RQ: Omega Fighter mechanics (powerups, hitbox, extends)

[Sumez]

Now that the game is out on Switch and PS4, maybe people are ready to really talk about the mechanics of this game

I haven't actually tried the port yet, but I played around a bit with a friend's PCB version (the original one, not special), and got to play it again this weekend. It's such an amazingly fun game, but there are a lot of details that I don't really get, which I think is hurting my game. Maybe some people around here can shed some light on it?

1) What controls the powerup spawns? And is it different between this version and Special (which will supposedly give you smartbombs for "free")? I know one spawns every time you take out an entire formation, but what I get feels extremely random.
Getting the slowdown things especially seems to be extremely uneven, but once I get one, getting more seems to be easier, too, so there is definitely some pattern to it, but I can't find anything that works consistently. My best bet is that it has something to do with how fast you finish off a formation?

1a) What causes the weird "infinity" weapon spawn to drop? It seems extremely rare, and can show up at any time, and it really sucks too. It seems best to just avoid it. Does it have any advantage to it?

2) I can't figure out when zako crashing into the side of your ship as you're firing will kill them (for that sweet 10X), and when it kills you. If I'm just standing entirely still, they will always die as they fly into me, but if I move laterally into them, it seems like it will randomly kill me around half the time(?!). Of course, as long as I'm just standing still, I'm safe, but I really want to understand how the game discerns the difference, if I can hope to control it.
Like, if I move quickly into position, and then stop for only a very short while before the first enemy collides into me, it seems like that will some times kill me, too, and that feels pretty unfair, especially due to how unpredictable it is. I would really love to know the details of how it works.

3) What's the "canonical" extend setting? With all dipswitches off, you get them at 300,000 and 1,000,000. But from what I can tell, the new Hamster port has it always set to 200,000 and then 500,000 (don't know if it has any after that).
All videos I can find (with none really qualifying as a "superplay") has people playing with the 300k/1mil setting. Arcade Museum states 200k as the "indicated recommended settings". Is that from the original operator manual, or just something someone made up? What do people use when competing in the game? This forum has like three scores, no rules about extend settings and all on the special romset.
Of course, if all settings only net you two extends in total, it doesn't make that big of a difference.

[Icarus]

1. Kill an enemy formation to generate an item at random. You can only have two items floating around on screen at a time. The bar at the top, in Original Mode, will only fill up when you kill something with an x10, and resets on death. It'll continually fill up for things killed in Special Mode.

2. The 'Infinity' aka 'maximum wide' is randomly generated and is entirely useless.

3. Your hitbox is the ship - if you're just sitting there, then you're likely to not die when things slam into the side of you, as long as you're firing. Your shot also has a hitbox that is slightly longer and wider than it appears. Moving around can cause your hitbox to project a little in the direction you're moving. Also note that there is no bullet sealing, so enemies will get up close and unload whenever they can.

4. Depends on version and setting. I play Special ROM, Special Mode and the initial extend is at 300k, with other extends appearing as score milestones.