Podcast 37 : 1942

Hello Steve and Karl 🙂
Although you talked about Gyruss I don’t think you mentioned during the 1942 show that Yoshiki Okamoto was also responsible for Gyruss which is another fantastic game worth reviewing. 1942 has great memories for me as not only do I remember playing it back in the 80’s at the Students union, it was the first board set that I acquired when I first got back into the hobby from a member on the UKVAC forum back in 2000. Speaking of which, you might have recognised my name from UKVAC, JAMMA+, UKPinball forums. Keep up the great work.

Hey guys – Thought I’d come here to check out the shownote links and leave feedback. The Deathrace looks superb – what a machine. Older than me, but looking much better. Really enjoying the podcasts – Especially the little projects you make time for each week… An electronic marquee, custom cnc volume plate, helping to set up Play Blackpool followed by a shotgun wedding with someone elses 1942 cab. It’s good listening. I’m starting to go through the back catalogue of episodes.

Some belated thoughts on 1942… I just cannot practically use the loop to evade – Basically because I’ve not once seen my death more than a nano-second before it occurs.
The bullet trajectories are pure evil. They drift straight, slowly and inevitably into my path. Very clever.
I think it’s the mass of suicidal planes that ruin my concentration. Especially when a couple start looping round the rear. I’m not used to that at all. I was almost getting the hang of it, but then come the jungle backgrounds where I just completely lose sight of the bullets and planes in the melee.
I did manage to beat the first super-big plane using a continue. I’ll be happy with that and leave 1942 for now.

Volfied has a ridiculous points system that’s pretty annoying. It encourages memorising the tips rather than rewarding adventurous play. I don’t mind memorising patterns – but the 1m points absolutely belong to the people who worked the patterns out – not plagerisers like me! I’ll not be giving back my score back though. I did manage to get the 9999990 in the end, but died on lvl15.
The levels where you need to nibble the background – they really test my patience. I tend to do about 10 nibbles, think I see a massive gap (that doesn’t exist) and try and draw a 5-inch long line through it.. and die.
If i could change the game, I’d like to see reckless bravery rewarded hansomly and nibblers punished with death. I’d like ‘laser / fire’ power-ups to be on a different button too, so I don’t accidentally come off the force field while blasting.
4-way stick or keys is a must in this game.

Have either of you played Heinkyo Alien? It’s my favourite game on the Gameboy, but based on a 1979 arcade maze/trap game of the same name. HG101 did a piece on it… http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/heiankyoalien/heian1.htm