MAME ROW #7: Air Duel

mediamogul

I can now get a bit further into level two by sacrificing some potential kills for a clear path, but always at the expense of my score.

pjft

@mediamogul Yeah, that second stage is tricky - very fast, and somewhat crowded.

Here are my score tables - the 37k score was from the first day, no auto fire.

The second screenshot, with a few different scores and the 62.4k score, that's with auto fire. The game is a lot more enjoyable with auto fire, for what it's worth. I imagine that in a standup cabinet, where you're actually just pushing a big button with your entire palm/hand makes the experience different and less painful, but just thumb-mashing the X button on a PS3 pad is a recipe for long-term wrist/hand injuries :)

Have a great weekend. Might take a stab at it later today, and may perhaps play with a few more continues just to see how long I get in it. 1-shot-kills feel brutal in this day and age, so I'll see how it goes. The wikipedia page isn't too inspiring:

"Losing a life resets your power and bomb count to the amount you start with. "Air Duel" is a challenging game, and later levels can become nearly unplayable if a single life is lost."

meleu

Score: 109k
Always using the helicopter
Played on RetroPie
Controller: 8Bitdo NES30 (no autofire/turbo)
Only one credit

Game Over when reach the two big twin planes, what I imagine that is the stage 2 boss.

mediamogul

@meleu said in MAME ROW #7:

Score: 109k

Very impressive!

what I imagine that is the stage 2 boss.

Hah, I like that! I also imagine it take three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, but it's just too darn difficult to find out, so the world may never know. I'm gonna let my score stand and take a cue from @pjft by playing it a little more casually this evening to get the full effect. It's a really fun game. It's just that it was unabashedly designed to be a quarter muncher.

Score: 81100
Using the helicopter
One credit
Played on RetroPie
Controller: Logitech Rumblepad 2 (no autofire/turbo)

81100

meleu

I forgot to mention: I use the helicopter everytime.

@mediamogul You have been enriching my English vocabulary. I didn't know the term quarter muncher, now Google helped me. :-)

mediamogul

@meleu said in MAME ROW #7:

I didn't know the term quarter muncher

It's also a sex thing, so be careful where you repeat it. I was using the helicopter as well.

meleu

@mediamogul Hummm... I think I'll search this term on other sites too...

pjft

@meleu Incognito windows are your friends. :)

GtBFilms

Sorry guys I haven't been able to take part this week as I twisted my shoulder and it's all frozen up. I am therefore currently unable to enjoy any sort of quarter muncher entertainment.

:-(

pjft

@GtBFilms Sorry to hear that :| Get better soon.

meleu

Looks like wi'll have a week with no shooters/quarter muncher:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/5155/mame-row-8

:-)

VictimRLSH

Yes, those twin planes are a pain to take out, but the real death knell comes from the heavily armored boats on round 3. Your game essentially ends after your first life is lost on this round because you won't even be able to defend yourself without full firepower. One of my all-time favorite games, Darius, also suffers from this. While I have cleared the game before, I had to do it on a single life, because once you die, the game is essentially over.

The helicopter is definitely the best choice because you can 'waggle' in place and spread fire over about half the screen.