The BIG thread of Shmup grievances.

[Obscura]

I just had the horrible revelation that I play significantly better if I narrate to myself, out loud, the next step I need to take when playing.

Now anyone who is near me when I play is going to think I'm insane

[Drachenherz]

I kind of miss playing them but you can't win.

I can.

1-CC Brave Blade this afternoon, very easy game.

If you play them with any seriousness and structure with the intention of getting better and clearing them then ONE end result is always massive stress-outs, BUT ALSO AWESOME VICTORY

Edited for content. I do, since you were clearly adressing me, with your "you", right?

So, don't play them without the intention to win. Don't play with any intention (and expectation) at all, and just play those games. For the fun of it.

Veni, Vidi, Vici.

And had fun too.

Brains and skills: for the enlightened few.

Well fuck my typing skills, it should have be a zen-like tip in the first place, but not THAT zen like... I wanted to type "don't play them WITH the intention to win."

But actually, the typoed version sounds better, because, you know, my mind is full of fuck.

[Randorama]

Well fuck my typing skills, it should have be a zen-like tip in the first place, but not THAT zen like... I wanted to type "don't play them WITH the intention to win."

But actually, the typoed version sounds better, because, you know, my mind is full of fuck.

Then, all is forgiven, we Thomas fans must be full of win, all the time

[Gus]

I fucking hate Espgaluda 2's end game bonus. Not fun throwing out a run on the final boss with your highest stage score ever because you lost too many lives to get a decent bonus.

[Obscura]

Ugh, I so fucking wish I could figure out how to get consistent.

It feels like I find new and amazing ways to fail on every credit I play.

[Illyrian]

Waiting for the 1 and 0 on the game over countdown to go away followed by the overly long gameover theme on Muchi Muchi Pork and Pink Sweets PCB.

JUST LET ME PRESS START AND TRY AGAIN ALREADY!

[Obscura]

Is there any way to get savestates from the newer versions of MAME to work in shmup mame 2.2? All of my Ketsui high scores (well, the ones I actually remembered to hit shift + F7 after...) are in a save state on a newer version of MAME, and I really don't want to lose them

[trap15]

Nope, the format is totally different. Shmupmame blows anyways.

[Obscura]

Shmupmame blows anyways.

Then why does almost every youtube'd run of Ketsui or DOJ use it instead of the most recent MAME builds?

[trap15]

That's a good question. The sound is absolutely awful.

[CptRansom]

Yeah, I switched away from Shmupmame recently and haven't looked back.

Bitching: I still haven't cleared DFKBL Novice with B-Bomb, but I think I'm almost to the point where I'll be able to ALL it (including Hibachi) on a solid run and take #1 on the PAL version for Bomb type across all three ships. It really amuses me how the game goes from a total joke at no rank to OH GOD WUT at full red, even on Novice. Not being able to use hypers for optimal scoring in Novice helps with the difficulty as well; there are just enough bullets to be difficult (for me at least, and I'm admittedly not very good at all), but not enough to get any noticeable points from using hypers.

The one thing that's truly annoying me is when my chain starts falling in places where it seems there is no way to keep it alive. Most of the Ura midbosses have breaks before they appear and ESPECIALLY after they die where I end up dropping anywhere from 500-1500 from my chain. Shit sucks. I really wish I had the JP version so I could watch some good replays. The highest Novice Bomb type for PAL is ~115B, if I recall correctly, and I'm pretty close to surpassing that. >.>

[Erppo]

You need to take the Ura midbosses of stages 3 and 4 slowly in order to avoid the long empty sretches that result from killing them too quick. Stage 3 has an alternate strategy though where you kill the thing as quickly as you can with hypers (before the screen finishes scrolling all the way to left) and then take your time in killing the tanks that fill the road there.

The midbosses in stages 1 and 2 don't really do this and you actually want to kill both stage 5 midbosses as fast as possible since they hold back valuable extra enemies from the start.

[Obscura]

So, I finally got around to playing the original R-Type for the first time.

My grievance is that it took so long. Holy crap, it blows R-Type 3 clean out of the water!

Also, after getting somewhat accustomed to Cave games, R-Type is one hell of a humbling experience. It took me a TON of tries to get past the first stage! (Oddly, my first time to stage 2, I made it to the boss- that stage really seems easier than the first, although I have no clue what to do about that boss...).

[Ghegs]

So, I finally got around to playing the original R-Type for the first time.

My grievance is that it took so long. Holy crap, it blows R-Type 3 clean out of the water!

I salute your decision of picking up R-Type, sir. It's really a great game, shame the R-Type -esque subgenre is now even more dead than shmups in general, and most new players are only attracted to the dominant, flashier bullet hells.

And those are my big grievances.

[Captain]

keeping it related...

R-type Final is my grievance, In the first R-types you could actually have some freedom, but in Final you have to to the exact things required to pass levels or bosses.

It feels like I'm playing chess vs a computer, except with ships.

[Hagane]

Shmupmame blows anyways.

Are there any good "lagless" MAME builds you could recommend?

[trap15]

Nope; I'll probably make one whenever the latest MAME gets released though.

[Hagane]

Looking forward to it! Shmupmame 2.2 has broken savestates in Cave games and 3.0 breaks them for toaplan2 and Psikyo, would be good to be able to use a single build for all games.

[Erppo]

If you can make a lagless MAME with Shmup2.2's input recording and 3.0's custom buttons and autofire settings I will love you forever.

[trap15]

I was just going to do a simple remove sprite buffer thing with the new codebase Requires virtually no work, and makes everything sprite buffer-free

[Obscura]

Holy hell, if you do that, you'll be a fucking saint.

After trying shmupmame 2.2, I was shocked at how much better I was doing in Ketsui, and how much better maneuvering felt without the lag, but the really fucked up sound in stage 4 always annoys me to no end.

[Obscura]

OMFG, FUCK YOU DOJ stage 2 boss!

I've made it to stage 4, but those fucking blue lines keep destroying run after run after run, even after a ton of savestate practice.

I really hate the thought of using a hyper followed by a precious (I can only stand using A-Exy) bomb, but god, that thing rapes the hell out of me, and doing the rest of him with hyper rank is lol.

Also, DOJ may not have been the best choice for taking some time off from Ketsui with. But Espgaluda's first two levels make me want to shoot myself because they go on for soooooo looooooong, and Dragon Blaze manages to rape me even harder than DOJ, and for whatever reason, DDP just doesn't "click" with me (also, am I the only person who finds chaining in DDP harder than in DOJ?).

[O. Van Bruce]

Wich part is the one that's difficult for you? I had some problems with that boss as well, since I couldn't forgive myself to lose a life or use a bomb there.

[Obscura]

The blue lines in general are a problem (their hitbox really doesn't seem to match the sprite at all), but the really bad one is the one where both arms spin slowly and create a clusterfuck of slow-moving blue lines.

Sometimes I get lucky and it lines up like two "hallways" that I can get a few inches off the bottom for and then move down with, but sometimes it's just a bunch of lines going wherever the fuck they please.

(First form, of course. Second form is super-easy as long as I'm not trying to do it mid-hyper, and I can even do that without bombing about 2/3rds of the time)

[O. Van Bruce]

try to predict when the boss will shoot that pattern and go to one side of the screen quickly. You can "distort" the pattern that way since the other cannon that makes the full pattern won't shoot all of its bullets since it isn't on screen.

If you get stuck bettwen both cannons, try to get as forward as you can so you can have space to maneuver in 3 directions (left, right and down).

[Obscura]

try to predict when the boss will shoot that pattern and go to one side of the screen quickly. You can "distort" the pattern that way since the other cannon that makes the full pattern won't shoot all of its bullets since it isn't on screen.

If you get stuck bettwen both cannons, try to get as forward as you can so you can have space to maneuver in 3 directions (left, right and down).

Is there any tell as to when he's going to use that pattern? As far as I can tell, he chooses them at random.

EDIT: Holy shit, the ship hitbox is waaay further back than I thought it was. I guess there's part of my problems...

[O. Van Bruce]

try to predict when the boss will shoot that pattern and go to one side of the screen quickly. You can "distort" the pattern that way since the other cannon that makes the full pattern won't shoot all of its bullets since it isn't on screen.

If you get stuck bettwen both cannons, try to get as forward as you can so you can have space to maneuver in 3 directions (left, right and down).

Is there any tell as to when he's going to use that pattern? As far as I can tell, he chooses them at random.

A cave game never chooses the patterns randomly. If it wasn't like that there wouldn't be imput records.

PD: Waiting for someone to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Obscura]

try to predict when the boss will shoot that pattern and go to one side of the screen quickly. You can "distort" the pattern that way since the other cannon that makes the full pattern won't shoot all of its bullets since it isn't on screen.

If you get stuck bettwen both cannons, try to get as forward as you can so you can have space to maneuver in 3 directions (left, right and down).

Is there any tell as to when he's going to use that pattern? As far as I can tell, he chooses them at random.

A cave game never chooses the patterns randomly. If it wasn't like that there wouldn't be imput records.

PD: Waiting for someone to correct me if I'm wrong.

How does he choose then?

[O. Van Bruce]

Based on the health bar. Try to play the boss a few times and you should be able to figure out the sequence. Unfortunately, I don't have my controller here, so I can't provide feedback.

[casualcoder]

The enemy crush at the end of stages 3-6 in Guwange always gives me trouble. Not a grievance but it's probably the only game outside of ddp-series that uses that enemy style so much. I always have trouble with that kind of thing. But that's also part of the fun.