Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

[o.pwuaioc]

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.

I've never actually played it, but I think Super Hydorah should count.

[endali]

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.

I've never actually played it, but I think Super Hydorah should count.

super hydorah is great, but hydorah is also just as great, and it's free, if you are looking for a gradius clone, go download hydorah immediately

[XoPachi]

I've never actually played it, but I think Super Hydorah should count.

I've beaten both versions of these and Locomalito has definitely made a masterpiece with Hydorah, but I don't really consider them a direct copy of Gradius in the sense I'm talking about. Like I feel like the closest example I could give is Satazius. I'm looking for like the progression style of an intro space area into the mainland level, the power meter system, selecting your loadout before you venture on, the option mechanics, and down to the boss design philosophies.
A lot of 2D shooters might pull one or two things, but not do all of these.
I...actually don't recall a shooter that does the power meter gimmick besides Gradius come to think of it.

Also, on a totally different topic, is there like some kind of rift between Cave and Raizing fans? I'm not super on the community side of the STG life so I don't really know a lot of the culture going on even among this site's users (despite having been registered for 8 years).
In a lot of servers I've been in and even when I had my own, the mere mention of a Cave game has drawn ire directly onto me with assumptions that I think Raizing games are somehow lesser. I cringed seeing people really use the term "Cavedrone" like a 2007 console fanboy. Is this like...a thing?

[DietSoap]

Anyone else ever feel kind of bad that no one gives a shit about Bullet Soul?

[CStarFlare]

I've never actually played it, but I think Super Hydorah should count.

I've beaten both versions of these and Locomalito has definitely made a masterpiece with Hydorah, but I don't really consider them a direct copy of Gradius in the sense I'm talking about. Like I feel like the closest example I could give is Satazius. I'm looking for like the progression style of an intro space area into the mainland level, the power meter system, selecting your loadout before you venture on, the option mechanics, and down to the boss design philosophies.
A lot of 2D shooters might pull one or two things, but not do all of these.
I...actually don't recall a shooter that does the power meter gimmick besides Gradius come to think of it.

Also, on a totally different topic, is there like some kind of rift between Cave and Raizing fans? I'm not super on the community side of the STG life so I don't really know a lot of the culture going on even among this site's users (despite having been registered for 8 years).
In a lot of servers I've been in and even when I had my own, the mere mention of a Cave game has drawn ire directly onto me with assumptions that I think Raizing games are somehow lesser. I cringed seeing people really use the term "Cavedrone" like a 2007 console fanboy. Is this like...a thing?

There's a few doujin games that do the space intro, power gauge, and general inspiration. G-Type (R-Type/Gradius mix) is one that does this and is pretty solid but doesn't do ship types. Majin Shoujou Shooting does everything down to infinitely looping (and the revenge bullets do get worse with each loop!), swapping Vic Viper and gang for the girls from Majin Shoujou/Legend of the Dark Witch, a 3DS Rockman-ish game that also uses a Gradius powerup system. The level design isn't spectacular, but it incorporates several gimmicks that I assume are from the 3DS games which makes it pretty fun. One of those Comiket blind buys that was a pleasant surprise.

The power meter gimmick is everywhere in doujin 90s era doujin games and some modern ones as well. It probably went out of fashion after people started copying Touhou instead, but it still inspires the occasional developer.

[xxx1993]

Anyone else ever feel kind of bad that no one gives a shit about Bullet Soul?

That was a pretty underrated game, honestly.

[Jonpachi]

Do you use your Craw super shots in Thunderforce V, or do you hoard them to keep full-power normal shots? I've seen replays with both strategies on YouTube, so I'm curious about other's opinions.

[EmperorIng]

Do you use your Craw super shots in Thunderforce V, or do you hoard them to keep full-power normal shots? I've seen replays with both strategies on YouTube, so I'm curious about other's opinions.

Over power use is pretty important for scoring and getting the max bonus of x16, so I use them pretty heavily throughout. You want to make sure you are not in a place where you lose too many of your CRAWs at once (since at their weakest, a bullet will destroy them). It's good to keep spare CRAWs floating around to recharge them as needed.

BTW, I have a score thread for Thunder Force V if you ever want to contribute and post your progress!

[Jonpachi]

Ah, I had no idea why they would sometimes disappear! I thought maybe I was overusing them or something. I got to the second form of the final boss on a credit last night. Just a little more practice and I can put this one to bed.

[DietSoap]

I asked this over on the strategy board and realize I'm probably shit out of luck, but I'll try asking here too:

Stupid question but how do you guys on controllers/sticks remap the controls of Cho Ren Sha? I'm using a DS4 and it defaults to left analog stick for movement, d-pad does nothing. I tried using DS4Win and Steam to remap the d-pad to mimic the direction keys on a keyboard as well as the analog stick on a 360 controller, but it's like the game just ignores these remaps as soon it starts.

[BulletMagnet]

It's been awhile, but I recall being able to do pretty well with a generic USB controller and Joy2Key; haven't attempted it with any others off the top of my head.

[EmperorIng]

When I use my Hori Fighting Commander, I just set the d-pad to stand in for the left analog stick myself, to get around this issue.

[DietSoap]

It's been awhile, but I recall being able to do pretty well with a generic USB controller and Joy2Key; haven't attempted it with any others off the top of my head.

This finally did the trick, thanks. I had to set Joy2Key to "run as administrator" under compatability settings, but it worked.

When I use my Hori Fighting Commander, I just set the d-pad to stand in for the left analog stick myself, to get around this issue.

I totally forgot I had a stick that could do that until now.

[XoPachi]

Are there any STG themed face masks? Does anyone make them on like Etsy or something?
Figure if this is gonna be a long term thing, might as well make it expressive for myself. I didn't want to ask in the Covid thread and bumping a super serious discussion for...this.

[Stevens]

Probably a good idea to stay far away from that one.

Did you try Redbubble?

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/?iaCode= ... search_box

I couldn't find anything closer than video games on Tee Public, but might be worth clicking through a few pages.

https://www.teepublic.com/masks?query=video-games

[endali]

Are there any STG themed face masks? Does anyone make them on like Etsy or something?
Figure if this is gonna be a long term thing, might as well make it expressive for myself. I didn't want to ask in the Covid thread and bumping a super serious discussion for...this.

you can just go to customink.com or google "personalized face mask". there's a bunch of places that will put whatever image you want on a mask.

[o.pwuaioc]

Are there any STG themed face masks? Does anyone make them on like Etsy or something?
Figure if this is gonna be a long term thing, might as well make it expressive for myself. I didn't want to ask in the Covid thread and bumping a super serious discussion for...this.

you can just go to customink.com or google "personalized face mask". there's a bunch of places that will put whatever image you want on a mask.

I'd totally go for this if I were a kid:

[Sengoku Strider]

What on Earth is "Garegga" supposed tp mean? For the longest time (before actually seeing the game) I just assumed it was some Galaga spinoff. I tried searching in Japanese but even there I never saw any kind of explanation.

[endali]

What on Earth is "Garegga" supposed tp mean? For the longest time (before actually seeing the game) I just assumed it was some Galaga spinoff. I tried searching in Japanese but even there I never saw any kind of explanation.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58243&start=960

[Sengoku Strider]

What on Earth is "Garegga" supposed tp mean? For the longest time (before actually seeing the game) I just assumed it was some Galaga spinoff. I tried searching in Japanese but even there I never saw any kind of explanation.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58243&start=960

Thanks, so it's possibly maybe - the post says "a corruption of 'recca,'" I assume they mean rekka (烈火), as in inferno? If they had in the back of their minds some weird portmanteau of Galaga (just as a general STG reference) - garaga in Japanese - and rekka, or like the other suggestion says garage - garēji in Japanese - that would make some kind of sense.

[Lethe]

烈火/Recca is the name of a previous Yagawa game. So the theory in that thread is that they wanted a name reminiscent of that game, which Garegga is in some ways (well, all Yagawa games are a bit reminiscent of Recca really).

[Sengoku Strider]

烈火/Recca is the name of a previous Yagawa game. So the theory in that thread is that they wanted a name reminiscent of that game, which Garegga is in some ways (well, all Yagawa games are a bit reminiscent of Recca really).

Aahhh, that thing. Haven't thought about it in years (or ever played it, for that matter). Wasn't aware of its lineage.

[Jonpachi]

What on Earth is "Garegga" supposed tp mean? For the longest time (before actually seeing the game) I just assumed it was some Galaga spinoff. I tried searching in Japanese but even there I never saw any kind of explanation.

I’ve always understood it to mean “garage”, as in “Battle Garage” given that all the ships look like they’re homemade hunks of junk.

[Sengoku Strider]

What on Earth is "Garegga" supposed tp mean? For the longest time (before actually seeing the game) I just assumed it was some Galaga spinoff. I tried searching in Japanese but even there I never saw any kind of explanation.

I’ve always understood it to mean “garage”, as in “Battle Garage” given that all the ships look like they’re homemade hunks of junk.

On its own I'm not sure that would quite make sense. Garage in Japanese is ガレージ - garēji (ga-ray-ji). Garegga in the title is written ガレッガ (ga-reg-ga), with both Gs pronounced, and both as hard Gs. So there probably needs to be at least a little more to the story.

[ACSeraph]

I picked up a copy of Sega Ages Fantasy Zone on Saturn yesterday and noticed that it defaults to "easy" difficulty. Is that true of the PCB as well, or does the PCB default to "medium". I want to make sure I'm playing on the same settings as arcade. This is referring to the JP version btw.

[cocoron]

As far as I can see for every pcb version the standard difficulty is set on normal

[ACSeraph]

Thanks!

[BIL]

I've been wondering about starting a small database of DIP defaults, lately. Most of my gaming ATM is via Arcade Archives, and I notice a fair bit of mid-80s stuff tends to default to "Easy," "Easiest," etc. SNK's TANK, Ikari, Dogosoken and Guevara all do, meaning difficulty 1 out of 4. Meanwhile the later Genshitou and SAR use "Normal," or difficulty 2 out of 4.

I need to look up ASO/Alpha Mission... ACA has it at Normal, while SNK 40th uses Easy. I'm leaning to the latter, just for consistency with its contemporaries, but both Hamster and Digital Eclipse are pretty good with original materials (the latter's patchy emulation quality aside).

Tecmo's Star Force is another "Easiest" default. Incidentally, Tecmo's North American manuals refer to the difficulty as "Normal / Special 1 / Special 2 / Special 3." Should be stressed that none of the aforementioned are "Easy" at all on defaults - Guevara in particular is balls-hard. Meanwhile, SAR's comfy speed and firepower make its "Normal" easier than any of them (killer game BTW).

Soukyugurentai's Saturn port is well-known for defaulting one below arcade difficulty, with the options screen specifically noting this (in Japanese). The stand-alone PS2 Metal Slugs are similar, mimicking the AES cartridges - you need to bump the difficulty up by one, to get what the MVS carts label "Level 4."

Non-STG, but my favourite example is Double Dragon II, whose factory default is "Normal" (2 out of 4), but whose manual suggests operators use "Hard" (= slight enemy HP buff)... while also enabling the EZ Tatsumaki. I'm guessing this is so the 80s kids would go WHOAAA spamming the SHAWEET spinning kick, while the AI punished the shit out of their bad fundamentals.

[cocoron]

Lol

[cave hermit]

Does anyone know if there's a glitch in Zed Blade for the Neo Geo which causes the stage BGM to suddenly get interrupted by the title screen BGM until the boss shows up?

I noticed this while playing on my MiSTer, but never noticed this on Arcade Archives or MAME, so I'm assuming it's some inaccuracy in the FPGA core.