Taito's Yuichi Toyama & Katsuhisa Ishikawa, M2's Naoki Horii, Yukiko Karashima, Shinpei Yamada, Tatsuhiko Kasuga & Takayuki Komabayashi, Sega's Yosuke Okunari & homebrew dev Hideki Konishi discuss the production of Darius EXTRA MD https://www.famitsu.com/news/202010/13207359.html https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1315834714096234497

picking up from the release of the MD Mini: Taito signed off on Darius MD with the proviso that they had the rights to do as they pleased with it afterwards; the original dev period was short & left M2 with plenty of things they'd like to touch up, & Toyama also wanted to do...

...something else with Darius MD but the 2D Darius Cozmic Collection was already done and it wasn't a good match for the upcoming 3D-focused Darius Cozmic Revelation, so they're releasing it as a separate promo item (an Amazon Prime Day-exclusive with a 48-hour window, icymi)

they're also putting out a cartridge version via Columbus Circle, but as Okunari's quick to emphasise, this cartridge version is not licensed by Sega—the version of Darius on the Mega Drive Mini can accurately be called a Mega Drive version, but this one's strictly a "MD" version

...but the digital versions for PS4/Switch can also be accurately described as Mega Drive versions, so it's complicated

basically, Sega can't uphold warranty or respond to hardware-related queries, so they can't officially license a new cartridge game even if they wanted to

when they decided to release Darius MD on its own, Toyama wanted to add a conversion of the "extra" arcade revision; there are 3 broad versions of the arcade game & Konishi made Darius MD with reference to the "new" revision, so they decided to convert the OG "old" version too

the assistance of Darius superplayer KZS & Darius Gaiden superplayer IMO made a big difference

Toyama would've liked to add some of these options to the MD Mini version but they ran out of space: due to schedule issues & the constraints of the sound driver, they maxed out @ 32Mb

SGDK's sound driver is primarily sample-based, so all the sampled audio, including all the sfx, took up tons of space

there are actually more samples in this version but by overhauling the driver & removing the necessity for separate tracks for fade-outs, etc they had more space

they've also prepared separate samples for different volume balances & so on, to better match the arcade version

Horii points out that there are a ton of "MD-compatible" machines out there of varying audio quality, so they recommend one with a YM2612 sound chip (ie a Mega Drive)

(to be specific, since varius MD revisions sound different, they optimised for the first-gen Mega Drive sound)

on game-related changes: the cartridge version obviously won't have save states, so they added more beginner provisions: continues, buffs to the easy-mode Tiat ship etc

they also tweaked certain bosses and other elements based on feedback from the MD Mini version: some arcade tricks didn't work but could've, some bosses were more akin to the Extra versions even though the port was based on New, etc

they single out Fatty Glutton as one example

bc this isn't a licensed Sega product, it displays the Taito logo at the beginning

the staff roll includes ppl who consulted but ultimately didn't work on the port, including Yuzo Koshiro & Satoshi "PAC" Fujushima; they also added a ☆ character specifically for audio dev WING☆

the manual is somewhat based on the digital manual Sega produced for the MD Mini version & the cartridge label is based on the label from a mini-size replica cart gifted to Konishi at the MD Mini launch stream; that same mini cart design was officially released by Sega recently

on the prospects of a new Darius game, Toyama says there have been three 2D games & two 3D arcade games, so they'd naturally like to make a third 3D game, but the direction to take nowadays isn't clear: as hypotheticals, he suggests a new Dariusburst, or a "Darius Gaiden gaiden"

they spitballed some silly ideas—Okunari suggests making a Darius game for the new Densha de Go! cabinet (three main screens+monitor=4-screen Darius!) & Horii remarks that, bc Darius MD is a 3-screen game converted for 1-screen, they should do a 2-screen version of Darius Gaiden

ultimately, their statement is about what you'd expect: they'd ideally like to do something in arcades but the market's tough; it's a miracle Dariusburst AC was able to happen in 2010, especially with the specialised cabinet; if Cozmic Revelation does well, anything could happen

(btw, the goofing about "Darius III's coming next year, right?" is a reference to a message you'd get for 1CC'ing Darius II & ending on a certain stage—that game came out in 1989 and Darius III has yet to happen)

closing remarks: Komabayashi remarks on how the Darius MD schedule was tight & he planned to relax a little more this time but, due to his & Konishi's decision to add two new versions instead of one, it ended up being yet another tight production

Okunari's glad to see this game, borne of the Mega Drive Mini, live on in this fashion; he's also (jokingly!) looking forward to the new Darius collection featuring Darius III next year, and he wants M2 to put out another Game Gear Micro with a new Game Gear port of Sagaia

there are also some comments from WING☆, who couldn't participate in the interview: in short, he was discovered via twitter & recommended to help on MD Mini; the Darius MD audio he prepared back then ultimately wasn't used, but he was able to use & improve it for EXTRA MD

there's also a comment from a City Connection rep, who's thrilled to be able to make a copy of Darius that can sit next to Darius II on their shelf; CC is particular about putting out physical games, not just bc they're all old dudes but due to the importance of offline media

...and that's about it

I didn't have a ton of time to devote to this so apologies if I missed anything juicy, and extra apologies to Shimpei, whose name I misspelled as Shinpei at the beginning of this thread, as is my wont

oh & one more thing: this wasn't covered in this interview but Konishi's background is interesting—he's a middle-aged OB/GYN who taught himself retro hardware programming on a whim & very quickly began producing impressive homebrew ports, he's working on Fantasy Zone MD right now