hansolo77

Ok boys.. here's my first submission. I've been playing this off an on all day, because my thumb gets tired lol. After what seems like $20 in quarters, I finally scored a decent enough score to post. I know it'll get blasted pretty quick, but I have my hopes up because it's good enough world ranking-wise at Twin Galaxies to be 3rd. BUT.... I'm not using WolfMAME so I can't submit it for ranking. Oh well. Let's see how well you guys are? BTW, I used to play this a lot at my friends house on his NES, so I have a bit experience with it. I'm actually kinda glad it was picked. Score: 164,500 Stage: 3 Initials: N/A (remember, games that don't have initial screens need to have a screenshot of the score with your high score matching... thus my first image.. And here's the title screen with the high score, which doesn't show the previous score earned, which is why you need to screen grab right after you die on your last man.. Happy Competing! Updated OP, DB, RSS

I'm not sure.. I'm just going by what is on Twin Galaxies... http://www.twingalaxies.com/scores.php?platformid=46&gamename=Vs. Gradius There's only 2 games listed, Gradius III (different game), and Vs. Gradius.

Updated to remove June 2017 GOTM: Gradius.

Here's a bit of GameEx trivia for ya... This game was voted upon yet tied with Pepper II. They each received 6 votes. Out of the 12 total voters (we allow 2 choices per round). My random number generator chose this game as the final winner. I also asked for a bit of additional feedback as to the state of our competition. Those results show that 83.33% of you (10 votes) are going to participate this month, whereas only 16.67% (2 votes) wouldn't. So we should see another exciting month of competing! Something else about this game... I had to go with the VS version, as the only available games in the MAME section of TwinGalaxies were VS or Gradius III (a totally different game). So when you're ready to play, make sure you have that correct VS bios in your MAME setup! Also a bit of update... I asked how everybody would feel about changing the competition to a seasonal one. Meaning, we would allow for 3 months of gaming on the "GOTM" rather than a monthly one. The results were inconclusive.. ending at 50/50 (6 votes each). Honestly, I for one don't really care, so I voted for the monthly one. I can see the advantages of a seasonal though. It would give more people a chance to come in and play a game and get a score posted up before the contest is over. HOWEVER, the drawback of that is the game itself might not be exciting enough to warrant 3 months of dragged on gaming. So I think for the time being, I'll keep it the way it is for now. Enjoy this month's feature game!

Gradius (グラディウス?Guradiusu) is a 1985 horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1985. It was the first game in the Gradius series of shoot 'em ups. In Gradius, the player maneuvers a spacecraft known as the Vic Viper that must defend itself from the various alien enemies. The game features a power-up system called the "power meter", based upon collecting capsules to 'purchase' additional weapons. The arcade version of Gradius was released internationally outside Japan under the title of Nemesis, although later releases kept the original title. Home versions were released for various platforms, such as the Famicom/NES, the MSX home computer, and the PC Engine, among other formats. The original arcade game and some of the home versions has also been included in various compilation releases and are available for download in services such as the Virtual Console and PlayStation Network. The player controls the trans-dimensional spaceship Vic Viper, and must battle waves of enemies through various environments. The game became synonymous with the phrase, "Destroy the core!", as the standard of boss battles in the Gradius series involved combat with a giant craft, in the center of which would be situated one to several blue colored spheres. These bosses would be designed in such a way that there would be a straight passage from the exterior of the giant craft which leads directly to one of these cores. The player must fire shots into this passage while avoiding attack patterns from weapon emplacements on the body of the boss. However, small but destructible walls are situated in this passage, impeding the bullet shots from damaging the core, and must be whittled away by repeated well-placed shots. In a way, these tiny walls represent the boss' shielding gauge until its core is finally vulnerable to attack. Some bosses have the ability to regenerate these walls. When the core has sustained enough hits, it usually changes color from blue to red, indicating that it is in critical condition and its destruction is imminent. Upon the destruction of a core, a piece of the boss may be put out of commission, seeing that it is no longer powered by a core, or if all of the cores are destroyed, the entire boss is defeated and explodes satisfyingly. Note that these cores are not present on the more organic bosses of Gradius. Such bosses have weak spots in places such as a mouth, head or eye. When gameplay begins, the Vic Viper is relatively slow and has only a weak gun. This level of capability is generally insufficient for engaging enemies, but the Vic Viper can gain greater capabilities by collecting and using power-up items. While most arcade games utilize distinct power up-items that each correspond to a specific effect on the player character, Gradius has a single power-up item. The effect of this power-up item is to advance the currently selected item in a power-up menu that appears at the bottom of the screen. When the desired power-up is highlighted, the player can obtain it by pressing the power-up button, returning the menu to its initial state in which no power-up is highlighted. -- Quote from Wikipedia

June 2017 GOTM Winner - smario - 343.400 Gradius Leaderboard POSITION USER NAME TOTAL SCORE 1 smario 343,400 2 hansolo77 266,100 3 Mame Offender 172,400 4 ExedExes 171,700 5 Cynicaster 122,100 6 millerbrad 83,300 7 RedDog 46,600 8 Luigimaker 43,700 9 rtkiii 31,200 10 Floyd Turbo 16,300 Last Updated by hansolo77: 01-19-2020 Please use these settings when submitting a hi-score for Gradius: ROMSet: Nemesis (this has been changed to improve graphics and playability!) Flip screen: Off Version: Normal Service Mode: Off Lives: 3 Cabinet: Upright Bonus Life: 50k and every 100k Difficulty: Easy The green coloured default values match the Twin Galaxies settings. The red coloured values need to be changed! # you can change your Mame dip switch settings by following this guide: # you can make a printscreen of your hi-score screen by following this guide: # general rules for submitting your hi-score:

1st of the month Leaderboard update! Note worthy progression: Luigimaker! Moved up from #27 to #20. Way to go man! Keep it up!

Let us all gather round the campfire and congratulate our good buddy Mame Offender for tying another win under his belt. With his amazing score of 76,290, he could not be beat this month. Being nearly twice as good as the next player, he surely deserves it. Congrats man! And now for a quick word about our competition. Thanks so very much for the improved enthusiasm for our competition this month. Where the last few months were seeing total submissions of 3 or 4 players, we actually got 9 this month. Hooray! That's really great as far as I'm concerned. Thank you thank you thank you! Makes the whole thing worth while! Lastly, before I go, I'd like to remind everybody that this game can still be played and scores posted to. Just because the GOTM feature is over, that doesn't mean the contest is over! We really like to see the GOTM winner actually get beaten. So keep those scores coming!

Not true.. the first one came out in 77, I was born in 80... But the days are pretty close I'm actually closer to Mount St. Helen's eruption. Mom said she was in the hospital watching it on the news when she was nearing labor.

It's worse than "really easy".. it's down right impossible NOT to.. I totally suck. I tried playing this again a little while ago, still can't manage to make all 5 "homes' before I'm out of lives. Updated OP, DB, RSS (also going to bed so I will update threads tomorrow...)

With a score like that, you just got it by the skin of your teeth! And you sound like me with this game. Updated OP, DB, RSS

The competition is fierce! Today's the last day, so make sure you get your submissions if you're trying to be the GOTM winner! Updated OP, DB, RSS

You said it. I keep telling them they're going to seriously regret it when I do finally move out. Their attitude is that I can't leave any sooner. I tell them they're hurting for cash, dependent on my weekly paycheck because they both only get paid monthly. "Oh no, we'd be fine.. we have to pay for 3 people, not just 2. Food for 3 people is more expensive." Well, that's why I buy all my food at work. The time I made a point to buy my own food for a week just pissed them off even more. It was an experiment, and of course they went loose with their money and were desperate for my paycheck that week. Media streaming wouldn't really hurt them though. Even though I built my own media storage server, Dad doesn't use it anymore. He didn't like how it wasn't always on when he wanted to watch something. I told him leaving the server on 24/7 would cost too much money for electricity, and I installed an app for his Kodi box to send a magic packet wake on lan to wake the server up. But oh no, that's too much work. So now he just streams on the internet. Problem with that though, besides the fact that the addon may stop working any day, is that I'm paying for the extra bandwidth. If I move out, they couldn't afford it. He'd drop down to bottom tier speed which isn't fast enough for all his HD streaming.. They're all "we'd love to see how we handle it", but in reality, my observations make me feel like they'd be struggling even more than they are now. The only reason to move out is for my own sanity at this point.

No problem! At least you guys offered up a Happy Birthday. My own dad and stepmom I live with didn't even say anything.

Nice job! Too bad I don't have any android devices to install it on.

Way to go, you knocked ExedExes down a rung. That won't last. Thanks for showing enthusiasm for our competition by continuing to post new scores. Greatly appreciated, and I'm glad you're having so much fun! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Ya'll can split my beer. I've got not taste for the stuff.

Thanks buddy. There's only 2 7's in my name though

Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying. Updated OP, DB, RSS

I thought they were ostriches too. Shows what I know. Updated OP, DB, RSS

So just to confirm.. the score we're taking is 162,181 right?

Not bad for a first submission on this awesome game! I loaded this up just the other day for fun. I didn't do nearly as good as you lol. Feel free to continue posting new scores, and you're always welcome to improve your other scores too. Updated OP, DB, RSS

I like the look inside it, but I think I prefer the opaque one. Especially with that modified cartridge in it.

Pass.... I'd rather just use a legit NES console. The thing that made the NES mini awesome, was that it used built in ROMs. You didn't have to go out and hunt down a cartridge, it came pre-loaded. Then some guys hacked it and let you add even more ROMs to the list. The only thing this Retron will give you is HD output, which you can finagle using an HDMI cable and some solder on a classic NES. In fact, you don't even need to do that if you can get your hands on an RCA->HDMI converter. Although I don't know if that will give you HD. You'll have to find one that does up-scaling (not hard to do). Just do what I did and make your own. Buy an old, non-working NES (for the case ($20)), gut it, put in a Raspberry Pi 3, a big MicroSD card, and install RetroPie. ./' Happy days are here again! ./'

I can see this thread getting totally derailed to Monty Python now.