1984, you trickster.Ed Oscuro wrote:I'd be mad if you forgot The Tin Star ;D
Known missing games post for big 150.
Eyebrow raised at the factoid on Front Line flyer.
1978-1983 arcade shooter countdown.
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toaplan_shmupfan
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Sinistar had a lot of subtle details that often got overlooked due to the fast gameplay. These include:
* In addition to the player shooting planetoids to mine crystals, the Warrior enemies could also shoot planetoids and mine crystals.
* Workers would try to gather any crystal to transport it as a Sinistar piece, including stealing those just mined by the player ship.
* Sinibombs could be intercepted by hitting a Worker, Warrior or Planetoid... which meant even having just enough Sinibombs didn't necessarily mean automatic destruction of the Sinistar.
* Warriors often actively guarded the Sinistar while it was being built and even after it was built (usually at least three of them).
* After the first screen, the Sinistar could and would be rebuilt if it was not fully destroyed by enough Sinibombs.
* With proper timing, Warrior shots could actually be shot by the player ship.
Some of that obviously took a lot of extra design and programming time. There's also supposed to be a version that was less difficult and more balanced, at least according to video clips on game compilations that include Sinistar.
* In addition to the player shooting planetoids to mine crystals, the Warrior enemies could also shoot planetoids and mine crystals.
* Workers would try to gather any crystal to transport it as a Sinistar piece, including stealing those just mined by the player ship.
* Sinibombs could be intercepted by hitting a Worker, Warrior or Planetoid... which meant even having just enough Sinibombs didn't necessarily mean automatic destruction of the Sinistar.
* Warriors often actively guarded the Sinistar while it was being built and even after it was built (usually at least three of them).
* After the first screen, the Sinistar could and would be rebuilt if it was not fully destroyed by enough Sinibombs.
* With proper timing, Warrior shots could actually be shot by the player ship.
Some of that obviously took a lot of extra design and programming time. There's also supposed to be a version that was less difficult and more balanced, at least according to video clips on game compilations that include Sinistar.
#30 Moon Cresta (1980)
This is no Terra Cresta, but bears enough resemblance for me to put up with its horrible quirks. The game starts out with one of the more annoying enemy sets, ensuring a quick death for the type-I rocket and introducing its main feature: multiple ship parts. Type-I is replaced by a wider and more powerful type-II. This is much less about stacking on the ship parts than it is relief that more than one bullet can be shot at a time. Docking rocket parts is like putting a bull's-eye on your ship, but you might be able to clear out a wave of enemies before they start pivoting sideways towards or spawning on top of your ship.
#29 Astro Blaster (1981)
Quite a lot of synthesized speech to announce every realistic danger in the game, from running out of fuel to an overheating weapon. Like Astro Fighter, the enemy waves loop until you destroy them, so fuel is just a fancy replacement for a timer. The enemy and bullet-slowing time warp is only a suicidal temptation until you reach the one enemy set in each level that requires it. At least then you can use the additional time warp for one of two secret scoring bonuses. Adding as many of these to a level run is the best part of this game.
If you want to try it for yourself, scoring info can be found here.
This is no Terra Cresta, but bears enough resemblance for me to put up with its horrible quirks. The game starts out with one of the more annoying enemy sets, ensuring a quick death for the type-I rocket and introducing its main feature: multiple ship parts. Type-I is replaced by a wider and more powerful type-II. This is much less about stacking on the ship parts than it is relief that more than one bullet can be shot at a time. Docking rocket parts is like putting a bull's-eye on your ship, but you might be able to clear out a wave of enemies before they start pivoting sideways towards or spawning on top of your ship.
#29 Astro Blaster (1981)
Quite a lot of synthesized speech to announce every realistic danger in the game, from running out of fuel to an overheating weapon. Like Astro Fighter, the enemy waves loop until you destroy them, so fuel is just a fancy replacement for a timer. The enemy and bullet-slowing time warp is only a suicidal temptation until you reach the one enemy set in each level that requires it. At least then you can use the additional time warp for one of two secret scoring bonuses. Adding as many of these to a level run is the best part of this game.
If you want to try it for yourself, scoring info can be found here.
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toaplan_shmupfan
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Second Sinistar means the Worker Zone, correct? Here's the general strategy for all zones but it still requires precision and practice.nimitz wrote:Sinistar already!?
#31 Sinistar (1982) NIM - 65,030
if anyone got advice on how to beat the 2nd sinistar please go ahead. the snipers are everywhere...
1. Control the game's overall speed by making sure all joystick motions are small and precise, so lots of gently moving the stick in a specific direction. The enemies tend to pursue the ship much more aggressively when it is moving faster.
2. Make sure to have at least 7 Sinibombs when a Sinistar is destroyed. This means having to mine crystals even while deploying enough Sinibombs at a time to hit the Sinistar and keep the Sinistar off the screen (I usually deploy them in bursts of three or four at a time).
3. Similar to #1, small quick circles are a must when being circled by Warriors. (Workers only steal and transport crystals so are not any actual threat to the player ship.) The Warriors can strafe very fast but the player ship still turns faster than the Warrior turrets. So it is possible to get close to a Warrior, with the turret not yet pointed at the player ship, and eliminate it. Easier said than done, though, to keep moving the stick slowly and gently when the Warriors keep circling and shooting.
(Oh yeah, and the game obviously has rank too. Eliminating too many Sinistar pieces before the Sinistar is built (doable on the first zone only) is one way to quickly make the game turn more aggressive. Having 10 or more Sinibombs for the next zone after having just destroyed a Sinistar is another way to have three or more Warriors quickly in pursuit and shooting quite rapidly.)
#28 Carnival (1980)
This is exclusively for real shooting game marksmen as it only ends when you run out of bullets. I get really tired of dive bombing enemies and Carnival lets me have at many rows of sitting ducks, except when they are occasionally motivated to swoop down and consume your ammo. This is all about hitting small point icons with incredible accuracy until you get kind of bored and embarrassed about playing a simulation of a shooting gallery with no one around to impress.
#27 Mega Zone (1983)
I'm going to sell this one really hard by calling it the Turbo Force of this list. A very simple vertical scrolling shooter with a shoot command and largely irrelevant background graphics. The background graphics are actually pretty nice (shapes that resemble real world objects like trees) and I would* describe the enemy variety as jaw-dropping in comparison to Xevious' circles and squares.
*If I was trying to sell the PCB to you.
This is exclusively for real shooting game marksmen as it only ends when you run out of bullets. I get really tired of dive bombing enemies and Carnival lets me have at many rows of sitting ducks, except when they are occasionally motivated to swoop down and consume your ammo. This is all about hitting small point icons with incredible accuracy until you get kind of bored and embarrassed about playing a simulation of a shooting gallery with no one around to impress.
#27 Mega Zone (1983)
I'm going to sell this one really hard by calling it the Turbo Force of this list. A very simple vertical scrolling shooter with a shoot command and largely irrelevant background graphics. The background graphics are actually pretty nice (shapes that resemble real world objects like trees) and I would* describe the enemy variety as jaw-dropping in comparison to Xevious' circles and squares.
*If I was trying to sell the PCB to you.
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PC Engine Fan X!
- Posts: 9072
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Little known "demo" easter egg for Taito's Front Line arcade game:
During the demo sequence of Taito's Front Line arcade cabinet, you could actually control both the "aiming functionality" of the demo soldier and the demo tank. In one of the demo scenes, it was possible to destory the enemy bunker and have a wounded guy carrying a white flag surrender to you. Try it sometime on a real Frontline cab...you'll be surprised at what you can do. ^_~
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
During the demo sequence of Taito's Front Line arcade cabinet, you could actually control both the "aiming functionality" of the demo soldier and the demo tank. In one of the demo scenes, it was possible to destory the enemy bunker and have a wounded guy carrying a white flag surrender to you. Try it sometime on a real Frontline cab...you'll be surprised at what you can do. ^_~
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Re: 1978-1983 arcade shooter countdown - top 30.
Just for fun, I'll list the games that got 2600 ports:
Gravitar
Zaxxon
Asteroids
Omega Race
Star Trek
Colony 7 (homebrew)
Pleiads (prototype)
Phoenix
Gorf
Tac/Scan
Tempest (prototype)
Gyruss
Espial
Vanguard
Space Invaders
Sinistar (prototype)
Carnival
Front Line
Looping (prototype)
While Astro Fighter and Astro Blaster weren't ported to the 2600, Megamania "borrows" quite a bit from those games.
Gravitar
Zaxxon
Asteroids
Omega Race
Star Trek
Colony 7 (homebrew)
Pleiads (prototype)
Phoenix
Gorf
Tac/Scan
Tempest (prototype)
Gyruss
Espial
Vanguard
Space Invaders
Sinistar (prototype)
Carnival
Front Line
Looping (prototype)
While Astro Fighter and Astro Blaster weren't ported to the 2600, Megamania "borrows" quite a bit from those games.
#26 Xevious (1982)
The main difference between Xevious and a single screen shooter is that your credit will probably last longer. At no point does it try to overwhelm you with a barrage of enemies. Instead you get a steady amount of ground squares, maybe a floating base to drop from the free throw line and... spinning tiles. It goes from peacefully unchallenging to cheap in an instant, with one burst of homing bullets. Background graphics designed on an Etch-a-Sketch complete this rickety classic. You can tell I love it.
#25 Satan's Hollow (1981)
A game with many interesting features, like constructing your own bridge to Satan for a double and triple shot, hurt mainly by its decision to turn out the lights so twenty nearly invisible enemies can divebomb you after carpet bombing wasn't good enough. I like to overuse the shield, but it never lasts long enough during those night raids (:?). Careful planning and memorization might keep you alive long enough to (not) see the enemies become completely invisible.
The main difference between Xevious and a single screen shooter is that your credit will probably last longer. At no point does it try to overwhelm you with a barrage of enemies. Instead you get a steady amount of ground squares, maybe a floating base to drop from the free throw line and... spinning tiles. It goes from peacefully unchallenging to cheap in an instant, with one burst of homing bullets. Background graphics designed on an Etch-a-Sketch complete this rickety classic. You can tell I love it.
#25 Satan's Hollow (1981)
A game with many interesting features, like constructing your own bridge to Satan for a double and triple shot, hurt mainly by its decision to turn out the lights so twenty nearly invisible enemies can divebomb you after carpet bombing wasn't good enough. I like to overuse the shield, but it never lasts long enough during those night raids (:?). Careful planning and memorization might keep you alive long enough to (not) see the enemies become completely invisible.
on-rails
#24 Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982)
Similar obstacles, enemy formations and attacks to Space Harrier. They hadn't quite got a hang of auto-centering and it animates as choppily as Genesis Space Harrier II, but it is surprisingly good and I love the look.
#23 Blaster (1983)
It's fun just trying to make sense of what I'm looking at half of the time. Usually it is horrifying to be given different crappy objectives for each section, but this is all about the exploding blocks. You might also be able to find some fun in flying through the gates or capturing those cool looking astronauts.
#24 Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982)
Similar obstacles, enemy formations and attacks to Space Harrier. They hadn't quite got a hang of auto-centering and it animates as choppily as Genesis Space Harrier II, but it is surprisingly good and I love the look.
#23 Blaster (1983)
It's fun just trying to make sense of what I'm looking at half of the time. Usually it is horrifying to be given different crappy objectives for each section, but this is all about the exploding blocks. You might also be able to find some fun in flying through the gates or capturing those cool looking astronauts.
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toaplan_shmupfan
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The most annoying feature of Xevious was its increasing rank. Shoot down enough enemies and eventually the small black balls appeared, each one exploding into a shot aimed at the Solvalou. The barrage of homing shots is also referring to the large flashing black ball that appears near the top of the screen, then explodes into a big spread of stationary and homing shots. I've never reached far enough to loop the game, but from what I have read there are reportedly four screenfuls of mobile ground bases waiting for the player before the game loops.
Satan's Hallow's other cheap feature was that even when the levels remained light (I never scored more than 31,000 in any single game so never got far enough to get to the dark levels) one of the diving enemies would try to steal one of the ships remaining at the bottom of the screen and take it away. If they got it, they would slowly take it away until the enemy was shot and the ship dropped back down to the ships remaining position.
Satan's Hallow's other cheap feature was that even when the levels remained light (I never scored more than 31,000 in any single game so never got far enough to get to the dark levels) one of the diving enemies would try to steal one of the ships remaining at the bottom of the screen and take it away. If they got it, they would slowly take it away until the enemy was shot and the ship dropped back down to the ships remaining position.
More games with 2600 ports:
Xevious (prototype)
Buck Rogers
Actually, more interesting is Blaster, which was actually started on Atari 8-bit (which exists in prototype forum, but was never released) and ported to arcades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_(arcade_game)
"Blaster was originally programmed by Vid Kidz for the Atari 8-bit family, and then converted to the arcade version. This computer version was eventually scrubbed during the corporate shuffling that occurred after the video game crash of 1983. In 2004, a prototype of Atari version was found."
Video of the Atari 8-bit computer version of Blaster
Xevious (prototype)
Buck Rogers
Actually, more interesting is Blaster, which was actually started on Atari 8-bit (which exists in prototype forum, but was never released) and ported to arcades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_(arcade_game)
"Blaster was originally programmed by Vid Kidz for the Atari 8-bit family, and then converted to the arcade version. This computer version was eventually scrubbed during the corporate shuffling that occurred after the video game crash of 1983. In 2004, a prototype of Atari version was found."
Video of the Atari 8-bit computer version of Blaster
#22 Bosconian (1981)
Like all of the best Thunder Force stages - eight-direction base hunting with no ability to stop moving. Seriously not a whole lot different from those overhead stages except you do get a map and you can destroy each base in two ways (side pods or a single shot to the core). The tedious method provides more points. Variation is attempted by plotting the bases in different shapes, so sometimes you have to move left to reach the next one and sometimes you have to move RIGHT. It's best when they are all piled on top of each other so you don't get too many code reds while charting the galaxy.
#21 Scramble (1981)
#20 Super Cobra (1981)
Both Scramble and Super Cobra have limited horizontal movement and fuel to replenish by destroying tanks of it, but I never found this to be an issue with rapidfire (;]) and since I played so many bad games. Another notable thing is how the environment colors are swapped every 10 seconds, with some of the most painful color combinations I've ever seen. Adds character. Super Cobra is a little longer and has all of the unique for '81 obstacles Scramble has except for the annoying, Operation-like extraction of the hitbox from the corridor hell in screen 2. Or it might - find out!
Like all of the best Thunder Force stages - eight-direction base hunting with no ability to stop moving. Seriously not a whole lot different from those overhead stages except you do get a map and you can destroy each base in two ways (side pods or a single shot to the core). The tedious method provides more points. Variation is attempted by plotting the bases in different shapes, so sometimes you have to move left to reach the next one and sometimes you have to move RIGHT. It's best when they are all piled on top of each other so you don't get too many code reds while charting the galaxy.
#21 Scramble (1981)
#20 Super Cobra (1981)
Both Scramble and Super Cobra have limited horizontal movement and fuel to replenish by destroying tanks of it, but I never found this to be an issue with rapidfire (;]) and since I played so many bad games. Another notable thing is how the environment colors are swapped every 10 seconds, with some of the most painful color combinations I've ever seen. Adds character. Super Cobra is a little longer and has all of the unique for '81 obstacles Scramble has except for the annoying, Operation-like extraction of the hitbox from the corridor hell in screen 2. Or it might - find out!
It's cheap with all the kamikaze enemies but it's a lot of fun.
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Dragoforce
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