DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Arcade)

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou, widely considered to be the best and most difficult game of the DonPachi series, also marked the introduction of actual plot elements. Join together with your favorite Element Doll, go through bullet hell to stop the invasion of the Moon, and get treated to a saccharine-to-bad ending for all your hard work!

Unused Graphics#

PGM BIOS#

All Cave games released for the PolyGame Master use a custom BIOS that has been hacked to bypass the normal boot sequence and replace the standard test menu with a game-specific one. However, DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is still equipped with the graphics ROM, pgm_t01s.rom, shared among all PGM games for displaying the normal boot sequence, providing English and Chinese fonts, and displaying the "IGS Presents" screen before the attract mode. All of these graphics are loaded into VRAM on startup, but are left unused.

Later games by CAVE on the PGM board would remove this graphics ROM entirely.

Obscured Graphics#

In all versions of the game the background of the title screen, which depicts Kouryuu, is largely obscured by the game's logo and other graphics drawn in front of it (or in DoDonPachi III, almost entirely masked off by large black vertical bars).

Unused Sounds#

PGM BIOS#

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou retains the same standard audio sample ROM, pgm_m01s.rom, as the regular PGM motherboard. This ROM contains the jingle used for the PGM's boot sequence as well as a shared set of instrument and sound effect samples used by games in the PGM library, none of which are used by the game.

As with the graphics ROM, it would be removed from later CAVE games on the platform.

Announcer Voices#

All of these sounds can be heard in the Sound Test by accessing the Test Menu.

Sound Test ID: 3F The game's announcer saying "Please continue!" No voice plays at the continue screen.

Sound Test ID: 40 The announcer saying "Game Over". Like the previous sound, this is not played where it would be expected to play at the game over screen.

Sound Test ID: 45 The announcer saying "Thanks for playing this game! Bye!" Where this would be used is a mystery.

Version Differences#

There were four major revisions released to arcades: the original version (retroactively referred to as "White Label" by fans), the DoDonPachi III export version, a major mechanical revision called DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label, and the much later-released Chinese/Taiwanese export version DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Tamashii.

DoDonPachi III#

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this. Specifically: Screenshots of the endings and 2nd loop selection screen would be preferable

An extremely rare overseas version of the game, known from a 2007 interview with DaiOuJou director Tsuneki Ikeda, but not discovered and dumped until 2016. This version was referred to by Ikeda as a "prototype" for the Black Label version, and is known to have been exported to China. Its naming also solidifies the IGS-developed DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm as an official entry in the series.

In general, most Japanese text in the game has been translated into English, with the notable exception of the shot type descriptions on the continue screen. However, as with the export versions of DoDonPachi and Dangun Feveron (Fever SOS), it is broken English, most evident in the game's endings.

Copyright Screen#

DaiOuJou	DoDonPachi III

Besides updating the text to reflect the fact that it is an export version for use outside of Japan, the game's version string was updated to indicate a build date of May 15, 2002. Hilariously, the phrasing of the notice accidentally makes it say that it is illegal to operate the game in any country at all.

Attract Mode#

DaiOuJou (+ Black Label)	DoDonPachi III

The logo for distributor AMI is now missing its katakana transliteration. This would be restored in Black Label.

Shot Type Select#

2nd Loop Selection Screen#

Before this,
there will be a
brutally demoniac
weapon waiting
for you.

Would you like to
continue?
    Yes No

Endings#

To do: Japanese script for comparison

Shotia

The fight was over.

Almost defeated by
their overwhelming 
amount of 
ammunition,

Shotia recklessly
dove into the
enemy's mainframe.

Overloaded by her
body, their
computer was
slowing down its
computing power.
We won at last.

But the price was
too high.

Defense program
in the mainframe
evolved into virus.

Invade Shotia's
body, and start
erasing Shotia's
memory.

The memory of
robot.
The memory of
weapon.
The memory of
mission.

The virus
mercilessly deleted
Shotia's memory
piece by piece.

Till the end.

When she remained
only human memory,

She smiled.

She could only
rely on the weapon
to survive.
Finally,
She smiled like
human being.

There is not
always gloomy.

Leinyan

The fight was over.

Almost defeated by
their overwhelming 
amount of 
ammunition,

Leinyan recklessly
dove into the
enemy's mainframe.

Overloaded by her
body, their
computer was
slowing down its
computing power.
We won at last.

But the price was
too high.

Defeating the
enemies,
Leinyan is taken
back by the
government as the
most secret data.

Only Leinyan is a
Robot with human
being.

Feeling the love,
PILOT refused to
go away.

The worse thing is
Leinyan is strictly
restricted due to
the power shut.

Then...
The incredible
phenomenon 
happened in the
institute where
Leinyan was
located.

Leinyan's data is
automatically
operated.

In order to meet
with PILOT,
Leinyan escaped
from strict
restrict of
Computer World.

The miracle
happened because
of love.

Exy

The fight was over.

Almost defeated by
their overwhelming 
amount of 
ammunition,

Exy recklessly
dove into the
enemy's mainframe.

Overloaded by her
body, their
computer was
slowing down its
computing power.
We won at last.

But the price was
too high.

Suddenly,
Exy's computer
frenziedly kill
the companies one
by one.

What exactly
Exy have seen
in Mainframe?

Nobody understood.

There is only last
fate for those
Robots endangering
the human.

But...

Blood tears flow
from Exy's eyes.

Realizing Sadly
that real enemy
is the human being.

Gameplay Differences#

• Only in this version, the starting bomb stock for each shot type has been reversed. While Leinyan still starts with two bombs, Exy now starts with 3 bombs instead of 1, and likewise Shotia starts with 1 bomb instead of 3.
• The speed of Shotia's laser has been increased compared to White Label, but is still slower than Black Label.
• Actions the player takes while fighting the Stage 5 boss Kouryuu now affect whether the game carries over the player's Shot-Speed Rank into the second loop. If the player dies or if a bomb is used against the boss, the player's Shot-Speed Rank will reset to 0 at the beginning of the second loop; otherwise, the player's Shot-Speed Rank will be unchanged.
• You no longer lose all of your lives upon reaching the game's second loop, fixing a common complaint from high-level players.

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label#

An updated version of the game with more lenient mechanics, mostly centered around the game's second loop. Developed as a pet project of director Tsuneki Ikeda in response to development crunch and player complaints surrounding the initial version of the game, Black Label received an extremely limited release of about 100 copies. Unlike the original version, the PCB is now protected with a suicide battery.

It would set a precedent for CAVE releasing future major revisions of their games as "Black Label" versions, beginning with Ibara.

Version Selection#

The game boots to a screen allowing the arcade operator to select which version of the game to run: Version-A ("White Label") or Version-B (Black Label). The selected version will run until the game is restarted.

Copyright Screen#

DaiOuJou	Black Label

The version string in Black Label has been updated to read "2002.10.07.BLACK VER" and was moved down one line. However, the string remains identical to "White Label" if the game is booted into Version-A.

Attract Mode#

DaiOuJou	Black Label

The default leaderboard in Black Label has completely different names and much higher scores.

DaiOuJou	Black Label

The "Demonstration" banner displayed during the gameplay demo has been changed from orange to blue. Additionally, Black Label shows a demo of the Type-B ship first, followed by the Type-A ship.

Loop Selection#

After choosing a shot type but immediately before entering Stage 1, the player is now given a choice to play either a 1 loop or 2 loop game. While the 2 loop game is identical to how the game usually plays, the 1 loop game (besides not featuring the second loop) ends the game with the second loop final bosses Hachi and Hibachi by default.

Gameplay Differences#

• As with DoDonPachi III, any extra lives in stock at the end of the first loop are retained upon entering the second loop.
• Shot-Speed Rank is now reset at the beginning of the second loop regardless of the player's performance against Kouryuu.
• Continuing is now allowed in the second loop, except on the final stage.
• The Hyper gauge charges faster than in "White Label".
• The hit chain counter now goes up to 5 digits, allowing the game to properly display chains above 9999 (possible on Stage 4).

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Tamashii#

A version released eight years after the original for the Chinese and Taiwanese markets. This version of the game has been ported to the ARM-based IGS PolyGame Master 2 and translated into Chinese.

Despite its extremely belated release, it is still based on the original version of the game and features none of the changes made in Black Label.

Attract Mode#

As AMI is no longer the publisher, their logo has been removed from the attract mode, instead replaced by a whopping three new logos: one for the PGM2 hardware, an animated logo for IGS, and a logo for licensee Tong Li Animation.

DaiOuJou
Tamashii

Tamashii features two leaderboards instead of one, ranking scores for its new Easy difficulty on a separate leaderboard. The background has also had its palette changed to represent each difficulty setting.

DaiOuJou	Tamashii

A scaled-down version of the game's logo was added to the gameplay demo above the "Demonstration" banner.

Shot Type Selection#

A new game mode, Easy, was added to Tamashii. Easy mode slows down the bullet speed, making it (slightly) less overwhelming for new players.

References#