The Toaplan games are known for their thrilling music that matches the intense shoot em up gameplay. Taking off in Truxton and you immediately feel a level excitement as the music starts to play, its the start of an action-packed journey to furthest reaches of space. Or the dramatic straight into action upbeat tune of Hellfire. Add the sound effects of blazing shots and exploding bombs. Its a soundscape that represents the best of the golden arcade era of pixelated shoot em up games.
At Bitwave we have worked to constantly improving the audio representation. Coder Carl Henrik Skrstedt has listened (no pun intended) to feedback and received input from Tatsujin, the owner of the Toaplan games and run by original Toaplan staff including Masahiro Yuge and Tatsuya Uemura that composed several of the songs in the game.
To ensure proper emulation we listened to recorded arcade music and sound effects. Its a challenge as the audio experience with an arcade cabinet can vary between cabinets with different speakers and resonance. The sound from earlier sound chips such as the PSG depends on the circuitry connecting it to the sound output signal making each game a little bit more unique and more challenging to get just right.
Throughout several different patches we have worked on the audio:
- Improved the sound to play at a consistent tempo.
- Included support for a wider range of audio drivers.
- Added audio filter: optional echo, reverb, low-pass and high-pass filters to allow players to customize to their best experience in emulating an arcade like sound.
- Fixed technical bugs that meant minor improvements in the generated audio.
In the latest update weve further adjusted the frequency based on feedback of the sound effects and the high pitch in games such as Slap Fight based on feedback. This is something thatll also benefit future releases such as Tiger Heli, the first game created by Toaplan. We hope that this is satisfaction to your ears in the goal to deliver the arcade feeling home on your PC.
Were humble as its not an easy task to emulate and faithfully recreate the amazing Toaplan audio with the weight of heritage it carries. We appreciate specific feedback on how and where we can improve. Our goal remains to deliver an arcade experience with minimal input lag for the controller to get that split-second action decisions as you dodge bullets, while you enjoy the beautiful pixel art with or without a CRT filter and feel the beat of the stunning digitized music.
We want to finish off by letting you know that the latest update also includes a fix for the capture video function. Previously we fixed the desync and in the new version we have turned off rewind when recording and replaying. At first the fix will be applied to Twin Cobra, Flying Shark, and Slap Fight. The fix will be rolled out to the other games in the future.
Other fixes in addition to the already mentioned:
Music tempo correction (Twin Cobra, and Flying Shark)
Wide screen mode: Pick-ups centered instead of to the left side (Twin Cobra)
Centered the cursor in the high score entry (Slap Fight)
[ 2023-12-13 12:21:34 CET ] [ Original post ]
🎮 Full Controller Support
- [4.04 M]
Zero Wing blasts onto PC for the first time ever!
Toaplan's classic 1989 arcade shooter is back and upgraded with an armada of features, like the brand-new beginner mode, arcade-accurate emulation, quick saves, and online leaderboards! At its time, critics praised Zero Wing for its skill-based gameplay, and it is nowadays mainly credited with giving rise to the internet meme "All your base are belong to us."
CATS, the cyborg commander of a band of swashbuckling space pirates, is terrorizing the galaxy. You must pilot the only remaining ZIG attack craft into combat to stop CATS and his buccaneers!
ORIGINAL GAME FEATURES:
- Skill-based shoot 'em up action with horizontal scrolling in a treacherous galaxy full of enemies, bosses and levels!
- Capture your enemies with the powerful "Seizer Beam" and fire them at their allies for devastating destruction!
- Take control of the Red Scatter Cannon, Blue Laser, and Green Homing Missiles and upgrade them for even greater damage!
- Invite a second player at any time in the co-op version!
- Rock out to the original soundtrack from composers Tatsuya Uemura, Masahiro Yuge, and Toshiaki Tomizawa.
QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS:
- Minimal Input Lag: Emulation, input processing, and rendering all complete on the same frame.
- Quick Save using F1-F10, Reload with Shift+ F1-F10
- Online leaderboards for Single Credit, No Assist, and Assisted plays.
- Instrument panels with extra gameplay information and artwork.
- Rewind the game between 10-18 minutes, depending on the action.
- Capture sharable replays to immortalize your interstellar victories (or funny moments).
- Assist Features such as auto-fire at multiple rates.
- Very Easy Mode: Lower the difficulty to breeze through the adventure.
- Pixel perfect or full-screen scaling in windowed or full-screen mode.
- Rotate the gameplay in 90-degree increments.
- Steam Achievements
- Choose between Raw Input on Windows or Steam Input.
- Hone your skills in the ultra customizable practice mode!
- Memory: 256 MB RAMStorage: 10 MB available space
- Storage: 10 MB available space
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