I need help in Bio-Hazard Battle's secrets (Probably a fake

[R-Type]

submition)

According to the GameFAQs' page on the Genesis's version:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586065- ... tle/cheats
The 1990 version of this game allows to play with a fifth ship. And it also says (unrelated to the 90 version) that there is a secret area.

I tried this with a Genesis emulator and wasn't able to unlock the ship, the game came out in 92, and so did in the arcade. I have no idea if I'm missing something or this is fake.
I also just bought the game on Steam and without surprise I wasn't able to unveil the secret either. (Don't worry, I bought it cuz I wanted the game for my collection of fave games, not because I wanted to try the cheat. lol. But it actually plays better than on emu's with Windows Vista.)

Also, can someone pinpoint where exactly the secret area is? I am having trouble understanding what enemy looks like a lip. Though it was submited by the same guy, so take it with a huge grain of salt.

If anyone has any picture of the 5th ship please could you show me? I really love this game's ships designs (not Hecuba =P) and I am with fleas behind my ears trying to find it. GoogleImages is helpless.

I am suspecting this is just a fake or someone submited it to the wrong game, but I gotta set this straight.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Whoa, didn't know about the arcade version! It's playable on MAME with the axact same input lag as on Kega Fusion (which I assume is "native" input lag, not induced by emulation). Was there really Gunstar Heroes on that Mega Play thing as well? MAME doesn't seem to know anything about it.
P.S. If you are using a keyboard, the emulator may be not detecting three button pressed at once properly.

[Ed Oscuro]

But it actually plays better than on emu's with Windows Vista.

Maybe the game player on Steam has more optimal settings for input lag? Dunno, what do you mean by "plays better?"

It's playable on MAME with the axact same input lag as on Kega Fusion (which I assume is "native" input lag, not induced by emulation).

I don't know how Steve Snake handles input lag issues but ask Nimitz about how MAME handles input lag sometime if you think MAME lag performance is "native"

I don't know how many games were on the Mega Play, though I think I had a list going somewhere at one time. Maybe look at Wikipedia if you want to find more. There is a loose Mega Play PCB on eBay last I checked, but no games (there are one or two Mega Tech cartridges lying about but I haven't heard they're compatible).

And back to the original question...doesn't especially ring a bell, but I'm not the person to ask about Bio Hazard Battle anyway!

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't know how Steve Snake handles input lag issues but ask Nimitz about how MAME handles input lag sometime if you think MAME lag performance is "native"

I hope it's not (as it's quite bad in many cases), but in this case I can't see why wouldn't they reuse MD/Genesis emulation solutions as the hardware is probably pretty much the same.

[Ed Oscuro]

As for those existing "solutions," the author of Ootake wrote something. It's a bit hard to understand at points but you can get the general idea of what's meant. Link here: "Factor that Win7/Vista is avoided from game player"

You also might want to look at that R-Type, it's got suggestions that might help you out. In particular I have never used Aero (and have turned off desktop composition at least on this machine), never felt I needed it. The Flip Queue Size setting seems to be deprecated in the current Catalyst Control Center...at least it's not there. There is a "triple buffering" option for OpenGL (unchecked on my copy), though. This might be a rename of the exact same thing (no reason to believe it's not the same). Personally, I hate tearing, but don't like lag. I don't know if I can even tell when lag is coming into a game, though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Some games (Ys I&II Complete for the PC) are v-synced (don't know about triple buffering) by default and should stay this way (forcing it off would break the gameplay), but at 100 fps in Ys I and framerates going into hundreds (most of them invisible on my monitor of course) in Ys II, the extra lag must be minuscule.
My video card's driver settings seem to leave v-sync and triple buffering up to applications (zSNES in 1280x960, 60 Hz tears rampantly, whereas switching either v-sync or triple buffering on in zSNES settings gets rid of it; oddly enough at monitor refresh rates like 75, 85 and 100 Hz tearing is nowhere near as jarring). Still, in games demanding quick response on emulators, at framerates ~60 fps, I use neither v-sync nor triple buffering even if for whatever reason I resort to 60 Hz refresh rate.
Oh yes, if you wanna verify how much lag makes a difference for you, try out Guwange with and without Nimitz's "shmupmame" hack. The difference should be perceptible in that one.

[Ed Oscuro]

Some games (Ys I&II Complete for the PC) are v-synced (don't know about triple buffering) by defult and should stay this way (forcing it off would break the gameplay)

Wait, how's that? I'll try out Guwange, too.

Update:
MAME Plus! takes three updates to switch a direction (i.e. from input left to input right, viewing the character switching direction) while Shmupmame takes 2. I did three plays and really couldn't see any difference - a feeling "hey this is easier" playing with ShmupMAME could be put down to sugar pill effect. Played with the first character (mask + knives). First play - beat that first boss w/no trouble, first time for that I think actually. First died well into second stage, made it to boss. Shmupmame play - died off for good when second boss had a sliver left. Third play, back to MAME Plus! - made it to third stage (used a few bombs). Was a bit surprised to see that when running around after letting up off the bullet soaker that it seemed pretty fast. I can't count off having been helped by Shmupmame. I guess the only thing for me to do is to try to set up a blind test (I've been thinking about this the last few days, actually) or take careful notes and switch systems regularly. Lots of variables I can't correct for so I'd have to try to thin them out with a sheer volume. I'll have to see if Raiden has any noticable difference between one and the other. With Guwange it's hard to tell because of the frequent nasty and not at all smooth slowdown (sorry Cave ) making it hard to tell if my impression of "hey this is better" is due to having not gotten through a tough section with slowdown, and doing something different the next time. I realize slowdown != input lag being corrected here, but it's very hard to take it out of my impressions.

'k back to your regularly scheduled programs.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Source:

V-sync must stay on!

Newer graphics card owners beware!! If your modern graphics card supports
the disabling of v-sync, please remember to enable it when playing this game
if you've disabled it for other purposes. Various elements in the game are
tied to v-sync, thus disabling it will cause some boss character sprites to
move several times faster than your character among other problems/unusual
behaviors.

[Ed Oscuro]

Programmer fail. That's the modern day equivalent of games that are tied to a specific clock frequency and need MoSlo to run right, or Delta Force games failing to load because the check for virtual memory was really badly done

Really, why the heck didn't they just update game states the same way everybody else does and should...on the CPU? Sounds like they update every new frame or whatever...wonder how much CPU time that program would burn up if V-Sync was off (or if that would be the behavior). Sounds like a power virus to be blasted to the moon and forgotten

[Obiwanshinobi]

Actually Complete is very neat and tidy a PC game from the player's point of view. When there's plenty of other stuff running on your PC at the same time, it might stutter slightly now and then, but that's just the way PC games are. When your PC is focused on the game alone, it feels immaculate. Maybe back in 1998 (I believe the engine powering Complete to be at least this old at heart) PC gamers with their mechanical mice weren't as discriminating?
Anyway, having beaten Ys I on Hard the other day (and boy, was the final boss TOUGH), it didn't feel like a badly programmed game at all to me.

[Ed Oscuro]

If the game engine is that old it probably deserves an apology from me then! That's back in the days of what, DX6/DX7? Is there just one engine powering all the games or what? If they were still using that for newer games, that's still a bad choice on their part, especially if they didn't try to design that out. Then again this wasn't exactly a freely budgeted release I'm sure.

[Obiwanshinobi]

According to HCG101, Ys Eternal (Windows remake of Ys I) came out in 1998, then got ported to numerous platforms, retouched for the sake of Complete release and even tweaked for Vista. Falcom did move on to more advanced engines in their most recent games, but that Ys remake just moves some bitmaps around with a hint of flashy transparencies and EAX. Hefty reprogramming for the heck of it probably wouldn't be cost-efficient.

[R-Type]

Dunno, what do you mean by "plays better?"

Gens emulator is always sets me to classic colors mode (or whatever that's spelled) Fusion emu is OK. and playing it on Steam feels a bit more smoother than Fusion. Fusion also seems to freese the graphics when I leave fullscreenmode.

[8 1/2]

So I gave it a shot on my old cart, and got nothing. I tried it five times in a row, and got no secret ship. Title screen reads "1992 Sega" so I have no idea what this "1990" version might be. Seems like a fake, though a very odd fake. Who's adding bullshit secrets for obscure 90's shmups on gamefaqs?