in UK land, a high serial number console boxed, around £80-100, £20 for the extra stick, £20-30 for baseball stars. is it a US/euro system (ie no blood and titties)? search ebay for some completed listings

you gonna stick to emus, or join me and kern in the ghetto?
kindgrind: i should really get back to border down

i was like DEL's favourite forum member for a while there

have you read rando's strat thread? best thing to do is download the replays on super-play.co.uk, as that's what i think he was annotating, and where i learnt from. although i am nowhere near as cool as the guy who did those vids. you need to start on a red route. milk the midboss turret thing for about 8 million, and milk the boss (ie destroy with a high break laser count and the timer as close to zero as you can make it). i think i usually make about 20 million on level 1. border up. stage 2, not many points available, make about 5-7 million here just trying to kill the boss as close to zero again. border up. then you are on stage 3 green, but because you haven't died yet, difficulty will be 100% difficulty rank (instead of what it should be, ie 40-60%). not many points in the level. just make *sure* to survive all the level while in green. when the boss appears, suicide twice immediately. this is important for two reasons. one, you will have powerups for your break laser, which you will need shortly. and two, enemy and boss values are higher on more difficult routes. get the boss to about half health. kill some option pods, as it will help get your laser to max quicker, but there will come a point where you can't fire at them because they will stop respawning (important). after the second time he fires small pink homing lasers , he will sit still while his options fire a three way spread shot of dense bullets. get into a position (usually below the boss) where you can fire your break laser without touching anything. it needs to be at max level. when you kill stuff with the break laser, the number of bullets it has cancelled is multiplied by the value of the enemy you kill. so a 100 break, killing a 1000 point enemy would be 0.1 mill. now, when you're lasering, you will cancel many bullets very quickly. when it is at about 500-600 hits, move to where you can hit the options, but not the boss. each option pod will be worth 3000 multiplied by your break laser hit count (500-600+). i'm usually at about 800 hits, so that's 800*3000 and six option pods. 2.4 million * 6 = mucho points

keep holding the laser, and fire straight at the boss. and now you need to pray... pray that you kill him before your laser runs out (timing is super tight). he is worth 30,000 * break laser. ie 30k x 999, or 30 million points. so total points from the 1st form are around 50 million. and his options are actually still respawning here, so if you're lucky all six will be killed *again* for an extra 15 million on top of the 50 million! however...! if you didn't suicide twice at the start, and are on green route, options are only worth 1000 each, and the boss 10k. so total points 1/3 of the 50 million, ie maybe get 15 million here. if you die during the level 3, you wont reach the green boss; your boss wont have the same form/patterns to do this trick. if you don't play it at maximum rank (ie red>yellow>green) the options wont fire enough bullets to drive your break laser up to a high value. if i haven't explained it well, or you have any other questions, just post in the high score thread

the 2nd form is MEGA tough when you do this though. i only ever once make it to stage 4 this way (less score, because i pussied out a bit) around 74 million. he is at max rank, and you have used up all your laser, and your shot is like a little pee shooter, while he is crazy pissed off
y'know, looking at those scores, i'm the 2nd best on the forum at border down, 2nd best at radiant silvergun, and 2nd best at dai-ou-jou. always the bridesmaid, but never the bride
