Cho Ren Sha 68K

Cho Ren Sha 68K[lower-alpha 1] is a 1995 vertically scrolling dōjin shoot 'em up video game developed and originally published by Koichi "Famibe No Yosshin" Yoshida at Comiket for the X68000.[1][2][3] Taking place in a ring structure, players take control of a space fighter craft to fight against an assortment of enemies and bosses. The game was first made for the X68000 due to its popularity in the dōjin and freeware development scene, being influenced by several shoot 'em up games in arcades that also played part with its design process. The title was later ported to Microsoft Windows in 2001, featuring various changes compared to its original release. It met a mostly positive reception from reviewers, with praise for its presentation, graphics, music and gameplay; however there was criticism for various design choices but has since gained a cult following.[4]

Cho Ren Sha 68K
Original 1995 X68000 Comiket release
Developer(s)Famibe No Yosshin
Publisher(s)Famibe No Yosshin
Designer(s)Koichi Yoshida
Composer(s)Ruzarin Kashiwagi
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, X68000
ReleaseX68000
Windows
  • WW: 12 September 2001
Genre(s)Vertically scrolling shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot showcasing a powered up ship fighting against the game's third boss.

Cho Ren Sha 68K is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game in which players take control of a space fighter craft to fight against a horde of enemies and bosses on a ring station.[4][5][6][7] The game features a loop system where players start at the beginning of first stage after defeating the last stage boss, with each loop increasing in difficulty and enemies spawning extra bullets when destroyed.[6] The title has multiple adjustable settings on the configuration menu, however more options can be accessed by pressing and holding up at the configuration screen.[4][5][6]

A notable aspect of the game is the power-up system:[4][5][6][7] There are three types of items to collect by destroying an enemy carrier, ranging from "Power-up!" (which increases the ship's firepower up to four times), "Bomber" (which grants players another screen-clearing bomb that can be stocked up to five) and "Shield", which gives players an extra hit and if the ship gets hit by an enemy bullet, it emits a small shockwave that clears the screen of both enemy bullets and weaker enemies. When an enemy carrier is destroyed, the power-up icons appear in a ring formation and if the players takes one of the three, the others will disappear but all three power-up items can be obtained by staying on the center of the ring for a period of time.[4][5][6][7]

Another notable aspect is the scoring system, which is based on how players destroy enemies.[6] Once the ship is powered up, items will only give points until the ship is destroyed, with the highest value being 25600 points.[5] Depending on the number of lives, bombs and having an active shield, players receive a determined score at the end of each stage.[6] When players reaches one million points, the shield power-up is replaced by a 1UP icon instead. Players have the option of either collecting the 1UP item or risk to stay within the ring formation to grab all three items at the same time, however losing the 1UP item means that it will not appear again unless another one million point threshold is reached to get another opportunity.[5][6]

Production

Development
Cho Ren Sha 68K was first written for the X68000 due to its popularity in dōjin soft and freeware scenes.

Cho Ren Sha 68K was first developed for the X68000 by Koichi "Famibe No Yosshin" Yoshida, who previously worked with Family BASIC to develop a shooter game titled Zacner II in 1993, late during the commercial life span of the computer as guide books about its hardware galvanized the platform in both dōjin soft and freeware scenes.[1][4][5][6][8] Yoshida stated on his personal website detailing development of the project that it was influenced by several shoot 'em up games in arcades such as Batsugun, Truxton II and Battle Garegga, among others that also played part with its design process.[1] When balancing the player's firepower, the player shot appears four times more powerful that the initial state, however the damage delivered is "only 1.375 times greater" as quadrupling damage output would break the game if it matched the appearance of the maxed power shot, with Yoshida stating he learned the deliberate fine-tuning from Toaplan titles.[1] The fixed width of the player's shot was borrowed from Star Force, however issues arrived when making said shot look more modern before reaching a compromise.[1]

Yoshida wanted to recreate a technique in older shoot 'em up games dubbed "point-blank", where more damage is dealt to enemies upclose as a result of various mechanics and wanted a game balance reminiscent of Star Force but said mechanics went against what he planned for Cho Ren Sha 68K, deciding to reduce the size of enemy collision hitboxes constantly that ultimately let to redrawing certain enemies to adjust with their hitboxes.[1] Yoshida also decided to adjust firing accuracy depending on circumstances and cited various examples where enemies had low-accuracy aiming like Flying Shark, Parodious Da! and Grind Stormer.[1] Yoshida wanted to use manual fire mechanics instead of autofire as well, stating that manual fire mechanics were "on the verge of dying out" but decided to implement a semi-autofire feature.[1] Due to hardware limitations with the X68000, multiple sound effects could not be played simultaneously and the main goals Yoshida wanted in his design concept was to evoke a fun sense of destruction and make shooting exciting, prioritizing sound design in a specific order.[1]

Cho Ren Sha 68K was mainly written in C language but Yoshida claimed Assembler language was also used in certain points to increase execution speed.[1] Yoshida also wrote a sprite driver called "XSP", which used a programming technique that increased the number of sprites onscreen, as well as developing a programming trick to overcome the X68000's PCG definition limit.[1] Yoshida released his "XSP" sprite driver publicly at the Kusa no Ne BBS system, a community where game development information was exchanged and he received feedback for the development of his project.[1]

Audio

The soundtrack for Cho Ren Sha 68K was composed by Ruzarin "Loser" Kashiwagi, who worked at a fast pace and wrote songs for the game in days.[1][9] Kashiwagi had previously written original songs for the X68000 during his high school years before meeting Yoshida via a networking system in Japan and took the task of creating music for the project.[9] When composing for the title, Kashiwagi was influenced by both Battle Garegga and Viewpoint, stating he made his "own Eurobeat" for the first stage.[9]

Release

Cho Ren Sha 68K was first released by Famibe No Yosshin as dōjin soft for the X68000 at the 1995 Comiket.[1][2][3][4][5][6] On 14 August 1998, an album containing music from the title was published in Japan by Denkai Laboratory, featuring an arranged soundtrack by various composers.[5][10] Several other albums with music from the game have also been released through services such as Bandcamp.[11][12]

On 12 September 2001, Cho Ren Sha 68K was later ported to Microsoft Windows as freeware.[1][2][3][4][5][6][13] This version runs at a fixed resolution of 640x480, using 256x256 internally.[6] The original X68000 version ran at 55 frames per second, while the Windows port runs at 60 frames per second instead, increasing the difficulty by 9%.[1][6] As the original Windows release was intended for Windows 98, playing it on modern hardware exhibits sound issues, which meant that running the game on newer hardware required changing compatibility settings.[5][6] On 20 August 2005 an update for the Windows port was released, adding a hard difficulty and fixing various software bugs from the original release.[13] On 23 May 2017 a new update version for the Windows port was released, adding support for Windows 10, fixing minimal bugs as well as sound and compatibility issues.[13]

Reception
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Freegame.cz(Windows) 76%[14]
GameHippo.com(Windows) 8/10[15]
Hrej.cz(Windows) 3/5[16]

Cho Ren Sha 68K has been received with mostly positive reception from reviewers since its release on Microsoft Windows.[17] Evil Boris of GameHippo.com praised its presentation, graphics and fast-paced gameplay but felt that the sound was "a bit above average", giving the game a 8 out of 10 score.[15] Dominik Wetter of Freegame.cz also gave praise to the gameplay but criticized the need of constantly pressing the fire button, giving the game a 75% score.[14] Likewise, Sven Ruthner of Retro Gamer CD gave positive remarks to the graphics, Kashiwagi's music, sound design and gameplay mechanics, stating that "CRS68K is an excellent little shmup that will keep you busy for a while if you want to clear it on one credit, especially if you want to tackle the second loop and the true last boss".[5] John Szczepaniak of Retro Gamer regarded the X68000 original as one of the system's "perfect three" games.[18]

Remy Bastien of Atomix praised its intense action, sprite work and music, however he criticized the repeating backgrounds but stated that "Cho Ren Sha 68K is still a cult title, to an extreme degree. Those who are fans of the Shmup will find in this game a hard test to crack".[4] In contrast, Hrej.cz gave the title a more mixed outlook, stating that "Cho Ren Sha 68K brings almost nothing we wouldn't see anywhere else. And that's a really big shame. Lovers of the genre could still be pleased with everything, even if it is only a slightly above-average shoot-up", rating the game with a 3 out of 5 score.[16] Maciej Miszczyk of Hardcore Gaming 101 praised its level design, music and gameplay, stating that the title "has a place among the classics of shoot-em-up genre. While it doesn't have the originality of Radiant Silvergun, the production values of Cave games or unusual mechanics of Battle Garegga, it makes up for it with an intense, tight and well-designed gameplay. It's a labor of love - a doujin shooter with quality that surpasses many commercially released titles".[6] In a brief outlook, James Cunningham of Hardcore Gamer stated that "Cho Ren Sha 68K may not be the fanciest shooter out there but it nails that classic feel and is one great encounter after another, so it's well worth taking a trip back to 2001 and checking out one of the greats".[13]

Legacy

In July 2015, a homebrew conversion of the game for the Atari Falcon was released by Sascha Springer, featuring various changes compared to the original X68000 release.[19] In 2016, a reworked port of the title for the Super Cassette Vision was announced by Japanese homebrew developer Faw.Labo.[20] System Erasure have cited the game as an influence when developing ZeroRanger.[21][22] Rival Megagun creator Justin Rempel claimed in a 2018 interview with Japanese website 4Gamer.net that Cho Ren Sha 68K is the shooting game he admire the most.[23]

Notes
  1. Japanese: 超連射68K (ちょうれんしゃ68K) Hepburn: Chōrensha 68K, lit. "Super Rapid Fire 68K" or "Ultra Rapid Fire 68K"

References
  1. Yoshida, Koichi (12 September 2001). "超連射68K 開発後記". Yosshin's web page (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-07-02 at the Wayback Machine).
  2. hally (30 June 2011). "Sharp PC X68000: 超連射68K". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 2. Micro Magazine. p. 127. ISBN 978-4896373653.
  3. hally (24 September 2011). "The Museum of Shooting Game Art – 超連射68K". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Micro Magazine. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-4896373714.
  4. Bastien, Remy (7 December 2011). "Reseña Indie: Cho Ren Sha – Tenacidad Frenética". Atomix (in Spanish). Prowell Media. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  5. Ruthner, Sven (22 October 2011). "Cho Ren Sha 68K (PC/Sharp X68000)". RGCD. Retro Gamer CD. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  6. Miszczyk, Maciej (9 December 2014). "Cho Ren Sha 68K". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  7. Skinnytie (2005). "Cho Ren Sha 68k". shmups.com. SHMUPS!. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  8. Famibe No Yosshin (May 1993). "BM特選プログラム•コーナー - ファミーコンビュータ/ツインファミコン(ファミルーBASIC V3): ファミリーベーシック - ZACNER II". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 131. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 98-99.
  9. Hickman, Aaron (3 January 2016). "Exclusive Interview with Cho Ren Sha X68k Composer Ruzarin "Loser" Kashiwagi". retrogamingmagazine.com. Retro Gaming Magazine. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  10. "DLOC-0001 | CHO REN SHA 68K ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  11. hally (EGG MUSIC) (24 September 2011). "EGG MUSIC STG!". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 3. Micro Magazine. p. 111. ISBN 978-4896373714.
  12. Kashiwagi, Loser (14 October 2014). "Cho Ren Sha 68k Original Soundtracks GIMIC Revival Edition". Bandcamp. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  13. Cunningham, James (4 June 2017). "Classic Arcade Shooter Cho Ren Sha 68K Updated for Modern PCs". Hardcore Gamer. Hardcore Gamer LLC. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  14. Wetter, Dominik (9 November 2007). "Recenze - Cho Ren Sha 68K (Windows)". Freegame.cz (in Czech). Infosfera s.r.o. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  15. Boris, Evil (7 October 2002). "ACTION : Spaceshooter – ChoRenSha 68K". GameHippo.com. pair Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on 23 February 2004. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  16. "Cho Ren Sha 68K v katalogu plných her zdarma na Hrej.cz". Hrej.cz (in Czech). Grunex. 8 November 2012. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  17. "Cho Ren Sha 68k". Home of the Underdogs. 2003. Archived from the original on 16 February 2003. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  18. Szczepaniak, John (December 2011). "Obscura Machina: Sharp X68000". Retro Gamer. No. 96. Future Publishing. pp. 80–81.
  19. Elpianistero (22 July 2015). "Cho Ren Sha en cours de développement sur Atari Falcon". Retrotaku (in French). Association Retrotaku. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  20. ふあう・らぼ (23 September 2016). "スーパーカセットビジョンで「超連射６８ｋ」ぽい物を動かしたかった時". fawlabo.com (in Japanese). ふあう・らぼのチラ裏 – しがないゲームプログラマの備忘録ぽいもの. Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  21. "Developer Interview with System Erasure from ZeroRanger". SHMU.PS. 17 October 2018. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  22. Mark MSX (19 November 2018). "Episode XVIII: The Chosen One! Interview with Zero Ranger Developers". The Electric Underground: A Shmup Podcast (Podcast). SoundCloud. Archived from the original on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  23. Yamoto, Shinichi (17 November 2018). "「ティンクルスタースプライツ」と「ライバル・メガガン」。2つの対戦型シューティングゲームのクリエイターに開発秘話やシューティング愛を語り合ってもらった". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. Archived from the original on 11 March 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2020-06-02 at the Wayback Machine).
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