This is slightly off topic, but on a whim I tried out a shmup that's not often mentioned around here, called "Nostradamus" (by Face, from 1993) in MAME...judging from what I've gathered about PS from what's been posted here, I can't help but wonder if the developers of PS drew at least some inspiration from it. Most notably, like PS, it gives you a very powerful charge shot which can absorb bullets both while it's being charged and when you actually fire it (though the mechanics are a bit different, as you might expect). There's not much in terms of a complex scoring system (though there are invisible items you can shoot and reveal, which increase in value as you collect more of them), and I haven't played enough of it to say what kind of rank system (if any) it has, but as soon as I tried it I immediately thought of some of the PS footage I'd seen...the "full screen vertical" charge shot was especially similar to what I'd seen in one of the PS videos. Anyway, I just figured I'd mention that, off the cuff...
In slightly more relveant news, if I interpret the
Cave page correctly, the "Shasta" figure comes out tomorrow...also, Stage 2 info's been posted.