Taito& #39;s Yuichi Toyama & Katsuhisa Ishikawa, M2& #39;s Naoki Horii, Yukiko Karashima, Shinpei Yamada, Tatsuhiko Kasuga & Takayuki Komabayashi, Sega& #39;s Yosuke Okunari & homebrew dev Hideki Konishi discuss the production of Darius EXTRA MD https://www.famitsu.com/news/202010/13207359.htmlhttps://www.famitsu.com/news/2020... class="Emoji" style="height:16px;" src=" https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đŸ‡ŻđŸ‡”" title="Flagge von Japan" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Japan"> https://twitter.com/famitsu/status/1315834714096234497">https://twitter.com/famitsu/s...
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& #39;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& #39;t a good match for the upcoming 3D-focused Darius Cozmic Revelation, so they& #39;re releasing it as a separate promo item (an Amazon Prime Day-exclusive with a 48-hour window, icymi)
they& #39;re also putting out a cartridge version via Columbus Circle, but as Okunari& #39;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& #39;s strictly a "MD" version
...but the digital versions for PS4/Switch can also be accurately described as Mega Drive versions, so it& #39;s complicated

basically, Sega can& #39;t uphold warranty or respond to hardware-related queries, so they can& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t work but could& #39;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& #39;t a licensed Sega product, it displays the Taito logo at the beginning

the staff roll includes ppl who consulted but ultimately didn& #39;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& #39;d naturally like to make a third 3D game, but the direction to take nowadays isn& #39;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& #39;d expect: they& #39;d ideally like to do something in arcades but the market& #39;s tough; it& #39;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& #39;s coming next year, right?" is a reference to a message you& #39;d get for 1CC& #39;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& #39;s decision to add two new versions instead of one, it ended up being yet another tight production
Okunari& #39;s glad to see this game, borne of the Mega Drive Mini, live on in this fashion; he& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t used, but he was able to use & improve it for EXTRA MD
there& #39;s also a comment from a City Connection rep, who& #39;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& #39;re all old dudes but due to the importance of offline media
...and that& #39;s about it

I didn& #39;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& #39;t covered in this interview but Konishi& #39;s background is interesting—he& #39;s a middle-aged OB/GYN who taught himself retro hardware programming on a whim & very quickly began producing impressive homebrew ports, he& #39;s working on Fantasy Zone MD right now
You can follow @gosokkyu.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: