Everyone happy new year! 
My name's retro-A, and I do the retro reviews~!
我前几天和我们论坛的一个人私聊，谈到了Gamester81，然后聊到EverDrive的时候我犹豫了一下下...
What's an EverDrive？ （2015年12月28日发起）
Like this. 这是个NES用的EverDrive。说白了，这个东西就是让你在实机上玩卡带为基准的rom，上方有SD卡槽。
MD，也就是Mega Drive用EverDrive。额，说到MD，呵呵呵。
我是编辑教材的乃们知道，我弄英国史的文章的时候看到了这个。“9年以后，法国人给了她[英国伊丽莎白女王]一个MD。”
233333
我想说：真羡慕啊，187X年就有MD玩了。
“Nine years later, the French gave her an MD.” 我的下一句是， "And she began to play Sonic the Hedgehog series since then"。 哈哈哈
咳，我凌乱了。
[EverDrive大家都说是个不错的发明，你是个rom hunter，你怎么看待这种发明？]
【嗯，因为我曾经是个“坚定不移”的模拟器党，所以实机上的体验我倒不是非常看重。但是这种东西不仅对于盗版党，而且对于正版党来说也是非常模糊二者界限的发明。】
[所以你会因为这个而真正去买实机么？]
【不一定，我还是会以模拟器为主，模拟器用不了的才会选择实机。你可以叫我实用主义，我收集rom而不是physical copy只是为了研究和玩，不是收藏。】
[如果你有钱了你会去和他们一样搞收藏么？至少我现在也是两方面都有的。]
【也...未必吧，我有钱了可能会去研究超级稀有的主机，那些常见的我还是不会去花钱的。虽然我不会像Roo的妻子她们那样说“another box of useless shxt” lol】（Roo是Joey DeSena的外号，16-bit gem频道的主编，Retroware TV核心成员之一。）
[lmfao。John曾经用那个设备dump自己的卡带呢。]
【是啊，我可以理解，有些时候就是不放心网上dump出来的rom。比如说FDS上的那些bad dumps...pain in the ass】
......
之后就扯远了= =
大家觉得这种东西会影响那些实体收藏者么，是否会鼓励更多新玩家去玩旧主机呢？
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Just another choke for today's playthrough. Nothing special but some good recommendations from my favorite youtubers.
The following games are the ones I beat just now, placed in order. All of them are NES/Famicom games.
Final Mission, or S.C.A.T called in (U) area (which is I HATE THE MOST, what a weird name of a game！)
I beat it within 40 minutes actually, not a very long game.
It's a Forgotten World wanna-be horizontal side-scrolling shmup, very difficult I have to say, but once you beat it, you'll improve your flying skill and you have to remember the pattern of every kind of enemy or you'll be fxxked off.
I tried my best to get a high score, but I still didn't get a score over 100,000...*sigh*
I love this game though it's hard, why? BECAUSE IT'S MADE BY NATSUME!
Crisis Force, a Famicom exclusive game made by KONAMI, a vertical side-scrolling shmup. Need I say more? If you say KONAMI's Gradius series is horizontal epic shmup, then Crisis Force will be the vertical epic shmup!
The music is awesome, which isn't a surprise, cuz it's KONAMI, even a little franchise will get fully-powered with nice BGM and outstanding gameplays.
Believe it or not, I actually had this Famicom cartridge back in the days (not the pirate one!) and tried to beat the game without losing one life, but the final boss is a REAL CHALLENGE, till now, I can't beat it with one life either...= = I cost one life instead just know...
The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't show you the final score even you beat the game...
Dynamite Batman, or Batman: Return of the Joker called in (U) area, is the true sequel of the original Batman made by SUNSOFT. Like what I said before, SUNSOFT AND NATSUME is the symbol of "HIGH QUALITY OF EVERYTHING", so this game really rocks!!!
It's an action platforming run'n'gun game starring Batman. I never played this before, but I could still beat the game only losing within 3 lives. It's a frustrating game, but not as difficult as its predecessor. If I give a real quantity of the difficulty, this would be 8.5/10.
The following games weren't beat by me, I was stuck at the certain point and it was a pain in the anxs!
This is that original Batman also made by SUNSOFT, and the music is A PIECE OF PUMPKIN PIE FROM MY HOLY SWEET JESUS. You'll know what I means if you acutally play the game.
I stuck here, see the ballistic line I drew. The boss jumps here from there, and there are no dropping projectiles, so what I can do? And the hit point of the boss is WTF. Everyone ever stuck at the 3-1 level due to that jumping giant frog-like robot (I don't know the real name of that thing...), but compared to this...awwwwwwwwwww
THIS GAME IS MY TRUE PAIN OF MY CHILDHOOD. I never made through this level even today!
Cross Fire is another Famicom exclusive game made by Ryugo, an infamous game company. The music is nice and listenable, the gameplay is rough and solid, a Contra wanna-be but different. The weapon system is awkward, the level design is A HELL IN THE REAL WORLD.
Yeah, just look at this holy crap! The red lines are enemy's ballistic line, the blue one is secondary ballistic line, which means if I touch the first line, the second line would be activated. The lines are like a huge spider web, WHO COULD SURVIVE!!!!!!?????? I'd like to say, this is the 3rd difficult NES game in my list.
Hmph...
Well, next youtuber's replies recently. Not so many.
Do you remember Gameplay And Talk channel? Austin, the guy who uploads A LOT OF gameplay segments. This comment is about I complaint about slow-downs happened in 8-bit and 16-bit eras. It seems he kinda "likes" slow-downs, but not for me bro. (Or can I regard you as a SHMUP loser or not? lol) Real man never depends on slow-downs haha~@@15!!
This was about my experience of Xmas in the past, which was under the video of Chris's Xmas in the childhood himself. I said I sold my PS1 later on, and he asked me what happened. mmm, I didn't mean to sold it actually, but....shxt.....@@8!!
I showed my love for Alex Kidd games in the CGR's recent review. You'll ask why CGR was still alive maybe, I have to say it was just some unreleased videos shot in the past time. This girl is a retro fan apparently, and we shared the same ideas on Alex Kidd.
That's it. Hope ya'll have a great new year!
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yep, recently I played a lot, in order to test the emulator and the rom dumps, to provide the best rompacks with the best emulators, that's what I've done. And I'll definitely upload all of them here in near future.
first, let's get a look of some pics to see what I've really got into, all of them are NES games.
yeah, maybe you're familiar with this, Shatterhand is the most frequent game I've mentioned these days. I beat it triple times, the highest score was totally full of tears and blood@@18!!...
I briefly only use triple "β", the bombard guy is very powerful, and it's very easy to vanish the boss. Get a try and you'll know what I mean.
This is a new homebrew game featuring "2048", originally a very popular mobile game. And as you can see, I really tried my best to get a high score, I spent about two hours to make it like this when I was free that day... Owwww...
I beat Dragon Fighter twice this week, didn't cost much time actually, but this is a damn hard platforming hack'n'slash game. But the music is AWESOME without any problems, do you know why?
BECAUSE THE DEVELOPER IS NATSUME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Need I say more??????
And this is a early franchise of Natsume, so the gameplay is very solid, but Natsume grew up a lot as you could see, the later titles are epic!
Don't show me SNES games of Natsume and Sunsoft, no and never, they suck, I don't wanna talk about it......
Maybe the game I played the most is Lunar Pool (or Lunar Ball), it's a very basic and frustrating, addicting billiard simulation. I seldom play sports games as you know, but I played this A LOT when I was a kid, yeah, it's nostalgic for me, so I'd like to pick it up again and see how far I can go this time...
And guess what? I WENT VERY FAR, FARTHER, but not the farthest.
When I got to the Stage 19, I've already got 99 balls and 99% rate 何も知らないままに...
It's just like I used the game shark or game genie, or TAS, but actually not, I just played it.
And this is the first time I lost the highest striking rate...
How could you get the rate higher? Just strike the ball into the whole with only one hit, no more, and you get higher and higher rate. It's harder than said.
Since I beat the Stage 19, Stage 20 is another challenge for me to keep the highest rate... How can you do this???
As you can see, Stage 20 is the same pool as Stage 29, and I got stuck again... It seems I really hate this lol...
But I beat it hahaha! When you strike all the balls with one hit each, you'll get a Perfect! sign and bonus scores.
WTF! What a bastard!
AH MY FXXKIN' SWEET JESUS@@26!!
mmm, another stuck just... I really tried hard that time.
@@30!!@@13!!@@35!!← showed what I was like when I saw this pool...
YEAH, JUST TELL ME HOW I SHOULD DO WITH THIS FXXKIN' BALL!!!
I'm kidding hahaha@@16!!
WHO DESIGNED THIS!!!!!!! HOW COULD YOU DO PERFECTLY WITH ONE HIT EACH! DUMB ASS!
And I gave up at this point...
I was fairly active in Youtube recently, and I got many replies from my fav youtube retrogaming reviewers! Let's get a quick look.
Do you remember Matt Ezero, that LJN Defender, the big AVGN fan and very funny dude? I was surprised he replied me! He was very busy and I was impressed@@1!!
I just wrote that I don't mind sports games on his new LJN Defender episode. And I'm very excited about his new IUPG episode, wat 'bout u?@@15!!
This is the biggest surprise among them. I know Joe controls this account and Dave actually gets another account.
I wrote about those Konami Rebirth titles on Wiiware on their "Digital releases get physical releases" episode which was updated last week.
I agree with Joe, Konami isn't Konami was like in the past... And the glory may not return...@@8!!
Those the reply is short, I'm still excited about it, cuz it's the famous 8-bit Alli! Don't you remember that Australian beautie?@@33!!
I post some random ideas on her PAX tour video just, nothing more.
Three Brothers is a new channel on the go, they post a question on the board "Which one would you like to pick? SMS or NES?"
For me, definitely goes to SMS. And I said their channel really has potentials. Yeah, that's true, they just post their very first episode, gameplay of Gauntlet, check it out if you wanna see some solid gameplay with multiple dudes.
Finally, Chris answered my question about his future plans whether enrolled with SHMUPs. Since I was a big fan of PC-Engine (TurboGrafx), we often share the same idea at some points. Very cool guy, I wish I could visit his house one day. That's it.
Thanks for reading. 我下周开始会每周多上三节日语课，时间不是很多，所以更新进度会慢下来许多，望见谅。
And I'll see you soon, take care!
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My name's retro-A, and I do the retro reviews~!
本期的SP内容看标题就知道了，明天就是圣诞了，我们retro游戏党也在蠢蠢欲动。别人都在忙着买东西送人，我们却忙着买东西送自己2333别人买巧克力、火鸡、糖棒等等吃的东西，我们忙着买游戏lol。
其实一直有那么一些作者和个体组织每逢节假日就发点什么rom或者实体，圣诞基本是每年都有新花样的。很多NES饭都去这么一个网站淘——retroUSB。
看看今年都有些什么好货。
大致翻了一下，基本没什么变化，今年该卖啥还是啥，但是第一个东西...
8 Bit XMAS项目是从2008年开始就一直在每年圣诞就发行的retroUSB网站独占特别卡带，从11月末到元旦为止发售，延期不售。这是个好东西呀~
然而我会买么？答案是，nope...
因为我没有NES233333，但是我弄了rom版的。虽然没有那种实体的感觉但能玩到就不错了。
我不禁想起了前几年的8 Bit Xmas...
对了，这些卡带最大的特点就是通电时，里面的发管二极管会发光，非常棒的创意，示例如下，
2009和2013年的通电时的卡带，是不是很有节日氛围？
下面来详细介绍下几年的作品。
由于08年的就是音乐配图，并没有real gameplay，故不作介绍。
2009年的是4人打雪仗游戏，B键向左投掷，A键向右，击中中间的雪人会有powerup，包括3-way shot、rapid shot等等，1分钟1局，非常好的party game如果你有3个朋友陪你一起耍的话。
游戏性：8/10
音乐：8/10
操作性：7/10
上手度：5/10，相对来说不是容易上手，需要适应几局。
总分：7/10
2010年的是一个人玩的，你扮演一个使坏的圣诞老人，向别人家着火的烟囱里扔礼物（什么鬼！），额...我真不知道该说什么好了= =
游戏性：6/10
音乐：8/10
操作性：4/10，手感非常滑，不易操作，而且撞到物体还会反弹。
上手度：3/10
总分：5.5/10
2011年的回归4人游戏，你是四个壁炉的paddle里的一个，撞击球到对手的壁炉上直到把砖敲光扑灭火苗为止，last man wins。记得应该是一个80's的Atari的一个经典街机作品的翻版，叫啥名来着...
游戏性：9/10
音乐：4/10，只有标题有音乐，玩的时候就没有了，差评！
操作性：9/10
上手度：7/10
总分：7.5/10
2012年的还是4人游戏，你是一架飞机，A键发射子弹，击中对手得一分，仅此而已，但是非常有趣。
游戏性：9/10
音乐：5/10，明显没有前几年的好听= =
操作性：6/10
上手度：4/10，类似于Sky Kid的操作手感基本能毁掉一大批新手
总分：6/10
刚想说真是一年不如一年了，2013年的简直神作！虽然是个space invaders还是galaxian的clone，但是毫不影响创新性。A键自带连发开火，一路射击礼物即可，我叫他“Gift Invaders” lol.
游戏性：10/10
音乐：9/10，作曲水平也明显提高了。
操作性：10/10，无可挑剔。
上手度：8/10，开始非常容易，但是越来越难，过了第8关之后的子弹简直音速，根本来不及躲！
总分：9/10
2014年的，额...貌似是一个action puzzle，我玩了10分钟仍然不知道目标是神马= =或许我需要一个instruction manual...
游戏性：2/10，不知所云，但是还是能明白些神马...
音乐：8/10
操作性：2/10，我只知道你可以非常精准的移动。
上手度：0/10，根本不知道要表达神马！！！
总分：3/10
2015年的，是一个单人的puzzle platformer，非常有挑战性，你是一个礼物，A键跳跃，B键分身。用你的分身来做垫脚石向上爬，跳到出口就过关。你要浪费最少数的分身来完成。
游戏性：10/10
音乐：2/10，在哪里？音效给2分= =
操作度：5/10，跳的太快了，根本停不下来！
上手度：5/10，新手killer无遗。
总分：5.5/10
homebrew你不要期待的太多，又不是所有的作者都组团像NG.DEV和Sivak他们那样神...
几个月前Game Sack的Dave向大伙儿推荐了一个Famicom游戏，虽然那期的主题是“fan translation”，but since I could read Japanese, it's not a big problem for me。是一个名为Cocoron的action platformer。
This is definitely a hidden treasure! 我花了1小时通了一周（实际上只有一周目...），感觉非常像Little Samson（聖鈴伝説），无论是手感还是游戏性来说都非常相似。故事也很有意思，你要在食梦者的引导下创造6个角色，去6个不同的地方探险，随着剧情的深入你意识到背后的黑幕就是食梦者，他想要吞掉大家的美梦，所以你要做的就是...
有些关卡非常有挑战性，比如这个，满屏幕的仙人掌，你还没有能够站在仙人掌上不掉hp的角色，你只能站在花朵上，但是花朵开放的规律非常诡异，你跳到一个上面去想着跳到另一个上，你刚跳另一个就关闭了。后来发现原来是两个两个开的，所以你有很短的反应时间，但是后面的规律又变了，这次是没有规律，是的没有规律，WTF！
你需要到各个地方去救人，其中的一个人质就是圣诞老人2333，然而他仅仅是露个脸= =
食梦者的城堡，结构诡异不说，纹理还非常幼稚，我感觉我来到了幼儿园= =
最后的决战，OMG我快要瞎了= =这很明显是内裤的纹理噗...
你创造的人物分为头部、身体、武器等几个部分，不同的结构影响重量和最大hp值，武器则是影响重量和攻击力。重量越大跳跃度越低。
我的建议是：任何头部都可以，只要选择jet配手里剑你就无敌了，其他的基本没用。gamefaq上说melody这个武器是最有用的，我想问了，3点伤害够干嘛的？而且重量才22，太飘了吧...（手里剑是4点伤害，>100重量）而且melody的弹道太独特，根本不容易击中目标= =3级手里剑可以在左右上三个方向同时发射，boss克星无误。你可以全程用这个人物通，哪怕是水面关卡。你会发现我上面的三个截图里都是同一个角色，这角色是人类头+jet身体+手里剑。当然仅仅是个建议，你觉得神马上手就用神马吧，但是最好别用水晶球和花瓣炸弹，我不信你能用这两个打败任何一个boss...
游戏性：10/10，而且replay价值也非常高。
音乐：10/10，epic！
操作度：9/10，有那么一丢丢的滑。
上手度：8/10，适应一下就可以了。
主机适应度：10/10，如果可以的话也做个Mega Drive版的吧我不介意233。
总分：9.5/10
嘛，反正我每年各种节假日是这么度过的，今年我又淘了不少rom。yeah, I'm a rom predator now, but I'm happy to do so.
Stay tuned, I'll see you next time. Happy gaming, merry Xmas and take care~
p.s. 等我过一阵测试完毕之后会发个全套nes/Famicom游戏包带模拟器的，等不及的话就自己去谷歌搜吧。
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My name's retro-A, and I do the retro reviews~!
今天开始一个新的板块，RE，RE代表reply，和SP00的那些内容类似，都是我回复别人对大伙的提问而我也参加了的主题的片段。这个版块将会注重于特定的标题，篇幅不会很长，可以把它看成一个mini episode。全篇尽量是中文的这点请放心，lol。
因为我成功找回了我遗失多年的oldcomputer账户，所以又可以和别人讨论各种问题了，液~
【】部分是我的回答，[]部分是他人的追问，（）部分是我的解释，在原留言中没有出现。
这次的问题是，“好的BGM和音效是否会影响整个游戏？” (2015.12.20日发起)
我当时的回答是坚定的。
......
【自从4bit主机时代引导RF out的风潮以来，越来越多的游戏就不断注重声音的制作，而好的作曲家和音效作家更是获得了更多关注。虽然音效都很短，但也可以看出作者对其用心程度，而找到一个合适的音效也不是很容易，尤其是8bit主机以前的时代（1983年以前）。在4bit主机时代，一个带BGM的游戏都是非常出色的，很多都可以说是能把主机硬件推向极限的作品，即便某些BGM差强人意...但是毕竟叫”游戏“，可玩性还是第一位的，其次才是画面和声音，本末倒置的结果只能是败笔。音乐节奏类游戏那就更不用说了。还记得是什么主机开始了游戏的OST理念么？NES，是的。一直到现在，不管是当年NES统治的北美东亚南亚，还是被SMS统治的欧洲和东南亚、大洋洲，OST都一直是人们讨论游戏时的话题之一。毫不夸张的说，操作性多么好，游戏性多么高的游戏，都会被一个难以入耳的BGM所毁于一旦；尤其是对那些概念性不是多样的运动类、弹球类（pinball）和block puzzle类等游戏来说，声音的比重占得更多。】
[现在的玩家越来注重画面了，相对于注重声音来说，你觉得这是好事还是坏事？]
【我不认为是好事，只是站在个人角度说。我是一个SHMUP党你知道，操作和音乐当然是最重要的，而哪怕是类似于atari 2600的4bit画面我也不在乎，再说现如今如果真有一个4bit的maniac shooter那将会改变SHMUP的历史你知道么！】
[我见过32kb大小rom的atari 2600游戏，里面加了至少5个不同的BGM，你认为这样会加大开发难度么？]
【会，毕竟还要额外增加费用，除非程序员本身就能作曲；而且烧录时会额外增加几块内部声音芯片，这种游戏价值一定非常高。】
[那倒不如去开发ColevoVision和Intellivision游戏呢~]
【还能增加人声呢，lol.】
......
之后就歪楼了= =
大家觉得呢？
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ah, I'm really really busy recently, nearly get a chance to update, but...
well, yesterday is my birthday, I finally decide to make up my own YOUTUBE channel!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8NClyrBKzpL0mhpBkZylw
there's nothing but my subscriptions, some talks and random replys of my fav youtubers. Since it's impossible to make my own videos without shooting machines and the barrier of GFW is bullshxt, what I could do with this account is, to troll with those guys lmfao......
well, you may ask what I'm working with. Despite of my regular job, I've been digging out many treasures of arcade games, most of them are SHMUP for sure, and some platforming, puzzle and breakout-like games. I use MAME for sure.
You know, MAME makes a great progress recent weeks, and they finally updated one week ago. So I have to figure out what's inside.
Then, I want to play more games with MAME, so I made something different - by correcting some GUI and rom problems.
My first touch was this game, DoDonpachi II - Bee Storm.
It's the first and only official Donpachi game that wasn't developed by CAVE but a Taiwanese company IGS. They're famous for majong and beat 'em up games, so is this game really worth taking a look? My answer is definitely YES!
Believe it or not, I LOVE THIS GAME FROM MY HEART! Though some die-hard Donpachi fans never like it, I find it interesting. The difficulty is not so high, you can easily figure out the patterns.
The cabinet, is it really necessary making seven buttons??? I only use four ones.
The poster, looks weird with Chinese on it. A definite Japanesque arcade game for sure.
The real gameplay pic.
This game is lack of some inportant PCB chip roms in every fxxkin' site for download, this is bullshxt, but I finally fix it. This isn't the only problem.
If you run this with latest MAME, you'll be fxxked off.
See?
To run this, you have to pick up a earlier release of MAME. Then I configured the GUI, and, here we go!
works well! let's rock n roll!
There're more things like this, so...
I spent three or four days checking and fixing a game, and I have to test others.
Anyway, ya have to wait for me, sorry kids!
It's time for more channels!
Austin Mackert is just a video game collector, and he does reviews but not so many. Instead, he loves to play games for you all and talk. So his channel is called Gameplay And Talk. Well, it's not a cool name lol. Apparently, he's a fan of Doom and Megaman, Castlevania, he ever did a marathon of them. I never watch a series of Doom gameplays on different consoles, that's weird and awesome!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVehdJitN5tci7xnmOmV73A
Be sure to check it out if you love long gameplay with commentary!
There're some random guys in this channel, but primarily the hosts are Frenetic and Emuser. They invite a bunch of SHMUP fans sending them gameplay videos with good techniques. Now here come the STG Weekly. Most of them are very long gameplays with commentary, some tips for games, and they're useful. They also have a part called "Awesome Game Replay" which concentrates on puzzle and platforming games with good techniques too.
https://www.youtube.com/user/STGWeekly
You'll love it if you're a big fan of SHMUP like me!
Every summer, there happens a huge fest for old-school FPS fans in mid-US. Well, maybe you know what I'm talking 'bout haha! Yep, it's QuakeCon! Not only the Quake III competition, but for Doom! I'm not kidding, they just make a contest for Doom II! Is there anything more awesome than this???
https://www.youtube.com/user/QuakeCon2011
From group to grand final contest videos every year, you're worth it!
Definitely, Unreal Tornament needs a channel like that, so UT2004 Community give you a chance! It's nearly all the contest videos you'll find here about Unreal Tornament II. I love to watch some of them when I'm having lunch.
https://www.youtube.com/user/UT2004Community
There're tons of videos! Geez.

本帖最后由 ararat-tempest 于 2015-11-24 10:48 编辑
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https://www.youtube.com/user/InecomCompany
This channel is called "Classic Game Room", usually called "Lord Karnage", but now, they decide to end it......
Do you know who they are?
They're the very very first group of retro gamers who did retro reviews in public, the channel started in 1999. Nearly every retro gaming youtube reviewers know them, including everyone who I mentioned and recommended before. You could say they started the boom of retrogaming reviews.
And, it's impossible to watch every episode of them, cuz:
1. They're way too many videos, maybe 1000+
2. Youtube channel could only watch the video of recent 5 years, if you want to watch more, buy their DVD set, but it's also impossible to watch the whole series cuz they never made a complete box...
3. They've ever post some videos on Dailymotion and now those videos have gone away... and no one could provide the download links due to copyrights.
So it's really a pain in the ass...
The leader Bussler went to the production of films, and he's really busy now. It's a shame that he can't continue to making retro reviews, cuz their reviews on 4-bit systems are awesome, and Bussler's dog is very cute~ check them out if you're interested.
Just hope Bussler will be famous again, in the film career. It was his choice, maybe he and his dog are tired...
left: his previous partner David Crosson
right: Mark Bussler himself
the logo of Classic Game Room
REST IN PEACE 1999-2015

本帖最后由 ararat-tempest 于 2015-11-18 18:15 编辑
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Hello guys, how's it going?
It's been a half month I didn't update RATSA, and I've got too much work to do, so, I'd like to punch out another SP episode.This time let's look at the ultimately kick-ass series, Star Soldier!!
THIS IS DEFINITELY MY TOP ONE GAME OF ALL TIME AND ALL CONSOLES! I love this series even more than Gradius and Aleste which are also my favorite SHMUPs. The Soldier series is very-fast-paced vertical SHMUP, original title is actually Star Force. Believe it or not, its idea is from a BBC Micro game called "Fire Track". Well, I'm not going to give a review or recommendation for you this time, I wanna show off! My Caravan Mode scores of the FC/NES and TurboGrafx titles! These games tooke me 40 minutes to beat just today morning. (I'm off today.)
Well, if you don't know Caravan Mode, I could give you a brief introduction.
When it was in 1988-1991, many SHMUP companies attended competitions just like NWC at that time, so people practiced their flying skills a lot, in order to get the highest score and money. Caravan Mode is a time-limited score-hunting game mode, basically limited to 2 minutes or 5 minutes within one or two stages of one game. But these games aren't bullet-mania (or bullet-hell), cuz there aren't so many bullets on the screen, don't look down on them, it's very easy to die, cuz the bullets are fxxkin' insanely rocket-speeding for some games!
And, there's a reason why we, busy SHMUP lovers, like Caravan Mode so much. You get two or five minutes to beat a game, that's unbelievable in other types of games. Try to imagine, you beat Contra in 35 minutes, I'm pretty sure you must never feel satisfied. But if you could play seven different Caravan SHMUPs in 35 minutes, I think they'd make your day!
So, let's take a look of my scores.
1.Blade Buster (Famicom)
This is a homebrew version of Super Star Soldier of TurboGrafx on Famicom, it's even better than the original! The fast-pace is back!
5 minute mode score. I really had a hard time to make such a high score in this game. The secret is to get more hidden extra points as quickly as possible. As for the two bosses, beat them rapidly, then you'll get extra points for remaining time.
2 minute mode score. The level design is the same, but there're some diffent details about enemies. My advice is to predict and remember enemies' path of the bullets. It's not hard cuz there aren't so many sorts of enemies in this mode. As for boss, you have enough time to beat him, but you should take him in time, or you'll lost the extra points for beating the boss.
2.Star Soldier Special Version(NES)
Well, this is a special cartridge for attending the Shooting Caravan Festival in maybe 1990. Hudson Soft is the angel of us SHMUP lovers.
rapid measurement mode. the time limit is 10, 20 and 30 seconds. This mode requires fast pushing skills on your regular NES controller, no turbo pad. Maybe you're curious about how can I make this high score. I'll show you a secret. You see, there're many skull heads on the screen, but actually you don't need to take them down. What you should do is to fly over them and get in the top left or right corner of the screen, and push the A or B button as rapidly as possible. That's it. Get a try if you don't believe me.
5 and 2 minute mode. Cuz there're no special design between the two, the skills are the same. You should remember the locations of those extra point blocks, you'll get more than 80000 points if you beat all of them! And those big eyes at the end of every level, try your best take them down at the same time and you'll get another high extra points! As for boss, it's easy. Just like the original Gradius, the same boss appears again and again.
3.Super Star Soldier (TurboGrafx)
My favorite title of the series, the music, the enemies, the power-ups, the protagonist, everything is perfect for me! Though the pace is slower than the original title on NES.
2 minute mode. I only want to say, use the triple speed of you ship! Don't fear those quick bullets from the enemies. And the first boss is damn too easy if you know the trick. Watch this video, it's my video uploaded about three years ago.
[media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODI5NjQw.html?from=y1.7-2[/media]
5 minute mode. The second boss is easy too, but I think that time you'll feel tired, so don't give up until then, you can make it! Again, use the triple speed, or you'll be fxxked up.
4.Soldier Blade Special Version (TurboGrafx)
Nearly everybody SHMUP fan takes this one as their fav of the series, it's just nehhhh for me. But I still love it.
2 minute mode. This time, you should beat the boss with double speed instead of triple. Too quick to go to the hell. Watch the video below.
[media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODMzMTcy.html?from=y1.7-2[/media]
5 minute mode. The second boss is damn WTF! He's very tough. My words are, SHOOT THE CORE! (from Gradius series.) And stay alive.
5.Final Soldier Special Version (TurboGrafx)
Nothing much too say, very good title, the weapons are great!
2 minute mode. There are two bosses at the same time, take the first one down and then shoot the projectiles that the white boss gives out, you'll get a considerably high score as a result. Watch the video below.
[media=x,500,375]http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzQ5ODM2ODMy.html?from=y1.7-2[/media]
5 minute mode. If you're a die-hard bullet mania fan, it's not a big problem to beat the second boss.
6.Gunhed Special Version (PCE)
Though Gunhed (Blazing Lazers in TurboGrafx) isn't actually a title of the Soldier series, Hudson soft said that it's a spiritual spin-off of the Star Soldier.
2 minute mode. Both of the modes are acutally a reconstruction of the third level of the story mode. So if you're very familiar with the level 3, you'll be the master. Sometimes, you should learn to abandon some power-ups. I used F+II as my weapon, cuz the shooting range is the largest and the firepower is very significant. I'll recommend F+III if you're lazy enough, it's homing lazer, what you should do is to evade bullets, nothing more.
5 minute mode. The boss is just a joke, throw two or three bombs at him, then you win.
That's all. I love another Caravan games called "Alzadick" on PCE-CD too, but it's too tough and I didn't have a good emulator to play Turbo CD games on my no-disk-drive computer... That's a pity.