This video on Youtube cracked me up. I remember EONS ago trying to find decent Donpachi videos. I think i was the 1st person to post a 2-all publicly as at the time secrecy was at an all time high. I am glad people are posting very good replays these days, but the following video reminded me of how crazy things were or perhaps still are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNC1yu88EKU
It would be kind of funny if a player were practicing in secret for years and actually beat some of the world records, but in honor of the cult of secrecy refused to let anyone know.
THE CULT OF DONPACHI
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zlk
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PC Engine Fan X!
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Re: THE CULT OF DONPACHI
Yes, the classic DonPachi arcade jamma pcb conversion kit that was sold and distributed by Atlus USA arcade subsidiary back in 1995 and even came complete with an exclusive full-sized backlit arcade marquee (the original JPN region DonPachi jamma pcb kit didn't have that particular arcade marquee whatsoever). My local arcade hangout by the name of "Electric Underground" had gotten in a DonPachi pcb in-housed in a Dynamo upright cab and was priced at four nickels per credit (as all arcade game and pinball machines only took U.S. nickel coins as the currency to coin-up/credit them up). None of the other local arcades had DonPachi setup whatsoever. It was cool to be able to play DonPachi at the arcade from 1995 to May of 1998 when the arcade lost it's business lease and there hasn't been a local indie arcade hangout since then.
Eventually, I did acquire a USA region DonPachi jamma pcb which is quite awesome as it was the one that started Cave's pursuit to futher develop the DonPachi/DoDonPachi stg franchise that we all love and adore to this very day.
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The real mystery/puzzler as to why Atlus USA arcade subsidiary didn't sell nor distribute the famous Cave's DoDonPachi jamma pcb kits stateside back in 1997-1998 despite Cave making both JPN & International versions of DDP pcb kits available to sell and distribute worldwide. It could be that the American sales of Cave initial DonPachi arcade jamma pcb conversion kits didn't "sell well enough" for Cave Co. Ltd. to justify consider selling it's proper DDP sequel in the USA through that particular American arcade subsidiary would seem likely why that was so. Of course, Atlus USA never did release any sale figures as to how many DonPachi arcade pcb conversion kits were actually sold in the USA back in 1995-1996 -- which still remains a mystery to this very current day in 2026.
So yep, American arcade gamers were quite familiar with the Atlus/Cave joint released arcade pcb of DonPachi back in 1995 during it's intial debut stateside indeed.
I was hoping that either DonPachi and/or DoDonPachi would be released as USA NTSC-U/C region PSX games back in the late mid-1990s era (that were both released in Japan by SPS themselves) but they weren't picked up by an American video game publisher (despite the already installed arcade game base already "well-acquainted" with the DonPachi jamma pcb itself in the American arcades).
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PC Engine Fan X!
Eventually, I did acquire a USA region DonPachi jamma pcb which is quite awesome as it was the one that started Cave's pursuit to futher develop the DonPachi/DoDonPachi stg franchise that we all love and adore to this very day.
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The real mystery/puzzler as to why Atlus USA arcade subsidiary didn't sell nor distribute the famous Cave's DoDonPachi jamma pcb kits stateside back in 1997-1998 despite Cave making both JPN & International versions of DDP pcb kits available to sell and distribute worldwide. It could be that the American sales of Cave initial DonPachi arcade jamma pcb conversion kits didn't "sell well enough" for Cave Co. Ltd. to justify consider selling it's proper DDP sequel in the USA through that particular American arcade subsidiary would seem likely why that was so. Of course, Atlus USA never did release any sale figures as to how many DonPachi arcade pcb conversion kits were actually sold in the USA back in 1995-1996 -- which still remains a mystery to this very current day in 2026.
So yep, American arcade gamers were quite familiar with the Atlus/Cave joint released arcade pcb of DonPachi back in 1995 during it's intial debut stateside indeed.
I was hoping that either DonPachi and/or DoDonPachi would be released as USA NTSC-U/C region PSX games back in the late mid-1990s era (that were both released in Japan by SPS themselves) but they weren't picked up by an American video game publisher (despite the already installed arcade game base already "well-acquainted" with the DonPachi jamma pcb itself in the American arcades).
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PC Engine Fan X!
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Mero
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Re: THE CULT OF DONPACHI
I've been playing this recently, but I only want to beat my old score, so I won't have to reveal my 300 hit chain on stage 1..
I seem to recall the first video higher than the low 20s was when Menoslug came along with his 39 million?
I seem to recall the first video higher than the low 20s was when Menoslug came along with his 39 million?
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DMC
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Re: THE CULT OF DONPACHI
I'm glad you liked the video as I made it. 
I would like to do more storytelling videos like that one. If only there were more great commentary materials like the Stunfest ones to use as sources.
The shmups wiki video index is a great resource for replays these days. https://shmups.wiki/library/DonPachi/Video_Index
The Type-A WR by WTN is still not public to my knowledge (or any Type A video above 75M), but the type B and C WRs are, even though they are lower than WTN's type A score.
About replay sharing:
In the "western" community (i.e., those using any of the English-speaking community leaderboards) replay-sharing is pretty standard now amongst top players, as exemplified above by both Plasmo and Juju sharing their WR replays. It makes sense here since there is slim to none opportunities to set your WR in an arcade center for most players, there is no arcade-centered authority to verify the records, and recording replays is very easy these days. In addition, emulation has virtually always been accepted in western competitions, and several top players stream or run youtube accounts so they have the capturing equipment at home.
In the JP community it's still quite different so I have some sympathy for why it is like it is. Even if many arcades are closing, the Japanese obviously have had tradition of going to arcades and setting records out in the field, getting recognized by official scoring authorities like JHA or the specific arcade centers. They also have a different perspective on learning these games where grinding and exploring a game costs not only time but money. For example, when grinding Futari, Yusemi-SWY would pay for about 40 credits per day, even up to 400 credits per day some days (i.e., about 20000 yen). Doing that for years and the money piles up pretty big. If exploring a game to find glitches and new scoring sources requires thousands of hours, but imitating that scoring part from a replay takes a dozen hours, I can definitively see how they are not super happy about giving this information away for free to some less dedicated players. In a blogpost by the wife of the DDP WR holder KTL-NAL, roughly translated to English, she talked about sharing information on a DDP scoring bug):
I would like to do more storytelling videos like that one. If only there were more great commentary materials like the Stunfest ones to use as sources.The shmups wiki video index is a great resource for replays these days. https://shmups.wiki/library/DonPachi/Video_Index
The Type-A WR by WTN is still not public to my knowledge (or any Type A video above 75M), but the type B and C WRs are, even though they are lower than WTN's type A score.
About replay sharing:
In the "western" community (i.e., those using any of the English-speaking community leaderboards) replay-sharing is pretty standard now amongst top players, as exemplified above by both Plasmo and Juju sharing their WR replays. It makes sense here since there is slim to none opportunities to set your WR in an arcade center for most players, there is no arcade-centered authority to verify the records, and recording replays is very easy these days. In addition, emulation has virtually always been accepted in western competitions, and several top players stream or run youtube accounts so they have the capturing equipment at home.
In the JP community it's still quite different so I have some sympathy for why it is like it is. Even if many arcades are closing, the Japanese obviously have had tradition of going to arcades and setting records out in the field, getting recognized by official scoring authorities like JHA or the specific arcade centers. They also have a different perspective on learning these games where grinding and exploring a game costs not only time but money. For example, when grinding Futari, Yusemi-SWY would pay for about 40 credits per day, even up to 400 credits per day some days (i.e., about 20000 yen). Doing that for years and the money piles up pretty big. If exploring a game to find glitches and new scoring sources requires thousands of hours, but imitating that scoring part from a replay takes a dozen hours, I can definitively see how they are not super happy about giving this information away for free to some less dedicated players. In a blogpost by the wife of the DDP WR holder KTL-NAL, roughly translated to English, she talked about sharing information on a DDP scoring bug):
It was NAL who was burning with quiet but certainly fierce passion at the graduation ceremony for Dodonpachi.
- Information is a valuable asset, and why should I share information that I have spent a lot of money and time to get to strangers who have done nothing? -
In fighting games, by sharing information, opponents get stronger, you can adapt to that, and the level of the entire industry rises, creating a synergistic effect, but STG is completely different
- Whether to make it public or not is a decision that everyone has thought about a lot, so there is no reason for others to tell us what to do - Besides, that bug is really difficult. Even if you know about it