Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

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blossom
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by blossom »

I would also like to ask why haven't you played Vastynex? :cry:
el_rika
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by el_rika »

Futari 1.5 maniac: How to get bigger yellow cristals?
I understand the overall scoring mechanism - increase the 4 digits number with yellow stones untill 9999, and then when the bar is not present (no chain) unleash laser on big bullet cancelling enemy for blue tint x 9999 cristals. But how to constantly get big(ger) yellows? I have a bit of success quickly alternating between shot and laser while the blue bar is on screen . Any other tips?
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CStarFlare
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by CStarFlare »

You change from shot to laser when the bar is red.

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GSK
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by GSK »

Licorice wrote:What happened to Tecnosoft?

I know Raizing, Compile Heart and Milestone are the successors to Compile.

But which companies succeeded Tecnosoft?

My apologies if this has been asked before.
Technosoft had a lot of turnover while they were around, so there are a few successors out there.

The creator of the original Thunder Force, Kotori Yoshimura, split off pretty quickly and formed Arsys Software, a studio that worked on a lot of pioneering 3D games like Wibarm and Star Cruiser, and later assisted on PS games like Omega Boost and the original Gran Turismo.

The team behind Thunder Force 2 and 3, Herzog Zwei and Elemental Master were largely poached by Hudson and became CA Production, which still exists to this day with a lot of those same members--they've done little but make Mario Party games for the last two decades but they made quite a few interesting games in their early years, including Gate of Thunder and Lords of Thunder, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire, Hagane and Bulk Slash.

The team behind Thunder Force 4, Hyper Duel and others scattered all over the place--most notably, TF4's lead ended up becoming a big deal at Square, and their illustrator went on to design and direct the Hotel Dusk series. In terms of STG development, the Hyper Duel director ended up at Cave and covertly touched a lot of games, Ibara Kuro being his most noteworthy achievement. He's currently the director of Gomaotsu, their crazy-successful gacha STG.

The crew that stuck it out through Thunder Force 5 and beyond largely became Ganbarion, a studio known for its work with Nintendo, as well as above-average licensed anime games. The Wii game Pandora's Tower is their only original game IIRC.
Jonpachi wrote:Ok I got one. Compile was acquired by Hudson if I'm not mistaken, and then Hudson was acquired by Konami. So, does that mean Konami owns the rights to Zanac, et al?
Compile's rights are held all over the place--they didn't sell everything to one buyer, nor did they own everything they made to begin with.

Compile didn't own Zanac outright--they owned the code but not the name, essentially, hence the creation of Aleste. I haven't checked on it in a while but from memory, Pony Canyon still owns the name while D4E owns the games themselves, so they have to cut a deal to do anything with them.
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6t8k
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by 6t8k »

^ Very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing. Almost all of this was completely new to me.

Do you happen to have a few sources for further reading - especially in regards to Compile? Since it seems to partially contradict some of the sources above (it could simply boil down to a confusion of rights to name vs. rights to code), it might be worthwhile to dig a little deeper.
el_rika
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by el_rika »

Thanks CStarFlare!
Licorice
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Licorice »

Thanks BIL and GSK for the great replies.

What a talent mill technosoft was.
floralcateyes
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by floralcateyes »

A handful of questions about XOP Black Ultra:

How does one encounter this boss or this green variant of the small white boss in a normal run? Am I right in assuming it has something to do with those blue portals? If so, where is the portal in Stage 4? And lastly: can you encounter them in any mode and difficulty, or are they exclusive to specific ones?

Thanks in advance! I know I'm super late to the party, but this game is very, very fun.
Licorice
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Licorice »

Were the team (or its notable members) behind Soldier Blade behind any other shmups?

From a cursory look on Mobygames it seems as though staff was shared with a number of other prolific Hudson titles, but not any shmups.
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Master O
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by Master O »

Where's the creator of Gradius? Does he still work at Konami?
xxx1993

Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by xxx1993 »

Now that it's out, I'm gonna ask this again. Does Natsuki Chronicles really take place during the events of Ginga Force? Is it really an interquel? I'm just making sure.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by XoPachi »

Can I get a name of the pixel artist for the original DoDonPachi? It's all very wonderful and good.
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6t8k
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by 6t8k »

Hiroyuki Tanaka did the backgrounds [1] and Junya "Joker JUN" Inoue did the ship select, opening demo, last boss, and ending, including Colonel Longhener [2] [3].

For now, I didn't find tenable info on who did the remaining (enemy) designs. But I'm sure there's more info out there (shmuplations is well established and an overall excellent resource by the way, so I looked there first).
I hope you didn't know the above already and weren't looking for said remaining designs of all things, in which case I couldn't help :)
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by XoPachi »

6t8k wrote:Hiroyuki Tanaka did the backgrounds [1] and Junya "Joker JUN" Inoue did the ship select, opening demo, last boss, and ending, including Colonel Longhener [2] [3].

For now, I didn't find tenable info on who did the remaining (enemy) designs. But I'm sure there's more info out there (shmuplations is well established and an overall excellent resource by the way, so I looked there first).
I hope you didn't know the above already and weren't looking for said remaining designs of all things, in which case I couldn't help :)
This is a nice start. Especially the backgrounds. I love them.
I was hoping to know who designed all the enemy ships and sprited them, but if no one knows, that's fine.
GSK
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by GSK »

Licorice wrote:Were the team (or its notable members) behind Soldier Blade behind any other shmups?

From a cursory look on Mobygames it seems as though staff was shared with a number of other prolific Hudson titles, but not any shmups.
I haven't checked into it recently but outside of later Hudson games like their VB shooter and Star Soldier 64 (which is a direct sequel to Soldier Blade), I don't believe so. IIRC the director of Soldier Blade is now a porn director.
XoPachi wrote:Can I get a name of the pixel artist for the original DoDonPachi? It's all very wonderful and good.
Naoki Ogiwara, an old Toaplan veteran. He was a dotter on Donpachi, DDP and Feveron but he seemed to drop off the face of the earth after that and people seem reluctant to talk about him.
Master O wrote:Where's the creator of Gradius? Does he still work at Konami?
With games from that era, assembled by teams that small, it's usually not helpful to pin their creation on a single person, but if one had to narrow it down it'd be the programmer Hiroyasu Masaguchi, who was team leader by way of seniority and worked on all three arcade games plus Salamander. I haven't looked into where he is nowadays and if he is still at Konami it'll be very difficult to ascertain.
6t8k wrote:^ Very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing. Almost all of this was completely new to me.

Do you happen to have a few sources for further reading - especially in regards to Compile? Since it seems to partially contradict some of the sources above (it could simply boil down to a confusion of rights to name vs. rights to code), it might be worthwhile to dig a little deeper.
Nothing offhand, just digging. Anything I read in English is on shmuplations somewhere, presumably.
Last edited by GSK on Mon Dec 30, 2019 5:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by BIL »

Man, I love these little glimpses of the people behind this stuff. To be honest, with the memories of wrestling SS64's trying Raystormesque viewpoint (I love both games, but it's rough going between their ilk and classic airlock-tight 2D), I wasn't even fazed when you said the director went onto porn. Guy definitely had those filmic ambitions!
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OmegaFlareX
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by OmegaFlareX »

GSK wrote:Naoki Ogiwara, an old Toaplan veteran. He was a dotter on Donpachi, DDP and Feveron but he seemed to drop off the face of the earth after that and people seem reluctant to talk about him.
That piques my interest! Same with the leader of Gazelle: Uemura/Yuge in their Toaplan interviews would not elaborate upon when asked what happened to him. My brain automatically thinks it's something bad.
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6t8k
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by 6t8k »

GSK wrote:
Master O wrote:Where's the creator of Gradius? Does he still work at Konami?
With games from that era, assembled by teams that small, it's usually not helpful to pin their creation on a single person, but if one had to narrow it down it'd be the programmer Hiroyasu Masaguchi, who was team leader by way of seniority and worked on all three arcade games plus Salamander. I haven't looked into where he is nowadays and if he is still at Konami it'll be very difficult to ascertain.
Hiroyasu Machiguchi? Many sites list his last video game related activity as being the Silent Scope series, which ends with him being the producer of Silent Scope EX in 2002. After that, speculation.

Also joining in on what OmegaFlareX said.

New question:
D̶o̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶p̶u̶t̶ ̶l̶a̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶R̶a̶i̶d̶e̶n̶ ̶F̶i̶g̶h̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶A̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶X̶b̶o̶x̶ ̶3̶6̶0̶?̶
Apparently it's a reconcilable 3 frames, at least on analog video :)
xxx1993

Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by xxx1993 »

I forgot, what's the name of that upcoming visual novel that has occasional shmup scenes? I think it's set to come out sometime this year, and it's probably for the PS4 or Switch...
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6t8k
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by 6t8k »

^ Feveron Gakuen?

---

New question; is it already settled whether

- there will be a Wasshoi part of Stunfest again this year? This Wasshoi info page is from last year, and while the overall 2020 schedule seems to stand, I can't see the shmup part in there (yet?)
- there will be another Fightcade Offline Festival in 2020?
xxx1993

Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by xxx1993 »

I was actually looking for Enzai Shikkou Yuugi: Yuru Kill, which played more like a cross between an “escape adventure” and a shmup, but okay.
xxx1993

Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by xxx1993 »

Another question, was Rolling Gunner made by an ex-CAVE member? Because it looked, acted, and played a lot like a CAVE game.
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blossom
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by blossom »

I was told recently Rolling Gunner is made by someone who worked on Akai Katani, DDP Saidaioujou, and Deathsmiles II.
xxx1993

Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by xxx1993 »

That explains a lot.
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steveovig
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by steveovig »

Are there any other games with a buzzing mechanic like Shiki or Psyvariar or Sisters Royale?
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maximo310
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by maximo310 »

On the Strategy board, there is a Strategy Index topic containing a megathread of all strategy topics. It also mentions to PM spadgy if there are any omissions or errors.

I pm'd him back in November since I wanted to possibly add some more guides in the near future for games I've spent a lot of time on, but he never got my message, and the original owner of the topic hasn't been on the forum for 2+years. Are there any mods that would be able to update that specific topics, and what information is needed in order to do so?
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blossom
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by blossom »

+1 to maximo's request, although I do not envy anyone with the task of collecting all the new threads

OK, so I'd love tips on how to approach Psikyo games. Part of my problem, surely, is attempting one of their hardest games in Dragon Blaze. I feel like there might still be something basic I'm overlooking, though. I bounce between thinking "maybe this is possible with a lot of practice" and then thinking it's just far too above my skill level.
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ACSeraph
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by ACSeraph »

^I'm no Psikyo pro, but I enjoy their games and did manage to clear the first loop of Sengoku Ace back when I was still pretty new to the genre.

The first takeaway was that Psikyo games are very manic. The order of things might change a bit, but the boss attacks always have the same spacing on the screen. The attacks are also so fast you will never be able to dodge them all on reaction. There is a specific safe position or strategy for each attack that will work every time you play once you know it. I was literally using the background or my score gauge to pre-position myself for certain attacks. The best way to figure those out is by using save states imo.

The other big thing about Psikyo is that you should macro-dodge whenever possible, unlike a typical bullet hell. Your hitbox is huge, so you aren't meant to weave through the gaps in patterns (even if they look very doable by the standards of other games). Just fly around them completely when you can.

It might help to start with something easier. I wrote a guide specifically for Psikyo beginners getting the 1-ALL in Sengoku Ace of you are interested. Learn that to get a feel for Psikyo, and then if you want to go further Hagane has an extremely detailed guide up for Sengoku Blade that could take you all the way to the 2-ALL with dedication.
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blossom
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by blossom »

I try my best to macro dodge as it is, but I suspect there probably are moments where I try to weave through a pattern and don't realize I'm doing so before it's too late. Thinking more about it, my two biggest problems are that 1) the scoring is so captivating to me it's hard not to see how well I can do and 2) the fact bombs don't make you invulnerable like most other games has me hesitating to use them in the first place.

I guess if I trained myself to be more survival based, I can get further and then try to score at a later time. Bit of a shame one of my favorite scoring systems happens to be so brutal, although I guess that will make it more rewarding if I ever do get a decent score.
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radirgyman
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Re: Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

Post by radirgyman »

Could someone please tell me what this game is?

I'm looking at selling off a few pcb's and came across this in my pile.

Cheers.


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