Ibara PCB questions.

[electricgrave]

Hi, I started playing Cave games a while back but I've only gotten really into it a few years ago, I love this site and all the strats and reviews are real handy so thanks for that.  I recently aquired an Ibara PCB and everytime I start the game it goes unto the test menu, is there a way to just go into game mode without seeing the menu?  Also I see the PCB intializing itself everytime, is this normal?  My last question is about the power up system, first what really dictates which "option" carries what weapon?, I tried picking things from the left, right and bottom in order to get the weapons respectevly but it doesn't always work as expected, also I was wondering how exactly does the special power up works and how is it obtained, sometimes I get the auto aim and sometimes the options are locked on a wide spread.

As I was playing on stage one, the last bank of houses on the right exploded and realeased a bunch of medals, I was only able to do this once but I never really understood how I did it, I really like this game even though tons of folks don't really like it, but to each its own I guess.  I'm really looking foward to Pink Sweets once I'm able to get a hold of it.  I feel that Ibara BL although similar to the arranged mode in  the PS2 port of Ibara it might be worth picking up, any thoughts on this?

I tried doing the search but it talks mostly about Ibara BL and Pink sweets so if anyone could guide me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

[kernow]

The PCB initialises itself (loads) every time you turn it on. It shouldn't go into the test menu every time though so maybe thats something to do with how your cab is wired. seems its spamming the test button or something.

You have to bomb a building and make sure the bomb is the last thing that hits that building, for it to have medals in, if the last thing to hit it and make it destroy is a shot - no medals are in it.

About the powerups , I dunno theres different types and you have to be wary of what you're picking up. . maybe this link will help you.

http://www.world-of-arcades.net/Cave/Ibara/System.htm
http://www.world-of-arcades.net/Cave/Ibara/Secrets.htm
http://www.world-of-arcades.net/Cave/Ibara/Ibara.htm



Someone will probably come along and explain more about the powerups. But hey I tried

[necpmf]

Basically where the option powerup hits your ship is indeed what decides it. The hit detection is weird though, if you don't hit it on the very tip of your ship I think it might be random (or perhaps in a set order like right -> middle -> left -> repeat ?). Special option powerups work like Battle Garegga I'm pretty sure, where you drop exactly 5 of an item then pick up an option item for a special formation.

I've never played it, but Black Label is expensive as hell. It has scoring based on scratching which I usually don't like, and arrange's bullet cancelling (not a big fan of this either), so I've never gone out of my way to find out much about it, really. I do know, however, that it plays very different from arrange mode mostly due to the aforementioned scratching system, and the bullets move faster at high rank (as opposed to arrange where they are just more dense but still slow).

[Plasmo]

If you don't like Ibara, don't buy Pink Sweets! You'll probabaly be very diappointed.
Also, Ibara Black Label is nothing like that shitty Arrange Mode. (not that IBL has a slightest chance to reach the original Ibara...)

[electricgrave]

Thanks guys.  I just played some Pink Sweets and I like it as well, I always loved Raizing specially the Mahou series, so I guess I'm in a very comfortable zone with the Ibara series.

The test button is fine, is there a dipswitch on the PCB that I could be unware of?