HSC Season 6 Week 33: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

[Ze_ro]

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

 

The Empire's revenge has begun! Right now an army of Imperial Walkers is marching toward the Rebels' power generator on the Ice Planet Hoth. If they reach it, the entire Rebel base will blow sky high! To stop them, the Rebels must rely on their missile-firing Snowspeeders. The Snowspeeders may be tiny (compared to the gigantic Imperial Walkers) but they're quick and agile. And in the hands of a skillful commander, they can destroy the mighty Walkers!

 

So climb into your Snowspeeder and be prepared to meet the first of your deadly enemies!

 

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Released By: Parker Bros, 1982
• Left Difficulty: B / Novice - Larger Repair Pad
• Right Difficulty: N / A
• Game Mode: Default
• Chosen By: DarthCalvin

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 Wednesday April 22nd at 1:00 AM (CST).

 

Current High Scores 10,000 (toymailman) [+11] 9977 (shadow460) [+10] 8634 (SpiceWare) [+9] 5187 (doctorclu) [+8] 5169 (Kurt_Woloch) [+7] 4613 (darthkur) [+6] 4376 (Impaler_26) [+5] 3198 (theKLT) [+4] 2892 (aftermac) [+3] 2822 (LarcenTyler) [+2] 2768 (Cafeman) [+1] 2467 (iangamer) [+1] 2356 (Mister VCS) [+1] 378 (SeaGtGruff) [+1] Best Tips shadow460 [+2] Challenges None yet TwinGalaxies Top 3 15,931 (Todd Rogers) 13,035 (Glenn Bussell) 5575 (Alan W Hewston) (Game 1, Difficulty B)

Current Standings toymailman [316] Deteacher [290] darthkur [230] aftermac [228] Kurt_Woloch [154] Impaler_26 [143] DarthCalvin [117] jjd [87] Mister VCS [79] LarcenTyler [64] SpiceWare [58] shadow460 [56] Hornpipe2 [55] the 5th ghost [47] Nathan Strum [46] mcge0053 [32] SeaGtGruff [28] doctorclu [26] Jess Ragan [26] homerwannabee [22] Zoyx [22] theKLT [21] Jred [20] Spector [20] Omegamatrix [19] ClassicGMR [18] IHATETHEBEARS [16] MrBeefy [14] iangamer [14] Shannon [13] LoneWolfSeth [12] roadrunner [11] midnight magicman [11] vdub_bobby [11] ed1475 [10] Random Terrain [10] maf [9] TimsterAA [9] DtY [8] godzillajoe [8] missioncontrol [8] chuckwalla [7] LS_Dracon [7] LaserHawk3000 [7] BSA Starfire's girlfriend [7] RJ [6] lucifershalo [5] phaxda [5] Vectorman0 [4] vintagegamecrazy [4] Wickeycolumbus [3] joeypsp [2] rheffera [2] ratfink [2] Lendorien [1] Yar76 [1] Artlover [1] holgibo [1]

 

Scoring Points in Empire Strikes Back

• Hitting Imperial Walker with missile - 1 point
• Shooting down a Walker's missile in flight - 10 points
• Crashing Snowspeeder into Walker without destroying Walker - 25 points
• Destroying an Imperial Walker - 50 points
• Hitting a bomb hatch that destroys an Imperial Walker - 100 points
• Shooting down a smart bomb - 100 points
• For every 2,000 points you score, you'll recieve one extra Snowspeeder

 

Hints and Tips

• Remember to watch the radar band for the positions of all Walkers (especially the lead one) and to keep track of which Walker you're battling on screen.
• Try to weaken the LEAD Walker WITHOUT DESTROYING IT. If you do, the lead walker will slow down the walking speed of all the others. This will give you more time to weaken and destroy the other Walkers before the lead one reaches the power generator. Also try to weaken and slow down the LAST Imperial Walker on the radar band WITHOUT DESTROYING IT. This will help delay the entrance of new and "tougher" Walkers that replace the ones you destroy.
• Try to get the Walker to track your Snowspeeder in one position, then quickly move out of its line of fire and attack it from a safe position.
• In a game with Solid Walkers, you may want to crash your Snowspeeder into the Walker's body if you know you can't destroy the Walker before it reaches the power generator. By doing so, you score 25 points and stay in the game if you have Snowspeeders remaining in the battle.

The Manual
As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available online, though unfortunately, the formatting is screwed up. Here are the hints it provides:
Kurt_Woloch
- In order to survive, you have to find the "rhythm" to the enemies shots. Becaure the shots travel rather quickly, you won't easily be able to avoid them if you're unprepared. However, the walkers are shooting in a fairly consistent rhythm, so try to anticipate their next shot by moving up and down briefly before the next shot is supposed to appear. Since the walkers normally shoot directly towards your ship, they will miss you if you keep moving in about a right angle to the shot's trajectory during that period. - The bomb hatches appearing on the front of the walkers are difficult to hit since they mostly get obstructed by the walker's head which moves up and down following your path relative to the walker. However, the bomb hatch appearing on the back of the walkers is fairly easy to hit since it's unobstructed. - Always count how often you got hit. After the third hit you'll lose your ship, so after you got hit two times, land in a valley briefly in order to repair your ship. You can repair each ship two times. However, if you survive with one ship for two minutes, the "force" kicks in, during which you are invincible. You can anticipate the length of the "force" in that the Star Wars theme plays three times during the duration of the force. When the music stops, you only have a short time left before the "force" ends. However, after that, all damage to your ship is cancelled, and you are also allowed to repair it two more times, no matter how often it got repaired before. So effectively, you can play endlessly as long as you don't sustain more than six hits during any two-minute period, and as long as you always repair your ship after you've been hit two times (unless a walker reaches the generator, of course). - My old approach was to start with the first walker from the right, shooting it to yellow, then yellowing the far left one, and then destroying the ones in the middle completely (coming from the left). I now changed that to Doctorclu's approach [see below --Zero], and it indeed seems to work better. The only exception I make is that I immediately destroy a walker if possible if a bomb hatch appears on its back.
doctorclu
My tip to offer (and your score will be much better) WOUND the walkers and leave them. Shoot them to yellow, and them move on to the next one. This slows down the front walker, backing up the rest. When the front walker reaches the generator (and by then you have four walkers all yellow) you can easily now destroy the first three, leaving one yellow walker, and then continue working on the walkers behind it.
shadow460
Attack from behind, try to aim for the top section as much as possible in case the bomb hatch opens. When there aren't guided missiles, you can see that there are some angles the walkers can hit you from. Even if you can't slide into that groove, you can still dodge their fire easily. Aim for the top, drop straight down when they fire and keep shooting. Drop a second time when they fire again and if you did it right you should be shooting the top of the legs. Keep shooting. When you have to dodge the third time, try to dodge upward a bit but not into the sky. Don't take risks. After your speeder has been hit once or twice, get it repaired. The 20 seconds of Force time allows you to weaken more walkers. As stated, weaken the lead walker first. Always weaken the lead walker in any group. If you blow a bomb hatch, go weaken the next walker and then wipe out any that are ahead of you. Once all walkers are yellow, start with the second to last one and kill them all from left to right. When you clear the screen of all but one walker, kill it and go all the way to the left. Kill walkers as they appear, then when they get too fast, use the strategy above. Use that 20 seconds of Force time to catch up. This is why it is imperative to not take risks--you need that invincibility! Oh, get a controller that allows you to use your fingers to shoot instead of your thumb. Most people's fingers work about 4x faster than their thumbs. If you use your wrist as a pivot point, that will help a well. To double kill a walker, shoot it eight more times after it blows up. You'll get 50 more points for that.

 

--Zero

[vintagegamecrazy]

I'm going to have to start participating in these again since I once again have the atari bug, expect a score this week.

[Impaler_26]

I haven't played this game since ages, what a nice blast fest!

 

First try:

 

2,972

[Lauren Tyler]

2,822.

 

One of my better scores. I guess the Force is with me.

[Impaler_26]

4,376

[toymailman]

A new best for me.

 

6,583

[Kurt_Woloch]

OK, here's the best I could do... 2712.

 

Here are some additional tips:

- In order to survive, you have to find the "rhythm" to the enemies shots. Becaure the shots travel rather quickly, you won't easily be able to avoid them if you're unprepared. However, the walkers are shooting in a fairly consistent rhythm, so try to anticipate their next shot by moving up and down briefly before the next shot is supposed to appear. Since the walkers normally shoot directly towards your ship, they will miss you if you keep moving in about a right angle to the shot's trajectory during that period.

- The bomb hatches appearing on the front of the walkers are difficult to hit since they mostly get obstructed by the walker's head which moves up and down following your path relative to the walker. However, the bomb hatch appearing on the back of the walkers is fairly easy to hit since it's unobstructed.

- Always count how often you got hit. After the third hit you'll lose your ship, so after you got hit two times, land in a valley briefly in order to repair your ship. You can repair each ship two times. However, if you survive with one ship for two minutes, the "force" kicks in, during which you are invincible. You can anticipate the length of the "force" in that the Star Wars theme plays three times during the duration of the force. When the music stops, you only have a short time left before the "force" ends. However, after that, all damage to your ship is cancelled, and you are also allowed to repair it two more times, no matter how often it got repaired before. So effectively, you can play endlessly as long as you don't sustain more than six hits during any two-minute period, and as long as you always repair your ship after you've been hit two times (unless a walker reaches the generator, of course).

Edited April 16, 2009 by Kurt_Woloch

[doctorclu]

Thanks for the tips, my score was 5,187.

 

My tip to offer (and your score will be much better) WOUND the walkers and leave them.

 

Shoot them to yellow, and them move on to the next one. This slows down the front walker, backing up the rest.

 

When the front walker reaches the generator (and by then you have four walkers all yellow) you can easily now destroy the first three, leaving one yellow walker, and then continue working on the walkers behind it.

[SeaGtGruff]

378

 

Michael

Edited April 17, 2009 by SeaGtGruff

[mcge0053]

Does anyone have a manual scan?

[Impaler_26]

Does anyone have a manual scan?

Here is the HTML Manual.

[mcge0053]

Does anyone have a manual scan?

Here is the HTML Manual.

 

I've seen this, but I was hoping that someone had the original manual. Anyone?

 

I'd like to know what each game number is. I can tell that in some games the walkers go faster/slower and some shoot those little squares that follow you around.

 

On another point, when I load this game on my Supercharger, I can't play games 1 and 5, but I can play the others... weird!

Edited April 17, 2009 by mcge0053

[+SpiceWare]

4838

[+SpiceWare]

On another point, when I load this game on my Supercharger, I can't play games 1 and 5, but I can play the others... weird!

Those versions probably trigger the Supercharger to bank switch since it wasn't written with that in mind.

[iangamer]

Here's my first attempt.

 

1,339

 

 

EDIT: 2,467

 

Edited April 18, 2009 by iangamer

[Kurt_Woloch]

Does anyone have a manual scan?

Here is the HTML Manual.

 

Yes, I know it's there, but it seems to be broken somehow, since from the point on where the different landscape types are described, the remaining text all gets squashed onto one line... at least it does in Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. In Internet Explorer, the manual ends at this point.

 

By the way, I also made a new high score, thanks to doctorclu's tips... 5169.

My old approach was to start with the first walker from the right, shooting it to yellow, then yellowing the far left one, and then destroying the ones in the middle completely (coming from the left). I now changed that to Doctorclu's approach, and it indeed seems to work better. The only exception I make is that I immediately destroy a walker if possible if a bomb hatch appears on its back.

Edited April 18, 2009 by Kurt_Woloch

[+SpiceWare]

7993 - my thumb hurts

[Impaler_26]

Does anyone have a manual scan?

Here is the HTML Manual.

 

Yes, I know it's there, but it seems to be broken somehow, since from the point on where the different landscape types are described, the remaining text all gets squashed onto one line...

Yep, i just noticed that too. I should have checked it before i posted the link...

[+Cafeman]

2,768. Wasn't sure how to take a snapshot on the x26 emulator, so no pic.

[Ze_ro]

There's a better HTML version of the manual over here, though it doesn't have the ASCII screenshots.

 

--Zero

[theKLT]

3198

[aftermac]

1,476

 

No screenshot... Stella locked up when I still had one life left.

 

I'll try to beat this score, but I've never been a fan of this game...

[Mister VCS]

2,179

 

2,356

....same as aftermac: I am not an" ESB-fanboy"!

Edited April 21, 2009 by Mister VCS

[toymailman]

I'm an ESB fan so this game is getting good play time.

 

9,421

[shadow460]

5,928, but I was double killing walkers.

 

To double kill a walker, shoot it eight more times after it blows up. You'll get 50 more points for that. If that's considered a bug, let me know and disregard my score.

 

EDIT: 9712, no double kills this time. I switched to my Amiga Power Stick for this round and it paid off immensely. Try controlling the ship with your thumb on top of the stick and using the other hand to shoot. One hand shoots, one hand holds the stick with the thumb in control. I've got a screenshot that I'll post by Wednesday.

 

This is one of the very few games the Power Stick is really good for.

Edited April 21, 2009 by shadow460