So it's been two years since I tried to get back into the Time Crisis series with Smraedis.
2013 was a busy year for trying to play to my best as well as giving assistance to SM in co-op play. Here's what happened with the first game and the 1997 sequel if you want a refresher on what happened.
Here's a catch up on what happened since then.
In 2014, I got an Elgato Game Capture HD capture device and could easily record and stream from my PS2 as well as today's consoles. I started off streaming Time Crisis II on the PS2. I even streamed practice sessions (on an ISP that provided less than 1Mb/s upload speed - Thankfully no longer use their service!). Thanks to some reminders from SM, I got 1.4 million live! That so far is my best score. It's been a while so I can only manage 1.2 at best at the moment.
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| Just reached it! (12/3/14) |
Additionaly, I've managed to pull off more some 1CCs on TC3 and 4 which is making me confident (I'll work on score when I can get 1CCs more regularly).
There's one more thing regarding TCII that I want to share at the end. But first, what of the original game?
Unfortunately, the AC version of TC1 is a rare sight these days. You might remember that I mentioned there was a (mostly) working cab in Blackpool's Funland. But going there in April 2014, SM and I found that the gun didn't work. And there was no sign that it was going to be fixed any time soon. In fact, going there at the time showed me that the video game scene there was just all but remaining machines from the 2000s on their last legs. People declared the UK arcade scene "dead" in 2000 but I always thought there was something to play on ten years ago. No video game cabs are being worked on and no sign of new games are showing anymore. A sad time for anyone who grew up with fond memories of the seaside arcade.
In other words, playing the AC ver of TC1 isn't possible for me...but SM took steps to get it working at home!
He managed to buy a Time Crisis PCB and the complete setup (sans cabinet) some time ago to run it on a supergun (a device made to run arcade JAMMA games on your home TV and whatever specially built controls you can plug into it to play). But many issues stood in the way before he could get it working. The video sync cable internally split, the light gun's signal failing to pick up, lot of rewiring based trial and error, too much power that ended up damaging a JAMMA adapter. All sorts of things going wrong. Even the gun had to be carefully connected or it can lose power. But after much persistence, it finally worked.
And how well is he doing? Pretty well so far! He's finally nailed under 10 minutes for Story Mode. This was a goal he wanted to reach for a long time. Gamest magazine's best known record is 9'35"05. Can SM conquer it? Only time and practice will tell.
(And if anyone can hook me up with a supergun/JAMMA cab converted TC1 kit, let us know!! I'll have a lot of catching up to do at this rate)
Back to Time Crisis II...
Seeing that the AC cabs are just as hard to find as the first, it's down to the PS2 port to continue our link play attempts. Back in 2013, thanks to SM's strategy and score analysis, we reached a massive record of 2.2 million. This was when we were at our best too. Could it been done again?
Fast forward to Play Expo 2014 in Manchester.
To my surprise, someone had a good number of light gun games set up. Including PS2 TCII on linked consoles! Set up well too! (I've lost count how many times something never worked 100% on a setup - either by a rushed setting up process or wear and tear - or even abuse from the punters)
Nearly a year after our 2.2 million run, we had a few attempts. Our technique were pretty much the same. Our results follows...
Not only did we manage to get both consoles in action, we got a little further with our past record! From 2200390 in 2013 to 2231360 this year. A nice little boost!
If you watch the video, you can see for yourself why one player does certain waves while the other player remains inactive. This is to maximise the scoring potential as opposed to having both players "sharing" the score. This was mostly left to SM. His experience in chaining hits is greater than mine but it was left to me to try and take care of certain waves if my side reached it first.
One example: In Stage 1 - Area 1, the 2P side reaches the tank quicker and while either one or both players can take down the enemies then the tank as seen in SM's solo play videos, taking down the tank instantly in Link Play gives a similar score thanks to a quicker time bonus at the end of the area. A more quicker and effective way of getting through Stage 1. Another example: In Stage 2 - Area 2 after taking on the tank with the machine gun, I have better reach of the enemies up the stairs.
We also made sure to get the yellow "bonus point" enemies. Some are harder to reach on certain player's sides but we were in good sync with taking as many down as possible.
My only real flaw in my performance is taking a few hits. It's not unusual to lose a few lives in an average run but at best, a "no-miss" (lose no lives) is possible. SM lost no lives in this run. At Stage 2 - Area 2. I was expecting a red coloured enemy to appear at the end of the wave but I was caught by surprise by a blue coloured enemy who managed to fire a "Crisis sighting" (AKA a red "fatal" shot that will hit you unless you take cover).
For those that haven't played the TC series, blue enemies are the least threatening (with roughly a 1 in 10 chance that their first shot will be a fatal one) while red enemies are the ones to look out for because their first shot is fatal 99% the time (oddly enough sometimes, this isn't always the case in TCII). Knowing the red enemy would appear last, I let my guard down. The difficulty adjusts itself for 2 player mode to make it more challenging. Wild Dog in Stage 3 requires more hits to take down in link play.
My second life was lost right at the last hurdle! To maximise scoring against the final boss (Ernesto Diaz), it's simply a matter of firing and chaining as many shots as possible against the satellite. Shooting Diaz is a more quicker way of defeating him but the satellite is the priority for scoring. In the final wave, if you keep piling the shots on the satellite instead of Diaz, he's programmed to fire a parting shot just before he is finally defeated! I was in the heat of the moment and didn't take cover. Looking back, I thought our combined fire would take him down before he could do that. But on a positive view, this was right at the end and would have only hampered our score by a tiny amount. SM finished him off!
I did also make the mistake of hitting my partner once in Stage 1. You lose 1000 points with friendly fire but SM got an enemy who cross our paths before I could. Thankfully, we didn't hit Christy Ryan in Stage 3 (you lose a lot more - although an accidental hit on her registered before defeating Wild Dog, it didn't count - It's Area 3 that you have to be careful not to hit her)
Despite my few errors, they were minor and I still think this was a fantastic run. The fact that it's our best score so far pretty much says it all. I am very pleased to be involved and I hope you enjoy watching the video!
People have asked if we will cover Time Crisis 3 and 4 in the future. I personally wouldn't say no but the scoring system in those games are different to the second game. SM has this to explain:
"With TC3, getting full combos and maintaining the no miss hit bonus adds a great amount to score, dropping both of these will just reduce your maximum score potential. There isn't a no miss hit bonus in TC4, and time bonus and accuracy bonus reduces the importance of full combos"
With that in mind, it's not likely going to happen. And in the PS3 version of TC4, there isn't a link option. There is a split screen mode but it's not the same and the port plays somewhat differently from the arcade version (it lags more if you play it with the PS3 on a high definition display setting - it still does on a standard definition setting but not as much! Both the standalone and Razing Storm pack versions are identical)
Never the less, you can check out SM's YouTube channel and enjoy his solo runs on mentioned sequels. You can learn a lot from them.
So with those games having been thoroughly played, what's next?
I hope to do a write up on the recently released Time Crisis 5 in the near future. Thanks for reading!
"Don't let Wild Dog escape!"
北斗のショック
(Special thanks to Smraedis for his input)
There's one more thing regarding TCII that I want to share at the end. But first, what of the original game?
Unfortunately, the AC version of TC1 is a rare sight these days. You might remember that I mentioned there was a (mostly) working cab in Blackpool's Funland. But going there in April 2014, SM and I found that the gun didn't work. And there was no sign that it was going to be fixed any time soon. In fact, going there at the time showed me that the video game scene there was just all but remaining machines from the 2000s on their last legs. People declared the UK arcade scene "dead" in 2000 but I always thought there was something to play on ten years ago. No video game cabs are being worked on and no sign of new games are showing anymore. A sad time for anyone who grew up with fond memories of the seaside arcade.
In other words, playing the AC ver of TC1 isn't possible for me...but SM took steps to get it working at home!
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| The PCB and the supergun all hooked up. The inside of an arcade machine isn't a glamorous as it looks! |
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| The gun and pedal. |
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| People used to say with the PS1 version, you could have the arcade version of Time Crisis in your home...This is a better way of having it at home. |
(And if anyone can hook me up with a supergun/JAMMA cab converted TC1 kit, let us know!! I'll have a lot of catching up to do at this rate)
Back to Time Crisis II...
Seeing that the AC cabs are just as hard to find as the first, it's down to the PS2 port to continue our link play attempts. Back in 2013, thanks to SM's strategy and score analysis, we reached a massive record of 2.2 million. This was when we were at our best too. Could it been done again?
Fast forward to Play Expo 2014 in Manchester.
To my surprise, someone had a good number of light gun games set up. Including PS2 TCII on linked consoles! Set up well too! (I've lost count how many times something never worked 100% on a setup - either by a rushed setting up process or wear and tear - or even abuse from the punters)
Nearly a year after our 2.2 million run, we had a few attempts. Our technique were pretty much the same. Our results follows...
- 11/10/14 - 1954790
- 12/10/14 - 2011210
Certainly not bad. Been a while since we last played on link and the setup wasn't as good as we would have it at home (video output was composite connections which isn't as good as RGB and can affect the gun's accuracy slightly). But we had fun.
And nearly another year later, we wanted to keep going. To get that little further in our 2.2 million score. Not only that, we had the idea of doing something a little ambitious.
August 2015. Popped over to SM's place. After having a good through "test" of his TC1 setup. We decided to play TCII again. We had a few practice sessions to shake off the rust. We even tried changing some of the strategy to see if it would help improve anything. In the end we stuck to what worked for the most part.
A few satisfactory runs later, one of us had an idea. Do something that's rarely seen: Use two game capture devices on both PS2s and record both sides in action! Usually, only one side was recorded for reference. But we thought wouldn't it be neat to record both player 1 and 2 on link and sync them up to create a genuine link play video?
Some time was needed to set it up to say the least. A desktop PC with a capture device hooked up to Player 1's PS2 and a laptop with another capture device handy hooked up to Player 2! To complicate matters, they were two different capture devices so some time was required to make sure both were recording fine. Also on my side, the capture device had trouble with the video signal. Said device could only output S-Video instead of a split signal from RGB Scart cable (S-Video never took off in Europe). We had to switch to composite as a last minute compromise. A lesser quality picture was a small price to pay. Though it did also mean shooting the edges of the screen was slightly harder but I was determined to give it my all.
The recording on both consoles was successful! Because of how different the two capture devices recorded the footage, a lot of polishing was required in post production. Thankfully, SM knew how to make it look good when he edited and a few weeks later (and a day of rendering/uploading). This appeared on his YouTube channel...
If you watch the video, you can see for yourself why one player does certain waves while the other player remains inactive. This is to maximise the scoring potential as opposed to having both players "sharing" the score. This was mostly left to SM. His experience in chaining hits is greater than mine but it was left to me to try and take care of certain waves if my side reached it first.
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| Taking care of the tank |
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| Taking on Buff Bryant. Note that in the PS2 version, he is a lot quicker with handling the missile while he's more slower in the arcade version |
My only real flaw in my performance is taking a few hits. It's not unusual to lose a few lives in an average run but at best, a "no-miss" (lose no lives) is possible. SM lost no lives in this run. At Stage 2 - Area 2. I was expecting a red coloured enemy to appear at the end of the wave but I was caught by surprise by a blue coloured enemy who managed to fire a "Crisis sighting" (AKA a red "fatal" shot that will hit you unless you take cover).
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| Blue guys = cannon fodder (most of the time) Red guys = Marksmen (most of the time) |
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| Ernesto Diaz isn't going down without one last bullet. |
I did also make the mistake of hitting my partner once in Stage 1. You lose 1000 points with friendly fire but SM got an enemy who cross our paths before I could. Thankfully, we didn't hit Christy Ryan in Stage 3 (you lose a lot more - although an accidental hit on her registered before defeating Wild Dog, it didn't count - It's Area 3 that you have to be careful not to hit her)
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| The results of VSSE teamwork! Why is my score lower? Simply because SM took care of most of the solo waves as mentioned before. |
People have asked if we will cover Time Crisis 3 and 4 in the future. I personally wouldn't say no but the scoring system in those games are different to the second game. SM has this to explain:
"With TC3, getting full combos and maintaining the no miss hit bonus adds a great amount to score, dropping both of these will just reduce your maximum score potential. There isn't a no miss hit bonus in TC4, and time bonus and accuracy bonus reduces the importance of full combos"
With that in mind, it's not likely going to happen. And in the PS3 version of TC4, there isn't a link option. There is a split screen mode but it's not the same and the port plays somewhat differently from the arcade version (it lags more if you play it with the PS3 on a high definition display setting - it still does on a standard definition setting but not as much! Both the standalone and Razing Storm pack versions are identical)
Never the less, you can check out SM's YouTube channel and enjoy his solo runs on mentioned sequels. You can learn a lot from them.
So with those games having been thoroughly played, what's next?
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| A new crisis in 2015 |
I hope to do a write up on the recently released Time Crisis 5 in the near future. Thanks for reading!
"Don't let Wild Dog escape!"
北斗のショック
(Special thanks to Smraedis for his input)
