Konami PC Engine Games

[Harpuia]

Updated score

Gradius

Harpuia - 1,285,300 - 3-6 - Retroarch

[Perikles]

Time for another update here, and a rather substantial one at that!

Gradius



Perikles - 4,383,400 - 8-8 - PC Engine Duo-R


Salamander - Expert



Perikles - 6,201,800 - 7-5 - PC Engine Duo-R


I also tried to finally get the first place for Detana!!, let's cast a veil of silence over the events that unfolded. So much hatred...

The Gradius run in particular was great if I do say so myself. First three loops provided a ton of extends which allowed me to recover from every single stage in the next four loops, including the final stage and that nasty final checkpoint in stage 4 which doesn't even have the finicky savespot from the arcade version anymore. Something similar happened in Salamander, but since you can usually get back on your feet in less than a stage in that version it's not quite as hard to recover in high loops with a few exceptions. All the experience with the arcade games really paid off (and vice versa), it was a glorious sensation to get back into the games so many times. I suppose I could bring my Beginner score in Salamander up to par as well, but it seems to hold up pretty well as is.

[Perikles]

Finally did it!

Detana!! TwinBee



Perikles - 1,940,350 - 2-3 - PC Engine Duo-R


I'm going to get really angry if someone bests my score. This is yet again a superb port of a theoretically lovely game. It's unfortunately also one of the most frustrating things one can play. I had a magnificent run until the beginning of the last stage (perfect bell chain for the first three stages, a few drops here and there in the next two) and then I died once which sabotaged my score and also inevitably leads to several gruesome deaths at the final boss. He is simply impossible at high rank, he shoots so many aimed bullets whilst turning the spheres around at a brisk pace that you have literally nowhere to go. After a few deaths the rank calms down a little, it's still enraging as all hell, though. Managed to flail myself through the first two stages of the second loop somehow, incredibly happy with what I got. I seriously doubt now that I'll ever clear the first loop of the arcade game with some decent scoring, you don't get any extra lives in that one, it's harder and it has one more stage...

[Perikles]

Got some better scores, Gradius II will hopefully follow! Was hoping that the counters would just stop at 9,999,990 or 9,999,999 like they do in the Famicom ports of Gradius I & II or the SFC port of III, but getting above that threshold works just as well. I obviously could've played more (tendentially forever since you still get extends, unlike the aforementioned ports), I figured those are appropriate stopping points, though, I always finished the respective loop where I got over 10m. I did all of these in one continuous setting with a few small breaks in-between.

Gradius



Perikles - 10,212,600 - 17-ALL - PC Engine Duo-R

Never got really close to a game over, I always had over 20 lives from loop 4 onwards or so, but I had it happen constantly that I lost about as many lives per loop as I earned them. There are only a selected few checkpoints where I didn't die at some point in time, actually. Had a convincing string from loops 11 to 14 (racking up over 40 lives), but deteriorated afterwards and got down to the 20-lives-mark again. I'm still a bit puzzled by the onslaught of skulls in the new MSX-themed stage, it seems like they sometimes exercise an unavoidable pattern at high loops, killing you no matter what unless you have a shield equipped. Glad they drastically toned down that horrendous mid-point checkpoint in stage 4. You can also suppress suicide bullets and even some regular bullets if you're sufficiently close, it's not terribly important once you're powered up, but it's very useful for the beginning of a loop and for recoveries.

Salamander - Beginner



Perikles - 10,817,000 - 11-ALL - PC Engine Duo-R


Salamander - Expert



Perikles - 10,505,700 - 11-ALL - PC Engine Duo-R

Started with the Beginner difficulty to get into it again and then played Expert (which adds another loop to the difficulty, so the settings are identical once you reach loop 4). Had a rough start in Beginner before I figured everything out, including some of the tricker checkpoints. You can manipulate the game a little bit during a few checkpoints: the little ships in the final checkpoint of stage 2 for example are a lot more aggressive if you pick up at least one option, you can just grab the missiles, laser and speed-ups if you want an easier time. Many enemies will not fire suicide bullets if you don't equip the shield; it's usually the shield and more than two options that will activate suicide bullets (the rest doesn't seem to matter). You can also suppress certain bullets in this game, the best example to witness this is the Brain Golem - once the tentacles are uncomfortably close they stop firing.

[Perikles]

Gradius II



Perikles - 4,069,800 - 7-4 - Type 4/FF - PC Engine Duo-R


That shall be enough for now. It is certainly easier than the arcade version, but not enough to where I could get a counterstop with a high probability. Stage 4's nonsensical volcano checkpoints are still ludicrously difficult and I can only overcome them once during a blue moon with the assistance of several lives. So if I die in stage 3 due to an unfavourable constellation of indestructible blocks (which did happen in this run) or on the fourth stage itself there's a good chance I get a game over. At that rate I might as well try to improve my arcade score first.

Anyway, more technical details:

- Difficulty maxes out at loop 3. Regular enemies retaliate with two suicide bullets at most, bosses have their regular cloud of bullets.

- Checkpoint recoveries are for the most part significantly easier than in the arcade game. The first checkpoint inside the fortress on max difficulty is about as tough as the second loop recovery in the arcade game which means that I can reliably get past it, maybe after losing a couple of lives. This came in handy a few times, I certainly wouldn't have recovered this quickly (or at all) in the arcade game.

- Fire dragons are very fastidious when it comes to their spawning. You either are just in the right spot or miss out on several of them. They never overwhelm you like they do in the arcade port which is a shame.

- You get less zubs on the boss parade which are much more dangerous. This is bad not only because it makes the section harder, but also because you can't power up as much.

- I'm almost certain now you have to take on Club and his duckers in an aggressive manner. It can be done consistently, fortunately.

- I hate the off-screen sniping capabilities from moais in this port. You're just hugging the left side of the screen, aligning your options for some milking and all of a sudden you're wiped out because a salvo of ion rings hit you from behind. Volcanoes can do that in a slightly different manner as well which is also highly aggravating.

- A lot of the quirkier traits from the arcade game are still intact. The odd hitboxes of the tiles in the fortress remain the same and your best bet when recovering on the moai boss is still to hide inside the nose of the lower specimen.


All in all, I'm very pleased with my recent Gradius progress. I think I cleared over 80 loops between all the games/ports (not counting different types, just the best result in each) and got four counterstops. It'll surely be great fun to improve some more!

[Perikles]

Parodius Da!



Perikles - 2,790,200 - 3-7 - TwinBee - PC Engine Duo-R

Looks like all the older console ports of Parodius Da! contain more than the two original loops (not sure about the GB game, I would imagine it behaves similar). Given that track record I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Detana!! TwinBee on the PCE might also have a third loop, not that I'm anywhere close to discovering the veracity behind that just yet.

Anyway, the second loop in this port is noticeably easier than its counterpart on the SFC. Enemies are more aggressive on the PCE but the suicide bullets are neither as plentiful nor as fast. And since this port has three stages less compared to the SFC (including the underwater cavern which is one of the hardest stages in the game) it becomes even more accessible. If not for some horrendous mistakes I definitely could've beaten the third loop, too, that checkpoint is really harsh, though; you can see the red bell on the picture above, tried to be smart, barely missed it (not being able to store away bells is yet another minor detriment of this port; it's exquisite in absolute terms, it's just that the SFC port is even better). Great challenge for console enthusiasts nonetheless, the third loop in particular has some stunningly nasty sections.

P.S.: Every scoreboard should look like this, glancing over the initial post feels appropriately natural and serene!

P.P.S.: I know, Shepardus, the Parodius Da! arcade 2-ALL beckons. I can resist the temptation for now.

[Despatche]

P.S.: Every scoreboard should look like this, glancing over the initial post feels appropriately natural and serene!

i'm sure it does:

Code: Select all

1.  Perikles    - 10,212,600 - 18-1 - --------- - PC Engine Duo-R

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1.  Perikles    -  1,940,350 -  2-3 - --------- - PC Engine Duo-R

Code: Select all

1.  Perikles    - 10,817,000 - 12-1 - --------- - PC Engine Duo-R
1.  Perikles    - 10,505,700 - 12-1 - --------- - PC Engine Duo-R

Code: Select all

1.  Perikles    -  2,790,200 -  3-7 - TwinBee   - PC Engine Duo-R

Code: Select all

1.  Perikles    -  4,069,800 -  7-4 - Type 4/FF – PC Engine Duo-R

just missing a da special score

[Perikles]

just missing a da special score

I'm not unduly concerned about Caravan games and modes like it, just not my cup of tea. Force Gear looks admittedly great, but I believe you have to unlock it first, and I'm not playing some dating sim (?) in order to do that. I am, however, always interested in the fine art of Konami looping:

Given that track record I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Detana!! TwinBee on the PCE might also have a third loop, not that I'm anywhere close to discovering the veracity behind that just yet.

Indeed it does, and it looks that I am:

Detana!! TwinBee



Perikles - 3,412,550 - 3-5 - PC Engine Duo-R


This was a magnificent credit. Managed to keep a perfect bell chain throughout the entire first loop and finally finished said loop on my first life. Survived until the 2-4 boss, limped through 2-5 (only losing another life in the process), recovered (!) in 2-6, lost a bunch of lives on the final boss, then managed various great recoveries (and similarly silly deaths) in the third loop before getting annihilated in 3-4, barely making it to 3-5 before losing my final lives. Thankfully, you still get the extends in the subsequent loop and the rank furthermore drops considerably if you lose a life which means that in some sections and with a bit of luck, recoveries or at least optimistic stagnations are feasible if you know exactly what you're doing. Fourth stage on higher loops is murder, though, once the big ships sail down you need to have speed-ups.

Very, very happy with the result, this thread contains several of my best scores, I've spent quite a bit of time with these games over the course of the years. This is also the hardest 16-bit achievement I've gotten so far and there really isn't much else left even in terms of higher loops (not going to count silly ones like Rabio Lepus Special where several enemies are plain invincible); the Pop'n TwinBee 2-ALL might be harder, but it's also not nearly as expertly crafted. Have to say that I love the PCE Detana!! now (even though it is immensely frustrating like every TwinBee game inherently is), definitely my favourite in the series.

[copy-paster]

Salamander (Beginner).
copy-paster - 2,125,200 - 3-1 - Ootake

My second 2-ALL ever! The 2nd loop run is done blind, Will try Expert someday.

UPDATE: Here's the Expert score.
copy-paster - 1,592,100 - 2-4 - Ootake

[nem]

Force Gear looks admittedly great, but I believe you have to unlock it first, and I'm not playing some dating sim (?) in order to do that.

Only now noticed this.

There's a save file here that you can download to unlock Force Gear on Tokimeki:

http://sugoi.fi/Temp/tokimeki_subgames_unlock.zip

[Perikles]

Gradius II



Perikles - 10,111,600 - 16-1 - Type 4/F - PC Engine Duo-R


Got this over the course of a few days (with some breaks in-between). While the scoring potential is quite a bit lower on the port compared to the arcade original (a lot less dragons in stage 1, not as much volcano activity in stage 4, you can't milk the moai boss at higher loops at all due to a lack of safe places), I've managed to get several points by accidentally milking the boss parade - couldn't resist shooting the eyeballs from Gau and died several times because of that. Hooray on that, spared me one loop.

I still stand to my original statement that this is a splendid port, but from a specific high-loop perspective, it has a few disadvantages. It's sad to see the first stage so empty on higher loops, it's downright disappointing, even. It seems like that at around loop 10 or so, more of them appear, that's one of two changes in really high loops (the other one is Death: at exactly loop 7 do his missiles start to home in for some inexplicable reason). I agree on some of the other alterations (like reducing the durability of ice shards in stage 3), having such an empty first stage is not desirable, though.

The flicker also starts to become rather nasty in the final stage or if you kill the little moai heads on high loops, resulting in nigh-invisible suicide bullets. You'll never notice this if you just play the game for one or two loops, but it can get problematic later on. Fortunately, checkpoint recoveries stay at about loop 2 difficulty compared to the arcade, making it a lot easier to get back on one's feet.

Only now noticed this.

There's a save file here that you can download to unlock Force Gear on Tokimeki:

http://sugoi.fi/Temp/tokimeki_subgames_unlock.zip

So did I only notice your post right now. Is there a way to apply this save file on a real system? Or is it only applicable if you play on an emulator?

[EmperorIng]

IIRC people at pcenginefx ripped Force Gear to its own disc (maybe along with Twinbee Returns?), in order to "stick it" to PCEworks which charges a pretty premium price for having the standalone mini-game as an item to sell.

Btw, WOW on the score. How many hours did this take?

[Doggy D]

My best on PARODIUS DA! PC ENGINE :

=Normal mode=
Doggy D - 688,400 - 2-4 - Octopus - PC Engine

https://tof.cx/image/M2br2

=Special mode=
Doggy D - 1,131,700 - ALL - Pentarō - PC Engine

https://tof.cx/image/M2Yhz

[Mero]

Gradius

Mero - 664,400 - 2-4 - PC Engine Mini

[copy-paster]

Parodius Da!

Normal Mode
copy-paster - 627,800 - 2-3 - Vic Viper - Ootake

First Parodius clear ever! This run used with like 50% luck of green bells.

[Mero]

Twinbee Returns (from Tokemeki Memorial)

Mero - 4:37.34 - PC Engine Mini

This game records clear time, not score. No point writing ALL for this because you have to clear to get a time.




Force Gear (from Tokemeki Memorial)

Mero - 385,200 - ALL - PC Engine Mini

[Mero]

Gradius II

Mero - 389,800 - 1-8 - Type 4/FF - PC Engine Mini




Also it seems this post got overlooked.

[Mero]

Salamander, beginner

Mero - 1,321,800 - 2-5 - PC Engine Mini

[tinotormed]

dupe comment. please disregard.

[tinotormed]

Detana!! Twinbee - Normal
tinotormed - 1,357,000 - 2-1 - CoreGrafx

https://youtu.be/vHBF8RPaZt4

This game is no joke, even if it is quite forgiving compared to the Arcade version due to the 1ups hidden each stage. It can kick your butt if you do not have a solid plan on each stage, and how to deal with every enemy, especially at the latter half of the game.

[SAM]

Salamander
Beginner difficulty
SAM - 1,645,400 - 2-5 - --------- - PC Engine

The power up system of Salamander is more forgiving than Gradius.