[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, like most 32X exclusives, it's really abrasive and unfriendly. But I read the manual, persevered and ended up enjoying it a whole lot.

PROTIP for the first boss: In the first section. stay as far away as possible, and watch for the pits he opens up. When you're at the floor-busting section and have to stay up close, don't stop moving even if it looks like you'll get hit.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Guys, if you have problems emulating a game, just say something!

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Hatris (Arcade)

An incredibly unforgiving puzzle game from Alexey Pajitnov. Seems to be universally hated for its difficulty, but I find it enjoyable nonetheless. This version is by Video System, known for the Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings series.

5-hat stacks will be cleared. More dangerous hats are worth more points. After depositing one hat of a pair, the other can continue to be moved independently. Combos using this are quite tricky to set up, but will award a multiplier. After a certain number of cleared stacks, you'll get a SALE, which will let you remove all of one kind of hat from the board.

Red fires will remove all the hats of a kind stacked together. Blue fires will burn an entire column. In a stunning feat of trolling, crowns cannot be burned, precisely because they're the most dangerous hat type.




First: 6440

Just beating the top default score is a serious challenge!

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Excluding versions of Tetris, I really don't think any of Pajitnov's games are "cash-ins;" he just wanted to keep designing new stuff. Don't think he worked on Wordtris, though. I think Hatris holds together remarkably well, even if one small mistake can easily ruin your entire run.

Anyone else tried Welltris? It's bizarre, disorienting, and nearly unplayable. There's also Knight Moves, a Pajitnov game only released on the Famicom Disc System.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Sengeki Striker (Arcade)

A well made, if boilerplate and easy shmup from Warashi, developers of Shienryu and Triggerheart Exelica. It was their first arcade game, although much of the team had previously worked on Daioh, which shares many elements with Shienryu.

It's a straight blast-em-up with no special scoring tricks (as far as I know), but I would advise not hanging around the very bottom of the screen too much, since all four of my deaths resulted from enemies popping up there without warning.



First: 41156690. This is really not as high as it should be, due to the aforementioned cheap deaths. The 100-place leaderboard is hilarious. Does the game have a second loop? I would imagine it'd be much crazier.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Thanks, I should have mentioned that. Same bios you'll need for Cyvern.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Most of the bullets gave me no serious trouble, they're predictable and usually non-aimed. :(

I'm hardly Lord of the Shmups, so...I dunno either? It's not that I played the Japanese version, I checked to make sure both were identical.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Best score for Zaxxon's Motherbase: 256580. As before, I didn't use an emulator.

Really think you guys should give this game more of a chance, it picks up quite fast in Stage 3, and even more so once you get down to the planet. There's a huge variety in attacks between the jackable ships; I even found one with close-range buzzsaws.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: T-T-T-T-Turbo Force (Arcade)

A glorious one-button shmup about flying cars defending America from crab aliens. One of the purest games ever made.

There aren't any tips to give, as this is TURBO FORCE, but keep in mind that the first stage is deceptively easy. Oh, and you don't have any bombs.




First: 150300. Miss too many powerup items and you're doomed.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Excellent suggestions, and I had never heard of any of them! I will be featuring them all.

TODAY'S GAME IS: Mustache Boy (Arcade)

A chronicle of the life of young Shrug. Also, a delightfully weird hybrid of Pac-Man and Bomberman with jumping. Although it's not credited to Seibu Kaihatsu, we know they made it because it uses their hardware, and their name's all over the PCB.

As the tutorial shows, most enemies can be safely jumped on. I've found that the speedy mono-eye enemies will still hurt you while they're flashing, though. Here's a rundown of all the special tiles, because some elements of them are unclear:

Bomb: The tiles flashing around this after you step on it will explode, killing both enemies and you.

Stop: Enemies can't move or spawn for a short time. They also won't hurt you, so you can walk across tiles they're covering.

Pow: The power pill equivalent. A robot fist appears in front of you, smashing enemies in its path. Knocking one enemy into another is worth 1500 points total.

Kill: No beating around the bush here, it kills everything onscreen.



First: 78400

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Sorry, Bennett, but it turns out I can't feature Fire Trap. It uses two sticks, which is a problem for those like myself without a dual-analog PC-compatible pad. In any case, here's...

TODAY'S GAME IS: Noboranka (Arcade)

Kind of a much, much better version of Action 52's City of Doom, where you control some sort of obese ladybug man with stubble. Is this based on a Japanese folktale? The muted pastel palette is very nice and unusual.

Button 1 shoots, button 2 takes off a letter from the ILOVEYOU meter to activate flight mode. You can stand on the side branches, as well as fly between them. Skulls will occasionally drop from enemies instead of fruits, so watch the items carefully. The bubble blower adds a one-hit shield. Oh, and as well as replenishing the meter, fruits will add seconds to the timer, so don't constantly rush to your death like I did.



First: 45600. Didn't realize the timer wasn't so tight.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, I've only got wireless 360 pads and Dualshocks with no PS2>USB ports.

I was lucky enough to play Night Stocker on original hardware today! You need to spin the wheel like crazy to get anywhere. The light gun is scarily accurate: it's a dinky little grey plastic thing, but it aimed spot-on 100% of the time. In contrast, most Konami/Namco arcade guns are notoriously easy to de-calibrate.

My new best score is 252550! Was much easier to aim around than on a mouse.

Also played some T-MEK, the bitchin' multiplayer sequel to Battlezone. It has the most responsive controls of anything I've ever used.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Usually at SBGCD1CR we have featured good games, or at least interesting and unique ones. Today we will be doing nothing of the sort. For this is...

TODAY'S GAME IS: 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet (PC)

I was going to do Hover!, but that would be pure masochism.



A shitty blast from the shitty past. Relive those hours of wasting time in work/school! For me, it was the high school library when I was supposed to be doing research papers, and Doom/Starcraft had been taken down from the public server HDD again. I can see why they didn't put any action games into versions after XP.

Download Vista/7 version (I have tested it for spyware):

[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.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?)

[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?

[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.

[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.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I believe they only do that when they've powered up into missiles.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

We've made it to page 10!

TODAY'S GAME IS: Prehistoric Isle 2 (Arcade/Neo Geo)

An unexpected sequel from Yumekobo, developers of Pulsar and Blazing Star (they also worked on some NGPC stuff). Somewhat obscure due to never receiving a home release. It's glacially paced and some parts of it feel unfinished. There's some irony in that the original game had a more complex weapons system. But it's nonetheless excellent, and makes creative use of the pre-rendered graphics.

See the How to Play demo for control explanations. The blue chopper is faster and fires a linear shot, the green chopper is slower and fires a wide shot. Their bombs are also different. Unlike in most shmups, your bombs aren't replenished with every life lost.

Scoring info copied from GameFAQs:

[Sniper Honeyviper]

By request!

TODAY'S GAME IS: Motos (Arcade)

It's the origin of that "bump everyone else off" minigame that keeps showing up!

Powerups increase your bumping power, jump units allow you to jump with the button (this cracks tiles). You can equip them at the beginning of each stage, but they're one-use. I believe you can equip multiple powerups at once, but I didn't figure out how. There's a 1000 point bonus for pushing off the glowing red diamonds.



First: 20900. The "hurry up" tile-destroying shots can work to your advantage. Unfortunately the huge polka-dot spheres were too heavy to move.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Hydorah (PC)

Site with download

Must start from the beginning, no resuming or saving. Moving backwards to try an alternate-path stage is okay.

Arguably the best Western indie game ever made. Doesn't have quite the same level of fine-tuning as the classics it borrows from, but it sure comes close. I kinda wish the game wasn't free; I'd feel cheated if I labored over something like this for 3 years, only to not make a single cent off of it. Especially considering what they charge for the average XBLA/Steam turd. He'll send you some extras if you donate, though.

Instructions are in-game. I will say to watch carefully for the little plant pods that shoot vertical thorns when you fly over: they're extremely unfair, and probably shouldn't have been in.




First: 173190. Didn't have the right weapons to tackle Rubinia's boss. Kind of sad that Loco feels obligated to warn you about the game's difficulty when you start it up. Seems like he doesn't have enough confidence in his work.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Leaving Hydorah as the latest game until we get participants.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Guys, I just realized Hydorah has no limits on the milking of certain bosses. Unlike in Gradius, they don't self-destruct when time's up. :(

Most of us probably aren't good/insanely patient enough for it to matter, though.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

come on guys, don't make me give up on this thread

much less to complain about in these games than in DAYOOS ECKS and starcraft 2

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Should I make this a weekly instead of daily thing from now on?

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I will post the next game when Loki and Rudie submit their scores. It'll be tri-daily from now on.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

i don't want this to sound like blackmail, guys, but i'm probably gonna drop the thread if loki/rudie don't post their promised scores

[Sniper Honeyviper]

ok, i'll post the next game soon

next time, just let me know beforehand if there's a problem!