If you could get just one PCE CD (complete list added)

FraGMarE · Post by **FraGMarE** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:10 pm

It's hard to pick just one PCE-CD shmup. There are many, many great games on that system. The PCE was certainly the king of shmups during the 16-bit era. If I had to pick just one, i would have to say.....

Gate of Thunder - An amazing horizontal shmup with perfect gameplay, great graphics, and huge bosses. One of the greatest shmups of all time, imo.

Honorable Mentions must be given to Spriggan (Compile at it's finest), Lords of Thunder (Same dev team responsible for Gate of Thunder), and Star Parodia (vertical cute-em-up, based on the Star Soldier series). Sapphire is also quite the quality game and it has 2-player co-op, but you'll find it's a bit on pricey side trying to get ahold of this one. I'm also a bit partial to Psychic Storm, as it's like a 2-player co-op CyberCore on steroids. This is not to say these are the ONLY great games on the PCE-CD, but these would have to be my picks as must-haves.

Also, as biased as I am (I'm part of the dev team), Meteor Blaster DX is a worthy game, especially for those who enjoy remakes of classic arcade games. It's basically Asteroids that's been juiced up with power-ups, bosses, and vastly improved graphics (somewhat like Blasteroids). I would say it holds it's own against other classic shmup remakes on the PCE like Galaga '88, and Space Invaders Original... but as I said, I am biased.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:46 pm

Spriggan. Sylphia is way more expensive and feels like a Compile fanservice. Star Parodier is way too long and easy, you'll be bored and wanting the game to by the 4th level.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:36 am

3 way tie between Gate of Thunder Gradius II, and Star Parodia. Star Parodia is very easy but an excellent shooter nonetheless and also highly recommended. Get it just for the beautiful visuals and music. There is even a Bomberman shmup boss in the game as you can see in my avatar.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:47 pm

Since this is shmups.com, I suppose you want to hear about shooters: I would get only Nexzr. It's a brilliant game! Spriggan, Gate and Lords of Thunder are all nice but Nexzr is the best. Funny I didn't even know about it until six months ago. BTW, the review on shmps.com doesn't do it justice and contains several wrong assumptions. Nexzr is a port of an unreleased (as far as anyone knows) arcade game. The Summer Carnival edition came one year after the original game and contains one additional time/score attack level. The main game is identical (no, there is no bomb in the original game either), but the anime intro sequence is missing in the Summer Carnival edition (funny they cut it out, because there is even an image from the missing intro featured on the back cover).

As for non-shooters, my choice would be Akumajo Dracula X - Chi no Rondo ("Rondo of Blood"), which is the best oldschool Castlevania.

Klatrymadon · Post by **Klatrymadon** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:40 pm

As for non-shooters, my choice would be Akumajo Dracula X - Chi no Rondo ("Rondo of Blood"), which is the best oldschool Castlevania.

Second best.

Don't worry, one day I might learn to let go of CV IV.

fraggore · Post by **fraggore** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:44 pm

got to get lords of thunder, draculax and legend of deko boko thats game looks shite butt its one of the best games on the system and one of the worse looking. that way it was missed butt i loved playing it

Moogs · Post by **Moogs** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:01 pm

Holy shit. . . is this really an issue? Why?

Everyone's just going to continue to call it "Rondo of Blood" or "Chi no Rondo," anyway.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:46 pm

Recap wrote:You fail to see that, while there's only one correct way to read and write a title, there usually are several ways to translate it, and all of them may be perfectly valid, especially if it's a gikun case like this one.

The correct spelling and write romanji form is "Akumajo Dracula X - Chi no Rondo". Among the several ways to translate Rondo, there might be yours. Writing Rondo as the furigana say is the best way so it depends on one's sensibility to see in it Rondo or ronde, although the latter sounds less convincing for the above mentioned reasons.

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:31 pm

Turrican wrote:
^A dangerous group of Shaft's worshippers. Damn these bloody cultists.

They must be Satan worshippers. They're holding hands, dancing (out of sync, I might add), and looking like they enjoy it!
They'll probably go sacrifice some virgins next.

samu wrote:Now don't get me started on how people pronounce sudoku though

Without the "u" at the end? As in "su-do-k".
I'd rather solve the damn things than get anal about pronounciation. (Those new "Killer" puzzles in The Times are real headscratchers.)

FraGMarE · Post by **FraGMarE** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:43 pm

Hey, I've got an idea! Let's take a seemingly benign topic about a beloved system like the PC-Engine, and turn it into a big flame war over some trivial definition of a game title that, in all actuality, has nothing to do with the original topic! Yea! ...err, wait. That's already being done.

Sometimes i think this forum should be called ShmupFaqs.com... no really.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:18 pm

Argh, don't be so mean... Think to it this way: now 90% of this thread is dedicated to Dracula X. So Prof Ganson won't miss everyone's advice and will try the game!!

It's not even that expensive, if you know where to look and you forget about spine.

Zach Keene · Post by **Zach Keene** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 9:22 pm

The Drac X derailment has been split off here, though it looks like I missed a few posts. Nothing that can be done about that now unfortunately.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:20 pm

I'm gonna second my vote for Star Parodia, get that of the three games I recommended. Gate of Thunder and Gradius 2 are both relatively easy to find later on, Parodia is a little more rare so grab it when you see it.

Post by **undamned** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:20 am

Zach Keene wrote:The Drac X derailment has been split off here, though it looks like I missed a few posts. Nothing that can be done about that now unfortunately.

You are a saint.
-ud

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:22 am

I really appreciate all the feedback. Since I'm not a huge Castlevania fan, I think I'll skip Drac X for now. Star Parodia seems like the popular choice, and then there was Seven Force's comment:

Seven Force wrote:
chtimi wrote:star parodia is much too easy.
That's completely true, but really besides the point. For me Star Parodia is an "experience" rather than a regular shmup.
IMO, it's the quintessential PCE game. It's a shmup, it's cute, has great music, japanese humour and it even has a playable PC-Engine character. Every good PCE collection needs to include this game, I think.

These remarks were enough to convince me, and Undamned was willing to part with his copy.
So now my only concern is this alarming remark by Seven Force:

Seven Force wrote:My nostradamian predictions:
Ten years from now...
...only 28% of todays Duo-Rs will still function.

It might have been good to read this BEFORE I decided to get a Duo-R!

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:43 am

Nah, you're still safe with the Duo-R. Now, if it was the original Duo with the heating issue, those figures would sound very reasonable.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:01 am

undamned wrote:
Zach Keene wrote:The Drac X derailment has been split off here, though it looks like I missed a few posts. Nothing that can be done about that now unfortunately.
You are a saint.
-ud

Yep.

While we're OT, how does Daisenpu Custom compare to the hucard? Might have asked this before.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:19 am

Seven Force wrote: So now my only concern is this alarming remark by Seven Force:

Seven Force wrote:My nostradamian predictions:
Ten years from now...
...only 28% of todays Duo-Rs will still function.
It might have been good to read this BEFORE I decided to get a Duo-R!

Oh, don't worry, my "predictions" were just meant as a joke!
Duo-R is generally considered the best all-in-one PCE hardware. You should be fine, buying one now.

I have one myself and haven't had any problems with it, apart from one time, but then it turned out it was actually my own stupidity and there was nothing wrong with the machine.

Still, it's one of the earliest CD-Rom systems, so who knows, it may eventually be hard to find working ones sometime in the future. For now it should be okay tho.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:36 am

hm, i think i'm going to take a break from DOJ and play the old duo for a while.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 1:27 pm

Thanks Ganelon and Seven Force. I feel better now. I'll feel even better when the duo arrives and I've had a chance to test it.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:27 pm

Seven Force wrote:
Seven Force wrote: So now my only concern is this alarming remark by Seven Force:

Seven Force wrote:My nostradamian predictions:
Ten years from now...
...only 28% of todays Duo-Rs will still function.
It might have been good to read this BEFORE I decided to get a Duo-R!
Oh, don't worry, my "predictions" were just meant as a joke!
Duo-R is generally considered the best all-in-one PCE hardware. You should be fine, buying one now.

I have one myself and haven't had any problems with it, apart from one time, but then it turned out it was actually my own stupidity and there was nothing wrong with the machine.

Still, it's one of the earliest CD-Rom systems, so who knows, it may eventually be hard to find working ones sometime in the future. For now it should be okay tho.

As much as I hate to think about it, the lasers of all CD units will eventually fail. When this starts to happen, there will surely be someone to produce replacement kits for our beloved PC E. How hard can it be?

gundamalpha · Post by **gundamalpha** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:15 am

little ot here: what's a good price for star parodier? i've came across one for $30, good price?

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 3:57 am

gundamalpha wrote:little ot here: what's a good price for star parodier? i've came across one for $30, good price?

Not a bad price, I think.