Seibu

Seibu Kaihatsu(originally Seibu Denshi) has had an impressive development history, although their name has often been hidden away behind various publishers.

As far as I know Seibu's first game was their 1983 arcade shooter Stinger. This isn't the same game as Konami's Stinger for the NES.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...S/wStinger.png

Stinger doesn't stand the test of time as an excellent game but it's still very playable. When appreciated in the context of the shooter scene of twenty years ago, it is very impressive.

This was a transition phase between "old-school" shooters, i.e. Asteroids and Defender-type games and the early methodical games like Sega's Star Jacker and Capcom/SNK's Vulgus. I don't think early methodical games(mostly from the mid-'80s) have held up as well as say most shooters from say 1979-1982 simply because the late '80s and early '90s improved greatly upon that style of shooter. So, given its competition of similar shooters, Stinger was very good.

Another early arcade shooter from Seibu was Scion in 1984. Like Stinger, it had nice colourful graphics and parallax scrolling. Each level looped until you bombed all the necessary targets.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...s/S/wScion.png

Kung Fu Tai Kun
http://www.uvlist.com/pics/kungfutaikun.png

Shot Rider
http://www.uvlist.com/pics/shotrider.png

Kung Fu Tai Kun and Shot Rider are both 1984 arcade games. I haven't played either of them but they look nice.

The 1985 arcade game Knuckle Joe might look like a Bad Dudes-style side-scroller from the screen shown here but it's more like a fighting game with multiple enemies to take on. The action takes place in a limited area and the screen hardly scrolls at all.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...nuckle_Joe.png

Wiz was a mediocre platform/shooter. Being able to switch to different spells was the only original aspect that stood out.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/W/xWiz.png

The Lost Castle in Darkmist - A shooter from 1986 published by Taito. That's all I know about it.

Panic Road - An arcade video pinball game from 1986. More info wanted.

Also from 1986 was the arcade shooting game Empire City 1931. In this game you controlled a crosshair but it was very similar to gun games.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...City__1931.png
Empire was ported by Toshiba to the MSX and Famicom. Acclaim had plans to bring it to the NES but never did.

Empire City had an arcade sequel a couple years later called Dead Angle. It improved upon the original and added a Punch Out!-style outline to the main character.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...1051021324.jpg
Sega ported Dead Angle to the Master System.

The 1987 arcade shooter Air Raid is the ancestor of the Raiden series. The red and blue ships are very similar, although Air Raid's are more cartoon-ish than Raiden.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/.../wAir_Raid.jpg

Dynamite Duke was a great arcade action game in 1989. The screen scrolled side-ways while you shot everything in the background. It was similar to Dead Angle but far more action-packed and fun.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...amite_Duke.png
Sega ported it to the Genesis and Master System.
http://www.genesisproject.co.uk/Gene...namiteDuke.gif
http://files99.kolayweb.com/sms/dynduke.gif

Seibu is best-known for their Raiden series of shooters and with good reason. Since 1990, when the original arcade game was released, these games have been among the best vertical shooters on the market.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/.../R/xRaiden.png

Raiden had several home ports(Genesis, TG16, SNES, Jaguar) but none of them did justice to the arcade game until Seibu made their own port for the Playstation. Raiden Project included Raiden 1 and 2. Sony released in 1995. It was a North American launch title, IIRC. Raiden DX was also ported to the Playstation although it was only released in Japan unfortunately.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~bevhome/raid2pic2.gif

Seibu was developing a new shooter called Gun Dogs but instead decided to release the game as Raiden Fighters in 1996 to give it a more recognizable name. The series is very similar to the Raiden series anyway so the name is fitting.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/..._Hell_Dive.jpg

Raiden Fighters Jet(1998)
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...ghters_Jet.jpg

Seibu also made some arcade soccer games. I haven't played them. Seibu Cup Soccer came out in 1991 and was followed by Olympic Soccer '92.

Zero Team - An arcade beat 'em up from '93.

Despite having a different name, the 1995 arcade shooter Viper Phase 1 could easily pass for a Raiden game. I haven't played it in years but it was a damn good shooter.

E-Jan High School - Some mahjong arcade game from 1996.

The puzzle game Battle Balls was mentioned recently at TNL. It originated in the arcade in 1995 and was ported to Playstation the next year.
http://nfg.2y.net/games/senkyu/bb5.png

I'm not sure what has happened to Seibu recently; they seem to have disappeared. Raiden Fighters Evolution for PC/Xbox by New World Systems was cancelled, right?

So what do you think of Seibu?

I never played or even saw the arcade version of Raiden, but I had a great amount of fun with the Jaguar version. From what I've been told by people who have played the arcade game, the Jaguar version was a very good conversion; probably the best up until The Raiden Project was released for PlayStation.

I have played Raiden II in the arcades, and enjoyed it a lot. I'm kicking myself for not getting either The Raiden Project for PlayStation, or the IBM PC/compatible version of Raiden II (by Interplay) on the cheap when I had the opportunity. I did eventually get Interplay's PC version of Layer Section for a mere $2, but that's another story.

There's also a PC version of the original Raiden, as well as a Lynx version which enables you to rotate the Lynx 90 degrees and play with a vertically-oriented screen. I've never played either of them. The PC version was ported by Imagitec Design, who also did the port to the Jaguar. The Lynx version might've also been done by them, but I don't know for sure.

The Jag version was good compared to the 16-bit ones. I only played it briefly in store but it wasn't as good as the arcade game despite what many magazines said at the time.

It has been a while but this is what I remember the Raiden port hiearchy as: Jaguar>TG16>Genesis>SNES. I haven't played the PC or Lynx versions.

What's really cool about Seibu is that some of the Raiden team (supposedly) went to Triangle Service to develop G-Stream, which definitely shows that there is a touch of Raiden in it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
It has been a while but this is what I remember the Raiden port hiearchy as: Jaguar>TG16>Genesis>SNES. I haven't played the PC or Lynx versions.

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The Lynx version was actually pretty good. It ran in tate mode which I'm sure would delight many of the TNLers. Graphics weren't as detailed, but it played better than the SNES version. Pretty damned good for what it was. Shame it didn't come out until like 1998 (it was actually an unreleased prototype for about 4 years before Telegames aquired the rights and published it, since at that point they were the only 3rd party still liscensed for Lynx.. I beleive Hasbro opened the liscense up the next year, giving rise to more homebrews and previously unfinished betas).

Anyway, great write up about a great company. The Raiden/Raiden Fighters series and Dead Angle and Dynamite Duke are my faves, I think most people share that sentiment. Raiden Fighters is ne of the best shooters I've ever played.

Seven, do you know where I can find screenshots of G-Stream?

I loved Dead Angle....

So in all likely hood Seibu is dead? and that we'll never see another Raiden Fighters again? SHMUPS are a dying breed after all :(.

Quote:

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Originally posted by ShineAqua
So in all likely hood Seibu is dead? and that we'll never see another Raiden Fighters again? SHMUPS are a dying breed after all :(.

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I don't think they're DEAD dead. They're dormant, but the company still exists.... who knows, they could pull a Westone.

Shooters(and fighting games) have been a lot more alive post-16-bit than other types of action games. I'm glad they have survived but 2d platform/action fans have been screwed. Who decided that 2d shooters and fighting games were more important than other 2d action games anyway?