Where are the credits?

[Vetus]

One thing I find weird at some '90s arcade shmups is that when you finish the last stage instead of getting a "Congratulations! You cleared all the stages!" screen and then the credits, the game starts all over again from the beginning. Why were they doing that?

[Mortificator]

It's called looping. The second loop of a game usually has higher difficulty than the first. Some shooters end after that second loop (e.g. Psikyo games) and some loop indefinitely (e.g. Gradius games).

Of course, that doesn't really explain why some looping games go without credits or an ending. I couldn't answer that for certain, but my guesses would include time constraints, apathy, or wanting to avoid the player being in front of the cab and not playing.

[MathU]

Much of the arcade company mentality in the late '80s and early '90s in Japan involved not allowing developers to receive proper credit for their work on a game. This was done in a highly competitive climate where there was fear of losing talent to a competitor if their real name became known. This usually meant developers going by pseudonyms within game credits, but sometimes there aren't any credits at all and developers would simply tuck themselves away in the default high score table. One might even wonder if the reason that games sometime allowed for really long high score names instead of the typical three letters for initials was simply to accommodate more room for the developers to name themselves.


Also loops suck.

[Mortificator]

I'm not a fan of them either, outside of Ghosts 'n Goblins games.

The no-credit mentality was also common in comic books prior to the '60s. And comics started paying royalties to their creators in the late '80s, which video games still get away with not doing.

[Strikers1945guy]

Also loops suck.

For cave games yeah loops generally suck, but for old school shmups like Hishozame and stuff loops are awesome man !

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I'd rather have a game that ends than one that loops forever like those or the Gradius games. Not that I dislike Gradius, but I would consider myself done after 1 round on an infinite loop game if I actually cleared one. It's one of the reasons I like the arcade Parodius games more than Gradius because they actually end (1 round for Sexy and Gokujou and 2 for Da!) in addition to that they have an actual scoring system other than just shooting stuff.


But no loops is best. Won't stop me from playing a game I like that loops though, there's a few arcade 2-Alls I'd like to pull off some day.

[Eaglet]

For cave games yeah loops generally suck, but for old school shmups like Hishozame and stuff loops are awesome man !

Eeeh, what the the actual fuck?

Old school infini-loops can suck my balls.
DDP games and Ketsui actually have fun loops.
Only retarded CAVE-loop is Progear.

[Captain]

Credits are game over. This is the only message the game's makers want to tell you.

If they're feeling good about it, there will be an "insert loot to continue" or "please try again".

[trap15]

Either infinite loops, or no loops. That's my policy.

[dunpeal2064]

I like games with no loops, one loop, or infinite loops.

Fuck 4 loops though. That shit is just wrong.

[Strikers1945guy]

Either infinite loops, or no loops. That's my policy.

This guy knows what's up.
infinite loops with increasing difficulty is where the funs at.

[ptoing]

Either infinite loops, or no loops. That's my policy.

I agree with this as well. I am not a fan of Cave style loops where there is some extra content at the end of the 2nd loop. Extra content is cool, but that can be dealt with in one loop too, just with some requirements.

Infinite loops that are the same in terms of content apart from difficulty are fine for people who are into that kinda thing though.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Not even all the Cave loops have extra content, though most do.

Pink Sweets(on Extended) and Muchi Muchi Pork only have harder patterns and no extra bosses(maybe Ibara as well, but I'm not familiar with that game and if it has a looping mode on it). Of course Pink Sweets is already extremely hard and extremely long as is, so going through 2 loops of it would obviously not be something most people would want to do(It's also generally considered impossible without infinite lives on 1.00, but I kind of doubt that it truly is, just stupid hard), while Muchi Muchi Pork has a difficult requirement to enter, then you lose any future score extends once you're in the loop past the first(probably to allow you to suicide once at the start of loop 2 for bombs since you'll likely have used all of them on the 1-5 boss, but 1.01 was changed to loosen the requirement and give you extends in it).

[Strikers1945guy]

DDP Daifukkatsu 1.5 has to be the most painful game to loop in existence tbh

[ptoing]

Not even all the Cave loops have extra content, though most do.

All the Ikeda ones that loop do, anyway.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

DDP Daifukkatsu 1.5 has to be the most painful game to loop in existence tbh

That one really was annoying me when I was playing it. Why can I not enter Ura when I have a No Death, 3 Bomb, 45 Bees 1cc that finished the first loop with max resources? I never got it down to the 2 bomb requirement on 1.5(only on Novice) and the loop patterns were a pain anyway so I just quit. Actually I dislike the Omote/Ura seperate loops anyway in that and Ketsui(not that I'll ever bother looping or even 1-Alling Ketsui)


It doesn't compare to Ketsui's No Miss No Bomb + 120 million score or MMP's No Miss.

[Bananamatic]

DFK is pretty easy to loop both ura and omote tbh(omote loop is nearly impossible to fail once you know where the bees are), I got the ura loop in 5 credits after practicing

ketsui ura is something else though, especially when scoring

[Vetus]

I wouldn't have problem with the loops as long as there were ending screens and credits. No endings/credits for ancient games like Space Invaders is understandable. But to later games? Why?