MAME ROW #46 - U.N. Squadron

pjft

I finally barely crossed the 50k barrier, with 50430.

Unfortunately still didn't cross the level 2 end boss.

That being said, buying the missiles in level 2 allows me to kill more enemies, rather than evading those white planes that come from behind, which helps with the score as well as preempting their attacks.

AndersHP

If anyone has access to an Amiga I can recommend this version over the SNES one. Especially the music and playability is superior in my opinion. Music even better than in the MAME one. Slowdowns happen a lot though.

meleu

@obsidianspider said in MAME ROW #46 - U.N. Squadron:

@meleu, if for some reason the post doesn't show up on Monday by 5PM Brazil time, would you please create a post for us?

Sure. :-)

But I remember a few days ago @cyperghost greeted me at IRC with good evening and it was a sunny afternoon here. I think 5PM in Brazil can be late for some guys to try 3 games on Monday.

I'll post MAME ROW #47 on Monday morning and you save your post for the next week. What do you think?

obsidianspider

@meleu I'll be in Europe, so how about if no post by 8 AM Brazil time on Monday? I should have the post up much earlier this coming week due to time zones, but I will try to keep the results at the same time so everyone has time to vote.

meleu

@obsidianspider said in MAME ROW #46 - U.N. Squadron:

@meleu I'll be in Europe, so how about if no post by 8 AM Brazil time on Monday?

Agreed.

obsidianspider

MAME ROW #47 is live!

pjft

I got to 79130, end of level 3. It was the first time I crossed level 2 - yay! Still behind @meleu and @obsidianspider 's scores, but it felt good to get to level 3 on a single credit!

I doubt I'll keep playing it for MAME ROW purposes, but this has been quite a fun game and I'll keep it on my Favorites list.

TMNTturtlguy

@pjft you guys are all insane, I can never get passed level 2 boss....I did find that it is easier with a controller than a joystick as the analog controller has ability to allow for small precision moves and the joystick on my arcade doesn't allow for such finesse.

pjft

I know this was 3 months ago (already?), but I just read and saw this about the SNES version.

I really need to play the SNES version now :)

UDb23

@pjft thanks for sharing.

AndersHP

@andershp said in MAME ROW #46 - U.N. Squadron:

If anyone has access to an Amiga I can recommend this version over the SNES one. Especially the music and playability is superior in my opinion. Music even better than in the MAME one. Slowdowns happen a lot though.

I have to quote myself. Try the Amiga version also :)

VictimRLSH

Another long time favorite of mine. Although I was an Amiga user, I never played this on the Amiga, will have to give it a try.

I used the 3rd plane with the ground attack on this because I was really rusty and that is the easiest plane to play, you can't clear the game with that plane or the 1st one, you MUST use the middle plane with the 10-power air attack to clear the final stages.

In this game I died fighting the 5th boss, which is where you really wish you had the plane with the more powerful forward air attack.

Hints:

When first starting out, choose the 3rd plane that also has a ground attack from its regular weapon. Save your money at the shop, you don't need to buy any weapons to beat the first boss.

Avoid the very left hand side of the screen, except when fighting bosses. A good place to hang out when waiting for enemies to show up is either in the center or a bit northeast of center. NE of center is a GREAT place to be for the air attack rounds such as the 2nd and 5th. Planes below you that are turning to engage will be hit by your ground guns, and enemies above you will be hit from your forward fire, plus you will have ample time to dodge shots coming from behind.

The first boss you want to focus fire on that tiny dish just below the gun battery. There is a 'sweet spot' between the large missiles straight ahead of that dish all the way on the left edge where you can kill off this first boss and you won't even have to move.

On round 2 you will want to buy the cheap missiles. You are warned that missiles cannot track the boss, but they CAN destroy it just by firing straight into it. Unload your remaining missiles into it when you are behind it. When learning the game, go ahead and use the homing missiles on the large bombers, if you don't kill them quick enough the next one(s) show up and add more fire to the mix.

Buy super shells or ring laser, you're going to need some serious firepower for the third round. The forest is tricky in that there are about 1389276128739 air mines floating about and every single one of them hates you. There is SOME safety at the bottom of the screen as well as at the top, but you'll have to try and move through them eventually and they take off a LOT of health. When you get to the forest fortress, stay just above the level of the missile cannons so they fire their missiles just under you, don't go any higher. Just before the center target there is a huge laser cannon dome, it CAN be destroyed, but it is easy just to hop over the top of it and quickly come down on the other side. That bullet firing dome with the zigzag top is the main target.

Don't bother buying any special weapons for the 4th round, the boss is pathetically easy, you won't need them. On the 4th round you will want to stay near the top of the screen to have time to dodge the desert missile batteries, you will see a radar dish in front of where the missile come up from out of the sand. When you see a large black helicopter, hang left a bit as they have flamethrowers with some reach to them. The boss here is the easiest since the first one, stay all the way to the left just a HAIR above the level of the deck of the land carrier. Your fire will kill the missiles that rain down the mines, the fighter bays, and also the main target, the center missile launcher. You will need to dodge the missiles it fires. It will fire an over/under set you dodge by move up just above the bottom missile, then it fires two right down the middle at you, just move back to deck level to dodge those.

pjft

@VictimRLSH wow. Well, if only I had known that at the time :D

These are great tips - do I take it from your recent comments on past MAME ROWs that you have 1cc'ed quite a few of these or at least played them quite a bit back in the day?

AndersHP

@VictimRLSH great to give these old threads a bit of life again. Do you have a thread of your rig with some photos? Is it a bartop or a computer?

VictimRLSH

@pjft Yeah, beating nigh-impossible games was one of my hobbies.

@AndersHP The mini bartop is undergoing some rebuild, not happy with the small monitor and a much larger one will fit in the same case. I play most of the time on a controller mounted prototype I'm liking a lot and will finalize that build soon. It's a bit of a hack at the moment.

The pic is a bit blurry, but the display is razor sharp. That's a Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4, probably the greatest small display ever. I built the sound board from LM386s and 1/2 watt metal speakers.

AndersHP

@VictimRLSH I always wanted my arcade in a handheld edition - that display could be part of the solution - but is the RPi 3 not too large to properly fit a handheld console? What about battery life?

What I'm trying to say is: I'd love to see your development in a thread of its own :)

VictimRLSH

Well, the 3 B/B+ can be shortened considerably, there are hack projects for that. The battery is definitely overkill as well. My battery life is easily 8hrs+ with a 10,000 mAh battery. I can use a prefab sound card from Adafruit and lose that bulk too. The display won't be a problem it is actually very thin and the same footprint as the Pi. However, I really love the feel of a full size controller, and I don't think I'm stuffing that combo in my pocket any time soon.

However, when I finalize the build, I'm going to be ADDING weight in the form of RF shielding of the sound board and Pi/display. The sound board is picking up too much crap no matter how many filter caps I throw in the circuit.