Toaplan games coming to PC (Steam, GOG)

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Every new loop = double enemy shot speed

[emphatic]

Every new loop = double enemy shot speed

Makes more sense if you put it together with the first suggested changes:

How about:

Danmaku mode:

* Slower but increased amount of enemy bullets
* Smaller hitbox

[Redfox]

If you haven't seen his 60th birthday live stream, you should, as there's some really good stuff in there, notably including Tatsujin wo Koete Ou to Nare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oyqo4_qk4
He messes up a few times, but that's how live performances go.

Thanks for that link. He did a rendition of the first stage of Dogyuun (my personal fav Toaplan game) about 20 mins in that was incredible!!!! Made my night for sure

[Carl-Henrik]

Carl-Henrik: If you need content, please consider an arrange mode around the following conditions (from the "Your dream game hackz" thread):

How about:

Danmaku mode:

* Slower but increased amount of enemy bullets
* Smaller hitbox



* 15kHz full auto
* Bosses doesn't time out (or stop firing)
* Dying powers you down three steps maximum and one step minimum (if you've only taken one power-up before dying)
* Red heli is slightly more powerful using red shot (0.5x)
* Blue heli is slightly faster and is slightly more powerful (0.5x) using green shot
* Yellow shot is 2X as powerful as in the original game
* Looping the game gives you 500,000 pts + 1 extend
* Score extends at 200K, then every 600K
* No miss bonus - 50K for each stage
* Every new loop = double enemy shot speed
* Hold A button + start to play as blue heli - both players can play as blue or red

That's not a bad list uncertain if the game can handle more AND slower enemy bullets, there is a fixed amount, but possible more and faster

[Steven]

Actually, yeah, arrange modes in general would be really cool. That's one of the most disappointing aspects of the M2 releases, as they have awesome arrange modes for most of the other ShotTriggers releases, but not Toaplan. Garegga Premium mode is really good, so it's disappointing that there are no true Toaplan arrange modes. You can kind of make your own in the custom mode, but the options are rather limited, especially when you compare it to something like Battle Garegga, and Same! Same! Same! surprisingly has less options than Kyuukyoku Tiger does.

Same! Same! Same! 1P version would greatly benefit from an option to reduce the bullet speed and make it play closer to the Mega Drive version. Yeah, you could just go play the Mega Drive version, but it would be nice to have the arcade graphics, sound, and screen size with the game's originally intended difficulty before they were forced against their will to make the game insanely difficult.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

(on double shot speed every loop)

Makes more sense if you put it together with the first suggested changes:

* Slower but increased amount of enemy bullets
* Smaller hitbox

Hmm. It'll still scale into unreasonableness, just not as soon as it otherwise would.

It's not a bad idea though. I think a good solution would be to increase the shot speed by the base amount each loop (as opposed to doubling the new amount), that way it scales consistently.

[Steven]

If you haven't seen his 60th birthday live stream, you should, as there's some really good stuff in there, notably including Tatsujin wo Koete Ou to Nare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oyqo4_qk4
He messes up a few times, but that's how live performances go.

Thanks for that link. He did a rendition of the first stage of Dogyuun (my personal fav Toaplan game) about 20 mins in that was incredible!!!! Made my night for sure

Yeah, he's always really good. This version is very close to the arranged version he did for the Dogyuun soundtrack ~30 years ago, but it's on the Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection volume 11 in case you don't want to go find a 30-year-old CD. Dogyuun Magic was the reason that he made U-Brand, actually, as he really wanted to play it live. He's recently decided to start doing more lives, so he wants to do more arranged versions, and here is what he's working on now: https://youtu.be/RcgLsoLNpZs

This is why I'm always like "I WANT U-BRAND VERSIONS FOR THE M2 COLLECTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", but...

[Carl-Henrik]

If you haven't seen his 60th birthday live stream, you should, as there's some really good stuff in there, notably including Tatsujin wo Koete Ou to Nare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3oyqo4_qk4
He messes up a few times, but that's how live performances go.

Thanks for that link. He did a rendition of the first stage of Dogyuun (my personal fav Toaplan game) about 20 mins in that was incredible!!!! Made my night for sure

Yeah, he's always really good. This version is very close to the arranged version he did for the Dogyuun soundtrack ~30 years ago, but it's on the Toaplan Arcade Sound Digital Collection volume 11 in case you don't want to go find a 30-year-old CD. Dogyuun Magic was the reason that he made U-Brand, actually, as he really wanted to play it live. He's recently decided to start doing more lives, so he wants to do more arranged versions, and here is what he's working on now: https://youtu.be/RcgLsoLNpZs

This is why I'm always like "I WANT U-BRAND VERSIONS FOR THE M2 COLLECTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", but...

I can always ask Uemura if he wants to record songs for the PC version, or as a steam bonus or something (he could say no). We don't have any idea how many would be interested though.

[emphatic]

(on double shot speed every loop)

Makes more sense if you put it together with the first suggested changes:

* Slower but increased amount of enemy bullets
* Smaller hitbox

Hmm. It'll still scale into unreasonableness, just not as soon as it otherwise would.

It's not a bad idea though. I think a good solution would be to increase the shot speed by the base amount each loop (as opposed to doubling the new amount), that way it scales consistently.

How about limiting the arrange mode to 2 loops. It's already a pretty long game.

[Steven]

I can always ask Uemura if he wants to record songs for the PC version, or as a steam bonus or something (he could say no). We don't have any idea how many would be interested though.

I know I'd be extremely interested in having U-Brand arranged soundtracks for the Toaplan games, and I think other Toaplan fans would be as well. Arranging music and recording it is difficult and time-consuming, and then you guys have to implement it, but if he's willing to do it, no way in hell am I going to say no!

[FunktionJCB]

I can always ask Uemura if he wants to record songs for the PC version, or as a steam bonus or something (he could say no). We don't have any idea how many would be interested though.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I'm a sucker for "extras" (soundtracks, alternate versions, artbooks, ...), and sadly we frequently don't get a lot of them on PC/Steam (probably because there's this idea that people are unwilling to pay for digital extras; so, physical console releases get them, but PC releases miss out on most of them).

I would surely welcome the ability to purchase "extras" on Steam (game soundtracks, arranged soundtracks, digital artbooks, ...).
If you manage to convince him to either re-release some of his existing work, or even re-record some of it for the upcoming PC releases, I would be all in on everything.

[Sumez]

Oh yeah. Out Zone Outrageously Hard Ultra Omega Flying Fuck Special Edition is a thing. Hopefully we get one of the better versions (you don't really miss out on anything, it just makes the first loop more sane)

Agreed, it would be sad to default to the super-easy version where enemies don't even bother attacking you on the first few loops. The game is already easy enough as it is.

I don't know if anyone actually likes playing the Zero Wing conversion, but I do find it to be a very interesting version of the game and there is not a lot of documentation about it that I have seen.

What's different in the Zero Wing conversion variation of the game? I thought it was identical to the regular later revision of the game where they fixed the first loop.
I very often see that one for sale in PCB sales, so I know it's quite common, but I rarely see people discussing it.

[Carl-Henrik]

Oh yeah. Out Zone Outrageously Hard Ultra Omega Flying Fuck Special Edition is a thing. Hopefully we get one of the better versions (you don't really miss out on anything, it just makes the first loop more sane)

Got it working, and yes, first bullet gets me right away!

[UD2]

I can always ask Uemura if he wants to record songs for the PC version, or as a steam bonus or something (he could say no). We don't have any idea how many would be interested though.

I already own the PCB, but new arrangements from Uemura would absolutely make me buy a port.

[Steven]

What's different in the Zero Wing conversion variation of the game? I thought it was identical to the regular later revision of the game where they fixed the first loop.
I very often see that one for sale in PCB sales, so I know it's quite common, but I rarely see people discussing it.

Unknown; I've only ever played the regular version and the Zero Wing conversion. I am hoping to learn more about the various versions of the game eventually, though.

[FunktionJCB]

Truxton and Twin Cobra now have store pages on Steam:


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022880/Truxton/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022910/Twin_Cobra/


Here's a promotional video that was launched alongside them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evlB47kaqRU


The store pages now also have more details on the features each game will have.

[Steven]

Hell yes. Twin Cobra is okay, but Kyuukyoku Tiger is my #2 favourite Toaplan game, even if I am terrible at it.

I seem to have missed any mention of widescreen. That would really help with multiplayer Twin Cobra, as having the screen scroll around with 2 people playing is super awkward for both of them.

BTW, what's this on the Steam page for K Tiger?

"Survive longer to grow even stronger! Evade incoming shots to increase your fire rate and damage."

Uh... I don't remember that ever happening whenever I played this game.

[BurlyHeart]

This is so awesome.

[OmegaFlareX]

Wishlisted both. Thanks for the heads up.

For the devs:
- Is the fullscreen mode true fullscreen? The problem with windowed-fullscreen (or "borderless" or whatever it's called) is that Win10 (and presumably 11 as well) puts some kind of buffering on all windows that cannot be turned off. This negatively affects input latency.
- Any chance of getting an option to play Tatsujin using the PC-Engine BGM? There's probably some kind of licensing issue there since I don't think Toaplan composed that particular arrangement, but it's my favorite version of it.

[Steven]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd pay some serious cash to buy a Tatsujin arcade PCB and have someone rip the audio stuff off, put the PC Engine soundchip on there, and reprogram the arcade version to have the PC Engine music.

[SPM]

what's this on the Steam page for K Tiger?

"Survive longer to grow even stronger! Evade incoming shots to increase your fire rate and damage."

Uh... I don't remember that ever happening whenever I played this game.

That just sounds like a fancy way to describe the power-ups system.

[emphatic]

I seem to have missed any mention of widescreen. That would really help with multiplayer Twin Cobra, as having the screen scroll around with 2 people playing is super awkward for both of them.

Wow, this idea is really cool, actually. It would mean lots more enemy bullets too.

[Carl-Henrik]

Wishlisted both. Thanks for the heads up.
- Is the fullscreen mode true fullscreen? The problem with windowed-fullscreen (or "borderless" or whatever it's called) is that Win10 (and presumably 11 as well) puts some kind of buffering on all windows that cannot be turned off. This negatively affects input latency.
- Any chance of getting an option to play Tatsujin using the PC-Engine BGM? There's probably some kind of licensing issue there since I don't think Toaplan composed that particular arrangement, but it's my favorite version of it.

It is still the borderless fullscreen, I plan to add true fullscreen as well but there are some other unannounced things that needs to be finished first. borderless fullscreen is important for players with multiple monitors so that is the default.
I don't think I'd be able to ship with anything from a port, but I have added a music off option if you're ok with playing the PC-Engine tracks in the background.

[Bassa-Bassa]

How come is prioritized people with multiple monitors over people caring about latency in games like these, I wonder.

[Carl-Henrik]

How come is prioritized people with multiple monitors over people caring about latency in games like these, I wonder.

Because it is easier to develop that way But mostly because it makes it simpler to switch applications in that mode, if you care about latency you should be comfortable finding the option for it which someone that doesn't understand about latency is more likely to not figure out.

[Steven]

I will be most curious to see this thing that's mentioned on the Steam pages: "Minimal Input Lag: Emulation, input processing, and rendering all complete on the same frame."

That sounds really cool. Instant performance on everything is about as close as it will get to wiring the game directly to your brain. I don't suppose the secrets of that process can be divulged, but I wonder how that compares to M2's releases, although I've never seen lag tests on those. I don't really need lag tests to know that they are highly responsive, though.

I also found it interesting that the Steam pages for K Tiger and Tatsujin don't have Japanese versions like Zero Wing and Out Zone do, but since there are more screenshots of K Tiger than of Twin Cobra, no problem, as it's pretty obvious that K Tiger will be there. I don't know much about Tatsujin at all, but I'm assuming that the Japanese version is harder than the international version, like with most Toaplan games.

what's this on the Steam page for K Tiger?

"Survive longer to grow even stronger! Evade incoming shots to increase your fire rate and damage."

Uh... I don't remember that ever happening whenever I played this game.

That just sounds like a fancy way to describe the power-ups system.

I was really looking forward to unlocking 3000Hz autofire and insta-killing bosses with it, though...

I seem to have missed any mention of widescreen. That would really help with multiplayer Twin Cobra, as having the screen scroll around with 2 people playing is super awkward for both of them.

Wow, this idea is really cool, actually. It would mean lots more enemy bullets too.

It's in one of the earlier trailers, so I'm assuming it's still being worked on.

[OmegaFlareX]

I plan to add true fullscreen as well but there are some other unannounced things that needs to be finished first.

Thank you! I think latency is more important than multi-display setups, if you had to choose between one or the other, but as long as both options are available, it is a non-issue.

I don't think I'd be able to ship with anything from a port, but I have added a music off option if you're ok with playing the PC-Engine tracks in the background.

Understood. Are these ports going to be moddable at all? Like when Final Fantasy 7 first came to Steam, people figured out how to replace the MIDI BGM with the PS1 version.

[Redfox]

To the Devs (Carl-H).................this is Steam exclusive? No console port or Xbox or anything?

I don't Steam.

If it's Steam exclusive, and I believe M2 said your plan doesn't effect their plans I guess this means you're on the PC side of the fence and M2 will be on the console side?

That leads to comparisons between the two latency and all.......................Interesting times.

If you guys are not Steam exclusive, consider an Xbox port since M2 doesn't touch that system anymore and I would like more shooters for my Series, thank you!

[Steven]

It's not Steam exclusive since they are also getting GOG releases.

[Astro City II]

Just to echo what Redfox said...

If the devs can make some Xbox ports of the Toaplan games that'd be hugely appreciated.