T4K Level 1 - 100 Walkthru, with commentary :-)

[Sickboy]

While I've got you both (HP/Deckard) - which games would you include in a multi-system best-of and do you have an emulator set-up?

Currently collecting my favourite bullet-hellers after a heavy rediscover of Gradius V.

[Deckard]

Back in my youth playing arcade games I loved a bit of horizontal shooters like R-Type , Nemesis etc but literally not played one in decades at home - I tend to default to things like Dead Cells (Switch), Satryn DX (Switch and best Robotron-a-like of the last few years for me), actual Robotron (Mame or OpenEmu on my M2 Mac) and obv various versions of Tempest on the Switch although my heart will always belong to TxK plus love a bit of Akkr Arrhhhhhhhhh..... (Switch, which really snuck up on me as I was a little meh at first although I hear mouse control is a LOT easier).

I wish I could still play GR on iOS as that rocked but maybe in the future it might get resurrected....




In an ideal world it would be Defender, Stargate and Robotron cabinets all the way for me but perhaps in the next month or so I might invest in one of these to sweeten the loss -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225487104930

As tbh I cant play Defender / Stargate without the original controls so I dont even try.

Never liked bullet hell shooters for some reason - even Ikargu I just didnt get on with - I think I found things like Xevious, Slap Fight and even Scramble pattern heavy enough for me with just the right amount of spontaneous reaction needed.....although I can see the appeal and they are great for showboating.

Funny enough I am usually happy to mess up about with the above mentioned emulators but someone last week recommended -

https://es-de.org

which seems like a one-stop shop so might have a go with it later in the week



Its strange as even my M2 Mini Pro can run switch stuff pretty easy but cant seem to find a lot of good shooters there sadly.

[Sickboy]

Thanks for all this.

I really enjoyed Charlie Knight's games but he seems to have stopped now. There's an iconoclastic vibe to his style that reminds me a bit of Jeff. 'Son of Scoregasm' is a twin-stick monster - you'll love it.

https://charliesgames.itch.io/

I loved GR on IOS and I'm still in mourning for it. Ditto Minotron and Super Ox Wars.

Totally agree about the Defender/Stargate controls. I'm building my retro set-up at the moment and I might get that controller...

I love the way you can refine the way you play in Bullet Hell shooters. It can feel almost creative/expressive as opposed to reactive/survival-based. I'd love to see Jeff's take.

And if you're using Emulation Station, I recommend Retrobat as a nice customisable front-end.
https://www.retrobat.org/


And I'm creeping up the T4K PS4/5 table but still getting bullied by those final ten levels. Once the difficulty hits that point, a lot depends on the Mu-Mu invincibility randomiser.

I still don't understand those later green-line levels and why they run out of green. Ideas welcome.

[Misfit]

Gridrunner iOS is a sad loss, luckily I still have an old iPad mini with it on that I won't update.

If you have an Android device/emulator lying around then you can still get a version of it below - something old/cheap should run it fine:

http://minotaurproject.co.uk/Minotaur/donate.php

I dream of Gridrunner++ on iOS and still pine for a release of the teaser Gary showed off on here even before there were iPhone apps.

[hairy_pete]

Hey! I'm good, thanks.

Nice T4K skillz. I'm rediscovering it at the moment. I wish it was a bit more refined in places - what's the story with that fourth (I think) green trail bonus level where, erm, the green trail disappears completely?

The story is that when you're holding two world records in that very game, you keep this a secret.

Spoiler: show

You still fail miserably and try not to snap your controller in half over it, for that would affect your score too much.

Seriously, I have no idea. I've heard ideas, but none of them seem to work reliably.

[Deckard]

Nope the green still fucks me over every time for a guaranteed world top score on any tempest that has them......I know pretty Charlie well from correspondence back in the day and always loved his games and I fucking loved Bullet Candy on my Mac -



I might get myself a cheap 10" android tablet just to play the old iOS games.....great suggestion !

[Sickboy]

Ha! Basically, it's broke.

It is strange though. Hard to imagine that Jeff would just leave in something unplayable like that.

Hey! I'm good, thanks.

Nice T4K skillz. I'm rediscovering it at the moment. I wish it was a bit more refined in places - what's the story with that fourth (I think) green trail bonus level where, erm, the green trail disappears completely?

The story is that when you're holding two world records in that very game, you keep this a secret.

Spoiler: show

You still fail miserably and try not to snap your controller in half over it, for that would affect your score too much.

Seriously, I have no idea. I've heard ideas, but none of them seem to work reliably.

[Tempest Nut]

The secret is even I can't get through all of those bonus levels...

[hairy_pete]

Hey Sickboy, I see you're in 4th place on PS4 now. A worthy opponent! Keep going, and let's keep trying to figure the secret of teh stupid missing green track.

[hairy_pete]

In related news, I had another go at Pure mode yesterday, trying to figure those darn green track gaps out. That didn't happen, quite the opposite, more green track fuckups than usual, and thus rather weak score overall.

But surprise - I somehow had magic avoid-the-turrets skills in the last dozen levels, finished with nine lives left, and that bonus gave me a new best of 16.3 million. Only one triangle short of another green track, I can say 17 million is within reach even with the gaps still unsolved, 20 feasible if and when we do.

Let's keep trying!

[Sickboy]

Nice work!

Yeah, I had a couple of weeks where I could devote a bit of time to it but then had to put it down.

Hoping to get back soon.

I do think those later green trail levels are bugs/playtest oversights. But I wouldn’t put it past Yak to have included invisible trails.

[Tempest Nut]

Right here! Really interesting and the guy doing the commentary explains it well https://youtu.be/OXkoY9SI_fE

It's interesting to watch a totally different style of playing the game, His main defensive move of holding ground while leaning and letting the flippers come to him until he gets enough power-ups for the jump, and even then he's still very defensive and taking minimal risk.

It works well...

[Tempest Nut]

A much higher rez version but without commentary https://youtu.be/7uAmPY49aA4

Now this guy is the first guy's exact opposite! He's never seen a risk he wouldn't take and really let's it fly!!!

I don't think he'll be setting any records in survival...

[Sickboy]

I wish there was a way to toggle the AI droid. It causes so much trouble on later levels.

[hairy_pete]

You can always choose to not catch the powerup ... but in consequence, not catching the Warp powerup is too expensive, so you'll have to learn to work around the AI's stupidity. It's particularly stupid with the turrets. Ratatatatat.

I've made an observation on the green tracks: If you push forward across a yellow line, then the pitch of the "bang" sound going across those lines goes higher and higher every time you do this. I did this on the first one that has gaps, and the gap suddenly was HUGE, completely unreachable.

Next time I'll try the opposite, pull back over the yellows.

The fact that it takes over an hour to even get there doesn't exactly help the investigation ...