MAME ROW #110 - Super Spacefortress Macross II

GtBFilms

This game is great fun.

I'm still not entirely sure why I run out of time, rather than energy, or how I can avoid running out of time in level 2.

Also for some strange reason it keeps putting my name in as SERBEE all the time, instead of GTB like I entered.

Best score so far (beginner mode) was 520090

mediamogul

@SERBEE Very nice!

GtBFilms

I assume we're playing this on the EASY setting?

I thought that starting on a harder setting might increase the available bonus, but I'm not sure that it actually does, you just seem to start on a later level.

I tried the hardest start level and it was certainly noticeably more difficult.

thelostsoul

I tried it out too and don't know how to understand and work with the timer. No score for now, until I understand the game.

obsidianspider

The asteroid field in level 2 kicks my butt every time.

@thelostsoul from what I can tell, you have to get a certain amount of points before the time runs out. You can "die" as many times as you want, but you must get all the points it asks for or you can't move on in the game.

GtBFilms

Ah, I've discovered what SERBEE is, it's the name of the Player 1 ship.

From https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7335

Game Introduction
One or two small spaceships called Valkaries must take on the enemy armada and save Earth. Player one is Serbee and Player two is Necks; both are charactors in the Macross II anime. The Valkaries have the ability to transform into three modes:
Fighter - looks like a jet and can shoot powerfull forward lasers.
Gerwalk - part fighter, part batteloid that shoots weaker shots forward and horizontally downward simultaneously.
Batteloid - its form looks like a giant robot. It can only be accessed by pressing the 'bomb' button. Once the bomb (actually a missile birrage) is completed it reverts to it's previous form.
Items that give you additional Bombs, as well as convert your Valkarie betwen Fighter and Gerwalk modes, are common in every level. Certain rare, hidden items like Minmei dolls and destroying certain enemy space ships can greatly increase your score. Minmei dolls are released when key parts of the background are shot repeatedly. Repeatedly getting weapon items will increase the firepower of the Gerwalk and Fighter modes.

Game Play
In one- or two-player cooperative modes, the players must destroy as many enemy spaceships and point items as they can in order to achieve the minimum score necessary to move on to the next level before the time runs out. The number of points left to complete the level are displayed in the top center of the screen and this tally changes color to reflect your points/time left ratio. If the time runs out and the minimum score is not met, the game is over. If the score is met, the players continue to fight enemies in that level until the time is over. Then they move on to the next level. Ironically, defeating the boss of the level does not give many bonus points, and regular enemies continue to come after the boss is defeated until time runs out.
As the game starts, the players must choose to start on the easy, medium, or hard levels. Each difficulty has three unique levels, plus a final level that all routes share. In other words, there are ten unique levels in this game.

In competative mode, the two players select one of the nine normal levels to compete for the higher score. When the time ends, the player with the higher score wins.

obsidianspider

837910 for now. I'm really liking this game.

GtBFilms

@obsidianspider I'm getting the hang of it, but haven't caught up with you yet. There's a couple of fast enemies that fly from left to right quite early in level 2, they don't hang about but if you hit them they're worth 20,000 each.

I've also found some hidden bonuses, sometimes they appear when you fire and there doesn't appear to be anything there, but a bonus appears.

I've not worked out quite how the bonuses work but those ones that look like a set of gold aviation emblem wings seem to multiply up if you get them in quick succession.

AndersHP

Wow, the input lag combined with the great jolt the ship moves with in this game is hard to tackle, do you have it too?
Tried Advmame, mame2003-plus and mame2003, the latter plays the best I think.

Is there a speedhack or something that needs to be toggled on?

GtBFilms

@AndersHP Ah, to be honest I've not been using my Picade this week - I've been playing it on my PC under MAME 0.146.

I did notice when I initially tried it on the PICADE that it was sluggish - I thought advmame 0.93 gave me the best performance.

thelostsoul

@AndersHP I only tried the game 2 or 3 times with mame2003 on overclocked Pi3 yet and don't remember anything like input lag or sluggish behavior. Do you have performance issues based on the Raspberry Pi? Maybe the FBA version is working better for you.

GtBFilms

Well as you can see, it took me a few goes, but I eventually managed 866170.

Still can't complete level 3 in the allocated time though.

Great game, I've got control pad thumb from playing it so much!

thelostsoul

496470
My first entry, still very low. I couldn't type my name, ironically the timer timed up (its Tuncay).
The concept is unique and interesting. I like this game too, at first glance. You seem really enjoying it. :-) Nice score btw.

pjft

@mediamogul I think I asked about this a long time ago, but is there any 2-or-more-player snake Gage on RetroPie? Maybe an unknown arcade game or under ports?

Edit: missed this this week, but I'll see if I can still give it a go tonight! Will be playing on a pi, is AdvMame the preferred choice then?

mediamogul

@pjft said in MAME ROW #110 - Super Spacefortress Macross II:

is there any 2-or-more-player snake Gage on RetroPie?

You'll be hard pressed to find one that supports more than two players. I can't think of any myself. Funny thing is, since even the simplest of computer AIs were uncommon at the time that snake games were popular, it's actually more difficult to find a version that allows a one player game. However, 'Surround' for the 2600 does support both one and two players and is not only the very first home version of the game, but also the first 2600 title where a programmer figured out they could use the playfield to allow complex player objects rather than it just be a static background. The best version you're likely to find overall though is probably 'Snafu' for Intellivision. It supports one and two players, has lively colors and is one of the only games on the platform to have persistent music. It's not a bad tune either, but I'm sure it would get old after a few games.

obsidianspider

MAME ROW #111 is live

pjft

@mediamogul thanks, I will look into them! Snafu looks interesting from the videos. Wonder if it plays with 4 players or is it 2 humans vs and 2 CPU ones.

As for this game, it's a fun shooter that I'll come back to! I played on AdvMame once and for a measly 435k score. Might try it out another time and submit a proper score. It's an interesting twist that you need to achieve a certain score before the time runs out.

mediamogul

@pjft said in MAME ROW #110 - Super Spacefortress Macross II:

Wonder if it plays with 4 players or is it 2 humans vs and 2 CPU ones.

Unfortunately it's just two human players verses two CPU. That's another drawback from being such an old genre, is that home consoles didn't yet cater to four players properly. The 2600 supported four players with the paddles, but that was just because the existence of 'Video Olmpics' allowed other games to follow. If 'Snafu' had been developed to take advantage of the Coleco Adam addon, with its two additional controller ports, it could've been the definitive snake party game, but sadly it didn't.

Something else to consider outside of the classic game play are the variants of both 'Surround' and 'Snafu', which are all a lot of fun themselves. 'Surround' has one variant that allows diagonal movement and another where you can use the fire button to briefly accelerate. That latter really amps up the excitement of competition when you have another human player. 'Snafu' also has a variant for diagonal movement, as well as a combat variant. There, each player chases the other's tail, which always has a limited length. A collision with the tail will remove a segment that can grow back over time. When all the player's segments are gone, that player is eliminated.