TATE Astro mini with Batrider, Batsugun, Outzone and more!

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Wed Aug 17, 2022 3:09 am

Got the Normal Course 1CC with Shorty (x3) finally!

I swear, avoiding getting the dreaded "SPECIAL LEVEL-UP!" was one of the most challenging parts of this one. I blew a run AT THE FINAL BOSS when I failed to collect enough power-ups after dying, thus triggering two more bonus bosses.

Still, I feel like I've at least acclimated to the console. There's enough control fidelity in even the worst offenders to do more than credit feed. For reference, I'm playing on HDMI-out on a low-latency (0.4) gaming monitor with the Megadrive Mini pad.

MintyTheCat · Post by **MintyTheCat** » Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:44 am

We're away for a bit but I brought the ASM-V along and let the gf have a go on it.

She pretty much got wiped out on tatsujin-ou, then I tried her with tatsujin and she did fare a bit better

She quite likes batsugun.

I had been meaning to let her try it but I think we'll be some time before she's a viable "second player" option

I need to get my hands on a joystick for this machine - I never really play vertical Shmups with a pad.

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Thu Aug 18, 2022 2:44 pm

Caught a good run on Batrider, Normal Course last night. Thought I'd share some gameplay: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChYvcT-lHl-/

I didn't even notice I had killed the big blue hovercraft while playing. I got to the end of the overpass and was super confused as to where the hell it was. Could have been an even better run, but I'm ready now to move on to Advanced Course.

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:09 pm

There you go! First game I beat on the Mini V (I’ll just forget about the loop)Proud of this run since i got the speed upgrade by accident on stage 4…and while the Mega Drive pad is fine it does make me pretty nervous to control the character on the narrow paths.
Meanwhile I’ve kinda lost it and ordered the Egret Mini 2

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:17 pm

Oh man, nice work! I was thinking I'd work on Outzone next, but also perhaps Batsugun. For Outzone, I tend to try to stick with the fixed forward-firing weapon as much as possible, and only do the free shot when I have to. Is this a mistake? Any tips?

Jeneki · Post by **Jeneki** » Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:22 pm

All the tips you'll need:

I find OutZone to be a patience game, learning when to stand still until things calm down, and when to rush ahead. I learned OutZone and In The Hunt back-to-back, and I can say that OutZone helped prepare me for the next game.

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 7:34 am

^ can confirm that that is all you need to know about Out Zone. KILL EVERYTHING

Uh, yeah, there are some secrets in this game, like triggering the Zero Wing ship to appear in certain places after changing weapons 8 times, which is one way to get lots of points if you shoot it when it's about to leave the screen, getting the Tatsujin ship to help you (this has happened to me once, but I have absolutely no idea how to trigger it), getting the Hishouzame planes to help you (I've done this a few times. It has something to do with the order in which you shoot the trees at the beginning of stage 2, but I'm not sure how it works), Pipiru near the beginning of stage 1 (if you keep him alive until you reach the boss you'll get a decent amount of points), and maybe some other stuff.

In general, the 3-way is probably the best weapon in the game. Super Burner kills bosses (and everything else, for that matter) extremely quickly, but you have to deal with its very short reach and how using it makes you turn slowly. Also feel free to use bombs relatively frequently, as the game gives a lot of bombs. Bomb stock bonus gives you score at the end of each stage, though, so yeah.

In multiplayer, you can't walk through each other, so be careful.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:57 am

DenimDemon wrote:

There you go! First game I beat on the Mini V (I’ll just forget about the loop)Proud of this run since i got the speed upgrade by accident on stage 4…and while the Mega Drive pad is fine it does make me pretty nervous to control the character on the narrow paths.
Meanwhile I’ve kinda lost it and ordered the Egret Mini 2

Enjoy, it's brilliant. I ordered the deluxe package. After trying it though, unless they add any more games, I could have done without the spinner/trackball upgrade, but the rest is superb.

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 9:13 am

Jonpachi wrote:Oh man, nice work! I was thinking I'd work on Outzone next, but also perhaps Batsugun. For Outzone, I tend to try to stick with the fixed forward-firing weapon as much as possible, and only do the free shot when I have to. Is this a mistake? Any tips?

I personally use 3 way most of the time. Or at least I make sure I have it when I get to the bosses…once you get comfortable with the path, you can safely mess with other weapons. Since I’m using the d-pad with the Mini V I’m not very comfortable using rotation manoeuvres…so I try to stick with fixed most of the time. It’s easier with an arcade stick for sure…Superball it’s also a pretty great tool since it can fire trough walls. Take your time…Don’t mind the “go ahead” sign too much, sometimes like in stage 6, it’s just a way of rushing you to trouble. Also the bosses in the game are not that hard…

Now back to getting past Truxton 2 first stage safely lol!

^^^yeah pretty excited to get my hands on the Egret Mini.

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Sat Aug 20, 2022 10:04 pm

Damn, I had forgotten how fun Outzone is. Getting runs now into stage 5, but suffering a bit in the corridors and "squishing arms" sections. I have a serious Mandela Effect memory of there being a Megadrive port. It just FEELS and LOOKS like a Megadrive game. That gritty brown palette, the soundtrack, so much of it seems destined for the Sega's old 16-bit monster.

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Sun Aug 21, 2022 4:14 am

I don't really get what to do on the Stage 6 boss when he gets close and punches you as he's near death. I've watched a video where the player seems to simply move to the side with ease, but I always get nailed. Is a speed-up basically required here? I came in with no speed-ups and am having a rough go.

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Mon Aug 22, 2022 8:40 pm

^^^I kinda bait him from side to side and shoot a bit from the sides with fix weapon.

Meanwhile the Mayflash 2 pro as arrived and I will take the Mini for a spin tonight, with an actual stick. Good times!

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:04 pm

Got by him. I do think a speed-up is pretty damn important unless you get super good at bomb timing. I've save-stated my way through. Working on connecting some dots, but the clear is in my sights!

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:16 am

A bit off topic…but the Egret Mini 2 arrived today and boy is this thing huge!You can actually play pretty decently on the cab itself.
Just messed a bit with it but after playing with the mini V for a few weeks the Egret has a much more impressive look and weight overall. The stick is much more loose and the ball bigger. The screen contrast / color quality is also better. Truxton side by side with the V and the diference is quiet striking. Control / input seems more responsive on than the V on the cab itself. Damn I would love Outzone on the Egret as well! MegaDrive Mini pads also work on Egret, that’s cool!

Photos don’t make it justice, look really cool in person.

lovecraft · Post by **lovecraft** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 5:59 pm

DenimDemon wrote:Damn I would love Outzone on the Egret as well! MegaDrive Mini pads also work on Egret, that’s cool!

Do the Astro City Mini pads work on it ? Just curious.

Redfox · Post by **Redfox** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 3:57 am

WOW I'm enjoying mine. It's not M2 perfect but it's definitely playable (I'm using the 8bitdo M30 2.4 wireless pad). The astro city original pads are hella expensive and hard to get and the 8bitdo does the job great. I love that with the pad as second player I can use the stick as first player and have my preferred Dogyuun experience. Whenever I play Dogyuun I use 2 credits in total, start both players at the same time and then take over the non use player to boost power and try to clear without continuing. I don't care if it's sorta cheating I Just love the power boost and the thrill I feel is amazing, Dogyuun this way is such fun. It's neat the Astro MiniV also does the rewind feature. While it's not as great as M2, the fact you can rewind is helpful in learning the patterns. This is something I haven't seen mentioned much on here but the unit can do it (and the save states are handy especially to keep high scores from previous plays and to keep title screen code unlocks active in games like Battrider).

But ya Dogyuun is my fav Toaplan game, it's a beautiful mess. It may not be as well thought out as something like V-V or Batsugun but it tried new things. It's IMO the prettiest Toaplan game and it also still has that original Toaplan "vibe". V-V is sorta in the doorway to Danmaku (between toaplan shooting and Cave bullet dodging) while Batsugun was already a proto Danmaku for the most part.

Oh and Dogyuun has that badass voltron/megazord mech combat the last stage which blew my freaking mind the first time I saw it.....................Telling ya Toaplan was really doing something different with that game heh!

If M2 ever releases Dogyuun it would be amazing if they did rollback netcode and allowed multiple players, then again...........that'd prob never happen (the rollback I mean, not the game never getting their treatment).

Anyway I'm loving this Astro City V it's gotten more play this last week than my Switch or PS5! Never thought that would happen LOL!

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 5:48 pm

You can rewind with the Astro Mini V? How?

Redfox · Post by **Redfox** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 7:23 pm

So If you press button 5 and 6 during game (uh mid kick and fierce kick if it were a SF layout) the machine makes a "wiiiiiiiiiiiish" sound and it jumps back about 5 seconds. It's kind of ghetto but it does seem to work in all the games I've tried it on (and it has nothing to do with loading save states, that's separate).

Post by **Ghegs** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 7:49 pm

Oh what the heck, I didn't know that. I went through the manual with Google Translator app and it's enough to just press the F button. Tapping it creates a save state, holding the F button jumps back to that state, and you even can create multiple save states. Holding the F button then goes back to these, each in turn. But these save states aren't shown in the game's menu, yet it looks like they're saved even after the system is turned off. Very cool. Had to try this on the Astro City Mini Hori as well, doesn't work there.

While testing this, I also noticed, completely by accident and for the first time ever, that you can actually control the firing angle of the pods for V-V's default weapon, when you're not firing. I feel dum.

lovecraft · Post by **lovecraft** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 8:05 pm

Redfox wrote:WOW I'm enjoying mine.

Same here. For me it's the best "Mini" released by SEGA, and it's a nice improvement of the original Astro City Mini (that was excellent already).

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 8:41 pm

Redfox wrote:So If you press button 5 and 6 during game (uh mid kick and fierce kick if it were a SF layout) the machine makes a "wiiiiiiiiiiiish" sound and it jumps back about 5 seconds. It's kind of ghetto but it does seem to work in all the games I've tried it on (and it has nothing to do with loading save states, that's separate).

Damn. Had no idea, gonna try it. Thanks for the info! Yeah, I love this toy have played for hours already.

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:45 pm

LOL. Having more than two save states... what a luxury! :O I've been carefully rationing my two, methodically working my way through each game this whole time. Still, I'll take two over the 0 you get in the CC Psikyo Collections.

I was able to wrap the 1CC on Outzone last night. Is this the easiest final boss in a Toaplan game? I caught the final battle here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChyVInTp955/

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 9:53 pm

Jonpachi wrote:LOL. Having more than two save states... what a luxury! :O I've been carefully rationing my two, methodically working my way through each game this whole time. Still, I'll take two over the 0 you get in the CC Psikyo Collections.

I was able to wrap the 1CC on Outzone last night. Is this the easiest final boss in a Toaplan game? I caught the final battle here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChyVInTp955/

Nice!!! Congrats! I’m loving my time with Dogyuun. Do you like it?
I love that in that end sequence,for a brief moment you see Pipi opening the door of the ship…and then cut to the cyborg:)

m.sniffles.esq · Post by **m.sniffles.esq** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:28 pm

Great... Now I have a Egret II in my Amazon.co.jp cart that I hover over the "Checkout" button for at least 10 minutes daily...

At this rate, I should just go ahead and get one of the eight-input hdmi switcher boxes...

EDIT: So this morning I pulled the trigger and hit the "checkout" button only to discover Amazon.co.jp is charging $80 for US shipping.
Okay, perhaps I don't need the Egret II...

Jonpachi · Post by **Jonpachi** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 5:45 pm

For tabletop TATE gaming on a budget, I stumbled onto this yesterday: https://www.target.com/p/my-arcade-namc ... nk=sametab

Phelios and Dragon Spirit being the highlights. I'm guessing there's not even an HDMI out.

That said, I'm actually gonna run over to my local Target later today and take a look at one in person.

kid aphex · Post by **kid aphex** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 7:09 pm

Has anyone tried any wired controllers besides the ones mentioned earlier?
I dug through the thread but couldn’t really discern whether or not ANY and ALL wired USB controllers work for this thing.

Just curious, thanks

DenimDemon · Post by **DenimDemon** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 7:23 pm

kid aphex wrote:Has anyone tried any wired controllers besides the ones mentioned earlier?
I dug through the thread but couldn’t really discern whether or not ANY and ALL wired USB controllers work for this thing.

Just curious, thanks

I’ve tried ps4, switch…none worked. The Mega Drive Mini works (6 buttons) it’s the one I use. Well if you use the Mayflasher usb adaptor everything will work…

kid aphex · Post by **kid aphex** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 7:41 pm

DenimDemon wrote:
kid aphex wrote:Has anyone tried any wired controllers besides the ones mentioned earlier?
I dug through the thread but couldn’t really discern whether or not ANY and ALL wired USB controllers work for this thing.

Just curious, thanks
I’ve tried ps4, switch…none worked. The Mega Drive Mini works (6 buttons) it’s the one I use. Well if you use the Mayflasher usb adaptor everything will work…

Thanks.

I see that one of the 8bitdo controllers works… has anyone tried any of their others?

m.sniffles.esq · Post by **m.sniffles.esq** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 8:06 pm

Both my 'generic' Gamesir controllers work (wired and usb dongled)

But then again, those controllers work for Linux while the 'official driver' controllers (xbox360, etc) don't. So they may be magic controllers...

it290 · Post by **it290** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 5:53 am

For those who are curious on this thread, the Egret Mini blows the Astro City (regular and V) out of the water in every respect in the hardware department. The size is so much better, the controls are so much better, and they did a really neat thing with the screen where they added a lens that simulates a curved CRT that makes it look so good. The rotation mechanic also works super well. I'm hoping these become general purpose gaming machines at some point, but until then the difference is down to the hardware. The Egret slaughters the Sega machine in every respect sans the game list. I doubt I'll see much use out of either Astro City going forward, but the Egret makes me want to play it.

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