This essay will be somewhat shorter than the other chapters, as it won’t deal with the games themselves (and beside that, i’m not willing to cover Compile’s history, as they were strictly console-based and most of their games were just whack-a-mole stuff, to quote Rob’s brilliant definition). What i will cover here, briefly, is the “Compile and Toaplan” diaspora:While i basically already covered Toaplan’s legacy, i have to spend a few words on Compile. It seems that their programmers have gone, once Compile decided to be a Puyo Puyo company, to found various companies. What’s most interesting is that, at least in two cases, they went to work with other ex-Toaplan programmers, thus mixing the most famous arcade shmup programmers with the most famous console shmup programmers (not really, but Compile had their popularity, thanks to whack-a-mole fans).

Compile, as i said, produced a lot of questionable console games, and most of their fame comes from the eye-candyness and the inexistent challenge. Also, most of their games had one gazillion power-ups, with just of them being useful.However, they surely had a lot of interesting ideas, which in turn would have become the basis for a lot of interesting games, thanks to the aforementioned diaspora of programmers.Let’s see how:

TAKUMI – A couple of Compile programmers and a couple of Toaplan designers/programmers/whatever went to this whack-a-mole and crane games manufacturer to make the arcade section, publishing with Taito the half-completed KyuKyoku Tiger II. It is unclear (to mea at least) if they went to Toaplan before bankruptcy: Compile’s diaspora seems to have started shortly after the first Puyo, with Compile’s bosses deciding to specialize in just one product (smart move…): this means 1993, roughly, so it can be that those programmers went to a bankrupting company before producing their new title.In such a case they would surely deserve the prize for “Luckiest career ever”…To my knowledge, they are still working with Takumi.

RAIZING – The other unofficial Toaplan company with Compile guys, and lot of them. One entire programming group went to form Raizing, apparently (have to check Mahou and Shippu Mahou’s credits), and made 4 shmups: The Mahou series and SokyuGurentai. They also made the Bloody Roar series, in case you wonder. Right now they must have reformed as Eighting, apparently.

MILESTONE – Yes, the much maligned MileStone ( Chaos Field, in case you wonder) is made of ex-Compile programmers, apparently the ones who did Zanac Neo. The other remaining group behind Compile formed Aiky and have the rights to their older catalogue, but they’re not doing shmups right now.

CAVE – Yeah, you know the deal: Kenichi Takano must have been the programmer behind the Toaplan’s early titles, i suppose. Tsuneki Ikeda (and another guy whose name escapes me now) started working at Toaplan with V-Five and Batsugun (at the very end).For the rest, Ikeda-san grew up with Tatsujin, so, do i need to go further?

PSIKYO – Apparently, Shin Nakamura didn’t want to make a sequel on Neo-Geo of its successful idea (Aero Fighters), so he went the Treasure way and…made his own sequels-based company. The Taisen Hot Gimmick group seems also to have come from another company, but that’s Mahjong stuff, i’m completely ignorant on the issue.

What’s left? Apparently, Gazelle. This was a small and short-lived company with some Toaplan guys (Joker Jun, Tatsuya Uemura) and maybe another Compile programmer or two. They didn’t survive for long, to my knowledge, their only shmup being Akuu Gallet. Speaking of diasporas, Taito had some Toaplan guys who did Gekirindan (Lee Ohta and a couple of designers), while Treasure (ack, but i have to put them in such an essay) are mainly ex-Konami programmers (but, i think, none of them worked on any Gradii or Salamander), with the Parodius team being the only one who produced shmups for Konami.Last but not least, The Raystorm/G.Darius core group is now known as G.Rev. So, it can be easily said that most of modern (and old, too) shmups come from two main groups: Toaplan and Compile. What’s amusing is that Compile programmers, once out of the console market, started to produce brilliant, difficult and fast-paced games, completely different (but some common traits can be found here and there) from their earlier efforts.

It must also be said that many elements, like pace, power-up systems, rank, scoring mechanics, etc. have been first outlined in most of their early Arcade efforts: in some sense, both ‘90s generations are a byproduct of these two different schools and their representatives, mixed together in new enterprises, and influencing each other while being mixed in this peculiar way.

Next essays, unless some cataclysm will happen, should cover Seibu and Taito.

Uhm, i have to move to the new house by this week-end…

R