Be Excellent To Each Other

Same here, but it's still a long time to wait every time to you start the game, hehe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEueYGq2mT4

I assumed it was unavoidable!

Raiden!

Finishing on a high note, nice.

<132060>

Hmm.. I'm not very good at this one.
<174820>

First few goes - and this seems even more bullet hell than some of the others.



<110900>

Actually, that's not a bad score at all. Personally, I've yet to see Level 3 on this one. Got to the Level 2 boss a few times but never any further.

Yeah, the st2 boss gives me loads of jip. I've never put that much time into the first Raiden, but I'm still always shocked by how easily he ends my game.



Oh aye, quick, precisely-aimed shots are far more brutal than big flowery spreads, to me.

Bit of an improvement. Panicked a bit after getting killed by the second stage boss and ended up bombarding with smart bombs just to make sure I cleared the stage.

What's the trick with those things that sometimes appear instead of medals and are worth 3000 points? They don't always appear and I'm not sure why.

<225810>

The Miclus? I'm not sure if there's actually any rhyme or reason to its appearances at all, to be honest.

<168930>

This is a lot harder than I remember but I think I only played it on my PSone... I probably had it on easy.

Was this game always this hard?

Died at the 2nd stage boss but that was pure stupidity with not being more trigger-happy with my smart bombs during the stage itself.

It really doesn't like you getting too far without losing a life

<189870>

Add me to the "I'm sure I used to be a lot better at Raiden than this!" camp . . .

<265940>

I'm having a far harder time with this than I did back in the day, although I was a younger, sprightlier chap back then of course.

Not getting to stage 3 in the arcade was a poor show, now I'm rather pleased to have managed it at all.

Raiden's always been pretty ruthless. I don't buy the whole "I'm too old for this shit" thing - it's just a bit of rust. Casual but semi-regular play will soon see you alright.

Of course, the st2 boss is still busting my balls.

Yeah you're right I guess, by the end of the Gradius week I was actually far better at it than I ever achieved in the arcade.

I can't get the Stage 2 boss in Raiden down without using smart bombs and then losing a life anyway as well, which means a bonus of bugger all at the end of the stage, whereas a bonus of 30K+ is my target at the end of Stage 1. (If I lose a life before the end of Stage 1 I just start again.)

<183610>

<224730>


Bah! Handled the st2 boss nicely, but had lots of silly deaths immediately before and after him. Forgot how much I love the third level's music.

Had a quick go. Not in the mood really. <36340>



Plays better than that shit last week. Just not in the mood and nowhere near the "zone" to make me want to do anything more than 2 attempts tonight.

Meh no new high scores for me tonight, got to St3 a couple of times but nothing fancy going on in the score department, 230K was as close as I got.

It really is a mean and unforgiving bastard of a game.

But yes, the St3 music is nice.

Computer's humped again. Looks like I'm out!

Dammit! I was rather relying on you coming 1st or 2nd this week so that I'd be in second place overall above devilman.

Obviously it's just a game and I don't really mind and it's the taking part that counts etc etc.

What's happened to your computer? (Humping them generally isn't recommended for starters, BTW.)

Dammit! I've had no time at all this week, I'm afraid. *cough* Pinball FX 2 *cough*
Must try and get some kind of half-arsed score in by the end of the day, though.

A reminder that tonight is the end ..... 5 and a bit hours to get those final scores in

Well, there you go - one quick attempt and I still can't get past that bastard Level 2 boss, in spite of unloading 6 smart bombs onto the fecker.
<204480>

Shit! Haven't played at all this week. Here's my low score anyway.

<79260>

And thats the end of the final week - Congrats to Klatrymadon , commiserations to Atrocity and Devilman

If anyone wants to review the games we played then they could go up on the site or you could just rank them in the order you preferred to see if everyone agrees that Gradius is the best :-)

My Rankings :

Gradius
Esp Ra. De
DoDonPachi
Space Invaders
Raiden
Darius Gaiden
R-Type Leo

Cheers Zaphod! And well done to Klatrymadon! Wish I'd had some more time to play - some of the weeks it was literally one or two goes. Same time next year, yeah?!

As for rankings, here you go...

DoDonPachi
Raiden
EspRaDe
R-Type Leo
Space Invaders
Darius Gaiden
Gradius

Yes, I just ranked Gradius last.

Congrats to Klatrymadon and cheers to Zaphod for organising it. I'm pleased with third place considering that shooters aren't really my thing - although I think it's more down to getting a score in each week!

My order or preference -

EspRaDe
DoDonPachi
Gradius
Raiden
Darius Gaiden
Space Invaders
R-Type Leo

That was fun, chaps

Yeah thanks Zaphod for organising, and congrats to Klatrymadon for the winning!
I wish I'd had more spare time to play, but I've been really busy at home lately.

I enjoyed the games in this order

DoDonPachi
Gradius
Raiden
EspRaDe
Darius Gaiden
R-Type Leo
\/
\/
\/
Space Invaders

Cheers for Zaphod. Enjoyed playing most of them and tried to make the effort to play every week even if it was only for a couple of goes as with this week!

8 Bit Challenge may return soon, in a new and exciting form. Stay tuned.

Congrats to Klat, I just couldn't even tickle his scores on some of the games! Thought I'd be third at best but a strong last couple of weeks (on the two games I'm probably best at) helped quite a lot.

Here's my list of game-joy.

Gradius - I think I enjoyed this one the most overall, a really skilful, tough-as-nails game that rewards both perseverance and skill.

Darius Gaiden - Suffered abysmally from the lack of autofire, but still a class act IMO.

DoDonPachi - Great fun, never put much time into it before but appreciated it a lot more thanks to the challenge giving me a reason to keep trying again.

Esp Ra. De - As above.

Raiden - Hasn't aged well somehow, was pleased with my score but didn't feel like I'd had a whole load of fun in the process. Unlike Gradius where a game I'd felt fairly ambivalent about before the challenge I'd come to really like by the end of its week.

Space Invaders - IT'S FUCKING SPACE INVADERS.

R-Type Leo - Didn't 'get' this one at all, really weedy music and sounds too. Space Invaders had me trying again for a better score at 3am. This didn't.

This was a lot of fun.. really enjoyed it but wish I had more time to play them.

I'll rate the games later as I can't remember them from just the names. I will say that I didn't enjoy Gradius and I particularly didn't like R Type Leo.

Space Invaders was great as was Raiden.

So there!

I think I'll organise a MAME platformer tournament in the New Year if there's enough interest.

It's better having this kind of structure to get my arse into gear to fire up MAME, otherwise I tend to ignore the old gems.

I would welcome a platformer challenge. I like these challenges as they open my eyes to games I normally miss.

kind of missed it

still you should have chosen raidenDX..
(or was that just psone),

lovely anyway (great hagiography by revstu http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/raidendx.htm )

I played that on the PSP, it's a brilliant version of the game.

I'd be up for that, but I'm not sure what I'd nominate as I can't think of many arcade platformers.

Still some interest in a platform game based challenge? I'm assuming everything from Wonderboy to Bombjack to Bubble Bobble to Bionic Commando would be the sort of thing . . .

I'd be in.

Not for me, never did like platformers nearly so much as sh'mups.

Also, WoW and Naked War, lolz.

I'd have liked to have taken part in the shmup league, but you lot selfishly started it a week or so before I joined the forum.

I'm interested in the platform challenge.

You can count me in.

But if you'd like to wait about 6 months, maybe a year... I may have a nice shiny new* arcade cabinet to play them on.

*May not be shiny or new.

I would welcome a platform MAME challenge.

Also I have an idea for a new home computer based challenge for later in the year when I have more time.

I'll express interest, score about six points in the first game, then not play the rest of them.

I'M IN!

Raiden is my favourite Shmup. I'm completely useless at it and can't even get off the first level anymore. Without continuing a lot anyway.To be fair, I've always been useless at it.

Normally you could count on me, but my busted PC is actually unfixable, so unless I manage to get a wee laptop sharpish, I'll have to sit this one out.

I'd be up for a platforming MAME challenge. I won't have the time to run it though, but would happily take part.