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Post by dsparil on Sept 30, 2022 9:27:20 GMT -5
SylphiaDeveloper Compile Publisher Tonkinhouse Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) October 22, 1993 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Resurrect in place with power level lost, unlimited continues from start of level Compile’s last shooter for the platform is the Greco-Roman inspired Sylphia. Despite the uniqueness of its theming for the platform, the graphics themselves are fairly drab. Gameplay is also typical for the system and features few quirks. Four weapons are available based on the classical Greek elements, but they largely are similar to those seen in other games. The overall game is competently put together, but it lacks vibrancy and excitement. Increasing the difficulty seems to only lightly tweak a few parameters creating little differentiation between them. The bosses are closer to a highlight, but only some fit their mythological counterparts in a non-superficial way. Sylphia is a perfectly playable game but one not up to Compile’s usual standards. Approximate Hitbox
Compile only returned to the shooter genre a single time before their closing in 2003 with Zanac×Zanac in 2001 for PSX. That was a better game for them to go out with.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 4, 2022 8:59:36 GMT -5
Super Darius IIDeveloper A Wave Publisher NEC Avenue Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) December 24, 1993 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System By default, resurrect in place with power decreased, 3 continues from start of level While Super Darius was the ultimate version of the original if a bit cramped, the same does not hold for the sequel. Graphical effects are missing, entire stages are replaced with inferior substitutes, and back to back boss battles were removed. There are however some new bosses and mini-bosses to differentiate it. While barely superior to the cut down Plus on a content level, Super Darius II is however a very good game for beginners. Lives and continues can be set up to 9 from defaults of 5 and 3, and the Easy difficulty does not reduce weapon power level after dying. The most significant feature is that pausing actually puts the game into a frame-by-frame mode and having the game set to autofire turns it into a slow motion mode while either button is held down. Approximate Hitbox
It goes without saying that the reduction from three screens to one does harm the game too. The Saturn port is probably the best from a gameplay perspective since it adapts the two screen version of the game although at the expense of detail when fully zoomed out.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 7, 2022 7:18:41 GMT -5
Ai・Chō Aniki 愛・超兄貴Developer Bits Laboratory Publisher Masaya Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) February 24, 1995 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Resurrect in place, no continues Considering that the fighting game boom took the shooter’s arcade crown, it is no surprise that Chō Aniki returned with a shooter starring Adon and inspired by fighting game inputs. The default attack is a weak auto-targeting shot, but several others are also available. Sadly, this element is underutilized as most of those moves are simple melee attacks in a specific direction with the others being a stronger ranged attack and a weak full screen blast. The game itself is fairly easy with an unlimited use invincible dodge. The focus instead is on high scores and enemy destruction rates with performance impacting the ending text. The highlight is still the bosses, but the reuse of concepts from the original and the shorter length makes this entry harder to recommend. Approximate Hitbox
Serious warning, don't play this if you're prone to seizures from flashing lights. The final boss has a strobing effect that's pretty strong and it's not the kind of flashing that would get smoothed out to a transparency on a CRT. I'd recommend the weirder fighting game spin-off on SFC that came out later in the year over this. It's pretty fun and the half the roster is bosses from the shooters.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 10, 2022 8:29:17 GMT -5
Space Invaders: The Original GameDeveloper Bits Laboratory Publisher NEC Avenue Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) July 28, 1995 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping Yes Continue System Resurrect in place, no continues Hypothetically a port of the arcade Space Invaders DX, The Original Game is simply recreations of a few different versions of Space Invaders—black and white, color cellophane strips, colored sprites and white sprites on a full color backdrop—along with a two player mode inspired by games such Puyo Puyo optionally with fixed characters in the background. However, the game is missing a key feature from DX, the Parody mode which replaces the graphics with those from a succession of other Taito games. No home port features this mode for perplexing reasons with the SNES version also missing the characters. This omission makes every home port of DX almost entirely skippable. Luckily the proper version of DX is part of the Space Invaders Invincible Collection. Approximate Hitbox
Why DX never got a full port is beyond me. It's not like the Parody mode would have required a bunch of new licensing considerations. I tried to see what this goes for used since Day of Resurrection is pretty cheap, and I couldn't find any at all. I don't know if that's because this is ultra valuable and no one wants to sell it or if it's so forgotten there aren't any available. I haven't looked at used prices for everything, but I've always found something somewhere. Just really weird to me.
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Post by excelsior on Oct 12, 2022 22:57:53 GMT -5
Going rate seems to be about $85, so around the expected value of a PC Engine shooter. Seems to be more rare than it is sought after.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 13, 2022 7:22:32 GMT -5
Going rate seems to be about $85, so around the expected value of a PC Engine shooter. Seems to be more rare than it is sought after. That is actually a lot lower than I expected. The SNES version is dirt cheap except for the very nicest copies, and $85 is comparable to those. I'm still tempted to grab a copy of Street Fighter II to disassemble it since it can get as low as $20 including shipping.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 13, 2022 8:32:44 GMT -5
Ginga Fukei Densetsu [ Sapphire ] 銀河婦警伝説サファイアDeveloper Red Publisher Hudson Format Arcade CD-ROM² Release (JP) November 24, 1995 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Moderate Looping No Continue System Resurrect in place with power level lost, 4 continues Developed in place of a third game in the Thunder series, Red’s Sapphire is the most graphically rich shooter on the platform and reaches real arcade quality. This is unsurprising as it was the only one to use the Arcade Card. Released in 1994, this memory expansion brought the total pool to a whopping 2.25MB, nine times what was available with a Duo or Super System card!. While the total capacity was only half of newer 32-bit consoles, this allowed for enough frames of animation to simulate effects not actually possible on the system such as SuperFX style polygonal enemies that look rendered in realtime. Sadly, this was the last shooter published by Hudson for the PCE, but at least their swan song is one of the true highlights of the overall shooter library. Approximate Hitboxes
A note on the title: The title is actually rendered in English as a simple transliteration in the credits so I went with that including its bracketed styling of Sapphire. The literal translation is along the lines of Galactic Policewoman Legend [ Sapphire ]. The Arcade Card was never released in the US since the TurboDuo was basically dead by 1994. The whole story of the TG16 in the US is a big series of what-ifs since NEC handled it so badly, but the AC shows that a big boost in memory for CD games went a long way. It probably wouldn't have been feasible, but if the Duo went straight to 2.25MB instead of years later that could have given it an opening against the SNES and Genesis.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 17, 2022 15:26:16 GMT -5
Steam-Heart'sDeveloper Giga Publisher Technical Group Laboratory Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) March 22, 1996 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System Unlimited continues from start of level with upgrades lost Produced by their eroge focused Giga brand, TGL’s Steam-Heart’s is the final officially sanctioned shooter on the platform. Originally an adult PC-98 game, the PCE version is unsurprisingly toned down. This also extended to the gameplay which is missing features compared to the original such as the two player mode and several weapons. The focus was clearly on preserving the prurient elements as much as possible with the general squeaky clean levels getting much less attention. However, the game also received a Saturn port in late 1998, and this version brought a wealth of gameplay expansion and overhauling missing from the PCE port. The changes make it a game actually worth playing perhaps despite rather than because of the adult content. Approximate Hitbox
You do have a choice of two different ships, but the hitbox is the same for both. TGL, Giga and a bunch of various sub-brands are still around. As their name suggests, TGL itself mostly does non-consumer focused work although they also produced the Farland series in the 90s. Giga is mainly known for the Baldr series which received some non-eroge ports to PS2 and Dreamcast. They also made the fighting game series Variable Geo which also got non-eroge ports with the PCE game actually getting released in the US. I remember emulating the SFC game, Super Variable Geo, a long time ago and it's decent.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 18, 2022 12:47:38 GMT -5
God-Fighter Zeroigar 超神兵器ゼロイガーDeveloper Sugeiya with Fupac and Winds Publisher NEC Format PC-FX Release (JP) August 8, 1997 Release (US) Unreleased Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Unlimited continues from start of level with experience kept The only shooter released for the PCE’s successor, the PC-FX, Zeroigar is also the only one with real RPG elements across the combined library. Character level determines the base primary weapon strength and player life along with special weapon availability, ammo and power. Since experience and level are kept between attempts, this gives some opportunity to grind. On top of this, the primary weapon still has a separate power level gained through pickups and dropping when hit. Taking advantage of the PC-FX’s advanced FMV capabilities, anime cutscenes are played between levels giving the real multimedia experience attempted by some PCE games. As a bonus, the game also includes a full parodic mode unlocked upon game completion. Approximate Hitbox
I’d rank this high in the list of most unlikely fan translations. The parody mode, "Sakuraigar" which stars the main character’s sister Sakura, wasn’t even going to be translated originally since its cutscenes required more hacking than the main mode. God-Fighter Zeroigar is what the fan translators went with, and the literal title is Super God Weapon Zeroigar. They tossed out Divine Weapon and that’s a little less clunky in my opinion. The short history of the PC-FX is that a 32-bit successor to the PCE was slated for a ’92 release, delayed for lack of finished games, cancelled in ’94 and then resurrected as the PC-FX after the Saturn and PlayStation were announced. The FMV capabilities were beyond its competitors (30 FPS and potentially 2 streams at once), but it had minimal theoretical 3D support. Hudson showed off a combined polygonal/prerendered Star Soldier game when the original system was unveiled, but I think that was the only scrap of realtime 3D. NEC fell into the nascent FMV hype and got bit by it. Since the released PC-FX used a tower style design, there were actually plans to release a 3D module for it, but that seems to only have been put into a rare "PC-FX on a card" released for PCs. As this relates to Zeroigar, the translators said it was actually not too complicated to add subtitles since they could use a second stream to display them. The system actually uses full frame JPEGs to display video and the ability to use two streams meant that there wasn’t any loss in quality from recompression. I’m semi-interested into looking into some parts of the PC-FX library after finishing up the few home-brew PCE shooters and moving on to a few specific non-shooter corners of the library. I'd like to look into the SuperGrafx games that fall outside the genre which is actually only two games, and the 20-ish US exclusive games.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 21, 2022 9:42:16 GMT -5
Meteor Blaster DXDeveloper MindRec Communications Publisher MindRec Communications Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) August 1, 2004 Release (US) August 1, 2004 Difficulty Low to Moderate Looping No Continue System 3 Continues With the release of puzzle game Implode in 2002, MindRec became the first in the next generation of commercial developers. Meteor Blaster DX is an updated version of their freeware Meteor Blaster which is a simple Asteroids clone. DX boosts the level count from 25 to 99 and adds in some features inspired by Asteroids’s sequels such as a shield and a recurring boss battle. The game really only has ten levels looped through repeatedly differing in base meteor speed, boss health and background. The boss’s health pool is a major design issue however as it is overly large even during the early level groups making battles tedious. Anyone looking for a native Asteroids experience is better served by sticking to the original except for use on real hardware. Approximate Hitboxes
I feel bad being a little negative, but the bosses really are that exhausting. The idea of having a boss comes from the fourth Asteroids game, Blasteroids, but the boss is less annoying there. That game also has multiple galaxy maps and something like that would would have given a bit more variety instead of looping through the same ten levels nearly ten complete times. One of the base mechanical differences between Meteor Blaster and DX is that the warp is unlimited in MB while you need rare pick ups in DX. The recharging shield unbalances this making DX much easier if you have the endurance to make to the end. Like I said in the game finish thread, buy this if you like the base game and want to throw MindRec some money since the cost is low.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 24, 2022 7:53:06 GMT -5
I got my copies of Meteor Blaster DX and Hypernova Blast over the weekend, so they are now the only games for the platform I own which I would not have expected. It was a speedy process overall, and I got them within a week. They're nothing too fancy, but they are professionally replicated and have little insert manuals so know I now what all the power ups in Meteor Blaster DX do (although it was mostly obvious).
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Post by dsparil on Oct 25, 2022 7:50:10 GMT -5
AtlanteanDeveloper Aetherbyte Publisher Aetherbyte Format HuCard Release (JP) August 8, 2014 Release (US) August 8, 2014 Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System No continues Aetherbyte had a few titles under their belt before releasing Atlantean, and it shows. The game is a tweaked undersea version of Defender consisting of several waves of attackers, a mid-stage mine avoidance portion, and a boss at the end of each of the four levels. The graphics are attractive and feature nice backgrounds too. What makes Atlantean stand apart is its very wide skill accommodation. In addition to standard difficulty levels, bombs and lives can both be set up to nine making it relatively easy to see through to the end. Score chasing is real game here, and the high score table includes two real high scores in addition to the standard filler entries. Atlantean was also the first homebrew game to see a card release using a custom “AbCARD” to do so. Approximate Hitbox
The physical version was only available for a brief time, but Atlantean is available to purchase from Aetherbyte on Itch.io. $10 isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but I think it does depend on how much you like Defender since it's basically the same game with two gameplay additions. I couldn't find any clear shots of the AbCARD, but Aetherbyte posted this image on their blog: Aetherbyte also made a Christmas themed freeware game called Santatlantean which is stripped down to just the shooting and lacks the defense aspect.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 28, 2022 9:30:10 GMT -5
Hypernova BlastDeveloper MindRec Communications, VodSound Publisher MindRec Communications Format Super CD-ROM² Release (JP) September 8, 2014 Release (US) September 8, 2014 Difficulty Low Looping No Continue System Unlimited continues from last completed level Imagic’s 1983 game Nova Blast is a variation on Defender featuring cities that must be defended and their shields restored rather than defenseless humans. MindRec’s 2014 Hypernova Blast is essentially the exact same game and even uses the same level names with the small addition of different ships with only cosmetic differences. Ironically, Hyper has worse performance than the three decades old original on any of its platforms and features jerky scrolling despite graphics that are among the simplest on the system. Similar to Meteor Blaster DX, 200 levels are advertised, but the reality is that nine levels are simply looped through in two sets of 100. The enemy sprites do change color over time, but the overall game is a few minutes of content looped for hours. Approximate Hitboxes
Nova Blast came out for C64, Intellivision and ColecoVision, and with the CV version being the best. Play that instead. It's harder and more to the point as a result. This is like eating a pot of unflavored oatmeal in comparison. I tried to get through the second set, but it's just the same thing over and over again. And that's all of them. The PCE doesn't seem to have a huge homebrew scene, and I poked around looking for anything that might not have been on Wikipedia only to come up empty. I decided to stick to commercial releases, but the only two freeware games I found were Meteor Blaster and Santatlantean anyway. I still have some wrap up posts I'd like to do, and a few different lists.
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Post by excelsior on Oct 29, 2022 3:40:58 GMT -5
Congrats on beating the full set fella. You've got two months of the year left to just have some good old fashioned fun with video games and no goals attached.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 29, 2022 16:02:26 GMT -5
Is it weird that I have literally no idea anymore why I decided to do this in the first place? It feels like such a whim largely driven by the fact that it was easy to compile a list. One of the things that really surprised me was that nearly every single original game, basically everything except Spiral Wave, could be trivially converted to an actual arcade game usually with no changes at all. After giving it some thought, I’m not going to do a top list. I was re-listening to the podcast version of long time journalist and former Macworld editor-in-chief Jason Snell’s 20 Macs for 2020*, and what he did was focus on the systems that are notable rather than the best. There’s bad computers on there, but they have some quality that makes them interesting. I’m going to do something like that, and make a little write up on the games that stand out the most for me for good or for ill and why. Something that's a balanced condensation of the library. *Seriously, if you have the time, read all the articles, watch the accompanying videos and listen to the podcast. It's a fantastic and super informative series.
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