Hyped! I just bought a Gradius pcb! *round 2*

[Alpha1]

I wonder wonder if we can just rip the title graphic then and patch nemesis roms with it. And i guess the checksum too?

 

[Bytestorm]

I read somewhere that there are more differences also. Extends, enemy agressivity. Will try and find the link. It was on shmups I think! Jap version was considered easier.

 

[ExZX]

I've got Gradius and there are no continues. I remember that Nemesis does.

As for gameplay I can't tell the difference

 

[DaveAS]

There are at least 2 versions of Nemesis: the Euro one is, as far as I know, the same as the Japanese Gradius gameplay-wise, while the US version has continues, a wave of powerup ships on death and modified difficulty.

No idea if the US-style ever appeared in UK arcades. I'd certainly never seen it before the days of emulation and I was a big Nemesis fan in the 80s.
DaveSpicer2015-06-23 18:26:18

 

[DaveAS]

As for difficulty, the Jap/Euro versions are only easier IF YOU DON'T DIE and are much harder otherwise. Having to build up your ship again from scratch is tough. My guess is that adding the powerups in the US version made it too easy and the difficulty ramping was tweaked in an effort to even things out.

 

[Nintendo Arcade]

I was playing this game at NERG and Darren told me there are quite a few differences between Nemisis & Graduis
As he has looped the game he said the first being the boss on one of the levels looks completely different with a lot more 3d going on.
Hopefully he is going to do a video soon so we can compare.
I can't wait to get the Nintendo roms for my red tent and see how much different that is.
Fantastic game anyway

 

[Alpha1]

Check this out! Courtesy of cmonkey

http://www.youtube.com/embed/KQ49vD9S-IU



[tube]KQ49vD9S-IU[/tube]





Apparently it's just two roms that need to be changed, we could probably make a Gradius/Nemesis title switch kit by doubling up those two roms and using the select lines.

 

[Bytestorm]

hehe awesome work there . I am checking the courier site 10 times daily to see where the pcb is now, but its soooooooooooooooooooo slow on updating..!! man.. at this pace I wont have it on friday ;C

How can it possibly take 1 week to send a package within the same country??

I want my gradesis now!

 

[Bytestorm]

woho! update! preliminary deliverydate is set to tomorrow!! Could it possibly be a better friday? SWEEET

 

[Alpha1]

You got any pix of the pcb?

 

[DaveAS]

[EDIT: quoted Chuckie Egg to avoid confusion due to extra posts!]

I was playing this game at NERG and Darren told me
there are quite a few differences between Nemisis & Graduis
As
he has looped the game he said the first being the boss on one of the
levels looks completely different with a lot more 3d going on.
Hopefully he is going to do a video soon so we can compare.
I can't wait to get the Nintendo roms for my red tent and see how much different that is.
Fantastic game anyway

He might be thinking of the US version, which is noticeably different, as noted above. Mind you, not sure what he's on about with the bosses because all versions are identical graphically. Having said that, there's a big visual difference when comparing Mame and arcade because Mame's colours are way off (yes, I know you can fiddle with settings to compensate - shouldn't have to!) and the sprites are out of sync with the backdrop.

I played Nemesis UK and Gradius through yesterday and the only differences I noted were:

- Logos (doh!)
- Nemesis has backdrop art on the title screen.
- Attract mode is different.
- Gradius pauses for longer when you lose a life.
- Gradius has "options", Nemesis has "multiples".

If there were any gameplay differences, they were minor enough for me not to notice and I'm fairly good at the game.

Most uses of the word "difference" in a post ever?

DaveSpicer2015-06-25 14:35:16

 

[DaveAS]

Check this out! Courtesy of cmonkey

Apparently it's just two roms that need to be changed, we could probably make a Gradius/Nemesis title switch kit by doubling up those two roms and using the select lines.

Cool. Don't forget the "multiple" vs "option" text.

DaveSpicer2015-06-25 14:07:51

 

[Bytestorm]

You got any pix of the pcb?

nope I actually dont have anything.. the deal was rather quick so I didnt have time to ask for that..

(maybe i should have asked...)

I just hope its in nice condition.. I trust that the seller would have mentioned any defects :/

 

[cmonkey]

He might be thinking of the US version, which is noticeably different, as noted above. Mind you, not sure what he's on about with the bosses because all versions are identical graphically. Having said that, there's a big visual difference when comparing Mame and arcade because Mame's colours are way off (yes, I know you can fiddle with settings to compensate - shouldn't have to!) and the sprites are out of sync with the backdrop.

I played Nemesis UK and Gradius through yesterday and the only differences I noted were:

- Logos (doh!)
- Nemesis has backdrop art on the title screen.
- Attract mode is different.
- Gradius pauses for longer when you lose a life.
- Gradius has "options", Nemesis has "multiples".

If there were any gameplay differences, they were minor enough for me not to notice and I'm fairly good at the game.

Most uses of the word "difference" in a post ever?

I can change the OPTION/MULTIPLE tiles no problems. The pause length wouldn't be too hard to find. I'm not gonna start messing around with the attract mode though, not enough free time available for that!

Dave, do you know whether the version of Gradius in MAME is the ROM version (as the name in the driver suggests) or the bubble memory version? The boot up sequence for Gradius shows the "WARMING UP NOW..." message with the countdown timer, which is what the bubble memory version definitely does, and also the game code is copied from rom to ram at boot time, which is another thing that the bubble memory version does. I'm confused as to whether the version in MAME is the indeed the rom version of the bubble memory version??

 

[cosine]

Fairly sure I read somewhere that the ROM version wasn't changed with regard to how the board started up, so I suppose it was a quick conversion once Konami realised the Bubble Memory versions weren't very reliable? Then again, I could have been drinking too.

 

[DaveAS]

Dave, do you know whether the version of Gradius in MAME is the ROM version (as the name in the driver suggests) or the bubble memory version? The boot up sequence for Gradius shows the "WARMING UP NOW..." message with the countdown timer, which is what the bubble memory version definitely does, and also the game code is copied from rom to ram at boot time, which is another thing that the bubble memory version does. I'm confused as to whether the version in MAME is the indeed the rom version of the bubble memory version??

No idea I'm afraid. I wondered the same. It does seem odd Konami wouldn't have at least removed the warmup delay.

[EDIT: ..or, given Cosine's post, "what he said".

]
DaveSpicer2015-06-25 15:25:15

 

[Alpha1]

He might be thinking of the US version, which is noticeably different, as noted above. Mind you, not sure what he's on about with the bosses because all versions are identical graphically. Having said that, there's a big visual difference when comparing Mame and arcade because Mame's colours are way off (yes, I know you can fiddle with settings to compensate - shouldn't have to!) and the sprites are out of sync with the backdrop.

I played Nemesis UK and Gradius through yesterday and the only differences I noted were:

- Logos (doh!)
- Nemesis has backdrop art on the title screen.
- Attract mode is different.
- Gradius pauses for longer when you lose a life.
- Gradius has "options", Nemesis has "multiples".

If there were any gameplay differences, they were minor enough for me not to notice and I'm fairly good at the game.

Most uses of the word "difference" in a post ever?

[

I can change the OPTION/MULTIPLE tiles no problems. The pause length wouldn't be too hard to find. I'm not gonna start messing around with the attract mode though, not enough free time available for that!

Dave, do you know whether the version of Gradius in MAME is the ROM version (as the name in the driver suggests) or the bubble memory version? The boot up sequence for Gradius shows the "WARMING UP NOW..." message with the countdown timer, which is what the bubble memory version definitely does, and also the game code is copied from rom to ram at boot time, which is another thing that the bubble memory version does. I'm confused as to whether the version in MAME is the indeed the rom version of the bubble memory version??

Thanks for going through them Dave, and thanks again to cmonkey for doing the title screen!

I wouldn't worry about the attract, I think if the option/multiple is easy, and if the background graphic can just be removed, then you have accomplished a pretty damn good version for GX400 hardware!!

 

[Alpha1]

Thinking now...

About making a game dual boot Nemesis and the Gradius mod for people that prefer the Gradius attract that can never afford to see a real Gradius pcb.

We can double the size of the roms that need to be changed and then select which version we want by toggling high or low right? a some what crude affair.

Could we do something where we also tie the select to the reset pin of the cpu to effectively change games and restart the pcb simply by pressing an additional button?

 

[cmonkey]

What the difference between nemesis and nemesisuk? At the moment I'm patching nemesis, is this the correct one to patch or would the preference be nemesisuk? Or both?

 

[DaveAS]

What the difference between nemesis and nemesisuk? At the moment I'm patching nemesis, is this the correct one to patch or would the preference be nemesisuk? Or both?

'Nemesisuk' is the one that's the same as Gradius (allegedly), while 'nemesis' is the US set. If you're going for the authentic, Gradius experience, use nemesisuk.