[JamesE]

In a thread long since lost, Deusjester said:

[DJ]

Placeholder, just testing something...


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[Rud31]

YES! LAYER SECTION! RAYFORCE! I will report to this thread like DJ later.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[dessgeega]

rayforce / layer section / gunlock is maybe my favorite shooter ever. the primary gameplay mechanism - locking onto enemies who are deeper than you - mirrors and complements the narrative, a journey to the center of the earth, layer by layer, to destroy it. the start of stage 3 is one of the most memorable moments in any videogame i've played - soaring down through the clouds - to zuntata's penetration - as enemies appear above you for the first time, signifying how far you've descended. then you see the earth.

i will probably have some stuff to contribute to this thread later too. for now i'll toss out a few links to demo play movies. crackdown is a fantastic two-player fusion of metal gear and contra (no relation to that xbox game). space bomber is psikyo's take on space invaders, and features grabbing, recruiting, and tossing enemies and the best cut-scenes ever. return of the invaders is upl's (atomic robo-kid, mutant night) sequel to space invaders, and has lots of character and some brilliant gameplay mechanics (any screen can potentially be turned into a bonus stage). elevator action returns is something everyone should play. and violent storm is just off the hook.
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[Wall of Beef]

Violent Storm maybe the best direct Final Fight knock off ever, so good that it's better than Final Fight. Final Fight does not have Rap Music with vocals that do not rhyme. Final Fight does not have hobos that fall out of trains! Final Fight does not have piglets that turn into...well just find out for yourself.
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[Loki Laufeyson]

wow, i played violent storm for the first time last night, and the only way it could better capture the spirit of the early ninties is if it were called "todd macfarlane presents rob liefeld's mighty morph'n power rangers vs. bart simpson"

[JamesE]

Content, guys

come on

[Loki Laufeyson]

i would have some content, but i forgot to take screenshots

[Mr Mustache]

The combination of ambition and limited means often results in wildly creative pieces, larger than the sum of their parts, and often more interesting than their more polished heirs. Such is the case with a number of pre-cg era films, whose creators combined blue screen trickery, detailed miniatures, clever editing, and raw ingenuity to create sequences which were visually arresting, if not entirely convincing.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, pre-3d videogames, which I know much less about*, seem to fit within this general framework, exhibiting fairly impressive products of the tension between ambition and limited means. No where is this more apparent than in the case of faux 3d arcade sprite-scalers.

Games such as Outrunners, Space Harrier and After Burner conjure "a world in which the 3rd dimension is portrayed with guile and imagination,
not something as obvious and unimpressive as polygons."(James, JamesE vs MAME thread) These three games are fairly quintessential and have most likely been played by most around these parts. As such, I have compiled a short list of less popular (and in some cases more appealing) games that can all be downloaded and played on MAME...

...or MacMAME


*It should be noted that I don't know particularly much about videogames, and have not even completed any of the listed games. That said, I have enjoyed each and found them visually striking and structurally satsifying.


Chase HQ (1988)



This game plays more or less like Outrun, but controls seem a bit heavier, you can boost, and your objective is to destroy the enemy car. Like most of these games, play is simple, but the real payoff is the rapidly changing scenery, clouds rush in, giving way to poppy fields etc. It's all quite fantastic.


GI Joe (1992)



GI Joe makes up for it's comparatively slow pace by being the most colorful sprite scaler I've played. Explosions/fire are incredible and the body count is ludicrous.


Night Striker (1989)



Perhaps the least impressive, it is still worth mentioning (and playing). Controls are pretty great, simple and nicely responsive. Levels are short, and as with Chase H.Q., scenery changes fairly brisquely. All in all a nice little shooter.


Dragon Gun (1993)



This game is completely insane. Also, it's very hard...but you can control it with a mouse (at least I can). As with most of these, I have no idea what the premise is, you seem to be some sort of guy (or girl) with a gun, and a bomb that is also a dragon...it doesn't really seem to matter. The sheer amount/variety of enemies thrown at the player is impressive enough, even if most of them are kind of retarded looking.


Rail Chase (1991)



I think I owe dark steve thanks for mentioning this in a previous MAME thread. Still images do not come close to illustrating how fucking incredible this game is. The game is basically a series of themed mine-cart levels, through which the player is pursued by a primary enemy all the while offing lesser enemies, choosing branches etc. The variety of sprite scaling tricks this game exhibits is astounding. If you hate the idea of sprite scaling shooters, you should still play this game.

(are these images too large?)
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The people are like wool to me

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I'm not much of a MAMEr to be honest, but would you mind telling us what the Gradius/Castlevania/Turrican hybrid was?
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[Mr Mustache]

Guys, I made content!
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The people are like wool to me

[Deets]

[LWJoestar]

SELECT BUTTON MEME PARAD--AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH MY HAND!
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[JamesE]

[shnozlak]

Any one know the name of the driving game that had a red car shown in a following perspective, it had machine gun triggers on the steering wheel, you collected "fuel" in the form of green spheres and it was an upright cabinet...


These images speak for themselves

2 guns...

its like metal slug except with hawt babe hostages instead of old men

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Mixtapes galore ~ VG MUSIC
ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ http://phantom-photon.tumblr.com/

[JamesE]

You should probably mention the name of the games you're posting, dude (that one was gun force)

I think you want fire and forget?

The game I was teasing about was Pyscho-nics Oscar by Data East. It's the acknowledged inspiration behind Turrican, uses the Gradius power-up system and has a similar kind of dynamic with weapons and approach to Castlevania, just without the stodgy player physics (which I consider to disprove that those stodgy physics were needed).

[oneEIGHTkevin]

Man the boys and girls club I used to goto growing up had that Psycho-nics game or whatever and I always thought it WAS turrican! Anyways tomorrow I'm gonna take some pics and talk about a good game to add to this thread.
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[Loki Laufeyson]

Flashgal is a mid-80s SEGA game, and the are 2 main interesting things about it.
The first is that the main character looks a lot like Blaze from Streets of Rage, and considering the theme of the game, could logically be her. So you could say that this is the first SoR game, sort of.
The second is the selection of enemies, which range from normal (gangsters in suits, helicopters, ninjas), to slightly odd (various sizes and varieties of mechanical birds), to quite mental (nuns that sit on high ledges and/or clouds throwing sticks of dynamite, and a fat yakuza boss who can turn you to stone for a second)
The game itself seems a bit dull at first, being like other 8-bit SEGA games, like "My Hero", but once you get past the first level, you find out that each level is completely different to the one before it, with motorbike riding, sword fighting, a little shmup bit, and that's as far as i've got.


Demon's World is a platform shooter by Toaplan. It's not really very good. The graphics and music are dull, and it's a bit slow. For some reason though, once you start playing it, you start liking it, despite it being a bit boring and repetitive. It's mysterious. I also forgot to take screenshots of it. Damn.

[Talbain]

Radiant Silvergun now runs (slowly, though that could just be my computer) on the latest version of MAME...

Also, why has no one mentioned Progear no Arashi yet? The game is bullet hell sex. Over the weekend I'll do a piece on these two if no one else does.
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[deepblue]

I too shall return to this thread with content, in due time.

[Sardoose]

[Felix]

[secondpillow]

Osman. It's my very favorite arcade game, as it is the most surreal. It's a Strider clone, but with bizarre bosses and environments, and a dreamlike, nonsensical plot. One moment you're taking orders from a mysterious suited man, and then he appears and has you shot, and then you're chained to a giant rock in the desert, and a monster is about to eat you. The desert is populated by rainbow laser butterflies, and parts of it turn into fields of starry voids that you are hurled through by crystals. There are crystals elsewhere that hurl you up into the sky, above dingy cities to great crystal palaces. A giant golden woman in the sky, wielding a sword, commends you for your violence, and tells you to continue killing for her.

Powerups are handled in a curious manner. Your main attack is a kick, and by collecting successive powerups you gain afterimages of yourself that will continue kicking in the spot where you left them. You also have a Strider-like slide, and a super kick attack.

Play this game, and marvel at a madman's dream of a sidescroller.

[Talbain]

[Mr Mustache]

What is SSF and is it mac compatible?
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The people are like wool to me

[klj5j6li]

[dessgeega]

namco's point blank is a light gun shooting gallery game in the short, quick minigame style. you're given tasks ranging from straightforward hogan's alley-style shoot-gangsters-avoid-hostages to picking out the single matching target in a bunch of stuffed animals to hitting every number from one through sixteen in order to shooting a single leaf with a single bullet as it falls to the ground. it's naturally not as good as good in mame as it is in the arcade; the mouse is maybe a little too accurate. but it's still worth playing. there's also a ds port with lacking multiplayer.

tenkomori shooting is the same concept and framework applied to 2d shooting. like in point blank, tasks range from straightforward 1942-style plane shooting to a math quiz to every extend-style explosion-chaining to shooting hearts at your heterosexual love interest while avoiding buff gay men and elvis impersonators. and since it's by namco, there are cameos from older titles like galaga and xevious, and a pang-like game that has you popping pookas. it also features a story about monkeys climbing deadly towers to rescue their monkey chums.

i'm going to mention the first funky fighter, a taito whack-a-mole conversion in which you tear sharks apart with your bare hands, but i'm not going to talk about it. i'm not sure words can accurately describe it. i have, however, made a video available.
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[BotageL]

[oneEIGHTkevin]

(sorry for low quality pic but for some reason taking a screenshot in windows is freezing my shit!)

I recommend Vasara 2. It's a lot harder than the original Vasara which happens to be the only shooter i've ever single credited! Vasara 2 is way more difficult and lengthy than the original though so I can't even get close to beating it. It's basically a standard shooter except when you hold down the attack button you can ready a slash attack that can slice through bullets and as a secondary function at the exact moment you ready the sword you will parry the closest bullet to you. The game also has a really awesome soundtrack.

I like the fact that it's a shooter based in feudal Japan and the bosses are all Japanese warlords. The levels have a lot of little minibosses and when you kill them a portrait and their name will flash up accompanied by intense screaming and explosion sound effects.

Also I've never passed stage 6 and on the difficult mode there is 12 stages. In the first Vasara once you get to the last stage you have to single credit it or everytime you continue you will start at the beginning of the stage. It's hardcore. In Vasara 2 it does this at stage 6 on hard mode and i imagine it will do it again at stage 12 but i've never gotten that far.

Also when you slice ships with your sword stylized blood flies out! Fire also recommended this on an older iteration of the IC forum.
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[Knurek]

Sokonuke Taisen Game
http://www.mameworld.net/maws/romset/sokonuke

Think Wario Ware. Only competetive with two people. And the games take about 1 minute each. Still, watching those rabit-like things hurt each other is highly amusing (and the traps are deviously designed).

[Loki Laufeyson]

since downloading dragongun and gunlock on saturday afternoon, i've done almost nothing but play those to games. and i even downloaded a few other games in this thread, and bought the ps1 version of cleopatra fortune (though that was mainly because before then, i never even knew there was a ps1 version, and it was only £2)

anyway, recommending metal black here. it's an above average horizontal shmup, nothing really special gameplay-wise, but the first level is (graphically and musically) one of the most beautiful things in gaming.

[THChardcore]

Lot of good choices in here people, I really like that someone mentioned OSMAN (Cannon Dancer) so soon. Some of you know your stuff. Hopefully you don't talk about my other choices before I do. I might have to take this entire thread to the AXE then.

kidding.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Konami)

An early 90's game at its core feauturing slightly better graphics than its arcade predecessor and a latter SNES port. Some boss/level differences exist between each version, but the arcade is the superior one to get IMO. Anyway, not much is different from Final Fight except the action is a lot faster (think Alien vs Predator, but quicker) and action packed. Level design is suberb with enemy placement and the overall tone the game creates. It's just perfectly animated and very detailed, a treat to see in person. 4 players can play simultaneously (there is also a 2 player version of the socketed ROM out there that lets you use all 4 turtles, while the 4 Player is limited to using the turtle assigned to their controller number). Did I mention the music is fan-fucking-tastic as well, sound effects are just right too and there is speech in the game for some characters. This is an exceptional display from one of the best arcade game companies and certainly one of the top 5 "beat 'em ups" I've come across.

In the Hunt (Irem)

This is a submarine "shooter" in the traditional (horizontal) scrolling sense. It's my Irem (of R-type fame) and is as detailed as Gunforce 2, but with better art. The dev team on this one also would go on to make a little series called Metal Slug... Really the only thing people fault this game for is the music and the sometimes sluggish gameplay due to the control mechanics of being underwater. I like the game and find its challenge welcome. I would get on this one ASAP.

Area 88 (Capcom)

"ZOMG, I love this fucking game."

I won't get into how I played the SNES version growing up, got older and wiser and played the PCB and then sold, it only to want it back instantly (I haven't replaced it...yet) So much cooler than the SNES version and no fucking impossible ceiling boss like the port. Different than the SNES version in the sense that you don't have a upgrade "shop" (see: Lords of Tunder). I really like the art, music and very detailed graphics. The gameplay is on the simple side, but is good and uncomplicated old school "survival skill" and not crazy 10,000 bullet pink swarms (:roll: Cave). Play this fucking game please is like the best I can do, it must be experienced. Very cool rockin late 80's japanese arcade music perfectly programmed. I love this game. Just do it.


I have a shitload more to spew at this topic, but I must rest.

Peace.
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Turkey Jerky OVERNIGHT!

[FortNinety]

Well, I'm a big fan of the arcade Area 88 game, but I still stay the SNES port holds its own due to all the shop keeping aspects, which makes the game a total shooter/RPG in my eyes.

Hey THChardcore, have you (or anyone else) ever played the "sequel", US Navy?
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[JamesE]

Metal Black is like a fucking concept album except you play it. I need to write that shit up.

[THChardcore]

[THChardcore]

Elevator Action Returns (Taito)

This game screams simple. All you do for the entire 5 stages is shot bad doods and difuse bombs. I was dissapointed as well that things didn't go deeper (disabling bombs requires simple entering a bomb marked door, no input cues to follow or anything) but what you are left with is a pretty enjoyable little platformer shooter that I'd be hard pressed to find a replacement for. Music is very well done from the same team as Darius Gaiden and every level is very detailed, with enemies being particularly animated when they are burned to death. Weapon selection is nice and I like how you can throw grenades on elevators to kill people upstairs. In the end though, I think Alien 3 on Snes had more depth. Oh well, good for a quick pick up and play now and then.

Vampire Savior (Capcom)

Modern fighting games could learn a lot from this unqiue blend of Street Fighter Alpha and X-men vs Street Fighter. Basically utilizing the chain combo system that first appeared in Vampire Hunter and some of the most comically insane moves seen in a fighter you kill each other.
There are no standard "rounds", You get 2 full life bar stocks. After you kill someone's first life stock, they simply fall down and the game continues with your life bar in tact. Damage scaling is very different as well. Each sucessful hit produces both red and white damage. Red damage is instant, occuring when the hit strikes, along with some extra white damage that dissapates if the hit is not followed up in a certain small timeframe. This makes matches much more "momentum" based as a hardcore rushdown can turn the tides as soon as someone lands a knockdown. Another sick feature not seen in fighters since, is the pursuit attack. When the opponent is knocked down, simply tap down and either 1 or 2 buttons (regular or ES version) to follow the opponent and land extra hits onto a combo while they attempt to tech roll out of it. Music and graphics are perfect and the whole "horror" film idea has never been executed better. I give this 100% approval, please give it a try.

Tatsujin Oh! (Toaplan)

The sequel to the original Truxton and it outshines it in everyway. Ship and stage design is very unique and while the music doesn't quite fit the mood for every stage, it atmospheric enough to not distract either. Some people feel the game is a bit slow, especially compared to say, Garegga. While I think it could have been increased slightly, it works fine as is and many latter stages will have you wishing for slowdown. Gameplay is kind of simple, but the weapons are cool and hey, it's Toaplan, so it must rock. Highly recommended.

Peace
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Turkey Jerky OVERNIGHT!

[THChardcore]

I want to talk about Outzone, Battle Garegga, Edward Randy and others, but I'm hella tired...
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Turkey Jerky OVERNIGHT!

[Loki Laufeyson]

it should be noted that elevator action returns is, to this day, the most successful attempt at making a videogame that feels like an action movie.

also, the airport stage has a really creepy rendition of the "eh, eh, eh, eh" from space invaders for some reason.

james please write new games journalism about metal black.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Night Slashers
This is an ultra-violent beat em up, set in a post-apocalyptic city. Actually, I think it might mid-apocalyptic. It doesn't matter, as the apocalypse wasn't caused by nuclear war, a metoer strike, or alien invaders, but by the living dead, which is obviously much better than all of those other put together!
You should really play the Japanese version, rather than the international version, as although you won't understanmd the plot, you will get the yummy red gore that the game contains, which is turned dark green for the international version.
The game is pretty good in its own right, but the gore, and the disgusting sound effects really make it. THe only real problem is that there aren't really any decent weapons, like there are in Splatterhouse, just weedy little throwing knives that hardly ever appear anyway.




Gunbird 2
The Dreamcast version of this game, along with Gigawing is what really got me into shmups in the first place, as well as making me realise that the majority of writers for mainstream gaming publications are lazy slags (I mean, really, credit feeding through a game on the lowest setting, then bad-mouthing it for being too easy, they should be ashamed of themselves). Anyway, it looks and sounds really nice, and plays pretty well, and its low-ish difficulty makes it a good introduction to the genre. (Although, I started playing R-Type Leo yesterday, and even a spacker like me can get to the third level without losing a life on the default settings, so maybe that's an even better gateway drug.)

[Burp]

Guys, i LOVE those MAME threads in SB and the IC era, but man... every two months a new MAME thread appears with the same idea but new games (and mostly awesome recommendations), why just made a post-it topic about MAME Recommendations? i mean, come on guys, those threads are always awesome but it appears every time and the old threads get lost in time, with valuable info.
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The only Spanish website bad dude enough to rescue the president

[Anonymous]

Armed Police Batrider



Let ass kick together!

(I probably should recommend Battle Garegga instead, but that one had a great port to Saturn, and Batrider didn't)

NOW WITH EXPLANATION:
The usual Raizing greatness with rank system and medal collection, only this time with a great deal of rock 'n' roll spirit thrown into the mix. Lots of different ships, lots of secrets and all kinds of other good things.