Blue Lightning continues-- what's the deal?

[louisg]

So, here's one thing that has always bugged me: In Blue Lightning, sometimes if you hit a fire button fast enough after exploding, you continue exactly where you exploded. Other times, you restart the entire level. I don't believe it's documented anywhere. The manual even says "If you crash or get shot down, you begin again at the start of the current mission". Does anyone know what the scoop is on this? Could it be a feature they forgot to remove? Or, is there maybe something you do that allows you to continue where you left off a finite number of times like in those Compile shmups?

[+Stephen Moss]

Does anyone know what the scoop is on this? Could it be a feature they forgot to remove?

I don't know for certain but I would think it is probably a play testing feature they forgot to remove, if you are play testing you won't want to start from the beginning every time you die and reply 99% of a mission just to get to the end.

[louisg]

I don't know for certain but I would think it is probably a play testing feature they forgot to remove, if you are play testing you won't want to start from the beginning every time you die and reply 99% of a mission just to get to the end.

 

Yeah, I was thinking maybe that, but then thought why not invincibility? Maybe this way they could see the collision detection and still continue from where they left off. But it's so easy to accidentally do that I'm surprised they missed it.

[atarian1]

I faintly recall it is how you lose your plane. If you crash into a mountain or something, you restart where you crashed. If you get shot down by enemy planes, you start over. Or it's vice versa. Can anyone test this?

[louisg]

I faintly recall it is how you lose your plane. If you crash into a mountain or something, you restart where you crashed. If you get shot down by enemy planes, you start over. Or it's vice versa. Can anyone test this?

 

 

Aha! I was playing with this, and I think it's the opposite and the button press has nothing to do with it. I continue where I left off if I'm shot down, but if I run the plane into a cliff or tree, it always restarted. I should double-check this on my card at home; this was on the ROM offered by AtariAge. But it seems intentional and not like a debug thing, although it is odd. Maybe they thought the player shouldn't be penalized as much from enemy fire since it's easier to get shot down than it is to run into the scenery.

[DragonGrafx-16]

So, here's one thing that has always bugged me: In Blue Lightning, sometimes if you hit a fire button fast enough after exploding, you continue exactly where you exploded. Other times, you restart the entire level. I don't believe it's documented anywhere. The manual even says "If you crash or get shot down, you begin again at the start of the current mission". Does anyone know what the scoop is on this? Could it be a feature they forgot to remove? Or, is there maybe something you do that allows you to continue where you left off a finite number of times like in those Compile shmups?

I greatly prefer shmups where you respawn and don't have to start from the beginning but ONLY if there's plenty of powerups in the game. With Compile games there's never a shortage of them... but not all Compile games have you respawn were you died. In Super Aleste (Space Megaforce) and GunHed (Blazing Lazers) you respawn at checkpoints.

[louisg]

I greatly prefer shmups where you respawn and don't have to start from the beginning but ONLY if there's plenty of powerups in the game. With Compile games there's never a shortage of them... but not all Compile games have you respawn were you died. In Super Aleste (Space Megaforce) and GunHed (Blazing Lazers) you respawn at checkpoints.

 

In a lot of the Compile shmups, if you grab a certain item, you can continue from where you left off. Check your ship stock in Space Megaforce, for example-- they turn a different color if you can respawn where you left off. It's that cluster of glowing orbs that appears sometimes and works as a bomb when you run into it.

[agradeneu]

Only crashing with landscape objects restarts level

 

I always thought that was easy to figure out