paleface [sys=NG; cat=Fighting; reg=JPN] |
| | After becoming frustrated with the NeoGeo Online PS2 version's interlacing (see entry 1346), I re-bought a DC and the DC version of 2000 (entry 139), but that didn't have the sort of endless 1-round battle mode you can set up in Practice mode in the PS2 NeoGeo Online one; and the other PS2 version, or at least the PS4 version of it (entry 1338) doesn't have that battle mode either, plus it has weird blurring on the interior of the character sprites----so anyway, I decided I may as well stop faffing about and just get the NeoGeo version. See, this and The King of Fighters '99 (also in entry 1346) are the only two KOF games where you can turn off super moves--and super moves in KOF games--except for both the remixed and the "NeoGeo" version of KOF '94 in The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout (see entry 765)--have full-screen flashing effects that are pretty rough on the eyes, so this became important to me--and '99's between-round UI is maybe little flashier than 2000's, plus I think I like the roster, striker system, and presentation of 2000 more. So it seemed to me 2000 was *the* fighting game left to me, so anyway I got a consolized NEO*GEO MVS, a Brook Neo*Geo to PS3/PS4 controller adapter, and here we are--flavor country! So I play with supers off, and my latest thing is trying out the "DISP.CUT" option in the AES version, to turn off the display of the health bars--no more being distracted by glancing up at your those bars every second or so, just fight 'til one of you drops! ; D
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| | Really struggled at first with Shingo and Kensou, I think I was probably too focused on their special moves, which I'm not good at; once I stopped bothering and just went with their normals, things went lots better! Although I did find one special for each of them that I could sort of use okay: Shingo's "Shingo Kick" (wait is it qcb or qcf + K?) and Kensou's flying punch (uhh I think it was qcb + P), both of which send them rocketing quickly across the screen; Shingo Kick definitely seems to work better on certain AI than on others (kind of owned Ralf but got worked by Clark in the finals, for instance!); I only got a little of Kensou's flying punch in at the end but so far it was kind of hitting everyone. My back up, roll, and throw strat vs Zero almost got torpedoed by my knuckleheaded insistence on sticking with Kensou's P throw, which to my surprise doesn't throw Zero very far at all, leaving Kensou insufficient time to back up, which would tempt Zero into doing his "long glide" approach, which is very easy to roll past and attack from behind. Not sure if Kensou's K throw would work better but it could hardly be worse! Both Kensou and Mary have a C+D color, and they're not bad! Although it makes Kensou's rice ball brick red. ; ) |
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| | After an episode where I struggled with Seth, an episode with Lin and Maxima broke me--I'm going to stop using Roulette to pick teams, because there are what ten characters or so I just don't want to deal with anymore, except as strikers. So after the session I stayed up and made myself a team building script for 2000: https://smbhax.com/cgi-bin/teams/2k.pl Actually I had had an old one I hadn't used in years, but it was really basic and didn't even pick strikers; I guess back when I was using it I'd used Roulette just for the strikers? Anyway this new script does a couple handy things: - Only picks team members I want! Lin, Seth, Bao, Whip, Maxima, Choi, Chin, Leona, Athena, and Ramon are out, except as strikers - For sure random : P - Notes which characters (and their strikers!) have the third, C+D color option - Picks specific strikers! Including all Maniac strikers (there were a few I'm pretty sure I was always forgetting) - I can weed out strikers I don't like! (Already took out the ones I know just do power meter stuff, which has no function for me because I have super meters off; there are five or so left I'm not sure about--from their descriptions it sounds like they can do damage AND power meter stuff, so eh hm, will hafta see) - Picks Kula! And her three strikers! And includes her code (in shorthand; it's Highlight Whip, press Start, highlight Vanessa, press Start, highlight Seth, press Start, highlight Maxima, press Start, highlight [?], press Start, press Up, press Down: Kula appears under [?])! Finally noticed I'd written her code down wrong on the little Post-It! note I've had sitting on my desk all this time--I'd left out highlighting Seth and hitting Start. ; P So I'd never gotten it to work and I'd assumed (argh) it was like home version only or something (argh). So now I finally remember I can play Kula, her Rugal Maniac striker, etc... (And I think I'd told myself it didn't matter because she was this far out fantasy ice princess, but she seems kinda okay...) |
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| | I keep forgetting Mai doesn't have a white outfit in this game; she's got red (punch select), purple (kick select) and black (C+D select). Mai and her flamey spin might be too good too. = oo Not to mention Mary's uppercut light kick! Mary's slide-leg-grab is a back-forward charge move! And then you can follow that up with another input uhh and you can do that with a couple other of her moves, too, like one of the counters I think, oh and the flip kick which she can convert into a flying upper body grab with another input. ... Yeah I'm never gonna be doing any of that stuff! = oo Her mobility and normals are quite good on their own though; toss that super-fast, surprisingly long-range light kick uppercut in with them and you're in business. Kula seems decent; it's too bad I'm so bad at her uppercut that I couldn't even get it to work at all until I did some dedicated "practice" runs afterward (and I really should just have reset the NEOGEO into home mode and used actual Practice mode; re-entering the Kula code into the MVS version repeatedly was absurd ; ) Her heavy ice breath is super-slow; light is pretty good. Apparently Kula is supposed to be 14. Nothing about this or the other things the designers said about her is at all creepy nope thanks Japan! o_o Oh well I HATE that her punch throw is really low damage; it's like Seth all over again! Well okay it's not that bad but still, it's bad. On the other hand, her kick throw--where Diana shows up and like slits the opponent's throat or something I dunno--does ridiculous damage! Oh shoot wait what's her other friend's name? Her robo striker is Candy, and then the stripey hat girl is...oh yeah, Foxy. |
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| | Took me a while to figure it out but this was basically the high mobility team--Takuma went from being my most-feared opponent to being a total chump, I could just jump right over him and sweep him from behind! = o And I got lucky that Robert--after the first couple runs--was always the striker, because his anti-air kick flip combo would have been toasting me!! I should'a stopped after getting to the finals--and within a hit of the boss round, darn that sneaky Chin!--in the second run...but I guess I was having fun or something. ; ) : P Didn't remember to stay out of Clark's way in run 3. ;_; And Maxima's in run 4! (49:47) That was when I really realized I had to work on mobility--stick and move! (Did better vs him in run 5 @ 1:00:28 .) (Kula on the phone with Diana after beating him! : D 1:01:20) (She beat the entire Art of Fighting team @ 1:23:47 !!) But then I forgot vs Mary 1:07:02 and let her get me with her low sliding grab over and over. : ppp Kula's heavy ice breath is way too slow for just about anything. Her light is really fast, though--gotta use that more. I have trouble aiming and executing her very horizontal uppercut--needs a lot of work. The timing on a lot of her moves feels weird and is taking some getting used to. Did a lot better when I switched to hit and run tactics--and when I started to remember, a little bit, that her Punch throw does almost no damage, so I gotta use her Kick throw--which does wicked damage! It almost got Zero on its own! Still flaily with Kensou but I did find his qcf+LP, which seems to have a high hit rate and is even somewhat safe-ish. His qcb+LP is pretty good, too; the HP version is kinda okay if used from near full screen distance. But I keep accidentally using qcf+HP or eh whichever it is, where he helicopters his legs way up into the air; I guess that would be an anti-air if I could actually use it right. Still too many special moves mushed up in my head with Kensou! And he's got a dive kick?!? And Andy is the poster boy for too many specials--but his are all good! Andy is pretty ridiculous really. Like, the AI just reminded me he has a dive kick, and it looks sickeningly effective in what little use I've given it. Can't seem to remember his elbow move input for some reason, that's a disgusting move. Oh and he's got an uppercut I've barely touched; and various little kick flips, I think, that I don't even know how to do on purpose. Dang these complicated ninja boys. Saisyu's pretty handy as a striker, with either fireball or an uppercut depending on how close he lands to the opponent. Should be an easy juggle, finally got a few single combo hits in later on. = P |
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| | OOF. That's what I get for taking time off. Did I ever beat Robert? Oh, I did (1:00:11)! Yay. : ) Somehow I'd played all this time without realizing my notes on 3rd costume color for Kim (doesn't actually have one) and Ryo (has a really nice one!) were wrong. 'p' Thinking I may need to go back to dedicating Fri and Sat to this game again. It really gets outta hand if I don't, and I still have so much to learn! Dong Hwan was frustrating at first--minimal range--but he hits fast and for an easy (bad by me, of course, but still) juggle. |
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| | I see I did manage to stop one of Clark's tackles, at 5:18, with a low block, so yeah that works--I'm just terrible at blocking low. : P And I still can't beat Robert (17:11). : P It's a complex! I never realized Hinako can't jump very high! Not high enough to get over Takuma's anti-air punch--which is the only way I know how to beat him! = o Hinako got so trashed by Zero! = oo Smart Chang is awesome--really good at timing out Zero, too! ; ) |
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| | Download added: 20_uni_aes_mvs.jpg (115528 bytes) "Can't get it in MAME or FBN, but on the Omega I can combine AES POW OFF w/ MVS DIFF ON (MVS mode)." On an "Omega" consolized NEOGEO MVS with Unibios 3.3, running KOF 2000 in MVS mode (difficulty level display at bottom center is an MVS-only option), but using the AES-only option of having the POW meters turned OFF. Can't get this to work in an emulator–tried it in MAME using Unibios 2.3 from the Humble Bundle version of 2000, and Unibios 4 from the official site http://unibios.free.fr/ ; also tried it in Final Burn Neo with Unibios 4; in those, the AES POW option setting does not carry over when switching to MVS mode through the Unibios, so POW meters in MVS mode are always ON. Makes me think it isn't an intentional function of the Unibios–unless it was only an option in version 3.3, which seems unlikely. I wonder if it works on other flavors of NEOGEO hardware. |
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| | (Didn't work with a Unibios 3.3 I found on archive.org. : P) |
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| | OH. It does work in MAME, I forgot that in order to get AES settings to save, you have to play through a full credit after setting them, ie let the AI kill you. Then the setting will be kept when you switch over to MVS mode, huzzah! Well I can chuck my CMVS in the bin now. ^ _^ |
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| | Well, that was a weird ending! ; D You know, in the three or four times I fought the Art of Fighting team in this and the previous, long, agonizing, and accidentally unrecorded session this evening, I never even fought Robert; could he have been the striker every time? Anyway, still haven't beat Robert. = P And I seem to post a narrow loss with Joe against a lot of opponents. Then again, I found he can just spam hurricanes against: Lin, and all of the Ikari Warriors team except probably Whip. In the unrecorded session, Whip killed me once. And Hinako (after a thorough Kasumi mauling). And I had so much trouble vs Seth in this whole thing--although Joe CAN chip away at him with his dfLK slide. : P Also trouble vs Choi; for some reason I didn't have a grasp on jump-kicking at him today, so I settled for silly things like jab spamming. :ppp On the plus side, I had some kind of weird timing groove on Zero with Joe. Of this bunch, Shingo is my solid performer--never thought I'd be saying that! : D Played like being scared to lose with Terry most of the time. Eiji is such a cool striker. Gotta remember to jump in for a juggle hit after the assassinates though. Hate it when the opponent goes airborne or something that preventing him from doing his teleport strike--as Seth did NEARLY EVERY DANG TIME. |
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| | Ended up doing not so bad with Joe--except sometimes. :-o But sometimes he could really go on a tear with the hurricanes and kick throws! 39:18 Helped I think that I finally noticed his punch throw does minimal damage, sheesh. (Got so addicted to kick throws with him that I accidentally stuck with them for all characters through the eventual boss fight. ; D) Way too many fireballs and other special moves that I'm bad at with K', should have concentrated on jump kicks with him. Kept K-Dash-crashing out. ; P Hinako is so brutal--just ask Shingo! 36:51 = oo Bao, still probably my most effective striker. ^ _^ Still didn't *really* beat Robert. ; ) And oh man, did Takuma ever school my Joe and K' in the finals! 22:24 ; D I'm such a dummy. : P Zero was REFUSING to slide in against Joe and K'...kind of a miracle I didn't do TOO badly against him with them. Like, how did his purple ground circle thing miss Joe at 48:47 and 49:00? And he let K' just hit him with a punch and kick at 50:03! |
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| | Duck is a lot of fun! A whirling dervish of feet, and you get a great combo if you knock the opponent his way--and even if he doesn't end up connecting, he makes the AI duck and cover! |
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| | Wow, Vanessa destroyed Kasumi! (33:53) Usually she kills nearly my whole team. : P I don't know what I'm doing with Vanessa and was pretty much just using qcf+HK, although I finally got to using the LK version effectively against Kasumi. I was also using her throws a lot but too often accidentally using her Kick throw, which does next to no damage--I was doing that because I got to using Robert's Kick throw, because its animation is way better than his weird-looking Punch throw; but also, if he misses the throw, his Kick is so long range that it will tend to catch the opponent anyway. Found Another Iori a little tricky to hit with. |
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| | Playing the team of Terry Bogard, Sie Kensou, Iori Yagami, and Lin in maximum difficulty arcade team play of The King of Fighters 2000 on an "Omega" consolized NEOGEO MVS! Flash, super meters, and continues are off. Oh, kensou DOES have a dive kick, er punch. Well heck. I knew that. Sorta. 'p' Took me a bit to get going, stop spamming stupid specials, and remember Lin's range. Heck it took me a while to get character colors sorted out. : P Lin was really good against Zero! Might've saved my bacon there. Lots of bail-outs by Iori. Gotta remember to use lights for Terry's dash punch uh thing, and Kensou's qcf punches. Could my Iori actually beat CPU Robert? Kensou's wiggles sure beat Chang. |
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| | Oh, so Syo is a prototype Kyo or something (introduced, as a striker, in '99) https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Syo_Kirishima Once I settled down to fireballs, throws, and sweeps with Takuma, he kinda started crushing everyone. = o Syo helped! So fun to try to combo his juggle. Got confused about the ending because I haven't NOT had Kula show up in a long time, I think. Apparently fireballing it up with Takuma doesn't get you many Battle Points. ; ) |
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| | My Kyo's still real clunky and I get confused about Joe but once I remembered how to apply some wake-up pressure with them--and that Joe's Kick throw does way more damage--things went better. And anyway Hinako and Baitang were always there to mop up! (Man, Hinako vs King @ 5:50, wow!) And hadn't noticed before how relatively slow Joe is backing up / back dashing, and just how lightning quick Hinako is at dashing and rolling! |
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| | Real streaky with Vanessa--but there aren't many characters with whom I've taken out two entire teams of the top-level AI in a single run! = ooo Shingo was pretty rollercoastery too; Kasumi's a little more stable for me, at least--good to have her as anchor. Really hit or miss with Clark, except against Zero--except for that last one where he didn't get anywhere near him! [Washed-out color again this episode; how can I still be getting the color range toggle wrong despite double-checks? Missing something in my process here... Okay... There was a pre-recording glitch where the feed from the Elgato froze for ~3 seconds after I accidentally clicked a window closed or something; after that I did a lazy test where I toggled the color range back and forth a few times but didn't verify the overall contrast against a black ground--and looking back at the test footage now, I see it was in a weird state where the range was washed out as if it was the other signal type! Normally the NEOGEO, PS4, and DC can't be washed-out in either color range, while the PS2 and PS3 can; I've been verifying the color range toggle, because sometimes it needs to be toggled back and forth in the Elgato's control panel to take effect correctly after start-up--but I HAVEN'T been verifying that the signal was in the correct state; I hadn't realized it could get OUT of state, although I see now this must have been happening intermittently all along. So if a capture glitch happens I should reset the signal by power-cycling the OSSC, and after ANY glitch or settings change I HAVE to do a final test on a black ground--NOT just eyeballing the test footage in a window--to make sure everything's okay--because it might not be! Man it's been years I should'a had this worked out a long time ago.] |
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| | [Separate test on a black ground isn't necessary for the PS4, where I'm running off the Elgato's pass-through and so can verify the color by checking how dark Geese's black suit looks in my Fatal Fury XMB wallpaper.] |
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| | [Increased incidence of the glitch may have coincided with my swapping the Elgato's USB connection out when I needed to use my scanner every few days, since my new wireless keyboard took the last free USB port up with its dongle. I'll swap out something else instead of the Elgato, that may reduce the glitch anyway.] |
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| | Playing the team of Benimaru Nikaido, Ralf Jones, Hinako Shijou, and Captain Rocky in maximum difficulty arcade team play of The King of Fighters 2000 on an "Omega" consolized NEOGEO MVS! Flash, super meters, and continues are off. Benimaru beat three teams all by himself (with a little Rocky help here and there of course)! : D Hinako beat Zero pretty much all by HERself (with a Rocky assist at the end to be safe ^ _^). I'd never really thrown Benimaru's bug zapper out there quite that much, but boy did that sure work. Got Ramon good (3:35), and he usually terrorizes me! Okay didn't work at all against Vanessa after him. ; ) Eh and Kula was too quick (8:28). Got me past Kasumi though (10:16), and she can often cream my whole team, too! Hinako didn't even have to come out until the boss! ^ D^ The boss was kind of rough on Benimaru and Ralf. ; ) Check out the barrage he lays on Ralf @ 20:16: three speed-blurred jabs, and a kick, in under 3/4s of a second! Whoa. Rocky is Maxima's "Another Striker" in KOF 2000; Rocky is one of the playable cyborg soldier--not robot!--characters from SNK's 1991 NEOGEO beat-em-up "Robo Army," the other being a cyborg soldier named Maxima! Robo Army's story refers to Rocky as "Captain Rocky." https://snk.fandom.com/wiki/Robo_Army Rocky's fireball went right through Kula while she was in her throw animation on Ralf. : P |
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| | Bulldozed by Ralf! And I still can't beat Robert, in fact I couldn't take him down with two full characters in the finals. ; D Was a bit out of it maybe I dunno but anyway finally got it done, found Mary's qcf+HP (couldn't find a LP version?!) flip kick which seems handy, and that Kasumi's back dash is absurdly quick-fire repeatable--oh and that her fireball thingy is good for pressuring the opponent's wake-up. And I'm really bad with Neo & Geo, they seem like huge sitting ducks and would just get swatted long before they had a chance to blow themselves up or anyway the opponent just wouldn't be there anymore. Tough to set up. Easy to combo from if they actually hit, at least. |
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| | Ah striker Kasumi's grab doesn't do damage, you have to be good enough to combo off it. Dang. ; ) |
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| | Shake and bake! Yes that was the totally unoriginal (my dumb brain swiped it from memories of the movie Talladega Nights, in all likelihood) spur of the moment name I assigned to striker King knocking the opponent up into the air, then mashing Punch below them with Ralf so they fall into his rapid flamey fist attack, a tiny but satisfying combo (explodey fist flames!) even I can do reliably (mash mash mash) and which scored an outsized number of KOs here. ^ _^ Benimaru got a lot of solo wins, zap zap zap. Jump-over sweep vs Takuma didn't work since I stupidly kept doing his dive-kick; switching to dive-punch fixed that after initial too-stupid defeat. Shingo walloped Robert! But we were too far behind by that time so of course it didn't matter and in effect I STILL can't beat Robert. Ralf eviscerated by Leona (23:20); just didn't know what he had to counter her speed. |
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| | ~ Frames of light punch input lag on my set-up: The King of Fighters 2000 Dreamcast: 7 NEOGEO: 5 Flycast: 3-4 MAME: 5-6 |
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