Share your hidden gems and insider tips
-
Galaxy Wars, 1979 Universal (MAME 2003) - A clever take on the space invaders theme, you guide a missile through asteroid belts and incoming fire into two layers of flying saucers at the top of the screen. The fire button launches your rocket and is also for thrust once you launch. If you can't find a suitable target by the time your rocket reaches the top of the screen, you can launch it again WITHOUT losing a life.
While appearing simple, the gameplay gets more complex as you have to figure out how to get your missile to the target through shots that are coming down too fast to dodge. You can hide in the rocks if you are careful not to run into them. If is also possible to 'thread the needle' between shots fired from the lower layer of enemies scrolling to the left, and the upper layer scrolling to the right, as the upper enemies will NOT drop a bomb over one of the lower ones.
This game also has some hidden secrets. While you get more score for hitting the exact center of the flying saucers, it is also more risky. All the scoring is based on risk. If you are cozy to the rocks, on the edge of the screen, or dodging many shots, your scores will be higher.
Another secret is similar to the "bulletproof necktie" on Berzerk that allowed a shot to travel through the gap between you player's head and body without killing you. In this game, if you can get an incoming shot to land EXACTLY on the tip of your rocket, it will not destroy your rocket.
-
@VictimRLSH First I thought this would be a simple Space Invaders ripoff. But as soon as I saw the footage, I realized this is not true. The idea of a rocket under your control is quite interesting and adds another layer of skill.
-
@thelostsoul I spent most of a snowy night in a motel lobby in Ellensburg playing this one. It was the only game they had. My first impression before playing was "This looks lame, but oh well.."
I didn't get much sleep that night.
-
@VictimRLSH When did this happen?
-
@thelostsoul I played some "DoDonPachi: Dai Ou Jou" last night and it looks great, but...wow, it's hard! Maybe I just haven't played it enough.
- 5 Favorite Arcade Games in MAME
- Cocktail Cabinet Games
- Check out the MAME RoW
-
@IanDaemon Definitive. Those bullet hell games aren't easy, none of them. The graphics are so cool and the soundtrack also very pulsing. I love to play this game, just for fun. Oh, you talk about an another entry in the series. Need to test this too. :)
-
@thelostsoul That was when I was a kid, about 13 I think.
-
@thelostsoul This person's playthrough makes it look easy.
-
Since you guys are talking about shmups I feel like I should mention "Battle Squadron" for the Amiga & Sega Genesis (I prefer the amiga version). I wouldn't exactly call it a hidden gem but it's still quite a lot of fun to play.
Systems: Raspberry Pi 0/2/3 Model B+
Os: RetroPie 4.5
Frontend: Emulationstation & Attract Mode -
@Brigane An additional comparison page for Amiga and Mega Drive version.
http://www.retro-sanctuary.com/Comparisons-Battle-Squadron.html
The game itself looks fine, I tried the Mega Drive version of it. But I miss the appeal of Amiga sound and music design. -
@Brigane @thelostsoul Battle Squadron was one of my favourite Amiga games in my teens. I don't know how it compares with all other SMUPS for the Amiga, but I loved its art style, music, playability, and little details like the metallic tick sounds when shots hit an enemy, but didn't destroy it yet.
-
Apropos, another of my favourite Amiga SHMUPS was Hybris:
edit: A nice feature was that upgrades made you bigger as well as more powerful, so you could get hit slightly easier, but the bigger shell also worked as a form of protection, if I recall correctly (I should play it again some time).
-
@Clyde Hybris looks amazing. I should really set up my old Commodore Amiga 1200 for the full retro gaming pleasure when I try this out.
-
A buddy of mine wants me to find a "donkey kong remix" arcade game. Do you guys know anything about that? I've been trying to find it but without succes. I guess my main concern is if it even exists?
-
@Brigane It seems to be a fan made game, but I am not sure if it is a romhack or completely new programmed one. Here this could be the original posting?
http://donkeykongforum.com/index.php?topic=1417.0
I also found a flash game page to play this game (didn't try to play it). Maybe he is talking about this.
http://www.flasharcade.com/arcade-games/donkey-kong-remix.html
And at least Donkey Kong Remix 2 seems to be included in the Flashpoint collection:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/19455/flashpoint-the-web-game-preservation-project-no-retropie-no-emulation
Full list: http://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/datahub/Game_Master_List -
@thelostsoul There are quite a few hidden gems lurking within Flashpoint. You CAN play Flash games on the Pi, but I have not been able to get Flashpoint working. Chromium will run them online.
The Epic Battle Fantasy RPG series is well worth playing, as is the Gemcraft series of Tower Defense games. Very rich storyline and complex gameplay for TD games. Both of these have titles still in development too.
Gemcraft Chasing Shadows has hundreds of levels, here is a speedrun video you can hop around in to see what the gameplay is like.
-
@VictimRLSH The game looks indeed nice for a tower defense game, but I will most probably not try it out. I have something against browser games as well as mobile (smartphone) games for different reasons. Ironically the best tower defence game I ever played was on mobile and it had 0 story. The gameplay design was very good. It was a iOS exclusive and later got a very nice clone on Android:
ZDefense HD
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.zstudio.avi.full -
@thelostsoul said in Share your hidden gems and insider tips:
Mame2003
- hook Hook (World)
FBA
- boogwing Boogie Wings (Euro v1.5, 92.12.07)
- kov Knights of Valour / Sangoku Senki (ver. 117) (needs pgm)
I can verify these are awesome!
-
@thelostsoul I totally get where you are coming from and agree. Streaming games such as browser and moblile games are basically going to rob us of control of our games (as if modern gaming wasn't broken ENOUGH). There will be no more consoles, no more hacks, no more player mods, little or no player produced content, and a LOT more 'shovelware' and '$100 buttons'. Oh, and no more emulation. That is why I think Flashpoint is such a great thing, it basically jailbreaks some great games and puts them back in control of players.
-
@IanDaemon Thank you for confirmation. :-) I only listed those games while searching for new old games based on recommendations and some kind of uniqueness. They looked good when I try them for a couple of minutes to ensure the roms are functional. Out of these three titles, I am mostly interested in the shooter Boogie Wings for the interesting concept it have.
@VictimRLSH Me too. While I don't really play or like browser games, it is an important and useful collection of history. That guy who is responsible for Flashpoint earns my respect (as much as the other emulation related people). On a related note, it is possible to save and create and installation media from Android applications/games, together with Android emulation, this is easy to preserve. But for mmo games, it will not be the same without the world wide online player base. And now, they start to stream games, worst case scenario! Btw, I made a meme related to this topic:
(not perfectly edited, but you get the idea, this was in response to ActivisionBlizzard's announcement of Diablo for mobile)
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.