TRP-STGT 2015 Conversation Week 2: DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm

[Shepardus]

Grazing gives some decent points but I think hitting the boss with a high counter gives much more, especially in the later stages when your counter can reach very high values. Not worth losing that for a bit of extra graze. Note that the counter carries through into the boss, so no-missing a stage is very important for scoring well on the boss, and on the stage as a whole.

[Illyrian]

Maintaining combo through a stage in this game is very easy indeed, especially given the number of enemies with high health.

No missing the level is indeed more important than grazing.

[CWM]

This is such a weird game. It feels as if someone who heard of danmaku and had the concept explained to them, but has never seen an actual game from the subgenre, was given art assets from DDP and told to make a sequel. The result is a complete mess that I find somewhat charming in its ineptitude. It probably gets old really fast, but should be fine for a week.

[Despatche]

Actually, I get the feeling that the people behind this previously played Excess Fraction.

[DKA_Darius]

I love this game, awesome BGM with fantasic bullet, make me crazy.

[Zerst]

If you want to have fun with this game pick energy type and pretend you're playing Psyvariar. You can refill your energy meter by grazing while you're bombing.

[Illyrian]

If you want to have fun with this game pick energy type and pretend you're playing Psyvariar. You can refill your energy meter by grazing while you're bombing.

You score a fuckton of points if you do this right as well. Especially on bosses.

[Tregard]

I'm not in the tournament but I'm playing along with you guys. This game isn't nearly as bad as I was led to believe by certain commentators. Sure it feels all over the place compared to its ultra-tight predecessor, but I like a bit of crazy every now and then. The golden bee fountains are an eye-opener for someone who only ever saw a couple per stage in most DDP games (yes, I suck).

[Tigershark]

Well at the moment I can't get this to work even though I have DDP2, DDP2j and PGM roms. It's still saying I have roms missing. Any help?

it wasn't working for me, said it was missing "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin", so i copied "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin" from ddp2j to ddp2, then it worked. odd, and not sure it'll help you, but there you go.

That fixed it. Thanks!

[Squire Grooktook]

Well at the moment I can't get this to work even though I have DDP2, DDP2j and PGM roms. It's still saying I have roms missing. Any help?

it wasn't working for me, said it was missing "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin", so i copied "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin" from ddp2j to ddp2, then it worked. odd, and not sure it'll help you, but there you go.

I tried this, but now it just says:

"pgm_p02s.u20 NOT FOUND (tried in ddp2 pgm ddp2)
v102.u8 NOT FOUND (tried in ddp2 pgm ddp2)
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run."

instead. Any help?

[resty]

Well at the moment I can't get this to work even though I have DDP2, DDP2j and PGM roms. It's still saying I have roms missing. Any help?

it wasn't working for me, said it was missing "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin", so i copied "ddp2_igs027a_japan.bin" from ddp2j to ddp2, then it worked. odd, and not sure it'll help you, but there you go.

I tried this, but now it just says:

"pgm_p02s.u20 NOT FOUND (tried in ddp2 pgm ddp2)
v102.u8 NOT FOUND (tried in ddp2 pgm ddp2)
ERROR: required files are missing, the game cannot be run."

instead. Any help?

you need pgm rom

[Squire Grooktook]

you need pgm rom

I already have it. Do I need to copy and paste any particular files into the DDP2 roms?

Also I don't see any of the files mentioned in the error message inside the PGM rom. All it has inside is:

pgm_m01s.rom
pgm_p01s.rom
pgm_t01s.rom

[Shepardus]

The pgm.zip I have has those three files and the pgm_p02s.u20 that you're missing. My ddp2.zip has the v102.u8 you're missing.

[ED-057]

I had to download multiple ddp2 and pgm archives (and ddp2j), unzip them and mix and match stuff, and re-zip. I had to download a new version of MAME. I had to download a new version of 7za to extract the new version of MAME. Then I had to use joy2key to get the controller to work. I should get a technical bonus for all that work.

[Squire Grooktook]

The pgm.zip I have has those three files and the pgm_p02s.u20 that you're missing. My ddp2.zip has the v102.u8 you're missing.

I tried downloading them from an alternate site, and that worked. Runs fine now.

One last question: what does "(IGS, 2001)" verison mean? is that a rom or a mode? My roms are only listed as ver 1.00, ver1.01, etc. I don't see anything about IGS.

Also the menus are in japanese, so which option is combat mode? *EDIT* nevermind I see it lol. Any other options in the menu I should know about? B vs E?

[resty]

One last question: what does "(IGS, 2001)" verison mean? is that a rom or a mode? My roms are only listed as ver 1.00, ver1.01, etc. I don't see anything about IGS.

Also the menus are in japanese, so which option is combat mode? *EDIT* nevermind I see it lol. Any other options in the menu I should know about? B vs E?

IGS is the developer of the game. You can try the international version to understand the menu meanings.

[Shepardus]

The middle mode of the first menu with three choices is combat mode. The top is training mode, which ends after 4 stages, and the bottom is I.R. mode, which is harder than combat mode. For the purposes of TRP-STGT you can choose either B (bomb) or E (energy) mode. Bomb mode is your typical bombs system with Dodonpachi's rapid-shot bomb, while energy mode is a graze-based bomb recharge system with Dodonpachi's laser bomb. I think energy is better for score and easier for survival after you've learned what's good for grazing, and pretty much everybody considers it more fun.

[Squire Grooktook]

Thanks everyone

[Squire Grooktook]

Okay so discussion:

First off, I wish the whole soundtrack was composed of 16 bit rock arrangements of Final Fantasy tunes lmao.
Actually the intro to that song actually sounds pretty good, rest is questionable though. Kinda gets me going though. As Woody Allen once said "it's best to be original, but if you're gonna steal, steal from the best."

Energy Mode is definitely the way to go. I Kind of like the idea of it, though it doesn't seem like it's fully developed. I was trying to see if I could perform chain-bombs like in eXceed 2nd, but I think the brief window where your still invulnerable but bullets are still being wiped is a bit too small. That would have made the game for me tbh. Otherwise grazing for energy definitely makes things feel a bit more thoughtful, even if there aren't as many opportunities to do so as I'd like.

Still kinda good though, definitely better then some ok shmups I've played. Stage 3 boss is pretty fun once you get past the homo-genius-esque beam hitboxes. Haven't beaten him yet, but stage 5 boss seems pretty cool too.

[gimebe]

You absolutely can chainbomb starting from Stage 4/5 and on every boss from there on out. Move to the side and down after bombing so you ass-bump into bullets without the laserbomb canceling them at the front. The only limit to how much you can chain them if you have bullets to graze on several bosses is the time it takes for the energy bar to scroll up to full in between bombs.

This is a surprisingly fun game to play, despite how bad it seemed at first. I fear for the next three games - it can only get worse from here. I don't believe Sand Scorpion could be the worst game in store.

[IseeThings]

This is a surprisingly fun game to play, despite how bad it seemed at first. I fear for the next three games - it can only get worse from here. I don't believe Sand Scorpion could be the worst game in store.

Just pray he doesn't make you play Gaia, it's definitely no Wyvern Wings, that's for sure.

personally I think it's a good thing to see these lesser known / lesser played games given a run out tho, new things get discovered about them, facts / secrets / bugs that had been long forgotten or never discovered before, or in the case of DDP2 people seeing that the game isn't actually as bad as the reputation it has, and can in fact be quite enjoyable.

[Shepardus]

This is a surprisingly fun game to play, despite how bad it seemed at first. I fear for the next three games - it can only get worse from here. I don't believe Sand Scorpion could be the worst game in store.

I agree, I won't be surprised at all if this ends up being the best game picked this year. Unlike Sand Scorpion, this is one I actually would play and have played outside of TRP-STGT. My only real gripe with playing it for this week is that it hasn't been long since I got frustrated at how few lives the game gives (just one fixed extend) and various other things and gave up trying to 1CC it, but even that meant that getting back to where I was and setting a new PB didn't take long. The break I took from the game made it more enjoyable again and seeing a bunch of other people playing it helps too.

[trap15]

Actually the rest of the games are even better than this

[Aru-san]

Actually the rest of the games are even better than this

We'll see about this

And by that I mostly mean lurking the high score boards and seeing if those games get any entries outside of the STGT

[KoopaTGR]

Actually the rest of the games are even better than this

I hope so! I actually prefer Sand Scorpion to this.

[cave hermit]

Energy mode is really cool with the whole point blank to charge bombs thing; gotta try a second credit with my newly repaired fightstick later tonight...

[ACSeraph]

So has anyone else noticed you can change your shot type at will by pressing the start button mid play? In that case, what is even the difference between the three ship types?

[trap15]

I didn't realize Start also did it, that's what my comment about 'D' is about. The speed is the only different I believe.

[Macias]

Differences between ships:



source

[ACSeraph]

Is there a difference in laser damage output between ships? And if you change weapons with Start/D is the damage output different depending on ship?

The laser damage output is something I've been wondering about the series in general actually.