Darius – a question about continues

[RayForceFan]

Hello!

This question is in regards to the first Darius game. I'm playing it through the Darius Cozmic Collection on Switch. So on to my question...

How do continues/credits work in this game? As I understand it, there is a checkpoint system in the game, when you lose one life, you will restart from the checkpoint. When you lose all your lives, you'll have to restart the stage. So I thought that if I die on, say stage B, if I then use continue, I will restart on that stage. But that doesn't seem to be the case. When I lost all my lives on stage B, I had to restart at the beginning of stage A. Am I doing something wrong? Or are there credit checkpoints after a specific number of cleared stages, not in between every single one?

Thanks in advance!

[RayForceFan]

Does anybody know?

[BulletMagnet]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess there's some difference in how continues work versus lives in terms of how far you get set back.

[BIL]

Much like Gradius, I don't think the original Darius actually allows continues. In both M2's Cozmic Collection and Gotch's ACA versions, if credits are in the machine after you lose your last life and enter your initials, it'll return to the "Press Start" standby screen, with the game restarting from Zone A.

I always get Darius's Old, New, and Extra versions mixed up. Perhaps there's some exceptions there. Took a quick look around the ACA version of Darius just now, didn't see any options to enable continues, despite a couple of very specific optional bugfixes.

Best way to get around this might be to set a Savestate upon reaching a new stage. That way when you run out of lives, you can just reload the state. (easier on Cozmic than ACA, with the former's inbuilt multiple slots)

Ikari is another iconic arcade contemporary (1986) that simply doesn't allow continuing. The ACA version manual actually points this out. Can't recall offhand, but I'm sure there are others. By contrast, its de facto finale Guevara (1987) lets you coin in extra lives mid-credit. Quite the culture shift around The Continue Feature. I seem to recall spirited retrospective debates on its positives and negatives here, BITD. Space Harrier had the buy-in extra lives in '85, now I think back.

[Jonpachi]

SNK’s Fantasy is regarded as the first to offer a “extend play” continue feature way back in 1981. Had the game been more memorable/successful perhaps that sort of monetization model would have taken over sooner.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The arcade games of Namco's Dig Dug circa 1982 and Bally Midway MFG Co.'s Tron (based on the groundbreaking & innovative Disney movie of the same name also from 1982) had a "continue feature" that was quite prominent for their time.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

SNK’s Fantasy is regarded as the first to offer a “extend play” continue feature way back in 1981. Had the game been more memorable/successful perhaps that sort of monetization model would have taken over sooner.

Interesting that Obada's signature SNK work (and its sequel) so militantly deny the feature, only for the finale to embrace Space Harrier's cash-for-lives model.



Obada seems a canny dude too, hotrodding his PCBs to drown out other cabs, always looking to keep the credits coming. Must've known which way the wind was blowing.

Obada: About that—we actually designed the sound in our games to be heard above the fray. We did this for TANK too, where we’d go to the game center and record the ambient noise level, then play that back to check the mix on our game volume. That’s one reason Ikari is so noisy, like ridiculously so.

I sometimes think, while going hammer and tongs at a new-to-me arcade game, learning each stage as a mini-1CC unto itself; it ultimately won't matter to enthusiasts whether you can continue or not. If a game you enjoy is blowing your back out 25% of the way through, stapling that dread "1" on your score - you're gonna want to shape up, regardless of it letting you credit-feed. If anything, credit-feeding becomes a way of pursuing the 1CC and beyond.

Hardcore Attraction Principle But know when to take a break, or you'll end up like this dude!

For casuals, odds are they'll chuck in the coins as long as you'll let 'em, then bugger off forever. Might as well get a few extra credits off 'em as they "beat the game." I think a great big HEY POOR PLAYER (GG THO ;3) jpg in lieu of an HS entry screen might wake 'em up. (not a sexy jpg or anything, that'll just encourage the bastards ) Gradius V does this with admirable class, the announcer trashing you subtly less the further you survive, with only super dooper loopers enjoying his booming (though sensibly reserved!) approval.

[SavagePencil]

Continuing was viewed as a selling point to distributors, at least in the US. Look at Replay magazines from the late 80s and you’ll frequently see bullets proudly touting “buy-in.”

I’m guessing this was viewed as a way to extend longevity by not discouraging players, but seems counterintuitive because they’d just pay to consume all the content and leave.

[RayForceFan]

Thanks for all your replies! Guess I'll just have to practice more. Overall, Darius doesn't seem as fun as Darius Gaiden or Darius II. But I will push through.

[davyK]

Thanks for all your replies! Guess I'll just have to practice more. Overall, Darius doesn't seem as fun as Darius Gaiden or Darius II. But I will push through.

Gaiden is very much the pick of the collection. It's a superb game and far more approachable than the earlier games which are brutal with no sympathy for the casual player at all! It's a pity M2 didn't include the Extra version (unless I'm missing something?)

[sumdumgoy]

x

[RayForceFan]

Thanks for all your replies! Guess I'll just have to practice more. Overall, Darius doesn't seem as fun as Darius Gaiden or Darius II. But I will push through.

Gaiden is very much the pick of the collection. It's a superb game and far more approachable than the earlier games which are brutal with no sympathy for the casual player at all! It's a pity M2 didn't include the Extra version (unless I'm missing something?)

Yes, Gaiden is in my shmup top 3.

[RayForceFan]

It's a pity M2 didn't include the Extra version (unless I'm missing something?)

I could be mistaken, but wasn't the Extra version of Gaiden a ROM hack?

(Also, a quick recommendation for OP: don't make the mistake of disregarding G-Darius. I know the almighty Gaiden gets so much text on the forums (and rightly so), but G is challenging, musically resonant, and the 3D graphics are astronomically beautiful! It's so complete a package as Gaiden is, that I couldn't choose between them, honestly.)

I've played G-Darius, it is excellent!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's a pity M2 didn't include the Extra version (unless I'm missing something?)

I could be mistaken, but wasn't the Extra version of Gaiden a ROM hack?

(Also, a quick recommendation for OP: don't make the mistake of disregarding G-Darius. I know the almighty Gaiden gets so much text on the forums (and rightly so), but G is challenging, musically resonant, and the 3D graphics are astronomically beautiful! It's so complete a package as Gaiden is, that I couldn't choose between them, honestly.)

I've played G-Darius, it is excellent!

On Mame, there are two versions of G-Darius: the first iteration and G-Darius Ver.2 -- it's cool to play the Ver.2 variant via an eprom swap with a real Taito FX-1B powered G-Darius jamma pcb, indeed, aside from playing them via emulation.

My first introduction to G-Darius was the NTSC-U/C PSX version that was released stateside by developer & publisher, THQ, back in 1998 (I thought that American video game publisher, Working Designs, was going to pick up the U.S rights to G-Darius but publisher THQ beat them to the punch with it) -- eventually snagged a Taito FX-1B powered G-Darius jamma pcb that had had the original Ver.1 eproms on-board the pcb itself. Later on, had some proper eproms burned (courtesy of Hobby Roms) so that I could try out the famous G-Darius Ver.2 variant that Taito had hyped up during it's heyday at the Japanese game centers back in the late 1990s.

I'm not sure if the American arcade subisidairy, Taito of America, even distributed/sold such G-Darius jamma pcb conversion kits for the American arcade market during it's prime.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~