Easter eggs in shmups?

[captain ahar]

someone should redo r-type with a total barnyard overhaul.

[heavymetalme]

I saw a post from awhile about about Milestone images hidden in Karous... is that relevant?

[D]

I will take this as my easter egg present. Thanks.
You guys crack me up

[Mortificator]

I know in the background on the first stage of Blazing Star, just right before you fly into the forest...

What?! What happens when you fly into the forest...


On the topic of eatser eggs, what series of driving games had classic little games beneath the loading screen? I'm sure one version featured an early shmup... Hazy memories

I believe you are thinking of either ridge racer 1 or 2.

Probably. I think Namco actually owns the patent for mini-games on loading screens, which might be why they don't show up more often. 'Course, if your game takes so long to load that you need a mini-game to keep people siting there, you've got problems.

Anyway, Konami's MSX games sometimes had secrets that would be unlocked by having a second game in the the second slot. Just one of them is Salamander; play it with Gradius 2 also inserted and you'll go through that game's last stage and fight its final boss.

[Shatterhand]

Salamander's one was really annoying, it wasn't much an easter egg, more like "You HAVE TO BUY GRADIUS II TO SEE THE ENDING"

If you play Gradius 2 with Penguin Adventure on the 2nd slot you'll play as pentaro. And one of those Gradius games, if you put Twinbee on the 2nd slot, you'll play as twinbee.

Guardic on MSX had a secret Sound Test screen... you had to press LEFT and RIGHT about 5 times on the high-score screen, if I remember correctly (If you did it on the title screen, you would get a Training mode where you could play any stage for training) - Not that would matter, I doubt 1% of the forum had actually played Guardic (But many has played its NES sequel, "Guardic Gaiden", AKA "The Guardian Legend" ). Alas, most of the MSX Compile shmups had a secret Sound Test somewhere.

[Super Laydock]

Here are some I know about:

*Shooting some statues in Zanac NES multiple times either gives a screen clearing power up or power up boost

*The TGL code in Guardian Legend to play only the shmup stages

*Hidden towers in Xevious

*Hidden hard mode in Twinbee Da! GB b/w that takes effect after you beat the game.

*Hidden special mode in Genesis/MD port of Darius II (Sagaia) that is accessed by pressing C 12 times at the title screen.

*Hidden bonus areas in NES and MSX Gradius

*Hidden stage in SMS R-Type

*Hidden ending pics in JP Super Aleste SFC that appear by pressing L or R

*Hidden "arcade" mode in SNES Gradius III that is accessed by highlighting the game level on the options screen and rapidly pressing A

*Hidden stage 0 in the original Aleste/Power Strike for SMS and MSX? that appears if you continue after beating the game.

Edited post with info on how to do the codes

That's the sort of stuff I was looking for...

Also loved playing Nemesis 2 with Pentarou... combined 2 of my fave games ever...

Twinbee gave similar results if combined with gradius 1 on MSX.

Anyway was asking about "hidden" stuff in shmups. Nice noteworthy facts, being it games, pics, secret levels, messages, etc...
As long as you had to make an effort beyong normally playing the game to reach or discover it it is an esater egg for me... (though any other mysteries/cameos/hidden meaning in shmups will do just as well).

Personally I love stuff like hidden stages in nemesis 2 where you can get extra weapons (after flying into the core of bosses at the end). This wasn't that well hidden, but great extra stuff nonetheless. The topless girl in that strikers game is a nice feat too.

[Shatterhand]

nemesis 2

Sometimes I forget how great this game indeed was. It was an amazing effort from Konami to do such an ambitious game on an MSX1 and just 128kb .

[Super Laydock]

nemesis 2

Sometimes I forget how great this game indeed was. It was an amazing effort from Konami to do such an ambitious game on an MSX1 and just 128kb .

They sure did know how to make the most of limited resources those days.
These days games are made optimal for specs that sometime almost don't exist (Crysis being a good example).

[Mortificator]

The bosses repeated a little too frequently in that one for my tastes, and they were almost all Cores. It's a good game, but I prefer Nemesis 3.

Metalion was way more bad-ass then Vixen, though.

[Shatterhand]

I do prefer Nemesis 3 too, but Nemesis 2 was a more ambitious, big-epic project, and it was only 128kb instead of 256kb like Nemesis 3. And believe me, we are minority, for each guy who prefers Nemesis 3, the are 12 who prefers Nemesis 2

[dpful]

There should be a "cheats" post in the strategy section that list all easter eggs and cheats---


Anyone?

[spadgy]

There should be a "cheats" post in the strategy section that list all easter eggs and cheats---


Anyone?

I think the sadomasochistic nature of shmups makes many on this forum dubious about shmup cheats.

I for one only think the really entertaining or silly ones are of interest.

That said it's a forum for everybody. I just think your excellent suggestion of a thread would be better received if we stuck to the term 'easter eggs', just to abate over the top reactions...

EDIT: Here's the proof...

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

EDIT 2 and 3: Spelling mistakes galore!

[Shocky]

I do prefer Nemesis 3 too, but Nemesis 2 was a more ambitious, big-epic project, and it was only 128kb instead of 256kb like Nemesis 3. And believe me, we are minority, for each guy who prefers Nemesis 3, the are 12 who prefers Nemesis 2

Certainly seems that way. It's a hard pick, I love both so much, but I guess I'll go with Nemesis 3, the gravity fields in stage 3 are just that cool and evil.

Btw, as you folks probably know there are two stages in the unreleased Gradius 2 beta version that don't appear in the sales version. I put replays in YouTube for those who might be interested:

Stage 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ0KdoTByoU (shows also an "easter egg" bonus stage inside the boss)
Stage 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMKiNBnUrFA

[elfhentaifan]

Zone of the Enders 2 is not a shmup, but has an awesome Gradius V easteregg.

You can unlock a VicViper Battle Suit with orginal patterns and options from the gradius series.
During a certain fight against this special Orbital Frame you can listen to a very cool Gradius Arranged Track, too.

[spadgy]

Zone of the Enders 2 is not a shmup, but has an awesome Gradius V easteregg.

You can unlock a VicViper Battle Suit with orginal patterns and options from the gradius series.
During a certain fight against this special Orbital Frame you can listen to a very cool Gradius Arranged Track, too.

A great list of Vic Viper and Gradius cameos...

http://gradius.classicgaming.gamespy.com/index2.html

[kozo]

ZOE2 actually has a Gradius minigame accessible by code. It's a behind-the-ship view and has options and classic Gradius tunes as I recall.

[Kiken]

Another one: During the first Stage of Shikigami No Shiro 3 you can spot the triangle service cat(?) somewhere.

Not a cat... it's the stone-man who appeared in stage 2 of Trizeal (sort of Triangle Service's mascot). You know, the little guy who throws the rock up at you? He's seated off to the left side near the beginning of stage 1-1 in Shiki III.

[plounted]

i don't remember how but you can get all of the bullets on screen in night wing to become curry if you do something.