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

[BIL]

Hamster uploaded the promotional video of Arcade Archives: Dig Dug II.
https://youtu.be/eWPPKaCIEe4

Looks really good! I was left ice-cold by Hopping Mappy, and having similarly never heard of this, I remained lukewarm. But seeing it in action, it seems like a really cool hybrid of maze-chasing and Qix-via-Libble Rabble.

Actually... it reminds me of Natsume's later GB action/puzzler Osawagase! Penguin Boy (aka Amazing Penguin), uncannily so. To the point, I wonder if Natsume were directly inspired? They even share a similar premise; there, rather than exploding off chunks of island - \m/etal af btw - you do similar with an ice floe.

And Penguin is straight-up 12o'clock killer. An arcade-sized forerunner would be ace. Even the aesthetic looks on par with Penguin-kun's adorable running animation, although it's not easy to beat his inimitably willy-danglin', nutsack-swanglin' "sup bitches?" theme song! Christ, what a rude little jam, over a cheerfully murderfaced bass/hi-hat team!

[Udderdude]

I liked this one on NES. I think it gets a lot of flak for changing the gameplay too much, but I think it's fine.

[BIL]

Always sad when sequels get rapped for being different. Particularly when the original is solid, as Namco's golden age titles tended to be, I'd rather have something offbeat (and good, obviously!). If Mappy's "new weapon for taking targets in the field" had been a fuckin Grobda equipped with hydraulics/verniers, I'd dig that too. The constant pogoing legit annoyed me, I felt old realising that. This looks rad, though, and "tactically retreat from baddies before revealing your terrifying knack for bike pump-assisted ultraviolence" is kinda Dig-Dug's jam anyway, whether the bastards are getting blown apart or dashed into the waves amidst tons of pulverised stone.

[pulsemod]

dig dug 2 definitely grabbed my interest the first time I played it, but I still don't really understand the appeal of hopping mappy. feels like an empty game compared to the original, anyways.

[BIL]

Decided to do a bit of catchup before firing up Dig Dug II, specifically Jigoku Meguri and Navarone. JM is brilliant, as expected; sort of Mizubaku Daibouken's shot mechanics in a Makaimura-intense focus on combat platforming. Absolutely charming aesthetic; as sepulchral as it is cute, bringing to mind Namco's earlier Hell Patrol, Youkai Douchuki.

Navarone, I was initially just struck at how formidably ancient it feels, even for 1980; the previous year's Galaxian seems positively futuristic, by comparison. Love how Hamster simulated the optional colour overlay! The big exception here is its chainsplosion mechanic on Mines, far predating Grobda's and Ikari's, and likewise feeling fresh as all hell. Making groups of things chainsplode is hardcore shooting's bubblewrap, it never gets old!

There's also a really well-integrated bonus shot mechanic; take out five Mines, and the central fortress's square gate will open, on one side. But since this is a three-sided battlefield, the opening might be a long way from your position. Handily, every subsequent Mine you shoot will rotate the opening a quarter-turn, letting you swiftly bring it into your line of fire for a 200pts killshot. This is a situation where you want to moderate your chainsplosions, as each individual Mine will contribute its own quarter-turn.

Nailing the fortress is lucrative, and you can land as many hits as you're able to set up; the process will reset to square one after each successful hit. You can rack up a ton of points with deft shooting; opening the fort, blasting a mine to set up the shot, repeat. Of course there are only so many Mines, but then your objective is to clear them out anyway. It's a classically well-considered system.

Despite the interesting setup, with the relatively low pressure, I was initially wondering where the sting might be. Having figured out it was a speed+accuracy game (you're deducted points for each shot fired, a cute nod to its military aesthetic), I suspected Caravan Mode might hold another revelation, ala January's Tecmo surprise, Senjyo. Happily, that's precisely what I found; time pressure turns what's really more of a puzzle/action game into a full-on STG. It's a far more arresting affair when you're scrambling around the three-sided battlefield, hunting down juicy chainsplosions and bonus shots without missing, or getting blasted yourself. The enemy ships being both indestructible and somewhat passive suddenly makes total sense; they're not traditional enemies to destroy, rather they're there to toss spanners into your carefully-executed scoring runs; being able to blast away their incoming fire is another excellent detail.

An easy recommend if you dig Caravanning; maybe worth a look even if you don't.

[hamfighterx]

I first played and learned to appreciate Dig Dug II after playing Dig Dug: Digging Strike (for, you guessed it, the Nintendo DS. Gotta love that "D___ S___" subtitle era). The DS game kinda combines both styles into one game. Top screen has the overhead map sections of Dig Dug II, and the bottom screen shows a side view like Dig Dug 1, complete with big ass spikes that you want to release so they drop and cause fault lines to chop sections off the "overworld" map. It's... kind of great, actually, and a fantastic use of the dual screen setup.

[BIL]

Goddamn, that sounds amazing.

...kinda funny to think that Baraduke and Dig Dug share a universe, but then again, Horii's games were always at least as destructive as his ex-wife Kissy's.

[hamfighterx]

Taito is releasing Taito Milestones 2, another compilation of games from the AA series. Initial list below, apparently more titles will be announced later. This list seems to reveal one as yet unreleased AA game, Dino Rex (Taito's Primal Rage-like dinosaur fighting game). The rest are already out via Arcade Archives.

Ben Bero Beh
Dino Rex
Gun Frontier
KiKi KaiKai
Liquid Kids
Metal Black
The Legend of Kage
The New Zealand Story

[BIL]

Bwaaahahahaaa! I knew Dino Rex would arrive sooner or later. I don't know if I'll be partaking, tbh. I sat out Champion Wrestler for the same reason, not big on 1P fighting and nobody I know will even glance at this stuff. OTOH, it's got one hell of a style, as expected of Senba-san.

That's a far more appealing selection than the previous, which while packing several very nice titles, was a bit low on marquee power. If the ACA ones weren't already out, I'd be balls out for Gun Frontier, Gun Frontier 2, Kage, Kiki, and TNZS.

[Udderdude]

Dino Rex makes me feel like a kid again, playing with toy dinosaurs. They're just as inflexible and unresponsive ..

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Cosmo Gang The Video will be next week's release.
https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1646486072665448448

[BIL]

Nice! That one's on quite a few people's wishlists.

[cfx]

Indeed. From February:

I think I already wrote some of this previously in the thread, but now that ACA Phelios is out, I want Rolling Thunder 2, Burning Force, and Cosmo Gang the Video. If I'm not mistaken, these are all on the same arcade hardware so with how Hamster seems to do things hopefully they will be forthcoming. [...]

The one and only arcade cabinet I've ever seen for this game was at a Fuddruckers (hamburger joint in the US) and was one of those cabinets that's mabye 2/3-3/4 the size of a normal cabinet, like it was made for kids, and I think had a 19" monitor. While I never saw one of of those in person, it's probably about the size of a Capcom mini-cute but this was the typical American wood-style cabinet. As an adult you had to sit on a stool to use the controls comfortably. I'm sure this was just a generic cab with the PCB in it. This must have been in the early 1990s when the game was still pretty new.

Since Hamster is doing the games on this hardware now, that increases my hopes for Rolling Thunder 2 and Burning Force coming as well.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For cfx,

That particular smaller American arcade cabinet sporting a 19" CRT monitor was called a "Low Boy" cabinet -- a local arcade joint called "The Electric Underground" had some low boy cabs up & running the slick Seibu Kaihatsu arcade puzzler of Battle Balls (aka Senkyu in Japan) & Viper Phase 1 U.S.A back in 1995. I've seen the occasional lone low boy cab offered for sale on ebay. Since a low boy's control panel was lower than the typical taller Dynamo arcade setup, you had to use a folding chair or lowered stool to use the populated Happ Controls manufactured arcade sticks & push buttons that were considered the usual staple/prevalent for American arcade cabs back in the 1990s.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[hamfighterx]

Namco System 2 hardware games list according to system16.com is below. And yeah, Hamster seems to have been burning through a lot of these ones fairly recently. Bolded games below are released or announced.

Assault
Assault Plus
Bubble Trouble
Burning Force
Cosmo Gang The Video
Dirt Fox
Dragon Saber
Finest Hour
Golly Ghost
Kyuukai Douchuuki
Marvel Land
Metal Hawk
Mirai Ninja
Ordyne
Phelios
Rolling Thunder 2
Steel Gunner
Steel Gunner 2
Super World Stadium
Super World Stadium '92
Super World Stadium '93
Valkyrie No Densetsu

System 16 also lists the following games on "System 2 derivative" hardware - I'm excited for the prospect of the Final Lap games, though I would assume they do Pole Position and Pole Position 2 first.
Final Lap
Final Lap 2
Final Lap 3
Four Trax
Lucky & Wild
Suzuka 8 Hours
Suzuka 8 Hours 2

[cfx]

They've done quite a few. I'd assume the baseball games would be a low priority if something they'd do at all.

Lucky & Wild would be interesting, but I also assume they're unlikely to do gun games, and they woudln't be great to play with just an anlog stick.

Burning Force and Rolling Thunder 2 are the others there I want, but I'm not very familiar with most of the rest so I might be interested in more.

[hamfighterx]

Lucky & Wild would be interesting, but I also assume they're unlikely to do gun games, and they woudln't be great to play with just an anlog stick.

You're probably correct. Several light gun games on that list too:
(1) The Steel Gunner games are kind of a sci-fi take on Operation Wolf, you shoot a lot of robots. They're pretty good for what they are, and these seem like the most reasonable possibilities of the light gun games for ports since they're relatively straightforward shooting action. Particularly on Switch, I could even see Hamster implementing touchscreen shooting (they added a touchscreen control scheme recently for Allumer's obscure card game, Magical Speed). Maybe not as fun to control with a normal analog stick though.

(2) Lucky & Wild's combination of driving and shooting, and being designed primarily for two-player simultaneous play, makes it a much harder one to pull off.

(3) Golly! Ghost! is a really weird one that I see no real chance of getting a new release, because it used an actual electo-mechanical diorama as part of the arcade machine, done with solenoids sort of like a pinball machine. This was also a ticket redemption shooting gallery type of game. It's actually emulated in MAME with a downloadable graphical overlay, though!

(4) Bubble Trouble (Golly Ghost 2) got rid of the electrical diorama from the first game in favor of a fully digitally rendered background.

Totally agree that Burning Force (Space Harrier-like on a motorcycle/spaceship) and Rolling Thunder 2 are prime candidates for Arcade Archives. Others that I could see making an appearance are Dirt Fox (overhead view racing game like Neo Drift out, or a little like Sega's original Monaco GP) and Finest Hour (a heavily Gundam inspired side-scrolling run-and-gun).

All of those listed as System 2 derivative games in my last post are racing games of some form. Aside from Lucky & Wild's unique combination of driving + light gun shooting, I wouldn't be shocked by seeing any of:
- Final Lap 1-3: basically the successors to Pole Position 1&2; I would assume Hamster will eventually get to Pole Position and at least Final Lap 1
- Four Trax: an ATV racing game
- Suzuka 8 Hours 1&2: Hang-On like motorcycle racing games

And the rest are baseball games: the three Super World Stadium games, and Kyuukai Douchuuki (also romanized as 'Dochuki') - not to be confused with earlier and similarly named side scroller Yokai Dochuki (aka Shadow Land), already on Arcade Archives PS4/Switch.

[BIL]

Ah man, I've wanted Finest Hour ever since Namco joined ACA. Never played it, I just really dig sidescrolling mecha action.

Pole Position and Bosconian are my big remaining wants from the old PS1 Namco Museum discs, just about everything else is here. King & Balloon would be neat too, but nothing I'm pining for.

God, I'd love to see Lucky & Wild... no idea how feasible a gun peripheral would be, but even crosshairing it sounds fun. Had a riot playing that with my grandma BITD, she couldn't drive for shit so we swapped sides and she actually killed a fair number of dudes, both hands on the uzi.

Kind of related, one of my favourite little bonuses has been the dual-stick/dual-character games, like Libble Rabble and Return of Ishtar, letting you move the second character's controls to 2P side, effectively creating a new cooperative mode. LR is seriously great casual couch fun with two people (a brain-revving test of nerve in 1P... I wonder if players BITD would team up on the controls). Would be neat to see them do the reverse with Lucky & Wild, letting you control P2's gun along with P1's driving and shooting.

[hamfighterx]

Had a riot playing that with my grandma BITD, she couldn't drive for shit so we swapped sides and she actually killed a fair number of dudes, both hands on the uzi.

Hahahahahaha that's awesome. Watch out for grandma!

[Udderdude]

Actual footage:

[BIL]

[BareKnuckleRoo]

She's even got a foul mouth like you!

[BIL]

It's that Blitz Spirit, those old codgers had to play 1941 IRL

[CRP]

Namco System 2 hardware games list according to system16.com is below. And yeah, Hamster seems to have been burning through a lot of these ones fairly recently. Bolded games below are released or announced.
...
Rolling Thunder 2
...

RT2 is on switch namco museum btw also galaga 88
https://www.bandainamcoent.com/games/namco-museum

[cfx]

Kind of related, one of my favourite little bonuses has been the dual-stick/dual-character games, like Libble Rabble and Return of Ishtar, letting you move the second character's controls to 2P side, effectively creating a new cooperative mode. LR is seriously great casual couch fun with two people (a brain-revving test of nerve in 1P... I wonder if players BITD would team up on the controls). Would be neat to see them do the reverse with Lucky & Wild, letting you control P2's gun along with P1's driving and shooting.

I think that I recall an advertisement in one of the Japanese computer magazines, probably Log In, for the FM-Towns version of Libble Rabble with its special controller that showed this same setup and two players, so it has been a thing for a long time it seems.

[BrianC]

Kyuukai Douchuuki (also romanized as 'Dochuki') - not to be confused with earlier and similarly named side scroller Yokai Dochuki (aka Shadow Land), already on Arcade Archives PS4/Switch.

It uses characters from Yokai Dochuki and is a spinoff. Similar to those Mario themed sports games with Mario in the title. I'm actually hoping some of those sports games come to ACA. One of Namco's Tennis games is already on ACA.

[cfx]

Kyuukai Douchuuki (also romanized as 'Dochuki') - not to be confused with earlier and similarly named side scroller Yokai Dochuki (aka Shadow Land), already on Arcade Archives PS4/Switch.

It uses characters from Yokai Dochuki and is a spinoff. Similar to those Mario themed sports games with Mario in the title. I'm actually hoping some of those sports games come to ACA. One of Namco's Tennis games is already on ACA.

Has anyone played that tennis game? I'm very curious about it. Namco's Super Family Tennis on the Super Famicom is an awesome game with awesome control once you learn how to truly play it. (The hidden "Namco Theater" mode forces you to learn how if you didn't already get it by then.)

This arcade game is older, 1988 versus 1993 for the SFC game, but if it has the same level of control and plays similar I'd like to get it.

[utsunderthesky]

I just want Salamander 2 and Twinbee Yaho…

[velo]

Galaga '88: Apr 27, 2023
Mazinger Z: May 11, 2023

Both long-anticipated

[Jeneki]

Dang. There was a while when I was picking up maybe one of these a month, but lately it's been solid bangers every week.