Armed Police Batrider

brannon · Post by **brannon** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:23 am

crossposting this from here in case anyone misses it (and because i'm so vain):

brannon wrote:in the special version, if you hit left or right with your cursor over the special course button, you can select which boss you want to fight. everything in special version seems to work the same as if you set the invincible dipswitch to on (pause/slow enabled etc), except predictably you're not invincible, which makes it far more useful for practising.

now you have no excuse not to play this because you're sick of particular bosses :]

atro_city · Post by **atro_city** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:14 am

Edit: I'm an idiot.

That's a really cool trick, thanks. I'll play around with it.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:01 pm

brannon: That sounds cool, thanks for sharing it.

Advanced (jpn-b version):
B,958,660 - DMC - Stage 9 - Strawman (B) / Flying Baron (A) / Miyamoto (C)

I wanted C before I took another break but nah I screwed it up. lol, just deleted the rom, need a break from this game.
There's a pretty thin line between funny and pathological.

But inspiring nonetheless to see that a few mil more is not out of reach at all, just a couple more shots.

Q: There are a couple of tanks in zenobia city that sometimes give you a full bomb, what exactly do you have to do to get them?
I guess it have something to do with shooting the "wheels"?

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:26 am

Updated!

Deleting the rom isn't nearly as powerful as selling the PCB because it's so easy to just redownload of course.

IIRC the tanks are just like Garegga, blow off both sides of wheels before you blow up the main part.

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 2:49 am

Enhasa wrote: IIRC the tanks are just like Garegga, blow off both sides of wheels before you blow up the main part.

Same goes for Ibara also.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 9:04 am

Yes, thank you, you're probably right. It is just that a few times I thought I destroyed both sides but with no bomb showing up. So I suspected it might be an additional requiriement (like not destroying the central parts). But most likely I just missed one of the sides.

Deleting the rom isn't nearly as powerful as selling the PCB because it's so easy to just redownload of course.

Very true, but one has to try!

edit: Also, I would love if any of you could provide some relatively detailed rank-information or link to a previous discussion about it. It still confuses me a lot. I think I have some sense of what things to do and to avoid and so on, but especially the priority is still unclear. What are the most important things to take into account when you want to manage rank? A priority list would be wonderful!

a few examples:
Being max Shot and Options powered up - does it differ across ships how they affect rank (just like in garegga)?
If levelling up, special shot power up and special option power up is to prefer, but how big is the difference?
Suiciding - does it affect rank in the way that it does in garegga, for example is suiciding to prefer before an extend or does it really not matter that much in batrider?
surplus power ups, any difference there between small/big and shot/option. how they influence rank?
Shot frequency - ive never altered it, but how much does it affect rank?
...

In garegga there's a very detailed account of rank available in icarus' guide, even with the exact numbers for specific ships, nothing like that in batrider ey?

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:33 pm

Sorry, I don't know the exact rank numbers but I have sort of a feel on what to do. What I used to do when I was learning the system was actually watch the rank like in Garegga. This is how I got some of the rough numbers like min vs max starting rank. You can edit MAME's cheat.dat and add

Code: Select all

:batrider:00200026:20F9D1:00000000:FFFFFFFF:Watch Game Rank

I think newest versions of MAME have a new xml cheat format, haven't tried if it still works more or less. Anyway it's most useful to see for yourself, try it out sometime.

About questions:

I don't know if different ships affect rank like Gain and Miyamoto in Garegga, but in general a big difference in Batrider is that shot rank increase doesn't matter much at all. You don't really have to worry about limiting your shots, and not only that, it is actually a good idea to jack up the fire rate with autofire (very unlike Garegga). I have autofire 1 mapped to custom button 1 sort of like autofire C in Cave games.

I don't think the small vs big powerup difference is as great as in Garegga, but I still don't pick up the little ones. I think Plasmo said it's worth picking up the little ones for score

but I'm skeptical about that. The main difference here though, is in Garegga you worry about picking up option but not big shot, and in Batrider you worry about picking up big shot but not option.

Definitely cycle between 1 and 2 lives. Try to make sure you are on last life when you are picking up an extend. It makes an incredible difference. When I switched from 2/3 cycling to 1/2 cycling, it was amazing. When you do a 1/2 cycle, you get a rank decrease. When you do a 2/3 cycle, you actually get a rank *increase* of an absolute value greater than the 1/2 cycle.

I think every less life you have when you die gives you a 4x greater rank decrease, and every less life you have when you pick up an extend gives you a 2x smaller rank increase.

Early on I actually just ignore shot powerups completely because they're unnecessary, plus I'm going to be dying anyway. I only start powering up in Zenovia City, and when I'm going to die, I start picking up all surplus powerups for the point bonus. I dunno though, it's possible picking up more surplus is worth it, because eg 5000 is a lot. I just think unless I can 1cc, it's better to survive longer and score more via survival.

See first paragraph.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:19 pm

Excellent, thanks! And I will definitely check out that code next time.

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:05 am

Self score add! I missed out on some points stupidly but still pretty good I guess.

normal course
7,474,700 - Enhasa - Stage 6 - Car-Pet (S)

BTW I don't check on MAME much, but I did notice that the very latest inter-release version (.129u3) retitled Batrider (and Bakraid) roms and added US and Euro and China versions (Bakraid added US). I haven't tested them out yet but I assume they act like Korea B? Well, I'm not overly curious, I'll check them out when MAME .130 is released.

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:24 am

This should maybe go somewhere else, but since I brought it up a couple posts above, I'll stick this here. If you want to watch rank with the new mame xml cheat format, open up cheat.zip and stick this in batridj.xml after Disable Special Course.

- For .129u4 and earlier, use main instead of maincpu
- For .129u2 and earlier, use batrider.xml instead of batridj.xml for Japan B
- If you feel like it, you can correct the URL in the special course comments to www.world-of-arcades.net/R8zing/Batrider/Secrets.htm

Code: Select all

	<cheat desc="Watch Game Rank">
		<script state="run">
			<output format="%02X">
				<argument>maincpu.pb@(20F9D1)</argument>
			</output>
		</script>
	</cheat>

You might have to take the existing xml files and rename them to match the new rom name. It's generally messy and so maybe you should stick to .129u2. In their typical infinite wisdom, the mame devs decided that the Euro version should be the original.

Speaking of which, I'm always loathe to update mame since it's an annoying process, so if someone tests and report on differences from Japan B in Euro/US/China versions, I would appreciate it greatly.

brannon · Post by **brannon** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:38 am

not much of an update, but i can't go letting this thread drop off the front page :<

normal course: brannon - 6,100,350 - stage-5 - strawman (c)

fought all three rivals, killed envy and those bloody purple lasers got me :[

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:31 am

I am erroneously listed as Stage 7 on the Advanced Course. It's actually stage 6.

moozooh wrote:Penetrative bullet characters score worse, if I've learned anything from scoring in Garegga.

Car-Pet, auto 60, full main shot power, boss no-damage area

depending on where you hit and how much you're hitting, 6600-10800 points per second

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:01 am

Alright, that is a convincing argument.

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:36 pm

I like chips and milk.

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:52 am

MAME .130 came out so I tried out Euro/US/China. As expected, they all behave like Korea. There are effectively 3 versions: Japan A, Japan B (default), Euro/US/China/Korea B.

MAME devs changed the cheat format slightly again out of their infinite love for refactoring, so I edited the xml a couple of posts above to reflect this.

brannon · Post by **brannon** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 7:30 pm

the age of the last post in this thread saddens me so i might as well get myself on the special course board:

brannon - 2,870,930 - stage-6 (bashinet) - car-pet (b)

protip: don't sit in front of bashinet as he times out :[

edit: ignore that, here's a better one:

brannon - 3,562,400 - stage-8 (tsumujimaru) - car-pet (b)

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:22 pm

DEL - A,969,700 - Stage 9 - Strawman(A), Flying Baron(B), Miyamoto(C)

Failed to trigger Hayate, Envy, Glow Squid and Bashinet R.
Lost medal chain several times.
Died on Last Boss.

Ayanami · Post by **Ayanami** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:05 am

I need to get back to work on this game.

I am having a hard time playing with a team. And the ninjas still terrify me.

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:24 pm

Ayanami wrote;

I am having a hard time playing with a team. And the ninjas still terrify me.

Its Bashinet R and Glow Squid's final form that worry me.
Playing Advance Course with a team is the way to go though. For instance, with Strawman only you're missing out on Bashinet MkII, the Colliseum one - forgot name, Black Heart, Gob Robo, both Ninjas, Black Heart MkII, Glow Squid and Bashinet R.
That's quite a lot of extra points.
Last night Glow Squid lasered me out on Stage 9 at a score of A,4. Bashinet R would have been Stage 10, then the final - Stage 11. I guess survival would have easily meant a C score, but there's nothing easy about the rank on a long team game

.

Enhasa · Post by **Enhasa** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 2:51 am

Ayanami wrote:I need to get back to work on this game.

I am having a hard time playing with a team. And the ninjas still terrify me.

Special course is a fun way to practice bosses.

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:34 am

Enhasa - Thanks for updating

, but you haven't changed my Advance Course position.
Cheers, DEL

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 8:21 am

B,371,700 - DEL - Stage 10 - Strawman(B) / Flying Baron(A) / Miyamoto(C)

Failed to trigger Black Heart

, Sobut, Envy & Bashinet R.
Lost medal chain twice early on.
Got the jitters towards the end of the final stage, made a mistake and failed to reach Discharge. I guess 2mil points missed from the unencountered Bosses.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 5:44 pm

Nice score. One day I'm going to bust out my board and give this thing the love it deserves. Not until I can give it propper attention.

However, I'm a bit scared as nobody here has cleared the Advanced Course. That's just brutal!

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 5:54 pm

Thanks.

However, I'm a bit scared as nobody here has cleared the Advanced Course. That's just brutal!

Actually Icarus did during the STGT06 at about 5am in the morning. I'm pretty sure his B score should be listed as an ALL, I've seen the avi.

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:02 pm

Advanced (jpn-b version):
D,002,840 - DMC - Stage 9 - Strawman (B) / Flying Baron (A) / Miyamoto (C)
Pic 1 & Pic 2

I've so far ignored the extend on highway stage, because it is problematic and I'm used to not need it (when i played normal and korean version).
Now I finally realize that I do need it!

So anybody knows a good strategy getting the extend while not wasting bombs or breaking the medal chain (preferably with miyamoto or strawman)?

Also, what determines whether the big turrets on the last stage drops bombs?

And the green tubes with suicide bullets in the final stage, damn that part of the stage. Any help there?

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:09 pm

Wow, this is an amazing score! D is for DMC! :D

DMC · Post by **DMC** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:30 pm

Thx, moozooh!

Plasmo · Post by **Plasmo** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:40 pm

DMC wrote:Also, what determines whether the big turrets on the last stage drops bombs?

You have to destroy the turrets exactly when they are about to shoot their flamethrower. If they are already spewing, it's too late.

DMC wrote:And the green tubes with suicide bullets in the final stage, damn that part of the stage. Any help there?

Either you only destroy all tubes on one side of of the screen and make cut-backs when you reach the middle or you tap didge everything. It's not really difficult once you get the hang of it and the medals are not falling too unfair.

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:26 pm

Big score DMC

! Congrats.

I can't score like you but I'll be giving it a go. Batrider's staying connected to my supergun for a while longer.

Breakdown · Post by **Breakdown** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:59 pm

Nice score man. Keep it up, go for the ALL! Just curious, what bosses did you miss?

As for the hovertank extend, I can't help with specifics for either of those characters as I don't use them, but you probably only want to attack it early when it's front and center and keep it off to the side otherwise (probably especially important with those two with Miyamoto's super wide and Strawman's homing options). It just takes a while to get a feel for it, but once you do you can just use the same method and get it pretty much every time (I almost never miss it with Maria, and I'm getting pretty consistent with Carpet). You could probably get away with using a bomb if you have to as well and just hope the ninja drops are friendly and make up the difference, just pop it a little early (like when the yellow tank is starting to stop) so you don't screw yourself on medals on the first set of helicopters, or use one to soften it up when it crosses earlier in the stage if need be, though with those two I kinda doubt that'll be necessary.

Hope that maybe helped a little, and good luck.