Topic: Arcade SHMUP High Score Thread

@Lroy Oh no worries. I have that same book. Just haven't read that part before.

You seem to need to make a room first and if you don't set a password, anyone can join is.
So I'd say, if we try this again, set the password to 1234 like in Spaceballs. ;P That should be easy to remember.

Yeah I wish every game had a demo. That's one thing Microsoft got absolutely spot on with the 360, at least at first. I can see why they dropped it as it makes harder for developers to put a game out since it's more work for them, but still.

Had no idea Danmaku was out today. I thought it was Thursday like most other games. Will pick it up soon.
Had a blast last night. Getting back into Splatoon after a while since the new DLC has really hyped me for it, did some Salmon Run afterwards, then some Tetris and finished the night with over an hour of Bayonetta.
It really does feel like the Dreamcast days again.

Got Fatal Fury and Slatoon DLC for free last week thanks to my gold coins, so that was really nice as well.
I was surprised that I could register certain Japanese and US games on my PAL account. Like Japanese Bayonetta 2 for instance, but not 1 since it's only digital over here I guess.

I think it depends on the games being universal or not as well.

Edit: Yeah, Xevious really doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
As a matter of fact, there seems to be so much Xevious hate out there for some reason, even though it's actually a really great game. Very simple naturally, but if you put it into perspective and place it in it's time, it's surprising just how complex it was. And it really did lay the ground rules for so many shooters to follow perfectly.

@meppi64 Yes, XEVIOUS is of course a game that shows its age when we go back to it now. As I have done on MAME. But it blows my mind that this game was one of the first to try and attempt to have enemy ship patterns that were a) realistic - in the sense the enemies fire at you and then try and escape off screen rather than just waiting to be destroyed and b) a nod towards the future, way ahead of its time in regards the programmer - it was made by just one guy if I recall correctly - tried to make the game react to the player. For example, if you kill a lot of a certain enemy, the game throws a different enemy at you.

I can't speak to much personal experience with the latter as I am god awful at XEVIOUS but I listened to a No Quarter podcast espidode on the game and it was full of fascinating insight. It is an early episode of theirs, number 5. I'll try and get a link.

Here you go: http://monsterfeet.com/noquarter/

All the episodes are here and with their own high scores. I've only been listening to them recently. Working my way up from number 1. Like I said, XEVIOUS was the last one I listened to. So a lot too catch up on ☺️

@RetroGamerAndrew I noticed you picked up MARIO KART 8 DELUXE recently: give me a holler if you fancy some causal online malarkey 👍

@meppi64 As well as PUYO PUYO TETRIS, I'll play some Salmon Run with you on SPLATOON 2 sometime if you fancy it?

@Lroy Oh, I'd love that.
Heck, I'd be happy to join in on some Mario Kart as well. Been way too long since I played it as well and I don't even know if I tried to play it online on Switch yet.

Just started listening to that podcast episode. Thanks for posting it btw. Looks right up my alley!
They mention how Xevious was much more popular in Japan and outside the USA, so that might explain why it gets so much hate I guess. Tons of people never played it and now look back on it as being crap. :-/

Which is why you tend to get certain weird "facts" being stated at times.
What was it? During an episode of Nintendo Voice Chat that one of the guys said that Europe never even got the NES, nor the SNES? Really?
Everyone will get things wrong from time to time, but if you're a "videogame journalist" and you can't even get something like that right, what is going on?
And why would you even try to state such a dumb thing as fact?
It's a bit like hearing Jeremy Parish talk about Sega... The guy is probably one of the most knowledgeable people out there when it comes to gaming, yet so much he says when it comes to Sega on his podcasts is just off, or completely wrong at times. So strange.

I've been getting more and mor fascinated (read obsessed) with pinball games as of late.
Been watching a ton of TNT Amusement videos on how they restore old machines to their original glory as well as mod them with all kinds of new stuff. As well as show how the games are played.
Really great host as well:

I'm actually in the middle of downloading all their videos in HD right now just (over 400GB, so my ISP will be really happy with me today ) so I can take a bunch with me on my iPad and watch them anywhere I don't have internet.
I really can't wait to get the normal Pinball Arcade on Switch. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for that. And I plan on getting every single table as well as the premium stuff, which will cost quite a bit I think as there are over 70 tables if I'm not mistaken.
Been trying to learn a couple of different tables in Stern Pinball Arcade now as well, because otherwise I'd just keep playing Ghostbusters till eternity.
Really getting into the AC/DC table and the Star Trek one is very fun as well.
Not a fan of Starship Troopers though. That one seems really bad, at least for the time that I've put into it.

@meppi64 I still haven't gone back to PINBALL FX or STERN PINBALL ☺️ Sorry. Think I need a table to be set as a challenge for the week here. Otherwise, I'll never boot the game up again. Perhaps we could just do one of the free tables in PINBALL FX first? We can all get that and have a go?

@Lroy I'm afraid I'm not buying any more Pinball FX tables.
The company has broken it's promise twice in a row now, so I'm not giving them anymore money.
First they promised us that we would be able to import our tables from the other versions that are out there to the Switch. Yet when it got released, they pointed towards Nintendo for the reason they were not able to fulfil that promise.
Then when they put out the game, it turned out that the portable mode is 30fps for some reason, even though every other version, including Vita was 60fps, besides the 3DS one I think since it's not the most powerful system.
I'm not someone who makes a big fuss over 60fps - 30fps most of the time, but for pinball, it really does affect gameplay. You need split second reaction to get the best out of it and to make precise shots, so the Switch version in portable mode it pretty damn bad for that.
They promised just days after launch that they were going to fix it and get portable mode up to a locked 60 as well.
Nothing happened, till last week, where people somehow found out that it was quietly cancelled.
They would have even told us about it, till they were confronted with it. Then they put out a statement about how they did look at the issue and that it wasn't an easy fix and they had to change each table individually and how that was too much hassle for them all of a sudden.

So what actually happened was that they just put out a promise to get that sweet launch push when it comes to sales. Even put out some statements how they were delighted at how much more it was selling than they were expecting. And once they got our money, they had no incentive to keep their promise anymore.
That's just scummy business practices in my eyes. So I won't be giving them another cent.
Real shame as pinball is such a niche thing to begin with.
Luckily for me I always preferred Farsight to Zen as their games play way better (thanks to being real tables and actually running emulation of the actual print plates inside the real tables) and the balls feel like steel instead of some weird marble+gum ball crossing.

I was just going through Rami's Twitter posts to see if there was any mention of Switch support yet and...

OMG OMG OMG!

@meppi64 I meant the free tables on PINBALL FX so you wouldn't need to put any money down. We all got these tables at launch I believe? Anyway, I get the sense you'd rather we tried to organise a table on STERN PINBALL or wait for PINBALL ARCADE? Count me in whenever we get a pinball challenge off the ground. I'm terrible at them but I just enjoy the community aspect we are trying to forge with these play along challenges. So I am always keen to participate.

Excuse my ignorance, what games are coming to the Switch based on that Twitter announcement?

@Lroy Oh yeah, forgot to actually add context there in my excitement.
It's one of the founders of Vlambeer appearing excited by the possibility of porting their catalogue to Switch. So the two most likely games would be Luftrousers and Nuclear throne.
Nothing is confirmed yet though. It all seems to depend on how easy porting would be.

I would indeed vastly prefer Stern Pinball Arcade myself. I do have a bunch of tables on Pinball FX, but I wouldn't want to tempt people to buy tables on that game to join a competition.
Also, those tables get very boring rather quickly since they tend to be extremely easy for the most part.
For really high score chasing, you're looking at individual games that could go on for hours and hours and I'm not looking forward to that.
You get one table free in Stern Pinball Arcade as well actually. Frankenstein. And while it's certainly not the best table in the package, it's a decent one and rather fun to play.
Ghostbusters might not be a good pick for a first tournament as I have about 25 hours playtime in it already, so people new to the table, or real pinball tables overall might get discouraged when looking at a moderately big store from the start.
But AC/DC, Star Trek, Ripley and the others are all tables that I haven't put much time into yet and I don't know the rules of, so those should level the playing field a but more.

@Lroy of course mate, will do!

@Lroy @meppi64 I'm always up for Salmon Run too although I'll be a bit rusty. Same goes for Puyo Puyo Tetris, that was my most played game in the first couple of months I has the Switch. Then there is ARMS too, I've only ever played randoms at it, would be fun to throw some extended punches at you guys

@OorWullie Definitely up for some ARMS action 👊👊

I'll be on the Switch tonight from about 8ish if anyone fancies a game or two. Just let me know what game and I'll boot it up.

The challenge modes in Pinball FX3, Survival, One Ball Challenge and 5 Minute modes are all good fun,especially for tournaments.

The tables I own are

Sorcerers Lair
Universal Pack
Castlestorm & Wildwest
Adventure Land & Son of Zeus
The Walking Dead
Portal

Online on Switch in 5, 4, 3, 2, GO!
Give me a holler in here if you fancy hooking up for a game together tonight. Be on for the next couple of hours I imagine.

@Lroy I'd be up for some Splatoon. Sadly there's no Salmon Run today.

@meppi64 Really? Are they still doing that infuriating set times only for Grizzo Hiring? I thought by now they would just let us play the damn mode whenever we want? In fact, I thought you could play it with a friend at any time? Or is that local multiplayer (still requiring two Switches mind)?

Erm, can we play together in another mode? Not played it for months and rarely with a buddy so can't recall.

We interrupt this threat with a offtopic C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER video!

@Lroy I think that's local only.
See if you can join. I've joined someone on my fl called Numen. No idea where I added him from. Lol