Deathsmiles 2 [CAVE PCB, 2009]

[Kaneda]

I was killing time in Shibuya yesterday so I decided to drop by Kaikan to give it a run in the hopes that either something was unlocked or it was 50 yen and got neither. What I did get was a retarded guy with gross sores all over his hands grabbing at my stick during my run. Kind of sums up the Deathsmiles 2 experience.

I also went to HEY this weekend and it's still just 4 stages and a lot of empty stools.

[GaijinPunch]

What I did get was a retarded guy with gross sores all over his hands grabbing at my stick during my run

Huh?  Wha?  Huh?
Did I miss something?

You should've gone to Game Legend yesterday -- you probably would've enjoyed it.

[Kaneda]

Yea a retarded dude with lesions on his hands was trying to grab the arcade stick while I was still playing. I don't want to bag on him since he was obviously suffering from some serious disorder(s) but it was still pretty fuckin weird.

Where's Game Legend? I'm not familiar with too many Shibuya arcades outside of Kaikan, Club Sega and that other flashy one across from Mandarake.

[EOJ]

160mil Soupy Doujin DVD:

http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b98326348

[EOJ]

According to the official Cave blog, Casper will be unlocked as a playable character on June 3rd:

[zlk]

From what I have seen in videos, the boss milking in this game is "esprade-like."  It takes forever.  If there are more stages to the game, the superplay videos are going to be very long. 

[GaijinPunch]

the superplay videos are going to be very long. 

That would require people to play it, so no worries there.

[EOJ]

Yeah, I just watched a Bigote milking vid from Tsumanne. He milks the boss for ELEVEN MINUTES and almost 200mil points. Doesn't seem like the bosses time out, so maybe they made this a boss milking game on purpose? Even Pink Sweets' bosses time out well before 11 minutes.

[necpmf]

ELEVEN MINUTES

oh lol

[Ast-Kot]

First update seems to be realesed soon to improving and balancing the score system...this update cause a reset of the  game's scoreboard

http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/deathsmiles2/updata01.html

[EOJ]

Looks like they didn't intend all that boss milking! Just another ver 1.5 really.

[EOJ]

"Ver 1.0" (as they're calling it now), City stage:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7194973

Pretty wild scoring going on there.

[EOJ]

Dumbest looking boss ever?

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7136723

[Gwyrgyn]

The score doesn't look that bad but it looks kind of like most of the dynamics with shot/laser/lock is replaced with just lock-shot. That's just at first glance from what they are doing though.

But oh man, that boss. Oh man. MMMMEEEeEEEEEEHHHHhh.

[zlk]

Is that the last boss? I thought some more stages were going to be unlocked. 

Call me conspiritorial, but I am thinking Cave is trying to make money by 1st releasing a buggy version of the game, then releasing a 1.5 version.  They are either charging money for the upgrades or profiting on some people buying both versions of the PCBs.  They have done this with Futari, DFK, and now DS2. 

[EOJ]

Here's the 11 min boss milking vid, for those who haven't seen it:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7194762

Re: conspiracy theories:
Cave clearly doesn't intend to release messed up "ver 1.0"s, but it's been happening more and more these days. I think they (like many companies these days) just try to make scheduled release dates and push out products that haven't been thoroughly tested, crossing their fingers that everything will be alright. Now that they know the public will accept a "ver 1.5" if they mess up the first version in some way, they probably don't worry too much about getting the first released version perfect. They give free upgrades to any arcade (or private individual) that bought the messed up version, so they clearly aren't making money off this stuff.

Black Labels are separate releases, and aren't intended to replace the original versions.

[adverse]

Is that the last boss? I thought some more stages were going to be unlocked. 

Call me conspiritorial, but I am thinking Cave is trying to make money by 1st releasing a buggy version of the game, then releasing a 1.5 version.  They are either charging money for the upgrades or profiting on some people buying both versions of the PCBs.  They have done this with Futari, DFK, and now DS2. 

I've been saying this for awhile now. These half assed releases just tell me that they're intentionally wanting to release a 1.5 and BL in the future.

It's weird that you keep saying that since I debunked this myth on SRK awhile back.  It's just like EOJ says, they send out free upgrades.  This is no cash cow.  It's the opposite.

[THE]

Is there any info how these updates work? Aren't the PCBs/PCs connected to the Internet? So they could do automatic online updates? But I don't know if they are versed enough in Internet technology to archive something like that. Looking how the Japanese seem to live in a Internet we know from the mid nineties...I probably doubt it.

[Kaneda]

Is that the last boss? 

No it's just the boss of stage D. He can be the second or third boss as well if that's the route you choose.

[rtw]

Is there any info how these updates work? Aren't the PCBs/PCs connected to the Internet? So they could do automatic online updates? But I don't know if they are versed enough in Internet technology to archive something like that. Looking how the Japanese seem to live in a Internet we know from the mid nineties...I probably doubt it.

I haven't seen the DS2 hadware but I'm guessing it runs off a disk of some sorts.

The SH3 is easily updateable via JTAG. So in places where there are a lot of games I would
guess a representative from CAVE/AMI comes along and updates them on site. For the other
more remote locations CAVE probably sends out fixed PCB's and expects the old version to be
returned to them.

[EOJ]

For the ver 1.5 releases of SH3 games, CAVE only did swaps - you sent in your old ver 1.0 PCB, they sent you a brand new one with the updated version. They didn't update any PCBs (on site, or sent in to them).

For bugfixes (the roms with extra periods in the MASTER VER string), they do update your PCB as rtw described. Never "on site" though, and always with a hefty fee of 22,000 yen.

[PROMETHEUS]

Dumbest looking boss ever?

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7136723

Oh my god this is terrible... really terrible...

[GaijinPunch]

Is there any info how these updates work?

Up until now - you send your 1.0 PCB to them, they send a 1.5 one back (at their expense).

I should've taken a picture today at Shibuya Kaikan.  Ketsui, DFK, and Futari Original all bieng played -- DSII empty.

[Kaneda]

Yea I was at Kaikan on Saturday and it was the same. HEY as well, and they have two DSII cabs. I hope Cave is taking notes.

[zakk]

Ministry of Silly Walks: The Shmup

[EOJ]

The command to unlock Casper as a playable character has been released:

http://www.cave.co.jp/gameonline/deathsmiles2/command.html

You need to insert a credit, and while holding the C button on the 1P side enter the following (also on the 1P side):

A,A, Down, Down, Right, B, Left, B, Up, Up, A, B, B, A

[Kaneda]

It looks like Cave has tweaked the gameplay a bit: now there's return/suicide bullets when you get the counter over 1000. I'm not sure if this update means they changed the boss milking or not but everyone I saw playing it this weekend was killing the bosses as fast as possible.

[EOJ]

New "City" stage vid from Tsumanne, done on the new version of the game:

http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~koena-oi/index.htm

Password is "Casper". Filebank bullshit again, so you can only use IE.

BTW the new version of DS2 is called ver 2.0, not ver 1.5. Looks like Cave is trying to mix things up a bit.

[EOJ]

So you think with the new ver 2.0 the freezes and other bugs have been fixed? Wrong:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7416955

That shows the freeze along with the bootup screen after the freeze, with an "Asus Motherboard" screen blinking a few times.

[Kaneda]

Cave has a scoring competition going on for participating arcades in a weak attempt to get someone to play this thing. Doesn't seem to be working...as the weeks go by, I see fewer and fewer people playing this. Not sure what the prize is, but I would be happy with just an apology.