Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Icarus]

Still playing Pink Sweets ver1.00 with some Battle Garegga on the side.
Had a three week long layoff to rest and relax, until tonight where I messed around in stage3 and found a new, safe Extend tank strat.
Just need to get back to regular practice to regain my sharpness.

[CHI]

Are checkpoints the only differences?

KT has checkpoints and TC has instant respawn... TC has the advantage here, if you died during boss fights, once respawn the boss is weaken, leaving you a couple of shots/bombs away for the kill (most of them anyways)!

Checkpoints, firing rate and maybe damage/life balance? In KT ver you can shoot 4 shots at a time, in TC only 3 at a time (those numbers may be wrong, I know they're 1 apart).

KT has the advantage here with firing rate/power... which makes TC boss fights seems longer to kill (ps: i don't use autofire!)

Slower movement speed in KT and faster bullets, as well
I think health/damage is the same. stuff definitely seems to die slower in TC

+1

[broken harbour]

Playing Radiant Silvergun.

Recently got it used from a forum member for my Saturn.

I had the XBLA port before but couldn't really gel with the controls on the Xbox controller. Saturn pad almost seems like it was designed for this game, much better.
Trying to do the story mode, I can get about halfway through right now with 3 continues. I have to do more research on this game, apparently there's RPG elements and weapon upgrades, I understand the basics of scoring. Seems pretty memorization dependent, which is cool too. Great soundtrack, great atmosphere.

Great STG if you need a break from the constant Cave-insanity.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Zero Gunner 2 comes as "Guardian Force Light", but I find it quite irresistible. Just like Sengolu Blade, gives me impression Psikyo didn't have any better idea what to do with 4:3 screen than slowing down the bullets. Missed opportunity there, but not all is bad.
Doesn't look as cool as Contra: Shattered Soldier, ChainDive or Einhänder, but it's "2.5D" done well. Same league as The Red Star I would say. The explosions are some of the very best and Vibration Pack support is excellent.

[CloudyMusic]

Since I recently came back into possession of a PS3, I picked up Ketsui. I'm obviously still getting a handle on things, but as someone who really likes Futari, I'm feeling right at home with the scoring system so far.

[AweOfShe]

Grabbed Life Force off the 3DS eShop.

I suck at this game.

[ACSeraph]

Was playing the original Raiden Fighters during my lunch break. I picked up Aces in the US over Xmas break (took forever to track down) because it's way overpriced here in Japan.

I'm totally addicted to Judge Spear even though I can barely keep the thing under control. The whole game feels like it's on fast forward; I love it!

Really need a system guide though because I have no idea how the scoring, rank, and slaves work exactly.

[dink]

I've been playing Keio Flying Squadron on Megadrive (Mega-CD), I just discovered it the other day, and its got this oldschool vibe that I really dig, along with a nice soundtrack.

best regards,
- dink

[Aquas]

Was playing the original Raiden Fighters during my lunch break. I picked up Aces in the US over Xmas break (took forever to track down) because it's way overpriced here in Japan.

I'm totally addicted to Judge Spear even though I can barely keep the thing under control. The whole game feels like it's on fast forward; I love it!

Really need a system guide though because I have no idea how the scoring, rank, and slaves work exactly.

http://rf-emporium.ghegs.com/

Yep.

As for me just playing Batrider and Garegga still. Looking forward to getting back to Advanced course if I could get the run I want in Normal >_>

[Capintec]

Under Defeat (DC).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Guxt. I'd forgotten Pixel (the guy who made Cave Story) made a shmup. I beat it a while ago and deleted it, couldn't remember why I got rid of it... now I remember. It's not very good. The default ship movement speed is only slightly faster than playing as a crippled, geriatric snail (get those speed powerups asap) and it's got checkpoints everywhere. Coupled with the one hit kills (and you tend to get easily rammed into by enemies) and it makes recovery from a death really painful. Fun for a playthrough to say you've beaten it... but not really a game I'd recommend either.

[Ebbo]

I remember playing Guxt for score quite extensively few years ago. It's pretty much "OCD The Shmup The Game" - even the smallest things can affect the score hugely and the game is full of obtuse ways to earn more points (shoot enemies from certain angle, grab powerups immediately once you free them from their capsules etc). Granted the scoring potential isn't that high and it all comes down to strict memorization but the game still has a soft spot in my heart. Not for everyone but I'd still recommend trying it out if you've a chance.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Now that you mention it, Final BOSS's limited colour palette is very reminiscent of Guxt. Intended as an influence/homage?

[Ebbo]

While far from first, playing Guxt was pretty much the point I decided "I HAVE to make game like this!". When eebrozgi asked what kind of game I was planning my answer was "Something like Guxt". Needless to say the things have changed quite a bit during these years, for better or worse Yet I the influence can't be denied.

[R-Gray 1]

last week i was playing Touhou Perfect Cherry Blossom. Nice game. Pity i guess i can´t configure keyboard buttons on my taste.
Only i ve played 3 touhou games. Mystic Square and this are my fav

Today i was playing DonPachi just to remember is very fun.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Pity i guess i can´t configure keyboard buttons on my taste.

AutoHotKey is here to answer your prayers.

[ACSeraph]

Got the Gradius 3 and 4 pack for PS2 last night.

Gradius 3 is a fuckin' joke; I can see why it has a reputation for being unfairly hard, because god damn it is.

But more importantly, in both games, especially 4 the ship's movement seems extremely inaccurate, as if there's some sort of input lag... Like I'll crash into the wall sometimes because my ship didn't stop moving the moment I let off the pad. Is this an issue with these particular games or the port itself? It was so bad I literally pulled out some old DDR games to make sure it wasn't my TV. It wasn't though, because I was getting perfects even with the sound muted.

Kinda disappointed

[EmperorIng]

As far as I can tell, Gradius IV works fine. The game is just hard and you probably suck!

Don't worry; you're in good company.

I'm plunking away at RayForce, RayCrisis, RayForce, and Thunder Force V with varying degrees of commitment, from non-commitment to middling. I might try to finally start up on my 1CC of Soukyogurentai after taking half a year's break on it.

[ACSeraph]

As far as I can tell, Gradius IV works fine. The game is just hard and you probably suck!

Seriously? Does the ships movement feel tight to you? It doesn't at all to me. Just tried out Gradius V also and It's night and day.

[Squire Grooktook]

As far as I can tell, Gradius IV works fine. The game is just hard and you probably suck!

Seriously? Does the ships movement feel tight to you? It doesn't at all to me. Just tried out Gradius V also and It's night and day.

Mine seems to work fine. I'm playing it on PS3 so that means about the same amount of lag as GV and G III on Ps3, and it controls about the same.

[R-Gray 1]

Pity i guess i can´t configure keyboard buttons on my taste.

AutoHotKey is here to answer your prayers.

Thanks!! I read about it days ago in other website but im lazy lol.

but is a good info !!
im a console gamer so the idea of play with arrows i really don´t like. Left hand to move and right hand to press buttons
The lack of change keyboard buttons within the game i think is negative point.

----
I was playing Dodonpachi on mame and it looks like the ship hitbox is smaller than donpachi? or maybe the ships movement is better i dont know
btw for me after i played few times dodonpachi I think this game looks like donpachi extra stages . Besides better graphics.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Swapping buttons is super easy in AutoHotKey. It's as easy as making a .AHK file and doing OldKey::NewKey to replace all the keys you want swapped. You just have to look up the codes for the arrow keys (probably LArrow or LeftArrow, etc), heck I could probably make it in 5 minutes if you told me the input you wanted. Then just click on the .AHK file before you play, and when you're done playing, close the script in the taskbar.

I was playing Dodonpachi on mame and it looks like the ship hitbox is smaller than donpachi? or maybe the ships movement is better i dont know
btw for me after i played few times dodonpachi I think this game looks like donpachi extra stages . Besides better graphics.

The first Donpachi game has a larger hitbox than its sequel, Dodonpachi. The hitbox in Dodonpachi is about half as big in terms of volume, maybe less. Best comparison in my opinion is with Type B - in the first game the hitbox is a large box that's basically the size of the main body under the rotor, in DoDonPachi the hitbox for type B is about the size and location of that small orange strip of colour under the heli rotor.

[eatdogs]

I've been juggling my recent ps1 imports around. Terra diver and Dodonpachi are so freakin cool. So is zanac x zanac. Haven't dedicated any hard time to a sh'mup in a long while though. I guess Gradius 3 would be the one at the moment. I keep playing just so I can reach stage 3. Stage 3's music is so awesome.

Oh, and I've been playing earthbound and demons crest, but yeah, they're not shmups lol.

[null1024]

Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 [Arcade/MAME].

I kind of always play Abnormal Reco for whatever reason..

After playing Ys Origin this way [didn't have my joypad on me at that moment], I kind of started playing shmups with WASD and mouse. As long as the game doesn't need more than 3 buttons, it works great, actually. Especially since this machine despises having more than two keys on the keyboard pressed.

I really wish I could map other games to this setup, but not many PC shmups let you rebind to mouse if they even allow rebinding at all.
[say, can AutoHotKey remap like that? eg, mouse1/mouse2/mouse3 to Z/X/C, W/A/S/D to up/left/down/right]

[ACSeraph]

As far as I can tell, Gradius IV works fine. The game is just hard and you probably suck!

Seriously? Does the ships movement feel tight to you? It doesn't at all to me. Just tried out Gradius V also and It's night and day.

Mine seems to work fine. I'm playing it on PS3 so that means about the same amount of lag as GV and G III on Ps3, and it controls about the same.

I'm thinking it's maybe the vertical scrolling in the first stage of 4 that's throwing me off, because I wasn't having so much trouble crashing into shit once I got into stage two. Just got killed in more conventional ways

Also Gradius V is like, seriously the hardest yet totally fair feeling shmup I've ever played. I'd love to clear it but I don't think I am even close to having what it takes. If I get to stage 3 without dying I am hype. I wonder how many people on the forum have actually cleared it... Major respect to anyone who has.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I kind of always play Abnormal Reco for whatever reason..

Abnormal Reco is really fun to play as. `<`

[say, can AutoHotKey remap like that? eg, mouse1/mouse2/mouse3 to Z/X/C, W/A/S/D to up/left/down/right]

Yep! The mice buttons are LButton, MButton and RButton, so to replace the left mouse button with Z, you'd make a script with LButton::z The only thing AutoHotKey I've found it can't do is it can't override joystick inputs - if your game detects the joystick those joystick inputs will override whatever hotkeys you assign to joystick buttons (so no autofire for ChoRenSha via joystick). See here for the full list of keycodes (it's also in AutoHotKey's manual when you load it).

If you remap the controls, make sure you have a few keyboard buttons mapped to LButton and RButton so you can close the script after you're done playing your game or you'll have to close autohotkey via ctrl-alt-del/the task manager! I haven't found a way to make AHK load a script when you start a program and stop it automatically after you close the program, so I just get used to running/stopping the script manually.

[spadgy]

I've gone back to Raiden III after a while away. Previously I focused on Double Play. This time tackling Arcade Difficulty with Solo Play is my plan.

[Squire Grooktook]

I kind of always play Abnormal Reco for whatever reason..

Abnormal Reco is really fun to play as. `<`

High movement speeds are always more fun if you can get away with them IMO.

Hence why I think Eschatos is the best thing ever.

[null1024]

[say, can AutoHotKey remap like that? eg, mouse1/mouse2/mouse3 to Z/X/C, W/A/S/D to up/left/down/right]

Yep! The mice buttons are LButton, MButton and RButton, so to replace the left mouse button with Z, you'd make a script with LButton::z The only thing AutoHotKey I've found it can't do is it can't override joystick inputs - if your game detects the joystick those joystick inputs will override whatever hotkeys you assign to joystick buttons (so no autofire for ChoRenSha via joystick). See here for the full list of keycodes (it's also in AutoHotKey's manual when you load it).

If you remap the controls, make sure you have a few keyboard buttons mapped to LButton and RButton so you can close the script after you're done playing your game or you'll have to close autohotkey via ctrl-alt-del/the task manager! I haven't found a way to make AHK load a script when you start a program and stop it automatically after you close the program, so I just get used to running/stopping the script manually.

I think I figured out how to do it per-game [only tried it with having it open notepad, it's the middle of the night and I'm too tired to try a game :Y]!

Code: Select all

;load program, then kill the script once it's closed
RunWait <program>
ExitApp

;controls go here
LButton::z
RButton::x
MButton::c
w::Up
s::Down
a::Left
d::Right

also, whoops, meant to say Abnormal Palm -- although I did start playing as Abnormal Reco, 's fun ;3

[seraph]

Deathsmiles scoring is really addictive. I'm not good enough for Mega Black Label yet though.