GameStone - Gradius Home World

Games

Playing

Raiden IV
雷電IV
(Xbox 360)

Otomedius X (Excellent!)
オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）
(Xbox 360)

Harmful Park
ハームフル・パーク
(PS)

Raiden DX
雷電DX
(PS)

Otomedius G (Gorgeous!)
オトメディウスＧ（ゴージャス！）
(Xbox 360)
Finally got the last Achievement!!!

Waiting

None

G r a d i u s
H o m e W o r l d

(Even More Countdowns)

25th January 2012

I've been sent some interesting guides for Salamander 2 (AC) and Nemesis 3 (MSX), take a look, they are in the Guides section.

27th December 2011

Konami has released their third DLC stage.

ＥＸ３どんぶり島ステージ（２０１１／１２／２７配信、４８０ＭＳＰ）
EX3 Donburi Island Stage (Released 27/12/2011, 480MSP)

Note:Donburi translates as Bowl.

22nd December 2011

The Mameworld site is now back after some site hacking took it offline for almost a week.

http://mameworld.info/

Mr Do's Arcade section has lot of artwork scans for various games in MAME including most of the Gradius related games scanned by me.

I haven't had a reply yet about my new Gradius II GOFER no Yabou but I guess after a major hack that takes the site offline, it may be a bit of time until the new artwork is on his site.

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/

21st December 2011

MAME supports background artwork like bezels, backgrounds etc... the original versions I scanned a few years back (shown below), Mr. Do done the lay file for it (Mr. Do's MAME artwork page is currently offline), the dark colour around the logo's on the instruction cards is due to a foil section which doesn't scan too well, last time I coloured it a dark blue but this time I've decided to add a metallic type background to simulate the foil effect.

MAME Gradius II GOFER no Yabou OLD

After looking at KEI-KO Fujisaki's machines http://www.konaken.com/ (of which I'm so jealous), I noticed the large side banners on her Gradius II GOFER no Yabou machine, I thought wouldn't that be great to recreate that in MAME.

Konaken's Machine

I managed to win a pair of large side artwork in an auction, pretty rare items apparently and not cheap, I paid £160 for a pair in pretty much mint condition, I already have the top & bottom banners and the two side instruction cards.

MAME Gradius II GOFER no Yabou

I decided to not simulate the monitor bezel more than 5px on the left and right as it made the game image smaller, the top and bottom I cannot do anything about.

As the art is pretty large I've done two versions, 25% and 50%, the 50% can slow down the game some what as the art is so big.

They are the same name as that's how MAME needs it, just put one or the other vulcan.zip file in the MAME Artwork folder and run the game.

vulcan.zip - 25% version - 13.2MB

vulcan.zip - 50% version - 65MB

The long version of the artwork, the Seven and a new computer.

Over the last few months I have been cleaning up some scans I done of the complete set of Gradius II GOFER no Yabou artwork for use in MAME.

I scanned them at 300dpi 600dpi and 1200dpi, the 1200dpi version is just too large to edit even on the new system listed below (almost 10000x26000px - 500MB PNG for the large side artworks).

The goldilocks approach was the best choice, the 300dpi didn't show enough detail making edited difficult and the 1200dpi images made the computer unusable so I decided to edit the 600dpi version which is 4650x12748px - 148MB PNG.

Even this brought my poor AMD Athlon X2 XP system with 2GB of RAM to its knees, so an upgrade was required.

I don't upgrade that often these days as computers have levelled off over the last five years or so (unless you play games that is, which I don't much), my XP system is five and half years old with some tweaks a few years back, like an 160GB Intel X25-M SSD which made it feel like new again, i just needed more RAM.

I decided to splash some cash on a new homebuilt system (I always build my own workstations).

I bought two copies of Windows 7 Home Premium retail at launch ( I installed one on my laptop) but never got around to using the other version on my desktop as it just ran slower than XP on that hardware.

Anyway, I had no choice but to finally go with Windows 7 x64 as I wanted more RAM, another story is Windows 7 Home Premium only supports 16GB of RAM, so I had to buy an anytime upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate, £100 just for a code, what a rip off.

So here's the list for those interested in what I bought, I already had a case, PSU, graphics card, fans, hard drives, monitors, Keyboard and mouse.

Items I already had from my old XP system

Antec 4U22ATX400UK Rackmount Chassis (I had to modify the lid as the Noctua heatsink was too large for the case by about 20mm).

Noctua NF-R8 80mm Quiet Case Fan x2

Noctua NF-P12 Vortex-Control 120mm Quiet Case Fan x2

Enermax 650W Infiniti EIN650AWT Modular Quad CPU & SLi/CFire PSU 85% Eff' DXX EPS12V/ATX12V.

Supermicro CSE-M35T1 Five Drive SATA Rack Mount (Ivory) x2 (with help from the late Mred and myself, we modified them to fit 120mm Noctua fans as the original 80mm fans were very noisy).

PNY NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 PCI-E Graphics Card - 1GB (old but good enough for real work).

Various large hard drives.

DELL - UltraSharp U2711 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor.

HP L2335 23" Flat Panel TFT Monitor.

Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard (five year old, which I modified to an orange LED backlight as the standard blue looked pretty crap).

Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer with Intellieye USB (my trusty eight year old optical mouse).

Items bought for the new workstation

Asus P9X79 PRO S2011 Intel X79 DDR3 ATX

Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz S2011 12MB

Kingston 16GB (4 x 4GB) HyperX DDR3 1600MHz 240-pin DIMM CL9 XMP (two lots of to make 32GB)

Intel 300GB 320 Series MLC 2.5" 25nm SATA-300 9.5mm SSD

Noctua NH-D14-2011 Dual Radiator Cooler with PWM fans, LGA2011 only.

The Build

System is built and running great, some software is still needed here and there as Windows 7 can be a bit annoying sometimes, here are some photos of the build for those interested.

GameStone's Super PC

20th December 2011

Another new stage has been released.

ＥＸ２エビス星ステージ（２０１１／１２／２０配信、４８０ＭＳＰ）
EX2 Ebisu Star Stage (Released 20/12/2011, 480MSP)

13th December 2011

Well I'm back after a main system upgrade, still a few things to sort out, so here are some new updates for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！） .

Finally a new stage has been released.

聖グラディウス学園ステージ（２０１１／１２／１３配信、４８０ＭＳＰ）
St Gradius School Stage (Released 13/12/2011, 480MSP)

Also last week two Icon Packs and another Uniform Pack were released.

ゲーマーアイコン（２０１１／１２／０６配信、８０ＭＳＰ）
Game Icons (Released 06/12/2011, 80MSP)

ストラーフ/ココロ・ベルモンド/ヴェノム/オペレッタ/ダークフォース
Strarf/Belmont/Venom/Operetta/Dark Force

ゲーマーアイコン（２０１１／１２／０６配信、８０ＭＳＰ）
Game Icons Strarf/Belmont/Venom/Operetta/Dark Force (Released 06/12/2011, 80MSP)

エスメラルダ/ポイニー/華風魔/アーンヴァル/ハイパー亜乃亜
Esmeralda/Poini/Hanafuuma/Arnval/Hyper Anoa

聖グラディウス学園の体操服Ver. 月士華風魔（２０１１／１２／０６配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
St Gradius School Gymnastics Clothing Ver. Gesshi Hanafuuma (Released 06/12/2011, 160MSP)

29th November 2011

Even more Japanese DLC, three characters costumes to go.

エプロンドレスVer. ポイニー・クーン（２０１１／１１／２９配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
Apron Dress Ver. Poini Coon (Released 29/11/2011, 160MSP)

浴衣Ver. アーンヴァル（２０１１／１１／２９配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Bathrobe Ver. Arnval (Released 29/11/2011, 160MSP)

Total DLC (so far) costs almost as much as the game was to buy.

Game 7140円 - Total DLC 6480円.

22nd November 2011

More Japanese DLC, five characters costumes to go.

バクテリアン軍士官服Ver. ５ティタ・ニューム（２０１１／１１／２２配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
Bacterian Soldiers Uniform Ver. Tita Nium (Released 22/11/2011, 160MSP)

レストラン制服Ver. エスメラルダ（２０１１／１１／２２配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
Restaurant Uniform Ver. Esmeralda (Released 22/11/2011, 160MSP)

Also I've decided to go back to the random logo on this page.

15th November 2011

Another week and another Japanese DLC, seven characters costumes to go.

吊るしのドレスVer. ジオール・トゥイー（２０１１／１１／１５配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
The Hanging Dress Ver. Diol Twee (Released 15/11/2011, 160MSP)

王家のドレスVer. マドカ（２０１１／１１／１５配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
Royal Dress Ver. Madoka (Released 15/11/2011, 160MSP)

8th November 2011

More DLC for the Japanese release of Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）, this time Uniform packs..

聖グラディウス学園の制服Ver. 空羽亜乃亜（２０１１／１１／０８配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
St. Gradius School Uniform Ver. Aoba Anoa (Released 08/11/2011, 160MSP)

伝説の航空服Ver. エリュー・トロン（２０１１／１１／０８配信、１６０ＭＳＰ）
Legendary Flight Suit Ver. Erul Tron (Released 08/11/2011, 160MSP)

3rd November 2011

Both versions of Otomedius Excellent are now in stock at Amazon.com, so go and buy this great game.

Amazon - $29.99

Amazon Limited Edition - $49.99

1st November 2011

What I believe will be the last music pack for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！） is out.

Ｖｏｌ。９ココロ・ベルモンドパック（２０１１／１１／０１配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol.9 Kokoro Belmont Pack (Released 01/11/2011, 440MSP)

Also after months of delays the US release Otomedius Excellent is finally out, or is it, Amazon and Konami still show the Pre Order banner, maybe later today that will change.

UPDATE - Konami's site now shows BUY NOW rather than PRE ORDER but Amazon shows the Collector Special Edition as 'Temporarily out of stock'.and the Standard as 'Usually ships within 1 to 3 months', strange for a game that came out today.

UPDATE 2 - Finally got around to translating the track names for all the music packs

25th October 2011

Another week, another music pack DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）.

Ｖｏｌ。８アーンヴァルパック（２０１１／１０／２５配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol.8 Arnval Pack (Released 25/10/2011, 440MSP)

This only leaves Pack 9 to go, it's almost like their in a rush to release all the music packs before the US release.

18th October 2011

Konami are on a roll now, another music pack DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）.

Ｖｏｌ。２エリュー・トロンパック（２０１１／１０／１８配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 2 Erul Tron Pack (Released 18/10/2011, 440MSP)

This only leaves Pack 8 and 9 to go, it would be nice to see a Stage pack but I guess we will have to wait for that.

11th October 2011

Yet another music pack DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）.

Ｖｏｌ。４ジオール・トゥイーパック（２０１１／１０／１１配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 4 Diol Twee Pack (Released 11/10/2011, 440MSP)

4th October 2011

It's been a long wait but finally the latest character for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！） has been release by Konami.

ココロ・ベルモンド（声：原田ひとみ）（２０１１／１０／０４配信、４００ＭＳＰ）
Belmont Heart (Voice: Harada Hitomi) (Released 04/10/2011, 400MSP)

28th September 2011

Konami has released a large update for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレン.ト！） Xbox 360.

Lots of difficulty balancing and other stuff, see this discussion thread for more details, thanks go to dieKatze88 for pointing it out.

19th September 2011

After years of searching the quest is over, I've finally got my hands on one of the rare Gradius games, the great Windows 95 games collection - Gradius Deluxe Pack.

See GameStone's Collection for more images of the collection.

I managed to get hold of the disc only last month, but this time I found a complete boxed version, won the auction and it's all mine in excellent addition, this is the only one I have ever seen available and it's all mine.

Also got the excellent Raiden IV for Xbox 360 (Special Edition with the soundtrack CD), cracking game, excellent music and great playability, well worth playing.

Also picked up a few other items too, more on the way.

I'm working on a database for all the merchandise with information, prices, images etc, as it's getting a little out of control to manage, this will take months to complete but should make it easier to see what's available and to show the true extent of the collection.

14th September 2011

Well, looks like the US release of Otomedius Excellent has been put back again to 1st November 2011.

5th September 2011

KONAMI SHOOTING COLLECTION (CD) LC2039-2048, complete track listing are now shown on Konami Style, this looks to be great music collection from Konami.

http://www.konamistyle.jp/sp/shooting_c/disc.html

English translation of the track name also complete.

30th August 2011

One more DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）.

Ｖｏｌ。１０ストラーフパック（２０１１／０８／３０配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 10 Strarf Pack (Released 30/08/2011, 440MSP)

Added all the track names and music arrangers

It looks like there will be ten music packs, at 440MSP each that's 4400MSP total, with the extra stages, characters and icons, it will add up to more than the actual game!

14th August 2011

I finally got around to transferring my precious save games from my PlayStation Memory cards to the PC using uLaunchELF.

While using MemcardRex on the PC, I found it has an option to view and rip the small icon associated with each game save, as some are animated I decided to ripped all the Gradius related stuff.

MemcardRex (PlayStation Memory Card Manager).

http://shendo.xtemu.com/memcardrex.html

Gradius Deluxe Pack 01 Gradius Deluxe Pack 02 Gradius Deluxe Pack 03 Gradius Deluxe Pack, 3 frames.

Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus 01 Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus 02 Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus

Even though they are only 16x16 pixels, they are quite detailed (the above are scaled to 64x64 pixels).

See the Downloads Sprite Rips section for the images.

13th August 2011

Here are some images of the latest merchandise I've just bought for my ever expanding collection.

Yes I had to have it, the First Edition of Otomedius オトメディウス ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK LC1852-54.

Also some demo versions of Gradius III AND IV & Gradius Deluxe Pack.

Plus you can't miss the Laser Disc for Konami Shooting Best, see GameStone's Collection for more images.

One thing I will say for a game that came out twenty years ago, the Xexex PCB and instructions are in absolutely mint condition.

30th July 2011

I've converted this pages code to HTML5, this allows me to you the new video and audio tags

Only this page at the moment has been changed as my scripts would need updating, I thought I would make use of the new audio tag, this is only just for fun and doesn't work in all browsers, I've tested it in Firefox 5 but does not work in Internet Explorer 8 but should be fine in IE9.

Gradius - Coin

Gradius II - Coin

Gradius III - Coin

Thunder Cross - Title

26th July 2011

Lots more DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！）.

Ｖｏｌ。３マドカパック（２０１１／０７／２６配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 3 Madoka Pack (Released 26/07/2011, 440MSP)

Ｖｏｌ。５ティタ・ニュームパック（２０１１／０７／２６配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 5 Tita Nium Pack (Released 26/07/2011, 440MSP)

Ｖｏｌ。７月士華風魔パック（２０１１／０７／２６配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 7 Gesshi Hanafuuma Pack (Released 26/07/2011, 440MSP)

Update: added all the track names and music arrangers

8th July 2011

More Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！） DLC.

Only Game Icons (ゲーマーアイコン) this time

アイコン１（２０１１／０７／０８配信、８０ＭＳＰ）
Icon 1 (Released 08/07/2011, 80MSP)

亜乃亜、エリュー、マドカ、ジオール、ティタ
Anoa, Erul,, Madoka, Diol, Tita

5th July 2011

A new music collection from Konami, I've added track listing and translations.

This mega sized 10 disc collection contains music from:-

Salamander, TwinBee, Thunder Cross, XEXEX and many others.

Release Date: 22nd September 2011
Price: 13,650円 (tax included)
Specifications: Disc Album 12cmCD 10 (Maxi Case)
Case Three-way back
48 page booklet included

http://www.konamistyle.jp/sp/shooting_c/index.html

Now this looks like a great collection of tunes.

4th July 2011

Games and Merchandise update, my last order arrived last week but I've only just got around to photographing them yesterday.

See GameStone's Collection page for more images.

2nd July 2011

Updated the Emulation section as some of the emulators have been updated or changed web addresses.

24th June 2011

First DLC is out now for Otomedius X (Excellent!) オトメディウスＸ（エクセレント！） .

Ｖｏｌ。１空羽亜乃亜パック（２０１１／０６／２４配信、４４０ＭＳＰ）
Vol. 1 Aoba Anoa Pack (Released 24/06/2011, 440MSP)

ストラーフ（声：茅原実里）４００ＭＳＰ
Strarf (Voice: Chihara Minori) 400MSP

12th June 2011

After a week a drawing, editing and layouts, here's GameStone's newest logo.

It's a little late as the game has been out for almost three years but here it is:-

Otomedius G (Gorgeous!).

Lets hope Otomedius Excellent is a great success and Konami then decides to release Otomedius Gorgeous in the west, If Konami does go this route they have my blessing to use the custom logo for that release.

Note: The image below links to the quarter resolution versions, see the Art Work section for half and full resolution versions.

7th June 2011

Updated the Otomedius Excellent logo again, I decided to make the word 'Excellent' 25% bigger compared to the 0.6 revision.

Also added text to the image to show it's NOT the official Konami game logo as some people are getting a little confused.

Note: The images below link to the quarter resolution versions, see the Art Work section for half and full resolution versions.

4th June 2011

A new Gradius game in the arcades from KPE.

Gradius The Slot

http://www.kpenet.jp/contents/gradius.html

1st June 2011

Check out these wonderful videos by the talented Gradius fan - Riccardo Faidutti (aka rickonami).

Gradius II Gofer no Yabou Intro 3D HD PC-ENGINE at 1080p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_caRv6P5M

Gradius III Intro 3D HD SNES at 1080p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yksAKko_Z4

30th May 2011

I'm disappointed with the logo used on the US release of the game and made my own version last year, I've now put together some box art of how it would look on the official release.

I also made some fake PS3 and PSP box art for the fun of it.

Note that the images are only linking to the Quarter Resolution versions, see GameStone Artwork section for half and full resolution versions..