Operation Quickening - Second Wave

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Pink Sweets Arrange (360) - Midi & Meidi - Stage 5 - 47,130,350 - 33C

BOMBAAAA!!!!!!!!

[Captain]

The time has come for me to return to the quickening.

Also accepting any suggestions for improvements.

Spoiler

Cham - Viper Phase - Stage 1-2 - 281,025

Never heard of this, but it looks like a game I'd pick up.

Remember to count your credits!

Lord Hypnos - Hellsinker (demo) - Can't remember which ship - Stage 1 (?) - 242,441 (?) - 25C

I still have no idea how to play this game...

When the Hellpocalypse comes, you will be spared.

[LordHypnos]

Lord Hypnos - V . V - Stage 2 - 154,250 - 34C

Spoiler

Little out of practice

@Captain: It might be a good idea to figure out some way to reward people for 1ccing a game in the quickening, I'm not sure what would be best way to do that though.

[Yazphier]

Yazphier - Homura - Stage 1 - 4,244,000 - 9C

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Scramble (360) - Stage 5 - 20,590 - 34C

Chokin' on the dust of the ages

[LordHypnos]

Spoiler

Lord Hypnos - XOP Black Ultra Special - Stage 1 - 1,272,571 - 35C
...and it's still too hard for me. No big surprise considering I haven't played it since last time that I drew in the quickening

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Raiden IV (360) - Arcade Mode - P2 Type 1 - Stage 4 - 11,925,400 - 35C

Farthest I've ever been in Raiden IV. Bomb spamming is for winners!

[Volteccer_Jack]

VBG - Dragon Blaze - Ian - 1-2 - 187,000 - 11C

Trying out a new character did not go very well. Ian is super fun though.

[LordHypnos]

Alright guys, I'm spending 30 credits, it's challenge time!

I'll try to give you a basic run down of the game so that you don't end up dying in the first stage, or something, and can report your score in a way that is comparable to other people's scores.

Hypnos' Challenge: Go Play Mars Matrix!

Spoiler

What you need to do: Go Play Mars Matrix!

What you should include in your score: Platform (scoring is different (mostly just inflated) in DC versus Arcade), Experience points (This is basically comparable between DC and Arcade, the only thing is that the DC version has auto piercing cannon which makes everything just a little bit easier). Do you have auto fire on the piercing cannon (I do )? I don't care if you're using auto on the normal shot, but I would recommend you don't because it makes the game way harder, and you'll find that the rate of fire with manual shot is plenty sufficient to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. For MAME: are you using the Japan or North American rom? North American is default set to difficulty 3. It doesn't actually make much of a difference though, so you can feel free to use the NA rom defaults.

Pro tips for survival: all weapons are mapped to one button. a quick(ish) tap fires the normal shot, a slow tap fires the piercing cannon (which is powerful but short range), and holding down the button activates the absorption barrier mosquito, which sucks up bullets that you can then spit back at your enemies. If you keep holding it down you'll get a bomb that clears the screen of bullets. The shorter you have the ABM activated, the quicker it regenerates, so for survival, using it for short periods of time, and alot, is generally better, especially if you don't have a route yet . Experience levels up you're weapon, which is good, but without practice you probably won't be able to chain that high. Blue ship is fast and has a narrow shot, red ship is slow and has a wide shot. shmupmame has an auto piercing cannon option default mapped to the B button, but I don't think it's implemented very well, personally, so I mostly just use manual in MAME.

Basic scoring: collect gold cubes, and collect them fast!

My score:
Lord Hypnos - Mars Matrix (DC) - Mosquito 2; auto; 1,282,129 EP - Stage 4 - 327,584,118,560 - 2C

Spoiler

Pretty sloppy run, actually, and it took 3 credits but I got over 1,000,000 experience, so I'm not complaining

EDIT: Also, the Japan rom requires the North American rom as a parent rom for MAME
EDIT 2: pics added

[Yazphier]

Spoiler

Yazphier - Mars Matrix (MAME) - Japan; Mosquito 2; noauto; 120,549 EP - Stage 2 - 2,063,409,850 - 10C

managed to die ... alot.. too early... don't drink and drive

[Volteccer_Jack]

VBG - Mars Matrix(MAME NA) - Mosquito 1; no auto; 64,354 EP - Stage 2 - 1,897,331,990 - 8C

Uh...yeah. I don't usually play Mars Matrix for the simple reason that I can't handle shmupping of this magnitude. This score was a "good" run. I think years ago I used to be able to get to stage 3? Maybe?

[LordHypnos]

Thanks for playing guys
On the topic of difficulty: Yeah, it can be pretty tough if you don't spend time figuring out strategy and routes (which you obviously can't do for the quickening), and especially quick killing bosses. I'm pretty n00b though (I can rarely make it to stage 3 of BWR+ with autoguard off, remember? ), but I still can make it to stage 5 semi-regularly... Then again it took me literally months to be able to do that hahaha. It's very rewarding though, I swear!!!

Lord Hypnos - Cho Ren Sha 68k - Stage 2 boss - 608,779 - 3C

Spoiler

Wow, forgot how awesome the fast dodging in this game is when you succeed at it!
I definately fucked up though against these one enemies in stage two that shoot lasers and shit. Was nicely powered up before that, then it was back to 3 bombs and no shields I really need to practice panic bombing...
EDIT: Also jumbo sized bullets are best bullets

[Eno]

Eno - Mars Matrix(MAME/jp) - Mosquito 2; noauto; 2499 exp - Stage 2 - 34,150,900 - 2C

Can't "feel" the button, lots of shooting when I should be cannonning and silly deaths because the shield wouldn't activate when I wanted.

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Mars Matrix (MAME) - Mosquito 1; auto; 9,338 EP - Stage 2 Boss - 126,611,380 - 36C



First ever credit of Mars Matrix. Sorry Hypnos, can't say I enjoyed it much. Can see why you find it difficult though, keep up the hard work pursuing your clear

/Goes to play Darius

[Yazphier]

Spoiler

Yazphier - Sengoku Ace (MAME/Japan) - Tengai - Stage 3 - 144,000 - 11C

[LordHypnos]

Lord Hypnos - Exceed 2nd trial - Stage 1 boss - 28,767 - 4C
Whoa, not really expecting an Ikaruga type game going into this. Also seemed to start me off with way too many lives

First ever credit of Mars Matrix. Sorry Hypnos, can't say I enjoyed it much. Can see why you find it difficult though, keep up the hard work pursuing your clear

/Goes to play Darius

FWIW, I think it takes until you get the hang of the mosquito system to really "get" Mars Matrix (e.g. more than one credit ). Knowledge of how to quick kill the second boss also helps. lol. That guy's a bastard otherwise. Thanks for the encouragement, though

@Eno: Yeah, it takes a little bit to master the controls, not much you can do about that. Very rewarding though, I swear! Thx for playing

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Gokujou Parodius (SAT) - Koitsu - Stage 3 - 207,000 - 37C

Worst Parodius game, the endless string of cheap deaths sucks all the fun out of it.

FWIW, I think it takes until you get the hang of the mosquito system to really "get" Mars Matrix (e.g. more than one credit ).

Yeah I get that, but it didn't do much to make me want to learn it. It's possible the game doesn't run very well in MAME? The whole thing seemed sloppy and ugly with frustrating controls and terrible music, but it could just be shit emulation causing it. I've never played the DC version.

[Zaarock]

Yeah I get that, but it didn't do much to make me want to learn it. It's possible the game doesn't run very well in MAME? The whole thing seemed sloppy and ugly with frustrating controls and terrible music, but it could just be shit emulation causing it. I've never played the DC version.

Mars Matrix used to have 4-5 frames of input lag on mainline MAME, not sure if it still does. Make sure to play it on shmupmame instead

[Yazphier]

Yazphier - Guxt - Stage 1 - 390 - 12C

[LordHypnos]

Mars Matrix used to have 4-5 frames of input lag on mainline MAME, not sure if it still does. Make sure to play it on shmupmame instead

Pretty sure he was using shmupMAME (because of auto fire on piercing cannon).

Yeah I get that, but it didn't do much to make me want to learn it. It's possible the game doesn't run very well in MAME? The whole thing seemed sloppy and ugly with frustrating controls and terrible music, but it could just be shit emulation causing it. I've never played the DC version.

Naw, it's emulated really well, from what I can tell. It's just an ugly game that apparently a lot of people don't like the music of. I can't really see sloppy, but I could see the controls being frustrating, so you probably just don't like it. Usually the solution is moar Mars Matrix, but whatever. Most games don't actually appeal to everyone.

[endoKarb]

endoKarb - Vulgus - 1P - Stage ?? - 85,050

was bored waiting for germany portugal to start.

[LordHypnos]

Lord Hypnos - Mars Matrix Elite Mode A - auto; Mosquito 2; 79,931 ep - 3,558,989,910 -5C

@ACSeraph: you gonna call a forced game any time soon?

[Yazphier]

Yay, smileys.. :/

Spoiler

Yazphier - Gigawing (Japan) - MAME - Isha - Stage 1 - 33,558,305,980 - 13C

[ACSeraph]

Good to know Mars Matrix runs similarly on Dreamcast. Knowing that I won't throw down the fat wad of cash required to buy a copy. It's probly just not for me, I think I'll make either Gigawing or Border Down my next DC purchase.

@ACSeraph: you gonna call a forced game any time soon?

Nah I'm going to sit on it for a while. Don't have anything in particular I want to force on you guys. If I did it now I'd probly force you to do something like play Gofer no Yabou Episode II MSX with the stipulation that you must complete at least stage 1 just to watch you all suffer.

[LordHypnos]

@ACSeraph: Well, the auto piercing cannon works way nicer on DC (mostly because the multifunction button overrides it). There's some extra delay when using the auto button activating the mosquito, however. Other than that though, I can't tell much difference. There's one pattern that's slightly different in the 4th stage (actually currently giving me a lot of trouble). I think the devs might have made the piercing cannon fire a little faster too (e.g. shorter charge time). I wouldn't call $50 especially expensive for a DC shmup (Hell, look at the $200 or what ever Border Down commands).

I gotta say though... Before dismissing it as sloppy at least watch some high level gamplay vids. If there's any word I'd use to describe the gameplay in Mars Matrix it's "slick." SFKhoa's (Blue Ship) and Moreno's (Red ship, counterstop) youtube videos are both decent quality. Rob's is even more impressive (5,800,000 experience ) but shitty quality, unfortunately.

[Volteccer_Jack]

VBG - Gunbird 2 - Valpiro - 1-3 - 255,600 - 9C

This game got so much better just by picking da robot. Sloppy play killed me (dying with a stack of bombs ready is the worst), otherwise his awesome bomb and charge shot would've carried me a lot farther. Definitely gonna work on it later.

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - 1942 (360) - Stage 6 - 231,830 - 38C

God that music is going to be stuck in my head for days...

[LordHypnos]

Lord Hypnos - Thunder Force III - Stage 1 - ? - 6C

This music's gonna be stuck in my head, but that's a good thing

Lost my score
I swear I've made it farther than stage 1 in TF 3, before, but I usually need to play the first stage a bunch of times. lol.

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Mushihimesama (360) - Original - Stage 4 Boss - 5,509,338 - 39C

Really don't like this much compared to 1.5, probably because I suck. I managed to bomb only three times over the course of 5 lives. Totally embarrassing...

[ACSeraph]

ACSeraph - Thunderforce VI (PS2) - Stage 3 Boss - 4,013,200 - 40C