Yep, that’s a specific setting that M2 built into the collection. It’s really neat. Turning it on in the original Darius makes the middle of the screen slightly darker to simulate the 3 monitor setup.
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My Battle Garegga Limited Edition copy came in just now, and grabbed some pictures to share.
I didn’t get a picture of the second record disc because it was a royal royal royal pain to get the first one back in.
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That looks beautiful, thanks for sharing the pics. According to my tracking my Garegga LE should arrive sometime tommorow.
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Thanks for sharing @ShinJohnpv. Now THAT is a collector’s edition! 
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Looking forward to digging into my Battle Garegga LE box as well, as it just came a couple days ago. I’m going to wait to open it for a few days, though, because I want to do it as part of my monthly pickups video, so I’ll probably wait until next weekend to break the plastic 
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I thought I’d share the latest episode of my podcast, which just released yesterday. It’s all about Strikers 1945 II.
Here’s the direct link to the episode:
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Got my Battle Garegga LE set from Limited Run Games yesterday. 
This is a really high quality LE and I’m glad I sprung to get it despite already having the 2016 import Garegga LE box. It will be nice having a physical version of the game not to mention no longer having to rely on translated notes in order to use the various advanced settings menus.
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The direct link here isn’t working for me. I got to it from the youtube video link, but just thought I would let you know the link here isn’t working.
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Thanks for the heads up! Here’s the base link to the podcast page, which should give anyone access to the episodes:
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Finally opened and playing Shikhondo: Soul Eater on Switch. Not bad!
Nothing incredibly special and the techno music is a yawn, but looks nice and has some nice patterns.
Also put back on Dimension Drive, my god the dimension swapping takes so long for me to get my head around.
I always think am I better off just sticking to the best of the best? But at US$25 each delivered I got my money’s worth.
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You kind of hit the nail on the head with Shikhondo, not bad but nothing special. My biggest complaint is it’s lack of Tate support. I can’t imagine it’s that hard to implement. Honestly that’s been the biggest reason I haven’t put a lot of time into it. Though I will say the artwork for the sides of the screen is really pretty, and an improvement of what you see on a lot of bigger releases.
I’m playing on TV so Tate wouldn’t matter much, but on handheld yeah it would be only half the screen.
The mechanic it has of ‘hold a button to go slow and focus your fire forward’ is really elegant, doing crowd control on levels and using that to take out bigger ‘ships’ all lines up perfectly.
Also the bosses have bullets that change direction, which is new, at least to me.
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The music of Shikhondo, by itself, is fine. But with the aesthetic and theme, I was hoping for something that more closely matched that. Something culturally traditional, eerie, and maybe a bit understated, to give the game its own vibe. Sadly, they didn’t take that approach.
Yes, like a modern Sengoku Blade.
Still, the music gets better as it goes on it Shikhondo. Level 4 was very good.
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I’ve noticed Shikhondo goes on sale frequently. I think I paid less than 5 dollars for it. For that price, I think its worth it, even though it’s missing some of those QOL features.
Yeah, or something like Guwange: atmospheric, incorporating traditional instruments and melodies. If the electronic music had elements that matched the game’s aesthetic and vibe, that would at least tie together.
My current Shmup Club game of the month is Zaxxon, so I was playing some of that last night. It’s weird how, in 1 run, I can lose all 3 lives before I even reach the space section, and the next run, I might reach the Zaxxon robot, and get to the 2nd loop. There’s just enough random in the game to keep you guessing. I’m having fun with it, though! Currently playing the arcade version that unlocks on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection.
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Tonight’s Sunday Night Shmup is Blazing Lazers for the Turbografx-16:
A Compile classic and a graphical tour de force for the PCE/TG/16 hardware. Despite being fairly easy until the last few stages, Blazing Lazers is just a fun, enjoyable experience thanks to straightforward yet solid gameplay featuring the developer’s signature smorgasbord power up options, colorful visuals and solid boss fights. The game will hopefully finally get a much wider audience when the Turbografx Mini is released.
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Nice. Also if I get a Turbografx Mini that will be one of the earliest games I try on it.
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Cave recently updated some of their iOS titles to 64bit so they are compatible with all current phones and tablets now. Looking forward to trying Deathsmiles on the iPad at some point, the interface is too cluttered to work well on phones.
City Connection are planning on bringing Deathsmiles I and II to more platforms, hopefully they’ll be the HD Xbox 360 versions. Both the iOS and PC ports have the SD visuals
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