Daioh
Title screen
| Developer: | Athena |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Athena |
| Producer: | Sakae Nakamura Noriyuki Takasaki |
| Music: | Shoutaro Sasaki |
| Program: | Tsutomu Tabata |
| Art: | Hironobu Tamai Kata Chumuri Numa |
| Release date: | Arcade: July 1993[1] PlayStation 4: November 2, 2023 |
Daioh (JP: 大王, lit. "Great King") is a vertical scrolling shoot em' up released by Athena in 1993.
For several years Daioh was never rereleased, though pseudo-sequels existed in Athena's Dezaemon releases, such as Daioh Gale.
In November 2, 2023, the game was rereleased as part of HAMSTER Corporation's Arcade Archives series.
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Daioh is a 2-buttons shooter. There are 7 stages with a second loop that is accessed right afterwards. It features a checkpoint system after the player loses a life, while instant respawns are used during boss fights, with the exception of the stage 7/14 boss.
Extends are granted at 500,000 points then every 1,000,000 points. They can also be found in the form of 1UP and 2UP items.
Controls
- A button (Press/Hold): Fires the player's main weapon.
- B button (Press): Activates the player's bomb.
Weapons
Daioh has 3 weapons the player can use by collecting their respective item, each of them has its own unique bomb. The weapon currently equipped is indicated by the color of the ship's cockpit.
- Vulcan: Basic wide shot, it gets increasingly wider with each power-up collected. A set of two fireballs fired forward will appear at Level 6.
- Bomb: Large fireballs travel in a circular motion. It deals low damage but has the longest duration out of the 3 bombs.
- Lightning Laser: Lightning shot with homing capabilities. Two lightning shots will be fired at Level 2, three at Level 4 and four at Level 7.
- Bomb: 3 large lasers fired forward.
- Missile Shell: Missiles fired forward. Homing missiles will be added at Level 4.
- Bomb: An AOE sphere that heavily damages enemies.
Note that none of the bombs grant invincibility frames to the player's ship itself.
Power-ups
It takes 9 power-ups for the player to reach full power. Specific power-up levels have "spare" power-ups, represented by red P letters in the HUD below the lives count, if the player dies with these spare power-ups in stock they will respawn with their weapon at Level 2 instead of 1. The power-up levels where this happens is listed in this table:
| Power-up level | Start with |
|---|---|
| 2 | Level 1 |
| 3 | Level 2 |
| 4 | Level 1 |
| 5 | Level 2 |
| 6 | Level 2 |
| 7 | Level 1 |
| 8 | Level 2 |
| 9 | Level 2 |
| 10 | Level 2 |
Items
| Icon | Description |
|---|---|
 |
Power-up Powers up the player shot up to 9 times. 5,000 points when maxed out. |
 |
Speed-up Increases the player's speed up to 3 times. 5,000 points when maxed out. |
 |
Bomb Adds a bomb for a maximum of 20. 5,000 points when maxed out. |
 |
Vulcan Changes to Vulcan. 5,000 points when already equipped. |
 |
Lightning Laser Changes to Lighting. 5,000 points when already equipped. |
 |
Missile Shell Changes to Missile. 5,000 points when already equipped. |
 |
Shield Grants an extra hit and maxes out the player's weapon. |
 |
1UP Grants an extra life. Found in stage 5/12 and dropped randomly. |
 |
2UP Grants 2 extra lives. Dropped randomly. |
Rank
Rank affects enemy bullet speed and the fire rate of certain enemies.
To celebrate the release of Daioh as part of the Arcade Archives lineup, HAMSTER Corporation did a livestream on YouTube with former Athena programmer Tsutomu Tabata where he explained the intricacies of the rank and the so-called Oyaji System. Prior to this, rank was only known to be influenced by collecting surplus items, using the shield item and "Movement pattern #1" as described below.
Initial rank values
As determined by the DIP switch (0-320 range).
- Easy: +0.
- Normal: +32.
- Hard: +52.
- Super Hard: +82.
- Special: Fixed 320.
Actions that affect rank
- Collecting power-ups: +32 (powered up 8 times).
- Collecting 5,000 points items: +4.
- Using a bomb: -32 (can't go below 0).
- Clearing a stage: +56 (+8 for stages 1 through 7).
- Movement pattern #1: when 3 or more enemy bullets are on screen, repeatedly moving in the same direction will add +1 per tap.
- Movement pattern #2: if a direction is held for 1 second then the opposite direction for 1 second while 3 or more enemy bullets are on screen, rank -1.
- Repeated detection of movement pattern #2: If movement pattern #2 is detected 4 times in a row, a +48 rank penalty will be applied; the penalty can be reset by tapping left/right three times, then up/down.
Bomb retention timer
This handles the rank for having bombs in stock.
- Having 3 or more bombs in stock causes the bomb retention timer to tick up from 0 to 256; using a bomb will -32 the timer, but it can't go below 0.
- The bomb retention timer ticks up once a second, based on "(number of bombs stocked + 3) ÷4"; once the timer reaches 256, it resets to 0 and +64 rank is added.
- The retention timer rounds down to the nearest decimal, for example: having 3 bombs in stock would increase the timer by "(3+3)÷4=1.5", rounded down to 1 per second.[2].
Scoring
End of Stage Bonus
The total bonus for finishing stages is based on two factors: Clear Bonus + Bomb Bonus.
Clear Bonus
With the exception of stages 7 (1-7) and 14 (2-7), each stage has a clear bonus.
| Stage | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1 (1-1) | 10,000 points |
| 2 (1-2) | 20,000 points |
| 3 (1-3) | 30,000 points |
| 4 (1-4) | 40,000 points |
| 5 (1-5) | 50,000 points |
| 6 (1-6) | 60,000 points |
| 7 (1-7) | No bonus |
| 8 (2-1) | 80,000 points |
| 9 (2-2) | 90,000 points |
| 10 (2-3) | 100,000 points |
| 11 (2-4) | 110,000 points |
| 12 (2-5) | 120,000 points |
| 13 (2-6) | 130,000 points |
| 14 (2-7) | No bonus |
Furthermore, while stage 14 (2-7) doesn't have a clear bonus, each life in stock is worth 800,000 points. Seeing as the last life is still counted by the game and the final boss always grants an extend upon being defeated, this bonus is never lower than 1,600,000 points.
Bomb Bonus
Each bomb in stock is worth 5,000 points.
Tick Points
Due to its low damage and piercing properties, playing with the Lightning weapon earns more points than Vulcan and Missiles, even when it comes to zako enemies that are destroyed in a single hit. Therefore, using Lightning as often as possible will yield slightly higher results from enemy destruction.
Strategy
Auto-fire
While Daioh has built-in auto-fire it's possible to have a higher frequency than the default one (28,71 Hz being about the limit) by using an external auto-fire button. The damage done by the Lightning weapon goes unaffected, but Vulcan and Missiles will have a substantial difference when pointblanking with the higher auto-fire frequency.
Hidden Extend
Near the end of stage 5/11 a midboss appears. This is the only enemy in the game who always drops a 1UP when defeated. It is ideal to come into this encounter with the Lightning weapon, otherwise the midboss' arms will block the vast majority of the player's Vulcan/Missile shots and make it likely for the midboss to escape, missing the 1UP.
Shield Item
This item will equip an armor that can withstand a single hit and max out the player's current weapon. If the player is already at max power then it'll act as a 5,000 bonus and release several other items floating across the screen. This is dangerous, since most of the items are power-ups and speed-ups that will be 5,000 bonus and are difficult to avoid the end result is increasing the rank by accident. Because of it this item is a bait for the most part and it's better to ignore it unless the player has no other choice.
Random appearance of 1UP
Within the item sequence, there is a chance a 1UP/2UP item will appear. Normally their appearance is random. However, during a fresh boot (or after a hard-reset) by starting a credit at a specific point within the attract sequence it's possible to manipulate the game's RNG so that a 1UP can appear during the first boss fight. Furthermore, if the player's power-up and speed-up levels match it can be a 2UP instead, though the chances of this happening are lower.
TO DO: Find the attract sequence that'll trigger the 1UP appearance in the Japanese version.
Version Differences
US region
Daioh has two Country settings that can be changed in the DIP switch menu: Japan and USA. The US version has every weapon and bomb available without the need to collect weapon items, making the game go from using 2 buttons to 6 buttons. Naturally, the US version is slightly easier to play than JP because of this. The player should be careful, however, as switching weapons at specific power-up levels too fast can cause a crash.
Controls
- A button (Press/Hold): Fires the Vulcan.
- B button (Press/Hold): Fires the Lightning Laser.
- C button (Press/Hold): Fires the Missile Shell.
- D button (Press): Activates the Vulcan's bomb.
- E button (Press): Activates the Lightning Laser's bomb.
- F button (Press): Activates the Missile Shell's bomb.
Weapon items
Weapon items are still present in the item order, however, since the player no longer needs to collect them to switch weapons, they are only found as Missile items and are always 5,000 points bonus regardless of the current weapon equipped.
1UP/2UP appearance
As described previously, the player can manipulate the game's RNG to cause a 1UP/2UP item to appear during the first boss by starting a credit at a specific point during the attract sequence, and just like the Japanese version, the game must be running in a fresh boot/after a hard-reset.
The player has to start the credit after the animation in the score ranking finishes, once the letters stopped moving. However, the window that makes the 1UP appear is still rather small, waiting for a brief moment before starting can make the 1UP appear slightly earlier during the fight, but taking too long can exceed the time window and the 1UP won't be dropped.
Trivia
- The game would later recieve a remake known as Shienryu, which was released by Warashi in 1997. During that time, most former Athena employees worked there on Warashi.
Gallery
See (Template Page)/Gallery for our collection of images and scans for the game.
References & Contributors
- Page creation by Andrew98.
