MAME ROW #58 - R-Type

AndersHP

@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.

spruce_m00se

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

obsidianspider

@spruce_m00se I'll be happy if I can finish the first level. :-/

AndersHP

Slowly getting there. Managed to get through stage 1 and 2 without getting killed. Great succes! :)
This game is great.

pjft

@andershp well done! It is a great game indeed. Glad to see such quick progress!

pjft

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.

spruce_m00se

@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.

UDb23

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.

pjft

@udb23 wow. I hadn't seen this yet. This is just fantastic! Thanks for sharing:)

spruce_m00se

167k is all I have, I got to about half way through the fourth level, but there is no way I can get through that level on one credit, I did however manage to get to the fourth level without being hit.
Has anyone else noticed the lag when you go around the back of the level three boss ship? It happened to me twice.

GtBFilms

@spruce_m00se yup, I sometimes get that lag as well, it seems to be when all those front cannons are all intact and firing, the slowdown (well actually the sudden speedup) makes navigating the front of the ship sometimes really difficult.

AndersHP

Damn, reeeeally wanted to beat @pjft 's score... Close but no cigar. 186.500 is as close as I can get.

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Really enjoyed this MAME ROW though.

pjft

@andershp wow. Well done. That's a tremendous progress since earlier in the week :) more than the score, I'm happy that you're consistently getting to level 4 - something I still can't, and actually something I didn't manage to when I got that high score.

So, to some extent, I think it's unfortunate that repeating level 3 gets me more points than making it to level 4.

But yeah, it was a great ROW. And it's still not over.

AndersHP

@pjft Thanks, I was really hoping that I was in the zone today, but this is one of those games where you can almost feel if the score will get high or not.

Yup, we'll see if you clinch this win. I've backed off for now - but I cannot promise I won't return and try to beat it :-)

Maybe we should have an R-Type thread like Joust and Time Pilot?

GtBFilms

Am I still in time?

260600!

My fire-button mashing finger has a blister on it!

@pjft is right though, you can actually do better by messing up level 3 multiple times, as you can see from above, that's where most of my points came from on this game.

pjft

@gtbfilms Well done! That's a great score. I'm not even going to try to go after that score - at least not today, I think :)

Out of curiosity, was that deliberately a score play, or did you actually lose a few lives by mistake on level 3?

I suppose my question would be, if we're going for score, what would be the best way to optimize that. Level 3 does seem to be the best, as when you lose you'll always start from the beginning, whereas in other levels you'll restart from a checkpoint further ahead. Thoughts?

@AndersHP I think we can - and should - keep updating this thread with R-Type results. It is a great game :)

GtBFilms

@pjft I was going for the high score on that one. Which is maybe not in the true spirit of competition I admit. I wanted to see just how many points could be made on level 3, because I knew that no matter how many lives I get to level 4 with, I'm not going to get through that level.

I got to level 3 with all lives intact and on all but one got to the end of the level before dying. Once it was just the end boss part, I deliberately crashed.

Score is helped by an additional life at 200,000 as well of course.

Plus, as you say, when you die you start at the beginning of the level again. So get all the points again.

Also near the start, before you go under the ship, with the yellow (flame?) laser it's possible to destroy a cannon that is over the bulkhead of the ship, which I don't think is accessible with the other lasers, and as you don't go right round the ship, you don't get another chance.

On my last life I went though to level 4...and died!

pjft

@pjft I was going for the high score on that one. Which is maybe not in the true spirit of competition I admit. I wanted to see just how many points could be made on level 3, because I knew that no matter how many lives I get to level 4 with, I'm not going to get through that level.

Not at all - after all, this is a high score competition :) Well done. And great job on getting yet another life at 200k, haha :D

Yes, there's a cannon there on top at the beginning. I think I sometimes hit it with the "fireball" - i.e. holding fire until it's charged up and then release, as it maybe goes through the armor? Not sure, but either way good call!

Well done.

GtBFilms

@pjft I've been playing a bit more (but didn't manage to beat my score) but I noticed that if you don't finish off the ship on level 3 and just wait around, it respawns the cannons on the front, you can destroy these for extra points, and they then respawn again.

I thought I'd discovered a way to rack up an endless score but no, after three (I think) respawns the whole ship crashes to the ground and you are forced into level 4. The ship actually crashed into me (I was underneath it when it fell) but I appeared to be invulnerable at that point. So if you're going to collect points on the respawned cannons, you need to remember to die before the ship decides to crash itself.

AndersHP

Well done @GtBFilms - that is an incredible score! I was actually wondering myself if level 3 could be used as a way to harvest points, since level 4 is so crazy, but didn't manage to test it yesterday.