Saint Dragon

[MJR]

Yes, the dreaded Jaleco shooter. I think there are some people here who've completed it (del?)

For a long time, I've been hoping to put up a list, since my PCB does not save the scores. My best 1cc has been to area 6, but that score was not kept, so I've put what I've got.

If someone wishes to make an entry, please note if you used autofire or not. This is for PCB/mame/raine only.
Conversions not included, they differ too much from the original. Sorry.

Code: Select all

          Score       Area        Name       Version      Autofire
1.    16'187'400       ALL        chaos       MAME          Yes
2.    12,992,800       ALL        DNK         finalb alpha  Yes
3.    12'263'700       ALL        Ruldra      MAME          Yes
4.     8'536'300       ALL        MJR         PCB           Yes
5.       404'200        3         DAD         Mame          Yes

btw, if you try this for a first time, and get past area 3, I consider you talented. This game is hard.

[CIT]

I used to own this for PC-Engine. The sound of firing your shots was so annoying I couldn't play it for more than 5 minutes.

[DEL]

MJR wrote;

Yes, the dreaded Jaleco shooter. I think there are some people here who've completed it (del?)

It was my mate ARM who 1Cc'd it , not me. He did it within 3 weeks when it appeared in a local kebab shop .
If you can get past Stage 4, you're pretty much home free. That bit on Stage 4 though was nasty!

This thread should be for Saint Dragon PCB only, or....split into PCB rankings and port rankings, as there's too much difference between them.

[MJR]

I stated in post above that conversions are not included, but I made it now more explicit.

Not that I'm exactly drowning on submissions - I'm not sure at all if anyone is willing to contribute to this, but at least I now have a public place to keep my own scores at

[DEL]

MJR wrote;

Not that I'm exactly drowning on submissions - I'm not sure at all if anyone is willing to contribute to this, but at least I now have a public place to keep my own scores at

Yes why not. There are shooters that I have scores on that don't have high score threads here. Formation Armed F, XX Mission, Vapor Trail, Vimana, Sky Soldiers, X Multiply, Hellfire PCB. I guess you have too, so its good to store them somewhere. I use Icarus's Namakoteam Forum.

Still not sure whether I'd try the dreaded Saint Dragon again though

[MJR]

Oh, reminded me of hellfire.. I loved that in the arcades.. megadrive version was easier because of the smart bomb, but when I buy the PCB some day I might put up a list. Didn't know about that Namakotean forum, maybe I should go lurking there.

You can try Saint Dragon, it's easier than any cave game - but it does not feel as fair. It's still a neat challenge, though.

[MJR]

Still no other entries? That's too bad, my latest is
759'000 - stage 4 - PCB - No autofire

[MJR]

Yay for me, broke my old record:

838'300 - stage 4 - PCB - No autofire

still no go to stage 5 though. But does not matter, I guess I mostly play this just to marvel at its art direction. Can't think of any other 2D game that can conjure such atmosphere with just mere contrast and shadows.

[Ruldra]

I tried playing Saint Dragon some time ago to see what's so infamous about it. This game is so unfair it's unbelievable. Stages 3 and 4 in particular are nasty. Enemies that pop up out of nowhere and shoots bullets that travels the entire screen almost instantly, bosses with almost undodgeable attacks, and the part in stage 4 with robots going back and forth around the screen...jesus. I credit-fed that part for half an hour and still couldn't get past it.

How someone can beat this game is beyond me.

[MJR]

You can do quite well if you learn to use your tail as a shield. If you don't, then the game truly does feel unfair.

[DEL]

Ruldra wrote;

and the part in stage 4 with robots going back and forth around the screen...jesus. I credit-fed that part for half an hour and still couldn't get past it.

How someone can beat this game is beyond me.

Yes thats the part of Stage 4 that I was talking about. We got past it at a trade show when it was on freeplay. It took a lot of tries . We went on to ALL it. It gives a dirty BIG Bonu$ for the ALL, something like 10,000,000 and does what Gardenia would call a Retarded move and gives you extra lives stretching right across the screen for the 10,000,000. Extra lives that you cannot use, as there's no 2nd loop

ARM did 1CC it though. He has since retired and his brother ARC soldiers on...

[MJR]

Yes thats the part of Stage 4 that I was talking about. We got past it at a trade show when it was on freeplay. It took a lot of tries . We went on to ALL it. It gives a dirty BIG Bonu$ for the ALL, something like 10,000,000 and does what Gardenia would call a Retarded move and gives you extra lives stretching right across the screen for the 10,000,000. Extra lives that you cannot use, as there's no 2nd loop

Now it's my turn to be confused, I never ever had any trouble with those robots; all I ever had to do was to keep Flare weapon and shoot them out as soon as they appeared. Only nasty bit you had to do was to catch all those super charge after midpoint to a boss, to protect you from ridiculous amount of enemy bullets. The unfair bit is that if you die at the boss (which is particularly nasty), it will throw quite far back. So yes, that part in gameplay is definitely broken.

That Dell's story about ALL bonus was quite something! I think I am going to try it!

[MJR]

Another Yay!

I 1cc'd first time to area 5

Funny thing, I do get better with this by practice, but I never get better in modern shmups (cave, I'm looking at you) no matter how much I put time on them. Maybe it's because I got this on PCB and all my "new" shmups are on PS2.

994'700 - stage 5 - PCB - No autofire

If I would play this on mame, I would definitely use autofire and make sure I had X-arcade or similar.

[Ruldra]

I was going to ask you to record an inp if you ever beat the game on MAME, but then I remembered to check MARP, and there's an ALL replay there. Stage 5 looks awesome

Regarding the endgame bonus, you get 1 mil per spare life, but the last stage gives you an absurd amount of lives. I never thought I'd see 3-UPs and 5-UPs in a shmup The guy in the replay finished the game with 21 lives.

[MJR]

I was going to ask you to record an inp if you ever beat the game on MAME, but then I remembered to check MARP, and there's an ALL replay there. Stage 5 looks awesome

Regarding the endgame bonus, you get 1 mil per spare life, but the last stage gives you an absurd amount of lives. I never thought I'd see 3-UPs and 5-UPs in a shmup The guy in the replay finished the game with 21 lives.

Yeah. I think this certainly proves that developers noticed near the end that the gameplay is broken, too difficult, so they just threw absurd amount of extra lives to the mix.

Still, I love this game.

[Ruldra]

Alright, let me contribute with something:

346,800 - Stage 3 - Ruldra - MAME - Yes

Forgot to mention earlier, it's shown in the credits that the game was produced by NMK. That explains why this game is so hard.

EDIT: How do you skip the third boss?

[MJR]

EDIT: How do you skip the third boss?

Third boss can be skipped by not destroying any of the big structures that come before it.

Cheers!

[Ruldra]

LOL



12,263,700 - ALL - Ruldra - MAME - Yes

Give me a break...once you learn stage 4 the rest of the game is a joke. I seriously overestimated this game.

Replay on youtube soon.

EDIT:
Stages 1, 2, 3
Stages 4, 5
Stage 6

[MJR]

It seems lvl 6 boss is considerably easier with autofire. With manual fire, it takes significantly longer to destroy; at least for me.

But anyway, Congratulations!

[DEL]

Nice 1 Ruldra

Give me a break...once you learn stage 4 the rest of the game is a joke. I seriously overestimated this game.

Yes we didn't figure out Stage 4, so we didn't 1CC the game. We had to travel out to another arcade to play this game and didn't have much time on it.
Your replays have me itching to play this game again .
Plus the fact that autofire obviously makes a difference (something we never had).

Regs, DEL

[MJR]

million broken for the first time!

1'041'100 - stage 5 - PCB - No autofire

stage 5 definitely is easier than stage 4, once you learn to use 'T' -weapon. Lovely atmosphere, shame that it wasn't included on the amiga conversion.

PS. Del - you are welcome to submit a score!!

[Ruldra]

Give it a try again DEL, I'm sure you could beat this game. It isn't nearly as hard as we were all making out to be.

[DEL]

Yup, I sure will Mr Ruldra

[MJR]

returned to this fine game after a break

MJR - 1.202.600 - area 5 - PCB

btw, I noticed this game has a ranking system. Stage 4 boss launches unbelievably fast projectiles from its chest, if you haven't died in the game yet.

[Emuser]

btw, if you try this for a first time, and get past area 3, I consider you talented. This game is hard.

What about if someone gets to stage 3?



404,200 - Stage 3 - Mame - Autofire

Stupid death at Bull, rest of deaths at stage 3. Tried this for the first time today, but god damn is it hard. From what I understand I have a whole other kind of ****-storm coming for me at stage 4 though, I don't look forward to learnin it from what I'm seeing

[MJR]

There are two alternative ways to get through stage 3 - other easier and other harder but more rewarding.

Either don't shoot any of the big structures that pass the screen by, and you don't have to fight the boss.

Or, don't shoot the container that has the invincibility powerup until it has reached the left end of the screen- this way you will still have invincibility active when all the turrets come on top and bottom, meaning that you can keep the 'F' (flame) weapon on, which makes the destroying of structures and the boss a breeze.

However, if you haven't died at once when you meet the boss, it's bullets will be twice as fast.

[Emuser]

There are two alternative ways to get through stage 3 - other easier and other harder but more rewarding.

Either don't shoot any of the big structures that pass the screen by, and you don't have to fight the boss.

Or, don't shoot the container that has the invincibility powerup until it has reached the left end of the screen- this way you will still have invincibility active when all the turrets come on top and bottom, meaning that you can keep the 'F' (flame) weapon on, which makes the destroying of structures and the boss a breeze.

However, if you haven't died at once when you meet the boss, it's bullets will be twice as fast.

Yes, this is actually a question I was pondering, as after watching Ruldra's replay on youtube he skipped the 3rd boss and I wondered why that happened. I guess a majority of my time will be spent learning stage 3 and 4 with this game, as stage 5 and 6 honestly don't look too hard(especially 6)

[Emuser]

Is it supposed to be random about the life ups at the end of stage 6? I played through several times in the past 3 hours or so and got the following in order:

1st run: 3up, 1up, 1up, 3up, 1up

WTF*2nd run: 3up, 1up, 1up, 3up, 5up*WTF

3rd run: 3up, 1up, 1up, 3up, 1up

It kind of annoys me because I can't see much of a point trying to get a high score if the end bit with the 1up flooding is luck based, and I doubt there's anything I could have done differently that 2nd run that I'm not aware of.

[MJR]

Only three entries? This can't be THAT hard?

[rcoltrane]

Ok, now that I'm playing this game a lot, I've mastered the first three levels without losing a single life and now I'm struggling to advance further through the 4th level.

My top score until now is 524.000

BUT, if you just skip the 3rd level boss, you cannot say that you've completed this game! That boss is a pain in the @ss to beat, it's freaking hard!! I mean, it's easy at the beginning when it just fires those fire columns at you (the amount of sprites on screen makes the game to run in slow motion), but when you start to break him apart, it throws some freakin' curved bullets at you with an incredible and almost unavoidable speed that keeps destroying me everytime. How am I supposed to destroy those freakin bullets!? Tips here are welcome.

As a sidenote, I always reach this boss with the bouncing balls fire mode.

And how do you guys enable the autofire? Is that a feature present in the original PCB or just in MAME? I'm playing it in MAME btw.