Gradius III - High Score Board

[mathman]

How come "Arcade" and the "PS2" versions use different scoreboards for III? I know there are separate Japan and non-Asia arcade releases, but I thought the Arcade and PS2 were the same.

Gradius III Scoreboard

As a sidenote, why does IV use the same board for AC/PS2/PSP? Are they equivalent?

Gradius IV Scoreboard

[Ghegs]

Not really a question for the Strategy forum, so moved to Shmups Chat.

[sikraiken]

tviks said this in the Gradius III score thread:
"Still can't beat the second loop. The main problem is the lasers at the end of the final stage. There is just something wrong with them, since nearly every time they go in a pattern which you just simply cannot survive. This never happens when you are playing on Mame, they always have the same easy pattern. I've been trying to figure out how to affect their pattern, but with no results. It seems like some kind of programming error in the porting."

[Aquas]

PSP version of Gradius IV added slowdown (most notably in the moai stage) while the actual game has none. I believe this to be true, but I've only played the PS2 port admittedly. Doesn't matter too much, hardly anyone plays the game. Punks!

[Ruldra]

The PS2 version has slight differences that affect the gameplay. In that part with 4 spinning moai heads, after you destroy 3 of them they're supposed to rotate slower, but they don't in the PS2. Also, I believe the cube rush part has different patterns.

[Zach Keene]

I split the Gradius III boards mostly due to the PS2's extra edit mode (in which you can eventually unlock some PS2-exclusive option and shield selections - I detailed them in a post early in the score thread.)

[Seahawk]

tviks said this in the Gradius III score thread:
"Still can't beat the second loop. The main problem is the lasers at the end of the final stage. There is just something wrong with them, since nearly every time they go in a pattern which you just simply cannot survive. This never happens when you are playing on Mame, they always have the same easy pattern. I've been trying to figure out how to affect their pattern, but with no results. It seems like some kind of programming error in the porting."

This might be because the PS2 has extra lag than the arcade machine on level 2 wait settings. The lasers are NOT sprites, they are BG tiles. Therefore sprite lag does not affect them. There is only really one correct and safe pattern that occurs, and you have a very narrow time frame to pass them. If you lag the game the lasers might pass this threshold before they even come onscreen, dooming you.

[dieKatze88]

PSP version of Gradius IV added slowdown (most notably in the moai stage) while the actual game has none. I believe this to be true, but I've only played the PS2 port admittedly. Doesn't matter too much, hardly anyone plays the game. Punks!

the real hardware has intentional slowdown, true story:

http://katzepower.com/Arcade/GradiusIV/IMAG0021.jpg