BEWARE, I LIVE!!! (or: Personal Grail Aquired)

[blissfulnoise]

http://www.tuska.us/sinistar1.jpg

http://www.tuska.us/sinistar2.jpg

Sinistar.

The hardest video game of all time?

The scariest video game of all time?

The most personally insulting video game of all time?

What hasn't already been said about the mighty Sinistar and his throngs of Warriors and Workers?

Between his love of eating space ships and his love of poetry ("Run, Run, Run" is almost a Haiku); Sinistar remains a mystery to all.

Fear him. Respect him. And, dare I say it, love him...

The pictures are bunk because it's shoved in an already overcrowded room. The basement project finally got its coat of paint, and, god willing, it will be carpeted either this weekend or during next week allowing me to start the great migration downstairs.

880 square feet of pure video gaming bliss... But I digress.

The cabinet needs a a wee bit of restoration love, but it works great. A dedicated cabinet though it appears to have Zaxxon burn in on the monitor. The control panel is in great shape minus some scuff outs on the right and left sides.

The controls work very very well and the joystick doesn't have the centering problem found in a lot of Sinistars (remember, this cabinet is 23 years old.

It cost me a fair amount (lets just say I could have bought any number of "console grails" for the amount I paid) but, hey, you only live once. ;)

And, although emulated in Mame, I wanted this cabinet because of it's virtually unique controller. This cabinet brings my arcade collection to 8 (not including my WIP MAME machine).

And now, "I Hunger" for a nice Robotron 2084 cabinet.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'll be right over.

Looks beautiful.

[Goodwill Hunter]

Congrats! If I had room for arcade machines, Sinistar would definitely be in my top 5. Aside from finally getting to level 5, It would be worth it to see the voices freak out the dog!

Rich

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Beware, coward! Ha ha ha ha ha!


(Brings a chill to my spine just remembering that voice!)

[Videogamerdaryll]

Awesome!! Congrats man...nice 4 slot too..

[Nz17]

Ever since I played Sinistar on the Digital Eclipse compilation of Williams' games on the PlayStation, I've loved the game! It was advanced yet primitive at the same time! The control for the game feels great too. Sinistar is definitely something that I'd like to play on a real arcade machine.

Ron Howard!

(Er, he said, "Run coward," yeah, that's it. ;) )

[kainemaxwell]

WOW!! Nice going man!

[Darth Sensei]

There was a nice mini-documentary in one of the Midway's Arcade games for the modern consoles.

I'd love to own a Sinistar.

[IntvGene]

Sinistar is definitely one of my top five arcade games of all time. I think it might be the emotional association of shitting my pants every time that the Sinistar yelled at me.

Anyway, enjoy the machine, it looks like a beauty.

[captain nintendo]

"I hunger" for your quarters you pathetic whelp.... LOL
Thats what I used to think when I used to play the game because it was so hard....


Congrats on your find !

I may be getting one of my arcade grails soon as well :D
Cyberball 2072..... Hopefully all goes well and I can land this badboy into my collection.

[FooFighter]

Wow very nice! Congrats man! Sinistar is also my personal grail. I have been looking for one near me for a long time without success.

But I do have a Robotron 2084. 8-)

[GunPanther]

Shit man....

Beeeeyoooteeeeful!!!


It's really hard to find such a classic machine in such great condition.


I remember the days when I used to play that game in the local arcade.


To this day, that game is still fun and just as difficult as it was 20 years ago.



:rockets: GunPanther :2gunfire:

[vespertillio]

That's it. We definitely have to get together sometime. LOL Between both of us, we could open a retro-arcade. 8-) Congratulations, it's beautiful.

[Time]

I only have one word to say.....Awesome!!

[DJ_DEEM]

ok ok at some risk of being murdered, im gonna ask i had never actully played this game....so i booted it up in mame and started playing it becasuse of the reviews everyone was giving it in this thread, and i just don't really get it, what am i trying to do? sorry to thread jack but i would love to enjoy this game as much as everyone else, i guess i just dont understand it :embarrassed:

[jajaja]

Nice :)
How much was it? If you want to tell hehe.

[Neil Koch]

ok ok at some risk of being murdered, im gonna ask i had never actully played this game....so i booted it up in mame and started playing it becasuse of the reviews everyone was giving it in this thread, and i just don't really get it, what am i trying to do? sorry to thread jack but i would love to enjoy this game as much as everyone else, i guess i just dont understand it :embarrassed:

You have to shoot the asteroids floating around until little crystals come out. If you grab them, you use them as bombs on Sinistar after it's built (the enemies use the same crystals to build Sinistar).

[Felixthegamer]

Congrats and enjoy it! (I know you will!)

[bargora]

ok ok at some risk of being murdered, im gonna ask i had never actully played this game....so i booted it up in mame and started playing it becasuse of the reviews everyone was giving it in this thread, and i just don't really get it, what am i trying to do? sorry to thread jack but i would love to enjoy this game as much as everyone else, i guess i just dont understand it :embarrassed:
Sinistar 101
1. You have two fire buttons: Regular fire and Sinibomb fire.
2. Regular shots are used to kill small enemies (Workers, Warriors, etc.) and to mine crystals. Avoid being shot by the Warriors.
3. Mine crystals from asteroids by shooting asteroids.
4. Move your ship over liberated crystals to collect them. Collected crystals are automatically processed and converted into Sinibombs.
5. While you are collecting crystals, so are the Workers. The workers carry the crystals to the Sinistar construction site, where they are converted to pieces of the growing Sinistar.
6. Once the Sinistar is completed, it will inform you "I live". Now you are being hunted. If the Sinistar catches up to your ship, you are toast.
7. Hopefully, by this point you have collected at least 13 Sinibombs and have clean underwear available. Sinibombs are self-guided, but will explode on contact with any enemy. Small enemies will purposefully eat a Sinibomb to protect the Sinistar. The Sinistar can only be damaged by Sinibombs, not by normal shots.
8. While you can damage the Sinistar before it is complete and thereby delay its completion, you can only clear the level by destroying a completed Sinistar. Once the Sinistar is complete, damaging it does not reduce its ability to eat your ship.
9. Tips: Watch the radar and heed the messages. Not all asteroids have crystals, and some have more crystals than others. Don't let the workers make off with the free-floating crystals that you've just mined. Don't get caught up shooting small enemies when you should be mining crystals. Don't get upset if the game kicks your ass really really hard--it was designed and (mis)balanced to take all of your quarters as quickly as possible.

[fergojisan]

3. Mine crystals from asteroids by shooting asteroids.

Can't you also just bump the asteroids and get crystals that way? I thought you could.

I was a latecomer to this game, never having played it until I started using MAME in the late 90s. Fantastic game that pisses you off and makes you want to put more quarters in to shut Sinistar up (It doesn't work though). I've never made it past level two myself, I get too nervous when I'm being chased. :beaten: :eek 2:

[bargora]

3. Mine crystals from asteroids by shooting asteroids.Can't you also just bump the asteroids and get crystals that way? I thought you could.
Yeah, I think you probably can, but I'd have to stop shooting to find out. And I never stop shooting.

[le geek]

Very Nice! What's in your MVS?

Cheers,
Ben

[FooFighter]

ok ok at some risk of being murdered, im gonna ask i had never actully played this game....so i booted it up in mame and started playing it becasuse of the reviews everyone was giving it in this thread, and i just don't really get it, what am i trying to do? sorry to thread jack but i would love to enjoy this game as much as everyone else, i guess i just dont understand it :embarrassed:

The aforementioned rules were mostly correct, but trust me Sinistar is one game that just isn't the same outside of an arcade cab. Partly because of the 49-position optical joystick.
IMHO.

[bargora]

Yeah, the main problem with playing Sinistar outside of an arcade cab is that you don't get the 49-direction joystick. I believe that all of the console implementations restrict you to 8-way control, which is completely stupid given the availability of analog control on modern consoles. Midway can suck it for this repeated oversight. I'm not sure whether fine control is available in MAME implementations.

Because Sinistar is so friggin' hard, you need every advantage you can get. If you miss a crystal because you couldn't aim your ship precisely enough with the 8-way control, then you can bet that some worker is going to snap it up and bring the Sinistar one step closer to completion. This becomes frustrating when the Sinistar comes before you have enough sinibombs to hold him at bay.

Of course, even if you play in an arcade cab, the Sinistar is still going to kick your ass in short order. But you might be able to put it off for a level longer.

[blissfulnoise]

Even with the arcade, I can't get past wave 4 (Planetoid Zone). It's too damn hard.

And since everything moves a lot faster than you, being able to out manuver them is critical; thus the need for a 49 way stick. You can turn on a dime and change direction, they can't. But if the Sinistar has got a straight line to you, he'll run up on you faster than you can blink. Can't even react. Thus, once you're being hunted, it's critical to keep an eye on where ole' Sini is at by checking the radar so he can't run up on you.

You can actually circle around the Sinistar indefinately if you can keep out of the Warriors fire line. This is helpful if you only need a Sinibomb or two to finish the job.

Also, just bumping into the Planetoids does not produce crystals. You have to shoot at it. Typically, I've found that bumping AND shooting will result in faster crystal production.

As for the MVS, it has KoF2001, Crossed Swords, and Double Dragon in it. Planning on getting a few more MVS games if I can keep from buying another cabinet long enough (must... resist... Battlezone...). If anyone wants to sell me a Ninja Combat or a Magician Lord with the mini marquee, PM me. ;)

[Slate]

Sweet, man!

Is the game harder and more unpredictable than the police in Driver 2? LOL

[Videogamerdaryll]

@_@ Sit Down Version,,
RARE SINISTAR by Williams Dedicated Sit Down Cockpit Item number: 6170946743

[FooFighter]

@_@ Sit Down Version,,
RARE SINISTAR by Williams Dedicated Sit Down Cockpit Item number: 6170946743

The cockpit version is quite rare and very cool, however not as rare as the duramold version. http://www.schoenke.com/~tyler/sinistar/duramold/

[ddockery]

Do any of the recent console compilations make use of the analog stick properly? I've always wanted to try this with a decent controller.

[LAGO]

Excellent find. Enjoy it.