NeoGeo/Dreamcast/iPhone Shooter Fast Striker by NG:DEV Team

[drunkninja24]

Not saving for you? Weird. Maybe it's the third-party memory card. I have VMU and it's fine. It's been saving my scores and settings with no problem. That's weird, though. I have no idea what would make the save fail on a third-party card.

Could be, I'll try picking up an actual VMU from a local game shop this week and see what happens. I actually have two third-party cards and the game wouldn't even start up with one of them inserted

[gameoverDude]

Anyone in the US get FS yet??

Mine came last week, but my CRT is tated at the moment and I don't want to tip it back just yet. Haven't tried it on the LCD screen.

Bill

Good to hear you have yours, but I'm with doctorx0079- still waiting on mine from NCSX. I can't believe they wouldn't have gotten it yet.

[doctorx0079]

Okay, I just heard back from NCSX. They said their shipment is coming from NG:DEV but they haven't received it yet. They said they expect to receive it this week.

[mesh control]

Should have ordered from NG: Dev directly.

[Tigershark]

Arrived today. Had a quick play on my LCD monitor.

First impressions are not good but I will persevere:

Very pixilated on the LCD so may connect to my old Sony Tr. Graphics do look good though and the music is great.
Ship control is not as tight as I would have hoped. Very snatchy.
The multiplyer do-dahs should get to your ship quicker when you release the firing (accept totally this is a game mechanic to this game but somehow it feels wrong).

More later when I've played it for a few hours.

[Paradigm]

Sorry to say I'm not a fan of this game.

Despite it being a bit more bullet-hell oriented, it still feels quite 'euroshmuppy' to me. It feels too cramped a lot of the time and most of my deaths tend to come from accidentally ramming/being rammed into by enemies.

The graphics are rather dull and the music is mostly forgettable (although I do like the stage 4 boss theme, should have used that for every boss). It seems to either feel too sparse or too cramped with little middle ground. Overall it just feels quite cheap and most importantly, not much fun to play. Not bad for a doujin, but definitely not worth the asking price in my opinion.

[SkylineR32]

I actually quite like the game from what I have played so far. My copy arrived yesterday and it is by far the best published Homebrew on the DC. What I will say about it is that it craps all over Last Hope and Dux.

The one and only complain I have is that if anything, the d-pad is just a bot too responsive. I will try it again later today with a stick.

[Tigershark]

A few more thoughts (further to my post above) after a few hours play.

I'm no tecno guru so probably talking out my arse but aside from the fact that this looks so much better on my old Sony CRT, I'm sure the control is a little better too. I really feel there's a little lag when playing on the LCD which is not there on the CRT. Movement on the CRT feels much more stable and less random and prone to suiciding.

I still don't like the multiplier attract mechanic but I've got used to it. Your ship could be brighter too because when the screen fills up it's difficult to see it and the backgrounds really don't help. I'm all for being reflexive and looking behind you but cheap kills as aresult of not being able to see your ship is a little cheap.

Graphics are really nice - especially when viewed on the CRT. Enemy patterns are good too and the bullet patterns are managable without being totally unfair or unpredictable.

All in all I like it and I posted my first score on line - Hoo Hah! (and Skyline - beat you beat you beat you!)

Edit: Oh, another bad thing is that my highscores do not save on my official VMU. Given this happens on others too (but not all) it must be a bug.

[Battletoad]

The multiplyer do-dahs should get to your ship quicker when you release the firing (accept totally this is a game mechanic to this game but somehow it feels wrong).

Try to get to Devil Rank (available in every mode besides Novice) and the items will get to your ship much faster and even when your holding down the fire button.

[mrsmiley381]

I could be wrong on this, but if you continue it seems that when you finally get a game over it only allows you to enter your initials for the score you got on your last credit. Either that's a bug or I am terribly mistaken. Not that it matters anyway, because if you're trying to get a high score you won't be continuing anyway.

[rancor]

I could be wrong on this, but if you continue it seems that when you finally get a game over it only allows you to enter your initials for the score you got on your last credit. Either that's a bug or I am terribly mistaken.

Thats fairly standard for the shmup genre. Either that, or they'll add a "1" to the last digit of your score. It's rare that I've ever seen a shooter that allows you to keep your score while continuing..

[mrsmiley381]

I could be wrong on this, but if you continue it seems that when you finally get a game over it only allows you to enter your initials for the score you got on your last credit. Either that's a bug or I am terribly mistaken.

Thats fairly standard for the shmup genre. Either that, or they'll add a "1" to the last digit of your score. It's rare that I've ever seen a shooter that allows you to keep your score while continuing..

I know it clears my score, but if you look at Deathsmiles once you get a game over via death or finishing, you put in your highest scoring segment rather than what your score was when you got the game over, unless they happen to be the same. In Fast Striker, I'm certain that my highest score came from my first credit, then after I continued it tracked the last credit's score as the highest, not the first.

It's just a weird way to do things, because you could actually beat your high score and if you continued you might not notice and then you wouldn't get to put it on the high score table. Again, this is uncommon because if you play for score you do it in one credit and who the hell mashes start in frustration?

Again, I might be wrong and I need to go test this out. I also have no idea why the hell people are having trouble getting the save function to work. And does enabling faster load times do anything in particular?

[Kollision]

And does enabling faster load times do anything in particular?

Yeah, I'd also like to know what the consequences are for doing this.

[Hair]

I can now 1cc Novice mode (this mode is a little too easy actually) and beat Original with the alloted continues. I know this isn't anything to brag about, just sayin'. I'd like to get better and make some decent runs at Maniac mode.

I'm really enjoying the bullet patterns. FS may be a bit light when it comes to extras, modes, modern graphics, scoring systems etc... but it has really fun bullet and enemy patterns and I really like the ship/enemy designs. The bosses and larger enemies are really cool.

My game saves fine on my VMU. Takes 3 blocks if I remember correctly.

[mjclark]

Wooh! On first impressions seems way way more fun than Dux or Last Hope and somehow manages to be simple and intricate at the same time (?)
But what happens when the bar above shields and to the right of extends fills up then ?

[LSU]

And does enabling faster load times do anything in particular?

Yeah, I'd also like to know what the consequences are for doing this.

For one thing, I noticed that it turns off the fancy pre-rendered background graphics on the menu screens. I guess then it doesn't have to re-load those expensive graphics when you come back to the menus after playing a game, so you save on the load times. (A little bit like the option on the NeoGeo CD version of Pulstar to turn off the pre-rendered cutscenes.)

[the2bears]

A few more thoughts (further to my post above) after a few hours play.

I'm no tecno guru so probably talking out my arse but aside from the fact that this looks so much better on my old Sony CRT, I'm sure the control is a little better too. I really feel there's a little lag when playing on the LCD which is not there on the CRT. Movement on the CRT feels much more stable and less random and prone to suiciding.

This is a known issue with some LCD screens. Mine has a "game mode" and I don't notice any lag. In regular mode I certainly do. You might check if yours has a similar property to set.

Bill

[Tigershark]

My TV does but my monitor (Samsung) does not.

Playing through the DC's VGA shuold not really cause lag and I've not noticed it in other games I've played on the DC (which is pretty much all the shooters) so not sure it's what you describe though I agree playing a PS2 through composite on a HD LCD TV causes significant lag game mode or not.

[mjclark]

So 4 questions:
1. How do you fill up the bar next to extends and above shields in Novice mode, and what happens when you do?
2. What happens when you fill up that same bar by collecting dropped items in Maniac mode?
3. Why do dropped items sometimes become white owls and what happens when you collect them?
4. What's the Tec Bonus for?

[E. Randy Dupre]

I could be wrong on this, but if you continue it seems that when you finally get a game over it only allows you to enter your initials for the score you got on your last credit. Either that's a bug or I am terribly mistaken.

Thats fairly standard for the shmup genre. Either that, or they'll add a "1" to the last digit of your score. It's rare that I've ever seen a shooter that allows you to keep your score while continuing..

I know it clears my score, but if you look at Deathsmiles once you get a game over via death or finishing, you put in your highest scoring segment rather than what your score was when you got the game over, unless they happen to be the same.

The way Cave's console ports - and, I guess, the arcade originals - register high scores is actually an oddity, in my experience. It's far more common for games to go with the score you had on the last credit used, rather than the highest out of all of them.

[doctorx0079]

It's just old-school. Classic arcade games would generally not let you enter your initials if you continued. You could only enter initials after the timer counted down to zero. In Raiden 2 for example, if you get a high score and then continue, the game puts in the initials "=C=" for "continued". You can't normally enter "=C=" in that game.

[mrsmiley381]

I guess that means I just wasn't paying attention to early games that registered score the same way. I've been studying game design at RIT for three years now and most people here would agree that the way Cave registers score would be the most beneficial to the casual player.

Well, at least now I know that what I saw did in fact work that way and that it's common. That's all I wanted to figure out.

I also gave my friend his copy today, as I bought the double pack and he wanted the regular edition. He was so happy to have a new Dreamcast game.

[Battletoad]

So 4 questions:
1. How do you fill up the bar next to extends and above shields in Novice mode, and what happens when you do?
2. What happens when you fill up that same bar by collecting dropped items in Maniac mode?
3. Why do dropped items sometimes become white owls and what happens when you collect them?
4. What's the Tec Bonus for?

1. & 2. I don't know yet.
3. Due to secrets which get activated by destroying certain enemies or whatever. In Maniac Mode on Death Rank you get these items all the time. They increase your chain counter and give points, too.
4. For a whole lot of points obviously.

[Elaphe]

Do you know if the Dreamcast version of this game feature non-interlaced low resolution display (15khz)? BTW, is it already available?

[antron]

Do you know if the Dreamcast version of this game feature non-interlaced low resolution display (15khz)? BTW, is it already available?

yes, and yes

[mjclark]

So 4 questions:
1. How do you fill up the bar next to extends and above shields in Novice mode, and what happens when you do?
2. What happens when you fill up that same bar by collecting dropped items in Maniac mode?
3. Why do dropped items sometimes become white owls and what happens when you collect them?
4. What's the Tec Bonus for?

1. & 2. I don't know yet.
3. Due to secrets which get activated by destroying certain enemies or whatever. In Maniac Mode on Death Rank you get these items all the time. They increase your chain counter and give points, too.
4. For a whole lot of points obviously.

Thanks-research continues so:
2. From the YouTube video it seems that when the bar fills you get an extra shield
and
4. Seems you get the Tech Bonus for destroying bosses piece by piece e.g. destroying sidepods of first stage boss individually before attacking its main body.
Also
5. Why on Original mode does it sometimes say "Acterr" above the shields?
6. What's a Devilsplosion?
7. How do you obtain extra credits?
8. Where's all those secrets?
Can't wait for a Fast striker ST but

[Tigershark]

Thanks for these tips.

The tech bonus really helps your score.

Does devil rank increase score noticeably? I seem only get to devil rank at the end of the first level with a no miss. Can you get it sooner?

Enjoying this game.

[Battletoad]

Thanks-research continues so:
2. From the YouTube video it seems that when the bar fills you get an extra shield
and
4. Seems you get the Tech Bonus for destroying bosses piece by piece e.g. destroying sidepods of first stage boss individually before attacking its main body.
Also
5. Why on Original mode does it sometimes say "Acterr" above the shields?
6. What's a Devilsplosion?
7. How do you obtain extra credits?
8. Where's all those secrets?
Can't wait for a Fast striker ST but

4. Ah sorry misunderstood you there.
5. Dunno. Never even noticed.
6. When you have a secret activated, you'll get these symbols (NG:DEV.TEAM logos). If you destroy a boss while this is still active you get a devilsplosion and all bullets turn into these symbols increasing your chain and score further. Also works for Devil Rank even with no secret, but just on Maniac (and Omake probably).
7. I think it's the amount of time you've played.
8. Go search for yourself. Really most aren't that hard. I get many without doing random or weird stuff, thus I sometimes don't even know what exactly the secret is.

Does devil rank increase score noticeably? I seem only get to devil rank at the end of the first level with a no miss. Can you get it sooner?

On Maniac yeah since you get all these symbols. I think it doesn't make a difference on Original though, if you compare it to rank 3. I also had Devil Rank not sooner than destroying the second pod from the stage 1 boss. Didn't expect Devil Rank and got surprised by the suicide bullets. :/
And then of course there was this weird run... I cleared Original on one credit, then made a run on Maniac which seemingly started on higher rank than normal. I got to Devil Rank in the middle of the 1st stage.

[mjclark]

Thanks-research continues so:
2. From the YouTube video it seems that when the bar fills you get an extra shield
and
4. Seems you get the Tech Bonus for destroying bosses piece by piece e.g. destroying sidepods of first stage boss individually before attacking its main body.
Also
5. Why on Original mode does it sometimes say "Acterr" above the shields?
6. What's a Devilsplosion?
7. How do you obtain extra credits?
8. Where's all those secrets?
Can't wait for a Fast striker ST but

4. Ah sorry misunderstood you there.
5. Dunno. Never even noticed.
6. When you have a secret activated, you'll get these symbols (NG:DEV.TEAM logos). If you destroy a boss while this is still active you get a devilsplosion and all bullets turn into these symbols increasing your chain and score further. Also works for Devil Rank even with no secret, but just on Maniac (and Omake probably).
7. I think it's the amount of time you've played.
8. Go search for yourself. Really most aren't that hard. I get many without doing random or weird stuff, thus I sometimes don't even know what exactly the secret is.

Brilliant!
I got so keen that I PM'd RHE and he further explained that:
1.The bar above the shields in Novice mode does nothing and shouldn't really be there.
and
5.The occasional "ACTERR" message in Original is a programming flag (I'm guessing it's "ActionError") and makes no difference at all to gameplay so again shouldn't really be there.
Still not sure how to get the Tech Bonus for Stages 2 and 4 though.
And you're quite right-secrets aren't secrets if you tell them and I'm sure more will be revealed with every passing second of play time

[Tigershark]

I really like this game.

I think quite a few people now have this but don't seem to be posting their scores online at NG's site. At the moment I'm the highest scoring UK shmupper which obviously cannot be right.