SOTM December 2023: Gun Frontier - Raffles 'n Shit Edition

[wataru330]

Get after it, @Joe!!

This game, has got me wanting to go back and try a few others I hated at first. When it clicks, it clicks!

 

[Ajax]

Actual image of me watching @wataru330 come around on Gun Frontier

 

[wataru330]

I was definitely finessed by the many participants, the thorough coaching posts, and the informative contributions of many.

What a great month! @Ajax curated a beaut.

My 1st posted score wasn’t a rib. I really did that poorly, after many attempts. Perseverance pays off! Would love to get a look at the Gamest omake included with the Saturn version at some point. Would be cool to see the design document sketches!

 

[JoeAwesome]

Man, the respawn in stage 5 with the two cranes right in front of me… oof.

JoeAwesome — 185790 — stage 5 — Saturn

 

[Ajax]

Thanks man, I appreciate the kind words. This SOTM has basically had everything I look for in these things and then a bunch of other cool things on top of those things. Thanks to everybody for participating.

Will more chode bois bag the Saturn clear before the deadline? Will those flamingos make it to where they’re going? Will the music during the stage 4 boss fight ever start playing? Find out in the dramatic conclusion of December’s SOTM tomorrow!

 

[JoeAwesome]

Thanks man, I appreciate the kind words. This SOTM has basically had everything I look for in these things and then a bunch of other cool things on top of those things. Thanks to everybody for participating.

Will more chode bois bag the Saturn clear before the deadline? Will those flamingos make it to where they’re going? Will the music during the stage 4 boss fight ever start playing? Find out in the dramatic conclusion of December’s SOTM tomorrow!

Legit game, legit host.

 

[ShootTheCore]

I’ve been scrounging for some quality Shmup Time all month and I finally was able to squeeze some in today. I’m glad I was able to get a score in under the wire!

ShootTheCore - 116,140 - Stage 3 - PCB

 

[prof]

prof82 - 193310 - Level 3 - switch

I am officially done now. I was trying so hard to beat my previous 189k score, and I scored between 180 and 188 about a dozen times this afternoon. Ready to throw the effing switch, I swear. Haha

Great game, but if I don't play it again for another decade, I'm good with that.

 

[Neodogg]

Thanks for hosting @Ajax. Thanks for introducing me to such a great game I’ve never heard of before, also thanks to all who broke things down.

 

[pixeljunkie]

PXJ - ROUND 3 - 165,560 (Arcade, emulation Egret 2 Mini, default settings)

I'm out. Can't take any more.

Thanks @Ajax for hosting. This was fun!

 

[Johnny16Bit]

Disappointed I screwed my 2nd score with a coin error bug of doom, it was a great SOTM @Ajax
Thanks for hosting & grats to the winner!

 

[Gremlin]

Really enjoyed this SOTM fellas, I didn’t get as much time as I wanted but happy I participated still. As sappy as it is, I really appreciate that we do these

Ty @Ajax bb

 

[wataru330]

Now that the comp is done, I can share some little tidbits for anyone that may revisit the Saturn rev.

I’ve been taking my time, trying to find exploits and secrets.

A couple of things:

If you’ve ever seen an action movie, you’ve seen pattern shots…like when Karl puts four in the door (diagonally) trying to cap McClain in Die Hard.

I try and use firearm principles like this on my last couple of runs, and my scores have exploded…and I’m almost no missing all the fast popcorn enemies.

From the far bottom of the screen…I just sweep left to right/right to left in a tight figure eight (another gun gimmick-when target shooting irl you can hold your breath and let the barrel sway in a tight figure eight, and squeeze when the barrel re-centers itself) and letting off highest rapid in measured bursts. It catches almost all the popcorn, and generates so much gold and nickels.

Reaching the Round 1 boss with max shot and two red ‘!’ worth of bombs, after virtually no missing, by the time you point blank the boss (1st middle to eliminate red contra ball grapeshots, then upper right corner hovering over/point blanking the corner=insta boss kill) you are starting Round 2 with ~40k points and up two lives.

When the four big blues show up, shimmy to just off center screen and *hold DOWN ON STICK/D-PAD* as you press bomb, and all four drop like flies.

You now have almost 100k before you get to the boss, and are just plinking everything off with the quickest auto shot, and your wall of lead.

Back with some Round 3 and 4 infos bit by bit. This is one I’ll keep playing into future months, until I 1-all it with the highest score.

*I was on my way with 200k and the wind at my back, and just kept getting sneaky deathed by off screen tanks. Kinda broke my mojo.

 

[pixeljunkie]

Now that the comp is done, I can share some little tidbits for anyone that may revisit the Saturn rev.

I’ve been taking my time, trying to find exploits and secrets.

A couple of things:

If you’ve ever seen an action movie, you’ve seen pattern shots…like when Karl puts four in the door (diagonally) trying to cap McClain in Die Hard.

I try and use firearm principles like this on my last couple of runs, and my scores have exploded…and I’m almost no missing all the fast popcorn enemies.

From the far bottom of the screen…I just sweep left to right/right to left in a tight figure eight (another gun gimmick-when target shooting irl you can hold your breath and let the barrel sway in a tight figure eight, and squeeze when the barrel re-centers itself) and letting off highest rapid in measured bursts. It catches almost all the popcorn, and generates so much gold and nickels.

Reaching the Round 1 boss with max shot and two red ‘!’ worth of bombs, after virtually no missing, by the time you point blank the boss (1st middle to eliminate red contra ball grapeshots, then upper right corner hovering over/point blanking the corner=insta boss kill) you are starting Round 2 with ~40k points and up two lives.

When the four big blues show up, shimmy to just off center screen and *hold DOWN ON STICK/D-PAD* as you press bomb, and all four drop like flies.

You now have almost 100k before you get to the boss, and are just plinking everything off with the quickest auto shot, and your wall of lead.

Back with some Round 3 and 4 infos bit by bit. This is one I’ll keep playing into future months, until I 1-all it with the highest score.

*I was on my way with 200k and the wind at my back, and just kept getting sneaky deathed by off screen tanks. Kinda broke my mojo.

I think I am gonna' load up the Saturn version now - as I feel like I might enjoy it more.

 

[wataru330]

I think I am gonna' load up the Saturn version now - as I feel like I might enjoy it more.

You cut your teeth on the arcade rev, and made it more than half way through! Playing it w/ no rank, and extends every 20k? You are gonna eat the Saturn version up!

 

[Ajax]

Thanks so much for the kind words all This was a really, really enjoyable SOTM, I’m sad to see it end, tbh. I'll go back and bag the arcade version at some point this year.

I’ll update the scoreboard for the last time tomorrow morning when I sit down at my computer!

I’m still gathering raffle prizes, apologies for not showing them yet. What I’ve got so far:

- Xevious FC cart
- Gyrodine FC cart
- Raspberry Pi Pico flashed with GP2040 firmware, with headers soldered on (if you haven’t heard about this yet, I recommend checking it out - I figure this will have a massive impact on the fighting game community, specifically. I can also make wiring harnesses for this if you need, but you'll need to pay for it. It's laborious and I ain't doing it for free.)
- Some arcade buttons, maybe I'll find a lever too
- Maybe I'll scrounge up an emulation handheld while I'm at it

I'll conduct the raffles in the next couple days!

 

[Ajax]

All right, a few things:

First, some hard goobing, if you're into that sort of thing:

Spoiler:

I know we’re done and everything, but I played a single cred on PS4 last night with a slight tweak in my strategy and 2ccd. This is also the first time I've made it through the tank factory on a single credit. It was was right in front of our faces the whole time - the answer was suicide from the very beginning. That is - exchanging lives for a reduction in rank. I'm still in the lab trying to determine when it's best to suicide, but there are currently two proposed strategies:

Strategy A: Never hold more than one life in stock. The idea with this strategy is to avoid the rank increase associated with clearing a level, which is 6 + (the number of lives in stock x 5). This is what I did last night. I don't think it matters if you suicide before getting an extend, or shortly after. Really, it doesn't matter when you do it, as long as you do it before the respective stage boss.

Strategy B: Stack lives, ideally no missing up to just before the stage 4 boss, then suiciding repeatedly until you've got just one life in stock. The issue with this strategy is the theoretical loss in offensive power, which may leave you too weak to make it through stage 5. I still haven't quite determined how power downs work.

A quick note to remind you that dying in a boss fight does not lower your rank.

A friend and I are working on hammering this out and if anybody is interested, I can post our findings when we have something to report. This will take a lot of notes and a lot of tinkering, I imagine. I guess I see now why Yagawa gravitated to this game in such a profound way...

Next, I've decided to tweak the raffle rules just a bit, but I imagine everybody will like the change. Updated rules are as follows:

Spoiler:

1. One entry for getting on either board at all (this is the tweak)
2. One additional entry for the score increase (this was 25% for arcade and 50% for Saturn)
3. Two additional entries for a legitimate Saturn clear
4. Five additional entries for a legitimate arcade clear

Finally, the scoreboard is updated for the last time! (If there are any errors, please let me know, there was a bit of a rush of scores at the end there!) I'm going to exclude my goob ass from this and congratulate the top three players for both boards:

Arcade:
1. @prof82 - 193,310
2. @pixeljunkie - 165,560
3. @Gremlin - 163,600

Saturn:
1. @Neodogg with the clear and a final score of 673,190!
2. @wataru330 - 203,210
3. @JoeAwesome - 185,790

Some solid shooting here, nice job all!

Stay tuned for raffle winner announcements!

 

[prof]

I'd like to recuse myself from the raffle. Had a ton of fun this month playing GF with you all, but pretty sure this was the first sotm I've ever done. I may have played one in a previous year and just forgotten, but I don't think so. To be honest, I've never paid much attention to it, and somehow this one came up in chat or somewhere and it sounded interesting, so I bought the game on switch and ended up enjoying the competition and learning the game. But I don't think it's right for me to possibly win a prize considering I'm a sotm noob. Just wouldn't feel right considering many of you have been invested in sotm for a long time. Regardless, I look forward to playing future shooters with you all.

 

[ggallegos1]

I'd like to recuse myself from the raffle. Had a ton of fun this month playing GF with you all, but pretty sure this was the first sotm I've ever done. I may have played one in a previous year and just forgotten, but I don't think so. To be honest, I've never paid much attention to it, and somehow this one came up in chat or somewhere and it sounded interesting, so I bought the game on switch and ended up enjoying the competition and learning the game. But I don't think it's right for me to possibly win a prize considering I'm a sotm noob. Just wouldn't feel right considering many of you have been invested in sotm for a long time. Regardless, I look forward to playing future shooters with you all.

We haven't done many raffles before, so we're all in somewhat new territory.

I don't participate in as many SOTM as I'd like due to life and all, but I wouldnt feel butthurt if you won a raffle prize. We play to get to know some shooters either we enjoy a lot or some new ones we never gave the time of day, and coordinating strategies to get further. You participated, which is more than like 95% of registered users here so take the raffle ride as a bonus

 

[Ajax]

Yeah prof, tf are you talking about? You put a solid effort in here and have as much of a right to participate in the raffle as anybody.

 

[prof]

I guess I assumed the raffle was intended as a culmination for the whole year.

 

[Ajax]

Nah, nothin' as formal as that associated with these things. We're just talking shit and playing shooting games.

 

[Ajax]

All right friends, the following people were drawn for the items listed next to their names:

@opt2not - Xevious FC cart
@Gremlin - Gyrodine FC cart
@Neodogg - Raspberry Pi Pico GP2040
@gusmoney - arcade controls
@kuze - Retroid Pocket 2+

As a reminder, you'll need to pay for shipping to claim your prizes. Please drop me a PM and we'll get this rolling. Thanks for playing everybody! Now go play Varth!

 

[wataru330]

Sweetness! Congrats to the winners, and big up ya self, @Ajax!!! Thanks for one of the best SotM in recent memory.

You’ve raised the bar, for all future hosts!

 

[opt2not]

Hey @Ajax , feel free to draw someone else for the Xevious cart. I didn’t really put much of an effort into this SOTM, and also didn't follow the requirements to enter the draw.
Wouldn’t seem fair to reward me for just getting on the board.

Thanks anyway, I appreciate what you’ve done for this SOTM!