January SOTM - Cozy up with Varth - Operation Thunderstorm

[BerryTogart]

I did experient a bit more with the auto shield today and then came back to the full front shields version. Though I underestimated the auto-shield (it seems I just need to move less to have it work better), I'm unable to judge on when the amount of bullets will be "too much" for the auto-shield.

I certainly don't use the bombs enough, then again to make full use of the bomb mechanic (and the Neo-Geo.com community will love this), it seems to be important that you wiggle your stick a lot in this game. (which is much harder on the d-pad)

 

[prof]

I can beat the level 4 boss regularly now, but even with the bonus at 600k, I've only gotten this big of a score the one time so far. It must have been a unicorn run with some weird bonus or something that I didn't even notice. Because I've had deeper runs past level 5, including one where I heard the Ryu shoryuken at one point, but it was only like 800k.

prof82 - 925800 - level 5 - switch - US

 

[Ajax]

For a score like that on stage 5, I would guess you got the score bug on stage 4 boss!

 

[neo_mao]

297,300 stage 4 MAME

…but I am playing on a powkiddy so I get an automatic 10,000,000,000 bonus so technically I’m winning.

Spoiler:

 

[Ralfakick]

Scoreboard updated, NeoMoe Powkiddy bonus noted lol.

 

[Ralfakick]

Messing around on my analogue pocket and got a higher score

 

[neo_mao]

Scoreboard updated, NeoMoe Powkiddy bonus noted lol.

Oh I was playing the US version btw

 

[Ralfakick]

Let’s get some new scores in! @gusmoney, @daskrabs looking at you guys!

 

[sirlynxalot]

I'm going to try to play this tonight. Not sure if I missed it but is this supposed to be your best score on one credit?

 

[Hans]

I'm going to try to play this tonight. Not sure if I missed it but is this supposed to be your best score on one credit?

yup

 

[Hans]

Not so bad for muh first couple trys. Duggie - 411700 - Xbox Series X - Canada

Edit - Well I was just informed that that the region is where the rom is from, not where im from .

US rom baby

 

[sirlynxalot]

Not sure what version of the rom this is... Used mame on my arcade1up.

 

[sirlynxalot]

There's some old school things in this game, like enemies coming at you from the bottom of the screen, enemies continuing to fire up the screen at you after you passed them. That stuff went by the wayside quick as shmups continued to develop in the 90s.

I started playing with the fixed shields thinking that would be better, but found I survived better with the auto shields.

On my best playthrough, the level 4 boss was spazzing out and moving much much faster than he did during my other plays. Must have been a rank thing.

 

[Ralfakick]

There's some old school things in this game, like enemies coming at you from the bottom of the screen, enemies continuing to fire up the screen at you after you passed them. That stuff went by the wayside quick as shmups continued to develop in the 90s.

I started playing with the fixed shields thinking that would be better, but found I survived better with the auto shields.

On my best playthrough, the level 4 boss was spazzing out and moving much much faster than he did during my other plays. Must have been a rank thing.

Some of those enemies coming from the bottom of the screen can be cheap though!

 

[Ralfakick]

Scores updated! Glad to see some new players!

 

[sirlynxalot]

Some of those enemies coming from the bottom of the screen can be cheap though!

I probably did about 10 attempts for score, it was helpful to get a little bit of a memory of where/when some of the enemies might come out from the bottom or the side quickly. Was initially doing some left/right wiper style action and more than once, killed myself by just scrolling my ship into a wave of enemies that was quickly coming from the left or right of the screen without the game providing any significant notice they were coming.

 

[Ajax]

To be fair, this is consistent with just about all STGs from the era. Even Donpachi, which was a huge leap forward in terms of enemy point blank detection and enemies not shooting from behind you, has sections where enemies come from the bottom of the screen.

 

[prof]

Perhaps that's one of the reasons why early 90s verts are my favorite shooters. It forces you to keep your head on a swivel, and not get too complacent/comfortable, when there's a fear of enemies coming at you from any direction. You have to be more vigilante, and think harder about your ship placement in preparation, instead of just hanging back and focusing on what's coming in front of you. It's as if a different part of your brain is engaged that wasn't as necessary in the bullet hell style that would come to dominate the shooter genre just a few years later.

 

[Johnny16Bit]

First time I play this game, no idea what I'm doing - blowing up stuff
Johnny16Bit - 326,800 - Stage 03 - PC/Fightcade

 

[wataru330]

I gotta get some more sortie in.

Does double tapping same direction toward at the edge of the screen barrel roll invincible like the 194_ games?

 

[Ajax]

Got some real bad news for you all

 

[neo_mao]

So long as I don’t come in last place that’s all I care about.

Don’t you fucking bump me @wataru330 and @ggallegos1

 

[sirlynxalot]

I appreciate that this competition has regular players in it. Did a comp at the shmups forums years ago and was thoroughly trounced by dudes who do 1ccs in their sleep.

 

[Ajax]

Ajax - 1,967,500 - Stage 13 - Mister CPS1 core (for sure this time) - US (in US)


Some things I noticed on this run. Up to this point, I've tried to manage my rank by avoiding powerups, sticking with a single weapon, stuff like that. This time, I picked everything up, basically. It's 100% true that bullets move faster, enemies fire more frequently, standard rank stuff. However, with so much going on, the CPS1 hardware struggles to push the sprites. I was reading a clear log on this and that player mentioned it too. It feels like it's maybe better to max out rank and take advantage of the slowdown, in that case. Just musing though, who the hell knows?

 

[prof]

Ajax - 1,967,500 - Stage 13 - Mister CPS1 core (for sure this time) - US (in US)
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