U.F.O. - Discovering the Trick to consistently defeat the Starship

[jatari87]

Hey all, I was perusing my old issues of Odyssey Adventure tonight {I've got 2}, and I couldn't help but return to something I discovered some time ago, but haven't had a chance to explore further. {More on this in a second} Now, at the outset, at risk of ridicule, I always thought, and still think {within reason of course}, all things considered, .... That U.F.O. is the Greatest game of all time!!! OK, let's move on from that. I've fared pretty well on this game over the years, and I finally conquered my childhood high score {it's now 901}. But, with my strategy I find it to be more a test of patience and focus, trying to always be ready to flee that unexpected death ray that could come at any moment, and I have always found that the one thing holding it back from the echelons of greatness in many other peoples' minds is the lack of the ability {or a trick if you will} to aggressively and consistently go on the attack against that dreaded and sometimes wholly unfair Starship. Well, back to the discovery, there was a guy name Shawn Watson {High Score - 11,090} who clearly must have discovered that trick. I just can't believe someone could get a score like that without being able to confidently go on the attack against that starship. I may not have the reflexes of a kid, but I've tried to figure this ship out, and I can do it 5 or 10 times or so, but that thing will always win in short order. Well, if there is anybody else out here {and I'll go to the Videopac.nl site soon as well} who likes this game too, and thinks they know the "trick" {Note: A video would be worth a 1000 words} or knows this Shawn Watson guy , then me and perhaps 1,2 or many others will be most interested in hearing. I've also attached some tips from Odyssey Adventure in case it helps someone enjoy this game more {that one from Krista Cugno could maybe stand some explaining or further investigation though}. Sorry for the length, but I'm too tired to proofread it down. Thanks for any thoughts.

[jimj]

I didn't have UFO as a kid, but I might have to break it out over the holidays and give it a try.

[jatari87]

I hope you do or did get to try it over the Holidays & aren't to turned off by the random kills by the Starship or the nonsensical gun that I think puts off many a player.

[jatari87]

I have a feeling this game does does not get the same appreciation from others that I have given it over the years. Hopefully, the O2 board has some nuts for it like me.

[+x=usr(1536)]

UFO! is easily one of the best games on the Odyssey², and an excellent game in its own right. With that in mind, please take what I'm about to say in that light:

 

Shawn Watson's 11,090-point score may have been an erroneous or fraudulent submission.

 

I'm not saying that it definitively was either of those things; I just don't know, and certainly have no evidence to back that hypothesis up. But we do know that there were basically zero checks and balances against fraudulent score submissions at that time, and there's plenty of historical evidence and admissions from the people who did engage in that sort of behaviour to be able to say that it absolutely was happening.

 

It's also possible that he scored 1,109, and a typo when entering the score for printing bumped it up to 11,090. Realistically, this would put his score more in line with the others that were submitted, so it's not an unfeasible scenario. Again, though, I have no evidence to present that this was in fact the case.

 

It's also entirely possible that he did score 11,090 - though thinking of how long it would take to reach that point, it seems unlikely to me. Stranger things have happened, though.

 

Note that none of this is being mentioned to discourage you from working on figuring out if there is a trick to manipulating the starships' appearance; if there is a way to do it, I for one would be really interested in hearing about it.

[+LS650]

UFO! is easily one of the best games for the O2, and rivals a lot of 'Asteroid-style' games on other systems.

Personally I think it's more than just an Asteroids knock-off; there is some real strategy in trying to pick off the alien ships so that you get the cascading explosions.

[jimj]

I hope you do or did get to try it over the Holidays & aren't to turned off by the random kills by the Starship or the nonsensical gun that I think puts off many a player.

Unfortunately life interfered with my best laid plans for some Odyssey gaming this Christmas (and I didn't get to play UFO). I'm not sure when I'm going to get to it now, but I will try it some day. Based on all the good reviews here I'm surprised I've overlooked this game for so long.

[jimj]

I finally got to play UFO this last weekend.  I agree, it is a really good/fun game.  Too bad I didn't know about it when I was a kid.  That starship is tough though!  If you find a way to consistently beat the starship please let us know how you do it.

[Flojomojo]

I haven't played it in years but it seemed like it was all about the patterns of geometry. The sparklers always blow up in a 3 point triangle, with two fragments on top as the hint article suggests. The starship only moves and shoots on a diagonal as I recall. 

 

The hardest part part about any of the Challenger Series games is one flub and you're out! Makes for short games.