HSC Season 4 Week 69: Kool Aid Man

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

 

Help Kool-Aid Man in a battle with the Thirsties! Those insatiable Thirsties are stealing the water out of your swimming pool. You want to catch tem when they stop to dip their straws in the pool. Also, help Kool-Aid Man gobble up Kool-Aid ingredients in order to keep the Thirsties from bouncing Kool-Aid Man around the backyard.

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Kool Aid Man
  
• Released By: M Network, 1983
  
• Left Difficulty: Used for pause feature (A = Pause)
  
• Right Difficulty: B / Novice - Thirsties move at normal speed
  
• Game Mode: N/A
  
• Chosen By: Captain Beard
  

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Thursday, Aug 30th at 1:30 AM (CST).

 

If you want to suggest a game for future weeks, please send me a private message and let me know! I will add your game to the list. One one game per person will be kept on the list, so you will not be able to suggest a game until your first game is played! (Please note that due to time constraints, I very rarely reply to private messages... but I do read them all!)

 

Anyone can play! Just post a score and I'll add you to the list! Please read the Rules & Information if you haven't already done so!

 

Current High Scores

1. 87,800 (Captain Beard) [+11]
   
2. 77,400 (Rom Hunter) [+10]
   
3. 73,700 (godzillajoe) [+9]
   
4. 66,800 (Recycled) [+8]
   
5. 61,700 (SpiceWare) [+7]
   
6. 58,000 (rheffera) [+6]
   
7. 44,800 (toymailman) [+5]
   
8. 42,300 (Christophero Sly) [+4]
   
9. 36,500 (Deteacher) [+3]
   
10. 30,300 (LarcenTyler) [+2]
    
11. 29,300 (Nognir) [+1]
    
12. 28,000 (Impaler_26) [+1]
    28,000 (Nathan Strum) [+1]
    
13. 11,600 (Goochman) [+1]
    

Best Tips

• Captain Beard [+2]
  

Bounties and Challenges

• None yet posted
  

TwinGalaxies Top 3

(Game 1, Difficulty B)

• 63,700 (Joseph Knasin)
  
• 54,900 (Troy Whelan)
  
• 41,700 (Jason Cram)
  

Current Standings

(Note: These scores reflect the standing as of the beginning of this week, and do not include points scored from this game.)

1. Rom Hunter [577]
2. Deteacher [472]
3. SpiceWare [465]
4. Nathan Strum [274]
5. LarcenTyler [233]
6. rheffera [215]
7. vdub_bobby [185]
8. keilbaca [175]
9. johnnywc [167]
10. Goochman [165]
11. toymailman [126]
12. scogey [122]
13. The MindMaster [115]
14. the 5th ghost [111]
15. Captain Beard [110]
16. Cybergoth [94]
17. shadow460 [92]
18. atari2600land [88]
19. Recycled [80]
20. JacobZu7zu7 [80]
21. BrianC [78]
22. shawnb [71]
23. Christophero Sly [70]
24. Malc74 [67]
25. Zoyx [66]
26. theKLT [59]
27. godzillajoe [53]
28. Nognir [39]
29. SeaGtGruff [36]
30. Crazy Climber [36]
31. RaRoss [35]
32. doctorclu [35]
33. Impaler_26 [34]
34. 128bytes [34]
35. ewing92 [32]
36. Jred [26]

• RJ [24]
• phaxda [21]
• keitaro [21]
• Lord Helmet [19]
• Thomas Jentzsch [17]
• Krytol [17]
• mojofltr [17]
• Mindcircus [16]
• Random Terrain [15]
• Lord Thag [15]
• LS_Dracon [13]
• JimboGames [12]
• rjchamp3 [11]
• ResOGlas [11]
• Shannon [11]
• midnight magicman [11]
• Omegamatrix [10]
• accousticguitar [10]
• jonfin826 [10]
• MickG [9]
• Gabriel [8]
• Zeptari1 [7]
• gospeedde [7]
• Hiryu [7]
• Shroo-man [6]
• supercat [5]
• GamerInThailand [5]
• codyr783 [5]
• fire!fire! [5]
• madbutscher [4]
• oldric [3]
• Biter [2]
• mightymage [2]
• aofl [2]
• D. Yancey [2]
• Dan Iacovelli [1]

Scoring Points in Kool Aid Man

• Catch a Thirstie - 100 points
  
• Bonus points are awarded for the time left on the clock at the
  end of each round.
  

Hints and Tips

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available. Here are the hints it provides:

 

- When Kool-Aid Man gets bounced around by the Thirsties, relax! It will only last a few seconds. Just be ready to take over when he settles down.

 

- Go after every Ingredient you can. While you're unaffected by the moving Thirsties, you can catch a lot of other Thirsties who are stealing the water out of your pool.

Try to stay in the middle.

 

Get as many ingredients as you can.

 

While bouncing, keep steering towards Thirsties.

Remember that there can only be 2 drinking Thirsties at any given time and get the lowest one first whenever possible.

 

When you're being bounced around endlessly and all hope seems lost, never take your hand off the joystick in dismay - you need to be ready to fly if you randomly pick up a powerup.

 

Later in each board, when fewer Thirsties are around, don't wait for them to start drinking before heading in their direction - actively follow them around (a little above or below, in case they change direction.) And when you're Super Kool-Aid Man, don't hesitate at all - just stay right on top of them.

 

After the 2nd board, you can't catch up to the ingredients once they've passed you, so don't waste time trying.

One thing I've noticed is that initially it appears that the thirsties follow a pattern, you can see that on the first board because the same two always drink first

 

But is that the case at the later levels or once they start changing directions? Is that random? The ingredients certainly seem random

 

Also, for those that didn't read the manual, not only do the ingredients make you SUPER but they add some water back to the pool so getting as many as possible is the key to longer games

 

--Zero

[Lauren Tyler]

The ROM AtariAge has is glitched up. This one is the fixed version of the ROM.

 

Oh, and just for the hell of it: 30,300

Kool_Aid_Man__Fixed___15_11_2002___CT_.zip

Edited August 24, 2007 by LarcenTyler

[Rom Hunter]

 

Tips:

 

Try to stay in the middle.

 

Get as many ingredients as you can.

 

While bouncing, keep steering towards Thirsties.

 

[Captain Beard]

55,400

 

My tips: Remember that there can only be 2 drinking Thirsties at any given time and get the lowest one first whenever possible.

 

When you're being bounced around endlessly and all hope seems lost, never take your hand off the joystick in dismay - you need to be ready to fly if you randomly pick up a powerup.

[+SpiceWare]

42,900

 

 

TIP - last week we had left difficulty set to A, which is PAUSED for Kool Aid Man. The cartridge will appear to be crashed if you haven't switched back to B.

Edited August 25, 2007 by SpiceWare

[Christophero Sly]

38,900

 

[godzillajoe]

36,500 just to throw my hat in the ring

 

Dirty little vampires, I'll get you!

[Christophero Sly]

Small improvement.

 

42,300

 

[godzillajoe]

54,300

 

And you can almost make it out in the lousy pic!

 

[Deteacher]

36,500. I need to hook up the ol' X-Arcade for this one...keyboard controls are too hard for this one.

[+SpiceWare]

61,700

[Goochman]

11600

[Captain Beard]

Newest score: 74,500 - a new personal best! Woo-hoo!

 

Another tip: Later in each board, when fewer Thirsties are around, don't wait for them to start drinking before heading in their direction - actively follow them around (a little above or below, in case they change direction.) And when you're Super Kool-Aid Man, don't hesitate at all - just stay right on top of them.

Edited August 27, 2007 by Captain Beard

[godzillajoe]

Damn it Captain, I was all proud of myself and ready to claim the top spot.

 

73,700

 

 

By the way, I found this really funny Kool Aid related pic online

 

[Recycled]

I was just thinking about requesting this one.

 

 

66,800

[+Nathan Strum]

It's taking me a little while to get the hang of this one. The endless bouncing around the screen that happens sometimes is really maddening. That said, it's not bad - it has the potential to be a pretty good twitch game.

 

I just wish the back-story in the manual had elaborated more on The Thirsties, and how they've been driven insane by drinking so much chlorinated swimming pool water. Oh well.

 

27,800

 

[Rom Hunter]

 

Beat this.

 

Pure luck, btw.

 

[Captain Beard]

Pure luck, btw.

Luck, my ass.

Admit it - without my spectacular world class tips, you'd still be bouncing aimlessly around the screen, right?

 

I mean, nice score!

[Rom Hunter]

Admit it - without my spectacular world class tips, you'd still be bouncing aimlessly around the screen, right?

Yep.

 

It would have been nice to refill the swimming pool somehow.

 

[Impaler_26]

Oh Boy this game sucks!!! My first and last score for this - 28,000

[godzillajoe]

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

 

I like this game, no time to think, just react.

 

Another good "in the zone" game where you can either have a great game or just a dreadful one depending.

[godzillajoe]

Oh Boy this game sucks!!! My first and last score for this - 28,000

 

If you're playing it with the keyboard on an emu, you don't stand a chance

[Impaler_26]

This could be a decent game but i just hate that bouncing around the screen....

 

I played it with my cheap worn out joypad in emulation, maybe it plays better on real hardware with a good joystick

Edited August 28, 2007 by Impaler_26

[Recycled]

This could be a decent game but i just hate that bouncing around the screen....

 

I played it with my cheap worn out joypad in emulation, maybe it plays better on real hardware with a good joystick

 

 

I love this game. Seemed shallow when I first played it.....but it has ahulluva lot of addictive replay value. (yes, on the original hardware).

[Captain Beard]

75,900

 

So close... so very very close...

 

My final tip: After the 2nd board, you can't catch up to the ingredients once they've passed you, so don't waste time trying.