I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Bloodreign]

I honestly had no high hopes for Rainbow Islands music, but they found a way to make it sound good, but one who has played enough of the arcade version can tell things are a little off on the tune. But glad to see this game finally see another re-release, maybe down the line Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories can be released to those who don't have a PS2 and the Taito Memories compilations.

[MJR]

Anyway, this whole argument is pointless actually, since we are not really disagreeing. Enemies land always more or less in the same spot where you killed them. But the decision in the program is already made in the event of killing.

No it isn't. Where they land can vary wildly depending on the stage layout and how close to the edge of the screen they are, which is the whole reason getting diamonds in order from island 4 onwards is so much more difficult!
It's in fact very rarely close to where they were killed. An enemy in the far left of the screen can fly left, bounce back, and reach all the way to yellow.

Look I have no real reason to convince you, because I know 100% how this works, and if you want to insist on your idea, that's cool. But it's not correct

I am quite surprised. All right, if this really is true, I can think of only one logical explanation to this, most of the Rainbow Islands I have ever played is the Amiga version, so the difference of opinion here must be in fact a difference between Amiga and Arcade version that I have never previously been aware of (I have completed PC engine version also, but did not notice this here!). Since the Amiga version is so incredibly close to the coin op in other aspects (Graftgold did get the design documents) there was no reason for me to believe that the generating diamond colors would be different in any way.

I could not find any online FAQ that would have gone to describe this in detail either. Anyway, I have just started to play the ACA version so probably that will demonstrate the best.

[BEAMLORD]

Here's my two-penceworth on this Rainbow Islands gem subject, and apologies if it's already been mentioned, but if playing on the Hamster port on PS4/5, pressing L2 brings up coloured vertical lines on the screen corresponding to gem colour. As a total RI noob, I wouldn't know what the significance of this is, but if your very familiar with the game, playing around with that may help confirm.

[MJR]

Here's my two-penceworth on this Rainbow Islands gem subject, and apologies if it's already been mentioned, but if playing on the Hamster port on PS4/5, pressing L2 brings up coloured vertical lines on the screen corresponding to gem colour. As a total RI noob, I wouldn't know what the significance of this is, but if your very familiar with the game, playing around with that may help confirm.

Yes I noticed it, the "gem position indicator". I did play it, and it only confirmed me what I already expected to see. The most interesting claim from Sumez was that "enemy killed in the edge of screen may turned out to be a wholly different color".. to my knowledge, if you kill enemy in the edge of the screen, and it does not turn out to be red, or purple, is because the enemy was facing away from the screen. Let me explain further.

I observed this in the Amiga and PC Engine version, but also in the ACA version; there are two gem position patterns from left to right

׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀ purple ׀

׀ red ׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀

Which one of these will be only depends on whether the enemy is facing left, or right. And because of this, it may appear to you that enemy is turning into orange / yellow even though you killed it on the left edge of the screen. Likewise on the right edge.

What you will NEVER see is enemy turning into purple, or blue, if you kill it on the left edge of the screen. Or even green, or light blue. If I see this happen on the ACA version, even ONCE, then I will be convinced that Sumez is right. Right now, I'll just give him the benefit on the doubt based on the grounds that he has, indeed, played the arcade version more than I have, and there is a possibility that there are minor differences in game logic between the Amiga / PC Engine / Arcade versions. But so far it is also equally possible to me that he has misunderstood it, due to these variating gem patterns that are in the game.

Whether I am right or wrong won't detract my enjoyment of the game. This is actually quite interesting

[Sumez]

I don't really follow you at all here. The equation is quite simple - let's forget how an enemy flies after you kill it, since I guess that's an abstraction that only matters when actually playing the game.

Ultimately the only logic at play is that the color of the diamond depends on where it appears. I haven't had the opportunity to play the ACA version yet, but the "position indicator" should make it completely clear. Only diamonds of one single color will ever exist within the confines of each specific area, and it's impossible for them to be anywhere else

[MJR]

I don't really follow you at all here. The equation is quite simple - let's forget how an enemy flies after you kill it, since I guess that's an abstraction that only matters when actually playing the game.

Ultimately the only logic at play is that the color of the diamond depends on where it appears. I haven't had the opportunity to play the ACA version yet, but the "position indicator" should make it completely clear. Only diamonds of one single color will ever exist within the confines of each specific area, and it's impossible for them to be anywhere else

I agree that how the enemy flies does not matter at all, it is indeed an abstraction. Only thing that should matter is that where enemy is and where it should be facing. That came obvious to me after spending enormous amount of hours in the amiga version, and then the PC-Engine version. So far I am not totally convinced that the ACA version is different. I tried to explain the enemy direction and how it affects on how it will affect the outcome.

I also want to give you benefit of doubt because I respect the fact that you have played arcade version more than I have - although that is not an argument in itself. I have also made games for 30 years and I think I am quite good at figuring out how game logic is built by observing and playing a game, but that is not an argument in itself - either. Only someone who has been able to read the source code and / or actually code the game can say for sure. Rest is just opinions, by people who could be mistaken - even if they had sunk hundreds of hours in the game. It happens.

So yeah, I may have failed to explain you this, and we failed to find any common ground here, but I can accept the possibility that I could be wrong.

I guess I'll just find out by playing the ACA version then

[Sumez]

[MJR]

Thank you for this quality reply, I guess there is really no more to discuss

[Skyknight]

ANYWAY…

Next week should be a publisher besides the current main trefoil. I’m hoping for Nichibutsu’s Legion (as usual…), but I feel like there’s something in the NMK oeuvre that’s yet to appear…

[BIL]

I observed this in the Amiga and PC Engine version, but also in the ACA version; there are two gem position patterns from left to right

׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀ purple ׀

׀ red ׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀

There's just the one pattern on ACA, which the player assist grid will visually confirm. Good ol' ROY G. BIV:

[Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Blue / Indigo / Violet]

When every other enemy killed by contact with a falling rainbow lands in a given sector, the corresponding colour gem will appear. This guy's replay demonstrates it nicely, he's super precise at setting up his kills. Note the zombie landing smack on the tree, in the Red sector; the bat just a bit to its right, in Orange.

It can be hectic getting varmints to land where you need them to in the heat of battle, but it's totally consistent. I don't remember the PCE-CD port being any different; all my old methods seem to work fine here... anyway, being a relative newbie to RI, I can only report what I'm seeing.

ANYWAY…

Next week should be a publisher besides the current main trefoil. I’m hoping for Nichibutsu’s Legion (as usual…), but I feel like there’s something in the NMK oeuvre that’s yet to appear…

Like mahfuckin VALTRIC :O I'd kill for that... doesn't seem too unlikely either, being Jaleco-published, just like Argus and Makai Densetsu. Alternatively, Rapid Hero would be cool. Their caravan masterpiece SDF Macross 2 is one of my perennial long-shot wants, along with Violent Storm... which feels a lot less remote, post-Mystic Warriors.

[MJR]

I observed this in the Amiga and PC Engine version, but also in the ACA version; there are two gem position patterns from left to right

׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀ purple ׀

׀ red ׀ orange ׀ yellow ׀ green ׀ light blue ׀ blue ׀

There's just the one pattern on ACA, which the player assist grid will visually confirm. Good ol' ROY G. BIV:

[Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Blue / Indigo / Violet]

When every other enemy killed by contact with a falling rainbow lands in a given sector, the corresponding colour gem will appear. This guy's replay demonstrates it nicely, he's super precise at setting up his kills. Note the zombie landing smack on the tree, in the Red sector; the bat just a bit to its right, in Orange.

It can be hectic getting varmints to land where you need them to in the heat of battle, but it's totally consistent. I don't remember the PCE-CD port being any different; all my old methods seem to work fine here... anyway, being a relative newbie to RI, I can only report what I'm seeing.

Thanks, BIL.. I think I was all the time talking about where the enemy is at the screen when the rainbow falls on the enemy - even if I didn't mention the rainbow falling on it, because if we get this technical, I also would have to add that it also happens when the red/yellow star hits the enemy, and..

But I swear on Baron Von Blubba's grave that the direction the enemy is facing WHEN the rainbow is falling on the enemy combined with the position of the grid will decide what gem it is. I have used this for a long time to make sure I get the diamond I want. Then again, there is a chance that these things may be slightly different between Amiga / PC-Engine / ACA..

I get that discussing these in fine detail without the risk of anyone misunderstanding -either by accident or by bad faith- may be challenging, especially as I am trying to multitask on other things at the same time. Oh well, does not matter.

Looking where the enemies are going land when killed is something I have found very useful in my recent sessions, so I appreciate the information Sumez gave here actually quite a lot, even if he appears bit, eh, unreceptive to my observations

[BIL]

I get that discussing these in fine detail without the risk of anyone misunderstanding -either by accident or by bad faith- may be challenging, especially as I am trying to multitask on other things at the same time. Oh well, does not matter.

Looking where the enemies are going land when killed is something I have found very useful in my recent sessions, so I appreciate the information Sumez gave here actually quite a lot, even if he appears bit, eh, unreceptive to my observations

It's all for the love of Hardcore Killing. Speaking of possible Amiga/Arcade differences, can confirm you're able to cancel your rainbow climb-ons/offs on ACA. You're forced to keep moving, in one direction or the other, but you're free to pivot as much as you like (or jump off, ofc!).



Took a snap of the ACA player assist (or Gems Drop Position Indicator, as it's called) for reference. I was interested to see Violet (far right) is noticeably wider, while Red (far left) is subtly thinner. I wonder if there was a deliberate intent, there? I could believe it, with Mitsuji's meticulous craftsmanship.



Does that look about right to you, Sumez? Seeing old pros tearing up the leaderboards with beefy scores, I'm guessing offhand it's the accurate translation expected of Hamster. Would be kinda funny if the grid is off while the emulation is correct, but Hamster have earned more faith than that imo.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

But I swear on Baron Von Blubba's grave that the direction the enemy is facing WHEN the rainbow is falling on the enemy combined with the position of the grid will decide what gem it is. I have used this for a long time to make sure I get the diamond I want.

I mean, you're not wrong in that you can learn positions where "hitting X enemy while facing Y direction consistently results in generating Z colour gem". Enemies don't appear to have randomized velocity or distance when they're killed so the spot you kill them can be used to consistently predict where they'll land. But it's unlikely they'd make the gem colour calculator be a factor of position killed and direction facing when you could program it much more easily to make the colour of the diamond based on the X coordinates of the enemy when it hits the ground; it'd be simpler to code and functionally indistinguishable.

It's kind of like how Omega Fighter works, you get a multiplier for kills from 1x to 10x based on how close you are to the enemy when you kill them... except it's not actually proximity at all. It doesn't take horizontal or diagonal distance into account at all. It literally just compares your vertical position with the enemy's and if you're in range or above that vertical position, you'll get the 10x multiplier. There's gold bombs you can use that kill everything onscreen and you'll get the 10x multiplier even if you're at opposite ends of the screen horizontally or way above the enemy (you'll get 10x multipliers on all onscreen enemies if you bomb at the top of the screen). You'd think at first it's actually measuring the absolute distance from you to the enemy, but it's actually pretty simple.

[AGermanArtist]

Never been much of a Namco or Taito guy outside of Pac Land, Sky Kid and a few others like Operation Wolf and the Taito/Toaplan stuff, I usually take recommendations from here for those.
These would get my cash

Final Star Force
Ninja Emaki
Dangar UFO Robo
Valtric
Silk Worm
Iron Horse
Jackal
MIA
Devastators
Mikie
Finalizer
Trick Trap
Scooter Shooter
Konami GT
Rock 'n Rage
WEC Le Mans
Battlantis
Black Panther
City Bomber
Fast Lane
SPY
Parodius Da
Twin Bee Yahhoo!
Salamander 2
Sexy Parodius
Polystars
Gradius 4

[MJR]

But I swear on Baron Von Blubba's grave that the direction the enemy is facing WHEN the rainbow is falling on the enemy combined with the position of the grid will decide what gem it is. I have used this for a long time to make sure I get the diamond I want.

I mean, you're not wrong in that you can learn positions where "hitting X enemy while facing Y direction consistently results in generating Z colour gem". Enemies don't appear to have randomized velocity or distance when they're killed so the spot you kill them can be used to consistently predict where they'll land. But it's unlikely they'd make the gem colour calculator be a factor of position killed and direction facing when you could program it much more easily to make the colour of the diamond based on the X coordinates of the enemy when it hits the ground; it'd be simpler to code and functionally indistinguishable.

It's kind of like how Omega Fighter works, you get a multiplier for kills from 1x to 10x based on how close you are to the enemy when you kill them... except it's not actually proximity at all. It doesn't take horizontal or diagonal distance into account at all. It literally just compares your vertical position with the enemy's and if you're in range or above that vertical position, you'll get the 10x multiplier. There's gold bombs you can use that kill everything onscreen and you'll get the 10x multiplier even if you're at opposite ends of the screen horizontally or way above the enemy (you'll get 10x multipliers on all onscreen enemies if you bomb at the top of the screen). You'd think at first it's actually measuring the absolute distance from you to the enemy, but it's actually pretty simple.

Thank you, you have definitely given me something to think about..!

Also @BIL thanks for hinting about the Rainbow climb canceling. Got to try to imprint that on my muscle memory..

I used to play RI in a way that I always quit/reset the game if I don't get the diamonds in order right away, but perhaps I should now just play in a relaxed way, not worrying whether I get to the secret islands or not.

[Sumez]

But I swear on Baron Von Blubba's grave that the direction the enemy is facing WHEN the rainbow is falling on the enemy combined with the position of the grid will decide what gem it is. I have used this for a long time to make sure I get the diamond I want. Then again, there is a chance that these things may be slightly different between Amiga / PC-Engine / ACA..

Not gonna go on about who is right or wrong, but if we do assume for a moment that I'm correct, the enemy's position and direction are absolutely important in determining which color diamond you will get, so it makes sense that your method works for you. But like I said, there is more to consider than those two factors - namely the layout of other platforms, since the diamond only appears once the killed enemy lands on one.

I've previously screwed up ordered diamond sequences by enemies falling lower than I'd intended them to, and thus flown a bit farther, resulting in a different color than I wanted.

For the first rounds on the first three islands, I've memorized exactly where to kill which enemies in order to get which color diamonds, and even with your method, that sort of memorization should still work.

Does that look about right to you, Sumez? Seeing old pros tearing up the leaderboards with beefy scores, I'm guessing offhand it's the accurate translation expected of Hamster. Would be kinda funny if the grid is off while the emulation is correct, but Hamster have earned more faith than that imo.

I'd be surprised it it were wrong, since the data is right there in the code. Seeing it, I'm actually surprised that the purple bar is so much wider than the red one. I have a pretty intuitive understanding of how to get the color I want though (even when playing at public arcades with terrible overscan), and if an enemy bounces off the right side, it's definitely rare for it to remain purple. What I can say however is that purple diamonds do seem to appear a lot more often than red, and now I know why - it's not just due to my habits when playing.

I doubt there is any real intent behind the different sizes of those two bars, however.

[MJR]

But I swear on Baron Von Blubba's grave that the direction the enemy is facing WHEN the rainbow is falling on the enemy combined with the position of the grid will decide what gem it is. I have used this for a long time to make sure I get the diamond I want. Then again, there is a chance that these things may be slightly different between Amiga / PC-Engine / ACA..

Not gonna go on about who is right or wrong, but if we do assume for a moment that I'm correct, the enemy's position and direction are absolutely important in determining which color diamond you will get, so it makes sense that your method works for you. But like I said, there is more to consider than those two factors - namely the layout of other platforms, since the diamond only appears once the killed enemy lands on one.

I've previously screwed up ordered diamond sequences by enemies falling lower than I'd intended them to, and thus flown a bit farther, resulting in a different color than I wanted.

For the first rounds on the first three islands, I've memorized exactly where to kill which enemies in order to get which color diamonds, and even with your method, that sort of memorization should still work.

Fair enough, you may be indeed onto something here. Thanks

[Sumez]

I used to play RI in a way that I always quit/reset the game if I don't get the diamonds in order right away, but perhaps I should now just play in a relaxed way

I was playing Rainbow Islands live on a 1CC stream a couple of years ago, and I was actually really worried about screwing up the diamond sequence, since doing that could completely ruin my chances of getting the 1CC.

But I only need them on the first three islands since that provides you with permanent running shoes, permanent double-reainbows, and permanent fast rainbows. (especially getting permanent doubles but not fast rainbows is absolute hell! Try playing with triple rainbows without having gotten the orange potion and you'll immediately know why)
I'd say, while learning the game people shouldn't worry about restarting. But once you start to consistently reach islands 6 or 7, you'll definitely want to start looking into getting the order on those three islands - it makes the later islands much more manageable to recover on after a death.

not worrying whether I get to the secret islands or not.

I hear this a lot, but getting the order is actually not necessary for the secret islands! You just need to have all the colors on every island, getting you the 1UP bonus. So even if I only get the diamond seuqence on the first three island, I will always get the secret islands. I'm not sure if I have ever actually played a game that ended after island 7. (while I don't 1CC every time, if I game over it will be on islands 9 or 10, which are by far the toughest in the game)

[MJR]

I used to play RI in a way that I always quit/reset the game if I don't get the diamonds in order right away, but perhaps I should now just play in a relaxed way

I was playing Rainbow Islands live on a 1CC stream a couple of years ago, and I was actually really worried about screwing up the diamond sequence, since doing that could completely ruin my chances of getting the 1CC.

But I only need them on the first three islands since that provides you with permanent running shoes, permanent double-reainbows, and permanent fast rainbows. (especially getting permanent doubles but not fast rainbows is absolute hell! Try playing with triple rainbows without having gotten the orange potion and you'll immediately know why)
I'd say, while learning the game people shouldn't worry about restarting. But once you start to consistently reach islands 6 or 7, you'll definitely want to start looking into getting the order on those three islands - it makes the later islands much more manageable to recover on after a death.

not worrying whether I get to the secret islands or not.

I hear this a lot, but getting the order is actually not necessary for the secret islands! You just need to have all the colors on every island, getting you the 1UP bonus. So even if I only get the diamond seuqence on the first three island, I will always get the secret islands. I'm not sure if I have ever actually played a game that ended after island 7. (while I don't 1CC every time, if I game over it will be on islands 9 or 10, which are by far the toughest in the game)

Now you said it, this is how I remember playing the Amiga version - try to get at least permanent shoes and permanent double+fast rainbow.
I also remember that one of the secret doors gave you permanent wings, that made Doh island a breeze to play. But, trying to get there after a break of many years will kinda spoil the fun, so maybe I'll just credit feed for the bad ending and then go from there

I used to play the amiga version hell of a lot in 1989-1990, until I was able to 1CC the best ending - which, I learned later, was the best ending for the arcade version as well, but without the extra 3 islands.. :p

First time I learned that there even was more than 7 islands was in 1994, when I got to try the PC-engine version in a place where could play PC-Engine games on hard disk for 10FIM / hour. Not very legal, but, hey, I got to play PC-Engine games.. anyway, the gameplay was so similar to the Amiga version that I got to the secret islands in my first attempt, all the way to the Bubble Bobble islands! Needless to say I was stunned, I always thought that the Amiga version was 100% accurate. It was not.

I finally completed the (best ending for the) PC-Engine version just few years ago, but I used save state, so that was cheating really. Really looking for playing the ACA version more, and I am keeping an eye on how the diamonds are generated in this one

[Sumez]

Btw I've been meaning to for years, to make a video demonstrating my patterns for those first three islands, in order to get the correct diamonds, but I never got around to it. Hell I don't even have a 1CC recording online, outside of that previously mentioned event (there's a guy telling racist jokes in the background at the same time, so I don't share it a lot, but here it is*)

Anyway, here's a quick primer - it's not as tough as it seems, at least on those early islands.
What you want to do is memorize how to get specific colors on just the first round of each island. If you pick up a color that you already have, it doesn't mess anything up, so ultimately what matters is just avoiding accidentally picking up anything more than one step above what you currently have (like getting a cyan when the last you have is yellow).

Since a destroyed rainbow will pick up everything below it (even off-screen), it's very easy to accidentally pick up especially yellow, green, and cyan, which all appear near the center of the screen. This means getting to green as fast as possible is the most important thing (but also don't stress it). Once you have green, picking up a cyan will be good, and blue and purple are easy to avoid just by not going to the right side of the screen!
So when I talk about practicing patterns, I mostly just practice how to get everything up to yellow or green, since the remaining are easy to freestyle with less risk.

Also, this has already been mentioned, but make a habit of always killing enemies by dropping rainbows on them (or destroy a rainbow just below the enemy, which will also hurt it). This is not only safer (shoot a rainbow at an enemy but failing to kill it, will lead it walking on your rainbow bridge right into your face), but it's also necessary to get the diamonds instead of score items.
As MJR said, any other indirect killing of enemies (most notably the exploding stars) will also result in diamonds though, and if you have one of the bracelets that makes you produce them at will, that can be used to affect the color your get - with the item pickups it's a lot harder. If you have the protection fairy, getting the right color is extremely easy.

The last thing to consider is every third item drop will always be a powerup item no matter how you kill the enemy. So when you practice a pattern, keep this in mind and don't try to set up a colored diamond when the next drop will be a powerup, instead kill another enemy elsewhere first.
Before I climb to the spider boss of island 1 I always make sure the last item I got was a powerup, and avoid killing any remaining ladybugs, this will ensure a consistent pattern at the start of the next round, for a super easy red, orange and yellow early on. I don't do this for the next island though, but if I were really cool I probably would practice that as well.


*BTW, the pattern I use to get the right colored diamonds on the first round in that video I linked isn't consistent with how I normally play, which is why I freestyle it instead and messed up the yellow one. The dips on that PCB were set to what I'm assuming is an easier setting, so the enemies walk slower than I'm used to. The rest of the game feels like the exact same difficulty though, lol. For island 2 I'm using my usual pattern.

[Sumez]

Tried out the port shortly with the caravan mode on my new PS5.

I'm pleased at how well it plays, I don't feel any lag, and it feels surprisingly natural to use a D-pad, despite having never played the game with anything other than an arcade joystick in my life!
We'll see how well that holds up on the later stages however. That's where exact precision and clutch timing really comes in handy.

The color section indicator is a ridiculously huge help, even when you are super used to the game! No more second guessing what will come out when an enemy lands right on the edge

If my baby goes to sleep not too late tonight I'll try twitch streaming for a bit and go for a 1CC. I haven't really played in a couple of years though, so I'll probably be rusty and game over on round 35, which is by far the hardest one in the game.

[MJR]

If my baby goes to sleep not too late tonight I'll try twitch streaming for a bit and go for a 1CC. I haven't really played in a couple of years though, so I'll probably be rusty and game over on round 35, which is by far the hardest one in the game.

Looking forward to it

[hamfighterx]

Next week should be a publisher besides the current main trefoil. I’m hoping for Nichibutsu’s Legion (as usual…), but I feel like there’s something in the NMK oeuvre that’s yet to appear…

Could it be... J.J. Squawkers time! (it's all BIL's fault that this is where my mind goes now, thanks SO much). And as a result of getting on a Nichibutsu kick a few weeks back, Ninja Emaki is going to be a constant desire for me until it shows up.

And now I'll sit back and enjoy the Rainbow Islands pros some more, some good stuff here

[Sumez]

I'll play a bit in a few minutes. Takes an hour to complete the game, so I'll probably get one or two runs in at most even if I fail
Come pick up some expert tricks or laugh at me for being rusty at my own favourite game.

https://twitch.tv/sumez

[Udderdude]

It's time for some deep Bubble Bobble lore. https://twitter.com/TaitoCorp/status/17 ... 4551317729

[BEAMLORD]

I'll play a bit in a few minutes. Takes an hour to complete the game, so I'll probably get one or two runs in at most even if I fail
Come pick up some expert tricks or laugh at me for being rusty at my own favourite game.

https://twitch.tv/sumez

Nice demonstration, man. You don't look all that rusty, either

Glad to see that the special sequence for gems is as simple as left to right. Was expecting something more convoluted than that. Also noted the importance of detonating rainbows just below enemies. Gonna be useful for keeping out of harm's way. So far, I've been rainbow-launching myself into all and sundry, gems be damned

[guigui]

Technical question about AC and ACA series on the Nintendo Switch by Hamster.

I am planning to plug my Switch on a 4:3 screen, but the Switch only outputs 16:9.

Games like Hamster's AC and ACA, do they offer an option to stretch the display with ingame options ? This way I can use this option to stretch the ingame image to 16:9, then my 4:3 screen will put them back in correct 4:3.

Not sure I am clear ? I can do it for instance with Mushi and DDP DFK by Limewire : use the ingame options to stretch the image to fill a regular 16:9 screen, looks ugly. Then plug in 4:3 screen, looks good.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The ACA games (at least the ones I've tested) have screen stretch options so you can stretch it to any size and even out of its original aspect ratio. You should be fine, I think.

[Sumez]

Nice demonstration, man. You don't look all that rusty, either

RI is a pretty tough game, but I played really poorly honestly . It was to be expected when I hadn't touched the game in a couple of years, but there was something else going on.
The game should be like riding a bicycle for me, and what especially stuck out to me was how horribly I handled Island 6 (mechanical/robot Island).

Its really hard from my to pinpoint what my issue was, but something about playing the port made me act with much less confidence which hurt my performance and made me do weird mistakes.
I think it's mostly psychological, so it's hard to say why. It could be just not being at a cabinet, using a d-pad which I've never played this game with before, or even really slight input lag even though it didn't feel prominent. Or, quite likely, it could be a combination of them all. But it's definitely not something I'd fault the port for even though I felt i played at a disadvantage. It really plays well.

I did afterwards find a setting in the options however which claims to reduce input lag? I haven't taken it for a full spin, but I tried it out a bit, and it does seem like I play better now. So I'll try going for another score run again if I get the time

Also why the hell is that option not enabled by default? Is it a vsync thing?

[BIL]

Next week should be a publisher besides the current main trefoil. I’m hoping for Nichibutsu’s Legion (as usual…), but I feel like there’s something in the NMK oeuvre that’s yet to appear…

Could it be... J.J. Squawkers time! (it's all BIL's fault that this is where my mind goes now, thanks SO much). And as a result of getting on a Nichibutsu kick a few weeks back, Ninja Emaki is going to be a constant desire for me until it shows up.

I blame trap15. Worth it though! Squawkers is so rad, and a total cryptid WRT home platforms. Part of the same incredible jump in prowess as Daioh and BioMetal.

It's when you start developing feelings for arch-kusoge Dragon Unit that you've truly been irredeemably Athenised. (I'm kinda looking forward to testing that one out in MAME... I'm not holding my breath for a Strike Gunner rescue case, but you never know)

I did afterwards find a setting in the options however which claims to reduce input lag? I haven't taken it for a full spin, but I tried it out a bit, and it does seem like I play better now. So I'll try going for another score run again if I get the time

Just finished watching your replay, was just going to ask if you'd enabled that option. It's appeared in a few ACA releases, across a diverse range of hardware (Thunder Dragon is the first one I saw it in). I have a pet theory, that they include it when a game has some native lag - unnoticeable on PCB+CRT - and/or is coded in a way that makes knocking off a frame without breaking stuff trivial.

However, one of the natively-laggiest games I've ever enjoyed, The Astyanax, lacks the feature on ACA (the Mega System board has something like 8f attack startup; ShmupMAME and ACA perform identically). And Namco's late 80s/early 90s boards tend to have noticeable native lag (Phelios's shot delay is 8f in ShmupMAME; Haze has specifically mentioned Galaga 88's PCB). None of those games' ACA releases offer the latency reduction, IIRC. So as I say, just a theory. ACA has always been a little ad-hoc by nature (see also only some releases allowing you to choose board-accurate speed, or 60hz synced).

I whack it on by default whenever I see it offered, in any case.

Also why the hell is that option not enabled by default? Is it a vsync thing?

I don't think so - Thunder Dragon's option has a warning attached that it might cause some sprite/BG de-sync, so it seems like something they'd point out.

I also wonder if, as you mentioned in the stream, PS5 backwards compatibility might introduce a tiny degree of lag. I'm currently travelling with my PS5 aka FromSoft adaptor, and my usual gaming monitor. Would normally go with my trusty ol' PS4 for ACA/ShotTriggers et al. RI and Super Contra both felt A-OK, but (again accounting for psychosomatics!) I did wonder if I was getting quite the same airtight response I do from the PS4.

And ofc, I'm strictly novice at RI. I'd give my favourite game Saigo no Nindou a spin, but tbh I'm pretty sure I'd adjust in no time.

Spoiler

^ You shouldn't do that. But you can!

Spoiler

^ You might have to!

Also, the PS5 d-pad's not great for twitchy 2D action, imo. Actuation's a bit clunky. I hesitate to call it out too hard, though. It's serviceable, and while the DS4's dpad is smoother, its underlay dies within six months of the hard stuff, guaranteed.

(some months ago, Tomb of the Giants, PS4: "Just gotta whack this dog *bonk* then switch from lantern to shield for his retaliation *dpad doesn't respond* *face torn off* Oh you!")