I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[To Far Away Times]

Got a quick clear on Override for the PC Engine.

With adjustable ship speed icons on the top left, weapon systems aplenty, fast and frantic gameplay, and a boat load of lives on the bottom right you know exactly what you’re getting before ever plugging in that HuCard.

It’s a winning formula though, and Override delivers, even if it doesn’t deliver as well as the Soldier games.

Final score: 1,364,770

[To Far Away Times]

Continuing with some easy clears, I 1CC’d Otomedius and Otomedius Gorgeous tonight.

Otomedius is an arcade game where you select 3 of 4 possible stages which can be played in any order. I did this run with the Twin Bee character.

Otomedius Gorgeous takes the arcade game and makes it 16:9, adds in two new stages and a set stage order, puts classic Gradius shields in the power up bar, and adds a surprisingly challenging final boss. This run was done with the Gradius character.

Fun and easy to pick up, even if a bit light on new ideas. I kinda like them as a homage to classic Konami games though. I also like how each character has their loadout representing a classic Konami shmup franchise, though it doesn’t change the game as much as Cotton Rock N Roll or Darius Burst AC.

The Otomedius games have built in replay saving which is very appreciated, so I’ll be uploading those in the coming days.

[Angry Hina]

I finally managed a 1CC on Akai Katana (Origin) after over a month of on and off grinding.

System: NSW
Time taken: ~20 hours
Controller: 8bitdo SN Pro 2
Ship: Type C
Score: ~80 million

I've really grown to like this one, though at first the only thing that kept me going was the amazing soundtrack. I struggled a lot at first as I was completely lost with the gameplay and it took me a long while to figure it out, even now I'm not entirely sure how some of the phantom mechanics work. The bosses also kept crushing me mercilessly. I think stages 1-2 can be handled as a typical shmup (just shoot at whatever is showing up on-screen) but stages 3 onwards, particularly the final bosses, really require a decent understanding of how phantom mode works. Anyway, at some point the game really clicked with me, and I had a great time trying to get the 1CC, it didn't really feel like a chore. I would rank it quite high now in my list of all time fave shmups, and again, to me that OST is the best Cave has ever produced.

Having said that, I'm not thinking of staying for the remaining modes (Zetsu/Shin). I find zetsu too similar to origin, and while Shin is admittedly good fun, I think I've grown too used to the "push back bullets" feeling I get when activating phantom in origin. The additional one stage is probably an unsurmountable barrier unless I put in several more hours of grinding and I don't want to get burnt out, I'd rather keep the good memories with me.

Its really a great game and its very interesting, how accessible it feels, how smooth the difficulty travels from start to end and theres no too complicated, invisible gameplay stuff going on. strange, that its an "Shinobu Yagawa game" but possibly Ikeda had much influence too and helped getting it smooth

I cleared Origin myself just with one "Ship" but the other modes with all three. Origin felt in comparison much more... lets say sluggish. Zetsu and Slash are simply just more fun for me.

[To Far Away Times]

Akai Katana to Akai Katana Shin has to be one of the greatest glow ups ever.

Turns an so-so game into one of CAVE’s best.

[locoBro1196]

Just got Hishouzame 5-ALL 3.2 million no autofire. My arm is very, very tired from mashing for about 2 hours straight. Why do I do this to myself when I have autofire? I really don't know.

that is insane skill. May I ask how many hours of your life have you poured into this game?
If I recall correctly not even most of those in top 10 online leaderboards in Switch have made it that far.

I'm still stuck in 1-5, hoping to get that 1-ALL soon but I'm seriously struggling collecting power-ups and progressing further after losing a life.

[Steven]

Just got Hishouzame 5-ALL 3.2 million no autofire. My arm is very, very tired from mashing for about 2 hours straight. Why do I do this to myself when I have autofire? I really don't know.

that is insane skill. May I ask how many hours of your life have you poured into this game?
If I recall correctly not even most of those in top 10 online leaderboards in Switch have made it that far.

I'm still stuck in 1-5, hoping to get that 1-ALL soon but I'm seriously struggling collecting power-ups and progressing further after losing a life.

I don't know how much I have played it, but I haven't played it much recently at all. I didn't practice for this or anything, either. Bullet speed reaches its maximum at I believe the beginning of loop 2 and enemy HP and I think firing rate reach their maximum in the first half of loop 3, so once you get to that point the game never changes until you get far enough for the overflow glitch to happen, which apparently is loop 65512. Once you do your memorization it's a nice relaxing game with excellent music, so I usually play a loop or two when I want to relax.

I may have a "perfect" 1-ALL replay with no autofire no miss no bomb with all bombs collected and all yellow planes shot down somewhere if you want it. I have done it many times on PCB, but I might not have done it on something that I can actually record.

In any case, use your bombs aggressively to attack, not to defend. You will theoretically lose more score from dying at full power and then dying again while not at full power than you will from bombing like 5 times or something like that, so it's better to bomb. No bomb for loop 1 is perfectly doable with practice, but after that no bomb is highly not recommended.

[To Far Away Times]

Got a quick clear on Cotton 100% earlier tonight.

A neat little game if not compared to other games in the series. Has a surprsing amount of voice samples for an SNES game. Pretty easy, but it did take me a few attempts. There are hidden bombs and lives to discover throughout the stages, which are a lot of fun to uncover. Kinda adds an "exploration" element to traversing the stages. Quite a comfy game once you get settled in. The charge shot is really strong and melts bosses. I finished the game with 8 lives and 6 bombs (which can be used to grant a 1 hit shield). The game adds one point to your score every time you lose a life. I ended up dying twice in this run. Final score 519802.

[XoPachi]

Cleared GaiaSeed. Blind first attempt. Well "blind" I played this once on the PSP 14 years ago but only like half of stage 1. This game was a lot easier than it's opening stage suggested.
I read up afterwards and it seems ending 2 is the true way to beat the game though. I should bump the game to hard mode and go for that. But a really enthralling and gorgeous STG.

Spoiler

[barmskii]

Although I love them I'm terrible at shmups, I've been playing them solidly for at least 25 years. Collected them all across all consoles, owned many PCBs and cabs and no matter how much I play them I only ever get about half way through a first loop on one credit.

However for the last week or so I've been playing gate of thunder on my duo.

1 play per night just relaxing and taking in each level and tonight I finished it with 6 lives to spare.

My 1st 1cc.

I know it's a piss easy game on normal but I'm chuffed.

What a cracking game too.

[ryu]

Congrats!

My 1ccs are all also strictly in console shmups. Nothing to feel bad about.

[To Far Away Times]

Although I love them I'm terrible at shmups, I've been playing them solidly for at least 25 years. Collected them all across all consoles, owned many PCBs and cabs and no matter how much I play them I only ever get about half way through a first loop on one credit.

However for the last week or so I've been playing gate of thunder on my duo.

1 play per night just relaxing and taking in each level and tonight I finished it with 6 lives to spare.

My 1st 1cc.

I know it's a piss easy game on normal but I'm chuffed.

What a cracking game too.

Congrats. Gate of Thunder is a great game and one of the best shmups of the 16 bit era, no doubt about it. If you like that game, you should try Thunderforce III, Gate of Thunder is sort of an unofficial sequel to that game, made by some of the same developers and has a very similar style and gameplay. It's probably an easier clear to boot.

---

I've been going through some old doujin games and recently stumbled upon G-Type. This game was made way back in 2002, and tries to combine Gradius, R-Type and Darius into a tribute game (with a few sound effects and visuals ripped from Contra for good measure). It's pretty damn cool, you get the Gradius power bar with the R-Type ship and force pod. Many enemies are "corrupted" from other games. King Fossil from Darius gets some arms and maneuvers around the stage like the Brain Golem boss from Salamander, etc. Difficulties affect many things in the game including which bosses you fight, stage order, and even certain routes in the stages. There appears to be some sort of rank system in the game, and which enemies will be red enemies seems to vary as well. The game is really a labor of love. The game is not too difficult but it does take some time to figure things out. Like a kinder, friendlier R-Type. You have instant respawn, and your force pod is not lost upon death. Will still take some practice though. You can practice from the start of any stage, which is really nice. The game comes with a generous auto fire, but it looks like you can really break the game by using an external autofire, though I haven't tried doing this myself.

I actually played this a bit some 15+ years ago, but I had not really played much Gradius/R-Type/Darius back then and didn't want to play this before playing games in those series. I had forgotten about this game for ages, but I'm glad I revisited this, it's a great game.

It's hard to find much information on the game, but I did see a couple Japanese players play the game at five lives so that's what I set the lives value to. The copy I downloaded was set to 9 lives but also had some stages cleared, so I thought five lives was probably the default.

This is a free game and relatively unknown, so I've included a download link and video of the easy route if you want to see more.

I cleared this one on normal with five starting lives. I want to go back and do the easy route, since it's quite a bit different than the normal route.

[To Far Away Times]

I cleared Blue Wish a few minutes ago.

This is the game that laid the foundation for Blue Wish Resurrection, and much of that awesomeness was right there from the start. Getting it to run properly on newer machines is difficult. The default display mode wasn't working for me, so I had to set it to the A display. The screen size was also the size of postage stamp, with no apparent full screen option, but I was able to use the steam deck's built in scaling to enlarge the image enough to at least be playable.

Super fun game, plays just like Blue Wish Resurrection, right down to the tons of aimed shots and Mushi Futari style tap-tap dodging. Had five losses right on the final boss before I could get over the wall, but it doesn't matter how many times you fail, you just have to succeed once.

[locoBro1196]

I cleared Blue Wish a few minutes ago.

This is the game that laid the foundation for Blue Wish Resurrection, and much of that awesomeness was right there from the start. Getting it to run properly on newer machines is difficult. The default display mode wasn't working for me, so I had to set it to the A display. The screen size was also the size of postage stamp, with no apparent full screen option, but I was able to use the steam deck's built in scaling to enlarge the image enough to at least be playable.

Super fun game, plays just like Blue Wish Resurrection, right down to the tons of aimed shots and Mushi Futari style tap-tap dodging. Had five losses right on the final boss before I could get over the wall, but it doesn't matter how many times you fail, you just have to succeed once.

congrats! Blue Wish is a great series, BWR Original is in my to-1CC list and has been for a while but I struggle to get past Stage 4. Maybe one day.
I remember downloading the original Blue Wish and just giving up after not being able to change the screen size, I will leave it as one for the true fans only

[NuclearPotato]

Couple of new achievements since the last time I posted here, clearing two of my shmup goals for the year in the process:

-I managed to break 20 million on G-Darius' Lambda route; I've been lusting for it since getting the no-miss last year, but only put the time into routing pretty recently; broke into the top 10 for that route on the PC port because of it!

-Just got my first clear of Metal Black in; really wanted to push for this since I started learning it back when the ACA port came out, but put it aside for 2023; it showing up as a potential game for La Calice Cup 8 lit the fire back on me to push for the clear. Managed to break 500k on it, which isn't too shabby!

[To Far Away Times]

I cleared Blue Wish a few minutes ago.

This is the game that laid the foundation for Blue Wish Resurrection, and much of that awesomeness was right there from the start. Getting it to run properly on newer machines is difficult. The default display mode wasn't working for me, so I had to set it to the A display. The screen size was also the size of postage stamp, with no apparent full screen option, but I was able to use the steam deck's built in scaling to enlarge the image enough to at least be playable.

Super fun game, plays just like Blue Wish Resurrection, right down to the tons of aimed shots and Mushi Futari style tap-tap dodging. Had five losses right on the final boss before I could get over the wall, but it doesn't matter how many times you fail, you just have to succeed once.

congrats! Blue Wish is a great series, BWR Original is in my to-1CC list and has been for a while but I struggle to get past Stage 4. Maybe one day.
I remember downloading the original Blue Wish and just giving up after not being able to change the screen size, I will leave it as one for the true fans only

Thanks. BWR is a very awesome game.

--

A few easy clears yesterday and today:

1. Graze Counter - Cool game, aimed at beginners but excellent presentation and I like how the bullet patterns encourage grazing. Just difficult enough to be engaging. I enjoyed this game quite a bit.
2. Graze Counter GM - Kinda like a Black Label, lots of balancing changes, enemies have new bullet patterns etc. Most of the balancing changes aren't for the best. This version throws tons of lives at you and your gauge charges way too fast. Too easy to be fun.
3. Battle Mania - Decent game. Hard to follow since you have two characters on screen and one follows the other. I end up focusing on the wrong character alot, although I suppose that's part of the challenge.

[Him]

Made a lot of progress with my routing in Crimzon Clover Arcade Original, haven't cleared it yet but we're getting there. Yesterday was pretty tilting when I was practicing, so tonight was all about cleansing my mindset and it was quite refreshing.

Spun up Mushihimesama for the first time, bought it on the Steam Spring sale. Cleared it on Novice 1CC and almost beat the Stage 3 boss on Arrange Mode. Such a great game, I've only just gotten my hands on it and I am already blown away. I will be spending a lot of time with this one when I get the Crimzon Clover 1cc under my belt

[locoBro1196]

Made a lot of progress with my routing in Crimzon Clover Arcade Original, haven't cleared it yet but we're getting there. Yesterday was pretty tilting when I was practicing, so tonight was all about cleansing my mindset and it was quite refreshing.

Spun up Mushihimesama for the first time, bought it on the Steam Spring sale. Cleared it on Novice 1CC and almost beat the Stage 3 boss on Arrange Mode. Such a great game, I've only just gotten my hands on it and I am already blown away. I will be spending a lot of time with this one when I get the Crimzon Clover 1cc under my belt

If you manage to 1CC Crimzon Clover Arcade Original (something I've never done, btw), then Mushihimesama original will really be a walk in the park...the difference in difficulty is massive.

[locoBro1196]

Got a 1-ALL on Hishozame in Switch after roughly 20 hours of grinding, sweat and not small amounts of frustration. Made it all the way to 2-3 with a total score of ~750k.

This took me a bit longer than expected as I had to rest for a few days after getting Tetris effect while sleeping and waking up to stage 3's tune (having said that, the OST really is amazing).

Hishozame is a game that I purchased physically on pretty much release day in Japan, however it always got tossed aside in favor of newer, flashier looking stuff. It happens.
I got inspired to attempt the 1-ALL by the glowing praise it always gets in this forum as well as by its latest ranking in the annual poll.

Hottest spots: mid of stage 3 prior to the big ship (having trouble navigating the smaller boat turrets and the tiny boats' deadly bullets), second half of stage 4 which I had to throughoutly memorize (damn those planes appearing from the bottom of the screen), and pretty much all of stage 5 due to me struggling very, very badly after being hit and miserably failing to gain progress. I couldn't 1-ALL this until I finally managed to consistently kill the "final boss" without power-ups and using only 2 bombs.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this, it is only the second Toaplan game I 1-ALL after Batsugun. The fact that I still cannot go back to Batsugun but part of me can't wait to improve my PB in Hishozame is testament to how good of a game the latter is, I guess.

Not sure what I'll go for next, I know the right thing to do is chill and finally getting down to making some progress in Alan Wake II but we all know how it goes, I'll probably get started on 2P side of Fire Shark or Sonic Wings Limited soon enough.

[Steven]

Got a 1-ALL on Hishozame in Switch after roughly 20 hours of grinding, sweat and not small amounts of frustration. Made it all the way to 2-3 with a total score of ~750k.

This took me a bit longer than expected as I had to rest for a few days after getting Tetris effect while sleeping and waking up to stage 3's tune (having said that, the OST really is amazing).

Hishozame is a game that I purchased physically on pretty much release day in Japan, however it always got tossed aside in favor of newer, flashier looking stuff. It happens.
I got inspired to attempt the 1-ALL by the glowing praise it always gets in this forum as well as by its latest ranking in the annual poll.

Hottest spots: mid of stage 3 prior to the big ship (having trouble navigating the smaller boat turrets and the tiny boats' deadly bullets), second half of stage 4 which I had to throughoutly memorize (damn those planes appearing from the bottom of the screen), and pretty much all of stage 5 due to me struggling very, very badly after being hit and miserably failing to gain progress. I couldn't 1-ALL this until I finally managed to consistently kill the "final boss" without power-ups and using only 2 bombs.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this, it is only the second Toaplan game I 1-ALL after Batsugun. The fact that I still cannot go back to Batsugun but part of me can't wait to improve my PB in Hishozame is testament to how good of a game the latter is, I guess.

Not sure what I'll go for next, I know the right thing to do is chill and finally getting down to making some progress in Alan Wake II but we all know how it goes, I'll probably get started on 2P side of Fire Shark or Sonic Wings Limited soon enough.

Good shit. Hishouzame is the best game on the top 25 list and I am extremely glad that more people are playing it.

If you want to go for higher, here is some advice: bomb the second large ship on the second stage of the loop, which starts at loop 2, so it's actually stage 3, but yeah. For the small boats on stage 3 you should seal them as they appear so you can kill them instantly without them firing. This is hard to do on loops without bombing the turrets on the ship, which is why I extremely highly recommend bombing that second ship. Absolutely do not die at that spot on the loop because the turrets will fuck you up almost immediately after respawning.

You probably won't need it, but here is a replay you can use for reference. https://youtu.be/8CQbiyULVz8
I only recorded loop 1, but almost everything I show here works for loop 2 aside from the thing with the second big ship on the loop.

If you haven't done Same! Same! Same! 2P version, do that before Fire Shark because it's (arguably a lot) easier and then do Fire Shark. The item table is also a bit different, but you won't have to completely re-memo everything just because of that. Don't skip MD Same!, either, as it's possibly the best version of the game.

[locoBro1196]

Got a 1-ALL on Hishozame in Switch after roughly 20 hours of grinding, sweat and not small amounts of frustration. Made it all the way to 2-3 with a total score of ~750k.

This took me a bit longer than expected as I had to rest for a few days after getting Tetris effect while sleeping and waking up to stage 3's tune (having said that, the OST really is amazing).

Hishozame is a game that I purchased physically on pretty much release day in Japan, however it always got tossed aside in favor of newer, flashier looking stuff. It happens.
I got inspired to attempt the 1-ALL by the glowing praise it always gets in this forum as well as by its latest ranking in the annual poll.

Hottest spots: mid of stage 3 prior to the big ship (having trouble navigating the smaller boat turrets and the tiny boats' deadly bullets), second half of stage 4 which I had to throughoutly memorize (damn those planes appearing from the bottom of the screen), and pretty much all of stage 5 due to me struggling very, very badly after being hit and miserably failing to gain progress. I couldn't 1-ALL this until I finally managed to consistently kill the "final boss" without power-ups and using only 2 bombs.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this, it is only the second Toaplan game I 1-ALL after Batsugun. The fact that I still cannot go back to Batsugun but part of me can't wait to improve my PB in Hishozame is testament to how good of a game the latter is, I guess.

Not sure what I'll go for next, I know the right thing to do is chill and finally getting down to making some progress in Alan Wake II but we all know how it goes, I'll probably get started on 2P side of Fire Shark or Sonic Wings Limited soon enough.

Good shit. Hishouzame is the best game on the top 25 list and I am extremely glad that more people are playing it.

If you want to go for higher, here is some advice: bomb the second large ship on the second stage of the loop, which starts at loop 2, so it's actually stage 3, but yeah. For the small boats on stage 3 you should seal them as they appear so you can kill them instantly without them firing. This is hard to do on loops without bombing the turrets on the ship, which is why I extremely highly recommend bombing that second ship. Absolutely do not die at that spot on the loop because the turrets will fuck you up almost immediately after respawning.

You probably won't need it, but here is a replay you can use for reference. https://youtu.be/8CQbiyULVz8
I only recorded loop 1, but almost everything I show here works for loop 2 aside from the thing with the second big ship on the loop.

If you haven't done Same! Same! Same! 2P version, do that before Fire Shark because it's (arguably a lot) easier and then do Fire Shark. The item table is also a bit different, but you won't have to completely re-memo everything just because of that. Don't skip MD Same!, either, as it's possibly the best version of the game.

Thanks a lot! It is indeed a great game, without the glowing praise it gets here I doubt I'd have ended up putting so much time on it. I'm glad I did.

I'll be taking a break from shmups throughout Easter next week since Hishozame has consumed a large chunk of my free time over the past couple of weeks and I need some rest, but I'm definitely setting Same!3 2P as one of my stretch targets for 2024.

I appreciate you sharing the YT video, that is very useful! So what I struggled with for a LONG time was the smaller boats that start to appear on screen at the 7:30 mark, on the right hand side. There's no way I can pull your move, I'd get fried with those treacherous bullets they start to shoot way too soon. What worked for me was to hug the lower screen as soon as possible before the smaller boats arrive, then their bullets will somehow just fly above your ship. And after getting rid of the big boat turrets I'd slide over to the right hand side and kill the small ships. Sadly I don't think that works on loop 2 onwards, going by my attempts at the arcade challenge (I didn't get that far in any of my runs )

I also find it amazing how on stage 4 you don't use a single bomb against the オウガ bosses. I end up panic bombing pretty much my whole bomb stock against each of them.

I have a question for you or for any other Hishozame true connoisseurs. Is the Switch's M2 version considered the "definitive" version of the game, and truly comparable to the PCB? I ask because this is almost exclusively what I've been playing, but I recently had the chance to try the Steam version and not sure if I'm wrong on this but, well, it appears to be somewhat "faster".

[Steven]

I appreciate you sharing the YT video, that is very useful! So what I struggled with for a LONG time was the smaller boats that start to appear on screen at the 7:30 mark, on the right hand side. There's no way I can pull your move, I'd get fried with those treacherous bullets they start to shoot way too soon. What worked for me was to hug the lower screen as soon as possible before the smaller boats arrive, then their bullets will somehow just fly above your ship. And after getting rid of the big boat turrets I'd slide over to the right hand side and kill the small ships. Sadly I don't think that works on loop 2 onwards, going by my attempts at the arcade challenge (I didn't get that far in any of my runs )

On the loop you basically have no choice but to do the thing that I did except you should also bomb the turrets so you can get over there faster. If you don't do this, you will almost certainly die to the boats. Jaimers shows how to do it: https://youtu.be/_1iyUU9sPaY?feature=shared&t=1227

It is possible to no-bomb this part on the loop by staying on the far left side, but it's harder because everything will be shooting at you at once and I don't recommend it.

I also find it amazing how on stage 4 you don't use a single bomb against the オウガ bosses. I end up panic bombing pretty much my whole bomb stock against each of them.

I actually messed that part up a little bit and it was very sloppy. What you should do is stay close to the center of the bosses while moving to the left/right as slowly as you can while not getting hit. If you move too far to the side and your shot stops hitting it, move forward so you can hit it some more, then move down quickly when it stops shooting and repeat.

I have a question for you or for any other Hishozame true connoisseurs. Is the Switch's M2 version considered the "definitive" version of the game, and truly comparable to the PCB? I ask because this is almost exclusively what I've been playing, but I recently had the chance to try the Steam version and not sure if I'm wrong on this but, well, it appears to be somewhat "faster".

The definitive version of the game is the PCB. Next best is the patched PS4 version, and then after that is the patched Switch version. The M2 releases are a perfect match for the PCB in terms of slowdown and accuracy. They should also maintain perfect synchronization with the PCB if you put them side-by-side. The Switch version probably has a few more milliseconds of lag than the PS4 version, especially after they removed the option to reduce input lag on Switch because it was causing audio problems. The Bitwave PC versions are too fast because they both run too fast, even with the original PCB speed selected, and also because they removed all of the slowdown.

Both M2's releases and the Bitwave releases lack optimal autofire options (5Hz for stages + 30Hz for pointblanking; M2 gives you 30 but not 5 and Bitwave won't let you have two different auto speeds at the same time and also has both 4Hz and 6Hz but not 5), but I almost never play the game with autofire anyway.

[BEAMLORD]

A couple of weeks ago, I bagged a DOJ Black Label 1-ALL, after I burnt out hard on White Label.

So, relieved to say I came back to White Label today, and snagged a 1-ALL quick smart, again with Type B Exy. By no means a flashy run, no-missed until the large cannon just before the stage 4 boss. Did some stupid shit in stage 5, picking up a Bomb when I was already at max bombs. Entered the Kouryu fight with a life in stock, but fared well enough.

At the least, I've fairly satisfied myself that I don't suck too bad at DOJ. Should probably start finessing my runs and start using hypers properly now. Maybe work toward a Black Label 1-ALL with Hibachi? Dunno.

https://youtu.be/mVL1kIAaR08?si=cpD8BgzEvwluagbS

[locoBro1196]

The definitive version of the game is the PCB. Next best is the patched PS4 version, and then after that is the patched Switch version. The M2 releases are a perfect match for the PCB in terms of slowdown and accuracy. They should also maintain perfect synchronization with the PCB if you put them side-by-side. The Switch version probably has a few more milliseconds of lag than the PS4 version, especially after they removed the option to reduce input lag on Switch because it was causing audio problems. The Bitwave PC versions are too fast because they both run too fast, even with the original PCB speed selected, and also because they removed all of the slowdown.

Both M2's releases and the Bitwave releases lack optimal autofire options (5Hz for stages + 30Hz for pointblanking; M2 gives you 30 but not 5 and Bitwave won't let you have two different auto speeds at the same time and also has both 4Hz and 6Hz but not 5), but I almost never play the game with autofire anyway.

Thanks for all the tips with the game, Steven. Yeah I think for now I'll stay clear of Bitwave's release for this, it feels too unnaturally fast. For autofire, at first I found M2's release has a minimum of 10Hz for custom assignment to the 'SHOT' button, which is not bad at all when not powered up but once you level up the shot it just doesn't work well. Anyway I also end up not using autofire most of the time, it's fine with this game.

[ryu]

So, relieved to say I came back to White Label today, and snagged a 1-ALL quick smart, again with Type B Exy.

Taking a break can help a lot sometimes. Congrats!

[BEAMLORD]

Cheers, man. Certainly, absence makes the heart grow balls

[DGR114]

Dodonpachi 1ALL
Ship: C-S
Score: 35,553,400
I've been working on this clear for a few months now. I'm glad I finally got the clear because the game felt a bit boring to me recently.
Not sure what game I'll work on next. Maybe Mushihimesama or DFK 1.5 since Ive owned those on Steam for a while.

[mirkvid]

Hey congrats! I was just working on DDP this weekend too! I cleared it last Summer but wanted to give it another go. After 9 months away, it took me a few weeks to get the 1all again. You beat my score by quite a bit, I ended up with 27,616,950. I was using C-S as well.

Good job, congrats again!!

[Tim James]

I've been working on this clear for a few months now. I'm glad I finally got the clear because the game felt a bit boring to me recently.

I'm the same way working on Crimzon Clover. I'm really close (or I was a couple weeks ago) but the practice and clear attempts are not compelling in the slightest. I don't think arcade 1CC attempts are really for me, unless I'm playing an M2 STG release where they break the stages into smaller chunks. I can talk myself into practicing when it's smaller increments and shorter turnaround for improvement.

[To Far Away Times]

I got a clear of Touhou 01 - Highly Responsive to Prayers today. I went in with fairly low expectations, but I liked this game more than I expected to. At times, it's actually pretty fun. However, there were two pretty big oversights with the game.

1) The game awards extends every 400K, but if you reach that score threshold with the boss clear bonus the game will cheat you out of the extend. Most players will cross that threshold on the first boss if they don't bomb. Doesn't seem intentional, so I'm thinking it's a programming error. The solution for this is to bomb early in stage four to rack up points and get the first extend before the boss. This brings us to the second big oversight...

2) This game has a terrible scoring system. Scoring involves doing chains without the ball touching the ground. Using a bomb will clear nearly all the cards on the board and these cards will also count towards your chain. Bombing in the right spot will give you a super long chain and pretty much get you an extend all by itself. As you get further into the game, the base value of the cards becomes more lucrative, and it becomes even easier to reach the next extend. Every time you die the game gives you a bomb, so there's a cycle of Bomb -> Extend -> Die -> Repeat, and once you know the trick, the stages pretty much play themselves.

Now I no longer have to play this stupid ball and paddle game.

Onward and upward with the rest of the PC-98 Touhou games...

[ryu]

I checked off my first arcade game 1cc: Gradius [video]

The first shmup I ever played was Gradius on Gameboy. The first console 1cc I ever got was Gradius Rebirth, and now the first arcade game I 1cc'd ended up being a Gradius as well.

Playing this was highly frustrating. As solid as the mechanics are, and as fun aiming for a higher score and achieving new PBs is, the game is a technical mess. I don't want to count how often I crashed into something because the game suddenly went from slowdown to full speed. This almost ruined my 1cc as well, as you can see in above's video (near the end of stage 7 where I randomly crash into the ground). Thank god Arcade Archives provide at least one save state. I needed to practice stage 5 a lot, and without that practice this would have probably taken weeks.

Next up are Salamander and Life Force. I played those on Saturn a long time ago, and don't remember if I ever beat any of them. Probably not because I don't even have any scores for them recorded. I hope these will be less frustrating to 1cc (if I'll even go that far for either of them).

I got a clear of Touhou 01 - Highly Responsive to Prayers today. I went in with fairly low expectations, but I liked this game more than I expected to. At times, it's actually pretty fun.

I had never bothered to check out the pre-windows era Touhous. That game looks really cute, actually. When it doesn't almost induce a seizure in you. Good job!