RF Generation Message Board

When it comes to shooting games on the Sega Genesis, one company that comes to mind in the West is Renovation. They published several games in the genre, such as Arrow Flash and Whip Rush on the Genesis, and Sol-Deace on the Sega CD. As the North American arm of Telenet Japan, they brought a number of games to the Western audience, from a variety of genres, and shooters were well represented in that category. What might not be as well known, however, is that, of all the shoot-em-up games they published, only one of them was their own creation. That honor went to their flagship shooting game, Gaiares. Gaiares is perhaps as famous for its ad campaign in North American game magazines and comic books, as it is for its gameplay, since Renovation heavily saturated publications with ads, which featured professional gamer Jamie Bunker, touting the game's perfect score in GamePro magazine.

In the year 3000, Earth has become a toxic dump ravaged by careless humans, leaving an uninhabitable, polluted wasteland. The space pirates Gulfer, led by the evil Queen ZZ Badnusty, plan to harvest the pollution to create weapons of mass destruction. The United Star Cluster of Leezaluth sent a warning to the Earth about their plans, stating that if they could not stop them, they would be forced to supernova Earth's sun to do so themselves; but if they succeeded, Leezaluth would use their technology to restore the Earth to its former beauty. Dan Dare, a young pilot from Earth was chosen to be the pilot of a new fighter ship to combat the Gulfer. The ship is armed with a powerful experimental weapon from Leezaluth called the TOZ System, which would be operated by Alexis, an emissary from Leezaluth. Join the RF Generation Shmup Club in March 2020, to take to the skies, and deploy the TOZ System, as we play Gaiares!

Participants:
MetalFRO
Addicted
SaturdayDevelopment
steveovig
Gamer707b
Dingo
FauxMacho


High Score:
1. MetalFRO - 1,409,550
2. FauxMacho - 486,848
3.


Original hint:

Grin Seeker?

Deathsmiles?🤔

I'd recognize that mustache anywhere...

Dude! Nice work! 😄👍🏻

Haha, nicely done, SaturdayDevelopment!

Unfortunately i don't own a copy, so i'm out. 😐

Just got my copy today.  Count me in.

Awesome! Jealous of that box, I only have a cartridge copy :D


Yeah, unfortunately, it's become a fairly expensive game, too, at least here in the US. Not sure about Europe, I imagine it's not cheap there, either.

There was no european release of Gaiares, so importing is the only option and yeah.... you know the prices of the us and jp releases...😅

That's unfortunate - you'd think, with how well Sega was received during the previous generation, something like this might have easily come out in Europe. Keep in mind, you could still emulate, if you want to join in. That's not off the table.

Can we use the Genesis Mini to play it?

Nevermind, I see the above post.  Count me in, even though I probably won't do well :nod:

Absolutely, the Genesis Mini would be a fine way to play it, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how well it plays, as I haven't picked one of those up yet. Also, welcome to RF Generation!

 Count me in!! Love this game. Still have my copy. BAck in the day, I remember seeing the ads for this game and thinking it reminded me of another beloved Genesis series. Phantasy Star. the theme and overall style was very similar. So how does this work. Play it for a month and take pictures of high scores? Or who can do a 1cc?

We just go for high score during the month.  Getting a 1CC certainly would help!

Yeah, it's basically everyone plays the game, discuss it here, talk strategy and tips, take pics of your high scores as they improve, and post them here, and then brag about your accomplishment at the end of the month, if you're so inclined :D

Welcome aboard, and welcome to RF Generation!

Count me in. Seems like an interesting title. I only remember seeing Jeff Gerstman of Giant Bomb do a play session of this at some point.

Power Up system is pretty unique, fastest speed is super fast!

Welcome aboard, Dingo! Yeah, the power-up system is one of the things I quite like about the game, that whole concept of "stealing" the enemy's power and using it against them is a cool idea, and one that I don't think has been explored enough in the genre. Lots of other games have used this concept, but shmups are a genre where, sadly, it hasn't been very heavily explored.

Hi there!
I started listening in December and now ready to join the friendly competition. I'm planning to get my hands on the cartridge and play on my CRT, but I might also try emulation with an arcade stick. I'm newer to shmups but already buying them faster than I can play them. I just think they're neat.

Welcome to RF Generation, FauxMacho! Glad to have you on board, and it's always good to hear about new people discovering shmups. Thanks for listening to the podcast, as well!

Yeah for sure, kind of like a more direct and primary version of the G Darius capture mechanic. Just started playing for the month. Flying Demon boss ended my run pretty quickly. Definitely going to have to hang on to as much of that shield power up as possible.

Darn, I just learned of Zz Badnusty's diabolical schemes! I hope I can better learn to utilize the TOZ system.

Hopefully some of the tips Aquas and I shared on stream last night will help!

EDIT: Speaking of which, I should share the big one, that will be a help to everyone!

When you see the shield power-up, use your TOZ pod to leech it first, which will give you a shield. Then, collect the shield power-up. Instead of the standard 3 hits, you'll have double the shield!

On his stream last night, MetalFRO randomly got a different TOZ weapon, F-Formation, than what that enemy normally gives.

After searching info about it, I found it happened because he had a score of 10,005.

There are three super weapons: T-Vulcan, F-Formation, and A-Bullet

How to get each:
T-Vulcan - Deploying TOZ 128 times, uncertainty about if they have to be hits or misses.
F-Formation - Deploying the TOZ when your score is a multiple of 10,000 - my guess is that you can be over as long as it was the most recent point score that sends you over the threshold, like
A-Bullet - Pausing the game 8x at the beginning of the game then deploying the TOZ

Found the information here: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=7300

Thanks for coming to the stream, FauxMacho, and for finding the info on how to obtain some of the special weapons!

There's also the T-Braster, which you can achieve by launching the TOZ at the right side of the screen 6 times, then launching it at an enemy. This is an amazing weapon, that's much like the Hunter weapon in the Thunder Force series, but even stronger. The downside is, you don't keep the weapon when you die, nor do you keep it when you leave a level, so you have to re-do this for each stage. There are a couple checkpoints, later in the game, where it can be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain the T-Braster, so learning how to traverse those areas without dying is key.

The T-Vulcan is an interesting idea - I wonder if the large enemy in stage 1 that shoots the wide laser is a good candidate for that? I leeched from it a bunch of times last night, and it was on screen for a long time, so I have a feeling that segment would just continue to repeat until you take it out. Also, I kind of want to see what the A-Bullet looks like, so I might try for that one as well. Since there's that smart bomb early in stage 1, it should be relatively easy to try.

I luckily got the F-Formation myself last night. It too does not last past the end of the stage.

The 128 attempt power up feels so much like an 90s April Fools fake cheat since most of the description of it is the same sentence copied and pasted around the internet and there's no Youtube proof I can find, but the Giant Bomb page https://www.giantbomb.com/gaiares/3030-4900/ is the best, most original reporting I've seen on it and all the weapons so I'll give it a try. I think that first mini boss is a great spot to grind deploys, especially if one of the corners is a safe spot. By placing the TOZ right in front of the ship it's not hard to create one. On the Clam Mermaid 2nd stage boss, the patterns forced me to the top of the screen, and by placing the TOZ just right I'm safe to fire away.

So far it's been brutal to die. I see why you get 5 lives and not 3. After dying I often lose multiple more lives just trying to get started again.

 I was wondering why nobody is talking about. this game. I guess nobody uses the shmup forums anymore? Why? Im assuming people migrated here. Anyway, got to level 3 at a total score of 270,392 on my first credit last night. Playing this game again reminded me of how great and underappreciated  it is as a 16 bit shooter, and also how hard it is. Man is it challenging, but good.

Not to speculate too much, but my assumption is that the Shmups forum membership has shifted over the years, and it's much more of a danmaku fanbase, and there's less enthusiasm for classic console shmups. I think it's become more of an arcade focus over the past 20 years, and there aren't enough of the old guard (like myself) still regularly talking about games like this. That's one of the reasons I started the Shmup Club, because I think it's good to go back to these games, and since RF Generation is a collector community, many of us have these games on our shelves, and some of them we may not have played in a while, if ever.

I didn't get any credits in over the weekend, but I'm planning to fire up the game (and stream) tonight, if I can. Hoping to get a better handle on stage 4, and then finally take out the stage 5 boss. That dragon gives me more trouble than I bargained for.

 You are right that the more "traditional " shmup gets little love over there. So, is this the better place to comment in regards to the shmup of the month? Instead of going back and forth?

Hey, you are doing good there. The key to a lot of this game as you know, is picking the right weapons at certain times. I personally use the thick laser you get early on in level 1 for most of the game. But, for the level 5 dragon, I switched to something else. He goes out pretty quick. Its been a while, so I don't remember off hand. once I get there, I'll let you know.

Yeah, this is where "official" discussion of the Shmup Club games takes place. And yeah, I like that wide laser quite a bit - it's great at taking out all the "vines" in stage 2, leading up to the underwater section, before the boss. But I've taken a liking to the T-Braster, so I'm going to try and stick to that through the game, if I can.

I managed a pretty good run last night, that ended in stage 5. After a couple tries, though, I managed to reach stage 6. Things start to get pretty cheap there, so keep that in mind as you play.

You are ripping it up FRO!  I struggled on level 3 but eventually made it to level 4. At this rate , you'll be done with the game in no time. Are you going for a 1cc or just clearing it?

I'm doing some credit feeding, to learn the game, but I'm hoping to get a 1CC by the end of the month. Also, tonight, I managed to make it to the stage 5 boss on a single credit, and got my PB so far!

  I did 4 credits yesterday before work. I got to the middle of level 3 on 1 credit, then I used the remainder credits and ended up on the 2nd mini boss of level 5. I forgot that there were 2 mini bosses on this level. Im going out of town for work next couple days, but Im having at it when I get back. Love the 16 bit shooters.

That 2nd stage 5 miniboss can be tricky, because you need to stay between the top and bottom lasers, and avoid the center laser when it fires, while keeping the fireballs and crystal shards at bay. I find myself circling around every so often, to avoid the center laser, and re-position the TOZ to block incoming fireballs. I usually do okay there. My big hangup is with the dragon boss at the end of the level. I know what to do, I just have a hard time executing it cleanly every time.

 Alright , just got back into town yesterday, Looking forward to playing some credits. How's your progress Fro? And where is everyone else. Besides us two, everyone else has gone silent.

 Ok just did a playthrough and got to level 6 boss. The female mech with the sword. Not much room to maneuver in this one. Its pretty tight. BTW, I was looking to see if you had any shmup runs and saw you singing. Was that you FRO?

Singing? Where did you see that? I do sing, but I wasn't streaming over the weekend. I did, however, get a really good run last Thursday! I managed to get my new PB, and reached stage 6. I burned some continues getting through the stage, and to the boss, but I didn't manage to last very long on that boss. Will definitely need to practice that area.

 it wasn't a stream. I don't do twitter . It was YouTube. I like to go there at times and watch superplays. Things like that. And instead of a MetalFro superplay, I seen MetlalFro singing.  Good stuff. Hey, I cant sing for nothing. Anyway, you are progressing nicely. I'll probably get a run in tonight, but I also want to play some Genesis Mini. FYI, there is a very nice version of the 1st Darius on the MINI. BTW, Are you open to suggestions for shmup of the month? There's some good ones I'd love to do that you haven't done already.

Oh yeah, I guess I do have a couple videos of me singing on one of my other channels - I don't do much with those, so sometimes I forget what's online :lol:

I definitely want to grab the Genesis Mini at some point, for the Darius port, and for a couple other things. Part of me wants to double up and get the Mega Drive Mini as well, since the Japanese version has MUSHA on it, and it's probably cheaper to buy that than a legitimate copy of the game. As for suggestions, we may be open to some, but since Addicted and I play all the games, we need to make sure we keep it to games we have access to, so keep that in mind. I would certainly be interested to hear what games you might want to play in the future. We have a schedule already mapped out for a while yet, but it would be good to know what members want to play as well.

 I would pick up the Genesis Mini before its out completely. Great value. As far as what games Id want to play in the shmup of the month, the after mentioned Mini Darius. Great game and the perfect game for us. Also , you and I have similar tastes, so Id be interested in more of the classics. Rtype, Axelay, Space Megaforce. Thunder force 3 and 4, Darius Gaiden , games like that. 16 and 32 bit. Even if some on this forum don't have said game, Im sure most of us will make an effort to procure it in some way. Be it emulation or buying said game. So long is it doesn't break the bank. Maybe have everyone chime in on what they'd like to play. That way its not just one person , say myself with certain games I already own, and making everyone else get what I have. The more people that get in on the game of the month, the more fun for us all. Just a thought.

 BTW, after a bit of a break, looking forward to getting a Gaiares session in tonight.

We covered R-Type the first month we were out, and we played Thunder Force IV last January, so those will be off the table. I can say that we have a Darius game on the list for this year already, so you're in luck. Regarding Space Megaforce, that one is going to be tough. I prefer to have the actual games we play, and that's a heavy hitter I haven't been able to get my hands on yet. That could be a while, before we see that one in the rotation. But we definitely have some classics in the schedule for this year, so you should have some good choices to jump into. Our philosophy, with game selection, is to mix things up and make sure we have a variety, so that means some classics, some modern, some indie/doujin, and sometimes we throw in a game that's not quite a shmup, but is related, or as we like to refer to it, "shmup adjacent" enough to make it worth exploring. We also like to mix it up between horizontal and vertical, and do other stuff when we can. Last year, we covered Zaxxon, and also N2O, which is a tube shooter inspired by Tempest. That keeps things fresh, I think.

Regarding Gaiares, I managed to get a clear of the game last night on stream, but it was with multiple credits. But I did finally brute force my way to the end of the game, so that was pretty cool. I'm still hoping to accomplish the 1CC by the end of the month.

I took a week off playing Gaiares and put some time into Castlevania Bloodlines on the Switch collection, but I now have a Genesis and a Gaiares cart so I got that hooked up and working after a bit of cleaning. I was previously playing on a Raspberry Pi and honestly this is the first time I've played a Genesis, other than a faint memory or two. The dpad doesn't feel the greatest so maybe I can get another controller from the used game store near me, but trying to not go out if I can help it. Anyway, in the run I did tonight I was still defeated by the stage 2 boss. The run was really good until then and I'll get it next time.

Good initial effort, FauxMacho! Regarding a Genesis controller, I would recommend a 6-button pad. There are a handful of games that aren't compatible with it, but Gaiares plays beautifully with one, and that's what I've been using. It has a better d-pad than the original 3-button controllers had.

  What I do with her is I shoot the middle of her shell right when the fight starts. Then right before she shoots those 3 missiles  I go above her and to the right ending up almost to the middle on top of her shell. that way her missiles cant get me. Rinse and repeat until her shell opens. I'll let you figure the rest out. You'll have more fun that way.

I've completely hit a wall in stage 6 & 7, I think because of how I've approached weapon choice. Relying on the T-Braster is great for scoring, but when you enter a later level without a weapon, getting set up anywhere is completely ridiculous. I probably need to go back to stealing weapons from enemies, and just relying on those, and then only using the T-Braster if I die during a level, and it's realistic to try and get it back.

Thanks for the tips y'all. I've gotten more comfortable with the dpad, and daily attempts has helped with memorization and strategy. I got halfway through stage 4 (the X-shaped setpiece with the space worm was my end).

MetalFRO, I haven't caught your recent streams but when I want the T-Braster I'll move to the right side of the screen because I can fire off the TOZ faster and get the 6x I need.

PB currently at 486,848.

That's pretty good! The X segment took me a little bit to get through. One thing that's not apparent in that space is that there's some leeway with the rocks. You can duck slightly into them, to avoid the silver ball projectiles the snake fires. You have to be careful not to go into them completely, but that should help you get through it. And yes, regarding the T-Braster, there are definitely a couple stages where you have to quickly run to the right side of the screen to get the 6 "misfires" in, so you can then TOZ the first enemy and get it. A couple places, like stage 4, or stage 6 especially, it's very difficult to pull off successfully.

As for me, I feel like I've regressed, somewhat. I haven't been able to make any progress in finishing the game, because of the difficulty in obtaining the T-Braster in stage 6, and subsequently losing most of my lives at that spot right at the beginning without a decent weapon. Most of the play-throughs I've watched largely stick with the wide laser, or switch to the thinner laser at some point (stage 5 midboss, for example). However, now I'm having trouble even getting that far with those weapons. I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to get a clear by the end of the month, which I was really hoping to achieve.

What about anyone else - anyone making progress, or have scores to share?

There's lots of leeway with the rocks, but the large bullets always get a corner of my ship. I'm good at dodging when in the upper and lower left branches, but on the right side, the game's general limit on how far the ship can go to the edge gets me making errors. I might succeed with practice, but I think my best chance to clear the section is getting through in my first attempt when I still have a shield.

Here's the shield power ups I know of. Know of any more in the first half of the game?
Stage 1: after mid boss
Stage 2: after the 2 ground-to-air lasers
Stage 2: upper tunnel on the second mountain
Stage 3: top of the screen a little ways in once the ship gets to the columns section, usually right when finishing the 2nd giant charging sprite
Stage 3 or 4?: During / after the first small snake fight in the city

I don't have a second controller so I don't think I can access stage select, but maybe I'll go back to the emulator for practice.

I have taken a week off from it, but looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow. Not thinking of a 1cc but maybe a 2 or 3cc. I remember playing it originally  and 1ccing it. So , now Im happy to just completing it.

@FauxMacho - I think you covered all the shield power ups in the 1st half of the game! In stage 5, I'm not aware of any - it's a pretty linear stage, and I don't recall seeing one anywhere during that stretch. I didn't think there was one in stage 6, either, but after the initial rush of the large, laser-blasting enemies, try to stay on the upper path. Somewhere around, or past, the half-way point in the stage, there will be a shield power up available. Stage 7 is a boss rush, and a shield power up will be available prior to the encounter with the stage 4 boss. That's the last one in the game, as you'll have to survive the bosses from stages 4-6, and the Stage 7 final boss, and then you're on to the final boss encounter.

@Gamer707b - Stage 6 starts out so cheap, the uphill climb to the 1CC has been very real!

Speaking of which, I came REALLY close to a 1CC last night on stream. I reached the stage 7 end boss on a single credit, and then it's RNG had other plans, and I ended up burning through all my lives at that spot. I did managed to break 1 million points, though, and have my new PB by a pretty good margin!

I'm not getting past level 2 on a single credit, so I haven't had any scores worth reporting, but I'll try to drop one in over the weekend.  I'm going to try the T-Braster trick, maybe some extra firepower will help.

It does! One word of warning, though - you'll have to redo it each new stage, and once you get a little further in, it gets harder to have enough time to activate it before the enemies pose a threat.

 Ok guys. Did my last playthrough today. Got to level 5 on 1 credit. Then used another credit to pass it and get to level 6. After 2 credits I gave up. In all honesty , I just didn't have the desire to keep pushing. Being that I cleared the game a while ago. Great game though. Certainly one of my favorites of this generation. maybe top 3. look forward to doing the shmup of the month game next time for something I have yet cleared. Too bad Thunder force 4 and Rtype has already been done. These are 2 games I have yet to clear.

What was your final score? Anyone else have final scores to post? I forgot to post mine last night, but it was from my final run of the month, which I streamed. I did get my PB, but I didn't get the 1CC, unfortunately. But I'm close enough that I think I might push ahead and still try and nab that 1CC before we record the podcast, because I'd really like to have that one on my list.

We'll be recording the podcast episode for Gaiares soon, so does anyone have any final thoughts on the game to share, so we can include them in the episode?