[Schwere Viper]

how did I do that I haven't played this in years
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[Sniper Honeyviper]

A day late, but I fully intend on continuing this. Don't blame anyone for not participating last time...

TODAY'S GAME IS: Robocop (Arcade)

A much better version of Sly Spy featuring the American Jesus, and it even runs on the same hardware. While generally well-paced and thoughtfully designed, especially by late 80's Data East standards, it's unfortunately hurt by its ridiculous difficulty and some balance issues. Due to this, I am permitting that the DIP switch setting for Player Energy be set to Very High. Reset for changes to take effect.

Don't rush through the stages! You'll just end up walking into every attack. You're given plenty of time, and aren't awarded bonuses for being fast. The best weapon is actually the gun you start with, due to its substantially higher firing rate. The others are useful against specific enemies, but they're all very slow. There are a few weapons that are unavoidable to pick up. Barrels and crates have to be destroyed with close-range punches or piercing shots.

If you hit every target in the first-person shooting ranges, your lifebar will be extended as well as replenished.



First: 37100. I thought Murphy was pretty much indestructible to bullets? The chainsaw guys do waaay too much damage.

[Schwere Viper]

Grenades and chainsaws, man. Grenades and chainsaws. I wouldn't be surprised if we both went down at the exact same place!
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[cake]

first boss got me..

- cake: 10100

[notbov]

40500



Damn it, high score table, it's not fair to give me all that space and then not enough time to put in DICKJONES.
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[notbov]

Best:168000

I liked this so much, I went back and made another score. Apparently, that van is like a huge spike and the difficulty drops off for a bit.



SERVE THE PUBLIC TRUST

Also, has there been a beat 'em up/belt scroller yet?
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[Lucaz]

9800

Didn't beat the first boss.
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[Bennett]

First: 36800. Never played the arcade version before, but this brings back memories! The home computer versions topped the UK charts for about a year. In Australia, we mainly got UK magazines for some reason.

The home computer versions had this minigame where you had to shoot the bad guy with a hostage.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[extrabastardformula]

28800 Chainsaw mofos got me down
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[Deets]

[Bennett]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[extrabastardformula]

Ocean game came first, and yeah. there was a nonconversion. This game was everywhere. Console ports were kinda nuts though.
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[Sniper Honeyviper]

Probably the only example of a Japanese arcade game getting based off a European computer game, then!

[notbov]

The best non-obvious belt scroller suggestion I can think of is D.D. Crew, which I only got reminded of because of a random screenshot. And if the video Replay Burners has up on the youtubes is any indication, it's hard as fuck and a bit on the long side. But dem tunes.
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[notbov]

No, wait, I rescind my suggestion. The correct answer is Captain America and the Avengers. Mostly because I have a good chance at that and more Deco.
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[Sniper Honeyviper]

Was gonna feature D.D. Crew, but it doesn't keep score, just a tally of enemies killed. There's no leaderboard. Shame, because the game is amazing, maybe a proto-proto-God Hand. YO GOT A BOMB IN YA PARK!!

TODAY'S GAME IS: Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Arcade/CPS2)

I know you wanted Tower of Doom, Bennett, but I find it just painful to play. You need to triple tap the joystick to turn around and run! And it lacks the incredibly useful command moves of its sequel. Mystara is a vast improvement in every way, single-player balance aside.

Since the game is balanced for multiplayer, I am permitting the difficulty level to be lowered to 2 in the service mode.

Considering the depth and complexity of Mystara, providing tips is beyond the scope of this forum post. I would refer to this FAQ or this much larger one. I will say that the Elf is probably the character best suited to single play, having proficiency in both melee and magic. The Magic User is utterly worthless for it, and the Cleric needs a team to be effective. In almost all cases, magic is best saved for the bosses.




First: 53200 EXP, Elf.

[Bennett]

[Bennett]

First: 89800



I've never managed to beat the second boss on one credit, and today was no exception.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I dunno, Tower of Doom's levels are pretty boring and sparse compared to Mystara. It's got more DM narration, and that's about it. The combat feels plodding and incomplete without the special moves. Having to pick up every item one by one without the slide is torturous. The inventory lacks helpful icons, and requires you to divert your gaze to the bottom of the screen. The huge delay in turning around is awfully frustrating.

You did much better than me anyway. I've learned that Mystara actually does make an effort to balance itself for one player--for example, only one Man Scorpion will appear in stage 3-B.

[Bennett]

[cake]

Shadow of Mystara

- cake: 9620

Killed by the war machine, I couldn't figure out how to avoid it and was still fumbling with selecting magic. Interesting owlbears, I'd like to see the rest of the monsters in this game. It made me want to play D&D again, so it did something right.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, the War Machine is a real beginner's trap. A cheap way of killing it is to bounce on top with the Elf's aerial downward stab. Also, if you get rid of the goblins pushing it, it'll be immobile for a few seconds.

All of the bosses are amazing interpretations of D&D canon and have a huge variety of attacks. It's just impossible to fairly tackle them without 3-4 players who know what they're doing. If there was one non-fightman Capcom game that needed a downloadable port with really good netcode, it would be Mystara. Guess that's why Dragon's Crown is being made.

I should mention FINAL STRIKE, the ultra-secret spell that requires 3 or more players to input commands at the same time, and instantly kills anything but the final boss. The animation is all four of the summon spirits transforming into each other.

[Clumo]

Ok this score is lame.

btw, tomorrow can you choose Crazy Cops.
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[Sniper Honeyviper]

I'd like to know if you guys actually read all the stuff I write here, since I did say the Magic User is not suitable for single play. (Though I think English isn't Clumo's first language?)

[Bennett]

A lot of D&D games and books feature a 'retributive strike' which involves breaking a powerful wizard's staff - an idea that was present, IIRC, in the 1st-ed Gygax-authored D&D manuals (which probably means that it originated in some high-fantasy novel). I think the idea must have also been mentioned in the Dragonlance books, since it was featured in every Dragonlance game adaptation that I played. It's an interesting idea for use in a videogame, since it creates a climactic storytelling moment that can be initiated by the player at a time of their choice. Like Prospero, drowning his books.

I wonder how many people playing Mystara trigger the final strike before the final boss?

[Sniper Honeyviper]

If they do, it's quite unlikely they'll survive to the final boss, since it destroys the Magic User's staff (as you mentioned), and drops everyone's HP to 1. I can't think of another example of such a climactic, massively powerful, and well-hidden attack in a non-JRPG.

You have to get the final boss down to a little more than half his health before it's safe to use (i.e. it kills him).

Another interesting element is the cursed weapons: there's two of them in Mystara, and their curses must be broken by letting them repeatedly hurt/paralyze a character. They become the strongest melee weapons in the game. Cursed Sword 1 takes on the name of the machine's highest scorer, as it would a legendary hero.

There were rumors of a secret final boss when the game was fairly new; the long FAQ I linked to makes mention of this. Guess it wasn't in.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Prehistoric Isle in 1930/Genshi-Tou 1930's (Arcade)

In my opinion, the best SNK game made before the Neo. It contains what is probably the most original clone of the R-Type force pod gimmick, and something has to be said for a game that shows the final boss right on the title screen.

The second button rotates the pod to one of its eight positions around the biplane. Depending on where it is, it can drop bombs, shoot walls of flame vertically, fire rebounding orbs, place floating mines, or shoot powerful forward shots. It can also block shots like the R-Type pod, though it's nowhere near as effective at this. Collecting further "P" icons will power the pod's attacks up. They sure had some advanced technology 80 years ago!

The "S" is a speedup item. Your speed will increase to a certain level then go no higher. The money awards varying amounts of points--I'm not sure how to control this. Like in Darius, destroying some formations of enemies will net you bonus points.



First: 97000. Just barely snuck by the Allosaur, but held out in the second stage until the boss.

If anyone's interested, I will feature Prehistoric Isle 2 next. Clumo, Crazy Cops is Gang Busters, right?

[Clumo]

[Schwere Viper]

Managed the first stage okay, only losing a life to the Brachiosaur because I didn't read his bite telegraph in time. Allosaur NEARLY got me TWICE, but I managed to pull it off. Second stage annihilated me though, just couldn't adapt to the pace change fast enough.

Better than I remember it being when I tried it a few years back!
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[Bennett]

29300. I guess I should have taken the time to watch a youtube playthrough!

[cake]

- cake: 18200

Sniper Honeyviper, I read your introductions and they are usually pretty helpful, but sometimes it's more fun for me to experience the game without knowing anything about it, so then I read them later on.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

By request!

TODAY'S GAME IS: Gang Busters/Crazy Cops (Arcade)

A rather standard, though charming and well-designed, overhead shooter from Konami.

Captured criminals (guys in orange suits) will power up your gun, and for every one you turn into a police van, you'll be awarded bonus points and one bomb. Your gun has ammo, and will downgrade with use, eventually to the point where you're throwing soda cans. Don't mash the fire button more than you need to.

There are some doorways that will take you to higher levels when entered. Some of them are required, and they aren't marked at all.

Stay away from doorways and windows that enemies come out of, so they don't walk into you. If you push a boulder in front of them, it will kill them as they emerge.




First: 158400.

[Schwere Viper]

61100. Yeesh, bad run.
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[Bennett]

Only 41500. Was doing fine until that narrow bit then suddenly lost all my lives in about 5 seconds. I would have been mad if I'd put a quarter in for that.

[Lucaz]

50900
The end of the first level caught me of guard.
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[cake]

39600. I lost all of my lives to exactly the same thing as Bennett.

[extrabastardformula]

88900, game feels like it doesn't like me and I don't think I like it.
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[notbov]

First: 91700
Best:349600




This game is piles of good design buried under the most inane aiming I've seen in anything with an overhead view. And yet, I like it, perhaps because of its quirks. It's not all that bad, if you take things slow. It's all over once the game gets you on its pace, though.
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[Sniper Honeyviper]

I don't find the aiming any worse than that of Mercs/Senjou no Ookami II. It's responsive and precise, if not user-friendly.