The Coop

Ya know, for some odd reason I decided to pop in an old Genesis tiles I've owned for years... Sword of Sodan. I doubt many of you have played this old Electronic Arts game (back when they were putting out games in cardboard boxes), but it has a final boss that's just... a complete dick. He starts out as a wizard shotting fireballs. No pattern, just utterly random fireballs that knock you back as you slowly get closer to him. Should you reach him and starting wailing away with your sword, he doesn't take long to beat. Then he takes on his second form... a BIG, half larva half lobster clawed monster that attacks with it's claws and shoots that same fireballs out on a red spot on its belly (also random patterned). Now it get fun. The fireballs still do the same amount of damage, but the claws hurt big time. The creatures weak point is its red belly, but it's always shooting fireballs so while you hit it, it's pelting you. Then when you DO manage to hit it, the damn thing backs up and will back out of the screen so you can't hit it... WHILE IT'S STILL SHOOTING FIREBALLS!!!!! It's bad enough that the thing's a pain in the ass to get close to, let alone hit, but when it's not even on the screen and it can still attack you... that's just controller flight inducingly frustrating

If you feel like taking a risk, I got a Darius remix in the OCR que somewhere (submitted 3 months ago). You can listen to it here... http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/DariusRemix/M.T._Yankovich--_Darius--_Silverhawk_Legacy_OC_Remix.mp3 ... and see if you want to use it on the show. Another good show and see ya next week

Just for the record, not everyone was bagging on whomever that was. I wasn't even there for the interview, as I showed up later. So SOME people went overboard with whatever the hell happened... not all

Cool show tonight. I made a cleaner, higher quality version of my remix Bio Tech from Thunder Force IV than the one on OCR. If you could play it, that'd be cool. Here's the link... http://www.geocities.com/arforfaborb/TheCoop_BioTech_vII.mp3

You could play one of mine **wink wink hudge hudge**

I was playing an old Saturn game Darius Gaiden... a boss from which I mentioned some time ago here (the crab from Zone "X"). Well, I found a second boss in that game that really does deserve mention. I'm not sure which zone it's from, but it's a really big sea horse. This same boss has appeared in G-Darius as well, but the 2D version is just plain mean. Many of your shit simply bounce off of this things body, and the one place you can do damage is very small... and multi-staged. It fires bullets and laser beams in sloqly changing angles, but at the same time... this way they make a hectic pattern that you gotta either avoid and do no damage to it, or try and dodge through so you can do damage. The Black Hole bombs are nearly worthless beyond just sucking up the many shots so they don't kill you for a short time, and the damn thing just never seems to die. I eventually beat it, but it deserves to be here.

I was perusing the local EB Games a few days ago. They have a good sized used PC section (that's where I found Drakan: Order of the Flame still with the box, instructions and everything), and as I scanned through it, I found a title I remember buying on the Dreamcast. Bang! Gunship Elite For those that don't know it, it's a stright forward "hop in your space shit and shoot anything that moves" shooter. Graphically, it still holds up rather well and looks nicer than the DC version (which looked pretty good back then). Well, I was playing through it and I got the the final level. Can you sense what's coming? I swear... I have no clue what the hell I;m supposed to do against the final boss here. It's a massive ship that has orbiting satellites that fire at you. It shoots HUGE fast moving missiles that, if they hit or even explode near you, you are vaporware. I've pounded the blue hell out of the orbiting guns, but they just seem to get replaced. I've shot missiles and picked up ammo for your most powerful weapon (the Plasma Cannon) and I've unloaded every shot those ammo pick ups would give me... but I've yet to watch that damn thing explode. I'm wondering if there's a weak point that I'm supposed to hit, but if there is, there's not even a hint as to where it is. I've pounded this damn thing, and now I have to wonder... DOES IT EVER DIE?! Damn... talk about nasty final encounter...

THis was rather... unexpected the other day. I got an E-mail from someone, who's name I won't fully post as I'm not sure they'd want it put out there, about this thread. It was kinda odd, but kinda cool at the same time. Here it is... Guess he wanted his thoughts heard

Okay. This boss is a bit... odd. I've been playing Mortal Kombat II for a while... quite a few years actually. I own quite a few versions of the game. The Genesis version, the Saturn version (shame about the voice samples, considering the graphics ARE the arcade version and the music is damn nice), the 32X version... and the version in question, the SNES version. See, Shoa Kahn is a push over in every Sega version. A simple jump over him, and kick him in the back again and again and he goes down. Simple. But the SNES version of Shoa Kahn? Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh... no. I've tried the pattern of old on the Sega systems, but it's doesn't work... at all. I tried the old foot sweep trick, and that doesn't work. We all know his attacks'll kill your ass in three, maybe four attacks. So, you can't screw up too many times. Even blocking is a pointless venture as he atacks again before you're even done recovering from blocking the previous hit. Scorpions spear works from time to time, but after one, maybe two hits, Kahn blocks it constantly. I've had my ass handed to me so many times by the SNES version of Shoa Kahn, it's sad. Kintaro is a complete puss compared to Kahn. I've beaten the game, but in truth, I've yet to find a reliable way to consistantly beat Shoa Kahn in the SNES version. Not a fair fight... at all.

Thanks for the kind words guys I appreciate them, and I'm glad you enjoyed it

Ah Moon Patrol. Many an hour spent in the arcade and on my Atari XE playing that game. Catchy little basic tune that I used to play on my old K-mart special keyboard First off, I'll give this mix credit for being creative in it's intro and outro. Cool bits of nastalgia there . The mix when the music gets started uses nice, clean samples with some interesting effects added into the rhythm and some good sequencing to boot. I like the electric piano sounding solo and thought it added a good touch. But... well... Something felt like it was missing. As the song progessed, I expected this thing to bust out into an all out assault (namely after the electric piano solo), but that bust out never came. It felt like a build up that never lead anywhere... it just came back in on itself and left. As I said, it's well crafted. But, it just didn't feel like it really went anywhere. That's just my thoughts.

YES!!!!!!!!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If there's a Soldier of Fortune III, I'm not buying it I finally... let me say that again... FINALLY... beat the boss for Soldier of Fortune II. I know the final boss in the first one was a pain (I mentioned him here before), but the final boss for SoF II? Let's put it this way... I bought the game last year, got stuck for a while trying to rescue that one scientist, then got stuck again... still last year... on the finall boss. A plane with wings that tilt up and allow it to hover like a helicopter (just like the one in real life whos name I can't think of at the moment). I won't say where you have to be hitting the plane... don't wanna ruin it. But after you've damaged it enough (which is tough since it's repeatedly gunning at you with a kind of chain gun... and flying quickly overhead... and going behind structure you're on...), it starts new tactics added in with the old ones. Still using the gun and maneuvers, it pauses at one point to fire several fast missiles at where you are. These missiles explode and hurt you with splash damage should you manage to get far enough away to not be splattered outright. The only time you can really hit the weak spot, is when it's facing you about to fire those missiles... which is about a two second interval between facing you and firing. I won't EVEN say just how many times I was blown off the roof top, blown apart and gunned down. Oh yeah. Important safety tip... watch where you run. You're on a roof top and jumping around is neccessary. THAT... was a hard boss. Good luck to anyone else who faces it.

How many ever played a game called Shadow of the Beast II? It's been on the old Amiga computers, the Genesis and the Japan only FMTowns Marty (a Sega CD port of that version did come to The States... I got it ). So, at the end of this game, there's a boss. I wish to God I could remember his name, but I can't. He has no real animation, he just shoots a rather good sized fireball as he rises and lowers in the air... following you. He also hurts you by coing into contact. God help you if he does that latter, cuz you health bar zooms down like Ted Kennedy on a Twinkey. It ain't a good thing. There is only one thing that can harm this twit, and the whole game is based on a VERY specific pattern to take. You go through the game in any other pattern, you're fucked, as something will no longer be in your possession that must be. It ain't fair, but neither is the boss. Even if you have the ring to use against him, you still get hit... almost in a manditory fashion. If he gets close, you have to run THROUGH him to get to the other side so you can try and get off a few more shots... this action of course is yet more manditory damage. Basically, if you wanna beat him, you have to play a perfect game and have several health vials to heal yourself with... and even then it's not a given that you'll win. Manditory hits... a Psygnosis staple...

... now that was a battle. I finally reached the end of Unreal II. Besides being a rather tough game on "normal" (I'm scard to try "hard" ), it has a boss that I'm still working on trying to beat. Have been off and on for a week now. You arrive in a big room, will a weird looking pod on the other side. Then, out comes a seemingly harmless flying robot... that shoots one mother a homing barrage. Having a place to hide behind when it fires is a REALLY good idea. After a while of hitting it with various weapons, it splits in two. One half chases you around firing a painfully damaging steady laser once every five seconds or so.... the other half just avoids you like you're a leper. I've shot the piss out of both halves. I've pulled some marathon seasons of dodging, shooting, dosging, etc. I know there's probably a weak point, and hitting it will give me the win. Where it is? Don't have a clue. Heh... it'll probably be something really simple that'll give me a quick victory like the way to kill the final boss in Quake On a side note, happy 1st birthday to this thread

I know this is a VERY late response. My apologies. Thanks for the responses... both praising and criticizing (but especially the praising ). I dropped the volume down as I wanted it to be a subdued, more somber piece... and I knew that by doing so, I was taking a risk with the end volume. But when I turned it up louder, some of that somber quality seemed to fade. So, for better or for worse, I chose to leave it at the volume settings you hear it in now. Again, sorry for taking so long to reply and thank you guys for taking the time to write what you did. I'll now return you to your regularly scheduled insanity

Here's a boss that seemed so simple, yet had a great sense of timing to really piss you off. The guy in wheel chair at the end of Final Fight CD on the Sega CD. The prick has a crossbow... a single crossbow. That's it. No grenades, no flame throwers... a crossbow. And somehow, whenever you get close to hurting him, he fires it at just the right moment to knock you back, down, or whatever so that you gotta go through the whole process of getting close to him just so you can hit him once... lightly... and do a small touch of damage. I can get through the game and get to him with at least one continue everytime. And I won't mention how many times I've used my remaining guys and continues to try... emphasis on TRY... to beat him. Sure, I've beaten him before, but I'm pretty sure those wins were flukes.

Found me another friend today. I don't even know the damn things name, but it's the final boss in Duke Nukem 3D. And it is, A BITCH!!! I don't know what it is about giant alien beasts that feel they have to carry enough weaponry to bomb any country back to the stone age, but this guy is not exception. The attack is simple enough, but somehow that simply attack is always a ahalf second ahead of you. Running and strafing at the same time, while it does kinda work, doesn't work as well as it needs to. And stopping and changing the direction your running? I wouldn't advise it, as the steady flow of rockets from him will pound the living shit out of you. "Me big ugly alien. Me STOMP YOUR ASS!!" Indeed.

A nice, mellow tune with a pleasant beat that punctuates the song without turning it into a typical dance club rhythm. I can hear the song "Lightning War" from the game Raiden in this tune... at times it's so close that this song could be a remix of it and not the one from Vortex. Not having heard the original song from Vortex, I don't know if that's how it sounds or if McVaffe did a blending of the two songs. Not a complaint, just an observation Anyway, nice song. Rhythmic, calming and smooth.

I got one. Darius Gaiden, level "X". The final boss is a very large crab. The thing is wider than it is high, and it has two claws that it waves around as part of it's attack. The fact that you have not much room to move around the screen to dodge the attacks of this thing is bad enough, but varying types of bullets (normal and homing), these two BIG claws being waved around, the thing walking from one side to the others and the fact that it takes so many hits to kill EVEN WITH FULL POWER ON ALL WEAPONS... it's just insane. I had three continues, three ships per continue, three Black Hole Bombs per ship, when I got to this thing. I used EVERY bomb and shot the hell out of it's weak spot. It didn't die. That boss is evil...

I know this tune . I can still hear the original hiding in there, and I like the way this remix uses and disards the original in one fell swoop. I enjoyed the combo of orchestral overtones weaving in and out of the electronica beat. This is nice stuff. I hope Doom III is gonna sound like this

Now this one I like. While it is just a touch repeatative, it's got a nice melody with a good selection of synths and instruments, and improvs on top of the original songs composition. It's more "cheery" than the original (the whole game is filled with brooding, but great music), but it doesn't leave the originals mood completely behind... as such, it shifts back and forth between the two moods and makes itself stand out more from the original. The ending is a bit abrupt, but that's just a nit pick really. Nice work.

Being a big fan of the original Shadow of the Beast in game music, I was looking forward to hearing this. Having done so several times, I'm not sure how to feel. The work behind this piece shows, of that there is no question. But, I don't recognize... anything, of any songs from the original game here. I' m wondering if maybe this song from from SotB II, as there is a song in that game that I could see this being a remix of (namely, the beginning sections of the title screen song). But, that may just be my inability to recognize the original song in this remix. I also didn't find the style to my liking. I just couldn't get into the song as nothing really gave me the feeling that this song was moving forward and developing. Again, it's not from the lack of work on this song as it definitely reflects a lot time being taken to make it. It just didn't strike a chord with me... no pun intended

I like what was done with this tune. But I'm going to have to agree with the others here and say it's definitely too short. Just as the song gets going, and builds to what could be a new area not found in the original or perhaps some variation on the originals theme, it fades out. It left me feeling like it wasn't done... like it was ended prematurely. I think this is a cool sounding remix that was brought to a finish before it was ready to be done.

Hmmmm.... This one just didn't do anything for me. It never really builds up, and it seems to stay in place for most of the song. I mean, it sounds alright and whatnot (samples aren't shitty and the beat is steady), but it's just.... boring. For some reason I kept waiting for it to break out into a Wip3out song with that one sample going.

Well made tune there Rize. Metal mixes are kinda hard to come by it seems and this one was worth seraching for. Great guitar work and a well crafted piece all around.