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It's been some time, Mills! Hope everything's going fine for you. Sadly, I'm not in contact with DEL these days but other people are. I haven't seen him in the usual places lately. I'm sure he'll be back eventually. The sudden increase in Strikers 1999 replays is not a coincidence at all! A couple of us simply remembered how amazing this game is and decided to all play it again together.

Thanks for the kind comment! This game is indeed very demanding and that's why I like it so much. Loop 2 clear will happen most likely soonish. But this is just a starting point as I want to get a good score, too. I have to make everything as consistent as possible which looks like a great challenge. Let's see how far I can push it.

Thanks for stopping by, Mark! I definitely want to get a good score in this one but the route as it is, is not quite there yet. The most curious thing about the replay is probably the ship choice. Virtually everyone else is using the secret X-36 ship instead.

I'll definitely keep an eye on your progress because you always find really unique and interesting routes for ships no one else plays ha​@@plasmo6903

Thanks for the kind words! It's not as clean as I want it to be but I will work on it to refine it further. I'm playing on an original arcade PCB and I don't know how to manipulate the random stage order. Therefore, the learning and routing process has taken me way longer than I was at first expecting. Since in other Psikyo games, it is (sometimes?) possible to manipulate the stage order, maybe there is a way in Strikers 1999, too. The only thing I know is that a soft reset leads to a default stage order. However, I don't know if I want to reset my PCB each time between runs...

@@plasmo6903 Resetting the PCB each time does sound like that'd get annoying fast haha. Even though its extra time to have to route first few stages at the lower or higher difficulty, I imagine its worth it learning it just be able to start a run without worrying about rng.

Thanks for the interest! This is just a start, expect a 2-All soon and then higher scores (no goal yet). I'm gonna play this one for a while. It's probably my favorite Psikyo game, indeed! But I do respect their entire catalogue of games. Other Psikyo games I enjoy a lot are Strikers 1 and 2 as well as the two Gunbirds and Zero Gunner 2. As for some of their other games, I have to spend more time with them first in order to appreciate them more. Dragon Blaze is also considered one of their best and most approachable games.

The basic idea behind the despawn is a sprite limit overflow which you can achieve during high amounts of slowdown. It is already important to take out the first ship exactly as I do in the video in order to be able to pointblank the second ship and make it transition to phase 2 ASAP. This will trigger the missiles - the most important part of the trick. The hitbox of these big ships is actually bigger than the sprite itself, so standing right next to it at the top of the screen is very risky! When making the missiles circle around you, you have to destroy the second big enemy exactly the moment the missiles are about to hit you as well. Use your laser at this time and keep lasering the missiles to create extra slowdown. Make sure to not kill any of the incoming small enemies and stay on the side of the screen for as long as possible. Eventually, the number of enemies and bullets on screen is so high that no further sprite can spawn and the game decides to just throw dozens of small planes at you. This chain only works if you haven't died before because otherwise the small enemies are not shooting enough bullets to reach the sprite limit overflow. It's somewhat of a difficult chain to learn but can be made reasonably consistent with enough visual cues. The most difficult part is to not get hit during pointblanking the second big ship as random bullets will appear right into your face. Let me know if this is clear enough. I could try to do an audio commentary on this chain again if needed. Good luck!

@@plasmo6903 thank you so much! What a complicated trigger! Makes complete sense. Sorry for the belated reply! Can't wait to see you stream again soon. I'm getting close to making more scoring progress but still scuffling in the low 20s.

​@@plasmo6903 I saw in other superplays of this game, where they show the max HIT counter where the GP is. How did they do that?

Nice! I'm really digging the cute atmosphere + saturized graphics. Music also fits perfectly. Obviously the squirrel is my fav character~

Fortunately, I enjoy the music of DonPachi quite a bit! It's one of my favorite shmup OSTs. Music is really important to me and I can definitely relate to your comment. If I don't like an OST, I'm probably not staying for long with a game. Either way, M2 port is desperately needed.

@@plasmo6903 Oh, I should probably clarify: I do enjoy the Saturn music. The soundtrack is pretty nice when you can actually hear the drums. Stage 4 in particular is so different between arcade and Saturn.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Please remember to always eat breakfast!

But never #schoolshooters

Thanks for your interest! The scoring system in this game is very open-ended so with enough creativity there's always a higher score to be obtained. This run in particular had quite a few mistakes. The scoring potential with my current route would net me close to 80 million. I'm positive higher scores even beyond that barrier are possible but this would require a lot of new research first.

Thanks man!

Bakraid No Miss actually sounds like an interesting challenge! I'll keep that one in mind, thanks for the suggestion!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! The revenge bullets during the loop are most fierce when you control type C. Type A has a much easier time here due to the speed.

Thanks for the GGs! I also agree that this game does have many flaws. I do like the atmosphere it creates and the soundtrack though.

Playing this game for score is indeed one of the silliest things you can do! Also a lot of fun.

No, the regular game does not have a 2nd loop at all. To play a 2-loop version of the game you have to hold DOWN on the title screen when starting the game. This lets you select "Extended Mode". You will automatically reach the 2nd loop in this mode; there are no loop requirements. There are two more special modes you can play: Hold UP to play "Harder Mode" (harder version with revenge bullets, 1 loop) and A+B for "Score Attack" (Caravan Mode of stage 6)

@@plasmo6903 Thank you!

Thanks for the kind words! I'm very glad you enjoyed the run. It's been a very long journey to reach the routes I now have. Yet, it's not as refined as it could be. I'll continue to work on this project in the future. The weird first death in 2-5 was mostly because of nerves at this point. The adrenaline rush made me misjudge my vertical position, which was a tad too high. The resulting loss from this was quite severe as I was forced to not only give up on the chain itself (-300k) but also drop the succeeding chain on the big turret (-1.4mil). Needless to say I missed another 1mil due to losing out on the end bonus for this life. At the very least, I'd like to land a similarly paced run while also getting the 2-4 capacity bonus to break through 75mil. Realistically, I don't expect to reach the big 80mil barrier. Only time will tell.

Glad you liked it! The 2-4 capacity bonus is very difficult to get with Type C (both A and B have an easier time here) but it is definitely possible. I have gotten it once before.

@Джет Марс - Все серии (Осторожно, вспышки) I've been playing Donpachi for 15+ years and I never knew the bees increased rank. Dynamic difficulty is so obnoxious!

​@@HunterTinsleyfyi you don't want to do that if you play Japan version. It doesn't matter really. Might as well go for extra few bits of score .

It's a tricky clear for sure but if you put in the time and effort it's very much doable. I've spent most of the time routing the game as there were no resources around whatsoever. All playtime combined the clear took me less than 150 hours. But also keep in mind that I've had lots of experience with the Japan version before that.