Round 7 is: R-Type Leo (US Version).
Goal: See how far you can get on 3 credits.
R-Type Leo is a horizontal shmup developed by Nanao and published by Irem.
This is a fun game that I've had positive experiences with in the past. It's nowhere near as difficult as the original R-Type which is brutally punishing.
There is a US version and a Japanese version. The main difference is that the US version lets you restart where you were when you die, whereas the Japanese version has restart points, similar to the original R-Type.
We decided to go with the US version since we are American and French (and not Japanese robots), so it will give us a better chance of getting to the end :)
Let's go go go and have fun with this one!!!
I've managed to reach area 5 with 3 credits, things start getting challenging from this point on.
ReplyDeleteTonight I finally had a chance to play. I got to level 4 on 3 credits. But I forgot about the button 2 power of sending out those evil balls of death, until level 3 boss. So I'm sure I'll do better next time :)
ReplyDeleteCool! Yeah if you use the evil balls you can easily get till area 4, area 5 is pretty challenging however that's where the hectic fun starts. Area 6, the final one is deadly, I only managed to get there twice and couldn't last more than a minute.
ReplyDeleteI feel I'm soon done with this round. I managed to get half-way across the final area. It's really hard, I'm not sure I can beat that, seeing how crazy hard the boss of area 5 already is.
ReplyDeleteI played tonight and took screenshots for the final writeup. I got right before the 4th boss and died. Used an extra credit so I could play the 4th boss and take screenshots.
ReplyDeleteVery cool boss by the way.
Give me just a couple more nights to make my final attempts at this and then I'll be ready to move on and we'll get our Quake's going :)
Wow! I just got halfway through level 5! I'm finally getting the hang of this :)
ReplyDeleteIt's actually a really good game, I'm finally figuring out the nuances of using the evil balls of death and also how the little things protect your ship when they are next to it.
Do you ever find yourself paying too much attention to the power ups to make sure you get the right color, and not enough attention on the bullets? lol
Wow, you're a super fast learner!
ReplyDeleteI'm glade that you could appreciate its value, yeah, it's really good game. My only complain is that there isn't enough action during the first 2 levels.
I totally see what you mean about paying too much attention to the power ups.
Geez, I have to play it a bit more, let's give us a few more days, right? I'll try to take shot of the furthest I could go.
I can now get to level 4 on my first credit.
ReplyDeleteI got to level 5 boss once.
Otherwise, Level 5 is insanely hard... Too many bullets considering how big the hitbox is, and I need a lot more practice with those platforms that close together with the blue flames that kill you.
Evil!
Hey, I've recorded my last game (my version of mame is 0.152). I did well up to Level 5, then at Level 6 it's a catastrophe ;-) I managed to get a bit further than that a few days ago but not this time.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/yl8lzqg62azp3f0/R-Type_Leo_A-Lin_6.rec?dl=0
Hey. I'm desperately trying to figure out how to play this file... However I can't figure it out. File extension is .rec... All I can find is to record and play "inp" files and also "mng" and of course avi.
ReplyDeleteI'm using shmupmame 42 which I believe uses the 0.148 roms.
I'll try to download .152 and see if I can make it do anything with the .rec file.
Will report back.
And I'll record an inp file of me playing it later as well. :)
It's an inp file, I named it rec cause I didn't know what was the proper extension at the time.
ReplyDeleteDang. I already tried renaming it to inp and playing it. Mame goes out of sync immediately and gives an error. Same with a file I downloaded from a website of somebody's replay.
ReplyDeleteI guess they have to be played back in the same version. Although I recall we were able to play each other's Ninja Spirit replays just fine?
Let me see if I can get 152 working.
After much messing around with it, I can hardly get 152 to work. Aside from that, I also can't get the 152 dat loaded in clrmamepro properly to convert the roms.
ReplyDeleteSorry but I don't think I'll be able to view it :(
I'm currently installing Open Broadcaster Software so I can make a nice avi of my playthrough and put it on youtube :)
I don't know.. I give up on recording right now too. The default MAME avi's are ENORMOUS, and I can't seem to get Open Broadcaster Software configuerd to give good results right now. They are choppy and low quality.
ReplyDeleteHere is a video render of it
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/jv6pjpt2u1rlew0/R-Type_Leo_A-Lin_6.ogv?dl=0
I'd be curious to watch your gameplay, even at LQ.
OK Dude. What I'll do is make an inp first and then use OBS to record the playback of the inp. I'll try to make it as non-choppy as possible.
ReplyDeleteHopefully I can get to level 5 again! I had some bad luck last night and even after 3 attempts I didn't do very well.
Interested to watch yours in a little while. Will report back later!
You may also send me your inp file, I might just be able to read it (assuming mame is backward compatible in that respect).
ReplyDeleteOK last night I finally got a decent run! I got to the level 5 boss and think I almost beat it! The furthest I've gotten. I got "in the zone" during level 5 and it was really intense! Awesome stuff!!!! I am determined to play this a few more days and see if I can get to level 6.
ReplyDeleteI had to split my playthrough into two parts because the software I used was demo version.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9tdb4xo047bvo4/R-Type_Leo_-_organic_io_rec7_Part1.mp4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qh00ns8jpikw8rt/R-Type_Leo_-_organic_io_rec7_Part2.mp4?dl=0
I decided that smooth framerate was more important than crisp image. The only way I could get it to record smooth was to make my MAME window as small as possible on my screen and then record that portion of the screen. It looks OK, but there is a little bit of sound stuttering. I guess my computer's not strong enough, although I don't know how I made those decent MAME videos before.... But that was before I reinstalled Windows, so settings are different now.
Here's the inp if you wanna try:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/jcy9u7cq7o3t8di/rtypeleo_organicio_rec7.inp?dl=0
Maybe yours will be forward compatible with mine, whereas mine wasn't backwards compatible with yours. I wish we were on the same ROM version, but I prefer Shmupmame and the most recent version is almost 3 years old and uses rom version 0.148.
Watching your playthrough!
ReplyDeleteI see that you prefer the red laser while I prefer the green weapon.
It looks like we prefer a similar speed setting. I agree the speed gets too high if you pickup too many speed powerups. I read something about how the speed system works in the game, I will post it on the final comments.
I noticed on the level 2 boss you didn't use the evil balls of death very much. I guess you don't need to with that strong laser. I found the balls indespensable for bosses.
You got some skills on the 3rd boss! I found that homing fire to be highly annoying.
Ah, an intentional weapon switch on level 4. Interesting. Around 8:58 you did some heroic things with the bullets at the top of the screen!!!
The huge laser on the 5th boss is insanely huge, I didn't expect that the first time it went off.
Wow, level 6 looks insane. The number of bullets definitely tests the limits of what is possible with a hitbox this big. Whereas if you had the ship from Dodonpachi it would be really simple :)
Really good run man. I'm gonna see if I can get that far too :)
I've watched your playthrough. That was quite interesting!
ReplyDeleteMan, you don't use turbo-fire, that must be tough on your finger. I actually use auto-fire, I don't even press anything, only the evil balls of the death.
Yeah, level 5 is really the one who brings the player into the zone. ;-)
Your fight against boss 5 is excellent, you anticipate well not being locked in the upper part of the screen by the moving platform, I'm gonna take some inspiration from that.
You're clearly on your way to reach my level and beyond, the tension is climbing, good. ;-)
BTW, I couldn't read your inp either. Mame says that it's out of sync.
ReplyDeleteYeah I don't use turbo. My Anashin 2 controller has support for turbo on any button, but I don't ever use it. I guess until I get older and arthritis, I don't want to get used to it.
ReplyDeleteHere's my logic: Certain games have different functions for the fire button depending how fast/long you press it. As you know Dodonpachi -- Rapid presses shoots the wide shot and you have fast movement. Holding it down shoots the focused beam and your movement slows down.
Mars Matrix is even more complex! Have you ever played it? It doesn't even use a button 2. Pressing rapidly gives the expected result of regular shots. Pressing and waiting about 1 second between shots gives a focused burst shot which is more powerful than the main shot. Pressing and holding charges up a gauge and does essentially a bomb type move which wipes all the bullets off the screen.
Trying to map those separately on my gamepad would be a nightmare. And even for Dodonpachi it causes problems. My controller is a PS2 controller so has the standard Square, X, Triangle, Circle buttons. Usually for primary fire I use the Square, and for bombs I use X. My thumb is resting on both buttons. The tip of my thumb on the Square and the "ball" of my thumb on the X. That way I can press both as the same time. (Same way I play platform games). It takes more effort to move my thumb and press the triangle or circle, so it seems inefficient to have to "reach". For some reason I am not comfortable using the shoulder buttons very much unless I absolutely have to. Also sometimes I have R1 mapped to take screenshots.
So yeah, there is my overly long explanation of why I don't use autofire.
But once I start getting arthritis I'm sure it will become my friend :)
My fight against 5th boss was totally improvised since I didn't know what was going to happen. (I died almost immediately the other time I got to it).
Re: Inp files.. I asked on some MAME forums and a guy says you have to play inp files back in the same version of MAME. Though I swear we were able to watch each other's Ninja Spirit games even though we were on different versions. Maybe it just depends on the game and if they made significant changes between the ROMS in those version changes.
MAME Roms are crazy like that, why does there have to be a new version all the time? Home consoles never have new ROMS, they're dumped and they stay the same forever.
Anyway. I'm gonna give it another shot when I get home from work!
I have a history of RSI, mostly because I used to play piano with the wrong hand positions. I'm self-taught and that came with a few fundamental mistakes that I have since then corrected.
ReplyDeleteI'm somewhat scared that this thing comes back which makes be rely on turbo-fire most of the time. Since I use an arcade stick I can easily reach 4 buttons, so what I do is set the primary one with turbo-fire and the second or third one with normal fire (I do the configuration in mame on a per game basis).
Here's my final submission for this round.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/o7j2x4o8i9n5mv1/R-Type_LEO_A-Lin_Final_Submission.ogv?dl=0
To sum-up,
Score: 863500
Level: mid-way of final area
I've watched this long play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSVdU8cW6M
in the last area he doesn't only show great skills but also very clever tactics. Impressive!
I've played more than you, feel free to take the time you want to try beat me.
Yet another very entertaining round! :-)
So I just tried Leo with keyboard and autofire.
ReplyDeleteDare I say it is more... fun??? :)
Something very visceral about it. Seems like I might be able to dodge better. Although I didn't quite make it to the 5th boss.
I'm going to continue trying this especially since my d-pad thumb is sore.
As promised I will get my final score submission in before the Out Zone micro round is over. I haven't watched your final video yet but I will before the round is over!
I just made save states at the beginning of every level. Now I can just practice levels 4 and 5 until I get them. Then I will make one epic run probably Thursday night and post my final score!
ReplyDelete