Official: Mushihime-sama Futari (1.0, 1.5, BLT)

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:28 am

It only happens in God mode really. God mode pretty much pushes the hardware to the limits. The on screen display (along with many sprites) disappears for a second or two when you trigger the multiplier with a screen full of bullets. Reminds one of Ketsui and Galuda on the PGM hardware, where the screen gets some video garbage when a lot of enemies are being destroyed or lots of multipliers are on the screen.

While there's lots of slowdown in God mode, Ultra mode (Futari 1.5) had more bullets, and they moved faster, and there was far less slowdown. So I'm not sure how much of that is due to the hardware.

Maybe Cave will update the hardware after DDP:DFK? I don't see them going hi res, maybe just getting a better CPU and more RAM.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:48 am

Since the slowdown corresponds to the bullet count, I'm not too worried about it.

So I'm not sure how much of that is due to the hardware.

The shot (at least for Reco) is pretty graphically intensive. Way more so than in 1.5, and the slowdown seems to be more pronounced as firepower increases. Sure, it could be simulated, but I think that has a lot to do w/ the differences in slowdown between God & Ultra.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:54 am

Yeah, you're probably right about the shots affecting the slowdown.

Post by **system11** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:01 am

EOJ wrote:Maybe Cave will update the hardware after DDP:DFK? I don't see them going hi res, maybe just getting a better CPU and more RAM.

I'm hoping the new game is on a new hardware revision. I don't want 3D or high res, the games just seem to need a little more oomph on the hardware now to push them adequately. This was the first game where the amount of slowdown kind of bothered me a bit. If they just gave it something that didn't slow down more due to the player firing, that would really help - the fact that letting go of fire = bullets speed up and potentially lead to death, is bothersome.

ReKleSS · Post by **ReKleSS** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:01 am

Spiritual Larsa and another one. Haven't looked yet, I won't download these until tomorrow.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:04 am

ReKleSS wrote:Spiritual Larsa and another one. Haven't looked yet, I won't download these until tomorrow.

They're impressive, although Spiritual Larsa doesn't look all that intimidating. Getting to her of course, is a different story.

caincan · Post by **caincan** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 8:05 pm

thanks to EOJ. i could try the Ultra mode on 1.0. the legend was true !

so there a few pics on the net finally !. didnt play much on mushi futari (few games of futari BL thanks to sven666 meeting), but sure i appreciate more this ultra from few attempts (my cab here in Paris has no sound and i must adjust brightness) than the 2 other modes i played few coins ("seemed much more quiet on the first stage")

CStarFlare · Post by **CStarFlare** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:49 pm

So how does one get Ultra on 1.0? From my understanding Ultra just kind of came with 1.5 and didn't show up on 1.0 until Cave had it unlocked at one of their events.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:54 pm

CStarFlare wrote:So how does one get Ultra on 1.0? From my understanding Ultra just kind of came with 1.5 and didn't show up on 1.0 until Cave had it unlocked at one of their events.

I posted the code on my site:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php ... 06#msg6006

However, it doesn't work on my ver 1.0 PCB.

Also, CAVE never unlocked Ultra on 1.0 at any of their events. It was unlocked at Mikado arcade, and a few others.

caincan · Post by **caincan** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:03 am

EOJ, it's not same as your "special" i guess. it's labelled without the dots : 2006/10/23 MASTER VER

number : CA-21105

did a jerk video, trying upload...

so you were able to play it in arcades?

well who knows & has patience.. perhaps some other "old" Cave games have hidden modes too

msm · Post by **msm** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:16 pm

i'm currently trying to get hold of either futari 1.5 (or espgaluda 2), just wondered what people think to the difficulty of manic mode on futari 1.5 - how does it compare with other cave games?

recently had a little chance to try them in japan but ended up spending most of my money on the new dodonpachi.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:18 pm

Futari 1.5 Maniac has a really nice difficulty level. Not easy, but not super hard. It's similar to Mushi's Maniac mode difficulty, but with a harder end boss.

Square King · Post by **Square King** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:22 pm

As much as I hate to sound like 'that guy,' I really want to try this in mame.

msm · Post by **msm** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:05 pm

thanks EOJ, i'm going to have a go on mushi manic mode now to see how that is as i have't played it for ages.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:12 pm

In my opinion, Futari's Maniac is a bit harder than Mushi's Maniac in a pure survival sense, and a bit easier in a scoring sense. Futari's Maniac scoring system is a lot more intuitive than Mushi's. I agree with EOJ that the difficultly level feels just about perfect, though. That mode, alone, easily ranks among the greatest shooting games ever created.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:21 pm

i always felt futari maniac was a poor man's galuda; while mushi's maniac was a poor man's 'pachi

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:35 pm

jpj wrote:i always felt futari maniac was an extravagant man's galuda; while mushi's maniac was an extravagant man's 'pachi

;]

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 10:39 pm

it's all about ultra baby

Gwyrgyn Blood · Post by **Gwyrgyn Blood** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:47 pm

jpj wrote:i always felt futari maniac was a poor man's galuda;

I kind of felt the same way actually. But not about Ultra mode, that shit is too hard

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:55 pm

While Futari 1.5's Maniac has a slight similarity to Galuda in the triggering of a bullet-cancelling multiplier, that's it. It has more in common with Ketsui in the overall flow of the game, and the other elements of the scoring system.

As a side note, Futari 1.0's Maniac is probably the most interesting because it feels and plays like a fusion of Ketsui and Mushi Maniac. Wish more people could play version 1.0.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:10 am

Maybe we'll get a 360 release with the different versions. Maybe, just maybe, if sales of the others are strong.

Gwyrgyn Blood · Post by **Gwyrgyn Blood** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:12 am

Yeah it's only vaguely similar... it's got the 'stock item, cash in on lots of bullets' thing and that's about it. I liked 1.5 Original mode but also didn't like that your score got raped pretty hard any time you died. Ketsui has that problem even worse though. :X

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:14 am

professor ganson wrote:Maybe we'll get a 360 release with the different versions. Maybe, just maybe, if sales of the others are strong.

I doubt you'll have 1.0 on it, if a Futari is made for the X360. Likely just 1.5 or BL (or maybe both together). It would take a good deal of work to put 1.0 on it, since there are so many fundamental differences with it and 1.5 (different enemy placements, bullet patterns and bullet speeds, character specs, etc). I just doubt they'd bother, as even putting 1.5 and BL together on one disc would be a huge undertaking (at least if they wanted them to be accurate ports).

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:19 am

Well, that's too bad. And I'm guessing the version 1.0 PCB is rare enough that we won't see the price drop too significantly.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:23 am

I mentioned before that I doubt there are more than a few dozen 1.0 PCBs in existence today. Most were recalled early on and reprogrammed as 1.5, and then the majority of the leftovers were later reprogrammed as Black Label.

Tell a PCB retailer you are looking for it, and they'll laugh. It's not obtainable through any distribution channels. As of now, there isn't a single Arcade in Japan that has it playable either (though Hey and Mikado probably still have their PCBs in storage). It took me 6 months to track a 1.0 PCB down, and I just got lucky on YAJ one day when a kit popped up for a BIN of 100,000 yen and I snagged it before anyone else could. This was back in September. Before that I had only seen one other 1.0 PCB on YAJ in the past year.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:26 am

Holy crap. Nice find. Thanks for filling me in; I haven't kept up on this topic much.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:27 am

I know a few others on the forums here have one - Superpang and Caincan. Not sure if anyone else does.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:23 am

Mikado

These guys rotate shit all the time. They keep a lot of their PCBs in a case and will swap them out for you, time permitting.

msm · Post by **msm** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:33 am

Necronopticous wrote:In my opinion, Futari's Maniac is a bit harder than Mushi's Maniac in a pure survival sense

i tried mushi manic just now and found it pretty hard, which doesn't bode well, but any comparison to ketsui can only be a good thing for me.

also tried ultra and some bits were oddly doable, but mostly death after death after death.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:35 am

Futari's Ultra is harder than Mushi's Ultra. Just FYI.

If you need an easier difficulty in Futari 1.5, there's always Original mode. It's a lot better than Mushi's Original mode as it actually has a fun scoring system.