Mmmc - 1943

[scooterb23]

You know, one of these days I'll remember when it is Monday. Anyway, here's the game for this week. We're going back to a classic that's been sitting on the option list for a while. We go with the classic Capcom shooter 1943.

This is a really fun game, and one I've actually done decently well at in my day. Although my skills are not what they once were, I still enjoy giving this game a spin every so often.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6769



If you're new to the MAME Club, welcome! Here are the rules:

Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select a game from a list of nominations.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found every Monday stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley.

Need the ROM?

ROM will be hosted by Flack at http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/

OK, there you go. Let's see if anyone's still reading: high score contest this week: whoever posts the highest score by way of screenshot!!!!!! in this thread by Saturday night Nov. 7, 11:30 PM gets to pick next week's game. No cheating please, unless you just suck at life that much.

Previous MMMC games: Jump Coaster, Rampart, Jungler, Ninja Emaki, Port Man, Psycho Soldier, Metamoqester, Gunbarich, Sengoku (series), Snacks'n Jackson, Metro-Cross, Moon Shuttle, The Real Ghostbusters, Moonwalker, Black Widow, Kid Niki, Joust 2, Super Contra, Shoot-Out, Raiden, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dead Connection, Gate of Doom, The Outfoxies, Popeye, Baseball Stars 2, Intrepid.

[poloplayr]

What a great choice and quite surprisingly that it hasn't been included in MMMC earlier!

Still one of my earliest memories from an arcade was pumping coins into this game.

Will fire it up and see what kind of scoring I can achieve.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Wooo... don't have to play this one in MAME. I haven't been a frequent poster here like I was late this summer. I wasn't working, so I was alone in the house for a good portion of the day. The TV downstairs wasn't in use, so it was free to hook up an unused PC to. Well work picked back up in September, so I was coming home in the evenings when the girlfriend was watching TV- the one MAME PC was hooked to. I fully intend to make a MAME cab in the near future, that I can hook this PC to once again. I just got a 60-in-1 board, so any game that pops up here that's also there (or any of my Xbox game collections)... I'll comment on.

I currently have the original JAMMA PCB or I can play it via my new 60-in-1. The only problem with the 60-in-1 version is the sound, which is way overdriven resulting in clipping and distortion. It's a shame as the rest of the game plays great.

Anyway the power-ups are all pretty cool in the game. They seem very well balanced, and depending on the area of a stage, different weapons may work better. Many modern shooters in the genre departed from this weapon formula, to one that favors bigger, more powerful guns as the game progresses. To me, the strategic use of weapons is more interesting than just getting bigger ones.

While the basic boss designs are (somewhat) recycled through the game, they always change enough details to not make them seem stale. One thing I can never seem to do though, is to destroy any of the plane bosses to 100%. I can always blow them up but can never manage more than 80% or 90%. They don't seem to have any specific target points to destroy on them, so I just shoot until they blow up. Anyone figure out how to get 100%? Am I missing something obvious?

This may be getting tl;dr territory, so I'll cut it short here. Interested to hear other thoughts on this game.

EDIT: As far as scoring, I can get into the 400's. This usually occurs when I encounter the stage where the boss section, consists of many large planes. The autofire/clone plane power-up combination works especially well during this portion.

Also Ed, I just noticed that you posted in the other 1943 thread I bumped... I'll have to play the other ones in greater depth, to find how this one stacks up. It's cool that I now a have a proper 1942 and 1943 Kai on the 60in1. But as it stands right now, this one seems the most well balanced to me. I have 19xx on one of my Xbox collections that I'll have to revisit now that I have a better perspective on the series.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I hate to have two posts in a row, but really? No love for this game? Anyone else?

Well, if not, I'll at least nominate a few games for next week.

Super Pac-Man
Phoenix
Pleiads
Donkey Kong III
Galaxian

[scooterb23]

Wow, really folks...noone has anything to say? Are things winding down with the club? Anything needed to spice things up? Comments, concerns, questions...anything?

[SegaAges]

I just now saw this and am deciding to post about this one. I can start taking one night out of the week to bust some of these games out.

I will be up for whatever game you guys are doing next week.

[Ed Oscuro]

Originally Posted by scooterb23

Wow, really folks...noone has anything to say? Are things winding down with the club? Anything needed to spice things up? Comments, concerns, questions...anything?

I posted some comments in the other 1943 thread on DP, as TheDomesticInstitution mentioned. Just not my big draw this week.

[Flack]

I gave this a whirl over the weekend. SHMUPs aren't really my thing. They're okay but I suck at them and the only way I can get anywhere is by pumping about 400 credits into them. SHMUPs are one of the genres that I do terrible on using a PC keyboard, so I had to drag out my stick for this one.

[Ed Oscuro]

Originally Posted by Flack

I gave this a whirl over the weekend. SHMUPs aren't really my thing. They're okay but I suck at them and the only way I can get anywhere is by pumping about 400 credits into them. SHMUPs are one of the genres that I do terrible on using a PC keyboard, so I had to drag out my stick for this one.

This isn't really a good shooter to try to start with anyway, but I sympathize in any case.

Also, a stick may be even worse than the keyboard if you have one of those slower sticks for fighters. Joysticks for shooters are best when they're very precise and the stick registers movement after the slightest nudge.

[fahlim003]

Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro

This isn't really a good shooter to try to start with anyway, but I sympathize in any case.

Also, a stick may be even worse than the keyboard if you have one of those slower sticks for fighters. Joysticks for shooters are best when they're very precise and the stick registers movement after the slightest nudge.

Keyboard, for shooters especially, is no way to fly. No hard feelings on my end Flack I totally sympathize.

Although I'd have to say 1943 is probably near the best of the series to begin with. 1943 Kai could have a slight edge since it's shorter, however the weapon power discrepancy in Kai gives the nod to 1943 instead as I feel.

I enjoyed 1942 in arcade back when I was kid and whenever I got 1943 for NES it was a blast. I was pleasantly surprised once I started trying 1943 arcade in the PS1 Capcom Generation 1 a while back.

Some might think the loop technique for tight situations is not really worth it, and I would agree. I never loop and even though I've dumped many hours in 1943, not until recently did I begin to use the Mega Crash. This is performed by pressing shoot & loop (A+B) simultaneously and depending on where you are, it can perform different actions:
1. In the air, lightning flashes and all enemies/bullets on screen pardon your own are cancelled
2. Just above the sea, will cancel all bullets (pardon your own) and will pause the scrolling temporarily while unleashing a tsunami on the enemy ships.

I try to not use MC either, but it can help get around some of the cheaper parts found later in the game. The area right before the final boss and the boss itself are invaluable with the aid of MC.

Hopefully I'll get the 1CC, but for now I'm content getting to Yamato without loop-ing or an MC. Not only but I use a Saturn USB pad, so comfort and control are nothing to complain about.

In short, I really like 1943 and almost all 194X games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Don't underestimate a good keyboard in a pinch - as long as you're used to pressing two keys at once for diagonals, there's just a bit of reaction lag built into moving to a key on the other side, but I find that the keyboard lets me be more precise than any readily-available joystick or even my Saturn USB Pad.

[fahlim003]

Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro

Don't underestimate a good keyboard in a pinch - as long as you're used to pressing two keys at once for diagonals, there's just a bit of reaction lag built into moving to a key on the other side, but I find that the keyboard lets me be more precise than any readily-available joystick or even my Saturn USB Pad.

The force is strong in this one.

I used a keyboard for many years before finally snagging a Saturn USB pad off Yahoo! Japan. It has it's advantages to a certain degree although I really don't want to go back there. Some movements are much harder to perform with no true diagonals than versus on a pad. Same goes for fighting games.