Mars Matrix (new thread)

[Zetzumarshen]

Done! Without seeing the end screen as I predicted





JP Arcade Version, MAME
999,999,999,990 - 4,088,487 - .ASP - 2 - 6

And a replay of it, if anyone cares, using MAME32 Plus 0.99 mmatrixj

[SFKhoa]

Oh man, congrats. You did it without clearing too. I had to clear the game to get the CS though.

[Battletoad]

Congratulations!
How do some people learn the chains so fast, I´m feeling like shit.

[Zetzumarshen]

Thanks Khoa, Battletoad.

It was a lot work, broke a 100 hour mark, and I had to create a rigid but safe route especially stage 1-3. Save state abuse is the main instrument.

And after tens of hour halfway of forging the route, I learned how to direct reflected bullets decently, so they form a bunched cubes instead of scattered. Gather the bullets, move around in circle manner to bunch the bullets, move and try form a line between the ship-energy-enemy, then release the doom! Placing the bullet before releasing near the enemy helps with accuracy. The technique increased many chain counts, and when playing with >700 chain, every +1 is very precious.

One thing, if you can gather 900k-1mil exp before the kettles in early stage 3, unleashing bullets will net you for 90-120 billion! Talk about game breaking...

Forgot to say, another heavy bonuses is the stage 2 boss. Do what ACR did in boss 2 phase, and get about 30 billion score increase. I think that's quite huge, and a 400-500 cubes chain is a nice addition (80k-125k exp gain)

Of course, if you may already know this, I'm sorry for my big mouths.

[moozooh]

Amazing, another counterstop! Congratulations, .ASP!

[Rob]

The arcade list has really seen some good efforts over the past year or so. Congrats indeed!

[Battletoad]

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,068,344,237,590 - 2,386,532 - Battletoad - 2 - 6

Yippee kai yay, I finally got a 13 digit score.
Just a matter of time until I beat aventus or maybe even CRI. At least I hope so.



Also, first trillion score, but still 47 trillion to go... I just hope my VMU doesn´t die, now and then I backup my save data to prevent a giant catastrophe.

[Kollision]

Congrats, man, that's a great achievement!

I'm really looking forward to dedicate myself to MM in the next couple of weeks, I hope I can get closer to your score.

[Battletoad]

Thanks. I´m also looking forward to you playing it again. Like Rob once said, you can´t stop until you got the 13th digit.
I don´t have that much time to play right now, but I hope to get 1.1 or 1.2 trillion points soon.

Does anyone know superplays or at least decent replays of Elite Mode A? I assume not, but played 2 or 3 credits lately and find chaining extremely hard without any kind of template. The cube waterfall in stage 3 is also a lot harder because there´s so much shit coming at you. I´ll probably try harder when I achieved my goal in Arcade Mode. Also to those who thought stage 4 and 6 were crazy in the Arcade version/mode should take a look at the same stages in Elite Mode A. THIS is bullet hell.

[Rob]

I don't think anyone plays Elite Mode A because no one has mastered arcade mode and starting from scratch is too painful. It's also harder to practice since they ruined individual stages with the extra cubes.

[CRI]

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,267,208,994,130 - 2,782,591 - CRI - 2 - 6

big thanks to Zetzumarshen for sharing his CS inp.
got some nice new ideas for chains from your repaly.
need to practise your reflect before the stage 1 boss.

just a few more runs at the dc version and then i'm back at the cps ver.
need to finish the cps2 vesion so i can return the pcb.

[CRI]

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,448,692,350,580 - 2,683,056 - CRI - 2 - 6


done with the dc version for now.
now out of my cab dc so i can play some jamma games again.

[Rob]

A little elite mode improvement for battletoad.

84,319,151,230 - 1,114,965

[Battletoad]

Ah yeah back then I hadn´t posted my best score because I thought I should be able to get a 12 digit score without too much practice. Oh well...

93,729,219,320 - 784,328 - 2 - 4

[Rob]

128,227,413,300 - 1,432,882 - 2 - 3

Was playing as a break from arcade mode, but starting to get into it.

[Battletoad]

Would you mind recording a video? I may also record my crappy skills in this mode, I think any kind of video source might be nice here.

[Rob]

Can't record anything at the moment and nothing much to record (I'm still working on stages 2 & 3), but I might be able to give some tips if you post a video.

[Rob]

One little thing I noticed in elite mode A are these small "enemies" that almost blend in with the stars at the end of stage 1 (left side). They don't always appear, but if you shoot them you can bridge the chain to the boss. No idea how to consistently trigger them.

[Battletoad]

You mean those things that float around and give some bigger cubes? I could keep the chain up to the boss quite often, just lost it in the middle of the stage. I don´t know for sure, I think they always appeared for me. I just shoot those small enemies which appear on top of the screen with Piercing Cannon and then more and more of the floating around enemies appear. At least that´s what I thought.

[Rob]

You mean those things that float around and give some bigger cubes?

No, they're really almost hidden. They appear (if they do) moving upwards towards the rock. Shooting them will throw a few +1 cubes past the rock.

[Battletoad]

Damnit. First credit after a break of a few weeks and I almost had a 1CC. It probably wouldn´t have been a new highscore (2.2 million EXP and a lot of missed points in stage 4), but man I´d also really like to 1CC the game once, be it with a bad or a good score. For the first time I got to the rose on my first credit and I screwed up the safe spot letting one enemy alive. The next chance for a 1CC will be some time away I suppose.

So now that´s the 3rd Dreamcast game where I lost the possible 1CC on the last (dangerous) pattern of the final boss, the others being both Giga Wings. This is getting ugly.

[Battletoad]

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,091,708,701,810 - 2,371,396 - Battletoad - 2 - 6

Oh man, this game hates me. So close to AVE´s score (still my primary goal) and then suddenly two horrible deaths in the last stage which I played better than ever up to that point. One death was very bad luck and the other time I almost escaped. If I don´t get these tiny 9 billions in the next like 10 credits, I´ll have to break something.

[Kollision]

No, you can only take a break after hitting a trillion points. You want the red digit.

Break is over, I finally got the red digit.

Bad news is that I couldn't reach the last boss and waste him.
Good news is that it was a pretty awful run, EXP-wise. Lost my chain foolishly during the spaceship cube fountain in the 4th stage and died/broke my chain twice during the 5th stage.

[Rob]

I need to get back into a routine of playing this. Was working on individual stage EXP a few weeks ago. For reference, here's what I got:

1 - 670,000 (approximate)
2 - 1,066,072
3 - 3,114,000 (didn't record first three digits)
4 - 1,012,192
5 - 2,269,035

[Kollision]

Rob, are these EXP values for the DC version?
It would be awesome if you recorded a run with EXP such as these!

[Battletoad]

No, you can only take a break after hitting a trillion points. You want the red digit.

Break is over, I finally got the red digit.

Congrats and keep it up!
(I'd just say it's a pink digit... ^^)

Clearing the game is really hard, for me everything would have to work out for a 1CC. Would you say, Mosquito 01 is better for surviving? I just got the idea of trying because I believe the last stages might be easier with this ship, except for the bosses.

@ Rob
Some videos would be absolutely awesome, but you still can't record, can you? I'd really enjoy another and better video source for stage 3 which I want to chain so bad, but can't seem to manage it.

[Kollision]

No, you can only take a break after hitting a trillion points. You want the red digit.

Break is over, I finally got the red digit.

Congrats and keep it up!
(I'd just say it's a pink digit... ^^)

Clearing the game is really hard, for me everything would have to work out for a 1CC. Would you say, Mosquito 01 is better for surviving? I just got the idea of trying because I believe the last stages might be easier with this ship, except for the bosses.

Yeah, I think it's easier to 1CC with Mosquito 1, mainly because it's better to dodge intricate bullet showers such as that one in the 4th stage after you get the 1UP or the whip attack of the 4th boss. I wouldn't say it's best for survival during the last stage though.

What I noticed is that the slower speed of Mosquito 1 definitely incurs in changes for the chaining strategy. And theoretically its EXP potential isn't as good as with Mosquito 2.

[Battletoad]

Yeah I'd just like to 1CC the game once, doesn't have to be on a score run (though weapon level 8 would help for sure). So I might jerk around a little with Mosquito 01.
On topic:

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,163,678,860,550 - 2,389,772 - Battletoad - 2 - 6

Happy happy joy joy!
It was about time. This run still wasn't flawless by any means, I lost my stage 5 chain (near the end at least), died in the end of the cube waterfall in stage 3, could have gotten a bit more EXP from the stage 4 battleship and so on. 2.5 million EXP were easily possible. And once again I couldn't get to the boss, but somehow I must have destroyed more enemies and raised the multiplier earlier. I think I'll have some practice in stage 3 (to see if I can get it down somehow) and stage 6 (to perfect the surviving there), but probably I'll just stop and switch to Elite Mode or another game.

By the way: "only" 35 trillion to go for the new background colours.

I'll add a score pic to this post later.

[Rob]

Rob, are these EXP values for the DC version?

Yeah, DC arcade.

[Battletoad]

Mad ball! Cleared the game on my first serious try with Mosquito 01. How about that...
End boss was ridiculous, I did the stupidest shit ever on his first part and was extremely lucky there. Very weird run anyway... crappy and unlucky deaths, unbelievable luck on other passages.

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,175,510,434,640 - 2,183,259 - Battletoad - 1 - ALL