I have the Star Soldier PCE collection on PSP which includes Soldier Blade and Star Parodier, maybe I should see if it works on there.
I picked up Cotton 2 recently and this game is already one of my top horizontal shmups of all time. Been playing a round every day for the last two weeks and I can’t say I’ve played a section of any level in the same way - the capture mechanics combined with the elemental switching just gives you a lot of flexibility in dealing with different enemy layouts and boss fights.
It’s big on experimentation which I like a lot and the presentation is fantastic - really nice sprite work and animation, with a killer catchy-yet-atmospheric soundtrack. Haven’t tried the Saturn arranged mode yet either!
If you could that’d be great!
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Played some Danmaku Unlimited 3 on the Switch with the Flip Grip. I got a cramped hand playing with the default controls, but moving the beam (X) to ZR and bomb (B) to ZL is 100x better.
I still suck at this game, but it’s pretty good in small doses…
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Right now I’m making a list of PC Engine games I want when I get the system in 2020 or 2021 and good lord there’s so many shumps that it’s going to increase my list even more!
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Tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup is Axelay for the SNES:
Released in 1992 by Konami, Axelay features a unique mix of vertically scrolling stages and horizontal levels. The vertical stages make fantastic use of the system’s Mode 7 effects which makes for some very striking visuals as the planetary scapes scroll below as if your ship is soaring over a small globe. Besides being a great shmup, this game is s a graphical powerhouse for the SNES and I’ll never forget the first time I saw it in an advertisement in one of my comic books (“Wow, just look at that freakishly big cyborg magma boss!”) Sadly the game never received any sequel or follow up. Unsurprisingly it’s gotten pricey to obtain a physical copy (not too bad if a loose cart) but can still be had for only $7.99 on the Wii U Virtual Console (which is how I’m currently playing it).
I
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I always have a fun time with Skykid.
That’s my highest score by far, I always seem to do better when I take a break from certain games. I haven’t looked up any strategies for score attempts, but I’d image they involve not dying, which I’m currently working on.
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Nice looking display. Reminds me of my childhood. What kind is it?
Arcade, so that’s probably why it’s familiar. It’s a SNK Super Neo Candy 29” cabinet.
It’s usually less scanline heavy than a Sega candy cab, which is nice and gives it a more unique appearance amongst the Astro and blast cities you usually see.
I like those oldschool displays.
In my memories, heavy scanlines appear in arcade in the 90’s, am I right ?
It really depends on the game and developer as much as the display itself. I will say that CPS2 games seem to push the boundaries of large, sharp scanlines, possibly because the size and detail of their sprites. That was definitely the 90’s.
But I also have seen some very sharp scanlines on old Nintendo cabs at local bars, sharpness I couldn’t get to with a 29” monitor.
Image Fight for Arcade Archives is finally out today on Switch and PS4. Hopefully this means we’ll also get other Irem titles from Hamster like original R-TYPE.
I’ve been wanting to play Image Fight for a long time. Almost got the PC Engine version years ago. I hear it’s a good game but really challenging and memorization based like a bit of R-TYPE in vertical form. Should also be another great title to play on Flip Grip.
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Give us a proper port of R-Type LEO, please Hamster, I’m begging you!!! Seriously, though, this needs to happen.
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With my recent clear of Life Force during the RGB high score battle, I’ve been digging into a bit of Gradius. It seems quite a bit tougher, and definitely feels like an earlier release.
It’s still a really great game though, and I’m really enjoying it.
I played it on my CRT through original hardware last night for the first time, and got my best score yet. That level with the Easter Island heads always kills me, but did end up getting past it, but only after dying a few times.
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That’s awesome, I definitely want to try out Image Fight someday. The original R-Type would be nice too.
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That’s great! The Saturn port is expensive.
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Hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that the latest episode of my podcast is online! It’s all about Einhander this time around, and what makes this game so good.
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Played some Image Fight last night on Switch (TV and Flip Grip) and really enjoying it so far but wow, is it tough. Definitely feels like a vertical R-TYPE. Love the visuals and music. One odd thing I noticed though is there doesn’t seem to be an option this time to switch between regional versions like all other Hamster ACA releases.
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Konami has released a patch adding TATE for vertical games to the Arcade Anniversary Collection:
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Was going to play some Raiden Project today and apparently my PS1 may be dying on me. After multiple boot ups it’s doing weird stuff like scrambling the graphics or powering on with dulled/darkened out colors. Current attempt it’s now asking to insert a CD so must be the drive. Anybody else ever run into this or have any advice? My PS1 was bought new about 19 years ago and modded with a region switch the same year. I’ve had a few hiccups with it booting up this year but never this bad.
Edit: Ok finally got the game to boot up normal. And it looks like the “Insert CDROM” error was due to me accidentally bumping the region switch to USA position while I was reinserting the video cord. Still kinda worrisome but for now it seems to have gone away after I reinserted the video cord and made sure the CD tray was clean.
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Tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup is Image Fight by Irem.
Currently playing the newly released ACA port on Switch while my Daedalus gashapon figure hangs out. 
Image Fight was also released on NES, PC Engine, X68000, FM Towns Marty, Playstation and Saturn (The Image Fight/X-Multiply combo disc is now very expensive, PCE port is still very affordable and averages $35 on eBay if you want a physical option to play, ACA version is a steal at $7.99). This is my first time with the game, really dig the visuals, graphics and power ups. It’s very difficult though and requires a lot of patience and memorization, possibly even moreso than R-TYPE from what I have seen so far. Aside from the Hucard port, PC Engine fans also received a sequel which was developed by Irem exclusively for the PCE Super CD, Image Fight 2: Operation Deepstriker.
Battle of the ports comparison:
Image Fight 2: Operation Deepstriker:
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