Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Drachenherz]

Strikers 1945 II... Hitting a wall in Stage 1-6...

[spadgy]

Mushihimesama Maniac (PCB). I can typically get to the end boss, but tonight stage 3 has suddenly become a nemesis!

[null1024]

DoDonPachi Arrange (no I'm not shortening nor am I making a typo)
Can get to Hibachi, but I'm just not good enough to even get past first form. Oh well.

Are we talking about this DDP Arrange? <link removed, there's a rom within 3 clicks>
EDIT: I'm retarded, your name is right there in that post linked to...

And now I'm playing it. And liking it.

[weaslesleeves]

Grid seeker..not joking!

[saucykobold]

I was playing this recently too as part of a freindly little competition over on the retrogamer forums. I'd called it a day at 940k but it'd be interesting to hear what your strategy for the last few walls in stage 6 is.

I get a red bell at the second gunwall after clearing out most of the surrounding enemies. This isn't too difficult if you use a weapon that can "tap" bells instead of hitting them multiple times per shot. I then use one laser for each of the last three walls. It's not immediately obvious, but you're invincible if you stay within the little icon of your ship before it sprouts the vertical laser.

This strategy only works in Manual mode, unfortunately, since you can't really save red/blue bell powers for later use in Auto or Semi-Auto. Quick demonstration clip

In fact since you have the western record I'm sure any tips you can share would go down well.

Here's a neat trick that can help a ton in stage 5. Mambo, Hikaru, and a few other characters can activate a force field and then fly straight through a thin wall. This makes it easy to reach the large respawning coin if you don't have a blue or green bell handy. You could also kill all of the gun turrets at the wall of death, pass through with a force field, and then collect a lot of yellow bells.

Other potentially useful info:
With only a few exceptions (UFOs in 4a), you can prevent suicide bullets from being generated if you're close enough to their source.
If at all possible, use a red bell on the fifth boss. Fighting it normally is Turbo Force hard.
The colored bell sequence is blue, green, white, red, purple. Definitely worth learning.
The sequence of items is red x5, bell, red x5, bell, red, blue. Worth taking into consideration if you want to plan routes that give bells in desirable spots. For example, if you wanted to farm purple bells at the second boss, you'd need one of the last two enemies in the stage to reliably drop a bell.
A few years ago, KET recorded Auto runs with various ships. They show that it's very possible to clear the main game and the special stage without doing a lot of memorization.

[Weak Boson]

Thanks a lot.

[chempop]

Fire Shark and Sagaia on Genny. Got pretty far in both too, which was nice, because old school games usually eat me alive.

[edit]: Got the 1-All in DOJ BL with Type-A EXY! No second loop though
It was down to no bombs on my last life, which is always the most exciting way to finish off a final boss

[Moniker]

1CC'd DDP! Arrange!

Hopped on the bandwagon. Pretty fun. Chaining is bananas. I dig C-type's yogurt cannon.

[AttObl]

Stage 4 of DoDonPachi will eat many lives.

At least I got two extends: One from score, and one from the Huge Battleship at the end of Stage 3.

I also used the A-L ship, which will replace A-S as my favorite ship.

[Ed Oscuro]

Uh, what's the best and most complete version of Psyvariar on the PS2? I don't know if it is Complete Edition, Ultimate Final, or the Special Capture Box (which I know has a DVD, whee).

Not sure if I like Medium Unit or Revision more (though it is damn cool to see your own initials come up in the world select screens and then the replays).

XII Stag - OK, the bounce-around-to-kill-things is fun but also can be annoying. You don't have to worry about point-blanking, but control seems vastly reduced compared to a game with a point-blank weapon (i.e. certain ships in a late Neo Geo shooter).

[stryc9]

Uh, what's the best and most complete version of Psyvariar on the PS2? I don't know if it is Complete Edition, Ultimate Final, or the Special Capture Box (which I know has a DVD, whee).

Yep Special Capture box has the Superplay DVD, as you have stated. There's a Special Sound Box as well, I think it's safe to say that one has an OST pack-in. Ultimate Final is the PS2 version of Psyvariar 2, a different game altogether and complicating matters I believe Medium Unit and Revision were also originally released separately!

I think that covers it dude.

[azinth]

Putting a few more credits into Strikers 1999.

I just had a wonderful run where I got to the final boss with two extra lives and three bombs, only to mess it up so bad that I didn't even 1cc. That fuckin' boss. It looks so easy (and really it is!), but make one mistake at any point and it's pretty much all over.

[dunpeal2064]

Trying for the Dodonpachi 1-ALL, but no promising runs yet.

I managed to chain the first half of stage 1, up to 170. Measly, but I haven't worked on scoring at all, so it was nice figuring out how to chain a bit.

[chempop]

ESPRaDe PCB today (after a buttload of trouble-shooting to get my supergun setup properly working)...

Got to Stage-5 boss on my 4th credit

[Sapz]

Futari Ultra (badly).

[RBT]

Super Fantasy Zone

[mjclark]

R-Type III (GBA)- motherfucker this stuff is hard!!!!!

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

(GBA)

OH SHIT NIGGER WHAT ARE YOU DOING

[Ruldra]

R-Type III (GBA)- motherfucker this stuff is hard!!!!!

Lolz.

In case you never played the original SNES version, you should know that the GBA version is a completely fucked-up port. It's probably one of the worst ports I've ever seen.

[Kollision]

Muchi Muchi Pork

Why in hell didn't Cave include a lifebar for bosses?

[Illyrian]

Because it's a Yagawa game!

[mjclark]

(GBA)

OH SHIT NIGGER WHAT ARE YOU DOING

Lol- for £1.99 in Torquay Cash Generator how could I resist? Next stop Phalanx...

In case you never played the original SNES version, you should know that the GBA version is a completely fucked-up port. It's probably one of the worst ports I've ever seen.

What is it that makes it so bad? I havn't even got past Stage 1 yet...

[Ruldra]

Play the original and you'll see it for yourself. It should be obvious.

[ZacharyB]

What is it that makes it so bad? I havn't even got past Stage 1 yet...

The coding is off. The team that ported it had to reverse-engineer everything because they didn't have the original source code.

[Drachenherz]

ESPRaDe PCB today (after a buttload of trouble-shooting to get my supergun setup properly working)...

Got to Stage-5 boss on my 4th credit

How the Eff did you manage to do that? I've literally sunk hunderts of quarters in the game, but barely manage to get past boss of stage 5-1 on 1 credit...

*jelly*

On topic:
After getting ripped a new one by EspRaDe I'm back at Strikers 1945 II... And... getting ripped another new one atm... WTF is going on? Is it pissoble, äh, possible, to forget from one moment to the other how to play???

[Deca]

1 credit of DOJBL to break up the steady downward spiral of DDP skill and I make it to Koryu and instantly blow it. Still playing RF2 trying to get that 1CC so I can shelve it for a while and focus on other things.

Honestly not really having any fun at all playing lately, just feels like work.

[Drachenherz]

...
Honestly not really having any fun at all playing lately, just feels like work.

Actually, I'm feeling quite the same right now...

But there will be lighter shores ahead, I'm sure.

[Icarus]

Dodonpachi Daioujou (iOS) ........< target: 250mil+ | current: 239mil, 1-ALL, Type A-Exy >
Darius Burst SP (SP Mode) (iOS) < target: 250mil+ | current: 247mil, Zone H ALL, Legend Zero >

[Moniker]

...
Honestly not really having any fun at all playing lately, just feels like work.

Actually, I'm feeling quite the same right now...

But there will be lighter shores ahead, I'm sure.

Time to chill out and play some Megaman.

Whenever I'm in a shmup slump I tend to revert to old school horis. They make me feel like I'm on an adventure and actually go places, instead of working scoring mechanics in various unrelated stages.

[iconoclast]

Honestly not really having any fun at all playing lately, just feels like work.

I was feeling this way about DOJBL for a couple days, so I started learning Casper in Death Smiles 2 on the side. Now I'm having fun again.