Shmups as alertness test

[Zhon]

Depending on how well I sleep, I may be at varying levels of alertness for the next day. One very interesting consequence of this is that my shmup performance is drastically different depending on how alert I am.

Outside of shmups, it's actually not that easy to quantify exactly how alert I am - but with a shmup it's simpler. On great days, I can manage to 1CC DDP's first loop - on bad days, I crash and burn in level 4, a rather large difference in performance. So using DDP as a tool, I can actually quantify exactly how alert I am, in a rather unscientific way.

Anyone else experience something similar? Shmup performance varying most directly with wakefulness rather than other factors?

[Fighter17]

In the morning, I die in level 2 in Zero Gunner 2. At noon, I die in level 4. In the morning, I die the first time in Giga Wing at level 2. At noon, I die at level 4. I'm a normal shump player.

[BUHA]

Sometimes I can get to the last boss on a game. Later in the day I'll play again and die against the 1st or 2nd boss. It's stupid. I blame it on how awake i am or if i'm paying attention. When I die like that, I just go find something else to do. it's hopeless.

[Ganelon]

Yeah, I noticed that shooters (as well as fighters) work the same way for me. If I didn't get enough sleep the night before or have a headache or cold or something, I get hit by the stupidest stray bullets in shooters and mess up easy bread 'n butter combos in fighters.

[deadninja]

I agree. I usually play a lot better after drinking a large cup of coffee. When I'm exhausted from work or haven't slept properly I'll make more dumb mistakes like running into walls. And forget flying drunk, that's when I mistake enemies for p-ups.

[Vexorg]

Now if we could just adapt this for use as a sobriety test...

"OK sir, now please walk this line... Good. Now if you would step right this way and beat Hibachi in one life..."

[shiftace]

I can tell when I'm more or less alert. There are certain patterns that I just can't interpret on some days, but other days I just go through them without really trying. The weird thing is it doesn't seem to have anything to do with fatigue or sleepiness. Usually I need a couple credits or aborts to get warmed up, but there are times when my first, cold run is the best I'll do all day. And sometimes I do best after an hour of mistakes.

I think my sense of timing just drifts in some way that I don't know how to control.

[Tomtom]

Outside of shmups, it's actually not that easy to quantify exactly how alert I am - but with a shmup it's simpler. On great days, I can manage to 1CC DDP's first loop - on bad days, I crash and burn in level 4, a rather large difference in performance. So using DDP as a tool, I can actually quantify exactly how alert I am, in a rather unscientific way.

Strangely enough, that's exactly where I'm at in my DDP playing. Chaining is also a factor. If I can pull of the ~470 hit chain in level 2 it's a good sign (though the increased rank usually leads to death).

[Blade]

Considering this topic: I highly doubt you could get hyper vigilance aka PTSD from a Shmup. It's more of a reflex development than anything else. I really don't think it's going to affect your overall alertness as that involves more than just hand-eye coordination like most games....unless you were playing Dodonpachi with a DDR Pad or something...

[system11]

I don't even remember what alert is, anymore.