Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[velo]

I forgot R-Type Dimensions doesn't feature save states. The stage select also doesn't let you start at full power.

iirc if you turn on the no-checkpoint infinite life mode
(whatever it's called) you start at full power. A lot of people miss it (including me) because it's hidden in the shameful casual mode, but it's useful for practice.

I hate Kyuukyoku Tiger. It should be illegal for a game that fun to be that hard, or vice versa. Totally hopeless for me, but I can't put it down. I need to make myself switch to something I might actually be able to 1cc.

[Steven]

There is one other place to use Yellow Cross that I know of. I used it on the stream I did at Mikado last summer here: https://www.youtube.com/live/T9gwlRyn8M ... md5&t=1224

There are a few spots on stage 8 where it might be moderately useful, but that stage is hard, so I'd rather not try it and find out lol

so this is you playing in the video?

Of course. It was not a great run, especially since I decided to take Ikeda-san's suggestion to take Yellow Cross on the loop, but it is what I have.

[ryu]

Lol nice. I quickly gave up on the yellow power up because every time I tried giving it a shot it it would just kill me.

I forgot R-Type Dimensions doesn't feature save states. The stage select also doesn't let you start at full power.

iirc if you turn on the no-checkpoint infinite life mode
(whatever it's called) you start at full power. A lot of people miss it (including me) because it's hidden in the shameful casual mode, but it's useful for practice.

Thanks for the advice. I'll give the game another shot after Kyuukyoku Tiger

[Arino]

There is one other place to use Yellow Cross that I know of. I used it on the stream I did at Mikado last summer here: https://www.youtube.com/live/T9gwlRyn8M ... md5&t=1224

There are a few spots on stage 8 where it might be moderately useful, but that stage is hard, so I'd rather not try it and find out lol

so this is you playing in the video?

Of course. It was not a great run, especially since I decided to take Ikeda-san's suggestion to take Yellow Cross on the loop, but it is what I have.

I have no words. That's just insane how you get to hang out with those guys. And you can even speak to them in their first language. I am not willing to learn it unfortunately.
Also great skills, awesome performance!

[Dailenth]

I played Lightening force, as far as i know is an PAL release of thunderforce 4
got my ass kicked and never played it again

[XoPachi]

Well...I got the bear in Mecha Ritz. :/

[Sengoku Strider]

I've been playing Thunder Force II MD the past week. This was the very first third party game on the Mega Drive, and was there on launch day for the Genesis, and it in that context it blows me away. This was the initial shipment of titles in August 1989:

Altered Beast (pack-in)
Space Harrier II
Super Thunder Blade
Last Battle
Tommy Lasorda Baseball
Thunder Force II

As a total package of artwork, music, responsiveness and technical performance, it stomps the rest of that lot (and I like Altered Beast). I get why the top-down sections don't land for a lot of people, but as a novelty in the library at large after all these years I can enjoy it for being something different. The super-detailed quality of the artwork in general would have blown my mind if I'd played it back then coming off NES stuff. The enemies are incredibly well done, and Flying over the sci-fi cityscape in stage 3 is still a sight to behold.

They didn't implement the system where you only lose your equipped weapon on death until TF3, and it's harsh to lose everything here. I really notice its absence. The gotcha traps are ruthless here too, Gradius' speed zones never expected you to suck on the front of the screen in a ship that's not super fast moving the way this one does starting with just stage 4. Which is the other big thing missing, they didn't add changeable speed until TF3 either. I haven't gotten past stage 6 yet so I don't know how I feel about it yet all told, except to say it's certainly worth experiencing for the music & pixel art, and if you're interested in it as a historical document of the system's first year.

[XoPachi]

Laboratory-2 in Mecha Ritz. bro..........

That is a TOP contender for hypest STG stage. Holy shit, what a rush!
And of course the song for it is nowhere to be found even in the official OST because that is always the case. :l

[Lethe]

Laboratory-2 in Mecha Ritz. bro..........

That is a TOP contender for hypest STG stage. Holy shit, what a rush!
And of course the song for it is nowhere to be found even in the official OST because that is always the case. :l

FUCK De Crié
Nice wall bounce pattern with bullets traveling at the speed of light while the stage continues scrolling and spawning more enemies you dickweed

Yeah the OST was never updated for 2.0 which means it's missing Veloce-2's new track and all the retro-styled ones too. The music is just ogg files packed into GAME.DAT, you can use a tool like OGG Extractor to get at them.

[XoPachi]

FUCK De Crié
Nice wall bounce pattern with bullets traveling at the speed of light while the stage continues scrolling and spawning more enemies you dickweed

Yeah the OST was never updated for 2.0 which means it's missing Veloce-2's new track and all the retro-styled ones too. The music is just ogg files packed into GAME.DAT, you can use a tool like OGG Extractor to get at them.

Thanks for the heads up on that!
EDIT: Uhh... Might need help or a link or something. Tried MediaCoder, DragonUnpacker, 7Zip, Audacity, and an online tool after asking some tech friends. Nothing wanted to work.

EDIT 2: Figured it out. :P

[Ice Beam]

Kyuukyoku Tiger is crushing my spirit, so I put it to the side to play the 1942-like, Hishouzame. First difference I noticed (besides the obvious) is it's a lot easier for me to track bullets compared to KT. Maybe it's because they fire right where I am, instead of were I might be going.
Also, considering the music in this and KT, it feels like the composer(s) decided to warm up with Billy Joel's My Life, but the left hand got trapped and can't escape.

[locoBro1196]

I'm playing Slap Fight (Steam version) at the moment, the intention is to go for the MD version right after that.

[Steven]

I borrowed a Repulse PCB recently, so I'm playing Repulse now. Unfortunately I can only play on 2P side because 1P side is upside down on my monitor. There don't seem to actually be any DIP switches on this thing unless I am missing something, so I can't seem to put it in upright mode, assuming it actually has an upright mode. I made it to the stage before the last stage on my first try and to the last stage on my second try, so I'll get the ALL soon.

Repulse is a cool game, although I'm sure that I'm probably the only person here who likes it. Extremely good graphics for a 1985 release, too.

I'm playing Slap Fight (Steam version) at the moment, the intention is to go for the MD version right after that.

The PC version's audio is horrific! If you want my opinion I say skip it and play MD for now. Scoring isn't the same on MD and the MD normal difficulty is easier than the arcade's easiest difficulty, but it's otherwise mostly very accurate.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Completely stumped at Progear. Really fun, but tough as nails!

Accidentally hit the wrong page (I hate phones) and randomly saw this.
I don't know how you're playing, but if it's Capcom Stadium, the US version's 'normal' difficultly is out of whack. Either lower it, or play the JP version (what I ended up doing. I forget who hipped me to this, but thanks again).

The bullet patterns are more or less the same, but they move MUCH slower

[ryu]

Got a new best score in Kyuukyoku Tiger yesterday. Today I botched 3 runs on stage 3. All of them either because I accidentally picked up a wrong power up or got distracted by the power up item flying about.

Sigh

[locoBro1196]

The PC version's audio is horrific! If you want my opinion I say skip it and play MD for now. Scoring isn't the same on MD and the MD normal difficulty is easier than the arcade's easiest difficulty, but it's otherwise mostly very accurate.

Thanks for the tip, Steven. Your advice is always very welcome specially when it comes to Toaplan titles! Coincidentally I was just playing the MD version's normal game earlier today in my old CRT, followed by a short run with the "special" version. It's my first time trying both, to be honest I'm completely blown away and still trying to come to terms with the fact that that was probably the best time I've ever had with a MD game, and I've had that console for 30+ years...I had heard good things about that version of Slap Fight but it's managed to exceed all my expectations. What a terrific game and I cannot wait to play it again.

[Nahar]

Completely stumped at Progear. Really fun, but tough as nails!

Accidentally hit the wrong page (I hate phones) and randomly saw this.
I don't know how you're playing, but if it's Capcom Stadium, the US version's 'normal' difficultly is out of whack. Either lower it, or play the JP version (what I ended up doing. I forget who hipped me to this, but thanks again).

The bullet patterns are more or less the same, but they move MUCH slower

Thanks for the tip, but I'm actually playing it on MAME, Japan ROM

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Completely stumped at Progear. Really fun, but tough as nails!

Would this help maybe? I was chatting with a number of friends who were getting into the game and streaming it on Twitch and it ended up easier to make a quick tutorial video with explanations of how some stuff like cancelling work rather than typing out explanations repeatedly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vHl0XRY0WQ

Having a handle on basic gem cancelling can eliminate a lot of bullets in patterns that would otherwise make for tricky dodging, such as the waves of planes at the end of Stage 2 and the last set of enemies in Stage 4.

[nogden]

Completely stumped at Progear. Really fun, but tough as nails!

Would this help maybe? I was chatting with a number of friends who were getting into the game and streaming it on Twitch and it ended up easier to make a quick tutorial video with explanations of how some stuff like cancelling work rather than typing out explanations repeatedly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vHl0XRY0WQ

Having a handle on basic gem cancelling can eliminate a lot of bullets in patterns that would otherwise make for tricky dodging, such as the waves of planes at the end of Stage 2 and the last set of enemies in Stage 4.

Speaking of cancels bareknuckle, I saw your no cancel gigawing clear the other day and it was absolutely insane. Do you still play it? I imagine that took some dedication

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Hahah, thanks, it wasn't that big of a deal though. I still fire it up now and then, it's also fun to play in co-op for a 1CC, and the third game, Giga Wing Generations, is also a lot of fun.

It wasn't done so much as a flex as personal challenge and a "screw you" to the various reviews that came out around the time of the Dreamcast release that complained how impossible the game was. It's plenty forgiving as it is, let alone if you play without using the central gimmick. There's honestly a lot of shmups where 1ccing normally is harder than doing Giga Wing without reflect. Ruby in particular has a strong concentrated shot that's thin enough to deal max damage to the true last boss, and stages 1-4 are easy enough that it's really just a matter of reaching stage 5 with 1 bomb used at most and then learning how to deal with everything from there. They appear to have designed the patterns to be generally avoidable if your reflect is recharging, and your hitbox is tiny, so it's quite a bit more doable than it might sound.

[Andrey Aritonov]

The Chaos Engine / Soldiers of Fortune
All six characters - to random re-play

[Lander]

I went and played Mars Matrix.

Blimey, this game doesn't fuck around such high bullet counts! It seemed totally intractable at first; either designed for god players, or some sort of cruel joke about resource management.
Then you figure out that tapping the GHB instead of full-dumping it is a good move, which lowers the challenge to a more manageable "testicular crowbar massage" level.
Still, christ, a bit beyond me I think. Dig the idea of giving the player a fresh source of iframes every few seconds, but the cost is steep indeed!

To unwind, I tried out Border Down. And lemme tellya, that was a mistake.
The game has moxie, I have to give it that. Along with the fascinating property of being the 'fixed point' of a certain generation of 2.5D shooters; there's so much design DNA in there that would end up in R-Type Final, Dariusburst, etc. that it feels like a paradoxical time capsule of sorts.
But alas, the titular system is unforgivable. Old-school checkpoint mechanics can be trying, but getting shunted off to a totally different stage every time you die is downright Machiavellian. Smash cut to static; memo opportunities are $1, pay up sucka!
Probably worth coming back to with savestates, or perhaps via the Dreamcast release if the home consolification has some nice features; It's got cool bones, but the choice of arcade model kills it dead for my impatient ass.

So, nerves frayed, I played a credit of R-Type and made it to the Stage 4 boss. Pretty average run, with a recovery on the battleship stage, but it feels good to be able to do off-the-cuff with no expectation of success.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I went and played Mars Matrix.

Blimey, this game doesn't fuck around

Have you tried Night Raid? It has a PS1 port that seems decent (aside from the inexplicable removal of 2 player coop). I prefer it to Mars Matrix honestly as it's a Takumi game where the special ability, like Giga Wing, is begging to be used to its full extent. Mars Matrix on the other hand I'm not fond of. The difficulty is extremely high, and the special ability feels like a tease; using the full bar or most of it to reflect stuff is suboptimal a lot of the time and as you say using it in quick spurts so it recharges fast is actually often the way to go. Launching bullets back at enemies feels very weak and viscerally unsatisfying compared to their other games. Giga Wing's reflect on the other hand causes massive barrages of shots to be sent back, and Night Raid's hug launcher is hilarious to bounce around with and slam enemies to death (rapidly rotate the stick to extend the time it's active).

Mars Matrix is far more hardcore in its difficulty and technically demanding, to the extent I think it's a bit overboard. The lack of bombs to save you and give you a meter recharge is also quite a brutal departure from Giga Wing where if you use a bomb immediately after reflecting for safety, the bomb also refills your reflect meter (you can see the meter will suddenly max out when the bomb ends).

[Lander]

Just watched the redone Zero Wing intro for the first time.
Masterful work, walking the line between busted original and straight retranslation like that... ED!

And I'll say it without shame, I adore that original mega drive intro. Translation be damned, the doomed space opera atmos is top notch.

Have you tried Night Raid? It has a PS1 port that seems decent (aside from the inexplicable removal of 2 player coop). I prefer it to Mars Matrix honestly as it's a Takumi game where the special ability, like Giga Wing, is begging to be used to its full extent. Mars Matrix on the other hand I'm not fond of. The difficulty is extremely high, and the special ability feels like a tease; using the full bar or most of it to reflect stuff is suboptimal a lot of the time and as you say using it in quick spurts so it recharges fast is actually often the way to go. Launching bullets back at enemies feels very weak and viscerally unsatisfying compared to their other games. Giga Wing's reflect on the other hand causes massive barrages of shots to be sent back, and Night Raid's hug launcher is hilarious to bounce around with and slam enemies to death (rapidly rotate the stick to extend the time it's active).

Mars Matrix is far more hardcore in its difficulty and technically demanding, to the extent I think it's a bit overboard. The lack of bombs to save you and give you a meter recharge is also quite a brutal departure from Giga Wing where if you use a bomb immediately after reflecting for safety, the bomb also refills your reflect meter (you can see the meter will suddenly max out when the bomb ends).

Not until today - Takumi is a total blind spot for me STG-wise, so I'll be remedying that in short order

Great suggestion! I once heard someone affectionately describe Ozee from Brigand: Oaxaca as "such a hit and run of a character", and that's precisely the vibe I get from Night Raid; show up, drag the player along for a short but wild ride, then skip town under dubious circumstance

Spunky little game; brief and abstract, with little care for stuffy shmup conventions like 'unsigned numbers' it reminds me a bit of Net Yaroze; workmanlike, but doubly creative.
Love the moment of realization that the minus sign in the HUD isn't just for show. That's a clever trick to multiply your playstyles while also sprinkling some ye gods what have i done in after a particularly lucrative chain on the wrong side of the meter.

The Hug Launcher is a lot of fun too, satisfying in a way that would almost be mindless if not for the continuing barrage and scoring nuances. Canny that it cancels shots into pickups as well; makes it look like the bosses are getting bled for points in the literal sense!
Though I know I'm missing a couple of elements. Like hitbox properties while the grapple is extended, and I guess more generally - feels miniscule after no-deathing to the St2 boss by accident on my first run.
That, and I need to find out the trigger condition for BURGER STORM

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Like hitbox properties while the grapple is extended, and I guess more generally - feels miniscule after no-deathing to the St2 boss by accident on my first run.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I didn't know about it until I was introduced to it at a shmupmeet, quite fun. Note that in addition to having to rapidly rotate the stick to extend the grapple timer, tapping the shoot button focuses the shots so it does benefit from mashing the shoot button during bosses (or setting up rapid fire).

The +/-/0 scoring is pretty unique! I've never been able to get on the scoreboard with a 0 points run, I'm not sure if you have to go the whole run without collecting anything for it to count, so I'm not really sure how it works, but aiming for + hot or - cool scores is rather fun!

As far as I can tell, you get a brief amount of invulnerability from firing the grapple but it immediately ends if you whiff and fail to hug anyone ;w;. If the grapple hits, it works like Giga Wing's reflect, full invulnerability during the grapple's bouncing and then a half second of invulnerability when it ends.

[Lander]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I didn't know about it until I was introduced to it at a shmupmeet, quite fun. Note that in addition to having to rapidly rotate the stick to extend the grapple timer, tapping the shoot button focuses the shots so it does benefit from mashing the shoot button during bosses (or setting up rapid fire).

The +/-/0 scoring is pretty unique! I've never been able to get on the scoreboard with a 0 points run, I'm not sure if you have to go the whole run without collecting anything for it to count, so I'm not really sure how it works, but aiming for + hot or - cool scores is rather fun!

As far as I can tell, you get a brief amount of invulnerability from firing the grapple but it immediately ends if you whiff and fail to hug anyone ;w;. If the grapple hits, it works like Giga Wing's reflect, full invulnerability during the grapple's bouncing and then a half second of invulnerability when it ends.

I'd guess it probably permits near-zero scores purely based on value, since hitting the middle without using a continue is akin to an abstract math encoding of Lunar Lander (That, and the final boss' goofy score item cannon seems like it'd be a nightmare for no-pickup runs!)
Quite fascinating, through that lens; since numerical score is built on abelian groups, and can describe newtonian motion if you back up and squint hard enough, having it drive an actual micro-game that lives in the HUD could be a killer game jam rubric.

Speaking of Giga Wing, I played my first few rounds of that the other day, and am really digging it - probably my favourite CPS2 shooter so far. Feels very tractable next to the frantic hail of Mars Matrix!
It's got a good rhythm, which I imagine feels great to exploit with reflect after getting a handle on all the enemy types' shot timing. The extra-wide burst at the end is a lovely touch too, one last opportunity to hook around and line up some more targets!

Enjoyable aesthetic as well - Takumi must have missed the memo that attract screens are meant to shout HEY YOU GET OVER HERE PLAY ME CMON CMON, but the laid-back jazzy piano, thumping two-second clear loop, and score summary TWANGGG give it a laissez-faire flair that reminds me of Killer7.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Make sure you try Giga Wing Generations as well; I enjoy it a lot and the music is really good. I generally prefer its use of 3D over Giga Wing 2 where visibility sometimes feels like it's an issue due to how much stuff is going on? Giga Wing Generations felt more restrained in its level design for the sake of reading enemy positions and it works well.

[Lemnear]

3D Special Selection:

Spoiler

Maybe it's not the most graphically beautiful (among 3D SHMUPS), but it's practically FLAWLESS !!!
I remember having it as a child, when my father worked for Sony and the Halifax distributor, he brought a lot of things home.

Spoiler

Sometimes you can't understand shit on the screen, but i prefer it to Thunder Force 4 (yes, i know i said heresy).

Spoiler

In the HD version though... to complete the PS1 triumvirate, every time i eat sushi i can't help but play it. I had this too when i was little.

EXTRA

Spoiler

If i open G-Darius i have to open this too... together with Sushi...in fact i dusted off all the Darius in the collection

[PC Engine Fan X!]

3D Special Selection:

Spoiler

Maybe it's not the most graphically beautiful (among 3D SHMUPS), but it's practically FLAWLESS !!!
I remember having it as a child, when my father worked for Sony and the Halifax distributor, he brought a lot of things home.

Spoiler

Sometimes you can't understand shit on the screen, but i prefer it to Thunder Force 4 (yes, i know i said heresy).

Spoiler

In the HD version though... to complete the PS1 triumvirate, every time i eat sushi i can't help but play it. I had this too when i was little.

EXTRA

Spoiler

If i open G-Darius i have to open this too... together with Sushi...in fact i dusted off all the Darius in the collection

How's the gameplay of PSX port of Darius Gaiden?

The PSX dual shock haptics of Irem's "R-Type Delta" & Squaresoft's "iS: Internal Section" really show off what's possible in the capable hands of talented game developers/publishers indeed. I've never seen any other PSX stg titles such as those particular two titles truly take advantage of what dual shock vibrational/rumble effects are achieved/pulled off.

Of course, it was Agetech whom handled distribution & sales of the USA PSX release of R-Type Delta whereas with iS: Internal Section, Squaresoft USA subsidiary never did sell nor distribute it stateside back in 1999-2000 whatsoever (even the indie game magazine October 1999 issue of GameFan had a full page spread/article [complete with full-color screen shots galore!] on "iS" which prompted me to source it/buy it -- paid $80.00 usd for a brand new copy of it from the San Francisco, CA based "Japan Video Games" import game shop back in 1999 -- the owner was going to sell it for $70 but then suddenly changed his mind and said that he wanted $80 instead considering it was a brand new PSX import to begin with and the game shop had recently got it in -- I gladly paid the revised higher price for it).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Lemnear]

3D Special Selection:

Spoiler

Maybe it's not the most graphically beautiful (among 3D SHMUPS), but it's practically FLAWLESS !!!
I remember having it as a child, when my father worked for Sony and the Halifax distributor, he brought a lot of things home.

Spoiler

Sometimes you can't understand shit on the screen, but i prefer it to Thunder Force 4 (yes, i know i said heresy).

Spoiler

In the HD version though... to complete the PS1 triumvirate, every time i eat sushi i can't help but play it. I had this too when i was little.

EXTRA

Spoiler

If i open G-Darius i have to open this too... together with Sushi...in fact i dusted off all the Darius in the collection

How's the gameplay of PSX port of Darius Gaiden?

The PSX dual shock haptics of Irem's "R-Type Delta" & Squaresoft's "iS: Internal Section" really show off what's possible in the capable hands of talented game developers/publishers indeed. I've never seen any other PSX stg titles such as those particular two titles truly take advantage of what dual shock vibrational/rumble effects are achieved/pulled off.

Of course, it was Agetech whom handled distribution & sales of the USA PSX release of R-Type Delta whereas with iS: Internal Section, Squaresoft USA subsidiary never did sell nor distribute it stateside back in 1999-2000 whatsoever (even the indie game magazine October 1999 issue of GameFan had a full page spread/article [complete with full-color screen shots galore!] on "iS" which prompted me to source it/buy it -- paid $80.00 usd for a brand new copy of it from the San Francisco, CA based "Japan Video Games" import game shop back in 1999 -- the owner was going to sell it for $70 but then suddenly changed his mind and said that he wanted $80 instead considering it was a brand new PSX import to begin with and the game shop had recently got it in -- I gladly paid the revised higher price for it).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Oh, sorry, i said PSX Triumvirate + Extra because Darius Gaiden is the Arcade version (contained in the Cozmic Arcade Collection).
I think it's the only version of DariusGaiden available on modern consoles. I have no idea what the PSX or Saturn versions look like, i posted that cover because it was undoubtedly the most beautiful!

I like these anecdotes!
I remember that i played R-Type Delta, but i doubt that it was the version displayed for sale (yes i played it in the shop directly). It was also a way to show games in action

I don't know why my dad had certain things on display, but he also had things like Einhander and Contra: Legacy of War complete with 3D glasses! Or Riven: The Sequel to Myst, both OddWorld, Kurishi, Overboard, Resident Evil Director's Cut, and a version of Strider that contained both chapters, all the Crash Bandicoot, all the Tomb Raiders, Future Cop, GP Police, Pandemonium, MediEvil, a Gundam fighting game and then i don't remember what else...maybe RayStorm (oh and also a Bass Fishing game).
And then a mountain of Demos including Registered User Demos, at least 3 different Demo One, the first 50 EuroDemo, and some other special Demos.
This was for the PS1 era.

The first games he gave me for my birthday were Crash Bandicoot 1 and Rayman