Death Roulette: Loop 22

[ACSeraph]

forgot to play my game yesterday

Don't worry about it, I changed the rules so that there's no longer a 1 roll per day limit. Instead do a maximum of 5 rolls per week whenever you feel like it/have time. You can check out the rule changes in detail within the OP.

[Pretas]

Pretas - Psyvariar Revision - Stage X-A - 14495200

Great game with wonderfully understated audiovisuals, though I prefer Medium Unit for its decreased level of scoring autism and greater emphasis on shooting. I don't mind buzzing in Psyvariar 2 because of how viable it is to kill everything by ramming it with your buzz invincibility while almost never shooting, at least with the Buzz Type mecha.

Pretas - Ashura Blaster (Japan) - Stage 4 - 432200

AKA: Taito rips off Kyukyoku Tiger. Decent enough, but bland as hell, and it really starts to drag by the third stage. Easier than it should be because it hands out 1ups and bombs like candy. Most of my deaths were either due to spacing out from boredom, or intermittent frame drops that I hope are only an emulation problem. Don't pick up any other weapon, they're all significant downgrades from the standard red vulcan, especially the back-firing yellow shot. I used the Ashura Bomb in every stage - the Satellite Beam is clearly intended as a boss killer, but it's pretty worthless once you realize that it won't hit multiple parts of a boss. The music is the best part; it's moody and evocative in that special 1990s Taito way, and strongly reminiscent of Gun Frontier's OST (from the same year).

[ACSeraph]

Stage X-A

Numerically, what stage would this be?

[Pretas]

There's no point in listing the numeric placement of Psyvariar 1 stages because there are so many routes through the game. Think Darius.

[ACSeraph]

There is a point because your weekly score in this competition is determined by how many stages you reach per run. For that specific run, what stage would it have been?

[trap15]

Pretas - Ashura Blaster (Japan) - Stage 4 - 432200

AKA: Taito rips off Kyukyoku Tiger. Decent enough, but bland as hell, and it really starts to drag by the third stage. Easier than it should be because it hands out 1ups and bombs like candy. Most of my deaths were either due to spacing out from boredom, or intermittent frame drops that I hope are only an emulation problem. Don't pick up any other weapon, they're all significant downgrades from the standard red vulcan, especially the back-firing yellow shot. I used the Ashura Bomb in every stage - the Satellite Beam is clearly intended as a boss killer, but it's pretty worthless once you realize that it won't hit multiple parts of a boss. The music is the best part; it's moody and evocative in that special 1990s Taito way, and strongly reminiscent of Gun Frontier's OST (from the same year).

The game was developed by Visco, only published by Taito. The Blue weapon is better than the Red in nearly every way, also.

The music is great, and actually composed by the same person, Hidetoshi Fukumori, who actually was never a Taito employee (he was part of Visco for the longest time).

[ACSeraph]

Puttin' this Super Gameboy to use



Can't complain about today's roll, Gameboy Sagaia is actually pretty great. I fucked the run up pretty bad in the middle somehow and got worried, but I had forgotten there were tons of extends in the second half so I cleared anyhow.

[Cagar]

Cagar - Fire Barrel (MAME) - 1-6 - 727k

and

Cagar - Super Real Darwin - 1 ??? - ?

Seriously what the HELL am I playing?
It doesn't even tell you a stage/area, but the background didn't change so I think it was still 1...?
That was the weirdest MAME shmup that i've ever played though.

[NTSC-J]

NTSC-J - Cyvern - 5
NTSC-J - Perfect Cherry Blossom (Normal) - ALL (6 stages)
NTSC-J - Undefined Fantastic Object (Normal) - 4
NTSC-J - Kamui - 4
NTSC-J - 1943 Kai - 2 (jesus!)

21 stages + 2 pts for five games + 5 pts for one ALL = 28

[Kaiser]

Kaiser - USAAF Mustang - 4 - 272,400
Kaiser - Batsugun - 4 - Jeeno - 1,257,610
Kaiser - Raiden - 3 - 292,810
Kaiser - Darius II - Zone A-B - 460,850
Kaiser - Sonic Wings - 4 - Villiam - 237,400

About time I butt in.

[Pretas]

There is a point because your weekly score in this competition is determined by how many stages you reach per run. For that specific run, what stage would it have been?

Stage 3 (Boss).

The game was developed by Visco, only published by Taito. The Blue weapon is better than the Red in nearly every way, also.

The music is great, and actually composed by the same person, Hidetoshi Fukumori, who actually was never a Taito employee (he was part of Visco for the longest time).

Thanks for this bit of information; it certainly doesn't feel like a Taito game. And I thought I grabbed the blue weapon, but it must have been the next one right after it changed. Any idea who the real developers of Ryu Jin were? It's definitely the strangest STG published by Taito.

[trap15]

Ryu Jin is by East Technology, the same folks behind Gigandes, Silent Dragon, Sel Feena, and the notoriously terrible Double Dragon 3.

[PlatinumHawke]

Pretty neat format. Sure it's pretty random but a good way to try new games, even if it's just one credit.

PlatinumHawke - Dragon Saber - 1 - 500
I like how the world version for this game defaults to one life one hit. Game over'd in 4 seconds because slow speed+xbox huge hitbox. nope.jpg

PlatinumHawke - Sonic Wings 3 - I-16 - 2 - 103,500
All I know about this is the dolphin character, the engrish and it looks like a Strikers game. And now I feel like playing 1999 again.

PlatinumHawke - Leiria -Stargazer- - Type-A - 5 - 102,881,150
An almost sight-read 1cc on an ESPgaluda clone. Didn't play well with my set up so I was stuck with a postage stamp sized window.

PlatinumHawke - Kuhga - Operation Code Vapor Trail - Sylph - 2 - 195,000
The sound track reminds me of what was planned for Heaven Variant. AAA stuff will play again just for that.

PlatinumHawke - Ibara - B Type - 2 - 560500
Disc was borked and got some strange graphic glitches and loading errors. Oh well.

[ACSeraph]

Rolled Deathsmiles and died in the final stage as usual. I know it's an easy 1cc, but I just can't be arsed to learn it. I don't care enough to try hard and do level 3, and I don't care enough to learn the disproportionately balanced final stage for a quick addition to the 1cc list either. Dunno why 2 appeals to me when this doesn't.

[Blinge]

Blinge - Strikers1945 - Stage 5 - 444,100

Psikyo. Not even once.

Seraph you could beat Deathsmiles easily, it's not so much about learning the final stage as it is just keeping your lives and bombs until that point, and learning the score system to a rudimentary level. With that in the bag you should be able to get at least two extends and just force your way through the final boss.

[S_Fang]

S_Fang - 1943: The Battle of Midway (Euro) - Stage 2 - 58100 [IMG]
S_Fang - Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting - Mosquito 01 - Stage 1 - out of the Highscore Table
S_Fang - X-Multiply (World) - Stage 3 - 598700 [IMG]
S_Fang - Gunbird (World) -Valnus- Stage 1 - 46300 [IMG]
S_Fang - Section Z (Arcade) - Stage 1 (Sector E) - 38250 [IMG]

And so, my "Five Games in One Evening At S_Fang's" ended with bitterness. Although, most of the games here were played sight unseen, so I'm not too concerned about it.

[Blinge]

Blinge - Thunder Forve IV - Stage 2

Damn this game's awesome!

[Chaos Phoenixma]

So how do the points for clearing a game work in looping games?

Does not meeting a loop requirement still count as a clear in terms of this topic? Do you get the 5 points for clearing the game if you don't clear both loops assuming you meet a requirement to loop, or what?

Maybe there should be an incentive to go for a TLB if a game has one instead of taking the easier way out. Why buy 112 dolls in Hitogata Happa, face the TLB for it and lose, when you can just buy 111 and clear without the TLB if it's not worth the risk? (That's assuming I'd even make it that far anyway cause I'm also rusty in that, but I'd probably go for TLB regardless)

[ACSeraph]

So how do the points for clearing a game work in looping games?

Does not meeting a loop requirement still count as a clear in terms of this topic? Do you get the 5 points for clearing the game if you don't clear both loops assuming you meet a requirement to loop, or what?

If you clear 1 loop you get the 5 bonus points, regardless of whether or not you trigger the second. However you obviously want to trigger it where possible, since more stages = more points. Currently I will only be giving the 5 point bonus for the first loop cleared.

Maybe there should be an incentive to go for a TLB if a game has one instead of taking the easier way out.

Sounds reasonable. Starting next week killing a TLB will earn an additional 5 points.

---

Also this issue hasn't come up yet, but for future reference, older games like Hishouzame which break themselves into "areas" will be broken into standard stages for the purposes of scoring in this thread. Srry but you aint getting 50+ points for a Hishouzame clear. This applies to something like Eschatos too, which can be reasonably separated into about 5 stages even though the game itself doesn't.

Additionally, for games with bonus stages (not EX stages) like Metal Black, Caladrius, etc. it's probably obvious but those stages do not count towards your score.

---

And it must be my lucky week, because I just rolled Caladrius Blaze Evolution

Maybe I'll ghetto stream the run via my webcam later tonight or something if anyone wants to see. I've really gotta figure out how to capture some legit footage with my shitty PC at some point.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I'm not sure how many stages Eschatos has when you divide it up by that since I don't really play that and therefore have no reason to check. It should have stage select to check how it's divided.

I know if you divide JSS's 31 areas into Stages, it's 6, since you get 6 stage choices of where to start whenever you get option level high enough. Stage 1 is Areas 1-5, Stage 2 is Areas 6-13, Stage 3 is Areas 14-20, Stage 4 is Areas 21-26, Stage 5 is Area 27-30, and Stage 6 is Area 31. Definitely a useful feature for practicing area 31 since you normally have to 1cc the first 30 areas to be able to have a shot at it.

[Legendary Hoamaru]

I'm not sure how many stages Eschatos has when you divide it up by that since I don't really play that and therefore have no reason to check. It should have stage select to check how it's divided.

Eschatos is split into 5 stages according to stage select, which it does have but you have to unlock by total score (of all playthroughs) from what I remember.

[ACSeraph]

Eschatos... stage select, which it does have but you have to unlock by total score (of all playthroughs) from what I remember.

What!? I had no idea! I need to go unlock this so I can finish learning the clear in a non-aggravating manner right away!

[Legendary Hoamaru]

Eschatos... stage select, which it does have but you have to unlock by total score (of all playthroughs) from what I remember.

What!? I had no idea! I need to go unlock this so I can finish learning the clear in a non-aggravating manner right away!

Yea they have it stashed in one of the option menus as "Starting Stage".

Only thing to be careful with is the F powerup timing is different than for a full run so can't plan routes based on those in practice. Great for learning everything else though!

[Shepardus]

Shepardus - Muchi Muchi Pork! (MAME) - Momo - 3 - 9159070

This game lags terribly on my computer through MAME, which helps with the dodging, but that didn't save me from angering the rank gods.

Edit: Second roll for the day (3rd for the week)

Shepardus - Dodonpachi II: Bee Storm - Type C (Bomb) - 3 (Boss) - 84053140

First time playing this, thought I did something wrong when I was confronted with the giant bee at the start of the game.

Just rolled Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square. I just 1cc'd this earlier in the week on Normal, so this has the potential to go well. Will run this tomorrow and update this post.

Edit 2:

Shepardus - Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square - Reimu - ALL (6 stages) - 50220240

[Ikazu-san]

AAAAAAAAnd, that marks end of this week for me. Sadly, the only thing I learned is that I'm bad at adapting and should stop being blind.

[ACSeraph]

Finished the Caladrius run a little bit ago. Was going well with a no miss until I got clipped by something stupid on the stage 4 boss. Cleared with just over 100 mil, not bad, at this point no one else can come close with her, so I'm really just competing with myself anyhow.

[Shepardus]

Barely cleared Mystic Square (no lives, no bombs left). A couple of silly mistakes on Stage 4 (mostly of the "tried to collect a bullet" variety) nearly screwed over my run, but I managed to pull through. I updated my post above with the score.

Just rolled Deathsmiles Mega Black Label as my last roll for the week, can't decide whether I want to do the mix of Rank 3 and 1 that I practiced for original Deathsmiles, or screw myself over with an attempt at Rank 999.

Edit: LOL I'm a failure. I don't even need to play on Rank 999 to die on the first stage, apparently Rank 3 is enough.

Shepardus - Deathsmiles Mega Black Label (MAME) - Rosa - 1 (Boss) - 518??? (didn't bother recording before ragequitting)

[ACSeraph]

24 hours to go for this week, get those scores in

[PlatinumHawke]

Post updated for all five games

[ACSeraph]

Loop 3 begins now! Embrace your glorious death!

---

Loop 2 Rankings:

1. Lilium – 50
2. ACSeraph – 42
3. chum – 40
4. Shepardus - 30
5. Chaos Phoenixma – 28
5. NTSC-J – 28
6. TDS – 23
7. Kaiser – 19
8. Chaos – 16
9. Ikazu-san – 15
10. PlatinumHawke – 14
11. shmuppyLove – 11
12. S_Fang – 10
13. Blinge – 8
14. Pretas – 7
14. Cagar – 7
15. pestro87 – 6
16. Softdrink 117 – 3
16. Pteriforever – 3
16. pokemon123 – 3
17. cave hermit – 2

Congrats Lilium! I really thought I had it this week, but 50 points is just untouchable.