Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Year 2 of Psymage Arcade was a great one. In this video, I break down what's been happening since my last update video a year ago, including the growth of the channel, my favorite runs, and some future plans.
00:00 Intro
00:52 Success Of Discussion Content
02:34 Guest Appearances
03:23 Shmup Playthroughs
06:33 Run And Guns
08:47 Roguelikes/Roguelites
09:55 Future Plans
Interview with @Shmuptopia from last year: youtu.be/iXuSR5OQpo8?si=Xl42Q1Ui26nFhItY
Appearance on Awesome Game Replays (special thanks to @STGWeekly): youtu.be/-WzmQuRe1kE?si=d6iICvhfK2OAUhP9
Playthroughs referenced:
Salamander 2: youtu.be/SlW6YBpe8ZI
Gradius II: youtu.be/5QGfxBmRXqw
Metal Black: youtu.be/Cd6Imzwrm_4
Assault Shell: youtu.be/ySQYxsbIXZQ
Midnight Wanderers: youtu.be/6iW8gju209k
KiKi KaiKai: youtu.be/gEbMVNBugH4
Rambo (SMS): youtu.be/TnCZIluvE_c
Post Void: youtu.be/G500oO2inFQ
Downwell: youtu.be/eq6ccKsAuMA
Previous Commentary Videos:
Doom 3: youtu.be/RwVoslaQdVM
Gradius Syndrome: youtu.be/P1zgDcwSAS4
Retro Gaming Elitism: youtu.be/ff7JYvMW0Pw
Classic Game Room return: youtu.be/iwvQxfr2Pis
Why Companies Don't Want You Playing Old Games: youtu.be/QQeFKvsTNGY
Year 2 of Psymage Arcade was a great one. In this video, I break down what's been happening since my last update video a year ago, including the growth of the channel, my favorite runs, and some future plans.
00:00 Intro
00:52 Success Of Discussion Content
02:34 Guest Appearances
03:23 Shmup Playthroughs
06:33 Run And Guns
08:47 Roguelikes/Roguelites
09:55 Future Plans
Interview with @Shmuptopia from last year: youtu.be/iXuSR5OQpo8?si=Xl42Q1Ui26nFhItY
Appearance on Awesome Game Replays (special thanks to @STGWeekly): youtu.be/-WzmQuRe1kE?si=d6iICvhfK2OAUhP9
Playthroughs referenced:
Salamander 2: youtu.be/SlW6YBpe8ZI
Gradius II: youtu.be/5QGfxBmRXqw
Metal Black: youtu.be/Cd6Imzwrm_4
Assault Shell: youtu.be/ySQYxsbIXZQ
Midnight Wanderers: youtu.be/6iW8gju209k
KiKi KaiKai: youtu.be/gEbMVNBugH4
Rambo (SMS): youtu.be/TnCZIluvE_c
Post Void: youtu.be/G500oO2inFQ
Downwell: youtu.be/eq6ccKsAuMA
Previous Commentary Videos:
Doom 3: youtu.be/RwVoslaQdVM
Gradius Syndrome: youtu.be/P1zgDcwSAS4
Retro Gaming Elitism: youtu.be/ff7JYvMW0Pw
Classic Game Room return: youtu.be/iwvQxfr2Pis
Why Companies Don't Want You Playing Old Games: youtu.be/QQeFKvsTNGY
![Alpine Ski [Arcade] - Six Loop 1CC 177,109 pts.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AZvCHoaLGhA/mqdefault.jpg "Alpine Ski [Arcade] - Six Loop 1CC 177,109 pts.
This is a new personal best for Alpine Ski, a game that Ive been playing on and off for a while now. Recently, I beat my highest scoring run that I posted last year after doing the commentary video on the game.
Played on the MAME Current core in Retroarch. Controller of choice was my Qanba Crystal modded with a T-Spin for WASD keys and Sanwa buttons.
00:00 Intro
00:19 Loop 1
02:13 Loop 2
04:15 Loop 3
06:20 Loop 4
08:38 Loop 5
11:04 Loop 6
13:31 Loop 7")
![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")
