Author Topic: R-Type  (Read 3258 times)

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Anyone here played this series? For those who don't know, R-Type was a series of side-scrolling shooters developed by Irem. Notable for their challenge and for "the Force" (not related at all to the Star Wars force) which was a pod that could be attached to the front or back of the ship for extra firepower, or allowed to float around on its own, killing enemies for you.

I discovered this series when I saw R-Type and R-Type III available on the Wii's Virtual Console (original for TurboGrafx, the latter for SNES). Those two games hooked me in a way few games ever have. I even hunted down a copy of the last game in the series, R-Type Final, for the PS2, and am currently attempting to beat it (so far unsuccessfully, as these games are hard).

Anyway, the series was apparently extremely popular back in the day, and I was wondering if anyone who'd played them is here on the site?
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 
Played it.  Had a few good moments, but like all one-hit-wonder shooters, I no longer want to come near it.

 

Offline Maniax

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I played and loved the SNES version a few years ago, it was one of my favorite games as a kid. I had no idea there was one for the PS2 out, I'll have to hunt it down. Thanks!

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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R-Type 3 on the snes.  :yes: :yes: :yes:

One of the best.

I hate the accursed BYDO empire with every fibre of my being...........
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Me too... if only because I can't seem to survive the later levels and kill them all.  :mad2:

Currently I am stuck on the Level 4 boss of R-Type III. The one that spins around and around and around... *dizzy*.

Cool thing about the Virtual Console, there's kind of a way to "save" an R-Type game in progress: if you exit the game to the Wii's menu, when you open the game again, it brings you right to the point where you left off!  :D

I played and loved the SNES version a few years ago, it was one of my favorite games as a kid. I had no idea there was one for the PS2 out, I'll have to hunt it down. Thanks!

Good luck. R-Type Final is really rare, and I had a hell of a time trying to find it. Still, it's worth it. Over 100 different R series ships to try out, all with differing wave cannons and Forces.
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
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  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 
Well, all the retailers I talked to said it was rare (those that even recognized the name). I got my copy off of eBay.  :D
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

  • HLP is my mistress
  • 213
  • Aken Tigh Dekker- you've probably heard me
    • My old squad sub-domain
Is it Konami? i tend to forget but Konami and Capcom are my favourite software firms (console wise)

Contra Shattered soldier is undoubtedly one of my faves
Campaigns I've added my distinctiveness to-
- Blue Planet: Battle Captains
-Battle of Neptune
-Between the Ashes 2
-Blue planet: Age of Aquarius
-FOTG?
-Inferno R1
-Ribos: The aftermath / -Retreat from Deneb
-Sol: A History
-TBP EACW teaser
-Earth Brakiri war
-TBP Fortune Hunters (I think?)
-TBP Relic
-Trancsend (Possibly?)
-Uncharted Territory
-Vassagos Dirge
-War Machine
(Others lost to the mists of time and no discernible audit trail)

Your friendly Orestes tactical controller.

Secret bomb God.
That one time I got permabanned and got to read who was being bitxhy about me :p....
GO GO DEKKER RANGERSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
President of the Scooby Doo Model Appreciation Society
The only good Zod is a dead Zod
NEWGROUNDS COMEDY GOLD, UPDATED DAILY
http://badges.steamprofile.com/profile/default/steam/76561198011784807.png

 
There isn't much out there to beat the R-Type series.  I couldn't help but feel a little sad when I read R-Type Final's manual: "The R-TYPE saga ends now.  The reasons will not be written here, but you can be sure that any further R-TYPE release will not bear the Irem name."  :(

But not to long ago R-Type Tactics was announced for the PSP.....

R-Type final is worth playing many many times.  Eventually you will gain infinate continues.  There are different routes, most of which can be only accessed after doing something on the last time you played.  As a side note, R-Type final works a treat if run off a hard drive via the HDLoader software (afaik the original author released it for free and various groups are patching it to work with newer games.  The PS2 "exploit" is worth looking at too).

While you are in the mood, pick up Gradius V for the PS2.
Find me as Hojo Norem elsewhere...

butter_pat_head... a name picked in sheer desperation more than 10 years ago from some super obscure Red Dwarf reference.

 
I'm debating on whether or not to hunt down R-Type Delta, for the PS1. I've heard that it is supposed to have some of the best gameplay out of all the R-Types, even if it doesn't have 100 ships or branching paths like Final.

I'm not sure about Tactics. Probably won't be getting it, since it's for the PSP, and I see no reason at all to get one of those over-priced things. I heard that Tactics will feature more strategy elements... which is interesting, to say the least. Maybe the story will be further fleshed out and we'll learn a bit more about the Bydo...
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline Mobius

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Hunt it down, Dark Hunter! I loved R-Type Delta, I had a demo of that game and I player it a thousand times!!!

I think I'll check the version for the PSP out...
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Offline Roanoke

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I used to play the original in my local swimmingbaths. They had a couple of machines in reception.

I also remember the MasterSystem Port. Really bad flicker when lots was happening and one  mission where the background was red and hostile shots were (a slightly different shade of) red....

 
I actually beat the master system version back in the day.  Took forever.  The main problem is that if you died on level 7, you were SCREWED.  Not enough power ups to get you back up to being powerful enough to survive, and that damned factory level was a bear.

Compared to 7, 8 was a cinch.

 

Offline IPAndrews

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Many versions of R-Type were essentially one life games. Die once, lose all the lovely weapons you'd aquired, and you may as well spend your remaining lives flying into the nearest wall in order to get to hurry up with putting your name into the high score table and start a new game. It's not like R-Type was the only game this was true of though. Gradius and Gradius 2 were just the same. Gradius 2 is a bloody fantastic game in it's own right too. Oh and the last level of R-Type Final with the far out music and the snogging couple in the background - that's a fairly odd experience.
Be warned: This site's admins stole 100s of hours of my work. They will do it to you.

 
Me, I wonder how this guy got so good. This is final stage of R-Type II.

I could never have achieved dodging all those blasts...
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline Cyker

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Man... I still have this on tape and a warez version on 5.25" floppy for my C64 :D

I don't think I ever completed it, and these days I doubt I could even get past the first level!


One game someone needs to revive is Armalyte - That was a fantastic side-scrolling shooter :)


My current fav. shooter is Jets'n'Guns (jng.rakeingrass.com)...

 

Offline IPAndrews

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Armalyte has nothing on R-Type. At the uni where I work (for another four weeks) we have a games programming degree. The lecturer who runs it has two machines sat in the game programming computer laboratory, to demonstrate the art of games programming. One of those - is running R-Type.
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Offline karajorma

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*runs into thread*

[size=8]Katakis Lives! [/size]

*runs out of thread*
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Uhhhh....

Forgive my ignorance... but what is "katakis"?  :confused:
"You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?" -DEATH, Discworld

"You can fight like a krogan, run like a leopard, but you'll never be better than Commander Shepard!"

 

Offline karajorma

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Quote
Another funny anecdote is that Rainbow Arts, at some point, wanted to release shooter Katakis which bore a striking similarity to R-Type. This time it was Irem who put the brakes on the whole shebang. Well, the classic Amiga Shooter Turrican 2, itself somewhat similar to Metroid, and designed by Factor 5, has a horizontally scrolling shoot-em up section where the player's craft is greeted by two choppers carrying a banner with the inscription "KATAKIS LIVES." I believe Rainbow Arts/Factor 5 had a strong working relationship back then which explains the inclusion of it in Turrican 2.

Found the quote here cause I couldn't be bothered to type out the whole story. :)
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