shmups.system11.org

That was really screwing me over when I was trying to Double Play at IC09 - glad you sorted it!


EDIT: Spelling

EDIT again!: Actually - is it fully sorted? Can you start a two-player game without infinite lives?

Yes. Just don't both try to start simultaneously - have the second player join once the level starts, not at the level selection screen.

No bullet scratching in DX, I'm afraid. Maybe you were thinking about the tank mid-boss in the training course.

The requirements are the same--if you loop into novice from training. If you start on novice, your game will always end after level 5.

Fascinating DX lore, vol. 1

Enemies (and crates, missile containers, etc.) are invincible at the very top of the screen. This area is a little larger than it was in Raiden II. In the home port, the safety zone is cut in half (approximately) on normal difficulty.

Seconds before an item changes color (tested w/ PS ver. on arcade diff.):

Main weapon
Initial change: 1.333 or 3
Subsequent changes: 2.666

Missile
Initial change: 1.333 or 2.666
Subsequent changes: 2.666

Bomb: 2

If your main weapon and missile are both fully powered, you'll get a P when you die.

Intriguing DX lore, vol. 2

To unlock level 9 on arcade difficulty, you can't die or bomb during the first 8 levels. After beating level 9, you'll get the loop bonus (loop number * one million) and advance to the next loop. This also applies to the pcb.

On normal difficulty, you'll reach level 9 even if you bomb and die several times. Unfortunately, the game will end when you beat it. You'll get the end-of-game and loop bonuses and the credits will roll.

If an enemy is barely visible on the left or right edge of the screen, it'll take damage w/o being able to retaliate.

When you start a two player game, both players will have the red ship's speed. If the blue ship starts a game and the red ship joins in, the former will keep its speed until it dies or the current level ends. Wowsers!

This could've been such interesting facts if I was still into RDX. However, knowing this now, I'm a little tempted to fire up the PS1 port again.... if I can find it.

I recently got back into DX after several months off. I'm wondering why I ever stopped playing.

Engrossing DX lore, vol. 3

If you collect three full-value medals and then kill yourself off, you'll uncover a Miclus at the start of a new game. This only works on the pcb.

You don't have to uncover a gold pyramid at one fell swoop. For example, you can hover over the spot for a second, fly away to dodge some shots, and then finish the job when it's safe. The pyramid's internal timer stops when you move away from its hiding place; it doesn't reset.

Vulcan is a little stronger than it was in Raiden II. Homing missiles got a noticeable boost.

Some info from NMT8.2i's site (http://nmt.cside.com/raiden/index.htm). This applies to the pcb; not sure if it holds for the port.

Destruction rate score breakdown
under 90%: 10,000 for every 10%. If less than 10%, 0
90-96.9%: 100,000 + 10,000 for every 1%
97-97.9%: 200,000 + 10,000 for every 0.1%
98-98.9%: 300,000 + 20,000 for every 0.1%
99-99.9%: 500,000 + 40,000 for every 0.1%
100%: 1,000,000

If you miss one enemy in training, you'll get a destruction rate of 99.8%. That's 180,000 lost points.

Medal hiding spots are included in the destruction rate; bosses and pyramids aren't. Everything that's included in the rate has the same value (Image Fight differs in this respect).

Would anyone be interested in an expert course guide? I'm thinking about working on one during winter break. It would be similar to Icarus' training and novice guides. I'd also include short, semi-watchable YouTube clips.

For example, I'd start my section on the fifth boss by linking to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVYNIHNiu-I

Text and snapshots would explain stuff that might not be obvious from the video alone (e.g. the left and right boundaries of the 0:55 safe spot).

That would be very interesting but my advice is to wait until Raiden DX is emulated in MAME, in the future that will be the reference.

I recall Haze saying that proper Raiden II/DX emulation might never take place. In any case, almost everything in the guide would also apply to the pcb.

Just curious, why exactly would that be a "never"? I know there's encryption but that would just be difficult, not impossible.

Haze saying never = he's not able to do it

Someone will take on the Raiden II hardware one day, but you'll just have to be patient. I've heard it's been looked at a couple of times and the devs simply don't know where to start with it.

I'm not sure. On this page, he wrote the following: "Personally I consider it nearly impossible, although we may run some tests if Dox can hack the hardware up to communicate directly with a PC (if he can’t there is 0 chance)"

This won't make you a better player, vol. 4

Main shots (red/blue/purple power-ups), bombs, and P's share one appearance list. When an item carrier is destroyed, you'll get the next item on the list.

1. main shot
2. main shot
3. main shot
4. bomb
5. main shot
6. main shot
7. main shot
8. bomb
9. main shot
10. main shot
11. main shot
12. bomb
13. main shot
14. main shot
15. main shot
16. bomb
17. main shot
18. main shot
19. main shot
20. bomb
21. main shot
22. main shot
23. main shot
24. bomb
25. bomb*
26. bomb*
27. bomb*
28. bomb*
29. bomb*
30. bomb*
31. P

* You'll get these bombs if you're playing the pcb ver. and start on the training course. If you start on expert, they're omitted. You won't get them in training or expert on the port. I don't remember if they appear in a novice-only game.

There are a few situations in which the game will generate one of these three items without referring to the list. E.g. if you're fully powered and die, a P is generated even if you're not at the very end of the list; the current position on the list isn't affected.

If you destroy every item carrier and never die, you'll always get the same items at the same spots (initial colors are random). If you die, at least one item will spawn from your ship (unless six are currently on-screen). As a result, the item order will be affected.

Example: If you don't die, you'll always get the chance to switch to laser before boss x. If you die before that point, you might get a bomb instead. This would force you to fight the boss with vulcan.

Coming soon: A post on medal/Miclii change times and the significance of the helicopters at the start of a new game. It should be a real barn burner.

Here's an odd request for owners of the PS1 port. If you have a bit of spare time, could you try the following experiment?

Set the difficulty to arcade and start on the expert course. Don't move. If the first helicopter spawns a little to your left, does it kill you? (Restart if the first helicopter spawns to your right.)

Why what happens?

If the first popcorn helicopter appears to the left, the shot fired from it will miss to the right. The next two helicopters also miss the Raiden aircraft. I tested with both P1 and P2, over 10 trials. If the first helicopter appears to the right, shot doesn't go far enough to the left to miss, leading to destruction of the ship.

Thanks! I wanted to know if enemies behave the exact same way in different copies of the game.

Regarding guide videos, which approach would be preferable?
1) A complete video for each level. Sample
2) Short videos for the most notable sections only (mid-bosses, bosses, particularly difficult areas, etc.). Sample

Info of dubious worth, part 5

When a gold or blue medal turns completely dim, it'll flash after 0.666 seconds. It'll remain in its full-value state for 0.25 seconds. Once a Miclus halts, it'll flinch in exactly 1 second. You'll have 0.167 seconds to snatch it before it continues marching. The timing for the arcade version might be a little different; I'll have to check.

The position of the first helicopter (randomly chosen) will affect where the rest appear. If you stay still at the beginning of the game, the first helicopter will appear to your left or right. Accordingly, there are two possible helicopter spawn patterns. If you follow the same basic route every game, it'll become possible to memorize where each helicopter will spawn. (This is a rough approximation of a paragraph on NMT8.2i's Raiden site: http://nmt.cside.com/raiden/system.htm)

I'd prefer small clips, maybe you can have a full stage video at the end of the strategy post for each stage, too.
There's already some very good information on this page, can't wait to see a proper ST of this game. Thanks very much in advance!

You can try that at casino now, screen is not the best quality (crap monitor) but playable enough.

The enemy helicopters spawn down on-screen depending on the position of your ship ie; if your positioned in the bottom middle of screen, the enemies will spawn to the sides to avoid being destroyed by your firepower.

Played all three levels yesterday. Im still not convinced about Alpha or Bravo missions being looped, alpha just ends as 1-0, Bravo 1-5. Didn't find all the secrets though, so maybe that is it.

I've once managed to loop Training to Novice, but when I did everything this guide said, I didn't get to Expert.

If you loop into Novice from Training, it's possible to loop into Expert. It's quite difficult, but it can be done. If, however, you start on Novice, the game will always end after 1-5.

But has anyone here (which i very much doubt) done it on arcade pcb?

Hundreds of japanese players have already done it. This forum isn't the best place if you're looking for a challenge in certain games.
Why don't you try hard?

Because of the slow auto-fire rate (where as japanese cabs have turbo fire switches) on the arcade pcb which is set at 15 (unlike the console versions where you can adjust the autofire to 21).

So I tried doing the same run I did before, following all the stuff you gave me...

Strangely, I only got 65.0 in terms of secrets. That's why I didn't loop over.

But that means you folks are missing something, or I'm not reading this guide straight.

Hrm. You might be confusing gold pyramids with red ones. In a few places, you'll get a red pyramid as a sort of consolation prize if you don't fulfill the requirements for a gold one. Only golds count toward your secrets percentage.

If you have some free time, maybe you can watch this Training run. The player loops into Novice and Expert, so you can see what you're doing wrong.

1-0
1-1, 1-2, 1-3
1-4, 1-5

Do red pyramids explode in boss explosions? Because mine exploded in boss explosions.

Playing in the PS1 version, by the way.

EDIT: I also got a car to once appear in Stage 2, shortly before the boss. I never killed it, so I don't know its value, but from what I could tell, it was an SUV, not the usual Ferrari-style sportscar. Unfortunately, on subsequent playthroughs I could not get it to appear again.

Edit: I tried this run again and got 100% secrets uncovered, but then I got 98.1% enemies shot down, and therefore I didn't go to Expert mode. Bah. In that case, does anyone know what kind of enemies are easily missed? Because I feel like I didn't miss any, but maybe that was just me.

Actually, would anyone know if your Training mission percentages are counted as part of Novice's percentages if you looped over? I'd be interested to find out.

I'm not exactly sure how to parse this. Are you asking if red pyramid explosions are supposed to be big and loud (like boss explosions)? Or are you saying that you killed a boss and the resulting explosion took out a red pyramid?

Almost everything in that arcade replay is applicable to the port. The requirements for looping are exactly the same in both versions.

I don't think there's any way to guarantee the car's appearance. Depending on the type, a car is worth between 500 and 10k points.

There's a secret medal early in Training; uncovering it will add to your destruction rate. In the 1-0 video above, you can see the player try to get it (unsuccessfully) at about 3:34. It can only be uncovered when it's near the bottom of the screen, and its exact position can vary somewhat.

I'm pretty sure all of the train cars count towards the percentage. If you destroy the first in a set too quickly, the rest won't come out. You should delay your fire until the entire train is out in the open. Again, the video is a good reference (start at about 11:10).