ST: G-Stream G2020

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trap15
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ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

Image

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A fairly unknown game, G-Stream G2020 was developed by most of the people who would eventually form Triangle Service, known particularly for XIIStag and Trizeal.
Toshiaki Fujino, the lead programmer, was not paid his salary for most (all?) of this game's development, hence his splitting off to form Triangle Service.
NAOTO, the musician, had to deal with a shitty OKI MSM6295, and probably also was not paid much if at all. He also joined Fujino at Triangle Service.

Oriental Soft Japan is (proud?) to present:
G-Stream G2020

Buttons
  • A - Fire
    Tap - Shot
    Hold - Cancel-bomb
  • B - Bomb
    Pressing B drops the bomb directly in front of you. The longer you hold B, the further the bomb will deploy. The timing feels pretty natural, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out the timings you want.
Mechanics
  • Powerups
    • Powerup bar is located at the bottom corner of the screen.
    • There are 10 slots for powerups.
    • Acquiring a powerup will put it on the center-most slot, and shift all of the other powerups outwards.
      • The outside-most powerup will be lost.
    • Red powerup is a spread shot.
    • Blue powerup is a laser.
    • Green powerup is homing missiles.
    • If you fill up the powerup bar with a single color, picking up that powerup again will give a 10000 point bonus.
  • Medals
    • Medals increase in value for each medal acquired.
    • Medals are always worth the value that they appear to be.
    • Every medal you acquire increases the chain by 1, even if you've already acquired that medal value in the chain.
    • Medal values are in this order: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 500, 1000.
    • Whenever you drop a medal, the chain is reset to 0.
    • The medals accelerate fast. You have to know where and when they are dropping.
  • Cancel-bomb
    • The bomb will cancel all enemy bullets that hit it and turn them into medals.
    • The generated medals do not affect the medal chain.
    • The generated medals will always be the value of the medal chain when the bomb was dropped.
  • Cancel-level
    • The cancel level is displayed above the powerup bar.
      • If there is a blinking "OK!" next to the level, you are able to fire the cancel-bomb.
    • The higher your cancel level, the longer the bomb will be active.
    • The cancel level must be at least 56 to fire the cancel-bomb.
    • The cancel level is increased by absorbing the small colorized particles released from destroying an enemy.
    • The cancel level increases in increments of 8.
    • The cancel level is capped at 999.
  • Extends
    • No known extends
  • 1P/2P Difference
    • 1P is slower than 2P
    • 1P is stronger than 2P (?)
    • 2P has some bugs on the high-score screen.

Scoring Breakdown
  • The main scoring mechanics are the medals (which is fairly simple), the cancel-bomb (which takes intricate planning and is complex), and quick-kill bonuses.
  • For the medals, the easiest way to keep the chain up is to have a fair balance of Red and Blue powerups, and you should avoid Green powerups like the plague.
    • You will want primarily Blue because Red is a spread shot. Green is a bad choice because it's homing. The goal is to always have your shots in front of you so that you can collect the falling medals.
  • Cancel-bomb scoring isn't as easy to describe. It requires knowing the stages and enemies. The most optimal solution is to find enemies that fire large streams of bullets, make sure you have 1k value medals, and then drop a cancel-bomb on top of the enemy and gather the medals.
  • You can earn extra points from killing multiple enemies in quick succession, much like Raiden Fighters. Whenever you kill enemies within a few frames of each other, a "5000" text will pop up where they were, and you will earn 5000 points.
  • Another complex mechanic in this game is what I call the special segments. These parts of the stage seem to be unlocked depending on when you kill a certain enemy/set of enemies. I haven't figured out most of these, but I am in the process of doing so. If you know any, please let me know!
Stage 1 Breakdown
  • Special Segments
    • Segment 0
      • Description: Large plane that fires 8 shots in a "burst" pattern.
      • Requirements: (None)
    • Segment 1
      • Description: 5 planes that shoot streams of bullets
      • Requirements: Unknown (involves killing Segment 0 at a certain time?)
    • Segment 2
      • Description: 2 "cannon" planes
      • Requirements: Unknown (involves killing Segment 1 at a certain time?)
    • Segment 3
      • Description: 2 large "burst" planes
      • Requirements: Unknown (involves killing Segment 2 at a certain time?)
    • Segment 3.5
      • Description: 2 more large "burst" planes
      • Requirements: Unknown (involves killing Segment 3 at a certain time?)
    • Segment 4
      • Description: Large "rush" planes
      • Requirements: Unknown (involves killing Segment 3 (or 3.5) at a certain time?)
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
    • The red/blue "fat" planes in the beginning fire a pretty significant stream of bullets that can probably be cancel-bombed for profit. You probably won't have enough cancel level to use it on the earlier ones, so the last one that appears should be your best bet.
    • The 5 planes in Segment 1 can probably be cancel-bombed for significant profit, given you maintained your medal chain.
  • Boss Tactics
    • Destroying individual pieces of the boss drops medals.
    • The laser quickly kills this boss, but you can't get all of the medals due to it.
Stage 2 Breakdown
  • Special Segments
    • Segment 1
      • Description: WARNING text, and a screen full of tanks.
      • Requirements: Kill most of the tanks during the sideways scroll. The two on the very left that zip by and don't stay on screen don't need to be killed, but you must kill the others in time.
    • Segment 1 - Alternate
      • Description: A small dense forest with tanks coming out in random directions.
      • Requirements: Do not encounter the normal segment 1.
    • Segment 2
      • Description: Three large blue tanks
      • Requirements: None
    • Segment 3
      • Description: Twin railway with one train coming from bottom-left and one from top-right
      • Requirements: Kill off the three large blue tanks before any hit the bottom 40ish pixels of the screen. If the scrolling speeds up while one of these is present you'll know you've failed, and will go straight to the boss segment.
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
    • I would recommend NOT using the cancel bomb during the stage, as the boss has many long streams that can be canceled for more medals (provided your medal chain is still alive).
  • Boss Tactics
    • I recommend destroying all of the parts of the boss, and collecting their medals. That should leave the boss with just the main turret, and you with a full medal chain.
    • After that, get your cancel-bomb ready, and fire it as soon as the main turret starts firing. Depending on how many particles you collected, this can be worth quite a significant amount of points.
Stage 3A Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Stage 3B Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Last edited by trap15 on Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:12 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

Stage 4 Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Stage 5A Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Stage 5B Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Stage 6 Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Stage 7 Breakdown
  • Special Segments
  • Recommended Cancel-bomb Targets
  • Boss Tactics
Last edited by trap15 on Sat Aug 25, 2012 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

(reserved for more info)
Last edited by trap15 on Sat Aug 25, 2012 1:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

(reserved for more info)
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

For stage 2:
Segment 2
Description: Three large blue tanks
Requirements: None

Segment 3
Description: Twin railway with one train coming from bottom-left and one from top-right
Requirements: Kill off the three large blue tanks before any hit the bottom 40ish pixels of the screen. If the scrolling speeds up while one of these is present you'll know you've failed, and will go straight to the boss segment.

As for 3-A/3-B, I dont actually think there is any changable segments but 3-A's alternately-coloured planes are a bit odd.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

Thanks for the info on that; I was wondering what the trigger for it was.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I have a feeling quite a few if not all of these sort of things are going to be simple quick-kill requirements or something. There's definitely something going on Stage 4 but I haven't figured that part out specifically yet - there's a segment like Stage 2's tank row but its submarines emerging and spitting bullets (bullet-cancel heaven potential), and loops of fast scrolling and large navy ships that seem to last bloody forever.

You said you had a go at the actual ROM files right? There's a picture that in MAME's sprite viewer is split into a lot of segments but I think it's a prototype of XII Stag's warp title effect (but meant to be used for a background instead or something), would you be able to extract it somehow?
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

A few points I've noticed recently in this game that can be handy:

- I suspect there is some kind of chaining going on. Blasting the boss with a bomb or point-blanking and destroying parts quickly enough seems to result in a '5000' popping up, and destroying destructable bullets from enemies that spit out a lot of it (Stage 3-A comes to mind) also give the same thing.

- I believe the requirements for getting to Stage 3-B may involve going through the correct segments and not dying in Stage 2, but I am unsure. I find it a lot more difficult to play and/or hold a medal chain on that stage, and the boss looks A LOT like a prototype for XII Stag's Stage 3 boss.

- Second player is faster than First player, however playing with it results in further bugs with the highscore entry, and I suspect its attack power may be weaker but am not sure of this.

- Handling boss fights correctly makes a big difference to score, more so than killing everything on the screen and even medal chaining to some extent (although the latter is also somewhat important). I legit got like 2 mil by surviving Stage 3-B's boss and managing medals mostly right and doing a bit of that cancel-bomb stuff (which you get plenty of particles for in Stage 3-B).
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

Hm, those are quite interesting. I added the 1P/2P difference to the OP, but I'm reluctant to add the others until they're confirmed. I'll have to play this some more and try to figure out some more stuff.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by Vamos »

Using 1p ship ive experienced hiscore board fuck ups twice today in runs where i purposely collected all red power ups to max.Not sure if thats the reason but it was the only pattern i could notice.The score board would have my score in 2nd place as aaa and make me enter initials for 1st place of default score regardless of it being lower than my actual score.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

That sucks :/

I've been playing this a bit recently, and I noticed the quick-kill "5000" bonuses myself, and it certainly seems worth adding to the ST. I've also found some interesting places to cancel-bomb, so I'll add those as well! :mrgreen:
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by Vamos »

It didnt happen with my clear runs so maybe it is just a bit random.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I've noticed that bug with the highscore as well. I have a feeling the all-clear runs may not have the glitch occur but in-game runs of a certain length do. It'd be good to try and replicate the exact events with an input replay or something although due to the nature of this bug some NVRAM clearing (so, replicate with a first-time run with default highscore table, if it can be replicated at all).

Were your end stages where the bug occured in anywhere specific?
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by Vamos »

Not really but they were both kinda mid game deaths.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

Hmm, I might have to do some runs. I know it's consistently garbaged for me whenever I use 2P (requests entry for 1P as well as 2P even when only 2P played).

I hope DeltaZeal has those issues fixed. Can't wait to see what they did to the title for it (XIIZeal's replaced title is on their website but DeltaZeal isn't).
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

I'd put the chances of Deltazeal being a full-on port (not emulated) at like 95%. In which case, I'm sure the bugs have been fixed.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by rtw »

I read that the team which made G-Stream were all ex Seibu employees, can someone confirm this ?

Are the glitches you are seeing on the PCB or under emulation ?
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

The glitches are confirmed in emulation, unknown on PCB; anybody lucky enough to have the PCB probably couldn't give two shits about the bugs though :lol:

I know the graphics were done by the Raiden Fighters team (the Deltazeal page says so, at least; it's also been a common rumour). The music was done by NAOTO (Hiroshi Tanabe), who works for Konami and does the music for all Triangle Service games. The programming was done by Toshiaki Fujino, whose history I don't really know, but according to a few pages I've dug up he helped with Raiden Fighters Aces, so it's entirely possible that he worked on RF as well.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by rtw »

Thanks for the info trap15, much appreciated :D

I had a look in the program code and although I can find the "PROJECT G-STREAM STAFF" string I cannot find any names. Has anyone here seeen the staff roll at some point ?

In the CONFIGURATION/ANALYZE menu you can see a build date of: Mar 17 2002. I am curious if any PCB owners have a different version ?
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

BPze and I have both credit-fed to the end, and the staff roll is just empty. It's really weird...

We have a hunch that most of the PCBs floating around are a later build, but with the board so rare... :/
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by rtw »

I have sent some questions out to owners of the real PCB....
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

It'd be very interesting to see if the build date, or more noticeably whether the title screen is any different. Cheers rtw. :D
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by ciox »

I could sure go for a version that at least matches stages and music right, the Dark Shadow music has great mood but it doesn't play during the actual level, all you get is stage 1 and 2 themes forever.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

ciox wrote:I could sure go for a version that at least matches stages and music right, the Dark Shadow music has great mood but it doesn't play during the actual level, all you get is stage 1 and 2 themes forever.
Get the latest version of MAME.

Stage 1 music plays in Stage 1 and 4, Stage 2 music plays in 2 and 6. The way KAI listed the unofficial soundtrack is completely off and is from before the banking got fixed.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by ciox »

BPzeBanshee wrote:
ciox wrote:I could sure go for a version that at least matches stages and music right, the Dark Shadow music has great mood but it doesn't play during the actual level, all you get is stage 1 and 2 themes forever.
Get the latest version of MAME.

Stage 1 music plays in Stage 1 and 4, Stage 2 music plays in 2 and 6. The way KAI listed the unofficial soundtrack is completely off and is from before the banking got fixed.
Okay, that fixed the music for Green Canal, but I still think KAI is probably right because otherwise those tracks are completely unused since they don't play anywhere else.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by trap15 »

They do play. The stage 1 music is also in stage 4, and stage 2 music in stage 6. Stage 3a and 3b have different songs, as well as 5a and 5b. I had someone with a PCB record clips of the game, so I know that's correct :wink:
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

I've been playing this a bit more and noticed that the hidden chain can go up even MORE than 5000 depending on how well you pull it off. Those minigun planes on Stage 3-A when shot with laser or even standard wide shot with high autofire sometimes gives me text showing 5000, then 6000, 7000, etc.

Speaking of the chain, I was hoping some kind of secret command might make the hidden chain actually visible like in ESPRade. No dice though, I've tried just about everything I can think of.

I've also been looking around in the sprite data and found icons for 1up items, bomb items, and large bomb HUD icons as well as small bomb HUD icons normally used in-game. There's also digital-clock-like number text of various sizes, www/.com text, a few DDP-looking letters, and extra frames for the LEDs in the powerup bar, like there was actually meant to be animation for those spots. Clearly none of this shows in-game although it was planned at some point, so unless the 1ups and bombs are some kind of really obscure hidden secrets like the 1up in Raiden II I'm inclined to wonder if DeltaZeal will do things differently being the 'finished product'.
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by rtw »

The two owners I contacted said they would check their PCBs when time permits.

May I ask which tools were used to look at the sprite data ?

In the sprite data did you see the large ship which is shown on the alternate title screen ?
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by THE »

I finally fired this gem up. It's always a shore to put it in the cabs as it's so fragile. Every gentle move makes a knarzing sounds :|
I really need to get 2 heat sinks for the GPUs too.

Anyway my date is Mar 17 2002
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Re: ST: G-Stream G2020

Post by BPzeBanshee »

rtw wrote:The two owners I contacted said they would check their PCBs when time permits.

May I ask which tools were used to look at the sprite data ?

In the sprite data did you see the large ship which is shown on the alternate title screen ?
I used MAME. F4 loads a palette/sprite/background tile viewer, ENTER switches which to look at, +/- zooms in/out the amount on display and [] switches through layers.

The ship is indeed there (in fact, after the credits roll as seen here you can just see that large ship appear from the top and slide into place where it should be on the title screen, but after it fades to the darker colour it just disappears).
THE wrote:I finally fired this gem up. It's always a shore to put it in the cabs as it's so fragile. Every gentle move makes a knarzing sounds :|
I really need to get 2 heat sinks for the GPUs too.

Anyway my date is Mar 17 2002
Does your title screen look any different?

EDIT: I swear the powerups aren't what they appear to be when they first spit out of a dead enemy. I'm absolutely certain I've picked up a red icon and it's given me friggin green, and some times its cycle goes completely weird, like RED-BLUE-RED-GREEN-BLUE as appose to just RED-GREEN-BLUE.
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