Zerst wrote:-defaults only
-one credit only
-to activate Special Mode, go into the test menu and press the option labeled "Special"
Uh, I don't mean to invalidate
literally all your scores, but the "Special" mode in the test menu exists in both Omega Fighter and Omega Fighter Special. Omega Fighter Special is a
separate romset with increased item drops (more grey slowdown cubes and gold cubes naturally appear sometimes without having to earn them) so it's basically an easier black label style version of the game that gives you more opportunities to take advantage of the slowdown items to do pointblanking (same idea as DDP BL giving you more hypers to score with). You can tell if you're playing Omega Fighter Special because the title screen has the word "Special" written under it.
If you go to the test menu and select "Special",
you are activating a debug mode/cheat that gives you extra lives like crazy. The bar at the top of the screen with the arrows and the x10 indicator usually only gets incremented when you get x10 multipliers off enemies (i.e. destroy them at close range) and you'll get a gold cube appear if you fill it halfway, and an extra life if you fill it (usually you'll get an extend via score before this it seems, which resets the bar). What the test menus "Special" option does is
it causes the game to register all kills, regardless of x1 to x10, to increment the x10 meter, thus causing 1UPs to naturally drop like crazy from killing enemies, particularly in popcorn-heavy areas. Scores played using the "Special" option in the test menu should be considered invalid, and are
not the same as playing the actual Omega Fighter Special in normal mode.
So yeah, playing Omega Fighter or Omega Fighter Special in the test menu's "Special" mode option is essentially a super easy mode that causes the game to spit out 1UPs at you and just feels silly. Play the game in normal mode, plz. If you are seriously going to play in "extra lives all teh time" mode, at least separate the scoreboards into four different ones (Omega Fighter Normal Mode & Special Mode/Omega Fighter Special Normal Mode & Special Mode).
Omega Fighter
BKR - 1,037,480 (I think that's the 4? The font has very similar 4s and 9s ._.) - Stage 6 (Loop 1) - MAMEPlus 0.148
First time getting to that level, then the bouncy fireballs that rebound off the sides of the screen kinda took me by surprise. Was sad, I had an extra life in stock and died twice in a row with my second 1UP floating onscreen, oops. I have a hard time at the start of stage 5 when the screen scrolls down, the turrets that appear tend to shoot me in the back, whittling down the few lives I have left by that point. This game deserves way more serious attention, it's got an amazing scoring system for such an old shmup.