HSC12 Round 22: The Great Return of the Penguins

[+therealbountybob]

The Great Return of the Penguins

you remember those guys? OK it's a new game that was highly rated in the recent Kaz Kompo 2014 coming in 3rd place. It's sort of mini lemmings. Have fun and thanks for playing this season. If you are new and thinking of playing next season just join in and post a score

THIS IS A SHORT ROUND - ENDING SUNDAY 10TH JAN 10PM UK TIME

Downloads fandal XEX (PAL)

NTSC Version here

More info here

Standard HSC Scoring

Instructions
On the lower panel we have in order from left to right:
- The step number (there are all of sixteen)
- The number of penguins ready to leave the igloo
- time
- The number of penguins that we need to bring to the igloo to pass the level
- Your points

The game is interrupted at a time when:
- We lack the time or
- Drown too many penguins and we will not have the possibility of bringing an igloo required their number
- And of course when you press the ESC key.

Play Atari

[ballyalley]

I'm playing the NTSC version of "The Great Return of the Penguins" on a real Atari 130XE. The game timer counts down normally on the first screen (starting at 3:00). About every second the timer decreases by one. However, whenever I press the joystick in any direction (to close up a hole in the ice) then one second is subtracted from the timer. The more holes holes I save my penguins from, the faster the timer goes down. Is this normal?

 

This is a neat game choice-- though I'm not sure I'm crazy about the game yet (I'm hoping that it grows on me). I never would have heard of this game if it wasn't for the HSC-- so thanks to TRBB for continuing to keep his eyes wide open for new games that we can play here.

 

Does the game's programmer know that we're playing the game for the HSC?

[+skr]

First try.

Edited January 3, 2016 by skr

[McKong]

Level 3 - 303

Level 4 - 490

Level 4 - 915

Edited January 4, 2016 by McKong

[+therealbountybob]

I'm playing the NTSC version of "The Great Return of the Penguins" on a real Atari 130XE. The game timer counts down normally on the first screen (starting at 3:00). About every second the timer decreases by one. However, whenever I press the joystick in any direction (to close up a hole in the ice) then one second is subtracted from the timer. The more holes holes I save my penguins from, the faster the timer goes down. Is this normal?

 

This is a neat game choice-- though I'm not sure I'm crazy about the game yet (I'm hoping that it grows on me). I never would have heard of this game if it wasn't for the HSC-- so thanks to TRBB for continuing to keep his eyes wide open for new games that we can play here.

 

Does the game's programmer know that we're playing the game for the HSC?

I think it is normal to prevent you from mashing the joystick? I've just sent Larek a message

McKong were you playing the NTSC version (when you tried on NTSC)?

 

First Table

1st McKong 303 (3) 12pts

2nd SKR 269 (2) 11pts

 

I'll play tonight

[larek]

Hello.

Thank you for your interest in my game.

It is a protection against tilting the joystick in any direction without reason (when a player wants to make it easier to play). Joystick be tilted only in a direction consistent with the arrows. Moving the joystick in the wheel causes a rapid fall time penalty.

I'm sorry, but I do not know English, so the above translation used the Google translator. I do not know whether the power of Google translate.

Regards,

larek

 

 

-------------

 

Witam.

Dziękuję za zainteresowanie moją grą.

Jest to zabezpieczenie przed wychylaniem dżojstika w każdym kierunku bez powodu (gdy gracz chce ułatwić sobie grę). Dżojstik należy wychylać tylko w kierunkach zgodnych ze strzałkami. Ruszanie dżojstikiem w koło powoduje za karę szybki spadek czasu.

Przepraszam, ale nie znam języka angielskiego, więc w w tłumaczeniu posłużyłem się Google tłumaczem. Nie wiem, czy Google dobrze przetłumaczył.

Pozdrawiam,

larek

[McKong]

I was playing on Pal, I played some on ntsc but that was before I knew how to play the game properly, so not a fair test.

[+therealbountybob]

Hi larek, google did a good job and so did you, thanks for creating a fun game :thumbsup:

 

First go, 212pts level 3

 

After a few goes 791 Level 4 - had a different level 2 and level 4 was all blue (the snow was blue!) perhaps it was night time? You probably realise you can press fire to release a peguin - use this when you are in control!

 

OK "one more go" 773 Level 6 - the lights came back on; very tricky with no lane markings!

 

Latest Table

1st McKong 915 (4) 12pts

2nd trbb 791 (4) 11pts

3rd SKR 269 (2) 10pts

Edited January 4, 2016 by therealbountybob

[+skr]

Level 09, 1919 Points

[jblenkle]

The Great Return of the Penguins - 280

[+therealbountybob]

is SKR on for his first win of the season I thought I did well just now with 1,393 (Level 6). What's the word when it all goes wrong? Penguicide

[roadrunner]

12

[larek]

Do not be afraid to use the fire button

[+skr]

I use it too much. Sometimes I use it and at the same time, another penguin step out. The level order is switching all the time, which makes it hard, as there are some really nasty levels. But I´m addicted now. Great Game, larek!

[+therealbountybob]

So NTSC players does the NTSC version work ok or not?

 

Season 12 Current Standings updated (with the catch-up round)

[McKong]

Level 5 1047

[+therealbountybob]

Holy Teleporting Penguins

Very nice game Larek Was it an original idea? I think we played your Octopus and Parachutes games a couple of seasons ago.

 

Level 9 - 1,710 ooh getting close SKR

[+skr]

 

Level 9 - 1,710 ooh getting close SKR

 

Currently I am playing on my PAL A800 with Incognito Board on a LCD-Display. Wait until I connect my CRT, the "night levels" are hard on the LCD, but on the CRT I guess I will have better visibility of the arrows.

 

What about a Bonus Challenge on Level 1? This seems to be the same Level every time. My current top score in this level is 341.

Edited January 5, 2016 by skr

[ballyalley]

So NTSC players does the NTSC version work ok or not?

 

I did play the game on real hardware. Other than the lose-seconds-when-moving-joystick "issue" that I mentioned earlier (which is not a problem; the game is meant to play that way), the game seems to be okay on real NTSC hardware when played from an AtariMax MyIDE II. Are there any specific possible issues that I should be looking for when I play it again today or tomorrow?

 

When I was growing up in the 70s, one of my favorite books was a Disney booked called "The Penguin That Hated the Cold." I loved this book, and I had a really hard time finding it second-hand for my young son... until one day I picked it up while looking for Atari 2600 carts at a thrift store in the 90s. The book looks like this:

 

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_Penguin_That_Hated_the_Cold

 

Does "The Great Return of the Penguins" have a backstory? Something, you know, about cold penguins searching for warmth? Or fish? Or gold at the end of the rainbow? Or, better yet!, the game could possibly revolve around a group penguins trying to save the world from the Great Polar Bear Take-Over!

[+therealbountybob]

 

Currently I am playing on my PAL A800 with Incognito Board on a LCD-Display. Wait until I connect my CRT, the "night levels" are hard on the LCD, but on the CRT I guess I will have better visibility of the arrows.

 

What about a Bonus Challenge on Level 1? This seems to be the same Level every time. My current top score in this level is 341.

The Level 1 Bonus Challenge is ON

On Night mode on my CRT the left arrow is hard to make out due to the way it is displayed but you do get used to it.

 

I did play the game on real hardware. Other than the lose-seconds-when-moving-joystick "issue" that I mentioned earlier (which is not a problem; the game is meant to play that way), the game seems to be okay on real NTSC hardware when played from an AtariMax MyIDE II. Are there any specific possible issues that I should be looking for when I play it again today or tomorrow?

 

When I was growing up in the 70s, one of my favorite books was a Disney booked called "The Penguin That Hated the Cold." I loved this book, and I had a really hard time finding it second-hand for my young son... until one day I picked it up while looking for Atari 2600 carts at a thrift store in the 90s. The book looks like this:

 

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_Penguin_That_Hated_the_Cold

 

Does "The Great Return of the Penguins" have a backstory? Something, you know, about cold penguins searching for warmth? Or fish? Or gold at the end of the rainbow? Or, better yet!, the game could possibly revolve around a group penguins trying to save the world from the Great Polar Bear Take-Over!

Sounds like you need to write it I just wondered as there were a couple of NTSC low scores if the game was working/playable, but I guess they need to practice eh guys

[ballyalley]

I got a perfect 8-bit score for my first complete game:

Great Return of the Penguin's - 2^8 Points (Level 3) - (130XE NTSC, Real Hardware)

 

 

The game seems to play fair on NTSC. If I can't get first place this round, then I'll cry foul and say that the PAL version is rigged and that you're all a bunch of cheaters!

 

This game will take awhile to play all eight levels (not that I expect to be able to do that, for it seems like a real feat to endure that far into the game). I guess about 24 minutes would be a full game-- although really it would be less than that because of the seconds which are subtracted from the time limit when the joystick is moved to fill a hole in the ice.

This game's font looks like it was borrowed from the game "Worms" on the Amiga. I've always been partial to that font, so I love it!

 

This is a nice game; I've never played another game like this before now. I can see how it can be compared to "Lemmings," but it's not quite a perfect match. Is there another game that is similar to this on the Atari? If so, then maybe it can be a bonus game? As always, I love recommendations for bonus games in BASIC-- for who plays those much anymore?

[+therealbountybob]

...

This is a nice game; I've never played another game like this before now. I can see how it can be compared to "Lemmings," but it's not quite a perfect match. Is there another game that is similar to this on the Atari? If so, then maybe it can be a bonus game? As always, I love recommendations for bonus games in BASIC-- for who plays those much anymore?

I was thinking of which other games you guide or protect the things; apart from the superb Brundles and other reasonable Lemmings clones we have, several others came to mind: The awesome Whistler's Brother which must be due for a play next season, and the not so bad Gwobby's Adventure (BASIC) - I never did fix this for Atari's with extra RAM and it's probably still too hard (play on "Gwob Easy"!!) but it is possible to rescue Mrs. G with practice Then there's Gumball, The Bean Machine, Logistic (reviewed in Pro© Mag), and I suppose The Goonies that we played this season too... did I miss any?

[jblenkle]

Penguins - 547

[+skr]

The game seems to play fair on NTSC. If I can't get first place this round, then I'll cry foul and say that the PAL version is rigged and that you're all a bunch of cheaters!

 

Ok, I´ll set up my NTSC 1200 XL and see, if it runs there, too. Then let´s see.

 

Lcl 09 - 2048 Pts. (PAL A800)

This is the hardest Screen for me so far. Never solved it. Sometimes it comes as Level 4 or so, then Highscorehunt is over

 

Edited January 6, 2016 by skr

[+therealbountybob]

 

Ok, I´ll set up my NTSC 1200 XL and see, if it runs there, too. Then let´s see.

 

Lcl 09 - 2048 Pts. (PAL A800)

This is the hardest Screen for me so far. Never solved it. Sometimes it comes as Level 4 or so, then Highscorehunt is over

 

IMG_1991.JPG

Great score That screen is pretty crazy, you think it's going ok then suddenly you have them waltzing all over the place - if players get in trouble roll the joystick round all the directions, it costs time but may save a penguins life (they can swim underwater right?!)