ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

For posting and requesting strategic gameplay tips on shmups!
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PROMETHEUS
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by PROMETHEUS »

marus wrote:Okay, that's fair advice - although I assume anyone who's serious enough to go for a WR won't see it as wasted time. It just depends on what you want to do in life, as well as what you perceive as attainable.
Agreed. To be honest I wrote this because I think some wannabe superplayers might get their hopes up about reaching the very top, and I want them to be aware of what aiming for the very top really means. Gotta lower your expectations, even if later you might raise them again depending on your progress. Just like when you meet a new girl that you like ;D
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Drachenherz
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by Drachenherz »

Great read, thank you for your insights, Prometheus. Very inspiring, actually.
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Kollision
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by Kollision »

Amazing work! :D
Will read it in full later!
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ratikal
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by ratikal »

I'm actually applying this right now to Ketsui. I'm practicing right now in MAME using save states as you said, following MrMonkeyMan's play through (still confused on how he gets 20M in the first stage...). Going from DoDonPachi to this is insane. Wish me luck!
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mesh control
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by mesh control »

Thanks Prometheus!

Browsed through really quickly and I can't wait to finish it up tomorrow.
lol
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t0yrobo
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by t0yrobo »

Great work. I cant say that there was much in it that I wasn't aware of, but most guides for anything I've read are like that. It's nice to read it coming from an expert and it helps to emphasize things I wouldn't normally think much of.
And imo you should keep the 'asshole' bit, I like the tone you keep with the casual cursing. It makes it read for like a casual friendly guide, not an instruction manual.
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Icarus
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by Icarus »

Good stuff Prome. Can't think of anything I'd want to add.
We'll see if people take some of this advice on.
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Battletoad
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by Battletoad »

Been starting to read it. Great guide so far, thanks a lot Prometheus!
I expected a guide for Dodonpachi, but these general tips about playing for score are much more useful to me.
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RNGmaster
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by RNGmaster »

A small section on rage quits would be a great addition. It's a bad habit of mine.
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Necronopticous
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by Necronopticous »

This is awesome, dude. I just read the whole thing.

My favorite:

At some point, you will likely get mad at the game, and trying won't really
be fun at all anymore. If you're going to be one of the best, that's when you must
not stop. Stick to a minimum playing schedule and never stop playing for more
than a few days. Discipline is key.


I laughed out loud reading that. I lived that paragraph when I was going for the 2-ALL in Strikers '99.
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Frederik
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by Frederik »

Just downloaded it, flipped through it, you really put a lot of effort into this! I love the cartoons inbetween, and judging from the first page I´ve read so far you have a very enjoyable writing style. I was planning to go to bed soon but I´d rather stay up and read this 8)
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PROMETHEUS
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by PROMETHEUS »

Thank you very much for all the positive feedback !
I am also using my own techniques to practice DOJ right now ;]

500 downloads already @_@
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TrevHead (TVR)
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by TrevHead (TVR) »

THX Prometheus It was an enjoyable read, Athough I kinda know most of the techniques and facts myself, I dont always follow them and having all the facts there in black and white really brings home just how un focussed my current playstyle is. (IE too many full runs with too much time wasted in stage 1, and the pratice I do is too unfocused and wastefull)
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ryz
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by ryz »

first, awesome guide indeed. very good work PROMETHEUS!

your little stories in between really add to the guide, let alone the small guwange part at the beginning practically forced me to pick up guwange again :)

anyway, someone got a version of MAME (preferably shmupmame) with savestates ENABLED? looks like they don't work in most versions, and then only with specific games. i always get the "timing error" when i try to save a state.
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TrevHead (TVR)
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by TrevHead (TVR) »

There are two types of shmupmame, one type (the one with the robot samuri start up pic) doesnt have save state support for Cave games. The other type mame.99 does have cave save state support, although its an old shmupmame version (v1.5) and wont work with all PCs and has no support for kesui and the other PGM games.

Luckly Nimitz has just mentioned that theres Shmupmame v3.0 coming soon which will be based on .99 with save state support :)
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burgerkingdiamond
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by burgerkingdiamond »

Prometheus, you set your high scores playing on a Keyboard????????
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PROMETHEUS
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by PROMETHEUS »

burgerkingdiamond wrote:Prometheus, you set your high scores playing on a Keyboard????????
Yup, the keyboard is my weapon of choice man !
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by doctorx0079 »

Link is broke.
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PROMETHEUS
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by PROMETHEUS »

Shmupemall link or download link on shmupemall page ? Both work for me right now.
Scores, replays, videos || I have written a guide about getting good at shmups. Check it out !
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xris
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by xris »

Thank you for putting this together. I'll definately give it some thought, and attempt to adapt some of it into my play. I really do have to admit that I do prefer playing full runs, but I am getting better at practicing individual stages. I do really like the overall look and presentation of the current version, it shows that you really do care about the strats and are happy to share them.
Great Job!
Last edited by xris on Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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ilitirit
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by ilitirit »

PROMETHEUS wrote:Shmupemall link or download link on shmupemall page ? Both work for me right now.
Doesn't work for me either
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://forum.shmupemall.com/viewtopic.php?

The following error was encountered:

Connection to 213.186.33.19 Failed

The system returned:

(113) No route to host

The remote host or network may be down. Please try the request again.
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dunpeal2064
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by dunpeal2064 »

Read this last night. Very informative. I will have to break down and dl MAME eventually, at least to play the games I do own in better practice.

All those screenshots made me want to play DDP
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Skykid
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing in Shmups

Post by Skykid »

This is an answer to my prayers. DOJ, here I come. :)
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chempop
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by chempop »

Same here Skykid, just spend over an hour practicing stage 4&5 until I could no miss them (not including hibachi). Only problem is that I think DOJblex gives you low rank in practice mode so I'm worried I'll get used to easy versions of those stages, hmmmm.
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TVG
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Practicing/Performing Guide

Post by TVG »

RNGmaster wrote:A small section on rage quits would be a great addition. It's a bad habit of mine.
"Rage quits" refers to multiplayer games. Else it's called shutting down the game.
"In short, it comes down to spirit" - dodonpachi developper Kohyama.
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PROMETHEUS
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by PROMETHEUS »

Today the download count has reached 1000 ! Certainly didn't expect it to be read this much when I was writing it. I thought I'd be distributing it to 100 people max.
Scores, replays, videos || I have written a guide about getting good at shmups. Check it out !
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gs68
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by gs68 »

Many of my gamer-friends know me as the "shmup guy", even though I'm not a superplayer or even a so-called "kusoplayer".

Perhaps I'll link this for those who like shmups but are just as terrible (if not worse) as me.
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Weak Boson
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by Weak Boson »

This is really great. I especially enjoyed the story at the end. I feel inspired to go back to Mushihimesama Futari Black Label Original now. Time to get practising.
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chronic1
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by chronic1 »

Thanks! Gonna give this a read in a bit. =)
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Re: ST: Full Extent of the Jam - Playing Shmups Competitively

Post by mjclark »

Thankyou so much Prometheus! The whole guide and especially the last section are really inspiring :D
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