|
Post by Discoalucard on Apr 20, 2014 12:16:35 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/dodonpachi/dodonpachi.htmCave's most well known shooter series - their first game was Donpachi, and their last (shooter, at least) was Dodonpachi Saidaioujou. Their aesthetics started off being inspired by Raiden, though later games implement female characters, as either pilots or enemies (it's weird) in keeping with their increased otaku-focused marketing. I never quite got into this series as much as their others, though I spent quite a lot of time with DDP Daifukkatshi Black Label, since its mechanics were borrowed from Ketsui. I bought Saidaioujou at launch but barely played it. I think it's a little too expert-level for me.
|
|
|
Post by nickz on Apr 21, 2014 17:31:33 GMT -5
I haven't played anything past DOJ, so reading about Resurrection and SDOJ was really interesting for me.
I had no idea the Saturn version of Dodonpachi had an extra level. Reading about that was really cool. Also, I'd like to congratulate the author for tackling such a long and difficult series. He nailed pretty much every detail and even got some impressive screenshots that really show how cool some of these games look. Anyway, awesome article!
|
|
BulletMagnet
Full Member
"Who PLAYS this stuff?!"
Posts: 138
|
Post by BulletMagnet on May 5, 2014 19:24:34 GMT -5
A nice, detailed writeup, though a few things might be worth adding at some point:
- There were scaled-down mobile phone versions of a couple of the older titles; I know that "DonPuchi" and "DoDonPuchi" existed at one point, though I'm not sure offhand if any others were made. Cave's site had info on them a few years back, but unfortunately as of now a lot of the info on them appears to have been lost.
- I can't speak from personal experience as I'm not nearly skilled enough to know, but some players claim that the enemy placement is off in both the Saturn and PS1 ports of DoDonPachi, to the point that chaining some areas correctly is impossible; I don't know how accurate their complaints are, though.
- I recall reading that the composer of Dai-Ou-Jou's soundtrack had to deal with a lot of technical issues with the arcade board to fit all the music in there...not sure if that'd be a worthy addition, but I remember reading an interview on it that caught my interest.
- I seem to recall that earlier (pre-release, I think) versions of Dai-Fukkatsu played significantly differently than the final product, most notably insofar as the auto-bomb wasn't enabled. I'd hafta look around a bit for hard info on that, though...
- It might also be worth a quick note that DFK started a brief "tradition" of making the fifth stage much longer than the previous four; none of the previous games were nearly as uneven in that department.
- The Rising Star release of DFK is NOT completely region-free; it will play on either US or PAL systems, but will NOT work on Japanese ones.
- Not sure if much focus on merchandising and such is in the offing here, but the official soundtracks for these games, especially the earlier ones, were often paired with other games (IIRC DDP and Bee Storm were released on a single disc); on a more sordid note, I recall seeing an Ai "hugging pillow" in a Cave artbook, though I don't know if it was ever officially released (offhand, though, I'd suspect it was). There were also a couple of rather coveted models for the aircraft made at some point...
In any event, excellent article.
|
|
|
Post by bakudon on May 6, 2014 8:54:24 GMT -5
The previous employer of Cave staff, Tōa Plan (Toaplan) is repeatedly called ”Toplan” in the article.
Otherwise a nice, comprehensive article!
|
|
|
Post by deadguy2322 on May 7, 2014 10:21:35 GMT -5
Too many grammatical errors in this one. Fuck it, I am not bothering with any more articles here.
|
|
|
Post by nickz on May 8, 2014 9:39:21 GMT -5
- There were scaled-down mobile phone versions of a couple of the older titles; I know that "DonPuchi" and "DoDonPuchi" existed at one point, though I'm not sure offhand if any others were made. Cave's site had info on them a few years back, but unfortunately as of now a lot of the info on them appears to have been lost. I remember reading on Wikipedia about a yahoo mobile version of ESP Ra. De. as well, but can't find anything on it other than Wikipedia. I ended up searching for hours and coming up with nothing, not even screenshots. I'm not even sure if these three actually exist or not. The mobile versions of Cave's early games do interest me. I think these obscure versions/ports would be something that's worth looking into in the future, if anything for how little there is known on them.
|
|
|
Post by Discoalucard on May 8, 2014 10:01:43 GMT -5
Those ports pretty old now by cell phone standards so it's hard to say much about them other than maybe digging up some screens, if they exist.
A lot of Cave games got these miniports. I know there are some variations of Ketsui since one of the soundtrack CDs includes that variations. Esp Ra De, I'm not so sure of though.
|
|
|
Post by derboo on May 8, 2014 11:02:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on May 8, 2014 12:03:38 GMT -5
Too many grammatical errors in this one. Fuck it, I am not bothering with any more articles here. While I understand the frustration, I don't think you're under any obligation to correct grammar for articles. I'm not sure that saying "fuck it" and storming out of the thread is really the proper thing to do. I'm sure that someone, somewhere appreciates the work you do, but an outburst like that doesn't really seem necessary.
|
|
BulletMagnet
Full Member
"Who PLAYS this stuff?!"
Posts: 138
|
Post by BulletMagnet on May 9, 2014 18:31:25 GMT -5
There's a bit more info on the mobile entries at this site, including a mobile pinball game I'd forgotten about. If you REALLY wanted to go nuts you might include a small section on a handful of the more notable homebrew "tributes" to the series, such as the "Blue Wish" freeware titles.
|
|
|
Post by blackdrazon on May 9, 2014 21:18:37 GMT -5
The Dodonpachi home port section claims:
But in the Playstation section goes on to claim:
|
|
|
Post by bakudon on May 10, 2014 16:23:38 GMT -5
Another error I noticed about Saidaiōjō: It’s translated as ”Another Blissful Death”, but this is wrong; the kanji for that ”sai” is different. The one used in the game has the meaning ”most”, so the name would be something akin to ”Most Blissful Death”.
|
|
|
Post by Discoalucard on May 10, 2014 16:51:47 GMT -5
Fixed some of those, along with some minor grammar fixes. Thanks!
|
|
|
Post by Purple Moss on May 16, 2014 20:13:04 GMT -5
Superb article. I like how the writer elaborated on the gameplay and scoring sections of the games. It's almost like an introduction guide.
My favorite game in the series is Dai-Ou-Jou. Because, if DoDonPachi is 'more', DOJ is more more.
|
|
|
Post by drpepperfan on Feb 2, 2015 5:44:04 GMT -5
dude something went hella wrong with page 2
On my computer the whole article is one big url linking to a picture.
|
|