Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Bawa wrote:dfk
1. DFK's Novice Mode is a good challenge if you're a relative beginner to bullet hell shmups and haven't 1CC'd an arcade difficulty shmup before. Don't feel bad about starting on Novice and grabbing a clear there before you tackle the Normal game (hey, even try for a 2-ALL Omote or Ura clear if you want, but that's much harder!).

2. In DFK 1.5, B-Strong and C-Strong are both the easiest to clear with. B is a bit faster and preferred in my opinion, but you may prefer C's spread more. Note that they were both unlocked originally with a code input in the arcade version, and only Bomb and Power were available until you input the code. Bomb is obviously weaker, but may provide more of a challenge if you find Strong style too easy, and might be easier to score with as Strong tends to sweep the screen, making chaining trickier.

Power Style is always scoring oriented, getting perhaps the highest scores possible, but is the hardest to use for survival purposes due to the lack of resources.

3. I'm not sure how they rank, but for instance a 2-ALL Omote clear of Novice 1.5 isn't super insurmountable and might not be considered that much harder than a 1-ALL of the normal difficulty (the hardest part's actually triggering the loop).

Arrange B has a very dynamic difficulty that's as easy or as hard as you grind it to be (it's more of a score attack oriented mode rather than a survival/1CC mode), Arrange A is tricky until you get a handle of how its Power Style works, and then you can do a ton of cancelling in it, etc. Version 1.51 has tweaked scoring where chucking bombs at stuff is actually beneficial for scoring (scoring is very weird in this mode as you can tell from the boss fights in this high scoring replay.) Try each and focus on the ones that click with you that you enjoy.

Not sure about how Black Label compares, but its scoring is too focused on bullet cancelling for my tastes so I haven't put much time into it.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Bawa »

Jonpachi wrote:DFK is definitely the most approachable DDP game. It's very much a "as hard as you want it to be" sort of game. Played purely for survival, it's one of Cave's easiest games. Played for score, it becomes much more challenging. I think you'd be fine to start on Normal.
BareKnuckleRoo wrote: 1. DFK's Novice Mode is a good challenge if you're a relative beginner to bullet hell shmups and haven't 1CC'd an arcade difficulty shmup before. Don't feel bad about starting on Novice and grabbing a clear there before you tackle the Normal game (hey, even try for a 2-ALL Omote or Ura clear if you want, but that's much harder!).

2. In DFK 1.5, B-Strong and C-Strong are both the easiest to clear with. B is a bit faster and preferred in my opinion, but you may prefer C's spread more. Note that they were both unlocked originally with a code input in the arcade version, and only Bomb and Power were available until you input the code. Bomb is obviously weaker, but may provide more of a challenge if you find Strong style too easy, and might be easier to score with as Strong tends to sweep the screen, making chaining trickier.

Power Style is always scoring oriented, getting perhaps the highest scores possible, but is the hardest to use for survival purposes due to the lack of resources.

3. I'm not sure how they rank, but for instance a 2-ALL Omote clear of Novice 1.5 isn't super insurmountable and might not be considered that much harder than a 1-ALL of the normal difficulty (the hardest part's actually triggering the loop).

Arrange B has a very dynamic difficulty that's as easy or as hard as you grind it to be (it's more of a score attack oriented mode rather than a survival/1CC mode), Arrange A is tricky until you get a handle of how its Power Style works, and then you can do a ton of cancelling in it, etc. Version 1.51 has tweaked scoring where chucking bombs at stuff is actually beneficial for scoring (scoring is very weird in this mode as you can tell from the boss fights in this high scoring replay.) Try each and focus on the ones that click with you that you enjoy.

Not sure about how Black Label compares, but its scoring is too focused on bullet cancelling for my tastes so I haven't put much time into it.
Thank you both very much!
I'll go for 1-ALL the Normal and then probably go for a 2-ALL on novice, as I'm not very fond of looping in games.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by el_rika »

Is Daifukkatsu Black Label identical in difficulty in both bomb and power modes? Same patterns, same bullet density?
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by copy-paster »

DFK BL has YGW's rank system and strong mode which is ultra hard
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by EmperorIng »

Strong mode has Ura loop 2 patterns, so if you pick that without knowing what you are getting in to, you will most certainly die.

The easiest way to get an ALL is to practice with Bomb Style I believe.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by el_rika »

Still, my question is unanswered. Are Bomb and Power styles exactly the same difficulty (in terms of enemy bullets)?

(I know Strong is much much harder, it becomes obvious in the first 5 seconds of stage 1 :shock: )
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by XoPachi »

What was that one game where you fought like...school supplies and each stage song was a take on the classic school bell jingle? It was an odd one.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by BulletMagnet »

I think this is the one you're looking for.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by AZA »

Does anyone have a guide detailing the dip switch settings on my psikyo first generation board Sengoku Blade board?
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by CStarFlare »

el_rika wrote:Still, my question is unanswered. Are Bomb and Power styles exactly the same difficulty (in terms of enemy bullets)?

(I know Strong is much much harder, it becomes obvious in the first 5 seconds of stage 1 :shock: )
Bomb and Power should be the same.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by el_rika »

CStarFlare wrote:
el_rika wrote:Still, my question is unanswered. Are Bomb and Power styles exactly the same difficulty (in terms of enemy bullets)?

(I know Strong is much much harder, it becomes obvious in the first 5 seconds of stage 1 :shock: )
Bomb and Power should be the same.
Thanks. Been playing a few hours this weekend and it seems there's no difference i can spot either.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Jonpachi »

What are the differences between the Old and New versions of Thunderforce AC? Just picked it up on the Switch, and it has this toggle in the Settings menu.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by versionfiv »

what's that lone man doing at the cliffside on the left hand side of the screen at the beginning of DonPachi?
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Kiken »

AZA wrote:Does anyone have a guide detailing the dip switch settings on my psikyo first generation board Sengoku Blade board?
This was posted elsewhere on the forum. Hopefully that matches your board.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Stevens »

By chance does anyone know how to get the English translation working for Battle Traverse?
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Stevens »

You are 100% correct.

It says - Run make to compile the translation patch, but I have no idea what to do.

The game is perfectly playable as is, but it would be cool to get the patch installed.

If not no biggie. Either way I appreciate the reply!
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by o.pwuaioc »

Stevens wrote:You are 100% correct.

It says - Run make to compile the translation patch, but I have no idea what to do.

The game is perfectly playable as is, but it would be cool to get the patch installed.

If not no biggie. Either way I appreciate the reply!
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/321 ... in-windows

I tried in Linux, but I got some errors.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Stevens »

.
Last edited by Stevens on Thu Jul 16, 2020 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Stevens »

Thank you both.

I've spent the last hour messing around with min32 but I think this above my pay grade.
kane wrote:I'm on Linux and don't have the tooling handy to cross-compile to Win. I'll do that over the weekend and drop a binary exe patcher here. Unless someone else beats me to it. I've put on my tinfoil hat, reviewed the code myself and it does what it's supposed to do and nothing else, but you'll have to trust me with the binary.
That would be amazing! Whenever you get around to it:D
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I'd also really appreciate a copy of the binary, I didn't even realize there was a Battle Traverse translation available.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by trap15 »

kane wrote: it's doing curiously wrong things with pointers
This got me curious so I took a look. What's it doing wrong? It looks fine to me.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by o.pwuaioc »

kane wrote:Okay, I don't know in what planet's version of gcc this was supposed to compile, and even after that it's doing curiously wrong things with pointers. I adapted the code, it should run fine now. Lmk if it doesn't.

And here you go folks: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oD6sXe ... mna-TptcC/

Drop all 4 four files into your Battle Traverse directory. Run "patch.exe". It'll run for a split second and flash a console screen, and that's it.

This creates:
1) "BattleTraverse_EN.exe" which contains the patched strings.
2) "data/en01.dxa" that contains patched images.

No original file will be modified. You can run the old exe for the full JP experience.

Note that the patch is very bare, see the github page for what's left untranslated. In particular untranslated boss bubbles will be empty, that's not a bug. Most menus are partially translated. Overall pretty useless if you ask me :? But a decent patching framework if anyone wants to give the rest a go.
I'm glad I wasn't alone in having issues with that code! The whole project is still a work-in-progress.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by o.pwuaioc »

trap15 wrote:
kane wrote: it's doing curiously wrong things with pointers
This got me curious so I took a look. What's it doing wrong? It looks fine to me.
Had to double check to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong, but this is the output I got:

[localhost@localhost tversepatch-en-master]$ make -f Makefile
gcc -c src/main.c -std=c99 -o obj/main.o
In file included from src/main.c:10:
src/dxa.h:37:48: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size [-Wpointer-to-int-cast]
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:2:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
2 | img("name_back.png", binary_src_img_name_back_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: error: initializer element is not computable at load time
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:2:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
2 | img("name_back.png", binary_src_img_name_back_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: note: (near initialization for ‘en01_list[0].data_len’)
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:2:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
2 | img("name_back.png", binary_src_img_name_back_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size [-Wpointer-to-int-cast]
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:3:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
3 | img("nameentry.png", binary_src_img_nameentry_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: error: initializer element is not computable at load time
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:3:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
3 | img("nameentry.png", binary_src_img_nameentry_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: note: (near initialization for ‘en01_list[1].data_len’)
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:3:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
3 | img("nameentry.png", binary_src_img_nameentry_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size [-Wpointer-to-int-cast]
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:4:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
4 | img("serif.png", binary_src_img_serif_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: error: initializer element is not computable at load time
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:4:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
4 | img("serif.png", binary_src_img_serif_png)
| ^~~
src/dxa.h:37:48: note: (near initialization for ‘en01_list[2].data_len’)
37 | #define img(fname, sym) {fname, &sym##_start, (int)&sym##_size, 0, 0},
| ^
src/img/en01.inc:4:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘img’
4 | img("serif.png", binary_src_img_serif_png)
| ^~~
make: *** [Makefile:16: obj/main.o] Error 1
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Stevens »

Thanks kane!
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Seamonkey »

versionfiv wrote:what's that lone man doing at the cliffside on the left hand side of the screen at the beginning of DonPachi?
I believe he’s contemplating his life decisions after his wife and kids left him. He lost their house and savings after going into major debt due to a risky cryptocurrency investment.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by XoPachi »

Ok, weird one.
I want sfx ringtones from some STG's. Always wanted the sound when you pick up a hyper in DOJ in particular. That one's pretty cool. Any place that has stuff like this?
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Jonpachi »

Has anyone used an HDMI converter for the PSone? I'm currently stuck in AV hell and looking for a better solution. I tried a few of these things on my PS2, but I had really mixed results, and many games just didn't work correctly or appeared stretched. In the end, I just used the standard component cables and got a pretty damn image. However, I have a few PSone games that don't run correctly on my PS2 (Toaplan Shooting Battle) and I need an upgrade for the older console.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Fudoh »

and I need an upgrade for the older console.
you know this this very board here has the most extensive retro hardware related discussion board on the whole web, right? Just a click away: viewforum.php?f=6

Get an OSSC or a Retrotink X2 Scart.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Jonpachi »

haha fair point, but I'm just looking at one of those $30 cable converters, not a big investment.
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by XoPachi »

You know something, I've seen a lot of "inspired by Gradius" games, but that's vague. Are they any good indie STG's that are straight knockoffs of the series? I feel like I haven't seen very many. Not since the canceled Storm Assault fangame from like 13 years ago.
I don't mind a ripoff if it's fun.
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