Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[fishstickilicious]

Ketsui.....

I'm practicing some simple scoring techniques based on superplays from some members of this board. I find myself approaching stronger enemies up close only to get myself killed time and time again. Ahh, fun times!

[Gamer707b]

Hello. Im focusing on Galactic Attack on Saturn. Im playing for survival and so far the furthest Ive been is towards the end of 5th level.

[ACSeraph]

Hello. Im focusing on Galactic Attack on Saturn. Im playing for survival and so far the furthest Ive been is towards the end of 5th level.

5 is pretty far in, you'll probly land the clear soon. I need to get around to clearing it myself one of these days, it's a great game.

As for myself, I've been going through lots of old Taito stuff on the two Taito Memories discs I just picked up. I mostly picked up the discs for Darius, but I've had some fun with the other stuff. Dinorex was pretty hilarious (not a shmup). Tried out Asuka and Asuka and was blown away by what a total piece of shit it was, hard to believe Taito made it. I was looking forward to finally playing Gun Frontier also, but unfortunately it seems that it must be unlocked.

The game that has sucked me in the most though is actually Fighting Hawk. Despite being an extremely blatant Hishouzame clone, the game fixes most everything I found bad about Toaplan's game. The ship speed feels perfect, neither too fast or slow, firepower feels good, it's not impossible to recover. Despite how low budget it feels, I'm really really enjoying it.

[trap15]

The biggest issue I've felt with Fighting Hawk is that it's too easy and the stage layouts are not threatening at all, which is what separates it most from the Toaplan games it's heavily aping. I've tried to make it more difficult by increasing enemy aggressiveness, but nothing I can do will patch the stage designs. I really want to like the game a lot and I feel like it had a ton of potential, but in the end it's just not that good

[ACSeraph]

Yeah I guess I can see that side of it, I do feel like it's going to be short lived seeing as I made it to the final stage within my first couple credits. But for what it is I've been enjoying it. I really wish ship speed was just slightly higher in Hishouzame, it'd probably be one of my favorite games if it was.

Hishouzame is a weird case for me. I really respect it a lot, and feel like it teaches some very important and fundamental lessons about pre-bullet hell STG. I definitely became a better player overall as a result of my experience with it. But that ship speed shallows the game to the point of killing it. Ultimately it's one endless strafe from left to right, and deviation from that will get you killed because the ship is too slow to dodge on reaction. I appreciate that Fighting Hawk allows more creativity (though as you say it might not be hard enough to actually require dynamic play).

[LordHypnos]

So, funny story: I've mostly been playing Mars Matrix recently out of an (unhealthily) obsessive desire to get another clear with 2.5 million experience, but I can't seem to be able to get the consistency to both max out experience and not make some stupid mistake in stage 3, 4, or 5. Tonight, I managed to get around 2.6 million experience once (highest amt. of experience so far that I've gotten). The run was alright, too. I did die unfortunely on the stage 2 boss (although that ended up giving me a slight boost to experience, because I think I accidentally did something similar to Randorama's suicide strategy, there with around a +400 chain). I only got to about 1.5 million in stage 3, unfortunately, but managed to do pretty well in the fourth stage, until the boss where I lost all but one of my remaining lives. Then I pulled out a miraculously good stage 5 run, but died on the boss (I think in a stupid place as well). Because I couldn't get to the high point value enemies in stage 6, I only got 500 some billion points, but with 2.6 million exp.

Following that, I did another run where everything seemed to be going well in the first 4 stages. I chained from the rotating turret in stage 2 to the end (which I've been failing at recently), and I did die in stage 3, but not before getting to 1.6 million experience. Then in stage 4 I did pretty much everything right, and made it past the boss without dying (many close calls, throughout, though), ending with 1.9 million. Well, it was looking pretty good, right there. I had 4 lives left, and a good stage 5 could easily net me 800,000 exp (which would mean 2.7 million experience), and maybe even as high as 1,000,000 (which would mean 2.9 mil), but alas it was not to be. My chain was interrupted mid stage by a death, and IIRC I lost the rest of the lives in the second half of the stage, and mostly the train fight (-_-). Only ended with 2.3 million, and didn't even make it to the sixth stage.

TL;DR-- Don't play shmups after midnight, I guess . Also pulling shit together into a full run is the hardest thing ever...

[Stevens]

Nice work LH. It's reading things like that that push me.

Speaking of..It is time for some MM.

[Gamer707b]

Level 5 IS pretty far in Galactic Attack, but the last 2 levels are super tough.Im also certain this game has rank to a certain extent. When I dont lose a ship by the 2nd level, the game feels way more challenging .

[Jonst]

Still progear. Played with more confidence tonight but tons of stupid mistakes... Probably because drinking...

[blackoak]

trying to get an 11m run in Guardian Force. Was very close yesterday, but today's runs all ended around 10m, without a clear. And now my wrist and fingers hurt, haha. I keep making dumb mistakes, yet I keep coming back. I just love the scoring in this game. The slight randomness and multiple ways to score makes it really addicting. I guess my current 10.2m score is the current Western record, not that that's saying much... not many have played this little hidden gem it seems.

I would like to see KDK-Takeyuki's 15m run, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. I can see getting 12 or 13 million, but no idea where the last bit comes from.

[blackoak]

I would also like to advocate my new nerve-calming method when trying to get a good run in: a single beer. I had spent the morning fraying my nerves and yelling at the game, but one beer brought me a high score.

[Jonst]

still progear. Now it's really clicked! i haven't played it for about a week but today, i made volvox final form! scoring is still not great by any means but is a personal improvement. ... i'm getting there!

[Kiken]

Still working on Ketsui and Gaiares. I've gotten much better routing down in Ketsui but continue to make really stupid errors (seriously bad execution). As for Gaiares, I'm running into two stumbling blocks at the moment... a good place in the beginning of stage 6 to buffer the T-Braster trick as well as the stage 7 boss (the wall, when it comes to this game).

[LordHypnos]

On a whim I decided to play Robotron 2084 in MAME today, and holy shit was it addictive. Super awesome game, for serious . If I had been at an arcade I would have been short several bucks, I think, I just could not stop playing. Highest score I got was only 80,000ish, I think. I will say that it would be nice if I had a digital directional pad or stick to control fire though. It was a bit too hard to shoot the right way with my hori gem's right analog stick. I was using the dpad for control rather than the left analog stick, which is good.

Also, I played only one credit of Mars Matrix, for Death Roulette today (lucky draw!) and it was actually my best credit for a while 2.8 mil experience, a pink digit score and made it all the way to the first phase of the final boss. This is in spite of dying once in stage 3 and twice in stage 4. My other deaths were the 3rd car of the train fight and, as mentioned earlier, the first form of the final boss.

If anyone's curious about the experience break down, I broke the end-of-stage2-chain, aced the 3rd stage (for the most part; +1500 chain, with the death being after I usually break the chain anyway) with 1.6 mil by the end of it, 1.9 mil at the end of stage 4 with the only chain break (based on my usual chains) being somewhere in the beginning which isn't worth that much anyway, and a weird (and stupid) death right at the beginning of the gold cube fountain. Aced the 5th stage, more or less (+1200 chain; hence the 2.8 mil).

[Gamer707b]

Still working on Ketsui and Gaiares. I've gotten much better routing down in Ketsui but continue to make really stupid errors (seriously bad execution). As for Gaiares, I'm running into two stumbling blacks at the moment... a good place in the beginning of stage 6 to buffer the T-Braster trick as well as the stage 7 boss (the wall, when it comes to this game).[/quote]


How the heck did you ever manage to get to level 6 in Gaiares?! This has to be THE hardest game Ive ever played!! Shooter or otherwise.

[pestro87]

On a whim I decided to play Robotron 2084 in MAME today, and holy shit was it addictive. Super awesome game, for serious . If I had been at an arcade I would have been short several bucks, I think, I just could not stop playing. Highest score I got was only 80,000ish, I think. I will say that it would be nice if I had a digital directional pad or stick to control fire though. It was a bit too hard to shoot the right way with my hori gem's right analog stick. I was using the dpad for control rather than the left analog stick, which is good.

Nice! I haven't put much time into Robotron 2084 myself but yeah, it's crazy addictive! Probably one of the greatest games from the Golden Arcade era imo. My highest score is only at around 400k but I want to get back to it someday.

[Kiken]

How the heck did you ever manage to get to level 6 in Gaiares?! This has to be THE hardest game Ive ever played!! Shooter or otherwise.

Using the T-Braster trick at the beginning of each level mitigates a fair amount of the difficulty (even at level 1, the weapon is ridiculously powerful). Most enemies go down really fast and the bosses normally only get off 2 cycles or so of their attacks. Of course, there's a weird glitch that can occur in stage 7 (before the stage 6 boss reappears) where the weapon will stop homing for some bizarre reason. Even then, the weapon won't lock on to the stage 7 boss at all. It also helps to know where the Break Defensers are in the stages so you can keep your shield charged.

[Stevens]

On a whim I decided to play Robotron 2084 in MAME today, and holy shit was it addictive.

Robotron

I fucking love 2084. It has recently become my favorite twin stick shooter. Luckily there are a few cabs near me...

High score is around 150,000, maybe wave 11 or 12. Not an expert by any means. The game is super generous with extends though and that goes a long way to it being slightly more addictive that crack.

[LordHypnos]

On a whim I decided to play Robotron 2084 in MAME today, and holy shit was it addictive.

Robotron

I fucking love 2084. It has recently become my favorite twin stick shooter. Luckily there are a few cabs near me...

High score is around 150,000, maybe wave 11 or 12. Not an expert by any means. The game is super generous with extends though and that goes a long way to it being slightly more addictive that crack.

Yeah I think the super hectic action + the fast pacing + all of the extends is the secret.

@Pestro: That was a pretty impressive video as far as I'm concerned. Gotta love a game where staying alive for 7 minutes is an accomplishment, though I suppose there are people who do 24 hour marathons and shit.

Apparently Robotron 2084 used to be on XBLA, but not anymore I'll be a little too late by the time I actually get an xbox.

[Stevens]

Still hammering away at Mars Matrix.

Had a great run fucking marred by dying two places I usually don't die (3rd train car was one of them and a spot on stage 6), compounded by NOT dying places I almost ALWAYS DIE (Last train car for instance)

Ugh.

Overall not a bad session though. Just need to put it all together.

[Shepardus]

I've been trying to get an Advance 1CC in Batrider, recently switched from solo Shorty-C to solo Strawman-C since Shorty's proving too slow for my taste. Liking Strawman so far except for how his fire makes it hard to see stuff on the screen. As usual for any shmup I play, trying to do anything consistently is a nightmare and I keep dying to the easiest stuff, but the low life stock limit in Batrider makes things even more frustrating for me. I can sometimes make it all the way to Grubby and even made it to the last stage once but most of my runs end in the first three stages. And just when I think I'm doing well for once I accidentally trigger an option special level up and get blown up by Envy...

[trap15]

Try Shorty-B instead. C lowers your speed and boosts shot and option. If you do B you'll only boost option, but not take a speed penalty.

[Shepardus]

Ohh, I always thought C boosted option and reduced shot power, and B boosted bomb power, because A's the shot button, B's the bomb button, and C's the option button. No wonder why I couldn't tell the difference between C and A's shot power. I'll have to give Shorty-B a try, that should solve the issues I had with her.

[LordHypnos]

Still hammering away at Mars Matrix.

Had a great run fucking marred by dying two places I usually don't die (3rd train car was one of them and a spot on stage 6), compounded by NOT dying places I almost ALWAYS DIE (Last train car for instance)

Ugh.

Overall not a bad session though. Just need to put it all together.

You can do it!

Personally, I started playing with Gunbird 2 again, but in MAME, because my Dreamcast is currently hooked up to a screen (a PC monitor, to be specific) that can only accept a VGA signal, and GB2 does not work well through VGA for some stupid reason (It's like the only DC shmup that doesn't). As a consequence, I can't play with Morrigan, like I used to . On the other hand, I do like how fast Marion's close attack recharges. Some things are a little harder (Italy and Japan bosses, for example), but some things are also easier. I can quick kill a few more dangerous enemies in Sky Stage, for example, so less needing to actually dodge patterns. For those who wonder what the hell I'm talking about, Morrigan's close attack has a really big area that it hits and is one of the most powerful (if not the most powerful), wheras Marion's is small and weak, but recharges fast (not sure how fast Morrigan's recharges compared to others, but definitely not as fast as Marion's)

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I started playing some really old games tonight. Robotron 2084 and Satan's Hollow. Nice change of pace.

[Squire Grooktook]

Ohh, I always thought C boosted option and reduced shot power, and B boosted bomb power, because A's the shot button, B's the bomb button, and C's the option button. No wonder why I couldn't tell the difference between C and A's shot power. I'll have to give Shorty-B a try, that should solve the issues I had with her.

If you want a speed boost, you can also choose with the start button, though it reduces both shot and option power.

[ACSeraph]

Found a copy of Tiger Heli in the junk bin for FC. Jesus this game is almost unplayably bad. Toaplan must have been pissed off when they saw this port. Theres a Kyuukyoku Tiger port on FC also right? Is it as bad as this? Is that even possible!?

[Kollision]

Twin Cobra on the NES is surprisingly decent, and not like Tiger-Heli at all.
But I enjoyed Tiger-Heli for what it was. One of my oldest memories playing a shmup at home....

[Stevens]

You can do it!

and GB2 does not work well through VGA for some stupid reason (It's like the only DC shmup that doesn't).

Thanks man!

I'm usually pretty good keeping myself in check, but that particular run was frustrating despite putting up a high of 1.4 million XP.

Had I not shit the bed I would have started stage 6 with 2 ships in reserve. I think I probably would have reached the end of the stage since the stage itself is getting easier and I kind of have plans for the bullet vomiting turrets on 6 now so there's that.

I guess the biggest positive is my new strategy for the last train car. I used to hang back and fire normal shot, but when I no missed him I got in his face, pierced it as much as I could before the first volley came, and killed him quite a bit faster.

As far as games not working in VGA - I finally got my hands on Last Blade 2 over the holidays (with my nice new Hanzo VGA bow too!) only to get it home and realize it is on the same short list of games as Gunbird that you can't even force into VGA (the Hanzo allows you to do this via a switch).

Good thing I have an S video cable:D

[Kiken]

Personally, I started playing with Gunbird 2 again, but in MAME, because my Dreamcast is currently hooked up to a screen (a PC monitor, to be specific) that can only accept a VGA signal, and GB2 does not work well through VGA for some stupid reason (It's like the only DC shmup that doesn't).

Because the game strictly outputs 240p, that's why it doesn't support VGA. You can force it to display through VGA by abusing the video-out swap trick, but the game begins to suffer from awkward graphical glitches once you hit stage 4. Just about every other shmup on the console is NAOMI-based (aside from Mars Matrix and Giga Wing, which are both CPS2-based and scaled), and therefore natively supports 480p. Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaio is also locked at 240p.


Still playing Ketsui... still don't fully understand where the hit box is located. I use the black cross-hair at the center of the rotor assembly as my visual cue... but after checking in the INH DVD handbook, it appears that the hit box is actually below that location.