MAME ROW #156 - Aero Fighters

IanDaemon

@quicksilver Yeah, it's five card draw...with a gun for some reason. Some people think "texas hold'em = poker" ever since the movie "Rounders" came out in 1996. And then the televised tournaments of the early 2000's.

VictimRLSH

I was online pro for a little while, and I got SICK of playing Hold 'Em. My favorite game was Razz, I also was crazy enough to play Badugi. Apparently smart players don't play Badugi...

thelostsoul

I am currently looking to add this game into RetroPie. While doing so, I have opened up Wikipedia and read a bit about it and found this interesting paragraph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Fighters

Shin Nakamura, the main designer of Aero Fighters and a number of other Video System games, disliked the company's plan to start developing on the Neo Geo. He wanted to make more vertical games like Aero Fighters, but found it difficult to do so on a horizontal monitor. He and other like-minded employees left to found Psikyo, with the similar Samurai Aces being their first game.

McO'River would never publish another title under that name. Back at Video System, meanwhile, other employees teamed up with the remaining Aero Fighters staff to begin work on sequels. Aero Fighters 2 and Aero Fighters 3 were released for the Neo Geo.

If I got it running, I'll post my score here. Hold the line…

thelostsoul

Ok, here my first score, nothing heavy.
But something weird is going on. I play on mame2003. Sometimes when I start a new game, the second stage will be the first level I play. Sometimes it is even another stage. It does not happen very often and seems inconsistent. Can someone confirm this? First I thought its a cheat I discovered, but I am not sure.

Score: 74100

VictimRLSH

The first through 3rd stages are random, with difficulty increased over what the stage would have earlier. 4th stage is harbor, 5th stage is desert. I haven't got past 5th on one play.

thelostsoul

@VictimRLSH Ah okay, that explains it. I was thinking it could be a malfunction, because at the start of the emulation is a message of known problems. It is related to the cocktail mode, but who knows. Good to know the game works as intended.
If you made it that ~~fart o~~ far to 5th stage, then nice, sure not easy. You have a score? I want some depression please.

VictimRLSH

Start of desert. There is a helicopter that comes from the left that fires so fast it cannot be dodged even if you are using a fast plane. You have to kill it before it pins you to the right and kills you, often needs a bomb. There are lots of surprise attacks from behind cover, particularly in the city.

FYI, since the order of the rounds isn't set, a boss that may be easy in the first round will have new capabilities in the 2nd or 3rd.

EDIT: Now that I'm awake I can add some more tips in.

On many vertical shumps, enemies will fly up your backside from the bottom making that a dangerous place to remain. Not so here. STAY NEAR THE BOTTOM WHENEVER YOU CAN. This gives you more time to react to fire from the top. This is particularly important on the bomber boss and the battleship because they fire flak burst that dissipate before they can reach the bottom. The battleship is rather easy if you stay down there.

You get bonus points for blowing the tops off of buildings in the city, but this will not prevent helicopters from popping up from behind them and surprising you with some very fast fire. If you see light in a skyscraper window. MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. This is a laser beam powering up. The boss at the end of the city level starts out this way, and if you run into the city level as your 3rd round, it can happen in other places too.

I prefer to use Kohful, the Scandinavian pilot in the P1 position. His plane is fairly slow and his bomb will NOT defend it from much fire, but his forward firepower is stupid overpowered. Knowing where enemies appear on the screen and killing them before they can fire at you is a big advantage, but play with each plane/pilot/bomb and see what works for you. There is even a robot in the P2 position.

VictimRLSH

@thelostsoul said in MAME ROW #156 - Aero Fighters:

@VictimRLSH Ah okay, that explains it. I was thinking it could be a malfunction, because at the start of the emulation is a message of known problems. It is related to the cocktail mode, but who knows. Good to know the game works as intended.
If you made it that ~~fart o~~ far to 5th stage, then nice, sure not easy. You have a score? I want some depression please.

Oh, if I want depression I'll just look at your unreal Cabal scores. :P

thelostsoul

@VictimRLSH said in MAME ROW #156 - Aero Fighters:

Oh, if I want depression I'll just look at your unreal Cabal scores. :P

The sad reality is, it was made with autofire and that is plain and simple cheating in Cabal. So don't take that score too seriously.

VictimRLSH

@thelostsoul Still impressive, but I can't play Cabal without the trackball. I had that in one of the game rooms I ran and can't even play it on a joystick. If you want to see what autofire can do on Aero Fighters, play the American plane from the P1 position (the default choice). That gun will fire as fast as you hit the button.

obsidianspider

MAME ROW #157 is now live

thelostsoul

I'm always late lately. Here is an improvement.
Score: 191900