Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BIL]

Actually, LA-Z-BOY would be a better description of Hyper Duel's scoring.

Hyper Duel No Miss Superplay IRL:
https://youtu.be/3keZ9iHOtbc

Masterful economy of movement AND super meter, all while keeping his allies alive! As expected of MAKKU-sama!

[XoPachi]

Should have had this Akai Katana clear by now but, I keep dying to stupid shit.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I'm jumping between Raiden FIghters 1, 2, and Jet, and keep wondering if my constant dying is due to the lag or (more likely) the supremely shitty Switch "joycon's" (who comes up with these stupid names...) d-pad.

[1000Eyes]

Been playing Raiden Arcade, jp checkpoint ver. 1p w/ no autofire, and Im shocked by how much im enjoying it? I suck and cant make it pass the stage 3 boss, and so many times I keep telling myself I wont play this again, yet I keep putting in more credits. There a lot of small, clever stuff in here. My favorite is the stage 2 boss, and how it has a adaptive design despite retaining the same behavior every run.

In the fight, there are these floating mines that explode into bullets if destroyed. If you don't have a fully upgraded weapon, using the laser, or generally checkpoint recovering, it is fairly easy to avoid detonating them, at the cost of only slightly harder time dealing with the destructible kamikaze bombers the boss shoots. Play well and have a fully upgraded spread, however, and it becomes really hard to not accidentally blow them up, and now you have an extra bullet source to account for. If you are playing really well, you could even trigger the boss next phase early, and now you have those mines while being in a completely different phase. Which is what happened to me when i no-missed up to it, then got blindsided when two different phases of the boss mix in a way I wasn't prepared for. Raiden is (in)famous for its checkpoint recoveries, but this is a pretty cool way to account for it and give mercy to a recovering player, while forcing more skilled ones to prove that they can understand all possible interactions between their weapons and enemies.

[CIT]

Been playing Raiden Arcade, jp checkpoint ver. 1p w/ no autofire

Awesome! I'd love to clear Raiden at some point too, since it's such a classic. Curious why you're not playing with autofire? I think point-blanking is such an essential part of the series and I think my hand would just get really tired after 5 minutes.

[locoBro1196]

I've finally mustered the courage to go for the Ketsui 1-ALL, been practising it for over 2 weeks already.
Sometimes I feel I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but then I manage to somehow make it to the latter part of stage 5 and all hope is lost, post-Trafalgar I get absolutely massacred. Definitely need to be more consistent and improve the routing/resource management so that I can make it no-miss to stage 5 or at the very least to stage 4's boss, but this one really kicks my ass and I cannot make any sense of its 1st and 2nd pattern.

I love Ketsui and it's amongst my favorite games in the genre but I cannot dive into it in extended sessions, it totally breaks you.

[1000Eyes]

Awesome! I'd love to clear Raiden at some point too, since it's such a classic. Curious why you're not playing with autofire? I think point-blanking is such an essential part of the series and I think my hand would just get really tired after 5 minutes.

Mostly out of curiosity. Not sure if I can keep it up with 30 mins of tapping if I can even make it that far, so ill prob cave then and get external autofire. I saw a scoring run of raiden dx once and I thought the bosses dying before they could do anything looked a bit silly*, so I figured I want to see what tapping feels like. Some design decisions get clarified, like the high fire rate of blue laser gives makes it more attractive for certain sections, even if I still stick to vulcan due to crowd control. In general it is quite interesting and different if you have to hold both shoot and dodge in mind, which means there are situations where your routing has to account for that little deadtime.

* Not against speedkilling in general btw, as I like the little delay the bomb has which forces proactive instead of reactive bombing, so I use that instead

[Steven]

Is it even possible to get the highest Raiden DX boss speedkill bonuses without autofire? Auto started appearing in 1988, so Seibu would have known about it long in advance anyway.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Is it even possible to get the highest Raiden DX boss speedkill bonuses without autofire? Auto started appearing in 1988, so Seibu would have known about it long in advance anyway.

External autofire appeared as a hack on the Centruri variant Time Pilot in 1985 at a local arcade hangout. In 1986, autofire appeared as a power-up in Capcom's classic stg of "Hyper Dyne Sidearms." Romstar Inc. based out of Torrance, California, had gotten the exclusive American rights to sell & distribute "Hyper Dyne Sidearms" stateside in early 1987.

It wasn't until the advent of Video System Co.'s "Turbo Force/Hyper Force" that gave up to three players simultaneously autofire at the start of an stg session indeed.


PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Steven]

I mean physical autofire devices that you attach to the PCB, not internal. If you want internal, the earliest game that I know of with not-useless internal auto is Gyrodine.

[1000Eyes]

Cant really find a thread for discussing replays casually, so ill share it here. Ive been watching idea9690's WR run of Akai Katana Zetsu (which is a widescreen rebalance of arcade mode, so no giant bullet canceling katanas here), and the play at around 40:05 is really spectacular.

Whats happening here is that the game has two modes, normal plane mode where you gather energy for a meter by grazing that little option attached to it against enemies, and spirit mode which uses the meter to make you invincible. Except that the transition between states is quite helpful, as every time you transform the bullets get blown back then are reset to aim at the position you transformed at. It is normally helpful for repositioning and allow you extra resources, since grazing energy against bullets gives you more and bullet canceling is the scoring of the game.

Here, however, is quite a tremendous abuse of it. Idea doesnt use the little energy grazed from the boss to stay invincible, instead the plane grazed just enough to enter spirt mode for a split second so idea can spam transitions. Basically, becoming an ephemeral, makeshift dam, holding back the final boss' really hard pattern like holding back floodwater. Very spectacular, kinda reminds me of the bomb ping pong that happens at the end of Ikaruga, where the mechanics and audiovisuals harmonize into something very cathartic. A cool consequence of the kind of flexible manipulation tools that AK gives. Check it out

[Starfighter]

I'm jumping between Raiden FIghters 1, 2, and Jet, and keep wondering if my constant dying is due to the lag or (more likely) the supremely shitty Switch "joycon's" (who comes up with these stupid names...) d-pad.

I'm also playing that collection at the moment. Well, mostly Jet since I love that game. But I'm hesitant to give it my all before the speed patch arrives, so I'm mostly just playing around, gathering trophies (a lot of them require no skill at all, since you can unlock them on practice, hehe).

[ACSeraph]

No time for forum posting these days, but I'm still out there shooting huge battleships when I can.

Made a pilgrimage to mecca (Taito Hey!) last weekend, and they've finally put Darius II back onto normal difficulty (B?). It's been almost ten years on easy mode now, so it's really nice to see it back to its original hateful form.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I'm jumping between Raiden FIghters 1, 2, and Jet, and keep wondering if my constant dying is due to the lag or (more likely) the supremely shitty Switch "joycon's" (who comes up with these stupid names...) d-pad.

I'm also playing that collection at the moment. Well, mostly Jet since I love that game. But I'm hesitant to give it my all before the speed patch arrives, so I'm mostly just playing around, gathering trophies (a lot of them require no skill at all, since you can unlock them on practice, hehe).

I hadn't played any of the Fighters games before so I don't know at which speed they're supposed to run. Bullet and movement speeds seem totally acceptable to me, compared to most Psikyo games and their insane dirty spreads they seem positively harmless.

[Starfighter]

I hadn't played any of the Fighters games before so I don't know at which speed they're supposed to run. Bullet and movement speeds seem totally acceptable to me, compared to most Psikyo games and their insane dirty spreads they seem positively harmless.

It's not that much faster to be honest, no, and I can't really tell without comparing side by side - but it makes a huge difference on a practical level. For me personally, at least. In FBNeo and the Aces collection I many times reach the "real battle phases" (granted I haven't really practiced the games yet, but still), while at 60fps I often die much, much earlier. I'd say 4 out of 5 runs end around level 30-35-40 or thereabout. Sure, the added input latency might also play a role, but it's clear as day that I'm doing much worse in Remix Collection.

There's a bunch of singular, really fast, aimed bullets coming seemingly out of nowhere (from a turrent that I thought I had destroyed, an enemy about to leave the screen or from some new part of the boss that isn't part of the area I'm focusing on etc) throughout the game (mainly talking about Jet now) where I'm mere pixels away from being killed and I go "WOAH, that was close, holy crab cakes what a fast little bullet". If I'm pixels away at 54, 60 will get me.

I could also stop relying on reflexes alone to save me in places where I haven't memorized enough, but... I don't wanna!

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I hadn't played any of the Fighters games before so I don't know at which speed they're supposed to run. Bullet and movement speeds seem totally acceptable to me, compared to most Psikyo games and their insane dirty spreads they seem positively harmless.

It's not that much faster to be honest, no, and I can't really tell without comparing side by side - but it makes a huge difference on a practical level. For me personally, at least. In FBNeo and the Aces collection I many times reach the "real battle phases" (granted I haven't really practiced the games yet, but still), while at 60fps I often die much, much earlier. I'd say 4 out of 5 runs end around level 30-35-40 or thereabout. Sure, the added input latency might also play a role, but it's clear as day that I'm doing much worse in Remix Collection.

There's a bunch of singular, really fast, aimed bullets coming seemingly out of nowhere (from a turrent that I thought I had destroyed, an enemy about to leave the screen or from some new part of the boss that isn't part of the area I'm focusing on etc) throughout the game (mainly talking about Jet now) where I'm mere pixels away from being killed and I go "WOAH, that was close, holy crab cakes what a fast little bullet". If I'm pixels away at 54, 60 will get me.

I could also stop relying on reflexes alone to save me in places where I haven't memorized enough, but... I don't wanna!

I see, cheers for the info. Looking forward to the patch, it'll be a good excuse to finish that stick I've been working on for a couple of years...

[denpa999]

Deathsmiles I (again) but after this run I really want to try Akai Katana.

[Lemnear]

I finally got the Aleste Collection and I wonder why the fuck I didn't do it before. I mean, I also played GG Aleste 1 on a real Game Gear (which I still have, unlike the game cartridge), my uncle gave me the GG and a pair of games years ago, I think I still have Sonic 1 and Shinobi II, which I really like.
And I'm also intrigued by Sorcer Striker, but I don't know if it's a "Yagawa" game, because I really don't like its gameplay style....

[Steven]

And I'm also intrigued by Sorcer Striker, but I don't know if it's a "Yagawa" game, because I really don't like its gameplay style....

Yagawa had nothing to do with it. It's basically a powered-up arcade Aleste, with which it shares a few ideas (subweapons + coins flying everywhere instead of P items, but same idea: get them to power up your shot) and not Garegga. It's a very simple and straightforward game, but it has everything it needs to be excellent.

[Lemnear]

And I'm also intrigued by Sorcer Striker, but I don't know if it's a "Yagawa" game, because I really don't like its gameplay style....

Yagawa had nothing to do with it. It's basically a powered-up arcade Aleste, with which it shares a few ideas (subweapons + coins flying everywhere instead of P items, but same idea: get them to power up your shot) and not Garegga. It's a very simple and straightforward game, but it has everything it needs to be excellent.

Yes, I noticed now, but Yagawa wasn't even in 1944: The Loop Master from what I read... and I didn't like that much either :/
So I wonder if it's just him that's my problem or the whole Raizing .

[Steven]

1944 is a weird game. The first time I played it, my reaction was "WTF this is Hishouzame". A few months later I learned that it was made at Uemura-san's company by him and Yuge-san, not Raizing, so if anything it's a "Toaplan" game, the last "Toaplan" game, at least until Tatsujin Extreme comes out, and not a Raizing game. It's very obscure knowledge that very few people know because it was only published in this doujin magazine in 2019. I have no idea how those guys ended up making that game, and I don't think they talked about how that came about in the interview, just that it did.

[To Far Away Times]

And I'm also intrigued by Sorcer Striker, but I don't know if it's a "Yagawa" game, because I really don't like its gameplay style....

Yagawa had nothing to do with it. It's basically a powered-up arcade Aleste, with which it shares a few ideas (subweapons + coins flying everywhere instead of P items, but same idea: get them to power up your shot) and not Garegga. It's a very simple and straightforward game, but it has everything it needs to be excellent.

I never made a Aleste / Sorcer Striker comparison but... I can see it.

It's also not a rank control game (that I know of), but it is heavily affected by rank. If you die you'll immediately spot a difference in the enemy patterns. On some enemies, like the ninja boss, it makes quite a difference.

[Whiskers]

Still mainly playing DDP. Still trying to remember my routes in this damn game. I really should’ve uploaded my replays in a video format back then. Welp, lesson learnt.

As for now, I managed to remember up until 2-2. It’s all coming back to me now.

Video

[Lemnear]

I've finally mustered the courage to go for the Ketsui 1-ALL, been practising it for over 2 weeks already.
Sometimes I feel I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but then I manage to somehow make it to the latter part of stage 5 and all hope is lost, post-Trafalgar I get absolutely massacred. Definitely need to be more consistent and improve the routing/resource management so that I can make it no-miss to stage 5 or at the very least to stage 4's boss, but this one really kicks my ass and I cannot make any sense of its 1st and 2nd pattern.

I love Ketsui and it's amongst my favorite games in the genre but I cannot dive into it in extended sessions, it totally breaks you.

I have the exact same problem, in the exact same spot, except I can do longer sessions but then I tend to mess up... like No Route No Lock-On No-Bomb... and I learned to play like this rather (and before) than finishing it 1cc

Spoiler

[DarkSlayer]

Continuing the 4:3 vertical journey, been playing ray storm and ray crysis on ps1

The graphics and athestics are amazing in both

Quite enjoy how short the 2nd one is, so packed with detailed scenes. Interesting how you can choose to play the same stage 3 times in a row with increasing difficulty

I don’t love how they narrow the playfield and nudge the player ship around sometimes, I think under defeat does a much better job at this idea

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Continuing the 4:3 vertical journey, been playing ray storm and ray crysis on ps1

The graphics and athestics are amazing in both

Quite enjoy how short the 2nd one is, so packed with detailed scenes. Interesting how you can choose to play the same stage 3 times in a row with increasing difficulty

I don’t love how they narrow the playfield and nudge the player ship around sometimes, I think under defeat does a much better job at this idea

Gotta love how Taito included Pocket Station support with the slick mini game of "Pocket Ray" to d/l to it with the PSX/PSOne disc of Ray Crisis + it takes up a whopping 11 blocks out of twelve leaving just one block of memory allocated for the Ray Crisis game itself (and no more empty blocks of memory to spare either) -- thus using up an entire 1mb-sized PSX memory card indeed.

The opening animated intro that leads into the Pocket Ray main title screen complete with matching BGM tune to back it up is impressive to watch/unfold in "real time." Too bad that SCEJ didn't make a full-color LCD-based Pocket Station "personal digital assistant" device instead of going the cheaper route of using a b&w LCD screen setup as it would've eclipsed/trounced the b&w DC VMU handheld/memory card any ol' day -- Sony's in-house PSX R&D department had the capable hardware, programming, expertise & knowledge to pull it off successfully. Even Namco's PSX/PSOne-based Ridge Racer Type 4 has built-in support for the Pocket Station as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Lemnear]

Anyway, I'm playing GG Aleste 3 and I was wondering if the game was designed with or without slowdown. I mean, are they due to hardware limitations, or were they due to hardware limitations and this was taken into account during the game design phase? Or was it originally designed without any slowdown?
I'm wondering because, for example, I know that DDP for PS1 is considered "incorrect" because it has no slowdown whatsoever, unlike the original Arcade version.
For the first two GG Aleste, the answer is probably number 2, the same goes for Aleste 1 and 2.

[XoPachi]

I got a hard rank clear in Dezatopia's route II. Hate that water level.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Anyway, I'm playing GG Aleste 3 and I was wondering if the game was designed with or without slowdown.

The default option in the collection is for slowdown to be present. In order to disable the slowdown (which is present if you play the game on actual hardware), you have to deliberately go into the options and change the settings to disable the hardware slowdown. The same goes for the original games, the playtesting was done on the original hardware that would have experienced that slowdown.

[Lemnear]

Anyway, I'm playing GG Aleste 3 and I was wondering if the game was designed with or without slowdown.

The default option in the collection is for slowdown to be present. In order to disable the slowdown (which is present if you play the game on actual hardware), you have to deliberately go into the options and change the settings to disable the hardware slowdown. The same goes for the original games, the playtesting was done on the original hardware that would have experienced that slowdown.

Oh ok so it's a QOL, thanks!