MAME ROW #58 - R-Type
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Jesus, I'm not getting halfway there I think.
Loving the game though.Very ahead of it's time, and clearly, Amiga games like Z-Out and Disposable Hero are very much influenced by it.
How do you rank the games in the trilogy against each other? -
@andershp great that you're enjoying the game! Where or what are you struggling with? Happy to try to share some tips from my limited (and likely somewhat lucky) experience.
I haven't played the other games in the series very much. I heard good things about Leo, and played it once, managing to go through the first level quite easily, only to be demolished in the second level as the difficulty ramps up. It looked fun, though.
I had R-Type 2 on the Gameboy, I think, but don't recall playing it that much. I always liked 1 the best.
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Holy crap guys. I can't even beat the first level and you're past level 3 and 4?!
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@pjft I got to the bit in level 4 just after the screen is basically covered in those green circles with the big crabs coming from behind and the ships that drop the yellow circles coming towards you. Just as I thought I'd made it (through luck more than anything else) I got killed - didn't make it to the level boss (although I have in the past, then died!)
I've never managed to memorize level 4 enough to get to the boss reliably.
I'll give it another try tonight hopefully.
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@obsidianspider To be fair, it's a bit of a memory game. There's quite a few times when an enemy approaches from behind, and if you didn't know about it, and were unlucky, you have zero chance to react.
My tip for level 1 is to keep the 'force' (big ball) attached to the front of your ship and use it to smash into things as well as firing.
For the green robot guys, I like to charge up my laser while dodging their laser blasts (the force won't soak up those) then I unleash both my full laser beam AND the force at them to take them out. I quickly recall the force back to the front of my ship to either i) try again or ii) protect me.
For the big orange flying robot guys, the force will soak up all their missiles so just keep fire pressed down to charge up your laser and release a couple of large laser beams at the robot to take it out. Note that if you have missiles, holding down fire to charge the laser still fires guided missiles every few seconds, so these will actually take out some of the top gun turrets even while you have the fire button pressed down charging the laser up ready for the robot.
The blue diagonal laser powerup is the best for this level. It takes out all the gun turrets on the top and bottom without you needing to do anything.
That rotating circle thing with the blue eye in it is easier than it looks, don't hesitate, charge up the laser, fly inside and shoot the blue eye. It will fire a couple of bullets at you but they pretty much always miss.
For the end of level boss, charge up the laser while the music ramps up, once the boss reveals his green head, launch both the force and your laser at him. Right into his ugly green face! Leaving the force where it is, move your ship up immediately to avoid his missiles which he will now be firing, then sit top left pressing fire as quicklyt as possible - the force should be right in front of his face and will destroy him in a few seconds. His projectiles won't get near you, but finish him off quick as he'll start advancing on you in a few seconds.
Level 2 is easiest with the red laser. You can predict where the big crabs are going to come from by looking at the top and bottom scenery. Try to keep the red laser, at full strength it destroys the crabs with a couple of shots. If still you have that floating ball (orb?) above your ship from level 1 it makes this level a whole lot easier as it takes out crabs coming from above.
There is a very easy technique to dealing with the level 2 boss, but I don't want to spoil it for you, so won't mention it here.
Level 3 is my favourite by far. I love the concept of the whole level taking place around a massive spaceship, systematically destroying it bit by bit. There's not really much of a technique to this, the screen scrolling leads you round the ship the same way every time, and you just have to go with it. The hardest part is at the front of the ship with the big laser guns. Stick the force on the back of your ship for this part. Finishing off this level is pretty easy and obvious. Personally I try to keep hold of the Red laser for all of this level, although blue is good too. I don't rate the yellow (fire) one, but it can be useful along the bottom of the ship - and if you have lost a life, the yellow one is the only option at that part, so is a lot better than nothing!
Level 4 - all hell breaks loose from the get-go! You really need to have memorised what happens as the enemy move so fast, and the screen is obscured a lot of the time, so it's difficult to react in time.
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I was going to post similar experiences to @GtBFilms , but yes, it is very much a memorization game - that's why I can for the most part make it to level 3 consistently.
I thought (i.e. I think I remember?) I could finish off the level 2 boss by getting the force to get stuck in its "eye", but I haven't managed to do so on all the times I played in the arcade version, so I'm either remembering it wrong, or it was just something that was possible in the ZX Spectrum version.
I agree with all recommendations here. I didn't recall the force absorbing the shots from the "orange flying robot" guys, but I might just never have tried it. In that case that's a very good move.
My recommendation is also to try to get rid of the enemies/cannons on the ceiling/floor whenever the screen is fairly clear of flying enemies, as these are the ones that will constantly shoot at you and make your life harder, especially as you fight other flying enemies.
On level 2, definitely keeping the ricocheting laser is a good option. In the past I used to stick to that, but in these recent plays I did catch the yellow orb, which shoots those "crawling shots" up and down. I think there are also some benefits to this particular weapon, but the laser "feels" more powerful, so you won't go wrong if you stick with it.
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The blue laser works well on level 2, but for the most part I stick with red. The blue ones diagonal shots hit more, but a single hit only stuns the crabs, doesn't destroy them. This makes their timing slightly different if they are hit, so it's a bit haphazard and unpredictable for me -that's why I stick to red if I can - less collateral damage and easier to predict.
Spoiler for Level 2 boss:
I did play this on the old ZX Spectrum, a really good conversion, but can't remember what happened on the level 2 boss and if it was the same as the arcade. In the arcade version thought there is an easy way to kill this boss with the force though.
As the boss scrolls into view wait in the bottom left while the snake does it's thing and disappears down a ventricle. As soon as it goes, fly up and over the blue eye on the boss (memorably named "The big ^&^& with a blue Smartie in it" when I was at Uni).
Before the snake comes out, tap the joystick down to gently lower the ship until the force is sitting directly over the eye. Be careful, it's very easy to crash. There's room for the ship in the space between the eye and the left ventricle. Sit in that position and hit fire like crazy.
The snake will reappear and go over your ship but the projectiles won't hit you - if you have the little floating orb at this stage it will actually strip the snake of all the projectiles as it flies over.
The force does massive damage to the blue eye every time it opens. The boss will be destroyed in under 10 seconds.
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i just got 161k on level 3, i died on the boss annoyingly, its different to the MS version and I hit the cieling which didnt exist on the version I used to play.
161k was on my arcade macheine, I will try again using my ds4, i think I can beat it then -
@pjft On the MS version its really easy to just lodge the ship down by the eye and the force hits it when it opens, on the MAME version you can do the same, its a bit harder (not as much room) but you can kill the boss before the snake even re-enters the heart for the second time, ie it goes it, the boss starts, you position, it comes out, then you win the level before it goes in again.
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Ok. Tonight's result is 188000 :) not a big stretch from yesterday's scores, but good enough to keep it alive.
I still feel miserable as I haven't gotten past level 3. In fact, I got to the end of level boss for that level, in my last life, with 180000 points and I thought "oh, this is going to be good for the high score then".
The next moment I didn't manage to put the force on my back. That's how I only got 8k more points:p
It's being loads of fun playing R-Type for ROW.
A random unrelated question: has anyone heard anything from our @mediamogul ? I haven't seen him in a long time. Hope he's doing well. :l
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@pjft Nice score! Right, the gauntlet has been thrown! That's my Friday night planned - trying to beat that score!
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@pjft said in MAME ROW #58 - R-Type:
@andershp great that you're enjoying the game! Where or what are you struggling with? Happy to try to share some tips from my limited (and likely somewhat lucky) experience.
Thanks, but my problem is mainly that I haven't really had the time to memorize much. I think I've played 20x3 lives, and only recently got through to level 2. It's just a matter of putting the time into it. Will make sure to play more this weekend.
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I think we should have another challenge, see who can post the LOWEST score for the first three levels, Now that would be a challenge
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@spruce_m00se I'll be happy if I can finish the first level. :-/
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Slowly getting there. Managed to get through stage 1 and 2 without getting killed. Great succes! :)
This game is great. -
@andershp well done! It is a great game indeed. Glad to see such quick progress!
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I played two games tonight, but both were underwhelming. This is the kind of game that I get slightly upset with if I lose a life because of something I should now know by heart.
The first game I lost all lives except one in the end of level 2 boss. I got quite frustrated with that, but I now think I have a way to consistently kill it without losing a life. Then I went through level 3 which I now kind of have under control into the last bit, and got to the boss, but died before getting to fight it.
The score was around 167k.
Then the second game I lost a life in the first level - something that hasn't happened in a long time - inside the "curled rotating caterpillar" enemy... One of its shots actually hit me!
I then recovered and went through level 2, then I lost a life quite stupidly immediately at the beginning of level 3, but then went on to the boss and even though I didn't manage to kill it, I think I wore it out, as it eventually goes away a while after its cannons respawning.
I was very much under the impression that I could send the force back and get it to lodge in the enemy's weak spot but once again I must have been misremembering things.
Then I got to level 4 and immediately lost the 2 remaining lives near the beginning.
This time the score was around 147k, so it seems that what had been doing wonders for my score was losing and repeating level 3 as I almost always managed to make a lot of progress in that level before losing.
So yeah. I managed to get to level 4, but I didn't get close to being yesterday's scores, especially when I got to level 4.
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@pjft I got to the boss of level three last night, I had actually got an extra spare life aswell :) or thats what I assume the pinging beeply sound was, the boss is much different to the one on the MS, and again I hit the ceiling when going in to hit the weird penis type thing that shoots at you.
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Have you seen this?
This guy makes animations on his own that are so good !!
Best one to me is its Tie-Fighter based vid. -
@udb23 wow. I hadn't seen this yet. This is just fantastic! Thanks for sharing:)
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