GD: Smash T.V.

[zaphod]

THe sequel to Robotron.

This is a fien arena shooter, though devilishly difficult.

Most hoem perts, inclusing the very goos SNES versin are toned down and change daorund a bit.

I'm talkning about the arcade original.

Can it be one life cleared? If the difficuulty is on factory default, it is doable. But it does take a certain amount of luck.

Here's my lore for the game.

1) Secret warp #3 is an error condition. when it happesn the ame randomly send you to the next or previous level, and tells you Secret Warp Activaed. it is the error macro function for recovering from a non fatal error. ther are NO secret roooms in the arcade despite the 'SECRET ROOMS NEARBY!!!" message that refers to the key rooms after die cobros.

2) There is a rumor that if you are facing away from an emeny that it can't hurt you. This is 100% false. however it does seem like it at times. here's why. you are allowed a certain amount of contact time with enemies before death. facing away and rushing at it means that it dies the instant it touches you, so less contact time. Contact time is affected positively by surviving a long time (you slowly get lost contact time back) and also positively by dieng (each time you die the allotted time gets a little bit longer)

3) The game is rumored to adjust rank by the DAILY high score list. if the daily scores are high, it will be tougher.

4) A second player really really helps a LOT. Try an d find a competent partner.

5) orbs are nasty. practice is how you deal with them.

6) large swarms of enemies are decimated by powerups but can mow you down if you don't have any. so get all powerups. with two player this is less of an issue because half go for one player and half for the other. two playesr can take down the largest hordes of enemies in the game wit h just their peashoters!

7) Don't waste powerups. this means 3 things. 1 when you have a force field/sawwblades save your weapon shots and use the forcefield to mow down stuff. 2 try to use up on e weapn befor getting another, but don't let one vanish completely to do it. 3) don't shoot at dead space. make your shots count.

always go fothe extra man. if you die you will usually be ale to collect it during the respawn.

9) If the powerup gods are stingy, scar face will be an absolute nightmare. hopefully you collected many extra men before then? this is where you will lose a lot of them...

10) i'm sur ter si soem secre to manipulating the powerups. but i'll be damned if I know what it is.

11) Only play on rev 8 or higher roms. those you can actually get to the pleasure dome in.

[zlk]

If you find a level with tanks on it, shoot the driver but do not destroy the tank. Let the tank then roam around so a new tank won't come out from the doors. Without a driver, the tank can't fire and is easy to avoid. It will also mow down some of the enemies for you. One shot from the rocket powerup will kill the driver. With other weapons you have to be a bit more careful to kill the driver but not the tank.

[zaphod]

nice tip. tanks are the second most dangerous normal enemy in the game. (the most dangerous is those goddamn orbs)

ANother thing i forgot. Rev 8 roms give you more weapon shots per pickup if you are playing in single player. Earlier roms do NOT. this is why playing on rev 8 roms helps you clear the game alone.

I've noticed a numer of peope that take the bottom route on level 1, even though the top one has the prize room. they usually seem to get more extra men that way for some reason.

PS: Missiles make killing snakes very easy. carrying a full load of missiles into a room that has those big long green and black snakes coming from the doors is HIGHLY advantageous and is worth ignoring th enormal "colect every weapon" rule if you know the level is almost done.

[zlk]

Do you know how many points to score to get an extra man? I seem to recall recieving an extra man around 1m and 4.5m.....

[zaphod]

as neaar as I can recall you got extra men mainly by picking them up.

[Thunder Force]

This has been moved to Off Topic as site policy does not currently permit borderliner threads on the Shmups Strategy or Hi Score forums.

[Andi]

I'm really interested to know about the high score list based rank. Does someone know something more about this or can confirm it somehow?

Also, I wanted to start high score threads for SmashTV and Robotron, but I checked with the mods and they said no. Are there any websites that run active high score competitions for either of these games?

[Ghegs]

Also, I wanted to start high score threads for SmashTV and Robotron, but I checked with the mods and they said no. Are there any websites that run active high score competitions for either of these games?

TNL has a Score Attack forum where you can find competition for anything from Katamari Damacy to Metal Slug to Resident Evil 4. Many shmup-o's are there are as well.

[Stormwatch]

THe sequel to Robotron.

Wrong, that would be Blaster.

[zlk]

I think you get an extra man at 500k, and then every 1.5m after that. You also get money for picking up the extra man icons.

[Twiddle]

I think you get an extra man at 500k, and then every 1.5m after that. You also get money for picking up the extra man icons.

Every 500000 points.

[BBH]

10) i'm sur ter si soem secre

lol

I think you get an extra man at 500k, and then every 1.5m after that. You also get money for picking up the extra man icons.

Every 500000 points.

No, zlk had it right. 500k, 2 million, 3.5 million, 5 million, etc.

and you can only have up to 9 extra lives, after that picking up/earning any more won't help you at all

[Twiddle]

No, zlk had it right. 500k, 2 million, 3.5 million, 5 million, etc.

and you can only have up to 9 extra lives, after that picking up/earning any more won't help you at all

What? goddamnit

There goes my aspirations of 1ccing Stage 2

[zaphod]

9 is plenty if you get lucky with scar face.

And Blaster, while being the "official" sequel to robotron, didn't share much in common with that game. SMash TV is the TRUE sequel, even though it as not called it.

SOrt of liek how Dr. Who pinball was an unnofical dequel to pinbot.

[Andi]

I like to think the movie Robot Monster is the movie adaptation of Robotron. The last human family is under siege by a race of diabolical robots, the only real difference is that the last human family has to (patheticall) save itself in Robot Monster.

[BBH]

9 is plenty if you get lucky with scar face.

yeah, IF you get lucky. But then the problem is you'll have lost so many lives and Stage 3 isn't exactly a walk in the park leading up to Die Cobros... well okay some of the rooms are pretty easy, but still. Good fucking luck beating Die Cobros and the last few rooms when you've lost all those lives on Scarface.

also, this page had some tips:

http://rcatt.classicgaming.gamespy.com/

Click on "Game Tips", then "P to S", then "Smash TV". (it won't let me link directly to the page.)

It's worth mentioning that it says the game adjusts rank based on the DAILY high score list, not the All Time list as posted earlier. I still don't know if there's any truth to this, but there you go.

[Andi]

It's worth mentioning that it says the game adjusts rank based on the DAILY high score list, not the All Time list as posted earlier. I still don't know if there's any truth to this, but there you go.

So, for the people playing on Midway Arcade Treasure's all that means is that your rank will consistently move up through your play session, not constantly, for your entire life.

That's cool. Although, it's still annoying to think that if you make a dome-busting high score you'll have to reset your game to clear the daily scores.

[zaphod]

I know about those tips. i wrote most of the goodinfo at the end.

[landshark]

Played a game today and ended up with enough keys to enter the pleasure dome. But I went right instead of down after the snakes and fought the last guy instead

I probably pumped in $10 worth of credits to get there



One of these days I'll see it.

BBH - I have no idea how you got to Cobra Death with 1 credit. Insane.

[zaphod]

as I've said the game really is meant to be played two player. playing alone is not how you are supposed to beat it.

But good luck in your quests to 1cc the thing. Die CObros requires nerves of steel to not die on it, but it CAN be done. your window to dodge the blasts is VERY small, but they CAN be dodged. unless yo do something silly and advance too high up the screen. SPeed ups help a lot there.

[landshark]

BBH - I just watched your replay of Total Carnage.

I think I'd be crying if I got that close and it was taken away.

Was that the last form of the last guy?

[BBH]

BBH - I just watched your replay of Total Carnage.

I think I'd be crying if I got that close and it was taken away.

Was that the last form of the last guy?

Nope, there's a total of 7 forms of the last boss. 4 in that little ship, and then 3 huge "heads". The 4th form is basically target practice though.

I reached the 3rd form on another inp that I did not upload since the score was lower... and even though I plugged away at it for a while I'd done pretty much no damage to the lifebar. So yeah, I'm close, but it still feels so very far away.

[landshark]

I might start giving that game a shot. It looks alot more fun to play - and alot more consistent in terms of getting far into it. Smash TV just throws ridiculous amounts of enemies at you and if you don't have a weapon, you are screwed. At least you have bombs in Total Carnage.

What sort of controller setup are you using? I can use dual sticks but I'm at a loss with how to drop a bomb easily. I guess I could rig a foot pedal.

[zlk]

BHH will eventually 1cc Total Carnage. You heard it here first.

[BBH]

BHH will eventually 1cc Total Carnage. You heard it here first.

I wish BHH the best of luck then, whoever he is.

I might start giving that game a shot. It looks alot more fun to play - and alot more consistent in terms of getting far into it. Smash TV just throws ridiculous amounts of enemies at you and if you don't have a weapon, you are screwed. At least you have bombs in Total Carnage.

Yeah, TC feels a lot less repetitive to me than Smash TV too. A lot of people struggle with getting by Orcus on one credit though, I've found that taking the two shortcut warps is practically a necessity since it lets you keep your bomb invincibility for the first part of the battle, which is the most important since he's most dangerous with the guns. Once you're past Orcus it's a lot easier to make progress in the game.

What sort of controller setup are you using? I can use dual sticks but I'm at a loss with how to drop a bomb easily. I guess I could rig a foot pedal.

I use a standard gamepad to move and the keyboard arrow keys to fire, Enter for bombs. It's a tad inconvenient since my index finger has to reach over and hit the Enter key to put down a bomb, but it's still in a lot more convenient place than it is on the arcade machine.

A foot pedal sounds good in theory, but remember that you need to bash the hell out of whatever button you have assigned to Bomb if you want to survive the electric chair at the end of Stage 2... and if you can't do that, your game is over.

[landshark]

Aww crap. You just DIE if you don't get past the electric chair? Lame.

There goes the foot pedal.

Well - maybe not until I can actually get that far =)

I wonder if I can hook 2 pieces of hardware up to the same button.

What's the arcade control panel do for a bomb button?

[BBH]

Aww crap. You just DIE if you don't get past the electric chair? Lame.

Yeah, you instantly lose all your lives and have to put in another credit to continue. Super lame.

What's the arcade control panel do for a bomb button?

It's the same button as the Start button, which is located a fair distance above the two joysticks. There's a tiny picture of the control panel here, can't seem to find a better pic of it (the red button is the Start/Bomb button):

http://coinop.org/g.aspx/103107/Total_Carnage.html

[landshark]

Wow that's lame.

I'm wishing I built my control panel with the joysticks a bit closer together. They are a bit far to be comfortable while playing.

[gameoverDude]

You can leech by simply grabbing the treasures and cash as long as you can avoid the grunts, killing only if they get too close. Keep it up and tanks will eventually start coming into the arena. They're worth a good few thousand points per kill (7000 or 8000 I think).

Normally I get around 68000-73000 on the first room, but I was able to take it to 230000 once.

[Twiddle]

NO WAY!!!!