March 2023 shooting HSC: Zero Wing

[Steven Pendleton]

Got suddenly busy in real life, but here it is. This is the first game this year that was actually made by Toaplan; Slap Fight MD was outsourced to MNM, which is now Mindware, but Zero Wing was converted by Toaplan in-house.

 

Rules

Normal difficulty

Player = 3

 

I keep forgetting to mention the extend scores, but extend scores for this game are Toaplan's typical 70,000/200,000 every. If you've played Kyuukyoku Tiger, Tatsujin, or one of Toaplan's many other arcade classics, you'll probably recognize these extend settings.

 

Nothing other than that to note. Use auto if you want, but it doesn't really make a difference in scoring here like it does in Slap Fight (MD), so no need to note if you used it or not.

 

I do not know if Zero Wing has regional differences in gameplay. It probably does because Toaplan, but until I can confirm we'll just take note of it and treat each score equally.

 

Format will be as follows:

 

NAME - SCORE - ROUND-STAGE - VERSION (Japan, PAL, or Retro-Bit)

 

So in my case, if I played the Japanese version and game overed on loop 2 stage 8 and had a score of 3,000,000, it would be

 

Steven - 3,000,000 - 2-8 - Japan

 

HOW TO SET UP US THE BOMB

 

Rule #1 of Zero Wing: get the green homing weapon

Rule #2 of Zero Wing: get the green homing weapon

Rule #3 of Zero Wing: get the green homing weapon

Rule #4 of Zero Wing: do not lose the green homing weapon

Rule #5 of Zero Wing: if you die, get the green homing weapon immediately

Rule #6 of Zero Wing: don't even think about using something that isn't the green homing weapon, ever

Rule #7 of Zero Wing: get the green homing weapon

 

On stage 4 you can pick up 5 hidden Pipiru Seijin with your tractor beam, each worth 10,000 points. If you kill them, you only get I 100 points, so find them and tractor beam them! I have the locations, so I will post those soon^TM. You'll want to pick those guys up because they are pretty important to scoring. You can milk them by picking up all 5, intentionally dying, and then getting sent back to the checkpoint and picking up all but the first one again, but this is risky because of the boss. Try it this you manage to get a lucky 10UP item!

 

Nobody knows how the secret weapon spawns. I have seen it as early as the first powerup carrier on stage 2 on 2 separate occasions. As far as I know, it is just a random chance, but it is almost 100% certain that you must be at full power for it to appear, and you may need to have a bomb in your possession as well, but again, nobody actually knows except maybe the devs.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Steven Pendleton

[Trinity32]

The rule section is essentially this:

 

[Trinity32]

is there any way to turn off the in game music? What if we make a mistake and want to rewind (Say we miss an upgrade, does Kega fusion have a rewind function)

[Trinity32]

honest thought here: It's crap.

 

I think this game is very poorly designed, especially for a shooter.  Not on my list of must haves. I mean it's ok for what we're doing but I'd much rather play Raiden or Silpheed. Outside of the (very hilarious) intro, it has no staying power. Everything here has been done better in other shooters. 

 

See below.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Trinity32
Depressed

[Trinity32]

I forfeit

 

I have reached my limit with this HSC. You are deliberately choosing games that are just...why do they have to be so difficult? Are you in love with the essence of chaos? Do you get off on tears?

 

I gave Slap fight MD a pass because it was geneuinely fun. ZW is...I can't even describe how bad it is. Games can be hard without being hair tearingly difficult. 

 

I advise you to give easy mode a chance and bump the lives up to 5 next time.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Trinity32
Reached my limit

[zylon]

I advise calm down, walk away and chill a bit. It's just a game.  I'm horrendous at just about anything that'd be picked, lol. Saves me money, as I know not to buy them, and sell if I have one. 🤣

This class of this genre of game, requires a calm zen, that you either have or don't. Even if you can reach it, you won't by stressing out. Personally, I found Raiden Trad to be one I can last barely a minute playing. Still have a cheap repro, but did get some fool to pay 50 for the real one.

Edited March 2, 2023 by zylon

[Trinity32]

alright.

[Steven Pendleton]

8 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

You are deliberately choosing games that are just...why do they have to be so difficult?

I am deliberately choosing the easiest games on the system. The actual hard games are coming later.

[zylon]

this one's actually pretty cool, minus the repeated silliness each time I start. Would be nice if it had a score screen. Unless you top the listed high, it doesn't show long enough to take a picture. Red weapon sucks, blue is ok, and the green homing-pea spitting weapon is fun. I made it to some giant rotten pink head thing that didn't fit onscreen, just in my test play. 90+k

default comes up as easy, so I need to manually change it each time 

Edited March 2, 2023 by zylon

[Steven Pendleton]

As long as you beat the high score, it will save that score as long as you don't turn the power off. Even if you use a continue, it will set your score to 0, but the high score will be preserved over on the right.

 

Unfortunately one of the games that I REALLY wanted to play was Xeno Crisis, which has score on Dreamcast and I think on Neo Geo, but not here, so I had to leave that one out. Might be interesting to play on Dreamcast for score, but that game is pretty difficult, and no matter how much I play it I never seem to get better at it lol.

[zylon]

what do the other buttons do? I think all I did was hold A, or "x" on my hackbox. one of them threw like a big fireball. Having a "charge" like R-type, would be great.

In my case, it'll never save the score, unless I kill the giant rotting head thing once, lol. Time for a tea, and back to bed. I was out welding all day, and fell asleep early. I'm only up for some mid-sleep activity.

Shooters I actually have- Earth Defense(won't play on my G3), Bio-Hazard battle, Battle Squadron, Thunderforce II ( my original carts from way back), and repros of Grind Stormer, Task Force Harrier EX, Fire Mustang, Aero Blasters, Tiger, Raiden Trad, Darius II(Sagaia), Lightening Force, Musha.

I did like the Giga-Wing pair on DC, SMS was more my style, except Power Strike. Insanely hard, those were. I did have most of the Saturn ones, as my brother was stationed in Okinawa, and used to send them to me. Those were amazing, just to watch. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by zylon

[Steven Pendleton]

Well, you have A and C as shot and B is the tractor beam, although depending on what version of the game you are playing it might be called something different. The Japanese arcade version calls it PRISNOR BEAM (yeah, PRISNOR BEAM. I love those Toaplan guys so much, and they are all super nice and cool people IRL, but English was something that they always struggled with), and I think there is another version that calls it either the SEIZOR BEAM or the SEIZER BEAM, but I forget which.

 

Anyway, the tractor beam is moderately helpful in a few spots to catch enemies to use as a shield if you don't have a bomb in your possession, but it's pretty useless.

 

The arcade version was never supposed to get released, you know; it was a training project for new recruits to learn how to make games, but they decided to release it anyway for some reason. Notably, Zero Wing is I believe the first game that Tomizawa Toshiaki worked on

 

 

nope, looks like Horror Story slightly earlier

 

He did the BGM for stages 2, 6, and 8, and he later did the awesome soundtrack for Toaplan's obscure 1991 game Vimana and then moved over to CAVE when Toaplan went bankrupt. You can tell it's him because he has that cool disco style, unlike Uemura-san's classic rock + classic metal + Japanese folk music + a little bit of disco and Yuge-san's classic piano style, and you can easily tell the three of them apart if you know what to listen for. Not sure what he is up to now and I have not met him myself, but he's going to be in the Toaplan documentary.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Steven Pendleton

[zylon]

6 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Well, you have A and C as shot and B is the tractor beam, although depending on what version of the game you are playing it might be called something different. The Japanese arcade version calls it PRISNOR BEAM (yeah, PRISNOR BEAM. I love those Toaplan guys so much, and they are all super nice and cool people IRL, but English was something that they always struggled with), and I think there is another version that calls it either the SEIZOR BEAM or the SEIZER BEAM, but I forget which.

 

Anyway, the tractor beam is moderately helpful in a few spots to catch enemies to use as a shield if you don't have a bomb in your possession, but it's pretty useless.

 

The arcade version was never supposed to get released, you know; it was a training project for new recruits to learn how to make games, but they decided to release it anyway for some reason. Notably, Zero Wing is I believe the first game that Tomizawa Toshiaki worked on; he did the BGM for stages 2, 6, and 8, and he later did the awesome soundtrack for Toaplan's obscure 1991 game Vimana and then moved over to CAVE when Toaplan went bankrupt. Not sure what he is up to now and I have not met him myself, but he's going to be in the Toaplan documentary.

Yankees can't get it right either, lol. I was up northeast PA, Scranton, and saw a police van. It said "Prisioner Transport" on it. Must be for special-ed thugs, lol. They also had a street that said Cemetery St, from one direction, and Cemetry St from the other. Down here, we just overuse ones we get right. Macland Rd, Old macland Rd, New macland Rd, Almost Macland Rd, Next macland Rd. 😂

Tractor beam? It didn't seem to do that for me, just let out a big fireball and blew something up. I think it was B or "y" on hackbox.

Edited March 2, 2023 by zylon

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, zylon said:

Yankees can't get it right either, lol. I was up northeast PA, Scranton, and saw a police van. It said "Prisioner Transport" on it. Must be for special-ed thugs, lol. They also had a street that said Cemetery St, from one direction, and Cemetry St from the other.

Tractor beam? It didn't seem to do that for me, just let out a big fireball and blew something up. I think it was B or "y" on hackbox

You had the bomb. That's why.

 

When you pick something up with the tractor beam, you press it again and it fires it forward as an attack. If you have the bomb it will shoot the bomb out and it will detonate, but it's best to hold onto it as a shield. It will blow up automatically if it takes 3 hits, but it destroys enemy shots, which can save you, so it's best to hold onto it for as long as you can.

[zylon]

Just now, Steven Pendleton said:

You had the bomb. That's why.

 

When you pick something up with the tractor beam, you press it again and it fires it forward as an attack. If you have the bomb it will shoot the bomb out and it will detonate, but it's best to hold onto it as a shield. It will blow up automatically if it takes 3 hits, but it destroys enemy shots, which can save you, so it's best to hold onto it for as long as you can.

ok, I'll have to explore that a bit.

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, zylon said:

ok, I'll have to explore that a bit.

It's also used to pick up the 5 Pipiru Seijin on stage 4, which give you a ton of points. They are hidden, but I know where all of them are. I'll record it here when I can and put it up. I'll actually be using the arcade version on PC since it has a training mode that will allow me to go directly to the stage, but the locations are identical.

 

The MD version is very accurate to the arcade version in most ways, aside from significantly lower enemy aggression (especially the bosses; go check out the difference in how much the stage 1 boss shoots!), much lower enemy HP, way lower extend settings (70,000/200,000 every on MD and 200,000/500,000 every for arcade), and the loss of the secret teleport on stage 5 that lets you skip stages 6 and 7. I wish they'd left that in on MD, but it's gone. The screen scrolls vertically a little bit and graphics are significantly toned down, but all of the enemy placement is identical as far as I remember and the music got a big upgrade over the arcade version; it's one of the best soundtracks on the system.

[+jgkspsx]

I have the Retrobit version of this. Excited to play something on a real cartridge! Looking forward to a Retrobit edition of Slap Fight MD/Grindstormer/Snow Bros/Twin Hawk/Twin Cobra…

[zylon]

9 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

I have the Retrobit version of this. Excited to play something on a real cartridge! Looking forward to a Retrobit edition of Slap Fight MD/Grindstormer/Snow Bros/Twin Hawk/Twin Cobra…

I liked the other game on the Grind Stormer cart, and Twin Hawk was the better of that pair, IMHO. The hidden Asteroids inside Red Zone, is another goodie.

[Madwindoman]

18 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

I forfeit

 

I have reached my limit with this HSC. You are deliberately choosing games that are just...why do they have to be so difficult? Are you in love with the essence of chaos? Do you get off on tears?

 

I gave Slap fight MD a pass because it was geneuinely fun. ZW is...I can't even describe how bad it is. Games can be hard without being hair tearingly difficult. 

 

I advise you to give easy mode a chance and bump the lives up to 5 next time.

Maybe try using a different controller. Sometimes it makes all the difference 

[Trinity32]

15 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I am deliberately choosing the easiest games on the system. The actual hard games are coming later.

I find it hard to believe to be honest. Alright, I'm still in. Forget I said forfeit. I'll give it another go...in time.

[zylon]

I might be giving this a try on the real Genny later. Supposedly, it's on my "Yu Swallow- 112 in 1", cart

[Madwindoman]

Madwindoman - 558170 - 1-5 - Japan        Fun game. Slow paced like it’s trying to be rtype or pulstar. I died in the underground tunnels. Those big blue submarines with legs are a bitch

[Steven Pendleton]

4 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

I find it hard to believe to be honest. Alright, I'm still in. Forget I said forfeit. I'll give it another go...in time.

Yes, these are entry-level games. That's why I chose them. Hard games come later; Kyuukyoku Tiger is up in December and it might be the single most difficult game on the system in any genre.

[Trinity32]

Is the adventures of batman and robin Applicable? Some of the sections are Shmup. It's VERY hard though yet incredibly fun. Will we be doing MUSHA or Truxton?

[Steven Pendleton]

7 hours ago, Madwindoman said:

I died in the underground tunnels. Those big blue submarines with legs are a bitch

Yeah those things are nasty. They actually function somewhat differently in the arcade version, where you can destroy their turrets. Here you have to destroy the whole thing at once, so they are arguably harder here than on the arcade version, but recovering against them in the 1P versions is a pain.

 

2 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

Is the adventures of batman and robin Applicable? Some of the sections are Shmup. It's VERY hard though yet incredibly fun.

No. That game lacks sufficient STG-ness. You can try it in regular HSC, but I am doing things that are STG-only.

 

2 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

Will we be doing MUSHA

We could do Musha Aleste, but I'd have to disqualify myself because I have an XE-1AP.

 

2 hours ago, Trinity32 said:

or Truxton?

Tatsujin is maybe coming later in the year. August or something like that, I think, but I'd have to check, and it's together with V-V for that month. Maybe I'll make it a poll to decide, because why not. That would be cool and simple. The international versions are known to be easier than the Japanese version, so I am not sure how to handle that yet. I'll actually be playing that on the Mega Drive Mini 2 since it has great emulation (for once) and it gives you a new option to play non-broken music.