Got enough races to get clips for a new montage. I'll probably let y'all know when I do, but in the meantime, I may slap here a screenshot or clip or something...later.
go play hayaunderscore's plant brawl 47
Spent around one hour to complete the whole thing in one sitting, but it was as great as I hoped it would be with how it is basically a sequel/sucessor to The Adventure ReBirth, made by the same team as well.
A very welcome surprise to have a brand new Classivania that reimagines an old infamous piece of fleaman game into something that has been, so far, universally liked- and deservedly so with the amount of care the devs gave to make a very playable, satisfying while still challenging new Castlevania game.
SO MUCH COLLAPSE [2009] AND SUPER COLLAPSE 3 TODAY- I VIRTUALLY WENT THROUGH ALMOST THE ENTIRE SC3 GAME IN PC IN TWO HOURS.
Only stopped shy of the final levels [I assume] because I needed a break of so much Super Collapse 3, but didn't realize it was much more fun on the PC than emulating the DS version on the phone until today. Then at night, I finally locked in and knocked out the last few levels remaining from the game, ending with the aptly titled Terminal Velocity that throws you almost everything at a breakneck pace, which you'll want to have a stack of items prepared for. But yeah, Super Collapse 3 has been defeated in one day. Of course didn't go for ALL stages, but so far I'm content enough.
Written on 26th because I forgot to do it before.
Basically, uhh, this day I played in a small but fun Bloody Roar 2 tournament. I somehow won.
Had been here and there these days and also kinda low in mood to write back these, but yesterday specifically I got hit with a fever and only today I've recovered [although I still got a running nose]. But hey, back to updating with misadventures, and there's two things I got to do today.
Summoned ol' fella John Silver to play with me again after weeks since the last time we met, and while I still couldn't get him to get with Ring Racers, we ended up playing a fair amount of PMEX Remix, and then went for the real fighting at Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. I didn't record the fight live, but I did record the inputs to be able to replay and record them later- maybe might do a video with that.
...Oh, and I also managed to play Ring Racers online again with a red Spy wearing a hat and his buddies. Thanks Phil! Might have a longer and funnier story to tell about this whenever I can get to do something with the replays I got from this session- aside from mentioning that I was stuck at 6-7 frames playing from Labyrinth Zone to DEATH EGG...and 765 Stadium :)
Played some more SPB attack tracks, most of which I tried Ringless for the sake of the challenge if it was possible from the get go. Robotnik Coaster, Northern District, Sonic Speedway, Lucid Pass, Storm Rig, Rumble Ridge, uhhh...also tried Carnival Night again and Sunsplashed Getaway for the first time- both to my absolute dismay until a very specific off-game event finished destroying my mood [and a sliver of self esteem] into deciding that it should be better to close the game. I can't tell if I'm gonna keep digging later today or not because of the mood I got left with, but at least I bothered to give this mini update of SPB Attack progress as Vectorman which I've been writing down in another page [which is unfinished- hence ain't liked here or anywhere yet].
Played a fair amount of RR at the morning and late at night, while also started fetching some clips from a few days ago thanks to replays- maybe tomorrow or so I'll have enough clips to start actually editing something with them. There's a lot of stupid goofy ahh stuff that has happened on many of those replays that would be gold for a montage.
Grinded a handful of tracks in SPB Attack mode while playing ringless for some quick fun [Class I's strength is that in tracks with sharp turns but wide roads, the drifting helps a lot]. Crimson Core, Gust Planet, Joypolis, Pestilence and a few more that I forgot for now [but have written down] were pretty easy even in ringless, while a few tracks gave me some more of a good fight like City Escape [I don't think you can ringless it due to the crates[, Las Vegas [mainly one or two sections because I went for Ringless], Mega Flying Battery, and the latest one so far I've done, Sky Babylon.
And also played like 10 races in Sunflower Vanilla RR because I changed the Wi-Fi Adapter placement from the back to the front and now it can actually catch the fiber Wi-Fi signal to play with good ping in US-East servers...and a decent 5 frames of delay on US-West. So yeah, a lot of Ring Racing today.
Last night took me 1 hour...today took me 13 minutes. I don't know what else to say aside from starting to get a grasp on a triangle dash strat to save a Super Ring for the spring jump section in Lap 1.
...
Expect a video upload of this when possible- oh hey, its finally here, and I ended up saying a fair bit more about this run in the description.
Played some more OutRun 2006 online, and both The Cool Pup and Chibi Dreamweaver should be uploading sooner or later their footage of the races where I showed up- oh, here's the Dreamweaver upload.
That aside, I popped osu again as I wanted to try playing Stray Dogs's TOP, the song used for Tower of God's first opening, and lost myself between revisiting a few other maps I used to play years ago in osu and such. Improved a few old PBs, but there's definitely many more songs that I still have to come back to see if I can beat the old records. Although don't get fooled, I'm only on the level of four stars for standard.
If you are curious to check my old [and few new] scores, you can find my osu profile right here. You know, I had forgot about that I grinded that Asphyxia by co shu nie song back then [the Tokyo Ghoul :re one I think? until I saw it on the top of my best scores- it kind of makes sense because I remember that map's time signature being a MESS to figure out and stay consistent at just for me to get an A rank in the Light Insane chart.
Tried to complete Dead Line in SPB Attack mode with Vectorman. One hour later, I ended up writing the following in frustration...
"Spent one hour grinding, several lap 2 runs, my fingers are feeling pretty worn out
And what have I got from it? Nothing. I got absolutely nothing. Because I was wisely advised repeatedly to stop grinding for now.
I do have a lot of love for the game, but Dead Line SPB Attack with Class I characters legitimately feels like something that might not have been playtested. It is absolutely my mood right now that's making me want to word this the way I am right now, but the absurd amount of precision that it requires while having to gamble on certain hairpins, springs, and hoping you don't get sent straight into a pulley that leaves you open to death by SPB, is just insanely baffling.
And yes I could do this easier with Ring, but its fucked up to think that I now associate Ring as [top-tier meta character for time attack fat shark ken masters] that makes me feel kinda put off into using it, while I have to see my unfortunate choice of a favorite in Vectorman [doctor mario] basically be left with a nigh-impossible uphill with that in particular."
...As you can tell, I was pretty damn pissed with losing runs over and over until my hands were worn out because of the tight track design clashing with the heavyweight of a character I insisted on playing as, so I'm absolutely dropping that for tonight, and no guarantees if this will make me even want to try again tomorrow of I will sit out on it for more than one day.
Consolation prize? Played a bit of Kart online and found two cool videos of other arcade racers. One is from an real arcade run of SEGA Rally 2 with the Stratos, and the second one is LyricalDonut's upload of an online OutRun 2006 race, which I share with y'all due to my current inability to send 9GB of raw racing footage through the straw that is CANTV and I have to use for now.
Was grinding some TGM3 again and then eventually that happened...copying over the description from the upload of the run-
Last night I thought on coming back to TGM3 after one or two years of absence [Remember that the entry below this was written at 2am lol], and after having got some few S2 or worse runs here and there, and right after getting two S3 runs that managed to make it to the credit roll...
...I got this MONSTER performance for what I was expecting to get- getting a very smooth run until the 600s, getting several section COOLs along the way and triggering the second music swap at 600 instead of 700 in most of my previous runs.
I choked in the 700s, forcing me to deal with a nasty stack attempting to survive the 800s until my end, but I gasped in surprise to see that I had, for the first time, got a Grade S5 in this game.
[Most I could get often were S2/S3s, and I think I did get a S4 once but only in a screenshot I don't even remember if I still have]
So yeah, big new PB for me in this game. I'd wager it could have been S6 if I had not died right before making it to 900, but still a pretty impressive performance for having started again yesterday- let alone showing this to an average person lol
Wanted to revisit Tetris The Grand Master 3 - World Rule because Classic Rule + TGM3 speeds are overkill for me right now. Got two or three S2 runs, got a few very crappy runs that didn't even hit the S ranks, and eventually got a S1 Promotion Exam that at first I thought I was going to kill, but I somehow started running it back hard in the 600/700s, managing to get the Fail-into-Pass fakeout animation...which meant that with that big kick I got near the end, I managed to just about get that run's grade to S1 in the last moment possible [as that animation only comes if your run grade is the same as the promotion grade- anything higher would have a faster pass animation].
Gonna see when I can put photos and such of that later. [Unless I end up getting a bigger PB than before in the afternoon and end up forgetting about this...hmm....]
Around one hour or two playing earlier today OR2 with 5-6 players at a time, and was able to record 60fps footage by setting the game to 1280x720.
Surreal to see such a beloved game that had an online feature stay defunct for so many years finally spring back to life and see old and new faces join slowly but surely at the Discord because- well damn, how could you think anyone who knows OutRun 2 would deny the chance of playing the game online easier than ever before?
Some big fails, some funny moments from a certain player's car looking like its constantly spinning for some reason [it sometimes happens depending of the connection between you and a specific player or players], but the highlight for me to have a 15 Stage Continous run in OR2 stages where I was playing better than ever as I accidentally enabled Manual Transmission...and soon realized that gear shifting 5-4-5 at high speeds allowed for an instant drift start, which I ended using to take tight lines effectively.
I was playing way better than usual, and yet I was still getting the other players close behind me, which ended in a pretty climatic finale in the end of the run at Cape Way.
...Yeah that happened lmao
Basically, during one hour or two without electricity, I popped S3K on my phone...and I think that for the first time in...ever? Got FIVE emeralds in a row, as I somehow stumbled upon the special stages in Hydrocity, Marble Garden and Ice Cap, although regarding why I actually got the emeralds unlike in previous runs, I'd chalk up to me specifically deciding NOT to go for Perfect bonuses. That aside, left the game in Ice Cap so far...yeah that's it.
OutRun 2 Coast to Coast's online mode is now functional again thanks to OutRun2006Tweaks's author [emoose] managing to create a replacement master server and connecting to it!! You can now create and join lobbies, and the netcode works pretty swell from what I tested, even if it still seems to depend whoever's hosting on how much the other cars jitter. But it is way more functional than playing with the LAN mode over Radmin lol
Here's screenshots with the fellas I raced with- including ol' Argentinian SEGA arcade veteran nuexzz, who I hadn't raced again online with since May 2022 over some Kaillera Daytona USA.
Getting this running over a stock OR2006 PC install is as easy as dropping the latest OutRun2006Tweaks files in your game folder. Have a good ol' time now :D
Finally uploaded my first online race to Youtube- you can see how well it worked for being my first time AND with collision enabled on top of that.
Played and written this at 3am lol
Here's screenshots of the run for now in the meantime I see how to get the video uploaded. A true son of a big bastard that is the time limit in this game- but I finally locked it in with the PS2 version of the game, having a more accurate pace to the original arcade + digital steering inputs here are more responsive than what they are in Model 2 Emu.
Really gotta get your A-game with taking the best inside lines to drift through troublesome corners while being able to straighten your car and stop losing speed as soon as possible- knowing how every single second can mean life or death in Lakeside [as you only get extra seconds from your remaining time at the end of Mountain].
Lakeside is an impressive piece of course design with how grueling it is at first glance...and overall, but the moment your brain snaps into optimizing stuff like letting go of accel right before the turn AND turning ahead of time after you go in order to catch the drift in the inside line JUST RIGHT, it's just about possible to endure the track if you don't bump more than one wall + have a few extra seconds of leniency from performing well in the three first tracks. GAME OVER YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And for good measure, my achievement is logged in the game's RetroAchievements page and time leaderboards. The cheevo marked in Hardcore means savestates disabled, so you know I did that in one big bad run.
Now the upload is up. Sorry for the lower quality- between having to run it through Handbrake to reduce filesize AND the original footage already being inconsistent in framerate/quality as I used Bandicam [OBS Studio made the game framerate tank in my humble PC while recording], but at least the run is immortalized. Turns out I actually beat my old 1'15 PB for Lakeside that I got before with a Gamecube Controller, likely because this time I was FORCED to learn how to drive Lakeside properly lol [while in that older run, I actually had a whopping five extra seconds of margin for error as I finished with a 3'25 tiome].
...Yeah, someone in Stray Banana wanted me to give a shot to submitting times again, regardless of whether they were Platinum medals or not, so...I did.
Got myself new times for Monkey Mall, Mega Flying Battery, Advent Angel AND Advent Angel in SPB Attack mode. All with Vectorman. At least the MFB and both AA times took me around half an hour each from grinding constantly to improve my times.
Getting the MFB time was tight with how one mistake and I was gone off-course, but at least that was the one time I could actually get Platinum for with Vectorman. You can find the times that I haven't uploaded yet as videos in The Stray Banana under my runner profile or on the respective maps.
[August 5th, 2024 - Date of writing this]
SONIC RRRRUSH has more funny death pits instead of lower paths than I expected...as soon as Water Palace- whenever you are faced with a sudden platform precisely over floating platforms, might want to try your hardest in case it is more than likely above a death pit. That aside [and Egg Turtle boss being slow as fffffffffU], has been a mighty fun romp so far. Keeping track of my progress with RetroAchievements is neat, and grinded that night for a Egg Libra no damage run just for the cheevo.
The grind itself was rough, but it is cool to have that badge on deck now in one of the few bosses I've seen so far in this game that can actually be blitzed in less than a minute rather than waiting for attack cycles too often.