HSC Round 4.27: Dragon Spirit

[M.A.M.E Offender]

106,280

 

 

 

This is one of those games that I find excruciatingly frustrating but somehow it keeps me playing. It's just so unforgiving--you collect all the shit to power up with a bad ass weapon, then you lose it with a few small mistakes and go back to the pathetic single shot. Another peeve of mine is how sometimes you bomb those eggs and your power-up floats off the side of the screen where you can't get it--stupid.

 

 

 

 

Yes, Matt. I know what you mean about the weapons floating off the board. Now that you mention it, that is another similarity to Ajax that I didn't write about. The way the special weapons come at you. Only in Ajax, it doesn't take that kind of "sling shot" pattern at you.

 

Anyways, to prevent that from ever happening, make sure the path of the special enemy thru you is somewhere as close to the middle bottom part of the screen as possible. It works for me every time.

 

Ok. I'm givin' this one a nice last minute run!!

 

See y'all at noon!!!

[bigbee99]

After I get hit I can't do much else with this game. The power ups helps soooo much. Most of my points are scored on the 1st ship.

 

55,640

 

B

[onmode-ky]

Sometimes, egg-released power-ups even float off the screen.

 

You know, it didn't seem right, my being at the top of the scoreboard. Just to make sure I was on a level playing field here (by the way, my version of MAME is 0.144 and shows the individual DIP switches--I used the default, which was everything in the Off position), each game started with 2 lives in reserve, and each life took 2 hits to die (first hit would take down your power-ups). I used my RumblePad to play; the keyboard would sometimes not respond to fire-button key presses fast enough while cursor keys were held down.

 

For those yet to attempt it, know that the second boss is going to be a white-knuckle battle if you don't have a decent weapon. The third boss was surprisingly easy, I think I beat him on my first try.

 

About the Area 2 boss, you mean the one who has rocks rotating around him, right? I just kept out of his way, going behind him as necessary, and fired whenever he was in front of me. Even with the base pea shooter, it wasn't that bad. I'm pretty sure Area 3's boss is impossible with the base pea shooter, though, because you wouldn't be able to clear out the falling rocks fast enough to not get hit by them.

 

onmode-ky

[bigbee99]

Still a little time on this game. I have already set up 4.28 though. DKJR! Back to the basics. Everyone knows this one. Also, if you have not requested games for the Spring break Tournament, the thread is still there. I am going to set up polls sometime this week for the tie breakers, if any are needed.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/195173-hsc-round-430-spring-break-tournament/

 

B

[M.A.M.E Offender]

Darn. It looks like MO isn't getting it done this week. Oh well. I gave 'er a go.

This shooter grew on me. It was a lot of fun playing this one. Frustrating too.

 

 

95,810

[Cynicaster]

Sometimes, egg-released power-ups even float off the screen.

 

You know, it didn't seem right, my being at the top of the scoreboard. Just to make sure I was on a level playing field here (by the way, my version of MAME is 0.144 and shows the individual DIP switches--I used the default, which was everything in the Off position), each game started with 2 lives in reserve, and each life took 2 hits to die (first hit would take down your power-ups). I used my RumblePad to play; the keyboard would sometimes not respond to fire-button key presses fast enough while cursor keys were held down.

 

For those yet to attempt it, know that the second boss is going to be a white-knuckle battle if you don't have a decent weapon. The third boss was surprisingly easy, I think I beat him on my first try.

 

About the Area 2 boss, you mean the one who has rocks rotating around him, right? I just kept out of his way, going behind him as necessary, and fired whenever he was in front of me. Even with the base pea shooter, it wasn't that bad. I'm pretty sure Area 3's boss is impossible with the base pea shooter, though, because you wouldn't be able to clear out the falling rocks fast enough to not get hit by them.

 

onmode-ky

 

Really? I found it to be almost the opposite. Sure, you can do things like go behind the 2nd boss to a temporary safe zone and keep "dancing" with him but your character sprite is so damn big that I find it quite challenging to survive a toe-to-toe battle for very long. Also, I noticed when you hit the "rocks" that fly around the boss you get that "you just caused me damage" flash effect, but I still don't know if it's actually doing anything--I think you have to hit the guy in the middle directly.

 

As for the 3rd boss, like I said, I did that one on my one and only attempt, and I'm pretty sure I had a flimsy weapon at the time. I'd just dodge those falling things, bomb, dodge, bomb, dodge, bomb, etc.

[onmode-ky]

For those yet to attempt it, know that the second boss is going to be a white-knuckle battle if you don't have a decent weapon. The third boss was surprisingly easy, I think I beat him on my first try.

 

About the Area 2 boss, you mean the one who has rocks rotating around him, right? I just kept out of his way, going behind him as necessary, and fired whenever he was in front of me. Even with the base pea shooter, it wasn't that bad. I'm pretty sure Area 3's boss is impossible with the base pea shooter, though, because you wouldn't be able to clear out the falling rocks fast enough to not get hit by them.

 

onmode-ky

 

Really? I found it to be almost the opposite. Sure, you can do things like go behind the 2nd boss to a temporary safe zone and keep "dancing" with him but your character sprite is so damn big that I find it quite challenging to survive a toe-to-toe battle for very long. Also, I noticed when you hit the "rocks" that fly around the boss you get that "you just caused me damage" flash effect, but I still don't know if it's actually doing anything--I think you have to hit the guy in the middle directly.

 

As for the 3rd boss, like I said, I did that one on my one and only attempt, and I'm pretty sure I had a flimsy weapon at the time. I'd just dodge those falling things, bomb, dodge, bomb, dodge, bomb, etc.

 

With the base pea shooter, I think I finished off the Area 2 boss during the 4th or 5th cycle of shooting him and then going behind him. He never changed his pattern in that time, and I think his movements were also always in the same screen locations. I wasn't sure whether shooting the outer ring of his rocks did anything, either, so I always concentrated my fire on his main body.

 

Was there a safe zone with the Area 3 boss, like maybe the center of the screen, or did you simply do a whole lot of weaving in between the rain of rocks? I thought for sure that the sprite was too big to fit between those gaps.

 

onmode-ky

[Cynicaster]

For those yet to attempt it, know that the second boss is going to be a white-knuckle battle if you don't have a decent weapon. The third boss was surprisingly easy, I think I beat him on my first try.

 

About the Area 2 boss, you mean the one who has rocks rotating around him, right? I just kept out of his way, going behind him as necessary, and fired whenever he was in front of me. Even with the base pea shooter, it wasn't that bad. I'm pretty sure Area 3's boss is impossible with the base pea shooter, though, because you wouldn't be able to clear out the falling rocks fast enough to not get hit by them.

 

onmode-ky

 

Really? I found it to be almost the opposite. Sure, you can do things like go behind the 2nd boss to a temporary safe zone and keep "dancing" with him but your character sprite is so damn big that I find it quite challenging to survive a toe-to-toe battle for very long. Also, I noticed when you hit the "rocks" that fly around the boss you get that "you just caused me damage" flash effect, but I still don't know if it's actually doing anything--I think you have to hit the guy in the middle directly.

 

As for the 3rd boss, like I said, I did that one on my one and only attempt, and I'm pretty sure I had a flimsy weapon at the time. I'd just dodge those falling things, bomb, dodge, bomb, dodge, bomb, etc.

 

With the base pea shooter, I think I finished off the Area 2 boss during the 4th or 5th cycle of shooting him and then going behind him. He never changed his pattern in that time, and I think his movements were also always in the same screen locations. I wasn't sure whether shooting the outer ring of his rocks did anything, either, so I always concentrated my fire on his main body.

 

Was there a safe zone with the Area 3 boss, like maybe the center of the screen, or did you simply do a whole lot of weaving in between the rain of rocks? I thought for sure that the sprite was too big to fit between those gaps.

 

onmode-ky

 

Weird. I guess I just didn't pick up on the pattern of boss #2. I found it to be regular in general, but then he would have these erratic motions that seemed random.

 

No safe zone with boss #3. I just kept firing and dodging. Maybe the hours I've spent in the last year playing bullet-hell shooters have paid off.