Played DDP for the first time

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:44 am

Played for around 15 minutes in Arcade mode, the HUD sucks major ass. I just can't concentrate on action with 55 HITS! and so many other things on the game screen. Is there an option to put them in the black bar section? I'll check it out.

To be honest, I haven't played it enough to form a solid opinion, but it just didn't excite me too much. I'm sure my opinion will change over the next few days, though.

PS the laser beams from the player's ships were so much cooler looking in DonPachi.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:50 am

Welcome to 1998! j/k

This game is 8x the game Donpachi is, once you get to the good levels (5 and 6), it's true colors will shine through.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:55 am

LMAO,

If the sun shines on levels 5 and 6, im still in the darkness.

I've not really played it for 6 months though.

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:04 am

If you haven't already done so, play the game one on credit once you've gotten it all figured out.

In my opinion, the HUD isn't distracting at all. Are you playing on a really small TV or something?

I have trouble believing that any shmup fan could not like this game. Give it some time. I truly consider it to be one of the best. Which doesn't mean anything, I'm just saying

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:12 am

There's no way to remove the hud unless there's core settings in the arcade version. Even the PS1 version doesn't remove it.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:16 am

Yeah, I don't really notice the HUD at all; I can easily see the combo meter, hit counter color, and bomb stock without looking away from what I'm doing, and that's all you really need.

llabnip · Post by **llabnip** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:35 pm

LoneSage wrote:PS the laser beams from the player's ships were so much cooler looking in DonPachi.

Hmmm... they seemed fairly awesome in DDP. Anyway, in my opinion the original DonPachi is a far better game than DDP... I certianly find it more enjoyable. It mixes old-school and manic as well as any and you can really see the evolution from Toaplan (several of the Toaplan developers worked for Cave). All the Cave games that came after DonPachi really moved in a more manic direction and I never enjoyed any of them as much as I enjoyed DonPachi. If it turns out you really find DonPachi the best of Cave (like I do), then you NEED to check out Batsugun (Toaplan 1993) which many of us consider "DonPachi-Zero" (or, as Cmoon sometimes says that DonPachi is "Batsugun 2").

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 2:14 pm

Did someone call my name?

Yeah, DP is that sort of quintessential 'inbetween' game (not unlike Batsugun) that I absolutely love. There's still enough Twin Cobra in it to definitely belong in an older class of shmups; but pointing directly to where things were destined to go. On the whole, DP never gets enough love, given how completely innovative it is; but like Ravel's Bolero, it seems like Cave (and shmups in general) are bound to be overshadowed by one particular work (Ravel did a lot more than that damn Bolero). Still, DDP is a damn fine game to be monopolizing our idea of the 'perfect shooter', just wish people had a broader view.

ResOGlas · Post by **ResOGlas** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:51 pm

Am I really hearing people say that DoDonPachi isn't that good? It's my favorite shooter of all time. Good memories and great replay value. I can set my PCB to one credit mode and Very Hard and then simply float off into my persective of heaven which I call bullet hell.

DoDonPachi is the classic shooter that holds up to today's standards (If you even consider 1997 as old enough to view as classic).

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:05 pm

Heh, there's no shmup in existence that someone around here doesn't like.

freddiebamboo · Post by **freddiebamboo** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:13 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:Heh, there's no shmup in existence that someone around here doesn't like.

So true

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:23 pm

ResOGlas wrote:Am I really hearing people say that DoDonPachi isn't that good?

Nope.

DoDonPachi is the classic shooter that holds up to today's standards (If you even consider 1997 as old enough to view as classic).

I think I have problems calling a game that's 8 years old a 'classic' in a genre that is probably about 25 years old or so. DDP is certainly a definining moment in manics, being one of the earlier ones and certainly one of the best. The issue rather was people that see DDP and nothing else...

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:32 am

HOLY HOT DOGS BATMAN.

that last boss is insanity defined, it spits on Xiga far as I'm concerned

Just when I thought what was an easy final battle turns into the hardest 5 minutes of my life that isn't me watching late-night skinemax; I was like "WTF bombs don't work!", and then I understood why Cave gave us so many bombs to use.

DDP is a great game, miles ahead of the original. Lovin' it, mang.

Besides that extra stage, what difs are there between the Saturn mode and Arcade mode?

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:53 am

DDP only gets so much attention cause it got console ports for people to collect and never play. Guwange, Progear, and Dangun are all so much better.

DDP still rox0rz, though.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:06 am

The first time I played DDP it didn't impress me too much, but it grew on me pretty quickly. I think the main reason it didn't strike me at first was that I actually played DDP:DOJ first... this was after I quit shmupping for a couple years. Glad I came back though.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:37 pm

LoneSage wrote:Besides that extra stage, what difs are there between the Saturn mode and Arcade mode?

I believe that Saturn Mode's bullet patterns are a bit easier by default, and the two extends are awarded earlier...also, if you go into the Options menu for it, you can tweak more stuff than in Arcade, such as loop difficulty and chain time.

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 4:40 pm

CMoon wrote:Yeah, DP is that sort of quintessential 'inbetween' game (not unlike Batsugun) that I absolutely love. There's still enough Twin Cobra in it to definitely belong in an older class of shmups; but pointing directly to where things were destined to go.

interesting to hear people say that! I bought DP to start taking a step towards colleting Cave pcb's (in order of their release), and I guess it has been helpin me get more into the 'manic' style stuff, since all shooters I own would probably be classed as old style shooters. I'm beginning to enjoy it a lot, stage 4 is tough

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:20 pm

LoneSage wrote:HOLY HOT DOGS BATMAN.

that last boss is insanity defined, it spits on Xiga far as I'm concerned Just when I thought what was an easy final battle turns into the hardest 5 minutes of my life that isn't me watching late-night skinemax; I was like "WTF bombs don't work!", and then I understood why Cave gave us so many bombs to use.

DDP is a great game, miles ahead of the original. Lovin' it, mang.

Besides that extra stage, what difs are there between the Saturn mode and Arcade mode?

That you fight the true last boss at the end of the first round. That orb you fought doesn't show up till the end of the loop in the normal game.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:23 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:
LoneSage wrote:Besides that extra stage, what difs are there between the Saturn mode and Arcade mode?
I believe that Saturn Mode's bullet patterns are a bit easier by default, and the two extends are awarded earlier...also, if you go into the Options menu for it, you can tweak more stuff than in Arcade, such as loop difficulty and chain time.

this pisses me off, i got to stage 5 and then found out its cause its easy and i just wasn't paying attention to the difficulty close enough to notice...

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:35 pm

Heh heh, it's not a huge decrease in difficulty, but it is there. Going from there to Arcade mode isn't all that big of a transition overall.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:00 am

My first night in Japan of late March 2000, my cousin & I were walking around and found a cool arcade...proceeded to check it out. Thought it was a bit small until I took a peek around the "left" corner and lo behold, even more arcade cabinets to check out. I saw a bunch of cool shmup cabinets which housed Donpachi, Dodonpachi, Strikers 1945, Strikers 1945 II, and even Gigawing CP2 among other shmups. And get this, all the older shmups were only 50 yen per credit. So I put in a 100 yen coin and got back two 50 yen coins. I really wanted to try out DDP as I had played the prequel of DP back in May 1995 at my local arcade. The DDP arcade cab that I tried DDP on was a Sega Astro cab with pink short-throw ball joysticks and cool neon colored buttons (which I thought was funky for a Japanese arcade cabinet...in the USA arcades, you just don't see stuff like that there). I believe it was a either a 27" or 29" inch Tate'd RGB monitor that was showing the DDP graphics engine at a cool 60 fps.
I only got to play DDP twice and it left me with a impression that when some time in the nearby future, I'd like to buy a DDP PCB & a Supergun setup to play it on. Fast forward a few years...I did buy one of Matt's cool Superguns and a International Bios version DDP PCB to play it on. DDP is a maniac shmup masterpiece that you have to try it out in it's original arcade form to see what all the hype about it was. I was surprised to learn that up to 255 shots maximum on-screen on the last "special" end-stage boss is possible...it made my jaw drop to see that many bullets.

Shmups...how bad have you got it?!

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

shmups.system11.org

Played DDP for the first time

Played DDP for the first time

Re: Played DDP for the first time

I remember when I first tried out DDP in Japan...