I love Space Giraffe.

o/

Any high scores?  I'm still on the old 360. I think I see @hylian_elf's scores on some games - can't remember now.

Nothing noteworthy. I enjoyed the game, but I have to admit I wasn't much cop at it.

Best game. I think I only ever managed stage 3 boss and around 30m on arcade 1.5. Got decent score on Ultra Arrange. I love arrange modes.

The marquee lights up.

Missile Command is an Atari game. Cant think of any Taito games that would suit it but they have a vast range of games. They were quite experimental in the arcades.

They had some paddle games - Arkanoid, Cameltry are two I can think of that might be a match. There are one or two others on the Taito Memories/Legends compilations that would benefit from it.

It's a lovely looking unit. The build quality looks great and I love the way the game adjusts automatically when you rotate the display.

More on the trackball controller for the Egret II mini.



tl;dw - 1) It's chuffing enormous. Halfway between a pad and an arcade stick. 2) Looks like it comes with a selection of applicable games on SD card, which is a good idea. 3) It seems the DS had something similar, which I'd never seen before.

davyK wrote:

That guy in the video has clearly never used a paddle control.

I think he spends more time buying hardware than he does playing games.

Mushi runs getting more consistent. Getting to level 4 now more often than not. Enjoying it. My best run was to the level 4 boss but I haven't got near that since so it was a bit of fluke. Level 4 mid boss 2nd phase has a really tough pattern.

Also toying with Maniac mode from time to time and I'm about 2 levels behind Normal which is probably about right but I don't want to mess my muscle memory up too much by playing different modes of the same game too often.

Shmup Slam 5 has an Ultra mode run which has the TLB at the end. So I suppose playing Ultra is like a substitute for the 2nd loop in other games. Ultra mode is ludicrous though.

Vulcan Venture is my favourite Gradius game.

Still tilting at Mushi, still level 4 runs. Silly mistakes, there are no real barriers getting to level 4 with all lives apart from implementation errors. Doing pretty well at level 4 when I do get there but it's usually with only 1 life.  But I'm not playing regularly enough - I need to up that a bit.

Booted up the sequel - Futari - out of interest for the first time in an age for comparison. I was surprised how good I was at it. Second half of level 3 is still an insane spike but it's nowhere near as terrifying as it was for me.  Interesting and gratifying to know I am a better player now than I was several years ago. In my mid fifties - hope for all.      Of course I've got my shmup 360 hooked up to a rotated CRT with RGB SCART and I can sit closer - that is helping too. Previously I was playing on a big panel and sitting on the sofa several feet back which really isn't appropriate for the genre - so that will be helping too.

I'm finished.



Started working on Ketsui's Ura loop at the start of lockdown, so just over two years ago, and now it's done. I am Plainview's pyrrhic victory. Played other stuff in that time but not a huge amount, it's mostly been Ket.

It's difficult. Got a lot easier once I upgraded my TV from a 14-year-old 32" LG to a 55" Samsung QLED. Pretty sure it's not just coincidence that I was suddenly no-miss, no-bombing the first loop much more often. Had a few runs to the TLB recently so knew it was happening. Feels good.

Dubs wrote:

It's difficult

Understatement of the year.

So you have to no miss no bomb the 1st loop (and score >150m) of probably Cave's toughest game - and then beat the 2nd loop and TLB on 1 credit?

@Dubs - this is real top tier stuff you are doing. I am in awe.

Early to ask but have you another goal or are you thinking about Ketsui scoring?

Have you played DFK or DFK BL?   DFK has an Ura loop too which throws DDP bosses at you instead of mid level bosses.

DOJ white label is notorious - it takes all your extra lives off you at the start of the 2nd loop!  BL is considered a far more sensible proposition.

DFK BL Arrange merges Ketsui and DFK - you might want to look at that if you haven't had a bellyfull  !!!!

Or maybe Mushi or Futari? You would eat up Original mode but there's maniac and Ultra modes which are more your level. The Ultra mode in Mushi and Futari have TLBs and are really stand in for 2nd loops (Mushi and Futari do not loop).
Futari BL has the infamous God mode......