Shmups

[Alex79]

Was just on track for my highest score yet in Danmaku Unlimited 3 and the fucking game crashed! Stage four boss, hadn't lost a life, hadn't used a bomb.

FOR FUCK SAKE!!!

I was playing in tate mode, first time I've tried in and I'm convinced it helped with the run.

I think it's because I paused it and reattached controllers. Soon as I unpaused it later and slid joycon back off to resume, it crashed.

[Stanshall]

Bugger! Bad luck, Alex. To offer some possible comfort (in a roundabout way) I've never had it crash in however many hours I've played so I wouldn't ditch it on those grounds. Sounds like you're making serious progress, by the way, Stage 4 boss NMNB (no 'miss', no bomb) is a bloody good effort. I'd be well chuffed with that run.

I've not been playing any shmups because I've been fishing for the past week but back in town tomorrow and looking forward to a few runs on DOJ stage two.

[KSubzero1000]

I've not been playing any shmups because I've been fishing for the past week but back in town tomorrow and looking forward to a few runs on DOJ stage two.

Hey, how about you and I get into some friendly competition again on one of the games we both own?

I think it'd be fun.

Lemme know.

[Alex79]

Bugger! Bad luck, Alex. To offer some possible comfort (in a roundabout way) I've never had it crash in however many hours I've played so I wouldn't ditch it on those grounds. Sounds like you're making serious progress, by the way, Stage 4 boss NMNB (no 'miss', no bomb) is a bloody good effort. I'd be well chuffed with that run.

Yeah I'm convinced it's because I messed round with the controllers whilst I had my tea



My last go (and highest score so far) was 10'155'231 (which isn't huge, I know!)

[hazeredmist]

...and I regain my comfortable place as the n00b again. Nice! I need to get back on this!

Jokes aside if you’re getting to Stage 4 with no lives or bombs gone, that’s impressive as hell man. It’s no easy game... I’ve got to stage 4 boss once but not beat it and certainly with lives and bombs gone

[hazeredmist]

Extremely pleased with how this one turned out.

No Miss, no bombs in the first three stages, three strategic bombs to maximize the chutes on the fourth stage, and only two bombs to help out with some of the bosses. This is about as far as my current capabilities can carry me, I reckon.

It's a bit difficult to gather any concrete data due to the game not having any proprietary online leaderboards but the only other player I can currently find on YouTube or various forums with a higher score is the current WR holder Emuser, to give you guys some context. So this might very well be the second best score in the world at the moment.

There is a lot of practice that went into this, so I wouldn't mind some feedback! Or even better, to convince the one or the other forumite to give this game the attention it most certainly deserves!


That's a weight off my shoulders all right! Time to finally play something else for a change.

Hey man, so I just watched your vid. I enjoyed it! Really makes me want to play this properly soon actually. It just doesn't compute in my head how this game is legitimately free. The bullet patterns on that final boss are insane.

Very impressive. One thing I note watching this, you (well, your ship) look SO calm to me. Bullets flying all over the place and you're just meandering around with everything under control. No stress. Me? When I play these games I am jerking all over the place like a fish trying to escape from a bucket. I guess that's what comes with learning and practicing your routes!

What are you playing with by the way? A stick?

[hazeredmist]

Best not to overthink anything, it's like when you start consciously breathing or walking, you end up hyperventilating and jangling about like a puppet with tangled strings.

This is good life advice. Although it just caused me to somewhat hyperventilate, which I assume will continue until I've forgot this post

[KSubzero1000]

Hey man, so I just watched your vid. I enjoyed it! Really makes me want to play this properly soon actually. It just doesn't compute in my head how this game is legitimately free. The bullet patterns on that final boss are insane.

Very impressive. One thing I note watching this, you (well, your ship) look SO calm to me. Bullets flying all over the place and you're just meandering around with everything under control. No stress. Me? When I play these games I am jerking all over the place like a fish trying to escape from a bucket. I guess that's what comes with learning and practicing your routes!

What are you playing with by the way? A stick?

Thanks for checking it out! Means a lot.

I think I'm done with this game for the time being, but I'd love to see you give it a proper whack. The default settings are extremely forgiving, so please don't be too intimidated by some of the patterns you saw.

The calmness comes from weeks of practice, really. I think this goes back to the distinction between methodical and intuitive playstyles we talked about the other day, with Stan & I being in one camp and you & clippa in the other. I don't have the greatest dexterity and my input can be pretty coarse at times, so whatever gaming "achievements" I have can usually be attributed to a lot of patience and discipline instead!

You simply can't allow the game to get inside your head and intimidate you into submission. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Ben usually says something very similar and his advice has had a very positive influence on me, btw.

And no, I'm actually playing with the latest advancement in gaming peripheral technology with the most precise analogue sticks known to man, a state of the art (busted) DualShock 4™ from Sony Interactive Entertainment. Come to think of it, this probably wasn't a very fair competition to begin with if poor clippa is still stuck operating his heavy-duty farming equipment!

[hazeredmist]

Gotcha. All good to note.

So with your PS4 pad, are you using the d-pad or analogue? Always interested to hear how others play, there is so much variation. Have you tried a stick and just prefer pad then?

I'm super interested in what sticks people use, actually. I think Clippa and Stan mainly play with them? Not sure about Michiel. Alex I presume is on joycons. I myself have the most fun using a stick, but I'm not convinced I play the best with it, I need to keep putting time into it.

@Everyone - Post your shmup setup!!!

[KSubzero1000]

I use the analogue stick exclusively. Playing a shmup on a d-pad is a very uncomfortable affair, even if it technically amounts to an even quicker input. Tried, can't do it.

My experiences with fighting games have been extremely limited and I don't think I've ever even had the opportunity to get my hands on an arcade stick, actually. Let alone get used to one. Maybe I will someday but I don't exactly fancy buying an unproven piece of kit in the three-figure price range, especially with my limited storage space. I'm afraid of choosing the wrong one or not being able to transition properly and quite frankly, controller works just fine for me at the moment.

I think Michiel is a fellow pad player, but I could be wrong.

[Chopper]

I use the analogue stick exclusively.

Wow, do you have the stick shortened or anything? I was using it to play the pool mini-game in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw yesterday and was getting frustrated over the fine control on that. I guess it's a calibration thing with shmups? (Not to resurrect all the InputIO/fx whatever stuff that you guys very enlighteningly talked about before in this thread).

[KSubzero1000]

Wow, do you have the stick shortened or anything? I was using it to play the pool mini-game in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw yesterday and was getting frustrated over the fine control on that. I guess it's a calibration thing with shmups? (Not to resurrect all the InputIO/fx whatever stuff that you guys very enlighteningly talked about before in this thread).

No, I haven't custom-tuned my stick or anything of the sort!

In most classic shmups (like BWRP, for example), the input is digital 8-way only, so the only difference between using the d-pad and the stick is that the latter allows for a smoother transition between the directions at the cost of a slight delay. And because it doesn't measure any analogue variable, stick drift isn't really a factor.

I think the frustration you're talking about probably comes from a combination of the game being programmed around analogue input and the deadzone being too small for its own good, which leads to a lot of over-correction. Stick drift might come into play as well if the controller is a bit older.

Dunno if I'm explaining this properly, but it makes sense in my head I promise!

[Stanshall]

I'm now stick 99%. It did take a little getting used to but I think I probably picked it up quite quickly (not a brag, just an observation based on what I'd heard). I did have a Switch stick before but got rid of it because I definitely played worse and didn't give it or myself a chance to adapt. Had I stuck with it, who knows? Either way, I am absolutely in love with my current stick and see no reason whatsoever to change.



Apologies for sharing a previous photo, let's call it paternal pride. Seimitsu LS-32 stick feels absolutely perfect for me and Sanwa 'silent' buttons which are a tiny tiny bit squidgy compared to the clickier arcade buttons but they're perfectly sensitive. I feel truly at one with this stick, my own flesh and blood, in the flow of the great Tao.

No, there is no punchline.

[KSubzero1000]

[hazeredmist]

That looks awesome.

[Chopper]

I think the frustration you're talking about probably comes from a combination of the game being programmed around analogue input and the deadzone being too small for its own good, which leads to a lot of over-correction. Stick drift might come into play as well if the controller is a bit older.

Thanks, it makes sense and I think it's limited to that one game (or at least is the most pronounced I've seen the issue - you feel like you're pushing the stick forever in minute increments and nothing happening, and then a big move all of a sudden).

Congrats on the mahoosive score on BWRP btw! I second Clippa's call for a move into medical science

[KSubzero1000]

Prick only started playing like a fucking year ago or something. It's embarrassing.

I still don't think of myself as a dedicated shmup player, to be fair. When you joined the community back in March, I was busy playing DMC5 and being a very happy bird in the process. None of this would have happened if you hadn't started talking all that guano and trying to goad everyone into a contest!

But thanks for the competition. It was fun! Gave me a good reason to learn the game properly and it has now become one of my favorite shmups ever.

Also, I've been a pad player my whole life. I detest mouse & keyboard and I think that most handhelds suffer from massive ergonomics problems and are therefore completely ill-suited for all sorts of action games that require fast and precise input. It's not ideal for certain genres, but as a whole, a traditional dual-analogue controller is still the best input method overall in my opinion.

And yeah, I also prefer this forum format to the one on reddit. To be honest, I can barely read reddit. I never know how to follow the conversations with all the lines and sub-threads and whatnot. Plus the whole voting system which is just idiotic.

NB: I like this new polite and chivalrous clippa a lot more than the old drunken troll clippa, for the record.

Congrats on the mahoosive score on BWRP btw!

Thank you my friend!

[Stanshall]

Cheers, clips. I rarely post on the shmups subreddit but I don't care about downvotes either way. I'd sooner people downvote misleading info than just opinions they disagree with, which is one of the crud aspects of reddit. Generally I find it pretty decent though, if I'm honest. I completely avoid all of the big subs and any politics or whatever.

KSub, you suggested us all trying out a game together and having a little friendly competition. I'm definitely up for that but I'm home and away for the next couple of weeks on various trips and work stuff. I have been giving it some thought, though. Espgaluda 2 BL is one I'd love to learn to play properly and I have some memory that you own that, or had plans to do so. Obviously, though, let's just play something you (and hopefully a few others) have got. If I'm honest, I am still very keen to learn DOJ Stage 2 so I'll be working on that in the background and refining Stage 1.

In fact, I'll suggest we go for something that's multiformat and very available to hopefully get Haze and Alex and maybe a few more on board. It might not be the best choice because I've played a good twenty hours already and I think clippa has 1CC'd it but Danmaku Unlimited 3 is the kind of thing I'm thinking about. Or, what about Vasara? It's cheap, available on everything, good game and Michiel has been playing it, so he might be interested, as well. It's also (presumably) pretty new to all of us and is more about macro dodging and shooting than tap dodging through bullet curtains. I think Leon was going to pick it up, too.

Or PSYVARIAR DELTA!!!

[KSubzero1000]

If I'm honest, I am still very keen to learn DOJ Stage 2 so I'll be working on that in the background and refining Stage 1.

Perfectly fair. Personally, I find it really difficult to focus on several shmups at the same time so I'm more than willing to wait until you're done with DOJ. No stress, and there's more than enough for me to play in the meantime.

If you want to have a 1-on-1 afterwards, I'd love to get into Espgaluda 2 as well. I only dabbled with it when I first got it and haven't gone back to it since. I think that'd be a perfect choice, alongside Ketsui Deathtiny perhaps?

In fact, I'll suggest we go for something that's multiformat and very available to hopefully get Haze and Alex and maybe a few more on board.

Great idea! My thoughts on the games that come to mind:

Psyvariar Delta still hasn't been released on EU PS4, so I would have to pass on that one until I get a Switch, because it doesn't look like my laptop can run it, unfortunately.

I bought Danmaku Unlimited 3 in the Steam sale, although it does suffer from some very noticeable slowdown on my end. "Only" 30fps dips so nothing game-breaking, but the Switch version would probably be best for me if I intend to play it seriously.

I haven't bought VASARA Collection yet but it's cheap enough that I would be perfectly willing to grab it on PS4 if everyone else decides to play that one.

I can't remember if you have Bullet Soul Infinite Burst on your JPN Xbox 360 or not, sorry. If you do, it might be an interesting choice considering it's also on Steam.


Honestly, the more I think of this, the more I believe that DoDonPachi Resurrection might be the perfect choice. Most of us already own it one way or another. It's an absolutely brilliant game and Haze already loves it. Your 360 version is fundamentally the same as the Steam version as long as we don't pick Black Label Arrange. Plus I'd be able to stick with my preferred DS4, so I would vote for that one if you're not too sick of DDP by then.

[Stanshall]

That's a good call. I only didn't suggest it because I know clippa's done a few high score comps on DFK in the past so I didn't want to get trounced! That's honestly what I was thinking. I do think it's a good idea though and because most of the time I spent with it was in Arrange Mode (prob around five hours), it'll be perfectly fresh.

In fact, for whatever reason I have two copies of Dodonpachi Resurrection on the 360 so if anyone wants one to join in, I'll happily stick it in the post. Likewise, Deathsmiles and Akai Katana. Boring story as to why but anyway, they're available if anyone wants them.