JTS18: D.D.Crew/Hammer Away

D.D.Crew

History

This game is one of the titles for the Sega System 18, a side-scrolling fighting action game. There are four characters: the one in the leather jacket is a well-rounded fighter(might be a cop), the one in the black tank top has broad-shouldered and building muscled, with a no-nonsense attitude, the one is muscular with a boxer-like vibe but also skilled at kicking, and then there's a veteran with a martial arts style. The controls are simple: a joystick and two buttons — one for attack and one for jump. Pressing both buttons together unleashes each character’s special move. A double-tap on the joystick triggers a dash, and pressing both buttons while dashing performs a unique super attack for each character.

You can’t simply run past enemies — the screen won’t scroll until every enemy on screen is defeated, so you must clear them all to progress. With detailed character animations (muscle movements, attack motions, and techniques), punchy sound effects, and a powerful soundtrack, D.D. Crew delivers a truly exciting arcade experience.

Hammer Away

History

This vertical-scrolling shooter game where you pilot a combat helicopter, notable for its ability to switch between air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks. Originally prepared by Santos as Gyrodine II, the project was later moved to Sega’s System 18. It was exhibited as a Sega title at the 1991 AM Show and undergoing several location tests the following year, the game was ultimately never released to the public. The reason why it was never officially released remains unclear, but it may have been influenced by the remarkable rise of competing shooters such as Raiden, Trigon, and Thunder Dragon.

Development Update

With this release, all SEGA System 18 titles are supported on the JTS18 core. There is a pending item about better sound balance but that should not be difficult to adjust.

The most demanding task right now is the PCM chip used on Konami's X-Men and Run'n Gun. I am working on a fresh implementation based on Furrtek's schematics. The amount of features that had never been seen in emulated versions of this chip is outstanding. To be fair, using regular RE techniques, it would have been impossible to find out all this information. This is still going to take most of my time during the next 2-3 weeks.

Other team members will keep working on solving open issues. We have a full time collaborator for the next two months who will work on Konami's Premier Soccer schematics so we should see that game included in the next update of JTRIDERS beta.

The start of CPS3 work will probably be around Christmas as the work on Run'n Gun has proven very demanding and still needs a bit more work before the public beta.