Shmup Related Questions That Don't Deserve a Thread

[Squire Grooktook]

IIRC rank is never lowered by death in Darius Gaiden.

Destroying boss parts and powering up is the primary source of rank increase. That being said, I do not advise avoiding power ups. The boss health tends to scale with the intended level and trying to avoid power ups for rank control will fuck you over (or has me, every time I've tried it) and make bosses last forever.

I think the game is relatively well balanced for default autofire rate. There are a few places where it could be faster (a few end game bosses cycle maybe once more then they should, for instance), but it's really nothing compared to how trivial maxed autofire makes everything. You can kill many bosses before they can even use half their attacks. If you must play with autofire, I recommend playing with autofire not maxed. It makes the game much better IMO.

[kaicooper]

guys i wanna get Gradius games

but not all.. whats ur best Gradius games?

[EmperorIng]

Gradius V is probably my favorite and is a good place to enter into the series.

The original is also very fun. The other entries are flawed usually in some way or another (note: I never played Gaiden).

[kaicooper]

Gradius V is probably my favorite and is a good place to enter into the series.

The original is also very fun. The other entries are flawed usually in some way or another (note: I never played Gaiden).

yea im watching some gameplay and seems Gaiden Great too

[copy-paster]

Gradius III Arcade.

[Mr Halibut]

Futari stage 3 boss sometimes leaves behind big gems after you kill him. Is that random, or are there some conditions for triggering that (playing BL original, not sure about other versions/modes)?

[BulletMagnet]

I think you have to kill him with a certain shot type, but I forget exactly how it works offhand.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

normal shot regardless of the counter. Optimally you would be in the proper counter for it, but it's not really worth dragging that phase on for it.


Also IIRC, you also want to kill Stage 4 midboss with shot regardless of counter as well when it has the web out.

These should only apply for 1.5 and BL Original. 1.5 Maniac, you want to finish with laser because multiplier does not transfer between stages. Not sure what's best for BL Maniac and Ultra/God.

[Mr Halibut]

Ah cheers, that sounds about right.

[Kollision]

guys i wanna get Gradius games

but not all.. whats ur best Gradius games?

I'd say go for Gradius V on PS2.
In my opinion it's a masterpiece. Tight, engaging gameplay, no checkpoints, awesome visuals, awesome soundtrack and fully controllable lasers.

[Skykid]

guys i wanna get Gradius games

but not all.. whats ur best Gradius games?

I'd say go for Gradius V on PS2.
In my opinion it's a masterpiece. Tight, engaging gameplay, no checkpoints, awesome visuals, awesome soundtrack and fully controllable lasers.

I would concur with this. It's certainly my favourite.

[pokemon123]

did the people who developed the original r-type develop r-type 3 (I know irem developed both I'm just wondering about the team since I heard that nazica did r-type 2)

[Shepardus]

Is there any video of a Guwange counterstop on Youtube/Nicovideo/any other video-sharing site? What techniques/strategies are involved in counterstopping Guwange that western players aren't doing (the highest western score is pretty far off from counterstopping)?

[SMC]

Does looping Gradius increase the difficulty indefinitely, or does it max out at some point?

[pegboy]

Does looping Gradius increase the difficulty indefinitely, or does it max out at some point?

It maxes out at some point. Not sure which loop Gradius 1 maxes out at, but I know Gradius V maxes out at loop 10. I'd assume Gradius 1 maxes out much sooner than that.

[SMC]

It maxes out at some point. Not sure which loop Gradius 1 maxes out at, but I know Gradius V maxes out at loop 10. I'd assume Gradius 1 maxes out much sooner than that.

Do you know if the difficulty dipswitches affect anything other than starting rank?

[copy-paster]

What shmup that requires heavy memorization rather than reflection skills?

[Shepardus]

Both Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun. I've heard the same said about R-Type but haven't played that enough to say.

[Plasmo]

I can't think of a single shmup that doesn't requires memorization.

CAVE games usually require more memorization than others though.

[DestroyTheCore]

Yeah, take the DoDonPachi series for instance.

[pegboy]

What shmup that requires heavy memorization rather than reflection skills?

I think you should ask that question the other way around, as nearly all shmups with any decent amount of challenge will require "memorization". Very, very few (and I'm struggling to even come up with a single example) are driven based purely on reflexes (which would imply the game was almost entirely randomized).

[Squire Grooktook]

I can't think of a single shmup that doesn't requires memorization.

What shmup that requires heavy memorization rather than reflection skills?

I think you should ask that question the other way around, as nearly all shmups with any decent amount of challenge will require "memorization". Very, very few (and I'm struggling to even come up with a single example) are driven based purely on reflexes (which would imply the game was almost entirely randomized).

I disagree entirely.

No game "requires" memorization for survival unless it constantly (as in: outnumbers the number of resources you can possess) spits out unreactable, untelegraphed hazards (ie instant lasers, etc.). Some shmups do just that, but in my experience, games with such a dearth of untelegraphed attacks are in the minority rather then the majority.

If the game is balanced and telegraphs attacks, always provides an escape route, etc. then it doesn't "require" memorization for survival, even if memorization makes the game x10's easier.

For example, Rayforce is really, really, really hard. But I can't think of one "cheap" death that wouldn't be dodgeable on a first attempt (maybe trying to lock the tank on stage 6? but you should know better then to stand directly in front of a cannon at point blank range). A blind clear is theoretically possible, albeit ridiculously difficult and improbable. I actually did make it through some of the hardest parts on a first attempt, albeit not all of them at once, heheh.

DDP and DOJ have also been mentioned as memorization heavy, but for survival, nothing on stage 1-4 really requires memo on the first loop. Stage 5 (and 6 in ddp) you don't need memo either for a cheesy 1-all because you have more then enough resources to spam through it.

Obviously, scoring is another matter entirely, since it's based on playing the game "perfectly". Really hard stuff like 2-alls, ultra modes, etc. are another matter too.

[crabfists]

Can anybody recommend a screwdriver to tweak a Sony PVM 2044QM's geometry? Do I need to use a ceramic aligner tool or will an insulated screwdriver do? Anybody know which size would do?

I am thinking something like this would have something that would work http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00QI6A5PK
(would prefer something cheaper though)

Thanks in advance!

Edit: sorry, just realised I posted in the wrong forum. Mods, feel free to delete/move.

[Synnae]

I have an old shmup here (the original Gundemonium from 2003), but I can't play it because the .exe runs in fullscreen mode and since the game is so old/has a small resolution, I can't run it on my modern monitor. The only way to make it work would be putting it in windowed mode, but since it runs in fullscreen by default, the game tries to open but then immediately crashes without giving me a chance to go into its menu and change to windowed.

I was wondering if I could write a .bat file to force it to run on windowed mode, but since I'm a complete noob on .bat stuff, I don't know what I need to write exactly. I thought of something like "GUNDEMONIUM.exe -window 1" or "GUNDEMONIUM.exe -windowed", but neither worked. Can someone help me please?

[Synnae]

Need more info here...

Error's information:



My computer's information:

[Synnae]

No need to worry, thank you for trying to help. ^^

At least Gundemonium Recollection does work, so I can just play that instead. It improved the original Gundemonium a lot, right? At least according to what I read.

[CStarFlare]

I have an old shmup here (the original Gundemonium from 2003), but I can't play it because the .exe runs in fullscreen mode and since the game is so old/has a small resolution, I can't run it on my modern monitor. The only way to make it work would be putting it in windowed mode, but since it runs in fullscreen by default, the game tries to open but then immediately crashes without giving me a chance to go into its menu and change to windowed.

I was wondering if I could write a .bat file to force it to run on windowed mode, but since I'm a complete noob on .bat stuff, I don't know what I need to write exactly. I thought of something like "GUNDEMONIUM.exe -window 1" or "GUNDEMONIUM.exe -windowed", but neither worked. Can someone help me please?

I can't help with .bat files, but if there's a config file you could fiddle with it to try to trip the windowed option. I had to do that with Battle Traverse - the config tool wouldn't open so I just opened the file directly and made the change blindly.

I actually didn't know there was an original Gundemonium - I know there's a Recollection, but I assumed it was just one of those naming things developers do. Was it freeware by chance?

[Synnae]

The game wasn't freeware.

And I can't really make sense out of the .cfg file. It's a complete mess. Kinda like mojibake.

[cave hermit]

So are the arrange modes in Cave ports modified roms of the original games that could theoretically run on the original hardware if burned to EEPROM chips, or something else?

[Shepardus]

I doubt it, unless the ports themselves are actually the original ROMs running through an emulator (which they aren't).