STGT 2k6 Week #4- Dragon Blaze

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:28 pm

I have the same frame-skipping problem.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:35 pm

Icarus wrote:
Randorama wrote:I want a bonus for the shitload of frameskipping i get
I'm not sure if there are any other emulators out there that support DB. Are you not able to play it on PS2? Anyone care to help Rando out with emulation?

I don't think so (unless i'm blind and kawaks supports it). No PS2 port, as well. I just don't think that a 833 Mhz+256 RAM can grant constant full speed

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:36 pm

Anything Strikers II or more recent requires a more robust machine. Rando's on a laptop IIRC so obviously his machine can't handle it.

gionmatsuli · Post by **gionmatsuli** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:39 pm

First score:

Gion - 311.600 - 1-3 - Quaid - PCB

Playing again since a long time was very difficult for me.

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:41 pm

I'm not sure about it being strictly based on how powerful your PC is. I'm on a 2.8Ghz new dell and I still get stuttering on mame for psikyo and nothing else.

Tvspelsfreak. · Post by **Tvspelsfreak.** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:44 pm

Tvspelsfreak - Team Sweden - 313.100 - 1-4 - Quaid - MAME

That's as far as I can get due to extreme frameskipping.

howmuchkeefe · Post by **howmuchkeefe** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:52 pm

Assuming that you're using MAME32, have you tried disabling the antialiasing and translucent vectors and bumping up the thread priority? I had serious problems with input lag until I did this, though not with frameskipping.

Is MAME the only thing the computer is running?

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:06 pm

Twiddle wrote:Anything Strikers II or more recent requires a more robust machine. Rando's on a laptop IIRC so obviously his machine can't handle it.

So am I depending on where in the house I am (Apple G4 Powerbook, 1.33Ghz, 1.5GB RAM). This thing chugs along, but only just.

Tvspelsfreak. · Post by **Tvspelsfreak.** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:18 pm

howmuchkeefe wrote:Assuming that you're using MAME32, have you tried disabling the antialiasing and translucent vectors and bumping up the thread priority? I had serious problems with input lag until I did this, though not with frameskipping.

Is MAME the only thing the computer is running?

I'm using an Xbox, my PC is only a 600Mhz Celeron. I tried disabling everything, even the sound emulation but I still get more frameskipping than I can handle.

neocps2 · Post by **neocps2** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:29 pm

neocps2 - 409 500 points - stage 1.4

javel · Post by **javel** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 5:15 pm

JAV - Team Sweden - 494,400 - 1-5 - Quaid (Mame)

Edit:
JAV - Team Sweden - 513,500 - 1-5 - Quaid (Mame)

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:03 pm

Icarus wrote:Look out, ICR is on the prowl.

Icarus - namakoteam - 983,500 - 1-7 - Quaid - [WolfMAME]

And it's only Tuesday!

Five of six TBs (missed the stage6 TB), all coin chests up to the end of the credit. Ended at the laser cubes.

6's TB is too tough. Were you planning on going for it?

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:27 pm

Rob wrote:6's TB is too tough. Were you planning on going for it?

I can do it with one-bomb-assist on the first form.
Second form is okay if the support enemies appear at the right times (like not during bulletspam and lasers).

Still doing dumb shit early in the run though and dying with 5+ bombs in stock on the first life, otherwise I'd be at the end boss/start of second loop by now. >_<

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:41 pm

Icarus wrote:Still doing dumb shit early in the run though and dying with 5+ bombs in stock on the first life, otherwise I'd be at the end boss/start of second loop by now. >_<

remember it's never okay to die unless you have less than two bombs in stock

it's why i restart 95% of the time

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:57 pm

Twiddle wrote:remember it's never okay to die unless you have less than two bombs in stock
it's why i restart 95% of the time

I usually die out of over-confidence in dragonshooting or total stupidity in the random stages. Thats what is stopping me from making it further in the game at present.

Need to fix those mistakes. I already know where all the coin chests are, how to TB the bosses, and have got my stage routes down for 5, 6 and parts of 7. Just need to put together a complete, no-idiocy run. -_-;;

Still plenty of time in the week left.

I usully don't restart if I fumble early though, as I can practice the patterns for the stages if I keep going. A week isn't enough time to get really comfortable with the game despite its short length, so no credit gets wasted. ^_-

msm · Post by **msm** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:03 pm

msm - underdogs - 283,600 - 1-4 - Sonia - (MAME)

don't really understand the scoring (or anything else) in this game, but using the "fire the dragon forwards" thing seems to have helped both score and survival, and results in some gold coins which are probably better than silver

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:11 pm

msm wrote:don't really understand the scoring (or anything else) in this game, but using the "fire the dragon forwards" thing seems to have helped both score and survival, and results in some gold coins which are probably better than silver

Dragonshooting generates extra gold coins from most enemies except bosses and powerup carrier formations. You usually get between 3 to 10+ gold coins extra depending on the size of the enemy.

So attack everything with dragonshoot to get a nice boost to score. ^_-

Other things of note: Technical Bonuses off bosses (destroy the exposed core of the boss with dragonshoot) is worth 30k (10k base destruction score + 20k TB). Also secret coin chests are available, by dragonshooting particular enemies. Shoot the coin chest until it leaves for a nice long stream of gold coins, for up to 25k extra.

If you're feeling particularly confident, surplus powerups are worth 4k, surplus bombs are worth 5k.

EDIT: Spelling, grandma and stuff.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:12 pm

You've got most of it right there: collect silver coins for 100 points each, or destroy stuff with the dragon shot instead to release gold coins, which are worth 200 each. Other than that the only things are finding the "coin heads" (in each stage there's a single enemy that, if you use a dragonshot to destroy it, makes a golden thing appear that showers you with gold coins if you keep shooting it) and destroying the bosses for a "technical bonus" (during a boss's final phase, it'll show its "heart" for a short amount of time: hit it with a dragon shot to instantly kill the boss and get an extra 30,000 points).

And I think that's about it, really.

EDIT: Dang, Icky beat me to it.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:34 pm

Icarus wrote:If you're feeling particularly confident, surplus powerups are worth 4k and a rank increase, surplus bombs are worth 10k.

fixed

Powering down affects only enemy bullet speed, and to keep the enemy bullet speed constant, you need to power down 5 times a stage.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 7:39 pm

10k is it? Mmmm... extra incentive to go no-bomb. ^_-

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:10 pm

Icarus wrote:10k is it? Mmmm... extra incentive to die with a full bomb stock.

Fixed.

msm · Post by **msm** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:03 pm

Thanks, scoring pointers much appreciated

msm - underdogs - 311,000 - 1-4 - Rob - (MAME)

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:10 pm

A little reminder at this week's prizes:

The Super Laydock luckly number prize:

Super Laydock wrote:A new playing week call for a new prize!

This weeks prize will be another shmup.

Silpheed: The Lost Planet (US) PS2, complete.

The game is an acquired taste, but even if you don't like the game it's worth owning for the beautiful and shiny) coverart alone.

Again all you have to do is participate in this weeks game for the STGT and hope you'll finish at the drawn spot.

Good luck everyone!

And one more prize is left for the first place in this week:

professor ganson wrote:OK, I have two prizes to offer, one for each of my favorite weeks:

1st place (individual score) Retro Week
1st place (individual score) Psikyo Week

prizes:
Metal Slug 4 & 5 (US PS2, like new, never played)
Dark Cloud 2 (US PS2, brand new, sealed)

Winner of Retro Week gets first pick; winner of Psikyo Week gets the remaining game.

(dunno which of the two prizes got chosen by The Coop in the retro week... ?)

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:42 pm

Thanks for reminding me, Edge.
1st place (individual score) Psikyo Week

winner gets to pick among the following:
Dark Cloud 2 (US PS2, brand new, sealed)
Caravan Shooting Collection (SFC, cart only)
Castlevania (NES, cart only)

I'll try to have prizes for the remaining weeks as well.
Good luck!

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:25 pm

let's rock and roll!!

Turrican - Team Old Schoolers - 478.900 - 1-5 - Quaid - PS2(yoko)

javel · Post by **javel** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:28 pm

JAV - Team Sweden - 629,200 - 1-5 - Quaid - MAME

Double KO at the fifth boss. Why didn´t I bomb one second earlier?

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 12:41 am

Just waiting for the blood curdling screams when people start getting into the second loop. Dragon shot becomes near useless... have fun.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 1:05 am

Venom wrote:Just waiting for the blood curdling screams when people start getting into the second loop. Dragon shot becomes near useless... have fun.

I'm not interested in practicing the loop, but the return bullets are much slower than usual.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:56 am

Davey - Super Buffet S. T. - 574,100 - 1-5 - Quaid (MAME)

I think I finally settled on Quaid.

Tip for MAME users:
Maybe this is common knowledge, but I find I get much better performance from the regular old command-line MAME. Maybe you can get the same performance by tweaking the options in the GUI frontends, though... I'm not sure which switches MAME Plus et al turn on by default that would slow it down. Also, maybe the GUI versions aren't using an i686 optimized build, but I don't know for sure (it's dumb if they're not).

For instance, when turning off frameskip (or whatever F10 does, lets the game run as fast as it can), Star Force ran at about 200-250% in MAME Plus on my computer, whereas the command-line MAME would do it at over 900% (only options I passed were -joy and -nohws, I think).

Disabling sound can also help, with the obvious drawback of not having sound.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 4:22 am

Landshark - Super Buffet S.T. - 1,177,100 - 1-7 - Quaid (MAME)

The 2nd 1-6 miniboss is a damned bastard. Always requires a bomb. Got to the 1-6 boss with 2 extra guys and 3 bombs. Made it through the 1st form. Bomb fested the 2nd form til he died.

I'm not sure why you guys say level 7 is easier than 6. Seems just as damned hard, but the minibosses are a little gentler. The double gemhead reward is nice though. Worth the bomb to keep them both going.

I'm done. This game is too hit or miss for me. I almost always go into 1-5 with only 1 extra guy. Occasionally I hit 1-6 with all 3 extra guys in stock. Too frustrating.

I have a video of someone (I'm guessing it's Archer) getting over a million points by 1-5. Even after watching it - it still just seems impossible.

Good luck Rob/Icarus/MrMonkeyMan. I'm sure you guys will 1-ALL this.