GD: Twin Eagle

[spadgy]

So, after buying the PCB recently, this game became the star of a recent shmupmeet it my house. And now those of us that played it want to learn more.

So here's my findings on the game (all based on just playing and observing). Hopefully this could become an ST one day.

...

I worked out that the power ups don't affect weapon type (which is what initially appears to be happening). In short, you have two weapons; an infinite supply of your standard weapon and a limited supply of your second 'missile' weapons. Two of your main power-ups impact the attributes of your standard weapon and your missiles, whether you have missile ammo in stock on not. So...

L = Increases 'length' of weapon. In other words, the range of the weapon up the screen is increased.
M = Increases number of standard shots/missiles you fire in a single short. In other words it increases firepower.

Then...

S = Increases player helicopter speed
B = Extra bomb

And the air balloon-shaped power-ups with a number on give you extra missile ammo to the value of that number.

Power-ups also seem to give you lots of bonus points, and there's loads available (at high risk) in the 'fast sections' at the end of each level.

At the end of the level you also get a bonus based on '1000 points x number of enemies killed in the 'fast section' level ending'. At least, that's what I think it's multiplying. I'm pretty certain it's not tallying all the enemies killed in the level.

Then there's a fairly generous 'Perfect' bonus of 50,000 points available at each stage's end. I thought it was just for a 'no-miss up to that point', but that's not all there is to it. Maybe you need to 100% kill the 'fast section'? Maybe its about hitting a certain score? Maybe lives have nothing to do with it.

There appears to be quite aggressive rank. I haven't worked out controlling it.

So, do you know anymore? What have I got wrong? what have I got right? are there any secrets? do you have general strategy advice?

[trap15]

Sikraiken pulled this game apart a few months ago in an IRC room I'm in. I'll pull up my logs later when I get home, but I seem to recall something huge for scoring was entirely random I believe it was how many enemies are spawned in the high-speed sections.

[spadgy]

I think you're right. That info would be hugely helpful.

I'm also dead keen to work out what you need for the 'Perfect' bonus.

I'm guessing it's one-lifing the level plus all enemies in the high speed section.

[MX7]

Rank goes up significantly based on how fast the autofire is. Currently experimenting with how fast I can set it without making the rank go crazy.

Also, if you have the autofire on really fast, it'll make your shot go wider right from the beginning.

(I love how serious we're getting about this ostensibly terrible game :p )

[spadgy]

It's not terrible; it's 'awesomely horrible', as Estebang said in the game's high score thread.

And yeah, with or without autofire, fire rate effects rank. It feel 'missile' and 'length' value don't effect rank.

I've been playing with and without autofire. As I'm on a PCB, my hardware autofire solution only allows 'too fast' and 'far to fucking fast', so my autofire technique is to fire as little as possible. That seems to work.

[trap15]

07:14 < sikraiken> trap15: WR would seem to be luck based for twin eagle
07:21 < sikraiken> during the "jet" part at the end of the stage, it seems like the # that comes out is random
07:21 < sikraiken> it might just be how fast you kill them, but I don't think it is
07:30 < sikraiken> it seems like killing them quickly does cause more to spawn
07:30 < sikraiken> however, where they appear is still random
07:30 < sikraiken> each one is worth 6k
07:31 < sikraiken> sometimes a jet will spawn just at the edge of the screen too, so you'll most likely miss it and lose out on 6k+50k
07:31 < sikraiken> that's nice too
07:43 < sikraiken> this is pretty dumb
07:45 < sikraiken> after stage 5, one time I got 99 jets (is that the max?) another time I got 65
07:46 < sikraiken> that is 200k
07:47 < sikraiken> to get WR, you'd have to meet a stage goal or else reset probably
07:54 < sikraiken> also, the last stage is really dumb
07:54 < sikraiken> and there is no bomb/lives bonus

[spadgy]

Thanks for that Trap15. Very helpful.

I'll add all that into the first post when I get some time.

[TomuS]

At the end of the level you also get a bonus based on '1000 points x number of enemies killed in the 'fast section' level ending'. At least, that's what I think it's multiplying. I'm pretty certain it's not tallying all the enemies killed in the level.

Correct, it only counts the jets you kill in that fast section.

Then there's a fairly generous 'Perfect' bonus of 50,000 points available at each stage's end. I thought it was just for a 'no-miss up to that point', but that's not all there is to it. Maybe you need to 100% kill the 'fast section'?

You get the perfect bonus if you manage to kill every single jet in the fast section. That's a lot of points and that's REALLY hard to get on every fast section in a single play.

---

The fast section is the part that counts for a high score in this game, but it's really infuriating because there's luck involved. I've tried to come up with tricks, but nothing special hasn't worked. The amount of jets you get is random, the places they appear is random.. and if you let just one slip by, then it's bye-bye perfect bonus.

Hm.. don't remember much else at the moment.. Except that there are 2 speed powerups in the first level, getting those is important. You will get the first one every time. The second one appears at the same place just after it. I don't know the exact thing to do, but if you just quickly destroy everything in that part you'll get the second speedup. If you take too much time, it won't appear. This is at least how I remember it working. Check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLkZWolvslE at time 1:28 when the first one appears, just start shooting everything you can and.. at 1:35 the second one comes in.

[spadgy]

Nice one! Thanks for all that TomuS!

And good to see the power of Twin Eagle got you posting again!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, you're gonna post again!