I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[Angry Hina]

Thank god Arcade Archives provide at least one save state.

Btw: how can one load this state? Havent figured it out yet^^

[ryu]

Thank god Arcade Archives provide at least one save state.

Btw: how can one load this state? Havent figured it out yet^^

After creating a save state: Press start, go back into the Archive's main menu, and just start the game again. Instead of restarting it loads your most recent save state (and puts you right back into the action without warning). I assume the save state gets deleted when you finish playing, so I'd always go back into the menu before game overing.

Also I got the Gradius loop 1 no miss this morning: https://youtu.be/ufMB3bSIhMo?si=_UvLcByfVRCJKyBb&t=20

[Angry Hina]

Ah, thx. And Congrats ^^
I plan to 1cc some Gradius this year because you know... its Gradius and possibly one should have cleared one of these to have a more complete view on hori STGs but overall I think (at the moment) that it gets degraded from the other big names of the hori STG subgenre quite clearly, but who knows. Possibly it will change my mind.

[ryu]

I plan to 1cc some Gradius this year because you know... its Gradius and possibly one should have cleared one of these to have a more complete view on hori STGs but overall I think (at the moment) that it gets degraded from the other big names of the hori STG subgenre quite clearly, but who knows. Possibly it will change my mind.

It's a classic. Konami hasn't done much with the name in decades, so it's no surprise that the franchise isn't much on people's minds anymore.

There's a lot of badmouthing the checkpoint system these days. While I have to admit that having to restart after small mistakes so often was frustrating, I also had a lot of fun figuring out how to make some of those recoveries work. Just barely getting out of a recovery spot alive on my 1cc was exhilarating. Game's definitely worth playing even today; but the console ports are probably more fun since they're a tad easier and feature a mode without slowdown that I expect to cut down heavily on the number of dumb deaths one would otherwise experience.

[locoBro1196]

I checked off my first arcade game 1cc: Gradius [video]

Congrats! Gradius is great fun. I want to 1CC this some day but I'm still quite far off in terms of the skills needed for this particular title. Not a fan of the checkpoint system either though it's not unmanageable.

By the way may I ask how you went about capturing that long footage from Switch?

[ryu]

I checked off my first arcade game 1cc: Gradius [video]

Congrats! Gradius is great fun. I want to 1CC this some day but I'm still quite far off in terms of the skills needed for this particular title. Not a fan of the checkpoint system either though it's not unmanageable.

By the way may I ask how you went about capturing that long footage from Switch?

I use a shitty HDMI recording device that sometimes decides to only record audio. Basically by playing docked.

but I'm still quite far off in terms of the skills needed for this particular title

I felt the same just a couple days ago. Practice is all that matters. This one's just very rough to get started with because the gameplay needs some getting used to. Lesson 1 is learning to not crash into terrain. Lesson 2 is remembering that enemies will snipe you as they move past, and so on...

[locoBro1196]

Managed to get a 1CC on Battle Bakraid's Normal course. Took me around 6-7 hours overall. Quite a low score, but I really enjoyed the ride. My first Raizing 1cc!



Obligatory side note about Battle Garegga. I've played many, many hours of Battle Garegga over the years, yet I still cannot bring myself to firmly state "I love this game".
For Battle Bakraid, I first tried it a few months ago and instantly fell in love with it. What I appreciate the most is that unlike Garegga, it doesn't feel as if I need to take a PHD on shmups ranking systems before I attempt to complete the game. The music is incredible and even though the game can get really intense, it's never at absurd levels (looking at you, Armed Police Batrider), it just feels fair.

Not sure what I'll go for next, probably go back to Toaplan as was the initial plan before I fired up Battle Bakraid and remembered how awesome it is.

[To Far Away Times]

Nice! I love Bakraid, it’s a great game.

Garegga never clicked with me, studying esoteric rank systems and playing the game around rank control sounds like the least enjoyable thing ever.

Normal mode in Bakraid gives you a standard shmup experience with high production values where you can just ignore all the bullshit.

-

I got a couple of clears on some early Touhou games in the last few days. I cleared Touhou 02 on Wednesday and Touhou 03 a few hours ago.

Touhou 03 has a nice step up in production values relative to the first two games. It’s a versus shmup that plays like Touhou 09 or 19. Kinda like the traditional games better.

Touhou 02 is a little rough around the edges but still a good time. And it even has ground enemies in the first level! Enemies pop out of the water and there’s even a tank miniboss that leaves tread marks behind on the ground!!!! WTF! It’s like Zun did it once and swore it off forever.

[locoBro1196]

Sweet. I tried Touhou 6 a long while ago but didn't really enjoy the mechanics. Recent comments I see in this forum and other websites praising some of the Touhou titles make me keen to give them a shot again. Will add to the list.

[To Far Away Times]

Continuing my quest to clear all the PC-98 Touhou games, I got a surprise clear on Touhou 04 today, on my second credit ever, no less. I knew this game was supposed to be on the easier side, but I didn't realize how much easier it is than some of the other games. I nearly did it on a blind attempt but got shot down on the final boss.

Cool game though, this seems to be about where Zun found his stride. I can definitely see myself returning to this one.

The first time I cleared this I wasn't recording a video, so I went back and cleared it again to get a replay.

--

Also, When I cleared Highly Responsive to Prayers I thought the slowdown was coded into the game, but after watching a few replays apparently it is not. The emulator I was using wasn't clocked high enough. So I went back and cleared it again today, this time with a new replay and no slowdown.

Replays:
Touhou 01 (new replay with no slowdown)
Touhou 02
Touhou 04

[To Far Away Times]

I cleared Touhou 05 today, so that's all the PC-98 games and all the mainline games in the series completed now.

Surprisingly easy, this one only took me four attempts. I never used any practice tools, just full runs only. The PC-98 games are a bit easier than the windows games.

Replay available here.

[ryu]

Darius MD with Tiat
Honestly was much more difficult than I expected. Not sure I'll get the 1CC with Proco in this because the Extra Version should arrive in a day or two.

The game seemed to be a bit of a meme at first because the enemy patterns and placements appear to be all over the place with little room to dodge. But it got manageable enough with some practice and I found it to be good fun despite of its difficulty and simple mechanics.

[locoBro1196]

Got a 1CC on Hazelnut Hex (Normal difficulty) in Switch, took me ~4 hours. I'm a sucker for Cotton so I bought this one close to release date a long while ago, but didn't get down to it until yesterday when I had some time to kill. I wouldn't say it's a game with huge production values but I really appreciate the charm and positivity it exudes. Had a great time with it.

For well seasoned shmups players it's probably a no contest, though. One of the most straightforward 1CCs out there, though I haven't tried any higher difficulty modes and will probably move on to other games before I do that.

[To Far Away Times]

A couple of 1CC's yesterday.

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth. I tried this years ago and bounced off quickly because I was comparing it Blazing Lazers and Soldier Blade. But years removed from playing those I was able to revisit this game and play it on it's own merits. Ship movement doesn't feel quite right, but you have a Giga Wing style reflect system and boss melting bombs to level the odds. This is my first N64 shmup clear. This is also the only shmup on the N64, so I guess I've cleared the whole N64 shmup library.

2. Mecha Ritz. This game rules. Cracked out and full of personality, I think this one's a must play. The rank system here is really interesting. Instead of punishing the player for playing well as a typical rank system would, this game wants you to boost the rank, and the game uses lower rank to help the player. You can see bullets get deleted in real time at low rank. Very little animation but a pleasant art style, a fun soundtrack, this one's the real deal. Replay here.

[ryu]

Finally got the 1cc (no miss too) in Darius MD (Extra Version) with Proco. No recording this time because I cleared it playing the digital Switch release in handheld mode.

This one turned out to be way more fun than I expected so I'm checking out Darius Plus out of curiosity next.

[To Far Away Times]

I got a quick blind 1CC of Mecha Ritz Steel Rondo.

Rebalanced to be easier than the original Mecha Ritz, Steel Rondo gives you more fire power and changes some of the bullet patterns. Dying also gives you a more generous three shields and three bombs, opposed to the original only giving you one shield and three bombs. Players will also have no problem making the time limit with starting at 0 rank due to the increased firepower. With that said I got the rank up pretty high by the end of the fourth stage, and bullet patterns became a nightmarish combo of Psikyo fast and Cave density. Dying quickly lowers the rank to more manageable levels though. This time I was given a choice of final stage (I chose 5-B) and fought a different final boss, presumably because I didn't run out of time.

Unlike Graze Counter, where the GM version rebalanced everything for the worse and broke the original Graze Counter's smart grazing based pattern design and recharge timing, the jury's still out if this rebalancing is better or worse than the original. This might be a more like a Futari to Futari Black Label type situation with pro's and con's for both.

[locoBro1196]

I got a quick blind 1CC of Mecha Ritz Steel Rondo.

Rebalanced to be easier than the original Mecha Ritz, Steel Rondo gives you more fire power and changes some of the bullet patterns. Dying also gives you a more generous three shields and three bombs, opposed to the original only giving you one shield and three bombs. Players will also have no problem making the time limit with starting at 0 rank due to the increased firepower. With that said I got the rank up pretty high by the end of the fourth stage, and bullet patterns became a nightmarish combo of Psikyo fast and Cave density. Dying quickly lowers the rank to more manageable levels though. This time I was given a choice of final stage (I chose 5-B) and fought a different final boss, presumably because I didn't run out of time.

Unlike Graze Counter, where the GM version rebalanced everything for the worse and broke the original Graze Counter's smart grazing based pattern design and recharge timing, the jury's still out if this rebalancing is better or worse than the original. This might be a more like a Futari to Futari Black Label type situation with pro's and con's for both.

congrats! I enjoyed the Switch version when it was released but I never got too far. Actually I had no idea this was an expanded version of the original Mecha Ritz game. I got curious after your previous comment and I think I will give the original one a try. I'm putting the freeware download link here in case anyone else want to give it a shot, it took me a while to find it in Google

[Angry Hina]

A couple of 1CC's yesterday.

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth. I tried this years ago and bounced off quickly because I was comparing it Blazing Lazers and Soldier Blade. But years removed from playing those I was able to revisit this game and play it on it's own merits. Ship movement doesn't feel quite right, but you have a Giga Wing style reflect system and boss melting bombs to level the odds. This is my first N64 shmup clear. This is also the only shmup on the N64, so I guess I've cleared the whole N64 shmup library.

Nice, on normal and with the blue ship? With the blue one, you can nearly skip the bosses. Do you plan to clear VE with other ships/higher difficulty as well? There are also hidden stages wich makes the game much longer and more fun imo.

I thought the game is quite good and really fun.

[To Far Away Times]

Nice, on normal and with the blue ship? With the blue one, you can nearly skip the bosses. Do you plan to clear VE with other ships/higher difficulty as well? There are also hidden stages wich makes the game much longer and more fun imo.

I thought the game is quite good and really fun.

Yeah, with the blue ship. I did find the special stage in stage 2, didn’t manage to find the other two. I probably won’t push the difficulty but I do want to do a run through with all the special stages.

[To Far Away Times]

A trio of 1CC's today:

Over Horizon - Awesome little NES game that I've been chipping away at the last few days. Plays a bit like R-Type but considerably more forgiving and less memorization heavy. Excellent visuals for an NES game, above average soundtrack and solid gameplay. I would say either this or Crisis Force is the best shmup on the NES.

Zekesta - Played the doujin version which was excellent. Took a three or four tries to get this one. Low resolution visuals but there's always a lot happening on screen and it plays like a compile game. Really easy to get into "the zone" in this one. There's even a stage that copies the background tiles breaking apart and sinking into a canyon like MUSHA. Not into Vocaloid music at all, but here it works well as energetic techno shmup music. Super fun, so I had to buy the Steam version.

Zekesta-Z - A slightly remixed version, with a new scoring system, some new songs, no extends (?), a few boss attack changes including a much improved stage four boss, a new section just before the TLB and almost entirely different TLB patterns. As far as "black labels" go, this one doesn't really reinvent the wheel, but the little changes make this the definitive version.

[Nemo]

Got my first 1CC on Akai Katana Shin, pretty pumped about it. Once thought this game was impossible, but really locked in and learned it as it’s a top 3 Cave game for me. Played around 10 hours the last couple days and wasnt feeling too great about my progress, but today I seemed to turn a corner and raw instinct started to kick in, felt like I was in the zone.

[To Far Away Times]

Nice!

Akai Katana Shin rules. Most visually satisfying scoring system in all of gaming.

[To Far Away Times]

Got my 200th Shmup 1CC today with Servants of Harvest Wish.

[blazinglazers69]

Got my 200th Shmup 1CC today with Servants of Harvest Wish.

200! Congrats. That's quite the feat. How long have you been shmuppin?

[To Far Away Times]

Got my 200th Shmup 1CC today with Servants of Harvest Wish.

200! Congrats. That's quite the feat. How long have you been shmuppin?

Thanks! I had a buddy introduce me to the Touhou games around 2007 or so. But it was really the Xbox 360 release of Mushi Futari in 2009 that really got me hooked on shmups in general instead of just being a “Touhou fan.”

[locoBro1196]

Got a 1CC on Super XYZ after beating what I think is the TLB (Black Serpent) on my last life and no bombs left. Weak, I know, but I'll do better next time.

Took me about 7 hours. Used the Taurus α ship which is an unlockable ship and can be obtained by making it to the end of the game even when using continues, at least that's how I got it first. The Taurus α is very powerful and that helped a lot against the stage bosses, including the TLB which I found a bit of an anti-climax to be honest, mostly because I had no idea what was going on and whether I was putting damage on the boss at all or not.

Really liked this game overall, it kept me hooked all throughout and I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how the bonus stage works. It's still a bit cryptic because for example I have no idea how the life extends are granted and what some settings are meant to be used for, but that's just me being nit picky.

I will definitely double dip on this one when it's released in Switch later this year if price is reasonable.

Big shout out to OST composer Carina, in particular for the Hellfire theme!!

[XoPachi]

Mushihimesama Maniac clear.

EDIT: Video instead of a big ass picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixLTOFBlohE

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I would say either [Over Horizon] or Crisis Force is the best shmup on the NES.

Agreed. Gun-Nac is also quite worthy too. I remember putting a lot of time into Life Force as a kid but mechanically I found Crisis Force more interestingly designed (and frankly better for co-op play). I also really enjoyed Jackal, even if the visibility is somewhat limited when you're nudging the edges of the screen. Congrats on the clear, Over Horizon can be a tough nut to crack!

Got a 1CC on Super XYZ after beating what I think is the TLB (Black Serpent) on my last life and no bombs left. Weak, I know, but I'll do better next time.

Nice job! I haven't managed to clear it yet, I find it quite challenging.

Mushihimesama Maniac clear.

Bet you're stoked to have gotten this one, I know you worked hard at it.

[XoPachi]

Bet you're stoked to have gotten this one, I know you worked hard at it. :)

I really wanted to finally have a full Cave replay. I've gotten single loop clears in DDP, DOJ, and Ketsui YEARS ago. But I dont have any proof of those aside from an old screencap of my 2-2 score in DDP.

I think I'm going to try clearing GunVein on Expert again.

EDIT: Oh. It was 2-4!
Man, I was kinda close.

[locoBro1196]

Got a 1CC on Giga Wing in MAME, using Stuck on 2P side. Crappy score though. I think I must have put around ~15 hours between the training and multiple runs, spread over the last couple of weeks.

Giga Wing is part of the La Calice Cup lineup and it's the only game I could realistically hope to get a 1CC for.

I first played this in Dreamcast around 15 years ago and really liked the reflect mechanics, but I found it too difficult at first. The fact that the game must be completed only with the initial 3 lives and there are no extends beyond that does not help at all, despite the generous number of bombs. I didn't seriously attempt going for the 1CC until I got it again as part of the Capcom Arcade Stadium in Switch, but still struggled a lot and never made it past stage 4. Once it was announced in the lineup for the La Calice Cup, I decided it was now or never. I'm very happy to finally achieve my first Takumi 1CC.

I love this game, and training for it has been real fun. Stages 4 and 5, particularly the latter one, are really insane and the flow reminds me a lot of my favorite shmups, Mushi and Mushi Futari.
I don't really know whether 2P side is easier than 1P or not, I haven't spent time comparing them.

To be honest, the time spent with games like Giga Wing reminds me of why I have pretty much put aside mainstream games and all I play now is just shmups.

I'm not fully done with Giga Wing though, next I plan to 1CC it on NSW and then I can finally rest for a bit before moving on to the next thing.