Great retro shmups from non-mainstream platforms

[Creamy Goodness]

I am looking to expand my shmup horizons beyond the mainstream consoles and arcade shmup heavy hitter developers. What are some good shmups on platforms like the PC-98, FM Towns, X68000, and lesser known arcade games, etc. I'm very curious about some real diamonds in the rough to checkout.

[Steven]

Obligatory Space Manbow, Pleasure Hearts, Kyokugen, Nemesis '90 Kai, Judgement Silversword, and Cardinal Sins, but I've heard Cotton on Neo Geo Pocket (Color? I don't remember if it's Color-only) is pretty good. The arcade games Gyrodine, Espial, and Repulse aren't mentioned that much around here and all are a lot of fun. Espial is really damn strange, although that's a big part of why it's cool. It's not as strange as Bakuretsu Breaker, but it's definitely an odd game.

While you're on the X68000, you might as well check out the real version of Thunder Force II, which is only on X68000. Never played X68000 Granada but that's there too. I think everyone knows about CRS 68k at this point because it's one of the best games in the genre, but just in case, CRS 68k exists.

[SuperDeadite]

X68000:
(Retail)
Mid-Garts (aka Mid-Garts Gold)
Code Zero
Scorpius
Last Battalion
Undeadline
Naious
Ku2
Nemesis '90 Kai
Thunderforce II
Cotton
Cyber Core

(Doujin)
Hellhound
Angel Dive
Y2
Direct-X
Chorensha
Dive On
Otokodama
Protopruste
Fortress Attack - R
Cynthia
Over Driver
Gikadiver
R+R
(And many, many more...)

[Steven]

Is Blue Knights any good? They had it for sale in BEEP for a long time. Didn't see any copies when I was there the other day, but they probably still have some.

[SuperDeadite]

Yes, Blue Wings and it's sequal Blue Knights are decent doujin shooties for their time. Souhou Blue Phoenix is another good one.

Also: Project Moon is a nice history piece. As a game it's meh, but it was the very first game by that dude that founded Triangle Service.

[Steven]

Cool. Mostly just curious about it because BEEP used to have like a billion copies of it, but I always forgot about it the moment I left the store. I forgot about it again until this thread, too.

[Daytime Waitress]

I've heard Cotton on Neo Geo Pocket (Color? I don't remember if it's Color-only) is pretty good.

Never played it, but it looks like it's capable of being played on the monochrome NGP.

[Bassa-Bassa]

X68000:
(Retail)
Mid-Garts (aka Mid-Garts Gold)
Code Zero
Scorpius
Last Battalion
Undeadline
Naious
Ku2
Nemesis '90 Kai
Thunderforce II
Cotton
Cyber Core

(Doujin)
Hellhound
Angel Dive
Y2
Direct-X
Chorensha
Dive On
Otokodama
Protopruste
Fortress Attack - R
Cynthia
Over Driver
Gikadiver
R+R
(And many, many more...)

Has Y2 been cracked to be playable on emulators? I don't think everything in that list qualify as "great" or even good, but Y2 really seemed to be a cool one. Not as much as Galseed though, which is likely the best X68000 doujin STG I've played besides Chourensha. The whole So-Soft "trilogy" is quite special, indeed.


Does old Japanese Windows count? Because it's an astounding platform for generally not-too-well known STG, specially unofficial titles. So many indeed that you should mention subgenre preferences in order to get a managable list.

[SuperDeadite]

X68000:
(Retail)
Mid-Garts (aka Mid-Garts Gold)
Code Zero
Scorpius
Last Battalion
Undeadline
Naious
Ku2
Nemesis '90 Kai
Thunderforce II
Cotton
Cyber Core

(Doujin)
Hellhound
Angel Dive
Y2
Direct-X
Chorensha
Dive On
Otokodama
Protopruste
Fortress Attack - R
Cynthia
Over Driver
Gikadiver
R+R
(And many, many more...)

Has Y2 been cracked to be playable on emulators? I don't think everything in that list qualify as "great" or even good, but Y2 really seemed to be a cool one. Not as much as Galseed though, which is likely the best X68000 doujin STG I've played besides Chourensha. The whole So-Soft "trilogy" is quite special, indeed.


Does old Japanese Windows count? Because it's an astounding platform for generally not-too-well known STG, specially unofficial titles. So many indeed that you should mention subgenre preferences in order to get a managable list.

Y2's protection was successfully removed a few years ago. It's out there. I assume you mean Galseed II right? Absolutely a must play. OP asked for a list, so I just rambled off the top of my head during lunch break. I don't think anyone will argue that Mid-Garts is a great game, but it's weird, strange, and so unique that it's a must play imo. The final boss alone is worth the effort. The doujin's are quite a mess to catalog. For example there are 2 versions of Cynthia, the 2 disk version is actually the older, not quite finished one. The 1 disk version that came with the Logon Soft Book is the finished version, and has some badass MIDI tunes.

Anyway more that I forgot to list:
Retail:
Star Trader

Doujin:
Illumination Laser
Cy-Lips (note most dumps of this are bad causing the speech effects to not work)
Zugya
Galseed II

[Creamy Goodness]

X68000:
(Retail)
Mid-Garts (aka Mid-Garts Gold)
Code Zero
Scorpius
Last Battalion
Undeadline
Naious
Ku2
Nemesis '90 Kai
Thunderforce II
Cotton
Cyber Core

(Doujin)
Hellhound
Angel Dive
Y2
Direct-X
Chorensha
Dive On
Otokodama
Protopruste
Fortress Attack - R
Cynthia
Over Driver
Gikadiver
R+R
(And many, many more...)

Has Y2 been cracked to be playable on emulators? I don't think everything in that list qualify as "great" or even good, but Y2 really seemed to be a cool one. Not as much as Galseed though, which is likely the best X68000 doujin STG I've played besides Chourensha. The whole So-Soft "trilogy" is quite special, indeed.


Does old Japanese Windows count? Because it's an astounding platform for generally not-too-well known STG, specially unofficial titles. So many indeed that you should mention subgenre preferences in order to get a managable list.

Y2's protection was successfully removed a few years ago. It's out there. I assume you mean Galseed II right? Absolutely a must play. OP asked for a list, so I just rambled off the top of my head during lunch break. I don't think anyone will argue that Mid-Garts is a great game, but it's weird, strange, and so unique that it's a must play imo. The final boss alone is worth the effort. The doujin's are quite a mess to catalog. For example there are 2 versions of Cynthia, the 2 disk version is actually the older, not quite finished one. The 1 disk version that came with the Logon Soft Book is the finished version, and has some badass MIDI tunes.

Anyway more that I forgot to list:
Retail:
Star Trader

Doujin:
Illumination Laser
Cy-Lips (note most dumps of this are bad causing the speech effects to not work)
Zugya
Galseed II

Thank you for the list. And yeah I just started messing with the X68K emulator and I noticed for some games sound is an issue.

[SuperDeadite]

Has Y2 been cracked to be playable on emulators? I don't think everything in that list qualify as "great" or even good, but Y2 really seemed to be a cool one. Not as much as Galseed though, which is likely the best X68000 doujin STG I've played besides Chourensha. The whole So-Soft "trilogy" is quite special, indeed.


Does old Japanese Windows count? Because it's an astounding platform for generally not-too-well known STG, specially unofficial titles. So many indeed that you should mention subgenre preferences in order to get a managable list.

Y2's protection was successfully removed a few years ago. It's out there. I assume you mean Galseed II right? Absolutely a must play. OP asked for a list, so I just rambled off the top of my head during lunch break. I don't think anyone will argue that Mid-Garts is a great game, but it's weird, strange, and so unique that it's a must play imo. The final boss alone is worth the effort. The doujin's are quite a mess to catalog. For example there are 2 versions of Cynthia, the 2 disk version is actually the older, not quite finished one. The 1 disk version that came with the Logon Soft Book is the finished version, and has some badass MIDI tunes.

Anyway more that I forgot to list:
Retail:
Star Trader

Doujin:
Illumination Laser
Cy-Lips (note most dumps of this are bad causing the speech effects to not work)
Zugya
Galseed II

Thank you for the list. And yeah I just started messing with the X68K emulator and I noticed for some games sound is an issue.

Cy-Lips and AMS2 are the only games with broken sound caused by bad dumps that I'm aware of. Other games may have sound issues due to settings. For example a lot of the doujins were meant to be installed to HDD and didn't include the required ZMusic sound drivers, you had to supply them yourself. Other games are picky on CPU speed and can break music. Angel Dive only supports GS MIDI and has never had FM music. Nemesis '90 Kai will check your system on boot and if it finds 4mb or RAM and 16mhz or faster CPU it will load a more advanced ADPCM software mixing driver for increased sound channels...

If you have issues with certain games, let me know. Some games have really weird options. For example, you have to hold one of the Function keys while booting Gradius II to use 2mb RAM mode, which greatly reduces load times between stages.

Having the manuals really helps as there were no standards at all in those days lol.

[Creamy Goodness]

Y2's protection was successfully removed a few years ago. It's out there. I assume you mean Galseed II right? Absolutely a must play. OP asked for a list, so I just rambled off the top of my head during lunch break. I don't think anyone will argue that Mid-Garts is a great game, but it's weird, strange, and so unique that it's a must play imo. The final boss alone is worth the effort. The doujin's are quite a mess to catalog. For example there are 2 versions of Cynthia, the 2 disk version is actually the older, not quite finished one. The 1 disk version that came with the Logon Soft Book is the finished version, and has some badass MIDI tunes.

Anyway more that I forgot to list:
Retail:
Star Trader

Doujin:
Illumination Laser
Cy-Lips (note most dumps of this are bad causing the speech effects to not work)
Zugya
Galseed II

Thank you for the list. And yeah I just started messing with the X68K emulator and I noticed for some games sound is an issue.

Cy-Lips and AMS2 are the only games with broken sound caused by bad dumps that I'm aware of. Other games may have sound issues due to settings. For example a lot of the doujins were meant to be installed to HDD and didn't include the required ZMusic sound drivers, you had to supply them yourself. Other games are picky on CPU speed and can break music. Angel Dive only supports GS MIDI and has never had FM music. Nemesis '90 Kai will check your system on boot and if it finds 4mb or RAM and 16mhz or faster CPU it will load a more advanced ADPCM software mixing driver for increased sound channels...

If you have issues with certain games, let me know. Some games have really weird options. For example, you have to hold one of the Function keys while booting Gradius II to use 2mb RAM mode, which greatly reduces load times between stages.

Having the manuals really helps as there were no standards at all in those days lol.

Thanks man. The biggest issue I have had is a constant low hum with a lot of games. Some do not have this issue. Figured it was a settings issue, but have not really had a chance to look further into it.

[SuperDeadite]

Thank you for the list. And yeah I just started messing with the X68K emulator and I noticed for some games sound is an issue.

Cy-Lips and AMS2 are the only games with broken sound caused by bad dumps that I'm aware of. Other games may have sound issues due to settings. For example a lot of the doujins were meant to be installed to HDD and didn't include the required ZMusic sound drivers, you had to supply them yourself. Other games are picky on CPU speed and can break music. Angel Dive only supports GS MIDI and has never had FM music. Nemesis '90 Kai will check your system on boot and if it finds 4mb or RAM and 16mhz or faster CPU it will load a more advanced ADPCM software mixing driver for increased sound channels...

If you have issues with certain games, let me know. Some games have really weird options. For example, you have to hold one of the Function keys while booting Gradius II to use 2mb RAM mode, which greatly reduces load times between stages.

Having the manuals really helps as there were no standards at all in those days lol.

Thanks man. The biggest issue I have had is a constant low hum with a lot of games. Some do not have this issue. Figured it was a settings issue, but have not really had a chance to look further into it.

A low hum? I assume you are emulating right? XM6's YM2151 emulation is rather outdated sadly.

[Creamy Goodness]

Cy-Lips and AMS2 are the only games with broken sound caused by bad dumps that I'm aware of. Other games may have sound issues due to settings. For example a lot of the doujins were meant to be installed to HDD and didn't include the required ZMusic sound drivers, you had to supply them yourself. Other games are picky on CPU speed and can break music. Angel Dive only supports GS MIDI and has never had FM music. Nemesis '90 Kai will check your system on boot and if it finds 4mb or RAM and 16mhz or faster CPU it will load a more advanced ADPCM software mixing driver for increased sound channels...

If you have issues with certain games, let me know. Some games have really weird options. For example, you have to hold one of the Function keys while booting Gradius II to use 2mb RAM mode, which greatly reduces load times between stages.

Having the manuals really helps as there were no standards at all in those days lol.

Thanks man. The biggest issue I have had is a constant low hum with a lot of games. Some do not have this issue. Figured it was a settings issue, but have not really had a chance to look further into it.

A low hum? I assume you are emulating right? XM6's YM2151 emulation is rather outdated sadly.

Correct. Going through RetroArch in Batocera. I tried before a few years ago and ran into this issue. Figured I would give it another shot with a whole different setup.

[Hyperspace]

Has Y2 been cracked to be playable on emulators? I don't think everything in that list qualify as "great" or even good, but Y2 really seemed to be a cool one. Not as much as Galseed though, which is likely the best X68000 doujin STG I've played besides Chourensha. The whole So-Soft "trilogy" is quite special, indeed.


Does old Japanese Windows count? Because it's an astounding platform for generally not-too-well known STG, specially unofficial titles. So many indeed that you should mention subgenre preferences in order to get a managable list.

Y2's protection was successfully removed a few years ago. It's out there. I assume you mean Galseed II right? Absolutely a must play. OP asked for a list, so I just rambled off the top of my head during lunch break. I don't think anyone will argue that Mid-Garts is a great game, but it's weird, strange, and so unique that it's a must play imo. The final boss alone is worth the effort. The doujin's are quite a mess to catalog. For example there are 2 versions of Cynthia, the 2 disk version is actually the older, not quite finished one. The 1 disk version that came with the Logon Soft Book is the finished version, and has some badass MIDI tunes.

Anyway more that I forgot to list:
Retail:
Star Trader

Doujin:
Illumination Laser
Cy-Lips (note most dumps of this are bad causing the speech effects to not work)
Zugya
Galseed II

Thank you for the list. And yeah I just started messing with the X68K emulator and I noticed for some games sound is an issue.

You’ll need to turn off the midi sound like in games like phalanx.

[Hyperspace]

I am looking to expand my shmup horizons beyond the mainstream consoles and arcade shmup heavy hitter developers. What are some good shmups on platforms like the PC-98, FM Towns, X68000, and lesser known arcade games, etc. I'm very curious about some real diamonds in the rough to checkout.

I would recommend flame zapper kotsujin and rude breaker for the PC-98

And Truxton 2 or Tatsujin Oh is the other name for it for the FM Towns

And Phalanx and Star Trader for the Sharp x68000

[Steven]

If you're going to be using emulation, I don't think there are any reasons at all to emulate FM Towns Tatsujin Ou instead of the arcade version, as from what I understand the FM Towns version is almost identical but still slightly worse than the arcade version.

[SuperDeadite]

If you're going to be using emulation, I don't think there are any reasons at all to emulate FM Towns Tatsujin Ou instead of the arcade version, as from what I understand the FM Towns version is almost identical but still slightly worse than the arcade version.

Yes, but it does have some nice Redbook CD-Audio tunes. Towns version of Kyukyoku Tiger is almost worth it just for the music upgrade.

But regarding FM Towns, I adore Rayxanber. It's better than both it's PCE exclusive sequels imo.

[Steven]

If you're going to be using emulation, I don't think there are any reasons at all to emulate FM Towns Tatsujin Ou instead of the arcade version, as from what I understand the FM Towns version is almost identical but still slightly worse than the arcade version.

Yes, but it does have some nice Redbook CD-Audio tunes. Towns version of Kyukyoku Tiger is almost worth it just for the music upgrade.

FM Towns Good Figure is really awesome indeed. In general, the actual arranges themselves are better on PS1 Shooting Battle 1, which is why Uemura-san is using those for his band, but the FM Towns versions sound so much better despite being basically the same as what's on the PCB. PS1 Tsugaru is just completely awful... unforgivable. The PS1 instrumentation is so bad.

Which one was considered the bad Toaplan PC port? I think it was Hishouzame on the X68000, right? I tried to check out the X68000 Toaplan games on the MiSTer several years ago, but could never get them to work.

[SuperDeadite]

If you're going to be using emulation, I don't think there are any reasons at all to emulate FM Towns Tatsujin Ou instead of the arcade version, as from what I understand the FM Towns version is almost identical but still slightly worse than the arcade version.

Yes, but it does have some nice Redbook CD-Audio tunes. Towns version of Kyukyoku Tiger is almost worth it just for the music upgrade.

FM Towns Good Figure is really awesome indeed. In general, the actual arranges themselves are better on PS1 Shooting Battle 1, which is why Uemura-san is using those for his band, but the FM Towns versions sound so much better despite being basically the same as what's on the PCB. PS1 Tsugaru is just completely awful... unforgivable. The PS1 instrumentation is so bad.

Which one was considered the bad Toaplan PC port? I think it was Hishouzame on the X68000, right? I tried to check out the X68000 Toaplan games on the MiSTer several years ago, but could never get them to work.

X68K Hishouzame (ported by Kaneko) is fine really, it just isn't as good as the Towns version (ported by Ving). X68K Kyukyoku Tiger is a better port than Hishouzame, but of course lacks the Towns music. Originally Kaneko had planned to also port Tatsujin and Same Same Same to X68K, and even advertised a special gift for those that bought all four and sent in the point coupons that came with each game, but Tatujin and Same were cancelled and never made. Kyukyoku just barely got released and is one of the rarer games on the system. Would have loved to see Same on the X. Such a shame.

The worst shooter port on the X is R-Type imo. This was an inhouse port made by Irem directly. No excuse, a total embarrassment. They didn't even adjust the music to play at the right pitch and sounds awful (PCB runs the YM2151 at 3.57mhz, while the X runs the chip at 4mhz).

Viewpoint is also a really bad port, but it was a quick and dirty cash grab, so I have lower standards for it...

[Steven]

X68K Hishouzame (ported by Kaneko) is fine really, it just isn't as good as the Towns version (ported by Ving). X68K Kyukyoku Tiger is a better port than Hishouzame, but of course lacks the Towns music. Originally Kaneko had planned to also port Tatsujin and Same Same Same to X68K, and even advertised a special gift for those that bought all four and sent in the point coupons that came with each game, but Tatujin and Same were cancelled and never made. Kyukyoku just barely got released and is one of the rarer games on the system. Would have loved to see Same on the X. Such a shame.

I asked Yuge-san about those cancelled X68000 games and some of the other unreleased Toaplan games like Genkai Chousen Distopia a few years ago. I don't remember what he said, but I do remember him saying that he wants to release as many things as possible. For some reason I'm pretty sure I got the feeling that those X68000 games have unfortunately been lost, although I no longer remember why, but I know for sure that Mega Drive Dash Yarou (this is on X68000 too, but I've only played the arcade version. I really like this silly game) is definitely lost. I think at least one of them (want to say it was X68000 Same!) was basically complete, too, just like the mysterious Mega Drive version of Teki-Paki that also never materialized and MD Dash Yarou, which was supposedly extremely arcade-accurate before its loss. I wonder what happened to the super obscure Mega Drive Ghox... different topic, though.

I'd have loved to see X68000 Same! Same! Same!, as that's one of the best and most awesome Toaplan games, especially with the awesome FM synth the X68000 is capable of. If they'd toned down the difficulty like they did on the MD version, it could have ended up becoming the closest thing to what Yuge-san had originally intended for the arcade version before they forced him to change it.

The worst shooter port on the X is R-Type imo. This was an inhouse port made by Irem directly. No excuse, a total embarrassment. They didn't even adjust the music to play at the right pitch and sounds awful (PCB runs the YM2151 at 3.57mhz, while the X runs the chip at 4mhz).

Viewpoint is also a really bad port, but it was a quick and dirty cash grab, so I have lower standards for it...

Yeah, I've heard bad things about X68000 R-Type. That's a hell of an awesome and important game to do a bad port of, too. Completely disappointing that Irem would do that to what's possibly their most famous game. Still better than Sega's attempt to put Sonic 1 on GBA, though. That thing is completely shameful in every possible way.

[Creamy Goodness]

If you're going to be using emulation, I don't think there are any reasons at all to emulate FM Towns Tatsujin Ou instead of the arcade version, as from what I understand the FM Towns version is almost identical but still slightly worse than the arcade version.

Yes, but it does have some nice Redbook CD-Audio tunes. Towns version of Kyukyoku Tiger is almost worth it just for the music upgrade.

But regarding FM Towns, I adore Rayxanber. It's better than both it's PCE exclusive sequels imo.

Man I was seriously disappointed the Toaplan Garage releases did not have the FM Towns and PS1 Shooting Collection arranged soundtracks. There are some good arranges there... except for Hishouzame where the chip tunes sound better to me.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Quite unlikely that Kaneko ports of Toaplan games ended up in the latter offices in any form, but a friend found out a few years ago that at least one unreleased port by Kaneko announced together with Same! Same! Same! and Tatsujin is not entirely lost:

https://youtu.be/UGFJUlBT8s0