Sinistar

[ppilot]

Okay, I used to play this in the arcade, but not much, as it was not a good ROI for my quarter.  I got the Williams Arcade Classics CD 9 or 10 years ago, and still sucked hard at Sinistar.  A few years ago I learned it used 49-way joysticks, and figured that's why I'm so bad at this damned game.

So now, I've got 49-way joysticks (granted without centering spider).  But still.  I mean, has anyone ever, in the history of gaming, gotten past like the second level of this game?

[Havok]

Certainly not me - but it's a cool game. I play it more now that a quarter isn't riding on it - but still hard! One of these days I'll pick up some 49 ways and see if I can do better...

[fatfingers]

Not me either.  I think I've only passed level one like once or twice!  Of course, I've never played it that much -- the main time I played it I was probably 12 or so and a motel I was staying at had one.  I didn't spend much time swimming that time, but I sure did get good at putting quarters in the slot!  I was completely addicted to that game -- and I still love the sound bites!

[telengard]

Yep, it's a tough game but that's what makes it so fun.   

Without the centering spider it will be a lot tougher to play for sure.  I do horrible w/ my Wico and 360 joysticks.  My friend who is *very* good at Sinistar can't get that far either without the original joystick.

~telengard

[southpaw13]

It actually works great with a spinner and a 2 button joystick.

[Lilwolf]

I have a 49way with spider... and man I suck at that game... level 2 and thats it.

but then again... I don't remember if I ever searched through dipswitches to see if there is a (MUCH MUCH EASIER) setting.  might be worth looking around

[destructor]

http://marp.retrogames.com/index.cgi?mode=search&short=^sinistar$
I don't know what level was reched by SiKrAiKeN but you can learn something from him probably. He won prizes bounty on sinistar.

[fatfingers]

http://marp.retrogames.com/index.cgi?mode=search&short=^sinistar$
I don't know what level was reched by SiKrAiKeN but you can learn something from him probably. He won prizes bounty on sinistar.

!!!NEWB ALERT!!!                                                              !!!NEWB ALERT!!!                                                                                    !!!NEWB ALERT!!!
How do I use those files that appear to be input files???

[botman]

See this...

http://marp.retrogames.com/playback.htm

[fatfingers]

Thanks botman!

[ahofle]

It actually works great with a spinner and a 2 button joystick.

What's the spinner for?

[krick]

I remember there being a "trick" in sinistar where you get the sinistar down to just one piece, then on your last ship, fly past the sinistar, fire a bomb, then fly back into the sinistar and kill yourself before the bomb returns and destroys the last piece of the sinistar.

I don't remember what is supposed to happen but I know that I wasted a LOT of quarters in the arcade trying to make it happen.

[ahofle]

I know there is (was?) a bug where if you had 1 life left and you got into sinistar's death grip and you were hit by a stray shot before sinistar 'eats' you, you actually lose 2 lives (one from the stray shot and one from him eating you).  Then you would end up with 255 lives due to the unsigned 8 bit number representing your lives, that translates into 255 lives instead of -1 life.