The Problem with Perikles

[trap15]

(4) Recently I noticed that EOJ (on his site, that he seems to have revived after a good number of years) posted a twitter link to player getting a new score on cave game. Here is the link: twitter. Now if you scroll down a bit (to few weeks ago) one of the videos posted seems to be consistent with one of the older posts of sikraiken (made about seven years ago).

Can you link the specific post? I'm not sure what you mean by this point either way.

[wiNteR]

Sorry what I meant was that the player who got a new score on feversos [whose twitter link I gave in the post ..... here is cave-stg link to post where I saw it] re-posted this link on his twitter (may 24): https://twitter.com/i/status/1264569046193717248.

This is different from an overall difficult game such as donpachi, which, surely gets (very) hard towards the end ......... but would still be quite easy to route unless barring that some section may have only a very specific way to deal with it. Of course one can still tas but if you tas some part it might be difficult to tell whether it is possible legit. [with limited resources] or not (say, take sdoj tlb as an example).

[Gus]

I thought I would mention a few things. These are not particularly focused comments, just various (sporadic) thoughts on this topic.

(1) I am probably not good at discerning videos so take this as a grain of salt. I do agree that some of the dodging in the video clips linked is a bit atypical (I compared with one other replay that came upon search).

But just playing a game in a harder way than the more refined route definitely doesn't mean cheating.

His method for dealing with the first boss is really out there. The two bomb blue weapon strat he uses is actually harder to pull off than the no bomb red weapon strat. His explanation for it that he simply didn't care about bombs or what weapon he was using is a major red flag, as those are things you absolutely need to plan out in this game. That's especially the case if you're planning on clearing it in a matter of days. There's also moments where it looks like he doesn't know what's coming next and is just winging it.

(2) Regarding the comments linked above on the replay (december 2009), there is a concern. According to Sikraiken's own comments (in the same topic) the original clear was done 6 years ago (in few days).

Now from what I have gathered based upon the comments of other posters, the game is supposed to be quite difficult (and looks deceptively easy). So it seems that one would have to be extremely skilled to complete the game in few days or few weeks. So I think there is one question as to which other (difficult) games were completed (or heavily practiced) by sikraiken before he had completed this game? Since, presumably, given his own comments it was completed six years ago, which would make it late 2003.

He was actually very active on MARP back in 2003 and had submitted several inps to them back in 2003 and 2004. That raises another question, though of why he wouldn't have submitted an inp of this game to them either time that he supposedly cleared it. Apparently the 2009 inp is revealed to be using external autofire if you enable an input viewer, but that raises another question of why he would use external autofire when it gives no benefit over the built-in autofire. It's a really bizarre situation overall if legit and it seems much simpler to just go with him having TASed the run with minimal experience/knowledge with the game.

(4) Recently I noticed that EOJ (on his site, that he seems to have revived after a good number of years) posted a twitter link to player getting a new score on cave game. Here is the link: twitter. Now if you scroll down a bit (to few weeks ago) one of the videos posted seems to be consistent with one of the older posts of sikraiken (made about seven years ago).

The strat to NMNB the Mushi Ultra TLB was actually shown as a bonus feature on the INH DVD, but players didn't really give it a serious shot until a few years ago. I don't think that link proves a whole lot, as it's just sikraiken saying it would be really hard, not mentioning any method to do it or whether it's even possible.

(5)

Therefore, I personally hold people like sikraiken to a higher standard of proof for this reason as well.

I do agree with the basic point here. However, I think the converse of should be held as well. If someone has been a member for a long time and has shown enough credibility (which is the case here), it is reasonable to give them quite an extended time (at least around an year or so). That's my opinion.

Sikraiken has had 10+ years to prove his case, but he's continuously chosen to make false promises and give evasive answers when pressed for replay proof. In 07 he promised a Twinbee replay, in 11 a Parodius replay, in 12 a V-V replay, and he never delivered on any of those. The suspicious Tatsujin Oh replay is more the nail in the coffin to the counterargument that he's this prodigy router who's somehow too lazy to upload much footage of his play.

[wiNteR]

He was actually very active on MARP back in 2003 and had submitted several inps to them back in 2003 and 2004. That raises another question, though of why he wouldn't have submitted an inp of this game to them either time that he supposedly cleared it. Apparently the 2009 inp is revealed to be using external autofire if you enable an input viewer, but that raises another question of why he would use external autofire when it gives no benefit over the built-in autofire. It's a really bizarre situation overall if legit and it seems much simpler to just go with him having TASed the run with minimal experience/knowledge with the game.

By external do you mean:(i) autofire using an outside app (ii) autofire using emulator feature?

If you are saying that he used (i), then would it give a specific advantage (meaning increased rate of fire etc.)? I would agree that would be a little strange, but given how long ago it is supposed to be, I don't think its bizarre. Things like autofire weren't common knowledge (to the extent it might be now) back then. I didn't know about it for a good number of years. In fact, when I cleared gunbird (1 loop) many years ago, if I remember correctly [its been quite long, so I could be wrong], it was a bit tiresome to keep pressing the same button whole way through. Only few years later on when I was casually playing first loop of few psikyo games, I asked about it.

If you are just saying that he used (ii) but not the "in-game" auto-fire button, then its even "less" strange. I wasn't aware (until maybe few years ago) that a number of games had such a button. And few times [just arbitrarily without any reason] I still use (i) (the emulator auto-fire) when I know the given game gives the option for in-game autofire.

The strat to NMNB the Mushi Ultra TLB was actually shown as a bonus feature on the INH DVD, ......

OK fair point, I didn't know about this.

[Prales]

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[Prales]

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[vol.2]

In the cases of Perikles and edusword, their community involvement doesn't seem to be as great

Perikles write-up of his "...." is very impressive. I am astonished that these essays are coming from a suspected "cheater" which even a real cheater alone would not that into this stuff.

So, I read through this thread a few weeks ago and I finally think I have something to say about it.
I'm certainly no expert here; I'm not nearly as shmuppy as most of the rest of you lot.
That being said, there's some stuff going on that I think has been glazed over, probably because everyone is super focused on the shmup side of things. (and rightfully so because you enjoy it)

I'm reading a lot about how the subject of this thread seemed "beyond reproach" because of contributions made to community in the form of guides and what could be considered unnecessarily large vocab words for explaining shmups. It is my experience that this kind of behavior could easily fit a pattern of someone who seeks to be recognized as some kind of a guru or authority. The motivation for this behavior is the recognition itself.

One idea proposed in this thread is that, the trait which leads someone to seek recognition as an authority, and honesty in that same quest, are mutually inclusive.
This absolutely not the case. It is often quite the opposite.

I don't have a "side" here at all, but the psychology in this thread absolutely intrigued me.

[Sengoku Strider]

Perikles write-up of his 16-bit Arcade Port reviews and classic STG difficulty ranking is very impressive. I am astonished that these essays are coming from a suspected "cheater" which even a real cheater alone would not that into this stuff.

I can talk about frame traps, metas, setups and spacing in fighting games for days. I also can't get out of basic Silver in Street Fighter V (pretty much instantly get slapped back down to Ultra Bronze). I used to talk online like I was awesome, too, for generic insecure-young-guy-on-the-internet reasons. You can learn a lot by being obsessively into something that you can't actually do, which gets frustrating.