All things R-Type

[JaySevenZero]

Here is where you can leave your thoughts regarding R-Type for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

The only version of R-Type I've played, and still own, is the Sega Master System version, and I know I finished it because before turning on the system, I would hold down-right on controller one, and up-left plus button 1 on controller two, then awkwardly turned the console on somehow, only to release everything once the title screen came up. And Herculean task rewarded me with invincibility. Not me personally, the ship.

Anyhow, I also know that my highest recorded score was 1,010,000, achieved on (possibly) the 19th February 1991. This I know because I actually used the scorebook in the game manual, because the coolest people in the world would do such a thing.

And on the subject of that manual, it gave me a lot of information. For example: did you know that the R-9 travels at a speed of 208 km/sec? Or that it weighs 31.0 t? It also gave an outline of the stages, weapons, enemies and bosses. I miss the art of game manuals.

As for the game itself, it does suffer a lot from slowdown, which on some shmups is considered a feature rather than a flaw. And I was not that good at it either, hence the use of cheat codes. Without the invincibility I never would have got to the very end of that game, only to have to do the game one more time. Only after the second play through did I save the universe. That's just how the evil Bydo empire works I guess.

But I wanted to see the end of the game, and I wanted to see all the bosses and their designs. A person who grew up with 8-bit systems just accepted that the home ports of arcade games had to be stripped back, and you learnt to accept it. Having not played any other version, all the alien art design of the SMS version still worked for me at the time. I would have been 10 years old when I played this, so I hadn't seen any of the Alien movies, or been aware of who H. R. Giger was, so the design was exotic, foreign and strange, and I wanted to explore those environments as much as possible.

At some stage I will purchase and download R-Type Dimensions (preferably PSN), as I imagine it is as close as you can get to the arcade version without having to track down a PCB (and I've seen the prices they go for... very expensive). But in the meantime, my memories of being ten years old, flying off into distance galaxies, invincible as God, blasting away at the flickering, slowdown-induced Bydo empire... good times!

To quote the description on the back of the Sega Master System box - "It's your against the creatures of the evil Bydo Empire!" - and I couldn't agree more.

[stvnorman]

I remember seeing R-Type in the arcade section of C&VG magazine. That section was always depressing because no matter how impressed you were with the rest of the games in the magazine, you ended up there and your heart sank as the enormous gulf in graphics was plain to see! And R-Type really highlighted that gulf! That arcade machine version was a stunner! But my first and only experience of actually playing the original R-Type was on the Spectrum in the late eighties. Despite the arcade screenshots still being burned onto my brain, I still bought it based on the Spectrum screenshots. For a home computer conversion, it was also stunning in its own right - the sprites were incredibly detailed and often huge, and there was so much colour, which is something us Speccy owners weren't used to! Unfortunately I was rubbish at the game, and never got far at all, but that didn't stop me loving it for months on end.

[Alex79]

R-Type is one of my favourite scrolling schmups. I've never had the chance to play it in the arcade but enjoyed countless home versions of the game over the years.

I first owned the game on the Amstrad CPC computer on a cassette that cost me £1.99 on the (if I remember rightly) Activision budget label. Again if I remember rightly it was a multi load cassette which meant you had to load each stage upon completing the last. Sounds annoying but never actually mattered since I only ever got to level 2!

The game itself was fantastic. The detachable bot type thing you could fit to either the front or back of your ship allowed for meant some super tactical gameplay, and the powerups were pretty cool too, eventually filling up the entire screen with various lasers, missiles, snake like bullets which crept along the perimeters of the area. You'd get to a point where you were just annihilating everything on the screen. But of course as soon as you died you'd be reset to your bog standard gun and have no chance! Memories of lining up a row of enemies and taking them all out with a well placed charge attack come flooding back as I write, too.

The boss at the end of level one has to be one of the most iconic in history. An awesome beast that took up most of the screen, as you zip in and out of danger to pop his weak spots. Unfortunately, as mentioned, I never really got much further than this as a young kid. Over the years though and on other versions (and especially with the help of infinite continues on MAME!) I did eventually see the whole game.

I'll be very interested to hear the general opinion on what the definitive version of this game is, as it's one I've not been back to in a good while and would like to revisit soon!

THREE WORD REVIEW: Shooty bang bang.

EDIT: I just downloaded the version of RType available on the Android app store. It is surprisingly good! Controls a little fiddly, but I just did the first level without too much trouble. I'm going to see if you can use an external controller which would be even better. Seems a good port though! Looks like the Amiga version.

[Suits]

My first memory of R-Type was on my cousins Atari ST – I think. With it’s scary cover art and darker theme, it always game across as a slightly more adult game than what my years at the time deserved.

I’ve never really played an R-Type title with any seriousness, or knew anything of any substance about the series but always held a respect for it, as being one of the more grown up titles for my then younger years of gaming.

The version I played for the Podcast was Super R-Type, on the Super Famicom, with original hardware and a Nintendo ScoreMaster.

The music is good, very good I thought. Nothing too incredible but good to listen to none the less and went well with the game.

Particular note to the score on level 3, which I became very accustom too . About two thirds through the level, the music really kicks in and got my head bobbing every time – I really like that tune. Maybe worth a SoP submission I think.

The little intro screen before you get going is great, its pixel art style left a little more to the imagination and worked well. Really cool. The way the ship barrel rolls into space and out into the vast open was also very slick.

The vivid colours and sprites really popped off the screen with the black backing of space and as the sun went down and my dining room got dark, it got even better. Explosions looked cool and the weapons upgrades always made for an interesting visual experience.

I wouldn’t say that the game is hard to play, it’s just hard to progress with any great momentum. No checkpoint is perhaps an arcade throwback but I’m fine with that, hard is good, as long as it’s doable and generally the harder something is the more rewarding it is when you finally get past it.

The power ups are fun, if a little random in how they progress. I soon realised that it wasn’t a good tactic to simply grab every power up that came your way. Certain power ups were better for certain situations. Your little floating buddy thing that comes along with you is handy. He brings a whole new element to the gameplay and learning how he controls and what you can do with him to be effective, was enjoyable and something I wasn’t expecting from the outset.

The continue process makes the game playable, from a progress perspective, infinite continues is great, keeping your ship upgrades almost makes it feel like a Rouge-Lite in ways too. Although it made lives pointless as such, it did give a ladder system to the score chasing side of things, again something I’m sure was a hangover from the arcade.

My pitiful high score which would only see me get to level 3 without getting wiped out completely, was 103,800.

Controls felt a little sticky at times, maybe not as precise as you’d hope when navigating the caves and trying to avoid pickups that you didn’t want. The Nintendo ScoreMaster I used to play this felt great overall, big old buttons and a comfortable stick, although there were a few times where I found myself looking down at the stick and thinking - did I really just get that, that wrong.

Due to its nature and difficulty, you tended to learn the levels quite a bit. Level 3 to me started to become enjoyable to the point that I didn't mind starting over, each time learning the spawn points and where the weapon upgrade robots were. Those silly Kamikaze ships that zig zag up and down the screen were very annoying until you worked out how to deal with them.

The Boss on the 3rd level was where I ultimately started to feel like I had my fill with Super R-Type, which was a shame. The trial and error with learning his patterns, followed up by an insta-kill and having to go back through the whole stage again, started to wear on me after an hour on that one section.

When it was good, it felt great. When it all came together, the music, the weapons and smooth flow felt stylistic, I feel like I understand this genre’s positives a bit more now.

My biggest issue with the whole experience though, was the slow down on the SNES. It’s disastrous. To the point just by shooting, you can control the pace of the game.

I did start to use this to my advantage as I got used to the game. By continuously shooting you kept the game in a sort of slow motion mode. Doing this gave you extra time to study the enemies and choose a route through the level. Letting go of shoot, sped the game up.

It took a considerable amount of enjoyment from the game for me.

It would be interesting to know the story behind the slowdown, as being such an early SNES game, you'd expect the hardware horsepower to be there. It makes you wonder whether it's was a programming rush, or issue with the porting that caused such a criminal hamstringing of the performance.

I did mess about with the level select a bit and try other levels but it left me a bit cold. Also the slowdown seemed to get worse as you went further through the game, as the screen generally got busier as you progressed. Eventually I’d refrain from shooting just to get through bits quicker. What a shame.

3WR – Crippling Slow Down