M2 Toaplan collection

[Jonpachi]

The whole Toaplan catalogue got spewed out in so many directions since the project began that it has to have eroded their faith in a new volume being a sound business move. Between Steam ports, Genesis cart reproductions, Evercade Volumes, and the Saturn-Tribute Batsugun there doesn't seem to be much meat left on the bones.

[Creamy Goodness]

The whole Toaplan catalogue got spewed out in so many directions since the project began that it has to have eroded their faith in a new volume being a sound business move. Between Steam ports, Genesis cart reproductions, Evercade Volumes, and the Saturn-Tribute Batsugun there doesn't seem to be much meat left on the bones.

This is what I am thinking. Tatsujin kind of cannibalized the opportunity for M2 to release the rest of the Toaplan catalog. Not too concerned as hopefully this means M2 will do more work on the rest of the Cave and Raizing games.

[Steven]

The Evercade carts seem to largely lack the superior and developer-intended Japanese 1P versions, the Bitwave releases range from good to questionable but mostly questionable and none of the non-shooting games are there, Shitty Connection Batsugun has an unacceptable amount of input lag, and I know this is completely obvious, but the rereleases of the console versions are not the arcade versions, and most of the games that M2 hasn't rereleased yet don't even have console versions. M2 is very much still necessary.

Fortunately, the handful of good Bitwave releases include Tatsujin Ou and Batsugun, so you don't have to wait for M2 for either and you can ignore Batsugun Saturn Tribute.

[Jackoz]

The whole Toaplan catalogue got spewed out in so many directions since the project began that it has to have eroded their faith in a new volume being a sound business move. Between Steam ports, Genesis cart reproductions, Evercade Volumes, and the Saturn-Tribute Batsugun there doesn't seem to be much meat left on the bones.

Don’t forget the Toaplan eXA Label games that blow away every other port. The new modes in Batsugun and Fixeight I played in Tokyo transform these games to a whole new level. I reckon M2 saw these and gave up trying to compete.

[Sumez]

I don't need *every* Toaplan game from M2, but honestly I think it's a little sad if we never get their take on Out Zone, Batsugun and V-V.

[Steven]

and, most importantly, the best Toaplan game, Slap Fight... is what I would say if they were doing arrange versions of these, but they aren't. They could make V-V play more like Slap Fight or make Slap Fight play more like V-V, or whatever else they can think of, but it doesn't matter because they are not doing Toaplan arrange modes.

[Sumez]

Yeah that sucks. I'd really love to see M2 arrange modes of the three games I mentioned. For Slap Fight we already have the MegaDrive game.

[BIL]

Much as Gradius Origin contains a mighty slab of games already on ACA, I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one last TAG outing, regardless of affairs afield.

Konami MegaTech Body Corp =/= Eastplan Ya Boys Down The Way, ofc, but TAG/ST always has a passion element.

tbh though, breaking the cruel 25yr curse of Toaplan Shooting Battle Volume Wuh (WUUUT!), Wuh (unnnh!), Wuh (fuck what ya hurrrd!), wickeh-wickeh-wickeh...

Spoiler

"One" *gas station explosion clip*

...might've burnt through all reserve Karma Powder. Making ZEROFIRE even more miraculous. (a year on, I figured out THA STYLE! not only must you eliminate the space, but pronounce it ala NIHON / ZELOFIYA. one man's Rare Hero another Let It Hit Em etc etc )

And thats fine Strong Run from M2.

Sorry to say, my enthusiasm has waned.

Spoiler

LOL J/K
FUCK THAT SHIT
I GOTS THE PATIENCE ON A MONUMENT MOTHERFUCKER

^ Half a decade aint put one millitmetre of sag on them BUNZ OF STEEL son. Night is entirely too young to call it yet.

[MintyTheCat]

Fortunately, the handful of good Bitwave releases include Tatsujin Ou and Batsugun, so you don't have to wait for M2 for either and you can ignore Batsugun Saturn Tribute.

Thanks for letting us know, I didn't realise that good old GOG had these Bitwave releases:

https://www.bitwavegames.com/games/truxton-ii
https://www.gog.com/en/game/truxton_2

I have the PCB but it has some issues and will not work and needs to be repaired.
I have the Astro City Mini V, but I need to get a joystick.

So it would make sense in my case for now to play the GOG release - cheers.

[Steven]

Fortunately, the handful of good Bitwave releases include Tatsujin Ou and Batsugun, so you don't have to wait for M2 for either and you can ignore Batsugun Saturn Tribute.

Thanks for letting us know, I didn't realise that good old GOG had these Bitwave releases:

https://www.bitwavegames.com/games/truxton-ii
https://www.gog.com/en/game/truxton_2

I have the PCB but it has some issues and will not work and needs to be repaired.
I have the Astro City Mini V, but I need to get a joystick.

So it would make sense in my case for now to play the GOG release - cheers.

Yeah, the GOG/Steam versions of those two games are good, and very possibly the best way to play both of them. I have a borrowed Batsugun PCB now, so I really should do a side-by-side comparison with the real thing before I have to give it back, but I know that Tatsujin Ou, which I am way more familiar with and have played almost exclusively on PCB, definitely gets a passing score. One change that I really appreciate is that it's no longer possible to make everything disappear by hitting the sprite limit, so that dangerous part near the middle of stage 2 where the explosions cause everything to disappear no longer exists, so you now don't have to worry about dying while everything is invisible.

They may still have some oddness here and there, like how you can somehow play loops 2, 3, and 4 in regular Batsugun's practice mode even though those loops don't exist unless you play Special, but they are generally pretty fine when playing normally and you don't have to worry about breaking your HK-1000, which is always nice. Tatsujin Ou also has the cool stereo soundtrack, which I always highly recommend. I think Batsugun's sound is a little harsh at times, but I am not 100% sure and need to do more testing.

[Steven]

City Connection is releasing those questionable Bitwave Toaplan games on PS4, PS5, ans Switch. Now everyone can have their ears destroyed and play every version of Out Zone except the finalized Japanese version.

[Sumez]

So M2 did lose the console license, and everything Embracer said was a lie.

What a massive surprise

[Steven]

At least I got to play M2 ShotTriggers Tatsujin Ou one time. I regret not playing ShotTriggers Out Zone while I had the chance. Maybe those will still happen, but since M2 got the license to all of the games, not just the shooters, hopefully it will continue. We still need M2 ShotTriggers Knuckle Bash, after all.

[hamfighterx]

So M2 did lose the console license, and everything Embracer said was a lie.

Did M2 *lose* the license, or did Embracer/Tatsujin licensing the same games to everyone under the sun just water things down so much that it made it less appealing for M2 to bother continuing? In addition to the Bitwave PC ports (are these console releases really just the Bitwave versions?), the whole shooter catalog also made it to Evercade and to the Amusement Arcade Toaplan mobile app, Polymega did a disc release this year with 5 games (US versions of Tiger Heli, Twin Cobra, Sky Shark, Flying Shark, and Twin Hawk), we saw the City Connection Batsugun Saturn Tribute release. Snow Bros 1 and 2 both got remakes from CRT games...

I always thought "well, there's still very little competition on console so M2 can keep going". Uh... there goes that rationale. I'm sad to see Toaplan Arcade Garage seemingly coming to an end, M2 did such a great job and the additional modes/gadgets and regional + console variants (plus the non-STG games).

On the bright side, I guess this frees M2 up to do more other ShotTriggers projects. Bring on ShotTriggers Armed Police Batrider.

[Steven]

I still don't believe that it is over yet. It better not be, not without Out Zone, Slap Fight, V-V, and Dash Yarou at minimum. It's possible or even likely that M2 got swamped with a bunch of other projects at once (Dominus, Gradius, Daioujou, Night Striker, Operation Wolf, Mega Drive for Switch, etc.) and those clients got prioritised over Toaplan. Some of those include brand-new games, and those take time to design and develop.

[Sumez]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI4qeDgtn9A

Did M2 *lose* the license, or did Embracer/Tatsujin licensing the same games to everyone under the sun just water things down so much that it made it less appealing for M2 to bother continuing?

Hard to tell. But usually the way these licenses work if you get the rights to a certain property within a certain platform.
Of course, if they'd actually had that, Embracer wouldn't have been able to do this either.

Speculation now is, did Embracer end up releasing the Bitwave ports on consoles anyway because M2 couldn't get their fingers out, or did M2 stop focusing on Toaplan in the first place because they knew this was coming anyway.

[Creamy Goodness]

I'm a little confused about this. From the minimal marketing I see it looks like these will be similar to City Connection's Psikyo releases? Will these be straight ports of the Steam versions.

[hamfighterx]

Official site says (machine translated):

*This is the Japanese version of the home version of the "Toaplan Arcade Collection" series developed by Bitwave Games and released on Steam. Some specifications differ from the Steam version and overseas versions.

[BEAMLORD]

To be honest, as this console release will be my only reasonable means of playing Outzone, I will be relieved to be able to play it in some form.

I still hope that M2 is able to realise the Arcade Garage project in full in the future. Considering now that the Toaplan catalogue has been pimped out in myriad inferior ways to M2's vision, it would be nice if they broke their radio silence with some kind of heads-up regarding their intent over the project.

[Steven]

I keep downloading mysterious updates for all of the PC versions with no patch notes somewhat regularly. The most recent one was only a few days ago. As far as I can tell, nothing notable has changed at all, but I also don't really want to play through 16 games just to see what got changed. Steamdb doesn't offer much information, either.

To be honest, as this console release will be my only reasonable means of playing Outzone, I will be relieved to be able to play it in some form.

When you get it, choose the "common" version. The "normal" version is an unfinished prototype with the final version's music hacked in.

Speaking of hacking music in, I'd pay some serious money to have a version of Tatsujin with Sato-san's new arrange OST in it because it's awesome.

[FunktionJCB]

I keep downloading mysterious updates for all of the PC versions with no patch notes somewhat regularly. The most recent one was only a few days ago. As far as I can tell, nothing notable has changed at all, but I also don't really want to play through 16 games just to see what got changed. Steamdb doesn't offer much information, either.

That's weird.
I have all games installed, and I haven't seen any new updates on Steam in at least a few months (and I have automatic updates, so they download as soon as they are available).

Are you, by any chance, on a beta branch?

[Steven]

I keep downloading mysterious updates for all of the PC versions with no patch notes somewhat regularly. The most recent one was only a few days ago. As far as I can tell, nothing notable has changed at all, but I also don't really want to play through 16 games just to see what got changed. Steamdb doesn't offer much information, either.

That's weird.
I have all games installed, and I haven't seen any new updates on Steam in at least a few months (and I have automatic updates, so they download as soon as they are available).

Are you, by any chance, on a beta branch?

Nope. I notice it a lot because Steam Deck tends to not automatically download patches. It adds them to the download queue, but it usually requires manually downloading them and I've gotten in the habit of checking downloads every day to see if there is anything. There's probably a setting for it to do it automatically somewhere. It automatically downloads shader cache updates, but not actual patches. I am using the Linux versions, though, not the Windows versions, but I do tend to notice them at the same time for the Windows versions on my normal computer as well. There is some information on Steamdb, but it's not much. This is what it looks like for just this game, and the others have similar stuff: https://steamdb.info/app/2022910/history/

[FunktionJCB]

Nope. I notice it a lot because Steam Deck tends to not automatically download patches. It adds them to the download queue, but it usually requires manually downloading them and I've gotten in the habit of checking downloads every day to see if there is anything. There's probably a setting for it to do it automatically somewhere. It automatically downloads shader cache updates, but not actual patches. I am using the Linux versions, though, not the Windows versions, but I do tend to notice them at the same time for the Windows versions on my normal computer as well. There is some information on Steamdb, but it's not much. This is what it looks like for just this game, and the others have similar stuff: https://steamdb.info/app/2022910/history/

Maybe that's it.
I'm on a desktop PC, and on Windows. Maybe it's an OS or Steam Deck thing.

[Manualmartin]

Don't have details, but what I know is non-exclusive so there's no excluding anyone. M2 still are very relevant thanks to their more fleshed out offerings with more features and different console versions in addition to the arcade version. Another good thing with the Bitwave games is finally Xbox players can get their hands on the Toaplan games.

[Bassa-Bassa]

more fleshed out offerings with more features and different console versions in addition to the arcade version.

And how big is the audience left just for those?

[TransatlanticFoe]

There's definitely room for both, the premium M2 releases are a tough sell for a more casual customer because it's a high price point for 2-3 games. But the archival quality of having all the different revisions and common home ports, well that's a nerd's delight. It's much more niche but I suspect almost everyone who imported the M2 releases is up for more.

They did at least a load of cool stuff out of the way in those three volumes. But it's a shame that all those Outzone revisions don't get put out properly. Plus there's still some interesting home ports absent - Slap Fight, Twin Hawk and Truxton. Hopefully M2 will be back with more Toaplan Arcade Garage when they're ready.

[Bassa-Bassa]

There's definitely room for both

I don't think that even the current Toaplan Garage releases made enough money when there wasn't any other official option, but that's an opinion, I guess.

[pablumatic]

Hmm. Still hoping the ShotTriggers versions come out someday.

Hamster is able to release Namco arcade titles on consoles even with other versions of the games, like Pac-Man, getting published by Namco themselves on the same platforms. Hope M2's license is similar with Toaplan.

[Lemnear]

Maybe you've already seen it but I'm posting it anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWmzVmJZwJ8 (Vol. 2)

VOL 2:

Zero Wing
Hellfire
Slap Fight
Grind Stormer
Truxton
Truxton II
Vimana
Twin Hawk


https://city-connection.co.jp/toaplan-ac/

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCeIbxJlNDo

[Creamy Goodness]

Official site says (machine translated):

*This is the Japanese version of the home version of the "Toaplan Arcade Collection" series developed by Bitwave Games and released on Steam. Some specifications differ from the Steam version and overseas versions.

Thank you. This maybe a hot take, but this seems like a more reasonable package for these games. As much as I love M2, for my needs the Toaplan releases are very overkill and I would rather not pay the price they are asking. All I really need is solid emulation and the basic QoL features that are expected in a rerelease. I'd personally prefer to pay less for more arcade games than a whole lot more and get stuff like the console releases. For the console releases I would most play those on original hardware. I'm just kind of annoyed that I now have a useless Saturn Tribute of Batsugun. FOMO is a mutha.