Count the options

I had the urge to play an MSX game on one of those MSX emulators that you can find on-line. I use an older version of BlueMSX, which makes it a bit easier to ‘change ROMs’.

GOOD!So I went from playing Nemesis 3 to SpaceManbow to Salamander. Despite my pessimism not being able to beat levels (I finished and beat this game when I was way younger and I have a witness!), the last game went actually pretty good until I discovered I was counting the ‘extras’. In the shoot-em-up game Salamander (like other Nemesis/Gradius variants) you collect ‘extras’ to enhance your weaponry: they range from extra speed to shields to extra ‘options’ (uh drones). In Salamander, one of the most difficult shoot-em-ups since 1986, you must make sure that you have the right weapons and the right number of options to make it through to the next ‘bossmonster’. You still follow me? Now: In the first level ‘Top Speed to Latis’, at the first stage of the first level, you must end up with ‘one option’ and the ‘wide ripple effect’ laser and the ‘2-way missiles’.

This ‘counting pattern’, you’ll hear in the following sound fragment (mp3/700K). A veteran Salamander player will recognize that I selected the extras in the following order:

  1. Speed
  2. Speed
  3. 2 Way Missiles
  4. Option (‘drone’)
  5. Ripple Laser

Next time, screenshots of Salamander stages. If only, I had someone else with me to count along.

Update: And a digital joystick would help too, thanks!

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