Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou Black Label [Arcade/X360]

[PROMETHEUS]

Cool Iconoclast, welcome to the 10-digit club ;]
Don't hesitate to drop replays, love watching them.

[PROMETHEUS]

>1,041,518,160
>absolutely horrible

It's true, the better you get the worse you think you are. :lol:

Eheheheh that's kinda true, funny how it correlates with increasing knowledge about the world : the more you know, the more questions appear, the more you realise you know nothing and everything you believe in is questionable!

[Cagar]

Cagar - 509,537,150 - A-E - HIBACHI - 1093 Hits
Beating sapz-scores game by game.


EDIT: LOL



Cagar - 583,614,900 - A-E - 2-5 boss - 1465 Hits

[PROMETHEUS]

Hey guys! I am travelling in Japan this month, I had wanted to go for such a long time. Of course, I had to take a look at all this arcade business, so in Tokyo we met up with Adversity1, NTSC-J, Erhune, Eaglet and mdl and went to Ebisen and HEY. We also were at Washoii\Tougeki, where we witnessed some pretty crazy live superplays. More on that later.

At Ebisen, I played a DDP run (crap), went out for a smoke, and when I came back in... SOF-WTN himself was starting a run O_O So, jet lagged and uber tired to the max, I witness the DDP UltraMaster demonstrate some of the tricks that made 749M possible.

Also met Kamui and SPS among others (garegga and Ketsui). SPS played a 495M 2-ALL run live just like that... lol.

Anyway, got a bunch of DOJ runs done on cabs. Recently, I had finished learning the full game and was going to start playing full runs soon, so being here is a good opportunity to do that with sticks before I go for the real deal with keyboard. After a lot of shit, got a little more consistent and some chains started coming, etc. Now I'm in Kyoto, played like 6 runs in the major arcade here, and beat my high score :p

ProMeTheus - 1,774,124,370 - A-E - 2-5 - 3483 Hits



Perhaps some will recognize the A-Cho arcade. Its a cool place, has a nice bunch of Cave games, including SDOJ, DOJ, DDP 2 (lol), Ketsui, Futari BL, DFK BL... Haven't seen a huge affluence on shmups so far but I've not been on busiest days or hours.

[

This was one of those runs where I died in stage 1-1 for a nice start. This kind of stuff happens a lot more often to me when I play with sticks. But I got a smooth first loop going after that, bombing one of the patterns of stage 5 boss however, losing max bonus for the next two stages. Then I think it was death in 2-1, and maybe 2-3, some other stuff like that, can't remember precisely. I got to Hibachi with only 1 life in stock, but I managed to get to the last pattern, last form health at like 40%. It seems quite clear that a stick 2-all would be possible, which is exciting. However, even though I will come back to play some more, I have a lot of other things I want to do or see while I am in Japan obviously, so I think it probably won't happen.

Anyway, I guess this will make the very last few "elitists" guys that I've heard about who still say stuff like "eh, sticks in arcade is the true way, guys who play on MAME\Keyboard\Ports\whatever else can't do it the proper way" think again. To be honest, this "argument" of theirs already looked like a ridiculous last rempart for a long discredited dogma, and I'm sure people who are still thinking that way are very scarce nowadays.

Of course, I will improve on this and 2-ALL after I get back home. As always, thank you guys for all the past encouragements that have helped make this and the rest possible !

To Western Shmupping !

ProM

[Eaglet]

AWESOME

[Erppo]

I witness the DDP UltraMaster demonstrate some of the tricks that made 749M possible.

Please tell more.

And congrats!

[Gus]

Awesome score and yeah, I'd love to hear some details about WTN's DDP run. Did he do the 2-5 full chain?

[Aliquantic]

Congratulations! If you are warming up to sticks, does that mean you may go for DFK at some point in the future even if no MAME?

[Smraedis]

Must be amazing to watch other great players doing their thing too.

[adversity1]

Great score Prom man, and glad you were able to bang it out while you're here. Would love to watch you on DOJ black when you get back to Tokyo!

[emphatic]

Cool! Congrats on the great score. BTW, is the screen on that cabinet a bit lop-sided looking?

[Naut]

Congratulations Prom! Great score.

[PROMETHEUS]

Thank you guys, each of you.

You have to know, when I watched WTN, that was the day I arrived in Japan, and I was so exhausted that I actually had trouble keeping awake sitting and watching a run, which is sort of shameful when you think it was my one chance to watch him, but can't control that really. Also, I gather SOF-WTN hasn't played DDP seriously for a long time, so the run he played had plenty of mistakes and deaths in it, which felt... I don't know, I mean that happens to me a lot and I thought it wouldn't be that bad for a top Japanese player, but it is, they may mess up big time too lol. That's interesting.

Anyway, it is hard to describe what he does that I or K.O wouldn't know to do. It's all in the little details. Pretty much everywhere, he has a optimized route that is quite strikingly different from mine and scores just a bit more. Often, I found his route seemed a little more risky and made the game a bit harder. In the end, it's all about getting that freaking extra few hits here and there, continuing some chains in stage 3 just a little longer (+400,000 pts or so), getting the flowers to bloom just a little longer (+100,000 pts maybe?), catching the bomb items just a little earlier sometimes (+50,000 pts??), maximizing the bullet cancelling in stage 3 (+200,000 again I guess), he stays even longer on top of stage 3 boss for like 50 more hits (about 150,000 pts)... It's just, all over the place, he has slightly superior routes. He had his first death in 1-3, at that point I was like "WOOT!!! SOF WTN MISSES IN 1-3 TOO SOMETIMES ??". Then he broke the stage 4 chain. "OMG HE CAN BREAK HIS CHAIN TOO". In Stage 5, he didn't do the full chain thing, I asked him about it later with the help of adversity1 (Super Translator Man), and he said something like well, it's too risky, better ignore that. I think he forgot how to do it or maybe never knew, just saw players do it. I also guess the game is not well balanced in that part so you probably have to pull something crazy crazy risky to get the chain, which doesn't make sense to try when you're sitting on this extremely precious maximum bonus.　Stage 6, pretty hard trick to get more hits from the large tanks at the beginning that shoot those destructible enemies if you let them live... Maximized the number of little turrets destroyed that come out of the bee-nest looking stuff, if you destroy them faster more come out so you want to stick above with laser as much as possible while still killing all the rest. So he has a nice route for that. Unexpected way to do plenty of stuff... it's really hard to describe.

Anyway, then I think he missed at 1-6 boss last pattern, and I can't remember second loop well at all, I know he really messed up and game over at 2-4 or 2-5, with a 235M score or something. It felt weird because I always feel terrible when I play a run in front of people and end with something like that, now I can say "WELLLLLL IT HAPPENS TO SOF-WTN TOO OK??!!". lol, that'd be lame to say.

But yeah, talked some with him, he said he has forgotten the game a little of course, and also asked if he had heard of me and he had not :p lol

So many stories from Japan even just with the shmupping, I can't write everything at once now !

But here's another one for you ! I came back to A-Cho today, played 2 credits, annnnnnnnnnd
2-ALL



Woah I never thought it'd happen so fast, even with keyboard. I mean, I have played I think exactly 8 runs in Kyoto, and I must have played like 10 or something back in Tokyo, so it was only 20 tries. And with a stick ??? I used to think of 2-ALLing DDP with a stick as a pretty big challenge I'd like to try myself at if given good opportunities, and I never came close, best I've done is reach Hibachi first form or something.

This run started well, very cool play with most/all chains done well and stuff until 1-4 boss where I missed at 3rd pattern. That pattern can be nasty, this time randomization produced a really tight situation, and I took a bullet to the knee. At that point, I had over 400M which is good, and I was still in a position to get 4 hypers for stage 5, so I really only had lost the maximum bonus. Ok, so I went into stage 5 with the 4 hypers, all started well, but I dropped the chain. That's a huge scoring loss there. Finished the loop safely, not a great score, but good life count. Figured it wouldn't be a high scoring run, but I'd keep doing my best. 2-1 all ok, 2-2 good but chain break, 2-3 good but chain break too, so I get to 2-4 with a bad score but 4 lives in stock. And I miss right in the beginning in one of the easier moments, bad luck a bad move, damn!! Not much real chaining ensued, breaks here and there, but very careful not to die anymore, I only get hit at the hardest section (horizontal moving turrets) while out of bombs. Get through the boss and into stage 5 with 3 lives. Stage 5 is tough, but this is no full rank, and I know how to do it, so I make my way through it without dieing. 3 lives plus my current stands before Hibachi. 5 minutes later, an explosion releases the tension and I lift my arms in victory again ! :D

[Gus]

Very interesting run-down of WTN's run. I'm pretty sure he did know the stage 5 chain, though, or at least the 2-5 version since his WR run had a max hit of 926.

Anyway, awesome job on the 2-ALL. It's very impressive to clear this even if you didn't come close to your best score.

[Sapz]

Great job on the clear, as well as the new score!

[Naut]

Congratulations!

[emphatic]

Congrats! I think you would get better by alternating between using stick and keyboard as it's likely to "keep you on your toes".

[moozooh]

Haha, damn man, that's went unexpectedly quick. Congratulations, Prome!

[PROMETHEUS]

Thanks again guys!

Very interesting run-down of WTN's run. I'm pretty sure he did know the stage 5 chain, though, or at least the 2-5 version since his WR run had a max hit of 926.

I think probably not, because actually he made the 1-6 chain in the run I watched and his chain was something like 900+ hits there, I was surprised and told him my best was 780 hits for that stage. So I think, given the way he answered about full stage 5 chain and this, the 926 hits from his WR score surely comes from 1-6 and/or 2-6 !

Also, without his optimization, following K.Os strategies and improving them a little bit, my theoretical best (with 1 life lost at hibachi) is 700M (just a saved state best possible score, not something I will ever actually get), so in total WTNs optimizations account for about 49M. For score, it is much more important to get the perfect game (no miss no bomb up to Hibachi and most big chains in) than to optimize your routes. The perfect game almost never happens, so it's true you're probably better off optimizing your stuff to the max before you get it. But optimization may also lead to slightly harder routes which will slightly decrease your success ratio through each part... and that can really kill your "perfect game" occurrence percentage. So, if I ever play DDP again (which is imaginable, thinking of beating 600M and/or K.O's score), I would probably not optimize much further than I already have.

Congratulations! If you are warming up to sticks, does that mean you may go for DFK at some point in the future even if no MAME? :P

Well, I'm never going to buy no PCB, and I don't feel like getting a 360 just for DFK either, which wouldn't be enough anyway because then I'd be playing with a X360 pad (always regarded its DPAD as garbage), or I'd have to buy a stick as well and no, they're too expensive. So I'll just wait until it's MAME'd I think. In the meantime, I can go for better DOJ score, maybe touch Ketsui, or even go for better DDP score. Or just leave shmups again for a while, good for me cause time is not infinite and I LOVE playing Starcraft and other games and do other things too !! I feel there's no rush to play the shmups that I'd be interested in getting good at.

By the way, SDOJ looks pretty cool. Played a few runs here and there. Watching the other players, I'd say the scoring system seems extremely simple, there seems to be little more to do than follow a lenient route that works well with survival too, but the dodging seems sexy and the game has definite graphics/sound style. Shot/Laser style seem on par with Espgaluda in difficulty to me (a bit harder still) : most of the game relatively easy, then medium difficulty stage 5 and hard true last boss. Expert difficulty is more like something in between Futari God and Ultra, with some good speed reminiscent of DOJ 2nd loop. It feels very dynamic and modern. Except for the dolls, of course, and Hibachi being turned into a doll is the worst trolling they could possibly have done, but whatever, let's just ignore that T_T I'll be waiting for that one to be MAME'd too :p

[Jaimers]

Congrats Prom. It's about damn time.

[zlk]

Congrats on the 2-all Prom! Very impressive! Ask WTN if he will ever release a donpachi replay if you get the chance.

[PROMETHEUS]

If I go to Ebisen again and he's there I'll ask. From what I understand though, the reason why he hasn't released videos of DP/DDP is simply because he didn't record, and now it seems all he is playing is Block Out. He said he stopped playing games for a few years after DDP I think.

[Plasmo]

Nope, he played Donpachi very recently and got a new highscore. He's definitely recording aswell. He's just being awfully secretive.


And congrats to the 1,7bill and the 2-ALL. Both are great achievements! Your dedication is admirable and I really like your style of doing these writeups. IMO you're one of the most important figures when it comes to the western shmups community. Not only because of your scores, but also because of your whole attitude, being not arrogant, sharing strategies, discussing stuff, writing the awesome "The Full Extent of the Jam", releasing replays of all your highscores and so on. More players should be like you.

Do you have any final goals in DOJBL btw?

[PROMETHEUS]

And congrats to the 1,7bill and the 2-ALL. Both are great achievements! Your dedication is admirable and I really like your style of doing these writeups. IMO you're one of the most important figures when it comes to the western shmups community. Not only because of your scores, but also because of your whole attitude, being not arrogant, sharing strategies, discussing stuff, writing the awesome "The Full Extent of the Jam", releasing replays of all your highscores and so on. More players should be like you. :D

Do you have any final goals in DOJBL btw?

Thank you Plasmo, that feels really nice to read and it is very nice of you to take the time to write the positive things you are thinking. You know, I think even if I may stop playing shmups sometimes, I will probably keep going to events and showing up here and there online for a very long time, because this is a great community and it is always very rewarding to receive from it and give back. Besides, if I stay too long away from the dodging action, I'm bound to miss it too much to resist coming back for some more !

DOJBL : well, I have a short term goal I think it won't be hard to reach it, then I have a longer term goal that's pretty hard for me but I think I should be able to make it and it would be quite satisfying, and then I have a "ultimate" goal that I may or may not try to reach because it will be very hard. I will say no more than that for now !! :p

Nope, he played Donpachi very recently and got a new highscore. He's definitely recording aswell. He's just being awfully secretive.

Really? Well, I'm pretty sure he said that he didn't record DDP, and that he had stopped playing games for a long time and only came back recently. He didn't seem dishonest to me at all. So maybe the new DP record is from his recent come back or something.

[jpj]

basically, you went to japan and found another player called PMT

[PROMETHEUS]

basically, you went to japan and found another player called PMT

Or maybe, someone played a run in front of me and left before they input their name like they often do here, and I sneaked to the cab to input PMT then took a picture !
Erhune told me there is actually a guy at HEY famous for doing that all the time. He would hang out there a lot, and whenever someone leaves with a good score without inputting their initials, he'd put his own xD

You will never know whether I'm doing the same or not !!

[Plasmo]

Nope, he played Donpachi very recently and got a new highscore. He's definitely recording aswell. He's just being awfully secretive.

Really? Well, I'm pretty sure he said that he didn't record DDP, and that he had stopped playing games for a long time and only came back recently. He didn't seem dishonest to me at all. So maybe the new DP record is from his recent come back or something.

Arcadia July '12:

Donpachi - Type A - 84,170,530 - SOF-WTN

[RNGmaster]

WTN doesn't want you to get the truth out. I'm pretty sure he was intentionally playing DDP poorly so you wouldn't learn his secrets.

[NTSC-J]

Congrats, Prom.

Nope, he played Donpachi very recently and got a new highscore. He's definitely recording aswell. He's just being awfully secretive.

Really? Well, I'm pretty sure he said that he didn't record DDP, and that he had stopped playing games for a long time and only came back recently. He didn't seem dishonest to me at all. So maybe the new DP record is from his recent come back or something.

Arcadia July '12:

Donpachi - Type A - 84,170,530 - SOF-WTN

adversity1 asked WTN a few weeks ago if he was still playing Donpachi and he said no. Take from that what you will.

[PROMETHEUS]

Really? Well, I'm pretty sure he said that he didn't record DDP, and that he had stopped playing games for a long time and only came back recently. He didn't seem dishonest to me at all. So maybe the new DP record is from his recent come back or something.

Arcadia July '12:

Donpachi - Type A - 84,170,530 - SOF-WTN

:|

adversity1 asked WTN a few weeks ago if he was still playing Donpachi and he said no. Take from that what you will.

That's just a little sick now ! :D