Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Jonst]

Ok, I've gone back to under defeat... And I seem to be no worse than I was last year, (making it to just before Stage 4 boss) which is cool. Forgot how awesome this game is even with the totally different feel of the usual cave stuff I can't seem to stop playing... And that soundtrack might just keep me playing. I'm not saying I'm going for a clear, I'll keep playing and see if I can progress into stage 5, then, maybe! (Don't hold me to that stevens!)

[LordHypnos]

Ok, I've gone back to under defeat... And I seem to be no worse than I was last year, (making it to just before Stage 4 boss) which is cool. Forgot how awesome this game is even with the totally different feel of the usual cave stuff I can't seem to stop playing... And that soundtrack might just keep me playing. I'm not saying I'm going for a clear, I'll keep playing and see if I can progress into stage 5, then, maybe! (Don't hold me to that stevens!)

Doing a lot better than me, so far. I just keep dying, and always in different places >_<

As far as Triggerheart goes, I tried auto off, and it is really fun, and so much more versatile! Though sometimes the enemy will get stuck behind me and I can't seem to get it back to rotating or in front, depending on the situation. That can be pretty deadly. I did manage to see Faintear in stage 1 finally, as well (I think because I learned that you can wait a bit before collecting medals for them to mature, and also with auto rotate off you can't suck up the medals while you're rotating the enemy, giving them a chance to mature)

[Jonst]

Under defeat is a weird one, for me at least. The weird perspective catches me out quite a bit. I wouldn't say better, I have played the game on and off for years but I've only been playing this type of game 'seriously' since 2013... I can regularly make stage 4,although maybe with 1 life in stock if I'm lucky... Needs work!

I never got the hang of triggerheart... Cool game though! How far can you make on that so far?

[LordHypnos]

^In THE, only to the stage 2 boss, and only once or twice. When I got enough points for Faintear in st.1 I just made it to the big preboss enemy in stage 2. Partly because I died once or twice against Faintear. I feel like the tractor beam probably just takes time to get the hang of (not unlike the Mars Matrix mosquito), and I definitely have not yet. Using auto swing makes it easier to swing enemies (obviously), but it seems like you can use the enemies in different ways with auto swing off (like as a shield, for instance), so that's something, and sometimes it's easier to aim if you don't swing the enemy. Seems like a very interesting and fun game, in any case.

In UDHD I made it to the stage 3 boss once, but otherwise usually game over on stage 2 boss, and sometimes even earlier. I think the perspective is definitely part of the problem, as are the enemies firing when barely visible on the screen (This game could really use some kind of side screen dead zone, I feel), and probably also the fact that you're seriously limited in how far you can move in any given direction (Especially the top). Still though, I'm starting to get the hang of tap dodging enemy fire, and herding bullets, which is helping a lot, but I just keep getting cornered, somehow.

Also I have some trouble charging the subweapon when there's a lot of enemies onscreen. It's hard to aim and dodge bullets at the same time, and the window on the first pass over the end turret of the stage 2 boss is very very small. I think my best strategy is to bomb to allow me to kill the enemies easier, and then just shoot the end turret rather than trying to send a rocket at it, and then send out the rocket after getting past the front of the boat. Then again, I haven't really gotten enough chances to try it to know how well it works, because I need to play through the whole second stage in order to practice the boss, and there's lots of other tricky parts in the stage for me.

[Shepardus]

I just managed to semi-successfully chain the stage 1 boss in Battle Bakraid for the first time. I got 4.5 million from it, which is still far from the 11 million or so that's possible, but at least I understand now what I'm supposed to do. Also set a new PB on that run, breaking 10 million for the first time (died during the Cloud stage with just over 11 million). Bakraid's chaining system is probably the silliest thing ever but it sure is fun.

Edit: Just got 10.6 million from the boss, the shower of extends is real.

[Jonst]

Ud is a weirdly tricky game, I have forgotten my stage 4 hearding, although do seem to have improved on speed killing the stage 3 boss which was something I could rarely pull off. I'd say a change came for me in realising I could dodge the bullets in this game by being a bit more daring and using more of the screen which really comes in on stage 2... Get in close, fire rockets, pull back and go with the flow of bullets either stay in between them or pull to the side if you can and repeat. It does take some getting used to in this one though!

[Stevens]

Yes! Don't let the perspective or the fact that it is not a straight up manic shooter fool you. That helicopter can dodge through some incredibly dense patterns.

Killing the stage 3 boss before he drops to the bottom of the screen is realllly important. I always spend a bomb on him. There is a spot on stage 4 right before the boss I don't bomb at anymore, which is good cause I seem to need 2 bombs for the stage 3 boss on the 2nd loop.

Getting to stage 5 a little more frequently in Futari and I now have a path. It is nothing impressive (slow tap dodges for the most part), but it gets the job done. I 1 missed the stage a few times so I am getting there.

Messing around with Larsa in practice mode on both original and maniac. It seems to be getting easier - I'm starting to find holes where previously there weren't any.

Also I triggered the extend on stage 5. It's in that house! I found you! I just can't use a bomb apparently.

Thanks again Jonst for suggesting AK, had you not I wouldn't have bought Futari.

[broken harbour]

Fired up Musha for the first time ever to test out a Genesis ROM set on an emulator before I pull the trigger on a Everdrive.

I somehow made it through the first stage without a scratch only to get completely destroyed on level 2. Super fun tho, I can see why it goes for big money.

Is there no bomb? A seems to move your options around and C fires... can't figure out what B is for tho, I only played for maybe 20 minutes tho.

[BIL]

A changes the Option formation. B fires the special weapon (green laser, red grenades, etc), assuming you've got one equipped ofc. C fires the main shot and options. No bomb, but like most Compile shooters you get a split second of invincibility after grabbing powerup capsules, and a bit longer for weapon upgrades.

I didn't realise when I first played you need to keep collecting the same colour weapon to upgrade, so do note that as well. Powerup capsules only upgrade the main shot.

[Jonst]

No worries stevens! They're both great games and I'm really pleased you're enjoying cave!

Well, when you've got the futari clear, I still want you to go for a slash clear as well as climax mode...

Also... Thought I'd stick with under defeat. This afternoon I made it into stage 5 on a single credit and beat my previous top score (which is frankly, unimpressive) anyway I was pleased with the survival progress. Stage 3 doesn't feel like a big deal anymore and I no missed into stage 4, fucked up the stage 3 boss speed kill but survived none-the-less. The last half of stage 4 needs a bit of work but the stage 4 boss doesn't seem to rough... I didn't last too long into stage 5 though, made just past the first two tanks... So feeling pretty pleased, I felt like I knew what I was doing so didn't feel like a total fluke! I'll try again later to test that theory!

[LordHypnos]

Yes! Don't let the perspective or the fact that it is not a straight up manic shooter fool you. That helicopter can dodge through some incredibly dense patterns.

Yeah, I've definitely started noticing this. Pretty small hitbox, actually.

[Jonst]

^ I have a pretty good feel for it, but just to be clear, where exactly is it? Top/centre of the rotar or the cockpit?...

[LordHypnos]

^ I have a pretty good feel for it, but just to be clear, where exactly is it? Top/centre of the rotar or the cockpit?...

My understanding is that it's the helicopter rotor

[Jonst]

That was my thinking as well LH... Stevens to confirm...

[Squire Grooktook]

Mostly Final Boss lately, played some Recca though. Made it to the stage 3 boss. Didn't know Yagawa had a tentacle thing.

[G-Darius]

(SNES) Darius Twin
(A2600) Threshold
(ARCADE) Alpha Mission II ,Ghost Pilots,Scramble,Astro Fighter,Nostrodamus
(C64) Scramble (Homebrew TomK 2015)
(Game Gear) Aerial Assault,Power Strike II, Aleste
(Sharp X68000) Atomic Robokid,Xenon II,Intergral Arm,Last Battalion,Cotton Fantastic,Cynthia,Star Luster
(Vic20) Abductor ,Andes Attack
I have a few games lined up for later tonight like Ad-astra (Zx Spectrum) and maybe Slapfight and Arrow Flash on Megadrive.

[Kiken]

Been playing Mushi Futari ver 1.5 Maniac since my PCB arrived yesterday. Managed to put a 500 million pt score on it (which landed me in 4th place for the overall Parm rankings). The top score that someone left on this PCB was 599 million, and since 600 million is my ultimate goal, I chose to leave it on and use it as motivation.

[Stevens]

That was my thinking as well LH... Stevens to confirm...

It is basically the rotor and the red area just behind it. Watch where the cross intersects when the game begins.

[Jonst]

^ thanks man! I'll look out for that. I'm still playing it, safe to say I'm hooked enough to stay with it! But a clear is going to take a long time... My stage 3 is more confident and my stage 4 isn't to bad but still needs work, I've made stage 5 a couple of times but mostly die to stupid mistakes rather than trouble spots.

I can't stand to make a mistake on stage 2 and lose a life... That really pisses me off! But I'm glad to be spending proper time with this game finally...

[Stevens]

Been playing Mushi Futari ver 1.5 Maniac since my PCB arrived yesterday. Managed to put a 500 million pt score on it (which landed me in 4th place for the overall Parm rankings). The top score that someone left on this PCB was 599 million, and since 600 million is my ultimate goal, I chose to leave it on and use it as motivation.

Sees Kiken's maniac score.

Cries

^ thanks man! I'll look out for that. I'm still playing it, safe to say I'm hooked enough to stay with it! But a clear is going to take a long time... My stage 3 is more confident and my stage 4 isn't to bad but still needs work, I've made stage 5 a couple of times but mostly die to stupid mistakes rather than trouble spots.

I can't stand to make a mistake on stage 2 and lose a life... That really pisses me off! But I'm glad to be spending proper time with this game finally...

That's awesome! I am glad you've decided to stick with it.

Played a bit over the weekend. I feel really comfortable with 2-1 and 2-2.

2-3 is almost run worthy (I did manage to no miss it yesterday) since I decided to spend a bomb at one spot that I used to try and get through without it. It is just easier to spend the bomb. I just need to be more consistent with 2-3 overall, but it is falling into place.

2-4 I have to make one minor tweak to (the trio of blue planes), but overall is O.K.

I've nmnb the stage 4 boss a few times even without being able to quick kill it. I have to get better at that.

[LordHypnos]

Well, I think that I'm getting to a point where I mostly need to work on the boss of stage 2 in Under Defeat. I'm pretty sure it's necessary to fire a rocket as you pass the final turret, and at the beginning of when the turret starts firing. this will take some very careful planning, since rockets are also pretty important for destroying various other cannons on the ship, and it can be super hard to aim.

I was wondering about rank, though. I had been practicing stage 2 on +3 (kind of a random number), but I realised that it's clearly not that high when I'm actually playing the game, even though the difference is nearly imperceptible. I'm not sure what is different specifically, but the two choppers shortly before the boss are much more intense at +3, so I switched to practicing at 0.
What influences rank, and what is generally a reasonable rank to be practicing on?

[Stevens]

What influences rank, and what is generally a reasonable rank to be practicing on?

That is an excellent question.

I actually have no idea what raises rank, but I can tell you with (almost) 100% certainty that dying lowers it.

If you're going to get the clear then you should max rank out at +10, you won't even notice it after a while.

[arcadehero]

Most recently I played Phoenix arcade. It always throws me off a little in that I grew up playing the game on the Atari 2600, which is a bit easier. From my two recent plays, one was 860 points and right after that I managed 10760 points. Nice little difference there

I also have been getting into Callisto for the Atari 800XL, trying to clear it. Decent shmup but I don't care for every enemy taking 2-4 hits when you don't have power-ups. It does look nice for a shmup on the hardware though.

Next up on my roster is Sirius and Plutos for the Atari 7800. Those should arrive in the mail any day now, I've been wanting to give them a spin (on real hardware) for years and thanks to a recent repro effort that is finally happening

[pokemon123]

trying to get back into touhou. lol I have trouble on easy mode now. To used to other shmups.

[Shepardus]

Streamed a bit of Battle Bakraid today. Thanks to a bunch of practice and some tips from Icarus I'm getting 10-11 mil from Axebeak a lot more consistently now, so it's probably time to start putting some more effort into chaining other sections (rather than just throwing bombs everywhere and hoping for the best like I do now). I'm also discovering that all the extends, chains, and 100k medals really wreak havoc on rank but it's fun in its own way.

I was originally planning to just get a 1CC of Advance Course and move on (maybe back to Garegga or Batrider to shoot for a letter score) but this game is actually really fun to play for score and there really ought to be more good score submissions in the high score thread than there are (and by "good" I mean "score well on stage 1"). Granted, learning to do Axebeak is pretty frustrating but it's so worth it.

[Stevens]

Been working on 2-3 and 2-4.

I managed a no miss run yesterday all the way to 2-4's boss. The control tower is much harder to quick kill in the 2nd loop but I am getting better at it.

I made it to 2-5 again, but the run had too much panic bombing for my liking.

How is everyone else doing?

[Jonst]

Sounds good stevens!

Well, for me I'm still playing ud, after my last post I made stage 5 again and beat my new high score but haven't done it again since. I always make it to the end of stage 4/stage 4 boss every run... My biggest problem is just dying to that one unseen bullet on screen, I don't have particular trouble areas just slack mistakes, having said all that, I have been playing whilst quite tired, which probably doesn't help and leads to frustration and thoughts of quitting...

[LordHypnos]

Sounds good stevens!

Well, for me I'm still playing ud, after my last post I made stage 5 again and beat my new high score but haven't done it again since. I always make it to the end of stage 4/stage 4 boss every run... My biggest problem is just dying to that one unseen bullet on screen, I don't have particular trouble areas just slack mistakes, having said all that, I have been playing whilst quite tired, which probably doesn't help and leads to frustration and thoughts of quitting...

Haha, funnily enough I've been having almost exactly the same problems as you (keep making stupid mistakes, not noticing the one bullet that kills me, and playing when excessively tired). I also got kinda sick though over the past few days, so I might not be playing too much until I feel a little better.

[Stevens]

Playing when excessively tired is a recipe for disaster. I am occasionally guilty of it myself.

[Jonst]

Yeah and it's most days as well! I work shifts so have to up at 5:30 am, by the time I get back from work, do the family time thing and whatever it's usually around 9 or 10 pm and I'm shattered!