Data East

[Macaw]

Maybe try Act-Fancer. Simple, short and relatively easy platformer filled with wicked creature designs and bizzare music. Supposedly its regarded as the third game in the Darwin series in Japan because of the evolution power system? Dunno if thats official or not.



Sick flyer too! Deco always did cool flyers

[emphatic]

Chelnov is probably my favourite (of the platform/side scrollers), I might pick up a PCB soon. I ICC'd Bad Dudes and Secret Agent back in the day, but both are pretty memorization heavy. I've owned the Secret Agent PCB for a couple of years but didn't click with it all as an "adult".

Nothing beats Darwin 4078 though, the cool music, the awesome DNA powerups.

[Gaijin Punch]

Act Fancer is on my list to try. Just gotta get into something... hard these days for me.

[Macaw]

Act Fancer is on my list to try. Just gotta get into something... hard these days for me.

But its much easier compared to getting into something like say, an RPG, right? 1 loop of Act Fancer is about 10 minutes or so.

[Magic Knight]

I killed my Midnight Resistance yesterday while trying to diagnose a graphics fault with my logic probe. If anyone has one for sale please let me know, and other rotary games, since that means both of mine are now broken. And that's a tragedy we can do without.

[Macaw]

That sucks, Midnight Resistance is one cool game.

[zinger]

I second Chelnov, fast and addictive action. I always liked the Mega Drive port better though, because of how much better it looks.

[Gaijin Punch]

I'll try Act Fancer once I get my Mame PC back online. I actually played several credits of Crack Down last night -- I need to 1CC this fucker and be done with it. However, as I've not played anything more than dicking around on my Wii for a year or so, I got my ass handed to me. I think I played 6 credits and the best I did was get to 2-1. My best effort ever was 4-2 (of 4-4). A tough cookie indeed!

[CIT Seven Force]

My favorite Data East game is Fighter's History Dynamite. In many ways I think it's actually better than Street Fighter II.

IMO Data East had lots of cool concepts and great style, but I often find the games lacking in terms of controls, balance and care taken into level design. Perhaps it's because they didn't attempt to do anything innovative with Fighter's History Dynamite it's why it turned out so well.

[Macaw]

My favorite Data East game is Fighter's History Dynamite. In many ways I think it's actually better than Street Fighter II.

Yeah its awesome, the focus on being able to lockdown opponents due to all the extremely fast specials and pokes is real fun, unfortunately just like the majority of old fighters its a real problem finding people to play!

IMO Data East had lots of cool concepts and great style, but I often find the games lacking in terms of controls, balance and care taken into level design. Perhaps it's because they didn't attempt to do anything innovative with Fighter's History Dynamite it's why it turned out so well.

They were quite all over the place indeed. Stuff like Bad Dudes and Act Fancer dont have the most exciting levels, but then there is great stuff like in Midnight Resistance, Edward Randy and Night Slashers. I think Karnov, Robocop and Oscar all fall into the middle ground of DECO level design, but all are great games.

Balance is another issue again. Dark Seal is probably the most flawlessly balanced action title from the company, but something like Edward Randy is just weird with the difficulty progression.

Oh and lets not forget about Gunball... it just doesn't make sense how a game could be so cool!

[CIT Seven Force]

Yeah Gunball/Nitro Ball, Night Slashers and Dark Seal (I never played part 2) are very nice.

As are Magical Drop (specifically III) and Flying Power Disk.

Edward Randy... man, this could've been the next Strider, but the controls are a complete mess and stages are very repetitive (apart from the visuals, which are great). Great Ragtime Show suffers from similar smyptoms, imo.

I've never played Midnight Resistance with the proper setup, so I'll hold off on judgement. Hopefully next time I'm in Japan it'll be playable somewhere. MD port was okay, but they should have been less orthodox on the controls and turned it into something more like Contra. Would've turned into a better game if you ask me.

[Macaw]

Yeah Gunball/Nitro Ball, Night Slashers and Dark Seal (I never played part 2) are very nice.

Dark Seal 2 is nowhere near as good. All the stages have endlessly spawning little flying bats and stuff that are constantly after you which makes clearing out and exploring the levels annoying, but the biggest disappointment in it are the bosses. The original has countless gigantic crazy monsters, but the sequel has the same dragon fought 3 times with sprite edits, a big tree, then a whole bunch of bosses that are about the same size as your character and pretty bland. Its still a good game though when looked at on its own, and apart from the less spectacular bosses it has fancier graphics than the original, and cheesy but cool cutscenes which give the game the atmosphere of an American cartoon from the 80's.

Edward Randy... man, this could've been the next Strider, but the controls are a complete mess and stages are very repetitive (apart from the visuals, which are great). Great Ragtime Show suffers from similar smyptoms, imo.

I like Edward Randy more than Strider. There really isn't any problem with the controls, its just that it has an incredibly complex amount of moves for a platformer, and just throws you immediately into crazy shit without any time to get used to anything, so it requires a little patience with figuring out how to control it. Things like running when your holding an upper diagonal direction, but walking when you simply press left or right is awkward at first, and holding left or right while pressing the jump button making you slide instead of jump doesn't help things. Also its essential to know about little things like holding down while in the air allowing you to hit enemies you land on without taking damage.

Definitely dont agree with the stages being repetitive though, every 1 minute it completely changes whats happening and is constantly exciting

[Shou]

Yeah its awesome, the focus on being able to lockdown opponents due to all the extremely fast specials and pokes is real fun, unfortunately just like the majority of old fighters its a real problem finding people to play!

Arcades like Mikado still run tourneys for it here!

[Gaijin Punch]

Edward Randy... man, this could've been the next Strider, but the controls are a complete mess and stages are very repetitive (apart from the visuals, which are great). Great Ragtime Show suffers from similar smyptoms, imo.

Did you read the DECO interview here? Some interesting info on that game. Apparently it was a massive project, not exactly what the creator had in mind, and quite the nightmare project.

I've never played Midnight Resistance with the proper setup, so I'll hold off on judgement. Hopefully next time I'm in Japan it'll be playable somewhere. MD port was okay, but they should have been less orthodox on the controls and turned it into something more like Contra. Would've turned into a better game if you ask me.

It is really good but it's too easy.

[Macaw]

Did you read the DECO interview here? Some interesting info on that game. Apparently it was a massive project, not exactly what the creator had in mind, and quite the nightmare project.

Yeah, apparently it took a year to develop while most other DECO games took 3-5 months.

More interestingly though it how Dragongun took 2 years to make and cost in the millions. Its by far Deco's most technically crazy game though, all the shit going on and the constant massive sprites are really something, not to mention the FMV backgrounds during the boss fights (which unfortunately aren't emulated in MAME yet...)

[Shou]

More interestingly though it how Dragongun took 2 years to make and cost in the millions. Its by far Deco's most technically crazy game though, all the shit going on and the constant massive sprites are really something, not to mention the FMV backgrounds during the boss fights (which unfortunately aren't emulated in MAME yet...)

I really want Dragongun. If anyone ever sees one, point me to it.

[Macaw]

Anyone know what the deal is with the arcade version of High Seas Havoc?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-Arcad ... 19d201fbea

Its been in mame for years but not working. Is this really something official that Data East through out there or just some bootleg?

[Shou]

Anyone know what the deal is with the arcade version of High Seas Havoc?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-Arcad ... 19d201fbea

Its been in mame for years but not working. Is this really something official that Data East through out there or just some bootleg?

It was a low cost board that they actually sold in Asia excluding Japan.

[Gaijin Punch]

Never heard of this. Looks good. Any comment?

[zinger]

Always wondered about the arcade version of Captain Lang. I was hoping it would be "richer" and better looking than the Mega Drive game, but if it was a cheap board I guess it must have used the same hardware?

[Shou]

Never heard of this. Looks good. Any comment?

It's the foreign version of the Mega Drive game, Captain Lang, pretty decent but nothing outstanding.

[Macaw]

I'd like to know what Data Easts reasoning was to just randomly create an arcade port of a megadrive game and release it only in asia except for japan...

[Shou]

I'd like to know what Data Easts reasoning was to just randomly create an arcade port of a megadrive game and release it only in asia except for japan...

I think history has shown that Data East's management was crazy illogical.

How about the PlayChoice-10? Putting NES games, many of them conversions of original arcade titles, back into the arcade for timed play?

[Magic Knight]

I picked up this "Arcade Gamers" magazine today, looks ok I guess. Not cheap at 980 yen though. One reviewer on Amazon says it's like an omake, but it's better than that. Anyway, there's an eight-page interview with someone about Data East.

[Gaijin Punch]

You got a link to it? This is an old publication, right? Might be interested in reading that interview.