Touhou 2600 series

The *Touhou 2600* series of games is a series of danmaku-style arcade minigames, also known as *Tangent's Touhou 2600 minigames*. The series is primarily based on Touhou gameplay with Atari 2600 style graphics and is the longest series of Tangent's games. The series uses random boss movement to prevent the attacks from being the exact same every game, giving the games a higher replay value.

## Description

The first published game in the series was Devil 2600, which made no direct references to Touhou even though it was pretty clear who the characters were meant to resemble. A video of a "prototype" version of the game, an earlier version of the game that was quickly changed, is available on Youtube.

The series started with Tangent's very superficial understanding of Touhou and danmaku in general, with each game becoming closer and closer to actual Touhou, until a point at which new features essentially stopped being added. For example, in the first game, Devil 2600, the enemy (initially) could move anywhere, there's no focus shots, and no gems. The second game where Marisa was the main boss, focus shots were introduced. In the third game, Maid 2600, against Sakura, gems were introduced as a mechanic for the player to earn more lives, etc. The features generally pile on top of each other aside from a few gimmicky ones, like the spirits from the Ten Desires games and the 1-life feature from Stiff Corpse 2600.

By the end of the Windows Vista era (see: post-Vista era), after Tangent acquired a Windows 8, most games crash on Windows 8, so Windows 8 started a new era of games and the Touhou 2600 series was remade from scratch to cater to the new environment. This era of Touhou 2600 games are generally now vertical, rather than the original horizontal.

Of the games in the series, a number of the games employ variations of a similar style of attack, one of which is termed the *Classic Danmaku Pattern*.

The Len'en 2600 series is considered a subseries to the bigger Touhou 2600 series. The Touhou 2600 series also contains games not based on the main Touhou series, such as one based on a fighting game, one based on Double Spoiler and Shoot the Bullet, one based on Seihou, one based on Umineko, one based on Highly Responsive to Prayers, etc. There are also a few made in the style of modern games, like *Nue Windows* and *Strongest vs Head*, but those can be grouped into the Touhou 2600 umbrella term.

After the earlier games in the series, there's generally a game based on each new Touhou game that came out until Touhou LoLK.

## Game structure

The current main structure of the game is mostly established in one of the later games during the Windows Vista era. Most games feature no boss non-spells (aside from a few games).

0: The player first encounters a mid-boss, who may employ a non-spell or a spell card

1: The main boss appears and launches their first attack, usually the first spell

2: The boss attacks with their second spell, a bit harder than the first

3: Third spell, harder than the last spell

4: Fourth spell, harder than the last spell

5: Final spell, often a survival spell where the player fire is disabled. The spell starts off easy but gets extremely hard near the end.

## The list of Touhou 2600 games (as of 2 June 2018)

Games based on official Touhou games (main boss in brackets, from oldest to newest):

* Devil 2600 (Flandre)
* Sorceress 2600 (Marisa) - added spread/focus shots; better difficulty pacing
* Maid 2600 (Sakuya) - gems added, BGMs start to "shift"
* Vampire 2600 (Remilia) - modern music used. Midboss and limited continues introduced
* Journalist 2600 (Aya)
* Witch 2600 (Alice) - BGM shifting ends. Optimized player attack decided on.
* Kappa 2600 (Nitori) - based on Nitori's actual attacks and shogi. Sakuya has a homing attack.
* Princess 2600 (Kaguya) - based loosely on Shoot the Bullet and Double Spoiler
* Safeguard 2600 (Keine) - experimented around with some pseudo-danmaku attacks. Also added an enemy marker.
* Nue 2600 (Nue) - based on Highly Responsive to Prayers.
* Poltergeists 2600 (Prismriver Sisters) - Added bombs that damage enemies and grazing. This game features a triple boss. The midboss' theme is Cirno's theme reversed.
* Miko 2600 (Reimu) - Master Spark and Yin-yang orbs. One of Tangent's favourite Vista-era Touhou 2600 games.
* Suwa 2600 (Suwako) - 3 playable characters, including Rin Satsuki.
* Dreamer 2600 (PC-98 Alice) - Deathbomb version 1. The boss drops powerups as long as the player hasn't collected it. Boss flashes when hit.
* Engineer 2600 (Rika) - Focused shots also slows down player. Different playables have different bombs and specials
* Soldier 2600 (Felia from the Tri Stars) - Based on Seihou and Samidare, which emphasize on fast and few bullets.
* Spirit 2600 (Mima) - Featuring Mima and includes PC-98, MoF, and UFO elements
* Journalist Battle 2600 (Aya) - Another photo-taking gae, featuring Hatate.
* Devil 5200 (Flandre) - An update of Devil 2600, with "16-bit graphics", a special intro screen, and non-spells. Strict deathbomb is used.
* Poison 2600 (Medicine) - A later game with a time-out card. Isami Asama is in the game icon.
* Qing'e 2600 (Seiga) - First game I made after actually playing Touhou. Featuring fixed deathbomb, visible hit-box, trance, and more.
* Kakashi Extra (various) - Imitates the gameplay mechanics of Double Spoiler.
* Prince 2600 (Miko) - features a lot of Touhou elements. Based on stages 6 and Ex of Ten Desires. Another favourite of Tangent's in the late Vista era.
* Re Kappa 2600 (Nitori): rehash of sorts of Kappa 2600, fixing some flaws. Featuring a new spell, Double Spoiler references, and a bit of humour.
* Nue Windows (Nue) - Update of Nue 2600 and final version (a demo was released earlier). Featuring orb arcs, scoring system, bombs, bumpers and much more. Controlled with mouse.
* The Strongest vs the Detached Head Under the Willows (Sekibanki) - Made to commemorate the release of HM and DDC, this game has modern graphics, nonspells and elements from Fairy Wars. Another Windows style game featuring nonspells. Also abbreviated "Strongest vs Head".
* 10 Nightmares 2600 Plus (mystery boss) - a game featuring the hardest spells from my earlier games and Touhou games.
* Stiff Corpse 2600 (Yoshika) - 1 life special game. You may restart a spell as many times as you want. Similar to a practice mode.
* Emotion 2600 (Kokoro) - based on Hopeless Masquerade.
* Nettie vs Spy 2600 (Nguyen Tho Liet) - a game for 2 friends
* Angel 2600 (Tenshi) - based on Impossible Spell Card
* Psychic 2600 (Sumireko) - the first game in the post-Vista era, made completely from scratch, celebrating the release of ULiL and the LoLK demo.
* Heron 2600 (Sagume) - based on LoLK

 Len'en 2600:

* Assassin 2600 (Kurohebi)
* Scholar 2600 (Kuroji)
* RNGsus 7800 (Xeno a)

Games that are NOT based on official Touhou games:

* Reimu's Donation Box Remake
* Cirno Training Remake - one of my more popular games
* Is That So Remake
* Moko-tan IS here!? - Moko-tan IN Shitao remake
* Bernkastel Danmakufu - as the name implies, based on some Bernkastel Danmakufu scripts
* Butterfly Flies for Fry
* Bernkastel Danmakufu 2
* Lost and in Danger - focuses on graphics and atmosphere, Based on Dangerous China

## Gameplay video playlist

* Tangent's Touhou 2600 minigames playlist - Youtube
* Facebook page (inactive)