Save States anyone?

@M

Vanessa's Drinking Buddy,
20 Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2003
Posts
7,174
Hey M, maybe you should use save states to practice V-V?

I did use save states on Grind Stormer/V-V the other week, as I indicated in the other thread, but mainly just to refresh my memory of how hard it was and to reach/fight that damn third level boss that I could never beat as a teenager. I don't have any intention of practicing/playing it further at this time, but maybe someday I'll give it another go.
 

oliverclaude

General Morden's Aide
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Feb 3, 2013
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I have the world record in Thunder Force AC...

Who confirmed it in Asia? For all I know, you may have the western record, not the world record.

On topic:

Save states are a catalyst. If you play a game just to finish it, you don't need them. If you play for score, you will. Playing for score, the highest possible score, is a sadomasochistic torment and you want it to be as short as possible. Playing for score is not enjoying the game, it's letting oneself burnout for this particular game. Once done, once you have your score, once you documented it, you don't want to see this game again for a long time.

That said, every record done before save states existed is worth a thousand times more, than one done with their help. This goes deeper though: every record achieved before the comfort of playing your particular arcade game at home via port, a home-arcade console or emulation, a record done exclusively by going to the arcades and investing your own blood, sweat and tears earned money for every single credit -- is worth infinitely more, than one done any other way than that.

Use save states, superplay videos, memory cards or address the comfort of your own four walls. It's all legit. But see respect ebbing away with each assisted level setting you are willing to embrace. There's save states, easy, normal, hard and arcade. And there's only that particular order.
 

Geekman1222

Kula's Candy
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Posts
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It depends on the game, how soon i want to beat it and how much i enjoy the grind, for example in Mushihimesama and Futari along with a list of a few other games I can 1cc, i have done with out save states.
If I do use them, its only to practice particularly annoying sections that take for ever to get to only to die in half a second. For example I think Gunbird2 is the only game I been heavily using save states in. One reason is because the first 3 stages are totally random after the first credit, and some of the later stage patterns were a total bitch to learn. But that being said im rushing this game. Anyways Ill start out practicing a bit do a few runs if I screw up ill just grind that part out and then go back to trying to do full uninterupted runs.

The only other time I used a save state in a shmup was on Batsugun special to learn how to milk Jupiter which i never have to do again since its burned into my muscle memory!

I never truly consider it a 1cc if i pause or use a save state to jump or repeat a part during that run, its just wrong.

Edit, alot of high score 1cc runners will use a save state to start the game on the first order in gunbird 1 and 2. In japanese arcades an equiv of this was with Battle Garegga where the difficulty rank is actually slowy increased after the time the game is powered on due to the demo attract. High score runners would sneak behind the cabinet turn the cab off and back on to work off a clean rank for their runs :P
 
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Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
It depends on the game, how soon i want to beat it and how much i enjoy the grind, for example in Mushihimesama and Futari along with a list of a few other games I can 1cc, i have done with out save states.
If I do use them, its only to practice particularly annoying sections that take for ever to get to only to die in half a second. For example I think Gunbird2 is the only game I been heavily using save states in. One reason is because the first 3 stages are totally random after the first credit, and some of the later stage patterns were a total bitch to learn. But that being said im rushing this game. Anyways Ill start out practicing a bit do a few runs if I screw up ill just grind that part out and then go back to trying to do full uninterupted runs.

The only other time I used a save state in a shmup was on Batsugun special to learn how to milk Jupiter which i never have to do again since its burned into my muscle memory!

I never truly consider it a 1cc if i pause or use a save state to jump or repeat a part during that run, its just wrong.

Edit, alot of high score 1cc runners will use a save state to start the game on the first order in gunbird 1 and 2. In japanese arcades an equiv of this was with Battle Garegga where the difficulty rank is actually slowy increased after the time the game is powered on due to the demo attract. High score runners would sneak behind the cabinet turn the cab off and back on to work off a clean rank for their runs :P

Machines with Garegga in them now just have a hard reset button on the front of the bezel now.
 

Geekman1222

Kula's Candy
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Posts
290
Machines with Garegga in them now just have a hard reset button on the front of the bezel now.

haha THATS SUPER COOL! Idk if your on Arcade Otaku but one of the users was at HEY! i think it was and they have ROWS of Egret2's with shmups and they have head phone amps built right into the bezel i thought it was a super nice touch tbh
 

GaijinPunch

Kabuki Klasher
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Posts
125
I recall this situation debated ad naseum in the old days at shmups... nice (?) that some people actually do care. But yeah, emulation... it's not exactly the way the game was meant to be played.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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I recall this situation debated ad naseum in the old days at shmups... nice (?) that some people actually do care. But yeah, emulation... it's not exactly the way the game was meant to be played.

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on emulation at all, as a matter of fact I do it for shooties I'll never buy, NMK stuff comes to mind or beat em' ups that are just out of reach. But if I can play the pcb, that's so much the better.
 

TWE

Zero's Secretary
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Posts
154
I only play STGs on X360, PS4 and PCB, so I don't have access to save states. If you play in emulators and save states work for you, that's cool. I think they might come in handy when learning a chaining game like Dodonpachi. Probably saves a lot of time practicing.
 

Fuckwit1200

NAM-75 Vet
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Posts
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if possible, i have no issue.
it's just a buggy and erratic feature, unreliable.
screencaps are the best i can get if using emulators.
everdrive on the other hand... :D
 

oliverclaude

General Morden's Aide
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Probably saves a lot of time practicing.

An incredible amount of. It also diminishes your dedication and allows you to finish games you don't really like. A tool responsible for the massive flood of modern one credit clear players with multiple score achievements on their record, and the creation of the frigid speedrun scene.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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I only play STGs on X360, PS4 and PCB, so I don't have access to save states. If you play in emulators and save states work for you, that's cool. I think they might come in handy when learning a chaining game like Dodonpachi. Probably saves a lot of time practicing.

Even with Mame, I don't use save states, I'm more about enjoying the game that getting some WR score. If I do well, awesome. But I like getting good enough at a game so when I sit down to it I get a clear at least 75% of the time.
 

Spycee

Cheng's Errand Boy
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Posts
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Save states can be great to help getting better for scores, but I don't use them. I prefer restarting to stage 1, it helps me to memorize the patterns better. A lot tedious, but at small doses each day it's not that bad.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
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Save states can be great to help getting better for scores, but I don't use them. I prefer restarting to stage 1, it helps me to memorize the patterns better. A lot tedious, but at small doses each day it's not that bad.

I've also noticed many players that use save sates, later on when they play the game again, the muscle memory isn't there so it's like they need to start all over. I can always sitdown to DOJ and get at least to 2-2 on pretty much every credit.
 

Pasky

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Never use states, when I learn a game I just credit feed through it and get progressively better. I don't think practicing with states is bad but I don't think they give you the tools to master a game since you're practicing for specific situations and usually won't deviate from your route loading a state repeatedly. I noticed most people that just want a notch on their belt that they cleared a game will use states, and try to brute force the same situations they practiced for using states repeatedly then move on to the next game rather than accumulating the knowledge to adjust to all situations, I don't think you'll ever acquire any form of mastery doing that with save states. Playing a game thoroughly, at least in my experience, will give you mastery over several types of situations rather than being stuck on the same corridor of thought or goal that practicing with states will do.

Just my two cents. All in all though, I'd still rather just credit feed because it's just fucking fun that way.
 
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Beckett

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If you're doing it to practice and git gud on a certain stage, it's fine.

If you're doing it because you suck, for shame.
 

MCF 76

Vice's Love Slave
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I use them on my retron5 occasionally. I like to use it on very tough spots and keep trying different strategies until i master that part. I used it alot when i was trying to perfect my 1LC of Super Ghouls n Ghosts. Ill be honest i would have gave up on trying to do the 1LC on it w/o save states. After months of practicing very difficult spots in the game i finally done a complete legit 1LC of the game. So i think they are very useful in that regard.
 

geise

Mickey's Coach
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582
I can see wanting to use it for practice, but personally for me I just play how Pasky does it. (just not as well)

Play the game as intended and just credit feed to keep playing on.
 
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