Raiden II and III for PC?

Drachenherz · Post by **Drachenherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:38 am

Wow, I didn't even know that Raiden II and III were ported for the PC!

I guess, quite a few of you shmuppers on these boards have laid their hands on those games, so I want to ask you:

How are the PC-Ports of the games? How do they compare to the arcade original? How is Joystick-Support? Will a Hori Real Arcade Pro 3 for the PS3 work with those games?

And: Where can I get them on a LEGAL way, if they are worth it? Is there some kind of compilation for the pc?

AmidstStorm · Post by **AmidstStorm** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:48 am

I have the pc port of Raiden III for my PC and it's awesome. I use my Hori Real Arcade Pro EX Mushihimesama Futari Arcade Stick via usb with Xpadder, and sometimes a ps2 pad via usb converter with xpadder software. Not sure how it compares to the arcade version or other ports as Ive never played them.

Drachenherz · Post by **Drachenherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:59 am

AmidstStorm wrote:I have the pc port of Raiden III for my PC and it's awesome. I use my Hori Real Arcade Pro EX Mushihimesama Futari Arcade Stick via usb with Xpadder, and sometimes a ps2 pad via usb converter with xpadder software. Not sure how it compares to the arcade version or other ports as Ive never played them.

That sounds very promising. I hope I can deal with the joystick without xpadder, though... For example, in Crimzon Clover I have no problems using the hrap3 (ps3) out of the box, whereas I cannot use my hrap ex-se as the directions aren't mapped to the pad, but to the analogue-stick - and can't be switched as with the hrap3-stick (there, you can choose whether the joystick will be used for: "left analogue stick" - "right analogue stick" - "d-pad"....)

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:11 am

Raiden III was originally on Taito Type-X hardware and wikipedia says "Because of the high degree of similarity between the arcade machine and a contemporary home PC, the Windows version can provide a nearly-identical experience to that of the arcade version given a sufficiently-powerful home PC." Remember this came out in 2005 so "a sufficiently-powerful home PC" means "an electric kettle with a digital watch strapped to it".
Although it receives very little love in comparison to DX and IV, Raiden III absolutely fucking rocks on your PC (especially if it's tated) and has compelling unlockables, replay saves, superplays, boss rush and score attack modes making it really rather satisfying.
I used to love it and suddenly got all fired up about it again after reading the "which Raiden is favorite" thread. Looks like I'm not the only one

Sumez · Post by **Sumez** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:15 am

So the PC port is superior to the PS2 port?

Drachenherz · Post by **Drachenherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:27 am

Wow, that sounds great Mr. Pirate. (Sorry mjclark, can't stop myself kidding you, you know, after THE OTHER thread *lol*).

And what about Raiden II PC? no love for this game?

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:35 am

Sumez wrote:So the PC port is superior to the PS2 port?

Yes! And forgot to say they both include weird option where you can control both ships with one controller.

Drachenherz wrote:Wow, that sounds great Mr. Pirate. (Sorry mjclark, can't stop myself kidding you, you know, after THE OTHER thread *lol*).

Indeed lol

Drachenherz · Post by **Drachenherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:51 am

mjclark wrote:
Sumez wrote:So the PC port is superior to the PS2 port?
Yes! And forgot to say they both include weird option where you can control both ships with one controller.
Drachenherz wrote:Wow, that sounds great Mr. Pirate. (Sorry mjclark, can't stop myself kidding you, you know, after THE OTHER thread *lol*).

Indeed lol

Tihihihi, thank god you have good kind of humor, you regularly make me laugh, in a good way.

And yeah... looking forward to playing Raiden II and III soon, tihihihihi... ^^

burgerkingdiamond · Post by **burgerkingdiamond** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:24 am

Raiden II for the PC is fun, but the difficulty is way toned down. You can try Raiden Project for PS1, which has ports of Raiden I and II. Raiden III also came out for PS2.

grobda · Post by **grobda** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:12 pm

the raiden 2 abandonware i found was pretty crappy, raiden project or raiden dx for ps1 emulated on pc is a better bet.

Drachenherz · Post by **Drachenherz** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:15 pm

grobda wrote:the raiden 2 abandonware i found was pretty crappy, raiden project or raiden dx for ps1 emulated on pc is a better bet.

I found a Raiden II pc game, but it won't work properly. Also, it looks like crap...

Have to try Raiden DX then...

Which is the best Ps1 Emulator?

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:18 pm

I use ePSXe 1.7.0 (dunno if there is a newer version) since it supports a plethora of plugins and effects and allows me to run my own game discs (i.e.: Omega Boost is a frequent visitor).

The emulation is pretty much perfect aside from some issues here and there. I didn't test Raiden II in particular but it should technically work fine... right?

mortified_penguin · Post by **mortified_penguin** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:13 pm

Raiden 3 on PC is just as slow and dull as the PS2 port. Tried it again this morning just to double check, and yep, sloooow.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 5:46 pm

It was Interplay whom handled the USA distribution of Raiden II for the PC platform. As a cool bonus, you can listen to the orignal BGM on a regular music CD player since it's in Redbook format. Can't do this with the PSX version of Raiden Project since the audio is presented in Yellowbook format.

PC Engine Fan X! ^^_~

mjclark · Post by **mjclark** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:39 pm

Wooh! Just discovered that the hi scoreboard on the MOSS website for Raiden III is still active and you can still put in your Score Trial results using the generated pass key (at least with the Japanese version)

Wow it's a Raiden renaissance round here!

Obiwanshinobi · Post by **Obiwanshinobi** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:45 pm

As for the PC port of II, from what I know, the disc must be in drive D, or else you won't hear any music. Or maybe in the first optical drive on the list? Dunno if it works with emulated drives.
III on the PC rocks prominently. I have developed a unique co-op mode where one person is bombless, while the other one bombs for two. Good to ease newcomers in (and I doubt you can do this with the PS2 port). That's right, co-op is a blast.
By the way, there's also a DOS port of the original Raiden, but I suppose MAME with the shmupmame hack renders it obsolete.

Observer wrote:I use ePSXe 1.7.0 (dunno if there is a newer version) since it supports a plethora of plugins and effects and allows me to run my own game discs (i.e.: Omega Boost is a frequent visitor).

Loadings from an HDD should be faster.

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:51 pm

Obiwanshinobi wrote:
Observer wrote:I use ePSXe 1.7.0 (dunno if there is a newer version) since it supports a plethora of plugins and effects and allows me to run my own game discs (i.e.: Omega Boost is a frequent visitor).
Loadings from an HDD should be faster.

I know it is... but didn't I state I'm lazy? Ok, I'm stating it now if I didn't.

But yeah, a good advise to anyone trying console emulators: don't do what I do. Make disc images as they load way faster.

Anyway, also joining the crowd: Raiden III is awesome on PC.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:06 pm

I recall the PC version of Raiden II being identical to the Raiden Project version. At least on the default settings it seemed so. It's an old game made for Windows '95 and '98, so quality compatibility can't be guaranteed these days unless you have a really old spare machine. It can still be had on eBay though if you want to try.

I never got to try Raiden III PC, but I would assume it at least looks better than the PS2 version.

I noticed someone mentioned the old DOS port of the first Raiden. It is a port by Imagitec Design and the Jaguar version seems to be based off of it, albeit the PC version is seriously lacking compared to the Jag game on a variety of levels. The remixed CD soundtrack is cool though.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:29 pm

burgerkingdiamond wrote:Raiden II for the PC is fun, but the difficulty is way toned down. You can try Raiden Project for PS1, which has ports of Raiden I and II. Raiden III also came out for PS2.

On the PS1 version of R2, I found the Colonel difficulty setting (3rd of 4) to be a good approximation of the arcade's default. IINM, the PC version is this way.

Raiden III does look better on PC than the PS2 version. Model geometry and texture quality are two places where the PC comes out ahead.
My R3 solo record of 12,183,840 is 71st in the world.

Wow. I was sure it would've been down lower than that after all this time. First place is exactly 20,000,000... odd.

A_Civilian · Post by **A_Civilian** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:26 pm

Obiwanshinobi wrote:As for the PC port of II, from what I know, the disc must be in drive D, or else you won't hear any music. Or maybe in the first optical drive on the list? Dunno if it works with emulated drives.

First optical drive, works with emulated disc drives.

grobda wrote:the raiden 2 abandonware i found was pretty crappy, raiden project or raiden dx for ps1 emulated on pc is a better bet.

Try to find an ISO of the whole disk instead of the standalone one. It might be better.

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:42 am

I had a go of Raiden II for PC. Besides missing the Audio CD for lacking of music the aspect ratio was off and lagged shitloads regardless of computer specs when put to fullscreen. And if memory serves it did something stupid with TATE as well.

You're better off emulating The Raiden Project or Raiden DX. The US version of The Raiden Project won't properly TATE without rotating the control scheme as well without the use of cheats (which arent always supported by every PSX emulator around) and the Japanese version lags tons in the Main menu and has long loading times.

You could always try it in MAME, it's actually remotely playable now if you're happy with a ESPKetsuda-style run. Forget Battle Garegga, Raiden II MAME really DOES have invisible bullets!

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:49 pm

BPzeBanshee wrote:I had a go of Raiden II for PC. Besides missing the Audio CD for lacking of music the aspect ratio was off and lagged shitloads regardless of computer specs when put to fullscreen. And if memory serves it did something stupid with TATE as well.

You're better off emulating The Raiden Project or Raiden DX. The US version of The Raiden Project won't properly TATE without rotating the control scheme as well without the use of cheats (which arent always supported by every PSX emulator around) and the Japanese version lags tons in the Main menu and has long loading times.

You could always try it in MAME, it's actually remotely playable now if you're happy with a ESPKetsuda-style run. Forget Battle Garegga, Raiden II MAME really DOES have invisible bullets!

Hmm, was it stretched? I'm pretty sure that one really does have a proper tate option as well as a proper letterboxed mode. Maybe I'm misremembering though; it's been a while. I do remember that the framerate wasn't 100% however.

If anyone's interested, there were also PC ports of a bunch of other shmups brought out here by Interplay during the late 90s in addition to Raiden 2 (RayForce, Darius Gaiden, RayCrisis, and I think G-Darius). The 3d ones I think run in a higher resolution than the arcade or PSX ones, but I could be wrong about that re: arcade.

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:11 pm

louisg> of the ones you mentioned, I have several, but the japanese versions by CyberFront/SourceNext.

Layer Section: a horrible port by CyberFront that got rid of the TATE, reduced difficulty and has uglier graphics than the Saturn or arcade counterparts, it also has trouble running in many configurations. Its only redeeming value is the awesome redbook audio. I'm glad I got this one for $1. Stick to MAME or Saturn versions or, if you want to go for PC, the Taito Legends that comes with RayForce.

RayCrisis: a port of the PSX version by CyberFront that runs faster, has zero loading times and, overall, I found it much better. Music comes in WAV format if you want to listen to it too. It has some troubles running with certain videocards, you might have to reverse drivers or use the same drivers recommended by Siter Skain to run RefleX (the drivers linked there also seem to solve most problems in most doujin games, I don't know if this has changed as of now). I have recorded an entire run through the Special Mode of this version.

G-Darius: a port of the PSX by CyberFront, re-released by Sourcenext as part of "Taito's Shooting Game Pack" (along with RayStorm). Runs much better than the PSX counterpart, at a higher resolution and comes with the whole soundtrack in redbook audio (and it fucking rocks). I think Ite7 has recorded a run using the PC version.

RayStorm: another port by CyberFront, this one is overall inferior to the PSX version as it has a serious problem with the sound effects volume being all over the music. Besides that, it's pretty much the same but with zero loading times and higher resolution. Again, redbook audio for the win but you are not missing much outside of that.

Sourcenext also has the three Shikigami No Shiro games for PC. I can't remember which of the three games played much, much better on the PC. Let's not even mention the Mobile Light Force thing

Now that I think about it, there are a decent amount of commercial shooters released for PC. I wonder how they would fare if they make it into Steam or shooting game collections...

BPzeBanshee · Post by **BPzeBanshee** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:42 am

louisg wrote: Hmm, was it stretched? I'm pretty sure that one really does have a proper tate option as well as a proper letterboxed mode. Maybe I'm misremembering though; it's been a while. I do remember that the framerate wasn't 100% however.

If anyone's interested, there were also PC ports of a bunch of other shmups brought out here by Interplay during the late 90s in addition to Raiden 2 (RayForce, Darius Gaiden, RayCrisis, and I think G-Darius). The 3d ones I think run in a higher resolution than the arcade or PSX ones, but I could be wrong about that re: arcade.

I believe it was slightly stretched, kinda like Raiden 1's native aspect. It ran fine when left in its little box but when you fullscreened it, it'd stretch across the whole screen and lag.

As for the other PC ports, I prefer to just run the PSX/MAME versions. Especially RayStorm - that game has been so poorly screwed with its ports twice now in the sense of inferior PC and flattened 360 HD mode (which was 'worldwide' but not on Australian XBLA).

Obiwanshinobi · Post by **Obiwanshinobi** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:27 pm

Konami released Gradius I&II on one disc (Gradius Deluxe Pack) for Win95 as well. Not that you can't play them on MAME, but if they are anything like the PSX version (not quite compatible with PS2 by the way), they should optionally support full 4:3 aspect ratio (without deformation).

spl · Post by **spl** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:46 pm

You guys having issues with Raiden 2 PC version - run it in 256 colour compatibility mode.

It was running fine for me too in a window and when I went full screen the colours would go crazy - when I set to 256 colours I could go full screen no problem.

I had it set for Horizontal Mode (TATE mode) and went full screen on my 17" CRT - played perfect except the fact the controls didn't TATE and there's no way to alter them in the joystick settings. I had to use Xpadder to set the keys up the right direction for my stick.

eatingbadly · Post by **eatingbadly** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 4:47 pm

I haven't played any ports or the arcade version of Raiden III but I must say it runs amazingly on my low-end laptop. One of the most fun shmups i currently play and I would recommend it! Someone here said it was really slow compared to arcade so I will give it a go in shmupmame if it is lagless and repost if the PC version really is molasses.

Observer wrote: Now that I think about it, there are a decent amount of commercial shooters released for PC. I wonder how they would fare if they make it into Steam or shooting game collections...

Yeah I unfortunately had to sell my Dreamcast and PS3 recently so all I have is my quickly aging laptop and a Wii. Wii has great games on the virtual console ofc, and Castle Of Shikigami 3 which I haven't gotten yet

But between shmupmame, Crimzon Clover and Raiden III I play almost all my games on my PC, or iPod touch when I am at school

If Steam came out with Cave games or Ikaruga I would be a happy man and I think they would do really well if they played right. I know I would buy them! But until then i will keep saving up for an xbox 360... I want to get Marvel vs. Capcom 3 anyway

MathU · Post by **MathU** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:00 pm

I'm still very disappointed that Cyberfront never ported Raiden IV to the PC.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:07 pm

Observer wrote:Layer Section: a horrible port by CyberFront that got rid of the TATE, reduced difficulty and has uglier graphics than the Saturn or arcade counterparts, it also has trouble running in many configurations. Its only redeeming value is the awesome redbook audio. I'm glad I got this one for $1. Stick to MAME or Saturn versions or, if you want to go for PC, the Taito Legends that comes with RayForce.

Seconded on the PC port of Layer Section/Rayforce being awful, chiefly for the scoring-ruining screen formatting (can't chain what you can't see).

I'd also mention Taito Memories II Joukan's version of LS/Rayforce, where consoles are concerned (PS2/JP only). It's better than the Saturn one on a couple of major points (arcade-accurate difficulty, and a properly formatted display in yoko). Either is better than the PC port, though.

Zeron · Post by **Zeron** » Fri Oct 07, 2011 12:28 pm

Thread resurrection time

My SF IV TE stick with drivers installed does not seem to be detected by the config, I assume this means I have to set up Xpadder?

a tad bit offtopic but what the hell
Same scenario with the Shikigami No Shiro pc port except here its as if I am holding the stick up it keeps moving up and down constantly I can set the buttons though but I cant seem to find a way to stop this damn crap.

edit never mind I got it all working with XPADDER, its quite a handy piece of software,

shmups.system11.org

Raiden II and III for PC?

Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?

Re: Raiden II and III for PC?