[Sniper Honeyviper]

SBGCD1CR

We had this going at least once on SB before, and a similar thread on the old IC forums. Right now, I've got a lot of free time and a lot of old games I want to delve into, so I figured I'd start another one. It would also be interesting to have a general, if rough, measuring stick of our gaming abilities in a variety of genres. I'd like to focus on little-known and largely unplayed games this time, so the experiences and discussions will be fresh. Most of the games will probably end up being MAME-oriented, but I'm not going to rule out arcade-styled console/PC games, at least if they emulate easily.

Here are the rules, adapted from wpham's old thread:

1. Post a FIRST and (optionally) a BEST score for each game, preferably with the characters/ships/whatever you used, if the game gives you a choice.

FIRST SCORE = No practice runs, no resets. I will not modify these.

BEST SCORE = Practice as much as you want beforehand, reset all you want. I will update these if you post an improved personal score.

2. Continuing is not allowed in any case, nor is using more than one credit at a time.

3. Research of games (movelists, strategies, etc.) is fine in all cases.

4. Scores for each game will be collected at the bottom of this post, in their respective categories.

5. Suggest another game! Try to pick something that's not well known and that most people wouldn't have already played.

6. We will specify a version of the game to be played if there are significant gameplay differences between regions and/or hardware.

7. Unless otherwise specified, default settings must always be used.

8. I'll try to post one new game per day, but I can't guarantee an exact schedule.

9. Just because I've posted a new game, doesn't mean you can't still submit scores for a previous one. Though I would encourage people to stay current to some degree.

EDIT: Curated thread to crop an overly huge image.

2nd EDIT: Updated rules to accommodate both first and best scores, unlike the old thread.

=============================================

OUR FIRST GAME IS: WARZARD/RED EARTH (Arcade, CPS3)

(No passwords allowed, must start from Lv. 1. Must not enter any two-player matches.)





=============================================

(SCOREBOARD MOVED TO GALAXY ODDITY THREAD)

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yup, that's what I meant.

The movelists are pretty small until you level up a substantial amount, though.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Excellent! howardcneal might want to crop that image, though. (Never mind: I did it for him.)

Note that you receive a massive EXP bonus from hitting the falling stone slab in the bonus stage after Gi Gi. It appears after you destroy the wall moais, with a DANGER indicator. The timing is difficult, though.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Our top scorer for Warzard/Red Earth is end of the world, beating me out by a good 200,000 EXP. I'm sure we've both had plenty of prior experience with the game, though (sorry, everyone else).

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Smithee, I'll take you off ignore if you don't post any more shock images in the axe without prior warning (i.e. URL instead of img tags).

Everyone else, your scores have been updated. I didn't find it a difficult game at all, at least until level 6 (I now know that the game loops after this). The trick is to think in terms of diagonal lines, since the most obtuse positions of the balloon string usually match up with the curves. It was pretty funky when the entire stage started moving, which must have taken some difficult programming for 1980.

Also, a guide to getting Warzard running in MAME (copied from a PM I sent):

[Sniper Honeyviper]

I probably should have mentioned this before, but Shmupmame v2.2 is really what you want to be using for everything. (Not v3.0b, which is inferior in every way aside from supporting Espgaluda.) Cuts out input lag in a good armful of games, while providing expanded interface options.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not entirely satisfied with the no practice runs rule myself. Gonna make some changes, gonna instate another suggestion of cake's (the first & best rule).

So if anyone wants to post their best scores for Warzard and Crazy Balloon, go ahead.

EDIT: Done. Check the top post.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

For our first "best score" listing.



I can probably do better than this, but the tension really starts to break me down after level 6.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Our top scorer in both categories (so far) for Crazy Balloon is myself!

TODAY'S GAME IS: THUNDER DRAGON 2 (Arcade)

A wonderful, yet sadly overlooked NMK shmup with a hilarious announcer.

PROTIP: Shoot the letters. There are also slight differences between the player 1 and 2 side ships.





First score:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 721770, Player 1 ship

I foolishly withheld my bombs in Stage 3, forgetting how liberal the game is with handing them out.

(Best score to come)

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Currently I have our top first score in Thunder Dragon 2, while howardcneal holds the only score so far on its "best" listing. Although I will admit to having a good deal of experience with the game in the past--I selected it, after all.

TODAY'S GAME IS: GUNDHARA (Arcade)

A very nice, strangely obscure overhead run-n-gun from Banpresto. Quite similar to Mercs, with the added feature of being able to lock your aim in place.

PROTIPS: The kick is useless. (EDIT: notbov has informed me that it cancels bullets, so disregard this.) Juggle the pigs in Mission 2. There are no time limits (as far as I know), so don't rush it. Jerry and Jinn are identical, aside from these things:
- Jinn starts with the shotgun instead of the vulcan
- Jerry's bomb fires straight ahead, while Jinn's is a close-range burst

There are also English settings in the dip switches, so you can bear witness to the nonsensical scraps of plot. (kids get kidnapped to start WWIII)



First:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 322830, Jerry

[Sniper Honeyviper]

This is why I added the best scoreboard, you know!

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, until you figure out what all the bullets look like, the game suffers from serious Garegga syndrome. Those microscopic blue ones are the worst.

Also, your hitbox is in a weird place.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Seems like you guys didn't receive Gundhara too well, so this time I'm going with something more "friendly."

TODAY'S GAME IS: GHOSTLOP (Arcade/Neo Geo, unreleased prototype)

1P story mode.

PROTIP: Score well enough on the first match, and you'll get to fight the Grey alien.



First:
- Sniper Honeyviper, 40386

(note: unlike many arcade games, ghostlop does not use the last digit of score to designate the number of continues used!)

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

It's in the first post, Loki.

Youpi, as with any combo-oriented puzzle game, it depends on the situation. If you think you're going to get killed on the next fill, focus on simply clearing the board, taking out as many ghosts as possible. Otherwise, it's often advisable to let them pile up on one side, so you can bounce off the other side to chop a huge clump down at once. The nice thing is that scoring and survival often go hand in hand! But without enough risk-taking, you'll never hit your opponent hard enough to win without a time-out.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, from what I can tell, it's fairly complex how the game judges your performance for score. One of the categories on the results screen is "average," which could mean a lot of things.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

oh man, I never realized that the kick cancels bullets! that certainly changes things.

it's still useless as an attack, though. sure, you get more points, but all but the weakest grunts take multiple kicks to kill, giving them ample time to strike back.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: POPEYE (Arcade)

Miyamoto's forgotten early masterpiece, which I would almost describe as Castlevania meets Donkey Kong. The Famicom version was one of the first three games released for the system.

PROTIPS: It's much safer to be above Brutus than below him. You can punch the bottles, as well as the vulture in stage 3. You'll need spinach to punch Brutus. The farther score items fall, the less they're worth. Detailed tips at KLOV's page.



First:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 33400

I haven't gotten any suggestions so far on this page--if you have any, just post them! Remember, I'm not limiting the thread to arcade games.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: I, Robot (Arcade)

The first videogame ever with 3D filled polygons (consider that this was the year after Popeye!). Also contains Doodle City, still an amazing chill-out paint program (my old thread). Has nothing to do with Asimov or Will Smith.

PROTIP: The start buttons zoom the camera in and out, activating score multipliers at the cost of visibility. It can be zoomed twice for a maximum of 2x points. More detailed info at KLOV.

In the off chance you have an analog joystick (like a flight stick), you might want to use that, since the game was designed for it.



First:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 65744

Note: If you're going for a best score, I'd recommend restarting the game after every run, since some bonuses are only awarded after beating a stage's previous record.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Change Air Blade and Robo-Kid are a little too well-known around these parts, but I'll consider them after the list's gotten longer.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Gunbarich (Arcade)

The third game in Psikyo's Gunbird series, and one of their last non-mahjong works, is a very interesting Breakout-like with shmup and pinball elements. Not the most obscure thing, I know, but it usually gets overlooked in favor of their standard shmups.

You can apply a considerable amount of english to the ball after a hit with the flippers. This means that those aggravating one-block-left situations can be quickly remedied, with enough skill. I haven't really been able to determine how the two characters are different, but I had much better luck with Marion. I think Grutan hits harder but has less control.

Whenever the ball has a trail behind it (after a flipper hit), it can be guided. Left and right move it slightly, up and down make it swerve dramatically. The red powerup is particularly important, since it gives the ball piercing capability when in the trailing state.



First:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 1118300, Grutan

Best:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 3889200, Marion

The Mexican band on the high score table is amazing.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

[Sniper Honeyviper]

As far as I know, hitting one of the 2x jars grants a double-point bonus for the rest of the stage, or the bonus lasts very long, at least. So it would be good to hit one as soon as possible.

Also, finishing fast and having three lives makes your end-of-stage bonus substantially larger.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Tac/Scan (Arcade)

A experimental early vector shmup from Sega, pleasantly hypnotic in its gentle repetition and the level of concentration demanded. Much like I, Robot, it's quite complicated by 1982 arcade standards, which is likely part of the reason it failed.

Instead of controlling merely one ship, you steer an entire fleet. The first button fires, the second button fills an empty slot with one of your reserve ships, if one has been destroyed. You start with 8 reserves. As well as earning extends through score, you can snag floating ships into your formation by catching them in a slot. In the tube-flying stage, keep your ships within the green lines.

The original cabinet used a dial controller, like those found on Arkanoid. Unless you've got one of those, I strongly recommend using the mouse.

First:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 134500

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Only two participants yesterday? Did the vectors scare you guys off? Anyway, all your suggestions have been considered, but I'd like to feature a personal favorite first:

TODAY'S GAME IS: Satan's Hollow (Arcade)

Seems to be well-known among vintage arcade collectors, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else.

A dramatic reworking of Galaga, unrelenting in its pace and escalating difficulty. If you think you can get through a tight pattern, you can't. Just strategically use the shield button. Keep in mind that enemies don't have any "dead zone" that stops them from firing up close. Clear out the huge waves as fast as possible, but take it slow on the lighter ones to build up your bridge. For detailed instructions, consult KLOV or the attract mode, and I can assure you you'll need them. (Also look at the amazing control panel.)

When one of the lesser devils or Satan is about to appear, just fire a bunch of shots off, about half the time you'll catch them before they can do anything.



First:
22365

Best:
62785

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Ha ha, thanks for pointing that out Smithee.

cake, I don't find it a terribly difficult game until the invisible enemies start showing up. You just need to get all three gun barrels as soon as possible, and make judicious use of the shield (remember that you can ram enemies with it). I admit that luck is a big factor, though. And no, I don't know how the JP changed score. I definitely didn't enter those initials.

Anyone know if there's an earlier game with a graphical day/night cycle?

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Participation seems to have dropped off...would more people join in if I started featuring popular favorites, or do my selections just suck? I mean, we had a ton of scores for Crazy Balloon. Anyway, here's Loki's suggestion, and our first non-arcade game:

TODAY'S GAME IS: Aquaventure (Atari 2600, unreleased prototype)

In my first run, I assumed this was just an endless version of Jaws NES' single-screen scuba stage, but there's some actual structure and progression to it. It goes like this: Move down a number of screens, grab the treasure at the bottom, then head back to the top and touch the mermaid to advance to the next level. The red spiky walls will kill you. Interestingly, you have four lives instead of the usual three.

You don't get points for clearing a stage, just for shooting fish and grabbing the treasure. I guess if you really want to farm for points, you can hang around in each level until the air is about to run out, though you won't have much time for this after the second level. I'd almost be willing to label this as an early "survival horror" game--with your limited air supply, it can get seriously claustrophobic and tense. Shame it wasn't released.



First: 20875 (not pictured)

Best: 136750

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll keep the thread going as long as I can. Schwere, didn't you read where I explained that Aquaventure has more than one screen?

This is such an incredible find I'm hopefully going to give it a huge thread of its own in the future, but here you go:

TODAY'S GAME IS: Gunbuster (Arcade, unrelated to the Gainax anime)

The first FPS with simultaneous movement and vertical aiming, predating Doom by a year. I can't think of another game so radically ahead of its time, and it's unfair to call it a lightgun shooter, since you always have full movement control. I'm sure the reason it's forgotten is because no Japanese person in 1992 would've been able to figure out circle-strafing. The controls, the scaling, the level design, the early 90's Katsuhiro Otomo/Terminator-inspired visuals (from Taito, of course), are all perfectly executed. It really has to be played to be believed. The only thing it's lacking is a versus mode, but that's unreasonable to expect from when the FPS "genre" didn't exist.



Many will be confused by the unusual setup and gobs of Japanese text, so here's a little guide:

- Make sure MAME has mouse support enabled for the lightgun (actually a positional gun, in this game's case).
- Map the joystick to the WASD keys, or whatever you want.
- Map buttons 1 and 2 to the left and right mouse buttons.
- Disable button 3 (service button that freezes the game).
- Your controls are all set. The four characters are identical aside from their secondary weapons. From top to bottom, they are Rocket, Laser, Fire, and Spark.
- Upon starting your first mission, you'll be given a quick tutorial. After it ends, you can walk around the small room that makes up the first stage, firing at the boss. To turn, swing the cursor to the far left or right of the screen.
- Like your gun, your secondary weapon (button 2) has infinite ammo, but reload times and power vary between characters.
- There are some forced-scrolling stages later in the game where you can only move left and right (turning/aiming is not restricted.) These should be pretty obvious.

First game was spent figuring out the controls and stuff.

Best:
- Sniper Honeyviper: 632500, Fire

Definite room for improvement, I took all the easy low-scoring paths. Good luck to you all.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, the "huge room full of enemies" levels of Gunbuster are the low points of the game, but at least they're not completely unfair. You can shoot down all the missiles coming your way, and take cover behind pillars. I found my FPS instincts served me well.

I should mention that there is a minor graphical glitch in the emulation, specifically, the floating green mines in level 2.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Maybe Schwere can post a link in the axe to where he got the white-text rom?

[Sniper Honeyviper]

It's two players to a side, hence the "Red Team." And I'm pretty sure it's only co-op, not versus. It's like Lucky & Wild in that the second gun is just along for the ride, with the first player doing all the movement control.

I find Fire (third character) to be the best, his subweapon isn't really any weaker than the laser, and leaves lingering pools of flame that can decimate slow-moving bosses.

The spider boss is still a death trap for me, although constantly circling around the line of machinery prolonged my life.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Mad Planets (Arcade)

Found out about this from the new Insert Credit post. "Asteroids on crack" would be a not-inaccurate description, if not for your ship's lack of physics. Shame it gets nearly impossible after Round 5, or at least a lot more luck-dependent.

Set up the controls like this: Joystick goes to WASD or your four keys of choice, button one goes to left mouse button, the dial's analog goes to the mouse. Move with the stick, aim with the analog, fire with the button (hold it down for rapid, tap it for long-range shots).

If a formed planet has any moons orbiting it, it's invincible, though you can leech some minor points off it. When all the moons are destroyed, it'll turn red and become "mad," which means it can be killed, but will quickly home straight in on you. There are also comets, which spiral around a bit before homing in. The little white and blue dudes are astronauts, who can be picked up for points. They'll probably be substantial contributions to your score.



First:
8941

Best:
15606

[Sniper Honeyviper]

TODAY'S GAME IS: Beast Busters (Arcade), a relentless gun shooter from SNK's pre-Neo years.

Definitely intended to be a quarter muncher, which is why I wouldn't expect anyone to get too far on one credit. Still, I made it to the second boss on my first try, and the balance and pacing are much better than in Operation Wolf and most other gun games of the era. It's also nice that there aren't any hostages to avoid shooting--they'd have been zombified anyway.

The gun and both buttons should go to the mouse. Button 1 shoots, button 2 throws grenades. You technically have limited ammo, but it's so plentiful that you'll easily be able to hold the trigger down through the entire game.

There's actually a sequel on the Hyper Neo Geo 64! Looking forward to playing it when that system's emulation finally gets perfected.



First:
1005080

I admit it: I'm picking all these mouse games because I'm too lazy to set up the table + HDTV for my arcade stick. I'll stop after this one.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Only our two usual participants checked in yesterday, but I'm still going to keep this trainwreck rolling along nonetheless.

spectralsound's suggestion:

TODAY'S GAME IS: Tube Panic (Arcade)

(AKA Tunnel Vision: The Game)



I had never heard of this! I guess this could be described as a primitive Afterburner, not yet evolved from the primordial soup of space invaders and abstract death-voids. You can speed up and slow down by moving forward and back: there's limited fuel, and greater bonuses for finishing a stage fast, but momentarily slowing down for safety is necessary. Speed does not affect fuel consumption. There's also a little mothership-docking challenge between levels for a fuel refill, with a special bonus if you land in the exact center.

This being 1984, the scaling and rotation are hardly perfect: sprites have an unfortunate tendency to flicker out of existence for up to a full second, especially bad when dealing with bullets. Amazing they got it to work so convincingly that early, though.

First: 71915

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Yeah, sorry Mech, you were on ignore for reasons I don't remember. Don't take it personally! I'm happy to have you participate!

[Sniper Honeyviper]

Use edge|emulation to find roms that work with recent versions of MAME.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

You're supposed to use the mouse for MAME gun games, Levi! I won't add your Beast Busters scores until you do.

TODAY'S GAME IS: Cosmic Ark (Atari 2600)

I would explain the controls and objectives and everything, but there's a great vintage video right here that does just that!





First: 12220. Like many games of its era (1982), it gets very hard, very quickly after a certain point.

[Sniper Honeyviper]

One more Atari pick.

TODAY'S GAME IS: Game 1 of Demon Attack (Atari 2600). An unnerving Space Invaders-style shmup, with a bit more devious personality to the enemies.

Another vintage strategy video:



As the video shows, the first few waves before the enemies start splitting are deceptively easy. I like that your ship has the exact shape as the one from Centipede/Millipede.



First: 6270