Battle of the Ports - G-Darius (Gダライアス) Show

[@BeanoTubes]

Fantastic pal! Absolutely love Darius games! Something special about the aquatic ship designs and music is usually beautiful! Blew me away in the 90s when I saw the 3 screens in arcades looking so sharp and emersive!!

[@alecjahn]

These early 3D Darius titles really hit the spot!

[@kitestar]

Probably gunna have to reupdate the vid here in a couple days, now that HD’s getting ver 2 and ver 2 HD, For consumer which is in reference to the psx version and G Darius Exhibition which is select boss fights in the famed widescreen the series is known for

[@RetrOrigin]

Polygons should wobble exactly the same on both the arcade and PS1 versions. The arcade version runs on the Taito FX-1B, which is almost identical to a PS1 but with twice the RAM and a faster CPU clock (48mhz vs 33mhz on PS1) which explains the slowdown on PS1. The GPU is identical on both platforms. I guess the emulator you're using to run the arcade version is make it seem more stable to you.

[@mickeymickey9914]

You can turn off wobble in Duckstation

[@RetrOrigin]

@@mickeymickey9914 Yeah, most emulators allow you to activate floating point precision, it's really cool. I hope we can someday see that on an FPGA core.

[@Retro_Royal]

This is what makes my start into the weekend sweet

[@topofbones]

WARNING! A great Battle of the Ports is approaching fast! Epic series. I love the version for PS4. It seems the ultimate one.

[@mightyfilm]

That's funny. Adding the G to Darius and fiddling the letters around gives you "Gradius." Almost seems intentional.

[@RetroCore]

Well spotted! 👍

[@geoserenity]

Ah, the series with more stages than everyone else combined. Always nice to see

[@dazsly]

I love the music and the streaming backgrounds.

[@crimcrusader8459]

With the recent release of G Darius HD on Steam, an update on this video is going to be in order here.

[@RetroCore]

No point, it's just the same as the PS4 version I show on this video.

[@Colin_Ames]

Great video, as always. All of the ports look good.

[@RetroCore]

thanks!

[@AzrialAlaria]

Thank you, Mark!

[@RetroCore]

You're, welcome.

[@LivingWithGames]

G-Darius and Darius Gaiden and both the best games of this franchise that are extremely worth playing..ESPECIALLY the soundtrack. ES.PE.CIA.LLY.

[@RetroCore]

I prefer the Darius Gaiden soundtrack by far. That is just epic.

[@LivingWithGames]

@@RetroCore Damn right you are!

[@edwin8808]

Great video mark!

[@RetroCore]

Glad you think so!

[@edwin8808]

@@RetroCore how I am going to think the contrary? I really like you channel! 🥰

[@shinkazama3959]

Awesome BOTP video Mr Smith, I really love this game but my god is it brutal, mainly playing on PS1 i've still never been able to beat it even taking the easiest path! :(

[@RetroCore]

It is tough. If you can, try the PC version. It runs a lot slower making it easier to see what is coming.

[@digdugnate]

I have this on my Switch wishlist. Fantastic to see a BotP :)

[@RetroCore]

Another viewer of the channel said the Switch version has some pretty awful slowdown. See if you can sample the game first of Switch before buying.

[@edwardboyz1000]

i Guest Playing on PS1 G-Darius Game Favorite Darius Game Series

[@Bloodreign1]

Got it on the PS1, and on both US and Japanese PS2 Taito compilations, the latter just being great emulation of the arcade version (I have heard talk it is just the PS1 version with the slowdown removed, and looks better, but the original arcade machine pretty much ran off souped up PS1 hardware). The PS2 version uses the arcade intro, and not the full motion video seen in the PS1/Windows versions.

[@amerigocosta7452]

Are there any differences between the versions included in the Japanese and US compilations? I only own the European Taito Legends discs which I presume are identical to the American ones since they can be set to 60Hz.

[@RetroCore]

The Taito Memories version is indeed the arcade, not the PlayStation release. I used to own all the Japanese Taito Memories games but had to sell them all when I had some money issues :(

[@RetroCore]

The Japanese sets are by far the best because they have more games plus there are more volumes too! 4 in total on the PS2.

[@Bloodreign1]

@@RetroCore Indeed, I have all 4, the PSP one, and both US PS2 versions, also have the Windows versions, but never run them due to DRM in them that can kill a hard drive. I once had files for them someone made that removed the DRM, but it went with my old PC that died years ago.

[@GamayObera]

Taito announced that G-Darius HD is coming to Steam very soon. But I doubt if such version will be optimized for PC after seeing footage from the PS4 version.

[@RetroCore]

I can imagine it will be the same as the PS4. The Switch version is but with added slowdown.

[@MordecaiWalfish]

PC version will be nice from an input lag perspective. You can use stuff like RTSS scanline sync to have perfectly smooth video even without vsync, and also higher native refresh rate even if the game is 60hz internally. looking forward to this.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Other alien invaders: Terrifying giant robots of DEATH! These aliens: ...Fishies.

[@freet7354]

Got it last week as Darius Cozmic Revelation for PS4 . Also played the incredible hard Arcade Version on my Groovymame Sega Astro City Cab. I also own a Tate Sega Astro City for other Shmups

[@RetroCore]

The Arcade version is brutal 😢

[@mgodoy-br]

The eternal fish-like shmup

[@jessragan6714]

Zuntata's already eclectic work just got weirder and weirder from one Darius game to the next. Darius Gaiden had what sounded like new age opera music, and by Darius Burst, they just completely went off the deep end.

[@radiantansel202]

"weirder" more like experimental, by Burst they made a top 3 OSTs of all time, the amount of variety and exploration they do in music is lovable.

[@RetroCore]

I think the pinnacle was Gaiden when it came to Darius music. It was a time when Zuntata were at the end of their best period IMO.

[@jonraymondchua2388]

Oh man am I late... I had a copy of this game back in my highschool days on the PS1.. I always call the charge attack a kamehame wave haha..sadly I lost the cd... Fortunately, I still have Raystorm, another great shooter....Never knew it was originally from the arcade and was ported to windows... Thanks for the vid... Gonna play it again via the android tv I guess😁

[@koopabros5530]

Nice work ^^

[@RetroCore]

Thanks 😆

[@solarflare9078]

Quick error: This is written as Show 378 and not 387

[@RetroCore]

Oops. Thanks for pointing that out. I've gone and fixed that now.

[@nit3h8wk81]

g-darius hd is available on steam now.

[@ProbableKoz]

Looks like I’m snagging the HD version this week. But which version, Switch or PS4? Hrm.

[@RetroCore]

PS4. The switch version is said to be a poor port.

[@cristianobb13]

i own a ps1 and ps2. would you say id have a better first experience playing the ps1 version first or would it be better finishing the emulated taito legends 2 version on the ps2?

[@RetroCore]

You should play the PS1 disc on your PS2. The Taito Memories version is just a so so emulation of the Arcade ROM.

[@forcedfeedbackclassicgamer5499]

The G stands for "God, I love Darius". My favorite shm'up series. ;)

[@RetroCore]

Nice!

[@bhirawamaylana466]

HUGE BATTLESHIP !!!!!! must say after see Joe keep saying HUGE BATTLESHIP every time Darius show in his Video make me keep saying it every time I play Darius and fight boss.

[@RetroCore]

I'm surprised he has a voice left with the amount of shouting he does, lol.

[@bhirawamaylana466]

@@RetroCore i bet he have spare lying around for shouting TATE MODEEEEEEEE !!!!!

[@zanegandini5350]

@@RetroCore Luckily for him a lot of his shouting seems to be exaggerated through audio editing, so that his lungs don't need to make the full impact. lol I do feel like he's been shouting a lot more since Dave left to overcompensate for his absence though.

[@JFD62780]

[ahem] Exactly, what version of what emulator did you use for the Arcade version? Because I *promise* you, the folks at MAME (Version .236 at time of writing) have actually since, fixed the sound system of the platform powering that version. It'd help keeping your emus current. >;)

[@RetrOrigin]

It's also strange that the arcade version seems more stable in terms of geometry to him considering the Taito FX-1B is practically a PS1 with twice the RAM and the CPU running at 48mhz instead of 33mhz. Polygons should be just as wobbly on both versions.

[@JFD62780]

@@RetrOrigin That almost all-but-confirms it's MAME; they never did have the PSX's texture-warping quirk programmed in its core. (hence the imperfect graphics tag) Not that I'm complaining, I actually like that aspect, despite its being an emulation inaccuracy! XD

[@RetrOrigin]

@@JFD62780 Yeah, I love playing around with emulators like Duckstation that implement all sorts of corrections like floating point calculations, but it's definitely unfair to compare different versions of games using these methods.

[@apollosungod2819]

Unfortunately most of the PC hobbyists emulators have always tried to "improve the original graphics" instead of arcade accuracy. The original 1994 Namco System 11 for Tekken and later 1995 Soul Edge/Blade already had 2MB of VRAM to go along with the ROM storage on the mainboard. I forget how the System 11 and System 12 compare to Taito and Capcom's versions which were probably the SAME thing as 48Mhz to 33Mhz wouldn't make that much if a difference othet than hitting a 60fps target but 1994 Tekken System 11 had higher polygon counts than the PlayStation version... I feel this is the same for Soul Edge/Blade on System 11. The wobbly textures were a limitation of the time even if the arcade version had less wobbly textures than the PlayStation version which may be the case but emulators are never really gonna be fully accurate because they are made mostly by years and years of hobbyist effort... and despite some claims of needed a fast graphics chipset... not sure if thats just being used for computational purposes instead of rendering as these emulators tend to run on the PC CPU and for many years never even took advantage of additional cores.

[@RetroCore]

1.8 or something. I do have later versions of Mame but with Mame new revisions sometimes need new rom sets. So it's one of the emulators I don't really keep up to date on. Live and learn I guess.

[@thrillington2008]

Coin Op is breathtaking. PS1 is near identical to the arcade. PC drastically improves things. PS4 makes even further improvements.

[@bombjack1984]

There wasn't an official Bleemcast disc for this, that's likely a hack you mention in the intro.

[@RetroCore]

It was one of the first hacks along with Strider 2. But I had to mention it as somebody who thinks they know it all would have commented " you missed the Dreamcast version" for sure. Not that it matters since people are still mentioning that I missed the PS2 version. I guess some people just can't read or are completely lazy to read 🙄

[@radiantansel202]

This, alongside Gradius and Senko no Ronde are absolutely top 3 of ***all*** time. G Darius is just a perfect game, those fossil fights are still making me nut, I just love how cinematic the game is, everything has dept, everything feels unique, zones have 2 ways, bosses are fun, they perfected the best parts of Gaiden, the OST is where Zuntata was starting to take off even more... Man, I just love this, purchased it at least 4 times at this point (Digital Vita, Digital PS4, Switch Limited to get the goddies and a PS1 disc). Something very interesting about the PS1 version, it runs better on Vita and PS2 for some reason, on PS1 and PS3 it runs AMAZINGLY slow, like, is nearly unplayable, pretty weird considering I don't recall RayStorm (same Arcade system) not suffering this in the port... One other cool thingy to know about PS1 is, due to the massive amount of zones, the game loads mid-level asap, that's why the music cuts much more often than any other version, you can notice this especially on the fossil battles, where going up loads a stad faster, I noticed this when I decided to try the game on that PS1 boot disc for the Dreamcast, which showed details of stutter whenever this was needed. Oh, and according to reports, both Switch and PS4 are essentially the same, PS4 seems to be a liiiitle better, but not really in a matter where it matters that much. Great video Mark, the recent Zuntata Night Stream they showed the updates for HD and had me yelling like a fangirl haha.

[@RetroCore]

I should try playing this on ,y PS2 to see if it is only certain models. I have a white fat and the last PS2 slim model, also white. Would be an interesting test.

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Arcade all the way for me with this one Mark. 8^) Anthony..

[@fazares]

The Ps2 one has more slowdown than the ps1 port if im correct

[@RetroCore]

That's because it's an emulation of the arcade game.

[@LatitudeSky]

You had me at Zuntata. Edit: nvm, didn't mention them once. I cannot guess how or why you could cover a major Taito title like this and completely ignore Taito sound team Zuntata, one of the greatest game music composer teams of all time. But that's fine. I don't need to hear someone else talk about how awesome they are. I already know.

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

These old polygon games do look ropey in a way ancient sprite based games don’t. Also I went to school with a kid called Darius and he was bloody weird!

[@RetroCore]

Isn't Darius a Greek name?

[@johnebbs3819]

Is it true that ploughing through 20 versions of Marble Madness remains your most rewarding gaming experience to this day ?

[@RetroCore]

Hmm, one of them if rewarding mean hell 😅

[@Mamiya645]

Darius Gaiden is one of my greatest shmups ever and Darius Burst is on Steam sale as I type this. Worth picking up? Got a thing for great music and can groove to the first two games.

[@RetroCore]

I personally think Darius burst is boring.

[@Mamiya645]

​@@RetroCore It cannot excite me from the videos I see, and then I catch a retrospective on R-Type and want to go through Delta again, and then Metal Black. Burst looks rather flat?

[@RetroCore]

I agree with you. I was actually playing Darius Burst on PSP yesterday as part of the new hardware review which will be released on Wednesday.

[@Mamiya645]

@@RetroCore I'll put this money towards The Good Life coming on the 15th, become more of a story-lore man with reflexes and hand-eye coordination leaving with age, hah! Thanks

[@M-NX]

is the ps4 version available on disc?? thank you

[@RetroCore]

In Japan is it. I bought mine from Amazon Japan.

[@M-NX]

@@RetroCore is it G Darius HD??

[@PureConsoleGamers]

There is another version of this game available on Taito Memories Gekan for the PS2 (Taito Legends 2 in the West) That should be a direct port of the Arcade Rom. Not sure how it stacks up performance wise though, especially since the graphics are interlaced.

[@RetroCore]

I own it. It's emulation with slowdown.

[@nit3h8wk81]

g-darius hd is confirmed coming to steam along with the other collections.

[@RetroCore]

Yes. That's right. But when I wonder.

[@nit3h8wk81]

@@RetroCore before the year is up from what I read.

[@JustPeasant]

The only visual difference between the arcade & PlayStation that I can notice is explosions sprite, whom on arcade are animated with more frames than the PS1 version.

[@RetroCore]

Makes sense. The Arcade board could have been kitted out with more memory.

[@Midekai]

I'm honestly upset there is no PC version of G Darius HD.

[@RetroCore]

There should be a steam version in the near future.

[@SimianScience]

i have a soft spot for this series. dying to get the collection for switch

[@RetroCore]

I'd hold off on the Switch port. A viewer of the channel mentioned that it is rife with slowdown.

[@SimianScience]

@@RetroCore supposedly you have to shell out for a international version to have all the games too :\

[@gdripresents]

Nobody's backed me up on this as of yet, but the PS1 version seems to run smoother - in spots - on a (slim) PS2 than a stock PS1. (Road Rash also runs smoother on a PS2.)

[@RetroCore]

I have a slim PS2. I should give it a try.

[@martinevans1206]

Why wasn’t this released for the Saturn?

[@RetroCore]

I guess they thought it was too much to handle. RayStorm or Layer Section II as it is known on the Saturn looks rougher than the PlayStation but it also has some extra effects. Maybe they could have gotten this to work I guess.

[@supakusuta]

Can you please do Puzzle Bobble next?

[@RetroCore]

Sorry, next week I'm working on Saturday so I can't do a big video but Puzzle Bobble is on the list for a future release.

[@supakusuta]

@@RetroCore nah, that's fine. Just as long as it's happening at some point is fine.

[@NotEnoughSound]

God I wished Darius Burst had the level design of G Darius I love playing Burst but damn the stages are bland and barren

[@jamesburchill7522]

They just ported this to the Switch, and it was a pitiful port. NOT M2's finest effort. They decided to include the slowdown, rather than clean it up. I guess you mentioned it, I just thought I'd mention that the Switch version was nasty.

[@RetroCore]

The PS4 also includes slowdown too :( Also, I noticed when editing this video that is actually runs slower than the arcade version but not as slow as the Windows port.

[@jamesburchill7522]

@@RetroCore Yeah. I was pretty excited as Darius is one of my favorite series. This left me pretty deflated. I appreciate that they included the original textures, I simply can't figure out why they didn't eliminate the slowdown. The hardware is more than capable. Oh well. Darius Gaiden for the Saturn still ranks as my favorite. If you want to see nasty...try the Cotton ports that were just released. We are talking 8-11 frames of input lag.

[@RetroCore]

I try to keep away from Switch stuff. If it is a multiplatform game the Switch version is always the worst of the bunch. Sad but probably expected.

[@danielnicholson6174]

Darius twin is amazing, yes I said twin.

[@RetroCore]

Darius Twin? Hmm, can't say I'm a big fan of either SFC Darius games but I do own them 😅

[@danielnicholson6174]

@@RetroCore I just love everything about Darius twin it's like a 90's time capsule for me, and the music is sublime.

[@williamwilliam9993]

THQ released this game in the US

[@RetroCore]

Yes, they did.

[@randy7894]

Brrrr... Polygon shmups.

[@pashaxyz9496]

I´ve played PS1 version. Liked the game, altough it has too much slowdown issues. I guess why Taito did not make a Sega Saturn port... Maybe because in late 1998, Satrun was already dead on Western ? Or Saturn port will cost much efforts to recreate the transparency parts and eneny´s shoots? I bet the first theory, Saturn could received a port, even using meshing transparency in complicated parts , as we see in its version of Raystorm.

[@RetroCore]

I have a feeling there was no Saturn port because it would have been too much effort. Taito did release an awful lot on the Saturn in Japan but it was all 2D stuff. Funny thing is, all the 2D stuff that was on the Saturn and PlayStation by Taito was always better on the Saturn.

[@pashaxyz9496]

@@RetroCore Interesting how the late´s Sega Saturn Library became "friendly"... but it was too late. A very few firts and third developers had interest... A port of Pandemonium 2 for Sega Satrun , using the third SDK devkit, will be interesting... Recently i saw some great implementations "impossible" to Satrun hw,, done by a guy nicknamed XL2... his Hell Slave 3D engine shows outstanding lighting and transparency features on Sega´s machine... I apologize for my english level...i´m from Brazil. Love your channel!

[@RetroCore]

Ah, XL2 also did the 3D Sonic engine for Saturn which is also impressive 👍. Don't worry about your English. I could understand it very well.

[@valentine_puppy]

Okay here is my dumb opinion. First, the Arcade and PlayStation are pretty much the same thing, plus or minus. They both share the R3000A 32 bit RISC processor. Now the arcade is at 48MHz whilst the PSX is at 33MHz. Alright Second, For the windows copy please remember that the majority of windows games are made to fit the lowest common denominator of hardware. PC hardware varies widely. Consistency is important here. Not saying the windows version is bad at all. Because it clearly isn't. For me I would take the Windows version and Arcade over anything else because I don't personally like Sony. However, if you like different ones then that's cool that's your like man. (you and your in the royal you not talking to Retro Core at all when I say you or your)

[@RetroCore]

Hey, no worries. Everyone can like what they want. Personally I really like the PC version but it does run slower. Something I didn't really notice until editing the side by side sections.

[@sumdood8563]

What's with those ships that look like Gundam heads?

[@RetroCore]

lol, they're in all Darius games from what I know.

[@Brondi6000]

did it disgust you to put subtitles in Italian too?

[@RetroCore]

Nope. This was a test to see what languages people would want as subtitles. Now that I know Italian is requested, I can add it. Can't do it until I'm at a PC though.

[@RetroCore]

Italian subtitles have now been added.

[@wongyc5585]

It is a pity that there is no Sega Saturn ports.

[@RetroCore]

That is true but at least the Saturn port of Darius Gaiden is still the best one out there.

[@spacefractal]

Slowdows.... look like many companies diddent take care of that.That also called lag, cause controls to been imperfect, even in the arcade versions. This can been why Windows vesion can been fell easier? Lesser lags.

[@Bloodreign1]

Lesser lag would not make the game easier, no slowdown would make the game harder, much like putting Wait Control on the first 3 Gradius games on 0 (via their compilations on PS1/Saturn/PS2), and all 3 games became far less merciful.

[@RetrOrigin]

That's because the arcade version runs essentially on PS1 hardware. The Taito FX-1B is for the most part a PS1 with the CPU running at 48mhz instead of 33mhz on PS1 and twice the RAM. The CPU clock difference is the reason for the slowdown.

[@killerb2099]

Shouldn't the title be pronounced Duh-rye-us? That's how the son of Xerxes I's name is pronounced, and when I plunk the Hepburn romanization (ダライアス) into Google Translate it sounds close to that pronunciation. I'm just some baka-gaijin, so I could be way off-base.

[@RetroCore]

Maybe but I've always said it the way I do 😊

[@WalrusFPGA]

disappointing comparison that misses the mark in many ways. The thing that set the early ports on windows/ps1 apart most from the arcade and made them vastly inferior, was the use of redbook audio which slaughtered the soundtrack partway through the stage and made these awkward large gaps of silence that were never in the original. The PS2 version was the first to get this right, but you omitted that entirely for some strange reason. "emulation" is not an excuse, after admitting to using faulty emulation with broken sound in the arcade version as a baseline to compare against. How can you possibly know how the others stack up if you do not know the original experience? You can't. And that is why this video is innately flawed. I love Darius and appreciate the effort in trying to make a video for it, but this was lazy. Don't base your comparisons on broken emulation. You should want better than that for your channel & viewers.

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for your input. So, you are saying that just because the PlayStation and Windows use CD audio and I didn't include the PS2 version because it is an emulation of the arcade game but it has the arcade audio, this video is flawed? Sounds to me that you just care about listening to the arcade music. Besides, do you actually own any of the legit copies on console? I own the Japanese PC, PlayStation and PS4 release and the Taito Memories emulated version on PS2 and NONE of them fade out the music during a stage. So I really don't understand what your point is.

[@burntyper]

Lol what a snowflake

[@WalrusFPGA]

@@RetroCore none of my comment comes from platform preference. Zuntata's music is a *huge* element of the Darius series, and the initial ports messed that up pretty badly because of CD/redbook limitations. This left the experience incomplete, and this was not remedied until the excellent PS2 version. I own every version of this game besides Switch, and the PS1/Windows versions always had that issue. The stages cannot complete without killing the music because it is loading later stage data from the disc and cannot do so at the same time as playing back the redbook audio.

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

I'm just not paying $40 for a port of a 1997 game.

[@elel.]

These games are broken hard and I don't like them!

[@RetroCore]

In other words they're too hard? I wouldn't say they were broken. They are tough though.

[@elel.]

@@RetroCore I'm hardcore gamer, I beat dark soul in two hours, kid chameleon warpless and no deaths under one hour, I have over 30 nukes in call of duty mw2. Arcade games I like to beat them with one credit and with some shooters this is unfair hard.

[@burntyper]

Get gud bro

[@elel.]

@@burntyper I think you just don't know the controls of these games!

[@burntyper]

@@elel. LOL cry more