I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

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Randorama
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Randorama »

Sengoku Strider wrote:Isn't EX just so freaking good? It just feels so...visceral, like a boxing match against 1000 robot space fish or something. I had a great time with that one. Darius II was also a strong effort, but the devs didn't quite have the time or chops or ROM space to turn out the same level of polish.
I am tempted to say that it is a timeless classic, though I am *heavily* biased towards the franchise: I played the first title in 1988 when I was 8, and had to stay on a stool just to see the screen (!). It is part of those character-forming childhood memories, I guess.

Old and New versions play at a slower pace and have a few design aspects that make them a bit unbalanced and on the easy side (e.g. some final bosses are too easy; some latter stages such as "Q" don't have enough enemies). Of course, I am reasoning with the "fast" autofire option in mind.

EX has aged incredibly well, since it is still a fast-paced, very frantic and almost manic/danmaku shmup: final bosses are tough but not impossible, latter stages are really fast-paced but perfectly doable, and in general any path has a really smooth difficulty progression curve (favourite achievement: clearing the "Y" stage on a maxed-out missile weapon).

Regardless of the versions, the game has interesting score system, which was no mean feat for an 1986 game (most shmups were "blast stuff, hoard bombs" in the 1980's), and a visual style and OST's that I can still find endearing (and innovative, somehow), to this age.

Darius II had jaw-dropping graphics for the time (I played it on a 3-screens cab in 1990), but a more conservative gameplay (e.g. enemy formations always appear in the same spots; lots of fast sniping bullets; etc.) and a vaguely irksome power-up system. I adored the synth J-pop/city-pop OST, but now it sounds really cheesy to my ears.

Boss battles are a joy in both games, though "Great Thing" and "Mother Hawk" still beat me semi-regularly; I do believe that the series' pinnacle is G-Darius on this aspect, though.

Ah, whatever: I will post more ruminations in the Darius love thread :wink:
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
Steven
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Steven »

DenimDemon wrote:
Steven wrote:I finally beat fucking Kyuukyoku Tiger.
1 cc? Jesus, congrats!!! wish I could do it, that would be a 1cc dream :) on a good run I can make as far as stage 5 and thats with a lot of sweat and plenty near deaths. Incredible game!
Thanks. It took me I believe 13 months and 1 day to get the clear, but I did take several breaks of not playing the game for 1~2 months at a time. I could have cleared the game a lot sooner if I'd figured out stage 5 earlier, though.

Stage 5 is possibly the hardest stage in the game, so if you can get through stage 5, you can beat the game. I was stuck on stage 5 for like 8 months until I decided to just bomb my way through the field with the Otakebi and found an awkward but kind of safe way to kill the green launchers that spawn at the boss.

Stages 6 and 7 are actually both way easier than stage 5 for some reason, but the stage 7 boss is probably the hardest boss in the game, so be careful once you get there because that weird double tank thing is super nasty; time out without shooting it at all is actually most likely safer and more viable than fighting it. You can also bomb + 30Hz point-blank the left side of it to insta-kill it before it gets a chance to shoot at you, leaving only the right side, which you can either time out or try to destroy, depending on what you want to do with it.

I say possibly because I'm not sure about stage 9; that stage is hard, and while I did beat it yesterday on only my 3rd time getting to that stage, I died 9 times there, mostly because I'd never seen, practiced, or practiced recovery on the second half of the stage, so I ended up clumsily stumbling through it checkpoint-by-checkpoint while bombing the crap out of everything in a desperate attempt to not game over since I have absolutely no idea how to recover at any point on that stage. I am amazed that I didn't game over. I think stage 9 is probably harder than stage 5 overall, but I would need to play it a whole lot more to decide, but it also took me like 20 or 30 attempts to beat stage 5 for the first time and only 3 to beat stage 9, so who knows. I know I am a much better player in general than I was when I started playing the game last January, so that helps.

Then you get to stage 10 and it's oddly one of the easiest stages in the game... but only if you know about the safespot on the boss and are powered up enough to be able to use it. It gives you way more than enough powerups, though, so all you really have to do is make sure you get the spread shot as soon as you can if you die and then you're basically guaranteed to no miss the rest of the stage and be able to use the safespot.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Welp, that didn't take long. Got the Gunhed 1CC on my second attempt (though I'd been playing a fair bit lately on the side as a palate cleanser).

Spriggan time!
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Nahar
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Nahar »

I just 1CC'd gradius Arcade version, but I don't feel OK with the 1CC. I got killed in the electric cage in the last stage and it re-spawned me after it. Anyway, 1CC is 1CC but I dunno, it felt a bit anticlimactic.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Got the Spriggan 1CC. From some of the things I read online I expected the game to just topple over the moment I hit start, but I'm slowly coming to the realization that people who dismiss these things as way too easy usually just spent 8 minutes with it during an emulator ROM tour and moved on. For sure, once I got the hang of things and was able to break through stages 2 & 3 it was easy to consistently get deep into the game. But the late game bosses crowd the screen and can easily chain-kill you, so the actual 1CC took me a week.

This was a game that really grew on me. At first the reaction I had was "Enh, this is alright," but once I had the mechanics of the complicated weapon system down I was really having fun. Colourful, great soundtrack, piles of immense weapons, and best of all really crunchy explosions that you get to hear in waves. The soundtrack really held up to repeated listening, usually by the end of these things I'm turning on a podcast for audio. And at first I though the cut scenes were just a tacked-on frill, but TBH after the silent narratives of other shooters I've played recently it did add something to the whole experience, even if only by outlining how the stages fit together and how the whole thing is one continuous journey into the unknown by the two main characters.

This is another one I can certainly see myself revisiting down the road on higher difficulties, there's a lot on this disc. Definitely at the higher end of the Compile catalogue imo.
Nahar wrote:I just 1CC'd gradius Arcade version, but I don't feel OK with the 1CC. I got killed in the electric cage in the last stage and it re-spawned me after it. Anyway, 1CC is 1CC but I dunno, it felt a bit anticlimactic.
The true test of Gradius is willing yourself through the powered-down checkpoint restarts. You can actually just fly over the cage, so once you've gotten that far and know not to let the gate close on you, the game's pretty much done anyway.
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Nahar
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Nahar »

Sengoku Strider wrote: The true test of Gradius is willing yourself through the powered-down checkpoint restarts. You can actually just fly over the cage, so once you've gotten that far and know not to let the gate close on you, the game's pretty much done anyway.
Yeah, don't get me wrong, I LOVED Gradius. It's just I didn't expect that last flop off.
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davyK
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by davyK »

I should be clearing this with lives to spare but I'm going to see if I can clear this in max mode next then return to this tamer mode and see if I can no miss it. :) The slowdown in this mode really should make it easy but I keep screwing up.

Mushi v1.5 Original, Steam. I did this with the little Switch Hori mini stick - just wanted to give it a test before Switch Tetris Effect physical arrives.

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To Far Away Times
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by To Far Away Times »

Congrats! For what it's worth, I think you've done the harder of the two clears already. I thought Original Max was a slightly easier clear than Original 1.5, but it's not as drastic of a re-balancing as Futari 1.5 vs Futari Black Label.
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Angry Hina
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Angry Hina »

1cc'ed some last (?) times Star Soldier Vanishing Earth and conquered the highscore list on all difficulties with the ship no ones has played before (at least within the highscore table) :D https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.p ... 0#p1519420

I think its a very well made game which does very good in terms of level variety, the feeling of speed in some stages and the feeling of tension in others, boss battles, replay value and the range of the difficulty. It gets much harder in the hardes of the three settings, adding much more enemy health, faster bullets, new attack patterns and even suicide bullets. But whith the blue ship with its extremely damaging bomb-beam you can nearly skip the boss battles and get a not that hard 1cc. But it will get much harder with the red and especially the green ship (widest spread shot with lowest damage). At least its a bit easier to achieve higher score chains in some parts.

It was fun playing the green ship (Wisteria) because you should use more often the vertical space of the screen (which I havent done often before) if you want to get more of your shots to hit something and dont get surprisingly shot by a suicide bullet coming from an enemy you have shot with your 180 degree bullets while he nearly has passed the lower screen border. But in the end its just slow and week :D but its a nice challenge and you possibly get a bit higher scores with it.
The blue one (Lathyrus) is kinda boring with its massive damage output. I recommend the red one (Venidium) the most. Its fast enough, the shot is ok balanced between wide and strong ans of course its the real Star Soldier ship :D But its bomb beam sucks which makes the boss battles more annoying and dangerous.

If you walk through all of the secret paths, the game is kinda long (~46 minutes) but its more fun as well because of the design uniqueness at least in two of the three special stages. You will also get much higher scores.

Things that are not so great:
- the big hitboxes together with angled perspective makes it sometimes hard to get the right timing for bombing or an evasive move
- there are no 60 frames (has any n64 game 60 fps?); I guess its somewhere between 20 and 30 but it switches reliable so you wont die because of the frame rate variation
- I think theres a bit of lag it you play (like me) with a import game converter (but possibly its just the two posts above)
- some boss patterns are noticeable difficulty spikes
- even if it looks good and the stages never feel bland or blank you will find no advanced or very well made N64 graphic effects
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BIL
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by BIL »

F-Zero X keeps a steady 60fps, with only occasional slowdown when there's a ton of the 30-car field onscreen. Sacrifices a bit of texturing to do so, but flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
Steven
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Steven »

BIL wrote:flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
Glorious Switch Virtua Racing~
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BIL
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by BIL »

Exactly the game I had in mind ^__^
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Angry Hina
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Angry Hina »

BIL wrote:F-Zero X keeps a steady 60fps, with only occasional slowdown when there's a ton of the 30-car field onscreen. Sacrifices a bit of texturing to do so, but flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
right, great game but games like xtreme G 1& 2 had much more detailed environment and much more beautiful graphic effects compared to F Zero.... but you can play F-Zero even today and all these 15-25 frame games are a bit too extreme for modern standards ^^
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BIL
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by BIL »

Wipeout 64 is a good compromise of detail and fluidity imo; some absolutely ripping straightaways in that one. Only thing is it instantly makes me want to put on 2097/XL. :mrgreen:
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dojo_b
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by dojo_b »

Can anybody recommend an arcadey or retro racer that is (a) a good onramp for newbies into the genre, (b) official release on PC or PS4? (I'll go SNES if it's a necessity for a top-class rec, but tend to avoid later-gen emulation.)

I love the look/feel of Wipeout HD, but I'm actually too much of an idiot for this thing. DiRT Rally 2.0 has been my go-to recently for the realistic side; it's incredible, at least on a good PC, but such a focus on loose surfaces that it kinda fucks with my already-weak normative driving skills.
Last edited by dojo_b on Fri Mar 10, 2023 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BIL
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by BIL »

Ghegs is the guy I'd ask, along with anyone else who posted regularly at the (sadly defunct) Rolling-Start forums.

I'm a total Encino man on newer stuff tbh. I got Wipeout HD as well, enjoyed it for a weekend, then promptly went back to XL. Image Good stuff, just ended up rainchecking it like most non-AC stuff nowadays.
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

dojo_b wrote:Can anybody recommend an arcadey or retro racer that is (a) a good onramp for newbies into the genre, (b) official release on PC or PS4? (I'll go SNES if it's a necessity for a top-class rec, but tend to avoid later-gen emulation.)
Outrun 2006 is top quality arcade racing, and you can still find fairly cheap copies of the DVD release on eBay. It's where I got mine (search for Outrun 2006 White Label). There are no-cd patches for once you get the DVD installed. They break high score saving sadly, but they're more convenient if you can't be bothered using the DVD drive every time you want to play (or you can go the complex route and make a DVD image and use CureROM when booting up the game).

There's also Slipstream which is alright, but has some issues. The "manual" drifting option controls like a really poor man's Outrun 2006 (it's way clunkier to initiate and control drifts), but if you set it to "automatic" drifting then it's a decent indie take on an Outrun / Outrunners style game.

I'd also strongly recommend looking into Teknoparrot on PC and checking out the Wangan Midnight arcade games (Wangan Midnight 5 is a 2014 game). It's extremely disappointing that there's no port, and no legal way to play them unless you're fortunate to have an arcade near you. I've sunk a ton of time into Wangan Midnight 5, it's a solid arcade racer as are the Initial D arcade games.
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Steven »

BIL wrote:Wipeout 64 is a good compromise of detail and fluidity imo;
I totally read that as "dental fluidity".
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davyK
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by davyK »

Angry Hina wrote:
BIL wrote:F-Zero X keeps a steady 60fps, with only occasional slowdown when there's a ton of the 30-car field onscreen. Sacrifices a bit of texturing to do so, but flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
right, great game but games like xtreme G 1& 2 had much more detailed environment and much more beautiful graphic effects compared to F Zero.... but you can play F-Zero even today and all these 15-25 frame games are a bit too extreme for modern standards ^^

OT I know...but I have yet to play a game that is better than F-Zero X for pure balls-to-the-wall racing. There is nothing quite like that feeling of threading through a huge aggressive pack at speed - and that trade-off of speed vs safety (ie shield) with the shared energy bar was an inspired idea. I still play this game when I want a real rush from an arcade racer.
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Angry Hina
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Angry Hina »

Its really great, yes. The GC F-Zero wasnt that perfect like X was.
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Leandro
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Leandro »

I just 1cced Infinos Gaiden. Enjoyable game, has that nice 16 bit aesthetic, well paced. Great soundtrack to complete the package.

This time I recorded my run. Hope I can learn how to configure the Radeon streaming software to improve image quality.

https://youtu.be/v1AcPlqoue0
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Sima Tuna
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Sima Tuna »

davyK wrote:
Angry Hina wrote:
BIL wrote:F-Zero X keeps a steady 60fps, with only occasional slowdown when there's a ton of the 30-car field onscreen. Sacrifices a bit of texturing to do so, but flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
right, great game but games like xtreme G 1& 2 had much more detailed environment and much more beautiful graphic effects compared to F Zero.... but you can play F-Zero even today and all these 15-25 frame games are a bit too extreme for modern standards ^^

OT I know...but I have yet to play a game that is better than F-Zero X for pure balls-to-the-wall racing. There is nothing quite like that feeling of threading through a huge aggressive pack at speed - and that trade-off of speed vs safety (ie shield) with the shared energy bar was an inspired idea. I still play this game when I want a real rush from an arcade racer.
Super Hang-On is damn close, however. Especially for such an early 3d(ish) arcade racer. I was raised on F-Zero X. It's still my favorite, but I can't deny the quality of Super Hang-On. If I were older, I'd probably be saying Super Hang-On is the better game. Just because of nostalgia and the fact it got there first.

The boost/turning system Super Hang On uses is comparable to the way F-Zero balances speed, control and shields. You can boost as much as you like, but boosting will dramatically increase the difficulty of turns and make some turns impossible.
sunnshiner
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by sunnshiner »

I've just 1CCed Rolling Gunner (normal version) novice mode! I know it's an easy clear but, hey, I'm a filthy casual :lol:
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Sima Tuna
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Sima Tuna »

1CC Raging Blasters Hard Difficulty

Score: 2,260,061

Puts me 163 in the rankings, a bit below Jonpachi. For such a rough 1cc (I was down to the last life and almost died a few times,) I was surprised at how well things ended up. Guess it's on to Expert now.
sunnshiner
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by sunnshiner »

Steven wrote:
BIL wrote:flat 60fps polys rule tbh. :cool:
Glorious Switch Virtua Racing~
Oh, man, I love that game.
dojo_b wrote:Can anybody recommend an arcadey or retro racer that is (a) a good onramp for newbies into the genre, (b) official release on PC or PS4? (I'll go SNES if it's a necessity for a top-class rec, but tend to avoid later-gen emulation.)

I love the look/feel of Wipeout HD, but I'm actually too much of an idiot for this thing. DiRT Rally 2.0 has been my go-to recently for the realistic side; it's incredible, at least on a good PC, but such a focus on loose surfaces that it kinda fucks with my already-weak normative driving skills.
Pretty much any of Sega's arcade racers is a decent place to start on this particular brand of crack*. OG Sega Rally and Daytona USA (running in the Model 2 emulator) are both awesome.

*Careful, you'll be looking at force feedback wheels and load cell pedal boxes in no time at all. A body can work with one kidney, right? :lol:

edit, sorry, I didn't read the 'official release' bit.
Randorama
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Randorama »

2-ALL, 1-CC Sorcer Striker (and Mahou Daisakusen, too: EU and JP versions). Really easy game, though dying in the loop can ruin a run: some sections are devoid of power-ups, and death in the loop means no secondary weapon power-ups. Very close to a 2-ALL, 1-CC on Kingdom Grandprix, too.
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Finally banged out the Gate of Thunder 1CC. Had an exhausting week, and every time I went to play my brain was just too tired to quite make it the whole way through. Today I was so wiped I just passed out when I got home...so when I woke up at like 11pm I was rested and ready to go, lol. I still took a pile of deaths on the last stage so I just missed knocking EmperorIng off the top 10 on the high score chart here. No biggie though. There's only two people on the hard list, if/when I come back around to this game I'll just take a run at that.

I did get put onto Nexzr this week, and I can manage to make it halfway through now. I might give that and/or Aero Blasters a go for my next 1CC attempt.
Randorama wrote:Very close to a 2-ALL, 1-CC on Kingdom Grandprix, too.
I respect it. Godspeed you, black emperor.
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Nahar
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Nahar »

1CC'd Deathsmiles and Deathsmiles Mega Black Label on the Fightcade Offline Festival 2023 in Cascante (Spain). Very easy 1CC's, guess it's funnier to play for score than for survival.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Herr Schatten »

I had a slow day in the home office today, so I decided to fiddle around with FS-UAE and finally got WHDload support (sort of) running. I fired up the two-button version of Battle Squadron (Amiga) to celebrate and ended up clearing it, only dying once. The game is much (!) easier than I had remembered it.

The key to success is to take your time and only enter one of the inner core stages if you're sufficiently geared up. I first looped the surface level once to power up my main weapon to the highest level, then entered the second core in the second round with a full bomb stock. The second core has the sturdiest enemies (those plant things), so I used the yellow weapon that does great damage when point-blanking, but still has a bit of a spread to take care of those pesky popcorn enemies. After that I switched to the red spread which saw me through the rest of the game. I used another round of the surface level to fill up my bomb stock, then cleared the third core next. I left the first core for last, because after resurfacing from the, there’s enough of the surface level left to gather some supplies before the encounter with the final boss.

Thankfully, the game doesn’t have rank. It’s a quick and easy oldschool clear if you can stand the huge hitbox.
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Re: I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

Post by Jonpachi »

My copy of Rayz has been delayed in shipping, so I've been hustling to clear out some games I've been working on. Had a great little yoko weekend:

Akai Katana Shin - PS4
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Hazelnut Hex - Switch
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Formerly known as 8 1/2. I return on my second credit!
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