Dismayed by Mushihime autofire...

[Icarus]

Games of the modern age are score-centric, and thus an understanding of the system is involved in order to squeeze the maximum amount of points from the game. In Mushi's case, the system has a slight flaw in that to fully exploit the "banking" method, one must use a very awkward button combination to create the desired Shot effect.

In Japan, they found a way around this by using hardware autofire to recreate the button combination - and thus the desired effect - on one button, negating the problem of wrist and finger injuries. It also had the effect of making stupidly high scores possible.

It's like 8 1/2 said:

It's quite conceivable that a player could spend many weeks tweaking the shot ratio to their personal level of perfection. Perfection meaning a blend of survival and scoring that work for that player's style.

The possibilities for customisation are endless, and can be tailored to fit the player - scoring over Shot power.

Whether or not you choose to play the game with the "special addition" is up to you. But it's there, for players who like to go for the best possible score.

[Randorama]

In Mushi's case, the system has a slight flaw

It sounds pretty intentional, and given all the fuss about various hacks, it may be a cause of the game's success. Beside that, it should be a clever homage to old Konami titles, like i said. Surely it is a step further to the concept to autofire hack...probably players felt some nostalgy for the good ol' days of hacking games to save wrists

[BulletMagnet]

A semi-glitch intentionally included to encourage players to hack the hardware? I don't think that even Cave is quite that bonkers...but hey, they were tasteless enough to make the game's main character's lack of undergarments a selling point, so who knows.

[Icarus]

In Mushi's case, the system has a slight flaw

It sounds pretty intentional, and given all the fuss about various hacks, it may be a cause of the game's success.

Perhaps I shouldn't have used the term "flaw", but it doesn't excuse the fact that for non-hardware setups, you still have to do some very awkward things to achieve the same effect. Hence the need to add the extra bits to the cabinet if you're a scoreattacker. Players wanting to play the game for the game itself can ignore the autofire setup.

In any case, I'd take the hardware setup any day. If it saves me from getting RSI, and enables me to go for a higher possible score, then I'm all for it.

[rcgrant]

There seem to be a lot of "omgwtfbbq just buy it!!eleven!" responses, so I'll rephrase the question to reflect an oversight of mine: is the "hardware hack" autofire absent from the game when played on full defaults? If so, I have no more complaints. I was under the impression that it was always present and only the frequency could be adjusted in the options. If not, however, I still call bullshit on the design decision.

Also, out of curiosity, is there a way to achieve counter banking that doesn't involve the hardware hack or using the A and C buttons simultaneously? Or is the latter method the "intended" way to do it?

[BulletMagnet]

To the best of my knowledge enabling the "hack" is optional.

As for "counter banking," I think that the A+C button thing might've been a glitch to begin with.

[Shearie]

There seem to be a lot of "omgwtfbbq just buy it!!eleven!" responses, so I'll rephrase the question to reflect an oversight of mine: is the "hardware hack" autofire absent from the game when played on full defaults? If so, I have no more complaints. I was under the impression that it was always present and only the frequency could be adjusted in the options. If not, however, I still call bullshit on the design decision.

I'll try to explain the games controls clearly. There are 3 regular buttons: Bomb, Shot, Full Auto. Full Auto is just a regular autofire button and you cannot change the shot frequency for it. There are also 2 optional buttons you can map on your controler that are not there by default: Rapid Shot, Rapid Full Auto. These are the buttons that simulate the arcade hacks and you can set the frequency for each of them from a number of 1 to 20. Default is 1 and the higher you go, the slower the autofire is.

There is no need to use the Rapid buttons at all unless you know the right autofire frequencies to get the higest score in Maniac/Ultra. You can even do the "no laser firing while shooting" or "concentrate lasers while moving fast" trick with just the Full Auto and Shot Button.

[rcgrant]

Thanks for the reply, Shearie. That makes everything really clear.

I suppose Taito made all the right decisions with the port (in regards to the autofire hack, anyway.) I'm glad they excluded the hack by default, but it certainly makes sense from a sales standpoint to include it as an option for people who are used to it (thanks bpe for pointing that out.)

[Randorama]

the truth about autofire is here. no bibliographic references, but it's basically based on material collected by Gemant ZBL-Fukuda (or simply Gemant) and me, plus personal experience. About Mushihime:

A semi-glitch intentionally included to encourage players to hack the hardware? I don't think that even Cave is quite that bonkers

Perhaps I shouldn't have used the term "flaw", but it doesn't excuse the fact that for non-hardware setups, you still have to do some very awkward things to achieve the same effect.

As you can read from the essay, autofire hacks were the craze in the period homaged by Mushihime. Beside that, it is not the first time, as Guwange and Progear are partially based on autofire exploitation ( i think Guwange requires overclocking of autofire, for a specific trick).
Beside that, and to the risk of sound "omg true lo-rez00rz!", that's a bit of "Gaijin" talking (ahem!!!).

There aren't any real standards set for gaming, in Japan, as the general approach is "if an hack makes you score more, everybody will use it". In case, Arcadia and Gamest in the past made different charts, but the overall approach is that, if an hack boost perfomances, that's fine.Only thing, dipswitches must be always set at default.

Now, question:isn't hardware hacking a deviation from dip switches? Reply: if it sells, who cares?[/url]

[visuatrox]

Using autofire is for the weak, so just avoid using that option

[zaphod]

you can counter bank without using autofire, but to do it well, it takes a LOT of endurance cause you must tap buttons rapidly in sync to prevent the lasers from firing. that's what the trick is. by autofiring the autofire button, you get it to skip firing the lasers, which keeps the child counter form resetting when it's added to the main counter. It may have been sort of intentional but it's supposed to be tricky. but putting a circuit on the full auto button makes it a LOT easier to do without killing your fingers.

so instead of the child coiunters adding on and going to zero, whcich is normal behavior when you break the chain and retart it on a midboss, they add on and stay at their value. now you do this 10 times per second or so and the main counter shoots up sky high, giving a HUGE scoring advantage when you actually kill the midboss and go back to normal chaining with a hugely boosted main counter.

My opinion? keep seperate tables for autofire hack (any) and defaults. problem solved.

[pixelcorps]

ah well, if anyone gets in a tiz over an optional extra, they have two options..

1: don't use it...

2: don't BUY IT!!



it's like someone saying "ooh, I'd really need a new sushi knife, but I hear that if you stab yourself in the face with one, it really hurts, so I won't bother.."

I'm sure if cave had a problem with it, they would have told taito to exclude it, as I'm sure they had the final say....

how hard is it to ignore an option if you don't want it on?

[GaijinPunch]

Well that's up for debate - some of us think it's the best music to appear in a shmup for a long time,

I traditionally hate game music, which everyone should keep in mind.

currently I still think the gameplay in ESPgaluda beats it, but only JUST. I may change my mind over time.

I think why I don't go gaga for it is b/c I want only one mode, and somewhere between Original and Manic. Props to Cave for trying to reach a broader audience, but I think they went overboard w/ Maniac. That's just me. That's not to say I'm not enjoying, but I think a few months down the road I will opt for ESPGaluda and Guwange over it any day.

[sffan]

Well that's up for debate - some of us think it's the best music to appear in a shmup for a long time,

While I was playing Mushihime my girlfriend said the music sounded like Debbie Gibson. I can see what she means.

[pixelcorps]

the music itself is a weird combination of what the japanese in the 80's would call 'techno music" (YMO , logic system, yukihiro takahashi et al) , a teensy element of the digital synth sounds used in euro trance and the synths used in mid 90's detroit techno not to mention heavy traces of early 90's zuntata (who in turn were heavily influenced by YMO) stage 3 seems to have taken some (but not all) inspiration from italian prog rock types like claudio simonetti and goblin (who were also an heavy and very obvious inspiration for XEXEX and castlevania's soundtracks)...

I beleieve the musician wanted to have an 80's sound to it...

i'm such a synth music nerd

I quite like it, then again, i'd prefer anything to that awful robert miles styled "light rave" shite like in espgaluda and psyvariar2.. yuk!

[sffan]

There are 3 regular buttons: Bomb, Shot, Full Auto. Full Auto is just a regular autofire button and you cannot change the shot frequency for it.

Full Auto seems to be the same shot as when you hold down the Shot button except it doesn't slow you down. Am I right?

I know I have a lot to learn about this game. It always takes me a while to catch on to the scoring systems of Cave games. Figuring it out is part of the fun, but I would like to know what the buttons do.

[Shearie]

Full Auto is just the regular autofire that you can set for the C Button in every Cave arcade game except in this one you can use it to do a few tricks that you wouldn't be able to do if you were just playing with Bomb and Shot like tapping the Full Auto Button to shoot your main shot without shooting the lasers.

[Cthulhu]

If you're complaining about the autofire rate being adjustable, that's somewhat reasonable. A lot of arcade machines here have a couple extra buttons wired in (it's hilarious to see Mushi with 5 buttons) that have altered autofire rates and such, but it's something that almost certainly wasn't in the game to begin with.

If you're talking about autofire being in the game period, then you're wrong. That -is- in the game. Every Cave game since DDP (I think the first was DDP anyway) has had autofire as a standard feature and 99% of arcades add the button to the machine. Hell, a lot of games that don't have a standard autofire button seem to have one wired into the machine here.

And I think that's great. I don't believe button mashing is an acceptable game mechanic for shmups. Let me worry about dodging bullets rather than getting arthritis.