Anyone here still play Tyrian?

[FatCobra]

I recently discovered this game via that abandonware site the Underdogs.

A really fun game and I like the customizable ship. However, it's a tad easy, I have to play with a weak shield and a ship with low armor on the hard difficulty to inject some challenge into the game.

What weapons do you prefer? I like the pulse cannon/sonic wave combo.

[Frederik]

I played Tyrian 2000 some while ago...Isn`t that this euro-shmup where your ship continues to drift a few pixels after you released the button? I remember that I liked it but this drifting is the death to pixelperfect accuracy.

[FatCobra]

I played Tyrian 2000 some while ago...Isn`t that this euro-shmup where your ship continues to drift a few pixels after you released the button? I remember that I liked it but this drifting is the death to pixelperfect accuracy.

It's either Tyrian or Raptor that you're thinking of. The drifting is a little annoying, but they make up for by giving your ship shields. I've always thought Japanese shmups were a little weird in that your ship would blow up if someone sneezed at it the wrong way.

[shiftace]

I don't like Tyrian very much. The difficulty's totally out of whack -- it's too easy on Hard, and on the hidden difficulty levels, it becomes pure memorization. Also, enemies have so much armor that you basically can't destroy anything without Laser and Plasma Storms. The huge weapon variety is nice to look at, but the weapons all seem the same apart from strength -- and strength is unrelated to cost.

I don't know which version [that site] has, Tyrian 2000 has 5 acts and is abandoned/free. Act 5 is significantly harder, but I don't like the story and graphics (best parts of the game IMO) as much.

[FatCobra]

I don't like Tyrian very much. The difficulty's totally out of whack -- it's too easy on Hard, and on the hidden difficulty levels, it becomes pure memorization.

Try using the just the Integerity field and USP Talon. That helps make the game harder.

[FRO]

I love Tyrian. It's my fav PC shmup of all time. Part of it is nostalgia, because it's the first PC shmup I discovered through a download, but also because of everything there is to do in the game. I enjoy the quirky, nonsensical story, the countless configuration options, & all the secret stuff you can unlock. It's also just a lot of fun to play, which is its biggest draw, in my book.

[captain ahar]

i didn't like it too well. drifting ship. slow pace. euro feel.

i'm a big fan of the japanese "bang your dead" mechanic.

[Shatterhand]

The game would be great, if it wasn't by some big design flaws.

First, I find REALLY stupid how everytime you power-up, you get an extra life, and when you die, you power-down your weapon. Your power is dictated by how many lives you have (Future Dimension, another Euro-shmup for PC also works like this (And it's better than Tyrian IMO ) )

Secondly and most important: the shield system is just too stupid. The game would be IMPOSSIBLE if it was a "one hit and you are dead" type of shmup, but the shield makes the game stupidly easy. In many parts of the game you have to use wise "Shield management" to get past (I.E., know WHEN to get hit), and that's just too much stupid.

If they had designed the game to be a "1-hit death", the game would be awesome (I could even live with the weird power-up/extra lives system and the inertia thing)

[shiftace]

Try using the just the Integerity field and USP Talon. That helps make the game harder.

I'm not complaining about a simple lack of difficulty. I haven't even cleared the first stage of Tyrian 2000 on Lord mode, and there's no way I'm going to attempt Super Tyrian/Engage. It's just that the game isn't much fun when there's basically no bullet dodging and you can't blow anything up due to insanely boosted armor, just memorize where the heavy stuff is and stay out of the way. Have you seen how fast the bullets are in Lord mode?

I've played the game tons, and I liked it a lot in the late'90s, but even then I didn't much care for its mechanics.

In many parts of the game you have to use wise "Shield management" to get past (I.E., know WHEN to get hit), and that's just too much stupid.

I can't think of anywhere that you need to take hits . Maybe if you're low on lives in arcade mode late in the game, it happens.

[Shatterhand]

I only played it on arcade mode.

There were some parts in the last 2 or 3 levels in arcade mode (Cant remember much, it was eons ago the last time I played this game) where I just looked at the screen and thought "Ok, there's no way to get past here without the shield".


The "story mode" was just too much full of shit for my taste. I hate shops in shmup games.

[Twiddle]

I would still play Tyrian today if they removed these things:

Inertia for movement devices other than mouse
Hitbox bigger than your ship
The annoying as hell "WARNING" thing when your armor is low
A ranking system that multiplied enemy hitpoints faster than enemy bullet speed and amount instead of the other way around (I don't get the American "longer to kill something = harder" philosophy at all)
POWER LEVEL = LIVES (no, make them score based like every 1m points or something arggh)

That being said, I loved the key combinations that activated bonus weapons and abilities.

[LoneSage]

It came with the Acer computer we got back in '96, one of my first shmups It's gone now (new computer of course), but I loved it. I had no idea other people here knew about Tyrian, cool beans.
I wonder what I'd think of it now.

[FatCobra]

It came with the Acer computer we got back in '96, one of my first shmups It's gone now (new computer of course), but I loved it. I had no idea other people here knew about Tyrian, cool beans.
I wonder what I'd think of it now.

It's freeware now, go Google it.

You may need to use DosBox, as Windows XP and DOS games don't get along well.

I do admit that Tyrian does get a little boring at times and it has its flaws, but what shmup doesn't?

(Don't say Raident Silvergun is perfect, it's far from it; it's one fatal flaw is PRICE).