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Ikaruga (PC) |OT| Even though the resolution is high, I never give in.

braves01

Banned
What settings do you guys recommend starting out with? I'm going Normal and No continues. Too harsh for a new scrub?

I actually think playing through the game with continues at first is a good idea, just to get a chance to see everything the game will throw at you before you try with no continues. I hate finally breaking through a difficult section of something only to die mere seconds later because something surprises me. Obviously not a purist's approach, but I don't think it ruins the game or anything.
 

mdsfx

Member
Don't do this. Easy mode is easier, yes, but then you have to do extra work to erase some muscle memory when you play on Normal later.
Agreed. You will get accustomed to safe spots and flight patterns that wont exist on normal. I did this on the XBLA version and when i switched back to normal it felt like i was learning a whole new game. It did not feel like progressive learning.

I found that progressing slowly through normal, although seemingly painful, was actually very rewarding.
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
Yes I switched back to Normal pretty fast. Will probably do a continue run to beat all bosses and unlock levels as well
 

ksan

Member
What I do is play normal without continues, and just practice the level on level select.
When I can beat it reliably, I play from the beginning and unlock the next one.
 

AnnTiPa

Member
Could someone check where I'd land on the leaderboards with my Gamecube version high score (24,875,480), please. I'm rather curious but can't buy the game myself just yet. :(
 

mdsfx

Member
Could someone check where I'd land on the leaderboards with my Gamecube version high score (24,875,480), please. I'm rather curious but can't buy the game myself just yet. :(
Very high! Maybe top 20? Cant check right now. Great score
 
LIVING THE DREAM

yF47iFC.jpg


Works fine on a Surface Pro 1, if anybody's wondering.

Couldn't get X360ce to work with my Saturn pad but thankfully joytokey came to the rescue.

That saturn pad... Official Sega goodness.. May I ask, where from??

EDIT- Just read what you said to the other guys who asked, haha. Genius.
 
Did a Free Play run through the game on Normal just so I could unlock all stages. First time I ever managed to play through stages 4 and 5, albeit with a ton of continues used. Really loved the fight with Tagari, especially the back and forth volley of energy in the final phase. This game's design really is fucking incredible.

And playing this game vertically is so damn good, I don't want to play it any other way.
 
Finally managed to beat stage 2 on Normal without continues! Only to be decimated by the lasers on the first 10 seconds of stage 3 :(

Shumps are a genre that I love but I suck at them. I will do a free play run later just to unlock everything and then I'm going to practice every single stage alone.
 
EDIT 2: OK, to fix this in Nvidia Control Panel, set vsync to on and maximum pre-rendered frames to 0 to minimize input lag while retaining the proper game speed in fullscreen mode.

I could only set this to 1.

For people using PS3 TE sticks: Use Joy2Key in highest processing mode instead of Xpadder. It resolved my input lag issues.
 

mannerbot

Member
Hm, game keeps telling me the framerate is too low to upload scores to the leaderboard. I don't really mind because my score is pitifully low right now, but even still it would be competitive with my friends leaderboard. :p
 
Man, I suck at this game pretty bad so far. I love the style though, and it's great fun. What's the preferred method of progression, by the way? Should I just keep it on no continues, three lives, and power through it? Or should I turn up the lives or continues (not sure if I want to enable free play, sounds like it'll take too much of the challenge out) and play that way, then go for another run later?
 

Mechazawa

Member
Man, after 90 different versions of this game, I would have thought at some point that Treasure would incorporate a quick retry in the start menu, or even a quick retry at the leaderboard screen.

The downtime in between runs starts to wear on you.
 
Man, after 90 different versions of this game, I would have thought at some point that Treasure would incorporate a quick retry in the start menu, or even a quick retry at the leaderboard screen.

The downtime in between runs starts to wear on you.

lol true. Especially with the replay uploading crap.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Bought this last night, then proceeded to spend 40 minutes fucking around with controllers and drivers trying to get one of them to work (I have a DS3 I recently connected to my PC, and a wireless 360 controller. Haven't touched them in a few weeks, now neither of them will sync) to no avail. Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, does anyone know how I can start from scratch with regards to my controllers? I tried looking at my Device Manager and uninstalling and reinstalling what I thought were the right drivers, but that didn't work. Can I just dump all of the HID and USB device drivers and then plug in my 360 controller again and have it recognize? I have no idea what I did to make this mess :(
 

OuiOuiBa

Member
I'd stick to it, personally. At the very least, not using continues is the fastest way to learn an arcade game.
To elaborate a bit more on that: it is the fastest way to get familiar with the game, but after that first step, the most efficient is to put more time into more difficult segments - that is what stage select, segment select options and save states (when available) are for.

Setting yourself high goals will help you get better.
If your goal was to finish the game using unlimited credits, you wouldn't make any progress. This does not mean you should prevent yourself from using credits at all to go further in the game (and learn those later levels), but you should play as if every one of your lives was the last one
Here is a general shmup strat PDF written by a DDP hi-scorer, for those interested :)
 
This is my first time playing Ikaruga, and after playing for about two or three hours total now, I was able to get to Stage 3! I was surprised at how far I got into it.

My plans right now are to simply beat it in one playthrough (practice stage, get it down, go back through the game), then start aiming for ranks. Some of your scores are nuts haha.

Again, if you want to add me, I'm SkyTurnsRed on Steam.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
...and if you play on normal you'll need extra work when you play on hard. So... start on hard? I don't see your point.
If you're interested in playing for score (not everyone is, but I assume it's relevant to those asking for practice tips), then it's best to ignore Easy and Hard modes because Normal has consistently been the main focus for competition in every previous version of the game.
 

ksan

Member
Can anyone get their SF4 TE stick (360) detected by the game?

Have you tried starting the game without clicking anything with the mouse/keyboard after launching it. You gotta press start on the start screen with the controller to go into controller mode.
 

Vitacat

Member
Bought this.

Seems to run perfect on my 2 year old AMD based Toshiba laptop. Using a Qanba Q4RAF with Seimitsu stick/buttons. in XB360 mode. Lag is not bad, maybe a tiny bit compared to console versions. Not sure yet.

Haven't tested with my X-Arcade yet.
 

Llyranor

Member
Mine worked right away. Make sure the first input detected by the game is your controller as opposed to the keyboard or mouse,

Have you tried starting the game without clicking anything with the mouse/keyboard after launching it. You gotta press start on the start screen with the controller to go into controller mode.

Still doesn't work. The game doesn't recognize the inputs. I tried it in another game just to check, and it works there, so it's not the arcade stick.

However, might it be because of the drivers? When I first plugged the stick in, the PC didn't recognize it. I had to manually install some XBCD driver to get it working as it does not (just not in Ikaruga). What drivers are you guys using?
 

epmode

Member
Still doesn't work. The game doesn't recognize the inputs. I tried it in another game just to check, and it works there, so it's not the arcade stick.

However, might it be because of the drivers? When I first plugged the stick in, the PC didn't recognize it. I had to manually install some XBCD driver to get it working as it does not (just not in Ikaruga).

That's absolutely your problem. XBCD gets the controller working like a DirectInput controller. Ikaruga and many other modern games do not recognize DirectInput. They use XInput. You can use something called x360ce to emulate XInput with a DirectInput controller so I'd try that.

Or you can figure out how to load the official Microsoft drivers.
 

Llyranor

Member
The problem is that I can't even get the SF4 TE stick recognized by Windows unless I went the XBCD driver route. I tried the official 360pad driver but that doesn't work. 360ce also doesn't seem to help with detection of the controller, only with emulation, so that doesn't seem to help.

What drivers do you guys use for it, then?
 

mannerbot

Member
The problem is that I can't even get the SF4 TE stick recognized by Windows unless I went the XBCD driver route. I tried the official 360pad driver but that doesn't work. 360ce also doesn't seem to help with detection of the controller, only with emulation, so that doesn't seem to help.

What drivers do you guys use for it, then?

I suspect that most people didn't have to install drivers at all, as 360 controllers should be plug and play. What OS are you using?
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
If i remember correctly, the gamecube version didn't sold much either. Games like this don't sell much sadly...

I remember reading that with Cave shooters, they'd set up the pricing so that if they sold something like 5,000 copies, it'd be profitable (lot of good that did them, though.) With something like a PC port of Ikaruga... I'd guess 5,000 copies would be enough to make it worthwhile, especially considering this is without some sort of Steam sale.
 
The problem is that I can't even get the SF4 TE stick recognized by Windows unless I went the XBCD driver route. I tried the official 360pad driver but that doesn't work. 360ce also doesn't seem to help with detection of the controller, only with emulation, so that doesn't seem to help.

What drivers do you guys use for it, then?

that's odd. I have 0 problems getting my SF4 TE stick recognized by Windows.
 

ArjanN

Member
Seems like they're saying there's more than 5,000 copies sold/on the leaderboards at the moment.

On the leaderboard. So that's only counting people that actually played, not those that bought and haven't played it yet.

One of my friends is number 5950-something on the leaderboards now.

Here's the PC credits list, by the way:
916914EE9F1BA1675FB48DC55B7C0F4EB72AA0BC
 

mannerbot

Member
I remember reading that with Cave shooters, they'd set up the pricing so that if they sold something like 5,000 copies, it'd be profitable (lot of good that did them, though.) With something like a PC port of Ikaruga... I'd guess 5,000 copies would be enough to make it worthwhile, especially considering this is without some sort of Steam sale.

Yeah, CAVE's mindset isn't the right one for a niche game on Steam. Ikaruga's gonna have long legs, and the sales will blow up if it's a featured sale.

Win7 (64bit).

I have no problem getting my regular 360pad working. I could only get the SF4 TE stick working if I installed the XBCD driver, though.

Try uninstalling the XBCD driver, then plugging the stick in and going to Control Panel -> Devices and Printers and seeing what the device is listed as. Also, have you tried using it on a different computer if you have one available?
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Yeah, CAVE's mindset isn't the right one for a niche game on Steam. Ikaruga's gonna have long legs, and the sales will blow up if it's a featured sale.

That, and Treasure really only has to consider the costs of porting the game to PC, seeing as how the thing was released more than a decade ago and has been ported to three systems already. It's made its money, so this is a good way for them to test the waters and figure out what works for whenever they decide to actually make a new game for once.
 

epmode

Member
Win7 (64bit).

I have no problem getting my regular 360pad working. I could only get the SF4 TE stick working if I installed the XBCD driver, though.

Weird. I'm 99% sure that those drivers are built right into Windows 7.

Remember, you can always try that x360ce thing I mentioned earlier. JoyToKey will also work, although I don't know how much input lag that will generate.
 

Llyranor

Member
Try uninstalling the XBCD driver, then plugging the stick in and going to Control Panel -> Devices and Printers and seeing what the device is listed as. Also, have you tried using it on a different computer if you have one available?
I had already uninstalled the XBCD driver, so it's reverted back to the old 'not being detected' status.

In the device panel, it's listed as 'HID-compliant game controller' (with a troubleshooting error). When I try to troubleshoot, it tells me to install a driver. When it tries to, it then says 'unknown device doesn't have a driver'.

EDIT: Okay, I just plugged into an old PC (which is also win7/64bit). It read as "street fighter iv fightstick TE" in the device panel instead of 'HID-compliant game controller' and I was able to automatically install drivers. Not sure how to fix it on the new PC, though.
 

ksan

Member
I had already uninstalled the XBCD driver, so it's reverted back to the old 'not being detected' status.

In the device panel, it's listed as 'HID-compliant game controller' (with a troubleshooting error). When I try to troubleshoot, it tells me to install a driver. When it tries to, it then says 'unknown device doesn't have a driver'.

EDIT: Okay, I just plugged into an old PC (which is also win7/64bit). It read as "street fighter iv fightstick TE" in the device panel instead of 'HID-compliant game controller' and I was able to automatically install drivers. Not sure how to fix it on the new PC, though.

Have you tried right clicking it and uninstalling it? Then plugging it again?
I have no idea if it works, but it's worth a try

Also, for me, sometimes I don't get the light on my xbox 360 controller, then I have to unplug it and plug it in again.
 

Sapiens

Member
Bought it last night, but can't get full screen to work. Only works on windows. My rig is a Vaio laptop with an Nvidea card and whenever I try to go full screen, it gives me a D3D error.

Everything, including windows update, nvidea drivers, dx11, is up to date.

Any suggestions?
 
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