shmups.system11.org

Is this thread still being maintained? If not I would like to take it over, there are several issues that I've commented on that have yet to be addressed.

Yes, it is. I updated it as of the last score submitted this July 2016. I can think of two points raised:
- inclusion of Thunder Spirits: I am not doing this yet
- rules to only accept Japan ROM for Thunder Force AC: I am fine accepting both regions so long as the region is illustrated

Anything else? Otherwise, I will continue to maintain this thread until I relinquish updating duties.

My last TF AC score wasn't updated. I think there are other scores posted that are missing as well.

Other issues:
Thunder Force AC Saturn port should be put in a separate category as the scoring is totally different (way easier to score higher in that version, and possible counterstop with stage 4 boss milking)
Thunder Force AC Japan/World versions should also be split as they have different scoring as well and should not be compared with one another.

I went over both of these issues in previous posts and presented the reasons why they should be separated. If you don't care about TF AC I could just take over that portion (and Thunder Spirits) and you can keep TF III? Otherwise you should make some of the changes I mentioned so the scoreboards are comparable.

Sorry about missing that score, updated now. I must have glossed over it when you were submitting so many scores. Nothing else should be missing now.

Regarding the Saturn TFAC portion, one submission at this point does not necessitate a separate table and even then the Saturn score was a recent submission (within 2 years ago) so unless a whole host of scores come in, the current state is fine.

Looking over the table, the more recent submissions have been Japan and while I don't agree on making another table that tells the same story that is currently told, I can concede there are enough entries to warrant the work. I'll get on it shortly.

All I'm saying is that the one Saturn score is very misleading, as you get a lot more points for killing basic enemies in that version. Not to mention that you can farm points forever against the stage 4 boss if you wanted to, that alone should put those scores in a separate category. I don't feel like that warrants one of the top spots on the board when nearly all of the scores below it would be higher up if played under the same scoring. Also, I believe there was another Saturn score or two someone in the thread.

Actually, you're right - I don't know why I missed both CIT and your posts. I also played before on the Saturn release but changed to MAME later on however pardon CIT and Kollision nobody else has submitted for Saturn.

Name Takki
Support MD Jap
Score 1 264 000

Hi,
Nickname Takki
Support MD Jap
Score 1 264 000
Screen

Looks like my mania score was possibly overlooked...

hi thx for my score
sorry for my bad english
i m french

Thunder Force III Normal
Takki - 1 306 700 - Haides - Genesis/MD

Thunder Force III Normal
Esper - 1 122 660 - Hydra - Genesis/MD



I'm either going to get better at this game or give up entirely

Can I formally request the the Saturn scores be separated from the GEN/MD scores for ThunderForce 3?

They are not comparable due to differences in gameplay which allow higher scores to be possible. The top 2 GEN/MD scores are incredible, and it would take a video for me to believe that they could be beaten on a genesis/megadrive cart. Not sure about ThunderForce AC, would like to know what others have found about the saturn version in regard to scoring.

Also, looks like my score hasn't been added to the ThunderForce AC table, as well - can this please be added?

I'll add this shortly. I'm online every day but I've been busy. Will get it done this weekend, thank you.

The Saturn version of Thunder Force AC has broken scoring. You can farm the stage 4 boss missiles for instance, which is impossible in the arcade version as they give no points. I don't believe the bosses time out (or if they do it's a very long time) so it might be possible to counterstop the game in the Saturn version. Also the saturn versions gives far more points for certain enemies than the arcade version, and the scores will be much higher in general when casually playing that version compared to the arcade version.

Also, the World and Japan versions of TF AC should also be broken up, item placement and number of enemies are both different between versions and the scores are not comparable. I can't say for certain because I haven't put much time in the World version but my guess is the scoring potential is slightly lower than the Japanese version, mainly due to having fewer enemies. However, a huge part of your score is from picking up items, and I'm not sure which version has more item drops, so take that with a grain of salt.

I talked about all of this a while back but no changes were made to the tables so they aren't accurately ranked due to all these differences.

The table has been revamped and updated. PM me if there are errors or omissions.

My main objection to further breaking down the tables was there weren't enough scores submitted to warrant the distinction. Its noted theres a difference at the suffix of each score anyway, but if it somehow helps I figured why continue on with the discontent so its split now for good.

Thank you, very much appreciated!

viewtopic.php?p=1170289#p1170289

If you decide to do a Thunder Spirits table:



Thunder Spirits (Normal):
HAN - 2,365,690 - ALL/1LC - SNES (no autofire)

replay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjsVspPJmOA

Thunder Force AC
maximo - 2,187,020 - ALL - MAME(World)

No-miss till final boss

Thunder Force III - Normal



Perikles - 1,303,190 - Haides - Genesis/MD


I'd try to achieve a better score, but in 95% of my runs, the midboss in Seiren refrains to show up, meaning I irrevocably miss out on 4,500 points. No clue what could be causing it. Also not sure whether this thread is still updated, mysteries abound!

All scores are updated now.

Is that the water level? It seems they carried that same bug over to the arcade version as well. I can't tell you how many resets I had to do in my runs because of that damn bug.

The very same. And I'm not even exaggerating when I claim that the guy doesn't show up for 95% of the time, I've only ever seen him three times or so in my runs. Looking through the thread, I don't seem to be the only one:

Looks like I'm inadvertently doing something that effectuates him not showing up - if I had never seen him whatsoever, I'd chalk that up to some weird console/game interaction or a bad ROM on my Everdrive, but he does appear once in a blue moon, so it's not like he's entirely absent. Frustrating, that.

I haven't played the game much in a couple years, but I don't recall having this issue with the Seiren midboss. What's your starting stage? Maybe for some reason that has something to do with it. I made Seiren my first stage for hard and maniac modes.

Damn that is brutal. I want to say the arcade version is only like 1/4 games that the midboss doesn't show up. I really wonder what causes this bug, it certainly seemed completely random to me but the fact that you get it that frequently makes me wonder if ithere's something you can do to trigger it.

Always Haides since I would assume this is the optimal start for scoring. I should take a look at Sensato Kurai's run which evidently proves that you can get great scores with a different origin stage.


I took a handful of outlandish measures such as entering the stage with no shield or one that is on its last hit, I also tried using different weapons throughout the stage, to no avail. If there is an explanation outside of some technical issue, I'm going to guess it might have to do something with a global timer or such - maybe I'm killing bosses fairly consistently at the same time which causes this midboss to not spawn. I might attempt to draw out a battle to see what happens.

Thunder Force AC - Nintendo Switch - World

1,565,760

I just got a 0.5 ms response time gaming monitor, noticeable improvement from the HDTV I was using. Beat my old best score by half a million literally on my first run with it.

I don't really know where to post this, but in case people miss this: there's a new world record for this game (2,415,130) by a Japanese player. t appears his theoretical best is 2,417 million pts. and he keeps going to get closer to that number in real play.

https://twitter.com/HstSpt/status/1363022763590438915

Will you be back, PEG?

Aww, finally someone from Japan started playing the game haha. I do own the PCB now so this might give me an excuse to play it again, but it's been almost 5 years since I've touched the game at all.

My main issue with playing the game is that parts of it appear to be random in how many enemies spawn (stage 6) and grinding out runs for what seems to solely rely on good RNG was not fun. That combined with the damn bug of the stage 3 midboss not appearing really dampen my desire to chase scores in the game again.