15 replies to this topic

[ballyalley]

I've never entered the "High Score Club" area before today, but therealbountybob pointed me here from a jumpman request that I made in another forum.

For the last few weeks I've been playing Miner 2049'er and Bounty Bob Strikes Back! on my Atari 130XE.  Today was the first time that I ever finally completed all ten levels without dying (and that's after nearly 30 years of playing this game on various platforms).  I think my score is pretty high and I'm curious as to where I stand.  I see that a contest was held for this game back in 2006.  The results are here:

Miner 2049'er High Score Contest (December 2006)

I checked my score against the scores posted back in Dec. 2006 and I see that my score from yesterday would top the list.  Is there a place where there is a top score EVER?  I'd like to see how I fall in the rankings.

For those interested, here is a VERY brief paragraph-long summary of my game:

Yesterday I got all the way through from level 1 to level 10 with two guys left in reserve.  It's a good thing too, because I killed them both and then I was on my last guy and I still had to finish the tenth level... but... I FINALLY beat it!  I completed a "Grand Loop!" (as the Jumpman lingo goes).  I went from level 1 to level 10.  Ah, but that's not all.  Then, on that ONE guy, I kept playing and playing... and playing.  In the end I managed to play from Station 1, Zone 1 to Station 9, Zone 2.  That means I cleared eighteen levels and I was playing the nineteenth level.

My final score was 88,485 points!

I'm really hoping that there is a place to compare my score.  Even if I'm crushed and I discovered that people score millions of points I'll still feel pretty good because after all these years I cleared all ten levels without using the built-in cheat code.

Adam

[Chris++]

I've never done that. In fact, as long as I've been playing Miner 2049er, I've never made it past Level 7. Congratulations!

Now, MY high score, you see...oh, wait...

> without using the built-in cheat code.

Never mind.

[ballyalley]

Chris++, on Thu Feb 9, 2012 12:12 PM, said:

I've never made it past Level 7.

Level seven is, without a doubt, the most difficult level of Miner 2049'er.  The jumps are extremely tricky and if you don't have a pattern of some kind, then you'll find yourself running out of time.  Luckily, it is followed by level 8, which is probably one of the easiest levels in the game.

Chris++ said:

Congratulations!

Thanks.  I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment.  I'm very curious about the scoring system and how much higher I can get.

Next week I plan to move both Bounty Bob games to a C64 disk and play them on real hardware.  I have REALLY come to prefer the Atari 8-bit version, but it's good to get a little variety.  I know that I can play both games pretty-well on an emulator but... well, it's not the same.  Since I don't HAVE to settle on an emulator I'm not going to do that.  I don't want to play from floppy after getting so used to instant-on with the Atari (I'm using an Atarimax 1MB cart), but I have hopes that the Fastload cart will work okay with both games.  I can't recall if each level is loaded one at a time.  I hope not.  On the C64 I'm most curious about two aspects of the game: difficulty and scoring.

What's interesting about this is how similar the feeling felt yesterday when I made the Miner 2049'er "Grand Loop" to when a friend and I beat Pitfall II on the Atari back in 1998.  I wish my friend had been here last night when I got through all ten levels (and then some!)-- just to be a witness to it.  I have some doubts that it will ever happen again because everything was just going so well.  On level ten when I lost two lives my heart sank.  I had one life left and I thought what had happened in the previous game (getting to level 10 and not making it past it) was going to happen again.  So I paused the game for a moment (Thank you Esc key!), caught my breath, wiped the sweat from my palms onto my pant leg, and thought to myself, "This is just a game.  If I don't do it this time, then I'll do it next time."

When I did beat level ten, thus succeeding where I'd failed just one game before, I was calmer than I expected to be.  I thought I'd scream for my seventeen-year old son (who is also a classic gamer) to come like Alexander Bell supposedly did for Watson, "Son - Come here - I want to see you," yet I made no sound at all.  I kept as calm as possible.  I HAD to, as I had no other lives left and I was petrified that I'd do something incredibly stupid and die on level one on the second time through.

Part of the reason that I was able to "beat" the game is that I figured-out a pretty-smooth route through level 7 which takes longer but is less risky.  It's repetitious and a bit lengthy, but it worked for me.

Adam

[therealbountybob]

Oh I see you're posting here but playing the game that's currently in the 5200 HSC!!!

We'll HSC Season 3 was before my atariage time, so checkout when we played Miner 2049'er last time in Season 6 Round 1

The All Time Ratings and Records thread has all an atarian needs know about high scores - shows when games were played too!

Hopefully you'll all get over to the DropZone for round 1 of the new season, there's still a day or two left to play

[therealbountybob]

Oh I see you're posting here but playing the game that's currently in the 5200 HSC!!!

We'll HSC Season 3 was before my atariage time, so checkout when we played Miner 2049'er last time in Season 6 Round 1

Sorry your score got Crushed

The 5th time round or so the baddies spawn right on you and you need to know what is coming up, unfortunately there are a couple of screens that don't seem possible - can't believe they didn't test this far!!! If you have the cart version of the game I seem to remember (borrowed it once) diff 10(?) had super energy (food bar style) jumps which was a cool feature (though I might have dreamt this)

The All Time Ratings and Records thread has all an atarian needs know about high scores - shows when games were played too!

Did you beat the 2nd part of Pitfall II where the baddies go much faster - I found this too tough?

Hopefully you'll all get over to the DropZone for round 1 of the new season, there's still a day or two left to play

[ballyalley]

therealbountybob, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 5:03 AM, said:

checkout when we played Miner 2049'er last time in Season 6 Round 1

Sorry your score got Crushed

I see that your score of 266,705 points is the high score for Miner 2049'er. My score of 88,485 points isn't bad though-- I would come in third place. Yet, that seems pretty measely when I know that is only 1/3 as many points as the top score. It took me about a 1/2 hour to score 88,485 points. If you started on the first zone and scored about the same as me, but just kept repeating the ten stations and increasing the zones, then it probably took you about an hour and a half to reach 266,705 points. Can you remember if my estimate is about right? I suppose that you could have started off on zone 2, as the points are higher as the zones increase, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make-- espeacially when you consider that the first ten stations of zone 1 give about 50,000 points. Those would almost be freebie points in comparison to playing the more difficult levels.

therealbountybob said:

The 5th time round or so the baddies spawn right on you and you need to know what is coming up, unfortunately there are a couple of screens that don't seem possible

I have noticed this when starting the game on zone 5 (by simply pressing '5' instead of Start). Station 2, "The Slides," of zone 5 seems to be the first level that is impossible to even start. Station 2 of zone 4 DOES allow you to start without getting killed immeaditely, although I have not tried to beat it.

therealbountybob said:

can't believe they didn't test this far!!!

The manual says that there are 255 zones. So there must be a way to start on the zones higher than 10, but I don't know how. Pressing '1' to '0' allows you to start on levels 1-10. How would I start level 11 (other than beating Station 10, Zone 5)?

therealbountybob said:

If you have the cart version of the game I seem to remember (borrowed it once) diff 10(?) had super energy (food bar style) jumps which was a cool feature (though I might have dreamt this)

The binary of the cart version is available to try. I prefer not to play in an emulator (the timing of the jumps is just ever so slightly off from the real hardware and it totally screws my game up). I'll try the cart version on the 130XE with my Atarimax cart, but I suspect that it won't work as most versions of the game require EXACTLY 64K and so they don't work on my 130XE.

therealbountybob said:

The All Time Ratings and Records thread has all an atarian needs know about high scores - shows when games were played too!

Thanks for the link. I had no idea that the high score club was so organized and had played so many games! There are games on that list that I've never even heard of before today. Also, it's obvious that some of those games are PAL, so if I was to ever play them I'd HAVE to play them in an emulator.

therealbountybob said:

Did you beat the 2nd part of Pitfall II where the baddies go much faster - I found this too tough?

Yes, the "Adventure's Edition" part of the game is tough. I've beaten Pitfall II at least once.  The first time was with my friend back in 1998. You can read about our Pifall II misadventures in three different newsletter articles, here:

• The Legend of Pitfall Harry: From the VCS to the PC, "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 2 (February 1998)
  
• Pitfall Update: Pitfall III, "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 3 (April 1998)
  
• Pitfall Update: The End of the Secret Level! "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 4 (June 1998)

therealbountybob said:

Hopefully you'll all get over to the DropZone for round 1 of the new season, there's still a day or two left to play

I've never been any good at Defender-- nor clones of the game. I know DropZone is more than a simple clone of the game (some consider it the better game), but a high score on that game coming from me is not possible. Now, if we were playing for the LOW DropZone score, than I would jump right into THAT contest!

Adam

[therealbountybob]

ballyalley, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:47 AM, said:

...

therealbountybob said:

Hopefully you'll all get over to the DropZone for round 1 of the new season, there's still a day or two left to play

I've never been any good at Defender-- nor clones of the game. I know DropZone is more than a simple clone of the game (some consider it the better game), but a high score on that game coming from me is not possible. Now, if we were playing for the LOW DropZone score, than I would jump right into THAT contest!

Adam

we have some low scores too (the latest table is somewhere at the end of page 3), so don't be shy... it's all a bit of fun (doesn't mean I'm happy to be in 3rd place mind!). Think DropZone better than the A8's Defender but both are excellent games

I'll checkout the Pitfall II links [the 3rd one is really nice, think I'll have to rope in my old gaming pal (Mr. justin case) for a day of Pitfall II... it's about time we finished this classic]


I found my Miner 20'49er notes... Zones 5 Station 1 bug - jump R, Zone 6 Station 1 bug- walk R jump U... didn't mention the impossible screen but I think it was 3 or 4 maybe on Zone 6. Yes, I would have played a couple of hours to get that score, we played from Station 1 Zone 1, you need a very reliable joystick button

Edited by therealbountybob, Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:42 AM.

[Deteacher]

ballyalley, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:47 AM, said:

therealbountybob, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 5:03 AM, said:

checkout when we played Miner 2049'er last time in Season 6 Round 1

Sorry your score got Crushed

I see that your score of 266,705 points is the high score for Miner 2049'er. My score of 88,485 points isn't bad though-- I would come in third place. Yet, that seems pretty measely when I know that is only 1/3 as many points as the top score. It took me about a 1/2 hour to score 88,485 points. If you started on the first zone and scored about the same as me, but just kept repeating the ten stations and increasing the zones, then it probably took you about an hour and a half to reach 266,705 points. Can you remember if my estimate is about right? I suppose that you could have started off on zone 2, as the points are higher as the zones increase, but I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make-- espeacially when you consider that the first ten stations of zone 1 give about 50,000 points. Those would almost be freebie points in comparison to playing the more difficult levels.

therealbountybob said:

The 5th time round or so the baddies spawn right on you and you need to know what is coming up, unfortunately there are a couple of screens that don't seem possible

I have noticed this when starting the game on zone 5 (by simply pressing '5' instead of Start). Station 2, "The Slides," of zone 5 seems to be the first level that is impossible to even start. Station 2 of zone 4 DOES allow you to start without getting killed immeaditely, although I have not tried to beat it.

therealbountybob said:

can't believe they didn't test this far!!!

The manual says that there are 255 zones. So there must be a way to start on the zones higher than 10, but I don't know how. Pressing '1' to '0' allows you to start on levels 1-10. How would I start level 11 (other than beating Station 10, Zone 5)?

therealbountybob said:

If you have the cart version of the game I seem to remember (borrowed it once) diff 10(?) had super energy (food bar style) jumps which was a cool feature (though I might have dreamt this)

The binary of the cart version is available to try. I prefer not to play in an emulator (the timing of the jumps is just ever so slightly off from the real hardware and it totally screws my game up). I'll try the cart version on the 130XE with my Atarimax cart, but I suspect that it won't work as most versions of the game require EXACTLY 64K and so they don't work on my 130XE.

therealbountybob said:

The All Time Ratings and Records thread has all an atarian needs know about high scores - shows when games were played too!

Thanks for the link. I had no idea that the high score club was so organized and had played so many games! There are games on that list that I've never even heard of before today. Also, it's obvious that some of those games are PAL, so if I was to ever play them I'd HAVE to play them in an emulator.

therealbountybob said:

Did you beat the 2nd part of Pitfall II where the baddies go much faster - I found this too tough?

Yes, the "Adventure's Edition" part of the game is tough. I've beaten Pitfall II at least once.  The first time was with my friend back in 1998. You can read about our Pifall II misadventures in three different newsletter articles, here:

• The Legend of Pitfall Harry: From the VCS to the PC, "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 2 (February 1998)
  
• Pitfall Update: Pitfall III, "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 3 (April 1998)
  
• Pitfall Update: The End of the Secret Level! "Orphaned Computers & Game Systems," Vol. II, Issue 4 (June 1998)

therealbountybob said:

Hopefully you'll all get over to the DropZone for round 1 of the new season, there's still a day or two left to play

I've never been any good at Defender-- nor clones of the game. I know DropZone is more than a simple clone of the game (some consider it the better game), but a high score on that game coming from me is not possible. Now, if we were playing for the LOW DropZone score, than I would jump right into THAT contest!

Adam

As the 2nd place finisher, I'm going to chime in here too, if TRBB doesn't mind.  

You can start as high as zone 10, station 10 and that level is impossible to finish.  The mutants move so fast, even if you were able to time a shot and land safely, there's no way you can move and jump over them consistently without flying off the ledge or being nailed on your way down from a jump.  As far as I know, there is no way to start at zone 11.  IIRC, I don't think zone 9 is beatable either.

The key to starting zone 5 station 2 is to jump as soon as you appear and the mutant should pass right under you.  You'll find you'll need to do that often as you progress further into the game.

I might have to fire that up and play again.  I came close to beating TRBB in that round (I find I'm usually the bridesmaid, never the bride when competing against TRBB)

Miner 2049er and BBSB are two of my all time favorite games.

[ballyalley]

I haven't played Miner 2049'er since I got my "high" score of about 80,000 a couple of days ago.  I just played two games and here's how I did:

Game 1: Start on Station 1, Zone 1.  Made it to Station 9, Zone 1.

Game 2: Start on Station 9, Zone 1.  Made it to Station 10, Zone 2.

I also made my second-highest score (about 60,000), but now that I know that 266,000 is the high score, my lowly scores don't seem worth recording.

As can be seen, I made another "grand loop."  I absolutely need to practice Station 10, Zone 2-- or Station 10 on any zone for that matter.  My pattern that I've been using for Station 10, Zone 1 does not work in Zone 2 because of the slight speed increase of the monsters makes the pattern defunct.  If anyone has some hints for this level, I would love to hear them.

I did figure out a faster way to finish Station 9.  I have always first gown down to the bottom girders to kill the mutant (called an "alien" in the scoring section of the manual).  This avoids the hassle of needing to bother with the mutant later, but he is SLOW and I have to waste a lot of time waiting for him (thankfully this level gives FAR more time than is needed).  I've known that Bounty Bob can walk across the top of the Pulverizers, but I've never done anything with this information.  Today, instead of waiting for the mutant (or alien... what should I call the enemies?) on the bottom level, I finished the girders to the left of the top of the Pulverizers first.  Then I walked back across the top of the Pulverizers instead of going down the slide.  I have plenty of time to do this, as when I get to the bottom girders to kill the mutant, I still have a slight wait for it.  Now that I've done this once, it seems self evident.

Adam

[therealbountybob]

Deteacher, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:59 AM, said:

...I might have to fire that up and play again.  I came close to beating TRBB in that round (I find I'm usually the bridesmaid, never the bride when competing against TRBB)

Miner 2049er and BBSB are two of my all time favorite games.

Always nice talking about famous HSC battles...  especially those I won   It was a tough contest but after naming myself trbb I have to make sure to win these two games

Hey adam - if you are taking part this season stick 10 games on the games list and include Miner (we played BBSB early last season - checkout the posts!)
there are a few shortucts on both games (like the pulverisers) which with HSC play you do explore games more - especially with some of the bonus challenges!

[ballyalley]

I was playing Station 1, Zone 1 of Miner 2049'er yesterday.  I turned on the cheat so that I could start on any level.  I was curious as to whether a player can post a high score in this game while cheating within the limits of the game.  I wondered if it is possible to re-start level 1 over and over again and keep the score going up and up.  So I tried it.  Sure enough, it is very possible to do just that.  I played level 1 until I got 25,000 points and then got bored with this test.  I think I beat the level five times over.  

Now I understand why people who score very high must send in tapes with their recorded games being played (not screen grabs or pictures of the game) otherwise the score doesn't count.  I can't think of a reason anyone WOULD do this, but it is just something to think about if we ever hear about someone claiming some million-point Miner 2049'er score.

Adam

[Chris++]

That's the problem with high-score contests these days...considering save states and the ability to edit recorded sessions together to make the transition flawless, one's never 100% sure that a winning score is genuine. I guess the "honor system" still has to come into play...one simply has to hope that any potential cheater would be dissauded by recognizing that all of the fun would go out of the friendly competition.

Regardless, of course, I stand by my high score in Bounty Bob Strikes Back! of 91,678,241,534,173,428,956,479,564,931,437,112,395,727,413,890.

[ballyalley]

Chris++, on Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:12 PM, said:

That's the problem with high-score contests these days...considering save states and the ability to edit recorded sessions together to make the transition flawless, one's never 100% sure that a winning score is genuine.

True enough.  I was thinking more about how even on real hardware without using cheats (other than those built into the game) that a player can just play a level over and over while getting a higher and higher score.  I find that interesting.  I don't actually think anyone would bother to DO it.  As you said, Chris++, I don't see the fun in it.  Even when I was just testing the idea of cheating, I got bored with it pretty quickly.

Chris++ said:

Regardless, of course, I stand by my high score in Bounty Bob Strikes Back! of 91,678,241,534,173,428,956,479,564,931,437,112,395,727,413,890.

Oops.  I think you misplaced the decimal point.  I'm pretty sure that a score of 91.678,241,534,173,428,956,479,564,931,437,112,395,727,413,890 will round down to 90 points.  But, since you went through the trouble of cracking your version of the game to have such precision with the digits I think we can roung that up nicely to 100 points.

Adam

[Chris++]

Ah, yes; I keep forgetting that pesky decimal. Well, thanks for rounding it up...next time, I hope to crack the big 200-point mark!

[ballyalley]

I finally broke the 100k mark on Miner 2049'er!  I started on Station 6, Zone 1 (with the built-in cheat) and made it to Station 5, Zone 3.  My score was 102,930 points.  I was doing VERY well and didn't lose any lives at all until the last station I played.  I switched to a new old-stock Suncom Slik Stick because I noticed that my rebuilt standard Atari 2600 joystick's button was working 99% of the time-- which isn't often enough.

I have a question about the scoring rules (if this game is ever played again in a contest).  Can I start off on any Station and Zone that I choose, or do I only get to start off on any zone?

Adam

[therealbountybob]

ballyalley, on Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:35 PM, said:

I finally broke the 100k mark on Miner 2049'er!  I started on Station 6, Zone 1 (with the built-in cheat) and made it to Station 5, Zone 3.  My score was 102,930 points.  I was doing VERY well and didn't lose any lives at all until the last station I played.  I switched to a new old-stock Suncom Slik Stick because I noticed that my rebuilt standard Atari 2600 joystick's button was working 99% of the time-- which isn't often enough.

I have a question about the scoring rules (if this game is ever played again in a contest).  Can I start off on any Station and Zone that I choose, or do I only get to start off on any zone?

Adam

We usually play a game on the default settings, occasionally if a game is too easy (or too hard) I make a judgement call on this, more often I have a bonus challenge that may be on a harder level or the most points on a number of levels etc... If you suggest a bonus e.g. starting on level x this would be fine but I have to balance things for all levels of player - the key is to get people to participate

It's a pretty honest place here in the HSC (if someone beats me naturally they are disqualified as they must have cheated)

Some more factors for HSC play - game time is limited to a time period (usually 2 weeks) and you have the added pressure of other peoples scores, often I cave in just before bating my rivals score! And there's the overall tables to consider. Other high score lists don't have these restrictions or pressures

Edited by therealbountybob, Wed Feb 15, 2012 4:30 AM.