Random Shmup observation of the Day...

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Redfox
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Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Redfox »

Blazing Lazers is Amazing! (and not just cause Kanye West said so ;) ...)

WOW!

I've played a lot of shooters in my life but always stayed away from NEC just never really gave that whole universe a chance.

Played Blazing Lazers for the first time today thanks to PSN...................I'm blown away!!!!

Looking into this now I'm getting the other TG16 games on PSN............and I'm reading about Sapphire..............I can't afford that one LOL!!!!
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by To Far Away Times »

Yeah, its a great game. Try Soldier Blade next, which is like a super Blazing Lazers. It plays just like it, but has proper scrolling and an even better soundtrack. Probably the best of the "compile-like" games. It's absolutely amazing.

Sapphire is really good too. Probably my favorite game on the system.
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Redfox
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Redfox »

To Far Away Times wrote:Yeah, its a great game. Try Soldier Blade next, which is like a super Blazing Lazers. It plays just like it, but has proper scrolling and an even better soundtrack. Probably the best of the "compile-like" games. It's absolutely amazing.
.
Playing that right now! Also got the Thunder games and Aldynes (I have a Jap PSN account).

These games are great! I just wish they did parallaxing backgrounds better hehe!
Creamy Goodness
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Creamy Goodness »

Absolutely loved Blazing Lazers until stage 8. At that point the game started feeling a little long to me along with a noticable difficulty spike.
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XoPachi
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by XoPachi »

This was my first Wii VC game I ever bought. I was addicted to it. The one organic boss wigged me out as a kid.
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Koa Zo
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Koa Zo »

Redfox wrote: Played Blazing Lazers for the first time today thanks to PSN...................I'm blown away!!!!

Looking into this now I'm getting the other TG16 games on PSN............and I'm reading about Sapphire..............I can't afford that one LOL!!!!
Get yourself a PC-Engine Mini or TurboGrafx Mini - great selection of games, including Sapphire.
PC Engine Fan X!
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

Yes, NEC brought Blazing Lazers to the USA back in the summer of 1989 when it's TurboGrafx-16 console made it's grand console debut with a MSRP of $189.99 usd. Eventually the pricepoint of buying a brand new TG-16 console from the USA based Toys-Us stores back in December of 1993 was at a mere $29.99.

In mid-1994, speciality video game retailer Babbage's was selling a special bundled TG-16 console that came with two Hu-Cards of Keith Courage in the Alpha Zone & Blazing Lazers for a mere $49.99 brand new (was distributed by Turbo Technologies Incorporated themselves). There was a round sticker placed on the frontside of the TG-16 console box touting that Blazing Lazers was included at no extra cost.

You can pick up a used region-modded white colored PC Engine console (for $150 usd off of eBay) & a Turbo Everdrive flash cart = the cheapest/most affordable way/method to play either PC Engine rom of Gunhed or it's American counterpart of Blazing Lazers rom without breaking the bank (or your wallet for that matter). It's all cool playing your favorite Turbo Chip & Hu-Card based STG titles on real gaming hardware these days, Redfox.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Last edited by PC Engine Fan X! on Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:22 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Monster classic. It was the real flagship title at the TurboGrafx-16's launch. I honestly don't think any home game was more flashy & impressive at the time.

Electronic Gaming Monthly rated it a 9/9/7/6 at the time. I want to know what kind of asshole looked at that game in 1989 and said '"Psh. 6/10. I'm outta here. I'm goin' back to Amagon."
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Redfox
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Redfox »

PC Engine Fan X! wrote: It's all cool playing your favorite Turbo Chip & Hu-Card based STG titles on real gaming hardware these days, Redfox.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Yes I know that playing on real hardware can be a treat.
Koa Zo wrote: Get yourself a PC-Engine Mini or TurboGrafx Mini - great selection of games, including Sapphire.
Given the money vs the selection, I might end up going this route, we'll see. No matter what, it's really opened my eyes on a system I had not given a chance but now I wish I had. System could have been there with me next to my Genesis, Saturn, SNES, etc heh!
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blazinglazers69
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by blazinglazers69 »

Creamy Goodness wrote:Absolutely loved Blazing Lazers until stage 8. At that point the game started feeling a little long to me along with a noticable difficulty spike.
The trick to clearing Blazing Lazers is blasting the weapon orbs on screen that change. When they turn into that green energy orb thing, collecting it will clear the screen but also if you look at your ship stock it will turn gold. Every one you collect gives you an extend which bypasses the checkpoints so if you can simply hoard enough of them early on and always get the shield you can simply manage resources well enough to clear it with brute force and strategy instead of skill like I did lol.

Two other secrets are that if you don't shoot the first boss it will eventually just leave and give you a boatload of bombs. There's also a secret 8-way shot you can get. It's all covered here: https://retrogameresource.com/index.php ... pc-engine/

Also, with regards to mini consoles--if you guys want to use one as an emulation station I'd highly recommend either a mini SNES or NES. Check out PattonPlays on youtube and https://www.reddit.com/r/miniSNESmods for easy instructions. It can run a lot of Playstation games decently. N64 is pretty meh and MAME is probably hit or miss, but it plays pretty much all 16 bit consoles and below just fine. But yeah, using a USB mod you can literally have the entire libraries of SNES, Genesis, NES, GBA down to GameBoy, PC Engine, etc. all in one neat and portable box. Plus the menu and song is really cute as a front end. On my PC I just use LaunchBox.

IMO when it comes to emulation vs hardware for me it's: Original hardware and games + a CRT > Original hardware with a flashcart or repo + a CRT > a PC with a good gaming monitor > a mini console

I've done them all, and I personally go the PC route for the most part these days out of sheer convenience. What's nice about emulating with retroarch in particular is that you can try out a ton of built CRT filters for modern TVs and monitors, extremely convenient save states for learning shmups where you can use a hotkey set on your controller to instantly load states and seemlessly grind sections and bosses, AND using run ahead you can minimize input lag for whatever controller or stick you are using. It's truly a golden age if you're into retro gaming and extremely bang-for-your-buck.
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Stevens
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by Stevens »

Would also mention Super Star Soldier and Nexzr.
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by To Far Away Times »

Stevens wrote:Would also mention Super Star Soldier and Nexzr.
I go back and forth on Super Star Soldier. Absolutely banging visuals and soundtrack. Lots of fun in the early stages and then the last couple levels are just rotten. If you lose your powerups at the end the final boss is unbeatable I think. He gets his shield back faster than you can damage him. I tried testing it with save states and that seemed to be the case anyway. Maybe someone knows something I don't. The boss rush is lame too. Didn't really like the end of the game at all but I powered through and learned it on basically a sunk cost fallacy and not wanting to walk away after playing it as much as I had. A few more weeks of play testing and ironing things out and it could have been an all time classic. Still worth checking out based on sheer production values, but maybe not *quite* in that upper echelon of PCE titles for me, even if it looks and sounds the part.

I do really love the sound track though, especially the opening track and stage 5 song.

I need to give Nexzr a proper go. The Stage 2 midboss seems to be there to stop kids from going to far with a game rental, but the game seems to get a lot easier once you have the homing options.
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FRO
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Re: Random Shmup observation of the Day...

Post by FRO »

Glad to see Blazing Lazers get some love. I covered it on my podcast a couple years back, and had a lot of fun with it, though the gauntlet shortly before the final boss fight can be a real jerk.
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