Crossed Swords 2 AES/MVS and Rom Thread.

[Shuri]

Got my tracking number this morning, I'm so hyped!!!

 

[FinalbossNYC]

Thanks Raz and Jeff and to anyone that made this arrive in my hands today !! seriously this is awesome and I'm really thankful people like you guys care enough to work hard to make something like this these days. Thanks man I appreciate the hard work.
Also shipped beautifully !

 

[lilralphie]

Very excited for mine to arrive today as well! Amazing! Thanks so much for an incredible job!

 

[White Devil]

Just got home from a 14 hour work day to see this perfectly wrapped on the counter. Time to unpack the box my AES is still in from the move and have some fucking fun!!!!

 

[chojinosaka]

I Want one

 

[Fakk2]

I received both my copies yesterday of the MVS and AES versions. Thank you. I somehow thought that the MVS cart had a shockbox and insert like Knights Chance does. Guess I was wrong. Thanks for the game though.

 

[TheSegaDude]

Thanks Raz and Jeff! ...and anyone else involved. I received my Crossed Swords 2 today. And it really does feel like a brand new retail product. Well done!



Already had my Southtown Shockbox ready to go

 

[BatManG85]

AES 2nd print run please .

Looks great though, I didn't get one but I am so excited to see this come out. ESPECIALLY, from legendary members of these very boards.

 

[Razoola]

Great to see so many pictures. Now that I guess a few have played the game itself, I would be interested on views of the conversion itself (the game). Especially opinions on the music.

Raz

 

[FinalbossNYC]

Great to see so many pictures. Now that I guess a few have played the game itself, I would be interested on views of the conversion itself (the game). Especially opinions on the music.

Raz

Honestly I've never played the original but I was telling a friend today that the game is phenomenal !
The level of detail with the gore and FX is amazing the game feels like a console game. The fact that there are all new enemies and the cathedral scene showing the original ones was awesome .
I was planing on asking you which pieces you added exactly as couldn't remember from the Thread updates. but the game sounds amazing in all spots. the FX the Music everything. it really makes for a fantastic experience. There nothing I don't love about it big or small and even without knowing what you added I know it wouldn't be "this" whole without your work, so Thanks once again.
PS can I pay for an extra Mini Marquee that you would sign.

 

[Geddon_jt]

I will definitely post some updated impressions of music/gameplay when I have more time to play this weekend.

 

[MCF 76]

Damn you guys, I'm out of town atm my copy is waiting at the p.o. Congrats to all that have got theirs.

 

[mathieu4d]

AES 2nd print run please .

+1

 

[SuperGun]

Crossed Swords 2 Music

Great to see so many pictures. Now that I guess a few have played the game itself, I would be interested on views of the conversion itself (the game). Especially opinions on the music.

Raz

Well Raz, since you asked...

Excellent would be the word I would use to describe the way this game came out.

First off, I have never owned nor cared to own a NEOGEO CD system. In fact, I don't play or collect games for ANY CD based game systems. I have always been and will always be ANTI-CD. I hate compact discs as a storage medium, they do not display properly, they are not fun to collect, and I hate loading times.

That being said, not only have I never played the CD version of Crossed Swords 2, I had never even played Crossed Swords 2 until a couple days ago when I received my cartridges. However, I did quickly look up demo, intro, and gameplay videos on the internet of the game running on a CD system yesterday just to finally see it all for the first time.

In my opinion, the CD music SUCKS. I can't stand it. It sounds & feels NOTHING like a neo-geo game. If that is how all the "redone" music tracks are on the NEOGEO CD games that turned them into CD audio, then I feel even more sorry for neogeo cd gamers. It sucks man. Absolute garbage. Sounds & feels just like the clanky high pitched metallic crappy ass audio tracks of the vast majority of Turbografx & SEGA CD's of the early 1990's cd game era. I always hated that crappy sound. Sorry, it is how I honestly feel.

This cart sounds and feels like a REAL neogeo game. To the unknowing individual, they would never know that the music was recycled from Crossed Swords 1. Now mind you, even knowing that, I am still perplexed what Raz did & how he did it? Reason being, I recognize some of the tunes from CS1 while playing CS2, however some of them I do not.

For example, the intro music is what baffles me the most! It is NOT the CD music and it is NOT from the CS1 intro. So just where the hell did Raz get that from? And more specifically, how the heck did he "synchronize" it so well with what is happening on screen, such as the swords crossing sound when the title logo generates? Unbelievably impressive.

I love the game. It is great to finally have this sequel that we cart system owners deserved but were robbed of it by SNK. Justice has been served. Now all we need is to improve & correct Zintrick & FR2, and then the collection will be complete.

Thank you Raz!

 

[fryster]

AES second run, please

 

[Razoola]

Glad you noticed how the music fits in attract mode. The actual audio is from CS1 but I have no idea where it is used in that game. I changed the graphic timing in attract mode so it fits to the music and as you spotted, I actually added that sfx when the cs2 logo zooms in and when the swords draw. Small details like that make all the difference. I guess if anyone was to play the original CD and this conversions attract mode side by side you will notice quite a few differences, including less stars and the character edges being tidied up.

These kinds of improvements have taken place right through the game.

Raz

 

[TheSegaDude]

I've been playing a lot of Crossed Swords 1 and when I started playing Crossed Swords 2 I did notice when I heard music from CS1. It left a little odd only because I was thinking in a sequel it would have been likely that new music would have been made for the game. It's not a negative point just an observation that I didn't expect.

SuperGun made me curious so I checked out a video of CS2 to hear the CD music. It doesn't sound bad but it does sound a bit too subdued for the pace of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnrpBvVHaM

I didn't notice all the effort that went into the attract mode but I bet that's because everything is so well done. Nothing stood out because of timing/sync or sfx as a problem. It's just perfect like you'd expect from official SNK work.
**Just fired up the Neo and watched the attract mode after reading the details above. And it's spot on. It's cool hear about the tweaks you made and see them first hand.

I'm still amazed that so few people with regular jobs can pull this off and do it with such quality in both the software and physical packaging. You guys rocked it.

 

[Bonga7]

Received my AES copy, just stopped playing to write and thank Raz and Jeff, and other members of this community who got involved in getting this game made. I'm impressed with the quality and the love put into making the carts. Again my deepest admiration and thanks.

 

[Luciano]

Will there be a japanese release in the future? Would preorder instantly!

 

[F4U57]

I'm so happy I went with an MVS pre-order.

Received my shipping confirmation yesterday. Can't wait!

 

[GadgetUK]

Looks totally awesome! Mine is still in transit =/ Can someone upload a video at some point if they get chance?

 

[TMOSteel]

Received my MVS copy today but didn't have much time to play it, just want to confirm with Raz there is no difficulty select in AES mode, correct? Also in MVS mode you don't need credits to play, you can just hit start? (I'm playing this on an OMEGA).

The quality of the whole package is top notch, and the fact that this was converted over as well as it was is amazing.

Great work all around to all those involved.

 

[Razoola]

There is a difficulty select in AES mode and you do have to insert credits in MVS mode unless your set to freeplay.

 

[SuperGun]

Yes, the home mode has 3 choices of easy, normal, and hard. But even on easy, the game is harder then CS1. I have found that while in CS1 you could just attack enemies frantically with little or no strategy involved, in CS2, the enemies are stronger (take more hits to kill) and smarter (block your repeated attacks) forcing you to use more technique in your attacks such as hitting low or high & defending in between attacks, etc.

I especially love the jump slash & dashing in attacks. They help make the game even more interactive. It really is enjoyable to play this game because it is unique & different then the average fighting game on the console. A breath of fresh air.

 

[TMOSteel]

There is a difficulty select in AES mode and you do have to insert credits in MVS mode unless your set to freeplay.

Sorry Raz, must have missed it the first time around, but I see it now. Looks the the OMEGA is set to free play on the hard dip settings which is why I don't need credits.

Great job on this by the way.