Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[third_strike]

DOJ BL 360
A little of another 360 shmups too.

[Saikyoh]

Slowly chipping away at Dai-Fukkatsu.

C-Strong is painfully unfun though. Maybe I should just grit my teeth and learn how to not die in Power.

Yep, can confirm. Went 1cc the 1st loop of C-strong and I wasn't even happy about it.

For now I'm just trying to 1cc Mushihinesama.

[Stevens]

Still Mars Matrix.

Been a few days since I last played but my XP through the first 2 stages seems to be consistent.

Stage 1 is between 210k/300k and stage 2 Mid 300's to 450k. The cool thing seems to be that regardless of how I do on stage 1 I hit level 7 on stage 3 more often than not.

Only been playing every few days, but would like to get a marathon session in this weekend.

[LordHypnos]

Mars Matrix;
I got a couple of runs in a row with upper +700 or around +800 chains in stage one, which the times when I managed to get the early stage 2 chain lead to over 600k by the start of stage 3. One of those runs continued to be successful, but due to a somewhat bad stage 4 run was not a clear. Nonetheless, I got the exp count to around 2.9 million, and a pink digit, so that's still a pretty good outcome. I'm considering trying to learn to chain through the stage 4 midboss, as in that same run I sort of did (but did break the chain a bit earlier), and ended up getting around +400 after the midboss, which is higher than the usual (I think around +350). Not sure if I will yet. I think the field of death will be much harder if I try to chain through part of it, but it would also probably lead to more big enemy kills which would also bolster my score, and probably at least get me over Kollision's score on the board depending on how the rest of the game goes.

[Jonst]

Seeing as my ps2 pad died, I can no longer play ibara, which is quite annoying as I was really into it and getting better. So, dug my Saturn out and am getting into battle Garegga, had my best run in a long time and probably my best score yet.

[Stevens]

Mars Matrix;
I got a couple of runs in a row with upper +700 or around +800 chains in stage one, which the times when I managed to get the early stage 2 chain lead to over 600k by the start of stage 3. One of those runs continued to be successful, but due to a somewhat bad stage 4 run was not a clear. Nonetheless, I got the exp count to around 2.9 million, and a pink digit, so that's still a pretty good outcome. I'm considering trying to learn to chain through the stage 4 midboss, as in that same run I sort of did (but did break the chain a bit earlier), and ended up getting around +400 after the midboss, which is higher than the usual (I think around +350). Not sure if I will yet. I think the field of death will be much harder if I try to chain through part of it, but it would also probably lead to more big enemy kills which would also bolster my score, and probably at least get me over Kollision's score on the board depending on how the rest of the game goes.

Played yesterday, was off as fuck. You had a better session than me for certain.

I've also been trying to get a little better at stage 4's opening. It is one of the easier spots as there are opportunities for cubes everywhere, but bullets too.

I may play a bit today.

Jonst you old dog! Bummer about the pad. One of the buttons on my Saturn VS are starting to stick. Once the buttons go to shit, the board fries, or I have some extra scratch I am going to mod the entire thing with a new PCB (PS360+), and buttons. Already replaced the stick a few weeks back.

I have two HRAP's, but I love the low profile on the VS and would love to use it on all my consoles.

Hope things are well:D

[LordHypnos]

Played yesterday, was off as fuck. You had a better session than me for certain.

I've also been trying to get a little better at stage 4's opening. It is one of the easier spots as there are opportunities for cubes everywhere, but bullets too.

I may play a bit today.

Yeah, it really was a good session. Not terribly long, but with some notable success. also I hadn't played for like a week before it.

I can chain the beginning of stage 4 almost all the way to the midboss, and it doesn't seem incredibly hard, but I screw it up most of the time. I don't really bother because the way I do it, it doesn't seem to be worth much. I think it's because it's mostly big cubes with a few exceptions. I could probably change that, since my shielding is not really currently optimized for getting cubes. chaining through the midboss seems like it can really increase score and multiplier a lot, from videos I've seen.

[Jonst]

The pad stuff is annoying. It's the third one and it's always the d-pad that dies. I felt an ibara clear not too far off

Yeah. Life is ok man. Could be better, could be worse!

[davyK]

Have decided to stop playing Futari for now and concentrate on Gigawing (DC) - I've found Futari HARDER after playing Gigawing for a day or two so playing both is obviously have a bad impact on me. Using the DC stick - can't imagine playing this with the DC pad.

Getting to level 4 on 1 credit but finding it tough as I keep losing silly lives in level 2 and 3. The DC version has a score attack mode that can be sort of used as a practice mode - though the rank climbs too quickly because of the multiplier in score attack mode. Still - at least it makes the level in an actual run feel comparatively easier!

[Stevens]

Using the DC stick - can't imagine playing this with the DC pad.

I guess your miles may vary. I love the DC pad (cleared Mars Matrix with it once and Under Defeat more times than I can count), but have made the switch to stick recently for other reasons.

Keep at GW though. I await your clear!

[davyK]

I'm not one of those people who criticise the DC pad btw. For most of its games it's fine and I quite like it. It's just I find the dpad edges to be a bit sharp and it gets uncomfortable after a while and I don't find it a good fit for shmups.

You may have a long wait for my 1CC.....I haven't 1CC-ed a game since the 16bit days. Last one was Super Aleste!! But I'm more focussed nowadays and try to get a couple of credits in every day.

[OmKol]

Back to Touhou 12 Lunatic practice. I hope I can 1CC this one day. That's all for now, then I will try DDP DFK 1.5 2-ALL.

[Aldnox]

DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is amazing.

[LordHypnos]

Late night Mars Matrix session. I worked on a number of different things, but most notable was the stage 4 chain-through-midboss route. Only succeeded once at it, but it did up my exp to 499k which is probably around double what it would be with the old route. Also totalled my score attack high score experience counts and got around 3.6 mill. Before it was 3.2 mill. That would probably lead to a significant improvement if I could pull it off. Highest I've ever actually gotten was 3.0 mill, btw.

[Stevens]

I've gotten sucked into my yearly RPG, but Mars Matrix is not forgotten.

[Coryoon]

Battle Garage, getting sucked into it again.

Been itching to put Battle Bakkrub in my Cute, to see if I really hate it, or really love it ... again.

[davyK]

Got to level 5 of DC Gigawing today for the 1st time. The robot boss of level 4 seems quite doable though I had to bomb him a bit to save my last life and get past him.

Found a 1up in level 4 - not sure if there are pre-conditions for this?

Level 5 ? Yikes. Didn't last long.

[Stevens]

Found a 1up in level 4 - not sure if there are pre-conditions for this?

Level 5 ? Yikes. Didn't last long.

Ha! That is my reaction getting to level five in any game for the first time. It's usually a quick death.

The 1 UP? Did you down a mid boss? Mars Matrix grants you one in level four for that. Same company, so a guess on my part.

You're doing great.

[Kollision]

Got to level 5 of DC Gigawing today for the 1st time. The robot boss of level 4 seems quite doable though I had to bomb him a bit to save my last life and get past him.

Found a 1up in level 4 - not sure if there are pre-conditions for this?

Level 5 ? Yikes. Didn't last long.

IIRC you need to be on your last life for that 1UP to appear.

[LordHypnos]

Got to level 5 of DC Gigawing today for the 1st time. The robot boss of level 4 seems quite doable though I had to bomb him a bit to save my last life and get past him.

Found a 1up in level 4 - not sure if there are pre-conditions for this?

Level 5 ? Yikes. Didn't last long.

nice! further than I ever made it in GW.

[Dangerous_D]

fired up and played Gradius V on PS earlier, love the graphics on that game

[davyK]

Got to level 5 of DC Gigawing today for the 1st time. The robot boss of level 4 seems quite doable though I had to bomb him a bit to save my last life and get past him.

Found a 1up in level 4 - not sure if there are pre-conditions for this?

Level 5 ? Yikes. Didn't last long.

IIRC you need to be on your last life for that 1UP to appear.

Ha - that makes sense !!

First time I got to level 4 with 2 lives. Up to now when I have got to level 4 I quite often get to the section where you hear a bell ringing. But it gets a pretty manic there and I lost a life but I kept cool and made good use of the reflect but I accept I might have been a bit lucky too.....I lost my life just before the 1up appeared!!!!. Will see how things progress this week!

[Starfighter]

Batsugun. It's going pretty well, but I'm not very good at getting 1CC's. I'm having so much fun with it though!

[Shepardus]

Experimented with rank control strats in Gokujou Parodius today. I'm going by the notes here, though I don't know how accurate they are (they're certainly incomplete, since scoring contributes to rank which this post doesn't mention). Seems to be working, the game's noticeably less vicious if I don't get missile or shield and don't power up for the first two stages. Avoiding scoring (yellow bells) also seems to help, though that does make it harder to reach the extend thresholds. This does mean I have to play on manual mode, but I was already doing that so I could save red bells for the bird walls in stage 4.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Started to try learning Mushi Ultra(probably never will finish it though). So far have a general idea of how to do most of the first 2 stages, but some of my stuff isn't really consistent yet.

Also messing around with W and S Power to see which I feel better with. Not sure what settings for super shot would be if I went with S(I know the settings for W already). I know W is preferred, but I'm aware that S apparantly has some advantages too, while M is useless(not sure about 1.5 where super shot isn't a thing)


Also got the achievement for Aki and Akka finally after I'm not sure how many credits used against the boss. Even with credit feeding, it's tough to take it out before timeout, and it'd definitely take a while to get better at the fight for real. This leaves me with only the Steam achievement for 200k counter left.


So what's the absolute scrubbiest way to get a 200k counter? Obviously Novice Mode would be used(just like I used for Ultra Mania even if I'm sure I'll manage it on Normal eventually). Not sure which of the 3 power options to take. If having max power really early on would let me get it in an earlier stage, I would have no problem with intentionally using a continue to get max power.

[Marc]

A. Jax/Typhoon and Salamander on PS4. Sadly, both are a bit guff. The collision detection and awful overhead stages kill Salamander, and Typhoon..... It feels like there's no room to move, enemies will snipe when actually leaving the screen, and then the clouds seem to be firing blue fucking bullets at me? In fairness I didn't spend a whole lot of time on this, and I do like the look and sound of it so I'll give it another whirl later. Salamander though.... loved this back in the day, but that was mostly the C64 version. Had it on the Saturn, but never really got around to playing it much. Doesn't seem I've been missing much.

[null1024]

Soukyugurentai [PS1].
dusted off the PS2 and hooked it up for the first time since moving
Man, I forgot how much I liked this game.

Also, are the default settings on the PS1 easier than they should be?

[BIL]

Soukyugurentai [PS1].
dusted off the PS2 and hooked it up for the first time since moving
Man, I forgot how much I liked this game.

Also, are the default settings on the PS1 easier than they should be?

The Saturn port's default difficulty is one below the arcade's - bumping it up from 4 to 5 will display "AC." Never played the PS1 version, but going by the HS thread it's similar. It's supposed to have more slowdown than STV/Saturn too.

[null1024]

The Saturn port's default difficulty is one below the arcade's - bumping it up from 4 to 5 will display "AC." Never played the PS1 version, but going by the HS thread it's similar. It's supposed to have more slowdown than STV/Saturn too.

Ah, thanks a bunch.

[EmperorIng]

Also, please note that i have taken over the scoreboard for Soukyugurentai and a new thread can be found here.

The scoreboards are lonely right now, as I haven't had the time or energy to migrate all the scores. Maybe soon though!