Borderdown Gratification?

[Halloween Jack]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question for enthusiasts who have mastered Borderdown; How much gratification has the title provided during the learning curve?

I've been dabbling with the DC version over the last couple of evenings, and have enjoyed the overall experience, but have yet to spend sufficient time to fully comprehend the nuances of the score mechanism etc.

As time is at a premium for me, I'm keen to understand whether the rewards for perseverance are as rich as they are for titles such as Garegga, Tatsujin, Batrider etc

Any views would be appreciated.

Thanks

HJ

[DEL]

It kept me running back to a noisy tourist trap arcade (The Troc) almost every day for ten months, so I must have been receiving a lot of gratification from the experience.

But Remember!.....

Its a thinking Man's Shoot'em Up .

You must understand it to appreciate it.

Learn Border composition.
Learn Norm Clears (per stage)/learn breaks.
Learn how to manipulate rank.
Learn a route that you are comfortable with.
& dare I say it...watch a replay or two.

If I had access to replays early on, my 10 months would have been a whole lot less.

Read Rando's excellent strategy guide.

Avoid the following route at first:-
R-R-R/Y-Y-Y/G-G-G/GY-YR-R/YR-R-R=>6D-YR-R-R

[Halloween Jack]

Its a thinking Man's Shoot'em Up .

You must understand it to appreciate it.

Aah, no wonder I'm struggling.....

It kept me running back to a noisy tourist trap arcade (The Troc) almost every day for ten months, so I must have been receiving a lot of gratification from the experience.

Good enough for me DEL, I'll get Rando's ST printed off, download the Superplays and settle myself in

Thanks for the input.

HJ

[DEL]

DEL wrote:
Its a thinking Man's Shoot'em Up .

You must understand it to appreciate it.

HJ wrote;

Aah, no wonder I'm struggling.....

Its not a pick up and blast shooter. If you try that you won't get far. I think this may be the main reason why so few people play it. The current generation of players have been brought up on instantly accessible Cave, Psikyo & Raizing titles. Most of these games can be played for distance without going into the scoring engines.
Unlike Border Down, which requires break lasers to be used for both survival and score. Its a mix between old memorization and new scoring based play.

Replays will shorten your learning curve. You don't have to copy them, but they will give you the basics you need.

One tip; reach the Stage 3 Boss on Red Border. Its an easier Boss. You don't need to start Stage 3 on Red, just Border Down to Red before the last section of Stage 3.

Each time you Border Down (die/suicide) you reduce the Rank. So achieving the Norm Clear score for each stage is important. You can use the Norm Clear extra life to go up a life, so that you can suicide and go down. Thus reducing Rank.

[Halloween Jack]

Its not a pick up and blast shooter. If you try that you won't get far.

Having skim-read Rando's ST, I can see why!! I had no idea that you could Border-Up or that shot speed increased in accord with on-screen position - or even what a 'Norm Clear' was - as you say its a pretty pointless game to play without a sound understanding

I haven't even started to digest the 'advanced techniques' either - way to sophisticated for me at this stage. However, with the advice provided and a grasp of the basics, I can at least start to play meaningfully.

Thanks again.

HJ

[Shatterhand]

The current generation of players have been brought up on instantly accessible Cave, Psikyo & Raizing titles

My GTA-Playing mate would disagree...

[DEL]

Shatterhand wrote;

My GTA-Playing mate would disagree...

Well if GTA means Grand Theft Auto, then its not a 2D Shooter, so the shoot'em up comparison can't be made .

There's always exceptions to the rule, but the fact still remains that Border Down is not 'pick up and play'.

HJ - The Rando PHD Strat is great, don't let the complexity scare you. (His Mars Matrix Strat is even more complex & delves into scoring algorithms).

All you'll really need for now is the basic spots to use your break laser.

[louisg]

The current generation of players have been brought up on instantly accessible Cave, Psikyo & Raizing titles

Psikyo instantly accessible?! My god, man! Talk about your games with super fast deadly spam attacks! Raizing games also tend to have a ton of hidden rank control, too.

'Course, Border Down will hand your ass to you over and over. It's like a fair version of a Taito horizontal shooter. Don't forget to use your break laser to get out of hairy situations and it'll become a little more managable.

[J-Manic]

Don't forget to use your break laser to get out of hairy situations and it'll become a little more managable.

But don't abuse it too much in the middle of the stages. It'll seem like forever for your laser to charge back up to 5, let alone 4, if you've gone down below 1. I had to learn that the hard way. Now, since I've been playing the game off and on for the last few years, I usually try to save my laser for the bosses because.....well.....I cream my pants during the brief laser battles.

[seattlexc]

I usually try to save my laser for the bosses because.....well.....I cream my pants during the brief laser battles.

Boarder Down does have impressive laser fights, but its got nothing on the laser counter in G-Darius, those lasers fill up like 2/3 of the screen

[Halloween Jack]

HJ - The Rando PHD Strat is great, don't let the complexity scare you. (His Mars Matrix Strat is even more complex & delves into scoring algorithms).

All you'll really need for now is the basic spots to use your break laser.

DEL, fully agree with your analysis of Rando's work, accurate, informative and comprehensive - we have a lot to thank him for. Great Raiden DX strat too, I fancy.

I'll download the superplays to identify the break laser spots and continue to plug on with the game in between Truxton and Strikers sessions...

Cheers

HJ

[J-Manic]

Boarder Down does have impressive laser fights, but its got nothing on the laser counter in G-Darius, those lasers fill up like 2/3 of the screen

Of course. The ones in G-Darius are too crazy. They can actually fill up the entire screen.

[Danny]

Shatterhand wrote;

My GTA-Playing mate would disagree...

Well if GTA means Grand Theft Auto, then its not a 2D Shooter, so the shoot'em up comparison can't be made .

Not strictly true the first two games are 2D and heavily score based.

[DEL]

Not strictly true the first two games are 2D and heavily score based.

So the first two are 2D shooters?

Anyway, like I said; there's always exceptions to the rule .


Halloween Jack - Are you still playing it? Any advice needed?

[Twiddle]

the first two games are more run-and-guns with cars (second one moreso, you can rack up multipliers if you just decide to go out and kill people and destroy everything)

[Halloween Jack]

Halloween Jack - Are you still playing it? Any advice needed?

Hi DEL, well the time that I had set aside today was spent killing ants in the conservatory and repairing Flymos

However, I have my DC hooked up and ready to go, so provided that work doesn't take too much of a toll on me, I should be in a position to recommence battle next week.

I have managed to download the superplays of all six levels, and now realise the depth of the game and the skill required to top the high score table. Beautiful looking game!!!

So for now, I'll be okay just to pick up the basics. However, speaking of advice, I may well PM you ref Truxton - I'm beginning to struggle a little around the 400K point.

Cheers

HJ