Shmups

[ImmaculateClump]

2 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

I don't think I've got a button set to shot, I just assumed I'd be using rapid shot and capture ball, so I'll set a button for shot, maybe you hold that down.

 

Yeah, that was it, I figured it out.

 

Suck my fat one, fish face!

 

 

Suck my fatter one, you mother!

 

 

Big red lads still putting up a fight, but I'll 'ave 'im.

 

Mark's done a review of that capcom arcade thingy. Might watch that before I go to bed later.

 

 

Oh shit, shmupjunkie too! Dear me, look at the length of it!

 

 

 

[Spoonman]

He raises (Mark) some good points r.e. input lag on Switch.

 

I bought the M2 Aleste Collection on the Switch; lovely game pack and I don't "feel" the lag is bad. I have Darius Cozmic Collection, but not played much yet. It's in "the pile". I actually bought the Shooting library from Psikyo, the Japanese 2-carts, not 3, and thought it was OK, but again haven't played it much. 

 

ESPrade... I bought digital on Switch, and double dipped for a physical copy! Perhaps should have bought the PS4 version, tbh.

 

Then I have blazing star, ikaruga, crimson clover and danmaku 3 all digital. I have two more Switch titles on the way too, actually! I also have Game Tengoku on Switch—the PS4 version is censored... Sony are too "Western" now? Weird.

 

I prefer physical, and like my little Switch library. i do agree about lag and wish it could be reduced. With my Brook board I probably have the best attempt for playing the games on the Switch that I can, anyway. Then, handheld is a nice touch and when i can travel again, it'll be fun to take with me. Not that I have left my apartment in a year

 

Thing is, I feel like I am "getting ok" but I am probably better than the average gamer at these things. I am not one of these people picking up STG for the next 1CC challenge though, I find them damn hard, but satisfying.

 

I'll hold off on Capcom for now. If it comes out on PS4, perhaps I will get it there. Again, I want physical ideally.　But yeah, I should probably move over to PS4 for the "good stuff" like ESPrade, or games which are released on both platforms. Weird thing is, the Switch has quite the number of exclusive shmups, and further, I played DC all weekend and never once thought about input lag. I am sure there is some, but what is it? I only seem to "care" now, in a sense, but perhaps the DC games are all <4-5 frames? Genuinely no idea. I am sure it isn't a new phenomenon, but I'm trying to not let it mask my enjoyment of the Switch.

 

 

 

[Spoonman]

Literally under an hour since my last post.

 

[Triple A]

nice!

I have the original teacup (a pickup from ECTS many moons ago), but alas without the box.

[Camel]

Shcup.

[ImmaculateClump]

1 hour ago, Camel said:

Shcup.

 

I'll allow it.

 

@Spoonman I didn't get a chance to watch yet, but, yeah, if portability is a big factor, then it's a no brainer, unless you've got one of those handheld pcs or whatever, switch is the way to go.

 

Honestly, if the lag truly bothered you in a game, you'd have an instant recoiling reaction to it. If there was no way to fix it, it'd take you ages to get used to it and put up with it and you'd be playing worse because of it.

 

It doesn't sound like you've really had any of that and it's just that other people are talking about it and care about it that's making you think that you should too.

 

Don't let them harsh your vibe, man. If it's not affecting your enjoyment, don't let it affect your enjoyment. Don't even think about it.

 

That CRT you've got will be pretty much 0ms input lag by the way, so you don't have to worry about that!

I don't know how laggy games were on the dreamcast. I know nothing about those. I would have been 22 at the time, that's during the lost years. My gaming wilderness days!

 

Algebra today for home schooling. Such fun

[ImmaculateClump]

46 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

That CRT you've got will be pretty much 0ms input lag by the way

 

Oh shit, I just googled to double check I wasn't talking bollocks and it turns out I was.
It's a common misconception. CRT's do have input lag. Around 8ms at 60hz, though that's still pretty damn good, especially nowadays where monitors are geared for high refresh rates and they don't really care too much about keeping 60hz snappy.

 

edit: Woah, this guy is on the ball! That should save a lot of research if I ever need a new monitor.

 

https://www.aperturegrille.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/a5hun/videos

 

right, best turn off the internet now before I start spending money

[Death Adder]

Darius Cozmic Collection Special Edition arrived today.

 

I didn't realise how many Darius titles I'd been missing out on for two years with just basic Cozmic Collection.

[Camel]

I wish they would just put them all in one collection and not charge the earth for it.

[geldra]

14 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

 

Yeah, that was it, I figured it out.

 

Suck my fat one, fish face!

 

 

Suck my fatter one, you mother!

 

 

Big red lads still putting up a fight, but I'll 'ave 'im.

 

Mark's done a review of that capcom arcade thingy. Might watch that before I go to bed later.

 

 

Oh shit, shmupjunkie too! Dear me, look at the length of it!

 

 

 

Could be bollocks but I’m sure I read that Progear was actually a 16:9 game but Cave borked the aspect ratio or something. So playing it at 4:3 is actually wrong. (Going off MarkMSX saying he wouldn’t recommend playing Progear at 16:9)

[Pockets]

Looking forward to the Capcom thing coming to Xbox for Progear. It looks like it's basically Deathsmiles with planes. Is it a similar difficulty? DS is still the only shmup I've properly 1cc'd.

[ImmaculateClump]

@geldra Blimey, it looks like you're right - https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=399504

So I was doing it right all those ago when I was wet behind the ears and just filling the screen in mame

 

He was talking about the mister supporting high refresh rates on some video recently.
I was sure the fact that it didn't was one of the main reasons I was sticking to software emulation so I looked into it again. I can't remember but it was something like the hdmi specification (1.2 I think) can only go as high as 120hz at 720p, it's stuck at 60hz at 1080p.

 

That's the problem with videos, you can't easily go and make corrections even if you find out you've made a mistake.

You just have to leave them warts and all so you have to really knuckle down and make sure you do your research and that everything is right before you upload.

 

There are a lot of new players that take everything he says as gospel now, so you do have to be careful once you're in that position.

[spatular]

8 minutes ago, Pockets said:

Looking forward to the Capcom thing coming to Xbox for Progear. It looks like it's basically Deathsmiles with planes. Is it a similar difficulty?

progear is loads harder than deathsmiles imo, one of the hardest cave games for me, but then i am rubbish at horis so that could be part of it.

[geldra]

29 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

@geldra Blimey, it looks like you're right - https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?p=399504

So I was doing it right all those ago when I was wet behind the ears and just filling the screen in mame

 

He was talking about the mister supporting high refresh rates on some video recently.
I was sure the fact that it didn't was one of the main reasons I was sticking to software emulation so I looked into it again. I can't remember but it was something like the hdmi specification (1.2 I think) can only go as high as 120hz at 720p, it's stuck at 60hz at 1080p.

 

That's the problem with videos, you can't easily go and make corrections even if you find out you've made a mistake.

You just have to leave them warts and all so you have to really knuckle down and make sure you do your research and that everything is right before you upload.

 

There are a lot of new players that take everything he says as gospel now, so you do have to be careful once you're in that position.

Yeah. I mean technically he’s right in that playing it 4:3 is the “correct” way if you wanted to play it as it was released. I just found it interesting that Progear has that history. 

[Triple A]

still can't see Cotton Reboot on (PS5 version of) Japanese PS Store... have gone specifically into the PS4 games section and no dice.

?

[ImmaculateClump]

The google translate has confusing wording - https://www.beep-shop.com/sap/cottonreboot/update.html

but it'll be available from midnight on 3rd march.

 

Quote

■ 2021/02/26 News about PS4 download version ■ From 00:00 on March 3rd, "Cotton Reboot! ] PlayStation®4 download version is now available! Price: 4,980 yen including tax We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.

 

Just stick one of these in your bookmarks and check around then.

 

https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/search/コットン

https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/search/コットンリブート

 

I'm hoping something's gonna pop up on this sooner rather than later - https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=cotton&os=win&filter=comingsoon

[Triple A]

ah, 3rd March, must have missed that bit my apologies - thanks

[Marlew]

Cotton Reboot is also pretty fucking hard, by the way. I think I'm missing some stuff with the gems and shit and the fever mechanic or whatever it's called but despite these feeble excuses, I am shit at it. 

[ImmaculateClump]

Apparently the switch version had english text but they patched it out after launch for some insane reason.

 

Someone's kindly posted on reddit screenshots of the tutorial so you can get an idea of how to score in arrange mode, maybe?

 

https://imgur.com/a/EorSXaO

 

Hopefully that'll help get a handle on what's happening.

 

Eurogamer all over shmups at the minute!

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-28-inside-qute-natsuki-chronciles-and-the-wonderswan-dev-contest-that-started-it-all

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-20-how-m2-went-back-to-the-game-gear-for-its-magnum-opus

[ImmaculateClump]

Yus! Sit down, you absolute arsehole.

 

 

Wow, that fight was much easier once I figured out the whole beam thing.

The screen was all shaking beam at one point, it went totally mental

[Pockets]

On 28/02/2021 at 10:35, ImmaculateClump said:

 

Shmupmame

 

 

Ginga force is really, really good, and natsuki is even better, and then eschatos is like super silly-good, it's almost unbelievable! - https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Qute

 

None of the links on that shmupmame page work. Is there any other way to get it, or to get the ROMS working. I'm always missing a CHD or something.

[spatular]

^ other versions of mame are probably fine, the difficulty is getting the the right version of the rom that works with the version of mame you have or vise versa. that's usually the problem when mame doesn't work in my experience, i don't have a good solution sorry, i just keep trying different versions of stuff 

[Spoonman]

On 28/02/2021 at 11:35, ImmaculateClump said:

Ginga force is really, really good, and natsuki is even better, and then eschatos is like super silly-good, it's almost unbelievable! - https://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Qute

 

I have ginga on 360 and never really got into it. I should give it another go.

 

Natsuki is even better? There's a physical release I am being tempted by, because everyone keeps saying it's good!

[Triple A]

natsuki's great, well worth the ~£15 top whack they're asking currently

[El Spatula]

It's really hard but great.

[ImmaculateClump]

5 hours ago, Pockets said:

None of the links on that shmupmame page work.

 

Oh shit. Sorry pockets. I didn't think to check the links. Check your PM's, I'll upload the one I've got.

[Pockets]

Thanks, will hopefully get something working. 

[Klatrymadon]

On 01/03/2021 at 22:14, ImmaculateClump said:

Wow, that fight was much easier once I figured out the whole beam thing.

The screen was all shaking beam at one point, it went totally mental

 

Nice work! Yeah, the biggest alpha beam gives you a x4 multiplier, so if you're playing for score you ideally want to finish off every boss with one! This makes a lot of fights more nerve-wracking as you hold off on killing them in order to let their beams come out, and have to deal with more of their patterns. (Sometimes it's best to wait for their second alpha beam, as they won't be close enough to death when they do the first one.) One handy thing is that you don't have to hold onto captured enemies all the way to the bosses, since most of them will intermittently send out their own popcorn enemies for you to capture and use against them. You'll be x4 countering all of them in no time!

 

Edit: check out the 'formation bonus' and 'multiplier' notes here for some more scoring tips: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197415-g-darius/faqs/3906 (They might be covered in much more detail in the Cozmic Revelation manual - haven't had a chance to look at it yet! ).

[ImmaculateClump]

Aaaah, right.
I didn't know they shot a stronger beam if you held on through some more patterns. I'll have to try that tonight with the first guy.
Definitely want to get my first clear under my belt before I risk it with some of the others, mind.

 

I can get to the final boss of the top route now, and really, especially since I'm not getting a lot of time to play at the minute, I should load a savestate and bone up on it's patterns but I'm just having too much fun playing from the start and getting a couple of runs in.

 

Thanks, man! I'll have a read of that later on. See if I can bump my score up a bit later tonight!

[Klatrymadon]

It's not so much that they shoot a stronger beam (it should be the same and for the same length of time), just that they won't often die if you get a x4 counter on their first beam attack, which means you might kill them with normal attacks shortly after and miss out on the multipliers. So it's usually safer to just attack and dodge as normal (without killing them) until they do a second one.

 

IIRC the all-up route ends with Lightning Coronatus, and the Coronatus bosses are usually bastards. If you can, try to take the U route (I think) at the mid-stage junction, as on the other route he is slightly harder and will enter from the left side of the screen, which makes for an uncomfortable mirrored fight.