General Arcade & Retro Chat' Special Championship Edition

rubadub · 20-08-2020 1:47pm

Has anybody seen a list all "the most-successful table arcade unit of the year" from Japanese magazine "Game Machine".

I see it mentioned on wiki pages a bit on games I had not heard of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_Formation

In Japan, Game Machine listed Tokio on their May 15, 1986 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the year.[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Commando

In Japan, Game Machine listed Captain Commando on their December 1, 1991 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Street Fighter II: The World Warrior and WWF WrestleFest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Swordsman

In Japan, Game Machine listed Great Swordsman on their September 1, 1984 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Ninja

In Japan, Game Machine listed Sega Ninja on their May 1, 1985 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the year.

I can see a list of highest grossing but would be interested in seeing stuff I have not heard of before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_game#List_of_highest-grossing_games

Gradius · 20-08-2020 3:02pm

Gradius wrote: »

I actually quite liked altered beast. Interesting about the pressure buttons. I got a pneumatic Street fighter game which is quite weird looking.

Street fighter came out in 1987, altered beast in 1988. I wonder did Sega get the idea off Capcom? Maybe Capcom owned the patent, who knows.

Okay so curiosity got the better of me, had to try out the pneumatic controls. It didn't work very well, like every 20th attempt at blowing registered.

Here are the magic inputs here...

I'm maybe the only person in the world to play Street fighter using hot air, and there's something very satisfying about that in a "what am I doing with my life" kind of way.

Now, some more practice is needed to achieve that Zen state of skill...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKVATmnedzc

o1s1n · 20-08-2020 3:30pm

How did I not know this was a thing????

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_XvCNGhmZ0

rubadub · 20-08-2020 3:37pm

Gradius wrote: »

Okay so curiosity got the better of me, had to try out the pneumatic controls. It didn't work very well, like every 20th attempt at blowing registered.

I remember they had one of these in Bray and it used to get an awful hammering.

Am I right in thinking it effectively gives you the same moves and strength as the 6 buttons? i.e. push the punch or kick button lightly, medium or strongly and it acts like it would with 6 buttons.

I remember at the time hearing people talking about it like it was a one of those punching machines, so people had it in their head that if you absolutely hammered the button then it would take more energy off your opponent.

https://crappygames.miraheze.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_(1987)

Early deluxe cabinets of the game used a control scheme that gave each player a pair of pressure-sensitive "punch pads" that they had to hit harder to carry out stronger attacks. While this might have sounded neat and innovative, in practice this version of the game was impractical due to the cabinets beginning to break down over time and was quickly replaced by the more conventional six-button system that would be carried over to Street Fighter II and beyond.
There were accounts of people injuring themselves while playing on these cabinets.
It is a little-known fact that Atari had actually developed the deluxe cabinet.

sniper_samurai · 20-08-2020 3:39pm

rubadub wrote: »

I remember they had one of these in Bray and it used to get an awful hammering.

Am I right in thinking it effectively gives you the same moves and strength as the 6 buttons? i.e. push the punch or kick button lightly, medium or strongly and it acts like it would with 6 buttons.

I remember at the time hearing people talking about it like it was a one of those punching machines, so people had it in their head that if you absolutely hammered the button then it would take more energy off your opponent.

Yeah, light, medium or heavy attacks depending on pressure applied. Later cabs ditched the pneumatics for the 6 button layout.

bmorrissey · 20-08-2020 4:03pm

rubadub wrote: »

I remember at the time hearing people talking about it like it was a one of those punching machines, so people had it in their head that if you absolutely hammered the button then it would take more energy off your opponent.

haha, i have images in my head now of lads absolutely hammering the **** of the machine

Gradius · 20-08-2020 4:19pm

After exhausting my lungs, it seems maybe one of the pneumatic buttons isn't working, but then again it's a really wonky "test" I'm doing

Using the test screen (which overall is one of the most thorough I've ever seen in a game) you can see the difference in how hard you blow. It's funny! Unsure what those "vr" pots do, sensitivity maybe?

The game works fine without the pneumatics anyway, just button controls. But it's a rare thing to find the pneumatic board as very quickly they removed the option once people probably started breaking wrists and fingers on the thing.

So maybe that's what they had in mind for altered beast?

But that's enough of that anyway before this happens!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MnyV-HH3U

Chris_Heilong · 21-08-2020 1:55am

rubadub wrote: »

I see shinobi was ported to the megadrive

It is the same guy that did the sonic demo, he also was working on a Street fighter port.

Inviere · 21-08-2020 7:08am

^^ I haven't watched the videos yet, but how is he porting them? Is he decompiling them, does he have the source code, or using voodoo?

McDermotX · 21-08-2020 8:38am

13 more games announced for Sega's Astro City Mini.......no surprises really

Announced 20th Aug 2020:

Bonanza Bros
Columns
Cotton
Crack Down
ESWAT
Gain Ground
Ichidant-R
Puyo Puyo
Shadow Dancer
Shinobi
Wonder Boy
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Already announced:

Alien Syndrome
Alien Storm
Golden Axe
Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
Columns II
Dark Edge
Puzzle & Action: Tant-R
Virtua Fighter
Fantasy Zone
Altered Beast

Retr0gamer · 21-08-2020 9:27am

good stuff there all the same but would have been nice to have gotten more surprises and model 1/2 stuff.

KeRbDoG · 21-08-2020 11:33am

Inviere wrote: »

^^ I haven't watched the videos yet, but how is he porting them? Is he decompiling them, does he have the source code, or using voodoo?

From a quick look, seems the SF1 hardware is quite close to the MD/Genesis hardware so maybe source/code hacking voodoo

Retr0gamer · 21-08-2020 11:37am

So Hot Take about a game people love:

So watching to a few Kim Justice videos lately and Kim loves Columns.

IMO Columns is a boring puzzle game and there's far better out there. The gem matching is basic and the combo potential is there but so limited and difficult to pull off that it's not worth it.

Ultimately it's not a patch on tetris. And even worse is that Puyo Puyo exists which is columns but fun and with depth. It's a much better take on the columns formula.

bmorrissey · 21-08-2020 11:54am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So Hot Take about a game people love:

So watching to a few Kim Justice videos lately and Kim loves Columns.

IMO Columns is a boring puzzle game and there's far better out there. The gem matching is basic and the combo potential is there but so limited and difficult to pull off that it's not worth it.

Ultimately it's not a patch on tetris. And even worse is that Puyo Puyo exists which is columns but fun and with depth. It's a much better take on the columns formula.

My thoughts exactly, theres much better options, dr robotniks mean bean/puyo puyo was miles ahead of it between the soundtrack and better gameplay

o1s1n · 21-08-2020 12:13pm

Columns is absolutely rubbish. I even thought it was rubbish back when the Megadrive was still in production - once you'd played Tetris at the time there was no going back.

I remember having Tetris Blast/Super Bombliss for my Gameboy and it literally blew things like Columns out of the water in the fun department.

rubadub · 21-08-2020 12:14pm

Gradius wrote: »

The game works fine without the pneumatics anyway, just button controls. But it's a rare thing to find the pneumatic board as very quickly they removed the option once people probably started breaking wrists and fingers on the thing.

So maybe that's what they had in mind for altered beast?

When I read about the altered beast thing I did not picture it being big gimmicky smash buttons like SF, just regular size. What I find strange is that they did not just add extra buttons instead, sounds like they had developed the game around it so why ditch it. Even if they wanted to stick to the 3 they could have had a 2 button simultaneous kick & punch to give another.

He had hoped to implement the pressure-sensitive button for the Genesis port, but could not due to tight development time and the lack of the button in Genesis hardware

I found a book that goes through all the classic sega games.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sega-Arcade-Revolution-Horowitz-author/dp/1476672253

https://books.google.ie/books?id=eDcutAEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

On that link I cannot read bits about altered beast & shinobi, I could last night on another link. The head guys apparently did not like shinobi, sounded like it was possibly going to be ditched or reworked. I think the designer was new & young and some older guy spoke up for him.

Doge · 21-08-2020 10:02pm

Wow, rubadub that mega drive port of Shinobi is amazing!

DaveyDave · 21-08-2020 10:27pm

Reached out to Masahiro Ito, the creature designer for Silent Hill 1-3, to see if he had any drawings, sketches or prints for sale. Unfortunately he doesn't due to copyright.

Interesting avenue to potentially go down. The lesser known talent, for lack of a better word, are generally humbled when people have an interest in their work. Might have a think about some games and see if I can track down the respective artists.

o1s1n · 22-08-2020 1:14am

DaveyDave wrote: »

Reached out to Masahiro Ito, the creature designer for Silent Hill 1-3, to see if he had any drawings, sketches or prints for sale. Unfortunately he doesn't due to copyright.

Interesting avenue to potentially go down. The lesser known talent, for lack of a better word, are generally humbled when people have an interest in their work. Might have a think about some games and see if I can track down the respective artists.

A massive wall you're going to run into is the fact that Japanese concept/comic artists tend not to sell their artwork.

Japan views artwork and copywrite in that regard a bit differently. They kind of see selling original works as selling the copywrite with it too.

Hence why all the greats like Otomo and Muira are impossible to buy and if you ever get lucky enough to find one for sale, you'll need to get a second mortgage.

Only Japanese artist I've managed to get some stuff from is Toshio Maeda, but he tends to go to comic cons all over the world selling his stuff.

Chris_Heilong · 22-08-2020 1:25am

Retr0gamer wrote: »

So Hot Take about a game people love:

So watching to a few Kim Justice videos lately and Kim loves Columns.

IMO Columns is a boring puzzle game and there's far better out there. The gem matching is basic and the combo potential is there but so limited and difficult to pull off that it's not worth it.

Ultimately it's not a patch on tetris. And even worse is that Puyo Puyo exists which is columns but fun and with depth. It's a much better take on the columns formula.

Both are different but good, I like tetris but also columns, I once had a game where I was in the zone and it felt so good keeping the screen from filling up with large combos at such a fast pace. Like tetris the music is the driving force and is catchy, with out the iconic gameboy music I cant play tetris as it just does not have the same feels.

DaveyDave · 22-08-2020 1:58am

o1s1n wrote: »

A massive wall you're going to run into is the fact that Japanese concept/comic artists tend not to sell their artwork.

Japan views artwork and copywrite in that regard a bit differently. They kind of see selling original works as selling the copywrite with it too.

Hence why all the greats like Otomo and Muira are impossible to buy and if you ever get lucky enough to find one for sale, you'll need to get a second mortgage.

Only Japanese artist I've managed to get some stuff from is Toshio Maeda, but he tends to go to comic cons all over the world selling his stuff.

Good to know. Sure I'll see what happens! It never occurred to me to use social media to reach out to people but I see so many people in the entertainment business are big into engaging with the fans. It would be great to have some concept art or sketches of something. Now the question is, is there anything outside of Silent Hill that I'd be interested in pursuing...

o1s1n · 22-08-2020 9:23am

DaveyDave wrote: »

Good to know. Sure I'll see what happens! It never occurred to me to use social media to reach out to people but I see so many people in the entertainment business are big into engaging with the fans. It would be great to have some concept art or sketches of something. Now the question is, is there anything outside of Silent Hill that I'd be interested in pursuing...

Check out www.comicartfans.com for some inspiration. There are some guys over there with absolutely amazing videogame art, like original painted Nintendo covers.

Most of its not Japanese though and tends to be American localisation covers of games given the problem noted above.

I still can't believe someone owns this:

https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1359178

RasTa · 22-08-2020 10:08am

My god, that's the worst designed site I've seen in a while.

o1s1n · 22-08-2020 10:15am

RasTa wrote: »

My god, that's the worst designed site I've seen in a while.

Haha, I know right??

It host some of the best comic artwork you'll ever see online, but jesus trying to use it is a nightmare.

I used to stick my stuff up for a while, but it's such a pain in the arse to do so I just stopped as it was annoying the hell out of me.

Shapey Fiend · 22-08-2020 12:59pm

My sons mad into Kirby so I got a friend of mine to draw a picture for his birthday. He's pretty spectacular imo so €100 was a bargain. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2oztpQoj1X/?igshid=j76oth6eidyl

Skerries · 22-08-2020 8:23pm

anyone watch the High Score series on Netflix yet?

some interesting stories from different angles of the business

o1s1n · 22-08-2020 8:33pm

I was far too excited when I noticed someone had added scanlines to the animated intro - people are finally learning!

Watched the first couple of episodes, it's alright. Has the usual problem where they regurgitate info we've all heard a million times at this stage, but there are definitely some interesting interviews in there.

The Last Bandit · 22-08-2020 10:11pm

Ya its good but as Oisin's says its nothing we don't already know being the information hungry nerds we are

Doge · 23-08-2020 12:08am

I have no idea of the finer details behind this pic, but I just thought it was neat!

Steve X2 · 24-08-2020 10:13am

I've been putting a lot of time into Flight Sim 2020 over the last few days. After seeing LGR's vid below i feel my setup isn't complete unless i can get this running on some crt's

Doge · 24-08-2020 6:24pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

I've been putting a lot of time into Flight Sim 2020 over the last few days. After seeing LGR's vid below i feel my setup isn't complete unless i can get this running on some crt's

Only 3 CRTs?

That's weaksauce!

Dr Bob · 24-08-2020 10:51pm

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Ya its good but as Oisin's says its nothing we don't already know being the information hungry nerds we are

I'm at the stage where I'm kind of sick of U.S. gaming history ..it always hits the same beats ;
Computer Space->Pong-> Space invaders-> Atari->Crash->NES->Nintendo->16 bit wars->Sony->Doom->Microsoft->Halo->Internet...and so on.

The UK Bedrooms to billions documentaries aren't bad for showing something a bit closer to what it was like here at the time (for a start there was no crash , much less nintendo, the 8 bit wars) , but something like Brazil's history (much much sega)
or Eastern Europe (Dendy, Sord,A lot of Atari 8 bits in Poland ) or in a perfect world Ireland (Atari factory in Tipp , Namco,Atari camp in Mosney, more 8 bit wars, Peats , Computercity)although the odds on getting anyone to do a local gaming docu about Ireland is unlikely*

(*Although I'm fairly certain the Doom episode of High Score John Romero footage was filmed in his gaff in Galway)

DaveyDave · 24-08-2020 11:01pm

Steve X2 wrote: »

I've been putting a lot of time into Flight Sim 2020 over the last few days. After seeing LGR's vid below i feel my setup isn't complete unless i can get this running on some crt's

Lots of reports of it murdering the highest end GPUs but my Core i7 2700K, 8GB DDR3 and 6GB GTX 1060 has it running on high at 30-40fps in smaller planes, 30fps or so for the A320/747. Turned v-sync off and lowered all the airport traffic, boats etc. Left everything else high, shadows, clouds etc. Frames will stutter here and there but even the likes of New York where people have been having performance issues it was grand for me, Dublin will sit at around 40-45fps. Clouds and storms aren't an issue either. Lots of YouTubers said AI planes tank performance but haven't noticed much issues with them. Loaded into Dublin last night as a Ryanair flight was approaching behind me

I'd like to dip my toes into the actual simulation but for now I can't get over exploring the world. Game Pass on PC was only a Euro and €4 after that, highly recommend anyone with a decent PC to get into it, casual settings make it a breeze to just explore.

Steve X2 · 25-08-2020 12:30am

DaveyDave wrote: »

Lots of reports of it murdering the highest end GPUs but my Core i7 2700K, 8GB DDR3 and 6GB GTX 1060 has it running on high at 30-40fps in smaller planes, 30fps or so for the A320/747. Turned v-sync off and lowered all the airport traffic, boats etc. Left everything else high, shadows, clouds etc. Frames will stutter here and there but even the likes of New York where people have been having performance issues it was grand for me, Dublin will sit at around 40-45fps. Clouds and storms aren't an issue either. Lots of YouTubers said AI planes tank performance but haven't noticed much issues with them. Loaded into Dublin last night as a Ryanair flight was approaching behind me

I'd like to dip my toes into the actual simulation but for now I can't get over exploring the world. Game Pass on PC was only a Euro and €4 after that, highly recommend anyone with a decent PC to get into it, casual settings make it a breeze to just explore.

It's a beast for needing resources. My current setup is pretty high end and I can only get 60-70fps in 4k ultra with some tweaks, and only really in Ireland and some other places where the detail isnt that high(i9 9900k, 2080ti, nvme storage etc). I'm in the middle of a new pc build, but even when thats done I've a feeling FS2020 is gonna need more. It's the CPU's that are holding it back at the moment more than the GPU's, and with me going for a massive amount of cores in my new build(Threadripper 3990X), I'm not sure it'll be a massive upgrade, at least with this game until they can use more than 4-8 cores properly.

All that aside, they need to sort out the bugs. Simconnect doesn't work properly, so I(and thousands more) cant hook up some of the fancier flight sim bits(hardware and software). But they'll get there and it's an amazing platform to build on. I just wish they could have used google maps data rather than bing maps data, but that'll never happen

Edit:
A guy posted a video he made using the game(and some decent editing) over on the flight sim forums. I've a feeling youtube is about to see a million of these.

o1s1n · 25-08-2020 11:40am

Here's a project I hadn't heard about, Bioevil - Resident Evil being recreated on the Megadrive!

https://pscd.itch.io/bio-evil

Jack burton · 25-08-2020 1:38pm

That actually looks really interesting...love to see it get finished

CiDeRmAn · 25-08-2020 2:20pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Here's a project I hadn't heard about, Bioevil - Resident Evil being recreated on the Megadrive!

https://pscd.itch.io/bio-evil

That's pretty impressive, seems like they are maintaining the move/turn speed of the original, whose tank controls make more sense in the isometric view too.

Inviere · 25-08-2020 4:44pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Here's a project I hadn't heard about, Bioevil - Resident Evil being recreated on the Megadrive!

https://pscd.itch.io/bio-evil

Outrageous, I love it

Skerries · 26-08-2020 12:19am

interesting video from Nostalgia Nerd about hidden games on vinyl and cassette albums of the 80's

I actually had a copy of the Thompson Twins on cassette from a mate but not sure if he recorded it off the floppy

CiDeRmAn · 26-08-2020 9:08am

Skerries wrote: »

I actually had a copy of the Thompson Twins on cassette from a mate but not sure if he recorded it off the floppy

I remember that, they made a game, based on the band, and gave it away as a bonus on the cover of C&VG waaay back in the day.
Cassettes at the time would have been bulky and expensive, this is several years before cover mounted cassettes were common.
Because of this they made a very thin flexible record, that had to be played on a turntable/record-player, and the audio-out/in cable strung from there.

Of course, because of the nature of such media, it was very hard to get it to work, certainly didn't for me!
I think it was best to use the typical Hifi of the time to record the disc straight onto cassette, then load it from there.
I didn't have such a Hifi

sniper_samurai · 26-08-2020 7:04pm

This could be interesting considering the tenuous rumours of its existence.

https://twitter.com/NumskullDesigns/status/1298674299268734977?s=19

Jack burton · 26-08-2020 7:10pm

sniper_samurai wrote: »

This could be interesting considering the tenuous rumours of its existence.

https://twitter.com/NumskullDesigns/status/1298674299268734977?s=19

Wouldn't be the first time someone's made that game.

o1s1n · 26-08-2020 7:11pm

Polybius is just an old internet made up story. It's about as real as Ted's Caving page or Slenderman.

I guess some lads have coded a game and stuck it in a cab to try to recreate it.

CiDeRmAn · 26-08-2020 7:35pm

o1s1n wrote: »

Polybius is just an old internet made up story. It's about as real as Ted's Caving page or Slenderman.

I guess some lads have coded a game and stuck it in a cab to try to recreate it.

Jeff Minter already made an actual game with the infamous name and it's mind blowing, they'll have to be producing something special to compete with that.

Steve X2 · 26-08-2020 7:46pm

Numskull, thats the crowd that made the quarter scale mini arcade machines I got recently. Probably a new one of them?

Jack burton · 27-08-2020 2:32pm

I'd say that's definitely it

Doge · 27-08-2020 6:25pm

Looks like the Sinden Technologies Lightgun has a bit of competition.

Arcade Europe have launched a Kickstarter for their own Lightgun which does not use a camera and it's pretty vague how theirs works.

Arcade Europe Lightgun, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcadeeuropelightgun/arcade-europe-lightgun?ref=android_project_share

At 150 euro for just one gun it's about 50 euro more than the Sinden,
and a totally vague description of how it works is found beneath the all the rambling on about how passionate about arcade the creator is.

It does claim it does not need sensor bar or a screen border to work however, how accurate it is remains a mystery.

The Sinden Lightgun inspires more confidence as Andy the creator was very upfront about details, showed it working on RetroManCaves channel, kept regular updates and the molds for his gun are much nicer and professional looking.
He just seemed a really professional and competent chap.

The Sinden Lightgun ships from September 4th, can't wait to get my hands on it soon.

o1s1n · 27-08-2020 6:50pm

Really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it once it arrives.

I've been tempted, but my cash always ends up going on something else!

sniper_samurai · 28-08-2020 10:13am

Polybius is a faux 1/4 scale cab to be used as a usb hub.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1886976084/the-polybius-quarter-scale-arcade-cab?utm_source=press%20release&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=POLYBIUSKickstarter

CiDeRmAn · 28-08-2020 10:34pm

sniper_samurai wrote: »

Polybius is a faux 1/4 scale cab to be used as a usb hub.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1886976084/the-polybius-quarter-scale-arcade-cab?utm_source=press%20release&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=POLYBIUSKickstarter

What a waste of good hype!

General Arcade & Retro Chat' Special Championship Edition

Comments