September 2019 Shmup Club - Zaxxon

[dtungsten]

Count me in. Here's a start. I'm playing on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3.

[MetalFRO]

Welcome aboard! I managed to get 37K last night on stream:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/FYmagxXl.jpg[/img]

One trick I figured out is to immediately go down and right at the start of the course, once you're over the first wall, because you can take out the satellite dish and cannon in the corner and start out with 1000+ points. That's a good way to get a score boost right off the bat.

[MetalFRO]

Anyone else playing, and making some high scores?

[Duke.Togo]

Anyone else playing, and making some high scores?

I haven't made it back to the C64 yet with everything going on. I'd like to find an Apple II version and give it a go before the end of the month.

[coin_tengoku]

Okay. I’ve tried for two weeks now to play this game and still have yet to even get to the first boss. Have to say it now....I hate this game. I think I’ve had enough of this one. Sorry guys. I think my highest score was like 1600 pts or something.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dtungsten]

While looking up what the enemy plane bonus was, I found this tip that seems to work, "Flying at an altitude of 1 1/2 will allow you to hit ground targets while making their shots go harmlessly under you."

I don't know if anyone is planning on playing the board game this month, but I think it was my first experience with Zaxxon. I played it back in the day at a friend's house. I remember it being fun but not amazing. I'd say it is good for a video game to board game conversion, though it's difficult to capture the feel of a video game as a board game. Though fun, there are plenty of other board games that are better. It has a lot of what would be called "playfield toys" in pinball. There are plastic walls, turrets, missile silos, fuel tanks, and the Zaxxon robot. It's a two player game and the planes can be adjusted in up or down for high or low altitude. Once you get to the middle, you can dogfight the other player, and then you can fight the Zaxxon robot. The opposing player controls the robot for the battle. You can find more details about the game on the internet, but that's what I remember about it. I really like the plastic robot piece. I'd love to hear some other tales of the board game.

My current high score is 15,000 something. I'll post a picture of it probably tomorrow.

[MetalFRO]

Okay. I’ve tried for two weeks now to play this game and still have yet to even get to the first boss. Have to say it now....I hate this game. I think I’ve had enough of this one. Sorry guys. I think my highest score was like 1600 pts or something.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's totally okay, coin_tengoku - not every shooter is for everyone, and certainly, as early as this game was, it has some quirks that make it difficult. One thing I've found is that the isometric perspective can throw you off, and there are times when it seems like I'm over a wall, or object, and then I try to go back down to engage ground targets, and I'll clip the edge of the wall. That perspective makes it harder to judge where you're supposed to be. I would encourage you to watch my last stream, and check dtungsten's advice just above my post, and see if that helps. If not, there's no shame in throwing in the towel, if you're not finding any fun in the game.

I managed to get another high score during one of many runs earlier this evening: 48,000 points!
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/wr4lvvPl.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

I managed to up my game again:
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/pb4WRuRl.jpg[/img]

I wanted to share a tip that dtungsten mentioned on one of my streams - if you hover at around 1.5 height (on the gauge), you can fire at ground targets, but not hit them, or be hit by lasers shot out by ground planes or canons. You can hit a lot of targets that way, and rack up quite a few points. Also, I'm attaching a picture that shows the approximate position you should be at when you reach the Zaxxon robot, so you can blast away at his missile, and take him out, to get the 1,000 point bonus. If you survive the attack, you get a 200 point bonus, so obviously, going for the kill is the better option. It's right around the 2nd hexagonal tile, and about 2.5 high on the gauge on the Z-axis.

[MetalFRO]

I decided to check out the scores for the game on Twin Galaxies, just for fun. Watch this run, by "JasonV91" from December 015. This was done in M.A.M.E., but it should be similar to what I'm doing, in terms of playing the arcade version. He has a pretty consistent route through the stage, and there are some good tricks here. Definitely worth watching to glean some strategies for getting through each stage. I also see where he gets the plane bonus, and how he accomplishes that, so I think it's worth giving that a try.

https://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/207573-m-a-m-e-zaxxon-set-1-points-471-750-jason-vasiloff

[MetalFRO]

Well, I'm further along in Zaxxon than I expected I'd be. I'm reaching the 3rd loop, in a good run, and I've already cruised past my last score that I hadn't even posted yet!
[img width=700 height=525]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFHfoMcUEAA86vw?format=jpg&name=4096x4096[/img]

I think I'm going to set my goal at 80K by the end of the month.

[MetalFRO]

Woohoo! I met my score goal! I'm not setting a new one, since there's less month than time for me to continue to hone in. How's everyone else doing?
[img width=640 height=480]https://i.imgur.com/DN3urzgl.jpg[/img]

Here's the run where I got my high score:
http://www.youtube.com/wa...eature=youtu.be&t=414

[dtungsten]

Score of 17900. Wish I had more time to dedicate to playing these games. I think my first experience playing Zaxxon was the board game. I later saw it in the arcade and never played it much because the isometric perspective and flights tick control threw me off. Playing it now, I was able to get past that trouble and I made it to the Zaxxon robot. I'm going to play some more now because I'd like to get the plane bonus at least once.

[dtungsten]

25500 much better. I managed to get the plane bonus a few times overall now, still have trouble with the Zaxxon robot, one time I had 4 lives when I got to it and still couldn't get past it, but I got it a few times overall.  I almost made it to the Zaxxon robot in the second round. My shooting thumb sure gets tired.

[dtungsten]

I forgot to mention that I switched to using the D-pad. It has the advantage of being able to strafe left and right easily.

[dtungsten]

Point of trivia: if you get two scores exactly the same, the one you get later is ranked higher.