Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[blazinglazers69]

Made it to last level, second loop of R-Type II Japanese version today. My strats are all there. Just gotta be patient and put the One run together. So close. Been with this game for like 90ish hours so I'm ready to move on.

[M.Knight]

Okay, that sounds interesting. Might be a tough question to answer, and maybe I should just look up some high scoring gameplay footage, but in practice is this more weighted towards always charging or only charging when there's a good opening or something like that?

Luffe has multiple levels of charge so you can do micro-charges and still snipe a bunch of popcorn enemies for bells by spamming the fastest/shortest duration laser, but I can imagine there could be some specific situations where you have no choice but to charge a longer laser, for example if a boss is preparing an attack with no other bullets to cancel beforehand. Either way you ideally want to kill as many things as possible with laser. Using the short charged laser also means you generate bells more often which gives you things to collect to keep the multiplier high, whereas longer charges would struggle a bit more depending on the situation and enemy counts.

[repoman]

After the previous posts about Platypus Reclayed basically being borderline unplayable, they've released a patch that smooths it out quite well. It's still a pretty generic shoot 'em up, albeit with a nice look, but it's certainly more fun than it was.

[Faith]

After the previous posts about Platypus Reclayed basically being borderline unplayable, they've released a patch that smooths it out quite well. It's still a pretty generic shoot 'em up, albeit with a nice look, but it's certainly more fun than it was.

My complaints were made after the patch... lol >.<!~ Don't want to know how bad it was before it.

[Sengoku Strider]

Super Star Soldier is the only one of the PCE Star Soldier quintology that I haven't 1CCed yet. I was playing it last night and wow...it impressed me way more than it did back in '95 (when I borrowed it off a friend and thought it was just a Blazing Lazers rip off) or on the Wii U. Part of it is the art really pops out of the screen on OSSC, part of it is I know how to appreciate these games better now and understand their context more. But either way I get why people in Japan went nuts for it back in 1990 and Famitsu called it "the Dragon Quest of the shooting game world." For sure people were spending dozens of hours grinding that Caravan mode. Absolutely brilliant ship design too, Neo Ceasar should be more iconic than it is. I've never seen a model kit for it or anything.

[aak]

Discovered an old 1983 Konami shooter called Juno First. It's a lot of fun, it's VERY reminiscent of the old Williams games, which I love. I wonder if they were going for that intentionally, because the resemblance is uncanny.

Basically it's a manually-scrolling vertical shooter where you can go forwards and backwards and have to take out waves of enemies. Instead of a bomb you have three warps which replenish each wave and allow you to pass through bullets for a little bit. There's also a sort of astronaut suit power-up which stops enemies from firing and gives you increasingly high numbers of points for taking out enemies while in that state. It's a pretty simple game even by early 80s standards but it's fun. Enemy bullets move super fast so they can be pretty hard to dodge if you're out of warps.

[1000Eyes]

Wish the format of Juno First was iterated more (there's only Axelay I think?). Seems like a fun way to do some Gun.Smoke style back-n-forths. Game is entertaining but maybe I'd like it more if the scoring was a little more proactive. Waiting for the game to bless you with the astronaut doesn't feel great .

[Sengoku Strider]

Discovered an old 1983 Konami shooter called Juno First. It's a lot of fun, it's VERY reminiscent of the old Williams games, which I love. I wonder if they were going for that intentionally, because the resemblance is uncanny.

For sure they were looking at (and listening to) Defender when they designed those lasers.

Wish the format of Juno First was iterated more (there's only Axelay I think?).

Jaleco's 1984 Exerion was Axelay before Axelay. It may have taken some inspiration from Juno First.

[Marc]

The fuck is the crack with R-Type Final 2 on PS4? Downloaded a hefty update last night, it's now Final 3 on the loading and title screens, but still 2 in-game, and I can't see anything has changed for the size of the update?

[m.sniffles.esq]

No idea where to put this, so I'll just put it here

Popular Hollywood actor Gene Hackman passed away earlier this year, and I guess he willed all his money to charity.

So -- per the norm in these cases -- his children have to gather up and auction off his possessions in order to 'get theirs'. And while the usual stuff is going to the auction block (scripts, props, art collection) I couldn't help but notice the the once in a lifetime opportunity to own Gene Hackman's Galaga cabinet (with a starting bid of $10!)

Sure, there a few million Galaga cabinets in the world, but only one where Popeye Doyle has the top score

(maybe I should put this on the 'for sale' board?)

[Sengoku Strider]

No idea where to put this, so I'll just put it here

Popular Hollywood actor Gene Hackman passed away earlier this year, and I guess he willed all his money to charity.

So -- per the norm in these cases -- his children have to gather up and auction off his possessions in order to 'get theirs'. And while the usual stuff is going to the auction block (scripts, props, art collection) I couldn't help but notice the the once in a lifetime opportunity to own Gene Hackman's Galaga cabinet (with a starting bid of $10!)

Sure, there a few million Galaga cabinets in the world, but only one where Popeye Doyle has the top score

(maybe I should put this on the 'for sale' board?)

If I had the spare money I'd totally buy this just to go through life telling people I own Gene Hackman's Galaga machine. Also because Galaga is a true masterpiece.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

No idea where to put this, so I'll just put it here

Popular Hollywood actor Gene Hackman passed away earlier this year, and I guess he willed all his money to charity.

So -- per the norm in these cases -- his children have to gather up and auction off his possessions in order to 'get theirs'. And while the usual stuff is going to the auction block (scripts, props, art collection) I couldn't help but notice the the once in a lifetime opportunity to own Gene Hackman's Galaga cabinet (with a starting bid of $10!)

Sure, there a few million Galaga cabinets in the world, but only one where Popeye Doyle has the top score

(maybe I should put this on the 'for sale' board?)

If I had the spare money I'd totally buy this just to go through life telling people I own Gene Hackman's Galaga machine. Also because Galaga is a true masterpiece.

At the Junior College that I attended back in 1990, there was a lone Galaga cab that got regular gameplay time and upon looking at the high score -- it said 9,999,980 points as a certain scoring trick/exploit was achieved to get that particular score (where all the Galaga enemies don't fire a single shot at the player anyways).

Yes, that Gene Hackman owned Galaga cab should fetch some serious $$$ indeed based on solely name recognition alone. There are two other arcade cabs of Defender and Gorf that Gene Hackman owned that are on the auction block as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[m.sniffles.esq]

There are two other arcade cabs of Defender and Gorf that Gene Hackman owned that are on the auction block as well.

I didn't even get to those!
I totally want Gene Hackman's Gorf cabinet.

Something about the image of Gene Hackman getting bummed out by the taunts of the Gorfian robot -- and to have the very same Gorfian robot in my home -- really pleases me for some reason.

[LordHypnos]

Now that I've got the 1cc on Giga Wing, I'm back to working on Gameboy Parodius Da! Stage 7 (i think) is giving me a lot of trouble at the moment.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I actually meant to play some more Giga Wing but instead I kind of fixated on Gradius V. I'm not sure I've ever cleared it and keep trying to do it with one of the default shot types but man, I feel really bad at the game. I've gotten to the boss right after the speed section in stage 7, but one thing or another keeps wrecking me. My best attempts have been with Type 4... I really like the solid lasers, and playing defensively seems to work best...

[LordHypnos]

Now that I've got the 1-ALL on Parodius GB, I think I'm going to focus on 19XX next. This game freakin' rocks!

[Kiken]

Been swapping back and forth between the PS1 original version of R-Type Delta and the newer HD Boosted version on Steam. Despite the much slower speed of the original (particularly stage 3), I kinda prefer it over the newer version. Probably the nostalgia talking.

[Klatrymadon]

Same here. Part of it is just enjoying how the game looks on a CRT, but there's also that it feels 'right' too — the timings of a lot of enemy movements are still in my muscle memory or whatever, and the speed of your own ship is affected by HD's running speed, I think (3 is my default setting, but that already feels slightly slippery in the new port).

[aak]

After 1cc'ing the first Gradius and exploring the rest of the series, I think I want to sink some time into Gradius V. The option control feature is really cool. Don't know if I'll 1cc it anytime soon considering it's an hour long and seems to get really crazy by the asteroids stage, but I'll definitely play it enough to the point where I can unlock Weapon Edit at least and see where my abilities are at by then.

[aak]

After 1cc'ing the first Gradius and exploring the rest of the series, I think I want to sink some time into Gradius V. The option control feature is really cool. Don't know if I'll 1cc it anytime soon considering it's an hour long and seems to get really crazy by the asteroids stage, but I'll definitely play it enough to the point where I can unlock Weapon Edit at least and see where my abilities are at by then.

Unlocked weapon edit (via credit feeding), this game's tons of fun and honestly the length doesn't even bother me that much. Somehow the pacing just works. And yeah it seems difficult but a lot more doable than Gradius III AC at least. I also love the weapon edit, there seems to be a ton of viable possibilities (even if there are a few set-ups that are clearly better than others)

Some ideas I had:
Spread Bomb-Vertical-Ripple-Freeze-FF
Eagle Wind-Tailgun-Ripple-Spacing-FF
Flying Torpedo-Free Way-E Laser-Spacing-FF
Spread Bomb-Double-E Laser-Freeze-FF
Eagle Wind-Vertical-Fire Blaster-Freeze-FF
Photon Torpedo-Tailgun-Laser-Direction-FF

Probably the first one for my first 1cc since it seems easy to use while also having high DPS on bosses
Or actually E-Laser also feels really good, like it literally kills bosses in one hit so it may be worth using and then just using double on stages
Rotating options are the only ones that don't really appeal to me tbh, the other ones also work for defense and the options have really bad DPS while spinning so you can't really get fast kills like the other types.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Rotating options are the only ones that don't really appeal to me tbh, the other ones also work for defense and the options have really bad DPS while spinning so you can't really get fast kills like the other types.

Rotation actually gets decent DPS when you realize it drags the multiples behind you if you tap R1 (multiple control) rapidly, they'll bunch up behind you which makes it easier to hit boss cores, and they sort of move immediately when you do instead of Spacing Multiples which have a delayed element to how they follow you. It's still vastly inferior to Freeze for raw damage potential on bosses though.

The video index on the Shmups wiki for Gradius V may also give you some combination ideas, E-Laser is really popular for high scoring multi loop runs, but Fire Blaster also has a ton of potential there. The big thing to note is that Spread Bomb is vastly more popular than any other missile type, mainly due to its damage output, but if you don't like the bloom effect the blasts have that makes it difficult to see, there's several other good missiles to pick from (I usually go with 2 Way or Photon Torpedo if I want to switch it up, Eagle Wind is good too).

The highest score, unusually, seems to be with the standard Type 1, though I'm not sure that's because it's better than Weapon Edit necessarily (it doesn't get as far as PEG's loop 6 E Laser run).

[BulletMagnet]

The big thing to note is that Spread Bomb is vastly more popular than any other missile type, mainly due to its damage output, but if you don't like the bloom effect the blasts have that makes it difficult to see, there's several other good missiles to pick from (I usually go with 2 Way or Photon Torpedo if I want to switch it up, Eagle Wind is good too).

Pardon the brief tangent, but I vaguely recall reading, back in ancient times, that some players went without ever activating Missile at all, because supposedly doing so would raise the rank particularly fast. Was this ever confirmed, or just a rumor?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

rank

PEG and I have been working on authoring the details on the shmups wiki, and rank is one of those things we've not quite worked out yet. I suspect the difficulty setting impacts the minimum and maximum rank, with Very Hard topping out higher than any other (apparently with some revenge bullets not seen at high loop rank in Normal), but exactly what rank affects and how it's modified isn't exactly clear.

Current power level definitely impacts it. One of the best examples is the stage 7 midboss, the one that appears right after the high speed section. Its bouncy shots that reflect off the walls are released very rapidly at high rank and you can see them immediately slow down if you're at full power then die in the middle of the fight. They'll also go from firing with a large delay between shots to super fast again if you pause and enter the Konami Code to power up.

If you're using Force Field as your ? slot the current level it's at also seems to impact rank. Rank is lower without it than with it active. I'm not sure if Rank goes up over time at a higher rate if you have more powerups though. I think it largely doesn't matter since powering up causes a noticeable immediate rank increase so trying to go through half the game without powerups is unlikely to make the last half any easier once you decide to upgrade.

As far as Missile itself goes, if you're using Weapon Edit then something like Spread Bomb is generally supremely useful for speedkilling enemies or other dangerous hazards, so I'm skeptical how useful it is to leave it disabled. Maybe it holds true if you're using one of the default types, but I think having more multiples + laser active ups the rank significantly as it is. I'd have to do testing to see if Missile on vs off at sections significantly changes rank value (or use an emulator to try and locate rank in memory if possible, not an easy task depending on how the number's stored). My gut instinct is that your missile slot is useful enough that it's not helpful to skip it for rank control purposes, and if you're aiming for rank control skipping multiples might actually work better, but I don't have any actual test data to back this up yet. For whatever it's worth, I've not seen any superplays / high loop runs deliberately avoid missile for rank control purposes.

Some attacks also appear to be largely unaffected by rank, which makes it tricky to determine how useful this strategy is. There's an interesting playthrough I found on Youtube that deliberately avoids Multiples and uses only the ship with a Spread Bomb + Tailgun / Fire Blaster setup and at some points rank is noticeably easier whereas at others the difficulty appears unchanged: https://youtu.be/ihw9ktu8pik

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, the mystery endures, it seems...I figure a truly decisive answer would warrant an exploratory dig into the game's coding, a la Garegga.

[pegboy]

I don't think rank control is much of a concern in Gradius V. You could potentially play with only 3 options if you wanted to avoid the option hunter showing up though. This might even be somewhat viable with type 2 since it really doesn't need all 4 options as much as the the other types. And type 2 is by far the hardest to avoid getting options stolen since there is no easy way to manipulate and hide them.

Most of Gradius V rank just comes from what loop you are on (and also the difficulty selection), so it's really unavoidable in high scoring runs.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I don't think rank control is much of a concern in Gradius V.

I haven't 1CC'd it yet myself (if I have it's only with Weapon Edit and I've completely forgotten if I have) but for what it's worth, peg has the longest known recorded run that gets to 6-2 and the second highest score in a recording, beaten out only by this run by Kenny_I which scores a bit higher but only makes it to 5-7, so peg definitely knows what he's talking about here.

[Jack Emerson]

Just picked up and played two Steam games that I had never heard of until I was browsing the Exa Arcadia games: Vritra and Infinos. While, of course, the Exa versions are a bit different, the Steam versions are quite fun.

Vritra has beautiful art and I am enjoying this game. The bosses are well designed and fun. The Exa version looks to have some levels and bosses not in the Steam version.

Infinos is not a great game, but good pixel art and fun mechs. steam and Exa versions look similar though I am not not far enough in this game to know.

[aak]

Heh, the mystery endures, it seems...I figure a truly decisive answer would warrant an exploratory dig into the game's coding, a la Garegga.

I started playing V right after playing Gradius Origins so I definitely miss the features... especially the rank display and hitbox viewer, even if rank isn't important it's nice to see where it's at, and the hitbox viewer, that's just a great feature. I know roughly where the hitbox on the Vic Viper is but it'd be nice to see it exactly and also the hitboxes of enemies/bullets, because sometimes those also seem to be a different size than their models (usually smaller but still)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

hitboxes of enemies/bullets

I case it helps, there's a picture showing the hitbox at the bottom of the wiki, it's quite accurate and essentially the game has a tiny bullet hell size hitbox relative to the ship's 3D model: https://shmups.wiki/library/Gradius_V

You should assume bullets have hitboxes the same size at the bullets themselves generally. The green goo in S6 is actually a bunch of green orbs with a bloom effect around them, most easily seen in the downward section where they're dropping from the sky. Flame attacks are probably the hardest to figure out, namely the flamethrower enemies in S3 and the midboss of S7, but you have plenty of room to avoid them typically.

[caincan]

some people played this one,

https://x.com/apb_skr/status/1990240046 ... 49/photo/2