March 2020 Shmup Club - Gaiares

[MetalFRO]

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?

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

Welcome aboard, and welcome to RF Generation!

[Dingo]

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!

[MetalFRO]

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.

[FauxMacho]

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.

[MetalFRO]

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!

[Dingo]

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.

[MetalFRO]

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!

[FauxMacho]

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

[MetalFRO]

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.

[FauxMacho]

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.

[Gamer707b]

 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.

[MetalFRO]

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.

[Gamer707b]

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.

[MetalFRO]

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.

[MetalFRO]

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.