91 replies to this topic

[Deteacher]

First score with a freshly cleaned set of paddles:  24,970!

[Deteacher]

Gorfy, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:22 PM, said:

You can add me to the Kaboom fear list -- never got very far with that game, but I do like it nonetheless.  The game I most dread on the list, however, is Ms Pacman.  It seems like no matter how much I try, I just can't get the hang of pacman games.

Since we're sharing our list of phobias on the games remaining list, I'll share mine:  Escape From The Mindmaster.  I've played it a few times and I understand the premise...I just suck at it.

Kaboom scares me too.  

Edited by Deteacher, Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:46 PM.

[Scrabbler15]

Deteacher, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:53 PM, said:

Just hooked up my paddles with the Stelladaptor and made the necessary adjustments for Astroblast.  I learned something....my paddles need a good cleaning.  They're shaking worse than Lindsay Lohan in rehab...

Too soon?  

I guess not, since I laughed.  Maybe it was the Atari context...

[Scrabbler15]

26,360

I'm amazed at how many ships I can lose in a row without any scoring.
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[Gorfy]

I ran out of gas after 400k.......... 408,760

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[DT Kofoed]

Liduario, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:53 AM, said:

Never saw real paddles, only pictures from internet. Don't even know what's the meaning of paddles in English...   Does it come from pad?

The VCS has paddles because Pong was controlled by paddles. Pong was en electronic version of Ping Pong/Table Tennis, which in the physical world is played with paddles. You know, those wooden, rubber coated mini-tennis-racket things. Thus, paddle-controllers, to control [the electronic versions of] paddles in [the electronic version of] a game of pong.

Hope that helps.

[DT Kofoed]

14580.

Urg! Slide-and-shoot, that ubiquitous genre of classic gaming at which I suck the most, combined with the paddle variable of uncertainty.
I like the concept here, much as I did with Solar Storm last season, I just hope I have the time to create a better result here.

March is Girl Scout cookie season, and Cub Scout pinewood derby, as well as my anniversary, so well see what time I have this week...

[JacobZu7zu7]

cparsley, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:00 AM, said:

Then Im toasted lol as I dont have this cart for my physical 2600 (Nor do I own a set of paddles), I know the horror!

Hmmm,

I refuse to lose an active K.O. player do to equipment problems.

I enabled joystick, mouse, keyboard for the contest... if you wanna take a stab at emulator and see what happeneds...?

Edited by JacobZu7zu7, Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:10 AM.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Gorfy, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:20 PM, said:

Deteacher, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:53 PM, said:

Just hooked up my paddles with the Stelladaptor and made the necessary adjustments for Astroblast.  I learned something....my paddles need a good cleaning.  They're shaking worse than Lindsay Lohan in rehab...

Too soon?  

A quick fix (albeit temporary) for jittery paddles:  keep turning the knob all the way back and forth for a few minutes.  It actually works in most cases!

That's what I do... I swiftly move the paddle left/right.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Deteacher, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:09 AM, said:

4,175!

Astroblast (1982) (M Network).png

Question.  Can emulation be used with the mouse?  It's not as good as paddles, but for those who have to use emulation, it's certainly better than keyboard controls.  If mouse is not allowed, please disregard this score.  I'll break out my paddles tonight.

One of my modded A7800s is on it's way home.  Just in time to play on real hardware/paddles!  W00t w00t!  

mouse IS allowed... I will add mouse/keyboard to the list of options.

[toymailman]

cparsley, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:00 AM, said:

Then Im toasted lol as I dont have this cart for my physical 2600 (Nor do I own a set of paddles), I know the horror!

What?!? An HSC member without paddles! This is unacceptable. PM me with your address and I'll send you a cleaned jitter-free set.

I am sure you will need them in future games anyway.

[cparsley]

I know the horror... I was an INTV kid in the classic age, and only came to the VCS when picking it up at local Goodwill's etc in the early 2000s...

PM sent

Edited by cparsley, Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:42 AM.

[Liduario]

DT Kofoed, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:48 PM, said:

Liduario, on Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:53 AM, said:

Never saw real paddles, only pictures from internet. Don't even know what's the meaning of paddles in English...   Does it come from pad?

The VCS has paddles because Pong was controlled by paddles. Pong was en electronic version of Ping Pong/Table Tennis, which in the physical world is played with paddles. You know, those wooden, rubber coated mini-tennis-racket things. Thus, paddle-controllers, to control [the electronic versions of] paddles in [the electronic version of] a game of pong.

Hope that helps.

Thank you very much. Now the name isn't mysterious anymore.

About controls, I tried an optical mouse and even the gyroscopic sensors of an android smartphone!!! None was fast enough.

I'm searching a track-ball to buy, but not too confident.

[Gorfy]

MAJOR TIP:  
I just learned this tonight from an old HSC thread in which one of the players rolled the game.  If you can make it to 100k, then you can make it to any score you desire.
Here's how:  Right after you reach 100k, lose a couple lives to send your score back below 100k.  Then, when you pass the 100k mark again, you get several extra lives  (I'm not sure how many, the number just seems to jack up).  You can repeat this process at each successive 100k mark (at 200k, 300k, etc.).  I just tried this and my extra lives jacked up to fifty-something at the 100k mark and, at the 200k mark, I got my lives up to the maximum of 99!
I'm taking a break from it right now to write this so that everyone knows about this before they hit the 100k mark.  I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with the game since I already endured a 400k marathon game last night (without exploiting this trick, I might add).
Good luck everyone!

Edited by Gorfy, Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:50 PM.

[oyamafamily]

First submission - 63,935

[cparsley]

I don't know about this game then if there is a major bug/exploit in the game then..... Thoughts???

[DT Kofoed]

cparsley, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:22 PM, said:

I don't know about this game then if there is a major bug/exploit in the game then..... Thoughts???

Generally we work on the honor system, so we'll just have to pledge not to use this trick. I believe there is something in the general HSC rules about these situations, but it boils down to just trusting the players not to exploit any bugs in the program... it's not like there's any prize on the line worth cheating for.

[Liduario]

I'm sorry if I'm going off topic with all these controls posts, but since this game put me to search new options I had to show this video:

Wikipedia says the NegCon is a paddle controller.

Nevertheless, in the end I probably should go for the obvious, real paddles and stella-adaptor

That's my last post on that matter. From now on, I will focus on breaking that 25k Vocelli's prevision.

[Gorfy]

DT Kofoed, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:55 PM, said:

cparsley, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:22 PM, said:

I don't know about this game then if there is a major bug/exploit in the game then..... Thoughts???

Generally we work on the honor system, so we'll just have to pledge not to use this trick. I believe there is something in the general HSC rules about these situations, but it boils down to just trusting the players not to exploit any bugs in the program... it's not like there's any prize on the line worth cheating for.

I PM'd Jacob about this, so hopefully he'll give a ruling so that we can all be on the same page.  Part of the problem, though, is that this sudden jacking up in additional lives can happen quite unintentionally if the player happens to reach 100k and then dips below it by unintentionally losing a life or two.  Should the player then disontinue the game so as not to exploit the glitch even though it was unintended?  In a longer game, in which a player scores several hundred thousand, it seems pretty likely that this would happen unintentionally at least once.

[classicgamer_27330]

22,605

Also between lives, it's like a pause, so one can go away for a while and then come back. Is this legal?

[Vocelli]

Reaching 100k is a whole different story. I cannot see many of us reaching 100k. You can't throw out a game because of a glitch at 100 k. Besides maybe it was done intentionally.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Gorfy, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:49 PM, said:

MAJOR TIP:  
I just learned this tonight from an old HSC thread in which one of the players rolled the game.  If you can make it to 100k, then you can make it to any score you desire.
Here's how:  Right after you reach 100k, lose a couple lives to send your score back below 100k.  Then, when you pass the 100k mark again, you get several extra lives  (I'm not sure how many, the number just seems to jack up).  You can repeat this process at each successive 100k mark (at 200k, 300k, etc.).  I just tried this and my extra lives jacked up to fifty-something at the 100k mark and, at the 200k mark, I got my lives up to the maximum of 99!
I'm taking a break from it right now to write this so that everyone knows about this before they hit the 100k mark.  I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with the game since I already endured a 400k marathon game last night (without exploiting this trick, I might add).
Good luck everyone!

This would be ok for a normal HSC season, but since it's a special knockout and every play is vital to make it
to further rounds, this technique won't be allowed... you can finish with 999,999 for your own personal score,
but if the free lives trick is used that can't be counted for the High Scores.

No "on purpose" self-destructing.

[toymailman]

An option is to consider the game "rolled" at 100k and cap the scores.  This might be a good way to treat it if only a few people get that high.  Of course, if it turns out that almost everyone can "roll it" then this option would not be good.

[JacobZu7zu7]

classicgamer_27330, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:49 PM, said:

22,605

Also between lives, it's like a pause, so one can go away for a while and then come back. Is this legal?

Yes that would be legal, for about 1-5 mins, respectably.

Such as, if a bathroom break is needed, or to shake your hand from cramps, it's ok... but no long lunch breaks etc...it must be a session of gaming, not to "vacation" between each 10ks or something.

[Deteacher]

Gorfy, on Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:49 PM, said:

MAJOR TIP:  
I just learned this tonight from an old HSC thread in which one of the players rolled the game.  If you can make it to 100k, then you can make it to any score you desire.
Here's how:  Right after you reach 100k, lose a couple lives to send your score back below 100k.  Then, when you pass the 100k mark again, you get several extra lives  (I'm not sure how many, the number just seems to jack up).  You can repeat this process at each successive 100k mark (at 200k, 300k, etc.).  I just tried this and my extra lives jacked up to fifty-something at the 100k mark and, at the 200k mark, I got my lives up to the maximum of 99!
I'm taking a break from it right now to write this so that everyone knows about this before they hit the 100k mark.  I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with the game since I already endured a 400k marathon game last night (without exploiting this trick, I might add).
Good luck everyone!

HA!  I'm going to envoke the "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it" clause.  I doubt I'll make it to 50K, let alone 100K this week.  My only tip would be to practice playing on 'A' difficulty.  If you can get the hang of things starting at the 50K mark, then go back, flip to 'B' and play an official game.