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

[Marc]

I've given up with Trigon, that game slays me. I have noticed though, that I'm squinting at the screen, I am WAY overdue for an eye test, some five years over.

One of my annoyances with Raiden has always been the way you're almost punished for switching weapons on the fly. So if I power up red a few times then switch to laser just before the boss, is level 1 laser actually doing any more damage than a level 2/3 wide-shot?

[BIL]

From what I understand of TZW's tweet, switching to Laser after the third boss's BGM starts (3-ALL from saucy's channel, an indispensable resource) will actually drop the Rank. I'd always assumed the max Laser was just really damn strong.

There's a lot of interesting commentary on Rank in general there, though being non-JP literate, I find it a little tough to parse.

[trap15]

It's less complicated than that. Enemy HP is determined when the enemy spawns, and laser causes enemy HP to scale much higher, to balance out the fact that when laser hits it does tons more damage. You can abuse this on all bosses, not just the 3rd stage boss, by making sure to wait until the boss spawns (generally when the music starts playing) before switching to laser, where you'll do laser damage but the boss will have the lower HP as if you were using vulcan.

[BIL]

Excellent, thanks for the clarification! That's some good info.

[apatheticTurd]

Did I just get better or is the ACA version quite a bit easier than the Set 1 and Set 2 romsets in MAME? Bullets feel somewhat slower and I'm not getting pointblanked by tanks coming from the side of the screen or enemies paradropping from the top like I was in emulation. It feels closer (though not the same) to Raiden Project on the default "Colonel" difficulty.

I also notice slowdowns which I never experienced in MAME or PS1 so there is the possibility the MAME romsets aren't necessarily the og Japanese/international releases as I thought but revisions on better hardware. Clarifications would be appreciated.

[BIL]

I'm wondering if TZW's comments on the "Change Game Rank" setting (in Game Settings, under the "Preference Options" submenu) might be relevant - particularly this one. (the first reply, containing the below text)

【開始ランク1】
たまにやたら簡単だったり、普段撃たない敵が撃ったりと難度の差を感じたことは無いですか?
それが開始ランクです。
実はデモ画面ごとに決まっていたりします。

電源投入後の7面デモ画面でコイン投入で簡単に、
というネタは実は正しかったりします。

He seems to go on to say that leaving it set to "OFF" will behave "like the board."

[Marc]

It's less complicated than that. Enemy HP is determined when the enemy spawns, and laser causes enemy HP to scale much higher, to balance out the fact that when laser hits it does tons more damage. You can abuse this on all bosses, not just the 3rd stage boss, by making sure to wait until the boss spawns (generally when the music starts playing) before switching to laser, where you'll do laser damage but the boss will have the lower HP as if you were using vulcan.

Cool thanks! I did wonder at some point through the alcohol-haze last night why I sometimes seemed to floor the first two tanks in moments, while other times it was much more drawn out.

[Johnpv]

Am I missing something, I want to start the game as just the 2p ship. It seems no matter what I set though, it either starts me as the red ship, or as the blue ship but the red ship is there as well. Is there no way to do single player as just the blue ship?

[BIL]

You can definitely play as the blue ship in a 1P game. Go to Game Settings, then Preference Settings, and set "Switch Between Ships" to "ON." The game should prompt you to reset - do so, and your next 1P credit will be as the blue ship.

> video evidence

[Johnpv]

That is what I've been doing but for some reason it starts me in a 2 player game then. Hmmmm *edit* I figured it out, you have to have just 1 credit in the system when you press start. I just typically jam on the credit button before pressing start.

[BIL]

Good catch. MAME is exactly the same (2P start button will automatically begin a cooperative game, with excess credits in the machine). I guess it's a PCB-original behaviour.

[Flashman]

It's less complicated than that. Enemy HP is determined when the enemy spawns, and laser causes enemy HP to scale much higher, to balance out the fact that when laser hits it does tons more damage. You can abuse this on all bosses, not just the 3rd stage boss, by making sure to wait until the boss spawns (generally when the music starts playing) before switching to laser, where you'll do laser damage but the boss will have the lower HP as if you were using vulcan.

Great tip there many thanks, new one on me! I often stick with the vulcan and just power up full until the L3 boss when I switch to the laser and from there switch back to the vulcan for the levels and to the laser for every remaining boss, I'll be adopting this strat.

While we are on mechanics of the game (and I'm sure I've asked this here before, but it drives me nuts) does anyone know what triggers the car on the bridge of L2 to appear, which you can shoot for extra points? Is it purely random, or is there some trick? I've had it once so far on the ACA version but I've no idea what I did - I had several theory's such as scoring enough points before you reach the bridge, to flying over a certain part of the screen as you reach, none of which stood up to scrutiny.

Most console versions of the Game (except Project) it just shows up every time, but on the arcade version it seems very few and far between, can't find a thing about it online.

[John4300]

I think the two player start is a thing so both of the players get a lift-off start from the carrier. Otherwise the other player just spawns from bottom of the screen, which kinda ruins immersion (If I recall correctly, you can't join in while the game loads, so the earliest you can join in after first player has started is during the carrier "cutscene").

EDIT:

Did a quick check with Mame. Both Raiden 1 and Raiden DX (Didn't have 2 to check right now but I think it's the same as DX) has the system where if you have more than 1 credit and press the player 2 start button, you'll do a dual start. However, what is interesting is that if the game is on Free Play mode, you'll always start with only one player no matter which side you press, BUT, at least in Raiden 1 if you press both of the start buttons at the same time (You have to be pretty exact, if you miss the input you can't join in during the loading time anymore) you'll actually do a dual start! This didn't seem to work with DX due to the menu system, but it might work with 2.

[Zach Keene]

I'm wondering if TZW's comments on the "Change Game Rank" setting (in Game Settings, under the "Preference Options" submenu) might be relevant - particularly this one. (the first reply, containing the below text)

【開始ランク1】
たまにやたら簡単だったり、普段撃たない敵が撃ったりと難度の差を感じたことは無いですか?
それが開始ランクです。
実はデモ画面ごとに決まっていたりします。

電源投入後の7面デモ画面でコイン投入で簡単に、
というネタは実は正しかったりします。

He seems to go on to say that leaving it set to "OFF" will behave "like the board."

The above would seem to be related to this curious tidbit in the manual:

*Credit input timing

Your rank also changes depending on when credits are input. Try inputting credits at different times to see what happens.

[BIL]

TFM continues to prove an invaluable asset to the community

Is there a better game over tune than Terra Cresta’s sea ditty?!?

Besides Raiden’s game over tune of course!

Shaweet remix courtesy of a shameful st2 demise Game Over To Blazes?

[baconcow]

What is the difference between the red and blue ACA Archive game thumbnails, on the Switch? I cannot seem to see a relationship. Gradius III and Raiden are blue. Do they represent bigger name games?

Also, has it ever been suggested where these games will go, release-rise? Might we see Taoplan, Eighting/Raizing, or Cave releases?

[Creamy Goodness]

I've given up with Trigon, that game slays me. I have noticed though, that I'm squinting at the screen, I am WAY overdue for an eye test, some five years over.

One of my annoyances with Raiden has always been the way you're almost punished for switching weapons on the fly. So if I power up red a few times then switch to laser just before the boss, is level 1 laser actually doing any more damage than a level 2/3 wide-shot?

Trigon kicks my ass too. I chalk it up to a combo of having a serious slow ship/fast bullet situation along with the game not being very interesting to me.

[BIL]

Also, has it ever been suggested where these games will go, release-rise? Might we see Taoplan, Eighting/Raizing, or Cave releases?

No hints of that, to date. Hamster seem to retain good relations with Konami, Taito, Tecmo, SNK, and more recently Seibu, plus City Connection (Jaleco rights holders), and IIRC they themselves have the rights to NMK, UPL and Nichibutsu's catalogues. Not sure who owns Video System's catalogue, but Rabio Lepus is currently in the pipeline, as is DECO's Darwin 4078.

I'd guess we'll continue seeing more from those camps. As mentioned a few posts back, IREM have been AWOL since 2019, but they had a strong presence until then. I hope we see more M72s, at the least.

M2's got a long-awaited Toaplan project, said to feature Hishouzame, Kyuukyoku Tiger, Out Zone and Tatsujin Ou in its debut, but it's still in "done when it's done" territory. As for Raizing/Cave, they seem to remain the preserve of ShotTriggers, though the last few related releases have been Taito (G-Darius HD) and Compile (Aleste Collection). They seem aware of the collective raging boner for Batrider.

[baconcow]

I’ve bought a lot of the M2 stuff and hope to get more. Looking forward to their upcoming Taoplan games (hope it is a collection). Batrider is pretty awesome.

[BrianC]

Not sure who owns Video System's catalogue, but Rabio Lepus is currently in the pipeline

Some of Video Systems NeoGeo games are already part of Arcade Archives.

[BIL]

Indeed - now that I think back, I believe Hamster owns the rights to their stuff too. Lemme see...

EDIT: yep. Video System, UPL, NMK and Nihon Busson/Nichibutsu, those are the four catalogues they have full rights to. WTB ACA Turbo Force :3

With Zero Team on ACA, if they get Karate Busters out, and M2 handle Knuckle Bash, we'll have the full STG Devs Try Beltscrolling triple crown on modern console

[Rastan78]

Here's the top score on Raiden PS4 caravan mode by WIZ. It's all about racking up those tick points from hitting medium sized enemies with multiple missiles. This can be seen in all the early Raiden titles IIRC. Tedious but effective point leeching technique.
https://youtu.be/XeHIuJ5iZ9M

The port looks and sounds great to my memory. Bu then the last time I actually played the PCB was at the Santa Cruz boardwalk on a cab where the monitor looks like you were playing at the bottom of a muddy pond lol.

[Flashman]

The port looks and sounds great to my memory. Bu then the last time I actually played the PCB was at the Santa Cruz boardwalk on a cab where the monitor looks like you were playing at the bottom of a muddy pond lol.

Yeah if I was ever going to take the plunge on an arcade cab it'd either be a Raiden / Raiden 2 or Donkey Kong. I understand Raiden had very few dedicated cabs though and most were made up from older cabs with a new PCB put in, making them rare as rocking horse shit now, especially over in the U.K. I think a Mame cab at some point will be the best I'll ever see, though I did see a beautiful Donkey Kong on eBay a couple of weeks ago, but it had a starting bid of £2000 and I don't fancy my other half taking an extended holiday at her parents house

[Marc]

I’m going to rant now, and I very rarely do ‘Waaa, it’s too hard for me’, but FUCK Raiden.
I’m not particularly gifted at shmups, I made my peace with that a long time ago. But usually, I understand them. I’ll watch a vid of something I’m stuck on, and even if I think I’ve no chance of replicating it, I at least understand what I’m seeing. I don’t ‘get’ this game at all.

It’s TATE but gives you more room than you can cover without the screen scrolling. OK, I guess, as long as it’s designed in a way that’s not unfair to the player. But this? Enemies that fire literally when their first pixel scroll on screen. Enemies that will snipe at point-blank range. Enemies that will still snipe even when you’ve scrolled almost past them. Enemies that fire from short-range at where you’re going to be in a moment, as though the game is reading pad inputs. Trigon, for instance, I just find hard. Saw the fourth round and decided I wouldn’t see any further without some serious grinding, that’s fine. This, you can be doing well, almost find a groove, and BAM, one bullet from one enemy you hadn’t see enter the screen, or thought you’d scrolled past and game over. I remember Flying Shark being an asshole for sniping, but even that wasn’t bad to this degree.

What am I missing, because at the moment it just seems really poorly designed and unfun to me?
Let the beasting commence

[SPM]

Did you expect war to be a walk in the park? Man it up dammit!

[BIL]

The sniper tanks' offscreen flanking is especially vicious in Raiden, and only moreso in Raiden II and DX. You really need a combination of 1) stage memorisation and 2) economical horizontal scrolling to avoid outrageous misfortune. Your ship is actually quick enough to strafe past tanks that are at 45' angles - Red+Green is good at decapping them in the process - but if you get T-boned, particularly while scrolling the screen, you're in deep shit and will need instant evasive action to avoid a prompt side-snipe.

SLICE INTO KILLING RANGE LIKE BRADE OF NINJA (■｀W´■)

Spoiler

Some shit you just have to learn via trial/error. I recommend my Super Casual 1ALL Solution: learn to nomiss each stage, sequentially, only moving on once you can confidently survive. Happy with your current stage performance? Set a new savepoint and work on the next. Your ancestors will be ashamed! But they are dead, and you are alive!

st3 dual bomber setpiece. Nice safespot! But MEMORISE THOSE FUCKIN LOUSY PRICKS (■｀ω´■)

Spoiler

This is why I favour zero horizontal pan, ala Task Force Harrier and Psikyo's canon. Raiden's still not quite as bad as my most detested "edge riding" examples, like Guevara. In Toaplan/Raiden, the camera will begin panning the instant you move horizontally, giving you some (not much, but some) advance notice. In Guevara, you have to hit the screen edge before it'll budge, making un-memorised stages virtually unplayable.

Currently hitting stage 6 of Raiden myself, coming back more or less blind. I played a few credits of Trigon, too - it's long been my dream to see 1990's two arch-Toaplanesques share a stage. Despite its Shot leaning Hishou-conservative, rather than Kyu-KYUKYOKU, I'd say Trigon's slightly more forgiving than Raiden - at least once you suss out its bombs. Which are more like Garegga-style SPECIAL WEAPONS. Both are tough games, though.

At least neither's 1-ALL is as hard as Same Same Same 1P ver or Tatsujin Ou, so uh... yeah, I guess that's not encouraging at all is it.

Mayne, those monster tank trios that kick off stage 5 as FIGHTING THUNDER stomps in, taking punishing Vulcan/Rocket fire before finally exploding, turning the dusty grassland into Satan's smouldering red carpet, that is where Raiden stops being Toaplanesque and becomes RAIDENESQUE.

[Marc]

I'd actually say Trigon's slightly easier than Raiden, though both are tough games. Neither's 1-ALL is as hard as Same Same Same 1P ver or Tatsujin Ou, so uh... yeah I guess that's not encouraging at all is it.

Oh shit, that's really encouraging!
I do enjoy playing it moment-to-moment, but it seems that getting good at this would require more memorisation than R-Type in addition to twitch skills, and these aren't short levels.

I probably need to work my way up, but in all honestly there's just been so many good Arcade Archives releases that my Switch is bursting at the seams, and this year has been incredibly manic personally so far, so my gaming time is a lot more limited then previous at the moment. I need to settle on one relatively 'average' title difficulty-wise, and work up. I was seconds from a Terra Force 1CC and a fair ways into Thunder Cross 2, think they're more my skill ceiling these days

[BIL]

Raiden and other tougher Toaplanesques tend to be 95% cartography/routing, with twitch really only coming into play for error recovery (or when dealing with unavoidable RNG, eg Raiden's cycling powerups). They remind me of the more unforgiving arcade racing games, in that regard. I suppose all intense, single-credit action games do, in a way - you have to master the course in advance, before you can really tear through it, just a law of the universe - but these especially. Large hitbox, lightning-quick bullets and severely delayed bombs all encourage practiced routine just as hard as any of IREM or Konami's fatal labyrinths. There isn't necessarily one viable route, but you'll want to learn one and stick to it.

Oof, I fuckin hate the middle section of stage 7, though. Yellow bullets on white floor. Not quite Tin Star bad, and at least the bullets are reasonably signposted by their zako, but a shame with visiblity being generally fine up to there.

I'd forgotten the mothership is all beat to shit and battle-scarred when you see it again - wicked touch. I'd associated that level of detail with the phenomenally intricate sequel, but you can see precursors all over. Reminds me of Valken, which wouldn't be out for another year or two, where poor VERSIS can't even fly anymore by the climax, and has to bellyflop into the enemy capital for the final showdown. All my love to ruggedly war-minded pixel artists.

[Rastan78]

Raiden and other tougher Toaplanesques tend to be 95% cartography/routing, with twitch really only coming into play for error recovery (or when dealing with unavoidable RNG, eg Raiden's cycling powerups).

Yeah it can also take a little time to adjust your general pattern of noob play while learning to the kind of sweeping left/right cutback maneuvers you need to do in Raiden games. It's all about leading bullets and preemptively dodging them rather than trying to react, and of course already being positioned to snuff out large enemies asap. I also kind of think of playing pool where it's often about where you leave the cue ball. Sometimes in a Raiden game to figure out a hard section you have to look back to the one before it and think about how leave your ship in a better postion for what's coming.

I think one of the biggest mistakes we all make when starting out is assuming that all but the most obviously memo heavy shmups are like 80% raw skill. Especially at high levels of play basically every shmup boils down to 90% routing.

Maybe that's part of why R-Type was such a hit. It makes it plainly obvious to new players the type of puzzle solving and trial and error you'll need to figure out. R-Type immediately puts players in this mode of, "If I want to make it through then I have to discover a reliable solution.

A lot of shmup gurus have said that shmups are really puzzle games. It's much more forgiving to die on a tricky section and think, "Oh I don't know the solution for this part yet" than to think, "Wow I was supposed to actually be able to dodge that on reaction? I'll never be that good."

[BIL]

That's an excellent way to put it, RE: the interconnectedness of Raiden's stage sectors. Gotta link everything up, there are some places you really don't wanna be! Stage 5 seems to love doing this, with its easy-to-snipe traincars leading slowly but surely to a wicked tank ambush at the upper-left side.

ACA Sea Fighter Poseidon is out now on JPN PS4. I really like this one so far! Deftly inventive precision shooting, with a stark mounted VS unmounted combat dynamic. There's quite a bit at play mechanically, all of it hanging together seamlessly.

You're on a Bond-esque one-man sub, by default; fuel steadily ticking down. Enemies ride the same; blast their subs for a straight kill, or snipe them off to steal a freshly fuelled-up ride. Besides your horizontal torpedo on [shot], the [eject] button is a secondary missile, of sorts - your unmanned sub will drift to the seabed, mowing through enemy swimmers until it hits something solid. It'll happily kill freshly-liberated enemy subs, too, a great chaotic touch. This ruthless ambivalence extends to enemies - they'll crash into each other, or the jagged sea floor, and environmental hazards will kill them just like you, too. Really cool sense of Battling Perilously.

Amusingly, it's possible to deliberately ram an enemy sub, dooming them and their machine, while you bail out unscathed - not the most constructive move, but great in a jam. Furthermore, while head-on collisions are fatal to your machine, you can finesse a face-first ram (or a vertical slam) for clean dismount. I adore brawler-esque physicality in my precision 2D action - I can't overstate how lovable I find this. WHAM! The recurring boss enemy, a menacing battleship whose parts need swift sniping, likewise prioritises steely accuracy over blitzkrieg. You can even dismount enemy pilots with your discarded craft, if you angle it just so their sub isn't hit.

It's a nice change of pace after playing quite a lot of Gradius and Salamander lately - feels almost gallery STG-esque. I notice you can get your current diver captured by the boss... I wonder if that's a Galaga nod, or if you can get them back?

Unmounted combat contrasts interestingly. You're slower, and your speargun can't damage enemy subs, or their torpedoes - only the riders (and sharks). However, you can about-face, in the manner of Capcom's later "flying man trilogy" Section Z/Side Arms/Forgotten Worlds. Great for sneaking past a sub's deadly frontal attack, then backstabbing its rider and getting back on the road.

Furthermore, overlapping with enemy swimmers is non-fatal; they have to shoot or ram you for the kill. Always a welcome touch of flexiblity in mano-a-mano combat, from Ninja Spirit to Metal Slug. Unmounted enemies are about as SOL as you are versus your sub, but likewise, aren't harmless - their spears will bounce off your ride, but will most definitely kill you.

You can't rescue POWs while unmounted, so there's a natural incentive to get a new ride ASAP. Not sure if there's any time/Rank pressure involved in loitering. Lousy-ass sharks seem to appear more when you're unmounted, as do backstabbing troops - actually, I'm not sure if these spawn at all while you're on the sub. Scrolling speed is player-controlled, yet another interesting wrinkle... rushing headlong is risky, but it's a good way to snap up those last couple POWs.

Encountered a nice Gradius-prefiguring volcano, and some cracking falling rocks in stage 2. There's also mines, whose querulous warning BGM is cute... they're not exactly Metal Black's wicked updrafts, but they've got character! Main BGM has a charming Famicom-esque chime I notice in The Tin Star, too. Explosions have a nice grainy roar, with stricken subs giving a classy pause for effect before detonating.

Mercifully, the colour palette seems easy on the eyes. Some nice Moon Patrol-style parallax, too - just keep in mind the background/foreground divide, as the latter is lethal. As I think I mentioned a while back ITT, these earlier Taito games can have some really jarring palettes, and comorbid bullet visibility issues in at least one case (Tin Star, a sadly flawed gem). I hope this behaves itself, would be a shame to see it go the way of TTS.

Neat game - solid mechanics and ambitious design like this in a slightly more modern audiovisual package would be a hands-down rec (not a problem for those of us who like this cheerfully goofy era of Taito, of course). Worth a spin in MAME at the very least.