SDA Speedrunning Tourney -- ALL CLEAR

Enhasa

Edit history:

Enhasa: 2008-12-14 11:30:38 pm

2008-12-14 11:25:24 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

I am including gia's time since I hadn't updated for week 3 yet. (and also this tourney isn't SUPER-SERIOUS)

BTW while participation so far is atrociously low (I think it's the time of year), we seem to be getting speedruns out of the week 1 and week 2 games, so in terms of ulterior motives it looks to be a success. It will be a smashing success if people run some of the other games on the shortlist though.

BZero

2008-12-15 11:59:16 am

Bah, fuck this game. I'm just submitting a time to get a point.

0:03:07 - Tharandir - Stage 1 - Rocky

NoiseCrash

2008-12-15 02:55:44 pm

@_@

Quote from groobo:

Holy shit we're fucked.

It was with that statement right there that I knew I didn't stand a chance this week.

Turns out, I was correct. I define a new level of "suck" when it comes to this.

AquaTiger

2008-12-15 03:46:27 pm

Never give up!

~~NEW 0:01:51 - FrostyTheDragon - Stage 1 - Rocky~~

That can probably come down by ten to fifteen seconds, not just from fixing my own dumb mistakes, but more importantly from getting lucky on the first boss. As far as I can tell, you want him to stop and eat up some seeds from his bowl, then get almost in his face and reflect his shots (at close enough proximity, far more will bounce back in his face than miss). I'm pretty sure that deals damage faster than just shooting him.

He waited quite a while to spit on this attempt.

I'm at least making sure I get past stage 4 in competition this week and may even force myself to get the ALL that I failed to get last week.

Edit:

~~0:01:43 - FrostyTheDragon - Stage 1 - Rocky~~

Unfortunately, I royally screwed up stage 2 and wound up losing all of my lives there. I chalk it up to being downright reckless, as is natural for me, but also from it being so long since I've actually played. This is probably going to be the week where I participate more than any other week.

Let me note: Unlike a good number of shmups, your bombs do not auto-replenish when you die (but I don't think you lose them when you die either). So until your last life you are better off dying than using up a bomb.

Also note: For stage stopping points, I took the split at just the moment when your life is finished refilling after the boss, not the actual point when the boss explodes (sorta) or the fadeout a few seconds after the refilling. If stopping at the end of the fadeout or at the boss explosion is more accepted, I will do that instead.

[s]NEW 0:01:51 - FrostyTheDragon - Stage 1 - Rocky[/s]

That can probably come down by ten to fifteen seconds, not just from fixing my own dumb mistakes, but more importantly from getting lucky on the first boss.  As far as I can tell, you want him to stop and eat up some seeds from his bowl, then get almost in his face and reflect his shots (at close enough proximity, far more will bounce back in his face than miss).  I'm pretty sure that deals damage faster than just shooting him.

He waited quite a while to spit on this attempt.

I'm at least making sure I get past stage 4 in competition this week and may even force myself to get the ALL that I failed to get last week.

Edit:

[s]0:01:43 - FrostyTheDragon - Stage 1 - Rocky[/s]

Unfortunately, I royally screwed up stage 2 and wound up losing all of my lives there.  I chalk it up to being downright reckless, as is natural for me, but also from it being so long since I've actually played.  This is probably going to be the week where I participate more than any other week.

Let me note: Unlike a good number of shmups, your bombs do not auto-replenish when you die (but I don't think you lose them when you die either).  So until your last life you are better off dying than using up a bomb.

Also note: For stage stopping points, I took the split at just the moment when your life is finished refilling after the boss, not the actual point when the boss explodes (sorta) or the fadeout a few seconds after the refilling.  If stopping at the end of the fadeout or at the boss explosion is more accepted, I will do that instead.

RaneofSOTN

Edit history:

RaneofSOTN: 2008-12-15 11:52:15 pm

2008-12-15 11:30:25 pm

I want off the ride....

I donno frosty, but for anyone who cares. I have been TRYING this game, and so far seem to be getting the farthest in just trying to speed through. Unfortunately level 3 still kicks my @$$ and in this last try i hit level 4 and was liek "WUT?" so i messed up.

I know this is far from perfect but to give others an idea.

keep in mind i'm using a keyboard. so if i miss something badly (like a slide) i am probalby hitting too many keys...

http://www.geocities.com/melbrat_007/ranetry.zip

but i'll get on the time in a bit

17:39 (when i died in level 4) - RaneofSoTN - stage 3 - Rocky

Cromarty

Edit history:

Cromarty: 2008-12-16 11:35:33 am

2008-12-16 10:53:57 am

astral guard

That skeleton boss in the first part of stage 3 is a pain, I haven't worked out how to avoid the sawblade thing he throws yet.. Then there's the room afterwards where you have to fight off an endless stream of bats until the jester appears, argh.

Anyway, there are places in the game where you do.. something, which makes a flying person appear and give you things. Here are the ones I've seen so far.
Stage 1: It appeared at the pond where it's raining, don't know how I triggered it yet.
Stage 1 boss: He drops his bowl after you beat him, smash it and a purple cat gives you a 1up.
Stage 2: Take out the kappa that throws bombs at you while you're on the raft.

AquaTiger

2008-12-16 12:03:01 pm

Never give up!

I guess my comment on holding onto bombs isn't phrased right. Because of how disproportionately powerful the bombs are compared to the normal weapons (more extremely than most shmups), I believe you need to plan their usage exactly and not risk using them as a panic button.

For instance I use bombs against the stage 2 mid-boss (the bamboo stalk) and (in my practice plays, so nothing that qualifies by tourney rules) the stage 3 miniboss before you enter the mansion/crypt/whatever-it-is (one on each). I also use them against the firebreather minibosses in stage 2 but I want to wean those two off so I can use those bombs later.

Cromarty: I've gotten the stage 1 one you cite every time (you shoot one of the leaves on the pond to get that - I believe it's one nearer the edge of the bridge), but its powerups are somewhat random. He's always dropped a teacup, but whether he drops a charm (and one other item; the 'charm' is what I call the thing that gives the two-hit shield BTW - maybe it's called a 'tag', I dunno), two different weapon powers, or a bomb and a cat statue seems to be random.

And never mind what I said about the stage 1 boss. I'm now doubting that reflecting the seed spit attack up close is more powerful than just pummelling from afar, especially with a maxed out normal weapon (the three-card/leaf spread). (Maybe we can con one of the TASers into measuring things like this out for us?)

I guess my comment on holding onto bombs isn't phrased right.  Because of how disproportionately powerful the bombs are compared to the normal weapons (more extremely than most shmups), I believe you need to plan their usage exactly and not risk using them as a panic button.

For instance I use bombs against the stage 2 mid-boss (the bamboo stalk) and (in my practice plays, so nothing that qualifies by tourney rules) the stage 3 miniboss before you enter the mansion/crypt/whatever-it-is (one on each).  I also use them against the firebreather minibosses in stage 2 but I want to wean those two off so I can use those bombs later.

Cromarty: I've gotten the stage 1 one you cite every time (you shoot one of the leaves on the pond to get that - I believe it's one nearer the edge of the bridge), but its powerups are somewhat random.  He's always dropped a teacup, but whether he drops a charm (and one other item; the 'charm' is what I call the thing that gives the two-hit shield BTW - maybe it's called a 'tag', I dunno), two different weapon powers, or a bomb and a cat statue seems to be random.

And never mind what I said about the stage 1 boss.  I'm now doubting that reflecting the seed spit attack up close is more powerful than just pummelling from afar, especially with a maxed out normal weapon (the three-card/leaf spread).  (Maybe we can con one of the TASers into measuring things like this out for us?)

Cromarty

2008-12-16 02:24:38 pm

astral guard

This game has some of the most irritating enemies ever (like bats). If only I could fire and move in different directions.. So far I'm having the most trouble dealing with the "kill them all" rooms in stage 3 and 4, especially 4 because I'm running through clouds instead of killing them and then not having a high level shot.

I've seen the stage 4 boss one time, but I didn't have any powerups and it was nearly impossible to hit him without taking damage. Stupid.. Undecided

One bomb wasn't enough to kill him either.

Frosty: I went back and checked, and there's a frog that you shoot for the secret. It's pretty close to the bridge, as you said. Found one in stage 4 as well, early in the level there's a bird perched on a tree that you can shoot. I'd think there's one in stage 3 somewhere.
The powerups they drop seems to depend on which one appears.

gia

2008-12-16 07:13:57 pm

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I got a mount in the cemetery didn't notice what I hit but it was to the right and before the area that has a prize in a dead end to the right and you must take the left route to continue and get another prize. Then the hawk in level 4 also hides a bonus. Thought this was harder as long as you keep your powerups the levels are easy, although I also died at level 4 xD, I learned late how to use the bombs effectively

18:00 - gia - stage 4 - Pocky

groobo

Edit history:

groobo: 2008-12-18 11:48:04 am

2008-12-17 01:01:24 pm

boss

~~22:09 - groobo - ALL~~

Plan is to get sub 21:40. This game is 1000% about luck, impossible angles, shitty controls, and lag.

Cromarty

2008-12-17 01:21:25 pm

astral guard

13:30 - Cromarty - Stage 3 - Pocky (new)

What's with the fireballs being unblockable in stage 4, anyway?

groobo

Edit history:

groobo: 2008-12-19 04:15:20 am

2008-12-18 12:03:24 pm

boss

~~21:26 - groobo - ALL~~

Faster than I hoped for and I'm not done yet.

Some tips about bombs which are a major time-saver:
-the most important thing are the bombs, they can waste each boss up until stage 5 in a single hit (plus like 10 normal hits which doesn't count)
-you should keep in mind that how much damage you deal to an enemy depends on the distance between you and him so it's preferred to trigger bombs at point blank
-remember to pick up every chest which contains a green orb, there's one in every level except stage 5, the one in the first stage isn't in its place at first, to trigger it you have to go halfway through the last bridge before the boss then it should appear and you have to go back to the beginning of the bridge to pick it up
-another important thing are the spirits, or whatever the fuck those flying fucks are, you uncover them by shooting at certain spots, there's one in each stage except the last one, here's a pic of the secret spots (you get the one in the second level from the raft mid-boss so I didn't include him in my pro pic)

the thing about them is that sometimes they can give you an extra bomb, a bad thing about this is that it's random, though you have like a 50% chance to get one which isn't really that bad.
-bosses where you can save most time with bombs are bamboo and raft mid-bosses in stage2, djinni mid-boss in stage 3, stage 4, 5 (2 bombs best), and 6 bosses (3 bombs best)

Also some other tips:
-don't bother piling up attack upgrades since just sliding, damage abusing, and even dying is faster than going careful through out the whole stages, though getting hit too much isn't good either so you should watch out on some occasions
-learning which chests contain health refills might come in handy since it allows you to damage abuse even more, or at least prevents you from dying because of random shit
-the armor mid-boss in stage6 doesn't hurt you on contact (his shield and sword do, but you would really have to run into them on purpose) so you can just stand at the top of the screen hitting without him doing shit about it, sometimes he'll do his flamethrowing attack so you should keep an eye on his shield

[s]21:26 - groobo - ALL[/s]

Faster than I hoped for and I'm not done yet.

Some tips about bombs which are a major time-saver:
-the most important thing are the bombs, they can waste each boss up until stage 5 in a single hit (plus like 10 normal hits which doesn't count)
-you should keep in mind that how much damage you deal to an enemy depends on the distance between you and him so it's preferred to trigger bombs at point blank
-remember to pick up every chest which contains a green orb, there's one in every level except stage 5, the one in the first stage isn't in its place at first, to trigger it you have to go halfway through the last bridge before the boss then it should appear and you have to go back to the beginning of the bridge to pick it up
-another important thing are the spirits, or whatever the fuck those flying fucks are, you uncover them by shooting at certain spots, there's one in each stage except the last one, here's a pic of the secret spots (you get the one in the second level from the raft mid-boss so I didn't include him in my pro pic)
[img]http://i43.tinypic.com/2rnza4l.jpg[/img]
the thing about them is that sometimes they can give you an extra bomb, a bad thing about this is that it's random, though you have like a 50% chance to get one which isn't really that bad.
-bosses where you can save most time with bombs are bamboo and raft mid-bosses in stage2, djinni mid-boss in stage 3, stage 4, 5 (2 bombs best), and 6 bosses (3 bombs best)

Also some other tips:
-don't bother piling up attack upgrades since just sliding, damage abusing, and even dying is faster than going careful through out the whole stages, though getting hit too much isn't good either so you should watch out on some occasions
-learning which chests contain health refills might come in handy since it allows you to damage abuse even more, or at least prevents you from dying because of random shit
-the armor mid-boss in stage6 doesn't hurt you on contact (his shield and sword do, but you would really have to run into them on purpose) so you can just stand at the top of the screen hitting without him doing shit about it, sometimes he'll do his flamethrowing attack so you should keep an eye on his shield

AquaTiger

2008-12-18 07:00:03 pm

Never give up!

0:13:24 - FrostyTheDragon - Stage 3 - Rocky

I like this game - it lets me harness my reckless side (at least, 200000% more than most shmups allow). Though this playthrough also represents the first time I've made it through stage 2 without losing a life, despite all the damage-taking I was doing. (I promptly proceeded to lose three lives in stage 3 - two from totally botching the djinni fight.)

I'm not done yet - like I said, I want to see if I can get an ALL with this game (it'd become the first shmup I've 1CCed in ages, the second ever, and the first of a shmup made by a larger company).

groobo

2008-12-19 04:46:04 am

boss

21:21 - groobo - ALL

I think I'm done. Will post the replay at the end of the week if nothing better shows up.

Normand Nubcake

2008-12-21 06:46:09 pm

0:23:22 - Normand - ALL - NEW

My first successful run

SD2

2008-12-21 08:11:44 pm

dem tokay

0:05:16 - SD2 - Stage 1 - NEW

I'm downright terrible at this game. Oh well, it's not like I was any good at the other ones though... Tongue

Enhasa

2008-12-21 08:56:05 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Sorry about being deadbeat on updating this week. Sad

Was gonna post way earlier with strats but it's that time of year, too lazy + people kept bugging me to do shit. I wanted to beat my current time by a couple minutes (I'm not as risk-taking as I should be yet) but I didn't have the time to do it, lame. Next week I promise to update more regularly and also post earlier.

0:24:15 - Enhasa - ALL - Rocky

I really want to see groobo's run, good job. Cheesy

Tips:

- I remap the controls since non-rapid fire is pointless and slide is really useful
- I like the blue spread shot since it's like I'm playing Contra or Viper Phase hoho
- Bombs are ridiculous
- Swinging/blocking is beyond ridiculous
- I like to slide through stages and then try to no miss bosses (lower health counter too heh)
- If you're too lazy to read below, some good bosses to stand behind and bash are the 1st one and the 6th stage miniboss

Following is if you want to avoid taking damage (like if you want the ALL):

Code:

 face: just stand in front and pump
goblin: stand behind him and pump, swing to avoid spitting attack
 hit the bowl for 1up
 cyclops: stay to the left and pump, move to front and pump when he breathes fire
 bamboo: stand far enough in front that you can hit the bamboo shoots with spread and pump, swing to avoid leaves
 cyclops: like before but avoid charge attack, or just bomb
octopus: kill the tentacles, when octopus appears stand at the front of the raft and shoot diagonally towards it
 lich: don't stand in front of him to avoid ice attack, slide to avoid fire
 jester: he fires 8way so stand a little offset of sideways
 genie: stand a little closer than the center and fire diagonally, when he moves, move in the opposite direction parallel to him to avoid attack
lich: same as before really
 clouds shoot at roughly 60deg angle, typically you stand between the lightning twice then move forward in front of both
 for the bats and tornados, stand at the top, a little offset of center and you don't have to move
harpy: stand at the bottom slightly left of center and fire diagonally right, swing to avoid feathers, move to center then slide left to avoid swoop attack
 shoot the candles to deactivate them temporarily
 for the spiked balls, move down the right column, hide in the indent, then move to the left as soon as you can after the 2nd ball you have to avoid
vampire: move to the left and shoot diagonally, stand on a line so you can quickly move to avoid floor traps, bat form is just easy
 spiders shoot when they reach a new half side, so stand in the middle and dodge to the other side
 stand under and slightly offset from the beasts and shoot up
 cursed armor: stand behind it and pump, slide out in front of it and move sideways to dodge fire, then slide back behind it
statues: stand close and double bomb
mage: stand 3/4 to the right, when he does the orb attack, dodge left or down, dash to avoid purple, move in a circle and slide to avoid lightning

Quote from Cromarty:

If only I could fire and move in different directions..

If only we played Granada.

Sorry about being deadbeat on updating this week. :( Was gonna post way earlier with strats but it's that time of year, too lazy + people kept bugging me to do shit. I wanted to beat my current time by a couple minutes (I'm not as risk-taking as I should be yet) but I didn't have the time to do it, lame. Next week I promise to update more regularly and also post earlier.

0:24:15 - Enhasa - ALL - Rocky

I really want to see groobo's run, good job. :D

Tips:

- I remap the controls since non-rapid fire is pointless and slide is really useful
- I like the blue spread shot since it's like I'm playing Contra or Viper Phase hoho
- Bombs are ridiculous
- Swinging/blocking is beyond ridiculous
- I like to slide through stages and then try to no miss bosses (lower health counter too heh)
- If you're too lazy to read below, some good bosses to stand behind and bash are the 1st one and the 6th stage miniboss

Following is if you want to avoid taking damage (like if you want the ALL):

[code] face: just stand in front and pump
goblin: stand behind him and pump, swing to avoid spitting attack
 hit the bowl for 1up
 cyclops: stay to the left and pump, move to front and pump when he breathes fire
 bamboo: stand far enough in front that you can hit the bamboo shoots with spread and pump, swing to avoid leaves
 cyclops: like before but avoid charge attack, or just bomb
octopus: kill the tentacles, when octopus appears stand at the front of the raft and shoot diagonally towards it
 lich: don't stand in front of him to avoid ice attack, slide to avoid fire
 jester: he fires 8way so stand a little offset of sideways
 genie: stand a little closer than the center and fire diagonally, when he moves, move in the opposite direction parallel to him to avoid attack
lich: same as before really
 clouds shoot at roughly 60deg angle, typically you stand between the lightning twice then move forward in front of both
 for the bats and tornados, stand at the top, a little offset of center and you don't have to move
harpy: stand at the bottom slightly left of center and fire diagonally right, swing to avoid feathers, move to center then slide left to avoid swoop attack
 shoot the candles to deactivate them temporarily
 for the spiked balls, move down the right column, hide in the indent, then move to the left as soon as you can after the 2nd ball you have to avoid
vampire: move to the left and shoot diagonally, stand on a line so you can quickly move to avoid floor traps, bat form is just easy
 spiders shoot when they reach a new half side, so stand in the middle and dodge to the other side
 stand under and slightly offset from the beasts and shoot up
 cursed armor: stand behind it and pump, slide out in front of it and move sideways to dodge fire, then slide back behind it
statues: stand close and double bomb
mage: stand 3/4 to the right, when he does the orb attack, dodge left or down, dash to avoid purple, move in a circle and slide to avoid lightning [/code]

[quote="Cromarty"]
If only I could fire and move in different directions..
[/quote]
If only we played Granada.

spineshark

2008-12-21 09:59:03 pm

新世紀進歩的羽扇子音楽

alright like uhh, 2:07, stage 1 :x

NoiseCrash

2008-12-21 10:03:51 pm

@_@

0:24:57 - NoiseCrash - ALL - Rocky

It's like five minutes past the deadline but I know you're loving and nice and will let me submit my time anyway.... right? <3

I was lucky just to get the ALL, it went pretty badly and I didn't really practice this much this week. I just submitted the first time I made it all the way through while trying to go at least somewhat quickly.

Also Enhasa, you might want to change my name for the tournament points/standings as well since I've decided to give up the life of the masked vigilante. Wink

groobo

2008-12-21 10:10:44 pm

boss

Sub 21 is possible, but seeing how the participation this week is 0 I didn't even bother and I probably won't bother the next week either. I REALLY fucked up stage 4 in this attempt because the first cloud is always at the center of the bridge 99% of the time, so I was like "holy shit what do I do what do I do" then my brain just turned off and mistakes followed. Oh this and manipulating the right secret people is painful, 99/100 restarts caused by bad luck.

edit: Oh, the replay is for snes9x 1.52 or 1.502 or whatever the fuck is the latest working one (not the one in the first post of the voting topic).

Attachment:

21.21.smv

Enhasa

Edit history:

Enhasa: 2008-12-21 11:51:46 pm

2008-12-21 10:24:17 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

This is totally not the right time of year to have a tourney. Not really affecting my enjoyment though, lol. Or participant enjoyment from what people say. If you like competition it sucks though.

(moved edit to next post)

Enhasa

Edit history:

Enhasa: 2008-12-22 01:19:23 am

2008-12-21 11:55:12 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

I tried watching that Pocky & Rocky replay and no matter what settings, it desyncs early. You know, people don't use the official snes9x because it desyncs like a little bitch. Sad

If someone could encode a vid or upload to youtube or whatever, I would be most grateful.

About Gunners Heaven, I don't have exact values, but I'm using Ruka because her weapons are stronger. And also she's way less lame than Axel and her music is a bajillion times better. Axel is a little more newb-friendly though. Here are relative damages for the weapons:

Code:

axel (nhgf)
n	=
f	>>
g	>>>>
h	

ruka (nhgf)

g	>
n	>
f	>>>
h

Edit: Lol, I remembered this game as being easy, but actually I think it's almost certainly the hardest in the tourney. I think I just thought it was really easy because it is really easy... compared to Metal Slug.

Double Edit: Lol, the later stages of this game are auto-scrolling city.

groobo

2008-12-22 09:53:35 am

boss

Shit, I can't get that replay to work either (I deleted all the snes files the day I finished the run, saved only the replay, and before you ask YES the replay worked just fine when I checked and I watched it several times). No matter which version of snes9x or rom I try. All versions say that there's a rom mismatch between the rom the movie was recorded on and the actual rom. I can see that the desynch comes from getting hit by the green enemy at the end of the first vertical section, which didn't actually happen in the run. Unless it works for someone else I could do a run with save states to show about how my run looked like, I guess.

NoiseCrash

2008-12-22 06:23:37 pm

@_@

34:41 - NoiseCrash - ALL - Axel

I don't know how you can think this game is the hardest of the tourney, though maybe it's just because I'm using Axel and he's the "newb-friendly" one. Wink

I'm not sure whether this time is fast or slow. My execution was pretty clean but I'm not used to these kinds of games. I generally just spammed his H-weapon while running through stages and sliding where I could, then used F-weapon against bosses. I know nothing about this game, but it seemed that as long as you can make the boss keep taking damage from F-weapon, it degenerates health faster than the others. The splash effect is useful particularly on certain bosses also.

I didn't really have the need for bombs but one place I knew I should use one was on the first stage 4 area boss (at least I think it was stage four.. it's the thing that comes out of the lava) whenever he surrounds himself with those pink orbs. Other than that I tend to use them for bosses where I feel I spend more time dodging than attacking in order to fill in those damage gaps.

Stupid side-scrolling stages make speedrunning it kind of redundant though, minus the bosses.

I will however say that this game kicks some serious butt.

No videos, I'm using pSX and I think it doesn't record, and I don't know another way of doing it since I never need to record stuff on my compy. Sad

34:41 - NoiseCrash - ALL - Axel

I don't know how you can think this game is the hardest of the tourney, though maybe it's just because I'm using Axel and he's the "newb-friendly" one. ;)

I'm not sure whether this time is fast or slow. My execution was pretty clean but I'm not used to these kinds of games. I generally just spammed his H-weapon while running through stages and sliding where I could, then used F-weapon against bosses. I know nothing about this game, but it seemed that as long as you can make the boss keep taking damage from F-weapon, it degenerates health faster than the others. The splash effect is useful particularly on certain bosses also.

I didn't really have the need for bombs but one place I knew I should use one was on the first stage 4 area boss (at least I think it was stage four.. it's the thing that comes out of the lava) whenever he surrounds himself with those pink orbs. Other than that I tend to use them for bosses where I feel I spend more time dodging than attacking in order to fill in those damage gaps.

Stupid side-scrolling stages make speedrunning it kind of redundant though, minus the bosses.

I will however say that this game kicks some [b]serious[/b] butt.

No videos, I'm using pSX and I think it doesn't record, and I don't know another way of doing it since I never need to record stuff on my compy. :(

Enhasa

2008-12-22 07:04:35 pm

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Well yesterday I did say you would get the ALL. Wink

Actually all 4 games we got were among the easiest of the whole selection. Which isn't a bad thing given the participation. I do think this one is the hardest, but I play a lot of shmups so I think Pocky and Rocky is easy. I played once yesterday trying to get the ALL deathless in first try this week and failed (I tried this every week, playing carefully the first time to refresh myself, since I have previous experience already). This game, you have to learn some of the patterns, otherwise you won't know what to do, then it's easy once you have. Grin

The neat thing about this game is speedrunning actually makes you more powerful compared to normal play since your power will have degraded less.

Use my crappy chart above. N and F are tied for strongest Axel weapons, large dropoff to G, huge dropoff from G to H.

There's a shortcut on stage 4. You can grapple hook above the top (think Mario 1) and then go all the way to the boss untouched.

You should be able to use Fraps for psx I think, but the preferred method would be to play on a real PS1/2/3 and record for SDA. Cheesy

groobo: Maybe you got a different rom the 2nd time, because when I tried with snes9x 1.51, it didn't say rom mismatch or any type of error. It just desynced a bit after the frog. Unchecking fake mute usually works for me, but not here.

Well yesterday I did say you would get the ALL. ;) Actually all 4 games we got were among the easiest of the whole selection. Which isn't a bad thing given the participation. I do think this one is the hardest, but I play a lot of shmups so I think Pocky and Rocky is easy. I played once yesterday trying to get the ALL deathless in first try this week and failed (I tried this every week, playing carefully the first time to refresh myself, since I have previous experience already). This game, you have to learn some of the patterns, otherwise you won't know what to do, then it's easy once you have. ;D

The neat thing about this game is speedrunning actually makes you more powerful compared to normal play since your power will have degraded less.

Use my crappy chart above. N and F are tied for strongest Axel weapons, large dropoff to G, huge dropoff from G to H.

There's a shortcut on stage 4. You can grapple hook above the top (think Mario 1) and then go all the way to the boss untouched.

You should be able to use Fraps for psx I think, but the preferred method would be to play on a real PS1/2/3 and record for SDA. :D

groobo: Maybe you got a different rom the 2nd time, because when I tried with snes9x 1.51, it didn't say rom mismatch or any type of error. It just desynced a bit after the frog. Unchecking fake mute usually works for me, but not here.