Mars Matrix (new thread)

[Kollision]

Congratulations!
It's amazing you got such a great result with M1 so fast!
Are you gonna keep on playing, Battletoad?

[Battletoad]

Thanks! It was of course not the first time playing with M01, I did quite a few runs back in the time where 200 billions were my best score + exactly one or two runs some months ago which turned out kinda decent. Not to forget I used Mosquito 01 with higher ship speed in Arrange Mode. Hah and I did a few restarts yesterday to at least get a good stage 1 chain. The rest turned out surprisingly well by its own then.
I'll play a little more, see if I can score and survive consistently with this ship. But not much... Fast Striker is coming out soon and I'm planning to get a PS2 with Homura and Dragon Blaze.

[Kollision]

Finally!

DC - Arcade
1,411,529,390,060 - 2,854,230 - Kollision - 2 - ALL



Lost 1 life in the 3rd stage, had a great run in the 4th stage, didn't do as well as I wanted in the 5th. Reached the last boss with 2 lives left and by the time the rose appeared I was in my last life.
There's still room for improvement because I think I can get over 3M EXP if I focus hard enough. Gonna try a few more credits, let's see if I can do it....

[Battletoad]

Time to return the congratulations!
Quite a sick score, too. I won't reach if I don't chain stage 3 by accident. I'll probably stop at the end of the week.

I also made some more tries in the meantime, but no improvements. A quite good run with Mosquito 01 and another run with Mosquito 02 where I was as close to the 1CC as possible (would have resulted in about 1.19 trillions)... I died on the rose, continued and then the first hit with the piercing cannon killed it. The last part of the boss never kills me anyway.

[Kollision]

Time to return the congratulations!

Danke schön!

I had another run today but got terribly distracted and died on the rose with 1,3xx trillion. I know I can do better, but I guess it's time to take a break.... I'll maybe play 1 or 2 credits per week just to relax from other challenges.

[Battletoad]

Ah I was so angry today... Just once could I manage to get a decent chain in stage 3 and I had the chance to get at least over a million EXP out of it, but I got trapped shortly before the gold waterfall and died. But anyway after a few more tries it's pure happiness!

Dreamcast Arcade Mode
1,304,555,228,380 - 2,559,013 - Battletoad - 2 - ALL

Switched back to Mosquito 2 because I wanted to focus more on the score again and finally got the 1CC with it, too. Even with 2 spare lives. Only one miss in the final stage and even no miss on the final boss. Now I'm also content with my EXP, got all my current chain strategies together in one run. So not a good stage 3, but whatever.

I'm finished here. Back to Arrange Mode A someday, I still need to earn 24 trillions for the background colours.

Sorry the photo is horrible, but it doesn't get much better with these fat numbers on my CRT.

[Battletoad]

Can't record anything at the moment and nothing much to record (I'm still working on stages 2 & 3), but I might be able to give some tips if you post a video.

Alright it's about time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLkdhPRBKPw

Dreamcast Elite Mode A
1734,4540,5890 - 1,346,066 - Battletoad - 1 - 4

I appreciate any tip especially regarding chains. Chaining is still generally sloppy in this run even though I could manage decent ones in stage 1 and 4. In a lot of parts I haven't practiced and tried enough strategies to do well, in others I don't understand at all how you shall bridge it. Like stage 2 the part directly after those turrets with lightningfast bullets where only some of those enemies with +5 cubes appear next to the ground enemies.

I'll take a break for now, but will get into this mode again sooner or later.

It took me a bit long to get at least a decent run (which suddenly turned out far better than I expected), by then it was nighttime. So I used my headphones and there's no sound in the video, sorry.

[infamas]

To Battletoad (Or anyone else that can help)

I haven't played in quite a while, but I had a hell of time getting Ruldra's safe-spot strategy to work for the Rose portion of the final boss. I could do it in MAME, but never in the DC version. Did you manage to use this to beat the final boss on the DC version? I notice Rob takes a different approach. Any help or footage would be appreciated.

[Kollision]

I always kill the Rose with no safespot on the DC.
I just try to time well the reflect so there's enough room to breathe.
My strategy:
1. as soon as the Rose opens up, pierce it and wait for the initial bullet shower.
2. when the heavier spread starts, retreat to one of the corners (I do it on the right one).
3. I use the mosquito when I'm just about to be hit, moving right below the rose and releasing the bullets.
4. if it's done right you can dodge the small bullets just below the rose with one/two taps, escaping its last overlapping arch barrage (timing is key: if I wait too long to release the bullets I won't have the mosquito ready for the next spam; if I release them too early I might get caught in the last bullet barrage).
5. rinse/repeat from step 1 - and of course keep piercing and shooting the rose whenever possible.

After I found the correct timing I could pull it off safely.
Unfortunately I have no footage to share.

[Battletoad]

I might record something if you want. I used the savespot, too and after some practice it worked fine and saved me lots of trouble. But I had a different strategy than Kollision. So I assume you have watched Ruldras video. I do it quite similar, just slightly different, I'd say worse, but it worked for me.

1. When the rose appears, attack with Piercing Cannon, as long as possible.
2. Shortly before the... whatevers with the aimed bullets appear, I move towards the lower left corner. I shoot those thingies moving quickly to the lower right corner. I move quite late so that I need to do a short Mosquito absorb in the middle (to avoid the pattern from the rose itself). This is tricky because you might miss to destroy one of the thingies and thus I don't know if I recommend this strategy. Somehow it worked best for me. If you do the absorb right, you can use the short invincibilty to reach the right corner hopefully having destroyed everything.
3. Then as usual: stay in the corner for the first 2 waves and tap up for the 3rd wave.

Repeat all steps once!
The attack will be unleashed a third time, but I approach it different this time because you don't need to have your Mosquito ready for the last part of the boss. So,
1. Attack the rose with Piercing Cannon. Be directly in front of it and in the exact middle.
2. Pay attention and move downwards when the aimed bullets appear. They might aim not just at you, but a little further down, so move quickly.
3. When you appeared at the bottom, absorb, move up again and unleash the gravity hole bomb on the rose. (Just staying down while using the bomb might be safer at first and makes next to no difference I think). But move down again in time to dodge the last waves with some small taps in the bottom middle. The rose should be dead then.

But I noticed that I seemingly don't kill the rose, it just times out. Because this part of the boss was always over directly after the 3rd bulletspamming pattern for me.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Shmupmame USver
TrevHead - 1173,0023,4300 - 981,931 - 2 - 5

Usually I spend most of my time praticing single stages or starting from stage 3, but now ive only just started to do full runs and this is my first run ive managed to get that last digit. I suprised myself by no missing untill I encountered the stage 4 boss and then I got a bout of nerves and my run went to pot, lost my last life on the last segment of the stage 5 boss.

Atm I need to pratice stage 5 as I want to full chain it, although im having trouble keeping my chain going at the 2nd group of red tanks. I havnt done any praticing for stage 6 yet. I need to start watching some superplays of the 2nd ship in mame, can anyone recommend at good vid? From the odd one or 2 vids ive seen of stage 6 the most common method of getting through the stage is to slowly move left and right and tap mosquito when changing directions and ignore chaining and using the mosquito to generate lots of cubes. Is it worth even trying to chain and collect gold for someone whose primary goal is a 1CC? (I wanna move onto crimson clover soon)

[Battletoad]

I havnt done any praticing for stage 6 yet. I need to start watching some superplays of the 2nd ship in mame, can anyone recommend at good vid? From the odd one or 2 vids ive seen of stage 6 the most common method of getting through the stage is to slowly move left and right and tap mosquito when changing directions and ignore chaining and using the mosquito to generate lots of cubes. Is it worth even trying to chain and collect gold for someone whose primary goal is a 1CC? (I wanna move onto crimson clover soon)

Forget chaining in stage 6. Even if you play for score, I'd say it's just important to destroy as many enemies as possible. Building up your multiplier to 1.6 million for maximum weapon level sure helps for the 1CC, but that should be attained during the first 5 stages.

Don't know which videos you've already seen for the last stage, but here are some that use the same strategy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coJK-h7YDGw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rm_U9DwVvk
Also have a look at the videos from superplay.co.uk.

[Heartbeam]

Super old STGT stuff.

Arcade (US)
240,166,973,810 - 1,451,095 - Heartbeam - 2 - ALL

I don't know why I didn't submit earlier, and this is more than just an afterthought. It's an honor to have the score up there, even though it's only as good as 'just another clear'.

[mesh control]

Arcade (JP)
51,249,528,030 - 568,913 - mesh control - 2 - 4


Yay!

Really proud of my stage 2 chain. This is the first time in a long while I haven't made a mistake at the beginning of the stage and was able to get a decent +400 chain. ^_^

[RNGmaster]

MAME (USA)
23,971,404,990 - 323219 - RNGmaster - 2 - 4

I loathe this game.

[Battletoad]

I still need to earn 24 trillions for the background colours.

Alright, so... I've just played about 50 or so Elite Mode Score Attack stages (4 and 5 mainly) in order to complete the 100 trillion total points needed to purchase the alternate background colours from the shop. Not like the effort is really worth it, heh? At first I didn't notice any difference, then some rather slight changes in colour palette at certain places. Is that everything? If so, nothing spectacular really. Not that I had expected something exciting...

[Rob]

None of the shop stuff is very interesting.

[LordHypnos]

121,629,053,520 - 365,961 - Lord Hypnos - 2 - 4
EDIT: DC-Arcade

Feel kinda bad reviving this thread just to narrowly edge out the lowest score, but I'm pretty psyched that I got such a high score (though I've really just been playing for survival generally speaking)

[LordHypnos]

Holy shit, this came out of nowhere! I think it's enough improvement over my current high score, so I'm gonna post it, even though I still can't make it past stage 4 >_<
It's almost entirely due to the fact that I've been practicing exploiting the gold cube fountain in stage 3. ended up with a +800 chain, or so, there.
DC-Arcade
189,972,117,570 - 831,447 - Lord Hypnos - 2 - 4

Also: thanks for continuing to maintain this scoreboard! I wish there were more people who still cared about MM.

[Stevens]

Holy shit, this came out of nowhere! I think it's enough improvement over my current high score, so I'm gonna post it, even though I still can't make it past stage 4 >_<
It's almost entirely due to the fact that I've been practicing exploiting the gold cube fountain in stage 3. ended up with a +800 chain, or so, there.
DC-Arcade
189,972,117,570 - 831,447 - Lord Hypnos - 2 -4

Also: thanks for continuing to maintain this scoreboard! I wish there were more people who still cared about MM.

Excellent work LH! MM is still on my "get back into" pile.

[LordHypnos]

Yeah! can't wait to see how it treats you when you start back up

[Rob]

Old.

[Plasmo]

Thanks very much for coming around to upload these. Stage 2 alone is a thing of beauty. You're the man!

[LordHypnos]

O_O Holy shit, dude. That is fucking amazing. Especially stage 2. Not only did you manage to do the impossible and chain the whole stage, but also you managed to do the impossible again and bridge the gap between the stage and the boss. Unfortunately that's probably a bit more advanced of strategy than I'd be capable of applying, as I can't even make it past st4, but I definately appreciate the upload. Many thanks!
You tried applying those strategies in a full run? With those experience counts you posted, it sounds like you could exceed your current posted top score, though I really have no idea.

[infamas]

I'm so glad people are posting on the Mars Matrix Hi-Score thread. I actually just started playing it again (albeit on MAME) and hope to get something up soon. I would love to 1cc this.

[LordHypnos]

Hey! someone to play with, finally
Currently playing the DC version, but I was using MAME for practice a bit. Haven't had a chance for a full run, for a bit, though, but I think I have a semi-reliable strategy to get to stage 5 now. I was also just reading earlier in this thread your conversation with captain ransom, and it gave me some good ideas.

What was your reason for switching to MAME, if I might inquire?

[infamas]

I switched to MAME because using a regular game controller gives me pretty bad RSI, while using a stick doesn't do that at all. The only stick I have for the DC is the Agetec one, which I really don't care for.

An added bonus is that Ruldra's strategy is much simpler in MAME

[LordHypnos]

Sounds like a good reason. I had a lot of trouble dealing with the lack of piercing autofire in MAME, but I suppose it just takes practice. FWIW, though, the latest version of shmupmame has auto piercing mapped to B by default, but it's not implemented as well as it is in the DC version because A doesn't override (for me, anyway), and sometimes it doesn't actually work (generally when there's slowdown, I think)

Since I'm posting in this thread again, anyway, I'm gonna post my latest high score, because I think it'll be a while 'til I match it, even though I've made it to stage 5 a few times, by now. Besides, I'm finally in the million experience club

DC-Arcade
312,156,423,910 - 1,324,469 - Lord Hypnos - 2 - 4
pic: http://i.imgur.com/2T8mLK5.jpg

Mostly due to managing to chain between an earlier part of stage 3 and the gold cube waterfall with around +1200 or +1300
Also think that I got over +700 in stage 1 which makes a big difference (usually get between +600 and +700)

Also, I've noticed recently that the blue ship seems to get more maneuverable (meaning slower) at around shot level 6, or possibly 5. Nobody else has actually mentioned this before to my knowledge, and I'm still not totally sure, but I think it might be true (in both DC and arcade versions). Also, I think the top central turret thing on the last battleship in stage 4 has a slightly harder pattern in the arcade version. I'm almost positive about this one. Everything else seems identical between the two versions though, so far (excepting the scoring obviously). Just felt like these things should be documented somewhere...

EDIT: Spoke too soon
DC-Arcade
402,836,714,050 - 1,243,567 - 2 - 5

Spoiler

Finally! A new high score that's on stage 5. Not quite as good of experience, but I did manage to get over a million experience with a +1400 chain in Stage 3 score attack, which makes up for it a bit.
Death breakdown - once in an odd place on stage 3, not really sure what happened. i think I wasn't paying close enough attention to the ship position. Once on the stage 4 boss. Not too surprising. That fucker is a fucker. Twice in the stage 5, which is frustrating, just because of how easy most people find that part of the game. IDK what's wrong with me. And the final death was on the boss against the second car, because I didn't suck up quite enough bullets to kill him >_<

Was going to post an experience breakdown, but I can't even remember. suffice to say I ended up with over 1,000,000 after the gold cube waterfall, but I don't think I had an exceptionally high chain (maybe +900), so a lot of that must have come from 1 and 2. I think I did get an oddly high chain from the stage 2 boss, and may have been almost at 300,000 after the first stage But I don't think I was quite there. Also didn't quite manage to chain the 2nd stage from the rotating turret (though I finally succeeded at that in score attack mode once)

Also sorry for the wordy post, anyone who's reading this thread!
TL;DR: bolded text has score

[LordHypnos]

Double Posting time!

DC-Arcade
440,592,250,020 - 1,849,455 - Hypnos - 2 - 5

Spoiler

Pretty significant improvement, and a very good run. First time to the final shot level
Unfortunately my VMU wasn't working in the Total Control 3 for some reason, so it's not gonna save on my save file

A massive +1300 chain or so bringing me over 1,000,000 exp. No miss all the way to just before the stage 4 boss (really stupid death). Then no miss on the boss . Managed to get over +1000 chain on stage 5, bringing me over 1.6 million experience for the first time (level eight)
Then it kinda went downhill. broke my chain dying near the end of stage 5, and then died again before the boss >_<
Then I died once on the third car of the boss (I always fail at this car), and then the final time on the final car of the boss. I'm really having trouble with this boss. I have successfully not died on the actual stage plenty of times, but the boss has two phases that I really suck at. I know that there's a safe spot on the third car (or I think it's third), but I almost never actually find it. It's a really specific spot. Last phase I probably just need to practice a bunch.

TL;DR: score is bolded

[Megan Crimson]

Mars Matrix High Score using different ship, aiming for both scoring and exp

Mosquito 1 - 999,999,999,990 pts - 7,148,877 EXP by ATH-Megan
Mosquito 2 - 999,999,999,990 pts - 7,136,558 EXP by PMT-Vince