GD: Star Force

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:03 pm

According to the near worthless FAQ at GameFAQs you can make a midboss appear on every stage. How is that accomplished? I seem to get one every 3-4 stages.

If there are three stretches of vertical arrow boxes, is that a potential 3 X 80,000 bonus?

And someone please take a snap of the fossil and the tile that's supposed to be hit. Thanks.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:17 pm

You suck at google!

http://www.users.bigpond.com/tjmorrow/index.htm

Elsewhere on that site there's a map of the entire playfield.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:18 pm

One other request. In order to make my score less laughable, I need that 50,000 bonus on the first stage. Is the idea that you need to kill that cube-like thing's core before its shell surrounds it? My firing rate with the XBox Street Fighter pad seems too low to kill it, but it could be my lack of skill as far as button mashing goes.

EDIT: zakk's link seems helpful here. Thanks!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:26 pm

professor ganson wrote:Is the idea that you need to kill that cube-like thing's core before its shell surrounds it?

Yes. For MAME the timing has to be pretty much perfect with a delay of 5, which is pretty fast. It seems like I have to hit fire just before it flashes.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:09 pm

I still wonder if anyone has done it without autofire...

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:19 am

nes version had 24 levels without infinity i think... i'm getting only to Stage 4(MAME) without autofire

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:56 am

Er, I got a great bonus by destroying maybe 2-5 of the arrow boxes (at the end, I guess). wtf?

MJR · Post by **MJR** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:55 am

it is easier to destroy the midboss if you play the original pcb. with autofire, it can be done as well, but you need to wait for its center to flash before shooting.

there's quite a bit of useful info about star force in mame .history file.
it also gived hint on how to rack up points in the level where to vertical lines of arrows appear. destroy bunch of a them in a row, and you'll get another bonus.

weird thing about starforce is that it gets significantly easier after level 10-12, depending how far you got in the map

EDIT:
this map was really nice. it seems I have reached almost the very end on my pcb. too bad that it isn't working now.

I remember trying to convert star force with seuck, back in the eighties.
my attempt sucked, but then I made a 'sequel' to it.. it can be found from the seuck vault

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:12 pm

What determines the length of each level? Is it dependent on how much you destroy? It seems to me as if the "breaks" in the map which are caused by the bosses' appearance don't always occur in the same spots.

Also, the enemy waves seem to follow a set sequence, but how many enemies are in each individual wave seems to be random. Is that correct?

MJR · Post by **MJR** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:15 pm

I have no hard data to back this up, but I think it is the amount of score you make - try killing the midboss and destroy as many arrows you can - and level will end.

behaviour of the enemies also is determined from the score and play: lose a life, they ease on you a bit, make plenty of score and they will shoot more aggressively.

*rant* best thing about star force is that it is so self-adjusting with its gameplay. there's surprising amount of variety for sucha simple game. Something that it's imitators never could match. *end of rant*

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:59 pm

The shot speed powerup doubles your hitbox size as well as enemy aggressiveness.

You need to die twice to get rank to where it was.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:00 pm

MJR wrote:I have no hard data to back this up, but I think it is the amount of score you make - try killing the midboss and destroy as many arrows you can - and level will end.

I think amount of enemies killed is the likely reason. This seems to be how the midboss appears, at least.

I seem to do better when I pick up the power-up.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:12 pm

I seem to do better with the power-up because my button mashing is weak. Problem is, when I survive without dying to level delta, the rank seems to get out of control for me. Is rank in fact affected by how long you survive?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:06 pm

professor ganson wrote:Is rank in fact affected by how long you survive?

Rank is affected by survival time and getting the powerup. There's nothing you can do about the former, but keeping your survivability up is a must, especially if you gain no benefit for getting the powerup, shot-wise depending on your playing style.

Your hitbox being twice as tall for getting the powerup is hilarious and stupid.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:16 pm

Twiddle wrote:Your hitbox being twice as tall for getting the powerup is hilarious and stupid.

Hasn't been a problem for me.

But I'm not sure about the rank increase. The enemies that just rush down and off the screen get to be a major pain. I still like the increased shot rate.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:26 pm

I find the craft's increased speed from the powerup a much more important benefit than the increased autofire, myself...even with the larger hitbox, in many cases I still find it easier to be able to shoot down enemies before they start firing at me (especially those buggers who dive to the bottom and then dash at you while shooting) or else just lead the bullets with the increased speed than I find trying to squeeze between everything, as I usually end up trapped in a corner/behind an obstacle anyway. Even the rank increase doesn't put me off.

Outta curiosity, Twiddle, did you hack the ROM for this one, or are your rank-based statements from observation only?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:19 am

BulletMagnet wrote:Outta curiosity, Twiddle, did you hack the ROM for this one, or are your rank-based statements from observation only?

Observation from about a few dozen plays. Games with numerical rank values that increase are impossible to find, because the value of just about everything else increases.

This is why Yagawa's rank systems are so wonderful. The value is easily found because it does something nearly everything else isn't (decreasing).

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:10 am

Off all the various enemies in this game, the two that are the biggest pains are the ships that rush straight down and off the screen (these things get damned fast), and those ships that come down to the horizontal level you're at on the screen, and then side rush you while firing (again, they get damned fast later). I've seen quite a few times where these ships start coming down, and they don't stop. I'm talking dozens of them in a stream that doesn't end until you do, not matter how many you shoot down or dodge. It's like the game's decided you've played long enough, and it's time to fuck you out of your current ship (and the next one half the time).

I've figured out patterns and dodging techniques for the other ships, but those two are just so damned random once you get further into the game, that it's almost like it's left up to chance as to whether or not you'll survive.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:12 am

Twiddle wrote:This is why Yagawa's rank systems are so wonderful. The value is easily found because it does something nearly everything else isn't (decreasing).

It'd better be, because they're more vital to understand than nearly any other shmups', and Raizing, philanthropists that they are, tell us exactly squat about them.

In any event, whatever rank increases there might be, I still find the increased speed in particular to be too much of an advantage to ignore, despite the handicap/s that go with it.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:12 am

Some observations:

I can't confirm that the hitbox doubles in size when you pick up the powerup. I have seen bullets and even enemies pass through the back part of my ship without destroying it. If your hitbox gets bigger at all, it's only slightly.

The "midboss" is just part of the normal sequence of enemy waves. I think it always comes after a wave of the fast ships that drop down and leave the screen, but I could be mistaken.

Rank is not dependent on your score or on how much you destroy. I tried a few runs without shooting anything and rank went up in exactly the same way as usual. So rank only seems to depend on survival time.

If you pick up the powerup, you scoring opportunities increase, as you get more enemy waves. Enemies become faster, so even the waves you do not totally destroy leave the screen earlier, thus triggering the next wave.

The helper turrets at the bosses never shoot at the same time, but take turns. The first one to shoot is always the right one and it shoots its first bullet just a moment before the boss appears. If you know this, it's very easy to anticipate the bullets and not getting hit.

Btw, I usually pick up the powerup somewhere around stage 7 or 8, because by then the rank has reached a level where the screen is flooded with bullets anyway, so I can at least compensate a bit through my increased speed and firing rate.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:15 pm

Herr Schatten wrote: The "midboss" is just part of the normal sequence of enemy waves. I think it always comes after a wave of the fast ships that drop down and leave the screen, but I could be mistaken.

Yeah, for me they appear on stage 1 - 4/5 - 7. Not sure after that.

Since the waves are in a predictable order, you can manipulate it to coordinate with the map as you need to get the 80,000 bonus, cleopatra, etc.

DJ Incompetent · Post by **DJ Incompetent** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:47 pm

Because there's misinformation out there:
The hiddens (H things) only need two shots to kill. One shot to start the "appearing" process in-which the H is invincible for about a full second. Once the hidden is all there, a single shot will destroy it.

Rob wrote:Since the waves are in a predictable order, you can manipulate it to coordinate with the map as you need to get the 80,000 bonus, cleopatra, etc.

Building on that, the spinny thing that has the powerup appears after the midboss.

So I guess we just need a listing of exactly what enemy waves appear in what order. Kinda like that rainbow color event item sequence from Blazing Star.

In case that Tim site dies one year...

Cleopatra

The third batch of purple (violet) ground with no tiles. You will see that fish fossil "picture puzzle" everybody talks about on the left side, facing right. It so happens the fish's mouth horizontally points right where the head is. Column-wise, the head is at the 2nd to last tile on the right side of the map.

So speaking in (x,y) coordinates = (fish head, 2nd to last tile on right)

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:35 pm

Rob wrote:Er, I got a great bonus by destroying maybe 2-5 of the arrow boxes (at the end, I guess). wtf?

I think these carryover. Meaning you don't have to destroy an entire row. I accidentally hit the first two arrows, then the rest on the left side. Stage ended. Next stage, got a great bonus after destroying the first one on the left side.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:20 pm

Here's a handy strategy I picked up on as I played.

The bullet speed that seems to be random, isn't so random. From what I've observed, the speed of the bullets (at least partially) depends on how far away from your ship a given enemy is when it fires. Quite a few times, I would be in the middle of the screen, and the enemies would fire their shots at a noticeably slower speed, even in Areas like 19 and 20. If I darted back to the bottom of the screen for whatever reason, there would be many more hyperspeed bullets being thrown my way.

Needless to say, I spent a good amount of time trying to stay in the mid-section of the screen, so that dodging and weaving between shots was a bit easier.

Quite a few of the enemies come out from the opposite half of the screen from where you are. So if you're in the right half, they'd come out from the top of the left half. As a result, staying right around the middle as they came out, and moving in something of an upward curving back-and-forth pattern (think the mouth of the "Have A Nice Day" face), makes taking the enemies out and dodging shots easier.

And while I can't say this for certain, I believe the direction a boss moves can be controlled. Many times, I'd sit just off to one side of the vertical center of the screen, and hold down the fire button as the boss came down. If I kept firing until the black silhouette of the core appeared, the boss would move to the opposite half of the screen than the one I was on. If you time it right, you can move with the core and kill it within a few seconds every time.

Again, I'm not certain of this, as from time to time it didn't work. But many times, it did.

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:36 pm

The hundreds digit of your score determines the movement direction of the boss. Odds and it moves left, evens and it moves right.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:26 pm

Damn, I missed that thread!

Though at this point, there's nothing I know that you guys haven't found yet.

Like Rob, I am not sure about the 80k bonus either. In the MSX version I would get it without destroying an entire column of arrows many times. Playing on Mame the thing that happened with Rob also happened with me. Not to mention that 2 times I managed to destroy an entire column and get NO bonus.

I think that you get the bonus after destroying a certain amount of arrows, that's all.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:18 am

the arrows don'ty have to be consecutive, but tey DO have to be in the same colum if a level ends, as long as the NEXT arrow block you destroy is in the same colum, you wll trigger the bonus. if you go for those horizontally staggered ones, or try to get both colums, you will not get the bonus.

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:25 am

Heh i got into zeta area ^^
More arrows you destroy then boss faster appears heh i checked it out

destructor · Post by **destructor** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:23 am

Kaiser wrote:More arrows you destroy then boss faster appears heh i checked it out

English:
How fast boss appear depend how high is your score on stage. You can easy check how many points is required for boss appear.

Polish (Kaiser is from Poland):
Pojawienie sie bossa zalezy od wysokosci twojego wyniku na planszy. Sprawdz sobie ze jak zrobisz iles tam punktow to sie boss pojawia.

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:57 am

Random thing happened to me yesterday when i played this game....
I've had those vertically placed arrows on Theta(8) instead of Iota(9)!!!! I think that happened because i've had many points but it's uncorfimed what caused that strange but useful for fast clearing!

Anyway i got stuck at Lambda area(11) heh