This is a PS2 port of the Castlevania arcade game and includes an 8cm CD with game music and sound effects as a bonus.  If anyone gets it, let us know if there's music on here not previously released on the Castlevania promo disc that came with the Symphony of the Night.  Thanks.

http://www.ncsx.com/2006/052206/oretachi_dracula.htm

I'd be willing to bet that the CD contains the relevant portion of Konami Game Music Collection Vol. 1.

The only thing I know is that it contains a new arrangement by Takayuki Aihara.  He mentioned it in his blog:

http://j99.net/

How have I not heard of this before?  I'll check to see if they have any copies of it today when I go to pick up New Super Mario Bros. (which finally just came out today over here.  >_<)

I recall playing this in a skating rink waaaay back in the day, before I'd ever touched the NES Castlevanias.  Is the level design in this and the NES original similar or are they completely separate games?  Which came first?  The graphics look better than what I recall from the NES game.

They're completely different games, and Haunted Castle is really, really horrible. Fire it up in MAME if you're the masochistic type.

They're gonna port every Castlevania except Rondo, huh.

Those bastards!  Seriously though, is it too much to ask Konami to release a Castlevania Collection (and they damn well better include Rondo)!  Don't they release how well it would sell here in the States?  HELLO KONAMI??  CAN YOU HEAR ME!

-avatar!

In theory the UPS guy should be here any minute with it, so I'll let you guys know and rip it.

I was thinking of maybe getting this together with the Contra one... I'm a little worried about the "mini-DVDs" though. I've never had one before, so I'm not sure if it will work in my PS2. (In which the region isn't a problem.)

It's quite possible we'll see Rondo on the Virtual Console.

You mean the Revolution/Wii thing? You really think they're going to emulate the PC Engine CD-ROM and make Rondo of Blood available for it? Sounds like too much investment for too little return. Supposing they did, that's not the same as releasing a physical game that someone could actually own, which I think is a big part of the interest.

They're already emulating PC Engine and adding CD support is not very difficult - I've heard that it might be part of it. If you could play PC Engine CDs right on the Wii, it would be the best system ever right there.

Also here is the bonus MP3:

http://www.fileplanet.com/hosteddl.aspx … ep+mix.mp3

It's OK, about six and a half minutes long. Most of it consists of various arrangements of Cross Your Heart, plus some Don't Wait Until Night and Bloody Tears tossed in there. I haven't listened to the Contra one yet.

I should also mention that the music here seems to be taken straight from the arcade game and sounds less bassy than the versions on the Konami Vol 1 collection. They also separated the two Basement Melody themes into two different tracks. I'll post them on the Dungeon by the weekend.

Cool, thanks.

Is there any way to download that without joining Fileplanet?

bugmenot.com

Jeremy Parish had this to say about the arcade version:

"The Good: Man, that music rocks.

The Bad: Nothing else rocks. At all. Not even slightly."

He will have an in-depth review of the game later, but in the meantime, that Castlevania I timeline also cleared issues about which came first. I'm a little surprised, but yes, it was the NES version that is the progenitor of the whole massive series. Both it and a MSX version shortly afterwards came in 1986, then the arcade version (the one in question in this thread, Haunted Castle), came in 1988.