Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[LordHypnos]

Continuing to try to relearn Mars Matrix. I'm mostly focusing on stage 3, atm. I've managed to get over 400k so far, but I don't think I've managed to not die (practice mode doesn't track lives at all). Pretty far cry from my record of 1.3 million ep in the stage. I'm having trouble linking the first part of the stage with the gold cube fountain, and going much further with chaining than the gold cube fountain. That being said, the route is at least coming back to me a little through repetition and watching my video.

...Should also mention that I've been using the DC controller this whole time as opposed to the Saturn controller that I was using when I was learning MM before. It's because the Saturn controller is currently being used with it's PCB swapped out for a USB sat controller's, and I'm not sure I want to put it back yet, because I'm still playing some PC games.

EDIT: Just got an exp count of almost 800k in stage 3. Still not chaining as much as I used to, tho.

[pegboy]

I'm playing Salamander 2, going for the 2-ALL using the Vic Viper. Most players use the player 2 ship (Super Cobra) because the game is easier (lower rank) but I refuse to play as a goofy ass pink ship.

Stage 2-5 is where the shit really hits the fan. Thankfully it has some pretty awesome music that puts you into the zone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrJOsiA0b8

[Stevens]

Continuing to try to relearn Mars Matrix. I'm mostly focusing on stage 3, atm. I've managed to get over 400k so far, but I don't think I've managed to not die (practice mode doesn't track lives at all). Pretty far cry from my record of 1.3 million ep in the stage. I'm having trouble linking the first part of the stage with the gold cube fountain, and going much further with chaining than the gold cube fountain. That being said, the route is at least coming back to me a little through repetition and watching my video.

EDIT: Just got an exp count of almost 800k in stage 3. Still not chaining as much as I used to, tho.

Holy shit man. Your rusty game makes one of my runs laughable

I just played for two hours. My eyes started going bonkers at one point but I just couldn't stop. After saying "one more try" for the 20th time I asked my wife to go open the Dreamcast lid. I was unable to do it myself.

I kept making silly mistakes. OH! A CUBE. Whoops that was a bullet. The two look nothing alike. On one run I danced through the field of death like a wily veteran, only to eat a LONE bullet traveling slowly at the end. You know what I'm talking about

I suppose the highlight of the run (have to take something positive away right?) was continuing on the stage 4 boss, pressing fire ONCE and watching him die.

I was that close.

[LordHypnos]

Holy shit man. Your rusty game makes one of my runs laughable

hahaha. Yeah, the thing about the third stage (and anywhere else where you can chain up to +1000 or more) is that a slight improvement in chaining gives you thousands and thousands more exp. if you get +1000 that means that that last cube was worth 1k, the one before that 999, the one before that 998, etc, so naturally it accellerates quickly ^_^;

I just played for two hours. My eyes started going bonkers at one point but I just couldn't stop. After saying "one more try" for the 20th time I asked my wife to go open the Dreamcast lid. I was unable to do it myself.

Yeah, it's quite addictive, for reals.

I kept making silly mistakes. OH! A CUBE. Whoops that was a bullet. The two look nothing alike. On one run I danced through the field of death like a wily veteran, only to eat a LONE bullet traveling slowly at the end. You know what I'm talking about

I suppose the highlight of the run (have to take something positive away right?) was continuing on the stage 4 boss, pressing fire ONCE and watching him die.

I was that close.

Aw, that's pretty frustrating >_< So easy to screw up. Still though, it sounds like the improvements are happening Almost to stage 5!!!!

[Blackbird]

That feeling when you get a no-miss run, and it's still not as good as your PB ;_;...

[Stevens]

Three hours with Mars Matrix. I only got ticked once or twice

I'm starting stage 3 with around 300,000 now.

Up to 165 billion and 630,000 XP, haven't gotten any further though. You know the drill - Start stage 4 with 2 or 3 ships in reserve and proceed to make mistakes. Then the following run you correct your mistakes from the previous run only to make new ones.

The purple jet/stapler boss are still giving me trouble. I'm seeing the bullet patterns better on them, but I still have to practice a little more.

[LordHypnos]

Up to 165 billion and 630,000 XP, haven't gotten any further though. You know the drill - Start stage 4 with 2 or 3 ships in reserve and proceed to make mistakes. Then the following run you correct your mistakes from the previous run only to make new ones.

Oh yes, I remember quite well

The purple jet/stapler boss are still giving me trouble. I'm seeing the bullet patterns better on them, but I still have to practice a little more.

As far as the 2x red stapler boss, this video might help you a bit, not to self-promote too much ^_^;
http://dai.ly/x23x3oz
Also make sure to save a mosquito attack for the final pattern, just in case it doesn't die quite as quickly as it does in that video. I could probably, with a little work, record a video that shows the final pattern, if it would help you, but you basically just do the usual boss-finisher move. Hope that isn't too confusingly worded, as it is 2am or so right now.

EDIT: Did a little more stage 3 practice today and had a lot of shitty runs but managed 900k once, which was pretty surprising considering that I broke the chain partway through the level before the gold cube waterfall. At some point I should try to relearn other stages and work on not dying better...

[CHI]

Darius Gaiden Extra Version All Stages Player 2 Side Only
Please read: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 0#p1079700
Regs, CHI

[blackoak]

Been chipping away at Guardian Force, the sega saturn version. Does the STV board have any slowdown? Because it doesn't seem like the saturn version does at all, and good god are some parts hard. The stage B boss feels way, way harder than I would expect a st2 boss to be. In general the game is just hard as hell, and I don't think its the controls (which I'm more or less used to now, playing on a candy cab with original arcade controls).

I like the aesthetics of this game and the scoring, but the difficulty is a little much for me. The weapons feel kind of underpowered too.

[ACSeraph]

Trying to learn 1943, regretting the decision. What the fuck is up with Yamato? It seems totally fucking impossible! Why is it 1000 times harder than everything else in the game that came before it!? /despair

[KidQuaalude]

Halleys Comet (Taito)
Dangar UFO Robo (Nichibutsu)

[LordHypnos]

Being sick is no good for playing shmups, unfortunately, and I've been sick the past few days, but it didn't stop me from trying. Mostly been playing Mars Matrix, still. Also set up my DC to use my SS pad, again, which unfortunately means playing shmups on PC is difficult. I did order a hori gem 360 pad for PC which I will ultimately be using for a 360, as well, though that's still in the distant future. Unfortunately the pad has to ship from Japan, for some reason, so it's gonna take a month or so to get here, probably >_<

Also started messing around with Life Force NES because I figured I might as well see if it's worth buying on 3DS VC. I have found it surprisingly fun. I'm definitely seriously considering getting it. Also looking forward to FZIIX / Link Loop Land coming out in a few months, but I'm getting off topic.

As far as Mars Matrix progress goes: I still have a tiny bit of relearning to do on Stage 4, basically have stage 1 and 3 (though the execution is not what it was). I pretty much have stage 6, though I haven't practiced that for a bit. Started trying to relearn stage 5, and it's coming back a little faster than I expected, which is good. Eventually it will all come together, but it'll probably be a while, yet. I did manage to get over 1 million exp in the 3rd stage once, so that's pretty sweet. 900k - 1m is more like what I used to get.

[Softdrink 117]

Been in a really Raizing mood for the last few weeks. Other than a couple runs of DBAC and some stuff for Death Roulette, I've pretty much exclusively been playing Batrider, Bakraid, and Garegga, which culminated in a Garegga clear a few days ago. Really a very fun couple weeks hehe.

Starting to feel an itch for some true danmaku though; might start playing Mushi1 Ultra again...

[null1024]

went to the arcade with some buddies

Ibara Black Label [Arcade].
Put a single credit in. Wasn't doing too too bad, but it was like 1:40am and every one of my deaths was particularly stupid [nothing like spacing out on the first boss and dying as soon as it starts shooting, haha].

Raiden IV [Arcade].
I should be better at this, but I'm not.

Mad Planets [Arcade].
I absolutely adore this game. Firing hurts my damn hand though, and I have to play with my arms crossed [right hand on spinner, left hand on stick]. Still, it's fast and fun.

put like 5 credits into the machine, played for a decent while each credit, I need to get better at perfecting the later stages though

[Shepardus]

Managed to get Normal 1CCs on two of the six routes in Touhou 12.8 (Great Fairy Wars) today without much practice, through the magic of bombspamming/generous extends. Never managed to clear anything higher than Easy when I played the game a few years ago, so perhaps this is a sign that I've improved since then (at least at managing my bombs). The freeze mechanic gives the game quite a different feel compared to other Touhou games in both survival and scoring, and though I'm really terrible at the game I like it a lot. Going to try to clear the other routes in Normal difficulty as well as the extra stage (which is why I started playing this game again in the first place, it's the only extra stage I have left), and if I'm not tired of it by then maybe I'll even try some scoring. It's short enough to fit my attention span.

[horaceappleton]

getting a handle on Zone Advanced in Phantasmagoria Trues, seeing how things fit together. my favorite interaction is probably how you can get a low-cost hyper release by deliberately running down your shot gauge. bad for scoring tho

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Playing some Touhou again. Specifically, I'm challenging myself to the Lunatic difficulties now that I'm comfortable with that kind of difficulty. I'd beaten all the Touhou games on Normal and their Extra/Phantasm stages from SoEW to MoF (haven't played much of SA or the newer Windows games), but hadn't managed to clear Lunatic on anything other than Mystic Square. I think partly because I was never fond of the controls - I like to use ZXC controls (C rapid/shot - X laser/slowdown - Z bomb). If I'm holding down one button a lot it feels more comfortable for it to be the index finger...

Also, finding the Vsync disabling patches for the games is a massive improvement to the playability. There's enormous input lag in some of the older games I hadn't noticed before that's fixed when you apply the patch.

Now that I know about the magic of Autohotkey, it's a lot more fun to play. Just beat PCB on Lunatic with the worst shot type, Reimu A. Her damage is abysmal, her homing damage sucks compared to SakuyaA (whose lockshot is ridiculously good), bombs are only average, the smaller hitbox isn't really that amazing... I used to be a huge Marisa fan so I'm trying to play more of Reimu. Though in PCB, fave shot type is definitely SakuyaB - her directional shots remind me of the helicopter in Donpachi. <3

Moving on to EoSD Lunatic. No graphics/hitbox patches (I'm a bit of a purist). It's amazing how much better Reimu A is damage and spreadwise since she still has spread when focused. Reimu's needles/forward types always seem way better than her homing.

[EmperorIng]

Been chipping away at Guardian Force, the sega saturn version. Does the STV board have any slowdown? Because it doesn't seem like the saturn version does at all, and good god are some parts hard. The stage B boss feels way, way harder than I would expect a st2 boss to be. In general the game is just hard as hell, and I don't think its the controls (which I'm more or less used to now, playing on a candy cab with original arcade controls).

I like the aesthetics of this game and the scoring, but the difficulty is a little much for me. The weapons feel kind of underpowered too.

Right weapon usage is (apparently) everything. The stage bosses are hard, and there are a lot of things flying in all directions. I've made it to Stage E on my best run, though I haven't played the game in a while.

I tend to favor the purple weapon for the practice stage and Stage A, switching over to the yellow laser or red cannon for Stage B. Kino mentions in the score topic (I think?) that the red weapon is ultimately best for the Stage B boss. The big bullet spreads bosses throw out in their death throws require small micro-dodging rather than larger movements.

[trap15]

DARIUSGATE



1CC was quick after getting my bearings on its weirdness.

[ACSeraph]

^Dafuq is that?

[trap15]

Dariusgate is the first Darius smartphone game. It's kinda shitty, but charming.

I wrote up some instructions on how to set it up and play it for yourself: http://pastebin.com/umNNYeJy

[ACSeraph]

Cool, shitty or not I want to try it out. Thanks for writing up that info.

---

Hmmm... A lot more playable than I expected. Beat it on the first try. Was starting to think it would just loop that stage forever.

[Soldato J]

Dragon Blaze on Tate'd JPS2 and Akai Katana 360

[broken harbour]

Gradius V,

Been on my 'to buy' list for years and finally saw it in a store for $50, Mint condition, so I figured I just should.

Liking it so far, really dig the presentation, although there's some punishing "treasure moments" as I like to call them where you need to practices and memorize like crazy... which is fine by me. It's a nice break from Cave epileptic insanity.

[pegboy]

Gradius V,

Been on my 'to buy' list for years and finally saw it in a store for $50, Mint condition, so I figured I just should.

Liking it so far, really dig the presentation, although there's some punishing "treasure moments" as I like to call them where you need to practices and memorize like crazy... which is fine by me. It's a nice break from Cave epileptic insanity.

Great game, one of my all time favorites and probably the shmup I've put more time into than any other. That goes right into my only complaint, the game is probably too long as a single loop clocks in around 60-70 minutes. Still, I think it's an absolute masterpiece, and definitely ended the series (so far) on a high note.

Since I finished of the 2-ALL for Salamander 2 I'm moving on to some different series. I'm currently playing Darius Twin again, which I've been told is a very lame port of the game. I'm still having fun with it, the game isn't very hard but it is enjoyable and I really dig the music. Aiming for a no-death, hi scoring run, hopefully I'll get it done this week.

[Perikles]

Darius Twin is actually a console-exclusive title like Darius Force, it's not a port. I wouldn't recommend chasing after a high score since the majority of your points are going to come from the scions disseminated by Full Metal Shell in Zone J - it's not particularly exciting or fulfilling to circle around a large turtle in order to destroy little turtles.

[pegboy]

Darius Twin is actually a console-exclusive title like Darius Force, it's not a port. I wouldn't recommend chasing after a high score since the majority of your points are going to come from the scions disseminated by Full Metal Shell in Zone J - it's not particularly exciting or fulfilling to circle around a large turtle in order to destroy little turtles.

Yeah, those turtles and their points seems like a bug to me more than a design decision. Why would those turtles yield so many points? Anyway, I'm not really going to spend a whole lot of time trying, maybe a day or two max.

[LordHypnos]

Well, I've done a decent amount of Mars Matrix practice today. I was doing well enough, in fact, to attempt 2 1cc runs (very far apart actually, though). The first one went awful and turned into a like 4cc, but then the one I did just now went a lot better. Good enough 1st stage, managed to chain the second stage from the rotating bullet monster, totally fucked up the local rank like twice in the 3rd stage and died once, somehow. Decent fourth stage, though not perfect. I must have died once, though (maybe also died once in the second stage, come to think of it), but I managed to pull of a perfect 5th stage (more or less), and an almost perfect final stage, but unfortunately died twice on the rose boss to end the run. Could have gone on for a 2cc, but I decided against it. Got a respectable, but still quite low 2.2m experience.

I fucking love this game

In other news, I checked my money, and am only about 60 pink-digit-scores away from the background graphics

[Jonst]

Still playing mmp. So close to a clear, it feels better switching from rafute to momo, made the final boss twice in one sitting last night, Hopefully I can pull this off soon and take a break from shmups for a bit and play my backlog of fighters.

[chempop]

I’m about 5 months deep in batrider now and approaching the letter clear but I KEEP MESSING UP THE TIMING OF THE FLAME TURRETS I need those damn full bombs to drop so I can get into the Discharge battle with 3 lives.

Clearing the game low rank with shorty was a whole other experience compared to scoring with car-pet. And once I do this, I can go for inane scores with teams I could basically play this and dimahoo for the rest of my live and be set.