Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[EmperorIng]

I haven't gotten around to it yet, but it's on my eventual to-play list.

Truth be told I'm sort of considering, or rather, toying with the idea of getting myself a vectrex arcade system, and one of the titles on my must-get list would be Scramble.

[Drachenherz]

Oh how I hate em... I CAVEd in and take the plunge on BP2BL...

It's sooooooo good... *sigh*

[Marc]

I remember why I didn't like Shienryu. Ship feels too big for the play area.

[soupbones]

I haven't gotten around to it yet, but it's on my eventual to-play list.

Truth be told I'm sort of considering, or rather, toying with the idea of getting myself a vectrex arcade system, and one of the titles on my must-get list would be Scramble.

Was just playing mine the other day - great game and great system!

[EmperorIng]

-off-topic-
If only every system on ebay didn't sell for an excess of $100, then I would totally jump on getting one! $50-75 is about what I'm willing to drop for the system right now. It's either that or an Atari 7800 - I'm mulling it over (there's an old 2600 buried in my parents' house from my grandpa who had and used it, which is pretty awesome - but I never used it).

There's a used game shop I frequent that has a good selection of Vectrex (!) games, reasonably priced. Cartridge only, though. But it has about every worth-while game: Scramble, Berzerk, Solar Quest, Cosmic Chasm, Rip Off, Pole Position, HyperChase, Clean Sweep, Armor Attack, and -get this!- a copy of Star Castle! It was $25, cartridge only, and I really wanted to pick it up just because that game, from what i see, goes for mondo bux online. I'm considering picking it up when I get paid, just to ensure me having it at a cheap price instead of shelling out an excess of $100 for the game alone. If I had a good hundo on me, I could clean out their Vectrex stock and walk away a happy man. No screen overlays, but what can one do?

-off-topic-

I was playing a lot of psikyo last night. Mainly just messing around in Dragon Blaze, trying out Ian. Holy moly RNG's guide was right - that dude blows. I mean his shot is good, but his bomb is horribly unbalanced and weak. I like playing as Sonia, who is not necessarily the best character (that's the Viking dude), but she's totally overpowered compared to the pain in the ass of playing as Ian.

I credit-fed to the end of the first loop, and at least got to see his funny ending. Oh those crazy Psikyo guys.

I also continued to practice Gunbird 2 with Marion. The farthest I have ever gotten on 1 credit was the North Pole stage - I think the boss - but I was nowhere near that practicing yesterday. It was the first time I had played in a while so the muscle memory wasn't quite there. Still lots of fun though. MARION HASHIIN!

[RNGmaster]

I was playing a lot of psikyo last night. Mainly just messing around in Dragon Blaze, trying out Ian. Holy moly RNG's guide was right - that dude blows. I mean his shot is good, but his bomb is horribly unbalanced and weak. I like playing as Sonia, who is not necessarily the best character (that's the Viking dude), but she's totally overpowered compared to the pain in the ass of playing as Ian.

Dude, have you seen the damage that thing does? Plan and you can kill loop bosses in seconds with it. Rob's bomb is worse IMO - the bullet deletion and attack hitbox are deceptively small, and he's really fucking slow so you can't reposition very well after using it to bail your ass out of a sticky situation.

I'm getting back to DB myself. Now that a no-miss with 4 or 5 bombs isn't that out of the ordinary, I'm going over my loop paths to see where the best places to use those bombs are. Kind of taking it cautiously.

[EmperorIng]

I like Rob's strength though - however, since i use Sonia, I tend to gravitate towards quick, adept characters, and I like how Sonia's bubble-spread works. It feels like it does a fair amount of damage, plus those great lasers that come along for the ride.

Her unmounted charge shot is also an attack I like using a whole lot - it seems to really clear out loop bosses quickly. Nothing to complain about!

I actually don't use Quaid all that much, even though it seems often common consensus that he's probably the best of the characters to use.

[RNGmaster]

Of course, there's really no "wrong" way to play Dragon Blaze unless you decide to take a fancy to collecting the bullets.

[SuperSoaker360]

Soreyuke! Burunyanman HARDCORE!!!


HAVE TO GET ALL ERO SCENES AND CG ARTWORK

[YiffKingSpinsle]

I've been playing DoDonPachi for about a month straight, pretty much since it got me into STGs. I occasionally branch off to play some other Cave shooter or Ikaruga, but DDP is my mainstay right now, and I'm loving it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Working on battleship stage of Raiden Fighters...the bonuses in this one are surprisingly easy to pull off, aside from the landing craft one perhaps. I get tagged by bullet barf later in the stage, though.

[Marc]

Despite not really gelling with it, a bit of Shienryu as its on my Vita so I can get an hour a day in at work. Hitting ST4 boss on approx 2.5mil regularly now, after 3 hours play so hoping for the clear soon. It's still a weird one, hitbox doesn't feel right and screen feels really cramped, enough so that even the ST2 boss's simple patterns regularly throw me off.

[O. Van Bruce]

Soreyuke! Burunyanman HARDCORE!!!


HAVE TO GET ALL ERO SCENES AND CG ARTWORK

Man, how much I hate that fucking geezer... made me regret playing the game.

[Kollision]

Will be hitting Blazing Star hard the next couple of days.
Then I'll get back to Hyper Duel.

[chum]

I got into PoFV the other day (Dunno why I didn't give it a chance sooner, since I fell in love with PoDD a while back) and 1cc'd lunatic with two of the more crippled characters. Super fun game way better than TSS

Been playing Dimahoo a couple of times lately and my scores are still trash. 5th boss is the furthest I've made it on one credit and that thing is just scary.

[EmperorIng]

I feel pretty good, because I was able to make through the first two stages of Dragon Blaze with Sonia, without dying, this afternoon.

The bullets and consequently, the deaths - multiplied quickly on stage 1-3 and I wasn't able to keep up. Pissed me off when I died, but I still had loads of fun.

However, a little cheaply, I Tech-Bonus killed the first two bosses using Sonia's Trident Bomb to push through their final attack patterns. I know I should learn how to dodge, but I don't wanna. ; p

[Marc]

ST3 on Pork after an hour or so really going at it. Fucking love the scoring, it's a bummer dropping the medal chain but not so much so that I feel I should just give up the moment it happens. It's an accessible Garrega.

[Meseki]

After reading on the scoring system, I decided to play Imperishable Night again for the first time since before 1CC's were feasible for me. Now that I've 1CC'd a few other STG's, I realize just how easy this is on Easy difficulty (especially with Reimu and Yukari), so I can actually focus on getting score without worrying about if I'll finish the game or not. The scoring is also quite fun, as it actually makes me play differently (unfocused) at certain times and doesn't penalize heavily for minor mistakes (unless collecting Point Items below the auto-collect zone counts, as that seems to half the score received from them).

Also, it's the first time I've unlocked a Touhou Extra Stage, since it can be done on Easy.

[chempop]

DFK-BL

I'm pretty new to this game, what's the deal with Stage-5 EX Boss (not hibachi, just "Golden Disaster" I think)? Do you always fight it (I'm using Bomb style Auto-ON)?
Thanks

[Meseki]

DFK-BL

I'm pretty new to this game, what's the deal with Stage-5 EX Boss (not hibachi, just "Golden Disaster" I think)? Do you always fight it (I'm using Bomb style Auto-ON)?
Thanks

No, the conditions are apparently no more than 2 bombs used and finish 2 bosses with full Reddo gauge. I don't think deaths or Hypers make a difference.

[mancity]

Iv'e recently just bought Battle Garegga on the Saturn, so im getting started on that.

Also reading through the exhaustive (and rather epic) guide about the game on this forum to give me a chance!

[chempop]

DFK-BL

I'm pretty new to this game, what's the deal with Stage-5 EX Boss (not hibachi, just "Golden Disaster" I think)? Do you always fight it (I'm using Bomb style Auto-ON)?
Thanks

No, the conditions are apparently no more than 2 bombs used and finish 2 bosses with full Reddo gauge. I don't think deaths or Hypers make a difference.

Ahhh okay. I was going for the dirty 1CC, without fighting Golden Disaster. Seems that by simply destroying the bosses with full Red gauge was unlocking him, as I certainly was bombing and dying plenty, as well as avoiding Bees.

Just got my first All, granted with bomb mode auto-ON, still happy except for the fact that the stage5 music glitched and kept playing while I fought the boss... kept playing through the credits too... and even back at the title screen

[Marc]

Help. My MMP seems stuck on v1.00, despite being set to v1.01 in the options. Haven't a clue of any other way to switch back, anyone? And is there a list of the differences anywhere? Only thing I can see if that my lard shot appears to drain more quickly.

[NTSC-J]

Help. My MMP seems stuck on v1.00, despite being set to v1.01 in the options. Haven't a clue of any other way to switch back, anyone? And is there a list of the differences anywhere? Only thing I can see if that my lard shot appears to drain more quickly.

My god, what is with this port...my copy stopped playing sound effects a week ago, so this must be yet another bug. Since you've just started with the game, try erasing the system data and/or save data.

In 1.00 the lard meter drains quicker and there are strict requirements for getting in to the loop. I think you also don't get extends in the loop.

[Marc]

Thanks for that. Left the machine overnight but still the same this morning so god only knows what it's done but yep, looks like the save data is gonna have to go.

So I rubbed it and got about four runs in before I quit on a bad one. Upon quitting it did it again, so I rubbed the data again and resigned myself to not being able to quit. It's now doing it every fucking time I finish a game, switches to 1.00 and won't budge no matter what. Fucking great.

How does one clear the Xbox cache? Gonna clear that and delete the game from the hard drive see if that helps.

[PedroMD]

I'm currently playing Darius Burst, actually the first one in the series I've played. It's pretty good, I might check the others later.
Also, after a long time reading about Cho Ren Sha 68k, I decided to give it a go and, wow, it really is as good as people made it to be. I beat the first loop by abusing the continue option and now I'm trying to clear it without using it.

[EmperorIng]

Darius Gaiden and G-Darius are really good games - totally worth playing and some of my favorite shmups in general. The Darius series has this great pick-up-and-play quality and a straightforwardness that I really like; it doesn't muck things up with overly convoluted chaining systems and bullet canceling, but focuses on classic, challenging gameplay.

Burst is still the Darius game I need to play (and the only one I haven't played of the main iterations), but Gaiden and G-Darius are still in my regular, for-fun rotation. I haven't 1CC'd either of them (I 2CC'd Gaiden, once, losing my credit at the last boss), but they're just fun, inventive games with great music.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I so don't know how to score in Deathsmiles. I'm getting to the final boss and if I'm lucky I get the first score extend right beforehand; I just don't seem to know how to use the Power Up effectively. Do I want to get the counter to 1000, get enough point items to max out the +value then powerup to cash in on all of them or something? Gah.

[Shatterhand]

I was playing IO for the C64 today and yesterday, a recommendation my mate Herr Schatten gave to me eons back and I had never tried it out.

The game is masochist hard. My first 3 plays of it didn't last more than 30 seconds (The first 2 lives I played I died in less than 5 seconds). But after you get the hang of it, it becomes highly addicting. It's pure memorization stuff, but there's some fun on this.

I am reaching level 2 with some comfort now.

[BPzeBanshee]

I so don't know how to score in Deathsmiles. I'm getting to the final boss and if I'm lucky I get the first score extend right beforehand; I just don't seem to know how to use the Power Up effectively. Do I want to get the counter to 1000, get enough point items to max out the +value then powerup to cash in on all of them or something? Gah.

It'll click and make sense to you eventually. Don't expect to figure out scoring in the Volcano stage for a while but if done right you can grab both extends just by powering up at the spots where it spits rocks at you.