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

[FRO]

Been working on a Type-C clear of GunVein for some time. I was going back and forth between B and C as to which I liked best, and I think I finally landed on C because of how fun the charge bomb mechanic was to use, along with its speed. Finally got my Type-C clear last night on a run I didn't expect to be the one, and it felt glorious, despite having made some silly mistakes during the stage 3 and 4 boss fights. But a clear is a clear!

[blazinglazers69]

Been working on a Type-C clear of GunVein for some time. I was going back and forth between B and C as to which I liked best, and I think I finally landed on C because of how fun the charge bomb mechanic was to use, along with its speed. Finally got my Type-C clear last night on a run I didn't expect to be the one, and it felt glorious, despite having made some silly mistakes during the stage 3 and 4 boss fights. But a clear is a clear!

I love clears like that. Reminds me of being a kid and just dicking around with a tough game and then one day the stars align and you’ve conquered it. Nice job.

Finally beat Esprade Psi after grinding it out for a month or so. It's my first CAVE 1CC, and can't wait for Daioujou in December!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHvKdSqK-HA

Very nice! Impressive for your first Cave clear too. What kind of Dpad/lever did you use out of curiosity?

[Coct444]

My full run of R-Type II 2-ALL (Japanese Version) No miss
Played it on the PSX port "R-Types", so that's why it has a loading screen. Sorry for the lack of audio quality, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyi9T3f ... el=Coct444

Not the smoothest run ever since there is a major brainfart at stage 2-6 (even though I miraculously survive), but the score is satisfactory enough for me.

[AeroBranford]

Very nice! Impressive for your first Cave clear too. What kind of Dpad/lever did you use out of curiosity?

I played on switch, and used the pro controller's left joystick. I think the center column of the stick got worn out from playing the game, there was dust everywhere on my controller as a result.
It was my first time playing a shmup on controller, I had only played Touhou games on PC with arrow keys before, so it took some getting used to.

[copy-paster]

My full run of R-Type II 2-ALL (Japanese Version) No miss

Huge props for this man, R-Type II is way too intimidating for me.

[Starfighter]

Hazelnut Hex! The music is great, I had the volume turned up all the way!

[blazinglazers69]

Hazelnut Hex! The music is great, I had the volume turned up all the way!

It reminds me a lot of Neko Navy. Both are a blast and I'm always happy to see them get some love.

[DGR114]

I havent posted anything in a while so I have a couple new 1cc's under my belt.

Batsugun Special Ver (Arcade)
10/13/23
Score: 2,889,900
Ship: Type B
Loop: 1
Ive wanted to 1cc this game for a while but never gotten around to it. This run took around 4 attempts but I finally got the clear.

Armed Police Batrider (EU Vers)
10/25/23
Course: Training
Score: 1,423,650
Character: Shorty (Type C)
Practiced this run for a few days without any luck, but I got the 1cc on my first try today. Maybe I'll get a normal clear soon.

(Anyone have suggestions for a easy first horizontal 1cc? Ive tried to clear Gradius before but I never got past the final hallway section. Ive also tried route A-D-H in Dariusburst AC EX as of recent but no luck there either.)

[BurlyHeart]

(Anyone have suggestions for a easy first horizontal 1cc? Ive tried to clear Gradius before but I never got past the final hallway section. Ive also tried route A-D-H in Dariusburst AC EX as of recent but no luck there either.)

Drainius is very good and not that difficult. It has a special mechanic that absorbs bullets, which may or may not be to your taste. But i found it very fun.

[Steven]

Anyone have suggestions for a easy first horizontal 1cc?

Pick any random Thunder Force that isn't I, II, or V (only because the last boss is disproportionately hard compared to the rest of the game, and even then it's not all that bad, so you could do V anyway if you wanted to) and there you go. AC is the easiest. Thunder Spirits doesn't exist.

If you want a cool game that nobody else will probably suggest, do Andro Dunos II.

[Sengoku Strider]

We're calling Thunder Force IV an 'easy first 1CC' now??

Because in normal "I haven't been playing shmups every day for years" person terms, it probably is not.

[Steven]

It was the second game I ever cleared and it was a no miss and I did it very shortly after Thunder Force III, so yeah, I'm calling it easy. V is significantly harder, if only because it's hard to tell what is even going on on the final stage at times and because the final boss is way harder than the rest of the game combined. VI has the same visibility problems in some cases, but even worse.

[blazinglazers69]

We're calling Thunder Force IV an 'easy first 1CC' now??

Because in normal "I haven't been playing shmups every day for years" person terms, it probably is not.

It's all relative. It was tough for me, but the OP says they cleared the first loop of Batsugun Special after only 4 attempts, so it seems reasonable given their skill level.

But yeah, asking about shmup difficulty here at shmup-central is like going into a roided out Gold's Gym and asking dudes if a 225lbs bench is easy. They'll all say yes, but for an Average Joe it's probably a couple months of work to get there. It's hard to define difficulty too. Do we define it as taking more than 20 hours of practice to clear? 40 hours? 50 hours? Are R-Type and Gradius hard or do they just require a lot of memo compared to bullet hells where you need tighter fundamentals and reflexes? Where does structured practice and discipline vs raw skill/reflexes come into play?

Anyway. My recommendations of easier horizontal shooters based on my personal experiences as a mediocre player:

NES: Gradius, S.C.A.T.
PC Engine: Magical Chase, Dead Moon
Genesis: Advanced Busterhawk GleyLancer, Sagaia
Sega CD: Lords of Thunder (PC Engine version is spicier if desired)

[Sengoku Strider]

It was the second game I ever cleared and it was a no miss and I did it very shortly after Thunder Force III, so yeah, I'm calling it easy.

I'm feeling called out here. I should probably beat my copy. But those boss fights are no softies.

[Starfighter]

Anyone have suggestions for a easy first horizontal 1cc?

Since I'm very bad at horizontal shmups (my dodging is terrible when the bullets are coming from the side) I'm going to list the ones I've managed to get a 1CC in, that should be proof it's beginner friendly.

Darius Gaiden
Deathsmiles
Hazelnut Hex
Over Horizon

[DGR114]

Armed Police Batrider (Europe)
10/26/23
Course: Normal
Ship: Shorty Type C
Stage Order: Sewer, Sky High, Airport.

I'm surprised that I got the normal clear so soon. I've Practiced Normal for about 2 hours today and around 5 total. I faced Sobut and Blunt in stage 5 and got extremely lucky whilst doing so. I died on my last life against Blunt but got an extend at the same time, so I bomb spammed to finish him off. I guess I should mention that I started the game from the dip switch settings so the rank would reset to minimum.

Thank you all for the horizontal shmup suggestions. Im not very good at dodging in horizontal shmups and often die due to stupid mistakes on my part. I will check out Thunder Force AC and maybe pick up Gleylancer at some point. I think the Batsugun clear I mentioned previously was purely dumb luck because Im not very good at arcade shmups.

[Steven]

It was the second game I ever cleared and it was a no miss and I did it very shortly after Thunder Force III, so yeah, I'm calling it easy.

I'm feeling called out here. I should probably beat my copy. But those boss fights are no softies.

They're actually super easy. Just hit them with the Thunder Sword a few times and they die without very much effort at all.

BTW play it on Saturn; that's the best version because no slowdown or sprite flicker ever. Yes, scoring is fucked on Saturn, but it's fucked on the original cartridge anyway because you can get infinite score on stage 1 with nothing but a regular controller and something heavy enough to hold down your shot button while you go do something else for half a day.

[Angry Hina]

It was the second game I ever cleared and it was a no miss and I did it very shortly after Thunder Force III, so yeah, I'm calling it easy.

I'm feeling called out here. I should probably beat my copy. But those boss fights are no softies.

They're actually super easy. Just hit them with the Thunder Sword a few times and they die without very much effort at all.

BTW play it on Saturn; that's the best version because no slowdown or sprite flicker ever. Yes, scoring is fucked on Saturn, but it's fucked on the original cartridge anyway because you can get infinite score on stage 1 with nothing but a regular controller and something heavy enough to hold down your shot button while you go do something else for half a day.

I think too IV is much harder compared to III and AC. Many sections are easy if powered up but if you make a mistake some enemies last very long and mistakes can happen often. Its not too hard but there is surely a bit of effort you have to invest. Wouldnt recommend it as biginner 1CC STG. There a many more easier ones. But its more that it soft requires not to die which is a bit more frustrationg at first

[blazinglazers69]

Guys, after you put in X amount of hours and memorize their patterns so that you don't die and have full power so you can charge the special attack and use it with proper timing and spacing for each given boss it's super-duper easy.

[Rastan78]

BTW play it on Saturn; that's the best version because no slowdown or sprite flicker ever. Yes, scoring is fucked on Saturn, but it's fucked on the original cartridge anyway because you can get infinite score on stage 1 with nothing but a regular controller and something heavy enough to hold down your shot button while you go do something else for half a day.

The M2 port for Switch fixes the broken scoring by having the destructible missiles be worth 0 points. Also you can toggle original slowdown on or off. Plus use the ship from AC etc.

Yeah IV is relatively easy, but it can all go downhill fast if you take a random death on the final boss rush stage and lose important powerups. I don't think it's free for beginners especially without save states to practice.

[FRO]

A few more recent 1CC runs:

KAIKAN (free Itch.io pre-Steam version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617JrDpNiI8

Terra Flame (Expert difficulty)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrI6TjZLYQI

Cotton Reboot (as Cotton, Normal difficulty)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtZOCptMFRw

[To Far Away Times]

We're calling Thunder Force IV an 'easy first 1CC' now??

Because in normal "I haven't been playing shmups every day for years" person terms, it probably is not.

Thunder Force IV is definitely not an easy game. IMO, it's one of the hardest console shmups of its era.

[Starfighter]

Mushihimesama! Oh wow, I'm so glad I finally beat it. I've had it since it came out on PS2 and loved it to bits ever since but I never really played it with any goal. Now I have a survival* 1CC at least!



* = as you can see from my score in the screenshot I focused only on surviving, I intentionally left a lot of items behind and did none of the scoring things during the run.

[To Far Away Times]

Mushihimesama! Oh wow, I'm so glad I finally beat it. I've had it since it came out on PS2 and loved it to bits ever since but I never really played it with any goal. Now I have a survival* 1CC at least!



* = as you can see from my score in the screenshot I focused only on surviving, I intentionally left a lot of items behind and did none of the scoring things during the run.

Nice

[Angry Hina]

Guys, after you put in X amount of hours and memorize their patterns so that you don't die and have full power so you can charge the special attack and use it with proper timing and spacing for each given boss it's super-duper easy.

yeah, its hard to find a hard game after youeve beaten it
I yesterday tried it again after some years of practicing around (didnt gave up that time but somehow changed to another STG), I remembered some situations I didnt got right that time and can cause nasty chain deaths. The water stage mid boss is one of those... If you dont kill him right away with the thunder sword, he will very likely get you because he fills most of the screen but I dont know whats the right moment. But yeah... save space training will surely clarify this but I wanted to try it on MD at first (whithout watching yt videos). In the modern "kids mode" you have at least some shots with the thunder sword to learn its usage before you run out of lives becuse you keep it after dying.

Or the boss rush room with the enemies falling out of some sort of tube in the ceiling. Possibly there is some save(er) spot but there are a lot killing possibilities flying around in this room.

We're calling Thunder Force IV an 'easy first 1CC' now??

Because in normal "I haven't been playing shmups every day for years" person terms, it probably is not.

Thunder Force IV is definitely not an easy game. IMO, it's one of the hardest console shmups of its era.

Thats a bit much for me or is it not the same era if you talk about for instance the toaplan ports for MD or do you mean "console exclusive"?

[NuclearPotato]

Just beat a loop and a half of Fire Barrel for the first time. Pretty easy, breezy game if you're looking for an easy 1-ALL; I started playing it on Tuesday and got the clear after what, 4-5 hours of cumulative play? Irem is always a good time, even on their B-tier games.

[To Far Away Times]

We're calling Thunder Force IV an 'easy first 1CC' now??

Because in normal "I haven't been playing shmups every day for years" person terms, it probably is not.

Thunder Force IV is definitely not an easy game. IMO, it's one of the hardest console shmups of its era.

Thats a bit much for me or is it not the same era if you talk about for instance the toaplan ports for MD or do you mean "console exclusive"?

I mean as a 16-bit era console exclusive. I imagine games like the Genesis port of V-V are quite a bit harder.

[ZPScissors]

R-Type 1-ALL, nothing huge but it is my first new arcade shmup clear in about half a year. Maybe I'll go for a 2-ALL at some point but it's not that big a priority for me.

[BIL]

R-Type 1-ALL, nothing huge but it is my first new arcade shmup clear in about half a year. Maybe I'll go for a 2-ALL at some point but it's not that big a priority for me.

Truly a game for all seasons, that one. Congrats!

My full run of R-Type II 2-ALL (Japanese Version) No miss
Played it on the PSX port "R-Types", so that's why it has a loading screen. Sorry for the lack of audio quality, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyi9T3f ... el=Coct444

Not the smoothest run ever since there is a major brainfart at stage 2-6 (even though I miraculously survive), but the score is satisfactory enough for me.

Goddamn, I'm way behind on this thread - great run! (I've enjoyed seeing the R-Types love recently; classic home conversions with extra 60hz toughman cred )

[NuclearPotato]

R-Type 1-ALL, nothing huge but it is my first new arcade shmup clear in about half a year. Maybe I'll go for a 2-ALL at some point but it's not that big a priority for me.

Even one loop of R-Type is no joke; congrats! Someday I'll get around to practicing for that 2-ALL...

On the subject of clears that aren't a huge deal, managed to get a loop of Vimana down within a couple days of practice. Autofire busts that game just as much as advertised, and going deathless until the final screen of the game basically meant I was able to face-tank my way through the final boss for the clear.