Mars Matrix (new thread)

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Rob
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Rob »

infamas and third_strike updated.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Plasmo »

Congrats third_strike! Now try the DC version, should be way more interesting. :wink:
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by third_strike »

Thanks guys!
Plasmo wrote:Congrats third_strike! Now try the DC version, should be way more interesting. :wink:
My DC is broken, I need buy one other for play Psyvariar 2 and Giga Wing 2. I am done with the CPS2 version and I am horrible in stage 3 :) .
Two years playing for score I guess I need one little vacation before start play other game.
Cool!
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Rob »

I've noticed from the last thread to this one that the focus has shifted almost entirely from the DC version to the arcade version. DCs are crap - they're probably all broken.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by TLB »

Rob wrote:I've noticed from the last thread to this one that the focus has shifted almost entirely from the DC version to the arcade version. DCs are crap - they're probably all broken.
Not quite yet. Morrigan's hot boobs can still be appreciated in at least one Midwestern home.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Kollision »

I've been thinking of getting back to MM, this time with Mosquito 2
... maybe after I've done something regarding my score in Zero Gunner 2 :)
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Battletoad »

I´m also back with a new (indeed working) Dreamcast, but I´ll concentrate on Zero Gunner 2 first.
However I played 2 credits of Mars Matrix Elite Mode A some days ago and almost got a 12 digit score. Quite lucky... But I will just post when I finally reached the 12th one.

Congrats third_strike!
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by moozooh »

I'm a bit late to the party, but still, congratulations on that counterstop, man! Indeed you have managed it faster than SFKhoa, very impressive dedication and skill!
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by gs68 »

CPS-2 via MAME (US, difficulty 4)
6,330,970,870 - 110,929 - gs68 - 2 - 3

I used to hate Mars Matrix as a 15- and 16-year-old. Having come back to this five years later, this game is harder to put down now.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by ShadowWraith »

Just picked this game up on the recommendation of a friend. Pretty tricky game but quite fun seeing how different it is from standard shmups.

Edit: Better score now.

US MAME Arcade version
30,297,154,300 - 403,899 - ShadowWraith - 2 - 5

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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

Playing US version in MAME on my work computer during lunch breaks/planning period. Deleted all my other roms so I could focus on just this instead of dabbling like I've been doing for a few months... let's see how this works out!

15,428,167,590 - 237,696 - Ransom - 2 - 3

EDIT:
Small improvements. Considering this is almost the exact same place I died on the previous posting, I'd say it's an improvement.

23,591,443,090 - 300,919 - Ransom - 2 - 3
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

Finally got a better score. Finally getting a fairly consistent 200k from stage 1. Finally getting past stage 2 consistently with 0-1 deaths. Stage 3... especially the boss? UGH. Don't know if I want to use save-state/stage practice... For some reason it just doesn't feel right to me. I guess I'll just settle for my ridiculously slow progress!

Ignore the inane rambling. Here's what's important:

34,585,761,930 - 516,216 - Ransom - 2 - 3
Last edited by CptRansom on Thu May 13, 2010 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

51,157,569,990 - 484,526 - Ransom - 2 - 4

The section after the midboss is brutal. :evil:
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

YES! After three days of playing like COMPLETE SHIT (I couldn't pass stage 1 without dying at least once EVERY SINGLE TIME I PLAYED), I finally smashed my score. Hurray, progress!

81,083,433,170 - 702,219 - Ransom - 2 - 4

Stage 4 up to the midboss is my bitch. Stage 4 AFTER the midboss makes me its bitch. Any advice for that section would be AWESOME... there is JUST way too much shit for me to dodge without dying at least once.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Rob »

Destroy the larger enemies as they enter. You won't have to deal with their bullets (overlapping everything else) and they're worth a lot of points.

Tap dodging should help for a while. Move a lot and it'll create a bigger mess. After a while I use a GHB to clear everything and collect cubes. Tap reflecting might work better just for survival.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

I'll try tap reflecting. I need to start doing that more often anyways (I normally only use the reflect when I have a huge clump of bullets to reflect... and then I find myself SOL when I -need- it), so I guess now is as good a time as any to work on it! It'll probably help my chaining too. Thanks!

Another question: Looking at the score board, I see infamas with over twice my score, yet only on stage 4 and only with a few thousand more exp than me. How? I'm obviously missing something crucial here.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by Rob »

Tap reflecting will scatter the bullets. You have to hold on at least a little bit (not tap) to direct them, so it is not a very good way of chaining. Drawing out and going after the bullet clusters is best.

I can't be sure about the scoring. I've heard using the piercing cannon nets more points, but I've never paid much attention to the difference. Some enemies are worth a lot more than others and you can get more of them to appear by destroying them quickly. Building the experience earlier is obviously best.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

I just started playing this again, quarter is almost over. Hopefully I should be able to improve on my score. I just really want to get past stage 4...
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

infamas wrote:I just started playing this again, quarter is almost over. Hopefully I should be able to improve on my score. I just really want to get past stage 4...
You and me both, sir. I got to the boss on one credit for the first time today. Beat it while practicing and moved on to try out stage 5... what a joke. If I can clear stage 4, I fully expect a 12-digit score. I was getting pretty bummed because I haven't made any scoring gains in the last week (and believe me, I've been trying), but I realized I'm consistently scoring between 50-65 billion and making it past the stage 4 midboss now (instead of once every 30 tries) so I guess that's an improvement. Kinda. I have 17 days to 1cc it and meet my goal.

tl;dr fuck stage 4.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

I haven't been playing very seriously. I'm a grad student, so work takes priority. The quarter is over, so I'll have more time to focus.

I actually have never seen the 4th stage boss on one credit. I usually die at the battleship, mostly because by then, I will only have at most one extra life.

As for your scoring questions: Learn to chain stage 1 completely. With a bit a of practice, making it to 200k xp in the first level can happen pretty often. This will dramatically improve your score for later stages. It's how I reached 170 billion.

For further improvements, which I cannot do anywhere close to regularly:

- Try as best you can to chain the part of stage 2 from the rotating turret to the boss. ALSO, be sure to get the green ship rush at the end, which yields quite a lot of xp. Chaining into this from the rotating turret will give your xp a pretty big bump.

- For stage 3, I guess chaining the stage is certainly the preferred method, but for something more attainable in the near future, just get to the xp waterfall as soon as possible and milk it for as long as possible using the piercing cannon. I imagine this, combined with the 200k stage 1 chain and the chaining of the end of stage 2 will probably yield 800k xp, though I have never done all of these things in a single run.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

infamas wrote:I haven't been playing very seriously. I'm a grad student, so work takes priority. The quarter is over, so I'll have more time to focus.

I actually have never seen the 4th stage boss on one credit. I usually die at the battleship, mostly because by then, I will only have at most one extra life.

As for your scoring questions: Learn to chain stage 1 completely. With a bit a of practice, making it to 200k xp in the first level can happen pretty often. This will dramatically improve your score for later stages. It's how I reached 170 billion.

For further improvements, which I cannot do anywhere close to regularly:

- Try as best you can to chain the part of stage 2 from the rotating turret to the boss. ALSO, be sure to get the green ship rush at the end, which yields quite a lot of xp. Chaining into this from the rotating turret will give your xp a pretty big bump.

- For stage 3, I guess chaining the stage is certainly the preferred method, but for something more attainable in the near future, just get to the xp waterfall as soon as possible and milk it for as long as possible using the piercing cannon. I imagine this, combined with the 200k stage 1 chain and the chaining of the end of stage 2 will probably yield 800k xp, though I have never done all of these things in a single run.
Yeah, I get in a couple hours a night, but that's only because I really don't have a social life these days (girlfriend lives two hours away and I drive there on the weekends, friends live 30+ minutes away so I didn't hang out with them on school/work nights anyway).

I got one MS off on the central part of the battleship and was about to get the second and finish it with 78 billion and three(!) lives when MAME froze. Talk about pissed off.

I typically finish stages with these checkpoints (this is average - not counting "oh god I fucked up on stage one RESET" runs):

1: 3.0-3.5 billion / 240-280k exp
2: 20-22 billion / 380-420k exp
3: 50-55 billion / 600k+ exp

I've hit the 800k exp mark a couple times now, so I'm pretty happy about that. I chain stage 1 from the beginning up until right before the final wave before the boss. For some reason I just can't get that part of the stage to click for me, so I end up with a +400-500 chain followed by a +380-ish chain. I chain the very beginning of stage 2 up until about +300 or so, then break it until the big rotating turret where I can usually keep it up to +300 or more, then it breaks again, then I chain the green ships for anywhere from +300 to +400 (with a decent reflect). Stage 3... I only get XP from the "waterfall" - I'm mostly fighting to survive. Same with stage 4 - ESPECIALLY after the midboss.

I think I need to use the Piercing Cannon more. It sounds like our methods are somewhat similar aside from that. I'll give it a shot later and see how I do.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

The piercing cannon is my primary weapon and is much easier to use when playing the dreamcast version, but you should still use it a lot to point blank pretty much everything.

Since you are playing the arcade version, be mindful that the scoring on the DC version yields more points, so you shouldn't get super discouraged

EDIT: About the death on stage 1. Maybe I'm weird about shooting games, but I usually play out any credit, regardless of how early I die first. My 170 billion run involved dying once on stage 2 I think.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

Oh okay, that makes more sense then. Also, I only reset if I die on stage one; otherwise, I play the entire thing out.

EDIT: Downloaded Lagless MAME and OH MY GOD. Took a few credits to get used to it... but, after ten days of practicing my ass off:

88,716,640,360 - 884,378 - Ransom - 2 - 4

I died in stage 3, blew three(!) lives on the section right after the midboss, then made it to the st4 boss before losing my last one. Getting closer to my secondary and tertiary goals of 100+ billion points and 1+ million exp. WOO.

EDIT2: AWESOME.

89,390,181,190 - 1,001,010 - Ransom - 2 - 4
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

Last night I played for a bit, and though I didn't make it to stage 4 on this run, I did aquire well over 800k xp. That xp waterfall in stage 3 is available as soon as the two green ships on the bottom of the screen appear, before the center green ship and the two red ships at the top, so you can access it quite early. My 1st stage chain was lousy too, didn't even make it to 200k. The early xp waterfall seemed to make up for it by quite a bit.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

Yeah, I didn't know you could start on it so early... I'm breaking 900k by the end of stage 3 almost every time I play now (and I don't even bother trying to chain anywhere else in the stage - I die too much, lol). Time to hardcore practice stage 4 until I know it like I know stages 1 and 2. I'm tired of it being my brick wall.

So... CLOSE...

96,734,598,440 - 1,122,091 - Ransom - 2 - 4

Fucking boss. I've got those whiplash attacks down to a science. The second attack phase fucks me up HARD though.

^This. Still. At least I finally broke 100 billion despite massively fucking up on stages 2-4 (one death in 2, two in three, two in four).

104,742,590,580 - 984,956 - Ransom - 2 - 4

EDIT 5/29: I think I'm about ready to throw in the towel. I still can't get past stage 4 on a full run. I'm getting quite frustrated. I just don't think I'm good enough to finish a 1cc any time soon.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

Very slight imrovement:

DC Arcade

179,081,456,010 - 781,616 - infamas - 2 - 4

I acually made it to the 4th stage boss twice in that session. I had no extra lives by the time I got to him though, so he proceeded to completely whip me.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

Oh man, I finally broke 200 billion. I didn't even make it to the battleship or get 200k xp on the first stage. I just got up to the xp waterfall right around the two green ships and just kept milking.

DC Arcade

250,541,682,960 - 1,236,196 - infamas - 2 - 4
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

CaptainRansom wrote:EDIT 5/29: I think I'm about ready to throw in the towel. I still can't get past stage 4 on a full run. I'm getting quite frustrated. I just don't think I'm good enough to finish a 1cc any time soon.
Aww, you can't just go and do this. This game is beatable dammit. Beat that shit.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by CptRansom »

Nice dude. I got a new score earlier (I'll edit this post with it later) in MAME, but I was 100k short of your exp. Nice work!

I got to the stage 4 boss with three lives. THREE. And lost them all. I'd been save-state practicing stage 4 all morning, so I'm pretty upset about that. At least I can now beat the section after the midboss consistently without dying. Yay?

infamas wrote:Aww, you can't just go and do this. This game is beatable dammit. Beat that shit.
Yeah, took yesterday off then came back and tackled it today with the above results. When I do my full runs, I'm not resetting anymore. I think it's been working rather well. I died three times in stage one against the boss (lolwut?) and still made it to stage 4 boss somehow. I made a save state in stage 5 (I've beaten the goddamn st4 boss like twenty times now off one life but can't do it in a full run) so I could practice that. The stage is a JOKE. Stage 6, however, scares the hell out of me. It looks WAY worse than stage 4.
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Re: Mars Matrix (new thread)

Post by infamas »

If you can beat the post midboss section of stage 4 without dying ,that's pretty damn good. Also, if you're beating the stage 4 boss semi-regularly without losing lives while practicing, beating stage 4 is just a matter of time...
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