June 2022 Shmup Club - Raiden (Summer of Raiden)

[MetalFRO]

Welcome to the Summer Of Raiden! We're spending the summer concentrating on the classic Raiden series of games, and we're kicking things off with the very first game in the series. Developed and published by Seibu Kaihatsu in Japan in 1990, and brought to the West courtesy of Fabtek, Raiden took some established elements within the shooting game genre and further solidified them into a simple, but potent mix. Their no-frills approach proved to be popular in arcades, and over the next couple of years, inspired a slew of imitators who took the basic Raiden formula and put their own spin on it. What is it about this game that caused it to become such a big hit?

Taking many cues from legendary shooting game developer Toaplan, Seibu Kaihatsu took the basic elements codified in Twin Cobra and changed a couple things around to simplify the approach in a couple ways, but expand upon those ideas in other ways. An extra element added to coop play helped set the game apart from its contemporaries. In the year leading up to the release of Street Fighter II, it was the right environment for a game like Raiden to find its audience and succeed. The game not only spawned multiple sequels, but also received many home conversions.

The year is 2090. Alien lifeforms known as the Crystals have invaded Earth. The Crystals took control over most of Earth's military hardware to use in the invasion. In response, the world organization known as Vanquish Crystal Defense develops the Fighting Thunder attack craft, a cutting-edge weapon based on Crystal technology. To survive against the invaders and fight back, VCD deploys Fighting Thunder as the only hope for humanity. Blast off with the RF Generation Shmup Club in June 2022 as we play the original Raiden!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
Silius
Mightysquirrel (via Discord)
orccommander (via Discord)
SPM (via Discord)
Dubs (via Discord)
scowsh (via Discord)
Corkman
Geriatric.Danmaku
EZ Racer
FauxMacho

[MetalFRO]

In preparation for the Summer Of Raiden, here's some study material for the original Raiden to help us all learn and practice:

[MetalFRO]

Just got the announcement video uploaded!

[MetalFRO]

Interesting thread on the Shmups forum with some reviews of various Raiden ports:

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=54216

[Corkman]

  You know I'm in this month. I'll probably go between the PS1 version and the Genesis versions.

I'll have to compare them but the PS1 version seems pretty close to the arcade version. I forgot how much this game allows you to scroll left or right. I've been playing Twin Cobra and Fire Shark recently and those games don't let you scroll as far laterally. It's cool because it makes the game feel bigger and allows you more room to not get cornered. But sometimes you scroll left or right into the firing range of an unseen tank. 

The Genesis version seems to be generally easier than the PS1 version on Normal difficulty (Don't forget to go to the options menu for Normal difficulty. It defaults to Easy). There doesn't seem to be as many enemies and maybe the bullets are slower. It doesn't allow you to scroll left or right as much so it's a little of a smaller playing field. The scoring will not be as high in the Genesis version. I've gotten to about the same spot on Stage 3 on both versions with just about the same number of bonuses. I got 320k on the PS1 version and 258k on the Genesis version.

That's all for now. Happy blasting everyone!

[Geriatric.Danmaku]

Hello Players!   I'm IN!!!  Real competition requires somebody to finish last!   Played a few hours so far on MAME.  Looking to watch for strats, and get much better.   

[Geriatric.Danmaku]

Usually in a MAME ROMset collection, the top listed version is the most "official".   BUT...   If anyone has recon that one of the other versions is the most "official" or accepted for competition, I could switch to it.

[Corkman]

You're doing fine Geriatric Danmaku. You got the top 9 spots on the Hall of Aces!

[MetalFRO]

Usually in a MAME ROMset collection, the top listed version is the most "official".   BUT...   If anyone has recon that one of the other versions is the most "official" or accepted for competition, I could switch to it.

I'd be curious to know if set 1, 2, or 3 is what is the "Japan version" in the Arcade Archives port, and then which of the 3 "US set" entries would be the "International version" in the ACA port. I might have to throw that out there on the podcast Twitter account, and see if anyone has identified that.

[FauxMacho]

I'm in on this. So far my score is 332,970, getting to stage 1-3, on the Japanese Arcade Archives release on PS5. I've been doing single runs, but as I've grown a bit tired of the first stage, I should start credit feeding to get more time in on the later stages.

My favorite part so far is upon death, the score continues to climb a bit. Really helps lessen the defeat, which usually hurts because deaths come fast in this game.

[MetalFRO]

I'm in on this. So far my score is 332,970, getting to stage 1-3, on the Japanese Arcade Archives release on PS5. I've been doing single runs, but as I've grown a bit tired of the first stage, I should start credit feeding to get more time in on the later stages.

My favorite part so far is upon death, the score continues to climb a bit. Really helps lessen the defeat, which usually hurts because deaths come fast in this game.

I'm guessing the score climbing upon death is due to your ship exploding into a bunch of shrapnel and damaging enemies. Everything in the game gives you tick points, so even if you only take out 1 or 2 popcorn enemies, if your shrapnel is coming into contact with stuff that takes more punishment, you're still scoring on them, even in the end. It is kinda neat, yeah.

[Corkman]

I had a strange glitch when playing Raiden Trad on the Genesis. Halfway through the game, all the enemies disappeared. The bosses too. You can see in the attached picture that the first boss didn't appear and the panel that it comes from wasn't there either. Just a black square. I could move and bomb normally the whole time.

The game scrolled up a little from where the bosses are and then stopped. I could still move and shoot but couldn't get stage 2 to start. Very strange.

[zoydo]

Started my summer of Raiden a bit late, but i played some runs last saturday. Can't believe i made it to stage 2 !!! xD



I also played a few runs of Raiden Trad for MD and SNES today. It seems a little weird but as Trad MD seems to try staying closer to the arcade version, Trad SNES has some changes like other bullet patterns and an instant respawn (which is very welcome). But still i guess the MD version is the better pick.

[MetalFRO]

I had a strange glitch when playing Raiden Trad on the Genesis. Halfway through the game, all the enemies disappeared. The bosses too. You can see in the attached picture that the first boss didn't appear and the panel that it comes from wasn't there either. Just a black square. I could move and bomb normally the whole time.

The game scrolled up a little from where the bosses are and then stopped. I could still move and shoot but couldn't get stage 2 to start. Very strange.

That's an interesting glitch! Where you playing on real hardware with the cartridge, or some other means? I'd be curious to know if it's something that could be replicated or not.

Started my summer of Raiden a bit late, but i played some runs last saturday. Can't believe i made it to stage 2 !!! xD



I also played a few runs of Raiden Trad for MD and SNES today. It seems a little weird but as Trad MD seems to try staying closer to the arcade version, Trad SNES has some changes like other bullet patterns and an instant respawn (which is very welcome). But still i guess the MD version is the better pick.

Raiden Trad on SNES is just...weird. It's as if Micronics barely tried to make it a real Raiden game, and just sort of did their own thing, with the general Raiden framework, but only loosely based on the source material. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

[Corkman]

I had a strange glitch when playing Raiden Trad on the Genesis. Halfway through the game, all the enemies disappeared. The bosses too. You can see in the attached picture that the first boss didn't appear and the panel that it comes from wasn't there either. Just a black square. I could move and bomb normally the whole time.

The game scrolled up a little from where the bosses are and then stopped. I could still move and shoot but couldn't get stage 2 to start. Very strange.

That's an interesting glitch! Where you playing on real hardware with the cartridge, or some other means? I'd be curious to know if it's something that could be replicated or not.

Started my summer of Raiden a bit late, but i played some runs last saturday. Can't believe i made it to stage 2 !!! xD

I also played a few runs of Raiden Trad for MD and SNES today. It seems a little weird but as Trad MD seems to try staying closer to the arcade version, Trad SNES has some changes like other bullet patterns and an instant respawn (which is very welcome). But still i guess the MD version is the better pick.

Raiden Trad on SNES is just...weird. It's as if Micronics barely tried to make it a real Raiden game, and just sort of did their own thing, with the general Raiden framework, but only loosely based on the source material. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

Yes, real hardware Genesis Model 1 with the cartridge. With cartridges, sometimes the contacts can act funny I understand. Maybe that was it?