Super Raiden 25th Anniversary Project...

[fragmare]

Would you guys be interested in some more of this kind of f*ckery?  Super Raiden's birthday is coming up on April 2nd 2017, and I was thinking about getting together with tomaitheous at some point and polishing up the old Super Raiden hack we started and getting some kind of official release out by Apr 2.





The project would add:

*Choose either Original Arcade Soundtrack or 25th Anniversary Arrangement Project soundtrack
*Switch to either checkpoint or respawn death
*Switch to either original PC-Engine stretched aspect ratio or proper-ish arcade aspect ratio.
*Choice between three difficulty levels - Easy, Normal (original), or Arcade
*Toggle the two Super Raiden exclusive stages on or off
*Title screen replacement
*

[esteban]

Absolutely.

[Johnpv]

Definitely!

[Necromancer]

I'd definitely give it a look.  It's much too tough for me to get very far, so the easy mode and respawn would hopefully help me to see more than the first stage.

[Desh]

Hell yes!  The hard unfair bastard known as Raiden taught me the skills to get good at shooters.

[Necromancer]

Really?  The only thing it taught me was how to cry.

[fragmare]

Lol, you guys are funny... If you REALLY want kicked in the balls, go play Raiden on original arcade difficulty on any port that's remotely faithful.  It'll open your eyes. 

[Black Tiger]

The default difficulty of the PC Engine versions toss twice as many enemies at you than the arcade on max difficulty and they also scroll faster. Too many "shmup" experts dismiss it for being "too hard" compared to the arcade version.

[Windcharger]

Pretty neat idea!  I had been playing with the idea for a while to make a custom version of Super Raiden with either the PSX's arranged or awesome FM Towns OSTs to keep things fresh as the PCE version(s) of Raiden are incredibly impressive and new sound tracks would allow for a fresh perspective on a really great port.  Actually, as the songs aren't terribly, I wonder how many complete OSTs would practically fit on a CD.   

[esteban]

Pretty neat idea!  I had been playing with the idea for a while to make a custom version of Super Raiden with either the PSX's arranged or awesome FM Towns OSTs to keep things fresh as the PCE version(s) of Raiden are incredibly impressive and new sound tracks would allow for a fresh perspective on a really great port.  Actually, as the songs aren't terribly, I wonder how many complete OSTs would practically fit on a CD.   

Well, sadly, 60 minutes is pushing it when it comes to .wav files...

[Windcharger]

Well, sadly, 60 minutes is pushing it when it comes to .wav files...

Very true, although the average song in the game is either around 2 to 3 minutes long, or could be made to be.  For example, the level 1 theme "Gallantry" is 3:30 of redbook on the SCD disc.  However, level 1 only takes ~1:45 to complete as a maximum before the boss music "Go to Blazes" begins.  In addition, Gallantry on disc starts its first song loop (not track loop) at ~1:13 (granted there is an intro, although that could also be removed if necessary) so it would be easy enough to end the track after its second song loop to save quite a bit of disc space.  The nature of the game lends itself to shorter track lengths for levels due to its forced scrolling controlling the amount of time level music is played (and assuming the level length doesn't exceed the track length).  Couple that with the whole OST on average only having about 8 songs per version and I suspect you could get maybe up to maybe 3-ish OSTs on disc in redbook depending on how it was planned out in advance.  I have done something similar to this with other games.

Actually, as the songs aren't terribly, I wonder how many complete OSTs would practically fit on a CD.   

Errr, I just noticed I kinda forgot the operating word "long" in the above sentence...   
Although I'm sure it was implied.   

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ok, that's weird.  I've been compiling my Turbo CD games for play on my Wii off a thumb drive, & I decided to mess with your original project.  I was adding back the Super Raiden music, & changing the 2nd soundtrack.  I've been mashing together the Turbo chip tunes with the other versions.  Though, I think the Turbo has a few missing songs, so I'll have to improvise, maybe use the Genesis or Jag versions of the missing songs.  I was just working on that last nite!

[Windcharger]

Though, I think the Turbo has a few missing songs, so I'll have to improvise, maybe use the Genesis or Jag versions of the missing songs.  I was just working on that last nite!

The HuCard version of the game is missing the high score screen, so that song is conspicuously missing.  However, that song is actually in the ROM even though no code activates it in game, so that one at least could still be used.  I'm not sure about other missing songs off the top of my head.

[fragmare]

Yea, I've thought about including a 3rd soundtrack on the disc, and yea, I'd need to go back through and strategically shorten all the existing tracks in order to make room for it.  The best way I know of would be to enable an invulnerability cheat and let each stage just free-scroll and time it with a stopwatch or something... write down all the times for each stage and shorten each track accordingly.  A lot of work, but possibly worth it. 

The arranged soundtrack I'll be using are select tracks taken from the Raiden 25th Anniversary Arrangement Project:

BTW, the HuCard Raiden soundtrack is complete, afaik.  Everything seems to be there, so including that as a 3rd soundtrack is a possibility:

[Windcharger]

Yea, I've thought about including a 3rd soundtrack on the disc, and yea, I'd need to go back through and strategically shorten all the existing tracks in order to make room for it.  The best way I know of would be to enable an invulnerability cheat and let each stage just free-scroll and time it with a stopwatch or something... write down all the times for each stage and shorten each track accordingly.  A lot of work, but possibly worth it. 

I agree. 
I was going to say that another alterative might be to find a long play online where there are no deaths, but who am I kidding, this is Raiden.   

The arranged soundtrack I'll be using are select tracks taken from the Raiden 25th Anniversary Arrangement Project:

This is very nice indeed!  I really like how it modernizes the sound and brings Raiden more in line with parts 3 & 4.

BTW, the HuCard Raiden soundtrack is complete, afaik.  Everything seems to be there, so including that as a 3rd soundtrack is a possibility:

Yeah, I think it is complete as well.  Just for clarification though, are you talking about making this the 3rd redbook sound track, or keeping it as native WSG/PSG?  I would assume the latter, just clarifying, cuz the FM Towns OST is pretty darn cool and is below in case people aren't familiar with it.   

FM Towns - Gallantry

FM Towns - Lightning War

FM Towns - Rough & Tumble

FM Towns - Fighting Thunder

Or, were you planning on keeping the original Super Raiden OST as well?  (Might be a dumb question.)