RF Generation Message Board

The year? 1942. The place? Over the Pacific Ocean. Destination? Tokyo. You are a pilot in the US Air Force. Your mission? Reach the Japanese airbase and eliminate their fleet. Are you up to the challenge? Can you prevent further destruction to US forces?

1942 was developed by Capcom, and released in 1984, by Capcom themselves in some regions, and by both Midway and Romstar in North America. It's among the earliest vertical scrolling shoot-em-up games, and one that helped establish the formula that would be the standard through the 1980's. Despite being eclipsed 3 short years later by its successor, 1943: The Battle of Midway, 1942 still stands as an important game in the genre. Whereas nearly all shooting games up to this point had focused on space flight or combat, Capcom's 1942 was the first to focus on more real, down-to-earth warfare, with planes instead of spacecraft. Also, it was a bold move for a Japanese developer, as it plays from the perspective of an American fighter pilot, in pursuit of Japanese pilots, and ultimately, leading to the destruction of the Japanese air fleet.

1942 was ported and converted to a number of different systems. It was an early release for the Famicom and NES, and appeared on Nintendo's Game Boy Color a number of years later. Several microcomputers received versions: the MSX, PC-8801, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Commodore 64, with the last one receiving a custom soundtrack. Other notable versions include a conversion for the Windows Mobile platform. The game was part of the Capcom Generations series, showing up in volume 1 on the Sega Saturn, and in the collection on PlayStation, though only in Japan, in both instances. It's also included in several iterations of the Capcom Classics Collection releases on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PSP. And finally, the arcade version was even available on the Wii virtual console.

Participants
MetalFRO
Addicted
EZ Racer
Duke.Togo
Bickman2k
Normatron
Dingo
Square_Air
Nupoile
Deadman
Crabmaster2000

High Scores per Port/Conversion/Version
NES:
Game Boy Color:
PS2:
Xbox:
PSP:
Commodore 64:
Wii VC:
Arcade:

I'm in of course.

I'll be on NES

Count me in. Hopefully I can track this down for the C64 and give that a try.

Welcome aboard, gents! Thanks for jumping in. @Duke.Togo - I look forward to hearing your impressions of the C64 version!

I'll try to play this one on NES. Possibly MAME as well.

I'm going to try it out, playing it on ps3 capcom collection

Ps2 collection

Welcome aboard, Normatron, and welcome to RF Generation!

Officially here to enter the Fray!

Welcome aboard, Dingo!

I'm back again for this one. Unfortunately my monitor doesn't seem to be working well, but I have ways around that this month. My vote was for Xevious, and I would have preferred Deathsmiles, but 1942 is decent. This is one very loooong game though, so i'm not sure if I'll clear this since I might die of old age before the end ever comes.

My favourite quote about 1942 comes from Perikles in which he says "Few people know this number was chosen since this is both the year of development as well as the number of stages in this game, meaning it was a rather practical choice!"

Welcome aboard, Square_Air, glad to see you're participating again. And yes, 1942 is super long, though the stages themselves are relatively short. Howlongtobeat.com has it listed at 2 hours to beat, and I'd believe that. It might just be the longest finite-length shooter out there, in terms of a single first loop. We'll definitely get to Xevious and Deathsmiles at some point. I literally just got my Deathsmiles LE package for Xbox 360 in the mail a week and a half ago, so I'm prepared for it whenever we decide to go there.

I'm a little unclear about the Perikles quote - with 32 stages, I'm not sure how that lines up with 1984 (when it released).

So I started playing and got on a pretty good run. Hope it's not considered cheating but had to take a few pause breaks (NES without using a turbo controller), and I muted the TV. Also realized Silver Surfer's soundtrack fits pretty well with 1942.

I keep forgetting to post here that I am also in!

Now I'm just hoping for time to actually play it and chat about it.....

Also, don't be surprised if my scores are really low, shmups are pretty hard for me.

Oh, and I like your tv EZ Racer, I have 3 of them myself  :D

Welcome aboard, nupoile! Glad to see you jumping in. And don't worry about your score, just do the best you can, have fun with it, and discuss with us here. That's what is most important in this context.

@EZ Racer - I'm not worried about pausing, or use of turbo. This isn't a competition, so much as just a fun way to explore these games. If it were a real contest, we'd probably have to play sans turbo, unless the platform the game is on specifically had that built in (like the TurboGrafx), or the game itself has a turbo fire option, like the Sega Saturn version I played last night. Good start, though! Your score is pretty similar to my first run last night:

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/xqgRCWy.jpg[/img]

After a few attempts, I was able to get over the 100K mark, though several runs in between were pretty short because of targeted bullets, and also finding myself back into a corner with an unavoidable bullet headed my direction. So I can say, as a matter of strategy, try and avoid the bottom corners!

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/4H2ZLW5.jpg[/img]

It seems like there's a fair bit of randomness to the game. I tried a thing where I always started the game by leaving the plane in the default location to start with, and the enemy waves don't come in predictable patterns. It's always different. So that definitely adds to the challenge of the game, because there's a layer of unpredictability, in terms of where enemies will present, and especially how far spread out a particular enemy wave will be. One thing I found quite surprising is the scoring system in the game. It's quite complex, for such an early game in the genre! Per the Nineteenforty Wikia entry:


The growing point bonuses for destroying the large bomber planes just might be the first legitimate score multiplier in the history of the genre. It's not as sophisticated as later systems would be, naturally, but it was quite innovative for its time, and really adds a depth to the scoring that was unprecedented at that time, as far as I'm aware. In addition, the fact that you get points for destroying the red plane groupings AND an additional bonus for picking up the "Pow" icon, as well as the end level bonus, based on the percentage of enemies destroyed, really opens up the scoring. And the "unused loops" or rolls is an important element that many shooters would emulate years later, by granting end level bonuses for not using bombs, notably in the Raiden series. Color me surprised, as to how much depth this game actually has underneath its fairly simple exterior.

Also, the graphics, for their time, are actually pretty good. Upon its original arcade release in 1984, it showed a progression from something like Xevious, or Capcom's previous game, Vulgus, if only slightly. The other thing that surprised me about the arcade game is how fair the hit detection is. You can really graze bullets and enemy planes pretty close, and come out unscathed. It certainly adds a level of minor realism in a 2D game that can't really replicate the excitement of a real dogfight, the same way a more modern game can, such as Crimson Skies.

Thanks for the guide on the scoring @metalfro ! I am trying to think of the best way to play. I guess buying it individually from the "capcom arcade cabinet" would be best. It is amazing how many browser based versions (or replications stating to be) 1942 there are just while searching if a legitmate PC version existed. I played one for a few minutes just to get the feel of the general game again. Either way I will post up some impressions and screens when soon enough.

I'm a huge Shmup collector and sometime player but I'm going to put some time into 1942 this month.   Possibly on both the NES and the Xbox collection.   Looking forward to it.

I havn't beaten this for NES yet so count me in too. I gave it a first go tonight and was doing pretty well, but then my game glitched and locked up on level 16. I'll clean my cart and give it another go tonight. Hoping I can beat all 32 levels this month.

Initial impression is that this game might have the worst music and sound effects in any game I've ever played in my life. The military drumming with the whistle blowing is super grating and never changes at all. Occasionally the sounds from my bullets even seem to get removed in favor of the whistles which makes it a bit challenging to keep a shooting rhythm going when I'm trying not to exceed my onscreen bullet limit. The Roll move is almost never helpful so I was banking the points from them on nearly every level, but on 2 separate occasions I had no escape and was able to use it to fly to safety.

I like shooters with simple powerup systems like this. I get it right away and I don't have to build back up too far if I die and lose them. Also your ship is nearly as powerful with the default setup as it was with the fully powered shot. The big bomber ships that come in from behind get destroyed at the same point on the map regardless of how powered up I am. Seems almost like the power up just increases the spread of your shot and not the actual damage output. The first time I got the two little planes on my side it freaked me out and I drove into an enemy. I was panicking to avoid the ships that were spinning violently towards me. The first boss is alright, but then it's just the same thing every time. A little variety would have been nice.

Visually this game is rough too. The water is fine in terms of being able to differentiate between enemies/projectiles and the background, but after a while it starts to strain the eyes. Mesmerizing almost. I hate the land areas though as it really obscured my view of enemies and the few times I died I never saw what hit me, which could either be because objects where blending into the background OR (and more frustratingly) enemies flicker for long periods so they occasionally become actually invisible. Very lame.

Possible scoring tip: If you died during a boss battle you will respawn right at that fight. After killing the boss plane the level is immediately over so you get the 100% enemy kill bonus. Might be worth exploiting for anyone going for a highscore.

Welcome aboard, Deadman and Crabmaster2000! I look forward to your thoughts on the game ;D


Can you speak to what the on-screen bullet limit is? I was having trouble with my NES last night, and couldn't get my cart to boot up, so I haven't got into that version yet. On the Sega Saturn port (via Capcom Generations 1), it has 2 rapid fire options: a low-speed option, via the L shoulder button, that seems to fire a rate of around 3 rounds in a volley, spaced out slightly, but I think the maximum you can have on screen at any time from that is around 4 or 5 rounds. The high-speed option, via the R shoulder button, spits out a volley of 4 rounds, in much more rapid succession, and I think you can get as much as 6 or 7 on screen at once, even with the spacing between volleys.


This is a good observation, and despite the flack the Micronics NES port takes for being somewhat shoddy, I think that was probably an accuracy they retained, as I'm noticing the same thing in the arcade version. Also, I'm curious to know if your rate of fire can increase if you get right up behind a bomber, as I'm seeing that in the arcade version.


Yeah, the graphics in the NES are pretty poor, and it's one of the things, along with the grating sound, that put me off playing it much, and is the reason why it's only been within the last year that I added it to my NES collection. I can deal with low quality graphics and sound, though, so I still plan on putting time into that version this month. I was unaware of the boss battle respawn, that's a very good tip! I haven't got far enough to even see a boss yet, so I don't know if that works in the arcade version, but I might have to try that. Do you know what the extend counter(s) might be, Crabby? In the arcade version, I believe the standard is 20K for your first extra life, and then every additional 80K after that. So it probably would be worth sacrificing a life at the boss for that 100% completion bonus, since there's no life stock bonus calculation.

Latest score from last night:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/gOcWyPX.jpg[/img]

Correction from my last post - even with the heavy rapid fire, it looks like your plane can only shoot 3 shots at any given time, so there can only be 4 on screen at once, mostly when the last shot from a previous volley of 3 is exiting the screen. So the limitation is real, and you can really tailor your approach to either shoot as much as you can, or snipe enemies as they approach, and pelt incoming squadrons that are more clumped together. Tonight's high score:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/egiRUGD.jpg[/img]

Was able to finish it off tonight and holy cow does it get intense near the end. The game doesn't really change until around the 7th to last stage. Assuming you can beat the first stage with no deaths you should be able to make it to the 7th to final stage at the very least. Once you get there though some of the enemies start shooting 3 or 5 bullets at once instead of single ones and just the sheer number of ships on screen gets ridiculous. I was actually quite thankful for all the slow down as the extra reaction time likely saved my life more than once, and I was definitely using my R-Loops far more often in these stages to the point I'd run out and be wishing for more. On top of that it seemed like there was only one special item drop in each of these stages instead of 2 like the preceding ones and because of the staggering number of on screen enemies it was far more likely to miss hitting the whole fleet to actually obtain them.

When I got the 11th to final stage I rolled the score over and during the second run of the score you no longer collect extra lives. I was extremely confident I was going to finish the game at this point, but when I noticed I wasn't gaining lives anymore I got a bit worried. I had 9 lives stocked up at this point, but once I hit the 5th to final stage those lives where dropping off at an alarming rate. I was down to one extra life when it was all said and done. The fortunate news is that if you can get past the 2nd to final stage the last one is a gimme. There are still a decent amount of enemies, but they don't shoot in this stage so there is a lot less to keep track of on screen and it was a really good cool down from the previous 6 stages. I know I complained about the boss variety before, but given the difficultly spike in the late stages I was pretty happy I knew how to deal with the bosses further into the game. They were almost like a safe zone at that point.

To answer some of your questions from above.

Rate of Fire for NES version: 3 shots on screen at once
Extend counters for NES version: 20,000, 80,000, 160,000, 320,000, 400,000, 480,000, 720,000, 800,000, 880,000, 960,000

You posted above that 100% completion rate gives a bonus of 50,000 points. I'm assuming that's the arcade scoring. The NES version actually gives you 100,000 points so it's definitely worth dying at the bosses and respawning to go for the 100% completion if you are aiming for a highscore. In the last boss fight though when I died it put me back far enough that I had to deal with several enemies so maybe just don't do it on the final boss. It also doesn't seem like you get any bonus points for finishing the game like in the arcade version.  

I ran into one glitch during the game too. Normally when you get to the boss and have your extra fighters they are removed from the battle and given back to you as you start the next stage. I entered the boss battle with one of my two extra fighters remaining and he left the screen prior to the fight like normal, but the bullets where still shooting from him as if he was still there. Gave me some extra fire power without the extra target which was nice. He came back and behaved like normal as soon as I started the next round though.

Even though the highscore in the pic says 990,050 my actual highscore is 1,433,550 because of the rollover.

[img width=700 height=525]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1978/45092924071_d95ea451b5_o.png[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2bGH2j8)

[img width=700 height=525]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1901/44181848015_2966e4551b_o.png[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2ajcw9g)

@Crabmaster2000 - you are a beast! "Congratulation" on finishing the NES version, and for such a high score! It seems like the extend values are in line with the arcade version, although I'd have to check to see if there's a gap between 160K and 320K. I was under the impression that it was every 80K, but I could be wrong. I haven't scored enough points yet to say more definitively. Once I reach 240K, I'll know if I get another plane, and that will confirm whether or not my theory was right.

The sound effect for when the bigger enemy planes explode sounded super familiar and I havnt been able to place it, but I think I figured it out. When you blow up a big ship it sounds like the floppy drive on my old 486 PC

I played through most of 1943 tonight out of curiosity. This is a sequel done properly. It's better and more interesting than 1942 in every conceivable way. 

I've always felt this way about 1943, and have been guilty of writing off 1942, perhaps unfairly. I still think the sequel is objectively a better game, but I'm coming to appreciate the original for how innovative it was in some ways, this early in the life of the genre.

This was last night's result:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/9PoqHLo.jpg[/img]

So it appears I've hit my initial goal of 250K points, and then some! This is only 6 stages in, of 32 total, so I have a long way to go. My survival goal is to try and at least see the game's halfway point, but progress is likely to be slower to get there than what I've done so far, because the game really ramps up in difficulty. My next point goal is to reach 500K. Hoping to hit that by the end of next week!

Damn, congrats Crabmaster, and great notes Fro.

Here's my best after fiddling in the arcade version for an afternoon (autofire on):
[img width=224 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/y1ZXJeS.png[/img]

POW types
-Brown - four-bullet shot
-Red - points
-White - bomb
-Gray - options

I think the four-bullet shot helps against big planes, but I don't think the extra spread is meaningful for hitting more targets. The options, on the other hand, are amazing--extending your range by half a plane on either side helps a lot.

The roll has an interesting bit of commitment: you can move horizontally when you roll but not vertically.

From what I've seen, most of the enemy craft are tiny gray and green planes.

Gray planes - These guys come in two varieties.
If they fly straight, they'll swerve towards you. I don't know exactly how this works. Sometimes they fly into your line of fire, safely away from you, and sometimes they fly into you.
If they come in at an angle, they flip around and fly back to the top edge of the screen.

Either way, I like to hang at the bottom with gray planes.

Green planes - They fly in a circle. I try to stay in the middle of the circle so that they fly around me, "the eye of the storm" as it were. I find it difficult to read the space outside of the circle.

Between the gray and green planes, I get the impression 1942 takes place in the middle of an air show.

Fro, it's interesting that you note the level design is random. It certainly feels random. You don't get setups composed of a few different enemies, or even setups composed of a few different lines of enemies. Instead, you get a squad of one enemy type, only each enemy in the squad is offset a little. They aren't in lines, but instead, noisy "clouds". (Only the red planes bother to fly in an organized pattern, one after the other.) So, it's more difficult to line yourself up to shoot down a squad, and you have a constant need to read each squad as it comes in to assess its particular formation.

An interesting comparison is Darius, where the organized elements and noisy elements are more clearly separated. You get neatly lined-up squads alongside individually-placed turrets or hopping moonmen or what have you. In 1942, the squads themselves both have an element of organization and noise (they spawn near each other, but not in a line).

Also...
:laugh:

So it's nowhere near Crabmaster's run but I did complete the game earlier today on NES. Unfortunately, by the time I had my camera ready to take a pic of the game end screen, it had already cycled back to the title screen. Pretty happy with a score of 1,174,450 though.

I wish I would have had this as a kid, because I think I would really have enjoyed it once I took the time to get good at it (I think I remember renting it once or twice, but didn't put much time into it)

I tend to agree with Crabmaster that the game doesn't throw much at you until deep in the run. For me, it seemed like there was a difficulty spike at Level 11 (about 2/3 through the game), and while most of the backgrounds didn't bother me too much, the backgrounds on Level 4 to the end seemed just sadistic.

Overall, I feel like the game is really enjoyable. To me, it seems more like a reflexes and reactions shooter than one where the key is precise patterns and memory.

Positives-
1) I love the balance here, as there's almost always a good way to escape enemy fire, and very rarely are there cheap deaths.
2) The enemies are programmed to be recognizable by type easily, giving you a better chance at maximizing score.
3) The controls and speed of your plane are well done, as you can usually put the plane where you want without overdoing your movements.
'
My nitpicks so far (Reminder, NES version):
1) no matter how many shots you're firing (2, 4, or 6 depending on power-ups), the entire shot disappears as soon as one bullet hits something.
2) No boss variety, and it's really anti-climatic having a boss on the 2nd to last stage but not the final stage.
3) The R-flips reset to 3 upon the completion of a level. I feel like if the game gives incentive not to use them by giving bonus points, how many you have not used should roll over (but that's also me griping because I never use them).
4) While most of the game doesn't have slowdown issues, the last 6 levels or so suffer major slowdown.
5) I consistently have to mute my TV because the soundtrack is one of the worst in the NES library (said it before, but Silver Surfer's soundtrack fits surprisingly well with this game)

Something interesting that came up for me as well. I just have the NES version, so that's what I've been playing. However a friend of mine has the PS2 Capcom Classics and according to him, after trying my NES version, he said he noticed a significant difference in difficulty.

Good luck to you MetalFro on reaching 500K, and everyone else on reaching their PB's as well.

so I got a chance to play the NES version of this game and did great but since I did not sign up for that version of the game I am stuck with almost breaking my controller over the PS2 version. I dont get it. why am I so bad at this game?

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

@Golem - some good observations there. I would question the power-up list, though. I noted that the Grey POW icon is the 4-bullet shot, and the Brown POW is the additional mini-planes, though that could be different, based on regional differences, maybe? I've been playing the Capcom Generations 1 version on Sega Saturn, which was only released in Japan, so it's possible there are differences in region. Which region of arcade version did you play?

@EZ Racer - congrats on crushing the NES version! I will totally agree that the music and sound in the NES port are horrendous, and whomever at Micronics was responsible for that abomination should be ashamed of themselves. That said, I do believe the NES version is a bit scaled back from the arcade version. How many planes did you count on screen at once in the NES game? I think in the arcade version, there were a couple instances where there were up to a dozen planes on screen at once, including times when there were 2 or 3 mid-size planes, depending upon the stage. Keep in mind, I've only reached 6 stages in so far, but that's at least a reference point.

@Normatron - 179K is a respectable early score, for sure. And don't worry about which version you signed up for - play any version you like, and just let us know which you're playing, or which your attached screenshot is, when you snap a pic a post it. You can play as many ports/versions/conversions during the course of the month as you like, and share scores from any/all. The more the merrier, I say, and it's good to get a perspective on all the ports, if possible. Go nuts!

Unfortunately, I made no forward progress over the weekend, and capped out just below 250K, so I have nothing new on that front. However, once I can get my NES to come up properly, I plan to dig into that version. Also, I need to charge my PSP, so I can fire up Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded, and play 1942 on there. That version does the flip-screen thing, so you hold the PSP vertically and play it that way, to get true tate and vertical resolution. Should be fun.

Slowly crawling toward my goal:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/rCrrMaI.jpg[/img]

It seems I'm in that uncomfortable stage, where I can rack up 200K or more in a game, but can't seem to break through to get to Stage 7. I tried a couple other control options last night as well. I had been playing with an InterAct pad, tried my InterAct joystick, and found that it has an issue where it likes to veer right, because the stick is slightly off center. I switched to the official Sega Saturn model 2 pad, which I like, but the D-pad is so fluid on there, it's a bit more floaty than I'd like. I might have to pull out the official Sega joystick, and see if that makes a difference.

I tried the PSP version on the Capcom collection laat night. It's a totally different beast than the NES game, probably much closer to the arcade version. Need to put some more time into it but initial impression is that the NES version is quick a bit easier.

I had a little time to get started on the C64 version. The enemy patterns are always the same, but the bullets are unpredictable. I'm sure that having the same patterns every time would be easy, but the planes are set up to put you into some tricky positions or to push you into other oncoming enemies. Also, you can die from running into a plane as it explodes, which has killed me quite a few times. Here are my scores (initials CRC)

[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/wkmGpaL.jpg[/img]

After reading some other posts here, there must be some differences. I made it through 6 stages and didn't see anything that I would consider a boss. Also, if there is the ability to earn extra lives, it has to be above my top score since I didn't see it. As far as power-ups, so far I've only seen the triple bullets and the mini-planes. I'll have to see if there are any tricks that I am missing out on.

33550. My first go around on the NES version. I plan on getting better. Ha!

I had to buy this game from ebay to play it, no harm though, can't say no to more NES games and this is one I've wanted for a long time. 1943 is one of my most played NES games, not that I'm any good at it. Shmups aren't something I excel at.

If pressed, I'd have to say that either Popeye or 1942 were the games I remember playing first in my life. The arcade versions were at the pizza place my family went to every week for the first many years of my childhood. I don't actually know they were the first but they would have been pretty early. My dad did have a pong system but I don't remember that, and video games weren't really a thing I knew about outside of the pizza place until the mid 80's.

The NES version. That frame rate....wow. It's as bad as After Burner for the SMS. I thought the whistling would get to me more but the 4 frames per eon got to me way more. 1943 and the arcade version of 1942 are tons better. I was playing on the LED TV for the first go around. I think I'm going to try it on a CRT here pretty soon and see how much better that is.

One thing I noticed (I'm going to keep bringing up 1943) is the 'popcorn' planes don't show you if they have a bullet to fire or not. In 1943 if a little plane has a bullet to fire, and they only ever have one at most, they are actually carrying it on the plane until it's shot. When they shoot it it leaves the plane so you can quickly see which ones can still fire or not. 1942 doesn't do that.

I played with the 8-year-old in two player. She was pretty happy there was 2 player mode. We only got a few minutes in, thus my low score so far. Hope to do more, hope to do it on a CRT.

Since the game was new I opened it and cleaned it. Took some pictures, it's a 5 screw, don't know how you 3 screw people do it  ;)


[img width=700 height=510]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1955/45187398212_30969e8697_o.jpg[/img]


[img width=700 height=512]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1931/45187397802_ec0ca00f50_o.jpg[/img]


Applauding Duke for the C64 version. I thought about going that route but with limited time and the NES ready to go....I just have to be impressed with your set up!

Good start, Nupoile, and glad to see you're playing with your daughter. That's awesome! Also, cool that you have the 5-screw version. I have a 3-screw, round seal version that, curiously enough, uses standard straight groove screws, instead of the regular game bit screws. Not many cartridges past the 5-screw line had those.

So I traded 1942's with someone else to experience a different version.  I'm currently trying out the NES version and my score is hovering on average 350,000ish point score. I will post my score on here soon. I can tell the NES version is far easier than the ps2 arcade port, that one was make to eat quarters!

Finally passed Capcom. Truthfully the past hour is the most lengthy playthrough I have had and it helped. Rolling over the big ships is fun.

I think we may just be interpreting the unremarkable POW icons differently, so I giffed them up:

POW types
-four-bullet shot
https://i.imgur.com/FamgFc3.gif

-points
https://i.imgur.com/7hM4Fxd.gif

-bomb
https://i.imgur.com/pL7hEF1.gif

-options
https://i.imgur.com/pMIFGMu.gif

I'm not sure there are regional differences, although there is a revision A and a revision B: https://tcrf.net/1942_(Arcade)

Put some more time into the PSP versions yesterday. Best score yet is 261,580. The enemy fire is significantly harder to see over land than even the NES version which also seemed pretty hard to spot. I may try and play this on a TV as the small screen with such tiny bullets makes the game more challenging than I feel it should be.

[img width=700 height=525]https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1950/45286849912_cdd111feba_o.jpg[/img] (https://flic.kr/p/2bZQWH7)

Got my NES working yesterday, after boiling the 72-pin connector the day before, and put some time into the NES version of 1942. I also broke out the NES Advantage, and got this score on my 3rd try:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/wuhKgI9.jpg[/img]

And after about an hour of play, I managed to get this:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/hl96jkP.jpg[/img]

@Normatron - as you can see above, the NES version is decidedly easier than the arcade version. Everything moves much slower, and despite some difficulty keeping up with the action over land-based backgrounds, it's still a lot easier to manage. The arcade version definitely qualifies as a total quarter muncher!

@Dingo - good start, dude! It took me a few tries to get to where I was consistently getting 50-60K, and once you start to get a rhythm, you can really progress quickly.

@Golem - Okay, those GIFs are helpful. Looks like we're on the same page, and maybe I misread what you posted previously. Thanks for clarifying!

@Crabmaster20000 - I haven't fired up the PSP version yet, but I'm assuming you're playing via Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded, right? That usually flips the screen to vertical orientation for play, though I don't remember or not if it flips back for scoring. Either way, that's the ideal way to play on PSP, because of the zoomed in view you get.

Congratulations to our NES players that got the clear!

I've been a little preoccupied with Gradius 2 over the last week, but here's an arcade score I managed to get earlier this month.

[img width=224 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/EChgGBw.png[/img]

Square_Air - 871,240 - 17 - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Rev B)

I would like to attempt clearing this before the end of the month (or at least hit 1 million), but with how long and random the game is you're bound to make mistakes from getting fatigued. At 70 minutes long it's a behemoth. I should note that I did also occasionally use 10 HZ autofire in my run, but it was only used for pointblanking large ships. I actually find autofire to be a hindrance in this game since the shot limit is so low. I don't even find much of a difference between autofire and just tapping while pointblanking besides saving my thumb from the pain of multiple ~hour long runs.

Has anyone here got the 100% stage bonus in arcade? It's pretty tricky to get, even on the first stage.


It's just meant to be a silly joke about the game being old and long :P

Yes that's the game I'm playing. You can choose the screen orientation and aspect ratio on the fly to whatever you'd like. Best part of this version is you can turn on an alternate soundtrack, which isn't anything fantastic, but anything is so much better than the original music.

So I've worked my way up to the first boss in the NES version. Do you guys have any advice on how to handle it? It's big, it moves a fair bit, and the bullet spread is wide and random. I was able to fell it on my last life by rolling over the bullets and hoping I could plant my plane somewhere safe, but I'm not confident I could repeat that.

I'm hoping the arcade bosses are easier with a vertical aspect!

For the NES version:
Stay far to one side so that you are just barely shooting the tip of the bosses wing. This makes his spread shot spread out more by the time it gets to you and easier to dodge between bullets. Don't be afraid to use your Loops when necessary too and maybe even make a point of banking them all up for the boss fight on those stages just in case you find your self cornered or even just unsure. Here's the video of my recent playthrough and I time stamped it at the boss plane for you. Hopefully this helps.

https://youtu.be/6kXq7_c5YPA?t=4397

Good call, Crabmaster2000 - I kind of discovered that strategy on accident, trying to avoid the bullets, and flew off to the left side and just sort of took out the first boss by shooting the edge of its wing. That plane goes down pretty fast if you can pelt bullets at it rapidly, so you don't have to dodge very long.

Thanks for the explanation and video, Crabmaster. You do make short work of it there!

It makes for somewhat of a comical boss encounter. Taking it down by scratching the far tip of the wing is like David and Goliath, only if David struck him on the pinky finger instead of the forehead.

A trick I have found with the boss plane is to get right behind the wing before the plane starts shooting (you'll actually be ahead of the tail), and as long as you're tucked in close right behind the wing, the tail shots never come up at a high enough angle to strike you. The main danger is making sure you don't accidentally run into the wing, but the boss plane really doesn't move fast enough for that to be a major issue.

Don't know if this strategy works in versions other than the NES though.

EZ Racer, that worked great, especially with autofire. (MetalFRO, I'm curious if you're using the TURBO on your NES Advantage!)

On the NES version, I got up to stage 17 or 18 (it's a little hard to remember because every stage looks the same):
[img width=256 height=240]https://i.imgur.com/aoJHYls.png[/img]

The green fighter jets that come in around stage 16 are so refreshing. I think they circle around like a regular green biplane, then swerve towards you once their heading is south--is that right? (Or... I don't know my World War II history. What direction are we travelling here? Surely this game does not take place on a strictly south to north trajectory.)

Other than that, it really is the same few planes over and over and over. It becomes a fight against highway hypnosis, or I guess in this case, (Battle of) Midway hypnosis, where you watch the same planes do the same maneuvers repeatedly and try to maintain focus. Autofire definitely helps in this regard, since I haven't developed endurance for rapid fire much longer than 30 minutes. Not that my thumb falls off, but it doesn't feel good.

Is it just me, or is the first stage weirdly hard? I always lose a couple of lives there and think my credit is scrapped, but then I'll survive past it and have a fine run.

I keep forgetting to try the Raiden V soundtrack with this game.

@Golem - I most certainly use auto fire on the Advantage! Without the usual clicky arcade stick, I wouldn't want to continually hammer away at the fire button. I think I have the dial set just below halfway, so it sort of mimics the auto fire options in the Saturn port.

@EZ Racer - that's a good strategy, tucking up just under the wing. Very smart move!

I may try a little more on the NES version of the game but this is my high score I was able to take a snapshot of. Its funny, I can get much farther in this one and the one on the capcom collection arcade one I like more ......even though it drives me crazy.

Great score, Normatron! I haven't managed to quite hit that level yet, but I did get farther yesterday, managing to score 646,850 points on the NES version:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/GMKLvmw.jpg[/img]

And I would agree with you - the arcade version is more frantic, and keeps you on your toes more, upping the fun factor. It has faster action, better graphics, and the sound isn't audio barf like on the NES. But because the NES game is so much slower and easier, it's possible to progress way faster in it. I haven't even reached the first boss in the arcade game yet, but have done so several times in the NES game, and I think I'm close to the halfway point, and the second boss. I'm curious as to how far off I am from reaching that goal. I sort of lose count in the stages, about 8 or 9 levels in.

I think the main thing about the NES version is its framerate--the arcade version feels so much smoother. The aspect ratio doesn't help either, since it feels like the plane squads are designed for a vertical aspect.

Just nabbed the 1CC in the NES version (should be 1,246,700 points, but the game cuts off the 1):
[img width=256 height=240]https://i.imgur.com/QbOYCIC.png[/img]
The special planes they whip out 4 stages from the end are super scary. They shoot bullets relentlessly and are not afraid of slowdown.

Things I am curious about:

• Which powerup do you consider the most useful?
• How useful is the roll maneuver?
• Which enemy gives you the most trouble?
• What gives each stage a sense of character? (Do some stages "stick out" more than others?)

Some notes on interplay:
-Like Crabmaster said, you don't get multiple shots; you just get one wider shot. This means that enemies clumped together shield one another; you can only hit one enemy at a time, so even if you have multiple bullets lined up, only one will connect. This can give an enemy a sense of "health" just by being in formation.
-The flipping gray planes will flip once they approach your vertical position (I think?). This means that you can stay near the bottom and get more time to shoot them or press upwards to shoo them offscreen. (Need to test this to make sure...)

EDIT: Editing this in. I was stuck on stage 7 for a while, but then I just broke through to stage 11 on the arcade version:
[img width=224 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/QUGIhR6.png[/img]
Although the first few stages are still pretty boring, they introduce new enemies earlier than in the NES version. There's just a little more variety. I'm interested to see if the game keeps it up. There's a yellow powerup that gives extra rolls that I don't remember being in the NES version, too.

Excellent run and score, Normatron!  To answer your questions:

1. I consider the 2 side planes to be the most useful powerful. It widens your field of fire, and while it doesn't make your shots any stronger (neither does the 4-shot), it gives you a much broader swath of coverage to take out enemies.
2. I haven't found the roll very useful, but that's just me. I suppose if you timed it right, it could work. One thing I've noticed while playing both the NES and Saturn versions, is that the hit detection is pretty lenient. For example, if a plane is coming in at the bottom of the screen, and begins to encroach upon your plane's tail, you have a brief moment where that won't cause a collision, so you can use the roll maneuver to get out of that situation. But for dodging bullets or small plane swarms, I haven't found it to be very effective, because I typically don't execute it in a timely enough fashion.
3. The enemies that give me the most trouble are the grey plans that shoot bullets at you right as they reach the perigee of their approach, when they're right on top of you, before they roll and double back. They seem to snipe me quite a bit in that mode, and it's my own fault for putting my plane into a position where they can!  :laugh:
4. There's very little character in the various stages, outside of the boss levels, or the last few, where you're actually flying over port cities. Outside of that, really it's a matter of which stages have really aggressive enemies that fire bullets at you, and which stages don't, or the handful of stages that have an extra power-up plane squadron that will garner an extend, or extra bonus. Outside of that, they tend to blend together quite a bit. This is an area I think Capcom improved upon greatly with 1943, for example.

Strategically speaking, there's some definite merit to staying somewhere toward the center of the screen, once the green planes begin to descend, because they can swirl around you, and you can have a relative modicum of safety, while still making movements out of that center space to dodge incoming bullets or planes you can't destroy before they get to you. Also: ALWAYS go for the green side planes that yield the Yashichi. ALWAYS. That extra 5K bonus will help you boost your score, and get you that much closer to another extend, and if you're anything like me, you'll burn through your life stock quickly, as you're making adjustments.

@EZ Racer - I tried your strategy on the boss planes, and couldn't get that to work. I got swarmed by bullets within about a second. However, if you stay in the lower-left corner, and sort of tap dodge up and down, or right and left, to avoid the bullets that are coming directly at you, it's incredibly easy to dodge through the bullet spray, once you kind of learn the pattern, and get a rhythm. Thankfully, the bullets are slow enough to dodge, if you stay close to the bottom corner.


Speaking of burning through lives, I managed to finish the game on the NES last night with a single life remaining:
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/0R5jrqZ.jpg[/img]

Total score of 1,363,200 points. The 993,700 was the high score at the end of the stage I was on, flying to the aircraft carrier, before the end level bonus was calculated/added, and pushed me over 1 million. I didn't reach Crabby's score, but I'm very happy with the 1CC, so I'll take it! Now, back to the Saturn version, to see if I can finally hit my 500K point goal, and reach at least the first boss...

Congrats on hitting the 1CC! I also cleared the game with a low life stock--I think I maintained 9 right up until the end, and then I lost a ton on the same checkpoint.

I think good game design should communicate ideas, which means arranging elements in an order so as to express something. (The same way we expect music to arrange its notes into keys rather than randomly strewn about the scale.) This means good game design will draw the player's focus towards the task at hand.

In part, this means working within a player's field of view (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_vision#/media/File:Field_of_view.svg). If you're trying to communicate something, you want the important part to be within the player's central vision (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2954145/).

Shooting games in particular can strain a player's field of view. Your ship and enemy ships alike are free to roam anywhere onscreen, not to mention that automatic scrolling is constantly pushing new things into view. Although I don't know how to measure how much of the screen is in my central vision (http://www.vasulka.org/archive/Writings/PercptTeleDisplays.pdf), I've definitely felt it. When I get shot down by a bullet I didn't see, even though I'm staring at the screen, that bullet took cover within my peripheral vision.

Compare this to a platformer, like Super Mario Bros., where nearly every object observes gravity, pushing everything to the same floor level. You can walk at your own pace, as well, controlling how fast new things come into view.

In the past, I've used long-term memory to overcome this. In Gradius, enemies shoot goodbye bullets as they leave the screen, so I've memorized that I need to watch enemies as they pass behind Vic. Or environmental cues can help, like in stage 4 of Metal Black, where openings in the cavern indicate that an enemy will use that as an entrance point onto the screen.

In 1942, enemies spawn in randomly-spaced formations. Although one segment of a stage will have the same type of enemy, you won't know where each enemy ship will be until it comes onscreen. You will also encounter enemies that overlay each other in different flight patterns. For instance, one squad of green planes will loop around the bottom half of the screen, while another squad will fly from the top of the screen down to its bottom, then up again. Since so many enemies can be onscreen flying along different paths in different places, you can't memorize their positions. I also don't know how to tell when planes are about to shoot. (The exception is the gray flipping plane, which I think shoots a few moments before flipping.) The randomized spacing and indeterminate timing means that I don't know how to focus my eyes on the screen.

This only gets worse when I get to the islands. While the blue water strikes a nice contrast against mud-red bullets, the busy grassy background does not.

I get the sensation that I need to widen my field of central vision (https://www.sportsvision.pro/glossary/). I feel like I need to read the entire screen all at once without any preference for one region over another. I think that means exercising my peripheral visual perception (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Enhanced-peripheral-visual-processing-in-deaf-is-by-Scott-Karns/b1e513c82c611a12e21ebefebad77c88353f55c5/figure/0) (like this game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Focus:_Vision_Training_in_Minutes_a_Day#Development)). (Here is someone who wanted to do the opposite (https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03212254) and someone who wanted to do the same (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015075475304;view=1up;seq=18).)

But, if I did have a better grasp on my peripheral vision, then that would take some pressure off of my memory. I could observe the goodbye bullets in Gradius on the spot rather than memorizing that they are coming.

Very insightful thoughts here, Golem! There's an interesting meta-discussion of this in the latest episode (16, or XVI, as it's listed on the site) of The Electric Underground podcast, a fellow shmup-themed endeavor. They discuss the science of the eyes, and how your vision works, in terms of interpreting images, and how that relates to eye movement, perception, and talking about how much time it takes your eyes to refocus between movements, and then how that impacts what data you take in, or are able to interpret. I recommend it anyway, because it's a good podcast, but this was a particularly interesting rabbit trail they went down.

https://soundcloud.com/user-306325657

I have found that the best strategy with 1942 is to watch my plane, and vaguely observe the general vicinity I'm moving within. Generally speaking, I can better see bullets as they approach my plane, and there's enough peripheral vision above that to see incoming planes enough to judge position and trajectory, so I can then use the previous attempts at playing to try and predict their behavior as they approach me. That certainly helped me with the NES port, and I think will help me progress on the arcade port as well.

Thanks for the link! I haven't listened yet, but the blog post (https://dunpachi.com/2018/10/11/saccades-perception-and-shmups/) is a great review of the literature.

Thanks for the breakdown of strategy as well, I think I understand. It's kind of like you handle enemies in the peripheral vision and bullets in the central vision, more or less.

Ah, more NES clears, good show everyone! Oof. I came so ridiculously close to clearing arcade about 2 days ago, but it just wasn't the run :(. At this stage of the game the large planes shoot very fast and move all the way down the screen to pointblank you, which can still trip you up even if you bring 5 lives with you  ::).

[img width=224 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/wv8Bcix.png[/img]

Square_Air - 1,411,440 - 30 - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Rev B)

Since the final stage is just a % & point stage, I had only a stage and a half (plus the final boss plane) before that coveted ending and generous 10,000,000 point bonus, but alas I am still tormented by this frustrating endurance test. Also, it's basically impossible to get a 100% rating in arcade consistently because of the way the RNG works with planes leaving the screen immediately after they enter. I think there may even be planes spawning & despawning off screen to sabotage the 100% rating since I've shot every plane in a stage multiple times (legitimately and with a little bit of separate tool-assisted experimentation) and I still just get 99%. I'm curious if this is a glitch in MAME, the original arcade PCB, or with any of the ~accurate arcade ports, so any input from other members playing these versions would be appreciated.


1. If we're not counting the extends, I would actually say the normal shot power up is the best one. The width increase is quite small, but it really makes a difference when the screen is filled with enemies. The options are also a contender, but in the late game in arcade they're so difficult to keep alive that they often won't give you as much mileage as the normal shot power up.

2. The rolls are very risky to use and take some foresight to really implement them properly. While they can end up killing you sometimes with that vertical movement lock, they are nearly essential to use in the later parts of the game.

3. The large planes that I talked about in the beginning of my post. Though, to be honest, the RNG itself is really the most dangerous foe here.

4. The city stages at the very end are visually ambitious for 1984, but it's not really the best for bullet visibility.

Small update. Still not a clear at 1 stage from the end, and I am very disappointed. I also have a few choice words for this game as I'm feeling quite vexed :no:.

[img width=224 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/RCd4I0w.png[/img]

Square_Air - 1,567,190 - 31 - ShmupMAME v4.2 (Rev B)

While this might seem hyperbolic, after giving it some thought, I honestly consider 1942 to be a genuinely poor arcade shmup. On a surface level the game seems merely somewhat simplistic and generic, and if this game had a few small fixes I would consider it to be pretty good. The problem lies in how heavy they leaned into the RNG and showed no restraint at all. Because of this, scoring at a high level is a joke, and survival doesn't fare much better. At most times I feel like this game resembles a slot machine more than a shmup since the skill ceiling is actually lower than you would expect, but the random elements that can't be prepared for spread out over 70 minutes turn this game into a nightmare.

I should also mention that I have managed to get 100% in a stage, but it still seems like there's no possibility of doing this consistently due to the RNG, especially on the last 2 seconds of every stage where it so rudely spawns enemies while you're uselessly landing, almost always holding rewards from you arbitrarily. I don't think RNG is a bad thing in shmups, but It really needs to be handled carefully. Robotron: 2084 came out 2 years earlier and implemented RNG nearly perfectly. Even compared to it's contemporaries around the early to mid 80's, 1942 still feels old and slow. Juno First from 1 year earlier is a much faster and exciting game, all the Williams shmups handle RNG in a much smoother way, and Toaplan's Hishouzame/Flying Shark/Sky Shark from 1987 is a very similar game with much better level design.

If you enjoyed this game then I congratulate you, as this is something I struggled to achieve. 1943 and 1943 Kai seem to be so clearly upgraded from this chassis that I just can't really recommend 1942. I guess on some level I just enjoy playing shmups with a group, so it wasn't all doom and gloom playing this game, but I'm certainly exhausted by this leviathan. I'm still going to attempt to use the last bit of time I've got to keep banging my head against this brick wall, so wish me luck!

Some great thoughts, Square_Air, and I echo a lot of what you're saying. The game can be fun in short bursts and small doses, but as long as it is, it feels like a real slog. The NES version, because it's significantly easier, despite close to the same level of RNG, is at least slower and more manageable. You also have more room to maneuver, so there's less chance of getting boxed in with its more "vertizontal" orientation. As a result, after just under 2 weeks of playing it, I got a 1CC. The arcade version is so difficult that I haven't even been able to reach the first boss yet. I cap out around 240K-250K in a typical play through (single credit), and I just haven't been able to progress. I will probably credit feed this one to the end, just to see the end, so I can talk about it on the podcast, but I would totally agree that 1943 is a significant upgrade over this, and is a better game in every regard. I don't see myself returning to this one much, other than for a quick blast when I'm in the mood for something old school.

I took one final shot at 1942 on Saturn last night, and was sad I couldn't break 300K, or beat the first boss. Still, at least it was an improvement over my previous score.
[img width=700 height=525]https://i.imgur.com/3nYEZVp.jpg[/img]

I have to say, as closing thoughts for the month, that I echo a lot of what has been said here. I applaud Capcom for what they did with the game at this point, but it was very quickly eclipsed by their own sequel, as well as by Gradius. In some ways, even Xevious, which Namco put out previously, had some advantages over this game. I appreciate the attempt at a semi-complex power-up structure, but the very rigid order in which they appear, and especially as spread out as they are (quad fire in the first stage, then smart bombs in stage 2, followed by side planes in stage 3), makes for a very measured experience that sort of clashes with the high level of random the game brings to the table. There were times that, despite a month of playing, I could still get beaten down in the first stage, before even hitting the 20K mark to earn the first extend, because of how random the game is. Granted, I'm playing aggressively, trying to keep my shot percentage up, and maximize score, but it's pretty disheartening when you can burn through 3 lives that quickly.

All that said, I still think this is an important game for a myriad of reasons. It paved the way for other military shooters, not just the remainder of Capcom's 19XX series, and helped continue to advance and iterate upon the ideas of powering up your craft. It can be fun, but certainly isn't a game I'd want to continue to hammer away at, in order to get the 1CC. I'll leave that to the more masochistic, as well as the more high level players who can deal more efficiently with the RNG than I can  :slick: