MAME ROW #58 - R-Type
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@andershp I can do the first three levels without getting hit on the MS version, the MAME version I can get to level three, but its quite different and I havent memorised it yet.
I recently completed the MS version, its harder than nails!
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@spruce_m00se Seems I have to up my game, then...!
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@andershp level four will destroy you if you ever make it there, I never got past it back in the day, but did so recently, the rest fo the game is then easy until the very end boss, which will destroy you and then stomp on your corpse.
I will play it through again soon on an original MS joypad, it will be much harder than with the ps4 joypad
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This week's winner is R-Type
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@spruce_m00se Level 4 is always the one that finishes me off.
R-Type is an awesome game but it does suffer from the feature that when you are all tooled up, and lose a life, there's no coming back.
Particularly that little orb that floats above the ship (and eventually is joined with another below the ship) once you lose them there's no opportunity to get them back and you soon get a battering.
I think I've got to the end boss on Level 4 a couple of times, but no further.
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@gtbfilms once you are at the level four boss you should be able to get to the end of the game without being hit again fairly easily, the trick with the bosses is to look for the "blind spot" where you dont get hit ever.
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Improved overlay graphics:
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I forgot how difficult this game is. It's going to be a challenge this week!
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Just to get things started (and to throw my name in the bowl before anyone smacks a massive hiscore on the table), here's my humble, initial contribution: 66.600
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@andershp well done! You inspired me to give it a go as well.
On my first attempt I made a terrible mistake at the end of stage two which caused me to pretty much lose all my lives there.
On my second attempt I managed to fly past that and then also made a mistake that led me to crash as I was getting ready to fight the end of stage 3 boss, and then lost all my lives trying to get back there. I scored 175700 though, which should be good until someone who's actually a proper pro on this game comes by and obliterates my score. :)
I don't think I've ever gone past stage 3 on a single credit in the arcade - and actually my main experience with the game had been on the ZX Spectrum back in the day. Fantastic game and great conversion - if anyone wants to read about it, the author has created a free ebook with the story. It's somewhat technical, so if you didn't have a Spectrum or you don't harbor any special feelings towards RType or this kind of topic, you might not really enjoy it that much. Still, it's a fascinating read and gives some perspective about the UK gaming industry in its early days.
You can find it at his site: http://bizzley.com/
Anyway, here's my score:
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Sorry @pjft,
180900
All my student time and money wasn't wasted!
P. S. I second the recommendation of Bob Pape's Making of R-Type free ebook, I read it while waiting for a delayed flight and it brought back some happy memories of scamming my way into the trade day at the big Personal Computer World Fair at the London Olympia in the 1980s. So much so I emailed him to thank him for the free book and he emailed back straight away to say EVERYONE scammed their way into the Olympia exhibition on the trade day, there were hardly any legit trades people there! Nice guy and a good read!
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@gtbfilms well done! That's a very good performance! How far did you make it in level 4?
Glad you liked Bob Pape's book. I was actually halfway through it and then ended up being distracted with other more serious books, but it's still in my backlog. This week's game is getting me in the mood to go back to it!
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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
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