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Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade
  PS4Shooter_HorizUC  
  opened by paleface at 21:45:56 09/13/22  
  last modified by paleface at 12:27:18 03/05/24  
  paleface [sys=PS4; cat=Shooter_Horiz; reg=NA]
           
Collection of the 2D Darius arcade games by M2: Darius (three-screen-wide, 3 revisions), Darius II (two-screen-wide), Sagaia (shortened Darius II Japan remix, two revisions), and Darius Gaiden.
 
Their description of Darius II mentions there was a three-screen version, but doesn't say why they went with the two-screen version instead.
 
  paleface 21:46:53 09/13/22
           

 
Measured (crudely) just 1 frame of input lag for Darius ("Extra" revision) in both M2's Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade and Hamster's Arcade Archives Darius on PS4.
 
This comparison gave me newfound respect for Hamster's technical chops; the last time I compared a conversion of theirs with one of M2's--it was their PS4 ACA NEOGEO The King of Fighters '96 vs M2's PS3 NEOGEOSTATION The King of Fighters '96--M2 had them beat by two frames: https://youtu.be/hT1uEUFcTfA
 
I wasn't even sure prior to this that a PS4 could respond in just 1 frame. = ooo I did count 2 frames for both versions some of the time, but mostly 1.
 
  paleface 22:43:22 09/13/22
           

 
Comparison of music reproduction in the first 20 second of Taito's arcade shooter Darius ("Extra" revision), as presented on the PS4 by M2's recent Darius Cosmic Collection Arcade, and Hamster Corporations' Japan-only (on PS4) Arcade Archives Darius. I also go over a few other distinguishing features of both versions.
 
They both have their nice points; I'm going to be sticking with Arcade Archives Darius, because man that music is GOOD; with a halfway-decent pair of headphones, it really hits you--whereas in M2's rendition, it's just kind of, you know, fine.
 
I do like the sharpness of the "Pixel Perfect" screen scaling option in Cozmic, even if it makes the screen a bit smaller. Kind of weird you can't get a black background in that version, though. The pause screen map of the routes with their boss pixel art is pretty keen. And how their whole collection--with three other Darius games in it--takes up less than half the drive space (@ 30:00 - 218 MB) of Hamster's!
 
(I wonder if Hamster is using that space for high quality sounds. Of the arcade version, Wikipedia notes "The game's upbeat soundtrack was composed by Hisayoshi Ogura, the founder of Taito's 'house band' Zuntata. Ogura wanted the music to convey a sense of a deep, expanded universe, and to make it stand out among other shoot'em up games at the time. Much of the music was composed via a combination of FM synthesis and sampling, while some was made by the Yokosuka Symphony orchestra group.")
 
I don't like how you can't have a black background in Cozmic; other than the default blurry box art, the only option is 19:05 that weird gray gradient
 
I like Archives' low-key presentation, and the during-play display of scores you're chasing in Hi Score Mode.
 
My previous video crudely compared the control response of the two versions: an astounding mere one frame of input delay for both!
 
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade--which comes with the three other 2D Darius arcade games, too--is on sale on the PS Store for $17.99 until the 21st.
    
references:
· Arcade Archives Darius (PS4)
· Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade (PC)
· Darius Gaiden (PS1)
· G Darius (PS1)
· Super Darius (PCCD)
· Super Darius II (PCCD)

 
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