51 replies to this topic

[zylon]

Our game this round is Super Breakout (the original 5200 pack-in game).
We will be playing ALL variations for combined score: Breakout+Cavity+Doubles+Progressive
Play on default settings and Do Not use the Extra Serves function except for bonus challenge listed below.
Round ends Sunday 9pm EST August 21st 2011
Use the actual 5200 cart or ROM, not the A8 version as control response is different. Emulation is ok and pics not required, but strongly encouraged.

Current HSC records:
Super Breakout -
(Breakout Mode)
BydoEmpire 397(busted), 404 sdamon(busted), 878  peedenmark7(busted), 892 zylon(busted), 1036 peedenmark7(busted), 1674 zylon

(Cavity Mode)
phuzaxeman 1,361(busted), 1500 zylon

(Double Mode)
phuzaxeman 2,471

Progressive mode-
2440 zylon(busted), 2661  peedenmark7

(Progressive Mode)-used extra serves function
jnice 4,778

HSC bonus point for beating a record, but only one to a customer.

Bonus Challenge: Play Progressive with extra serves. Top 3 scores get 1 bonus point. Get 'em while they're hot!
Bonus scores:

4268  peedenmark7(+1)
3455  zylon(+1)
2148  sdamon(+1)
1518  JacobZu7zu7

Current total scores:

7484  zylon (+2)
7266  peedenmark7 (+2)
3952  sdamon (+2)
2920  JacobZu7zu7 (+1)
2573  Official Ninja (+1)
2101  atariron82(+1)
1674  BydoEmpire(+1)
920   Sonic R(+1)


Breakout: all achieved bonus!

1674  zylon
1481  peedenmark7
447   atariron82
445   BydoEmpire
442   Official Ninja
435   JacobZu7zu7
412   Sonic R
404   sdamon

Cavity:

1500  zylon
1341  peedenmark7
643   sdamon
598   JacobZu7zu7
520   atariron82
426   Official Ninja
373   BydoEmpire

Doubles:

1870  zylon
1783  peedenmark7
1374  sdamon
679   JacobZu7zu7
611   Official Ninja
508   Sonic R
503   atariron82
500   BydoEmpire

Progressive:

2661  peedenmark7
2440  zylon
1531  sdamon
1208  JacobZu7zu7
1094  Official Ninja
631   atariron82
356   BydoEmpire

Current standings -

Points -

sdamon - 134
atariron82 - 116
roadrunner - 86
zylon - 75
DensB68 - 44
JacobZu7zu7 - 51
doctorclu - 31
NoahsMyBro - 31
peedenmark7 - 32
BydoEmpire - 32
Sonic R - 26
rxd - 19
NML32 - 17
Gabriel - 13
rmaerz - 13
chuckwalla - 9
4ks - 5
Mingy Jongo - 4


Rounds won -

sdamon - 7
doctorclu - 2
atariron82 - 2
NoahsMyBro - 1
rxd - 1

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Edited by zylon, Sun Aug 21, 2011 8:02 PM.

[sdamon]

Just barely broke the record in Breakout mode with a score of 404.  I don't expect this record to last for very long at all.  :-)

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[peedenmark7]

Breakout: 878

Cavity:

Doubles:

Progressive:

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[sdamon]

^ Yeah, I really didn't think my "record" would last through the day.  Good score!

[JacobZu7zu7]

Breakout: 150 370 (good)


Cavity: 320 (fair)


Double: 158 495 (good)


Progressive: 905 (ace)

Edited by JacobZu7zu7, Tue Aug 9, 2011 5:53 PM.

[zylon]

I see everyone went for the "low-hanging" fruit.

Now to dish out a little pain.

Breakout: 892
Cavity: 1099
Doubles: 1768
Progressive: 2041

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[BydoEmpire]

Only had a chance to play a couple of games.  Hopefully I'll get some more time in over the coming weeks.

Breakout: 98
Progressive: 356

Oh, and apparently I really suck at Super Breakout...

[JacobZu7zu7]

NEW SCORES:

Breakout: 390 (good)
Cavity: 540 (good)
Double: 495 (good)
Progressive: 1208 (ace)

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[zylon]

I'll offer up some tips this weekend.

Edited by zylon, Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:02 AM.

[sdamon]

This just isn't my game... but it's fun to stretch for better scores anyway.

Progressive: 570

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[zylon]

sdamon, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:18 AM, said:

This just isn't my game... but it's fun to stretch for better scores anyway.

Progressive: 570

It's my least favorite port of this game, personally. Still a good game and lots of fun to be had which is why we're here. No one can win them all (or should) and it's nice to get something different once in a while.
If using sticks, hold it with just your thumb on top of the stick. It's a more natural way to hold it and play.

[sdamon]

zylon, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:25 AM, said:

It's my least favorite port of this game, personally.

I'm OK with the port (although I'll forever wonder why Atari made it the pack-in game.)  The 2600 version probably is the better game, however.  Never spent much time with the 400/800 version.

zylon, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:25 AM, said:

Still a good game and lots of fun to be had which is why we're here. No one can win them all (or should) and it's nice to get something different once in a while.

It's definitely a fun game... I can certainly enjoy it while admitting I'm just not particularly good at it!  The real fun for me in this whole contest is giving these games a real workout that I wouldn't be motivated to do otherwise.  Win or lose, that's been the case for all of these games.

zylon, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:25 AM, said:

If using sticks, hold it with just your thumb on top of the stick. It's a more natural way to hold it and play.

I'm actually breaking out the trackball for this one.  Works pretty well... I'm not doing really doing any worse than I do in the 2600 version, anyway. :-)

[peedenmark7]

playing the hell out of this game....getting back into Breakout form...

Breakout: 1036
Doubles: 1287   finally figured out how this one should be played.
cavity:
Progressive:2332

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[sdamon]

I was just doing some browsing in old threads and found this:

jnice, on Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:35 PM, said:

from pg. 4 of the Atari 5200 Super Breakout cartridge manual:

"Extend a Hot Game!  Extra Serves: If you wish to extend your current game, you may do so by acquiring five new balls.  To receive five extra serves, press the number 1 key (or, on your overlay, the square marked EXTRA GAMES) before the fifth ball is served in a one-player game.  In a multiple-player game, this must be done before player 1 serves the fifth ball.  Each player will then receive five new serves."

I doubt anyone has been doing this, but we should probably have a ruling on the legality of using this "EXTRA GAMES" button.

Update: Looked back in the old HSC thread, and found out that jnice used the button to set the Progressive record.

jnice said:

I came up with a "4125" score on my first game of the "Progressive" variation of the game last night, but didn't get my camera ready until the screen saver mode came up. I thought that I'd earn a better score if I played more, but it didn't happen.

Yes, I did use "extra balls" (pressing "1" while on ball 5 will give you more, in case someone here didn't know that already). When does this contest end...Saturday night? I'll try to get a better score (and a picture).

...

Improved my score a bit (forgive the poor photography) to 4778 on the "Progressive" variation:

Edited by sdamon, Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:38 PM.

[peedenmark7]

Wholly crap I never knew this, then again I never read instructions... Why would Atari even offer this option when one can simply hit start ?

Ive been busting my butt to better my game, I hope it's not in vain.

Hopefully a ruling on this will come shortly.. I am not opposed to the extra balls as long we ALL are in the know and doing the same thing.
Then again it's clearly a cheat.

Thanks for the enlightenment sdamon.

EDITED:
First try....Its only a matter of time.
Progressive: 4268

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Edited by peedenmark7, Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:02 PM.

[JacobZu7zu7]

I actually read that in the manual I have!, the 5 extra serves... but I never tried it yet,
didn't think it would be allowed... depends if or how zylon wants us to play Super Breakout.

I'm fine either way, but seems more impressive to use only 5 lives.

[sdamon]

I'm also of the opinion that we should stick to 5 balls only, but I'm ok with however zylon rules it.

Played some more last night, and decided that the trackball just wasn't providing enough precision (and it's damn noisy!)  So I sacrificed a 5200 controller and a 2600 paddle to the Atari gods and came up with a 5200 paddle that works VERY well.  I can't recommend this enough... it really makes a world of difference in playability.

There's a large number of threads about how to do this, and it's really pretty simple.  Everyone seems to have their own way to mount the 2600 pot... mine was to cut a sour cream lid down to about the same size as the rubber boot so that it fits in there nice and tight.  Then I just drilled a hole in the center of the lid and screwed the pot in there, with the locking nut on the other side.  (There was a small metal tab on the pot that needed to be snipped off so that it fit flushly.)  Wired up the pot (had a brief issue where the paddle worked the opposite of the way it should, but this was easily fixed), then slid the rubber boot on (had to widen the hole a bit) and snapped on the knob.  Works absolutely perfectly.

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Edited by sdamon, Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:44 AM.

[sdamon]

After getting the paddle working, I played a lot of Cavity mode.  I'm not sure how the scoring works, but you seem to get more points if you can keep multiple balls going at once.  Got my best score when two balls had a nice run between the top border and the bricks: 643  

I'm still having the same problem with Breakout that I've had since I was a kid... one or two blocks left on the screen that I just can't quite hit.

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[zylon]

sdamon, on Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:23 PM, said:

I was just doing some browsing in old threads and found this:

jnice, on Mon Feb 26, 2007 4:35 PM, said:

from pg. 4 of the Atari 5200 Super Breakout cartridge manual:

"Extend a Hot Game!  Extra Serves: If you wish to extend your current game, you may do so by acquiring five new balls.  To receive five extra serves, press the number 1 key (or, on your overlay, the square marked EXTRA GAMES) before the fifth ball is served in a one-player game.  In a multiple-player game, this must be done before player 1 serves the fifth ball.  Each player will then receive five new serves."

I doubt anyone has been doing this, but we should probably have a ruling on the legality of using this "EXTRA GAMES" button.

Update: Looked back in the old HSC thread, and found out that jnice used the button to set the Progressive record.

jnice said:

I came up with a "4125" score on my first game of the "Progressive" variation of the game last night, but didn't get my camera ready until the screen saver mode came up. I thought that I'd earn a better score if I played more, but it didn't happen.

Yes, I did use "extra balls" (pressing "1" while on ball 5 will give you more, in case someone here didn't know that already). When does this contest end...Saturday night? I'll try to get a better score (and a picture).

...

Improved my score a bit (forgive the poor photography) to 4778 on the "Progressive" variation:

My ruling on this is we will not use it. I'm also going to have that record "renamed" to reflect extra ball usage. So Progressive will get a new record this round.
I thank you for your honesty and help in running a clean ship here.

What I will do is make Progressive with Extra Balls a Bonus Challenge. 1 bonus point to top 3 scores.

PS: I was wondering how such a high mark was set on 5200.  

Edited by zylon, Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:47 AM.

[zylon]

Worked on Cavity after work last night.   1196

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[peedenmark7]

Excellent ! I agree that this should be limited to 5 balls only, with practice one could be putting up 6k+ scores in no time using the cheat feature..  

I gotta get back to working on cavity mode...

[JacobZu7zu7]

TWO NEW SCORES

Double: 499 (good)

Breakout: 435 (good)

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[sdamon]

Doubles: 1118
Progressive (no extra balls): 1531

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[Sonic R]

I'll be playing soon - I've had work overload and my camera failed, but got it fixed now… plus I been playing some other 5200 games from a lot I purchased last weekend!

I got in some breakout mode and could only get a best of 195 points (no pic)

ugh I'm not too good at this mode, I usually play double and do much better

[zylon]

Worked on Prog and the Prog+bonus.  

Prog: 2440
Prog bonus: 3455

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Edited by zylon, Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:10 AM.