Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[atheistgod1999]

PS4 controller d-pad is actually pretty good iirc.

It is indeed.

[Perikles]

I've played a few hours of Valtric in the last two days - what a prodigiously difficult game! While Argus has a combination of awkward design choices and raw challenge in place, Valtric is pure, undistilled, ceaseless multi-directional action. It only consists of four rather short stages - each with a mid-boss and a fortress bristling with weapons for a boss - and could theoretically be beaten in around 12, 13 minutes, I presume. It's intrinsically fair, surprisingly, even though the tank moves at a rather glacial pace, yet you still constantly get cornered by a frightening amount of projectiles and mobs of homing missiles that never leave the screen once they are deployed. Enemies respawn from all sides, several fortified turrets efficaciously impede progress at the same time, and the occasional aerial support that drops all kinds of nasty surprises rounds up the melange. Although quite frustrating in its own right, I doubtlessly can attest that it is a much better game than Argus or Battlantis as far as those menacingly hard classics are concerned.

[Stevens]

Mixing it up and working on both Progear and AK.

I reached the boss in AK Zetsu and went and played something else. I got to Volvox and my thumb let me know gently my pad playing days were over.

Going back to both and will work on them together. Haven't played AK since I posted last but made it back to Kraken after a few credits.

Stage 4 is tits.

[Jonst]

^ that's better!! Zetsu is the most fun mode. Ah, stage 4 of progear is awesome! Keep going mate...

[Stevens]

^ that's better!! Zetsu is the most fun mode. Ah, stage 4 of progear is awesome! Keep going mate...

I've actually set my sights on Shin mode. My best is currently a hair under 300 million and game overing at stage 5's boss.

I think my scoring is getting a hair better in Progear too, I used to earn the 1st extend with the stage 2 bonus. Now on occasion I'm getting before the boss. I may have earned it there when I was playing it back in June, but marijuana hasn't done anything for my short term memory.

Hence why January and a summer month are weed free. I got a bong hit with my name on it tonight though:D Happy New Year kids.

How's by you Jonst?

[atheistgod1999]

Crimzon Clover's replay thing misread my button inputs or something, because a couple of my replays are NOT accurate. On one that I ALL-CLEARed, it has me get game over in stage 1 (and I didn't even die on that run until stage 4), and the previous one was originally correct when I recorded it for youtube, but now it has the same issue (that one has me last until stage 3, though). Can someone help me?

Now I'm working on Deathsmiles, by the way. Got DS4Windows set up

[wgogh]

I thought the windows version of Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama were pretty good. I remember having new soundtrack arranges.

Anyway, playing Blue Wish Ressurection
An interesting doujin that would make CAVE fans feel at home. Easy 1cc btw.

[LordHypnos]

Earlier today was practicing mm stage 5. New route for the first little tiny but, so far. Got a few 1.1 mill runs, which is an improvement over the norm for the old route.

[LordHypnos]

Ringing in the new year with a 1.9 trillion / 3.9 million run of Mars Matrix. That was with a chain break in stage 5, too. Only got one decent run in, however. The rest were crap.

[Kiken]

Been playing Sengoku Blaede again. Maining Yunis, I 've managed to start getting to the 2nd loop again. Still making way too many stupid errors in loop 1 (predominantly in stage 5). Although, the rank rise in this game gets kinda out of control early on... even aggressively powering down doesn't seem to have much effect.

[G-Darius]

DARIUSBURST Chronicle Saviours (Steam) - trying dif modes but getting my ass handed to me everytime.
Gorf (Vic 20)
Moon Alien , Uni War S (Arcade)
Truxton/Tatsujin (Megadrive)
Sagaia - still trying really hard on this but not making much progress

[Stevens]

Rainy day with Progear.

After an hour that yielded results that were parroted by the weather (re:shitty) I realized I was sitting too close to the TV. Adjustments were made and I spent the next hour with runs that got progressively better. My final run if the afternoon saw me back to cranes on stage 5.

I'm pretty comfortable with my routes in stages 1-4. Haven't spent a lot of time practicing stage 5, but I have put a fair amount of time into Volvox. I know I can clear this, I just need to stick with it.

[Jonst]

^ that's better!! Zetsu is the most fun mode. Ah, stage 4 of progear is awesome! Keep going mate...

I've actually set my sights on Shin mode. My best is currently a hair under 300 million and game overing at stage 5's boss.

I think my scoring is getting a hair better in Progear too, I used to earn the 1st extend with the stage 2 bonus. Now on occasion I'm getting before the boss. I may have earned it there when I was playing it back in June, but marijuana hasn't done anything for my short term memory.

Hence why January and a summer month are weed free. I got a bong hit with my name on it tonight though:D Happy New Year kids.

How's by you Jonst?

Good work man!

Yeah, I'm ok thanks, I still seem to have lost my mojo for shmups. I've been playing hyper duel a bit recently, I've come close to clearing, it needs more work. I know you'll clear one of those games pretty soon. Happy new year!

[wgogh]

I don't even know why I tried Ketsui for the DS. Worst plataform for shmups. My fingers...

[ACSeraph]

Trying to start the new year right with a short marathon of games I have previously 1cc-ed. Cleared Deathsmiles IIX, SDOJ 360 Shot, and Darius Gaiden today. Nothing too hard but I've been so busy lately I barely have time to play anymore so I'm quite rusty. Was really shocked when I actually game overed in Caladrius today. How I have fallen...

As for what I've been playing recently in general, mostly DeltaZeal, Sylpheed PS2, and PC98 2hu. Sylpheed had been sitting in my collection for 7 years and I had never once played it. Not as bad as its rep, but nothing special. I like the story and visuals.

[Jonst]

Goddamn! Twice this morning I've been well into the final boss fight on hyper duel (I continued to see how much more was left, it was about 3 seconds! :/) the first time I no missed up to the final stage ... It would be so nice to start the year with a 1cc.

[KaizaCorp]

Trying to get a 1CC of Mushihimesama Original. Training Stage 3 at the moment. Almost have it down except for the last couple parts, so close!

[wgogh]

Trying to get a 1CC of Mushihimesama Original. Training Stage 3 at the moment. Almost have it down except for the last couple parts, so close!

I need to train for getting that 1up by the end of that stage, just before the boss.

[Stevens]

Today was one of those rare days.

Super tired. Three credits, two runs to stage 5, one trip to the cranes, one trip just before Volvox. I got unicorned by the Mrs. asking me if I paid the rent and that ended my trip.

Stage 5 needs a fair bit of work, but I am super happy with my progress over the last two days.

[bikingjahuty]

I've been slowing building my A, B, and C weapon levels up in Radiant Silvergun after my Saturn's save battery decided to take a dump recently. I still stand by my assertion that Radiant Silvergun is my favorite SHMUP. It never gets old just playing through the game, building my levels up and just learning how to best every one of the game's very different scenarios. By far, this game has the most dynamic gameplay of any SHMUP I've ever played. Love it so much.

[LordHypnos]

Really have not been getting good runs recently. Just dying all over the place. Even when I don't screw up the first 4 levels I usually break the chain somewhere and / or die several times in stage 5.

[Stevens]

2 trillion is so close.

[KaizaCorp]

Trying to get a 1CC of Mushihimesama Original. Training Stage 3 at the moment. Almost have it down except for the last couple parts, so close!

I need to train for getting that 1up by the end of that stage, just before the boss.

Yup, that's exactly where I'm having difficulties clearing with no bomb consistently. I can dodge the first couple attacks but can't always transfer over to the other side.

[LordHypnos]

2 trillion is so close.

Too true. I just need one run with good chains in all stages (probably)!

I'm actually taking a bit of a break from it for the past couple days, though. Will be back to it soon, I'm sure.

[WelshMegalodon]

It's been so quiet since ag1999's ban that I actually managed to play some games for once. Nothing like Konami to cleanse one's palate of RetroArch.

Gradius III SFC - finally tried this and made it to Stage 3 on my first day. Apparently I'm supposed to be using two speedups rather than one, and three options instead of four, so I'm working on that as well. Konami had some balls having Option Hunter show up in Stage 2...

TwinBee Yahho! - I understand this title hasn't had the best reputation here since STGT07. In spite of the endless bell-juggling, I find it difficult to hate this, Detana, or Pop'n. (Famicom TwinBee, on the other hand...)

On the non-shmup side, Vampire Killer MD - Was encouraged to try this after seeing all the hubbub in BIL's sidescroller thread. Not being a fan of the Dracula games, I didn't much care for it at first, but it's grown on me. stockholm_syndrome.txt?

[Shepardus]

I purged my desktop computer of most of its games recently, including every shmup except Parodius Da! So that's what I've been playing (I might add the other Parodius games back later). I want to get a first-loop clear with all four characters; so far I've done so with Octopus and TwinBee, gotten to the last stage with Vic Viper, and gotten to the penultimate stage with Pentarou.

I'm also screwing around with overclocking the game in MAME to get rid of the slowdown. I've gotten to stage 8 like that, though I crashed into a wall there. Annoyingly enough, MAME doesn't allow you to save overclock settings or set them through command-line flags, which makes recording replays inconvenient since the overclock has to be set on the same frame when playing back the replay as you did when recording it or else the input file will desync. My current best solution is to use a Lua script to pause the game immediately as it starts up so I can consistently adjust the overclock on the first frame. If I can adjust the overclock through Lua that would be ideal, but I haven't found a way to do so.

I also tried building a separate version of MAME with a different clock speed in the parodius.cpp driver, and while that works, stock MAME doesn't have the custom buttons/autofire settings I rely on in MAMEPlus. Specifically, it doesn't let me have separate buttons for autofire and non-autofire, and it doesn't save autofire settings either. If someone knows how I could get a custom buttons patch into my build, that would be great.

It's been so quiet since ag1999's ban

Wait when did this happen? (I don't browse Off Topic) I don't think I want to know exactly what he did, but did he screw up especially badly or was it just one too many little things?

TwinBee Yahho! - I understand this title hasn't had the best reputation here since STGT07. In spite of the endless bell-juggling, I find it difficult to hate this, Detana, or Pop'n. (Famicom TwinBee, on the other hand...)

I also like Yahho, though admittedly I haven't played it in much depth at all. Pop'n seems cool too but I've played it even less. I can't stand Detana due to the difficulty of recovering from a death - makes Gradius recoveries look like a piece of cake. Original arcade TwinBee is like this too but it's easier in general so it doesn't bother me as much. Recovering is a little more consistent in Yahho because it's actually nice enough to give you a cloud with several bells when you die. In Practice mode, it's also easier to control bell colors since it takes more than one shot to cycle past a non-yellow color. If you end the first three stages with a bell chain over 50, you can even continue to the remaining stages in Practice mode.

[BIL]

It's been so quiet since ag1999's ban

Wait when did this happen? (I don't browse Off Topic) I don't think I want to know exactly what he did, but did he screw up especially badly or was it just one too many little things?

Death by a thousand shitposts, basically. edit: a bit over a thousand. ;3

I will always fondly remember his Gradius door dilemma - I'm sure you will too. I even made him an avatar but I don't think he ever used it. 3;

[Shepardus]

I will always fondly remember his Gradius door dilemma - I'm sure you will too. I even made him an avatar but I don't think he ever used it. 3;

I'd like to use that if you don't mind. Parodius Da has the same thing, after all, and I may need the reminder.

[BIL]

Please do, I'd be honoured. ^__^

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Played some Bit.Trip Fate earlier on Steam.

It's not a standard shooter, but still seems fun from what I've played of it.

So far,

Have beaten the first level on Hard. This does not give the achievement for beating the first level on Normal(higher difficulty really should do that), lost on the second level. I probably could deal with it , but focusing on Normal and Easy for achievements at the moment.


Beat the first two levels on Normal. Took me some time to figure out how to properly handle the second boss though.

Beat the first 2 levels on Easy. Got the Perfect (no damage taken, all enemies killed, all items picked up) achievement on the first level on Easy. I've done the no damage requirement on the second level on Easy as well, but I seem to be missing an enemy or item somewhere.