Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[LordHypnos]

Well, I just spent the past hour or so playing through Mars Matrix in WinKawaks, fighting against lag (though I was using save states), so that I could level my ship up to 8 and then rip the sprites from the piercing cannon animation to make a gif. If you want to get into Mars Matrix, guys, make sure you aren't using WinKawaks (though it has some amazing tools for ripping sprites). Non sure how the lag is in vanilla MAME, but it's completely imperceptible in ShmupMAME, and I didn't notice it in the Dreamcast version when not using a controller adapter (not to bad with the Total control 3 though, FWIW. I used it for the 1cc).

Now I'm cleaning up the screenshots. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to assemble a gif animation from there.

Also still playing UD, though haven't really this weekend at all.

EDIT: SWEET! CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!111!!!!111!!!!oneone!!1!!eleven



EDIT 2:
Too big to be used as an avatar I guess I'll have to crop it

[Mero]

Been playing Exed Exes for a while now but I can't seem to do any better than I've already done. I'm ok up until about stage 9 then things start to fall apart, the last section of stage 11 always kills me off (if I get that far). You've got the small yellow insects shooting you up the arse, there's 4 large green insects on screen virtually all the time, and there's the yellow gun emplacements firing 3-way spreads at you. That's a bad combination because the presence of the large insects restricts your movement, and you need to be as mobile as possible when the yellow insects are on screen (the enemies in this game will think nothing of point-blanking you).

I'm sure I can go further though, I just need to hold it together and not stupidly piss my lives against the wall early on.

[Stevens]

(not to bad with the Total control 3 though, FWIW. I used it for the 1cc).

Dope av. Which DC stick do you have? I have probably mentioned it, but I was given an import Saturn Virtua Stick last year for free.

[LordHypnos]

(not to bad with the Total control 3 though, FWIW. I used it for the 1cc).

Dope av. Which DC stick do you have? I have probably mentioned it, but I was given an import Saturn Virtua Stick last year for free.

Sweet! free stick! I use a white (to match the DC) jp Saturn pad. The original idea was that I'd just adapt it to everything, but my PC adapter broke, and there is no 360 adapter that I could find, so I just use my 360 gem pad for everything else (also a very solid controller). I like the SAT pad the best though, but I suppose it's not likely to last forever (surprised it's still working even, really. I had a PC saturn based pad, at one point. Cheap knock off, but using the same dpad mechanism with cheaper plastic. The dpad broke after like a month)

[spmbx]

re-visiting TxK on Vita. Excellent game!

[Stevens]

Cave coma continues.

Reached the final boss in Esp 2 BL yesterday with a score around 650 million. Not super great and I still have to clean up a lot in my runs, but it is a very satisfying game to try and score in. Still not messing with Zetsu mode, although I see its application as a defensive tool.

I earned the 2nd extend the fastest I have ever done it (right before the stage 3 mid boss), but I had one stupid death (meaning I had a ton of resources) on the 1st phase of the boss.

Died again on the stage 4 mid boss (usually don't) and naturally once on the boss. He is getting easier but he is one of those bosses where right now I can't ever see him not costing me one life (fuck you Mars Matrix stage 4 boss).

Ideally I will get to the point I can no miss to the stage 4 boss and die once, no miss to Seseri and die once. Should put me in a good spot to get the clear, but every time I think I am done with scoring I get all "I CAN GET MOAR POINTZ THER" and you know how that goes..

Also still playing a couple of Futari credits a week. Don't want the rust to set in.

I want my DC back, missing Under Defeat.

[Stevas]

After effectively paying 70 fucking quid for it, I'm damn well going to force myself to be playing Darius for a while...
Luckily, I loves it.

[LordHypnos]

(fuck you Mars Matrix stage 4 boss).

ironically, when I was at my peak, I almost always 1-Lifed the stage 4 boss, but almost always died at least twice against the stage 5 boss. These days I'm a little better at the stage 5 boss (still probably usually die twice though) and worse at the stage 4 one.

In other news, I should really get back to practicing UD, but keep getting side tracked by other things, and now have xmas prep to do.

[Perikles]

Been practicing the second loop of both R-Type II and Gradius II. It almost feels a bit surreal to say this, but I'm beginning to get the impression that a 2-ALL of R-Type II might be easier to achieve than a 2-ALL of Gradius II. While the former is devilishly tough (I love stage 2-6/12 probably more than any other shmup stage in existence ) and demands absolute concentration it is fairly reliable. Once you find a working solution and are able to consistently pull it off (much easier said than done, obviously) you're on your merry way to conquer this brilliant, criminally underrated game. Gradius II's suicide bullets on the other hand can screw you over pretty much everywhere even once you memorized it in its entirety. I've spent quite a bit of time with Gradius II's second loop already and I still regularly die in 2-1, 2-4, 2-5 and 2-8 while I'm already making great progress in R-Type II even though I invested little time so far.

[BIL]

You're really tearing up those quintessential arcade STGs! Image Fight PCE's hitbox and Super R-Type's checkpoints seem to have honed you into a killing machine ala weighted training gear, I might have to get those ports after all.

[Shepardus]

Somehow I ended up playing Rapid Hero. The visuals are nice and the level design seems okay so far, but I can't get used to this game's hitbox (I always feel like I'm getting killed by bullets I thought I should have avoided), and the ship's movement speed is too slow for my liking, which makes it frustrating to chase after powerups.

[Perikles]

Image Fight PCE's hitbox and Super R-Type's checkpoints seem to have honed you into a killing machine ala weighted training gear, I might have to get those ports after all.

God, don't remind me of PCE Image Fight. :[ The first loop of the arcade version seemed like a pale shadow difficulty-wise by comparison. Luckily they fixed that brobdingnagian hitbox in Image Fight II even though the ship still has colossal measurements. Check out this awesome safespot from PCE Image Fight:



If you're one pixel off to any side you're dead. And what do you do in the arcade version? You just nudge your way behind that fucker and toast him with your thrusters.

[Perikles]

(I love stage 2-6/12 probably more than any other shmup stage in existence )

Prepared a little video to prove my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOhEijl ... e=youtu.be. Squire Grooktook, if you happen to read this: if that's not the most adrenaline-driven, twitchy fun you can get out of any R-Type game then I don't know what is. Sublime atmosphere matches nail-bitingly intense stage layout and its devious enemy placement - there's a reason why the Bydo scare people.

I'm getting fairly consistent at it, too. I'm still having massive problems with Rios in the second loop, though. Can't get that speedkill to work, unfortunately, the actual fight against him is incredibly difficult and uncomfortably long. I think I'm improving here, too, but I certainly NEED SOME PRACTICE at it.

[Hagane]

Playing some Mushihimesama to get into STGs again after not playing them for so long. Right now sticking to Original 1.0, fun fast bullets. Can NMNB up to the end of stage 3 right before the boss, where you get the secret 1UP. I haven't figured out a way to reliably no bomb that part yet, many blazing fast bullets at the same time.

Maniac and Ultra have interesting patterns but man the scoring systems are silly. I just searched the strategy guide in here and there are like five ways to tap buttons. Probably not going to bother to score attack this.

[saucykobold]

I'm still having massive problems with Rios in the second loop, though. Can't get that speedkill to work, unfortunately, the actual fight against him is incredibly difficult and uncomfortably long.

Tossing the Force into the core should get you the quick kill if you use the fastest available autofire rate in MAME (I use delay 3 for most of the game, switching to delay 1 just for stage 4 RIOS ASSASSINATION). I think you can also get a quick kill with point-blank gray weapon and moderate autofire, but that'd make the start of stage 5 harder than if you were using red.

[Shepardus]

Non sure how the lag is in vanilla MAME, but it's completely imperceptible in ShmupMAME

Unfortunately it's pretty bad in MAMEplus, I counted a whopping 5 frames of input lag. Progear and Dimahoo (also CPS2 games) have only 3 frames of lag, and Giga Wing (also CPS2 and a Takumi game at that) has 4 frames of lag. If/when I get around to seriously playing Mars Matrix I'll probably have to use ShmupMAME.

Also, I counted 4 frames of lag in Rapid Hero, which is probably why the controls feel kind of sluggish to me and why the game's annoying me more than it should (I thought this game was supposed to be easy!).

Edit: I might have overcounted by 1 on each of these numbers, but these numbers should still be correct relative to each other.

[Perikles]

Tossing the Force into the core should get you the quick kill if you use the fastest available autofire rate in MAME (I use delay 3 for most of the game, switching to delay 1 just for stage 4 RIOS ASSASSINATION).

I'm probably either in the wrong spot or I mistime the pod-tossing (or both). Here's what usually happens. I'm getting more and more familiar with this short struggle against Rios, however, and I need a second speed-up for the second half of 2-6, anyway, so I might as well pick one up at that spot. It makes 2-5 minimally harder for me, but that shouldn't be a huge issue.

And thank you so much for helping, it is a veritable honour to get advice from our resident Irem luminary. If I may ask you two additional questions:

1. How would you rank a R-Type II 2-ALL against a Gradius II 2-ALL as far as difficulty is concerned? About the same? Is either one significantly harder in your opinion?

2. Speaking of Gradius II: how did you handle the Moai boss in the second loop? Did you use the safespot in the upper left corner? I'm having a hard time gauging its exact position which is of course not an adequate course of action to take during a real run. I found a way to gather the little Moai heads in a neat circle, it doesn't always work, though. Not quite sure how to proceed.

[Squire Grooktook]

Prepared a little video to prove my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOhEijl ... e=youtu.be. Squire Grooktook, if you happen to read this: if that's not the most adrenaline-driven, twitchy fun you can get out of any R-Type game then I don't know what is. Sublime atmosphere matches nail-bitingly intense stage layout and its devious enemy placement - there's a reason why the Bydo scare people.

Indeed, that stage always struck me as a perfect remake of the first game's final stage concept (shit randomly flies at you from the floor and ceiling) thanks to increased enemy variety.

My favorite moment in that video (and a demonstration of why the franchise is great) is 0:23. Normally, a player being put into such a clusterfuck situation so easily and innocuously would have me calling bullshit, but here a tactical side switch with the force pod turns it into a completely manageable (but still jaw droppingly intense) situation. The thinking mans shooter indeed.

Also this is totally off topic and wrong thread: but congrats on that Gradius III SNES looping. That game is very close too my heart as well, as one of the first shmups I ever got addicted to. I think I looped it like, 3 times on arcade mode way back, but 5 loops sounds rad.

Playing some Mushihimesama to get into STGs again after not playing them for so long. Right now sticking to Original 1.0, fun fast bullets. Can NMNB up to the end of stage 3 right before the boss, where you get the secret 1UP. I haven't figured out a way to reliably no bomb that part yet, many blazing fast bullets at the same time.

Maniac and Ultra have interesting patterns but man the scoring systems are silly. I just searched the strategy guide in here and there are like five ways to tap buttons. Probably not going to bother to score attack this.

I recommend 1.5 Original as well. I find base Original's patterns to be a bit bland. Tap dodging solves a bit too much and it's rather thoughtless at times IMO. 1.5 adds a lot of little tweaks to the boss patterns and stage layouts that turn it into a much more fun game IMO. The scoring a bit too frustratingly all or nothing for my tastes though (you either have a route to point blank, or you can do nothing at all.)

[LordHypnos]

Non sure how the lag is in vanilla MAME, but it's completely imperceptible in ShmupMAME

Unfortunately it's pretty bad in MAMEplus, I counted a whopping 5 frames of input lag. Progear and Dimahoo (also CPS2 games) have only 3 frames of lag, and Giga Wing (also CPS2 and a Takumi game at that) has 4 frames of lag. If/when I get around to seriously playing Mars Matrix I'll probably have to use ShmupMAME.

Also, I counted 4 frames of lag in Rapid Hero, which is probably why the controls feel kind of sluggish to me and why the game's annoying me more than it should (I thought this game was supposed to be easy!).

Edit: I might have overcounted by 1 on each of these numbers, but these numbers should still be correct relative to each other.

Ah, that's a shame

Also worth noting that shmupmame has an autofire mapped to the second button by default, which could be useful, but unfortunately holding down the first button does not override the auto button like it does in the DC version, so that makes it much less useful. On the other hand, the DC version adds extra lag to activating the mosquito (presumably intentionally), which you need to compensate for when using auto. Personally, I like tapping for normal shot, and using auto for piercing cannon, and then I stop using auto starting in stage 5 (and in a few other specific places) for various reasons.

If the emulation is acceptable, and your computer is fast enough, I'd actually probably recommend playing in nullDC or Demul over MAME, but my computer isn't quite good enough to do those without slowdown in some areas, so I really haven't investigated this. It's just based off the DC version being superior.

...anyway, I could probably go into detail on the minute differences between the AC and DC versions, but that's probably enough unsolicited info for one post.

[saucykobold]

I'm probably either in the wrong spot or I mistime the pod-tossing (or both). Here's what usually happens.

It looks like you're releasing the Force and then summoning it back to your ship, but the key to an easy win is to just let the Force chill directly in front of the boss for the entire fight -- which will be just a couple seconds if all goes well.

My method goes something like this:

• When the pre-boss popcorn are dead, vertically align the back of your ship with the I in HI-.
• Horizontally align ship with the background pipe thing which I've marked in green here.
• When your positioning is good, toss the Force. Core wakes up, finds Force all up in its face shooting a billion point-blank spread shots per second (pic).
• Shortly before the boss fires its first 5-way laser spread, nudge up so you're roughly aligned with the background pipe marked in blue in the first pic -- only movement you'll need to make after the initial positioning! This will put you just above an approaching wall and the boss' straight lasers, but just below the speedup that will spawn (pic). Rios should die about when the speedup appears.

How would you rank a R-Type II 2-ALL against a Gradius II 2-ALL as far as difficulty is concerned? About the same? Is either one significantly harder in your opinion?

I'd say they're about even, give or take.

Speaking of Gradius II: how did you handle the Moai boss in the second loop? Did you use the safespot in the upper left corner? I'm having a hard time gauging its exact position which is of course not an adequate course of action to take during a real run. I found a way to gather the little Moai heads in a neat circle, it doesn't always work, though. Not quite sure how to proceed.

This seems like the way to go when you're fully powered. I never did get fully comfortable with this strat back when I was playing, so I practiced the "hide in the nose and power back up in the speed stage" recovery. There's also the more daring "camp in the top left and pretend I have a full complement of options instead of just a pea shooter" recovery which I didn't try but which looks totally awesome.

[Ruldra]

Late to the party, but yesterday got Satazius on Steam. Pretty good Gradius clone! Having a lot of fun with it. So far I'm getting my ass kicked on hard, it's a big difficulty jump from normal. Looking forward to see what it's like on insane.

And conveniently, today they added achievements and online leaderboards to the game.

[Stevens]

On the other hand, the DC version adds extra lag to activating the mosquito (presumably intentionally), which you need to compensate for when using auto. Personally, I like tapping for normal shot, and using auto for piercing cannon, and then I stop using auto starting in stage 5 (and in a few other specific places) for various reasons.

I have my buttons set up the same way. Part of clearing MM is knowing when you should be using auto pierce, and when you should be using rapid because you might have to use your shield in an instant.

Those few frames might as well be a year in a game like MM.

Course I'm preaching to the choir here

[Jonst]

Been back playing akai katana (zetsu). Managed to beat my previous high score by 13 million, so my top is now around 446 million... I could've done better had it not been for a couple of stupid deaths on the final boss...

[Stevens]

Finishing the year with my (up to this point) best yet of BL.

Died once right before the stage 4 mid boss and once on Seseri, but fell short on the last boss and haven't figured out why. At a certain point she stops taking damage and no matter what I do I can't seem to hurt her. GASP! - It's a shield?! That heartless bitch!

I did score 716 million with kakusei only. And there are still a ton more points without even touching zetsu.

[Tigershark]

Zenohell.

Great game. Love the music.

[Xyga]

Same! Same! Same! MD JP Normal. ... what a bitch ! dat hitbox, urgh.

[Stevens]

Still playing BL and have started dipping my hand back into Futari maniac.

Scored 820 million in BL and no missed to Seseri. First time I ever triggered a tlb, even if triggering her is rather easy compared to other games. I have fought her in training and dealt her only dying once or twice, but this fight cost me four lives.

Reached the final boss and tapped out.

I won't try to trigger the tlb again until I get the clear, but I do think I can eventually clear it via the tlb route.

Worked on some Futari maniac routes, earning the 1st extend by the end of stage 2. Not super but suffcient for me.

Have I mentioned I miss my DC? Jonesing for a fix of Under Defeat..

[Jonst]

Been beating my old akai katana zetsu scores, which was pretty satisfying. I want to return to ketsupachi soon and get that clear out of the way. I've mainly been enjoying mercs on the md, such a cool game, and nice to have a break from the usual stuff I play.

How far off the BL clear are you Stevens? ... I would have thought you'd have the 360 version of ud as well as the dreamcast?...

[OmKol]

Zanac Neo on PS1. Just got a clear on Hard and I'm going to Very Hard. This game is fun and ability to be invincible for a sec and get a charge shot while pickuping powerups (this game drops a lot of them) make this game interesting for me.

[Stevens]

Been beating my old akai katana zetsu scores, which was pretty satisfying. I want to return to ketsupachi soon and get that clear out of the way. I've mainly been enjoying mercs on the md, such a cool game, and nice to have a break from the usual stuff I play.

Mercs is a great game. I have it on the PS 2 Capcom Collection, but the MD version is its own game entirely. Nice work on the scores - it always feels like an accomplishment no matter how long you've been playing a particular game.

How far off the BL clear are you Stevens? ... I would have thought you'd have the 360 version of ud as well as the dreamcast?...

I've gotten to the last (I call her Reco - She looks almost exactly like her) boss three or four times now, but I just need a little more practice with her last pattern since you can't bomb on it or she shields.

Ha! You would think that right? I do not though. If G.Rev brings it to Steam and improves arcade mode (making it closer to the DC version) I will bite.