Death Smiles: Countdown to North America Invasion

[brentsg]

I just returned my extra copy to GameStop (as the one I got from Amazon was cheaper). It just got added to the stack of 4-5 copies that were sitting behind the counter.

Here's hoping this doesn't turn into another Beatmania US...

How could it? I think Gamestop and Amazon are the only 2 retailers that sell it.

[CStarFlare]

Did anyone else sell beatmania?

[brentsg]

Did anyone else sell beatmania?

I know Walmart did.

[DJ Incompetent]

I can't seem to get my score to upload. I've tried score attack and XBL mode and nothing....I'm thinking there might be a glitch with the boards.

I thought same thing. Flip 'EX' on and off in every mode. You'll see the option to hit Y on the bottom when you hit a subboard when you're on it. The default Ex on doesn't include anybody who didn't play the Gorge/Palace

[gs68]

For 360 mode, "EX On" means "went into Gorge AND finished it", not just entered it.

[Warp_Rattler]

For 360 mode, "EX On" means "went into Gorge AND finished it", not just entered it.

So that's why my Gorge score never shows up on the leaderboard, despite being 3rd or 4th place. Also, this is bullshit. Why not make it so you can't post a non-EX score without a clear, to take this stupid decision to the logical conclusion?

[Aru-san]

For 360 mode, "EX On" means "went into Gorge AND finished it", not just entered it.

So that's why my Gorge score never shows up on the leaderboard, despite being 3rd or 4th place. Also, this is bullshit. Why not make it so you can't post a non-EX score without a clear, to take this stupid decision to the logical conclusion?

IIRC, I'm sitting somewhere in both ver 1.1 boards with EX Off scores (under my brother's gamertag milkcraters), so they actually do save scores that don't have clears. Do note that my best run on a game of DeathSmiles is level 3-1, so that's sorta saying something (like how much I suck at shmups lol).

[gs68]

I just had a fridge horror moment: You can make the 360 -> Ex On board easy peasy! Just credit-feed through the Gorge. It worked for everyone with "Continue 9" on their entries.

[Aru-san]

I just had a fridge horror moment: You can make the 360 -> Ex On board easy peasy! Just credit-feed through the Gorge. It worked for everyone with "Continue 9" on their entries.

Yeah...tis a shame a lot of people credit-fed their way to victory. Oh, well. at least the people that have really high scores can keep their dignity with their "Continue 0"s among the sea of credit-feeders.

Heck, even I have a decent score literally surrounded in a sea of "Continue #"s on the ver 1.1 boards lol

[Exarion]

Just got my first credit of Death Mode tonight. It lead to lots of dwarf fortress style fun. Anyone have any advice on controlling Rosa's Familiar or should I just switch to Follet?

[Warp_Rattler]

IIRC, I'm sitting somewhere in both ver 1.1 boards with EX Off scores (under my brother's gamertag milkcraters), so they actually do save scores that don't have clears. Do note that my best run on a game of DeathSmiles is level 3-1, so that's sorta saying something (like how much I suck at shmups lol).

That was my point--you play a game (in Arcade and 360 mode, at least) without clearing or attempting the Gorge, and your score gets uploaded. You try and fail at the Gorge, though, and it doesn't matter what your score was, because it doesn't get posted among the Ex ON scores unless you clear the level, which makes no sense.

[DJ Incompetent]

I just had a fridge horror moment: You can make the 360 -> Ex On board easy peasy! Just credit-feed through the Gorge. It worked for everyone with "Continue 9" on their entries.

Yeah...tis a shame a lot of people credit-fed their way to victory. Oh, well. at least the people that have really high scores can keep their dignity with their "Continue 0"s among the sea of credit-feeders.

Heck, even I have a decent score literally surrounded in a sea of "Continue #"s on the ver 1.1 boards lol

Nobody who has used continues has broken the top 10 in anything have they?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Did anyone else sell beatmania?

I know Walmart did.

Add Target with the PS2 deluxe Beatmania controller package + game set.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[charlesr]

I've just fired up the US version of this on my 16:9 plasma.

It's 1024x768 vga and that's what the 360 is set to (and "widescreen") in the dash. The menus look perfect.

Just like KevinDDR on page 109, once into the game-proper, it's totally squished vertically. i.e. instead of borders left and right, I have borders top and bottom!
Has this been totally cocked up? I've mucked about with the X and Y zoom settings so it's on X 75% and Y 150%. Now it looks roughly right.

Is this happening to everyone else? How are you working around it?

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4421/0629101508a.jpg

[Octopod]

For 360 mode, "EX On" means "went into Gorge AND finished it", not just entered it.

The way it should be.

[Jockel]

I've just fired up the US version of this on my 16:9 plasma.

It's 1024x768 vga and that's what the 360 is set to (and "widescreen") in the dash. The menus look perfect.

Just like KevinDDR on page 109, once into the game-proper, it's totally squished vertically. i.e. instead of borders left and right, I have borders top and bottom!
Has this been totally cocked up? I've mucked about with the X and Y zoom settings so it's on X 75% and Y 150%. Now it looks roughly right.

Is this happening to everyone else? How are you working around it?

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4421/0629101508a.jpg

Don't use VGA.

[charlesr]

Are you serious?
Are you saying if I go to my loft and find a component cable, it will look right? (I don't have hdmi on my 360).

[JOW]

Are you saying if I go to my loft and find a component cable, it will look right?

That's almost certainly correct - although depending on your TV the input lag via component may render the game unplayable.

[Jockel]

Are you serious?
Are you saying if I go to my loft and find a component cable, it will look right? (I don't have hdmi on my 360).

1024x768 is normally used as a 4:3 resolution.
The 360 dashboard may have a workaround for that, but i assume Deathsmiles thinks it's being played on a 4:3 monitor.
And those aren't "supported", so you get fake 16:9 borders.

[charlesr]

Just looked at my post again and the bit where I said "the menus look perfect" was referring to Deathsmiles menus and Start screen (girls sitting around on the ground). It's only the actual game bit where it's broken.

I rummaged around and can't find my component leads, so I guess I'm stuck with using zoom. Dafties.

[Kiken]

I've just fired up the US version of this on my 16:9 plasma.

It's 1024x768 vga and that's what the 360 is set to (and "widescreen") in the dash. The menus look perfect.

Just like KevinDDR on page 109, once into the game-proper, it's totally squished vertically. i.e. instead of borders left and right, I have borders top and bottom!
Has this been totally cocked up? I've mucked about with the X and Y zoom settings so it's on X 75% and Y 150%. Now it looks roughly right.

Is this happening to everyone else? How are you working around it?

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4421/0629101508a.jpg

So let's get this straight... you're running the console through VGA on a 16:9 768p TV, right? So remind us all why your console is using a 4:3 resolution setting (1024x768) instead of a 16:9 one (1360x768)?

Also, if you're using a 4:3 screen resolution setting, then your screen format should be set to Normal, not Wide.

[CStarFlare]

I'm using component, and immediately had to mess with the zoom to get the game scrren to look roughly the same as the JP version.

The US version is all kinds of weird.

[StarCreator]

It's not unheard of for really, really old plasmas to have a 4:3 native resolution despite being 16:9 physically. I've seen more than a couple sets like that.

It's also possible the TV has VGA input limited to that resolution in software, in which case component and HDMI would be infinitely better choices. But he mentioned his TV doesn't have HDMI ports, so I'm inclined to believe him when he says 1024x768 is his native resolution.

[Jockel]

But he mentioned his TV doesn't have HDMI ports, so I'm inclined to believe him when he says 1024x768 is his native resolution.

Nopes, read it again ;D

[Kiken]

It's not unheard of for really, really old plasmas to have a 4:3 native resolution despite being 16:9 physically. I've seen more than a couple sets like that.

It's also possible the TV has VGA input limited to that resolution in software, in which case component and HDMI would be infinitely better choices. But he mentioned his TV doesn't have HDMI ports, so I'm inclined to believe him when he says 1024x768 is his native resolution.

Then the next logical question should be: what make and model is his TV?

[charlesr]

lol. Best sort out the confusion.

TV is actually a Panasonic PH9 monitor. i.e. it's just a screen (no speakers or tv tuner).
It has rectangular pixels and native res is 1024x768. Screen size is 16:9.
It has whatever inputs I fancy, because the input boards are interchangeable. I currently have input boards for scart, component, VGA and hdmi. It's my 360 that doesn't do hdmi.

Every other game I have outputs perfectly and looks gorgeous (the scaler in this monitor is lovely). Even retro consoles plugged into it via scart look pretty good, e.g. N64-J now that I have modified it with a proper RGB chip (yes really).

I think the US version is screwed.
However, each mode (arcade/360/etc) remembers your zoom settings so once they are done once, it's all good.

Thanks CStarFlare. Good to hear that the component output gives the same issues - it seemed pretty unusual that it would be vga vs component thing.

[Kiken]

lol. Best sort out the confusion.

TV is actually a Panasonic PH9 monitor. i.e. it's just a screen (no speakers or tv tuner).
It has rectangular pixels and native res is 1024x768. Screen size is 16:9.
It has whatever inputs I fancy, because the input boards are interchangeable. I currently have input boards for scart, component, VGA and hdmi. It's my 360 that doesn't do hdmi.

Every other game I have outputs perfectly and looks gorgeous (the scaler in this monitor is lovely). Even retro consoles plugged into it via scart look pretty good, e.g. N64-J now that I have modified it with a proper RGB chip (yes really).

I think the US version is screwed.
However, each mode (arcade/360/etc) remembers your zoom settings so once they are done once, it's all good.

Then try this... go into your console menu and change the display setting back to Normal (retain the 1:1 pixel display at 1024x768). You should now be looking at a wide 4:3 image (which is what your monitor displays since it's using non-square pixels). Now the game should be displaying a stretched 4:3 image... go into each game mode and adjust the overscan until you have an actual 4:3 aspect ratio image in the center of the screen (so you'll have black bars/wallpaper on the left and right of the image).

[gs68]

I've just fired up the US version of this on my 16:9 plasma.

It's 1024x768 vga and that's what the 360 is set to (and "widescreen") in the dash. The menus look perfect.

Just like KevinDDR on page 109, once into the game-proper, it's totally squished vertically. i.e. instead of borders left and right, I have borders top and bottom!
Has this been totally cocked up? I've mucked about with the X and Y zoom settings so it's on X 75% and Y 150%. Now it looks roughly right.

Is this happening to everyone else? How are you working around it?

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4421/0629101508a.jpg

A similar issue happens with my monitor, a 5:4, 1280x1024 screen. Setting my 360's resolution to 1280x1024 and then running Deathsmiles makes it run in letterboxed 16:9. Same for Espgaluda II.

Which is not cool, because Futari and Raiden Fighters Aces at 1280x1024 will have the game screen (including the pillarboxes) filling up the entire monitor just fine.

Were DS and Esp2 ported by a different team than that for Futari? DS and Esp2 have the same menu font and the availability of 360 Mode, which leads me to believe it's ported by M2 (same people behind Futari), but the mode select and lack of 5:4 support make me believe otherwise.

[CStarFlare]

Deathsmiles and Galuda II were Cave; Futari was M2.

[charlesr]

NTSC-uk review is up.