Taiko Simulators and the hunt for the perfect simulator on my Tux machine
This blog post is a work in progress. Information may change, information may not change. You have been warned.
Taiko no Tatsujin is a rhythm game. You might have heard of it.
Screenshot of Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival.
Despite it's very simple mechanics, I've fallen in love in this game, despite sucking at it. It might be the aesthetics, the song selection, or just how simplistic yet complicated it is at the same time.
For the longest time, this series was mostly exclusive in Japan. Practically all arcade releases, most of the console Taiko titles and other stuff were all locked away in Sunrise Land. Except for Taiko Drum Master for the PS2, which did have an international release, and it failed badly to the point of never having any kind of localization of this game. Until many years later.
Ever since Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Festival!, all major Taiko console releases have been releasing outside of Japan, marking the reintroduction of Taiko for western players! This has only improved since then, as BAMCO (Bandai Namco) has been introducing new Nijiro arcade cabinets in select locations in the west as well.
Note to self: I have not beaten a chart under Expert (Oni) difficulty. I suck that much.
"But Paya, isn't this about Taiko simulators?" I'll get to that in a minute thank you very much.
Before all of that, before Drum Festival was released, the most western people knew about Taiko were that PS2 game, and Taiko simulators.
The Taiko simulator scene sure has a history...
The simulator landscape
Surprisingly, the history of simulators goes all the way back in the Japanese Taiko community, with the release of 太鼓さん太郎.
Not a lot of people know that this was actually the first Taiko simulator, not Taikojiro. Though most people were more familiar with the latter than the former, due to the longevity and relevance of the latter. And because of such, I have barely anything to say about it.
Speaking of Taikojiro, hoo boy.
Taikojiro running on Linux via Proton.
太鼓さん次郎 is a Taiko simulator created by touch. This builds off what Taikosan started, most notably the creation of the TJA format, a modification of the TJF format from Taikosan, which itself was most likely a modification of the DWF (Dance With Intensity) notechart format.
TJA ended up being the standard for being a general step-up from TJF, introducing more features that would become mainstays of the format.
#START
200001,
300401212221112,
1222115000000008,
#ENDTJAs are incredibly simple to write! All you needed was a text editor and a lot of free time on your hands.
Oddly enough, this simulator is still generally known to this day, well, atleast its successor.
Taikojiro2 v0.98 running on Linux via Proton.
Yes, that's the default theme. Notable gimmick taiko chart creators still use Taikojiro and its derivatives to this day, even if its practically decade old software.
Unfortunately, Taikojiro and its sequel stopped being updated after around 2017. Considering
Of course, this doesn't mean people tried other ways, especially noting the numerous "ports" of Taikojiro on the PSP and DS under the name "TJAPlayer", named after the format. But this ended up being the catalyst for something even greater, and possibly its biggest detriment.
TJAPlayer2.for.PC
Screenshot of TJAPlayer2.for.PC.
Themed after what was currently the latest Taiko look of its generation, this is probably the first widescreen non-TaikoJiro-based TJA Player outside of those that emulated how Portable DX looked on the PSP.
TJAPlayer2.for.PC is a Taiko simulator created by J.MIR, better known as kairera0467. It's based off J.MIR's own fork of DTXMania, known as DTXManiaXG Ver.K, and therefore inherits its godforsaken terrible codebase.
DTXMania and various forks' timeline.
I can get why they did this, after all both DTXMania and Taiko use drums so it should be similar right????? Also the formats used for beatmaps are similar too, right?????
Oh who am I kidding, this isn't even the worst of the things I have to say about this, because this goes beyond TJAPlayer2.for.PC's mere existence as a fork of a drumming game.
The codebase
Here's a snippet of the codebase, specifically at CCounter.cs, atleast on TJAPlayer3-f, which I think keeps most of it intact.
public bool b進行中 => this.n現在の経過時間ms != -1;
public bool b停止中 => !this.b進行中;
public bool b終了値に達した => this.n現在の値 >= this.n終了値;
public bool b終了値に達してない => !this.b終了値に達した;
/// <summary>通常のCCounterでは使用できません。</summary>
public bool b進行中db => this.db現在の経過時間 != -1;
/// <summary>通常のCCounterでは使用できません。</summary>
public bool b停止中db => !this.b進行中db;
/// <summary>通常のCCounterでは使用できません。</summary>
public bool b終了値に達したdb => this.db現在の値 >= this.db終了値;
/// <summary>通常のCCounterでは使用できません。</summary>
public bool b終了値に達してないdb => !this.b終了値に達したdb;See that? That's right. The variable names are in Japanese, making it almost nigh impossible to reference these variables by typing them out directly if you dont have IME. No sane person would want to work with this unless you're Japanese yourself, and even then, why bother with the torture anyway? You can type latin characters just fine!
It also doesn't help that the FDK library (the main framework that handles windowing and other aspects), uses SlimDX under the hood which in of itself is an absolute pain in the ass.
SlimDX.
It's so old that the minimum version is .NET 2! You can attribute the usage of SlimDX on DTXMania probably, but even then 4 years later SlimDX would be knocked out of the water by SharpDX anyway, which was better in practically every other aspect.
SlimDX and FDK's Texture abstraction is responsible for the occassional crash in TJAPlayer2.for.PC based simulators. It simply does not handle textures very well.
Now of course, take these statements I make with a grain of salt. I may be very wrong in some aspects here, but that still won't stop me from tearing this apart on my own leisure.
Author's Note
Of course, I still respect the amount of effort that went into TJAPlayer2.for.PC. Even with how much I hate it, it probably still has its fans, somewhere...
Even so, with this being the only real open source simulator at the time, with all other simulators being closed source, this meant that people could try and improve this simulator for other people to enjoy!
If only there was any kind of meaningful improvements outside of functionality.
TJAPlayer3 and the exodus of TJAPlayer3-based simulators
One day, a person by the name of AioiLight wanted to fork TJAPlayer2.for.PC for some reason.
TJAPlayer3 title screen running on Linux via Proton.
TJAPlayer3 is a Taiko simulator created by AioiLight, which was forked from TJAPlayer2.for.PC, which was forked from DTXManiaXG, which was forked from DTXMania, which was based on Drummania yadda yadda yadda I am not doing the whole spiel. This ended up being the most popular Taiko simulator, being out Taikojiro in most aspects.
TJAPlayer3, as much as I don't really like saying it, is a massive step up over TJAPlayer2.for.PC. Numerous fixes, new TJA commands, the introduction of the Dan Dojo from Gen 3, and other stuff that would make this simulator the standard for simulating Taiko, even after its prime past 2021, with people still using it because they do not know that OpenTaiko exists which is a step up in every which way (unfortunate!)
TJAPlayer3 in-game running on Linux via Proton.
Even the default theme isn't just a bad attempt at copying mainline arcade Taiko. It aims to be its own thing, just like Taikojiro 2! Oddly enough, these simplistic attempts at making a cohesive look makes me feel something... Well that doesn't mean people stopped making arcade Taiko skins of it though.
Being the successor to TJAPlayer2.for.PC you would think this would be it, right? It feels better, it generally plays better, compatibility with TJA files also got better, and of course, it has 3 in the name! It has to be better, right?
Well, yes and no.
Upon lack of updates to TJAPlayer3, people have tried time and time again to make new Taiko simulators based on it, with limited success. After all, its open source right? Surely there would be a successor to it in due time!
Open source forks
These TJAPlayer3 forks are generally open source, meaning anyone can take it and make contributions to it themselves.
twopointzero's fork
This is the one demonstrated at the images at the top here, because this is practically visually and functionally identical to the last v1.5.7 release of TJAPlayer3. It only offers bugfixes, and nothing more but that. This fork is perfectly inoffensive.
TJAPlayer3-f
Created by Mr. Oiji, this simulator is one of the more mature simulators, but oddly one of the lesser used ones, probably because it was locked to autoplay for some time. A notable feature added to this was a separate difficulty select screen, proper Dan Dojo ui, and practice mode.
This is also one of the few simulators in this list to natively support Linux.
TJAPlayer3-Develop
(The video uses TJAP3-D-RW, though it looks practically the same as that.)
Created by touhourenren, this simulator is meant to look like the current generation of Taiko, aka Nijiiro Version. This doesn't offer much besides a visual refresh. I don't remember much besides that.
TJAPlayer3-Develop-ReWrite
I guess touhourenren decided that a rewrite is in order for some reason. Develop was fine beforehand, so this didn't really need to exist.
It's only here as a footnote to the current and most mature successor to TJAPlayer3, which is....
OpenTaiko
OpenTaiko running natively on Linux.
Originally named TJAPlayer3-Develop-BSQ, this simulator is created by 申しコミ and various other members of the OpenTaiko community, forked from TJAPlayer3-Develop-ReWrite.
Compared to other simulators, this once again makes accurate recreation of the arcade Taiko UI a non-goal, with its main goal being a simple yet good way to play Taiko at home. Perfectly servicable. It even runs on other systems besides Windows!
Another thing is that OpenTaiko has its own story and lore, so if you're into that sort of thing I recommend checking it out!
That being said, it's still a part of the TJAPlayer3 lineage....
With that, thats the end of the open-source forks. The real absolute nit and grit is somehow on the private forks.
Private forks
By private, I mean those that are generally very stingy on public releases, or just builds of the damn thing that have been leaked sometimes or just videos on YouTube.
TaikoCatsDooooN
Created by... the TaikoCatsDooooN team. Very creative name, folks. This is a fork of TJAPlayer3 meant to replicate more and more of the latest arcade version of Taiko at the time. It was released, but it would later become the base for...
TaikoCatsCaffe
If you're a person on r/taikonotatsujjn at around 2020, you'll probably know this simulator, as this and its patched alternative, BetterTCC, was originally the recommended Taiko simulator over TJAPlayer3.
Of course, they would never release this. Why would they? It looked too good for the public to get their hands on this, yet despite all that there were 2 separate leaked builds of this.
BetterTCC specifically was a patched version of it fixing bugs and other stuff, as obviously we would never ever get the real source tree for this.
However, this ended up being a blessing, as for the fans of the Gen 3 look, it would later shift visual styles....
SpiCats / TaikoCats / SpiCats Satellite
I have no idea what the real name of this is, it keeps changing yearly for some reason. But these are all one in the same.
Adopting a new StepmaniaX-ass look, this is certainly.... a look.
Honestly with much better simulators in the horizon, its best to just not think about this....
TaikoNijiiroDondaEx (TNDE)
Originally I was gonna get screenshots for this myself, but couldn't run it because it kept nagging me about a missing font... that I already have.
TaikoNijiiroDondaEx error.
Like sure, I'm not gonna play your simulator then, geez. Either way, this is in the same boat as Develop, which means its just a simulator that looks very similar to Nijiiro. Doesn't add much besides that.
Compared to other simulators though, this really aims to be THE Nijiiro simulator, to the point of hardcoding how it looks instead of having the ability to skin it.
Exotic simulators
You thought I was done with other Taiko simulators? We haven't even talked about the other non TJAPlayer3 derivative simulators yet!
These are fewer, though they still have their own footnote in this history, whether good or bad.
太鼓さんなんとか
太鼓さんなんとか running on Linux via Proton.
太鼓さんなんとか, also known as Taiko San-Nantoka, is a Taiko simulator. You might be saying this looks a lot like Jiro, though its biggest thing is how accurate it looks to the arcade and console Taiko releases at the time.
Apart from that, it functions practically identically to Jiro. Interestingly, this was meant to be a limited-time simulator with a time-bomb, but it ended up being patched by someone else, so you can still play it to this day.
Good option for a Taiko simulator, but it IS very old, and will not run if you're not in the Japanese locale, so prepare your Locale Emulators...
taikoUnity
taikoUnity with the PS4 style.
As stated by the title, this is made in Unity, and boy does it show it off. This is probably the only Taiko simulator made in Unity, and one where Don-chan is actually 3D!
By default, the game is themed after Drum Festival!, in not only the playfield, but also the song select as well. There's also a Nijiiro style available for you Nijiiro addicts.
taikoUnity with the Nijiiro style.
This would probably be the best Taiko simulator, if not for its shortcomings. Obviously, this is a Unity game, and Unity does not have measures available for good audio latency by default, so the latency is a bit big for comfort here.
The framerate is also wack, since this is well, a 3D Taiko simulator. It's biggest strength is also it's biggest enemy! Though, I do respect the effort into adding a 3D character customization system, as that makes it so much simpler to customize how Don-chan looks, in which back then in TJAP3-adjacent sims, practically all characters were prerendered.
Unfortunately, this simulator has since been discontinued. Would've liked what it would have been if it was developed more.
And unfortunately, it's only gonna get downhill from here...
TaikoPlusEX
Oh boy. Where do I even begin?
The funniest part about its simulator is that you can make the s capital to make it TaikoPluSEX which is funny,
Ok thats the last good thing I can really say about this simulator, but I do have more to say...
About a few years ago, me and some other people got a leaked build of it, which was, well, locked out. The author of this simulator, Akasoko, completely forgot to obfuscate the final executable, and due to the nature of .NET executables, we managed to decompile it.
Well, 'we' as in more so one person, which I will keep anonymous. Keep in mind this was YEARS ago, so I may be misremembering things.
After that, we decided to desecrate the title screen entirely to really make sure that this version of TPEX was 'cracked', per se, and we named it xTaiko, to parody the existing name of TaikoPlusEx (what was so Plus Ex about it anyway?).
xTaiko title screen.
What's really funny is, to prevent complete leakage and to get off Akasoko's possible prying eyes, this needed an oddly complicated system that uses your system information, and you can only get that from a single application, named xTaikoPass.
Of course, this doesn't really matter anymore, but I couldn't run it without it, so I simply edited the final 1.0 executable to get rid of the check, and NOW it runs.
Anyway, what does this simulator offer that isn't available anywhere else?
xTaiko gameplay.
Absolutely nothing to differentiate it from other Nijiiro sims we've seen so far. Ignore the broken text at the corner- for some reason running this under Proton breaks text rendering entirely, so it looks like that.
There really is nothing to write home about this simulator. It's very pointless, and even Akasoko knew that at some point. With simulators like TaikoNijiiroDondaEx, you really shouldn't be seeking this out, lest you get a virus.
Wait, virus?
Apparently, Akasoko did release this at some point... with malware inside. Take this claim with a grain of salt, as I've heard it mostly thrown around in community Discords. Despite this, I still do not recommend seeking this out, especially considering Akasoko's history in general.
Either way, even with the virus warning, there really is nothing else to talk about. The history behind this simulator is more interesting than the simulator itself. How stupid is that?
TaikoNauts
Remember touhourenren? Apparently they didn't give up making their ideal Nijiiro simulator (jesus, people care that much?) and decided to make... another one! From scratch!
TaikoNauts gameplay.
Just like taikoUnity, this simulator is only distributed in a discord server. A discord server that is needed to play the game. I will go deep into how it works later, so buckle up. For now, lets focus on the fact that this is painfully yet another Nijiiro style taiko simulator. Well atleast it tried with its SimpleStyle theme, which is always good to see.
It runs well, it plays well, sure the input polling sucks since its dependent on the framerate but, its just that. A taiko simulator. With nothing else special about it, and nothing new to show that wasn't already done by other simulators.
What makes me annoyed is the whole process of using this simulator. Compared to ANY of the other simulators in this list, this one requires an internet connection to play. Now, you might be wondering what a Taiko simulator that emulates Taiko gameplay and is a game where you supply the charts yourself needs with an internet connection.
This is a simulator that needs an internet connection to even get in, and therefore has an account system.
Why does a Taiko simulator need an account system?
No, seriously. Why?
This isn't like osu! where there are real leaderboards to watch over, and even then, you don't even need an account to start playing! You don't even need an internet connection!
And it's even worse in trying to integrate this painful need for an 'account system'. In order to make an account, you need to be in their discord server and use the /register command to create a username and password.
Said username and password that you need to manually put in a config file... in plaintext.
What's the purpose of the account system then, if you have to manually type this out in a text file? You couldn't even bother trying to simply prompt the user if needed? And storing passwords in plaintext here is stupid, because some stupid hacker can easily get it, but would they even care for this simulator? I don't know.
But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is the fact that PLAYER INFORMATION IS STORED LOCALLY ANYWAY
So why does this need an external server? The server is useless if the player information that would be stored in a server for an account system is stored locally. This doesn't seem like Geometry Dash where you would sync with your account a few times, oh and Geometry Dash does not require an internet connection to play too, nor an account.
Even if this isn't stored in your computer, an account system still doesn't make sense. It's not like REAL taiko where you would need your player info to be transferred from machine to machine. IN THIS CASE, ALL YOUR PLAYER DATA IS ON YOUR OWN GODDAMN COMPUTER and DOESN'T FUCKING NEED A SERVER BECAUSE YOU'RE RUNNING IT AT YOUR OWN LEISURE
This isn't like osu! or Geometry Dash where you need an account to post charts or levels. TAIKO CHARTS ARE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT REAL ATTRIBUTION CLAUSES UNLESS SPECIFIED. There is no centralized hub for Taiko charts, its ALL OVER THE INTERNET, unless you make one yourself, but clearly you don't seem like you wanna do that, because you're more focused on making your sim look good, so why make something LIKE THIS ANYWAY??????
Ok, you might be saying that you'll ignore the account system issues so long as it runs well on your machine.
This game preloads every texture at startup.
Every. Single. Texture.
Which gives us this very funny question if we do have an Arcade style skin with animations- "Why does a Taiko simulator need 16 gigabytes of RAM?"
Note that other simulators usually only use about 300MB of memory. This includes OpenTaiko, PyTaiko, TJAPlayer3, and TaikoPlusEx. This uses more than that, for less.
And this is on the SimpleStyle skin. What horrors of memory usage would there be when you have a full fledged Arcade skin here....
And this was apparently worse back then, which explained all the 16 gigabyte jokes. Why?
Also you can't run the simulator if you have IPv6 enabled. Great job!
And all of that, for a below average simulator? My expectations were low, but I didn't expect them to be this low.
But then again this is only a beta right? That does not excuse it from criticism like this. If you really wanted to make a good simulator, you would know that doing stuff like account systems is a complete non-goal. I am genuinely appalled by this.
Intermission
I got pissed over the last entry. Let's take a break and look at this plushie of Cure Arcana Shadow.
Ok, now lets proceed to the last of these simulators, and one that is actually good!
PyTaiko / YataiDON
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thy birthday is now