[fw.net update] STGT '07 Replays

Post by **Icarus** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:18 am

I'll have to give Batou a spin at some point. I tend to stick with easy to use characters, however, hence my liking for both versionf of Kuga at the moment. Kim-ko will take some getting used to.

I wouldn't put it past Niigi popping up at some point. I half-expect her to be a boss, like Kuga's evil twin was in the second game. ^_-

And abusing HT-MAX is great fun, but needs suicides to balance everything vis-a-vis Extending regularly and getting a freebit bomb to use in a HT-MAX attack. Its certainly something not expected in a game like Shikigami, and will probably drive Shikigami purists insane when they get their hands on the game. ^_-

Now where are the rest of the Shiki3 players?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:22 am

Icarus wrote:I wouldn't put it past Niigi popping up at some point. I half-expect her to be a boss, like Kuga's evil twin was in the second game. ^_-

Nope. Her similarities to 1P and 2P are uncanny though, it's as if she's been split in two.

msm · Post by **msm** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:22 am

does this tate both ways? or even just left side <- at the top?

also does it have the guy with a guitar case and the 2 flappy sward things? (sorry don't know the names

)

really like number 2 but at a possible ~£45 (with customs) - trying to hold off for yesasia to hopefully stock it, it's possible they already have it but with alternate spelling i suppose

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:50 am

Been playing this, I'll post a decent score when I get...a decent score.

I've been using Emirio, hes pretty dope on mid bosses. You can place the anchor for his laser clothesline at the top of the screen before they appear and then hit them with the middle damaging part from a very comfortable distance. For real bosses you gotta find a way to reach the top between forms and get em diagonally, or just use normal shot but that takes forever. Man I might switch back to Kuga, he is so much easier to score with.

Does anyone know the exact amount for getting extends? Is it just per every certain amount at the end of each stage? I need to figure out a good suicide/hi-tension distribution for the first few easy stages and pump my score up.

msm wrote:does this tate both ways? or even just left side <- at the top?

Yes, both ways. There are 3 different resolution settings for each configuration as well.

msm wrote: also does it have the guy with a guitar case and the 2 flappy sward things?

Yes, but he's a chick now, and her bomb sucks. The rest of the character seems the same though.

Sword · Post by **Sword** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:22 pm

Dandy J wrote: Does anyone know the exact amount for getting extends? Is it just per every certain amount at the end of each stage? I need to figure out a good suicide/hi-tension distribution for the first few easy stages and pump my score up.

200M, and then every 400M. I think.
Nearly twice as often as in shiki2.

Is it me, or are the bullet hitboxes smaller than before? I've had quite a few 'wtf? I'm still alive?!'-moments. Granted, i've only played one credit.

Does anyone know what the menu options mean? The top option has 5 different settings.. (2 green ones, and red I, II, and III)

Dandy J · Post by **Dandy J** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:04 pm

Top one is game mode, like normal/easy/extreme/extreme II. The next one is for the demos like the character dialogues before stages and bosses. 3rd one is choosing between having character voices or sound effect only (I think during dialogues). Last is soundtrack choice.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:18 pm

Yeah, the Extend rates are a lot more frequent in this game. It does seem harder to stay in 8x range, however. It appears you have to be a lot closer to bullets than you did in Shikigami 2, increasing risk a bit.

I find I'm using HT-MAX a lot more frequently in the early stages, and then using them only to bridge gaps in enemy formations later on in the game.

msm · Post by **msm** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:51 pm

Thanks for the answers - just ordered it

Dandy J wrote:
msm wrote: also does it have the guy with a guitar case and the 2 flappy sward things?
Yes, but he's a chick now, and her bomb sucks. The rest of the character seems the same though.

the old guy's bomb sucked too so i guess it's just a gender change

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:31 pm

As promised, here are all six replays for my entries to the STGT '06 competition.

Player: Icarus //
- Blazing Star: 43,869,530, ALL Clear, Windina
http://super-play.co.uk/index.php?superplay=668

- Armed Police Batrider: 10,875,240, ALL Clear, Strawman (A)
http://super-play.co.uk/index.php?superplay=667

(thanks to zakk for hosting the following replays)

- Star Force: 2,159,300, Area 13
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/starfor ... il_icr.avi

- Dragon Blaze: 1,278,200, 2-1, Quaid
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/dragonb ... id_icr.avi

- Air Gallet: 6,811,310, ALL Clear
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/airgall ... LL_icr.avi

- Guwange:, 17,099'785, 15,266 Chain, Stage 6, Kosame
http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/guwange ... me_icr.avi

howmuchkeefe · Post by **howmuchkeefe** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:34 pm

http://bigcore.rsdio.com/icarus/guwange ... me_icr.avi

D'oh! So close!

If Rob's been suffering something like that time and again, I guess I shouldn't blame him for changing his mind about Guwange.

Are you going to go for the 1CC?

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:36 pm

howmuchkeefe wrote: D'oh! So close!

If Rob's been suffering something like that time and again, I guess I shouldn't blame him for changing his mind about Guwange.

Are you going to go for the 1CC?

You'd be surprised at how annoyed I have been the past week, when every credit that takes me to stage6 always ends in the same way, at the last pattern of the last boss. >_<*

Yep, I'm going to keep playing and go for the ALL. I was mainly wanting to break 20mil which I think I can do if I can hold my chain up to the stage5 boss. If I manage it I'll have an updated score and replay to follow.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:54 pm

howmuchkeefe wrote:If Rob's been suffering something like that time and again, I guess I shouldn't blame him for changing his mind about Guwange.

By the end I realized it wasn't likely that I would make it through the last attack, so I used most of my bombs to secure the first ~2 million boss points.

Icarus wrote:chain up to the stage5 boss.

This was my goal. Very hard to keep it together during the 5th boss, but everything before that seems easy enough.

I'd download the replay, but it's too big (~Air Gallet).

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:06 am

Just a quick reminder: namakoHQ is now public and has a Personal Records Database (more correctly, a forum for keeping records) set up which is free to use. Some of namakoteam have started keeping a list of personal bests, and I hope that everyone here will use it as well to keep track of their playing progress.

The Records Database is here:
http://namakoteam.thestudio-uk.com/viewforum.php?f=2

You will have to register to use the forum, which shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

Rob wrote:This was my goal. Very hard to keep it together during the 5th boss, but everything before that seems easy enough.

My main problem area is the end section of stage4. Getting there isn't difficult. Trying to get through it without taking three or more hits is. -_-;;
If I could hold the chain together past the section, I'd estimate a chain of about 20k by the time I hit the fifth boss.

Rob wrote:I'd download the replay, but it's too big (~Air Gallet).

Yeah, sorry. Constantly exiting and restarting MAME to make inputs got tiresome by the end of Blazing Star Week, so I switched to direct feed recording instead. ^_-

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:15 pm

Thanks for sharing your replays with us, Icarus.
I am going to download them all in the next days.

I have recorded some of my scores too, but I don't think it's worth posting mine since I never placed in the top 10. I hope more people from this board will start to create replays and strategy talk, leading to a more organized western shooter community. So that one day we'll be able to keep up with the Japanese.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:28 pm

Edge wrote:Thanks for sharing your replays with us, Icarus.
I am going to download them all in the next days.

I have recorded some of my scores too, but I don't think it's worth posting mine since I never placed in the top 10. I hope more people from this board will start to create replays and strategy talk, leading to a more organized western shooter community. So that one day we'll be able to keep up with the Japanese.

Thanks Edge. ^_^

I think people should share their replays even if they think they aren't worth sharing. It's good to get a second opinion on your strategies and to have someone else analyse and spot potential mistakes, which can only benefit you in the long run as you play to improve. Strategy talk is just as good.

I hope some of our shmupsforum players can start to use the Records Database forum to keep a listing of their scoring records. I think it'll allow for good comparison with other players, as well as giving you a place to chart progress.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:28 pm

How would I record runs through MAME32? I would start recording stuff just for posterity if I could learn how. I'm not a multimedia genius.

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:33 pm

Pirate1019 wrote:How would I record runs through MAME32? I would start recording stuff just for posterity if I could learn how. I'm not a multimedia genius.

Click to highlight the game you want to play and record a credit for, then go to FILE / PLAY AND RECORD INPUT (or right-click the game you want to record and select the same option from the menu that appears). MAME will ask you to select a location to save the replay input. One you select a location, the game will load and record all your button presses for that credit only. Once you exit, the input will be ready to view.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:42 pm

Ok, that's all well and good. It's saved as a .inp file. Can I just open that file with any sort of media player (windows media player, quicktime)? Or is it more complex then that?

Post by **Icarus** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:45 pm

Pirate1019 wrote:Ok, that's all well and good. It's saved as a .inp file. Can I just open that file with any sort of media player (windows media player, quicktime)? Or is it more complex then that?

You're thinking of conversion fron .inp to AVI, which requires some kind of video capture card. MAME inputs on their own can be viewed with the version of MAME you used to record it (so if you used WolfMAME 0.106 to record, you can use WolfMAME 0.106 to play the input back).

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 11:51 pm

Wouldn't that mean that the replays would be relatively useless since nobody else could see it unless they had the same version of mame?

Post by **Icarus** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:45 am

Pirate1019 wrote:Wouldn't that mean that the replays would be relatively useless since nobody else could see it unless they had the same version of mame?

You do know how easy it is to find the different MAME builds right?
http://www.joymonkey.com/
All you do when you send someone a MAME input is let them know which version number of MAME to use and thats it. In the case of WolfMAME, you can easily track down their particular builds with a bit of Google-fu.

msm · Post by **msm** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:51 am

thanks for sharing the replays Icarus, i'm looking forward to watching the guwange and batrider ones especially

i have recorded some doj in the past but only to put on a halo video and it's not of a propper run - in an attempt to get some friends into shmups

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 6:13 am

All the videos I recorded for the tournament can be found on my site here:

http://bigcore.rsdio.com/zakk/replay/?cat=27

Only one I don't have is Star Force

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 12:57 pm

Well, ok then I post my input files too just for the sake of it. (They are for Mame Plus 0.106)

http://www.shooterecke.de
(you only have to click onto replays, sorry direct linking doesn't work)

It's a zip including the following scores:

Air Gallet: Edge - 2'386'970 - 5

Blazing Star: Edge - 22'554'690 - 6 - Windina

Dragon Blaze: Edge - 718'300 - 1-6 - Quaid

Guwange: Edge - 6'439'318 - 5 - Shishin - 11'681

Missing Batrider: Because of the save state usage to lower rank in the title screen.
And also Star Force: I forgot to rename the inp after my highscore and the next time I clicked on "Play and record input" in MAME, I accidently killed it. Nevermind wasn't that special anyway...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 6:46 pm

Youtube isn't THAT bad in terms of video quality-if it was, it wouldn't be anywhere near as popular as it is, given that we're in the DVD-age, so to speak.

I've watched plenty of replays that rolins has put up, and they look fine. I'm just greatfull that there are sites that have these superplays (or even gameplay demonstrations) out there.

Post by **Icarus** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:10 am

Might as well post this now, in case anyone's still interested.
Twinbee Yahhoo - 5.15mil to Stage 6, using Option Type. (XVID - 150MB)
SiK's will be more interesting to watch when he releases it, though.

sikraiken · Post by **sikraiken** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:19 am

Icarus wrote:Might as well post this now, in case anyone's still interested.
Twinbee Yahhoo - 5.15mil to Stage 6, using Option Type. (XVID - 150MB)
SiK's will be more interesting to watch when he releases it, though.

My play is really sloppy, I think. I'll check out your replay after classes tomorrow while my video is (hopefully) encoding.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:59 am

That stage 3 death was a bunch of bullshit

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:36 pm

Awesome replay Icarus

Too lazy to think of anything to say about specific portions of the run itself.

Post by **Icarus** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:37 pm

Releasing all my replays now...

- Twinbee Yahhoo - 5.15mil to Stage 6, using Option Type. (XVID - 150MB)
- Viper Phase One - 8.10mil to Stage 7 (XVID - 190MB)
- Darius Gaiden - 11.38mil, V Route ALL (WolfMAME 0.106required)
- Omega Fighter Special (Special Mode) - 20.99mil to Stage 2-7 (WolfMAME 0.106required)
- Gigawing - 83.6tril to Stage 7, using Ruby (XVID - 223MB)

... to appease some of the doubters (because there are probably one or two out there). Could have done better with some of the runs, but meh. Lack of free time and a change in priority for this tournament contributed to that.

As usual, thanks to zakk for hosting my AVI material. Always appreciated.

Enjoy the replays.