite way to play G-Darius. PSP's are capable of running PSOne games absolutely perfectly, and it's real easy to enable them to play homebrew nowadays. There's a tool out there capable of converting PSOne ISO's to PSP eboots.

I actually made my own PSP version from the ps1 iso and added music/artwork to the loader. The psp analog works quite well for shmups too, I've found. I dont like playing g-darius on the psp though because it's not very well suited to that screen size, but it's nice to be able to. (DariusBurst is much more fun on PSP and suited to the portable better, IMO -- on Mission 4-6 right now and that shit is difficult too!)

[PooshhMao]

I'm not so sure about DariusBurst. It's alright, but it's got none of the epic feel of G. No capture balls either, and the beam duelling is nowhere near as intense.

Feels like a low-budget regression in many ways, though it does look nice.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm not so sure about DariusBurst. It's alright, but it's got none of the epic feel of G. No capture balls either, and the beam duelling is nowhere near as intense.

Feels like a low-budget regression in many ways, though it does look nice.

That's how I felt about it. Also, the backgrounds are boring, and look the same.

[Mordecai Walfish]

I didnt mean to imply that DariusBurst was better, I still prefer G-Darius too guys, it just doesnt work as well on the PSP as burst =)

Main issues with G-Darius on PSP are the colors that some of the sprites/pixels for stuff like rockets are colored in a way that they can appear to be almost invisible unless you're looking at the screen in perfect conditions (no glare, etc) Burst does not have this issue.

[shmuppyLove]

While it's not a direct answer to your question, I feel compelled to tell you about my personal favourite way to play G-Darius. PSP's are capable of running PSOne games absolutely perfectly, and it's real easy to enable them to play homebrew nowadays. There's a tool out there capable of converting PSOne ISO's to PSP eboots.

Seconded.

Einhander is fucking brilliant on the PSP as well.

[bombman]

Funny that you ask. I was just experimenting with this game in great detail. Honestly the best version i would say is either the original PCB or the PS1 version running on a CRT (forget about modern TV). I recently purchased G Darius from the Jp PSN store and its pretty bad. Poor emulation and laggy control, not good at all. The Ps2 version on Taito Legends 2 is running on Ps1 level hardware. Taito just stripped out the original PSX features and threw in start and coin to look like the arcade game, it's not though. Best emulation IMO is running it on Epsxe. It runs almost flawless except its a little fast. You can get it to the same timing as PSX version by using the frame limiter but the sound speed suffers. It does run exactly the same speed as the PSN release just without the lag. Check out Epsxe and run it in HD (1280x720) using openGl2 or D3D plugins, looks incredible.

lol nice username

[Mordecai Walfish]

The Ps2 version on Taito Legends 2 is running on Ps1 level hardware. Taito just stripped out the original PSX features and threw in start and coin to look like the arcade game, it's not though.

lol wut? might wanna research that a bit more