Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Can't even handle basic pathfinding SMH. DUSK is the gift that keeps on giving. The funny thing is, people still think David Szymanski is a genius of FPS design.
Can't even handle basic pathfinding SMH. DUSK is the gift that keeps on giving. The funny thing is, people still think David Szymanski is a genius of FPS design.
![Summer Carnival 22: Crossgunr [PICO-8] - ALL Clear 14020 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BT-TmAaYaWg/mqdefault.jpg "Summer Carnival 22: Crossgunr [PICO-8] - ALL Clear 14020 pts
This is my best run so far of Crossgunr, a bullet hell caravan shmup for PICO-8 created by AKTANE, a member of the shmup community and a fellow Youtuber:
https://www.youtube.com/c/AKTANEARCADE
This is a great game with an interesting side gunner concept. You had a gunner on each side of the screen that each fire horizontally. Theres also a bullet cancelling system that drives the scoring.
Check out the game here:
https://aktanedev.itch.io/crossgunr")
![Hard Drivin [Gamecube/Arcade] - 1CC with Commentary (Midway Arcade Treasures 2)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BoTqMzB-2Cw/mqdefault.jpg "Hard Drivin [Gamecube/Arcade] - 1CC with Commentary (Midway Arcade Treasures 2)
Hard Drivin is one of the oldest driving sim games, originally released at the beginning of 1989. Unlike sim racing games today, which are on consoles and PC, it was made originally for arcades by Atari Games, a company that you would not associate with realistic gaming. It was also one of the earliest 3D driving games, only beaten to the arcade market by Winning Run from Namco a couple of months prior in Japan. However, Winning Run wouldnt come to America until after Hard Drivin was out.
Just like the description on the opening screen of the game would suggest, it is more realistic than the arcade racers that were out at this time, but it is pretty primitive by todays standards. You can lose control of the car as the car does not have full-on traction control. You can stall the car if youre not careful while shifting. You do need to slow down for the sharper curves and before big jumps. The main courses feature other cars that drive in the proper lanes, and youll want to avoid crashing into them obviously. If you do crash, you get an instant replay of what happened.
Once you get used to the archaic physics by modern standards, it is not that hard of a game to clear. This game does not use RNG so as long as you drive well, you do not need to worry about some random traffic being thrown your way. Plus, if you drive properly as I demonstrate in this video, you can qualify easily for the Phantom Photon race, which is the championship. Once you beat the Phantom Photon in what is essentially a glorified time trial lap, that is the end of the game.
The biggest obstacle if youre playing this game today on emulation would be controls. Even playing this game by emulating a compilation still isnt ideal by any means as the steering is quite touchy, though setting up my Razer Wolverine V2 was less of an issue as Dolphin took care of that. However, MAME would probably involve a little bit more work to get your Xbox style controller set up. On the other hand, it may be possible to set up a steering wheel and pedal configuration within MAME for this.
Background music: Helicalin - Dissolved
https://archive.org/details/gv509/Helicalin+-+Solvent+-+02+Dissolved.mp3")
![Metal Black [Arcade] - 1CC Playthrough 469,080 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Cd6Imzwrm_4/mqdefault.jpg "Metal Black [Arcade] - 1CC Playthrough 469,080 pts
Metal Black is a shmup released in arcades by Taito in 1991. This game is known for its unique atmosphere and its beam mechanic. It is also known for being one of the few games designed by Takatsuna Senba during his time at Taito along with Gun Frontier and Dino Rex and was originally intended to be Darius game. Though originally released in arcades, it received a port to the Saturn done by Ving in 1996 in Japan. The arcade version was re-released via the Arcade Archives series on PS4/PS5 and Switch in 2022 and the Saturn version was reissued on PC and Xbox One by City Connection in 2023 as part of their S-Tribute series, giving this game a new audience on modern consoles.
Metal Black honestly has some of the best atmosphere in all of shmups, past or present. While it shared some of the grittiness of some other Taito arcade games from this time such as Gun Frontier and Super Space Invaders 91, it managed to use its excellent art direction and amazing soundtrack to push a narrative of one man trying to save a post-apocalyptic Earth from an alien threat. The intro gives you a decent amount of backstory for an arcade shmup and the actual game builds upon that so well, telling the story after that without words. This game features some incredibly distinct environments and set pieces, accompanied by some of the best music Zuntata ever composed which is saying a lot. Theres even a psychedelic vibe going on, like on Stage 4. The imagery of this game from the first stage to the last boss is unforgettable. Even the good ending of this game is quite thought-provoking. You can also get a bad ending if you Game Over on the last stage.
As far as the gameplay goes, its hard to say that it matches the atmosphere, but the gameplay is still strong. The beam mechanic is actually great, but not necessarily because you get a beam to use. This beam meter also determines your shot power and spread. Also, when you max out that bar, you can even choose to use your beam as a bomb as long as you dont hold down the beam button. Using it as a bomb is more effective most of the time because its very useful for clearing a lot of smaller enemies on screen quickly.
One odd thing is that your damage per shot is at its highest at level 3 instead of 5, though you do get more protection at the front of your ship from your shot covering it if you do max out the bar. I liked using up my beam right before boss fights in order to grab enough power ups, known as Newalone, in order to get my shot to level 3 in order to kill bosses quicker. Also, youre going to want autofire for this one. I used 25 HZ autofire off of my Brook PCB for this one, with 30 HZ being even better if you have that as an option.
There are a couple of flaws with this game that I have to bring up. One is the scoring being a bit underdeveloped. The RNG in the bonus rounds after Stages 1 and 3 can have a big impact on your final score by the end of a run. Plus, scoring mostly comes down to grabbing Newalone and killing enemies outside of that. The second major flaw is that RNG gets a bit out of hand near the end of the game, especially on the last stage. The red star enemies are pure RNG in terms of where they go and some other enemies have RNG as well in terms of movement. It is down to luck in order to get a no-miss because of that. Even on this run, I got lucky right before the last boss with one of those red stars.
Speaking of lucky, this run got super dramatic toward the end. I almost didnt make it and it even got a bit hairy on the last boss where I almost got killed on my last life, but I managed to no-miss the last boss and finish up the run.
00:00 Intro
00:24 Stage 1 + Bonus Round
04:08 Stage 2
07:58 Stage 3 + Bonus Round
13:23 Stage 4
17:27 Stage 5
20:33 Stage 6
24:53 Ending + Credits
Further reading:
Hardcore Gaming 101 article: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/metal-black/
Small guide: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=30872
Takatsuna Senba interview: https://shmuplations.com/takatsunasenba/")
