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Very impressive. Great job.

Indeed, those are superb achievements, Harpuia & descriptive! Great to see so much enthusiasm for certain games. Also congratulations to you, Shepardus, you didn't state it in this thread, but I saw you cleared Dragon Blaze with all four characters! Are you going to strive for a 2-ALL and if so, which character will you use?


Let's up the ante a bit - yesterday I cleared two more arcade shooters (those were pretty easy, though).

But first things first: I got the V-V 2-ALL up. I already put various notes in the video description, so I want to use this opportunity to explicitly point out that this game needs more love. I can't think of too many vertical shooters that are as creative and fine-tuned as V-V. So many unique enemies (like the critters that disgorge bubbles, the demonic face that sucks in all projectiles including his own, the huge tank that reacts to every of the player's move while his orbiting cohorts react rather angry when getting shot, the hunter mechanoids that seem to calculate your position on the screen for a while before mercilessly chasing you down, the ghastly final boss itself and several more), such a great presentation (I love the boss music - the "chorus" kinda reminds me of Final Fantasy VI's opera scene ), such a lovely gameplay. While it has the classic Gradius power-up system (supremely designed options with deathly missiles included!) it's also lenient upon recovery as you can see in the video where I die at the end of the second loop and still get on my feet. Simple, yet effective scoring system that allows for conservative or risky play, 2-ALL is quite a challenge regardless (although I'll admit that I suck at this type of game, proto-danmaku or not) considering the fountains of suicide bullets you'll normally get to see at a really high loop of a Gradius game. There's not a single reason to not play it, almost everyone should get a kick out of it, fans of more traditional and modern styles alike.

And speaking of underappreciated little gems: I can't believe no one here posted an arcade BlaZeon score yet. This is one of the most accessible memorizers out there, with gorgeous graphics and a stellar soundtrack (if you don't like Alpha you're a monster). I died one remarkably silly death there since I didn't realize that it would be detrimental to have a fully operational mechanoid at the beginning of the final stage instead of a damaged one for better autofire against the barriers, but as you can clearly see the execution barrier in this game is basically non-existent. You can (should! will!) enjoy the outstanding music without getting abysmally bored like in the SFC port while fighting some cool iremesque bosses along the way. Like their recently re-discovered Wing Force BlaZeon also has a neat boss counter scoring system, excess lives get turned into points by the end, as well. If you'd like to play a memorizer, but R-Type and its ilk are too hard for you, then I urge you to check it out. It's not perfect for some of the stages are admittedly a bit bland, but I think it's very enjoyable unlike the botched port which is moreso a guilty pleasure than anything else. You get to control awesome vehicles and can unleash Sonic Booms against the final boss, how could anyone dislike that?

But worry not, if BlaZeon is still too hard for you then there's Strike Gunner S.T.G! It took me about an hour to trash this one, it's sad. Japanese wiki lists this as a 22 without autofire which is about 17 points too high. I suppose you have to figure out which weapons to use and which power-ups to collect, but other than that and a slightly tricky fourth boss (he's not as easy as he looks, he sometimes shoots at you from an awkward angle from close distance, killing you almost instantly) this game is a joke. Granted, if you die it's one finished credit, the default pea shooter is simply unable to kill anything, autofire or not. I'll open a scoreboard for this one in a moment, I expect a ton of clears from everyone soon! But I wouldn't really recommend it, honestly, it's as average as they get, still better than the insanely boring SFC port, but that's not saying much.


One other thing I wanted to mention/ask: someone gave me the advice to force 60 fps when using Handbrake for editing the videos in order to eliminate those tiny jerky movements of the screen. While it does seem to work fine I also noticed that in conjunction with the Flash Video Player for Firefox (which sometimes allows for a higher resolution on videos, 480p on V-V for example instead of 360p when using the HTML5 Player) the videos seem to be sped up, ending a few minutes earlier than they should be, even though I don't get the feeling they're running much faster when actually watching the video itself. Can someone shed light on me what's that supposed to mean? I saw this on a few other videos, too, so I know I'm not alone out there. I also have practically no idea of video editing and things of that nature.

In any case, go play V-V and BlaZeon! And get a quick Strike Gunner clear during your break at work.

Excellent gradius 3 video, but man im missing those annotations... honestly one of the main reasons I even play shmups is to marvel at all the weird little tricks you can do, and all of the hidden information discovered over years of play to make the impossible possible.

Strikers 1945 II 1-ALL. Played around with the Pancake and Hayate initially, and ended up sticking with the Hayate for it's strong charge shot and sub-shot. They're equally good though and easily the best planes in the game. I like this one a bit more than the first Strikers due to it having a default stage order and being less difficult overall. On a separate note, I like how there's no requirements for looping the game, just because it's always fun to get a taste of how ridiculous Psikyo's second loops are.

Thanks! I want to get a 2-ALL eventually but it's still a long ways off. I'm currently focusing on Ian, though I also like Rob. Those two are the highest-damage characters in the game, which I like. They're also the fastest and slowest characters, though, so they end up playing quite differently and it's hard to practice both without becoming bad at both.

1CC SDOJ (360, arcade mode) for the first time tonight



Shout out to BNM who helped me out with a few strategies along the way.

^ congrats chempop, nice one! this is on my list after ibara!

Nice all.

I made it to the second loop of DDP.

The requirements weren't as strict as I remembered, only took about an hour of save state practice after not playing the game for a year or two. So it shouldn't be too hard for anyone interested.

Nice work man. Which version is that? I have it on the PS and after reaching 1-7 (Mosquito) haven't gone back to it. Soon.



Awesome! How long did it take you?

Under 30 minutes!
I played it a lot when the port came out. Back then I learned the first three and a half stages, but being inconsistent with the st4 midboss 1-up caused endless frustration and eventually I hit a wall at stage5.
I've mostly been playing strikers1945 the last few months, but had maybe 5 session with SDOJ in the last few weeks, it came back very quickly and I learned how to deal with the parts in the first four stages which gave me grief. I think more people should play it, it's awesome fun and I am h-h-h-h-hype to start 1.5

^ chempop, what ship did you use for saidaioujou arcade?

A-S, same as the one in the ending pic above
Coincidence?

I never pay attention to those kind of details!

I play it on MAME. I'd recommend giving it another go sometime, and to try out the Hayate and Pancake unless you've already decided that the Mosquito fits you better than those.

Don't play the PS version of Strikers II, just don't. Stick to MAME. People claim this port is accurate to the arcade but it really isn't, and it's probably because they haven't played it at a high enough level for it to matter. The hit boxes of the ships are different from the arcade version, most of them have been made bigger for some inexplicable reason (Safe spots no longer work, attacks become much harder to dodge). Some ship's hit boxes have been made enormous such as the Focke-Wulf, which was already the worst plane in the game IMO).

raiden posted similar stuff about the PS/SS Strikers II hitboxes, years ago - good to see the alteration reaffirmed. raiden thought they got progressively larger from PS to SS to compensate for the ports running slower than the PCB... too bad Strikers II didn't get a DC port like Gunbird 2.

Offhand, I wonder about the Saturn ports of the original Strikers and Gunbird, which seem at least superficially very close to the PCBs (Strikers II on both PS+SS is blatantly missing animation frames and special effects, though it's still passably close... one of those "arcade perfect at the time" ports). Nobody seems to comment much on Sengoku Blade's Saturn port either.

I'm not sure about the SS version of Strikers II but in the PS1 version the hitboxes are definitely all fucked up. The biggest and most painful lesson for me came in 2-6. Normally, in the arcade version, you can dodge the water mines attack in 2-6 (right after the missiles fly from the top of the screen) simply by hiding in the bottom left or right corner of the screen. In the PS1 version, you will be killed and this attack becomes 100% unavoidable without a bomb.

Also, the stage 1-6 boss, first form fires a "flower attack" pattern that is easily avoidable by sitting in the bottom left corner of the screen. In the PS1 version this attack is still avoided if you are playing as the Pancake or Hayate, but you will die a miserable death if you are playing as the Focke-Wulf. I verified in the arcade version that all 3 of these planes are safe. So this means that not only are the hitboxes larger in PS1 version, but some of the planes have different hitboxes (and larger) than each other!

It's little shit like this that makes me never want to play a console port ever again. Of all the things to change, the hitbox has got to be the most egregious change these idiot developers can possible make.

One more observation, if you play the PS1 version on a PS2, then there is virtually no slowdown whatsoever in the game, unlike playing it on a straight up PS1.

Interesting - not often I've seen that (games I wish ran faster on PS2 tend to stubbornly retain slowdown, like G-Darius and Strider 2... and other weirdness like SFA3+quick loading losing its character voices). Guess it's technically a BC issue of the more benign sort.

I've toyed with the idea of starting an omnithread for port/conversion/BC discussion in OT. I was gonna subtitle it The Hyper Anal. Might make it a summer project if nobody else gets to it.

Gave sdoj 1.5 a whirl and after a few attempts I got the 1CC with A-S auto bomb OFF. It's easier than arcade mode for survival.
Was nice having so many more bombs for that last stage. Had a life remaining so could have bombed 7 more times

That would be a great idea, I've longed for a resource that would compare arcade versions to their console ports and determine which were good and which were junk. I know a lot of that information is out there, but a lot of it is also wrong, lacking specifics, and often contradictory. I have a lot of the console ports for the popular stuff but I just don't have enough experience beyond a handful of games (Salamander 2, Strikers II, Gradius games, etc)

Gunbird 1-ALL!

Video
I almost game-overed to the final boss because I didn't point-blank fast enough and died, but managed to squeeze through with some improvised dodging (never practiced for this scenario).

Charming game, with lovely character designs, sprites, and backgrounds. I think this is the oldest game I've 1-ALL'd/1CC'd so far - even though it's more "modern" than many other games from its time I'm still not entirely used to its play style. I still prefer later Psikyo games for gameplay but this was fun and a good experience too.

For what it's worth, I got this 1-ALL without any save-stating, just a bunch of credit-feeding practice and a brief excursion to the test menu (that convinced me that practicing through the stage select there was more trouble than it was worth). endoKarb's 2-ALL replay on YouTube was very useful for learning the last stage, I think I would have ragequit if I had to learn to actually dodge those patterns.

As a side note, I really like how Gunbird and Strikers 1945 (and perhaps other early Psikyo games I haven't checked?) have different backgrounds on the second loop. Wish they kept little touches like that in their later games.

Sengoku Ace probably also has them, considering it's the prototypical early Psikyo game and all (not counting Sonic Wings/Aero Fighters).

Crimzon Clover World Ignition Unlimited 1cc.

Super bad stage 5, might try for 6.8 trillion at some point.
Video

@Harpuia: Now that you've cleared the first loop of the first two Strikers games, which one would you say was harder for you? Would interest me since we've had that discussion recently.

@Shepardus: Good job, rolling through all these Psikyo games recently! I played the first Gunbird on the PS2 a while ago and it was somewhat aggravating for me since a lot of times I got hit when I tried to weave between patterns even though it looked like I should've been able to make it. Might be because I played with regular orientation (can't TATE the whopper of a CRT I got here) or because I flat-out suck, but it irked me nonetheless.


Got a new trio of clears myself:


- The toughest one was certainly Dragon Saber (which might not be available in the US just like Dragon Spirit from the looks of it, but I'm sure there are ways to circumvent that). I have a soft spot for the series, especially considering that they're verticals with lots of terrains, pushing the games moreso in a memorizer niche which is always welcome for me. Absolutely fantastic presentation including some of the most beautiful graphical set-pieces and soundtracks I can think of, and it even has some hidden arranged tracks from the first game (I was aware of these, BIL, although I can't tell off-hand how to trigger them in-game ). Some of the design choices are rather egregious, unfortunately, enemies have a nasty tendency to spawn at inaccessible positions while threatening you at the same time, forcing you to surrender your position and consequently die (kinda like Zugzwang in a chess game, actually). Final boss might randomly kill you if he wants to. The PCE port is rather generous, granting three hits instead of killing you off in the first one, so that might be a good alternative (I think it's an exquisite port overall!). Still a great game, and it looks like no one here bothered to clear it which is a shame.

- Next up we have some multi-looping fun with Section Z where I conquered six loops before finally running out of lives. This game is great atmospheric fun, I'm absolutely sure that a lot of people could enjoy this one even if they're not huge shmup enthusiasts. It's just you in this bleak, claustrophobic atmosphere; your wits and survival instincts against this alien menace. It has truly excellent action-platformer qualities, too, my favourite thing is to stand on the ground and then crouch under projectiles, it's the greatest thing ever. And since I love my marathon runs I really wanted to see what I could squeeze out of it since it doesn't seem to get much harder at all upon looping - in a more focused run I could envision maybe 10 loops or so, but I think I leave it at that.

- Lastly, I got a Skull Fang clear (played the harder Japanese version and its Chase Mode to be exact). Now this is an obscure game, I couldn't even find another clear video out there in the wild. At first I hated it and I'm still not convinced of it at all, but I'd put it moreso into average/below average category now. The programmers were sinfully lazy, the fourth and the sixth boss look identical and the fifth boss consists of the second and third boss, every stage has the same enemies, too. Some incredibly bad visibility and cheap boss behaviour (like shooting you from off-screen whilst some stuff cludders your play field) don't help to improve upon this first impression. It kinda reminded me of Zing Zing Zip to be honest, and the invincibility twirl from Vapor Trail only reinforces that. It's a pretty brutal game, too, and if the final boss does his most dangerous pattern repeatedly (sending out the satellites to shoot lightning at you while he circles around and shoots) you're probably going to die no matter what. I wouldn't really recommend it, boss theme is kinda catchy, though.


Thinking about what to tackle next. Might go for the Salamander/Life Force multi-loop sessions just to have them out of the way...

The first Strikers was definitely the harder game for me because it doesn't have a default stage order, and the random midboss/boss combo on stage 7. In Strikers II the only RNG I need to worry about is the stage 7 midboss, one of which I've leaned how to dodge and the other I can just bomb through. I do think Strikers II possibly has harder bosses (especially the stage 7 boss holy shit), but it got a good deal easier once I decided to start lowering the rank to 2 (where the Hayate Launches 2 options and has a four-way spreadshot) at stage 3, which I'd prefer to do later but there's not many convenient spots for lowering rank, unlike Strikers 1 with the stage 5 missiles that seem to be there just for that purpose. The best planes in Strikers II are also stronger than the best planes in Strikers 1 in my opinion.

My first Deathsmiles MegaBlack Label ALL EX (Canyon, Ice Palace).

^^^^

Congrats Omokol

After seeing DOJ come up a whole lot in the recent "Favorite Cave Game?" thread as well as the recent 2-ALL, It made me want to get back into it. After playing it every night this week I have a whole bunch of DOJ accomplishments:

1. I got my first A-EXY clear in DOJ WL. The more important goal that was accomplished here is that I managed to NO MISS the stage portion of Stage 5. This is mostly due to some insane b̶u̶l̶l̶s̶h̶i̶t̶l̶u̶c̶k̶c̶a̶v̶e̶d̶o̶d̶g̶e̶s̶ "skill" in the honeycomb section as well as at the end of the stage.

2. I got a A-EX DOJ BL run that made it to 2-3. Before this run I had only made it to 2-2.

3. I got my first B-EX DOJ BL 1CC which also made it to 2-3. I got my first 2-1 NO MISS in the run.

4. Last night I got a B-EX DOJ WL 1CC that made it into the loop.

Unfortunately, the scores for all of these run were very low

^^ Uwaaaa..... congrats man, truly a top-tier.

Haven't touched DOJ WL for a while, mid-stage 4 still haunts me.

Good job on that: 100m is actually quite decent, it at least definitely requires more effort than just getting the clear.
I also cleared WL recently and after that it still took me quite a few hours practice to get my first run with over 100m.

Great! You going to try and improve your scores or are you kind of done with it?

Omoko - Nice work too!