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

[BIL]

Weirdly, despite always having had fond memories of the Speccy and C64 versions; and enjoying the odd credit or two I’ve played over the years, after actually sitting down with it properly, I’m not 100% sold on Rastan. It’s the lack of any sort of collisions whatsoever – it feels very Euro in that regard, actually reminds me a lot of Turrican in that respect. I get that with a heavier than usual emphasis on platforming, knockbacks would probably have made it frustrating as hell, but currently it just feels….. off to me.

It's definitely one of those "Did I just trade with those assholes?" *glancing at lifebar* games, but I find it's balanced out by the unstoppable RAHHH DIE MOTHERFUCKERS carnage of a well-placed assault. Nothing lives long enough to cause trouble.

It's a much more idiosyncratic, momentum-based affair than its rep lets on, sometimes to its detriment. Not a streamlined pickup-and-play ala Rygar at all, despite their shared standings in the 80s barbarian sidescroller arena. I'm digging it though, learning to set up and channel Ahnuld's steamrolling might.

The killer BGM helps a lot too; catchy, but with an ominously sonorous element. Game Over ambience is hawt.

[Arino]

It made me want to rewatch both Conan movies yesterday

[BIL]

It made me want to rewatch both Conan movies yesterday

The other game that does that for me is Actraiser, particularly as I played that before watching the movie. Yuzo Koshiro knows the best stuff to *ahem* borrow. An underratedly contemplative film, that first Conan.

[Arino]

Btw sorry I can't remember where people were talking about it recently here on this forum, so I'm just gonna use this thread here to ask: It is too late to buy stuff for the 3DS, right? I mean online. I have some of the SEGA games ported by M2, like OutRun und Power Drift for instance, but I wanted to get all of them eventually and now I just remembered that the store was closed some time ago. Especially Super Hang-On! I have that port of the game made by M2 for Xbox 360 and this version is great anyway, but it would be nice to be able to play Super Hang-On in 3D. What should I do? I don't really want to hack a 3DS because I'm too lazy but now there is no other way I guess? Which reminds me there are quite some games anyway which were only released in Japan iirc and those compilations are a fortune on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/354615665522?i ... BM7Lmh8-dj

[ryu]

You can have mine for $667

Isn't modding your 3DS or getting a flash card an option?

[BrianC]

Weirdly, despite always having had fond memories of the Speccy and C64 versions; and enjoying the odd credit or two I’ve played over the years, after actually sitting down with it properly, I’m not 100% sold on Rastan. It’s the lack of any sort of collisions whatsoever – it feels very Euro in that regard, actually reminds me a lot of Turrican in that respect. I get that with a heavier than usual emphasis on platforming, knockbacks would probably have made it frustrating as hell, but currently it just feels….. off to me.

Odd thing is despite the lack of collision detection on Rastan, hit detection of Rastan's weapons feels solid and some enemies have visible feedback.

[Arino]

You can have mine for $667

Thank you, it's really nice of you to give me a discount.

Isn't modding your 3DS or getting a flash card an option?

Don't want to go through the hassle of modding/learning how to do it. I am willing to learn a game, but I hate doing mods myself

Can the flash card be used without any modding at all? Like I just turn off the wifi and then I can use it without Mr. Miyamoto knowing?

Edit: Sorry I should ask about this on Reddit or something, don't want to hijack this thread (; we can just leave it at that.

[cfx]

It's easy to forget what's exclusive... not many things are anymore. The Namco NES collection storefront info doesn't make it glaringly clear that it's not the arcade versions, so I can understand some buyers being disappointed. They're worth it for the exclusives and demakes nevertheless.

I never owned a NES or Famicom, so I really have little idea of everything released on it. I think it's perfectly reasonable to assume a game with the word arcade in its title would be the actual arcade versions of games.

"Namco Museum Archives", the collections with the NES games, don't have "Arcade" in the title. The JP version on Switch is Namcot Collection, Namcot was Namco's home division. The Namco Museum Arcade PAC that was mentioned in an earlier post, is a Switch exclusive with the Switch Namco Musuem (all arcade games) and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus (not an arcade game).

Ooops, you are right and I had a brain glitch.

Still, it's the same kind of confusion for me. Up to this point, Namco Museum has meant arcade games. If they used the Namcot name or just called it Namco Museum FC Archives or something it would be far more informative.

Sorry I didn't intend to continue this OT divergence from the thread topic.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Still, it's the same kind of confusion for me. Up to this point, Namco Museum has meant arcade games.

They've had so many arcade collection releases thus far that the confusion's quite understandable.

[BrianC]

and to be fair, Namco's previous non-arcade collections were called something else. The JP only SGB collections were called Namco Gallery and the collections with remakes of console games on PS1 were called Namco Anthology. Even Namco Museum Remix on Wii (which did have some AC games) was called Minna de Asobou! Namco Carnival in Japan.

[hamfighterx]

Interesting M2 tweet (translated, from https://x.com/M2_game/status/1785862898163843119):

To celebrate the release of the Hamster arcade version, Taito HEY arcade has begun streaming " Rastan Saga for NESiCAxLive "
Did you know that this was actually developed by M2? If you see a NESiCAxLive cabinet (there are far fewer stores operating it now...), let's play!

I did not know, thanks M2-chan! Also, love when the arcades do these kinds of tie ins. Last time I was at Taito HEY was last summer, right when Splatterhouse released on Arcade Archives - and they had a Splatterhouse cab in prime position (3F right near all the STGs!) and streaming, very cool. Even the Namco titles getting some Taito love.


In other Arcade Archives news, from GSK via Retronauts:

Out of nowhere, Hamster's patched Libble Rabble to add a few fanservice-y extras: the in-app manual now includes scans of the "Basishi Book", a Libble Rabble handbook given out at Namco-managed arcades during the game's heyday, as well as a translated karaoke page featuring the official lyrics to one of the game's tunes, as well as a recording of an obscure official vocal recording originally produced for a radio advertisement. I don't know why they're adding all this stuff now, but who's complaining?

Hamster continuing to be better than this world deserves.

[BIL]

M2 and Hamster saving the world as intended.

Exceptionally cool, re: Libble Rabble. Anecdotally, I always get the feeling it enjoys a lot of cult affection. Toru Iwatani calls it his favourite, and it got a dedicated SFC port a good decade on, featuring a Namco Museum-prefiguring DIP menu, complete with PCB photography. Also a packed-in thumbpad which turns the face buttons into a quasi-Right Stick, very considerate! :3 (also works great with Super Smash TV!)

There's Dempa's X68000 port, too, which inspired this custom beauty:

Spoiler

Remind me of Tengen's contemporaneous run of 80s MD ports, one of which - Gauntlet - was M2's debut. Those manuals are full of developer commentary and PCB photos too, haha. (Snow Bros. featuring a foreword from Uemura-san, and Slap Fight MD a photo of its big honkin' board) I love these sorts of passion projects, something ACA and ShotTriggers alike consistently recall.

[cfx]

From the old weird days when I owned an FM Towns Marty, I recall that there was an FM Towns/Marty version of Libble Rabble and a special two d-pad control pad for it. I didn't own the game though; i just remember seeing it in magazines of the era, probably ASCII's Log In.

[BIL]

Interesting, especially with the custom controller! I'd no idea. Splatterhouse is the only Namco Marty port I ever heard much about.

People really love their LR, it seems. It's a very lovable Bashishi Game! The ACA one even lets you turn it into a first-rate couch co-op, with the option to give P1 and P2 control of an arrow apiece (ostensibly letting you hook up a couple of arcade sticks, or theoretically build your own custom rig; I seem to recall ACA Assault having this feature, too). I wonder if players ever co-opped LR's cab, back in the day... technically cheating, I guess, but it works sublimely well either way.

I flirted with getting a Marty as a Hishouzame Adaptor, at one point. But despite a valiant effort from VING, it suffers from the same cropped playfield as their Saturn Rayforce's yoko mode. While you can of course just tate RF for perfect 3:4, IIRC, Hishou is stuck in yoko. So you're constantly exchanging fire with enemies that often die before you ever see them. I seem to recall you can't blow up st1's tank bunkers, either... I still found it very likable, regardless. Bit moot post-Arcade Garage Vol.2, of course.

[Steven]

Can confirm that Slap Fight MD does indeed have a picture of the giant board in the ultra-cool original manual (not the boring MD Mini manual, so don't look for it in there) and that the board is indeed giant. You couldn't contain all of the game's awesomeness without an appropriately massive board. Maybe I'll go compare its hugeness with the famously large PS5.

I forget which computer version of Hishouzame is considered to be kusoge in the Japanese STG community, though one of them is, so you may have spared yourself some agony. Was it the FM Towns version or the X68000 one? Pretty sure it's the X68000 version.

[cfx]

Interesting, especially with the custom controller! I'd no idea. Splatterhouse is the only Namco Marty port I ever heard much about.

I don't know how long this image will hang around since it's part of an ebay auction, but here is the game with a controller: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8ZwAAOSw ... -l1600.jpg
Given the part number, that would appear to be a Micomsoft controller. Maybe there was another one, or a version of this one in gray, because that's what is in my vague memory, not a black controller.

People really love their LR, it seems. It's a very lovable Bashishi Game! The ACA one even lets you turn it into a first-rate couch co-op, with the option to give P1 and P2 control of an arrow apiece (ostensibly letting you hook up a couple of arcade sticks, or theoretically build your own custom rig; I seem to recall ACA Assault having this feature, too). I wonder if players ever co-opped LR's cab, back in the day... technically cheating, I guess, but it works sublimely well either way.

Now that you say that, I remember the ad for the FMTowns/Marty version showed a diagram with two people shraring the controller one holding the left side with their left hand, and the other using their right hand to hold the right side, with sort of implication it was a way to play the game together with your sweetie.

I flirted with getting a Marty as a Hishouzame Adaptor, at one point. But despite a valiant effort from VING, it suffers from the same cropped playfield as their Saturn Rayforce's yoko mode. While you can of course just tate RF for perfect 3:4, IIRC, Hishou is stuck in yoko. So you're constantly exchanging fire with enemies that often die before you ever see them. I seem to recall you can't blow up st1's tank bunkers, either... I still found it very likable, regardless. Bit moot post-Arcade Garage Vol.2, of course.

I had that game, and I didn't like it. It had that same kind of boring repetitve feel I get from the Neo-Geo's Ghost Pilots. It's the only version of the game I have ever played, so I just assumed it wasn't a good game, but given the general love the game gets here, I assume this was just not a great version of it.

I am not aware of any FMTowns/Marty games with tate--I'm not actually sure if anything had it on home console or computer before the PS1 Raiden Project? A lot of Marty games I had had the issue with cropped playfields, and many ran windowboxed with black borders on all sides. I didn't know as much about resolutions and scaling back then, so I'm not sure if this was due to things related to that, or a case of just making the system draw less on the screen so it ran better.

All those Ving games had awesome arranged soundtracks though, as well as some from other companies. That arranged soundtrack that is on the M2 Sega Ages Galaxy Force came from the FMTowns version of the game, and I was so happy to have that available again. The arranged soundtrack for Ving's Operation Wolf was great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1HkBH ... Wj&index=2

Edit: Re Steven's comment, which appeared while I was writing the above--I felt this version of Hishouzame was indeed kusoge or something approaching it, especially given Ving's usual quality. Overall, I was fairly disappointed with the Marty which is why I eventually sold it. The games I had that I played the most were Galaxy Force II which was better than other conversions at the time, and Scavenger 4, and I guess that says something about the system. For those that can read Japanese though, there were interesting RPGs and VNs and such.

[BIL]

I forget which computer version of Hishouzame is considered to be kusoge in the Japanese STG community, though one of them is, so you may have spared yourself some agony. Was it the FM Towns version or the X68000 one? Pretty sure it's the X68000 version.

That does ring a bell, re: the X68k version! A platform I plan to get into sometime; never really looked into it beyond a few Capcom essentials, though. I remember the Towns one seeming competent but unfortunate, much like Saturn Rayforce can before you tate it.

OTOH, it's been forever, and the indestructible st1 tank bunkers might've hinted at things being way off further in. Seems unlike Ving though, they tended to land in the ballpark at minimum.

I don't know how long this image will hang around since it's part of an ebay auction, but here is the game with a controller: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/8ZwAAOSw ... -l1600.jpg
Given the part number, that would appear to be a Micomsoft controller. Maybe there was another one, or a version of this one in gray, because that's what is in my vague memory, not a black controller.

Ah, beautiful. Saved!

Spoiler

I've a fondness for that era of Japanese PC / Marty ports, even if they're often not arcade perfect. They tend to contrast interestingly with console contemporaries, which ofc had to make their own compromises.

People really love their LR, it seems. It's a very lovable Bashishi Game! The ACA one even lets you turn it into a first-rate couch co-op, with the option to give P1 and P2 control of an arrow apiece (ostensibly letting you hook up a couple of arcade sticks, or theoretically build your own custom rig; I seem to recall ACA Assault having this feature, too). I wonder if players ever co-opped LR's cab, back in the day... technically cheating, I guess, but it works sublimely well either way.

Now that you say that, I remember the ad for the FMTowns/Marty version showed a diagram with two people shraring the controller one holding the left side with their left hand, and the other using their right hand to hold the right side, with sort of implication it was a way to play the game together with your sweetie.

Ha, I wonder if Hamster had the same idea; probably have scans of that same ad.

I am not aware of any FMTowns/Marty games with tate--I'm not actually sure if anything had it on home console or computer before the PS1 Raiden Project? A lot of Marty games I had had the issue with cropped playfields, and many ran windowboxed with black borders on all sides. I didn't know as much about resolutions and scaling back then, so I'm not sure if this was due to things related to that, or a case of just making the system draw less on the screen so it ran better.

I remember SuperDeadite mentioning the Marty simply couldn't replicate Splatterhouse's full resolution, so strictly offhand, I suspect it might've been a display incompatibility, ala the Saturn's issues with older Capcom Generation and Konami Deluxe Pack titles. Arcade Gears ImageFight (PS1/SS) is yet another of those cases, the game runs great, but you'll never have a complete view of the playfield.

Toaplan had the right idea with their own MD ports, where the active playfield is scaled back to the crop. Even the cheerfully brutal MD Kyuukyoku Tiger (I forget who developed) did likewise, despite its absolutely savage 4:3 crash zoom. (I love that version, however deliberate the result was thunderous power chord & kick drum sound with explosions to match, as well ) The games' feel is inevitably changed, but it's far preferable to the annoying "phantom zone" effect of the aforementioned PC/PS1 & SS ports.

I think you're right, Raiden Project was very early in the console tate field. Earliest I can think of along with Namco Museum Volume 1.

Miclus wants you to know the risks!

All those Ving games had awesome arranged soundtracks though, as well as some from other companies. That arranged soundtrack that is on the M2 Sega Ages Galaxy Force came from the FMTowns version of the game, and I was so happy to have that available again. The arranged soundtrack for Ving's Operation Wolf was great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1HkBH ... Wj&index=2

I still remember my jaw dropping at M2 unifying arcade Galaxy Force II with the FMT arrangement. (had always adored that mighty "HUAHHH~" sample on Beyond The Galaxy ) They cheerfully remarked once that "AGES 2500" was a slight misnomer, with everything they crammed into those wonderful discs. ^__^

[Bassa-Bassa]

First tate home game seems to be Gaplus on the PC 9801 followed by Dragon Spirit on the X 68000, according to a friend's research.


The FM Towns had in fact a weird display mode for 15khz where only 256 pixels of 320 were active, so the effect was indeed similar to the SAT versions of Makaimura or Gradius (arcade mode) but worse in actuality, as you rarely got the whole original frame on ported games:


(Not mine!)

For the Capcom games it was even nastier, as the art was also kept intact from the PCBs, which used 384 pixels.

[BIL]

First tate home game seems to be Gaplus on the PC 9801 followed by Dragon Spirit on the X 68000, according to a friend's research.

Aha, I wondered if Dempa might've been doing similar! Indeed, that's what it looks like (auction pic):

Spoiler

[Sturmvogel Prime]

The Konami Digital Entertainment Project: Pyramid.

Tutankham is this week's game.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/4547

Now we can only wait for next week to figure out what Namco's planning now.

[Jeneki]

Tutankham has a cool control panel, with a 2-way joystick to control shooting left/right. Sort of like Robotron if you could only shoot in two directions. The character doesn't stop moving when the joystick is released, so a bit of creativity is required when enemies are near corners. These two factors make vertical hallways and open rooms extremely dangerous.

Overall an awkward but still fun game.

[Atariboy]

Nice to see it called Tutankham again. After the DS collection I half expected to see it again be renamed Horror Maze.

[Bassa-Bassa]

For the Capcom games it was even nastier, as the art was also kept intact from the PCBs, which used 384 pixels.

I stand corrected there. The graphics from the CPS were indeed redrawn for the FM Towns versions like they did for the 16bit consoles (but better):

FM Towns

[Fingolfin]

Nice to see it called Tutankham again.

Konami had to re-obtain official Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities permission from Zahi Abass Hawass.



Diplomatic courtesies were exchanged, some egos were stroked, some $ changed hands and voila or rather heka!



Poor Wiki-scan but you get the idea…

I too am glad to see Tutankham added to Arcade Archives!

[Udderdude]

Tutankham is pretty cool and actually got some half-decent home ports as opposed to the usual home PC port trash.

[BIL]

For the Capcom games it was even nastier, as the art was also kept intact from the PCBs, which used 384 pixels.

I stand corrected there. The graphics from the CPS were indeed redrawn for the FM Towns versions like they did for the 16bit consoles (but better)

Damn, I just realised that's Splatterhouse's FMT attract mode you posted, earlier. (the game's still quite new to me, post-ACA) That's a substantial crop. The Splatterannex they shove Rick into is missing two of its three side panels, with a similar ratio for the trees on the left side.

Seems the resolution was quite the achilles for Ving to contend with. I always found SuperDeadite's commentary illuminating. You can tell it's their usual hard work, despite the hardware limitations. It's always interesting to go back and watch consumer platforms inching nearer to reference-standard translation becoming feasible.

As SD says, "arcade perfect" was always thrown around liberally by less-discerning types, certainly in the late 80s through early 90s. Wish I had a yen for every time contemporary mags call PCE Saigo no Nindou arcade perfect, dohoho! (a classic work, regardless)

Tutankham has a cool control panel, with a 2-way joystick to control shooting left/right. Sort of like Robotron if you could only shoot in two directions. The character doesn't stop moving when the joystick is released, so a bit of creativity is required when enemies are near corners. These two factors make vertical hallways and open rooms extremely dangerous.

Overall an awkward but still fun game.

Had only vaguely heard this one's name before; ala Pooyan and Time Pilot, I grew up assuming it was part of the Western golden age dominated by Williams and Atari. (cheers again for Stern info, PCEFX!) It's famously one of the cabs in that Life magazine shoot, feat. infamous hotsauce purveyor and MAME enthusiast Birry Mitcheru.

Pleasantly surprised by the aesthetic; reminds me of La Mulana via Maze of Galious. Bit of Sunsoft's Arabian, as well, albeit blasting shitbirds rather than booting them. Strong DigDug vibes too, ofc, right down to the stop/go BGM. The firepower balance is interesting... no vertical attack is rough, but it's nice you can maintain retreating fire.

I wonder why they changed its name for that portable release? (unless Fingolfin's being dead serious ) Legacy IP rights issues, I'd guess offhand. Saw a comment on the Japanese ACA Youtube announce, calling it "The original Konami laser." With its blasting cred, I'd retitle it HORIZONTAL FORCE

Speaking of cruel crops, a quick google reveals it's missing the last couple letters because the logo wouldn't fit when the devs swapped from yoko to tate.

Tutankham is pretty cool and actually got some half-decent home ports as opposed to the usual home PC port trash.

Aha, I think that's another Western source I heard of it from. I'm sure I encountered it in friends' Atari stashes way BITD.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Damn, I just realised that's Splatterhouse's FMT attract mode you posted, earlier. (the game's still quite new to me, post-ACA) That's a substantial crop. The torture shack they shove Rick into is missing two of its three side panels, with a similar ratio for the trees on the left side.

Seems the resolution was quite the achilles for Ving to contend with. I always found SuperDeadite's commentary illuminating. You can tell it's their usual hard work, despite the hardware limitations. It's always interesting to go back and watch consumer platforms inching nearer to reference-standard translation becoming feasible.

Yup. Arcade version was 288 pixels:





So actually there's no downscaling as Deadite says, it's plain and crude crop. You just couldn't expect more from a small company like Ving (and from anybody else in this case, since the difference in resolution is not really huge). When you think about it, it's totally nuts that Capcom managed to redraw all the SSF2 graphics just for the Towns version, which at best would sell 10k.

As a friend of mine says, Ving was still the best thing that happened on the Towns. It was a flawed computer with so little in terms of exclusive games that without these people there were almost no reasons to get one for gaming, even knowing Japanese. The version they made of Viewpoint is exceptional despite the crop, and in spite of how soon it came. They were crazy enough to port Pu-Li-Ru-La when nobody knew the game as it had a very limited distribution in PCB form. Tatsujin Ou at home in 1993. You have to wonder why they picked the Towns when the X 68000 was there, though. I guess it was the CD media, but I really feel for them.

[Arino]

So the big celebration will be in one week on the 16th, right? Featuring a secret Namco game?

What are we celebrating again?

[BIL]

Ten years since HEAVY FIRE AFGHANISTAN, the STG of the new generation

But I'll be celebrating when the secret game is Big Balls Pro Yakkyu II: My Balls Are On Fire, and everyone is mad

[Arino]

Ten years since HEAVY FIRE AFGHANISTAN, the STG of the new generation

HAHAHA yes I also discovered this once on their website or YT channel, amazing.

"Comments are turned off." lol

Oh I remember now. It's 10 years of ACA! And it says there will be a special event on the 18th or something. I wonder if that means we will get one game on the 16th and another one on the 18th

"The commemorative event will take place on May 18th" https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024 ... nniversary

Maybe the surprise is M2 did all the remaining Toaplan games for Hamster and we will get the full bundle on the 18th!

Someone in the comments from the link above said: "Fingers crossed for Data East games. The Johnny Turbo's Arcade/Retro Classics series got pulled from Switch at the beginning of the year alongside a bunch of hidden gems like Night Slashers, Nitro Ball, and Wizard Fire."

Yeah that would be great news. This, and the IREM games, please, because ININ sucks and is taking way too long. Them taking their time because they want to deliver good quality is just a "smart" excuse that people are more likely willing to accept than the truth. And the truth is they are a mess and will never get their shit together. Originally the IREM games were scheduled for a long time ago iirc, then for the end of this year iirc (Vol. 5 that is!), now Vol. 2 is scheduled for "Winter 2024/25"! https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/en ... ystation-4
Last supposed release was February so basically it's delayed by a whole year again, not including previous delays.

Really hope they will do Data East again! Thunder Zone, Night Slashers, Heavy Barrel, Midnight Resistance, Secret Agent, RoboCop, RoboCop 2, the list goes on.