Author Topic: Deathsmiles 2 [CAVE PCB, 2009] (Read 73051 times)

adverse · « **Reply #180 on:** April 16, 2009, 09:02:44 PM »

I'm up in Tokyo for the day. Will drop by.

EOJ · « **Reply #181 on:** April 16, 2009, 09:38:46 PM »

The rental thing is for real:

http://www.rs2006.co.jp/j/death_s/index.html

You will be able to rent it, or buy it outright for 248,000 yen. If you rent it you pay zero down, but have to give 40% of your monthly profits to CAVE. Sort of an interesting idea really, and a potential way for CAVE to get more money out of their arcade games. Not sure how many ops will be interested in this, though.

hermosaguy · « **Reply #182 on:** April 17, 2009, 03:02:38 AM »

What type of setup would you have to have to play this? I'm guessing an Egret 2 wouldn't work. What about an Egret 3 or would you need something like a Viewfix? Would arcade operators have to make a bigger investment just to have this playable?

EOJ · « **Reply #183 on:** April 17, 2009, 03:31:41 AM »

They say this game supports (or runs on?) "JVS". Its dimensions are 400mm x 160mm x 275mm. It's 8kg. Pretty big and heavy, so my theory of a big dumb XP PC in a box seems like it wasn't too far off. It also uses a USB dongle like Type-X.

hermosaguy · « **Reply #184 on:** April 17, 2009, 03:39:56 AM »

JVS? Is that a specific cab? Thanks for the info! I'm curious how likely operators would be to do the rental of it if they don't have the hardware.

KOMA · « **Reply #185 on:** April 17, 2009, 05:29:34 AM »

8Gk!!au revoir importing those shitty hardware.
JVS system is based on control by using USB and picture by using VGA port.Tu run a JVS game on a jamma cab you need a SEGA I/O convert or Capcom I/O convert.And of course a Tri sync monitor if the hardware is 31K only.

hermosaguy · « **Reply #186 on:** April 17, 2009, 05:34:13 AM »

With all that has to be put into this new type of hardware, it doesn't look like they would abandon it if DS2 doesn't do well. Hopefully this whole cheap 3d look won't last and they go back to putting some love back into the visuals.

SuperPang · « **Reply #187 on:** April 17, 2009, 07:01:47 AM »

Its a PC, expect it to look like Type X. This is worrying as it sounds like its been a big investment for Cave and if unsure ops go for rental and it doesn't earn, they're gonna see a big drop in revenue. And going by the footage I'm not confident, not because its ugly (the Japanese aren't as fickle as us) but because its probably not a draw for scorers, their main fanbase. I really hope it is delayed and the finished version has a lot more going on.

Hardware wise you'll be able to play it on a Supergun with a simple SEGA I/O board if you have an amp, Capcom if you don't. Power shouldn't be an issue as it'll probably have its own PSU.

GaijinPunch · « **Reply #188 on:** April 17, 2009, 10:37:10 AM »

No issues here. I don't foresee this ever coming into my house in PCB form.

And yeah, weird that the rental thing is true... guess some rumors turn out to be truth. I guess they're confident nobody can hack the settings.

adverse · « **Reply #189 on:** April 17, 2009, 05:41:22 PM »

Ok, made it out to Taito station yesterday but am only now getting to an internet terminal.

First, the game was running on an Egret 3 cabinet. Hardware wise I tried to peek into the cab while the attendants were adjusting the game (it seemed to have reset a few times, AOU style >_<) but couldn't really see much.

Game-wise, I saw three levels, one is the first level you start out in that ends with the Reindeer boss. Next is a 'City' and 'Ruins'. 'Ruins' is a vertically scrolling level similar to the canyon. Everybody playing couldn't make it past these three levels, but maybe with some practice we could. The Ruins level features these big snakes that come in from the side which take a lot of shots to kill. I dunno, maybe there's a trick to it.

You collect rings as you kill enemies, and foreground enemies seemed to give blue rings while background enemies seemed to give red. Not sure what the difference is if any. The rings do not bounce. When you active at 1000 on your item counter, you get more rings from enemies and bosses will give a steady stream of rings. Rings add onto your plus counter I believe MBL style, so the counter probably gets pretty high.

Graphic-wise it's not the hottest game, but it's also way better than for instance Mamoru-kun which had bad graphics but a decent enough game system for people to give it a chance. I think it's playable and will give it a try when it comes out.

At the same arcade, there were tons of CAVE boards, KOFXII, Senko no Ronde 2 and SFIV so I soon became quite distracted...

EOJ · « **Reply #190 on:** April 17, 2009, 05:44:45 PM »

Thanks for the impressions! The scoring system is sounding much better than before. Let's hope that the game is fun, even if it doesn't look too hot.

adverse · « **Reply #191 on:** April 18, 2009, 12:35:53 AM »

No problem.

I went back again today.

First off, the counter maxes at 10,000. From here, you enter fever mode and against big enemies (?) there is some strange effect where you start streaming platinum rings from them. One guy (who was also awesome at MFBL Maniac) had a stream of these going against the second boss in power up mode and when his item counter reached zero, it was suddenly back up to 1000. So maybe there are tricks to constantly refill the item counter in this way.

I have yet to see anyone make it through the Ruins level, I believe this is because they've intentionally weakened the shot for the location test version. Enemies take a lot of fire to kill. Very much hope this is not the final version.

Top score of the day when I left at lunch today was 5 million. Basically people making it through the first two levels, getting 1000 on the first level, filling up on the boss, then getting to fever by the end of the second level, dying on the third.

EOJ · « **Reply #192 on:** April 18, 2009, 12:41:43 AM »

Quote from: adverse on April 18, 2009, 12:35:53 AM

I have yet to see anyone make it through the Ruins level, I believe this is because they've intentionally weakened the shot for the location test version. Enemies take a lot of fire to kill. Very much hope this is not the final version.

Sounds like Yagawa style rank, as in Pink Sweets. I doubt this will be in the final version though. Loke test versions are always harder than the final release.

EOJ · « **Reply #193 on:** April 18, 2009, 05:42:41 AM »

Here's a writeup from a Japanese dude, for those who can read Japanese:

http://runark2.blog69.fc2.com/blog-entry-1023.html

Summary: it's a lot harder than the AOU show version and the scoring system is not nearly as exciting or as inviting as the first game. So the guy isn't really impressed with it. He said he cleared the three stages in double play mode (apparently there was no one around so he just kept playing himself), but couldn't clear it in single play mode.

SuperPang · « **Reply #194 on:** April 18, 2009, 07:20:38 AM »

Sounds better than it did though!

KOMA · « **Reply #195 on:** April 18, 2009, 03:06:48 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajss4NFXG_E&fmt=35
Location Test.

EOJ · « **Reply #196 on:** April 18, 2009, 03:15:32 PM »

That vid was interesting. The guy cleared it too! The last stage had the best bullet patterns. The snakes didn't seem to be a problem, rather the slowly falling pillars: didn't seem like you could destroy them. The boss was a piece of cake with a single bomb.

The scoring system looks very similar to the first game, but without the bouncing skulls. The whole lock-shot mechanic from the AOU version seems to have been completely scrapped.

Chi · « **Reply #197 on:** April 18, 2009, 09:26:25 PM »

Interesting vid - thanks.

I'm still not too impressed with this, yet; the more I see, the more it looks like Cave are using this as a tech demo for their 3D engine - it looks rushed (it'd be nice to hear the audio - all I can hear is someone playing DeathSmiles nearby

). The graphics look ok (I'm a sucker for 3D background movements in a 2D shooter), but seem to lack any of the graphical "pizazz" that the original had.

I'm also a bit saddened that they've ignored a bunch of gameplay elements from DSMBL, and more or less reverted to vanilla DS in terms of scoring (unless there's something I've missed!).

Gwyrgyn · « **Reply #198 on:** April 19, 2009, 12:08:49 AM »

You still carry over your + counter in this like in MBL, it just caps at 10k instead of 100k. Which is a good thing.

It doesn't look that bad anyway, but still too sparse. Just looks like a watered down version of the original with a shittier theme and mediocre 3D.

Edit: Oh your + counter drops to 0 in this when you get hit oh boy what fun, as least your counter seems to jack up like crazy on the bosses. But it's kind of a moot point to worry about since stuff like that is what's most likely to get adjusted between tests and the final.

adverse · « **Reply #199 on:** April 19, 2009, 03:56:37 AM »

Ugh, I didn't notice the counter dropping to 0 if you get hit. Lame and unneeded. This board needs a thumbs down smiley. : /

EOJ · « **Reply #200 on:** April 19, 2009, 04:04:49 AM »

They'll probably change that in the final version. For example, MMP loke test version had medals resetting to 100 if you missed one after you maxed them out at 10,000, while the final game had the medals dropping down to 1000 instead.

SuperPang · « **Reply #201 on:** April 19, 2009, 06:27:19 AM »

Bullets look more promising, 3D still looks awful, especially the third stage. Why on earth couldn't Cave have just sacrificed a bit of profit and got in bed with Taito.

Capcom did it FFS.

rtw · « **Reply #202 on:** April 21, 2009, 07:11:07 AM »

Got an offer for Deathsmiles 2

ORIGINAL, JVS SPEC. (31KHZ)

So it's VGA and JVS i.e. NAOMI power connections & USB based I/O board.

EOJ · « **Reply #203 on:** April 24, 2009, 02:10:57 PM »

More (unfavorable) impressions:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=24222&start=214

Kaneda · « **Reply #204 on:** April 26, 2009, 08:00:06 AM »

I played this in Akihabara yesterday. It's fascinatingly ugly but still not Triangle Service-ugly. Still, it is pretty fun so it's not a complete loss. Just let the 3D end here, Cave, and let's forget this ever happened.

hermosaguy · « **Reply #205 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:09:18 AM »

This goes on sale tomorrow! Anyone taking the plunge?

EOJ · « **Reply #206 on:** May 12, 2009, 05:44:20 AM »

You'd have to be pretty crazy to buy this game for $2000+ (or even 1/10th of that). A reasonable person would wait for the sure-to-be-perfect X360 port which (already announced) will likely come our way within a year for $65.

hermosaguy · « **Reply #207 on:** May 12, 2009, 01:05:22 PM »

Haha, you know there are people out there that would fork over that kind of cash for it!

I'm kind of screwed right now, since my Japanese 360 is broke and need to get a new one. Hopefully I can get up and running before DS2 is released!

zlk · « **Reply #208 on:** May 12, 2009, 01:34:50 PM »

I will pick up the pcb once it drops below $1k.

adverse · « **Reply #209 on:** May 12, 2009, 09:41:24 PM »

Will go check it out today in the arcade if it's out.

Author Topic: Deathsmiles 2 [CAVE PCB, 2009] (Read 73051 times)

Chi

Gwyrgyn