Well, I did make it to normal stage 6 of R-Type Final on R-Typer. I used the Dinner Bell ship to beat the stage 5 boss (it seemed to strike a good balance between being powerful enough, yet not too powerful to accidentally destroy the bits that would take me to an optional stage).

Right now, I'm at the second check point of stage 6 (probably the hardest one). The next check point after that is the boss of the stage.
I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
Crawl and 1000