Dodonpachi Campaign Ver. [rom hack]

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It does seem like something major with the DDP Campaign Version IP is slated for the 2024-2025 timeline -- I wouldn't be surprised if it'd be announced/released for the Exa-Arcadia platform in the nearby future (perhaps as a regular DDP & DDP CV bundled release on a proper Exa-Arcadia cartridge would be even better to sweeten the deal as an "arcade only exclusive" -- makes it all the more necessary to buy/acquire the proper hardware to be able to play it if that's so). We'll see what happens down the road with this particular arcade stg IP indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Meriscan]

Thanks for all your work on this project! It's obvious to everyone how much time and effort you'd put into it, so I assume you'd very good reasons to discontinue the project. Looking forward to seeing what's next!

I wouldn't be surprised if it'd be announced/released for the Exa-Arcadia platform in the nearby future (perhaps as a regular DDP & DDP CV bundled release on a proper Exa-Arcadia cartridge would be even better to sweeten the deal as an "arcade only exclusive" -- makes it all the more necessary to buy/acquire the proper hardware to be able to play it if that's so).

I'm optimistic it's nothing Exa-related. ekorz mentioned how it was "the best course of action, especially for the shmup community" to not make it public. And I can't see any benefit to the community at large if Blue Label got released on some machine only a fraction of the players here will be able to access. Just about everyone here plays DDP via MAME, so finally getting a good home port would be great for us western players. That would be my guess anyway.

[davyK]

Would be pumped for a good modern DDP port with blue label as a bonus. Maybe throw Donpachi in too?????? </greedy>

[MJR]

I'm not really surprised that this was put on hold, as Cave games still get released these days.. except DDP

I agree with other posters that it's a high time that DDP would finally have some legit release, what was disclosed here could easily hint such things. Clearly it isn't abandonware just yet.

The only legit copy I have of DDP is that ancient PS1 version, but I too play the Mame version. I want the PCB, but sadly it's just bit too expensive for my reach.

For the record, DDP is, for me, best thing Cave ever produced. I love the crisp and clean, extremely well defined pixel art and the danmaku action is not yet turned into ludicrous levels. It was the game that took me to find shmups forum as I was scouring the internet for more info on how to score with Dodonpachi. I think that must have been 20 years ago.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

This is probably the pessimist in me speaking, but they'll release it on Exa, mark my words. Stupid platform...

[davyK]

I'm not really surprised that this was put on hold, as Cave games still get released these days.. except DDP

I agree with other posters that it's a high time that DDP would finally have some legit release, what was disclosed here could easily hint such things. Clearly it isn't abandonware just yet.

The only legit copy I have of DDP is that ancient PS1 version, but I too play the Mame version. I want the PCB, but sadly it's just bit too expensive for my reach.

For the record, DDP is, for me, best thing Cave ever produced. I love the crisp and clean, extremely well defined pixel art and the danmaku action is not yet turned into ludicrous levels. It was the game that took me to find shmups forum as I was scouring the internet for more info on how to score with Dodonpachi. I think that must have been 20 years ago.

I have the Saturn port, but MAME is the way I play. Although I do still like to play the Saturn port as I have a perma-rotated TV. It was the first game I TATE-ed because the Saturn port is ugly played in hori.

DDP is the Daddy as far as I'm concerned. For people like me to have still to 1-ALL (and that will all I'll ever achieve on it) it's likely the best, but I'm a big fan of Mushi and Futari as well.

[spmbx]

These exa shenanigans that basically come down to locking certain content into a massive monetary douchebag walled garden is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to arcade gaming. Having a ddp campaign version fall victim to it would be quite tragic.

[Lander]

This is probably the pessimist in me speaking, but they'll release it on Exa, mark my words. Stupid platform...

A cynic after my own heart

Have to admit, making one of the rarest shmups in existence exclusive to a mega-expensive B2B platform would be the most Exa move ever.

[Necronom]

These exa shenanigans that basically come down to locking certain content into a massive monetary douchebag walled garden is possibly the worst thing that could ever happen to arcade gaming. Having a ddp campaign version fall victim to it would be quite tragic.

Hehe, everybody loves Exa They did a great job making a bit of money while pissing off 99% of shmup players by locking up content even years after release. It will be Shmup Independence Day when they get hacked wide open. A true internet drama
Btw, I truely hope DDP Campaign dodges the bullet and lands with M2

[emphatic]

exa is an arcade platform, so the games are prized for that market. Why is anyone getting their panties in a twist over that?

[Meriscan]

exa is an arcade platform, so the games are prized for that market. Why is anyone getting their panties in a twist over that?

Nobody is upset because they think exa releases are too expensive for arcade operators. An EXA release just means that the game is going to inaccessible to most of us. Who either don't have an arcade near them (let alone one that has an EXA cab), or doesn't have the disposable imcome to buy an pcb setup themselves. And nobody seems to mind when they release a game that's already accessible like Batsugun. It's when they release Saidaioujou on EXA and then force MAME to remove it's version. And now it looks like we're going to miss out on another holy grail of shmups, ddp blue label.

To be clear, I don't think anyone here feels 'entitled' to have a free version of blue label. As far as I can see, everyone was understanding and nice to ekorz when he first made his post. He's made clear he believes this to be the best for the community. But an EXA release would be a big bummer for me if that's what this is all leading up to, and it seems more likely to me now that I've read that ShouTime has been trying to get this game for a while now. Nevertheless I hold out hope we'll see a home version of this game at some point.

[Lander]

exa is an arcade platform, so the games are prized for that market. Why is anyone getting their panties in a twist over that?

Because we'd quite like to play the games, but as individuals, are not business entities with the requisite financial clout to enter said market. And statistically are not likely to have easy - or even moderately difficult - access to such a business given that arcades are dead, especially outside Japan and the US.

Too bad get money only holds as an argument if speaking in business-to-business terms, being that Exa is a B2B outfit. Beyond market elasticity, there's no precedent for them to cut prices to satisfy businesses that can't afford it, but there is precedent for demand to be supplied if it exists [cf. the console port market circa the 80s and beyond], and there is a business-to-customer demand going aggressively unfilled.

Legally, that's apparently Exa's prerogative. From my standpoint, it's wilfully-(ignorant / greedy / etc.) bad behaviour that deserves the ire it draws. Happening to operate in the business world is no excuse.

Where it lies in the Ethical is food for thought; is the predicating peer group solely the cutthroat exclusive-happy games biz, or does it include developers / players too? And how exactly do we reify the former group employing tactics tantamount to bribery and intimidation in order to influence the remaining two?

[SuperPang]

It's going to be fucking hilarious if this has nothing to do with Exa whatsoever.

[Meriscan]

It's going to be fucking hilarious if this has nothing to do with Exa whatsoever.

It's still my bet it's not Exa. That's how I interpreted ekorz's last post when he said whatever is coming next would be 'best for the community'. So I'm looking forward to what's next

[emphatic]

It's going to be fucking hilarious if this has nothing to do with Exa whatsoever.

I agree.

[DMC]

It's going to be fucking hilarious if this has nothing to do with Exa whatsoever.

An unlockable in Instant Brain 2.

[spmbx]

It's going to be fucking hilarious if this has nothing to do with Exa whatsoever.

More like a relief actually. Anyway for me plain vanilla ddp is about the max i can handle so from what i've seen campaign might be a bit too much for me, but it would be nice to give it a spin.

[Lander]

It's still my bet it's not Exa. That's how I interpreted ekorz's last post when he said whatever is coming next would be 'best for the community'. So I'm looking forward to what's next

I hope it's that straightforward, and not a case of best for the community becoming subjective in light of a sufficiently high-caliber motivator.

At the end of the day, we know nuffin', so attempting to weight the possible outcomes isn't really useful one way or the other. Just have to cross fingers and see where the chips fall.

[Kazact]

Oof, I was planning to check this out as soon as I could. Sucks to hear it’s been scrapped. I really hope this doesn’t end up being an Exa release. Their business model seems to be the opposite of folks like M2. Although I guess it’s unlikely it’ll go to exa considering OP said it would be good for the community.

[donluca]

exa is an arcade platform, so the games are prized for that market. Why is anyone getting their panties in a twist over that?

Because people tend to forget that when all our beloved games were released in the arcades back in the 90s, no one could afford to buy them either and would have to wait years for a lousy and approximate port on their own home consoles (Neo Geo AES is the only exception and, even then, it was really expensive).

When a game loses its traction, EXA will lose interest in those games and stop providing them to arcade operators and they will eventually be published for PCs and consoles to try and milk the last buck out of them.

But times have changed, people have changed, they forgot how it was back then or they just plain out won't accept it in 2024.

Honestly, it's their own problem.

The only issue I'm not ok with is retroactively banning "old" releases which have been available on MAME because they have a new shiny version on their platform.
That's not cool.

[qmish]

You are leaving out very important difference. In 90s arcades were much, much more widespread than now.

Compared to that... I'm 99% sure there is no a single exa unit in my country (mayber someone rich bought for personal home use, but we re talking game centers now). Which is different situation to 90s and 00s.

[spmbx]

You are leaving out very important difference. In 90s arcades were much, much more widespread than now.

Compared to that... I'm 99% sure there is no a single exa unit in my country (mayber someone rich bought for personal home use, but we re talking game centers now). Which is different situation to 90s and 00s.

Not to mention the fact that back in the day effort was being put in to bringing home an as faithful arcade port as possible, with cuts usually being made out of necessity because of lack of processing power or memory. Quite contrary to making content exclusive for rich guys out of pure spite.
I think it's quite funny that a company that supposedly is supposed to be for the arcade gamer is being hated by most of them so it seems.

The only advantage i see of blue label ending up with a possible exa version is that someone who'se not on the payroll of show me holdings might get interested enough to bust this open.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Just out of curiosity, how much does a barebones Japan & International variant DDP jamma pcb go for nowadays?

I do recall back in 2002-2003, they were in the $220.00-$280.00 usd range but those days of getting a DDP pcb "on the cheap" are long gone. Some of the old timer shmuppers have said that those prices for a DDP pcb was the "going rate" back in those days. Sure, I had played Donpachi at a local arcade back in the spring of 1995 (so I was well acquainted with it).

Back in March of 2000, I saw DDP up & running on a Sega Astro City candy cab at a Japanese game center (the use of pastel colored push buttons & pastel colored arcade ball tops on the Astro City control panel was quite something to behold/see (as nothing like that was hosted/shown at the American arcades or "Family Entertainment Centers" as some of them were referred to as with the prevalence of Dynamo upright cabs sporting Happ arcade joysticks & push buttons as the norm in those days of arcade lore). Checked to see how much it cost to play. It was a mere 50 yen per credit (whereas most arcade games were priced at 100 yen per credit). Managed to find the money changer machine and deposited a 100 yen coin and received two 50 yen coins back. Went back to properly try out DDP for the first time. Played the first credit and played a second time afterwards. I was "sold" on the stellar overall presentation and awesome gameplay of DDP that evening (that I told myself I needed to buy it when the "golden opportunity" arose). I had tried out the DDP rom with the Raine emulator back in 1999, so I was familiar with it beforehand. To finally try out DDP as it was meant to be played on a candy cab was quite an memorial experience indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mirkvid]

^^ can I just say that this forum wouldn't be the same without PC Engine Fan X!. you have to be one of the most positive, enthusiastic members on this forum.

As for DDP Campaign edition, hopefully we'll get an official release sooner than later.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For mirivid,

Thanks for the kind words. It was a nice and leisurely stroll down "memory lane" with DDP.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[donluca]

You are leaving out very important difference. In 90s arcades were much, much more widespread than now.

Compared to that... I'm 99% sure there is no a single exa unit in my country (mayber someone rich bought for personal home use, but we re talking game centers now). Which is different situation to 90s and 00s.

Half-true: it heavily depended on were you lived.

Even in big cities here in Italy I've never seen in my entire life a vertical shooter, the only shmups were hori and most of them were Aero Fighters or some other Neo Geo title.

The other half-true part is that nowadays the situation is definitely worse for people who used to have big arcade centers near them as most of them are now closed or have just few cabs, but the situation hasn't changed much for all the other people who didn't have those big centers in the first place.

As for console ports... things got a little better when 32-bit consoles got around, and as much as I loved playing Super Street Fighter 2 on my Mega Drive, the arcade version was a completely different game.
Same goes for all the other games when 16-bit consoles were the only option.

I think someone made a very nice thread about console ports of arcade shmups, with mini-reviews and votes, you'll see that most of the ports on 16-bit consoles were... far from ideal, to be kind.
Fun in their own right, mind you, but definitely not the same as the arcade counterpart.

The only truth is that we've been spoiled in the last 10 years thanks to high quality arcade ports and MAME (and the whole emulation scene) to the point were it's unthinkable for most people to have arcade exclusives in 2024.
I personally think it's a very sad state of affairs because it shows how selfish and infantile gamers have become nowadays, where if they can't have the game the wanted, the way they wanted, on the platform they wanted, at the price they wanted, they'll start giving tantrums on the social media to find comfort in the shower of likes that other people feed them and prove that "I am right and the evil guys doing arcade exclusives are wrong".

Here's a wake up call for all those guys: the world doesn't revolve around you. It never has and despite how web2.0 has changed social interactions, it still doesn't.

[qmish]

I don't know what you are trying to prove except admitting that releasing nowodays as EXA exclusive is basically a glorious region lock for Japan & USA big cities with occasional additional coverage in Europe and SEA.

if they can't have the game the wanted, the way they wanted, on the platform they wanted, at the price they wanted, they'll start giving tantrums on the social media to find comfort in the shower of likes that other people feed them and prove that "I am right and the evil guys doing arcade exclusives are wrong".

Looks like you cherish for the developers/publishers to release it in a way that 85% (or more) of audience will not have any chance whatsoever to play the game. You could just "defend" idea of releasing games in 5 units quantity with same success.

we've been spoiled

Judging by these wording, you encourage everyone to be the worst pessimist ever, and to accept that "things should be worse than absolute worst", and any improvement or progress is "spoiling".
D'oh!

selfish and infantile gamers have become nowadays

Holy fucking shit. Calling gamers selfish and infantile just because they want to give developers a money for game they would love to play. Looks like you are happy with distribution model that less than 0.5% of stg players has access to as well. Oh, you'll be advocating something like "just buy a ticket to Japan and voyage" or "sell your appartments and spend on delivering exa to your third world country".

[emphatic]

I'm in your camp, donluca.

[donluca]

@qmish I'm honestly baffled by how you interpreted my post.

Here's the TL;DR for you: if in 2024 you can't play a game, it's no big deal, get over it and go on with your life.
There are thousands out there, old and new, paid and free, which are amazing and you've probably never even heard of.

If a game comes out and you're unable to play it for whatever reason (ex: locked to a certain platform) just ignore it, go play something else and stop whining.

I'm not defending anyone, I'm just showing the sad and depressing state of gaming in our days.

Spoiler

Slightly unrelated, but I've switched to Macs 15 years ago and never looked back.
Being a gamer, at the beginning it was infuriating and depressing seeing new beautiful and fantastic games which got crazy good reviews that never came to macOS, but I just sucked it up and after 1 or 2 years, I realized that it didn't really matter.
Pity, yes, because I would have loved playing those games, but at the end there were so many others that I stop caring: if that game got macOS support, great; if it didn't I just moved on and played something else.

[Meriscan]

The only truth is that we've been spoiled in the last 10 years thanks to high quality arcade ports and MAME (and the whole emulation scene) to the point were it's unthinkable for most people to have arcade exclusives in 2024.
I personally think it's a very sad state of affairs because it shows how selfish and infantile gamers have become nowadays, where if they can't have the game the wanted, the way they wanted, on the platform they wanted, at the price they wanted, they'll start giving tantrums on the social media to find comfort in the shower of likes that other people feed them and prove that "I am right and the evil guys doing arcade exclusives are wrong".

My man, nobody here has expressed entitlement for anything you've mentioned. It's only posts like 'I hope we get the opportunity to play this game at some point'. How is that in any way selfish or infantile? Literally everybody was supportive of ekorz's decision to not release this publicly. So whatever you could've possibly meant by that weird rant about gamers wanting every game on every console at any price, it's not represented here anywhere.

"I am right and the evil guys doing arcade exclusives are wrong"

I'm always saying this.