The Coop

**hugs his SNES and Super Metroid cart**

A few thoughts... Batman (Action Platformer) Batman: Return of the Joker (Action) Blaster Master (Action) Burai Fighter (Shmup) Casltevania (Action Platformer) Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Action Platformer/RPG) Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Action Platformer) Contra (Run 'N Gun) Dragon Warrior (RPG) Dragon Warrior II (RPG) Dragon Warrior III (RPG) Dragon Warrior IV (RPG) Dr. Mario (Puzzle) Galaga (shmup) Gargoyle's Quest II (Action RPG) Guardian Legend (Shmup) Gun Nac (Shmup) Heavy Barrel (Run 'N Gun) LifeForce (Shmup) Metal Gear (Action Stealth) Metal Storm (Action) Metroid (Action Platformer) MegaMan 1-6 (Platformer) Ninja Gaiden (Action Platformer) Ninja Gaiden II (Action Platformer) Ninja Gaiden III (Action Platformer) Silk Worm (Shmup) Super C (Run 'N Gun) Tetris (Tengen version) (Puzzle) TMNT III: The Manhattan Project (Action) Zanac (Shmup)

Joy. Something else for them to use as an excuse for continuing to further delay the much needed 1.03 patch for "The First Decade".

They're here and here. The first was on 114. I got confused by Bahamut quoting me on 116 But of the one's that are currently on the VC, I'd recommend... SNES R-Type III: The Third Lightning (superb horizontal SNES-only shmup) SNES Gradius III (not quite arcade perfect, but a very good port of the arcade horizontal shmup) Genesis Bio-Hazard Battle (a wild and good shmup, with an insect theme running through the enitre game, and fantastic animation) TG-16 R-Type (a near perfect port of the classic arcade horizontal shmup) NES Gradius (pretty good port of the horizontal original) NES Galaga (a single screen shmup, and quite faithful to the original) NES Xevious (a simple vertical shmup, but an arcade classic that was ported the NES pretty well) N64 Star Fox 64 (a very nice 3D shmup that plays much like the SNES original, with some extra types of gameplay to break up the "on rails" missions) I've also heard very good things about vertical shmup Blazing Lasers for the TG-16, but I've never gotten to play it. Plus, I've played the original arcade version of the horizontal shmup Ordyne, and it wasn't too bad... but I've not played the TG-16 port.

My shmup lists on pages 116 and 117 say all I need to say about that

Blasphemous fiend! SitD has good graphics (for Genesis at that time period), with the familiar art style of the "Shining" series up to that point. It has some catchy "marching"-style music, challenging and good sized labyrinths, old turn-based combat gameplay, and the dungeons scroll pretty nicely. The animation on the enemies isn't extensive, and after a while, some of the random battles can get on your nerves when you're hit with a high frequency of them (though it never gets as bad as Sword of Vermillion). It's a well rounded game, and a fine entry in the long running "Shining" series.

Boy, does that sound familiar. Some games are stupidly picky about the memory or virtual memory that DOSBox "thinks" is there. However, there is a simple fix. Remember those lines you had to add at the very bottom DOSBox config file? Try altering the one where you mounted the "C" drive by adding "- freesize 999" to the end of it. It'll look like this once you do... mount c c:\Games -freesize 999 This tells DOSBox to free up all memory, and it should trick the game into believing there's plenty of space to install. And if the game complains about needing more memory to run once it's installed (some will), change the "memsize" line in the config file accordingly. Many games will run fine with "memsize=8", but some will need "memsize=16", or even more. Just remember not to go too high with the number, because it will result in some games not running anymore if you do. Let me know if that works.

Glad I could help. Installing from the CD drive... So you've got your game, and you want to install it, but XP and Vista are being a real prick about running that old "Install.exe" DOS file. Well, there's a pretty easy way to get around that... use DOSBox. If you've followed my guide up to this point, you already have a CD-Rom drive mounted, and ready to go. So here's what you do... First, right click on your CD-Rom, and choose "explore". What comes up, will be a browsing window that shows all the files on the disc. Some discs have them all right there to be viewed, but others put all or some of the game files into a folder on the disc. Neither one is problem, as both can be run very simply. So, take note of where the file "Install.exe" is... be it on the first browsing screen, or in a folder. Now, start up DOSBox. Once everything's up, type in the letter that's assigned to the CD-Rom drive you mounted, and hit "Return".If the "Install.exe" file is right there, then simply type "install". As an example, here's what I would type to install Powerslave... F: install But, if the "Install.exe" file is in a folder on the disc, then you'll need to do the change directory command, followed by the install command. As an example, here's what I would need to type to install Prince of Persia off of Broderbund's Prince of Persia CD Collection... F: cd prince install Once you do that, the game should install without a problem. The "Setup" file... Once you've finished the main installation, now all that's left is to take care of that last bit of the process. After the "Install.exe" file's done, you'll either have to manually bring up the setup to program the sound configuration, or the game will take you directly to the setup screen once the installation's done. If you have to manually bring the setup on-screen, simply restart DOSBox, and type in the needed info regarding what folder the game was installed into. As an example, here's what I would have to type to start the setup file for Prince of Persia... C: cd prince setup Once you're on this configuration screen, you really don't have to do much. The sound setup will ask you for a type of digital audio, a type of music, or both. For sound effects, it's usually good to go with the Sound Blaster choice. Many, many games used Sound Blaster cards back in the day, so that should give you what you need (the really old DOS games used the PC Speaker... ugh). The setup chooses the default settings for the Sound Blaster card, so all you have to do is hit "Return" a few times and you'll be done. For the music, it's much the same. Choose what you want the music to be played with (Sound Blaster and Midi are the norms), and just keep hitting "Return" until it's done (again, the setup will choose the defaults for what musical source you pick). With that done, you may have more options... like configuring the control scheme. This is done much the same as an in-game setup, as it simply lets you choose which keys do what. Only this time, it's done outside the game's menu system. So, just select the option that has the word "Control" in it, and set up your keyboard keys and mouse buttons how you like them... or at least, as best as the configuration will allow you to (some games are pretty stingy with their control options). The game has default settings for all its used keys, but all you have to do to change them, is highlight the key you want to change (done usually by using the up and down arrows on your keyboard), hit "Return" to select the key assignment you want to change, and then press the new key you want to assign that action to. So if "W" isn't to your liking for "UP" command in a game, just select that line, and press the up directional arrow (or whatever you want to use for up). Do this to whatever keys you want to change. And remember, the control and sound choices you make aren't final. If you wind up not liking the way you have them configured, all you have to do is run the "Setup.exe" file again, and change them. Once you have your sound, controls and what have you taken care of, simply select "Save configuration and Exit" (or whatever similar line is there), and your setup will be saved. Now you're ready to play.

And people wonder why I keep bumping this thread Right there's a quick start guide I wrote for DOSBox, regarding how to set it up. Should be useful if you're not too familiar with the program, or DOS in general. I'll be making a new update for it shortly too.

Now if they'd just get Michael Anthony back, and put Wolfgang Van Halen off to the side, it'd be like the 70s and early 80s all over again.

Why not just install the SPC player onto your PC, then copy the installed program folder onto whatever you're carrying the SPC files back and forth on, and then simply copy the program folder and SPCs onto the desktop of your work PC?

Which part do you get?

WHOA!

eBay (you may have to whether you wish to or not), half.com, yesasia.com, ncsx.com, ebgames.com, walmart.com... there are a good number of online places to look. Also, it might help things along if you told us what the games were.

Evaporative coolers are only worth the space they take up in dry climates. The moment the humidity level gets above 50%, they're basically just wasting your electricity, pumping even more moisture in the air, and making it more uncomfortable. They're great for mostly dry areas like the desert Southwest, but in the more moist regions like the East coast, they're not really going to offer you much help except on the occasional drier days. I'm not really sure what advice to give you, except to say that maybe there's a compromise that can be worked out with your landlord. Something like getting bars that bend outwards a bit more, so that you can put a second small air conditioner on the other side of the house.

So... would this be the second spambot thread from yesterday?

Glad I'm no the only one to think this was done by a spambot.

Not really. The Japanese ones have a good shot at appearing in Japan (or some tricky hackers might get some Japan shmups in The States), and the US ones, here. Someone wanted some shmups to play, and I offered very short opinions on ones that I felt would likely arrive (namely, the better ones) if Nintendo does things right and doesn't ignore the genre as the VC library grows. I planned for the future, and gave him a few (dozen) to possibly keep an eye out for The list isn't bad right now though. Xevious 7, Star Soldier 6, Gradius 8, and Galaga 8 for the NES is a good start, and R-Type III: The Third Lightning 9 and Gradius III 8 for the SNES are good choices as well. Bio-Hazard Battle 8 for the Genesis seems rather lonely given how many came out for the Genesis, and Super Star Soldier, R-Type 8, Soldier Blade, Ordyne, Dead Moon, Blazing Lasers and Air Zonk is a decent assortment of them for the TG-16. Hopefully they'll crank up the Genesis side of the genre soon, as there are a lot of good ones just waiting in the wings... both US and Japanese.

Well, what are the chances of Master System, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, GBA, GB/GBC, or even N64 shmups (all two or three of them) showing up on the VC? I can't post numbers for the TG-16 ones, as I was never fortunate enough to own that system (though I do play a decent number of the CD ones via Magic Engine, but they're not likely appear on the VC either). NES makes sense (in theory), but listing the rest here would just be a text bomb that doesn't apply to the thread topic, and likely wouldn't be appreciated. But, I'll post some numbers for the NES ones I've played in a bit. ... Unless of course you're just being sarcastic.

I just had to go on a tangent here, but what about all shmups period? A challenge, eh? Well, here's the rest that I can give personal experience "reviews" on for the Genesis and SNES... -=Genesis=- 6 Arrow Flash 5.5 Battle Squadron 6 Bioship Paladin * 5 Crossfire 8 Curse * 5 Dangerous Seed * 7 Darwin 4081 * 2 Divine Sealing * 9.5 Eliminate Down * 4 Fire Mustang * 9.5 GleyLancer * 6 Grind Stormer 5 Heavy Unit * 6 Insector X 3 Master of Weapons * 7.5 Sagaia + 7.5 Sol-Deace + 8.5 Super Fantasy Zone * 7 Super Space Invaders 7 Task Force Harrier EX + 7.5 Thunder Force II + 6 Trouble Shooter 6 Truxton 8 Twin Cobra + 8 Twin Hawk * 9 Undead Line * 6.5 Vapor Trail 6.5 Verytex * 2 XDR * 8 Zero Wing ** (special note: The PAL version of this one will play just fine on a US system. No Game Genie needed, and famously bad translation included.) -=SNES=- 7 Aero Fighters + 6.5 Blazeon 6 Darius Twin 3 Dimension Force 4 Raiden 4 Strike Gunner 6.5 Super Earth Defense Force 5 Super Nova += Forgot About *= Japanese Import **= European Import

I can't comment on them, as I've never owned a TG-16 or a Turbo Duo, so I've never played them. Some say Blazing Lasers is the best Hu-card shmup on the TG-16 though, with its version of R-Type being a very close second. Again, that's just what I've read over the years. I've never gotten to try them out.

Bio-Hazard Battle is the only one so far.

How can you hate RIII? WHUT DA HELL'S WRONG WITCHU?! Anyway, my thoughts on a number of the Genesis and SNES shmups... 9 Thunder Force III- Genesis 10 Lightning Force- Genesis 9 Steel Empire- Genesis 8 Gaiares- Genesis 9 Axelay- SNES 8 Space Megaforce- SNES 8 Whip Rush- Genesis 7 Vapor Trail- Genesis 8 Wings of Wor- Genesis 8 Super R-Type- SNES 7.5 Air Buster- Genesis 8.5 Elemental Master- Genesis 8 Fire Shark- Genesis 8 Hellfire- Genesis 8 Phelios- Genesis 8 Raiden Trad (Genesis) 8.5 Sub Terrania- Genesis 8.5 Granada- Genesis 7 Bio Metal- SNES 9 M.U.S.H.A.- Genesis 7.5 Sagaia- Genesis 7 Forgotten Worlds- Genesis 8 Biohazard Battle- Genesis 7 Phalanx- SNES 7 Fire Power 2000 8 UN Squadron- SNES 8 Viewpoint- Genesis And for the ones you played... 8 Gradius III 9 R-Type III: The Third Lightning 5 Thunder Spirits