#lunar rescue

[retrocgads]

USA 1990

[arcadebroke]

[minuy600]

The 70s Wrap Up #17: Lunar Rescue (Arcade)

Taito Legends is cool. You get to learn about some of the wackiest, most well hidden arcade games through them. We'll see it be well used in the near future, but as for now, I have to do this with the wildly expensive yet better emulated Space Invaders Invisible Collection on Switch. Ugh, convenience alert.

We're back in space for the umpteenth time. Descending from a mothership to pick up stranded little dudes from the moon!! Saving them all while not crashing into obstacles, which cleverly change upon ascension, going from space junk to an all out UFO (and meteor) attack.

This gameplay loop ain't my favorite, but it's executed pretty well. Stages last a much longer time this time around too, considering there's 6 stranded stickmen to enact the game's title on every time. Quirky lil detail, dying by missing the mothership lets those goobers exclaim a disappointed 'Aaa...' and fall straight down into a void of nothingness. That's the second game with 'Lunar' in the title that manages to be sorta funny!

Not a lot to say about this one that isn't redundant for this part of the review. It's a solid title that doesn't much wrong without excelling particularly hard either. It's the nice goodie bag extra you'll look at twice and have fairly pleasant thoughts of.

The Verdict

Graphics (8): The age of the Space Invaders cabinet starts to show with how it's presented. The colors are still stuck to specific places on the screen, plus the framerate seems to be down on it's luck a tad here. The charm, however, is still intact. Possibly unintentionally, the spaceship you play as almost looks like a character on it's own, as does the mothership and a portion of the enemy UFOs. Can't forget about the Space Invaders showing up on the title screen and after stage 3 too! For the hardware, this is cool beans.

Sound (6): Swing and a near-miss. A lot of sounds are particularly pleasing on the ears, it all sounds like a weaker copy of the plentiful other space games. Makes sense, it's still gonna recycle some of the Space Invaders spunk baked in. Too bad there's only a couple new noises that actually work. There's alright fanfares for when you succesfully rescue a man (an even better one when you rescue them all in a stage), as well as the sound effect for when you have shot an UFO being an improvement over the aliens of old. Aside from those, you get a lovely cacophany of beeps and sirens. I could've done without them.

Gameplay (7): It all works well, like shit, Taito knows how to make a polished title, yet I can't deny that their first big hit was also their only truly jaw dropping one for a while. This introduces a new concept to the table that i've not seen before, I like that too. Unfortunate that it can't quite shake my difficulty of talking about it since it is so self explanatory. It's entirely satisfactory!

Longevity (7): Real talk, the loop gets old fairly quickly. Outside of the randomness factor which I still approve of, it's not gonna be too difficult to beat 3 stages and see the little Space Invaders easter egg before the game maxes out. Beating Taito's 5000 points isn't a hard task either if you know what you're doin'. Slightly disappointing it didn't try to introduce new gimmicks or at least had you try to beat the max difficulty before seeing the cutscene. Still, if you're an arcade nut from the early 80s, chances are you're gonna have your eyes peeled to it for a decent amount of time.

In Conclusion

I'm done! That's all for the 70s, folks. One more tier list and we are rarely gonna have to refer to this day and age ever again. Thanks for sticking with me throughout these 49 games, here's to so, so many more. Hopefully my writing will improve over time and I can get more in depth with my thoughts, I have not been very confident about my skills as of late...

[highretrogamelord]

Lunar Rescue for the ZX81

[invaderwylie]

𝖫𝗎𝗇𝖺𝗋 𝖱𝖾𝗌𝖼𝗎𝖾 𝖷 𝖲𝗉𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝖨𝗇𝗏𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌

🚀 𝘽𝙚𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 👾

[sargentstyrofoam]

Without text

Finished this a few days ago, a new year piece for the lunar new year !! (I'm early, but oh well)

Persona drawing (this is me irl btw)

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

Awww lil angy guy

so if i *boops the nose* do that, you wont sneeze because of my human humanness?

Hm?

(He gets the sour apple gummies for his troubles)

*the attempt is blocked by a moon shield with Lunar's staff.*

"STOP TOUCHING MEEE-!"

"Cut it out!"

*laughter*

[asmodeus-682]

Drawing screenshots of shows I like or drew up with as TSAMS/TLAES/TMGAFS characters

Part one

Og screenshot below

[mouseyprinceart]

01272023 - lunar gadget

bunny mouse!

[pretzel-the-frogtopus]

WOOOO UNBIRDING TIME

[incarnateirony]

The time for Reasoning with those without Reason ends, between here and the end of the month. Good luck with your rolls. Hope she was worth the cost. 30 car pileup on aisle three because shealyn refuses to dismount my dick and stop being a vapid bitch who won't read a book above middle school, but frozen 3 coming soon

[retrocgads]

UK 1985

[pyromaniac-cyndaquil]

It's been a lot of work over a lot of time but I think I can finally share this...

PMD:EoS, but with all of the starters!

...Including Grookey, finally!!!!! 🥳

Introducing PMD: Expanded Sky!

This is a public mod available to download now! It adds in all starters from unova all the way to paldea, as well as zorua, axew and rockruff, and allows evolving eevee into sylveon.

Speaking of which, fairy type has been patched into the game! Disarming voice replaces milk drink and moonblast replaces judgement, which was unused.

Some non-traditional starters are no longer available as hero options in this due to lack of space, but are still available as partners. (Skitty can be chosen as a hero in version 1.0.0 only, so download that version instead of the latest if you wanna use her! Riolu and Shinx are available in version 1.2.1 and below)

If one of your faves was taken off the hero roster (eg vulpix, skitty, riolu, munchlax, etc), I have a tutorial here on how to quickly edit the patched file to put them back in :)

Several regional variants have been added! Alolan Raichu, Alolan Marowak and Hisuian Typhlosion are now available as potential evolutions for their respective base stages.

Partners across both rescue team and all three versions of explorers are available too, including Cubone, Munchlax, Machop, Vulpix, Riolu, etc

Sprites and portraits are courtesy of the brilliant PMD Sprite Repository and the many incredible artists who contribute to it!

Credits for all improvement patches, sprites and portraits are included in the download, as well as an explanation on how to patch the game and the full starter list.

The mod is split in two versions to accommodate all the partners - MIDDAY version and MIDNIGHT version. The download includes both, as well as the tool required to patch your game! You'll need a clean US copy of pmd eos at hand.

A full list of moves learned by newly added Pokémon can be found here, as well as info on how to evolve them and their IQ groups.

If you run into any issues, feel free to drop me an ask or DM and I'll see how I can help/what I need to fix!

You can find the download for this rom hack here!

Edits/updates noted under the cut:

(27/04/23)

The overall mod now has a name - expanded sky! Reflected earlier on in the post.

I've been informed that the included patching tool (XDelta) doesn't work on mac, and after some digging around and discussions in dms we found this tool works for Mac instead.

Added graphics to the post displaying which heroes and partners are part of the hack.

(11/05/23)

Added link to learnset compilation for all new pokémon.

(17/05/23) Version 1.1.0 has been released!

Sobble is now a starter, replacing Skitty (Skitty is still accessible by downloading v1.0.0 on the download page). Sobble is also now a partner in MIDNIGHT.

Zorua/Zoroark's moveset has been tweaked slightly

Base forms of all new starters can now be found in Oran Forest, and can be recruitable in the post-game. The new fire starters can also be found in Giant Volcano.

Extra portraits and sprites were added for Cubone, Psyduck and Machop. Like the rest of the new assets in this mod, these were imported from the PMD Sprite Repository, and credits are on the title screen and in the readme.txt.

Extra credits + more in-depth instructions for patching the game included in the readme.txt.

(18/05/23)

Added a link to a tutorial on swapping out heroes for others already existing in the game.

(22/05/23) - Version 1.1.1 has been released!

Fixed genders for female starter options on the quiz. Updated Fuecoco to use new portraits and sprites. (Credits to Garbage)

(23/05/23) - Version 1.1.2 has been released!

Female starters from gens 5-9 can now evolve correctly (save for starters who don't have evolutions in the game yet - these are listed in the text file in the download)

Rockruff can now evolve, and Midnight Lycanroc's evolution method has been fixed to use the Lunar Ribbon as intended.

(15/06/23) - Version 1.2.1 has been released!

In 1.2.0, a second version of the mod was included in the zip compatible with melon emulator, and potentially others that were having issues with saving.

Fairy gummis were also made available as mission rewards and shop items.

There's a couple more things that can be seen in the changelog including bugfixes, but the main other thing promised was that Froakie and Litten can now evolve directly into Greninja and Incineroar. Due to an evolution flag not being set this ended up untrue, but has been fixed in 1.2.1.

This post claimed dazzling gleam is in the game, but it should've said disarming voice.

🆕 (10/03/24) - Version 1.3.0 has been released!

Dusk Lycanroc, Drizzile, Inteleon, Grookey, Axew and Fraxure have been added, as well as Alolan Raichu, Alolan Marowak an Hisuian Typhlosion.

Axew replaces Shinx in the hero roster, and Grookey replaces Riolu. Additional portraits and sprites added for starter evolutions, including vanilla starters. Sleep animations have been copied over to EventSleep/Laying/Wake animations if missing.

Greninja erroneously had the same moveset as Froakie. This has now been fixed.

Credits are no longer displayed on the title screen.

Sprite, portrait and patch credits can now be viewed by talking to a Cyndaquil NPC on the crossroads.

Evolution help can also be accessed by talking to this same NPC.

🆕 (23/05/24) - Version 1.3.1 has been released!

The uhh. Grovyle problem. Yeah. That should be fixed.

(Grovyle was missing several sprites as a side effect of trying to add new ones, due to his unique setup in the vanilla game as such an important npc. His sprites should now be reverted to a functional state, rather than leaving him to walk fowards on the spot all the time).

An issue present from the start that caused the game to freeze while advancing floors in dungeons occasionally should now be resolved.

[lunaroceanic]

Seal rescue videos are simultaneously sad and kinda hilarious because they’re wiggly little bastards and in order to keep them still the rescue guys kinda have to just:

[naffeclipse]

Okay hear me out.... Journey to west au. Sun being the monkey king from the book and Y/N a traveller. Y/N rescues him from under the mountain and he joins them in their travels. Moon is a demon that's terrorising a town until Y/N and Sun stop him. Moon then joins the two. Finally Eclipse is another demon that kidnaps Y/N in order to eat them but instead is so utterly charmed by them that he joins the party. Shenanigans ensue... Thoughts?

The great monkey king is indebted to a mortal but he has little qualms with escorting you on your travels as a way to give his thanks for rescuing him from underneath the mountain. His magic and strength are at your disposal. Strangely, you prefer traveling peacefully and quietly, avoiding trouble and helping those in need when the two of you come upon them. The monkey king thinks you are vulnerable and too trusting, and he decides to protect you at all costs.

The lunar demon does not take kindly to his mischievousness and destruction being wrought, but when you and the monkey king stop the mayhem he inflicts upon a small town, the lunar demon can't help but become amused and intrigued by a daring, bold mortal who is so calm in the face of dangerous, sharp teeth, red eye demon. He thinks you are naive and foolish, but he follows you and the monkey king because who else will watch over you at night? Who will keep you safe from the other toothy and red-eye demons?

It is not too long down the road of your seemingly endless travels that a problem arises. The monkey king and the lunar demon venture to the river to fetch you food and drink and while you toil, you feel the shadow of a great personage fall upon you before you are snatched away. You struggle and call for your dear, new friends, but the dark being smuggles you into his cave. He ties you up and leaves you on the floor of his home as he prepares to eat you. You, however, remain calm and speak with the great demon and learn he is the eclipse prince. The eclipse prince wants nothing more than to cook and devour you, but you convince him to allow you to serve him tea first. Pleased by the offer, the eclipse prince unties you. You serve him a tea you have used to comfort the monkey king and calm the lunar demon, and speak with the eclipse prince. The conversation continues until the pot of tea is gone and he tells you to prepare another, pot after pot until he is laughing and telling you that he has forgotten his hunger—your charm and allure have sated him. He will let you go and return you to your companions, but you invite him to join your company.

The eclipse prince is pleased to accept. He opens his cave and returns with you to the monkey king and the lunar demon. When you come upon them, they are furious and frantic. They act quickly to take you back and prepare to attack the one who carried you away before you calm them. The eclipse prince stands rather unapologetically as you explain that he is now joining the three of you. The lunar demon does not take kindly to this change and the monkey king hovers close to you, refusing to let you leave his sights while the eclipse prince seamlessly joins the camp and prepares a pot of tea for you to drink.

You continue your travels, glad to have such devoted company.

[spockvarietyhour]

Near Future NASA  on film part 2: Design Antecedents, More Next Generation Shuttles, and Shuttle-adjacent

1. Planet of the Apes’ spaceship 2. 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Pan Am space plane  3. The Fifth Element’s passenger spaceship* 4. Event Horizon’s Lewis and Clark rescue ship 5. Red Planet’s orbiter 6. The Time Machine’s lunar orbiter 7. Avatar’s Heavy Shuttle*

* not near future but the design evolution is there