STG Weekly #73: Varth

[Special World]

aquas got speared by a narwhal

bring it on, shmups forum wagon adventure

[CStarFlare]

I pray

Every night

For more wagons in my life




Thank you STGWeekly

[iast]

Ford the river.

ALWAYS ford the river.

[KennyMan666]

Ford the river.

ALWAYS ford the river.

Look at this scrub and how wrong it's possible for one person to be.

[nasty_wolverine]

on http://www.hitbox.tv/stgweekly1 for people who dont know...

[Icarus]

Best episode ever.

[beatsgo]

Absolutely enjoyed this episode, looking forward to share the uploaded video with friends

[Aquas]

Up on Youtube now is the Wagon ep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx75wMeka2E#t=57

Jumps to 0:57 when I begin introducing the show >.>

[Aquas]

Some stuff that is upcoming or on the queue for STGW. Border Down is tentatively this weekend with victolap and Medal but it sounds like Medal might not make it. Anyone want to join and / or replace him for Border Down commentary? Also still need to find some quality footage for the game (I haven't looked admittedly.)

Things on the horizon that need volunteer commentators:
-Varth (Emuser confirmed commenter, could use another)
-Something Milestone (need game suggestion / commenters)
-Sengoku Blade
-Giga Wing
-Mars Matrix

-Make a suggestion / be a guest / propose footage! The things required to do an episode...

[Eaglet]

How about DEL for Border Down?

[ZacharyB]

If you do Mars Matrix, try and see if Rob would be the guest player. I think he is the authority on the game here.

[Aquas]

Unfortunately he's already declined. And I PM'd every relevant party on this forum about the Mars Matrix episode. It's a desert for some reason despite the demand. I dunno.

[Patashu]

Obviously you should make a TAS of Mars Matrix and have the robot that made the TAS commentate over it, because inferior meatbags don't wish to associate themselves with this glorious game

[alamone]

The DC version has built-in replays. If I recall there's two sets - one for survival and one for scoring, although it's not fully optimized.
I never did finish this, but I did get to the last boss a few times on the 6D all red route.

[LordHypnos]

Unfortunately he's already declined. And I PM'd every relevant party on this forum about the Mars Matrix episode. It's a desert for some reason despite the demand. I dunno.

Kinda makes sense if you think about it. People want to see a commentary over a Mars Matrix superplay because they aren't good enough to do it Presumably it would help them improve. The eternal conundrum of STG Weekly

@Patashu: I'd actually love to see a TAS playing Mars Matrix. Seems like it'd be pretty fun to watch. Why has nobody done that yet?

Question though: Are people actually not letting you use their already-on-youtube replays? because that would be kind of weird. I assumed that the issue was only finding a commentator.

[Patashu]

@Patashu: I'd actually love to see a TAS playing Mars Matrix. Seems like it'd be pretty fun to watch. Why has nobody done that yet?

Making a TAS of a shmup that is worth watching (thus, incredibly high score) requires a really deep knowledge of the scoring system and potential routes - and even bigger, you need to be able to do your own routes, since TAS can be riskier than humans and get away with it. So not many people can make them, and probably those people are busy playing the game in real time
I'm of course interested in them as well, but it's understandable that they're not getting made. Recently, keylie started on an Ikaruga [GC] TAS, here: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 069#368069 But he is not currently working on it, so we nearly got something going there

[Aquas]

Question though: Are people actually not letting you use their already-on-youtube replays? because that would be kind of weird. I assumed that the issue was only finding a commentator.

No, that's not an issue. Just a matter of finding it.

[LordHypnos]

No, that's not an issue. Just a matter of finding it.

That much shouldn't be too big of a problem.
Rob: 3 trillion points, 5 (almost 6 IIRC) million experience, blue ship, DC version
no sound, but probably the best video you'll find in terms of gameplay (gratuitous auto piercing cannon (ab)use, though).

Moreno: counterstop (999,999,999,990), arcade version, something a good amount over 3 million experience (note that experience works the same in the DC and arcade versions, but scores are very inflated in the DC version, and there's no counterstop possible)
This is divided into six parts but it has pretty good quality and sound, and a very high level of gameplay. Interesting because it's with the red ship, which is way less popular. It's also findable as an .inp file on MARP

There's also a pretty good SFKhoa video of the arcade version, but, while he did manage to counterstop it eventually (and with over 4 million experience, at that), the video is of an earlier, lower scoring 1cc. It's with the blue ship and in 6 parts, and I could easily find it (on YT) if you wanted me to. I think it's 720p, too, so a little higher quality than Moreno's.

[Squire Grooktook]

-Make a suggestion / be a guest / propose footage! The things required to do an episode...

Was toying with asking about this for a while, but I was thinking I'd suggest eXceed 2nd with myself as a guest. I have a 1lc of it on the hardest difficulty too.

I think it's a very unique and interesting game with a nice mix of aggressive up close play and unique patterns that felt extremely fresh when I played through it, and I think more players should give it a try. The scoring is very broken and stupid at a high level (involving stuff like suiciding on the final boss for millions of extra points lol), so it doesn't quite have the depth and skill ceiling of something like a Cave game, but it's akin to older shmups in that it's a very fun and enjoyable ride working your way up there. I've put 80+ hours into it and it's one of my top 5 favorite pc/doujin shmups, so I'd love to talk about it.

[DEL]

I'll say Yes to the Border Down commentary and to a future Manpuku Mode edition.
I'll fire-up the Skype and see what I can do.

[emphatic]

I'll say Yes to the Border Down commentary and to a future Manpuku Mode edition.
I'll fire-up the Skype and see what I can do.

Heroic!

[Icarus]

I'll say Yes to the Border Down commentary and to a future Manpuku Mode edition.
I'll fire-up the Skype and see what I can do.

Conspiracy theories episode GET
This will be the greatest episode ever. :3

[DEL]

HA! I'll be sticking well away from THAT
btw. Icarus - I'll need your nico nico login. PM me.

[ZacharyB]

@Patashu: I'd actually love to see a TAS playing Mars Matrix. Seems like it'd be pretty fun to watch. Why has nobody done that yet?

I believe that this video is a TAS:

http://youtu.be/l-mbSFdUcPs

(And its part 2, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkjpLeJG5lg )

I can't remember what made me realize that this particular run is computer assisted, but something a little fishy is in there somewhere.
------------------
Ah, I see. I just watched it again and the thing that gives it away is the way the player inputs his initials with impossible speed.

[LordHypnos]

Only watched the first part of it, but there's definately some really suspicious parts to that vid. I would say the main ones are Stage 3 boss (destroying all parts or something, WTF), as well as the Stage 4 midboss, and the top cannon on the stage 4 battleship thing.

It's not actually a very good TAS though. lol. Stage 1 route is super unoptimized. He only got like +500 (looked like). Many unassisted players can get +900 or higher, and I can even get +700 some (although it'd be a little less in MAME, because I use the auto piercing in the beginning of the stage to inflate that chain by a little.)
Also, while full chaining the second stage is nearly impossible for most people, it's totally possible to do, and get a higher chain to boot, unassisted. Never breaking the chain in Stage 3 was very cool (don't know that anyone has succeeded in that. usually they opt for chaining from near the beginning to near the end), but again It could have been optimized more.

Anyway, pretty interesting to watch run, in any case, thanks for bringing my attention to that .

EDIT: Finished the second part. it was a 1LC, which is probably enough in itself to decide that it's a TAS. lol. Chaining the entire 6th stage was pretty cool, though. It's nice to know that that's actually theoretically possible, even if not practically so. Only +1200 though. lol. His final exp was also pretty unimpressive considering it's a TAS though. around 4.6 million. Not too many unassisted players have gotten that, but RAR, SFKhoa, and Rob all have achieved or exceeded that in MAME

[-S.L-]

I love Border Down just because of the music

[PurpleTheGuy]

Great episode on Border Down, guys (Even though I caught half of it, I'll watch the other half, when you guys put it up on YouTube! That, and I got to actually follow a bit about the game's scoring mechanics)! I've had quite a positive opinion about G.Rev, when I played Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! (Yeah, I know about Gulti, also), so ever since, I'm planning on playing other games made by G.Rev in the near future!

That, and I actually got to catch it live (A 1st time ever for me), too, it was awesome, not to mention it was my 1st time ever being in a chat room like that! In-fact, I got pretty nervous, the chat stream was fast, with the live commentary, everyone typing pretty fast, and with me trying to catch everything at once, I actually made a gaffe, where I confused Icarus and Zaarock in the chat room Very sorry about that, Icarus! Oh, my 1st time ever catching a live stream of STG weekly (Or anything, for that matter), and me being in a live chat room, and I made an awkward 1st impression! >.<

But yeah, again, great episode guys, and actually being there, when you guys are streaming live, was a great 1st experience, and one day, I'll get to play Border Down, when I get a Dreamcast, of course!

[Icarus]

DEL hype! \o/

Also no problem PurpleTheGuy. :3

[DEL]

HYPE

[pestro87]

Great episode! I didn't know a whole lot about Border Down prior to the episode but I feel like you guys did a great job on the commentary and explained everything really well!