Looking back at old triumphs

[Seahawk]

Today I was bored so I started looking through my old videos of shooting game clears.

As I watched my 1941 run on my computer (very hard difficulty, very fast bullet speed) I was quite amazed at how frantic the action was (I haven't played since I beat that). After that, I watched 1943 and was pretty much blown away at how crazy the final stage was. I watched more and more and found myself wondering

"How the hell did I manage this?"

I was wondering if anyone else has moments like that.

[BIL]

Recently had just such a moment with another Capcom shooter, Gun.Smoke. Revisited it briefly and got my ass so soundly kicked I watched an old ALL inp of mine wondering what I was doing wrong. I'm rusty now, to say the least. The game is so punishing of any hesitation, I was getting blown away by stage 3 enemies I used to cut down with a clean strafe on reflex.

[MJR]

I got only one triumph, 9 million+ from Raiden DX novice mission (normal difficulty)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZyahIvdoU

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Back in 1988, it was a piece of cake to reach the "Bozon" final end stage mechanized worm boss on the classic Hyper Dyne Sidearms PCB on my first quarter. Another quarter was needed to finally finish it off for good -- thus it'd be a 2CC session back in those days when the arcade shmups were known as "quarter munchers". So by spending real money, it would force the player to try to do his or her best to learn the "in & outs" of said arcade game in the fewest amount of credits spent.

Plus there really wasn't any superplays to watch to see if such SA scores could be bettered, it was all trial 'n' error at best (and many quarters spent) and falling back on rote memory. It was quite common to see scores in the 1,400,000+ to 1,500,000+ range on the high score list (with an average of about 35 minutes of playing time altogether per SA 2CC gaming session).

Actually, with the SA PCB, it was just a matter of learning where the enemies were going to be and line up your mecha player character to anticipate them for point-blanking ease (the mechanized millipedes are a different story though which requires a different set of rules to defeat them as they always home in on you -- it's best to rid of them quickly as possible). The full-auto weapon with the machine gun option really was the only thing needed to achieve a serious 1CC or 2CC session indeed. I wasn't playing against anybody else but against myself to see if my scores could be improved upon. Sometimes, it would go up a bit & other times, it would decrease a bit.

Sometimes, the SA CPU would register two high scores slots with the same high score & high score initials (usually the 1st & 2nd high score slots) -- btw, this was on a USA region SA PCB. Am not sure if this little high score quirk/bug would apply to a Japanese region SA PCB though (the only major differences are the main title screen & dip switch settings, other than those two listed observations, the JPN & USA region SA PCBs are the same in terms of gameplay & game mechanics). Of course, if either region SA PCB is powered down for the night, then all scores/initials are lost. That's a given regarding the early Jamma PCBs from that era.

Thinking about it, it'd be cool to have a real SA PCB save high scores/initials for posterity & still be there upon re-powering it back up.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[fogelmir]

Several years ago. I was practicing Gradius V to eventually attempt a single credit run. After a month of practicing almost every day. I was ready.
I set up my digital camera and started playing. I crashed and burned on stage 2. I took a moment to gather myself and tried again.
for the next hour or so I was able to pull off a SC run stopping occasionally to change the card in my camera.
It was one of those epic runs full of tension, and down to my very last life. I remember going down the final tunnel repeating
"don't hit the wall, don't hit the wall," over and over again.

I survived a single credit run of Gradius V, A game I never SC'd again. But I still remember that run and have it all on video.


My only other triumph worth mentioning was when I SC'd Mushhimesama in the arcade and went crazy. The person next to me watching didn't know what to think.
There was no way he would ever understand my excitement after years of trying to do it. But he got to see the some crazy freak go nuts. I'm sure that was enough.

[Marc]

Finishing Super R-Type. I love the series, but gameplay as memorization heavy with no checkpoints? I simply wouldn't have the patience these days. Also finishing SNES UN Squadron on Hard was something I was quite pleased with at the time.

[Captain]

List of 1CCs which I inexplicably did.

-Progear (1 life )
-Donpachi
-Dodonpachi
-G-Darius (2 lives )
-1943
-1944
-1942
-1941
-Darius Gaiden
-ESP. Ra. De.
-Pulstar
-Blazing Star (to a lesser extent)

Oh and all of the R-Type games, but 1 CC-ing them is not inexplicable.

[1up]

completed the first loop of Strikers 1945 in 2008 I think. Took me about 2 years, on and of, and haven't touched the game since. Tried it the other day and barely made it to stage 5. Thought "WTF? It has to be like riding a bike!". Tried again and got destroyed on stage 5 again. Credit fed like there was no tomorrow.

I have no idea how I did this back then. Those bullet patterns are brutally fast.

[hail good sir]

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