Loops.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:09 am

I've been playing Gradius games lately, and I'd really like to know how many loops they put into said games? Is it like Pac-Man where it goes on forever till you get half-eaten stages?

For that matter how many loops are in games like Zero Wing and their ilk?

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:31 am

keeps going and going and going ... but eventually the rank maxes out.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:41 am

I believe they said Gradius V specifically has 256[!!!] loops, and they said they'd LOVE to see the score if someone ever gets that far

[tviks

]

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:48 am

landshark wrote:keeps going and going and going ... but eventually the rank maxes out.

What he said. What does it max at again? In the 30-somethings? Or lower?

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:27 am

Checking a cheat.dat file on MAME for Gradius 1-3, the max is 256 loops on all 3 (cheat.dat is for Haunted Castle only, ugh), and it seems like every bullet is aimed towards you, the many, many bullets that is.

SAM · Post by **SAM** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:27 am

Well, you loop and loop and loop... until the manager of the acrade switch off the machine.

No jocking I am serious.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:46 pm

subcons wrote:
landshark wrote:keeps going and going and going ... but eventually the rank maxes out.
What he said. What does it max at again? In the 30-somethings? Or lower?

Should be the 10th loop (10 times through) since the game's stage select only has listings until then. Every loop afterwards should be the same difficulty. And IIRC, tviks confirmed this info as well.

stratos · Post by **stratos** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:10 pm

Minzoku wrote:I believe they said Gradius V specifically has 256[!!!] loops, and they said they'd LOVE to see the score if someone ever gets that far
[tviks ]

...and I wonder how much time coul'd take to finish all of them

but I think no one had never done this...

zlk · Post by **zlk** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:26 pm

Someone has released a video clearing (or claiming to clear) Gradius V's 255th loop. The file size is around 301 megs.

slateman · Post by **slateman** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:57 am

http://slateman.net/images/gaming/gradius/

I found those pics somewhere online (prolly here, actually!)

Loop 31 snapshots from GV. Don't think I'd need to see loop 256 after that first boss image!

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:05 am

Those pictures don't do it justice. The later loops are just crazy to watch. You have to have the levels memorized and excellent dodging skills to boot.

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:56 am

Ouch loop 31 is one insane looking bullet and object spamfest, there looks to be so much going on, even with a small hitbox, unless you're a skilled dodger, you'll be pulling your hair out in frustration. It looks just like a manic at that point, so I'm pretty sure if you're used to manic you could do this with your eyes closed. *looks at some of the shmup masters here, one being tviks, the Gradius king.*

MSZ · Post by **MSZ** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:43 am

slateman wrote:http://slateman.net/images/gaming/gradius/

I found those pics somewhere online (prolly here, actually!)

Those screenshots came from kazupi's site:

http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~yoc/gra.html

http://lpokeh.com/~kazupi/ (his GV page)

He and BGR-44 were 2 of the first group of players in Japan who reached loop 31 just weeks after the release.

The videos were done by kazupi himself as well, that guy got some crazy skills.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:07 am

I only watched a handful of those videos, but ai yai yai...that one "suicide squeeze" he pulls off near the end of the 4-2 video is ridiculous, and that's the latest stage I watched.

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:45 am

So exactly how long does it take to get through a single loop? I mean? Do they just leave their PS2s running to go take a break between stages?

It took me something like an hour to get through the first loop of Gradius V, and I died alot through the process.

tviks · Post by **tviks** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:46 am

Some japanese people may have beaten the hardest loop (10-255) on stage select, allowing them to play every stage individually, thus allowing them to try to pull off those incredible stunts.

Score attack is completely different story though. If you want to survive the hardest loop over and over again, you will never see that much stuff on the screen. As far as I know I'm the only one who has done this.

And yeah, I could've just as easily go all the way up to loop 255 and see what happens after that, or after the score maximizes. Sadly I got completely sick of the game during that last scoreattack run, so I decided 15 loops was a good number to go.