Taito collections

[Bloodreign]

How's Rainbow Islands music on the X-Box version, is it missing the high notes like on the PS 2 version? It's not a bug but a legal issue as stated, but I'm just wondering.


And my old eyes don't pick up on the bugs in the PS 2 version, I'm so happy to have Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, and a few other titles on here I guess I just don't notice. Although I expect some of the removed games from TL 1 to be included in TL 2.

BTW whatever happened to that Bubble Bobble strat thread in off topic?

[E. Randy Dupre]

I wonder if it was just an unlucky turn of events?

Could be, I guess. To be honest, I've not had the energy to go back and check, what with BB's slightly odd system of continues meaning you have to co-ordinate deaths in the two-player game.

There's been a number of people complaining about the bubble movement on a couple of other boards, claiming that it's significantly different to how it should be. I'm not sure about that claim myself, but it could explain the problem I had with level 97 - if bubble physics are a little wonky, they could lead to some pretty big issues every now and again. That said, the same people have also been saying that the general speed of the game is noticably slower than in the arcade original and the Memories collection, and I can't see that at all. So yeah, maybe there are some random problems with the emulation, rather than consistent ones.

How's Rainbow Islands music on the X-Box version, is it missing the high notes like on the PS 2 version? It's not a bug but a legal issue as stated, but I'm just wondering.

It's the same - melody ripped out. I've always found the original music to be slightly annoying - I swear it's got some bum notes in it - so it's not *that* big of an issue for me. I really would have liked the Saturn music in there as an option, though.

Although I expect some of the removed games from TL 1 to be included in TL 2.

Rumour is that all the games from both the Memories discs that are missing from this will be included on TL2. Hope so.

[chtimi-CLA]

That sounds horrible.

these aren't porting bugs, see my post.

What about the thing with bubbles going outside the level boundary on level 95? Surely that's not supposed to happen?

By the way, I'm talking about the PAL Legends release, not the JPN Memories one. Dondokodon isn't in it, so I guess you're playing the import, yeah? As I understand it, they run under different emulators.

I don't know if the JP version has the level 95 out of bounds bubbles, since the rest wasn't port bugs i just assumed you were seeing things but maybe that's PAL specific..

[dave4shmups]

I've got both the Jap collections and they are well worth it just for the sheer number of classic games . . .BUT . . .

. . .as far as I'm concerned the best Taito game - Rainbow Islands - ain't on either of 'em.

Good news, though, because it appears on the first PAL collection . . .weird that, huh ????

Rainbow Islands Extra will be appearing on the PSP version of Taito Memories in January.
SRC:
http://www.insertcredit.com/archives/000657.html

Never heard of Rainbow Islands Extra; what's it like? At any rate, I will be picking up the US PS2 Taito Classics Collection-though I still wonder if Darius Gaiden will be on it-the latest issue of Hardcore Gamer lists it, but no other sources do.

[Danny]

I wonder if you guys are playing the collection in 50hrz mode? Because when I played my Xbox version around my mates house and he had his xbox set to 50mhz as standard on ouch man... seriously because the emulation on the collection has to slow the game down and skip frames etc the music sounded slower and poor and some of the games like bubble bobble for instance had problems with gameplay like wonkey bubbles and so on. I figured it might effection the emulation of this retro pack like it did with the whole Ikagura NGC PAL thing were skipping a frame every so oftern might mess up the gameplay or in Ika's case the missles?

[chtimi-CLA]

Never heard of Rainbow Islands Extra; what's it like?

it's a rare PCB prototype, i don't remember the differences though.
edit: summoning Recap

[dave4shmups]

Never heard of Rainbow Islands Extra; what's it like?

it's a rare PCB prototype, i don't remember the differences though.
edit: summoning Recap

I read on KLOV that the levels are arranged differently. At any rate, I picked up the American port for my PSTwo today, and I am very satisfied with it! No Darius Gaiden, but plenty of shooting goodness! My only complaints with it is that it should've had Barbarian and the original Qix on it-but I'm getting a PSP for Christmas this year, so I can just the PSP port, which will have both of those games on it. Plus, there's alway PS1 Qix Neo, which also has the original on it.

[Bloodreign]

RI Extra has the levels in different order (none new as perceived), harder gameplay (enemies are a little smarter and some fly over the rainbows you make, like the Darius planes, and tanks, in of course the Darius stage), some bonuses like the fairy that protects you doesn't last as long, generally small differences to me.

[Marc]

I'm sure the differences are bigger than that - at least on the version I played. For example, although the level begin screen listed the first Island as Insect Island as in the original, the graphics are changed completely. Backdrop was a black sky and enemies were robot insect thingies. They all had the same movement patters and attacks as the insects in the original version though. Before the boss I got a Darius-style 'Beware... a huge battleship...' message, but again while being completely different graphically, the boss had the same moves as the original spider boss.

I'm aware that the original had a Darius Island, although I never saw it for myself, so I don't know if it's simply the graphics from that stage 'overlaid' on to the original stage designs. The new sprites had a horrible, colourless, almost pre-rendered look to them and looked really out of place though, which put me off so much I couldn't be bothered to play the second island - again, still shown as Combat Island.

Will try and play more and post impressions tonight.

[Turrican]

Marc is right. You can play Extra on Megadrive too, as it was ported.

[Nei First]

I was wondering if there were any differences between the arcade and playstation versions of G-Darius and Raystorm, and if so, is the taito memories version superior to the playstiation versions? Enough to warrant a purchase if I already own the playstation versions?

I don't know about Raystorm, but I had a post on G Darius not too long ago. Taito memories has the arcade version of G Darius, and the emulation is said to be spot on, and without a hint of slowdown. From what others said here, the Playstation version apparently has slowdown in parts (You have the PS version so you might be aware of this already).

Some say the PS version is slightly easier to play because of the slowdown. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on you.
Also, the PS version has the special boss rush mode which isn't on the TM version.

Depending on how much you like G-Darius, you might want to finally play a flawless arcade version of the game, in which case get the TM version.
Remember, it does come with a large bundle of other quality games too, so you can't go wrong.

[Bloodreign]

The 3 extra islands from the original RI (only reachable with the 7 big diamonds, cannot continue from Islands 8-10 with continue after level 7 code):

Island 8: Magical Island- enemies are from Fairyland Story, if you've never heard of it check KLOV.

Island 9: Darius Island- planes, tanks, and various other enemies from Darius, everyone here knows Darius.

Island 10: Bubble Bobble Island- enemies are from the original Bubble Bobble, last boss resides on this island.

Extra takes these stages and seems to make them the first 3, last boss is the same.

[BrianC]

Plus, there's alway PS1 Qix Neo, which also has the original on it.

Umm. Qix Neo doesn't have the original Qix on it. It only has the original Volfied and an updated version of Volfied. The real irony is that Taito Legends does have the original Volfied.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I wonder if you guys are playing the collection in 50hrz mode?

Nope. 60Hz here.

[system11]

Taito Legends on the Xbox (PAL) appears to run at 60hz if the console is set to prefer that in the menu.

[dave4shmups]

Plus, there's alway PS1 Qix Neo, which also has the original on it.

Umm. Qix Neo doesn't have the original Qix on it. It only has the original Volfied and an updated version of Volfied.

Oh, ok, well thanks for that info BrianC! At any rate, I picked up the US PSTwo Taito Legends, and it runs fine. It's an outstanding retro collection; one of the best to ever grace a console, IMO!

[Dylan1CC]

Never heard of Rainbow Islands Extra; what's it like?

it's a rare PCB prototype, i don't remember the differences though.
edit: summoning Recap

FYI Recap was banned over a week ago. Yeah, he had the answers on resolution questions but otherwise, good riddance.

[system11]

Never heard of Rainbow Islands Extra; what's it like?

it's a rare PCB prototype, i don't remember the differences though.
edit: summoning Recap

It's not a prototype, just uncommon.

[Randorama]

it's not even that rare, to my knowledge. Basically, they shuffled the stages around (you get: Darius- fairy story - dragon - Doh - robot - toy - monster - war - insect -bubble bobble), some more power-ups/special rooms/whatever (i think the mame info/history file has the conditions) and it's slightly more difficult. "Jumping" is a 1988 bootleg, instead.

[chtimi-CLA]

FYI Recap was banned over a week ago. Yeah, he had the answers on resolution questions but otherwise, good riddance.

it had to happen sooner or later anyway

[Dylan1CC]

FYI Recap was banned over a week ago. Yeah, he had the answers on resolution questions but otherwise, good riddance.

it had to happen sooner or later anyway

Yeppers.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Recap was banned? Damn shame

Anyway I got Taito Legends XB and it's a hoot, although shame on Atomic Planet for goofing up the button placement. If I'm not paying attention I'll end up pressing the wrong button and dying a crappy death.

Regardless a good compilation, and hopefully info on Taito Legends 2(as well as Capcom Classics vol 2) hits soon.

[Dylan1CC]

Taito Legends U.S. rev lineup from EBgames.com, no diff from the Empire disc:

Space Invaders
Plump Pop
Jungle Hunt
Rastan
Bubble Bobble
Super Qix
Operation Wolf
New Zealand Story
Rainbow Islands
Battle Shark
Operation Thunderbolt
Continental Circus
Phoenix
Plotting (aka Flipull)
Space Invaders Part II
Volfied
Colony 7
Ninja Kids
Electric YoYo
Space Gun
Zoo Keeper
ThunderFox
Elevator Action
Tube It
Great Swordsman
Return of the Invaders
Gladiator
Tokio
Exzisus

NO Darius and NO EAR = NO purchase from me. Having Bubble Bobble, New Zealand Story, Darius Gaiden and EAR conveniently on one disc would have been ace. I'll just give my money to an import shop instead. edit: Thanks, idiots at Empire Interactive.

[takohiko]

The (European) Legends Vol.2 list has been confirmed, and it's a hell of a list:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/press_rele ... ?aid=12899

Plenty of shmups, and other awesome stuff.

[Arcatech]

That is one hell of a list.

I'm sure this will come out in the US as well since the first one did. Hopefully the game stores around my area will get more then ONE copy. ridiculous

[Neo Rasa]

I wouldn't worry, our Gamestop is in the middle of a big Madden only area and we got like ten XBox copies.

It BETTER come out here, the first was released here for $20. Darius Gaiden, Growl, Violence Fight and Dungeon Magic alone are worh that much.

I'm glad I'm waiting, I almost imported both Japanese releases, might only have to grab one of them now to have all the ports released.

[Bloodreign]

I saw the list, all the games I wanted on Volume 1 (some were there thankfully) are on this list, but seeing as how the PAL and NTSC versions had the same list for Volume 1, it's a pretty safe bet Volume 2 will be the same, hopefully this time in DVD format.


As long as cancellations don't happen I like the look of Volume 2.

[PFG 9000]

Yeah, I would've bought Vol. 1 for Darius Gaiden alone. If this list doesn't change for the US release, I'll buy it the day it comes out. I've already got Raystorm and G-Darius on the PSX, but if the arcade version of G-Darius really is that much faster, it'll be a nice bonus to finally having Gaiden.

[professor ganson]

I think this line-up for vol.2 looks amazing. Now I won't have to import Metal Black for Saturn. I might still have to for Gekirindan, since there is no tate. But at least I'll be able to tell whether it's something worth pursuing. Honestly, I don't think I could reasonably ask for more.

[professor ganson]

Finally picked up vol 1. $20 to be able to play Phoenix and-- for the first time-- Bubble Bobble! That's well worth it by itself for me, really.

I now wish that I had picked up the PS2 version instead. The placement of the d-pad on XBox controllers is unfamiliar and a bit awkward for me.

The shmups on here are a bit weak, probably not worth the time. But the versions of Space Invaders look nice/ play nicely.

Can't wait for vol. 2. I think I'll preorder just to show my support.