Season 3 ~ The New HSC ~ Phoenix (Game 1)

[SpaceDice2010]

I am getting 15k+ but still not going to post a score.

 

I know I can do way better with that TAC 2.

 

I love that joystick.

[Stan]

First score, not too bad, but I can do better. These types of games are my achilles heel, however. Galaxian type games can always get me. I'll pick when I get really high, not high enough for me yet.

 

24,820

Edited March 3, 2014 by Stan

[Stan]

I am getting 15k+ but still not going to post a score.

 

I know I can do way better with that TAC 2.

 

Actually won't make much of a difference on this game. The firing is pretty constant, and not rapid. The movement is possibly a little quicker, but really this type of game is just back and forth and button pressing.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Stan

[Stan]

Tip for shooting the mothership: First, go to the far left edge and start shooting away to break down the blue layer as much as possible; Then go to the middle and shoot your way through, ducking missiles as you go. This way you spend limited amount of time in the middle under heavy fire

 

Yep. Figured this out my first go through. You can also do decent going rapidly left to right right under the middle, but the lower it gets the faster the twitch you need. I bore a tunnel straight up and then work on the side. Of course, by round 3 it will shoot from that point, but you can still work it easily.

[Gorfy]

First score, not too bad, but I can do better. These types of games are my achilles heel, however. Galaxian type games can always get me. I'll pick when I get really high, not high enough for me yet.

 

24,820

 

Great to have you back, Stan! We missed you last season

[RJ]

33,840 (+5)

 

Didnt think I'd be this alert after work.

Edited March 3, 2014 by RJ

[keilbaca]

53,550

 

Not a bad start.

[karokoenig]

Keyboard bad. Joystick good. Score better.

 

58,200.

 

Game awesome.

[Wickeycolumbus]

10,170

 

 

Great game, going to try it out on real hardware later.

[Scrabbler15]

35,940

 

Gonna have to seriously pick my game up here, or my 2 bonus points for an 8th place finish are in real jeopardy...

 

.

[jblenkle]

Phoenix - 10,270

[Scrabbler15]

53,930

 

That's a little better. Not much, but a little.

 

.

[Botbird208]

Still don't like this game.

 

41030

 

Oops, upside down!

Edited March 4, 2014 by Botbird208

[Lauren Tyler]

15,370

[S.BAZ]

I've started using the shield when I go in for the kill on the boss ship, saves me some time, as long as I don't flub it up. Got an almost 250k score today, forgot the exact amt. back later to post it.

 

Just to clarify, if I were to post a big score today, that would disqualify me for getting a bonus on the 8th with another big score?

[Wickeycolumbus]

16,460

 

[CapitanClassic]

Some observations that I have made.

- Your cannon shrinks and grows in size as you straff left and right.

- The flight paths of the phoenix are basically the same for the 3rd/4th wave (possibly all 4, but haven't thoroughly tested this theory yet).

- A phoenix will not fire at you, unless it is nearly above you (I haven't figured out exactly how many pixels, but usually it will be less than a small cannon away)

- There can only be 4 enemy bullets on the screen at once.

- The phoenix that is highest vertically above you will always shoot. This usually means that diving phoenix will not be firing at you (unless the phoenix above them are far to the left/right). (You can use this and the previous two observation to get a high phoenix firing at you before you attempt to move under a low flying phoenix to kill it).

 

Wave 1) Only the current bottom row of Phoenix dive at you. If you are quick, you can kill off a phoenix on the bottom row before it dives. Then clean up the same side of the 'O' formation. Pick off the rest of the other side, and probably only need to kill 2 "diving" phoenix. The best way to kill the diving phoenix is to wait until it flies back up into its formation.

 

Wave 2) Is much the same tactics, but the formation is an upside down 'V'. For some reason, if you hold down your button, you have continuous fire (why is that? I know it is in the rule book, but I don't understand the design decision.) Use the same tactics you did to take out this wave, starting from one side and moving to the other, staying clear of the diving phoenix.

 

Wave 3&4) As previously stated by others, keeping any of the bottom 3 phoenix alive prevents them from swooping down to ground-level to crash into your ship.

 

Wave 3) The bottom 3 phoenix head left, the top 4 head right. I personally head right, and squeeze off a shot at the 4th phoenix at the edge of the board. Then I head back the other way, to hopefully destroy the bottom phoenix who is heading right now (the 2nd/3rd phoenix will change direction slightly before mid-screen). Then I try to take out the 2nd.

 

Wave 4) If you hold right immediately, then fire, you get a sure-fire hit against the highest 7th phoenix. Then I hit the 2nd phoenix who is usually on the right side of the screen. Then head left and take out the bottom phoenix and 6th phoenix. You should be left with a tight 3rd/4th/5th phoenix stack, which is slightly dangerous. I have just been firing into it, to take out whatever I happen to hit. You can always activate your shields to kill a diving phoenix and nab 500 points.

 

Mother-ship) Start out by tapping left to take out the center-left bricks. You have a second or two to do this, so you should be able to remove 4-5 blocks. (there are a total of 7 non-blue ones. Then you will need to dodge some incoming shots. Take out the remaining 2-3 red bricks, and then get a single hit on the moving blue bricks. Now head Left, and take out the 1,2, and possibly 3 outer most red brick columns. By the time you remove the red bricks, the blue one you hit in the center earlier will swing around. Now slowly follow the opening (or rush slightly ahead), activate your shields, and shoot in the hole you just made. The shield should keep you safe long enough for your shot to connect with the alien. The quicker you take out the mother-ship, the more points you earn. At the bottom level, not only is it hard to dodge missile fire, but you only earn a measly 1000 points. At the top, you earn 4,000 points, but this amount increases up to 9,000 points on successive levels.

 

(you can also just clear out the left two columns after making a hole in the center. A quick shot on the left most column, followed by a quick shot in column 2 will remove the 2 blue bricks, which you can follow to the center and blast the alien.)

Edited March 4, 2014 by CapitanClassic

[roadrunner]

58,730

[dark-aleph]

A new highscore for me. 250K still seems a step too far though - a game of this length is stressful enough.

 

159,950

 

 

Capitan, I try to start waves three and four the same way you do! But I never leave a stack of three at the end of wave four. A good tip is to try to break up any stacks. Having a stack of three or even two at the end is really dangerous.

 

I noticed the cannon width changing too! In the game above, I would have survived the final incoming shot had I stayed still, but I tried to run in the opposite direction at the last second and the extra pixelwidth did me in.

 

I've been using S.BAZ's strategy of activating the shield for the killer shot in the mothership stage. It occassionally goes wrong, but it has reduced my death rate enough to get the score above. The tricky part is that the time of shield activation is not constant. Sometimes it's a blink and sometimes a drag. There doesn't seem to be any pattern behind it either.

 

Anyone else reckon that Lid's conspicuous silence since posting 219,000 means he's passed 250,000 and is just waiting for the 8th?

[Gorfy]

Anyone else reckon that Lid's conspicuous silence since posting 219,000 means he's passed 250,000 and is just waiting for the 8th?

 

Lid told me that he plans to play mainly on weekends this season, which means that silence from him on weekdays will soon no longer be conspicuous. That being said, the more sneaky-minded among us might check out his posts on Highscore.com

[CapitanClassic]

Just wondering why we aren't supposed to post a score of 250,000+ points before March 8?

 

Is the idea is that we are supposed to show improvement on the very last day of the tournament (because we are practicing so much, just on that day?) Or;

 

Is it not to discourage newcomers who see super high scores and figure there isn't a point in attempting a better one?

 

(I have a snapshot on my desk that I won't be posting until March 8. If I happen to score 999,000+ points though I am going to post it before the weekend.)

[LidLikesIntellivision]

Just wondering why we aren't supposed to post a score of 250,000+ points before March 8?

 

Is the idea is that we are supposed to show improvement on the very last day of the tournament (because we are practicing so much, just on that day?) Or;

 

Is it not to discourage newcomers who see super high scores and figure there isn't a point in attempting a better one?

 

(I have a snapshot on my desk that I won't be posting until March 8. If I happen to score 999,000+ points though I am going to post it before the weekend.)

There are many type of bonus during the HSC season.

Some are great and very funny. Some aren't that great but still gives us a good variety for a few bonus points.

 

The "save your score" isn't much fun to me but it may help, as you said, to not discourage newcomers and it will add some surprises at the end of the week.

Not really bad for a only few bonus, I guess.

 

I'm usually a player who achieve a higher score and post, achieve another and post.

So, all bonus that goes against that aren't among my favs (match ending numbers to a pattern etc.). In a past Popeye round, I had 250k but the 101k gave me more points.

 

Well, that being said, I love Vocelli's bonus because they bring more variety and fun through the weeks.

A 30 weeks tourney that only gives the same points 25, 24, 23 may not be the best approach.

Some bonus makes it difficult for top players/highest scores but I don't think we should always make rounds for highest scores to come.

 

Vocelli's different bonus bring much fun, variety and a great mix to the HSC.

There are achievements for everyone, not only the "beat the highest score" goal.

 

250k is a great achievement and I ....

..... I am saving these for weekend!

 

Okay, since I beated Phoenix' World High Score in Highscore.com, I had to post there.

And I still have some hope of rolling the score (I couldn't achieve yet).

[CapitanClassic]

Just a couple of calculations to let you know what you are in for if you want to roll the score.

 

Wave 1&2) You score phoneix 20 pts. or diving phoenix 80 pts.

Minimum score 8*20 = 160, 8*80 = 640. Average= 180 per wave (I figure you score one diving phoenix every other rack by accident using standard tactics).

 

Wave 3&4) 20 pts. for wing shots, 500 pts. for a phoenix that is at ground level (possibly close to ground), 100 pts. for a phoenix at the highest position. I think this varies a little bit because the birds sway up and down a little, but I haven't verified). On average, I think you will get 1750-2000 pts / wave

7th 100 pts.

6th 150 pts.

5th 200 pts.

4th 250 pts.

3rd 300 pts.

2nd 400 pts.

1st 450 pts.

 

Mother-ship)The maximum is 9,000, but I think it starts ticking down immediately. I assumed 8,000 points, but didn't do any real testing for this.

 

I think this works out to about 12,000 points or so per mother-ship. I was completing each mother-ship destruction in about 1.5 (+/- 0.5 minutes), so it will take somewhere between 2-2.5 hours to roll the score.

Edited March 4, 2014 by CapitanClassic

[LidLikesIntellivision]

Thanks, Captain.

 

I'm up for the 2-2.5 hours to roll!

 

But things get much worse as you realize after spending 40 minutes your game is over.

Then, after an hour and a half it is game over again!

 

BTW, your calculation is very good. I take my video, in 15 minutes I scored 127830. That brings aprox. 1 hour and 56 minutes to achieve 990000.

[Wickeycolumbus]

27,850