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84-460: Batsugun is a 1993 vertically scrolling bullet hell arcade video game originally developed and published by Toaplan in Japan and Europe by Taito , as well as Korea by Unite Trading. The last shoot 'em up created by Toaplan, the title takes place on a distant Earth -like planet where a global takeover operative led by king Renoselva A. Gladebaran VII is set into motion, as players assume

168-509: A respawn system where a downed single player will start off immediately at the location they died at. Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower to its original state, in addition of all medals collected and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the player inserts more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. Unlike previous shoot 'em ups titles from Toaplan, there are no additional loops after completing

252-508: A thundercloud moves over the surface of the Earth, an equal electric charge , but of opposite polarity, is induced on the Earth's surface underneath the cloud. The induced positive surface charge, when measured against a fixed point, will be small as the thundercloud approaches, increasing as the center of the storm arrives and dropping as the thundercloud passes. The referential value of the induced surface charge could be roughly represented as

336-461: A base and carbon dioxide is an acidic gas, it is possible that charged water clouds in which the negative charge is in the form of the aqueous hydroxide ion, interact with atmospheric carbon dioxide to form aqueous carbonate ions and aqueous hydrogen carbonate ions. The typical cloud-to-ground lightning flash culminates in the formation of an electrically conducting plasma channel through the air in excess of 5 km (3.1 mi) tall, from within

420-523: A bell curve. The oppositely charged regions create an electric field within the air between them. This electric field varies in relation to the strength of the surface charge on the base of the thundercloud – the greater the accumulated charge, the higher the electrical field. The best-studied and understood form of lightning is cloud to ground (CG) lightning. Although more common, intra-cloud (IC) and cloud-to-cloud (CC) flashes are very difficult to study given there are no "physical" points to monitor inside

504-459: A bidirectional leader initiates between the main negative and lower positive charge regions in a thundercloud. The weaker positive charge region is filled quickly by the negative leader which then propagates toward the inductively-charged ground. The positively and negatively charged leaders proceed in opposite directions, positive upwards within the cloud and negative towards the earth. Both ionic channels proceed, in their respective directions, in

588-545: A brilliant, blue-white color. Once the electric current stops flowing, the channel cools and dissipates over tens or hundreds of milliseconds, often disappearing as fragmented patches of glowing gas. The nearly instantaneous heating during the return stroke causes the air to expand explosively, producing a powerful shock wave which is heard as thunder . High-speed videos (examined frame-by-frame) show that most negative CG lightning flashes are made up of 3 or 4 individual strokes, though there may be as many as 30. Each re-strike

672-421: A charge opposite of that of the leader tip. The negative end of the bidirectional leader fills a positive charge region, also called a well, inside the cloud while the positive end fills a negative charge well. Leaders often split, forming branches in a tree-like pattern. In addition, negative and some positive leaders travel in a discontinuous fashion, in a process called "stepping". The resulting jerky movement of

756-410: A conductive portion of the main leader network, a return stroke-like process occurs and a dart leader travels across all or a portion of the length of the original leader. The dart leaders making connections with the ground are what cause a majority of subsequent return strokes. Each successive stroke is preceded by intermediate dart leader strokes that have a faster rise time but lower amplitude than

840-451: A different slalom game, also called Skiing , for their Intellivision console. In 1981 Taito published Alpine Ski , an arcade video game with three modes of play. The 1980 Nichibutsu arcade game Crazy Climber has the player scaling a vertically scrolling skyscraper. Data East 's 1981 arcade Flash Boy was released in two versions: a side-scrolling version and a vertical scrolling version. 1979's Galaxian from Namco

924-482: A great distance but not heard; dry lightning , which can cause forest fires ; and ball lightning , which is rarely observed scientifically. Humans have deified lightning for millennia. Idiomatic expressions derived from lightning, such as the English expression "bolt from the blue", are common across languages. At all times people have been fascinated by the sight and difference of lightning. The fear of lightning

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1008-446: A high-resistance medium must obstruct the free, unimpeded equalization of the opposite charges. The atmosphere provides the electrical insulation, or barrier, that prevents free equalization between charged regions of opposite polarity. It is well understood that during a thunderstorm there is charge separation and aggregation in certain regions of the cloud; however, the exact processes by which this occurs are not fully understood. As

1092-530: A last-ditch effort to overthrow a global takeover led by the army of king Renoselva A. Gladebaran VII as the main objective. The title initially appears to be standard; players control their craft over a constantly scrolling background and the scenery never stops moving until a boss is reached. Players also have only two weapons at their disposal: the main gun that travels a max distance of the screen's height and three bombs capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius . A unique gameplay feature

1176-412: A negative charge. Updrafts within a storm cloud separate the lighter ice crystals from the heavier graupel, causing the top region of the cloud to accumulate a positive space charge while the lower level accumulates a negative space charge. Because the concentrated charge within the cloud must exceed the insulating properties of air, and this increases proportionally to the distance between the cloud and

1260-601: A number of much shorter flashes (strokes) of around 60 to 70 microseconds . Many factors affect the frequency, distribution, strength and physical properties of a typical lightning flash in a particular region of the world. These factors include ground elevation, latitude , prevailing wind currents, relative humidity , and proximity to warm and cold bodies of water. To a certain degree, the proportions of intra-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground lightning may also vary by season in middle latitudes . Because human beings are terrestrial and most of their possessions are on

1344-466: A number of successive spurts. Each leader "pools" ions at the leading tips, shooting out one or more new leaders, momentarily pooling again to concentrate charged ions, then shooting out another leader. The negative leader continues to propagate and split as it heads downward, often speeding up as it gets closer to the Earth's surface. About 90% of ionic channel lengths between "pools" are approximately 45 m (148 ft) in length. The establishment of

1428-468: A pace for play, and the player must react quickly to the changing environment. In the 1970s, most vertically scrolling games involved driving. The first vertically scrolling video game was Taito 's Speed Race , released in November 1974. Atari 's Hi-way was released eleven months later in 1975. Rapidly there were driving games that combined vertical, horizontal, and even diagonal scrolling, making

1512-514: A show-off 2D title". French magazine Joypad commended the Saturn released for its boss encounters, arsenal, multiplayer and game modes, stating that "taken from the arcade game of the same name, this Saturn shoot'em-up isn't just another shoot, it's the game to own if you want to see how the genre has evolved today". Christian Blendl of German magazine MAN!AC gave the Saturn an overall mixed outlook. Zverloff of Hardcore Gaming 101 criticized some of

1596-514: A simple array of rapid-fire energy-beams that spread evenly. Type B ships shoot a straight beam of lightning for as long as the fire button is held, while tapping the button causes sparks to appear and travel along the beam. Lastly, Type C ships are adaptable; holding the fire button shoot energy waves straight, while tapping the button fires a spread of projectiles. Each ship type becomes more powerful by leveling up. There are multiple scoring methods for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives in

1680-451: A threshold and form upward streamers. Once a downward leader connects to an available upward leader, a process referred to as attachment, a low-resistance path is formed and discharge may occur. Photographs have been taken in which unattached streamers are clearly visible. The unattached downward leaders are also visible in branched lightning, none of which are connected to the earth, although it may appear they are. High-speed videos can show

1764-519: A wide range of electromagnetic radiation , from heat created by the rapid movement of electrons , to brilliant flashes of visible light in the form of black-body radiation . Lightning causes thunder , a sound from the shock wave which develops as gases in the vicinity of the discharge experience a sudden increase in pressure. Lightning occurs commonly during thunderstorms as well as other types of energetic weather systems, but volcanic lightning can also occur during volcanic eruptions . Lightning

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1848-543: Is a fixed shooter played over a starfield background which gives the impression of vertical movement. The same is true of Ozma Wars from later the same year. The 1981 arcade game Pleiads is a fixed-shooter that vertically scrolls as a transition between stages and then continuously scrolls during a docking sequence. In 1981, Sega 's arcade scrolling shooters Borderline and Space Odyssey , as well as TOSE 's Vanguard , have both horizontally and vertically scrolling segments—even diagonal scrolling in

1932-399: Is a natural phenomenon formed by electrostatic discharges through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions, either both in the atmosphere or one in the atmosphere and one on the ground , temporarily neutralizing these in a near-instantaneous release of an average of between 200 megajoules and 7 gigajoules of energy , depending on the type. This discharge may produce

2016-487: Is an atmospheric electrical phenomenon and contributes to the global atmospheric electrical circuit . The three main kinds of lightning are distinguished by where they occur: either inside a single thundercloud (intra-cloud), between two clouds (cloud-to-cloud), or between a cloud and the ground (cloud-to-ground), in which case it is referred to as a lightning strike . Many other observational variants are recognized, including " heat lightning ", which can be seen from

2100-568: Is called astraphobia . The first known photograph of lightning is from 1847, by Thomas Martin Easterly . The first surviving photograph is from 1882, by William Nicholson Jennings ,  a photographer who spent half his life capturing pictures of lightning and proving its diversity. There is growing evidence that lightning activity is increased by particulate emissions (a form of air pollution). However, lightning may also improve air quality and clean greenhouse gases such as methane from

2184-487: Is included which condenses the original Special 4-loop mode into a 1-loop mode. A newly created mode called EXA Label focuses on scoring and bomb usage while allowing the player to select from all pilots instead of being restricted to a set of 3 pilots. Input lag has been decreased to 1 frame. All pilots are now voiced and a new arranged soundtrack by Keishi Yonao has been added. The original character designer, Junya Inoue , created new illustrations for this release. Batsugun

2268-418: Is separated by a relatively large amount of time, typically 40 to 50 milliseconds, as other charged regions in the cloud are discharged in subsequent strokes. Re-strikes often cause a noticeable " strobe light " effect. To understand why multiple return strokes utilize the same lightning channel, one needs to understand the behavior of positive leaders, which a typical ground flash effectively becomes following

2352-510: Is skiing. Street Racer (1977), one of the launch titles for the Atari VCS , includes a slalom game in which the gates move down an otherwise empty playfield to give the impression of vertical scrolling. Magnavox published Alpine Skiing! in 1979 for their Odyssey² game console. In 1980, the same year Activision published Bob Whitehead 's Skiing for the Atari 2600, Mattel published

2436-477: Is strongest on grounded objects whose tops are closest to the base of the thundercloud, such as trees and tall buildings. If the electric field is strong enough, a positively charged ionic channel, called a positive or upward streamer , can develop from these points. This was first theorized by Heinz Kasemir. As negatively charged leaders approach, increasing the localized electric field strength, grounded objects already experiencing corona discharge will exceed

2520-470: Is the weapon system; as enemies are destroyed, players gain experience points that are separate from the score and for every experience points gained, the main gun is leveled up and becomes much stronger. This is analogous to exp and levelling up in role-playing games. The weapon can only level up twice and after achieving its maximum level, experience points will grant players an extra bomb stock instead. In addition, player can also grab "P" icons to increase

2604-460: Is usually negatively charged, this is where most CG lightning originates. This region is typically at the elevation where freezing occurs within the cloud. Freezing, combined with collisions between ice and water, appears to be a critical part of the initial charge development and separation process. During wind-driven collisions, ice crystals tend to develop a positive charge, while a heavier, slushy mixture of ice and water (called graupel ) develops

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2688-476: The 1966 film ) was also published for the 2600 in 1982. A similar concept was used in Taito's 1983 Bio Attack arcade game. Xevious -esque vertically scrolling shooters rapidly appeared in the following years: Konami's Mega Zone (1983), Capcom's Vulgus (1984), Exed Exes (1985), Terra Cresta (1985), and TwinBee (1985). Capcom's 1942 (1984) added floating power-ups and end-of-level bosses to

2772-458: The Kelvin water dropper . The most likely charge-carrying species were considered to be the aqueous hydrogen ion and the aqueous hydroxide ion. The electrical charging of solid water ice has also been considered. The charged species were again considered to be the hydrogen ion and the hydroxide ion. An electron is not stable in liquid water concerning a hydroxide ion plus dissolved hydrogen for

2856-476: The triboelectric effect leading to electron or ion transfer between colliding bodies. Uncharged, colliding water-drops can become charged because of charge transfer between them (as aqueous ions) in an electric field as would exist in a thunder cloud. The main charging area in a thunderstorm occurs in the central part of the storm where air is moving upward rapidly (updraft) and temperatures range from −15 to −25 °C (5 to −13 °F); see Figure 1. In that area,

2940-584: The tropics where atmospheric convection is the greatest. This occurs from both the mixture of warmer and colder air masses , as well as differences in moisture concentrations, and it generally happens at the boundaries between them . The flow of warm ocean currents past drier land masses, such as the Gulf Stream , partially explains the elevated frequency of lightning in the Southeast United States . Because large bodies of water lack

3024-417: The 1840s as has the electrification of pure liquid water by the triboelectric effect. William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) demonstrated that charge separation in water occurs in the usual electric fields at the Earth's surface and developed a continuous electric field measuring device using that knowledge. The physical separation of charge into different regions using liquid water was demonstrated by Kelvin with

3108-607: The Congo , where the elevation is around 975 m (3,200 ft). On average, this region receives 158 lightning strikes per square kilometre per year (410/sq mi/yr). Other lightning hotspots include Singapore and Lightning Alley in Central Florida . According to the World Meteorological Organization , on April 29, 2020, a bolt 768 km (477.2 mi) long was observed in

3192-424: The Earth where lightning can damage or destroy them, cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning is the most studied and best understood of the three types, even though in-cloud (IC) and cloud-to-cloud (CC) are more common types of lightning. Lightning's relative unpredictability limits a complete explanation of how or why it occurs, even after hundreds of years of scientific investigation. About 70% of lightning occurs over land in

3276-525: The Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine . According to Famitsu , the Saturn version sold over 7,017 copies in its first week on the market. Readers of the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give the Saturn port a 8.4 out of 10 score, ranking at the number 245 spot, indicating a large popular following. Edge reviewed the Saturn version, deeming it "not a classic in designs terms, perhaps, but one that won't disappoint those yearning

3360-468: The Skull Hornets: a squadron of fighter pilots led by prince Olisis R. Gladebaran VIII, son of Renoselva. The Skull Hornets utilize the most powerful submersible jets the planet's scientists have ever devised. Batsugun was created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Toaplan such as Grind Stormer and who would later go on to join one of its offshoots after

3444-522: The addition of multiple loops of increasing difficulty after completing the initial loop, among other changes. On 25 October 1996, Batsugun received a conversion to the Sega Saturn by Gazelle, an offshoot of Toaplan, and published exclusively in Japan by Banpresto. The Saturn version featured various changes and additions such as the inclusion of both the original and special versions as a 2-in-1 package, as well as an arranged soundtrack. In 2022,

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3528-476: The additions in the Saturn conversion such as the arranged soundtrack. Batsugun has been regarded by multiple publications as the first manic shooter due to its evolution of complex enemy waves, bullet patterns, firepower and hitbox. Mark R. Johnson, an author at The University of Sydney in Australia, noted that its first boss unveiled a number of on-screen bullets players never witnessed before. In addition,

3612-437: The atmosphere, while creating nitrogen oxide and ozone at the same time. Lightning is also the major cause of wildfire, and wildfire can contribute to climate change as well. More studies are warranted to clarify their relationship. The details of the charging process are still being studied by scientists, but there is general agreement on some of the basic concepts of thunderstorm electrification. Electrification can be by

3696-402: The attachment process in progress. Once a conductive channel bridges the air gap between the negative charge excess in the cloud and the positive surface charge excess below, there is a large drop in resistance across the lightning channel. Electrons accelerate rapidly as a result in a zone beginning at the point of attachment, which expands across the entire leader network at up to one third of

3780-432: The case of biased percolation, describes random connectivity phenomena, which produce an evolution of connected structures similar to that of lightning strikes. A streamer avalanche model has recently been favored by observational data taken by LOFAR during storms. When a stepped leader approaches the ground, the presence of opposite charges on the ground enhances the strength of the electric field . The electric field

3864-508: The case of the latter. Three purely vertical scrolling shooters were released that year: the ground vehicle based Strategy X ( Konami , arcade), Red Clash ( Tehkan , arcade), and Atari 8-bit computer game Caverns of Mars . Caverns of Mars follows the visual style and some of the gameplay of the horizontally-scrolling Scramble arcade game released earlier in the year. The Atari 8-bit computers have hardware support for vertical, as well as horizontal, smooth scrolling. Caverns of Mars

3948-519: The cloud to the ground's surface. The actual discharge is the final stage of a very complex process. At its peak, a typical thunderstorm produces three or more strikes to the Earth per minute. Lightning primarily occurs when warm air is mixed with colder air masses, resulting in atmospheric disturbances necessary for polarizing the atmosphere. Lightning can also occur during dust storms , forest fires , tornadoes , volcanic eruptions , and even in

4032-476: The clouds. Also, given the very low probability of lightning striking the same point repeatedly and consistently, scientific inquiry is difficult even in areas of high CG frequency. In a process not well understood, a bidirectional channel of ionized air, called a " leader ", is initiated between oppositely-charged regions in a thundercloud. Leaders are electrically conductive channels of ionized gas that propagate through, or are otherwise attracted to, regions with

4116-424: The cold of winter, where the lightning is known as thundersnow . Hurricanes typically generate some lightning, mainly in the rainbands as much as 160 km (99 mi) from the center. Lightning is not distributed evenly around Earth . On Earth, the lightning frequency is approximately 44 (± 5) times per second, or nearly 1.4 billion flashes per year and the median duration is 0.52 seconds made up from

4200-431: The combination of temperature and rapid upward air movement produces a mixture of super-cooled cloud droplets (small water droplets below freezing), small ice crystals, and graupel (soft hail). The updraft carries the super-cooled cloud droplets and very small ice crystals upward. At the same time, the graupel, which is considerably larger and denser, tends to fall or be suspended in the rising air. The differences in

4284-604: The company declared bankruptcy in 1994 to continue working in the bullet hell sub-genre. Its development was helmed by a small group at the company and most of the members had several roles during this process, with Fire Shark designer Yuko Tataka acting as both producer and co-designer alongside artists Junya Inoue and Takeshi Kawamoto. Cave co-founder Tsuneki Ikeda served as one of its programmers prior to DonPachi alongside Satoshi Kōyama, Seiji Iwakura and composer Yoshitatsu Sakai. Both Ikeda and Inoue have stated that several games from other companies that were popular at

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4368-453: The game apart from destroying enemies, which are awarded at one million points. Points can be gained from collecting V-shaped gold medals and once the level is finished, points are awarded for every type of medal collected. Firing or bombing on determined locations is also crucial to reach high-scores, as certain setpieces in some stages hosts bonus secrets within their scenery, as well as destroying enemies on certain spots. The game employs

4452-412: The game was also cited as an inspiration for other titles in the shoot 'em up genre since its release such as Cho Ren Sha 68K and Eschatos . After the initial launch of Batsugun , Toaplan would cease development of shooting projects prior to their closure on March 31, 1994. A sequel was planned but never released, although Inoue stated that the idea of gender-based firepower pairing envisionsed for

4536-456: The ground and tops up to 15 km (9.3 mi) in height. The place on Earth where lightning occurs most often is over Lake Maracaibo , wherein the Catatumbo lightning phenomenon produces 250 bolts of lightning a day. This activity occurs on average, 297 days a year. The second most lightning density is near the village of Kifuka in the mountains of the eastern Democratic Republic of

4620-495: The ground, the proportion of CG strikes (versus CC or IC discharges) becomes greater when the cloud is closer to the ground. In the tropics, where the freezing level is generally higher in the atmosphere, only 10% of lightning flashes are CG. At the latitude of Norway (around 60° North latitude), where the freezing elevation is lower, 50% of lightning is CG. Lightning is usually produced by cumulonimbus clouds, which have bases that are typically 1–2 km (0.62–1.24 mi) above

4704-405: The ground. Called step potentials, they are responsible for more injuries and deaths in groups of people or of other animals than the strike itself. Electricity takes every path available to it. Such step potentials will often cause current to flow through one leg and out another, electrocuting an unlucky human or animal standing near the point where the lightning strikes. The electric current of

4788-438: The ionic channel takes a comparatively long amount of time (hundreds of milliseconds ) in comparison to the resulting discharge, which occurs within a few dozen microseconds. The electric current needed to establish the channel, measured in the tens or hundreds of amperes , is dwarfed by subsequent currents during the actual discharge. Initiation of the lightning leader is not well understood. The electric field strength within

4872-497: The last stage. The plot summary of Batsugun is explained through supplementary materials. On a distant planet similar to Earth, a global takeover codenamed Epsilon Plan led by king Renoselva A. Gladebaran VII is set into motion, with the Imperial Army successfully staging multiple coup d'états upon countries of the planet in less than two weeks. All that stands between the military forces of Renoselva and world domination are

4956-408: The leaders can be readily observed in slow-motion videos of lightning flashes. It is possible for one end of the leader to fill the oppositely-charged well entirely while the other end is still active. When this happens, the leader end which filled the well may propagate outside of the thundercloud and result in either a cloud-to-air flash or a cloud-to-ground flash. In a typical cloud-to-ground flash,

5040-436: The lower part of the storm. The result is that the upper part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged. The upward motions within the storm and winds at higher levels in the atmosphere tend to cause the small ice crystals (and positive charge) in the upper part of the thunderstorm cloud to spread out horizontally some distance from

5124-416: The movement of the precipitation cause collisions to occur. When the rising ice crystals collide with graupel, the ice crystals become positively charged and the graupel becomes negatively charged; see Figure 2. The updraft carries the positively charged ice crystals upward toward the top of the storm cloud. The larger and denser graupel is either suspended in the middle of the thunderstorm cloud or falls toward

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5208-426: The negative leader's connection with the ground. Positive leaders decay more rapidly than negative leaders do. For reasons not well understood, bidirectional leaders tend to initiate on the tips of the decayed positive leaders in which the negative end attempts to re-ionize the leader network. These leaders, also called recoil leaders , usually decay shortly after their formation. When they do manage to make contact with

5292-567: The original arcade version was included as part of the Sega Astro City Mini V, a vertically-oriented variant of the Sega Astro City mini console. In 2023, the Saturn version was ported to Playstation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC under the title Batsugun Saturn Tribute Boosted . This modern version includes new features such as a "Boost Up HUD" which displays extra information and an increased maximum score. In 2024 Batsugun

5376-452: The original version. Batsugun garnered positive reception from during its initial release in arcades but was later met with mixed critical reception on the Saturn as an import title . Nevertheless, the game garnered awards from Gamest magazine . It has been heralded by many as the first manic shooter due to its evolution of various gameplay features in the shoot 'em up genre and as an inspiration for other similar titles. As of 2019,

5460-463: The power of the current level gun. A maximum of five "P" icons can be collected per experience level and getting more after this gives extra points instead, while collecting "B" icons increases the number of bomb stock to a maximum of seven. Another gameplay feature, reminiscent of Aero Fighters , is the ability to choose between three fighter ship variations: Sky Mirage (type A), Dragon's Whisper (type B) and Judgement Flasher (type C). Type A ships have

5544-470: The return stroke averages 30 kiloamperes for a typical negative CG flash, often referred to as "negative CG" lightning. In some cases, a ground-to-cloud (GC) lightning flash may originate from a positively charged region on the ground below a storm. These discharges normally originate from the tops of very tall structures, such as communications antennas. The rate at which the return stroke current travels has been found to be around 100,000 km/s (one-third of

5628-477: The rights to the project are owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-subsidiary of Swedish video game and media holding company, Embracer Group, alongside many other Toaplan IPs . Batsugun is a science fiction -themed vertically scrolling bullet hell game where players assume the role of one of the six Skull Hornets pilots taking control of their respective fighter jets through five increasingly difficult levels in

5712-481: The role from one of the six fighter pilots conforming the Skull Hornets squadron taking control of submersible jets in a last-ditch effort to overthrow the invading military force from the planet. Its gameplay mainly consists of shooting mixed with role-playing game -esque elements using a main two-button configuration. Headed by Fire Shark designer Yuko Tataka, Batsugun was created by most of

5796-504: The same team that previously worked on several projects at Toaplan and who would later go on to join one of its offshoots after the company declared bankruptcy in 1994 to continue working in the bullet hell sub-genre. Though first launched for the arcades, the game was later ported to the Sega Saturn by Gazelle and published exclusively in Japan by Banpresto on 25 October 1996, featuring various changes and additions compared with

5880-545: The southern U.S.—sixty km (37 mi) longer than the previous distance record (southern Brazil, October 31, 2018). A single flash in Uruguay and northern Argentina on June 18, 2020, lasted for 17.1 seconds—0.37 seconds longer than the previous record (March 4, 2019, also in northern Argentina). In order for an electrostatic discharge to occur, two preconditions are necessary: first, a sufficiently high potential difference between two regions of space must exist, and second,

5964-404: The speed of light). The massive flow of electric current occurring during the return stroke combined with the rate at which it occurs (measured in microseconds) rapidly superheats the completed leader channel, forming a highly electrically conductive plasma channel. The core temperature of the plasma during the return stroke may exceed 27,800 °C (50,000 °F), causing it to radiate with

6048-413: The speed of light. This is the "return stroke" and it is the most luminous and noticeable part of the lightning discharge. A large electric charge flows along the plasma channel, from the cloud to the ground, neutralising the positive ground charge as electrons flow away from the strike point to the surrounding area. This huge surge of current creates large radial voltage differences along the surface of

6132-432: The standard formula. Taito's mostly vertical Front Line (1982) focuses on on-foot combat, where the player can shoot, throw grenades, and climb in and out of tanks while moving deeper into enemy territory. The game seemingly had little influence until three years later when Commando (1985) implemented a similar formula, followed by the even more comparable Ikari Warriors in 1986. Lightning Lightning

6216-566: The thundercloud is not typically large enough to initiate this process by itself. Many hypotheses have been proposed. One hypothesis postulates that showers of relativistic electrons are created by cosmic rays and are then accelerated to higher velocities via a process called runaway breakdown . As these relativistic electrons collide and ionize neutral air molecules, they initiate leader formation. Another hypothesis involves locally enhanced electric fields being formed near elongated water droplets or ice crystals. Percolation theory , especially for

6300-495: The thunderstorm cloud base. This part of the thunderstorm cloud is called the anvil. While this is the main charging process for the thunderstorm cloud, some of these charges can be redistributed by air movements within the storm (updrafts and downdrafts). In addition, there is a small but important positive charge buildup near the bottom of the thunderstorm cloud due to the precipitation and warmer temperatures. The induced separation of charge in pure liquid water has been known since

6384-435: The time scales involved in thunderstorms. The charge carrier in lightning is mainly electrons in a plasma. The process of going from charge as ions (positive hydrogen ion and negative hydroxide ion) associated with liquid water or solid water to charge as electrons associated with lightning must involve some form of electro-chemistry, that is, the oxidation and/or the reduction of chemical species. As hydroxide functions as

6468-411: The time served as influence early in development. Batsugun was first launched in arcades worldwide by Toaplan, Taito and Unite Trading in 1993. During the same year, a soundtrack album containing music from the title was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon . Several promotional materials were also released by Toaplan. A second edition, titled Batsugun Special Version ,

6552-462: The title was integrated into Progear . In more recent years, the rights to the title and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton ' s Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by Masahiro Yuge, and is part of Embracer Group since 2022. Vertically scrolling video game Continuous vertical scrolling is designed to suggest the appearance of constant forward motion, such as driving. The game sets

6636-406: The topographic variation that would result in atmospheric mixing, lightning is notably less frequent over the world's oceans than over land. The North and South Poles are limited in their coverage of thunderstorms and therefore result in areas with the least lightning. In general, CG lightning flashes account for only 25% of all total lightning flashes worldwide. Since the base of a thunderstorm

6720-466: The vertical-only distinction less important. Both Atari's Super Bug (1977) and Fire Truck (1978) feature driving with multidirectional scrolling. Sega 's Monaco GP (1979) is a vertical-only scrolling racing game, but in color. One of the first non-driving vertically scrolling games was Atari Football (1978). Scrolling prevents the entire field from having to fit on the screen at once. Another early concept that leaned on vertical scrolling

6804-479: Was cloned for the Apple II as Cavern Creatures (1983). In 1982, Namco 's Xevious established the template for many vertically scrolling shooters to come: a ship flying over a landscape with both air and ground targets. That same year, Carol Shaw 's River Raid was published, a highly rated vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 2600. The less successful vertical scroller Fantastic Voyage (based on

6888-705: Was met with positive reception during its initial release in arcades. In Japan, Game Machine listed it on their February 1, 1994 issue as being the seventh most-popular arcade game at the time. In the April 1994 issue of Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine , the game was ranked on the number nine spot in popularity. Gamest simultaneously awarded the title with both the 6th "Best Shooting" and 36th "Best Character '94" awards. Nick Zverloff of Hardcore Gaming 101 praised Inoue and Sakai's artwork and soundtrack respectively, among other aspects. The Sega Saturn conversion received mixed reviews from critics such as Famitsu and

6972-549: Was released on PC through Steam. The port and new features were handled by Bitwave Games. In November 2024 both Batsugun and Batsugun Special Version are to be included on the Toaplan Arcade Collection 3 cartridge for the Evercade system. In June 2023, Batsugun EXA Label was released in arcades by exA-Arcadia . Besides including the existing Original Arcade and Special modes, a Special' (Special Dash) mode

7056-450: Was showcased to attendees at the 1994 AOU Show in Japan but was never officially released in arcades, as Toaplan slid into bankruptcy and this special version appeared on the secondary video game collecting market after the company vanished. The special version featured a number of changes compared to the original version including a much smaller hitbox , a shield protecting the player from one hit, more powerful bombs, new scoring items, and

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