Ten Pence #94 - Space Harrier

[shaunholley]

New 10p podcast out now. Episode #94 featuring Space Harrier. Guesting is Taggsta and Daz Domination from 'Stralia, and also 'Virtual Vic'

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Available from http://tenpencearcade.co.uk/ or iTunes.

 

[dj_yt]

Just listening to this now. Good work chaps.

When do you need someone to drone on about Outrun for hours? Strictly there's no limit on a podcast length right

 

[dj_yt]

So true about what you guys are saying on Space Harrier, where sometimes you'll blitz through the first few stages and then progressively get worse.

I think my reaction stamina wears out pretty fast these days!

 

[Flinnster]

I missed out on Space Harrier.. noooo! The deluxe cab was a real fave of mine back in the day.

Virtual Vic / Atomic-Robo-Vic also cracked me up a good'un. Will you be taking him to any events?

I had no idea my drunken Mega Twins rant would be broadcast to the arcadey-verse in full!
I am so sorry guys ..... Oops!

 

[iamjimmi]

Hey Shaun, well done on holding the fort whilst Vic gallivants his way around 'merica. Virtual Vic was hilarious - you know that you are in big trouble when real Vic gets back...

And great support from the Taggsta and Daz - and we were soooo close to getting Slap Fight for the next game....

Going back an episode, many thanks for the Donkey Kong tips - I had no idea that you could control barrels! Shame you can't control those pesky springs.

Loved the excuse to play Space Harrier - but I have no idea how you managed such a big score without an analogue stick?!

I agree that you need to be on the ball for Space Harrier - whenever I played, it was always my first game that was best - after that fatigue kicks in and concentration dips. And it is one of those games where you only rack up the big scores when you are in the "zone" (should that be Fantasy Zone?), but as soon as you become conscious that you are in the zone, a big oval spinning thing hits you in the face. What's that all about?

A conversion that is worth mentioning in a near arcade perfect conversion that can be found as an Easter egg in Shenmue. Shenmue is a Japanese open-world action-adventure video game released around the year 2000. In the game you could find an arcade that had a Space Harrier game that was fully playable! If I remember correctly, you could only play with one credit - good practise for the 10pence challenge!

Keep on podding....

 

[dj_yt]

Yep I definitely think Space Harrier and to even more of an extent Afterburner are both games that need the original analog stick.

Space harrier on the 3DS is visually fantastic in true 3D, and makes some aspects of gameplay easier but it feels so weird playing on a small analog stick. Digital controls just feels bizarre.

Afterburner feels a completely different game on hardware compared with Mame too. dj_yt2017-09-20 23:08:27

 

[Jodo]

Argh! Would love to have been part of this particular cast!

 

[dj_yt]

I was going to ask where Jodo was!

Jodo, what are your thoughts on the autofire idea. Is it sacrilegious or a great way of avoiding RSI?

There's also the potential of doing a 'hold to autofire mod'. dj_yt2017-09-21 08:19:56

 

[Jodo]

Jodo, what are your thoughts on the autofire idea. Is it sacrilegious or a great way of avoiding RSI?

There's also the potential of doing a 'hold to autofire mod'.

Hmm! Well, if the auto-fire mod essentially just replicates the action of holding down any one of the game's fire buttons without changing the speed you shoot, the resulting fire rate is actually too slow to make the player really competitive. Basic autofire simply wouldn't take out the enemies quickly enough; especially on later levels where the screen can get very busy, very quickly.

There is also a key tactic to gaining a high score that replies upon the player hammering fire like mad to stay alive for an extended period of time at a particular point in the game.

Side notes:
- By far the best way to play the game if going for score is to use one of the two yellow fire buttons on the dash either side of the joystick; all the other fire buttons are simply not responsive enough
- Killing airborne enemies as a priority generates more points than going for ground based targets; this includes the flying rocks
- Prolong Boss encounters where possible; destroy a bosses' 'adds' before finally killing the boss itself. Your score constantly counts upwards as you play and every point counts
- You want to be getting 6 or 7 'large' men on your bonus round totals where you ride Uriah to stand a chance of getting a high score. The object pattern on these stages is fixed, so learn a left-right sweeping routine that bags you the most object destruction
- Level 17 is the entire key to getting a high score and is more important than any other stage <wink>
- You want to go into level 18 with a score of 33-34m points to be in with a chance of getting a high score
Jodo2017-09-21 13:13:54

 

[dj_yt]

My list of mods for Space Harrier Enhanced at some point in the future would be:

- Soft Dip Switch Support (similar to AfterBurner Enhanced)

- Level Select

- Free Play fixes if needed

- Tap a button to speed through the game over countdown

- Autofire hack (I'd prefer to have it so you hold to fire rapidly). Although I'm not a huge fan of changing gameplay... always feels a bit dirty to me.

Jodo - does playing the game on different difficulty settings impact your score? And in fact, what do the different difficulties actually do? On AfterBurner I know the enemy patterns remain constant but their projectiles become more accurate at hitting the player.

This is probably a project for 2018.

dj_yt2017-09-21 14:05:05

 

[iamjimmi]

Thanks Jodo... some great tips there!

On the subject of rapid auto fire, I think you risk ruining the game. It would be easier but not necessarily better. This is not just a skill game, it's a game of physical dexterity. No pain, no game...

 

[Mr20to5]

Overall this was a great podcast. Not only did it have the handsome Holley holding the helm, but a couple of cheeky characters co-hosting to boot.

The laughter throughout was quite infectious.

But I have overlooked the real star of the show - Virtual Vic! Now i love you Vic (the real Vic), as you harumph your way from one gane to another and you could never be replaced, but oh how I laughed at your virtual parody. Simply awesome Shaun.

Then there is Space Harrier. A game I never gave much time to and still get annoyed by colliding with something I never even seen, obscured by my space ass, but it grew on me.

Until next time.

Mr 20to5.

PS: One more Virtual Vic Michael Jackson shout out please!

 

[Jodo]

Jodo - does playing the game on different difficulty settings impact your score? And in fact, what do the different difficulties actually do? On AfterBurner I know the enemy patterns remain constant but their projectiles become more accurate at hitting the player.

Harder difficulty settings don't glean more points, so there is little point in playing at that level TBH; I believe if memory serves the game behaves the same as you describe for After Burner. I only practice on the TG high score submission settings regularly so I'm not 100% on the exact differences but I bet Nick Hutt would know more.

EDIT: Have you poked around the Harrier code yet and if so, is there anything left from when the game was a Jet-Fighter based shooter?

Jodo2017-09-21 19:43:03

 

[dj_yt]

The only work I did on the Space Harrier code was finding the Easter Egg credits, and removing the copy protection so that it would run on the Enduro Racer PCB. I haven't delved any further.

I suspect at some point in the past I checked out the sprite data and found nothing interesting, but I can't remember now.

There may well be some legacy code in there, but I haven't looked any further at this stage!

 

[tronads]

Virtual Vic was genius. Who would have thought you could have improved upon the real thing !

 

[shaunholley]

Thanks TroLLnads

You know you're banned now (again), right?

 

[tronads]

Taggs and Daz did a very good stand in job. I enjoyed this one just as much as always, and it made my long drive back from Northampton pass much quicker. I even chose to listen to this before the Video Game Outsiders podcast I also had waiting to be listened to.

 

[Bensonrad]

Great podcast chaps,

Can't believe you've not heard the word to corpse before, youtube some Pete & Dud for prime examples.

Corpsing is British theatrical slang for unintentionally breaking character by laughing. In North American TV and film, this is commonly referred to as breaking, and it is generally categorized as a blooper. The origin of the term corpsing itself is unclear, but may come from (provoking an actor into) breaking character by laughing while portraying a corpse. As the name suggests, many examples of corpsing have been created from actors performing this role or related roles, such as a sleeping or unconscious character.

Space Harrier is a game I've never really had much love for, I find the trigger kills my finger after a while, same with games like Afterburner and more recently Star Wars Trilogy. I can see how an autofire option might help with things like that, but think that would take away the skill, so would be against that.

 

[Zipper]

Virt(ual) Vic was brilliant. Can we pair him up with Shaun Holleygram for a fully automated episode?